Advent spirituality can see in the dark and can find hope in dark places.

In the Gospel for this First Sunday of Advent, we are given the directive:  “Be watchful!  Be alert!  You do not know when the time will come.”

Even though we do not know the day or the hour, the clear message for us is to be watchful and alert.  The Lord comes to us in ways we may least expect.  The truth is all of our life is salvation history.  All time is sacred.  The Lord comes to us in the experiences and the relationships of life.

To be fully alert would be to recognize the hand of God in all that is during the Advent season.

In our spiritual journey, I caution all of us against the temptation of thinking there are two approaches to Christmas.  There are the Christmas parties, the Christmas shopping, Christmas cards, gift wrapping, and, of course, Santa Claus on the one hand; and there is our Advent prayer which prepares our hearts for the coming of Christ in Bethlehem and in the inn of our own hearts on the other hand.  We juggle between these two worlds and ending up feeling guilty because our prayer life gets short-changed.

Absolve yourself from this way of thinking!  We do not live in these two worlds.  We live in one world and the Lord is in our world continuously.  The Advent spirituality the Lord calls us is different from a dualistic approach to Christmas.  The whole Advent season is part of our salvation history, part of our sacred time.

The question is not whether our Christmas shopping gets in the way of our Advent prayer.  Rather, the message is discover the hand of God, the presence of God in the Christmas shopping we do and the Christmas parties we enjoy.  In other words, love everything that is part of this Christmas season.  May all you do be done with great love and with the spiritual-sightedness to recognize and to be alert and watchful how God calls you to do all with great love in your heart in the service of one another and to the glory and praise of God.

Lest you think I’m not smelling the coffee at times, yes there can be a tension between the world’s idea of Christmas vs. our Christ-centered heart’s desire for peace, hope  and serenity in this Advent season.  But may our Advent spirituality not call us to a win-lose proposition in thinking the world’s idea of Christmas to be totally foreign to the true meaning of Christmas.  The truth is to have the serenity, the centeredness, the prayerfulness to recognize the joy of celebrations and the spirit of Santa Claus.  All become sacred; all becomes a win-win when we can see the hand of God in the expectancy of children and the socializing that comes in this season.

Again, all time is sacred.  God is always present to you.  As to our Advent prayer, our Advent prayer helps us to be aware and to alert so that we recognize God is present to us every moment of the day.  Prayerfulness helps to be aware of what is – how God is present to us in all the moments of the days.  We certainly don’t want to be in such a rush during this Advent–Christmas season that we are not watchful and alert to God in our lives.

For example, as I reflected on celebration of Thanksgiving, we had a beautiful and prayerful celebration of the Eucharist on Thanksgiving morning.  I love starting this day of Thanksgiving celebrating with you the sacred celebration of the Eucharist.  Then I spent eight hours Thanksgiving afternoon and evening at my brother John’s with our family.  There were 49 of us gathered, and I must say that I was the oldest of our 49 family members.  We had much to eat, drink, and celebrate; had a family football game; and spent time with each other.  It was a bit chaotic at times, no doubt.

But my point is the whole day was sacred – not just the hour spent in Church celebrating the Eucharist.  Our family gathering was very sacred and spiritual as well – not that we were engaged in formal prayer (we did do grace before our Thanksgiving), but I was experienced the wonder of God’s love for me in holding my grandniece in my arms, in talking with siblings, nieces and nephews, and grandnieces and grandnephews.

So it is in this Advent season.  Be alert to how God is present to you in all of your Advent comings and goings – both those that are formally spiritual and in all other movements.  Do them all with great love and a keen awareness that all time is sacred.

I call your attention to the great Advent image that is in the first Scripture reading from the prophet Isaiah:  “Yet, O Lord, you are our father; we are the clay and you the potter:  we are all the work of your hand.”  Let us rejoice in an Advent spent on the potter’s wheel, being shaped by loving hands into a truer image of the Christ who comes!  That is such a beautiful image of the meaning of the Advent season.  May we know that our loving Father wishes to shape us in this Advent season into a truer image of Christ who comes! 

Advent spirituality can see in the dark and can find hope in dark places.  If we really believe that all time is sacred, we can even embrace our mistakes, our crosses, the dark places of life where we experience the brokenness of depression, the brokenness of relationships, the brokenness of the losses and setbacks in life.  Yes, God is present to us in the darknesses of life.

Advent spirituality can see in the dark because we believe in the God of all hopefulness, the God of all joy.  This God who accompanies us in the darkness is the same God who promises that the light of Christ is coming into our lives and into our world.

Indeed, there is both an introverted and extroverted side to our Advent spirituality.  May our Advent spirituality become that needed rhythm of quiet prayer and welcoming hospitality.    Every moment is this Advent season is a sacred time for us to be aware of how God is revealing His love to us.

When judgment day comes for us, we know ahead of time what the Lord is going to ask of us on our "final exam."

Many moons ago in the 1980’s, I was the rector of Becket Hall, our diocesan discernment house for candidates to the priesthood.  There was a potential candidate named John who was both spiritual and troubled.  Regrettably, all of his energy needed to focus on himself to keep him on track.  He had significant mental health issues that did not make him a good candidate for the priesthood.  In fact, to this day, he has considerable difficulty with any kind of job responsibilities.  Although for all the world, physically he looks like he should be a capable person in the work force, he is trapped within himself by some fears and anxieties.

I have prayed many times over the way John and I have kept in touch with each other over these many years.  Come judgment day for myself, the Lord is not going to be overly impressed by my homilies, the fact that I am the pastor of two parishes, or the credentials after my name,  the first question the Lord is going to ask me:  “How is my friend, John?”

I invite you to consider that the first question the Lord is going to ask you on judgment day.  Who is the person or persons who are the Lord’s friends that he is going to ask you about?

On this the last Sunday of the liturgical year, the Feast of Christ the King, Jesus lets us know very clearly what is going to be on the final exam for each one of us.  We will be graded on how well we have responded with compassion to those in need.

The Gospel describes the Last Judgment scene.  “The king will say to those on his right. ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father.  Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me food…The righteous will respond, ‘Lord when did we see you hungry and feed you…And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least brothers or sisters of mine, you did for me.’”

There is nothing mysterious or difficult to figure out about today’s Gospel.  Each of us will be judged upon our performance of the simple works of mercy, we hear in the Gospel.  For me, I need to spend less time behind my desk as the pastor and more time being with people in need.  To show me that God has a sense of humor, as I was preparing this homily at my desk this past Wednesday evening, I received a call to go to the emergency department at Strong Hospital to anoint and to provide pastoral care to a family that was grieving.   The person died but the family and I with much faith entrusted him to the fullness of God’s eternal life and the family shared beautifully and with much faith prayed for her husband, their dad, their grandfather.  God’s presence was experienced in this family gathering.

As we gather on Sunday to celebrate the beauty of our liturgy Sunday after Sunday, the Gospel reminds us of the liturgy of life without which all other liturgy in Church has no meaning.  Plain and simple, if we are not focused in the liturgy of life in our service of one another, all other liturgy, no matter how beautiful it is, is pointless.

Today we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King.  This is ironic because Jesus never acted like a king.  He embraced poverty, not wealth. He taught humility, not arrogance.  He emphasized service, not domination.  He chose a cross, not a palace.

Kinship, instead of kingship:  This is what Jesus is truly passionate about.  Kinship with “the least, the lost, and the last."

Jesus doesn’t even use big words like justice or democracy to explain what is going to be on our final exam.  He simply talks about food, clothes, water, shelter – the basics of life.

As we pray over today’s Gospel on the last judgment scene, there are obviously two groups of people – the righteous on the right hand side of the king and those on his left who will suffer eternal punishment.  It is obvious which group we would like to be with – those on the right who were responsive to people in need.  We see ourselves as helpers to the hungry, the thirsty, and the naked.

In our prayer, may we take a second look at this Gospel to see if are missing a most important message.  There are not just two groups of people in the Gospel account.  There are three.  There were the people who helped, and there were the people who refused to help, and there were the people who needed help.  That last group can be easily overlooked.  And yet, these are the people with whom Jesus chose to identify himself.

Jesus took his stand with the needy people of this world and said in effect:  “This is where I live.  These are my people.  I belong to them, and they belong to me.  Jesus not only cared about the needy and sought to help the needy. He completely identified himself with the needy.  There was His hunger.

That’s where you and I belong.  It isn’t as if the needy are people who need help, and we are the people who give help.  We all belong to the fellowship of the needy.

None of us are self-sufficient.  I need your help, and you need mine.  This is not an exclusive club.  Everybody is a member.  We need each other, whether we ever get honest enough to admit or not.

Who are the needy?  I am; you are; everyone is.  Today I may help you, but tomorrow I may need you to help me.  We are members of the same family, sharing our love, sharing our resources, sharing our needs.

Again going back to the Gospel, in His last words to us in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is telling us in advance that when we each stand before our God, we won’t be given a test that will be confusing or difficult.  It will instead involve only the most practical questions:  Did you feed the hungry?  Did you shelter the homeless?  Did you care for the sick?

And our answer will be….

Have we buried our God-given talents in the ground or have we used them to make a difference in the lives of others?

Today’s scripture readings prepare us for the end of the year and challenge us to understand our life in terms of its ultimate purpose.  On this the second last Sunday of the liturgical year, our prayer centers around the accountability the Lord will ultimately ask of each of us.  In terms of the Gospel parable of the various talents given to the three servants, we too have been generous recipients of blessings and talents from our loving God.  Have we buried our talents in the ground or have we used them to make a difference in the lives of others?

The second Scripture reading from St Paul tells us the Day of the Lord is coming like a thief in the night.  We know not the day or the hour.  But what really matters on the Day of the Lord is not weather is know the day or the hour but what we are doing with the graces and talents that have been given to us.

In today’s Gospel, the master went away for a while after entrusting his servants with various talents.

For us as well, Jesus appears to have gone away for a while after he ascended into heaven.  He does not leave us orphans.  We have been blessed with talents and blessings.  Our prayerful question is one of accountability.  What are we doing with the talents God has given us?

For me, I was baptized at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church when I was just three weeks old.  At age 14,  I entered St. Andrew's Seminary and began my 12 year path in the seminary that led to my ordination to the priesthood on June 1, 1968.  Bishop Fulton Sheen ordained me a priest.  

As important to me as the day of my ordination was, a far greater blessing for me was the day of my Baptism.  I received the life of Christ for the first time.  I was welcomed into the family of the Church.  I became God’s beloved son.  I was missioned to share the love of God that was given to me.

For many of you who have celebrated the Sacrament of Marriage and the blessings you enjoy as a husband or wife, and as a dad or a mom, yet it was on the day of your baptism that you received your most significant talent – the life of Christ Jesus that is within you.

The question for all of us is have we buried the love of God within us or is the mystery of God’s love that is within us the defining talent of who we are as a disciple of Jesus?

As we fast forward to the present moment in our lives, many years may have passed since the day of your baptism.  What kind of accountability will we give back to Jesus on the coming of the Day of the Lord for us?

Have we recognized and claimed and valued our God-given giftedness?  Do we live our lives knowing we are God’s beloved sons, God’s beloved daughters?  Is the source of our confidence and self-esteem flow from the reality that we have within ourselves the wellspring of eternal life?  God goes with us 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Yes, we all live busy lives.  We are consumed by so much stuff to do; we all have our own set of fears and anxieties; we have trouble balancing the priorities of our lives.  The challenge for all of us to place God first in our lives.  It’s too easy to bury our baptismal talent in the midst of a life that is filled with activity from one moment to the next.

This past week on Thursday I was at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore as one of our seminarians, Jorge Ramirez, was receiving the rite of candidacy for the clerical state – an important step on his way to priesthood.  It made for a bit of a hectic schedule but the challenge for me and all of us is to keep a center to our lives in the midst of life’s busyness -- that center is found in the mystery of God’s love that is within us.  May all of us keep our inner compass of leading God-centered lives

I must say that I am at the stage in the life cycle that I really have to work at it to stay in reasonably good physical shape.  It doesn't just happen naturally anymore.  So, I try to stay committed to regular exercise and watch my diet.

So too, in the spiritual life, we need to remain committed to using the talents and the blessings we have been given.  It just doesn't happen naturally.  The Gospel message speaks of accountability.

So, we ask ourselves have we buried in the ground any of our God-given talents – perhaps out of fear that something might go wrong.  So we do nothing.  This is the story of the servant in the Gospel who did nothing with the talent given to him?  In what ways have we not gone out of our comfort zone to reach out in the service of others?

Where have we doubled the investment that God has made in us in the blessings we have received?  We can rightly say that being here at Mass is our beautiful way of giving thanks to the Lord our God for the blessings of life?

But in all honesty, this one hour a week is only the beginning of what the Lord asks of us.  Love is the first requirement of ourselves as disciples of Jesus?  For example in our parish life, we have developed six leadership teams in the various areas of ministry.  We would most welcome you using your talents on one of these leadership teams.

In the Gospel parable, we are told that we cannot just sit back and wait.  We are called to give and to share the talents that have been given to us.  We are called to serve not only in the life of the Church, but in our community.  May we continue to develop outreach initiatives that serve our wider community.

The grace we ask for this weekend to for us to make an investment in our Church, an investment in the service of others, and, most of all, may we make an investment in God -- the God who has loved us into life.

Do you not know that you are the temple and the spirit of Christ Jesus dwells within you?

I was baptized at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church on Brooks Ave in Rochester in April of 1942.  Seven years later I made my First Communion at Our Lady of Good Counsel, and a few years after that I was confirmed at this Church.  Then on June 2, 1968, I celebrated my first Mass as a priest – of course, at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church.  This was my spiritual home as it was the spiritual home of my family and my parish family who supported me on my journey to the priesthood and, even more importantly, witnessed to me how to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus.

The church of Our Lady of Good Counsel was not memorable as an architectural masterpiece.  The building still stands but it is no longer a Catholic church.  This Church is very memorable to me not because of its brick and mortar but because it was the spiritual home of our family.

In 2010 we celebrated the 150^th anniversary of St. Joseph’s Church.  Our parish Church is our spiritual home and it has been for many, many families over the last 154 years.  We have a great history.  The most important thing we have done as a parish community over the last 154 years is that Sunday after Sunday after Sunday we have gathered to give thanks to the Lord our God in the mystery of the Eucharist.  We have celebrated the presence of Christ among us.  We have been fed and nourished at the table of the Lord with Jesus’ Body and Blood.  

We are proud of the bricks and mortar of our Church building, the beautiful stained glass windows, the baptismal font where we receive the life of Christ Jesus for the first time, and our altar which is at the center of our life in Christ.

However as beautiful as the architecture of our Church, it is only the building that houses the Church.  The Church is ourselves, the people of God, you and I  are the living temple of God’s presence among us.

Jesus did not live and die for this building, as beautiful as it is.  Jesus lived and died out of love for us who are made in his own image and likeness.  It is we, each and every one of us,  we who are messy, sinful, a bit off-centered at times, who are the beloved of God.

St Paul in the second scripture reading proclaims:  “You are God’s building… Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? The temple of God, which you are, is holy.

As I now look back at my first spiritual home at Our Lady of Good Counsel -- by the way, I am so grateful that the example and the intercession of Mary has always been a most important part of my spiritual journey, but as I look back at my first spiritual home, I now recognize more fully that the building is not what was most important.  In fact, the building is no longer part of my life.  But Good Counsel, that is the people who loved and supported me and who I loved were my spiritual home.

 

I see more clearly that 72 years later here at St Joseph’s Church in Penfield that my spiritual home has not changed.  Our spiritual home is all of us who are brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus and who pray together to God who is the Father of us all.

My spiritual home has been has been and will always be being a member of the community of the baptized, the disciples of the Lord Jesus who live in gratitude for the ways our life has been blessed and who seek to share the love we have been given by our merciful and loving God who is the Father of us all.

All of this is a long introduction to the feast we celebrate today – the dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome.  It is the cathedral of the bishop of Rome and mother church of Roman Catholicism.  I have had the opportunity several times to pray at this magnificent Basilica of St John Lateran.  My nephew Jason studied at the Lateran Seminary on the campus of this great basilica.  You could fit many, many St Joseph Churches into the nave of this expansive basilica.

But the point of this feast is not to be edified by the magnificence of the architecture, but rather to reflect on how it is through Rome that we Catholics connect with all other Catholics throughout the   world.  Pope Francis at St Peter’s Basilica and the more ancient St John Lateran are the source of our unity in Christ Jesus.  Yes, Rome’s failures are our failures, and Rome’s glories are our glories.  We are family connected in Jesus Christ to one another.  It is Pope Francis seated at the Basilica of St John  Lateran who is our center of unity.  As Roman Catholics, we are one people despite our many native languages, our diverse races and ethnicities, and the different and diverse ways our lives are gifted.  We are united as one family

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This feast of the dedication of the Lateran Basilica is a feast that celebrates unity and the diversity of the whole people of God – the young and old, men and women, the ordained and the lay, the rich and the poor, black and white, urban, suburban and rural, Latino and all other cultures, gay and heterosexual, into one people of God.  We are all family.  We celebrate both our diversity, our uniqueness; and we celebrate that we are family, a people of God united in Christ Jesus with God as the Father of us all.

None of us want to be orphans.  We long for home.  We long for family.  We wish to be loved and to love.  This longing for family is deep-seated within all of us.  This is a spiritual longing that all of us share.

The other day I was talking to someone who recalled very vividly being alone in the emergency room of the hospital at night with no one by his side and facing an uncertain medical diagnosis.  By all accounts, this was a frightening situation to be in.  And yet, it was a profound moment of grace for him.  He had a deep awareness that he was not alone.  Jesus was by his side.  He didn’t have to be afraid.  As I listened to his story, I knew it was the real deal.  He was a man who knew Jesus.  He knew the invitation and the words of Jesus speaking to him:  “Make your home in me as I make mine in you.”   He was spiritually at home with Christ Jesus in the midst of an hospital emergency room.

He lived the words of St Paul who said:  “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”

On this feast of the Lateran Basilica in Rome, we pray for two graces:  that we know deep in our hearts that the Spirit of God dwells within us, and that we as Catholics of St Joseph’s parish value our own personality, but we value that we are connected to, in fact, we are brothers and sisters, to all other Catholics throughout the world.  We are family – the family of God.  Thanks be to God.

What happens when we die? ... In dying we are born into eternal life.

On Thursday, October 9, I visited my sister, Mary Elizabeth, who is 13 months older than myself, she had just entered home hospice and has been dealing with MS for 45 years.  It was clear she was soon going home to the Lord in a few days.  I anointed her, sharing with her the Sacrament of the Sick.  I kissed her and told her I loved her.  My sister, in her frail body and beautiful eyes, expressed her love for me.

The following Thursday, October 16, I celebrated her funeral liturgy entrusting my sister to the fullness of God’s eternal life.  To preside and preach at my sister’s funeral liturgy, while very difficult, is what my sister wanted and I certainly counted it a privilege to pray my sister into the fullness of God’s life.

 I prayed with her husband Don of 52 years, her children, Donna, Mary Ellen, and Mark, and her seven grandchildren, my brother, and my sisters that we would experience the peace that only God can give as we mourned my sister Sue (that was her nickname) in her going home to God.

My sister’s death confirmed in me once again that faith in Jesus does not make death easy, but makes it meaningful if viewed with the eyes of faith.  For those who believe, death is not the end but a beginning of a whole new kind of life.  It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Today we celebrate the Feast of All Souls.   We have celebrated Halloween, All Saints’ Day, and now we celebrate All Souls Day.  On Halloween our question was:  Who am I going to be on Halloween.  Yesterday on All Saint’s Day, we ask:  “How am I going to be a saint?  How am I going to live as a disciple of Jesus?  Today on All Souls’ Day, we wonder, “What happens when we die? Where do they go?”

While we naturally have questions about what happens when we die,  today’s feast is about the hope we have in God’s promise of eternal life.  How does my Catholic faith sustain me in my time of loss?  And how does your Catholic you  in your time of loss?

We gather on this Feast of All Souls to remember our loved ones who have gone home to God.  Yes, we need to face the reality of death.  Death of a loves leaves an emptiness.  We experience a loss that deeply touches our hearts and our spirits.  We also stand as a people who believe in life, the life of Jesus Christ.  With a faith that comes from the life of Jesus that is within us, we are a witness to hope and to love that are gifts of the Risen Lord to us.

In today’s first Scripture reading from the Book of Wisdom, “The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.  They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing way was thought an affliction.  But they are in peace.  For if before men, indeed, they be punished, yet is their hope full of immortality; chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worth of himself.”

Yes, it is our faith that says the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and they are at peace.  And for us, the psalmist says:  “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want…Though I walk in the valley of darkness, I fear no evil, for you are with me.”

Yes, death can seem like the darkest of the dark valleys of life, but the word of the Lord is to fear no evil as the Lord is with us both in the green pastures as well as the dark valleys of life.

There is the wonderful story of a young boy who was watching a sculpturer working on a large block of marble.  The chips of marble were flying in whatever which direction.  The boy became bored after a while and went away.  A week later the boy returned and saw a magnificent lion that was formed out of the block of marble-- the work of the sculpturer.  The young boy then asked the artist:  How did you know the lion was inside the block of marble.

The genius of the sculpturer was that he could see the lion in his imagination and in the block of marble.  In a similar way, we, in faith, view the reality of death and see in it the possibility of new life.  Death is not a defeat.  With a spiritual sightedness, death is the birth into the fullness of eternal life.

As I looked at the frail body of my sister Sue, I knew this was not the end.  She was soon going to be home with God.  Indeed, this a greater miracle than the genius of the sculpturer who could fashion a beautiful lion out of a block of marble.

In the Gospel, Jesus said:  “Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me…  For this is the will of my Father,  that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him up on the last day.”

The God revealed by Jesus is not a vengeful God.  Rather, God the Father is a loving God.  He even sent His Son to live and die for us, showing us his infinite love. 

Jesus declares, far from rejection, resurrection and eternal life await anyone who comes to me.

As we gather to celebrate the Eucharist on this Feast of All Souls, we gather as a people who are reminded again and again that our future is full of hope. This is God’s promise to us.  We gather to rejoice in God’s infinite mercy and unconditional love.

 

In this Sacrament of the Eucharist, we gather to celebrate the paschal mystery – the mystery of the Lord’s dying and rising.  It is through the experience of the cross and death that Jesus enters into the fullness of His Risen Life.  So too for us who are the disciples of Jesus, the fullness of sharing in the Lord’s risen life is preceded by the experience of the cross and death.

It is in the Eucharist that we now experience the power of the crucified-risen Jesus.  He helps us realize that Christian death results in heavenly life.  Earthly sadness will be transformed into eternal joy.