"ELIJAH HAS ALREADY COME."

Homily for 2nd Saturday in Advent: Matthew 17:9a,10-13.

          When the President comes to town, he rides in a bullet proof limousine (a sign of the violent and dangerous age in which we live). Preceding him are numerous policemen on motorcycles, and others in police cars. This almost military procession is more than is actually needed to protect the Chief Executive. It is done to prepare people for the one who is coming.

          Jesus’ people, the Jews, also expected that when the Lord’s anointed, the Messiah, came he too would be preceded by an entourage, including a prophet who would prepare the way for the Lord’s servant. The Old Testament speaks of this in a number of places, especially in the prophet Malachi, who writes: “Lo, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and terrible day, to turn the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with doom” (3:23f).

          In the gospel reading we have just heard Matthew tells us that Jesus’ disciples recalled this tradition about Elijah coming. Where is he, they want to know? He has already come, Jesus replies. But people did not recognize him. Instead they killed him. Then Matthew writes, “the disciples understood the [Jesus] was speaking to them of John the Baptist."

          Last Sunday’s gospel reading told us that John’s message was twofold. He preached repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And he proclaimed that the one who was coming after him would be greater than himself, baptizing not with water but with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:1-8). That is exactly what the gospels record. Though Jesus accepted baptism himself, there is no record of his ever baptizing anyone else. Instead, immediately after his resurrection, Jesus “breathed on [the disciples] and said: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive men’s sins they are forgiven them; if you hold them bound, they are held bound’” (John 20:22f. )

          Was that just in ancient times? Not at all. That is still happening today. Jesus is still breathing on us and giving us the Holy Spirit. And in the sacrament of penance or confession he is still forgiving our sins through the men, themselves sinners, whom he has empowered to do this in his name. I made my own confession just a week ago, knowing that it the best possible preparation for Christmas. If you have not yet done that, I hope you will. Then you will be ready for the coming of your Savior and Lord, who is also your elder brother, your lover, and your best friend.

"NOTHING WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE FOR GOD."

Homily for the 2^nd Friday in Advent. Luke 1:26-38

          Thirteen days before Christmas you come to Mass, and what do you hear? The story of the angel Gabriel’s visit to Mary, telling her that she is to be the mother of God’s Son. What’s going on?

What’s going on is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. On December 9^th, 1531 a Mexican peasant, Juan Diego, encountered a girl at the hill of Tepeyac who told him to go to the archbishop of nearby Mexico City and ask him to build a shrine there in her honor. Recognizing that the girl was Mary, Juan Diego went to the archbishop and placed Mary’s request before him. Go back to Tepeyac, the archbishop told Juan Diego, and if the girl appears again, tell her I must have a miraculous sign to verify her request.

Three days later the girl reappeared and told Juan Diego to gather some roses, put them in his cloak, and take them to the archbishop. Although it was cold and long past the time of roses, Juan Diego found plenty of roses atop the normally barren hill. He filled his cloak with them and returned to the archbishop. When he opened his cloak, the flowers fell to the floor, revealing on the inside of the cloak an image of Mary. The image survives today, enshrined in the great church of Guadalupe, at the edge of Mexico City. It is the most visited Marian shrine in the whole world. Despite extensive examinations of the image, there is no scientific explanation of how it was produced or how it has survived intact for almost five centuries..

Nor has there ever been any explanation of how Mary, while still a virgin, conceived the baby boy whose birth we shall celebrate in just 13 days. When Mary herself asked the angel Gabriel who brought her this astounding news how such a thing was possible, she received simply the words: “Nothing will be impossible with God.” Some thirty-three years later (according to the traditional dating), her Son experienced something no less impossible than his virginal conception. On the third day after his public death by crucifixion, his tomb was found empty, and he started to appear to those who had loved him before. Jesus is not a dead hero from the past. He is our risen and glorified Lord, alive forevermore, holding in his hand the keys of death. He waits for each one of us at the end of life’s road, to lead us to the place he has gone ahead to prepare for us.      

'REJOICE ALWAYS."

Homily for the Third Sunday in Advent.

Advent 3. Is. 61:1-2a,10-11; Thes.5:16-24; John 1:6-8,19-28.

AIM: To help the hearers experience Christian joy.

 

          One of the abiding beauties of childhood is the ability of little children to rejoice at the coming of Christmas. Many people here know a young child who is already in a fever of excitement, which increases each time a package is brought into the house to be put away until the Great Day. Through children we relive some of the joy we once felt at their age at the coming of Christmas. 

          Joy is the theme of the liturgy on this third Advent Sunday. The first reading and the gospel both contain the joyful proclamation that the long-promised servant of the Lord is at hand, the Messiah. And the second reading tells us to “Rejoice always.”

          Is that realistic? Can we rejoice always? Certainly not in the sense of making life one long happy-happy celebration. Every life contains sadness and hurt. Somewhere in this church right now someone is asking: “What reason do I have for joy?” If that is your question, then let me speak very personally to you. No matter what hurt you bring here — loneliness, perhaps, disappointment, bereavement, or the pain of some bitter injustice — you have, along with the pain and hurt, every reason for joy. Let me tell you about three. Each is closely connected with Jesus Christ.  We can rejoice because:

—      Jesus is behind us;

—      Jesus is with us; and —

—      Jesus is ahead of us.

Jesus is behind us

          At the first Christmas Jesus entered into our human life. He shared everything life brings us, sin excepted. Jesus experienced life’s joys: think of the wedding feast at Cana, where the quantity of water he turned into wine would have kept the party going for a week! But Jesus also tasted bitter grief. The shortest verse in the Bible says that at the grave of his dear friend Lazarus “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). On the cross Jesus experienced the most bitter injustice, and excruciating pain. The babe in the feeding trough at Bethlehem, and the man on the cross at Calvary, both proclaim: God cares. God loves you. Life is not meaningless, provided it is lived for Him, and in the strength that He alone can give. Sensing this in advance, Mary uttered the beautiful words we repeated in today’s Responsorial Psalm: “My soul rejoices in my God.” Despite suffering, injustice, and pain, we rejoice because Jesus shared it all. Jesus is behind us. We have, however, a further reason to rejoice: the knowledge that —

Jesus is with us.

          He is never distant, even when we stray far from him. To be with Jesus, all that is necessary is a simple upward movement of the heart. “Pray without ceasing,” our second reading told us. Is that any more realistic than the command to rejoice always? If we think that praying means reciting long prayers, it is not reasonable. Once we realize, however, that short prayers are best, then praying always is realistic. How often, as we go through the day, do we have reason to say: “Jesus, help me.” Whenever I realize, as I do often, how blessed I am to be a priest, and how much more the Lord gives me every day than I could ever deserve, I say over and over: “Lord, you’re so good to me, and I’m so grateful.” 

          “My Lord and my God” is a perfect prayer. So are the holy names, spoken as we cross the street, drive through traffic, or stand in the checkout lane: “Jesus, Mary, Joseph.” Or simply the name of Jesus alone, repeated with every breath, with every heartbeat: “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.” That is a perfect prayer, which goes straight to our heavenly Father, reminding us at every moment that he is with us.

          Jesus is with us in his holy word: proclaimed here in the assembly of God’s people, or read over quietly by ourselves. More than one person here has experienced, through hearing or reading Holy Scripture, what those two friends of Jesus experienced on that first Easter evening on the road to Emmaus: “Did not our hearts burn within us as he ... explained the scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32).

          Jesus is with us in the sacraments, especially in the sacrament we are celebrating right now: the Holy Eucharist. Jesus is with us also (though we often forget this) whenever we encounter someone in any kind of need. One day we shall hear him saying to us: “Inasmuch as you did it — or failed to do it — to one of these least sisters or brothers of mine, you did it — or failed to do it — to me” (Matthew 25: 40 & 45).

          So we rejoice because Jesus has entered into our human life, experiencing the same joys and sorrows we experience. We rejoice also because Jesus is always with us. And our final reason for joy in the knowledge that — 

Jesus is ahead of us.

          The one future event that is absolutely certain is death. If death were simply the snuffing out of a candle, we should have little reason for joy. But death is infinitely more. Death is the great transformation, the passage from this life, limited in a hundred ways and shadowed by suffering, to life eternal: where there will be no limitations, no suffering; where God will wipe away all tears from our eyes. The certainty of death, and the parting from loved ones which death entails, sadden us. We can rejoice, however, in the knowledge that when we come to walk that last stretch of life’s way, we shall not be alone. Jesus will be with us. He is waiting for us at the end of life’s road, to welcome us with joy to the eternal dwelling place that he has gone ahead to prepare for each one of us (cf. John 14:2).

          What reason have we, then, for joy? Every reason! We rejoice to know that Jesus is behind us: he has entered into human life and shared it to the full. We rejoice because Jesus is always with us: never distant, even when we stray far from him. And we rejoice because Jesus is ahead of us: every day, every hour, every tick of the clock brings us closer to the great encounter with Him who loves us beyond our imagining.

          And so now I, his unworthy but joyful servant, invite you, once again, to join in the great feast in which we celebrate this joy; where we encounter, as intimately as we can in this life the One whom I now proclaim to you with great joy:

          “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, yes and forever” (Heb. 13:8).

"FEAR NOT, I WILL HELP YOU."

Homily for 2^nd Thursday in Advent: Isaiah 41:13-40.

          “I am the Lord your God, who grasp your right hand; It is I who say to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.’” Bible scholars tell us that the book of the prophet Isaiah, from which these words in our first reading are taken, is actually three different books, put together by an editor. The first 39 chapters of the book are a warning to God’s people. ‘God is not mocked,’ the prophet tells them. ‘If you do not repent of your personal and national sins, your holy city of Jerusalem, of which you are so proud and which is so dear to you, will be taken from you. The Temple will be destroyed. And you will be carried off into exile.’

          At the beginning of chapter 40, however, the tone of the book changes radically: from warning to consolation and encouragement. The warnings in the first 39 chapters have become reality. The Temple lies in ruins, and the people have been carried off into exile in Babylon. What they need now is assurance that the God who has permitted them to suffer for their sins is still with them. “Fear not, I will help you,” God tells them through his prophet. “Fear not, O worm Jacob, O maggot, Israel: I will help you, says the Lord.” What kind of language is that? It is the way a mother – or it could be a father also – speaks to the infant whom she holds in her arms. The words “worm” and “maggot” are not expressions of contempt. They are terms of endearment.

Then, in a passage of great literary beauty, the prophet compares those he is addressing to people dying of thirst. “The afflicted and the needy seek water in vain, their tongues are parched with thirst.” Then comes this response: “I, the Lord will answer them, I will not forsake them. I will open up rivers on the bare heights ,,, I will turn the desert into a marsh, and the dry ground into springs of water.” God promises his people that he will do even the impossible to support and help them. Farther than that love cannot go.  

We sometimes hear that the Old Testament is about God’s law, and the New Testament about his love. Not true! The Old Testament shows numerous examples of God’s love. And in the New Testament Jesus says: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have come, not to abolish them, but to fulfill them” (Matt 5:17). God never changes. He gave the Law to Moses: ten signposts pointing human flourishing and happiness. But he is also the God love: infinitely tender, infinitely compassionate.

"TAKE MY YOKE UPON YOU."

Homily for 2^nd Wednesday in Advent: Matthew 11:28-30.

          I spoke to you twelve days ago about Jesus’ words, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” Jesus’ words in today’s  gospel reading were among the examples I quoted. “Take my yoke upon you,” Jesus says. In Jesus’ day yokes were in daily use. Carved out of wood to fit over the shoulders, they had arms extending out about a foot or more with a ring on each end supporting a rope from which the person using the yoke could hang a bucket or other container. This made it possible to transport with relative ease loads which could not be carried by hand.

          It was crucial that yoke fit the shoulders of the person using it. Otherwise the yoke would chafe and the person attempting to use it would soon throw it off. “My yoke is easy,” Jesus says, “and my burden light.” There is an unspoken IF there. The yoke and burden Jesus offers us are easy and light only if we accept them. If we chafe against the yoke and try to throw it off, then it is not easy; and the burden which it supports is heavy and definitely not light.

          To help us accept the yoke Jesus says: “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.” Meekness and humility do not come to us easily or without prolonged effort and many failures. We must be lifelong learners. Our teacher is the best there is. He understands our difficulties. He is not interested in how often we stumble and fall. He is interested in one thing only: how often, with his help, we get up again, and continue the journey.

          Our teacher’s name is Jesus Christ. 

"WILL HE NOT LEAVE THE NINETY-NINE?

Homily for 2^nd Tuesday in Advent: Matthew 18:12-14.

          Jesus introduces this little story about the stray sheep with a question: “What is your opinion? If a man has a hundred sheep and on of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and to in search of the stray?” The way the question is framed, with the word “not”, suggests an affirmative answer –‘Why sure, of course that’s what the man would do.’

Suppose, however, that Jesus had framed his question differently, leaving out the “not”. Then he would have asked: “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of he stray? The obvious answer to that question is: “No way would he do that. That would risk turning a small misfortune – the lost of a single sheep – into a major disaster: dispersal of the whole flock.

          Jesus tells the story to illustrate how God treats us. Unlike the shepherd, God’s love for us is not measured, calculating, or (by our human standards) prudent. God is willing to go to any lengths to prevent the loss of a single one of his children.

          In the second part of the story Jesus tells us that when the shepherd has recovered the one stray sheep, “he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray.” That certainly seems unreasonable – until we ask: Who are these ninety-nine who have never strayed? We all stray at times – even the saints. None of the saints was perfect – except for the Lord’s Mother, Mary. The saints are people whose efforts at perfection were heroic.

          Jesus told this story to assure us that God’s love or us is without limits, and without end. That is the gospel. That is the good news.

“HAIL, MARY, FULL OF GRACE ... ”

Immaculate Conception of the BVM.  Genesis 3:9-15, 20; Ephesians, 1:3-6,

          11-12; Luke 1:26-38.

          Have you ever felt so ashamed of yourself that you wanted to run away and hide? Today’s first reading is about a man who felt that way. After disobeying God’s command, Adam hides, hoping to avoid a confrontation with the loving Creator and Father against whom he has rebelled. 

          When God pursues him and asks, “Where are you?” the man replies: “I was afraid ... so I hid myself.” He thought he would find happiness by ‘doing his own thing.’ Instead he finds only disappointment, frustration, and shame. Is there anyone here who has never had a similar experience? This simple story is no primitive folk tale. It is the story of Everyman – true to our common experience of life. If the story has a moral, it is this. We find happiness, joy, and peace only when we stop trying to run away and hide from God, and begin entrusting ourselves to him in faith. 

          The Church gives us, in Holy Scripture, a beautiful human example of this trusting faith: Mary, the mother of the Lord. The Catechism says: “By her complete adherence to the Father’s will, to his Son’s redemptive work, and to every prompting of the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary is the Church’s model of faith and charity.” (No. 967)

          Mary did not insist on what she wanted, on doing her own thing. She was content to do God’s thing, even though all she could understand about it at the time was that it meant the humiliation of being an unmarried mother in a tiny village where gossip was rife and everyone knew everyone else’s business. 

          On today’s feast of the Immaculate Conception, we praise God for preparing Mary from the moment of her conception in her mother’s womb (which took place through normal human procreation) from that fundamental defect of human nature which the theologians call “original sin.” This defect means that we come into the world imperfect, not as God originally intended us to be. From this defect we are healed by baptism, when God reaches out and claims us for his own. In baptism we are reborn spiritually, becoming God’s children by adoption; and by his free gift, we are graced with the perfect human nature of our savior and redeemer, Jesus Christ. 

          The Immaculate Conception means that Mary had no need for baptism. As the Catechism says, quoting the words of our second reading: “The Father blessed Mary more than any other created person ‘in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places’ and chose her ‘in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him in love.’” (No. 492)  

          Today we praise God for bestowing this unique privilege on Mary in order to prepare her beforehand to be the mother of his Son. That gift did not take away Mary’s freedom, however. For her, as for each of us, her acceptance by God – her salvation – was a free gift that required her cooperation with God, the giver of this gift. 

          As we honor Mary for her words of free assent, “May it be done to me according to your word,” we invoke her prayers that we may make our assent to God; that we too may say our “Yes” to God, as she did.