Into what desert is the Spirit of God leading you in this lenten season?

 

First Sunday of Lent  B  2024

We have entered into another Lenten season.  We were marked with ashes this past Wednesday as Lent formally began. These ashes acknowledge that we all belong to the order of penitents.  We all confess that we are sinners, and we stand in need of the Lord’s healing forgiveness.  The light of Christ that is within us has been dimmed by the darkness of our sin.   We acknowledge this reality with these ashes.  We were given the mantra to:  Repent and believe in the Gospel.

In the words of Pope Francis, the ashes invite us to rediscover the secret of life.  We are dust, loved by God. We are ashes on which God has breathed the breath of life.

The first Scripture reading today is from the Book of Genesis and recounts the establishment of the Covenant with Noah and his descendants. 

God said to Noah and to his sons with him:  “See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you.  I will establish my covenant with you.”

Lent is deepening our awareness that we are people who have a Covenant with the Living God.  We are not just people who believe in God.  We are a people sought out by God, a people formed by God and a people with a special love relationship with God.  Only when we are deeply aware of His love for us can we truly accept that the cross is going to be a part of our spiritual journey.

Unless we firmly in a God who will never abandon us, it will be very challenging to make any sense out of the crosses of life.

In today’s Gospel, the evangelist Mark says: “The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan.  He was among the wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.”

Jesus finding himself in the desert being tempted by the devil was not the result of bad luck or being at the wrong place at the wrong time.  Rather, this was by divine design.  Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert.

Now this isn’t always true for ourselves.  Sometimes we can find ourselves in the desert of disappointment or failure, not led by the Spirit of God’s love but rather they are the result of bad choices we have made.  Our desire for pleasure, power, or greed can sometimes get the best of us and lead us into the wilderness. 

But with Jesus, he is being led by the Spirit of God’s love into the desert to be tempted by the devil to use his power in ways that are not in God’s plan.  The devil was tempting Jesus to become the Messiah without the cross.  The devil was tempting Jesus to take the short cut to achieve his power as the Messiah.

Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be humbled, to be tested and tempted, to struggle with the forces of evil and thereby fully trust in God’s plan for His life. 

My question for you and for me is what desert are we now being let into by the Spirit of God’s love to be humbled, to be tested and tempted to validate our faith and trust in Jesus as the Lord and Savior of our lives?  Are you aware that you are being led by the Spirit of God in the ways you experience your Lenten journey today?

As you try to make sense out of the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine and in the senseless violence in the streets of our cities, as you have grieved the loss of someone you dearly love, as you have dealt with illness in your life and the in the life of a dear family member, as you have been hurt and your confidence has been betrayed, as you struggle with the temptation of pornography, as you have had to deal with more than your fair share of challenges, can you see these experiences as being led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.  Can these life wrenching experiences be example of how you are being led by the Spirit into the desert?  As we pray over the crosses of our lives, may you be assured that God never abandons us.

The Stations of the Cross describe the stages of the suffering and death of Jesus.  As we experience the stations of the cross of illness, of death, of brokenness in our own stories, may we too get the help of Simon of Cyrene and be strengthened by the love of Mary our mother.  As for Jesus, our own stations of the cross are our way of discipleship.

Back to today’s Gospel:  “He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.”  The wild beasts tell us that life is fragile.   There is no escaping the fragileness of the wild beasts in society.  There are also demons within ourselves.  Do we have a side within us that focuses only on our own pleasure instead of service of others.

Yes, there are demons; there is sinfulness in our lives that we seek to turn away from.  Yes, we encounter Satan in the desert of our inner wilderness.  But that is not the end of our Lenten journey.  The real purpose of our Lenten spiritual disciplines is that we are to encounter God in the desert of Lent.  May we allow ourselves to believe in His love.

The Lenten desert is about wrestling with the demons of our life; but the Lenten season is also about conversion; it is our retreat in which we encounter God with blessed and grateful hearts.  We embrace the spiritual disciplines of lent – we embrace prayer, fasting, almsgiving – so that we are clearly place God as first in our lives.

As the angels ministered to Jesus in the desert, thanks be to God we also have angels that minister to us, that are looking after us – renewing us.  The angels are the graces of our lives – human and divine.  We thank you Lord for all the people of our lives who are God’s messengers, God’s angels to us.  We give thanks for all the people who love us and reveal the face of God to us.

May your Lenten journey be very much blessed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What authority does Jesus have over your life?

 

FOURTH SUNDAY IN OT B 2024

 

The Scriptures invite us to reflect on prophecies and what makes a prophet a prophet.

 

The OT prophets pointed to the coming of Jesus:

 

In the first scripture reading from the OT Book of Deuteronomy, Moses in his final address to the Israelites said:

 

“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet.”

 

I wonder if you would consider me a prophet if I could predict which of the four remaining teams is going to win the super bowl?  Would I be a prophet if I could tell you who is going to the November presidential elections?

 

The scriptures invite us to think about prophets not so much predicting the future but rather as one who speaks God’s word in the present moment.  Jesus spoke with authority.  Jesus spoke the voice of God to those gathered at the synagogue.

 

Jesus then put that authority into action by expelling the demon from the man who was possessed.  The those who were present for this miracle were astonished and commented that this new teaching of Jesus was a teaching that spoke with authority unlike the scribes and pharisees.

 

As we pray over today’s Gospel, we pray that the Lord will cast out the demons of our society – racism, inequality among the various classes of people, discrimination against the disadvantaged.

 

How much authority does Jesus have in your life?

 

 

The line that is often part of my prayer life – If you can’t make it through the storm, don’t tell Jesus is the captain of your ship.

 

What keeps us from placing first in our lives?  We had a meeting this past week with families who will be having their son or daughter making their First Communion this May.  It is a precious moment in the lives of our First Communicants and thus a precious moment in the lives of the families or our First Communicants.  The time of preparation is a time to reflect on the priority of the Eucharist in the weekly lives of all of us.  How much authority does the opportunity of receiving the Eucharistic life of Christ have on us not only on the day of our First Communion but on our weekly lifestyle as the disciples of Jesus?  What keeps us from placing God first in our lives?

 

The authority of Jesus in our lives refers not just to the times we are in Church but also to all the ways we are to the reality of the sacred into every sphere of our lives.

 

For example, who are the people in our lives whom we are unable to forgive?  Who do we too easily make judgments about the way they live their lives?

 

Our society is in desperate need of peacemakers or people who seek to bring unity to a culture in which there are too many divisions and polarizations. Do we have the courage in the name of God to live in the lane of love and forgiveness and healing?

 

What do I need to let go of so that Jesus has more authority in my life?  How can we better walk in the footsteps of Jesus to wash the feet of God’s poor, be a good Samaritan to a person in need, to forgive the Prodigal Son, to welcome the sinner and the excluded into experiencing the love and forgiveness of our healing God?

 

This week we celebrate Catholic Schools’ Week in our parish and in the diocese.  At St. Joseph’s School, we are missioned to fashion our students after the mind and heart of Jesus.  We seek to challenge our students academically but even more we seek to touch their hearts so that they know the love of Jesus deep in their heart and spirit.  Know the love of God in their DNA, our students will then be motivated to share what they have been given to one and all.  In St Joseph’s School, we seek to teach with authority – the authority that comes from Jesus Himself.

 

 

In the Gospel, there was in the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out: What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?  Somehow this man was possessed.  Evil came into him and maybe it was not his fault.  He left clean and whole, with a kindness in his heart he would never forget.  The people were amazed not just at Jesus but at the change in the man who had been possessed. 

 

What are the evil desires in myself?  For control of others, for greed, for whatever leads me away from love.  Imagine the light of Christ filling the darkness in me.  Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

 

In your life what demons do you wish the Lord to cast out?

 

In the penitential rite and in the words we speak before receiving Communion “Lord I am not worthy,” we confess that there are demons within us, there are areas of our life that Jesus is not yet Lord, but we come before the Lord confident in the mercy and forgiveness of God.

 

Who of us doesn’t have to confess that too often we are more self-centered that God-centered and other-centered?  Who among us doesn’t have to confess that we haven’t shared the blessings of our life with others in greater need?  Nobody owns anyone in this earth, and we belong only to God in a free way. Who of us doesn’t have to confess that we called to a greater awareness of being good stewards of all of God’s creation?  The environment is not ours, but for us.

 

Getting some grasp of who we encounter in Jesus the Christ is the work of a lifetime.  Sadly, many people think they know all about him.  Please God, we recognize that we have just begun in living under the authority of Jesus.  Our reflections merely attune us to being aware of the Holy One who encounters us in our loves, our trials, our fears, our talents, our demons, and right now in our gathering, and our sharing in His banquet.

 

Have a Blessed Day.

 

May the story of the Epiphany be our story as well.

 

EPIPHANY 2024

"When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold magi from the East arrived in Jerusalem, saying, 'Where is the newborn king of the Jews saying, 'we saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage."'

In celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany, may the story of the Epiphany be our story as well. We are today's magi who come to discover and encounter the Christ child.

The magic symbolizes 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 risks 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. The magi were people open and inquisitive to discover a God bigger than their imagination — a God who delighted in their seeking and finding.

May each of us be in touch with our restless human spirit that is looking for something more in our spiritual journey. How is the Lord calling us to move beyond our comfort zone and follow a star that will lead us to that deeper relationship with Jesus that we seek? The grace of Epiphany invites to come to know Jesus in a deeper relationship.

The magi come to the Lord bearing gifts. In our epiphany story, what gifts do we bring to the Lord? Much more than gold, frankincense, and myrrh, do we bring and give and share the best instincts of the human spirit: do we give our love to the Lord, our joy, our compassion? Do we give our very lives over the Lord? Is it more important for us to give, rather than to take in our day-to-day living?

My hunch is that the Lord is placing a star in our life on this Epiphany Day that we are to follow. That star may not be in the sky but possibly be the star that is in the heart of someone you are called to love and to help and to serve. That star may be in the hearts of the poor who we are called to reach out to.

The star in our life, strange as it may seem, may be a struggle, a loss, a disappointment we have experienced. The grace of this experience may make us realize that we are not fully in control of our lives; this star event may lead us to trust more fully in the hand of God for our lives.

Please note the sharp contrast between the Magi and King Herod in the Epiphany Gospel. Herod sees the promised child as a threat. He is afraid the coming baby will crimp his style, will challenge his power and lower his status.

The Magi see the promised child as a wonderful gift. They have humbled themselves to travel a great distance to a strange culture that speaks a different language, in order to embrace this baby who fulfills God's love.

Herod's selfishness fueled by his fears leads to his downfall. The Magi's worship of the Christ child leads to the salvation of all the nations. Today more than two billion people call themselves Christians, in some way the result of the humility and the seeking spirit of the Magi.

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 Christcentered? 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?

Yes, we all need to confess that we are sinners, and there is a bit of King Herod in all of us. But thanks be to God, the Bethlehem infant has come to be our Savior and Lord. We seek the grace of allowing ourselves to be loved by the Christ child.

In our discipleship of the Lord Jesus, we are the magi — seeking to encounter the Lord Jesus more fully in our lives. In seeking to encounter the Christ child, we come to a universal truth that brings great promise to us all.

It's revealed that there are no outsiders at the Bethlehem crib. There was no racism. All were welcome. Jesus welcomed everyone — the ox and the ass, the shepherds and magi, poor and rich, the Jews and Gentiles. He came for us all. He would reject no one, as he would accept the unique gifts of each. As we pray over this epiphany account, we too are to affirm that are no outsiders in our Church and in our world. All are welcome. We are to love our neighbor, no exceptions.

The magi did not come to Bethlehem empty handed. The Gospel tells us: they opened their treasures. Like the magi, each of us has a treasure to offer the Christ. The prayerful question we should ask ourselves this Sunday is: What is it? What do we have to give? Pay attention to what we give and also what we receive. We may journey like the magi seeking, but an Epiphany is beyond our control. Epiphany is an experience of grace, of how God transforms us in the mystery of the unconditional love that is given to us.

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.

Have a Blessed Epiphany Day.

God wanted to be born into a human family.

 

Holy Family   2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a blessed day.

 

What about Christ are we keeping in Christmas?

 

CHRISTMAS 2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a blessed Christmas day.

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

Third Sunday of Advent  B  2023

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

 

 

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

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

 Second Sunday of Advent  B  2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

 

Have a blessed day