The Son of God was born as an outcast in order to tell us that every outcast is a child of God.

 

CHRISTMAS 2022

 “Keep Christ in Christmas.”    This is a very familiar Christmas mantra.

My question for our prayer today is: “What about Christ are we keeping in Christmas?”  I suggest that Bethlehem crib is a school where Jesus chooses to teach a lot of lessons.

The first lesson Jesus teaches us that we need to keep in Christmas the humility and simplicity of his birth in the Bethlehem crib. It is not insignificant that the Son of God chooses to come into the world in a stable in the tiny town of Bethlehem.   Do our exterior Christmas decorations obscure how we are to discover the presence of Christ in our lives in 2022?   Do we pay as much attention to the simplicity of the Bethlehem crib as we do to the impressiveness of our Christmas trees?  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? 

Let us ask ourselves: can we accept God’s way of doing things? This is the challenge of Christmas: God reveals himself, but men and women fail to understand. He makes himself little in the eyes of the world, while we continue to seek grandeur in the eyes of the world, perhaps even in his name. God lowers himself and we try to become great. The Most High goes in search of shepherds, the unseen in our midst, and we look for visibility, to be seen. Jesus is born in order to serve, and we spend a lifetime pursuing success. God does not seek power and might; he asks for tender love and interior littleness. 

 

A second lesson:  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.

This Christmas, Jesus is still looking for shelter in your heart.

Third lesson:  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 are 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

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. 

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 2022, 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 2022.

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 us 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.

Therefore, 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.

Let us return to Bethlehem.

Yes, 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 need to keep Christ in Christmas in all the ways we communicate that all are welcome at the Bethlehem crib.  We are to love our neighbor, no exception.  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.

 

Doing it my way needs to give way to doing it God's way.

 

Fourth Sunday of Advent  A   2022

 

If I had the voice of Bing Crosby, I would begin this homily singing:  “I’m dreaming of a White Christmas just like the ones I used to know.”  Dreams are part of the wonder and awe of Christmas.  Part of the wonder and the awe of the Schwartz family at Christmas is that my mom and dad had convinced the six of us that we were very special and that on Christmas eve Santa Claus would bring our family Christmas tree down the chimney and decorate it and we would see it for the first time on Christmas morning.  Awe and wonder filled our Christmas dreams.

What are your dreams?   What are your Christmas dreams today?  On a grander scale we dream that there will be:

                        Peace on earth.

                        Peace in our lives.

 

In the Gospel today, Joseph was a dreamer.  “The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, Son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.  For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.  She will bear a Son and you are to name him Jesus.’’

Joseph thought this dream could become a nightmare for initially he was going to divorce her quietly not knowing how her Son was conceived.

The angel of the Lord said to Joseph:  “Do not be afraid.”

God has a dream too.  God has a dream for the world.

                                    That the poor are fed

                                    Justice is experienced by all people.

                                    The unborn are treasured.

                                    The elderly are protected.

 

The Scriptures tell us that Joseph was a righteous man.  That meant he was “law-abiding.”  Tell me what the rules are, and I will be a faithful rule keeper.  The laws in Joseph’s time were very strict.  If you found out that the woman you were engaged to was pregnant and you were not the other party to the pregnancy, you were to cancel the engagement, and the woman might be stoned to death.  Did I mention that the laws in Joseph’s time were quite strict!

With a compassionate heart, Joseph was unwilling to expose Mary to shame, and so he wanted to divorce her quietly.

It was then that the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said: “Do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.  For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.”

“When Joseph awoke from the dream, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him to do.”

In a word, Joseph did it God’s ways.  Unlike Frank Sinatra who prided himself “that I did it my way.”  Joseph chose to do it God’s ways.

It is worth reflecting on the discernment-conversion process that took place in Joseph and then to wonder how and if we are to model this discernment in our own lives.

  Joseph’s dream is God’s dream for us all. It is of the child who will save all people, who is Emmanuel, God with all of us.

God has a dream for you.  That you will experience in the inn of your heart the birth of the Savior this Christmas.   God has a dream that we will speak the language of love to one another.

The Buddha website says: Never give up on your dreams: ‘If you work hard enough and do all of the necessary planning, you can achieve any goal that you set yourself.’

Joseph’s dream is God’s dream for his life.    Joseph’s dream is of pure gift. It is realized in a child who offers us everything, for free.

Like Joseph, we need to be open to the mystery of life, however life challenges us and calls us.  True religion is open to mystery.  We need a Church lit with the light of God, as Joseph was.  His burden was lifted when he was open to God, to take Mary home as his wife, no matter what others might think.

Pope Francis has captured the imagination of the world and breathed new life into the Church as he has extended the compassionate love of Jesus to one and all.  For Pope Francis, more than keeping rules, we are to be faithful to the commandment of love that Jesus has given us.

Going back to the Gospel, the angel of the Lord led Joseph to be open to God’s plan for his life.

How does that play out in our lives?  When does "doing it my way” need to give way to “doing it God’s way,” even when this requires us to trust in God’s grace for us?

 How do you share your unconditional love for your children and the merciful love of Jesus for your children even when they are not keeping the rules you would like them to keep?  Are all of your children and grandchildren and extended family members going to Church Sunday after Sunday after Sunday?  So, with the mantra of seeking to do it God’s way, how do we witness to the love of Jesus in the lives of all your family members?

What would be an example of letting go of my way in order to be open to God’s plan for us?  This was the life and commitment of Joseph in today’s Gospel?    When did or do have you have deal will illness in your life or someone you love, when you have to deal with death in the life of someone you love, how is it for you when you need to let go of your children in their growth and development process, and what happens for you when someone you love betrays your trust?

For me, the two great teachers of God’s plan are found either in love or pain or both.

What I do know for myself and for you is that God has a plan for us.  The problem is that sometimes God’s plan doesn’t look like a gift we like to receive.  It requires far more trust to accept what God gives that what Santa gives.   May we pray for the openness to listen with a trusting heart and then to live out God’s plan for us.  Doing it “my way” needs to give way to “doing it God’s way.”

Have a blessed day.

Before we fast forward to the joy of Christmas, we need to repent.

 

Second Sunday of Advent  A  2022

We light the second candle of the Advent season today. 

In the first Scripture reading, the prophet Isaiah promises that the Savior will usher in a new era of relationships.  Then the wolf shall be the guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together…There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain.

In my way of thinking, the lamb and the wolf shall lie down together – but the lamb won’t get any sleep.

We haven’t yet arrived on the Lord’s holy mountain in which there will be no harm or ruin.  This points to the need and the meaning of the Advent season.

The countdown to Christmas is moving on.  The media, and especially advertisements, remind us constantly that the time is drawing short.  Of course, the reminder is too often in terms of how many shopping days till Christmas.

Today’s Scripture readings give us a different point of view.  John the Baptist is clear and direct: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.”  There is passion in the words of John the Baptist; not the passion about the number of shopping days left but a passion about us preparing for the coming of the Lord into our hearts and our world.  The passion of John was a call to repentance.

In today’s Gospel, we are to enroll in the school of John the Baptist, hear his message and put it into action.  John the Baptist is our model for advent preparation preaching a baptism of repentance.  John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness to give us a wake-up call.  Before we fast forward to the joy of Christmas, we need to repent.

 

What does this say about the human condition?  Do we really need to hear the call to repentance in this advent season?  In truth, all of us are flawed pilgrims on a journey through life, doing our heartfelt best to love God and neighbor.

The Advent question I have for myself and for all of us is do we have the passion of John the Baptist in recognizing our need for repentance and conversion in our lives?  What are the habits, the addictions, the sinfulness that we need to confess?  Humbly may we seek the grace of God to help us leave behind all that keeps us from putting Christ at the center of our lives.  All of us, including and especially myself, need to seek the conversion of our lives whereby God is our true North Star in all we say and do.

We need to more aware of the wilderness that is in our lives and in our world.

 The repentance we seek is a fundamental change of heart which results in leaving sin behind and embracing God’s freely shared life and love.  Advent has more to offer us, however, than that.  Advent has a Savior for us.  Beyond our own efforts to recognize sin and failure in our lives, beyond our confessions and admissions that lead us to repent, Advent presents us with what we truly need – a Savior.  For if we’re honest with ourselves we will admit that we cannot deal with sin, repentance, and conversion all on our own.  We can’t manage our lives all by ourselves.

The Advent season calls us to be a disciple of Jesus.  He is the true teacher, the authentic “life coach,” the personal mentor we ought to seek.  We seek to revisit the meaning of our baptismal vocation to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus.

I invite you to consider the first three steps of the famous Twelve Steps in Alcoholic Anonymous.   Of the twelve, the first three are the most vital and critical.  They deal with what John the Baptist is talking about in the call to repentance.  So, substituting the word sin for the word alcohol the steps are:

1 – We admit we are powerless over sin – that our lives have become unmanageable.  As Pope Francis himself acknowledges very freely, we confess that we are all sinners.  We need more than what our will power provides us.  The truth of our lives is that we are not lone rangers.  Left to ourselves, we become entangled in demons that keep us from placing Christ at the center of our lives.

2 – Came to believe in a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.  That power is the merciful love of Jesus of which we are the generous recipients.  May we all value the grace offered to us in the sacrament of reconciliation.  May this Advent be all about our journey back to God.

3 – Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand him.   God’s grace is freely offered to each and every one of us, but we need to make the decision to say yes to the plan for our lives.  We have the wonderful example of Mary who we celebrate in a special way on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception this.  Mary said: “I am the servant of the Lord.  Be it done to me according to your Word.”

Mary is our example of John the Baptist’s call of repentance.  When Mary said yes to the plan of God for her life, she made the decision to live out God’s plan for her life, rather than providing for her security and comfort. 

In our Catholic liturgical tradition, we are richly blessed in our sacramental life.  God still illumines our eyes through the light of baptism.  God still opens our ears through His Word.  God frees from what holds us bound in reconciliation.  God feeds us at the table of the Eucharist.  In these ways and many others, we come to experience something of God’s vision for us, and we are empowered to take that vision into the world through acts of justice and mercy.

Advent, like discipleship, calls us to firmer conversion and deeper commitment. It calls us also, and in equal measure, to Christ-like compassion even as we extend God’s mercy to all.  May God give you peace.