"What are you looking for?" These are the first words of Jesus in John's Gospel.

What are you looking for?  Who are you  looking for?  These are the first spoken by Jesus in John’s Gospel.  This is such an important life question.  It gives a focus to the priorities of our life.

The disciples respond:  “Rabbi,  where are you staying?”

Jesus answers:  “Come and See.”

Jesus is inviting the first disciples to follow him, to Come and See, to join the company of the first disciples, to be in relationship with Him.

As we pray over this invitation of Jesus to the first disciples, we also know at the core of our being this invitation is given to us as well.  We need to wrestle with the question:  “What are we looking for in life?”  The best way to answer that question is to accept the invitation to Come and See.

Come and See what life will be like when lived in relationship with Jesus and in relationship with the all the disciples of Jesus.  Come and See if the Gospel stories connect with your spirit and your way of looking at life.  Come and See if your relationships in the Church – the disciples of Jesus – allow you to love and be loved in life-giving ways.  Come and See if your participation in the Church leads you to come to know Jesus more deeply in your life.  

The words of Jesus are not intended harshly as:  “Shape up or you are going to hell.”  Or “You are expected to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders and never smile again.”  Or “No, no, no, this is wrong and you will be big trouble if you get involved.”

Rather the words of Jesus to “Come and See” mean come and experience yourself as a person loved by the Lord.  In the words of Pope Francis, my life is deepened when I experience the Joy of the Gospel.  As your pastor, my hope is that we love and serve and enjoy each other’s friendship in our parish community.  Life is much too short to be bogged down by negativity and judgments we can make about one another.

The Scripture reading invite us to reflect on the call of God in our lives.  The Gospel is the dialogue of Jesus with his first disciples.  The call is given in the invitation to Come and See.  In the first Scripture reading, the prophet Samuel was having trouble recognizing God’s call in His life.  At first Samuel thought that it was his mentor Eli who was calling him.  But then through the sage wisdom of Eli, Samuel was able to recognize God’s call and responded:  “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”  The wisdom of Eli to Samuel was to listen.  And so, listening became Samuel’s way of life in prayer.

In your prayer today,  I commend to you the prayerfulness of the prophet Samuel:  “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.  Part of the beauty of Eucharistic Adoration is the prayer of quiet in the presence of the Lord.  We simply listen to the voice of God in our lives.  God is present to us.  May we prayerfully listen to the voice of God both in the joys and in the struggles and difficulties of life.

Like Samuel, we often are confused and have trouble what the call of God in life is for us.  We need to be patient as was Samuel.

What is the connection between the call of God in today’s Scriptures and our own spirituality?  We are called by God to be disciples.  We are called by God to be stewards.  We are called by God to build the Body of Christ in our parish.

Our parish participation is not a call from the pastor Father Jim.  It is not a call from the parish council.  It is a call from Jesus.  We are called not just to be pious individual Catholics.  We are to be a parish community invested in each other as the Body of Christ.

COME AND SEE.  Jesus invites us to be in relationship with him.  Jesus invites to experience our ourselves as God's beloved.  Jesus invites to connect our story with the Gospel story.  Jesus invites us to love and be loved in the community of the baptized.

Is our spirituality public or private?

Today’s feast celebrates the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River by John the Baptist.  The Lord’s baptism inaugurates his public ministry.  As Jesus was baptized, the Spirit, like a dove, descended upon Him.  And a voice came from the heavens, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.

On the day he was baptized, Jesus went down into the muddy Jordan River a private person.  He came up out of the water ready to begin His life of ministry.  He became a public person.  In Baptism, he was missioned by His heavenly Father to teach, to heal, to forgive, to love, to save us from our sins, and to give us share in His Risen Life.  In Baptism, Jesus began his journey to Jerusalem – the place where he was to suffer, to die, and to rise to new life.

As we think the public ministry of Jesus as beginning with His baptism, who do we think of when we think of public people?  Probably the people in the headlines or are on television – leaders of nations, CEO’s, actors, sports heroes.  Or on a more local level, the town supervisor, business leaders, pastor, teachers, and coaches.

Part of what goes with being a public person is accountability and leadership.  It’s taking responsibility when one sees a task that needs doing, a niche that needs filling

Please note:  the event that marked the beginning of Jesus’ public life was baptism.

On this feast, we are also invited to reflect on the meaning of our own baptism.  The message is we baptized are public people.   We receive the life of Christ Jesus in Baptism.  We become members of the community of the baptism, members of the Catholic Church, specifically members of the Church of the Holy Spirit St. Joseph's.  And we are missioned to witness to the love of Jesus in the way we live our lives.  We are the Body of Christ.  We are no longer private persons with a private spirituality between myself and God.  We become a member of the Church whose responsibility is to be the visible presence of Jesus in the world.

In Baptism, we are missioned to continue the public ministry of Jesus.  Yes, all the baptized are to be transparent, accountable, and take leadership in witnessing to the love of Jesus in our parish community.

An important connection I would like to make for you is our spirituality of stewardship in our parish life is our participation in the public ministry of the community of the baptized.  As stewards of the Church of the Holy Spirit, we are all to be transparent, accountable, and embrace leadership in the life of the parish.

I ask you to resist the temptation of thinking I am not going to get involved in the Church until the Church gets its act together – regardless of whether you think the Church is doing too much or too little.  If we take that attitude, then we are not accepting the grace given to us at Baptism.  We are the leaders of the Church.  The grace of God is given to all the baptized to be leaders in bearing witness to the love of Jesus in our community.

In a spirituality of stewardship, we are missioned as the disciples of Jesus to witness to the love of Jesus.  As we all know, love is the first requirement of the disciples of Jesus.  That love is expressed in action – the stewardship action of the gift of our time, talent, and treasure. 

The gift of time is our prayer life.  Do I make time for prayer in the course of the day?  May I share the wisdom of my mother taught to me about 65 years ago:  “If you are too busy, you are too busy.”  I wish you could have all meant my Irish mother:  There were no excuses for not making a little time in the course of the day for prayer.

The gift of talent is sharing a bit of your God-given talent in the service of your parish community.  The stewardship commitment card lists a variety of ways for you to participate.  It is inspiring to me to see so many parishioners involved in the liturgical ministries, in the catechetical ministries, in the social life of the parish, in youth ministry, in our service ministries, in our parish council, finance council, leadership teams and so forth.  Thank you, thank you for what you do.   I would also want to give you a nudge there is plenty of room for more parishioners to be involved.

The gift of our treasure is also very much part of our spirituality of stewardship.  What we do with our finances is very much part of our spirituality.  We are called to be generous givers in support of our parish and of our diocese in the CMA.  

Most of us were baptized as infants many moons ago.  But as is true in the sacrament of marriage, the grace of the sacrament of marriage is not just for the one hour ceremony at the beginning of your married life;   rather the grace of the sacrament of marriage is for better and for worse for all the days of your life.

So too, the grace of baptism is lifelong.  We are always and forever the community of the baptized.  We are always and forever public persons missioned to give witness to the love of Jesus in our lives.  A sobering, accountability question to be asked of each of us is:  Would we be convicted in a court of law for being Christian?  Is it obvious by the way we live our lives that we are the disciples of Jesus?  Is it obvious by how we live that we believe that love is the first requirement of being a Christian?

In today’s Gospel, after the baptism of Jesus, a voice came from the heavens, “You are my beloved Son: with you I am well pleased.”    As we pray over these words, may we ask ourselves:  What actions of ours this past week is our heavenly Father well pleased with?

What gifts do you bring to the Christ child?

The Epiphany account describes the magi recognizing and discovering the star that was discovered in the dark of night.  That star led them to the Christ child.  The magi were overjoyed at arriving at the
Bethlehem crib and offered their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

The Epiphany journey of the magi is a beautiful description of the spiritual journey of each one of us.  I invite for your prayerful reflection to consider several components of the Epiphany account which can easily mirror the spiritual journey of each one of us,

1.       Like the magi, we are seekers for an encounter with the Lord, a deeper relationship with Jesus.

The magi symbolize what is restless in the human spirt seeking for a greater depth of meaning and purpose in life.  They left behind what was comfortable and safe and took considerable risk in traveling to another country in search of the Lord.  The magi speak to our restless human spirit seeking to discover the spiritual meaning and longing for that which ultimately satisfies us.

In 2015, we too are magi; we are seekers of a deeper awareness of the spiritual dimension of life – a deeper relationship with the Lord Jesus.

2.       The magi followed the star discovered in the dark of night to assist them in their journey to Jesus.  Who or what are the stars in your life that assist in your journey to Jesus?  The stars of life are not just to be found in the sky.  Often, it is the soul friends of your life that are the stars for you that lead you to Jesus.  Often enough, those stars are discovered in the darkness that comes from the struggles and challenges of life.

I give thanks to God for the stars in my life that have loved and supported me and witnessed to me the love of Jesus.  Without any doubt, the first stars in my life were my mom and dad who first led me to discover the Lord in my life.

I give thanks to people in our parish community who have witnessed to me the presence of God in my life.  For sure, some people do this by just by being themselves without any fanfare.  They simply do little things with great love in their hearts.  The stars of my life often enough don’t see they themselves as stars.  They just are who they are.

3.       The role of King Herod in the Epiphany story symbolizes for us is that we need to expect opposition in the spiritual journey at times.  We see the hostility of King Herod to the notion that he would have a rival to his kingship.  Moved by jealousy, he hatched a murderous plot that was foiled by the non-cooperation of the magi.

Before we simply reject the treachery of Herod, we need to acknowledge that there is a Herod within each of us that keeps from following Christ more fully.  What are the demons within us that make more self-centered than Christ-centered?  How radically do I share with those in need?  What keeps me from listening more fully to another’s point of view?  Do I make time for God in the way that I live?

4.       The magi presented gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the Christ child.  What gifts do we offer to the Christ child?  Our gifts are not gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Rather, our gifts are our time, talent, and treasure that we offer as good stewards of the giftedness that God has blessed us with.

This week and next weekend we are focusing on the spirituality of stewardship in our parish life.  Hopefully this week you have received a parish mailing on stewardship.  Prayerfully we ask you to place your filled out stewardship commitment card in the collection basket next weekend.

I invite you to see the connection between stewardship and the meaning of the epiphany event.  The magi were overjoyed at arriving at the Bethlehem crib and offered their gifts.  So too, for us, when we are overjoyed in encountering the Lord, we are led to share from our giftedness in the service of one another.

How much and how often are we to give?  As long as our God continues to share his unending love with us, that is how long we are to continue to give in the service of one another.  What is asked of us as the disciples of the Lord Jesus?  We all know that love is the first requirement of the disciples of Jesus.  Our love is to be expressed in the gifts of time, talent, and treasure.  Further, we are to give with grateful and joy-filled hearts.

Yes, we are called to share from our giftedness as did the magi.  But know in the Christmas mystery, it not just the magi who are seekers.  God is a seeker.  We are sought by a God who has become one of us and who hunts us down with His love.  In the Epiphany mystery, we need to allow ourselves to be found by the love of the Christ child.

5.       Notice well, the magi were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, and they departed for their country by another way.  Of course, they would return by another route.  Their lives have been changed by their encounter with Jesus.  May we too with God’s grace have our lives changed by our encounter with Jesus.  We cannot go back to our old way of living -- with our fears, our anxieties, our addictions, our grudges, our pettiness.  We are to put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

The spirituality of stewardship is all contained in the beautiful Epiphany account.  As you fill your stewardship commitment card this week and place it in the collection next weekend.  See yourself as the magi who are seeking a deeper relationship with Jesus.  As you are touched by our loving God, we gratefully share of our giftedness in the service of others.  In so doing, we are putting on the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes in the family life of each of us.

In this beautiful Christmas season, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.  The power of God was revealed as a tiny infant -- the Bethlehem infant born of Mary and Joseph.  God was revealed in the life of this Holy Family.

As we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family, we give thanks to God for the families of each one of us.  As we discover the mystery of God's love in the midst of our family life, we affirm that indeed our family is holy as well.  We first come to know the mystery of God's love  from our family.   Even though there is a considerable distinctiveness in the family life of each of us, God is present in each of our families.  And thus, may we fully embrace the holiness of our family life.

Families are the school of love.  We have the capacity to love and be loved because we have been loved into  life by our parents and all in our families who love us.  It is in all the ways we love that we are known as the disciples of Jesus.

May we always be grateful for our families.  Yes, there are some green pastures and dark valleys in the family life of us all.  There is some messiness, but there also much love.  For that we give thanks for all the ways our family life has been blessed.

There is an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes in each of our families.  We are missioned to be the bearers of the mystery of Christmas.  May this light that is within our families shine forth to make a Christ-like difference in our community.

Mary is our best Advent guide to discover Jesus in the inn of our hearts.

FIAT  -- May it be done.  Fiat is a simple and powerful Biblical word.  From the first pages of the Bible in the creation account from the Book of Genesis, God said:  “Fiat Lux.”   Let there be light.  And there was light.  In the act of creation, God said:  “Fiat.”  Fiat Lux.  And the sun was created, and there was light to rule the day.

In the Gospel account today of Mary’s Annunciation, Mary spoke that creative word of God:  “FIAT."    Let it done to me according to your word.  Here we have Mary echoing the creating word of God.  When Mary said Fiat to the will of God in her life, she was not speaking of her ability, but rather her openness, her availability to the plan of God for her life.

From the moment Mary spoke these words:  “I’m the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word.”  Her life was changed.  She had given herself over to God’s designs for her life.

This past Wednesday Evening I was visiting a parishioner in the surgical intensive care of Strong Hospital.  A week ago she had serious cancer surgery and was now experiencing complications in the recovering process.  She was on a respirator fighting for her life.  I was praying with her husband and her daughter and anointed her once again.   With much faith and a heavy heart, her daughter Laura simply said:  “Let God’s will be done.”  FIAT.  Such a courageous word spoken by this 20-some year old as she stood by the bedside of her mom holding her mom’s hands.

Laura was taking ownership of Mary’s prayer.  In so doing, Laura was entrusting to God the person she loved the most.

This prayer of Mary in the Annunciation has been known as the world’s greatest prayer.  It is the prayer that brought God down from heaven to dwell in the soul and body of a lowly young woman.  It is the prayer that brought about the greatest event in human history, God becoming human in Jesus.  It is a prayer that changed forever the course of human history some 2000 years ago. 

The prayer of Mary is so very different from what has been called the world’s most common prayer, the prayer in which we try to get God to do our will.  The world’s most common prayer says:  “My will be done,” whereas the world’s greatest prayer says, “Thy will be done.”

What does the Annunciation say to us as we prepare for Christmas?  The Gospel reminds us of God’s desire to dwell in the midst of humanity.  As Christmas draws near, Mary reminds us that the best Christmas, in fact the only true Christmas, is that Christ be born not in the little town of Bethlehem but in the inner sanctuary of our hearts.

The best possible Christmas gift to us and to all is God’s continual promise that I will be with you.  God’s presence in our life is the meaning of the mystery of Christmas.  God is with us.

Throughout the Old Testament, God said to Isaac:  “I am with you…I will not desert you."

To Jacob:  “Go back to the land of your forefathers, and I will be with you.”

God said to Moses when he objected to God’s plan:  “I will be with you.”

To Mary the angel Gabriel said:  “the Lord is with you.”

Surely this is the secret of the celebration of Christmas, that in the birth of Jesus in the stable of Bethlehem, God comes to us.

Do you remember what Jesus told us on the 1^st Sunday of Advent:  “Stay awake.”

Do you remember the words of John the Baptist on the 2^nd Sunday of Advent:  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.”

On the third Sunday of Advent, Jesus said:  “Happy is the person who does not lose faith in me.”

What we know and deeply believe is that God is with us.  The important questions that remains is:  “Where are we with God?”  Are we awake?  Have we repented with the Sacrament of Reconciliation?  Have we kept the faith?

The message for us, as for Mary, is that God continues to want to do with us what has never been done before.   Of course, Mary didn’t understand what she was doing.  She couldn’t possibly imagine the implications of her assent. 

As we enter the prayer of the church in Advent, how inspiring it is to contemplate that the Word of God is also coming to us. 

Advent is our time to ponder the promise that God is among us, that the Word is asking our consent to become flesh in our lives.  Mary invites us to share in the mystery she carried and bore in her human life.  The angel Gabriel invites us to say yes and to entrust ourselves to God’s plan for our life.

And our answer will be….

Our joy is found in the ways we help and are helped by one another.

In ten words, St. Paul expresses the message of Gaudete Sunday on the third Sunday of Advent:  “Rejoice always.  Pray without ceasing.  In all circumstances give thanks.” 

Our prayer is to express the joy and the gratitude that is in our hearts as we prepare for the birth of the Savior.  “Rejoice always.  Pray without ceasing.  In all circumstances give thanks.”

The way Pope Francis expresses the Advent joy is with one of his favorite expressions:  “Evangelizers must never look like they have just come back from a funeral.”  In this Advent season, we prepare with much hope and joy in our hearts.   

This past Wednesday Evening the Knights of Columbus gathered at Joey’s Pasta House for our annual Christmas party.  A great time was had by all.  Gaudete.  Rejoice.  Indeed there was a very joyful spirit enjoyed by all.  Now you may remember on Wednesday Evening we were hammered with a good amount of snow.  Everyone was cancelled but this Christmas party.  On the way home, yours truly got stuck in the parking lot under a pile of snow.  This had the potential of being a very unjoyful ending to a great Christmas gathering,   The front wheels of my car were spinning and going nowhere.  Thanks to Vince Cammarata and Bruce McDermott and others, my car was towed out of the snow bank.  Thanks be to God.  My point is even in a situation of being trapped in a snow bank, my joy was increased by the effort and generosity of Vince and Bruce.  May we rejoice and give thanks in the ways we help and are helped by one another.

This week John the Baptist is our Advent guide.  In today’s Gospel, John the Baptist was attracting crowds;  he was changing lives and touching hearts.  The people from Jerusalem asked John:  “Who are you?” John knew clearly his identity.  He knew who he was and who he was not.  John responded:  “I am not the Christ.  I am not Elijah…I am the voice of one crying out in the desert….I baptize with water; but there is one among you whom you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worth to untie.”

The Pharisees wanted to know who John was, but John wanted them to know who Jesus was.  Emphasizing that he was not the Messiah, John identified himself as the herald of Christ.

We also ask the question to Jesus that was asked of John:  Who are you?  We wish to be able to recognize the presence of Christ in our midst. 

We ponder this question as we reflect on today’s Scripture readings.  In the first Scripture reading, Isaiah exulted in telling his beleaguered contemporaries that their rescue and restoration was at hand, not because they had merited these blessings but because God is faithful.  Paul assures the anxious Thessalonians that they can relax and celebrate their blessings without worrying about the unknown future.  Why?  Because God can be trusted.  Likewise, in today’s Gospel, John’s announcement of Jesus’ coming into the world should be met with great  joy because in Jesus, God’s faithfulness and trustworthiness have become flesh and blood, and God has chosen to speak to us with human heart filled with love for us.

Mindful of the words of the Baptist that we can fail to recognize the holy one who is in our midst, we seek to root our trust in a God who is always faithful.

What expectations help you to recognize Christ’s presence?  What expectations blind you to recognizing Christ?  Expectations can blind us.  We might be so intent on something that we miss the gem right before us.

John was filled with a faith-filled vision in recognizing Christ.  John lived his life deflecting attention away from himself so that the focus of faith and hope might be fully and directly on Jesus.  I am not the one; there is, however, one among you whom you do not know.  John had plenty of time to focus on Jesus because nothing else mattered to John.

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

The mission given to us at our Baptism is the same mission that was given to John.   We are to witness to the presence of God in our midst.  John preached a baptism of repentance; may we preach by the example of our lives a baptism of healing and forgiveness and love.   When we listen with patience and with much love to another, we are affirming that God-given dignity.  We are affirming that indeed the Spirit of God dwells in those we reach out to.

 In so doing, we rejoice.  We rejoice even in the midst of the violence that surrounds racial conflict and the threat of terrorism that we live with.  We rejoice because it is God’s call and command to us.  How could we not.

When the question is asked of us that was asked of John in the Gospel:  “Who are you?”   May we witness to the reality that the Spirit of God is upon us.   When we as the faith community of St. Joseph’s are asked:  “Who are you?”  May we respond with the words of St. Paul that describe our way of life:  “Rejoice always.  Pray without ceasing.  In all circumstances give thanks.”

Where are you? This was God's question to Adam and Eve. This continues to be God's question for us as well.

We are in the season of Advent, the season of waiting and hoping, waiting and hoping for God, waiting and hoping for the Second Coming of Jesus.  As much as we are waiting and hoping for God, can you imagine how much more God is waiting and hoping for each of us, waiting and hoping that we will turn to him during this season of grace, Advent?   Do you ever think about God’s love searching for you, longing for you?

Often, when I preach on Advent, the focus is our call to be patient, to wait with a joyful sense of hope as we anticipate the coming of Christ Jesus into the inn of our hearts.  This continues to be an important part of our Advent spirituality.

In this blog, I invite you to experience the Advent message with the eyes of God.  God is waiting for you in a joyful spirit of hopefulness.

Recall the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden after they ate of the forbidden fruit.  Adam and Eve were hiding in the garden after eating the apple so God went searching for them.  Adam and Eve were nowhere to be seen.  They have gone into hiding after doing what he told them they were not to do.  They have lost themselves in the shadows.  How strange this seems.  Do we not sometimes complain that God is hiding from us?  That God is nowhere to be seen. 

In the Garden of Eden account, if our hearts had not known the burden of sin we would never have wanted to hide:  we would be out in the open and ready to walk with God.  And then God asks the question of Adam and Eve:  ‘Where are you?’  He is the one who begins the search.  We think of ourselves as searching for God and forget that it is God who is searching for us.  Why should God bother to do so?  Simply because HE LOVES US.  He has been searching in every century -- throughout the Old Testament times until he came at last with a human heart that could suffer for want of our love.

In the Advent season, Jesus invites us to come out of hiding and to walk with him:  his suffering has earned us forgiveness of sin.  “Where are you?”  We can see the intimacy that God wants between Him and us in the first Scripture reading today.  From Isaiah:  “Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care.”

Imagine being held in the arms of God and leaning against his breast!  This is the intimacy God wants between you and him.  So during this season of Advent, let us ask ourselves is there anything keeping us and God apart?  Is any sin of any kind in our lives keeping us separated from God? 

Also in the first Scripture reading, we hear a beautiful prophecy about God liberating the Jews from captivity in Babylon:

            “Prepare in the wilderness a way for the Lord.

            Make a straight highway for our God across the desert.”

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

In the second Scripture reading from Peter:  “The Lord is patient with us, not wishing that we should perish but that all should come to repentance.  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.”  This Scripture gives us a warning.  God is patient with us now in order to give us time to repent but the time for repentance will not last. 

We are living now in this time of mercy when we have the opportunity to repent.  Let us receive as much grace as we can from God during this time of Advent.  The Lord has no limits to what he wants to give us.  It is we who put limits on what He wants to give us. 

God's 

God is searching for us and wants to hold us against his breast.  “Like a shepherd he feeds his flock:   in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care.”

Will you allow God to pick you up and hold you?