December 27, 2009
Posted in Homilies
at 9:00 am
Homily for the Feast of the Holy Family – By Deacon Thomas Stephenson
December 27, 2009
Is everyone still enjoying Christmas? As Father Tim said, it’s within the Octave, so we’re actually still celebrating Christmas. With Christmas falling just before the weekend this year, we have the opportunity to be here in church to worship God together at least a couple of times over the course of a few days. As Father Tim and I were preparing for Mass Christmas morning, he remarked that we would be here four days straight, and what a good thing that is. And it is – any day we can come to Mass is a good day. I know there are others that were here both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day; what a great blessing it is to come together as a parish family, focusing on the real meaning of Christmas.
Many of us also gathered with family for Christmas, or called on the phone to speak with loved ones who don’t live close by. This is a time of year when family seems to take on added importance to us. Today, on this Feast of the Holy Family, we celebrate the fact that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were a family, too.
Our families may not be identical to the Holy Family, but we are called to make our families places of holiness, places where our children are raised with a knowledge and love of God, and an awareness of His love for us. Sometimes, when children are taught about the faith, they may begin to feel the first stirrings of a call to the priesthood or religious life. Although some people are called later in life, the family setting is often where vocations are first recognized. Since this is the year of the priest, allow me today to focus primarily on the priesthood.
Let’s consider Hannah & Elkanah, in today’s first reading. They were like the Holy Family in at least one way – both of these families were observant Jews. Both of these families would make the annual pilgrimages as required by the Law. It is during one of these yearly pilgrimages to Shiloh that childless Hannah begs the Lord to give her a son. In exchange, she vows to give the son for service to the Lord all the days of his life. As I’ve done in the past, this is another of those times when I strongly encourage you to open up your bibles at home and
read at least the first three chapters of the first book of Samuel to get a better understanding of this story. Hannah’s prayer is answered with the gift of a son, Samuel, and she keeps her vow to give him to God. Elkanah, her husband, also is a godly man. He is concerned that his wife should do the right thing, and keep her vow to God. Now, at that point, Samuel did not have much say in the matter. But, at least the stage is set so that, at the proper time, Samuel can say “here I am – Speak, for thy servant hears.” This was ultimately Samuel’s decision, his own response to the Lord’s call.
Despite her vow when she prayed to God, it must have been extremely difficult for Hannah to give up her son when the time came for her to actually deliver Samuel to Eli. It can be hard enough when a son or daughter leaves home to go to university, or moves away for work or marriage, when they are young adults. But no mother or father wants to give up a child, especially at such a young age. Would we be willing to do something similar, if we thought that was what the Lord was asking of us?
Faith and I faced this when our son William was 12. From the age of about 8, he had expressed an interest in the priesthood. We did not discourage him, and his sense of calling continued to grow. In early 2001, when he was 11, he went on a trip to Rome with priests from the Legionaries of Christ. After this, he decided that he wanted to enter their school in Cornwall, and after much discernment and discussion, we agreed. He entered the school in the fall of that year. It caused me, and Faith even more so, much anguish to have our only child leave home at such an early age. But we never regretted letting him go. His, and our, discernment continued, and he ended up coming back home after a year there.
Now, our family is not any holier, or more faithful, than any other family in this parish, and probably not as holy as many. Our support for his perceived vocation came simply from recognition of our obligation to our son and to God. We all have that same obligation. If one of our sons or grandsons tell us that he thinks he wants to be a priest, whether they are eight years old, or eighteen, or even twenty-eight, how many of us will say to him “that’s great, we’ll give you whatever support and encouragement you need to follow that path”? Or, would we say “why would you want to do that? Don’t you want to have a good job, a nice home, and a wife and family?” Most Sundays, near the end of Mass, we pray for vocations. We ask God to “Stir up in those whom You have chosen to be priests an awareness of your call, and the courage to say let it be done to me according to your word.” This prayer could be directed to the parents as well. We want priests, but do we want them only as long as they are someone else’s son? To use scriptural language, woe to those who discourage their sons from becoming what God has called them to be.
We all have dreams for our children. We want the best for them. It used to be that families were proud to have a son who was called to be a priest. That should still be the case, that shouldn’t be considered old fashioned, a relic of the past. Yet now, rather than a vocation, a call from God, we seem to consider the priesthood just another career choice. St. Vincent de Paul said “The priest is a man called by God to share in the priesthood of Jesus Christ, to prolong the redemptive mission of Jesus Christ, by doing what Jesus Christ did, in the way in which he did it”. Any priest can tell you that his vocation is much more than a job. But if it is viewed that way, it can be easily lost amidst all the other possibilities. On the list of our dreams for our sons, the priesthood should be at the top of the list; actually, it should be in its own column.
As Catholic families, we should be living our lives in a way that helps tune out much of the noise from the secular, materialistic world. In doing so, we can enable our children to hear when God is calling their name. In his Christmas homily, Pope Benedict refers to the shepherds, saying: “…they could hear the message precisely because they were awake. We must be awake, so that we can hear the message.” And a few lines later, he says: “To awaken, then, means to develop a receptivity for God; for the silent promptings with which He chooses to guide us; for the many indications of His presence.” I don’t think that we really have fewer men being called to the priesthood now than we did fifty or a hundred years ago, but some of those being called are not able to hear that call. As parents, we can encourage them to listen, to be awake, to be open to the message the Lord has for them.
Regardless of whether our sons are called to be priests, or our daughters are called to the religious life; regardless of how the lives of our children unfold, we have a responsibility to them and to God. Our responsibility is to create a family and home atmosphere that nurtures them in the faith that assists them in developing their relationship with God. So on this Feast of the Holy Family, let us model ourselves after them as much as possible, making Christ present in our homes, and raising holy children, who can grow to build holy families of their own – or maybe, become priests to build holy parishes.
Permalink
December 25, 2009
Posted in Homilies
at 9:00 am
Christmas Eve/Day 2009 – By Father Tim McCauley
Welcome everyone to the greatest miracle on earth, the miracle of God made man, the miracle of God’s love in Person in Jesus Christ, the miracle of love we can eat in the Body of Christ, that satisfies our souls and warms our hearts on these cold, dark, days of December. You can now relax. There are no more shopping days left until Christmas – Christmas is here! No more shopping, baking or decorating! Finally, we can now relax and celebrate!
I’m happy to see you all. You heeded the angels’ call (whatever form those angels may take), inviting you to come and worship the new-born Messiah King, Jesus Christ our Lord. You have come to bring your gifts to Him (the gift of yourself, your presence, your love) and to receive from Him the gift of His love – an infinite, eternal, perfect love.
I’ll share with you one brief funny story. Last night/Wednesday night, my Christmas tree fell over! Last year my cleaning lady knocked it over; this year, I knocked it over! So you know what I did? I grabbed that Christmas tree and . . . and . . . I put it up again! It’s Christmas! Christ is born! We are not going to allow anything to take away the peace and joy that we have in Christ’s love for us! Right? Amen!
I have here a very special rose. It is called a “rose of Judah.” Have you heard of this rose? There’s a Christmas hymn about this rose. I could sing a small part of it: “Behold, a rose of Judah/ From tender branch has sprung/ . . . It came a flower bright/ Amid the cold of winter,/ When half spent was the night.”
O flower whose fragrance tender/ With sweetness fills the air/ Dispel in glorious splendour/ The darkness everywhere./ True man yet very God/ From sin and death now save us/ And share our every load.”
This rose of Judah is Jesus Christ, who was born into this world in the cold of winter around midnight, to bring the light and warmth of God’s love to all human hearts. There are two roses in the creche with the child Jesus. And I wonder why there are two roses there . . . what is the significance of that? Well, the first rose is from God to us, a symbol of God’s love for us. The second rose is from us to God, a symbol of our love for God.
Very often, a red rose is a symbol of romantic love, and the rose of Judah is a reminder of God’s passionate and personal love for each one of us. The prophets like Ezekial and Hosea describe “God’s passion for his people . . . using metaphors of betrothal and marriage” (Deus Caritas Est, #9).
Some of the prayers of the Church for Christmas actually touch on this wedding theme; for example, one of the antiphons for Christmas Day is: “The Lord comes forth, the bridegroom from his bridal chamber” (Office of Readings, Christmas Day).
Jesus is the bridegroom who comes forth from the bridal chamber of the womb of the Virgin Mary. Jesus is the bridegroom and the bride is the Church, the human race and the individual soul. In the Person of Jesus, from the moment of His conception in the womb of Mary, a sort of marriage took place between heaven and earth, between the divine nature and our human nature. Now on Christmas Day, the bridegroom comes forth to invite all humanity to the wedding feast, to bring their gifts and to receive gifts.
It may sound strange at first to mention marriage on Christmas Eve/Day, but both are linked by the theme of love. Christmas certainly is a popular time for marriage proposals – look at Mike Fisher and Carrie Underwood. I’m sorry for some of the young ladies in the parish who wanted Mike Fisher to marry them, but don’t worry there’s someone else special for you out there.
Truly Christmas is the culmination of a love-story, the whole history of God’s love for humanity and each one of us individually. And there are many similarities between preparing for a wedding and preparing for Christmas: the stress (because everything has to be absolutely perfect!), the hopes for happiness, the atmosphere of love, the family gatherings.
We are created for love. And each human being thirsts for infinite, eternal, perfect love. And at Christmas, we dare to hope that this desire for perfect love can, somehow, one day, be fulfilled. At Christmas, we dare to open our hearts to God and others, even to risk being hurt, because we are driven by the need to love and be loved. But because of sin, we also have a fear of being unloved. And sometimes, because of this fear mixed with pride, people can say and do a lot of hurtful things. So we must be so very forgiving of each other.
Usually at Christmas I mention my family, but this year I don’t have much to say. God is slowly teaching me to accept them and love them as they are (which is not always easy!). But since God accepts me and loves me as I am, He asks me to do the same with my family. So I really don’t have much to complain about this year, which is a good thing!
We are created for love, and at the wedding feast of the Christmas Mass, no one should ever feel alone or unloved. If you go to a regular wedding reception and you are either widowed or divorced or single when you would like to be married, you might feel alone, and even a little envious of the love and happiness of the married couple. You might be sitting alone at a table in the corner while everyone else is dancing. But the wedding feast of Christmas is not like that! Jesus says to you, “Friend, come up higher.” And you are seated at the head table right beside the Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. And as you are watching Him, listening to Him, and talking to Him, He prepares a gift for you. He takes bread and says to you, “This is my Body, given up for you.” Then He takes a cup and says, “This is my Blood, shed for you.”
I would like to tell you another story about roses appearing in winter. You may have heard the story of Mary as Our Lady of Guadaloupe who appeared to St. Juan Diego one December (December 9th, 1531, to be exact). As one of the proofs to the local bishop of her appearing, she told Juan to gather red roses from a nearby cold, dry hillside where it was impossible for roses to grow, especially to be blooming in December, even in Mexico! Then she asked that a Church be built there.
It is interesting that Mary asked for a Church to be built where the roses appeared. Why? She asked for a Church to be built so that the miracle of roses in December could be repeated. And how is it that this miracle of the rose of Judah appearing can be repeated? Each Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus, but it’s not like He comes again at each Christmas, is it? . . .
Well, yes, He does, for the simple reason that you and I were not there in Bethlehem 2000 years ago, with Mary and Joseph and the shepherds to adore Jesus lying in the manger. I had the privilege of being in Bethlehem on Nov. 9th and of celebrating the Mass for Christmas Day, in the Church of the Nativity built over the original manger. But since we were not there in Bethlehem 2000 years ago, Jesus, in His love for us, finds a way to be born for us today, December 24th/25th, here in Russell, Ontario, Canada.
Because a Church has been built, the miracle of roses in December can be repeated. It is through the Church, the priesthood and the sacraments, in particular the Eucharist, the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, that Jesus Christ is truly present on earth today. It is through Holy Communion that each of us receives the rose of Judah, that infinite, eternal, perfect love that comes to each one of us personally, to dwell in our hearts.
But whether or not we receive love in receiving this Sacrament, depends on how we receive gifts in general. Imagine someone gives you a gift like this (cookie tin). You open it up and say, “Oh, shortbread cookies . . . why did you get me shortbread cookies? They are like the most boring kind of Christmas cookies – everybody gets those! Why couldn’t you get me something with chocolate in it? I told you I like chocolate, but you never listen to me! . . . My Christmas is ruined!”
OK? We could receive gifts like that, trapped in our own self-centeredness, unable to see and appreciate the person behind the gift. Or we could receive a gift like this: “Oh, shortbread cookies!” (So what if you don’t like them!). “Thank you!” And in an effort to appreciate the other person, you ask kindly, “Did you make them?”
“Yes, but I almost didn’t do any baking at all this year, because I was so busy. But I wanted to do something special for you, not a ‘made in China’ gift but something to show my love. So one night I stayed up really late and made these cookies, thinking of you and praying for you while I made them.” Wow! That changes everything doesn’t it? By making an effort to rise above our self-centeredness (me, me, me!), we allow gifts to touch our hearts and to serve their purpose: to express friendship and communicate love.
Sometimes we do not receive the gift of God’s love because we are trapped in our own self-centeredness and we do not see or appreciate the person behind the gift, the Person behind the rose – in this case, the Divine Person of Jesus Christ, who in His earthly life stayed up many late nights, thinking of you, praying for you, preparing a gift to show His love, the gift of Himself hidden under the poor and humble appearances of bread and wine. Is it because we are so rich and proud and busy with our own lives that we make ourselves almost incapable of receiving the love of a God who is so poor and humble and quiet, lying in the manger or on the altar?
Knowledge and love of Jesus Christ is not usually something we can acquire instantly, in one night/day. But it is something we can learn throughout 2010: to learn to pray, to listen to Jesus and talk with Him, to rediscover the hope, peace and joy of an inner spiritual life, a life that begins to quench our thirst for infinite, eternal and perfect love.
Permalink
December 20, 2009
Posted in Homilies
at 9:00 am
Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year C, December 20th, 2009
In this coming Christmas-time of gift-giving, w must remember to receive gifts, above all, to receive gifts from God, such as the gift that Elizabeth receives in today’s Gospel, from Jesus the Messiah through the greeting of Mary, what Scripture calls the gift of “agalliasis,” translated as “extreme” or “exceeding” joy, a gift offered to all of us this Christmas.
But first there are some absolute pre-requisites for receiving the gift of joy. We must first of all fully embrace all the other gifts God has already given us. So what does this mean?
1) Accept the very first gift God has given us: the gift of life, which means accepting ourselves as we are, and other people as they are.
2) Accept God’s will
3) If we have sinned, to accept the gift of forgiveness.
We need preparation and a purification (a sort of Advent) in order to receive these gifts, to receive joy. Consider the example of Zechariah and Elizabeth, as they were an essential part of the drama leading up to the very first Christmas. They were given exceeding joy in the conception and birth of their son, John the Baptist, the pre-cursor of the Messiah.
But look at the trials first endured by Zechariah and Elizabeth. They were childless, one of the greatest tragedies in a culture of life, for people in Biblical times. They must have been tempted to feel rejected and unloved by God. Elizabeth even referred to her childlessness as her “disgrace” (Lk 1:25). But throughout all these temptations to discouragement, depression, feelings of rejection, Zechariah and Elizabeth remained righteous and devout, keeping all the commandments, daring to hope in God. I think that they came to a place of peace, of acceptance of the will of God, and self-acceptance – that they were childless, but AT THE SAME TIME they continued to pray and hope in the God of the impossible.
And they were rewarded. One day, Zechariah was ministering in the temple, as close to God as he could possibly get, to God’s presence in the Holy of Holies (Lk 1:9). We can imagine him weeping, pouring out all his grief and all his hopes to God. Then he received the revelation from the Archangel Gabriel that his prayer had been heard and his wife would conceive.
The angel also told him that they would have “exceeding joy” (agalliasis) in the birth of their son (Lk 1:14). “Those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy” (Ps 126).
All their trials served to purify them and prepare them for joy. Through their doubts and difficulties, they persevered in prayer; they were humbled and came to know themselves better, learning to rely on God and not themselves.
For us too, to receive the gift, to receive joy, we must come to a point of self-acceptance, acceptance of others as they are and acceptance of the will of God. This is simple, but it can be challenging, because of pride, the fear of being unloved, guilt, sin, and so on.
Try it at home in a moment of personal prayer, or try it right now by following after me in your mind, saying, “I accept myself as I am, with all my weaknesses and limitations.” Can you say that and mean it? Then you are accepting the first gift from God, the gift of yourself, your life. Now on to your husband or wife, or a difficult parent or child: “I accept her as she is, with all her weaknesses and limitations . . . I love her, I love him, as he is.” Can you say it and mean it? Then you are accepting another gift from God, the gift of other people. Then you are well on your way to opening your heart to joy.
OK, we accept ourselves as we are. But then – oh, no! We remember our sins, our guilt over all our past failures, all the people we have hurt consciously or unconsciously, perhaps including some broken relationships that are at least partly our fault. Oh! Who could possibly bear the burden of all that guilt? No one, except Jesus Christ. That’s why we need a Messiah. As we hear in the second reading, the letter to the Hebrews, Jesus our Messiah is also our Priest and Sacrifice, our “sin offering” (Heb 10:8), the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. We have been forgiven and “sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb 10:10).
Jesus is our Priest and Sacrifice who takes away our sins, beginning from the first moment of His conception in the womb of Mary. As the writer of Hebrews explains, when Jesus came into the world, He said to God the Father: “Behold, I come to do your will, O God” (Heb 10:7), to give my life and shed my blood for the forgiveness of sins. From the crib to the Cross, Jesus offers His life for us.
All your sins are forgiven. Can you accept this gift from God to you? All your sins are forgiven. Can you accept this revelation, press it to your heart and take it home with you? Chew on it and digest it until it becomes part of you? Can you immerse yourself in this mercy like a warm bath, until it drains away all the tension in your body and fills you with peace, with joy?
Yes, all your sins are forgiven, so you don’t have to feel guilty anymore about anything. If you have been baptized, then your sins have been forgiven. If you have committed sins after baptism, simply confess them in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and they are forgiven. Our venial sins are wiped away through the living charity that is strengthened in us in a worthy reception of Holy Communion (Catechism #1394). In every Mass, we hear these words: “This is the cup of my Blood, which will be shed for you and for all, so that sins may be forgiven,” and these words, “this is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” and we also stand up and publicly profess our faith in the words of Creed: “I believe . . . in the forgiveness of sins.” Believe it! It’s true! And finally, this is an essential part of the good news that St. John the Baptist was sent to bring: to give God’s people “knowledge of salvation” (the experience of His love!) “by the forgiveness of their sins” (Lk 1:77).
All your sins are forgiven. All your guilt is taken away. You are now redeemed sinners, acceptable to God. God accepts you as you are. So you must accept yourself as you are and forgive yourself, accept others as they are, and forgive them. The Christian life is so simple! We just have to do it in order to have joy!
How can we possibly have any joy at Christmas if we do not accept the gifts that God has already given us? How can we have any joy at all if we do not begin by accepting ourselves as we are, and by accepting others as they are? Joy cannot be built on rejection – self-rejection and the rejection of others; it can only blossom out of acceptance – of the will of God, of ourselves and others as they are. And only after this initial acceptance, of ourselves, others, and God’s will, are we given any desire to follow Jesus, to change our lives, to grow in holiness.
I want to mention one example of joy that was not a part of my original homily. Last night I saw the band Leahy perform. They communicated joy to hundreds of people through their music, singing and dancing. Part of their joy comes from being a part of a large, Catholic family. They talked of growing up near Peterborough on a beef farm, a three bedroom house with one bathroom.
One of them put his knees together and said, “that’s how we learned to dance!” I would like to thank all large, Catholic families that bring joy into this world. I would like to thank those who have brought even one child into the world, or adopted one child. Oh! If only we knew the gift of God, who He is and how much He loves us, we would leap for joy, and after receiving Holy Communion, return home singing and dancing!
Christmas is a time to give and receive gifts. I’m sure you have already thought about what you would like for Christmas. I would like a new car. Well, mine is now 7 ½ years old, and it’s getting run down. Remember what I said at the beginning of Advent, that little children have joy at Christmas precisely because they cannot buy gifts for themselves. What joy is there in buying gifts for ourselves? Children are excited at Christmas because they are humble, dependent on someone else to buy them gifts that bring them joy. So for me as an adult to have joy at Christmas, I need to receive a gift that I cannot buy for myself, like a new car! Isn’t it logical?
In truth I am delighted to receive anything, but one of the greatest joys of a priest at Christmas is to see people love Jesus. Imagine if you have your mother over for Christmas dinner; you love your mother and your spouse, but your spouse can’t stand your mother, and refuses to speak to her during the whole dinner. Is that not a kind of agony? Of two of the people you love most, one of them does not love the other at all. That is the kind of agony in the heart of a priest when it seems at times that of the two people he loves, Jesus and the people of God, there are so few people who truly love Jesus, and so many hearts that have become as cold and hard as the frozen ground in December. God, the Church and the priests are depending on you, faithful Catholics, to love Jesus a little bit more, to keep this world warm and alive with God’s love and to bring others to that “burning furnace of charity” that is the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
And finally, remember what St. John wrote: “we love (God) because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Part of accepting God’s will, accepting ourselves as we are and others as they are, is the acceptance of God’s love that brings us joy. This experience of love overflows in a response of love to God revealing Himself in Jesus, who is now hidden in the womb of Mary, but in a few short days will show us His face once again on Christmas day. As a child longs to be held by his mother or father, Jesus longs to be loved by you and to fill your heart with “exceeding joy.”
Permalink
December 13, 2009
Posted in Homilies
at 9:00 am
Third Sunday of Advent – By Deacon Thomas Stephenson
December 13, 2009
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice! As Father Tim mentioned, today is Gaudete, or Rejoicing Sunday, Gaudete meaning rejoice. And we hear this encouragement to rejoice quite clearly, not just in these words of St. Paul in today’s second reading, but also in the first reading, and in the Psalm. And, although the Gospel doesn’t explicitly tell us to rejoice, what John is teaching people, and us, is definitely good news, reason to be joyful. Christ is coming!
Christ is coming! He is coming to bring us salvation; are we really joyfully anticipating His arrival? There is a Christmas song that tells us this is the most wonderful time of the year. Do we realize the wonder of this time, anticipating the birth of our Saviour? Or, have we lost some of the understanding of what this means? I’m not referring to all the materialism that the world seems to get caught up in this time of year, although that can be a distraction to what our real focus should be, which is the birth of Jesus. What I mean is, do we recognize that, as we wait for the coming of Christ, this truly is important in our lives, something that should make us rejoice?
We usually feel joyful when we are successful, when good things happen to us, or to our loved ones, when something occurs to make us happy. This is an emotional joy, but emotions are fleeting, they don’t last. Our joy in God, in Christ and His salvation, must be more than emotion, it must be grounded in something deeper. Then it can withstand those things that would otherwise shake our faith. You know, at the time of Zephania, things were pretty corrupt. This book is very short, only three brief chapters, and it’s mostly about God’s anger and His impending judgement on Jerusalem. But, at the end, in the passage we hear today, there is joy. And when St. Paul wrote the letter to the Philippians, he wasn’t living a life of luxury – he was in prison. If you think prison is rough now, you can just imagine what it was like in the first century. Paul was in a bad situation, facing death, and had good idea of the trials and persecutions that the Philippians were facing. Yet despite all of this, in both of these readings, the emphasis is on rejoicing. Why? Because of the peace of God, a peace, as Paul says, which surpasses all understanding.
Isn’t that peace, which is available to all of us, reason enough to rejoice, even in the face of the troubles, trials, and tragedies each of us endure?
So this joy, the joy of knowing God’s peace, grounded in our faith in the Lord, should as a matter of course move us to action. What should we do? This is the question the people asked of John, what must they do to really be God’s people? Perhaps, like us, they asked the question with both sincerity – and anxiety. Was John going to ask them to do difficult things, things even more burdensome than the law they were already trying to follow? Give them more legalistic hurdles to overcome? What comes out is deceptively simple – treat people justly.
That applies at least as much to us, maybe more so, as it did to the crowd listening to John. Most of us are quite blessed; we have what we need to get by in our lives. Not all, but most of us have more than we need, and when we have extra, we are called to share out of our abundance with others who are not so fortunate. If we are in positions of power, whether financial, managerial, or some other authority, we are called to be fair, to not abuse those positions to the detriment of others. Basically John is saying that we should be honest people, people of integrity. Is this simple? Maybe. But in any time, John’s or ours, what seems simple may also be difficult.
It is through our actions that others may see the love God has for them. What this requires is not just generosity, not just charity, but a true trust in God. When in response to the Gospel we help provide for others, we also learn to trust in God for our own needs.
Our lives should be filled with the joy, and the peace, that comes from the recognition that God is with us. If we keep that in mind, our acts of charity, our behaviour as Christians, will be done not to try to get something from God, but to reflect what we have received, and what we believe. Our faith must be demonstrated in our works, particularly in how we deal with the poor. And, especially in our day, the poor are not only those who are in material poverty. There are many who may be living quite comfortable lives, but who are absolutely destitute spiritually. Sharing our faith with someone like that may be the greatest gift we could give. If we should give a coat to someone who is cold, or food to someone who is hungry, how much more are we obliged to tell spiritually deprived people about Christ? If we are to live our lives in accordance with our professed beliefs, we must allow our eyes – and our hearts – to notice those opportunities, large or small, to put our faith into action. Especially at this time of the year! Different kinds of opportunities arise in each our lives, but they do present themselves. It’s up to us to respond.
When we begin to understand the salvation Jesus came to give us, we also begin to see why what John proclaimed is good news. In less than two weeks, it will be Christmas. In the midst of all our preparations, our focus should be clear: Christ is coming soon. Let us dare to hope, and to express our gratitude to God for our salvation. And to paraphrase Paul, may the peace of God guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.
And…Rejoice!
Permalink
December 6, 2009
Posted in Homilies
at 5:11 pm
December 6th, 2009
Everyone seems a bit lighter this Sunday, not necessarily floating in the pews, but a bit lighter, more hopeful . . . It might have something to do with the fact that on Tuesday night many of us surrendered to Jesus the burden of all our sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. (For those who missed out, there are still lots of opportunities for Confession before Christmas, to “prepare the way of the Lord” (Lk 3:4), for instance at St. Catherine of Siena in Metcalfe on December 14th ). On this second Sunday of Advent, we continue to “dare to hope” in God’s power and God’s love that lifts us up whenever we are tempted to give in to sadness, or lack of hope.
God’s power, and His hope in us, is so great, that even what seems impossible can become a reality. Consider the miracle of the return from exile that is celebrated in today’s first reading and the psalm. The Jews had been exiled to Babylon around 586 B.C. Some of them considered it impossible that they would ever return home, but they never gave up hope. When the impossible became a reality starting in 538 B.C. under King Cyrus, they sang this psalm: “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy” (Psalm 126).
If you have ever experienced something impossible become a reality, you know how the Jews felt. On Sunday, November 8th, shortly after Mass, I went swimming in the Dead Sea. It was hilarious! We couldn’t stop laughing because it seemed “like a dream;” what we were experiencing was absolutely impossible, according to all logic and all our previous experience. I purposely walked out over my head, put my arms up, and tried to sink, but I couldn’t! It’s impossible to sink and drown in the Dead Sea! It’s almost as if God breaks the rules of nature and commands the sea to hold us up and keep us from sinking! It’s amazing! (There’s a scientific explanation as well, the Dead Sea being 10x saltier than the ocean).
This is an image of hope, of the grace of Advent, of God’s power lifting us up even when we try to make ourselves sink by choosing to give in to discouragement or lack of hope. God knows that sometimes the temptation to discouragement or lack of hope is very strong; when family and friends are passing through various trials and tragedies; when everyone at work is complaining (except us of course); when we feel heavily burdened by our own sins; when we have difficulty forgiving ourselves even though we know God has already forgiven us –
everything can seem dark at times, especially as the days grow shorter and darker in December.
And where is Jesus our Messiah? Is there a Messiah? He can seem so incredibly distant, and we simply lack the energy at times to reach out to Him across the abyss that seems to separate us from Him. We get that sinking feeling: no more strength to fight temptation, no more desire to love, to sacrifice . . . But then, when all seems dark, a candle is lit, then another. It’s Advent, the time of grace, the time to hope again in the God of the impossible.
How can we be filled with this grace of God and the gift of hope? Well, let’s look again at our ancestors in the faith, those stubborn Jews who “hoped against hope” (Rom ) in the return from exile, in the coming of the Messiah. Even though they had to wait about 1000 years for the coming of the Messiah (from the time of David to the coming of Christ), they never gave up hope. You can imagine the mockery of their pagan neighbours, or the devil himself tempting them, saying, “when will you silly Jews wake up and realize your Messiah is never coming? It’s been a 1000 years already! Give up! He doesn’t care about you!” But the Jews did not listen to these lies and temptations; they just kept on “hoping against hope” (Rom 4:18) that God would fulfill His promises. And the darker things got, the more they hoped.
You can imagine the Evil One tempting us the same way, saying, “You have been struggling with the same sin for years now. Do you actually think that you will ever change? Are you still clinging to that useless hope?” Or: “This person keeps on disappointing you and hurting you. Do you still believe that he or she will ever change? Why waste your time and energy hoping for something that will never happen?”
Well, I for one am glad that God never lost hope in me. I remember when I was 23, I had reached the lowest point in terms of my moral life. But the same year, I moved to New York City, where I lived with my cousins and joined the Catholic Church. The rest, as they say, is history. So you must never give up hope in anyone ever – including yourself, but continue to hope against hope in the God of the impossible! Like St. John the Baptist. Like those fishermen in Galilee, Sts. Peter, Andrew, James and John. Like that carpenter St. Joseph. And above all, like Mary, the woman who defeats the dragon (Rev ), the Immaculate Conception who crushes the devil’s proud head, who destroys all his lies and exposes all his attempts to deceive and discourage God’s children.
Yes, all who stay close to Mary, under her mantle and protection, will be given supernatural strength to resist the devil and hope in God. So I encourage all of you who may not have a devotion to Mary to say at least one “Hail Mary” every day of Advent. And to those who already do that, to pray all or part of the Rosary every day of Advent.
And to those who already do that, I invite you to consider the perfect renewal of the vows of your baptism by giving yourself totally to Jesus through Mary, in the true devotion to Mary taught by St. Louis de Montfort and promoted by John Paul II. Then you will be even more a special son or daughter of Mary, and she will personally protect you from the assaults and deceits of the devil and obtain for you a share in her own supernatural hope in God. I can testify to this in my own life. So whenever we are in danger of sinking into discouragement or sadness, she will help us keep our head above water, and lift up our hearts, to hope and trust in God more and more, even if we say one simple prayer, like that on the Miraculous Medal: “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.”
Finally, we can honour the Mother of Jesus and ask for her intercession on our parish feast day, this Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. The 10:45 choir will sing a few hymns, the Knights will be lighting up our creche, then we will come back inside for ice cream cake and hot chocolate! No Advent penance on the feast of the Immaculate Conception!
Mary, Joseph, St. John the Baptist, St. Peter and the others – all of them dared to hope in the Messiah, and prayed fervently and continually for his coming. And guess what? They were right to hope! For in the fullness of time, the Messiah did come into human history and revealed Himself, “in the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea” – around 29 A.D. to be exact (Luke 3:1). The world has never been the same.
One of the rewards of our hope – one day will be the return of Christ in glory; this Advent, it might be the grace to experience an old miracle for the first time: the miracle of Christmas, the Incarnation, the wonder that the Messiah has already come, and He is with us! Jesus is God. He loves us and He is with us in the Eucharist. It can seem impossible, but it’s true!
As I was walking by the sea of Galilee a few weeks ago, I could imagine St. Peter and St. Andrew walking by the same sea, wondering about the Messiah and having a conversation about Jesus.
They respected Him as a Rabbi, a teacher; they were impressed by his preaching in the synagogue at Capernaum; they witnessed Him healing the sick. He was sent by God, a great prophet like Moses. But then, they saw Him do even greater things: walk on the sea of Galilee (Mk 6:49), and during a storm one night, by His own word, commanding the sea to be calm and the wind to stop, something only God can do (Mk 4:39) . . . and later they saw him on three separate occasions raise people from the dead (Lk 7:14, Mk 5:41, Jn 11:43) . . . and He himself rose from dead . . . I can imagine Peter and Andrew having a conversation . . . “Andrew, I believe our Rabbi is the Messiah sent from God, but . . . He does things only God can do . . . I think . . . I know it’s impossible . . . that He is God.” “Peter . . . I think so too, but He is a man – look at Him, there He is sitting on that rock looking out on the lake! How is it possible?” “Shh . . . He might hear you.” “It doesn’t matter if He’s God! He can read our minds!”
“We were like those who dream. Our mouth was filled with laughter!” Because the impossible has become a reality! The Messiah has come! He is God and man in one Person! The more we hope in Him this Advent, the more we open our hearts to experience this old miracle, perhaps for the first time.
I challenge you to a “hope experiment”: Choose, every morning of every day in Advent, to hope in God, no matter what. Dare to hope! It’s not easy, but the rewards are great! Let’s say there’s someone who doesn’t like Christmas, finds it depressing because of all the pressure to be happy and all the reminders of family problems and so on. But this person makes a valiant effort every morning of every day of Advent to hope in God. You ask her (or him) after Christmas, “So how was your Christmas?” “Oh, pretty good, actually. More peace than usual, I must say, and some really good moments . . . which is strange . . . because usually I don’t feel that way . . . something was different . . . oh yeah! That’s right! I made that decision in Advent to hope in God no matter what! It worked!”
You see? Hope makes a real difference in our lives in the present! But it has to be real hope. You can fake it with God. You can’t “pretend” to hope in God just so that you will be happy. That’s like a man saying, “well, to have more peace in my home I’m going to pretend to love my wife and children more.” No. You can’t pretend to love others and you can’t pretend to hope in God if you want hope to make a difference in your life. Dare to hope, and let’s all look forward to the stories we can share about the fulfillment of our hope this Christmas.
Permalink
Homilies