FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

9 FEBRUARY 2020

          The prophet Isaiah addresses his people who had just returned from fifty years of captivity in Babylon.  They had rebuilt the temple.  But it was a shadow of its former glory.  They were resuming the pious practices that had supported them in captivity.  The prophet affirms their pious practice of fasting on a regular basis.  Then he reminds the people that fasting in itself is not enough.  Those who fast must share their bread with the hungry; shelter the homeless; clothe the naked; and not turn their backs on those in need.  If the people embrace these good deeds and avoid oppression, false accusation, and malicious speech, then they will reflect the light of God’s presence in their midst.

            Saint Matthew knows these statements from the prophet, because he writes to fellow Jewish Christians.  Through this Gospel centered on the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells his disciples that they will be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.  They can fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah and make a difference in the world.

            In the ancient world, salt was a valuable commodity.  Salt did more than improve the taste of meat.  Without refrigeration, salt preserved the meat.  Salt was offered to guests as a sign of friendship and hospitality.  Salt was also used as part of a purifying rite in offering sacrifice.  In a world without electricity, light was essential for guiding people in the darkness of night.  With light being a dominant image of God’s presence in Scripture, light not only enlightens minds.  It also offers comfort and warmth.

            Saint Paul certainly embraces these images and the challenge of Jesus Christ.  He came to the Corinthian community proclaiming the bright light that the crucified and risen Christ is the promised Messiah.  In writing to the community now darkened with divisions and bland with arguments, Paul admits that he had come in weakness and fear and much trembling.  The salt and light which he brought to the community were not the results of his actions.  They were the result of the power of God.  Paul begs the community to put the salt and light of the Gospel on full display for all to experience.

            Before the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the priest placed salt on the newly baptized baby’s lips.  Today, we are a bit gentler and give a lit candle to the godparents.  The symbolism is clear.  As baptized members of the Body of Christ, we are called to live our baptismal commitments to transform a world that is bland and blind apart from the salt and light that God provides.  We are salt and light when we live the corporal works of mercy outlined in the words of the prophet Isaiah.

            In just a couple of weeks, we will enter into the Season of Lent.  Lent is always about baptism – not only preparing Catechumens for Baptism at the Easter Vigil, but renewing our baptismal promises at Easter.  Like Paul, we will enter Lent to admit that we sometimes fail to live our faith because of weakness, fear, and trembling.  As a sign that we are willing to live our baptismal promises more fully, we will embrace the practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.  It is not too early to begin thinking about what those pious practices will look like this Lent.  We must express our pious practices in sharing the bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless.  We must clothe the naked and be attentive to those in need.  When we put these practices into action and live our baptismal promises more completely, we will indeed be a much more robust salt of the earth and a much brighter light of the world. 

           

THE PRESENTATION OF THE LORD

2 FEBRUARY 2020

          The Book of the Prophet Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament.  We do not know the identity of this prophet.  In Hebrew, the name means “My Messenger.”  The prophet gives the Lord’s message to the people who had just returned from the Babylonian captivity.  Although they had rebuilt the temple that the Babylonians had destroyed, it is a shadow of its former glory.  In addition, the priests are giving lackluster service, reminding the prophet of Ezekiel’s message. Ezekiel said that the Lord had left that Temple because of the corruption and wickedness of the priests.  Now, Malachi promises that the Lord whom they seek will return.

            That prophecy is fulfilled in today’s Gospel.  The Lord returns to the temple as a tiny, vulnerable child.  Simeon represents all of Israel, because he has been waiting all his life for the Lord to enter the temple.  Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Simeon recognizes the presence of the Lord in this child, brought by his parents to fulfill the Law of Moses.  He utters a canticle that we pray every night at Night Prayer, giving thanks to God that salvation has finally come in this child, who is the light for everyone, including the Gentiles.  An old woman, Anna, also sees in this child the fulfillment of Malachi’s promises.  Instead of remaining cynical and angry as a young widow, she remains hopeful and confident that God had not abandoned her.

            Today is the fortieth day after Christmas.  At Christmas, we renewed our faith that Jesus Christ is the light of the world dispelling the darkness of sin, hatred, wickedness, and death.  That light warmed and encouraged us.  On this fortieth day, we celebrate the fulfillment of Malachi’s promises by blessing the candles we use in the Liturgy of the Church and the candles that we use at home, in the domestic Church.  While we emphasized the warmth of the light of Christ at Christmas, we focus today on another aspect of the fire of Christ’s love.  We pay attention to Simeon’s warning to Mary that this child will be the cause of a sword that will pierce her heart.  We pay attention to the purifying quality of the fire of God’s love.

            As an adult, Jesus will proclaim a love that not only warms us, but will burn away whatever hinders us from loving more completely.  Like fire that separates pure silver from the surrounding ground, the fire of his love burns away all that is not love in us.  Once that is gone, we can love others in the way God loves us – by willing the good of the other.               

            This quality of the fire of God’s love can be very painful.  We know that pain when we allow the fire of God’s love to burn away what our secular culture tells us to be true.  We know that pain when we speak the truth to those we love, even if that truth causes them to be angry with us, accusing us of rejecting them.  We know that pain when we suffer a terrible loss or endure injury or severe illness.  We are reminded that the Lord’s love endures, even when the pain of loss tempts us to think that God is absent.

            We sometimes think that God’s love always involves warm feelings and profound peace.  Sometimes, that is true.  But today’s feast reminds us that God’s love is also present in pain and sorrow.  Mary knew the truth of Simeon’s prophecy when she saw her son rejected and executed as a common criminal.  Once the temple of his body had been destroyed, it was transformed through the power of the resurrection.  The Lord has definitely entered into his temple.  Through our Baptism and the presence of the Holy Spirit, we are living stones of that temple today.  We are Christ’s Body, being purified by the fire of his love.

           

THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

26 JANUARY 2020

            Eight centuries before the birth of Christ, the prophet Isaiah described the dire status of the two northern tribes of Israel, Zebulun and Naphtali.  The people of these tribes were walking in a terrible darkness.  The kingdom of Assyria had invaded their territory, killed many residents, and dragged into exile the remaining population. To provide hope, Isaiah promised that those who walked in darkness would see a great light.  He promised that God would bring them abundant joy and great rejoicing.  Instead of having their harvest destroyed by enemies, they would rejoice again at their own harvest.  They would make merry as they divided spoils.  The rod of their taskmasters would be smashed, and they would enjoy freedom. 

Because the readers of the Gospel of Saint Matthew are Jewish Christians, they would be familiar with Isaiah’s promises.  He tells them that this prophecy has been fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ.  The promised Messiah is not from the prominent southern tribes of Judah or Benjamin, but from the insignificant tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali in Galilee.  Those who accept the words of Jesus that the kingdom of God is at hand are moved by his miracles and respond with repentance.  The two sets of brothers, Peter and Andrew and James and John, express their repentance by leaving everything to follow the new light they have seen in the person of Jesus Christ.  They leave their families, their occupations, and the comforts of their daily existence to become part of the kingdom of God in their midst.

            Through this same Gospel, Jesus is calling us to become more intentional disciples.  As we open our ears and our hearts to the Gospel of Saint Matthew this year, he will invite us to let go of whatever hinders us from accepting his message of salvation.  He will call us to repent of those habits and behaviors that keep up from living moral lives.  He will call us to repent of the ways in which we fail to see through eyes of faith the Kingdom of God already in our midst. In other words, repentance implies that we embrace more completely the person of Jesus Christ given to us by the Holy Spirit at our Baptism. 

      In writing to the Corinthians, Saint Paul provides specific ways of repenting.  Paul knew that there are many factions and divisions in the Church of Corinth.  He addresses those threats to the unity of the Body of Christ by insisting that their fellowship must be based on the person of Jesus Christ, and not on the various leaders in the community.  He says the same to us.  There are many factions in our Church causing division today.  Some favor Pope Benedict over Pope Francis.  Others identify themselves as progressive or traditional.  Some argue for the return of the Latin Mass.  Even within Catholic Social Teaching, there are conflicts about the different priorities of respecting the dignity of each human person made in the image of God.

Within the divisions found in the broader Catholic Church and of the many ministries of our parish family, there is a rich diversity.  Where there is diversity, there is also the potential for conflict and division.  We can put the words of Saint Paul into action this week.  When a friend asks us for the hundredth time to make the Christ Renews His Parish Retreat, we might actually listen and talk honestly instead of ignoring that person.  We might even begin the practice of praying for guidance to see how God is calling us to use our gifts for the common good of the parish.  When we follow the advice of Saint Paul, we realize that the source of our faith must be rooted in Jesus Christ and our conviction that the Kingdom of God is present in him through the power of the Holy Spirit. Then, we become more intentional disciples, permitting the light of Christ to shine more fully through us in a world broken by war, racism, hatred, and sin.  The prophecy of Isaiah has been fulfilled, and we can be the witnesses of the person of Jesus Christ.

THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD

12 JANUARY 2020

          Last Sunday, we celebrated the Epiphany of the Lord.  Epiphany is a Greek word that means “to manifest”.  Saint Matthew tells the story of the Magi led by a star to encounter the newborn king of the Jews.  Through their human eyes, the Magi see an ordinary child wrapped in swaddling clothes.  Through their eyes of faith, they recognize God manifested in that child.  Their gifts speak of the child’s identity:  gold for a king, frankincense for God, and myrrh for a suffering servant who will sacrifice his life out of love.

            On this last Sunday of the Christmas Season, Saint Matthew tells the story of another Epiphany, another manifestation.  Jesus asks John to baptize him in the waters of the Jordan.  John is reluctant, because his baptism is one of repentance.  John baptizes people who need to change their lives and turn toward God as a sign of their repentance.  John knows that Jesus does not need to repent, because he is the promised Messiah.  But he gives in to the insistence of Jesus, who argues that his baptism fulfills all righteousness.  Once Jesus emerges from those waters, the heavens are opened, the Spirit of God appears as a dove, and the Father’s voice manifests his true identity.  “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

            With this Epiphany, this manifestation, Jesus begins his public ministry.  He is the servant promised by the prophet Isaiah.  He will become a light for the nations.  He will open the eyes of the blind.  He will bring out prisoners from confinement.  He will free those who live in darkness.  Jesus allows himself to be baptized, not because he needs to repent, but because he shows his solidarity with us sinners in everything except sin.

            Tomorrow we leave the Christmas Season and return to Ordinary Time.  We will hear from the Gospel of Saint Matthew on most Sundays.  Matthew insists that Jesus Christ fulfills all promises and expectations of the Old Testament.  He will use the word “righteousness” fifteen more times to remind us that Jesus Christ has ushered in the Kingdom of God, giving us a right relationship with him and the Father and the Holy Spirit.

            Baptism is at the heart of our calling as disciples of Jesus Christ.  Whether we baptized as infants or as adults, we were immersed with Christ through those waters.  With our Baptismal Font, both adults and infants can be immersed, signifying that they enter into the tomb with Christ and rise with him to new life.  Then they pass through the courtyard to enter the church, representing their union with the Mystical Body of Christ.  There is a reason why we dip our hands into the holy water fonts and sign ourselves with the cross when we enter the church.  It is a way to manifest our own identity.  We are living witnesses of our faith.  We proclaim the Lord’s death and profess his resurrection with our very lives.

            We call this first year of our parish strategic plan the “year of evangelization.” We evangelize best by living our baptismal promises. 

·        We too are called to become a light to others when we allow the light of Christ’s love to shine through us in loving others without conditions.  

·        We too are called to open the eyes of the blind when we are honest enough to admit that we don’t always see the Lord’s presence in other people. 

·        We too are called to bring people out of darkness by sharing a kind word or expressing true compassion. 

·        We too are called to offer sincere forgiveness to set prisoners free (including ourselves).

·        We too are beloved sons and daughters of God.  God has grasped us by the hand in the waters of baptism.

THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD

5 JANUARY 2020

          When the Magi studied the heavenly bodies, they presumed that they would find the newborn king of the Jews in the capital city, Jerusalem.  Instead, they encountered the current king of the Jews  Herod was wealthy, powerful, and corrupt, and terribly insecure, eliminating his own children whom he thought were plotting to take his place.  King Herod consulted the chief priests and scribes, who knew the Scriptures and directed the pagan Magi to Bethlehem.  Ironically, those who should have heeded the Scriptures did not care.  Those who did not know the divine Revelation desired to pay homage to the newborn king.  Having followed the star to Bethlehem, they found the new born king born into poverty in a stable and vulnerable.  They prostrated themselves and presented gifts:  gold for a king, frankincense for God, and myrrh. 

            Myrrh was used to prepare bodies for burial in the ancient world.  The gift of myrrh given to the child Jesus reminds us that he was born to die some 33 years later outside Jerusalem, a few miles from Bethlehem.  This gift helps us to understand that birth and death are two sides of the same coin.  That was my experience at both of my parents’ deaths.  Though painful in dying, they were being born into eternity.  T.S. Eliot wrote a beautiful poem, The Journey of the Magi to emphasize this connection.  Now an old man, one of the Magi, reflects on his journey:

            …This:  were we led all that way for

            Birth or Death?  There was a Birth, certainly.

            We had evidence and no doubt.  I had seen birth and death,

            But had thought they were different; this Birth was

            Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.

            We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,

            But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,

            With an alien people clutching their gods.

            I should be glad of another death.

The Magi had been profoundly changed by their encounter with Christ.  That is why they went home by another way.  Once home, they were no longer comfortable with their pagan gods and old ways of doing things.  They had to die to the old dispensation to live with this Mystery.

            That dying is at the heart of our Catholic faith.  In her Magnificat, Mary proclaims that God has cast down the mighty from their thrones with the birth of her son.  That is why Herod was threatened by this birth.  Throughout his public ministry, Jesus insisted over and over again that his disciples must die to themselves to rise with him.  He demonstrated that truth by entering death itself.  That truth enables us to learn to die to ourselves and our selfish ways and to see our own deaths in the light of faith.  When we die, we can be reborn into eternity.

            We are grateful for the faith of the Magi.  Through their human eyes, they see much more than an ordinary child born in Bethlehem.  They fall down and worship God in human flesh.  They invite us to do the same.  We see with our human eyes ordinary bread and ordinary wine.  But with eyes of faith, we know them to be the Body and Blood of the Lord.  Instead of bringing him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, we can bring him great “spiritual gifts, more sublime than those which can be seen with eyes”.  (Gregory Nazianzen)  Today’s feast invites us to bury all of our old ways of sinfulness.  We can let go of our past mistakes.  We can forgive others and ourselves.  We can rise, like the daystar rising in the east. We can have the courage to trust that when we die to those old ways, we can rise to being born as more intentional disciples, changed by our celebration of the Christmas Mystery.

THE HOLY FAMILY OF JESUS, MARY, AND JOSEPH

29 DECEMBER 2019

          When Saint Paul writes to the Church of Colossae, he calls them God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved.  God had chosen them to enter into an intimate relationship with his son.  Already beloved because they had been created in the divine image, they became holy when they were baptized.  Having emerged from the waters of Baptism, they were clothed in a white garment, signifying their unique union with Christ.

            Saint Paul challenges the Colossians to wear that garment well.  He speaks not about a physical garment, but the clothing of holiness:  heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.  Clothed in Christ, they must bear with one another and forgive one another.  He knows that members of a family can develop a grievance against one another.  He reminds those clothed in Christ to forgive one another, precisely because God forgives them. 

Saint Paul speaks this same message to us.  We are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved.  We have passed through the waters of Baptism.  Once we emerged from those saving waters, we were clothed with a white garment, signifying our union with Christ.  Saint Paul challenges us to respond to God’s heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience by wearing those same garments ourselves.  Those garments represent our outward actions toward one another, especially in our willingness to forgive as Christ as forgiven us.  But they also represent our inner dispositions, expressing our trust that the Lord Jesus can transform us.

            Saint Matthew gives us a model for holiness:  the holy family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.  At first glance, we might get discouraged.  How can we compete with a family like this?  The son is God himself, the mother is a virgin who never sinned, and the father is a quiet man who responds immediately to the angel’s messages to him in dreams without uttering a single word!  However, we can understand that their marks of holiness can become ours.  The Scriptures tell us very little about this family.  But we they observed religious traditions.  They communicated, especially when their child was lost in the Temple.  This family is bound together by love, the bond of perfection.  Faced with the danger posed by Herod, the parents trust the Father and take the risk of fleeing to Egypt to protect the child.  As a toddler, Jesus probably took his first steps as an immigrant in a foreign land.  The parents continue to trust the Father when the angel tells Joseph in a dream to return to Nazareth.  Saint Matthew gives this detail to express the reality that God had always been with his people.  God had been with the brothers of Joseph when they went to Egypt to escape famine.  God had been with his people when Moses led them through the desert to the Promised Land.  God continues to be with this particular family in their dangers.

            We celebrate this Feast of the Holy Family during the Octave of Christmas.  We continue to reflect on the Incarnation, on the Mystery of God dwelling in our midst through Jesus Christ.  We are called to be holy, to wear the garments of our baptism, as a parish family.  We evangelize best with humility and trust when we wear those garments.  The same is true of the individual human families in our parish. When Saint Paul wrote to the Colossians, he used the family structure of his day, urging wives to be submissive to their husbands.  But he also departed in a radical way from the way the culture expected men to behave.  He insisted that husbands love their wives as Christ loved his bride the Church:  dying for them.  He speaks to us today, no matter what our individual families may look like. Our families may conform themselves to the patterns of holiness in our culture.  But they can be radically transformed by taking Paul’s advice and clothing themselves in Christ. Wear those garments proudly.  They define who we are.

CHRISTMAS     

25 DECEMBER 2019

          Christmas teaches us how God chooses to be present to us.  The Word could have taken flesh in a politically stable environment.  Instead, the Incarnation happened in a troubled little kingdom dominated by Roman occupation.  Jesus could have been born in a comfortable palace.    Instead, he was born in a smelly stable full of animals.  His parents could have had supportive family around to help them.  Instead, the birth occurred far from home in a crowded village.  Local dignitaries could have been the first to welcome the child.  Instead his first visitors were nomadic peasants who moved around with their flocks and could not be trusted by the locals. 

            As we gather to celebrate the mystery of the Incarnation, no one has to tell us that we live in a messy world.  In both our culture and our Church, we are polarized and deeply divided.  We may not live in stables.  But we all have our share of messes that smell.  Some are separated from families and supportive friends at this time of the year and feel very lonely.  Some of us find ourselves mourning the loss of loved ones.

            Into our messy world, Christ enters and wants to dwell with us.  Christmas is not a one-time event that happened a long time ago in Bethlehem.  The Christmas miracle happens every time we open our hearts to trust in God and let him take flesh through the work of our hands.  The Christmas miracle happens when we listen attentively to the Word of God, like Mary did, and allow the Lord’s will to take place in our lives.  The Christmas miracle happens when we ask Saint Joseph to help us respond to others with compassion in the midst of doubt and despair.  The Christmas miracle happens when we become angels of peace to bring radiant hope into a lonely person’s darkness through words of encouragement.  The Christmas miracle happens when we make haste to seek Christ in the poor, the lowly, the rejected, and the outcast.  

            It is not a coincidence that we celebrate the Christmas miracle at the darkest time of the year.  We can identify with darkness, because we live with the darkness of war, hatred, prejudice, disease, and the devastating results of bad choices that we all make.  The Christmas miracle reminds us that the Lord is truly the light of the world.  That light shines in the darkness of our fragile and broken world.  That light reminds us that the Lord can dwell in our midst, if we are only open to his coming to us.

            All of us are in different places as we gather on this Christmas.  Some of us have the good fortune of celebrating Christmas surrounded by positive and supportive family members.  If life is good, we need to thank the newborn Christ for this gift and not take it for granted.  Others are in more difficult situations.  We can trust that the Lord Jesus can take flesh in your life, just as surely as he took flesh in the messy situations of his birth in his own day.  Christmas reminds us to open our hearts to the incredible love God has shown by dwelling in our midst.

            When we walk away from this Christmas, we return to the same messy world that may not appear fundamentally changed by the Mystery we celebrate.  However, this Mystery has the power to change us.  God shared in our humanity so that we can share in his divinity.  When we truly believe that this is true, then we can make a difference.  We can evangelize.  Saint Bernard of Clairvaux said it best:  “let your goodness, Lord, appear to us, that we, made in your image, may conform ourselves to it.  In our own strength, we cannot imagine your majesty, power and wonder; nor is it fitting for us to try.  But your mercy reaches from the heavens, through the clouds, to the earth below.  You have come to us as a small child, but you have brought us the greatest of all gifts, the gift of your eternal love.  Caress us with your tiny hands, embrace us with your tiny arms, and pierce our hearts with your soft, sweet cries.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.”