God wanted to be born into a human family.

 

Holy Family   2023

On this First Sunday after Christmas, while we are still in the joyous climate of this celebration, we are pondering how God broke the silence of the centuries to reveal himself to us in the helpless infant of Bethlehem.  The power of God is revealed through a baby.  This is the Christmas mystery.

 As we continue the Christmas season in celebrating the Feast of the Holy Family, the Evangelist Luke tells the story of Jesus, Mary and Joseph – not as individuals, but as a family.  The dawning of our salvation is revealed to us in the context of family life.  This is such an important dimension of the Christmas mystery.  God wanted to be born in a human family.  He wanted to have a mother and father like us.  Wow!

 This family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph is the holy family.  As we ponder the Scriptures today, we reflect on our own family life as well.  The message is that our family is a holy family.  We need to claim who we are.  Jesus is within each one of us and may we claim the centrality of Jesus in our family life.

One of the most difficult things for some Catholics to admit is that no Christian biblical author seems to suggest that the contemplative life is the ideal way to live one’s faith.  This is not to say that the contemplative lifestyle is not inspiring, but we see in both OT and the NT that our faith revolves around how we relate to others.  Though our relationship with God is always a first priority, the first step in forming that relationship is to connect with the people around – especially those closest to us: our family.

Family is the story of how each one of us has originated.  It is in family life that we first learned how to pray and to live our faith.  It is in our family we discover our holiness.  Our faith is interwoven, for better or for worse, with our family life.

There is a special presence of God in the family.   In the love that is such a beautiful part of family, God is present.  In fact, God is present in all aspects of family life.

God isn’t very fussy!!!  This is such an important dimension of who God is.  God is not fussy.   God isn’t very fussy where He lives and moves and has His being.  God desires to be part of our wonderfully imperfect family.

As we know, family life is very varied:  divorced and separated parents, gay parents, widowed parents.  All are welcome.  While all are welcome, the church does clearly and unmistakably propose that the family of mother and father is the most beautiful expression of the sacrament of marriage.

No matter what stresses there are in family life – the sacrament of marriage promises the help of God and the faith community.

The church encourages family prayer, like visiting the crib.  The Gospel today is about the life of Jesus growing in humanity and wisdom in his family life.  He was brought to the temple.  Mary and Joseph taught him to pray.  May the prayer of Mary and Joseph help us in our family life.  Bless us, O Lord, with the joy of love, and strengthen all families in your loving care.

The Gospel tells the account of Mary and Joseph bringing Jesus to the Temple.  There they encountered the elderly Simeon and Anna.  What causes two elderly people to encounter two young parents – Mary and Joseph.  Jesus brings together the young and the old.

In families where there is not an elderly person, life can, at times, be easier.  But they also may be missing the wisdom of our elderly.  The eyes and the hearts of our elderly teach us faith and the real meaning of life.

Now our family life is blessed and treasured yes, yes, yes, but family life can be a source of challenge and lead us to question the meaning of our faith journey.  In the second Scripture from the Letter to the Hebrews, we encounter what I would term the “Isaac Dilemma.”  In their old age, Abraham and Sara gave birth to their son Isaac, their beloved Isaac.  God had promised his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky.  All this would come through their beloved son Isaac.  But then Abraham was given the ultimate faith challenge as he was asked to sacrifice his son Isaac.  Could there be a more unthinkable request from God than offering up your only son to God?

As we ponder the meaning of the Isaac dilemma in terms of our journey of faith, what in your family life has been your Isaac dilemma?  Could it be when your son or daughter has made life choices that don’t make sense to you?  Could it be death or significant illness in your family?  Could it be dealing significant depression or anxiety? What has caused sleeplessness for you in your family life?

 

In one way or another, we all face the Isaac dilemma in our family life.  In those situations, can we continue to trust that God goes with us?

At the end of the day, your family is not meant to be anyone else’s family life.  God’s plan for your family is to be exactly who you are.  Your particular family dynamic is not an accident; it is by God’s design you are who you are. 

God is present in your family life – with its joys, with its challenges, with its beauty and with its messiness.

Further, may we commit ourselves as a Church to reach out beyond our own family life.  May we be about finding solutions to homelessness and poverty in family life.  We need to be aware of the stresses of other people’s family life, to understand them and find funding for caring for them, especially children.

Today’s feast reminds us to seek God’s love anew through our loved ones in our own family.  It may be hard to spot at times.  The key to finding God in our family is for us to find God in our own lives.  God is within us, and God is with us in our family life.

Lord God, we ask for the spiritual sightedness to recognize your presence in each and every family relationship we are gifted with.

Have a blessed day.

 

What about Christ are we keeping in Christmas?

 

CHRISTMAS 2023

 “Keep Christ in Christmas.”   We see this manta on many posters around Christmas time.

My question for our prayer today is: “What about Christ are we keeping in Christmas?” 

Yes, we are celebrating the birth of Christ to Mary and Joseph in the Bethlehem crib.  As we celebrate Christmas in 2023, what is the meaning of the story of Mary and Joseph and the baby?

 It is about God becoming part of our daily struggle, transforming the world through us. Pope Francis says the church should be like a field hospital.  Each of us has our own  wounds, our own sins, our own disappointments, and we need to hear words of comfort from God.  We need comfort and healing.  Tonight, the Christmas message is that love has conquered fear; new hope has arrived.  God’s light has overcome the darkness.   Celebrating Keeping Christ in Christmas is about welcoming the birth of Christ in the inn of our hearts in 2023.

The real meaning of Christmas is that God is with us.  In the inn of our own hearts, there is an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

God comforts us in the Christmas mystery not simply that we may be comfortable but the real Christmas message is that God comforts us so that we can comfort others.

Keep Christ in Christmas.  It also means that we need to keep in Christmas the message that all are welcome at the Bethlehem crib.  What is the housing situation in the inn of your own heart?  Is there room in the inn of your heart for the family member for whom you have difficulty getting along with?  Is there room in the inn of your heart for people who think differently than you -- politically, religiously, or in any way whatsoever?  Is there room in the inn of our hearts for Jesus who lives in the hearts of the poor, the immigrants, and children of all cultures and of all ways of life?    How many people in our world today experience “no room in the inn” because of race, color, religion, gender, or sexuality?  The Son of God was born an as an outcast in order to tell us that every outcast is a child of God.  To say again, the Son of God was born as an outcast in order to tell us that every outcast is a child of God.

It means also we need to keep in Christmas the compassion and love and joy and the light of Christ that shines through all the dark places of life, transforming the world through us.  We are the people who walk in darkness – the darkness of sin, the darkness of war, the darkness of relationships that are broken, and the darkness of the threat of violence and terrorism.   The message of Christmas is that Jesus comes for people like ourselves in dark places.  The real, lasting, and deep joy of Christmas is that light shines in the darkness.

We recognize on this Holy Night that even after centuries of knowing Jesus Christ, our world still wanders in darkness. There is war in the Holy Land. Even after proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ, our hearts are not yet converted completely to Him and our world even less so.  We humans are a broken people and each of us is broken.

Yet, even in the humanity of each one of us, we are missioned to be the keepers of the mystery of Christmas – God is with us. We give birth to Christ when we allow the light that is within us to extend to our family, and our parish family, and to all of creation.  The Christmas mystery happens when we allow ourselves to be loved by God.

Keep Christ in Christmas.  It also means keeping in Christmas the humility and simplicity of his birth in the Bethlehem crib.  Do our exterior Christmas decorations obscure how we are to discover the presence of Christ in our lives in 2023?   The Bethlehem crib reveals the extreme humility of the Lord, at the hardships he suffered for love of us.  In the Bethlehem crib, simplicity shines forth, poverty is praised and humility is related.  As we ponder the Christmas mystery, are we able to get in touch with the simple, the ordinary, the humble moments of our day and to know in that simplicity we will best discover the Bethlehem crib in our lives?

Keep Christ in Christmas.  It also means the mystery of Christmas happens for us when we connect the story of our lives with the story of Christmas.  Each of us is an innkeeper who decides if there is room for Jesus.  The Christmas message is the story of God’s unconditional love for us.  As his disciples we are to fill this world with many other stories that mirror and give witness to God’s love for us.  That is the meaning and wonder of the Incarnation.  Keeping Christ in Christmas happens when we love to be loved – to be immersed in the merciful love of Jesus.

It also means that Christmas is to be found in the presence of Jesus among us and in our love for one another.  The story of Bethlehem points to a vision of hope, one that relies not on the exercise of military power but an on appeal to the common instincts of the human heart.  These common instincts of the human heart are very spiritual – a spirit of peace, a spirit of joy, a spirit of family, a spirit of love, the spirit of Christmas

We are missioned to be the keepers of the mystery of Christmas – God is with us. We give birth to Christ when we allow the light that is within us to extend to our family, and our parish family, and to all of creation.  The Christmas mystery happens when we allow ourselves to be loved by God.

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Yes, we need to keep Christ in Christmas in all the ways we communicate that all are welcome at the Bethlehem crib.  We are to love thy neighbor, no exception.  We are to keep in Christ in all the ways we welcome God to become part of our daily struggle and to transform these struggles by allowing the love of God into our lives.  We are to connect our story with the story of Christmas.  We are to keep Christ in Christmas through our faith-filled awareness that God is within us.  In the inn of our hearts, there is infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

Have a blessed Christmas day.

 

 

 

 

 

Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks.

 

Third Sunday of Advent  B  2023

 

This third Sunday of Advent is Gaudete Sunday -- Rejoice Sunday.  We light the pink candle of the Advent wreath.  We wear the pink vestments expressing that the joy of Christmas is beginning to invade the Advent season.

In ten words, St Paul expresses the theme of today’s liturgy:  Rejoice always.  Pray without ceasing.  In all circumstances give thanks.

My hope for myself and for you is that the joy of Gaudete Sunday is the joy that you experience everyday as a disciple of Jesus:  rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in all circumstances give thanks.  At every Mass, we begin the Eucharistic Prayer with the preface dialogue, we say:  Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

Today is Gaudete Sunday, Sunday of Joy. The Church asks us to be aware of the joy of the coming of Christ we will commemorate on Christmas.

The Gospel puts us in touch with our Advent guide:  John the Baptist.

 

Who are you?  The Jews from Jerusalem asked this question of John the Baptist.  As we pray over today’s Scriptures, this same question is asked of us:  Who are you?  After you give your usual contact information, the question is still asked of you before the Lord:  Who are you?

John the Baptist knew his identity.  He knew who he was and who he was not.  John said: “I am not the Christ…I am the voice of one crying in the desert, make straight the way of the Lord.”  John went on to say: “There is one among you whom you do not recognize.”

John’s mission was to help people recognize the presence of Christ who is in our midst. 

As disciples of the Lord, do we know who are and who we are not?

 

The gospel today challenges us to identify who we are.  As Pope Francis tells us, we are called to be missionaries of Jesus. We carry Jesus to others because we have been touched by him. We have been transformed in Christ. Christ’s love accompanies us in all we do. That is who we are. That is the cause for joy.

 

The question of faith for all of us:  Can we genuinely rejoice when we struggle with all the challenges that we are dealing with?  What if there is loneliness or anxiety in our hearts this Christmas season?   What if we have experienced a significant loss? What if the wars and the divisions that are so much a part of the world scene get the best of us?  We rejoice because God goes with us.  Are these just pious words or is this the truth of our life?

 

The mission given to us at our Baptism is the same mission that was given to John.   We are to witness to the presence of God in our midst.  In so doing, we rejoice.  We rejoice even in the midst of the violence that surrounds racial conflict and the threat of terrorism that we live with.   We rejoice because God is present among us.

 

 

 

 

But we get fooled because John the Baptist is in the desert eating locusts and wild honey.  He may not seem like a person with an infectious smile out there in the desert.  Yet, make no mistake about it, John the Baptist experienced the joy of knowing the Lord.  Joy is one of the characteristics of God’s spirit in the human heart.

So, we ask ourselves the question:  What helps us to recognize the presence of Christ that is in our midst?  Also, we need to humbly ask what blinds from recognizing the presence of Christ in our midst.  We might be so intent on something that we miss the gem right before us.

 John was filled with a faith-filled vision in recognizing Christ.  John lived his life deflecting attention away from himself so that the focus might be fully and directly on Jesus.  John had plenty of time to focus on Jesus because nothing else mattered to John.

May we in this Advent season exercise a John-like role directing attention away from ourselves and witnessing to the Christ who is in our midst.  May we find joy, Gaudete, in helping others recognize the presence of Christ.   It is my prayer that my preaching can help others know Jesus in their lives.  Yours is an even more important witness.  You are to preach without words.  How?  By a simple smile that communicates friendship, and in all the ways we wash the feet of God’s poor, we witness to the mystery of Christmas.  Our God is present to us in human flesh – in your human flesh and in mine.

May the Church of the Holy Spirit in this Advent season herald, give witness, give voice to the presence of Christ in our midst.  May our Advent attitude be: “Rejoice always.  Pray without ceasing.  In all circumstances give thanks. 

Today asks us the question, what is joy? The gospel is telling us that joy is to look at Christ and know he is there for us. It is to tell his story to others by how we speak and how we act. It is to take the focus off me and put it on the joy of living the gospel.

People all around us are poor today because they struggle economically, but also because they feel alone, unsupported, isolated and fearful.  We bring good news by our constant joy, a joy that comes from our encounter with Jesus and our mission to bring his joy to others.

. Be a person of joy today and have  a blessed day.

 

 

 

 

When we place God first in our lives, the joy of the Gospel motivates us to share what we have been given.

 Second Sunday of Advent  B  2023

Today we move along on our Advent journey.  John the Baptist calls us to move from the wilderness of sin and discouragement to a state of hopefulness and trusting expectation.

In this  Advent season, John the Baptist  calls us to repentance in our Advent journey.  Additionally, in the second Scripture reading, Peter also calls us to repentance.  Peter says: “God is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

I would like to reflect with you the on the meaning of repentance that the Lord calls us to in our Advent journey -- a kind of repentance that is given to us when we encounter the Lord.

In today’s Gospel, the evangelist quotes the prophet Isaiah:  “A voice of one crying out in the desert:  Prepare the way of the Lord.”  John the Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

We can ask ourselves in the frenzy and business of the Advent season:  Where is our desert?

Sometimes the desert is found within ourselves:  the habits, the addictions, the self-centeredness, the pride that keeps us from placing God first in our lives.

Sometimes the desert is to be found in those situations  when we encounter  those who are not like us, not of our race or ethnic group, the most needy, the sick, the stranger. We must clear out the thinking that we are superior to others, the judging others as being less because they are different from us, the quick ways we condemn others.  Advent tells us Jesus comes in all of these that we look down upon and more. We must prepare to see and receive him. Something must change to allow us to do this.

When we enter into the suffering of others, as much as we can, we see that things do not always have to be as they have been in the past. It is a call to help make a change. We can make a new world. That is how we prepare for the coming of Jesus.

 

For many the word repentance is a word that belongs to yesterday.  It is equated with sackcloth and ashes.  Some see repentance as something that we do only if we get caught.  But repentance is far more than blurting our “I’m sorry” if we get caught cheating on our taxes or are engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior.

When John the Baptist calls us to repentance, he is not talking about self-incriminating scruples but for a radical open-mindedness.  The Greek word is metanoia. It means going beyond our normal mindset.  It speaks of a change in our vision of life.  It is about placing God first in our lives.

Repentance means to “rethink.”  Repentance calls to rethink and to reform our lives.  To repent means to see things differently and, as a result, to live differently.

When we place God first in our lives, the joy of the Gospel motivates us to share what we have been given.  We then prepare our hearts for the coming of the Prince of Peace.  Repentance is not negative and down faced.  Rather, it looks up and looks forward.  It breaks the chains of sin and death that hold us down.  Don’t get stuck in the notion that repentance means feeling sorry and miserable.  It is simply this.  It means you have stopped doing what is wrong, and now you are going to do the right thing.

However, make no mistake about it, John the Baptist calls us to confront sin in our life.  One of the temptations of our times is to applaud the absence of guilt.  Some people are pleased that guilt has been dethroned.  In some quarters, the absence of guilt in today’s society makes it very difficult to talk about sin and the need for repentance. 

True repentance means a willingness to confront sin in our lives.   But we are not to be bogged down in our sinfulness.    While are of us are God’s beloved and made in the image and likeness of God, none of us are perfect.  All of us are sinners.  All of us have need for the Savior.  All of us are called to repentance in this beautiful Advent season of repentance.  But be assured that God’s judgment is that we are worth saving.  God’s judgment comes to us in in His grace and mercy.

“Prepare in the wilderness a way for the Lord,” says the Prophet Isaiah.  That prophecy has great meaning when we apply it to our own hearts.  It is in our hearts that we need to prepare a way for the Lord.  It is in our hearts that we need to make a straight highway for God.  It is the valleys of sin in our own hearts that are to be filled with God’s mercy and healing.

One of the beautiful ways to experience repentance is the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  In this Sacrament, we encounter the merciful and healing love of Jesus who fills the valleys of sin in our hearts with God’s mercy and healing.  When we realized how much we are loved and forgiven, we are motivated to metanoia.  Like Zacchaeus, we then want to share the love we have received.

Advent is that time for us. It is a time of hopeful expectation, of preparing to receive the Lord, to see and recognize Jesus whenever he comes and however he comes. Hope is confidence in the promises of God. Things will be better, but it challenges us to make that this a reality by who we are and what we do. Make yourself ready!

This Advent we salute the forerunner John the Baptist who prepared the way by challenging the people’s sins. He was not after the popular vote. He had eyes only for God. With eyes fixed on God, John announced that the Messiah  came not to condemn but that the world might be saved through Him.

 

Are we ready to share in the work and mission of John the Baptist?  In recognizing our need to repent, may we be led to announce the merciful love of Jesus to one and all?

Advent is a call to new beginnings. That is why it is a season of hope. Things do not always have to be the same. What new beginning do you need to make this year? Do it now!

 

Have a blessed day