In the inn of our own hearts, there is an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

 CHRISTMAS 2021

 “Keep Christ in Christmas.”    This is a theme we support, and we have fashioned many signs saying just that.

 

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

For us, it’s not just Happy Holidays.  It’s Merry Christmas.  This is beautiful but does it say enough?

Keep Christ in Christmas.  Yes, we are celebrating the birth of Christ to Mary and Joseph in the Bethlehem crib.  But even the fact of celebrating his birth, is that enough?  As we celebrate Christmas in 2021, Christmas is not simply about Mary and Joseph and the baby.  It is about God becoming part of our daily struggle, transforming the world through us. Tonight, love has conquered fear; new hope has arrived.  God’s light has over the darkness.   Celebrating Keeping Christ in Christmas in welcoming the birth of Christ in the inn of our hearts in 2021.

 

Keep Christ in Christmas.  We celebrate the joy and the love in our family life around the family Christmas tree and the joy of a family dinner.  It is by God’s design that our children are the beacons of God’s light and love.  When the Lord of history, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, broke the silence of the centuries and spoke in the darkness of that first Christmas night, he spoke through a vulnerable infant in a manger.

Why did God come to us as a baby? 

At the risk of being schizophrenic, the presence of Jesus is revealed fully both in the blessed chaos of our children at the 3:00m and the 5:00 Christmas Eve Masses as well as in the solemnity of the midnight liturgy.   God is present in the youthful enthusiasm of our children and in the more solemn reverence of our other liturgies.

 

 

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 2021?   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 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.

 

 

Keep Christ in Christmas.  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.  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.

 

Tonight is Christmas!  The birth of the Savior.  We can rejoice, even though we are broken because the Savior is born.  We can rejoice even if we do not always respond so well to our Savior because we recognize that the Savior has come to us and will make us free.  All we need do is rejoice in the Savior and trust in Him as much as we can.  God wants us free.  God sends the Savior to give us freedom.  This is a freedom from darkness so that we can live in the light.  This is a freedom from our sinfulness so that we can live in His grace.  This is a freedom that is won for us by Jesus Christ.

 

Keep Christ in Christmas.  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.

 

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.

 

 

Keep Christ in Christmas.  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.  Why did God come to as a tiny infant?

 

Yes, we need to keep Christ in Christmas in all the ways we communicate that all 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 and lying in a manger.

Have a blessed Christmas day.

What is your Visitation experience going to be this week?

Fourth Sunday of Advent  C  2021

During Advent we have been celebrating our emptiness.

This probably sounds a bit odd.  But think about it:  if we were completely filled up with the preoccupations of our life and if the inn or our heart was already filled with stuff, there would be no room left in the inn of our hearts for the birth of Jesus.

In the Advent season, we seek to be aware of a spaciousness emptiness in our heart that only God can fill. 

This time of the year, we can regret the increased hours of darkness in our day.  Our daylight hours are becoming less and less.  But maybe, just maybe, we can find some wisdom and grace in the darkness. We might hunker down more in the darkness, reflecting a bit more, and waiting for the light to return.  As symbolized by our Advent wreath, we thirst for the light of Christ.

In the first Scripture reading from the prophet Micah, God says as much about the insignificance, the darkness of the town of Bethlehem.  “You Bethlehem too small to be among the clans of Judah.”  You are empty of big ideas, power, royalty, and influence.  How could the Savior possibly come from the emptiness of this bit of a town?

Micah suggests that we look to the peripheries, to the margins of society to find God’s work in the world.  Micah is considered a minor prophet – not sure what that means but he is not as prominent as Isaiah or Jeremiah, the lead prophets of the OT.  Nonetheless, Micah, a man from the insignificant countryside, proclaimed that the Savior of the world, the Lord of the universe was to be born in the obscure town of Bethlehem.

It is the same way for us.  Our darkness and our emptiness are where Jesus is to be born this Christmas.  Such darkness includes whatever in us that is gloomy, angry, jealous, or just discouraged.  The friends who leave us behind and while we feel so alone:  that is where the child will be born.

 

 

 

 

We will discover God best in our lives when we focus on the simple, the ordinary moments of the day.  God will come again in the periphery of your life.  In the darkness and the emptiness of our lives may be where the Savior will be discovered in your life this Christmas day.

In the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel, we have the very significant moment in salvation history as the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary proclaiming that she was chosen to be the mother of the Savior of the world.  We have Mary’s beautiful response: “I am the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to thy Word.”  There is no over-stating this moment in salvation history in preparing for the birth of Jesus.

Are you curious what Mary did after becoming first aware that she was to be the Mother of the Savior of the world?  The Gospel then tells us what happened next for Mary.  Our Gospel reading recalls Mary's actions after the announcement of Jesus' birth by the angel Gabriel.  

Mary hastens to her cousin’s house, a long trip, over dirt and sand and rocks, under the hot, hot sun.  She does not need to be coddled and queenly in order to bring forth our Savior.  She does not spend a second worrying that the way is too hard.  Her soul somehow knows about the light of Christ that will shine from within her.  Everything else is in second place.

Maybe emptiness can speak humbly from within you and me too.  Our emptiness points to the hunger that is within us for the birth of the Savior.

Mary goes to visit Elizabeth, her cousin, who is also with child. This is such a gentle scene and reflects the very best of humanity. One cousin going to help an older cousin as she prepares to give birth. Mary goes to visit her cousin to share her love and hospitality and friendship with each other.  Simply put, they speak the language of love to each other.

 

 

 

 

Mary is witnessing to us the way to prepare the inn of our hearts for the birth of Jesus.  It is when we serve and share friendship with others that we encounter Jesus Christ.  It is when we give ourselves in love that we find that we are loved.  It is in the simple and ordinary that we discover the presence of Christ.

May our interior Christmas decorations mean that we have time to share our love and friendship with one other.  May you prepare for the coming of Christ into the inn of your heart by your own Visitation experience – that is by your sharing of the gift of your friendship and love with another as Mary did in visiting her cousin Elizabeth.

In following the example of Mary, my prayerful question for you is what is your Visitation experience going to be like this week?  Who are you going to take the time to visit and share friendship with?

With Mary as our Advent guide, sharing the gift of friendship and love is the best way to prepare for the Christmas feast of love that God has shared with us.  May our Christmas preparation be marked by not what get but the ways we give.  And the very best gift we can give in our friendship and love.

If we are thinking that we just haven’t got the time to share friendship with another this week, know that the mother of Jesus is tugging at us in this Gospel passage reminding us that nothing is more important than the ways we serve and love and share with one another

In Luke's Gospel the Holy Spirit helps reveal Jesus' identity as God to those who believe. Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit and sings Mary's praise because she bears the Lord. We sing these words of praise to Mary in the Hail Mary:  Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” Even John the Baptist, the unborn child in Elizabeth's womb, is said to recognize the presence of the Lord and leaps for joy.

 

 

 

 

Mary gives forth with the beautiful prayer of praise: “My Soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my Spirit rejoices in god my Savior.”

It is in the context of visitation and sharing our friendship that we best recognize the presence of the Savior in our midst.

May our Scripture reflection today invite us to develop a spacious emptiness in our hearts so there will be room for the birth of the Savior within us.   May we ask ourselves where is the Bethlehem crib in our lives -- that most unexpected place in our hearts where God chooses to dwell among us.  Finally may we like Mary have a Visitation experience this week in which we share our love and friendship with the Elizabeth of our life.

 

And may you be a blessing to others.

Every experience in life, if we can only realize it, is touched by God and has its meaning.

 

  

Third Sunday of Advent  C  2021

 

“Rejoice in the Lord always…The Lord is near.  Have no anxiety at all, but in everything by prayer and petitions, with thanksgiving make your requests known to God.  Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

 

These words were written by the apostle Paul in his Letter to the Philippians.  Where was Paul when these words of joy and hopefulness were written – in a prison cell!  Now mind you Paul is writing from his prison cell.  Paul was not rejoicing in the things of this world; rather Paul was rejoicing because God was with him in his prison cell as he wrote to the Philippian church.

 

These words of joy -- rejoice in the Lord always – may seem to ignore those in our congregation who are suffering greatly at this time because of a death, a diagnosis, a natural disaster or any one of the heinous crimes that are reported every day in the media.

 

And yet, Paul knew suffering.  As I say, he wrote these words from his prison cell.  His only crime was preaching the Good News of the love of Jesus for all people.

 

What the apostle Paul knew in his heart is that real joy comes from knowing that you are unconditionally loved by God.  God is in our midst -- even in a prison cell.   Joy comes from knowing that God is truly present and never abandons us through the trials and or triumphs of life.  God is always there.

The apostle Paul knew that joy was the basic mood of a Christian.  This is the theme of Gaudete Sunday.  There is a saying:  “A sad saint is a sad kind of saint.”  A sad Christian is a contradiction in terms.  That is not to say that there is not sadness in any Christian life – as in any normal person’s life – times of pain, of sickness, of failure, of great loss.  Grieving and letting go is an important part of

 

 

 

 

 

 

 life but these experiences do not ultimately define us as the disciples of Jesus.  Even in the midst of tears, the works of Jesus to us are:  “Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Have faith in God and have faith also in me.”

Every experience in life, if we can only realize it, is touched by God and has its meaning.  To repeat, every experience in life, if we can only realizer it, is touched by God and has its meaning.  Once that meaning is found and accepted, inner joy and peace can return.  The great truth of our life is we have everything we need here and now to be happy.  Amen.  The problem is that we identify our happiness with people or things we don’t have and often can’t have.  

In the first Scripture from the prophet Zephaniah, we are told that sin occurs when we search for happiness apart from God, when are too caught in the busyness, the commercialism, the fleeting pleasures of life.  The prophet reminds us that the Lord, your God, is in our midst.  The Lord wishes to rejoice with you and renew you in his love.

We confess the times we have searched for happiness apart from God.  Sometimes we search for happiness in our wealth, in our successes, in our desire to control people and manage what happens in life, in our pride, in our sexuality and so on and so on.

My question for you is how have you experienced happiness in this Advent season, in this holiday season with all its festivities? 

Without doubt there is joy with Christmas celebrations with friends and family and in the sending and receiving of Christmas cards.

Our exterior Christmas decorations are up, and they are beautiful.  What about our interior Christmas decorations?  May we allow the peace of Christ to enter once again into our lives, calming all of our anxieties, and filling us with all that is good.

 

 

 

For me, a high point has been an inspiring prayer service of Lessons and Carols led by our children.  I find great joy when our children teach us once again the Christmas message that we have taught them over the years.  I never tire hearing again from our youth the Christmas story revealed in Lessons and Carols.

Will you experience Advent joy in participating in our Advent Day of Penance on Monday in the afternoon at Holy Spirit or in the evening at St Joseph’s.  May we experience real joy as we are immersed in the merciful, forgiving love of Jesus? The Sacrament of Reconciliation offers us the opportunity to encounter the Lord and to experience the joy that comes with God’s unconditional love.

In today’s Gospel, John the Baptist takes center stage. 

As we listen to the Gospel, the image shifts.  We are standing at the River Jordan, face to face with John the Baptist with all his intensity.  John doesn’t rejoice; John says to repent. 

John’s words strike the crowd with evident power, for they seek instruction:  “What then should we do?”  John does not make radical demands.  Instead, he calls people to fidelity in the very circumstances of their lives.  Those who have more than they need, share with those who have less;  parents, cherish your children; spouses, be faithful; neighbors, live in peace.  Repentance for John calls to be faithful to who we are. 

Don’t wait to be somewhere else, or to be doing something else, or to be someone else -- begin with the road in front of you, walk that road, and so allow God to transform the real life you live right now.

John preached the baptism of repentance.  What does repentance mean in practice?  John’s advice is simple and practical – live charitably and honestly.  Share what you have with the needy; be fair and honest with others in your business dealings; don’t be greedy.   John goes on to say:  “One mightier than he is about to come who will fire us up with the power of the Spirit.”

 

 

 

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

We indeed will experience the presence of Christ when we embrace the joy that comes from within – knowing we hold within ourselves the God who wishes to be born again in the inn of our hearts and when respond to John’s call to repentance -- by sharing what we have with those in need.

 

Have a Blessed Day.

My God gift you the gift of listening to the ways that God is birthing within you.

 

 

Second Sunday of Advent  C  2021   The living Word of God is always being spoken in the midst of the circumstances of our own lives and in the reality of the Church and the world we live in.  Our spiritual lives do not take us out of the world; rather we are called to transform the world we live in into the reign of God.   Recall the words of Scripture:  “That God so loved the world that he send his only begotten to save the world.”   Please note how today’s  Gospel begins:   “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip the tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the Word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.”   It is important to note that the evangelist is placing the ministry of Jesus in the wider historical context.  The point is the sacred ministry of Jesus emerged right in the midst of secular history.  Secular history does not get in the way of the Word of God.    Rather, for us to hear the Word of God proclaimed in this moment of history means we need to know the circumstances of our own history.  God’s Word is being spoken in the midst of the circumstances of our own lives and in the reality of the church and the world we live in.   We cannot absent ourselves from the challenges of life.  Rather, we need to recognize how Jesus is being birthed in the secular history of our lives.  This is such an important point.  I don’t like and you don’t how the world has been turned upside down dealing with this pandemic that seems to affect us all.  The message of the institutional Church doesn’t speak to the lives of some younger families.  For some of your children and grandchildren, the Church doesn’t seem to be a big part of their lives.    In 2021, this is the Church that Jesus chooses to be born into.   We are called not to leave the Church.  Rather, we are called to transform the Church and our world into the reign of God.  That’s why Jesus came – to teach us how to transform our church and our world into the reign of God, which means where God’s love controls everything, guides everything, and we all live together in peace under that reign of the love of God.   It is in the messiness and the questions and the fears of our lives that God chooses to be born.  This is the story of the first Christmas and it is the story of Christmas in 2021.   The evangelist Luke in today’s Gospel tells us that the Word of God was spoken to John the Son of Zachariah in the desert.  Say that again!  Where was the Word of God spoken and to whom?    Note that the Word of God was not pronounced by the religious and political leaders of the day.  It bypassed them all.  The Word of God did not come from the Palace of the Temple.  The Word of God came from an outsider in the desert.  The Word of God came to John in the desert.    This certainly leaves us to pause and ask where we hear and recognize the Word of God spoken to us.  We make a grave mistake if we don’t listen and seek to hear the Word of God spoken to us from the outsiders of our lives.   Who are the outsiders of our lives?  Who are the people who don’t look like us, who do not share the same religious beliefs, who do not have the financial resources we have and so forth?  Just maybe, these are the people who proclaim God’s Word to us.   Who is your John the Baptist?  Who is the person in your life that is pointing you in the direction of Jesus?  Who reveals the face of God to you?   So now in December, while everything  jingles with excitement about the Christmas holidays, the Church invites us into an Advent desert with John.  The desert is the antithesis of the suburban malls.  No matter how much money you have, there is nothing to buy in the desert.  Far from the city lights whose twinkling lights grab our attention, the desert allows us to fix our gaze on the stars, the beauty that is beyond our reach and yet has been created for our delight. The Advent desert is where our soul can expand, where we can remember what we really thirst for.  How do we fashion a desert for ourselves in this Advent season of busyness and parties and celebrations?

 

I like to think of Advent as a time of listening to what God is birthing in me.  I need to quiet down and listen.  During this gift of time that is the four weeks of the Advent season, may we find moments of quiet each day to listen to how God is speaking to us.

 

 

The prophet Isaiah describes John as one crying out in the desert:  “Prepare the way of the Lord.”  Every valley shall be filled and the winding roads shall be made straight.  Instead of seeing this mission as part of highway reconstruction, John the Baptist calls us to repentance and metanoia.  For John real change comes from within.  The prophet Isaiah refers to the geography of the heart.  This is where change needs to occur.  We are to clear the path to welcome Christ who is born into our hearts as truly as Jesus was born in Bethlehem. 

 

But this inner change is not just about our personal salvation.  The inner change is always in the context of community, of church, of the ways we love and serve people.  As St Paul writes in the second Scripture reading in his letter to the Philippians:  “I pray always with joy in my every prayer for all of you, because of your partnership for the gospel from the first day until now.”

 

Jesus seeks to be born again within our own hearts in 2021.  Jesus’ humble birth within us may be likened to his humble birth in the Bethlehem manger.  May we be Spirit-filled in embracing the Savior within us and may be missioned to sharing the love of Jesus in ways that will transform our Church and our world. 

 

 

 

May God give you the gift of listening to the ways that God is birthing within you.

The Advent grace is to trust and hope that God’s love is stronger than our deepest fears and God’s love for us will never fail.

 

 

First Sunday of Advent  C  2021

 

We affirm in the lighting of the Advent wreath that we are an Advent people.  We are given the gift of time – four weeks – to prepare for the coming of Christ into our lives.  The Advent gift we seek to use wisely is the gift of time.  

For Advent isn’t about commercialism.  Advent isn’t about busyness.  I confess that we are reluctant to schedule parish events in December.  People are too busy.  There is too much to be done in preparation for Christmas.

May we value the gift of time and of silence in this Advent season.

In truth, Advent is about spirituality.  It is about being in touch with our spiritual center.  God is with us.  “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”  The Advent season invites us to reset our spiritual calendar, to readjust the choices in our lives to be sure they are consistent with the priorities of Christ.  We seek to move beyond the darkness of fear, anxiety, and sin and to live in the light of Christ.

May the Advent wrath be a symbol of hope as we await for the light of Christ to overcome the darkness of our world.

 

In today’s Scriptures, the prophet Jeremiah proclaims to a discouraged people that “the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel.”  The prophet Jeremiah is a prophet of hope and mercy that God’s promise will be fulfilled.

What discouragement in your life are you in touch with  --  what person or situation causes you to be restless or sleepless at night – what now is separating you from the love of God or separating you from being connected to an important person in your life – what is causing to think there is too much on your plate just now, these all are Advent moments in which we await the light of Christ to overcome the darkness of our lives.   The Advent prophet Jeremiah assures us that God’s love will not fail, and God’s love will be our final answer.

 

 

 

 

The Advent message of hope may be more difficult to see in today’s Gospel for it contains a stern warning to us.  Jesus says: “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on earth nations will be in disarray, perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves.  People will die of fright.  Additionally, beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and do not be overwhelmed by the anxieties of daily life.”

But the core message of Advent remains:  watch and wait for God, not with a sense of fear, but rather with joyful hope.  Sometimes we Christians tend to think that Jesus came to sing us lullabies:  that when things are comfortable, the Lord is with us, and when they get turbulent, we’ve lost the Lord -- like the disciples on the stormy sea.  Today’s Gospel tells us otherwise.  Yes, the sea of our heart sometimes is turbulent, fearful and anxious.  Even in these times, God is with us in the present moment and in every day of our future.  We are and will always be the recipients of the merciful love of Jesus.

The Advent season is a season of waiting.  In the story of our lives, the season of Advent may be considerably longer that four weeks.  As we deal with illness, as we grieve over the loss of a loved one, as we deal with the demons and addictions of our life, as we seek for an inner peace in dealing with a hurt that seems to paralyze us, Advent may seem like an eternity for us. 

Yet, the Advent grace is to trust and hope that God’s love is stronger than our deepest fears and God’s love for us will never fail.

When a person is aware the end of his or her life is near, this can be terrifying or it can be a gift -- terrifying in the sense of bringing to an end the life the person has known and treasured or it can be a gift when in faith a person is ready to go home to God and experience the fullness of life.

Can the same be said in any of life’s challenges:  illness, breakdown in our family life, dealing with a demon or sinfulness in our life.  All of life can be terrifying or all of life can be a gift.  Are we able to trust that our God is with us and the experience of the cross in life can be the very source of our salvation?

 

 

To wait for the Lord who comes means to wait and watch so that the Word of Love enters inside us and focuses every day of our lives.   Advent calls us not only to welcome the coming of Christ, but to incarnate it in our lives.  We are to be the light that illumines the world.  What does it mean for us to incarnate the love of Christ into our lives and how are we to be the light that illumines the world?

We are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.  If we know Jesus in our hearts, we will readily witness to the Lord’s mercy in the lives of others.

We are missioned to share the light of Christ that is within us and in so doing we will bring joy and hope into the lives of those around us.  The Advent-Christmas miracle is that Christ chooses to be born again in 2021 in our own hearts and we are to give birth to the presence and the light into our family, our neighborhood and into our world.

In times of crisis, we come to understand the deep meaning of our faith that the Lord does not abandon us but rather gives us the grace to know and experience His love for us.

 

 

Thirty Third Sunday in OT  B  2021

Autumn now seems to be giving a hint of the winter to come. Many leaves have fallen and others are continuing to fall.  There seems to be more cold darkness as the days grow shorter. 

We experience the mystery of the change of seasons.  In the Gospel, Jesus invites to reflect on the change of seasons in our lives.  What are your moments of winter?  What are the springtime moments of your life?  When do you enjoy the sunshine of summer in the story of your life?

The Gospel calls us to learn a lesson from the fig tree.  Even in the midst of the deep winter of our lives, the twigs on the fig tree will again become supple  in the springtime.  In the big picture, before this generation has passed away, new and wonderful things will have taken place.

Lord, prayer is trusting totally in your love, knowing with unshakeable confidence that heaven and earth will certainly pass away, but your love for us will not pass away.

Even before the ultimate end times, all of us at one time or another experience our life being shattered;

                --we lost our job

--our family life is hurting;

                --we fell into serious sin;

                --we learned we were seriously ill;

                --we lost someone dear to us.

Our world fell apart—the sun was darkened; the moon lost its brightness.

But you did not abandon us, Lord God.   In the midst of turmoil, we received a great grace.  We understood for the first time the meaning of our faith.  We discovered inner resources we didn’t know we had; friends rallied around us.

Again Jesus calls us to learn from the fig tree.  The fig tree seems to lose all signs of life in the dead of winter, and yet in the cycle of nature, spring and summer will bring new life and hope to the vibrancy of the fig tree. 

The meaning of faith in our lives is the capacity to trust that the Lord does not abandon us in the turmoil of lives.  Our future is full of hope despite all the struggles of our lives when we know that the Lord is with us and we are a people who believe in the triumph of the resurrection.  We believe in the Lord’s promise to us that our future is full of hope.

The liturgy calls us to consider the end times as we approach the end of the liturgical year.  The first reading from Daniel and the Gospel from Mark uses very apocalyptic language designed to be sensational.  “The sun will be darkened.  The stars will be falling from heaven and the power in the heavens will be shaken.”

They speak of the breakdown of the stable parts of our surroundings.  Yet, apocalyptic language is a message of hope.  Why?  Because Jesus has triumphed over sin and evil.  The ultimate victory belongs to

 

Jesus.  Even though it seems like our world is falling apart, for those who trust in Jesus, the message is always one of hopefulness.

Chapter 13 in Mark’s Gospel begins with Jesus making his way out of the temple with his disciples.  The disciples marvel at the greatness of the stones and buildings.  But Jesus’ response begins a deeper discussion about what is important and what they will need to look for in the coming times.

This chapter in Mark’s Gospel contains strong and alarming images.  “Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.”  There will be earthquakes from place to place and there will be famines. The primary reason for apocalyptic literature, such as this reading from Mark, is to offer hope to those who feel there is no hope in sight.  This literature arises from a community that is facing deadly force and serious threats.  Yet even if the situation seems impossible, God will prevail.

As we approach the end of the liturgical year, the readings call our attention to the last things – the end of the world and the end of our own lives.  How do we approach and prepare for our going home to the Lord?

Jesus makes it very clear that we do not know when the end will come; of that day or that hour no one knows. 

 The Gospel invites us to do the right thing no matter what.  The Gospel gives the motivation to trust in Jesus.  Faith alone gives us the perspective to see that our current troubles are not “the end of the world.”  By trusting in God, we can successfully navigate the troubled waters of any earthly storm.  The faith perspective we seek is not that having faith in God is an insurance policy that guarantees that our lives will be devoid of troubles, but that having faith in God is the only thing that will get you through the troubles that come in every life.

I guess there are many ways for us to prepare for our ultimate encounter with the Lord.  The Gospel message is that God’s promise of faithfulness is firm.  We read in our newspapers daily about places that seem devoid of hope.  We see faces of bewildered children caught in circumstances over which they have no control.  We all know that every death on any side of the conflict of war brings loss to someone’s family, someone’s parent, or someone’s child.

What are to do?  As a people of faith, today’s psalm response:  “You will show me the path of life, you, my hope and my shelter,” reminds us that we can be certain that God is found in darkness.  God is near, walking beside us, calling us to live lives of justice and witness so that the Gospel may be carried to all the places where we go.

May this Eucharist offer us the opportunity to strengthen our faith and nourish our life in Christ. 

May God give you the virtue of hope in all the challenges in your life.

 

The way through loss, the way through death...is love.

 

Thirty Second Sunday in OT B 2021

 

In the first Scripture reading from the book of Kings, the prophet Elijah was asking the poor widow of Zarephath first for a cup of water and then for a bit of bread.

When Elijah who was a stranger asked her for something to eat, she looked him in the face – and did not say no.

Would we have the compassion of the widow of Zarephath who was worried not just about herself but about her son a well.  She gave to the stranger the food she had saved for her son.

There is such an important lesson here.

To give from our livelihood is not only an act of generosity; it is also an act of trust in God.  We can give from our need only if we trust that God will provide for us.  Jesus himself demonstrates the ultimate act of generosity and trust in God as he gives his life for us on the cross.

And as the Scripture tells us, she was rewarded for that trust in God: “her jar of flour did not run dry.”

But praying over the readings today from the book of Kings and Mark’s Gospel, I was struck by something else.

The readings are about giving, yes, and giving generously.

They are also about something unexpected.  They are about loss, and death.  The two women in these readings are widows.  Once, they loved someone, and depended upon him.  But death changed everything. 

Their life has changed.  A widow’s life can be very difficult.  They are grieving.  Financially they are suffering significant hardships. 

And yet.

The widows we meet today at instead of hoarding their assets for themselves and holding on to whatever they could.  They surrendered.  They gave of themselves, however they could, whatever they could.  A little cup of flour, a couple of small coins.  They held nothing back.

And they were blessed.

There is a lesson we all need to hear.  We may suffer losses that rob us of those we love.  We may grieve, and we may mourn, and we may ask ourselves “Why?”

But the way through loss, the way through death… is love.  Opening our hearts.  Giving ourselves.  Holding nothing back. 

The Scriptures give us a powerful message about grieving.  “Blessed are they who mourn; for they will be comforted.”  Jesus and his mother Mary have taught us how to grieve.  Yes, we are to be in touch with the loss we experience, the loved one we miss so deeply.  We certainly are not to sweep our feelings under the carpet and pretend to be brave. 

As did the widows in the scriptures today, the great lesson in grieving is to hold nothing back, to continue to serve, and most importantly, continue to trust in God.  “And the jar of flour will not run dry.”

Pope Francis has often told us that the poor have much to teach us.  Today’s scriptures are beautiful examples.  These widows had no one to speak on behalf of their needs.  It would be easy to take advantage of them.  Yet, what they teach is about faith.  When we trust in God, our lives are very much blessed.  These widows know a truth about the spiritual life that too often escapes us.

These widows through the loss and death of their husbands came to the profound realization of the faith journey.  The poverty of the poor opens their hearts to turn to trust in God as the source of all blessings.  As a result, they can give to the stranger their lasts cup of flour or the last penny to their name.  God will not abandon them.

For ourselves, as we pray over the scriptures, are their parallels in our lives with the poor widows of the Scriptures?  Please God we have a ton of money.  Your response to that: “Wait a minute, Father, money doesn’t grow on trees with our family.  We need to be very frugal with our resources.”  I really, really understand that, but it is also true we do not experience the poverty and hunger that so many hungry people experience around the world.  Comparatively speaking, we are very blessed.

For these widows, their giving was linked to their faith, their trust in God.

Quite honestly, anybody can give from their plenty, anybody can give from their resources, but it takes a lot of faith to give everything you have in this wonderful gesture as these unnamed widows in the Scriptures did.

What Jesus really saying is this: the value of the gift is in the heart, and when the heart gives, no matter what the gift is, how great or how small, if the heart gives it, then it is blessed in God’s eyes.

But what God is saying is, when you give as did the widows in today’s Scriptures, you must give yourself, you must give your heart, because it is the sacrifice in your heart that you give, and that is where God is to be found, and that is where God’s generosity is to be found.

What the disciples learned at the breaking of the bread, what they learned when they fed five thousand people with just a few loaves of bread, it’s only when you begin giving that there’s enough.

But as long as you are taking and hoarding it, there will always be the attitude, “Well, not quite enough. Maybe a little bit more…”

What God says is, “When you let go of everything, then you are ready to give,” because you’ll be giving the love, the faith that God has in you, to your brothers and sisters.

We know that this is the gift that Jesus gives to his Father and saves the world.

And that’s the message that the widow in today’s Gospel  teaches us as she puts her two little pennies into the treasury and says, “Take me, Lord, for I give you myself.”

 

May God bless you with the gift of generosity that comes from your trust in God who will bless you so that “your jar of flour will not run dry.”

 

In the evening of life, we will be judged by love alone.

 

Thirty First Sunday in OT B  2021

 

The Great Commandment is at the head of today’s readings. The Great Commandment, we hear it in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy is one of the five books of the Torah. And when quoted by Jesus in Mark’s Gospel … in Mark’s Gospel it is there because, from the beginning of Deuteronomy, many, many centuries ago, Jew and gentile were one family.

 

This declaration of God’s unity and call to love God with all our being and our neighbour as ourselves is still today central in Jewish worship.

 

This is what Moses has to say, “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.”

The connection between the words of Moses and the Gospel from Mark is very apparent. “One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, "Which is the first of all the commandments?" Jesus replied, "The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Now it is so significant  that Jesus is making this statement that the two great commandments are essentially connected with each other.  If we really love God and pray, we will be led into active, generous love for someone who needs us.  The authenticity of our celebration of the Eucharist, the genuineness of the time we spend in Eucharistic adoration will be seen in the love and the service we share with one another.

 

How do I and how do you show our love of God in the day to day moments of our lives?    Many of us need to confess that too often we live our lives devoid of our awareness of God’s presence in our God.  Too often we live  when apparently we don’t need God, we can shelf Him.  Sometimes, God can be likened to one of the applications on our iPhone to open and shut at will.

 

 

In this liturgy, we humbly ask for the grace to experience God in our lives not as an application on the iPhone but rather to experience God as our very operating system by which everything else in our lives draws its existence and meaning.

 

So, as you continuously use your iphone throughout this day, ask yourself if God is merely an app on your phone or is your faith the very operating system by which you live your life.

 

If falling in love with God is the very operating system of who you are, what would that look like?

 

When we are in love, we know what our priorities are, we know each day how we will devote our time and our talents. And when we are in love we find time to nourish our relationships.”

 

This is very human. We take it for granted. A mother looks at her children not only with an understanding that the child will grow to manhood and womanhood, but an understanding that this child must be loved. And it is love that brings this child through life. And because the emphasis is on love, she finds time to nourish relationships.

 

Sometimes, maybe, we over-emphasise, especially in our schools, the idea of teaching people what it is and how to explain — how to explain God and how to explain this and explain that.

 

But this is of limited value.  This is so because it doesn’t reach into one specific area that Jesus again and again speaks of and we too often pay no attention to it: Love one another as I love you. Love me!

 

Jesus said to Peter:  “Peter, do you love me?”

 

Peter says, “You know I love you. Why are you asking three times? Why are you asking me this?”

 

“Peter, if you love me, feed my sheep.”

 

Love is what drives this Church on. And love is what we have to begin to judge ourselves on. Not do we understand. Not do we read enough books, are we on top of career charts.

 

We have to learn how to love. And, of course, that’s what Jesus does.

Jesus has come not to teach us grammar, not to teach us the wonders of the world, Jesus has come to teach us how to love. Because we don’t know how. We think we know, but we don’t.

 

Why?

 

Because love gives, love doesn’t take. There’s nothing in love that takes. It only gives and gives.

 

We worship God because He’s a giver. God, have you ever noticed, God doesn’t take anything from us. He gives and gives and gives.

 

And that is what He expects of us as Christians.

 

We’re not to ask what I get out of things. Will I get this? Will I go to heaven? Will I do this? Will I do that? This is a waste of time.

 

What matters is: will I learn to love, will I learn to appreciate, will I learn to walk through life knowing that everyone that I see is my brother and my sister and we are linked together in one long march through this life and into eternal life.

 

The question is not how high you make it in the world, how smart you are, your marks at school, even. The question is none of these things. These are secondary.

The question is can you love, are you afraid to love, are you running away from love, or are you going to follow Jesus’ love which finally leads to a cross? Jesus dies on a cross to tell us that there is only love in life that carries us through life into all eternity.

 

 

This is what God intends: that we learn how to love, that we learn how to care, that we learn how to sacrifice, that we learn how to become human beings.

And in all of this we are privileged to know that it is Jesus who has taught us, his children, and continues to teach us, for he is with us all our days, and the one thing he is teaching us is to learn how to love.

As Meister Eckhart has taught us, “At the end of the day, we are going to be judged by love alone.”

May God give us the grace to love God and to love one another.

Jesus is asking us: "What do you want me to do for you?"

 

THIRTIETH SUNDAY IN OT B   2021

 

Today’s Gospel describes the beautiful miracle of Jesus giving sight to the blind man Bartimaeus.  In the account, Jesus asked Bartimaeus:  What do you want me to do for you?  He responded: “Lord, that I may see.”

In today’s liturgy, Jesus is asking us the same question that he asked Bartimaeus:  What do you want me to do for you?

Would like you to pause for a few minutes before you answer the Lord’s question to you.

In today’s Gospel, the disciples were the security guard for Jesus as He was leaving Jericho.  To keep some order and to keep people from bothering Jesus, the disciples kept people like the blind Bartimaeus at a distance.  The disciples basically told the blind beggar to shut up.  He was disturbing the peace.

The irony of this Gospel passage is that it was the disciples who were blind.  They had a spiritual blindness to the healing, merciful mission of Jesus.  They simply did not get it.  They were very content to leave people with disabilities as unnoticed people on the side of the road.

Yet, the ministry of Jesus was to reveal the merciful love of God to people in need.

 

Wondering if there is a message for us today.  Do we sometimes suffer from spiritual blindness and sometimes mistakenly try to keep Jesus from people in need?

I wonder if we faithful Churchgoers, starting with the pastor, sometimes act as the security guard for Jesus in the same way that the disciples did in the Gospel account.  Who are the people we tell to shut up, and we want to keep at a distance from our faith community?

Perhaps it is people who we judge are not living a moral life -- people with a different sexual orientation, people who have experienced separation and divorce in their married life, people we judge not to be living a Christ-like life, people we think are phonies, people who are disruptive to the ways we pray. 

Like the first disciples often we are unaware of the ways we can keep people from experiencing the merciful love of Jesus.

May the blind man Bartimaeus represent all the unnoticed people, all the forgotten, people with disabilities, and the people we try to shut up in very polite words. 

And may see have the spiritual sightedness to witness to the merciful love of Jesus to all who are in need.

As we pray over today’s Gospel, be aware of the physical blindness of Bartimaeus, and be aware also of the spiritual blindness of the disciples.  As we pray in the words of Bartimaeus, “Lord, that I may see.”  We pray for both physical and spiritual sightedness to the ways Jesus is present and the ways Jesus wishes to be present to all who are in need.

This week’s Gospel invites us to place ourselves along the way with the blind Bartimaeus.    How would you name your spiritual blindness -- contemplate and admit your own blind spots?  This is bit of a challenge for all of us because it is so easy to be unaware of our own blind spots.

Do we have a blindness to the unnoticed people on the side of the road that we so easily pass by?  How aware are we of the people near us in Church today?  What can we do to connect more fully with the people in our faith community?

Who is the person in our family life that we have built up a wall of blindness that makes it so difficult to reach out to?  Lord, that I may see how your grace can bring healing to this relationship?

A blind spot in our spiritual journey may be the blindness that keeps us from experiencing the merciful healing of Jesus in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  What is the last time we have experienced this sacrament?  What would it take for you to remove this spiritual blindness and know the forgiving love of Jesus in this beautiful sacrament?

The dialogue of Jesus with Bartimaeus is the dialogue Jesus has with us today.  Bartimaeus, like each of us, needs to be loved, and is fortunate to receive by Jesus a loving question.  Not “what do you want to do?” asks Jesus, but “What do you want me to do?”  It’s a question that comes from the heart of Christ and shows His compassion.

The Lord is asking us:  What do you want me to do for you?  May we respond with Bartimaeus: “Lord, that I may see.”  Let Bartimaeus be our guide.  He asks for the most important gift God can give.  May we see what is of real value in life.  May we know what is true.  May we judge rightly and walk confidently in the light of Christ. 

Notice in the account that the very first thing Bartimaeus sees when he is healed is the face of Christ.  To know Jesus is the key to the Christian life.   To know Jesus is to know God and our true self.

Bartimaeus’ prayer is answered.  Once he has seen Jesus’ face to face, there is no other life for him except to be with Jesus and to follow him.  He leaves behind his beggar’s cloak and joins Jesus and the other disciples on the way to Jerusalem.  Like a man in love, he has seen the face of his beloved, and there is no turning back.   May we too be cured of our blindness which keeps from seeing the face of Jesus.

What would it take for us to have a vision of life in which we trust that Jesus goes with us in all experiences of life?   What would it take for us to have a vision of ourselves as a faith community in which we welcome everyone as one who is made in the image and likeness of God, and there is room for everyone in our faith community?

Bartimaeus never gave up.  He was persistent.  He made known his request to God.  He was a man of faith.  In this account, he understood the mission of Jesus far better that the disciples did.

May we with the persistence of Bartimaeus ask the Lord that I may see.  May we see and experience the truth of our lives.  God’s love for us is unending.  Whatever anxiety we experience, whatever struggle we are dealing with, whatever disabilities hold us down, we all are the recipients of the abundant merciful love of Jesus.  Lord, that I may see how you are present to me in my time of need.

May God give you the gift of peace and beautiful sightedness.