Homilies

The decorations that graced our church since Christmas Eve are now gone; stored in the loft until next December but hopefully the message of Christmas is still fresh in our minds. I closed my homily on Christmas with a reflection entitled, The Work of Christmas written by Howard Thurman, an African American poet, who summarized our Christmas challenge well in this way:

As I said then, Christmas is waiting to be born in you, in me, in all humanity but, first we have yet to fully understand the challenge of Christmas. If we did, every terrorist would be out of a job for as the angels proclaimed so long ago, there would be peace on earth on whom God’s favor rest.

Last Wednesday we witnessed an act of domestic terrorism that had never happened before. Angry Americans, reluctant to accept the verdict of the electorate that Joseph Biden had been elected president by a margin of more than 7 million votes over the sitting president, stormed through the halls of the Capitol in Washington, DC. How terrified members of Congress and others must have been during those tense moments. Mr. Thurman’s message, The Work of Christmas,must not be lost or dismissed or ignored. The challenge placed before the incoming administration, the new Congress, indeed every resident of this country is to rebuild our nation and a good starting point would be an epiphany.

An epiphany? Wasn’t that feast celebrated last Sunday? Yes, but that was actually the second of three epiphanies. The first occurred on Christmas when the eyes of the shepherds were opened to witness the majesty of their newborn Messiah. The second occurred when the eyes of the magi were opened to discover that God’s message of salvation was meant for all peoples, not just the Jews.  At his baptism, Jesus has his own epiphany when he learns, “You are my beloved son; with you I am well pleased.” Today we celebrate that third epiphany.

We believe by virtue of our own baptism, that we are God’s children, called to follow Jesus’ example. When we stand before God at our judgment, will we hear those same words? “With you I am well pleased.” Are our eyes open to what God is asking of us as we venture into ordinary time?

The National Catholic Reporter in its latest editorial rightly observes that many are to blame for this unprecedented insurrection including “everyday Catholics—some 50% of them—who voted for Trump this year, after four years of incompetence, racist dog whistles, and assaults on democratic norms.

If our Church is to live up to the teachings of its founder, Jesus Christ, and be his witness to our culture, it cannot condone what happened last week at our nation’s Capitol. A pro-life movement that embraces white nationalism and is unwilling to say that black lives matter is not a true pro-life movement.

In less than two weeks, our nation’s second Catholic president, a decent man, will take over and begin the long and arduous process of rebuilding our democracy. Catholics need to get on board to help, not hinder, that process.

We can all begin by asking ourselves, “Whatever became of sin?” Unfortunately many people won’t admit to their personal sins but what is more troubling is that many also deny the reality of social sin, namely sins committed by society.  Examples include disregard for the poor, systemic racism, and neglect for the environment. As individuals, we don’t see ourselves as being responsible for them yet we are when we vote for those who enact them into practice.

By choosing to be baptized, Jesus chose to become one of us for the sake of conversion, to draw us away from sin and closer to God. By his example, he challenges us to reject sin, a promise we made at our baptism, and safeguard the dignity of all human life from conception to natural death.

We must acknowledge that sinful situations and policies are real. We enable them when we resist efforts to confront them. Facing them is something we must do if we want to bring about peace and tranquility. We can speak out against social sins. It’s not only our right; it’s our duty, which is why I do so at the risk of annoying some of you.

We must pray to God for guidance in dealing with these situations that challenge the very core of our Catholic convictions. As members of Christ’s body, if we don’t do something to bring about the work of Christmas, who will? This is the call of today’s gospel, a call we must ponder prayerfully in this new year. To bring peace among brothers and sisters, we must respond with love in concrete ways.

The magi uttered the first words spoken in Matthew’s gospel. “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.” For centuries scholars debated if this star was a literary symbol or an actual astronomical phenomenon.

On the sunset of the last winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, just days before Christmas, Saturn and Jupiter came together. The conjunction of these two planets is a very rare occurrence in the night sky. Those who were blessed with having a clear night sky, which wasn’t the case for us here on Whidbey, viewed a majestic sight that could rightly be called the Christmas star.

Perhaps this is what the magi, known also as the wise men, saw, prompting them to leave their homeland and venture westward to find the newborn king of the Jews. We don’t know much about them. Quite likely, they were advisors to the king of Babylon, so they were aware of the Jewish search for the Messiah since their exile there.

We assume there were only three magi since only three gifts were given to the child when they found him. Matthew doesn’t tell us their names but early church tradition soon named them: Melchior, who was black; Balthazar, who was Asian, and Gaspar, who was European. This was Matthew’s endeavor to signify the universal character of God’s saving grace intended for all peoples, not just the Jews. This is an important message for us today, when there is much racial, ethnic and religious intolerance in so many places. While God’s will for universal salvation seems obvious, really integrating it into our hearts is challenging for some of us.

The magi’s journey is called an epiphany for good reason. An epiphany is an appearance of something, often a divine being. When we have an epiphany, we are having a sudden insight into a deeper meaning of something. For the magi, encountering Jesus was no ordinary finding. A great epiphany for us would be to know the glory of God’s love reflected in everyone we meet.

Upon finding Jesus, the magi prostrated themselves and did him homage. Their journey and act of worship upon finding the child Jesus are examples of how we can venture into this new year and find Christ daily in our lives. The journey of the magi should prompt us to reflect on how readily or reluctant we are to search for the Christ in our daily lives.

Our diligence in searching for anything is directly related to its value. Lose a penny and we don’t fret. I find pennies on the ground when walking around town. Misplace your only car key and you are likely to tear the house apart and mount a novena to St. Anthony until you find it. Lose a child, and you never stop searching. This Sunday’s gospel is about searching, and the search is for someone who is beyond measure or compare, namely Jesus Christ. How much value do you place on seeking to know Jesus better?

Today’s culture is plagued by people seeking a higher meaning to things in the wrong places. Consulting horoscopes or fortune tellers, for example, are acts of divination and the Church urges us to reject them. If we believe God is the creator of heaven and earth and he came in person to save us, we don’t need gimmicks to understand his will for our lives.

God has already given us the answers we need in sacred scripture. We need to take time to reflect on his message. Just as the Magi searched diligently to find the Christ child, we too must search diligently to better understand him. God has blessed us with his Church and its teachings and sacred scripture to help us better understand his will.

This next week while many people are making New Year’s resolutions, consider making a spiritual resolution to be more intentional about your prayer life, especially if you are not coming to Mass during this pandemic time. The more time you spend with our Lord, the more you will become aware of his presence in your life. Coming to better know him will fill your days with many “epiphanies” of his love.

The magi’s story is our story: those who search diligently for Christ will find him if they follow the signs given by God. Ultimately, our search to find Christ is only satisfied when we remain open to the God who labors diligently to reveal his divine son to us. Sometimes we grow discouraged in our search for God. We may feel that God isn’t answering our prayers when actually it could be that we don’t like what God is trying to tell us.

Today’s solemnity of the Epiphany centers on the journey that every one of us travels, the journey that is ultimately a search for God: finding God in our life’s meaning, finding God in belonging to family and community; finding God in the satisfaction of doing good.  As the magi experienced, God sets “stars” ahead of us —The understanding and support of family and friends, the forgiveness we extend and receive, the meaning we come in know in giving and serving those in need, are all “epiphanies” of God’s presence in our lives.  In the new year before us, may our hearts and spirits behold these many epiphanies in which we re-discover the love of “Emmanuel” — God in our midst.

In the afterglow of Christmas, the Church celebrates the feast of the Holy Family. Today we are invited to reflect on the gift of life and the blessing of family life in particular.

Some of us come from the traditional family setting: a home with a father, a mother and siblings. Others come from a home that is missing a parent, due perhaps to death or divorce. Some of us live alone. I know some couples who are being parents again, raising their grandchildren or foster children. For some, the roles have been reversed, an adult child is now caring for a frail parent or two. In short, the makeup of a family varies widely from home to home.

Blood ties alone do not create a family. I have encountered too many examples of relatives who refuse to communicate with one another for any number of reasons. On the other hand, I have seen some people, although unrelated, who have bonded together very much like a family.

What makes any group of people a family? That word comes from the Latin word, familus, which means servant. Nearly any kid would agree with that definition, considering all the household chores they have to do! Serving one another is what keeps a family together. In the family, each person serves the needs of the others, placing the needs, interests, desires, and delights of the other before their own. What draws out the best in any family is love.

Many of us remember Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. Bob Hope once said, “There is nothing I wouldn’t do for Crosby, and there’s nothing Crosby wouldn’t do for me. But that’s the trouble. We spent our lives doing nothing for one another.”

Hopefully, Mr. Hope isn’t describing your family. In your family, is love for one another expressed verbally or in a visual way? Or is the love you have for one another taken for granted and never expressed?

When was the last time you told your spouse, your parent, your children, your siblings, “I love you?”  Failing to express love can spell trouble in due time. Many marriages fail because the love that once brought couples together had grown silent. Many adolescents, feeling rejected, either run away from home or have taken their lives because no one has ever said those three significant words until it is too late.

This feast, coming near the start of a New Year, provides an opportune moment for families to discern their bill of health by taking a look at the unintentional consequences of their choices.

As a parent, are you spending more time at work for the purpose of providing for your family yet finding yourself too busy to spend time with your children? As a spouse, are you too focused on caring for your children or your job that you are spending too little time with each other?

Those aren’t easy questions to deal with if they hit close to home, given the circumstances imposed on us by the pandemic. While we may not be able to control the economic forces that influence some of our decisions, we can decide what really matters in our lives. We can decide that God and people are more important than things.

We don’t know much about what life was like for the holy family, but I suspect they were more down to earth than we realize. If being a holy family means being open and accepting of one another, which I observe in Mary and Joseph, rather than expecting perfection, than being holy is a challenge every family can strive for.

Today, many families are basking in happy Christmas memories and enjoying the gifts they exchanged days ago. Others are not so fortunate, separated by the pandemic, broken homes, family feuds, or the loss of a loved one, so this feast may be somewhat painful yet for all of us, God is offering us wisdom through the insights of both Sirach and Paul, who urges us to clothe ourselves with kindness, humility, meekness, forgiveness, patience and love.

When parents seek to emulate the holy family in the manner suggested by Paul, they are doing what will enable their children to grow and become strong, filled with wisdom and the favor of God will be upon them.

Within our families, we experience the heights of joy and the depths of pain. Our belonging to a family means that each one of us, parent and child, reflects for the other the selfless, limitless and unconditional love of Christ, both in good times and in bad. The Holy Family in the sufferings they endured together is a model for us and our own families as we continue to confront the many tensions and crises in the year ahead that threaten the stability, peace and unity that are the joy of being a family.

Walking home on a clear night can be so breath taking. Astronomers tell us that the three thousand stars visible to the naked eye are a mere fraction of those known to exist. When you consider that each star is a sun in itself, I have to wonder how God even notices this little planet in the midst of such a vast universe, much less you or me, but he does.

If we can be so awed by the immensity of the universe, how much more should we be that this same God would give us life in the midst of such a vast, barren setting?

This gospel passage is set, not in the star studded heavens, but in a patch of earth tucked away in a remote and distant land off the beaten path. The God of the universe, the God who created those countless stars, showered favor on a modest maiden in the tiny village of Nazareth.

Luke’s story is profoundly moving to hear. Mary had an encounter that changed the course of history. She was singled out by the creator of all things for the greatest honor ever given to any woman, to be the mother of God. The angel, Gabriel, in presenting the news, began by saying, “Hail, full of grace. The Lord is with you!” Considering how often the rosary is said daily, perhaps this is the most quoted line in scripture!

Telling her that she would bear a son, Gabriel then explains that he will be the Son of God. Imagine that, the creator of the universe with its countless stars and planets, would enter this young maiden to bring about the conception of his son, who will be destined to occupy the throne of David; thus her son would be the long awaited Messiah, the liberator God had promised Israel many centuries ago. God’s love for us is so great that he wants to become one of us.

With her consent, this virgin gave flesh to the eternal Word, the second person of the Trinity to whom every atom in the universe owes its origin and present existence. One could say that Mary out-shined the stars that night!

Her consent may appear to have been impulsively given, but I suspect Mary gave much thought to what was being asked of her. Her consent, “May it be done according to your word,” was a typical way of saying in biblical times, “As you wish.”

How readily do we say that to God? Every time we say the Lord’s Prayer, we say, “They will be done,” but is that our personal response to God? We pray to God, asking for help and guidance, but too often we still want to be in control of our lives. But that is not always possible. Consider the weather. It is beyond our control as are accidents and illnesses that can crop up unexpectedly.

The creator of the universe steps into our space and time because he cares about us, along with patients coping with Covid 19, gasping to breathe, battered spouses, lonely teenagers who feel unloved, the homeless seeking shelter on this cold wet day, refugee yearning for a safe haven, and alcoholics struggling to regain a sense of dignity. From the cosmic to the intimate, God is very much in touch with all creation and with us. Are we in touch with God? Dare we turn ourselves over to God like Mary did?

To be a Christian is to be a person who keeps their ears open to what God is calling them to do, so that they can answer that call. Mary is a model of one who did just that.

Her example reminds me of a prayer written by a French mystic, Blessed Charles de Foucauld; “Father, I abandon myself into your hands. Do with me what you will. Whatever you may do, I thank you. I am ready for all. I accept all. Let only your will be done in me, and in all your creatures. I wish no more than this, O Lord. Into your hands, I commend my soul; I offer it to you with all the love of my heart; for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself; to surrender myself into your hands without reserve and with boundless confidence, for you are my Father.”

Carrying out the will of God to the best of our ability won’t always be easy, but the goal we seek, union with Christ forever, is worth every once of our effort.

We have nothing to fear by allowing God to be involved in our lives; what Gabriel said of Mary is meant for us as well. Just think, amidst the many stars of the universe, you are noticed. “The Lord is with you.” Now, isn’t that an awesome present to look forward to on Christmas Day?

We gather to continue our Advent journey, which at times for many people, perhaps you as well, may have been dark and uncertain. But today is Gaudete Sunday. The word “gaudete” is Latin for “rejoice.” We have good reason to rejoice.

“Brothers and sisters,” St. Paul tells us in the second reading, “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus…May the God of peace make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will also accomplish it.”

There are times when each of us can feel lost or alone.   But we are not lost.  Christ has found us.  We are not alone.  He is with us.  With Jesus in our lives, the crises we face become challenges, but not devastating events.  A loved one becomes sick, or even dies.  That is a reality so many people are dealing with daily due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We become sick and receive the diagnosis that our condition is terminal.  A marriage falls apart.  A job is lost.  A friend is lost.  Whatever the crisis, we know that the final result will be union with God.  Jesus is with us always, particularly in the worst of our times.  Rejoice in the Lord. Such is the message of Gaudete Sunday.

Within the word rejoice one finds joy. Joy is the deep satisfaction experienced whenever we come into possession of something good. But all the good things in this world, apart from God, are temporary and fragile. Money, success, health, even friendships and being in love are limited. If circumstances change or enough time passes, we either become tired of them or they go away. So, the joy that comes from possessing them is only temporary. For example, think of any Christmas present you very much-appreciated fifteen years ago. Do you still have it? Or have you outgrown it? Or is it now obsolete? Or do you even remember what it was?

Why is the Church inviting us to rejoice at this midpoint of Advent? Because Christ’s coming to earth, which Advent looks forward to, is the only source of true, lasting joy. Our hearts are thirsting for a joy that will never go away.

Our deepest desire is to be loved completely, unconditionally and everlastingly by another person. Only one person can fulfill that desire and that person is Jesus Christ. At his birth, two thousand years ago in Bethlehem, Jesus came into our midst to bring us, each and everyone of us, true, lasting joy.

Joy is the deep satisfaction that comes from possessing something good. The good thing Christians possess is the awareness that God is always with us, knows us thoroughly and loves us unconditionally, despite our shortcomings and sinfulness.

Keeping that awareness fresh in our minds keeps our joy strong, even when life’s trials seem to be crucifying us. The only way to keep that awareness fresh is through prayer, which is why Paul urges us to pray without ceasing.

He isn’t telling us to be on our knees all day long, but he is urging us to find time every day to pray. Close the door to life’s hustle and bustle for fifteen minutes. Read and reflect on a scripture passage, ideally at least one of the readings proclaimed at Mass. Take the moment to speak heart to heart with God, sharing your concerns and gratitude.

Your interaction with Jesus isn’t to be limited to this Sunday encounter; he yearns to visit with you daily. Taking time to be with him each day reminds you that he is with you.

Prayer allows the motives for joy to blossom in our hearts. The devil wants to keep us so busy that we don’t take time to pray and be mindful about the reason for this season. But, my friends, Jesus is the reason for the season; he is stronger than the devil and only he will give us the everlasting joy we so much want.

As you can see from the banner on the balcony, Advent is a season of anticipation and hope. We anticipate the coming of Christ into our lives. Hope is the belief that sooner or later things will get better. A timely example of hope is that after so many months of this pandemic, there is light at the end of the tunnel with the imminent release of a vaccine. We are hopeful that by next Christmas, this bug will be history.

Meanwhile, like Isaiah, we are sent to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the broken hearted, and to proclaim liberty to captives. Doing so brings joy to them and to us. We do so in a variety of ways. One would be through supporting Catholic Community Services; another would be making a donation to Good Cheer or Helping Hands with an envelope from the giving tree.

God uses each of us as his hands and feet to care for others, to radiate his love and compassion, calling on us to share our joy and goods. Yes, hope and joy capture the spirit of these readings. Isaiah says, “Listen, justice will be done.” Paul writes, “Christ will come.” John preaches, “He is already among you.”  What you say and do could prompt others to also rejoice that God is in our midst to brighten our world.