January 31, 2010

Perfect Love and Dante’s Purgatorio

Posted in Homilies at 9:00 am

Fourth Sunday, Year C, January 31st, 2010 – By Father Tim McCauley

Of all the married couples here, did anyone happen to have today’s second reading from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians’ as a reading for their wedding day? Does everyone remember the readings from their wedding day? Today’s second reading is probably the most popular one for weddings. (World Marriage Sunday is will be celebrated on Sunday, February 14th. But today’s second reading compels me to say something about love!)

I don’t know if any families here took 15 minutes this past week to discuss Sunday’s readings as a family. In the words of Archbishop Prendergast: if we take seriously the challenge of reading the Word of God in the Catholic Church it’s going to be a revolution! To put love into practice as described in St. Paul’s letter would start a revolution!

I would like to begin by reminding you of some very good news : Everyone here is capable of perfect love. Of course we all need purification, but every one of you comes from perfect love, is created for perfect love, is called to perfect love. Each one of you was conceived in the heart of God, before time began. Each one of you is created to see God “face to face” as St. Paul writes (1 Cor 13:12), to share in the life and love of the Holy Trinity for all eternity. This is good news! You are capable of perfect love, and when you attain it, you will be perfectly happy and all your desires will be fulfilled.

Let us listen to St. Paul’s words again in a slightly different translation (NAB): “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury (or “it does not dwell on the negative” for logizetai to kakon), it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails” (1 Cor 13:4-8).

St. Paul is speaking of mature, complete, perfect love that we begin to attain even in this life. He contrasts partial versus complete knowledge and love, the child versus the man: “when I became a man, I put an end to childish ways” (1 Cor 13: ). In the spiritual life, too, we are called to completeness, perfection, to become fully mature men and women who are perfect in love.

We are called to perfect love, but because we have all sinned, we are in need of purification. People don’t like hearing about their sins against love and their need for repentance. That’s one reason people did not listen to the prophets like Jeremiah (first reading) or Jesus when He preached in the synagogue at Nazareth (Gospel), for the essence of Jesus’ preaching was summarized in one line: “The Kingdom of God is near. Repent . . . “ (Mark 1:15). “Repent and believe the Good News” (Mk 1:15) When we sin, God in His infinite mercy does not abandon us; He gives us something called Purgatory, even here on earth.

We have a little parish study group that met recently to discuss Dante’s Purgatorio. When I first read this book at age 23, it was a real conversion for me; it was the first time that I had ever heard explained that lust is a sin that can and must be overcome. Being raised a lukewarm Protestant in the ruins of the sexual revolution, who was going to teach me about purity of heart? . . . I needed a 13th century Catholic poet to help convert me! Re-reading the Purgatorio has deepened my conversion, as I see my own life reflected in Dante’s own struggle and purification, so clearly explained in Chapter (“Canto”) 31 – that’s me! For those of you who don’t know about Chapter 31 . . . unfortunately I don’t have time to go into right now!

Why is this book so powerful? Because like Christ, Dante tells a parable to teach theology, a story of his climb up Mount Purgatory on his way to heaven. On each terrace of the mountain, souls are purified of one of the seven deadly sins, as they become perfect in love.

We learn that “every sin is a sin of love” (Dorothy Sayers’ translation, p. 285). Each of the seven deadly sins is related to love. At the bottom of Mount Purgatory, the more serious sins are purified first. What is the most serious of the seven deadly sins? . . . Pride. And how is it related to love? It is “love of self perverted to hatred and contempt for one’s neighbour.” (Remember: “Love is not boastful or arrogant”). Next is envy: “love one one’s own good perverted to the wish to deprive other people of theirs.” (Remember: “Love is not envious”). Then wrath: “love of justice perverted to revenge and spite.” (Remember: “Love is patient; love is kind”)

The next sin to be purified is one of defective love, what Dante calls “lento amore” (XVII, 130) “slow love” or “poco amor” (XVIII, 103) (little love). The sin is one of sloth, spiritual apathy, or something called “acedia” which means “not caring.”
Sloth or acedia is defective love because it is the “failure to love any good object in its proper measure, and, especially, to love God actively with all one has and is.” (Remember: “Love hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails”).

The last three sins to be purified on the top of Mount Purgatory are due to excessive love. And what are those sins? First is avarice, the “excessive love of money or power,” then gluttony, the “excessive love of pleasure,” then lust, the “excessive love of persons” (Sayers, p. 66-7).

I would like to say a few more words about this last terrace on Mount Purgatory, because sins of lust are so common in our culture, sins such as pornography, masturbation, fornication, homosexual acts, all of which prevent one from attaining perfect love and must be purified either in this life or the next.

Dante sees the souls on this terrace “walking in the flames” (Purgatorio, XXV, 124) for their purgation, but they are all happy and singing a hymn with the words “God of supreme clemency” (XXV, 121). The terrace includes both heterosexuals and those who cry out “Sodom” in reference to their sin of active homosexuality (XXVI, 79). Again, all of them are happy to be purified in the flames. “With such treatment,” writes Dante, “must the last of all the wounds be healed” (XXV, 139).

I want to emphasize, especially to young people with their innocence intact, that it is much better NOT to sin against love at all, NOT to wound our hearts and the hearts of others, and NOT to have a need for purgatory. And if we have sinned, it is much better to be purified here and now, to grow in perfect love here and now. WAITING to repent, WAITING to change our lives, WAITING to be purified, WAITING to make the effort to grow in love: all this WAITING is a sin of sloth, acedia, spiritual apathy. By constantly WAITING, we add to our sins and misery! Remember the Good News! We are all capable of perfect love!

There are so many temptations in our culture that draw us away from perfect love. In our fear of being unloved, we often give in to these temptations. But we must be very clear that sin will never give us peace or happiness. Never. Take fornication for an example. For those who think it’s a big word, it means sex outside of marriage between two people who are not married. If one of them is married, it is called adultery. Fornication is always a sin, and it always wounds the hearts of those who commit it. Always. Why?

Because we are created for perfect love. Sexual love is taken up into perfect love only in the sacrament of marriage, only in a committed, life-long bond between a man and woman who are open to having children. Otherwise, sexual intercourse between a man and a woman is a serious sin of fornication, and between members of the same sex, the serious sin of homosexuality.

Talking about sins of lust in general, I hear quite a few confessions (but not as many as I should – not that I am unavailable; rather, the line-up is so short). So I know something about the effects of sin, both as a priest and as human being. And I have never heard of anyone who gave in to sins of lust, and reported immediately afterwards, “a deep sense of peace and happiness came over me.” Never. Because sin can never give us a deep sense of peace and happiness. Never. The most they can say is, “my fear of being unloved was temporarily repressed.”

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, God did not create us, (and Christ did not die for us!), so that we could find ways to temporarily repress our fear of being unloved. I repeat again, God created us for perfect love! And I say these things because I want you all to attain the purpose for which God created you, and to find true joy in perfect love, of which you are all capable, with the grace of God and the sacraments of the Church. Sacraments such as matrimony, for those who are married, and for all of us (except children in Grade one and younger), Confession and Holy Communion.

At the top of Mount Purgatory is the Garden of Eden, where Dante enters and there meets the love of his life, Beatrice, who had died many years ago. Even on earth, her beauty, virtue and holiness, led him closer to God. Now on the edge of heaven, she is sent by God to lead Dante higher, and in her radiant beauty, Dante basks in the sunshine of God’s love for him.

But then Beatrice confronts him with the serious sins of his past life. He knew he was called to perfect love. But he allowed his heart to turn away toward lesser loves, deceitful desires, sinful habits. As Beatrice put it, Dante allowed his heart to be pierced with the “arrow of deceitful things” (XXXI, 55-6)). She told him, “you should not have allowed your wings to droop” (XXXI, 58), on the soul’s upward flight toward perfect love. Dante sees his sins right in front of his face, yet he also feels the love at the same time, from God through Beatrice. And what happens? . . . He weeps, and weeps, and weeps some more. Then his purgatory is complete. He is ready to enter Paradise.

Something marvelous and miraculous happens when we persevere in love that is pure, patient and kind. Love that is not jealous, not pompous, not inflated, not rude; love that does not seek its own interests, is not quick-tempered, does not dwell on the negative; love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Cor 13:4-8). Without even knowing it, we are climbing Mount Purgatory. Our love is being purified and perfected. Then something marvelous and miraculous happens that I promise is true, that I know to be true: a peace and joy that the world cannot give descends upon our souls and abides deep in our hearts. And we are given a glimpse of Paradise.

January 24, 2010

The Power of the Word of God

Posted in Homilies at 9:00 am

Third Sunday, Year C, January 24th, 2010 – By Father Tim McCauley

I would like to talk to both children and adults today. So children, you may have noticed that today’s readings are all about the power of the Word of God. The Bible is God’s love letter to us. St. Luke even addresses his Gospel to “Theophilus” (Lk 1:3) which means “lover of God.” The Bible is a love-letter written from God to the lovers of God.

And the Word of God is not dead, it is living and active (Heb ), because the Word of God is not just a book, it is a Person – Jesus is the Word of God who is seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. He uses the words of Scripture that have been inspired by the Holy Spirit, to speak to our hearts today – today these Scriptures are fulfilled in your hearing (Lk 4:21). All we need is a little more faith when we read the Bible to hear Jesus the Word of God speaking to us.

Remember that we can trust that the Word of God is true; it is real history. St. Luke explains that the events he describes were “handed on” by “eyewitnesses” and that Luke himself “investigated everything carefully” to “write an orderly account” (Lk 1:3).

So, in today’s Gospel, we hear that after Jesus was baptized, he returned to Galilee and went to the synagogue (that’s like our Church) on the Sabbath day (that’s like our Sunday) “as was his custom” (Lk ). It was the custom of Jesus to go to Church (synagogue) every single week – even if He was busy or tired! Jesus, the Son of God, is a good example for all of us.

Q: Can any of the children tell me something that Jesus said or did in today’s Gospel?

Jesus unrolled the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, but he couldn’t find his place because he didn’t remember which chapter in Isaiah he was looking for. Is that what the Bible says? No! Jesus immediately found the verse in Isaiah He was looking for because Jesus knew the Scriptures. Jesus was a carpenter and a rabbi. He worked as a carpenter by day, but at night, even if he was busy or tired, he found time to study the Scriptures. Once again, Jesus is a good example for us.

Then Jesus read the passage and said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk 4:21). It was the beginning of a revolution. Jesus was beginning His public ministry by preaching, teaching, healing the sick, and hundreds of other miracles, finally leading up to His Passion, Death and Resurrection, and the spread of the Word of God (the Christian religion) that created a revolution that changed the world.

Bishop Prendergast said recently, regarding the Synod on the Word of God in Rome (October 2008) that “if we take seriously the challenge of reading the Word of God in the Roman Catholic Church it’s going to be a revolution” (Catholic Register, December 20th, 2009). What? Isn’t that an exaggeration? I actually agree with our bishop, but it does sound like an exaggeration.

Q (Adults): Would any like to venture an opinion on how this revolution might be possible?

First, let us look at today’s readings. A revolution, or rather, a re-creation did occur in the first reading. Ezra was reading from the Word of God, the law of God, in the ruins of the temple (Jewish Bible ). The temple had been destroyed in 586 B.C. and the exiles had begun to return in 538 B.C. What is the very first thing the Jewish people decided to do when they returned? Did the rebuild the temple first? No. The very first thing they did was publicly proclaim the Word of God, and worship God, for we hear that the people “bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground” (Nehemiah 8:6). On that day, a revolution, a re-creation began; the Jewish people began to re-build their nation by proclaiming the Word of God.

You may have seen scenes on the news or pictures in the paper of the ruined cathedral in Port-au-Prince, Haiti (let us continue to pray for our poor brothers and sisters in Haiti as they seek to rebuild their country). Even in ruined Churches people continue to pray and listen to the Word of God. This worship of God will help re-build their country, with help from good people around the world.

Morally and spiritually, our country is also, in many ways, in ruin: with the breakdown of marriage and family, the abuse of the gift of human sexuality, the fear of commitment and sacrifice, the epidemic of anxiety and depression, and so on. The Word of God also has power to help us spiritually re-build our Church and society: “if we take seriously the challenge of reading the Word of God in the Roman Catholic Church it’s going to be a revolution.”

The revolution cannot be limited to the Vatican, but must also include the domestic Church of the family! I was listening to a CD recently by the Catholic evangelist Matthew Kelly, on building stronger families. He mentions the statistic of 1 in 2 marriages ending in divorce, then reminds us of the saying, “the family that prays together stays together.” Of these families, any guess how many end in divorce? 1 in 2000!

What kind of prayer are we talking about? Traditionally, it has been the Rosary, and I heartily recommend families praying even one decade of the Rosary a week. But you know what Matthew Kelly says he has found works in best, after traveling and talking to people in over 50 countries throughout the world? He suggests that one day a week, the family get together and read the Word of God from the upcoming Sunday readings. To spend even 15 minutes discussing these readings as a family. Even something so small can sow the seeds of a revolution.

In part because the Word of God draws us into the world of God. Most of us do not inhabit the world of God. We are consumed by the perspectives and values of a rigidly materialistic and secular society, that never looks up at the stars or contemplates the things of God or eternity. But the more we listen to and prayerfully study the Word of God, the more our thoughts are shaped by the thoughts of God, the more our hearts are moulded in the shape of the heart of Jesus, the more we begin to live and move and have our being in a different universe, a place where love reigns supreme, the world of God.

Q: Another question for the children: how many of you have a children’s Bible? Try to make it your favourite book, because it is a bit like having Church in your home, to have your own Bible that you can pick up and look at and read, and let Jesus who loves you, Jesus the Word of God in person, speak to your heart and teach you how to live a holy and happy life.

Q: Children, I have another question to ask you. Have any of you ever been in the furnace room in the Church basement? I hope not. It’s not a place to play, but perhaps one of your parents could unlock it and let you take a peek. It is very impressive when the furnace is on, because it hums like its alive! You open the door and a wave of heat washes over you. You go inside and there’s a little window into the boiler where you can look inside and see the flame burning.

The furnace is a good symbol of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, on fire with love for us, a heart present in the tabernacle. But it is also a good symbol of the Word of God, that’s why the disciples on the road to Emmaus, when Jesus was explaining the Scriptures to them, said that their hearts were “burning” within them (Luke 24:32). These black letters on white paper contain the fire of the Holy Spirit. Now everyone can feel the heat from the furnace, right? And almost everyone receives Holy Communion. But why do so few hearts catch fire? Why are there so few revolutions in our lives?

Look at the people who listened to Ezra proclaim the Word of God in the first reading. They stood up and listened in silence, just as we do when the Gospel is proclaimed. But how different their hearts, how different their response!

Q: What happened when they heard the Word of God proclaimed?

“All the people wept when they heard the words of the Law” (Nehemiah 8:9). They wept but they also rejoiced. Ezra and the Levites told them, “do not mourn or weep . . . for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:9, 10). They wept and rejoiced because the Word proclaimed was for them a personal communication from God. For the modern self-enclosed person, the Word of God is so often just a bunch of concepts about God, but for children and for the open-hearted person, the Word of God is all about the personal communication of God.
When Cardinal Ouellette of Quebec spoke to the Pope and all the bishops gathered in Rome for the Synod on the Word of God (back in October 2008), he asked this question: “Why has the model of personal communication (of the Word of God) not penetrated the church’s awareness (and) prayer?” (Report Preceding the Discussion at the World Synod of Bishops, Origins, Vol. 38, #19). Why is it only a bunch of dry, stale, dusty concepts that never reach enkindle a fire or start a revolution?

Cardinal Ouellette tried to answer this question in his 10-page report. I don’t have time to go into detail, but he did mention Mary as the model of hearing and receiving the Word of God, and her example teaching us the “personal nature of faith as a gift of oneself.” It is something for us to pray about and consider in our own lives. How can we move from the head to the heart, from hearing the Word of God as only concepts about God to receiving the Word as the self-communication of God himself.

Jesus says in today’s Gospel: “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). That means also today, January 23rd/24th, 2010; Cardinal Ouellette writes about the “today of faith, the decision of faith to abandon oneself to Christ and to obey him according to the moral demands of the Gospel.” To weep over our sins, but also to rejoice in God’s love as we receive the Word made Flesh in Holy Communion, and drink the “sweet wine” (Nehemiah 8:10) of Christ’s Blood. This day is holy to the Lord our God. The joy of the Lord is our strength!

January 17, 2010

Miracles

Posted in Homilies at 9:00 am

Second Sunday In Ordinary Time

January 17, 2010 – By Deacon Thomas Stephenson

Have you ever been to a wedding where they ran out of wine or other alcoholic drinks? Have you ever been to one where perhaps it would have been a good thing if they had run out? Our wedding receptions are usually relatively short affairs, dinners or parties lasting for just a few hours. But in Jesus’ time, a wedding celebration could last for days, and with a large guest list and the length of the festivities, a lot of wine was required. The family was expected to be prepared for this, so it would be a huge embarrassment for them to run out of wine before the end. Jesus, through the intercession of His mother, saves their friends from this situation by performing His first recorded miracle. This may seem like a small miracle, but it was important to these people. All miracles are important, whether they occur in the midst of celebration, like this wedding, or in a disaster, such as the earthquake in Haiti. I’ll speak more about that in a few minutes.
Now, today’s Gospel is more than just a nice story of Jesus helping people out of a tight spot. The miracles that Jesus performed, and in particular this and the other six that we read about in the Gospel of John, are signs of Christ’s power and glory. They say more about Jesus than just that He has miraculous power; they reveal who He is and what He was sent to do. Like most of this gospel book, the way John describes this event is very rich in symbolism. There are many, many layers of meaning here, precisely because what Jesus did was not just an action taken to assist His friends. He did it in a way that would accomplish the task and convey the deeper messages. The reality and the symbolism are woven together, they are inseparable.
Since we don’t have remotely enough time to cover everything, I’ll only very briefly touch on a couple of aspects of this miracle. One obvious aspect is that, in having the ability to change one physical substance, the water, into another physical substance, the wine, Jesus has power over physical elements, over the material things of the world. As we read further in the Gospel of John, we will also learn of other signs, and how they signify Christ’s glory and power: that Jesus has power over sickness and health, when he heals the official’s son, the crippled man, and the blind man; power over our sustenance, our food, when he feeds the multitude; power over the wind and the sea, when he walks on water; and ultimately, power over death, when he raises Lazarus.
Another aspect is that Jesus provides for us abundantly. There were six empty jars; as we are told, each one held about 100 litres. That’s a total of 600 litres. Since they had run out of wine, we can imagine that the wedding had already been going for quite some time. It is unlikely that the remainder of the celebration would have required that much wine. But Jesus did not tell the steward to fill only one or two jars. All of them were filled. Jesus does not want us to have a little, or just enough, but to have an abundance. And while He may or may not provide more than what we need materially, if we truly have faith in Him we can be assured of the abundance of eternal life.
Does God still work miracles? The Book of Genesis starts with the words “In the Beginning”. The Gospel of John also uses these same words. And today’s Gospel tells us that this was the beginning of Jesus’ miracles, the first of His signs. God worked miracles for His chosen people throughout the Old Testament, Jesus performed miracles while He was on earth, and miracles didn’t end with His ascension. When disasters such as the earthquake that struck Haiti occur, we often hear of miracles happening. And, unfortunately, we also end up hearing people questioning why God allows, or even causes, these things to happen. Let’s get one thing out of the way now – God did not cause this, and least of all to punish the people of Haiti. Anyone who thinks that way has a fundamentally flawed theology. It was common in ancient time to attribute misfortune to a punishment for sin. For example, in the Book of Job, the tragedies that befall him are thought by his friends to be the result of some sin that Job must have committed. We know that was not the case. In the Gospel of John, before Jesus cures the blind man, His disciples ask Him “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” ”Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him”. (John 9:2-3) And in the Gospel of Luke He says “or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them, do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did”. (Luke 13:4-5) If disasters like the Haitian earthquake are the method God uses to punish sinners, much of the world would be rubble by now. That doesn’t mean that God never punishes individuals in this life for their sins, but usually the earthly punishment for sin is simply the natural result of the wrong that has been done.
So, if God isn’t the cause, and if He cares, why do these things happen? In the beginning, there were no natural disasters. No earthquakes, no hurricanes, no snowstorms. But we live in a world that is fallen. This means that the original plan of unity and peace has been broken. Through an act of will, God’s way was rejected and the natural created order was disrupted. As St. Paul tells us (Rom 8:19-22), all of creation is crying out for redemption and awaits the coming of Christ to end all suffering, sin, brokenness, death, and disunity. Not just humans, but all of the world suffers because of the fall and thus we have unexplainable tragedies that happen, like this earthquake. But God does care, and miracles have happened in Haiti. A few of these were listed in Friday’s paper. One couple was on the fifth floor of their apartment building when the earthquake hit. Because of the way the building fell, they were able to dig themselves out, and only required a few stitches. A woman was thrown into the basement of her collapsing building, but landed in a small space under the debris. She was rescued later with only minor scrapes. These are just a couple of examples of miracles amidst the devastation; there are many more, many that will probably never be reported. God did not cause the disaster, and just as Jesus did not cure all the lepers in His time, God does not save everyone from physical harm in our time, although he does save some. But that does not demonstrate a lack of care on His part. The problem is that we do not know, in this life, the meaning behind many of the things that happen in our world. God allows them all, and for good reason, but may not reveal these reasons to us. What we can do is rest our hopes on God’s almighty providence – He knows what is best for us. That may sound overly simplistic, but as smart as we think we are, as much as we try to understand things, some things are beyond our ability to comprehend. To try and find meaning to such disasters is to try and explain the mind of God, which is something none of us will never do. What we can do is donate to the relief effort, to give generously to the extra collection this morning. It is the Catholic missionaries that have been working for years, long before this earthquake, funded by organizations like Development & Peace. Those missionaries were able to respond immediately because they were already there, and they need our support to continue their work. I understand that there have been some questions about D & P in the past, but the need is urgent, and compared to other relief organizations, D & P uses much less funds for administration, so most of your money goes to actually helping the people.
And most of all PRAY. Pray with faith. Join in prayer with those in Haiti. In an article in yesterday’s National Post, one Haitian gentleman was quoted as saying “We need help. We need the world’s prayers.” And another said “People sing and pray here all night. Their churches are all gone, but they still have faith. Anytime the earth moves, it’s time to pray.” In our prayers, let us ask our blessed mother to intercede with her son, so that as at the wedding in Cana, Jesus may work miracles amongst the people, to provide what is needed in Haiti, both physically and spiritually, and provide it abundantly.

January 10, 2010

Baptism of the Lord – 2010

Posted in Homilies at 9:00 am

Year C, January 10th, 2010 – By Father Tim McCauley

I would like to tell you about a very important number that can help you unlock the treasure chest you received at baptism, to unleash an abundance of graces. And that number is 7729 – remember that number. If you listen attentively, I will explain to you the importance of that number.

Today we celebrate the baptism of the Lord. There’s a reason why we commemorate it at the end of the Christmas season. On Christmas Day, Jesus Christ is born into this world as the only-begotten Son of God. On Epiphany, He began to reveal Himself to the nations, as the three wise men came to do Him homage. And on His Baptism, He is revealed more fully as God’s own beloved Son, and anointed with the Holy Spirit to prepare Him for His public ministry, His revelation to all of Israel and then to the whole world.

I think Jesus’ baptism was also an experience of God the Father’s love for Him. Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit, what Scripture calls the oil of gladness (joy, exultation). It is very fitting that God the Father would publicly affirm His love for His Son (“you are my Son, the Beloved”), just before Jesus would go out into the desert to be tempted by the devil.

I think we also need an affirmation on God’s love for us, at the culmination of this Christmas season, before we go back into the world of ordinary time and our everyday lives, where we also are tempted by the devil and must do battle against evil. God’s love for us and the anointing of the Spirit gives us great strength and consolation in facing all the difficulties of life.

When Jesus was baptized, He was revealed as the Beloved Son whom He has been for all eternity. When you and I were baptized, we actually became adopted sons and daughters of God. Of course we were already God’s children because He is our Creator. But after the Fall, it’s as if the human race renounced God as our Father and refused to be His children. But God adopts us once again through the coming of His Son Jesus Christ.

In making us His children once again, God has given us countless gifts, some of which are enumerated in today’s second reading. St. Paul explains, in a reference to baptism, that God has “saved us . . . according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). This grace of baptism has redeemed us and purified us, making us zealous for good deeds (Titus 3:14). It has justified us and made us “heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:7). This grace of baptism also trains us to “renounce impiety and worldly passions, and . . . to live lives that are self-controlled, upright and godly” (Titus 3:11).

All these graces we have already received, objectively, by our baptism. We already possess them in the depths of our souls, like money in the bank. But if we can never withdraw any of that money, what good is it?

Imagine you go to the bank machine with your bank card, but you temporarily forget your pin number. You are standing there beside one of the machines and someone asks you, “are you in line?” “Yes – I mean no! I can’t remember my pin number!” You might stand there for a minute or two, trying to remember your number, so you can have access to all that money in your account. But you wouldn’t stand there all day, would you? But that’s sometimes how Christians live – we stand around spiritually idle all day. We might be very busy with work and material things, but spiritually, we are doing nothing, because we do not have access to the bank account of graces we received at baptism.

After a minute or two of standing there, you might go and speak to a bank teller, explain your situation, and simply choose another pin number. And the number you need to remember, if you want to have access to the bank account of the graces of baptism is 7729. Does anyone want to guess what these numbers, 7729, represent? If you look on a phone, most numbers have three letters attached to them, right? The first letter on the number 7 is “P” and the second letter on 7 is “R” and the first letter on 2 is “A” and the last letter on 9 is . . . “Y” – that’s it “PRAY!” Yes, prayer is the key to gaining access to the treasury of graces we have received at baptism.

In baptism, we have already received the Holy Spirit, which St. Paul refers to as a “first installment” of heavenly glory. In 2 Cor 1:22, he writes
that God has “given the Spirit in our hearts as a first installment” (arrabon – deposit or downpayment) (2 Cor 1:22). So we have all received this deposit of the Holy Spirit in our souls, but if we never experience the Holy Spirit of God’s love, what good is it to have all this money in the bank if we can never use it?

Let us pray for this gift of the Spirit, this “sweet anointing from above.” The prophets foretold that the Messiah would be anointed with the “oil of gladness” (of joy, exultation)(Ps 45: 8). Jesus received this anointing of the Spirit at His baptism. Soon after, he announced in the synagogue at Nazareth that God had anointed him to pass on this spirit to others, and in the words of the prophet Isaiah, to heal the broken-hearted, to give people “the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a glorious diadem instead of a dull, listless spirit” (Is 61:3). Jesus our Messiah has come, and through the mystery of His Incarnation, Birth, Epiphany and Baptism, He wants to give us all the Holy Spirit of gladness, joy, exultation.

In a time of prayer, whether at Mass or personal prayer, God wants to descend upon us and anoint us with the Holy Spirit, so that we actually experience His presence and His love. This doesn’t happen every Sunday; it might happen only rarely, but if it never happens, it is probably because we are not asking, nor open to receiving it through prayer.

While I was at Madonna House for 2 days after Christmas, I was praying in the chapel and this phrase came into my head: “Let yourself be loved.” Hmm . . . I wonder what that means? Then I came home and opened the latest edition of Madonna House Restoration (copies in foyer or photocopies of article) and read this article: “Let yourself be loved” by Marie-Therese McLaughlin, who is a member of the Confraternity of Christian Mothers in Barry’s Bay. She felt it was Mary telling her these words, “Let yourself be loved.” So she resolved to spend 15 minutes each day before a little statue of Our Lady, not praying to her but just being with her and Jesus, listening to her and looking at her (Restoration January 2010). She testifies that this practice is changing her life.

Prayer is the only way we can gain access to the treasury of graces we have received in baptism. But pray cannot be limited to only vocal prayer in which we are doing at the talking and all the work. Prayer must include silence, contemplation; prayer must include letting ourselves be loved by God, by Jesus, by Mary our Mother.

Consider again the baptism of Jesus. When did Jesus receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the oil of gladness? What does St. Luke say? While Jesus “was praying” (Luke 3: ). And what kind of prayer was it? Was it a vocal prayer? Did Jesus start praying the “Our Father” out loud?
The content of his prayer is not mentioned, because I think it was a silent prayer of contemplation, a prayer in which Jesus was opening His human Heart to the Father’s love, so that Jesus would not only hear these words but also experience the love they contain: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22).

There are many ways we can spend this 15 minutes letting ourselves be loved by God. I think the best way is in Church, especially before the Blessed Sacrament exposed on the altar. We can also experience this at Mass, if we make an effort to pray before, during and after Mass. That’s why we have the parish booklet containing prayers in preparation for Mass and in thanksgiving afterwards. I would like to allow more time of silence before the closing prayer, to give time for people to recite these prayers privately.

We can also take 15 minutes at home, letting ourselves be loved by God, by lighting a candle before an icon or picture of Jesus or Mary, or before a crucifix, or by prayerfully reading the Bible – not to gain more information about God, but in this mode of receptivity, letting ourselves be loved. (By the way, as soon as we sell enough tickets for the raffle of the icon of Jesus –there it is on the wall, we will make available these reproductions of our parish icon of Our Lady of Tenderness).

Today is the last day of the Christmas season. It is not too late to receive a particular spiritual gift that God wants to give you over the Christmas season. For anyone interested, we will be opening the Church again from 4pm to 5pm for a Holy Hour of silent adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. The Knights of Columbus are hosting a spaghetti supper starting at 5pm. You can pray and eat at the same location – one stop shopping!

The doors of the Church will be open for you. The heart of Jesus is open to you. All you have to do is walk in, sit down, punch in the magic number – 7729, to pray and have access to the treasury of the graces of baptism. To be still and let yourself be loved, listening for that voice that longs to speak to your heart: “you are my beloved son. You are my beloved daughter.”

January 3, 2010

Epiphany – 2010

Posted in Homilies at 9:00 am

January 3rd, 2010 – By Father Tim McCauley

Have you ever heard the story of the Fourth Wise Man? It is an imaginative tale written by Henry Van Dyke about a fictional fourth wise man who spent his life searching for the Messiah but never met Him, and he gave away all his wealth to the poor in the process. While he was dying, Jesus appeared to him and told him that he had met the Messiah in the least of His brothers and sisters. A nice story isn’t it? I also like St. Matthew’s story of the three wise men, a story Matthew told to symbolize the fact that all nations would come to adore Jesus the Messiah. I also like the story that St. Luke told about the Virgin Birth, to emphasize Jesus is God. Don’t you also like all these stories?

I hope everyone is very clear in their own minds about the difference between a story which is fiction, and historical facts. The Fourth Wise Man is a story written by a mere man. The visit of the three wise men to the child Jesus is an historical fact, as reported by St. Matthew who was inspired by the Holy Spirit. If we think it is only a nice story, and not the Word of God, we will never take the time or effort to meditate on this historical event and learn something from it that we can apply to our lives.

It is a fact that three wise men came from the East to honour the new born king of the Jews. But they were not even Jewish, so why would they care, and how could they possibly know about this? Well, Jewish people were scattered throughout the ancient world; it is very possible that the wise men knew Jewish people and respected their worship of the one true God. The wise men would have known of the prophecy of Balaam, a non-Jewish prophet who foretold that a “star would rise out of Jacob” that a great future king would be born to the Jews (Numbers 24:17).

And remember that our sovereign God can reveal Himself to whomever He wants and whenever He wants. He can reveal Himself to Mary through an angel, to Joseph through an angel in his dreams, to the prophets Simeon and Anna through the Holy Spirit. It is very plausible that these three wise men were seeking the truth and the one true God, through their studies of nature, science, astronomy, and through the voice of their own conscience. God, in his goodness, responded to their efforts at reaching out to Him by sending them a special revelation of the birth of the Messiah-King of the Jews.

And as for the plausibility of a new star appearing and guiding them to Bethlehem, obviously it was not a regular star. Remember how God lead the Israelites through the desert to the Promised Land? He did so through a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, and also through the ministry of an angel (Ex 32:34). So it is possible that the star was an angel. In any case, God did use miraculous means to lead them to Bethlehem.

Again, since Matthew’s “story” is an historical fact, we are going to take it very seriously and meditate on it further by asking ourselves a few questions. Why did God want the wise men to present their gifts to Jesus as a child? Would it not have made more sense if the wise men appeared around the same time that the crowds were acclaiming Jesus as King? Remember on Palm Sunday, when Jesus entered Jerusalem, the crowds cried out, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord” (Lk 19:38). Imagine if the wise men, the three kings, appeared in Jerusalem at that moment! Wouldn’t that be more logical? So why did God arrange things differently, and what can we learn from it?

I think God wants to teach us something through this dramatic scene we observe before us in the creche in front of the altar. Here are grown men bowing before a child. God called these wise men from the East, some say a 30-day journey by camels, traveling 12 hours a day, to come and bow down before a child. Certainly this teaches us that Jesus was God even as a child; Jesus is God and man from the moment of His conception in the womb of Mary. So it is perfectly fitting that grown men would bow before a child who is God.

But there is a deeper lesson for us today: not only for us to bow before the child Jesus and offer Him our gifts, but also for each one of us to become like the child Jesus. Look at the child in the creche and imagine Him saying to you, as Jesus did in His preaching years later: “unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of God” (Mt 18:3). The child Jesus lying helpless, the child Jesus totally dependent on Mary and Joseph, the child Jesus allowing Himself to be carried by others, the child Jesus opening His arms and Heart to us, letting Himself be loved as a child, crying out for love as a child – in all these things the child Jesus is preaching to us His Gospel, calling us to become like children, like Him.

Catherine Doherty of Madonna House had a saying – one of her favourites – “Lord, give me the heart of a child, and the awesome courage to live it out.” To have the heart of a child is the most wonderful gift! We should all pray for it! In fact, as Jesus Himself tells us, without the heart of a child, we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven! The heart of a child is open to love and open to being surprised by love. If you have the heart of a child, something wonderful happens: God will always send you someone to love you. Try it out and you will see.

If you have the heart of a child, then you can let love flow between you and God and others, as the love flows without barriers between the hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity in heaven. And we are so blessed to be admitted into this circle of love that is a foretaste of heaven! And God wants every family and every parish to enter this circle of love!

But for some people, to ask God for the heart of a child can be the most terrifying thing in the world. Why? Because you cannot protect yourself from pain. If you choose to have the heart of a child, you give up power and control, and other people will be able to hurt you by sometimes refusing to love you, by failing to respond to your love, or love you in the way you were hoping to be loved, and so on.

“Lord, give me the heart of a child and the awesome courage to live it out.” The priest must also make this prayer. The heart of a priest rejoices in the love and support of many good people. But at other times, the heart of a priest meets with criticism, condemnation, hostility. When this happens outside the Church, in a secular world animated at times by an anti-Christian spirit, it is not surprising. But to encounter this hostility from Catholics, even from people within the Church, can be agonizing. So we priests must also pray, “Lord, give me the heart of a child and the awesome courage to live it out,” to have a heart like that of Jesus, that may be pierced with a lance and crowned with thorns, but it is a heart that keeps loving and forgiving.

We are all invited into this circle of love, the love flowing between the hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and the three Persons of the Holy Trinity. Think of all those admitted into this circle of love: the shepherds, the wise men; think of Simeon, who later in the Temple was permitted by Mary to hold Jesus in His arms and experience the warmth of that love radiating from the Sacred Heart of the infant Jesus. There’s a story of Mary allowing one of the wise men to hold Jesus, Caspar, (whose name means “He is won by love”) and how he shed abundant tears, his face beaming with joy (Catherine Anne Emmerich, p. 249, 270).

And you can also hold the child Jesus. Don’t be shy. After Mass, you can come forward and gentle take the child Jesus from the crib and hold him in your arms, as Simeon once did, and ask Him to give you the heart of a child. And no one should be afraid of an excessive display of devotion. Since we are human beings with senses, it is not only OK, but good and necessary, to have a creche and a crucifix, and to use signs and symbols to strengthen our faith.

And you can also take the child Jesus home with you – not the statue, of course, but the real thing, Jesus Himself in Holy Communion. But remember we are taking Jesus with us out into a world that can be cold, dark and even dangerous, a world in which Herod is searching for the child to destroy him (Mt 2:13). That’s the very next verse in the Gospel we read today. After the wise men left, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt . . . Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.”

Just as an Inuit woman will keep her child in an amauti, close to her body, to protect the child and keep him or her warm and safe from frostbite, wind and cold, we must protect the child Jesus in our culture of death, in two ways: 1) we must continue to do everything in our power, through our prayers, sacrifices, public witness and discussion, support for pregnant women and new mothers, and so on, to protect the child Jesus by protecting every single child in our country from the moment of conception.

This is one of the gifts of Christmas that we must always remember: when Jesus was this big, a little zygote, He was God. When you and I were this big, a little zygote, we were children of God, created in the image of God, loved by God. We must proclaim these beautiful truths to the whole world – the great dignity of every single human being from the moment of conception. And we must, like Joseph and Mary, do our part to protect the child Jesus from Herod, to protect every single child from a culture of death that seeks to destroy them.

2) we also protect the child Jesus by protecting the graces we have received from the child Jesus this Christmas, perhaps the grace to have a more child-like heart. We can’t let all the sins and evils of the world destroy the child-like heart that God wants to give us.