FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

28 JANUARY 2024

 

          At the time of Jesus, scribes and anyone claiming to be a teacher based their teachings on the authority of a previous scholar of the law.  Ultimately, they traced all their teaching authority to Moses.  In today’s reading from the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses calls himself the prophet.  But he also promises that God will raise up for his people among their kin a prophet like him. 

            Mark sees this prophecy fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth, who returns to Capernaum, the center of his ministry in Galilee.  Unlike the scribes and other rabbis, he preaches with his own authority.  People are amazed at his teaching, but are unable to connect the dots to know his true identity.  However, the unclean spirit who possesses the man knows exactly who he is.  The unclean spirit knows that Jesus is the prophet promised by Moses.  The unclean spirit realizes that Jesus is lord of the Sabbath, unlike the scribes who will eventually condemn Jesus for ignoring the Law of Moses by healing on the Sabbath.  The unclean spirit knows that Jesus will eventually destroy the power of the demons by entering into the darkness of death himself.

            At this Mass, we continue to listen to Jesus speaking directly to each one of us.  We know that he fulfills the prophecy of Moses.  He speaks with authority to us.  In celebrating his death and resurrection made present at this Eucharist, we know what that unclean spirit knows.  He has defeated the power of Satan.  He has the power to drive him out.  But the demons never quit.  They do everything possible to distract us from believing this mystery.           

            There is no shortage of the demon’s activities in our world today.  Wars are raging out of control, and innocent victims are suffering greatly.  We live in a deeply divided and polarized society, where we tend to demonize those who disagree with us.  There is a callous disregard for the sanctity of human life.  It is so much easier to put other priorities first.  It is becoming more difficult to tell the difference between what is true and what is false.  As the father of lies, the devil loves the chaos caused by so many untruths.

            Saint Paul is fully aware of his own demons when he writes to the Church at Corinth.  He had been blind to the truth about Jesus of Nazareth and had persecuted his followers.  He had been arrogant and prideful of the way he practiced his faith as a Pharisee.  But he encountered the Lord on the road to Damascus.  He recognized Jesus Christ is the long-promised Messiah who could cast out his demons.  He preached this message to the Gentiles as a celibate man.       Each one of us is a follower of Jesus Christ in our current vocations.  Most of you are married, and some of us remain single or committed to living a celibate life.  In his Letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul is speaking from his own perspective.  As a celibate man, he concentrates all his energies in embracing the person of Jesus Christ, who had cast out his demons.  We also need to acknowledge that we have demons that speak lies to us and tempt us to believe that division and hatred and chaos are part of the fabric of human life.  Jesus has the power to cast out those demons.  He can free us to trust more completely in his power.  With our demons cast out, we can have the serenity of the man in today’s Gospel.  We can know the peace that Saint Paul lived with, even in the midst of all of the challenges he faced.

            The Season of Lent is coming much more quickly than usual this year.  As we prepare to enter those forty days of repentance, we might spend some time in prayer to identify the demons that each of us possesses.  It might be the demon of arrogance and pride.  It might be the demon of attraction to an unhealthy habit.  It might be the demon of envy or greed or jealousy.  It might be the demon that continues to tell us that we cannot trust in the Lord’s plan for us.  Through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we can face our demons and allow the Lord to drive them out.

 

THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD

7 JANUARY 2024

 

          The prophet Isaiah knows the darkness that covers the earth and the thick clouds over his people.  They had just returned from their fifty-year exile in Babylon.  Most of them had never been in Jerusalem.  They had been born in captivity.  They heard of the glories of the city of Jerusalem and the beauty and grandeur of the temple from their parents.  However, there is no glory and no beauty or grandeur in the land they now inhabit.  The Babylonians  had left the city in absolute ruins and destroyed the temple.  They face the daunting task of rebuilding both. 

            But the prophet insists that this darkness and the thick clouds will not last.  The prophet promises that the bright light of God’s presence will shine forth in Jerusalem.  That light will attract people from far off places and bring their sons and daughters to be part of this great light.  Caravans of camels will come from Midian and Ephah and Sheba bringing expensive gifts to proclaim the praises of the Lord. 

            Saint Matthew announces that the prophecy of Isaiah has been fulfilled.  He does not tell us why the mysterious magi come to pay homage to the newborn king of the Jews.  They more than likely come from the remains of Babylon where there is a strong and active community of Jewish people who continue to live in exile.  They are drawn by what may have been a super nova lighting up the sky and casting its light on the city of Jerusalem.  After a long journey, they meet the present king, Herod. 

            Herod asks the chief priests and scribes about the birth of the Christ, the long-awaited Messiah.  They quote the prophet Micah who speaks of Bethlehem as the place from which the Messiah will shepherd his people.  Herod is both devious and paranoid.  He does not want any newborn king to rival him.  He has already killed some of his own sons.  The religious leaders have gotten the message and ignored it.  Herod sends the magi who have no understanding to Bethlehem.  He tells them to bring the information back so he can pay the newborn king homage.

            They recognize the divine light in the child who is with his mother (and more than likely with Joseph) in a house in Bethlehem.  They give him gifts.  There is a running joke that if they had been wise women instead of wise men, they would have given more practical gifts – diapers, warm clothing, and baby formula.  But these gifts are not practical.  They reveal the true identity and mission of this child.  The gold points to the reality that he is a king.  The frankincense indicates that he is God.  The myrrh reveals his mission as the Suffering Servant.  The wood of his manger will eventually be replaced by the wood of the cross.  As a human person, he will embrace the most difficult part of being human – sharing completely in our suffering and in our death.  His body will be anointed with myrrh at his burial.  He will be raised from the dead.

            We too know our share of darkness that covers the earth and the thick clouds over us.  The wars in the Holy Land, Ukraine, and Sudan give us reason to mourn over the destruction of so many innocent people at the hands of ruthless leaders.  Our own country is torn apart by anger and hatred.  We suffer divisions in our Church that cause fear and confusion and pain.  And yet, we have also encountered the incredible reality that God has taken on human flesh and dwells in the midst of all our darkness.  Have you ever noticed that all religious art depicting the birth of Christ is filled with light?  That light does not come from some external source.  That light comes directly from the child lying in the manger.

            We can leave the Christmas Season tomorrow with the same hope that the prophet gave to his people.  God dwells in our midst.  No darkness can overcome it.  God’s light, present in the Lord Jesus Christ who dwells in our midst, will prevail.       

 

HOLY FAMILY OF JESUS, MARY, AND JOSEPH

31 DECEMBER 2023

 

          The readings from the Book of Genesis and the Letter to the Hebrews help us to understand the dynamics of an authentic faith.  Abram heard God’s call and believed that God would settle him and his family in a new home.  Once established in the land, he continued to trust that God would provide Sarah and him with children, even in their advanced in age.  When God finally blessed them with Isaac, their child, Abraham’s faith was tested.  He obeyed God’s command to sacrifice his only son.  Abraham was rewarded with more children than sand on the shore of the sea or the stars in the sky (one of the Covenants in the center aisle).

            Many centuries later, two of Abraham’s children come to the temple in Jerusalem to express their belief in God and dedicate their newborn son.  Joseph and Mary could have ignored the law, given the circumstances of their son’s birth.  They can only afford a pair of turtledoves, unlike most residents of Jerusalem who could bring a lamb for the sacrifice.  They offer their humble sacrifice to express their trust that the Lord would remain with them, no matter what might happen to them.  They meet Simeon, who recognizes their child as the promised messiah for whom he had waited all his life.  Along with the pious old woman Anna, Simeon blesses them but warns them of the pain that will come with their son’s mission.  Their son would obey the will of his Father to go to the sacrifice of the cross to express his total gift of love.

            Saint Luke tells us that Anna is an old widow who has spent her entire life praying in the temple.  That prayer has opened her eyes to see the truth about this child.  Saint Luke does not specify the age of Simeon, even though we often presume that he is an old man.  Whatever his age, his encounter with the child allows him to leave the temple in peace.  This encounter changes his life, much like so many other people who will be changed by their encounters with Jesus Christ as he grows in faith, trust, and obedience as an adult.

            We too have encountered the newborn Christ in this Christmas Season.  Like Simeon, we have held him in our hands or on our tongues when we have received his real presence in Holy Communion.  Like Anna, we can give thanks to the Father for the gift of his only begotten Son.  Like Abraham and Sarah, we can walk away from this Christmas Season with renewed trust that God will continue to be present in our families.

            Our families come in all kinds of sizes and makeups.  Today’s Feast does not invite us to compare our families with the Holy Family.  In fact, we can never compete with a father who obeys messages in dreams, with a mother who never sinned, and with a child who is God.  When I was a child, this feast of the Holy Family always depressed me, because our priests insisted that we must behave like the Holy Family.  As I rode home in the back seat of the car, fighting with my brother and sister, I knew there was no way that we could compete with that family. 

The Feast of the Holy Family invites us to a greater message – to believe in the presence of the Lord, no matter what our family looks like.  If you are a single person, know that Jesus himself embraced that vocation.  If you live in a family torn apart by divorce or separation, trust that the Lord will not abandon you, just as Abraham and Sarah trusted that the Lord would keep his promise in their new land.  If your family is experiencing a painful test of any kind, remain confident that you can survive it, as Abraham did.  No matter what difficulties our families may experience, we are called as a family bound together by baptism to trust that the Lord is present and will remain with us in thick or thin.  Jesus Christ has taken on human flesh and dwells in our midst.  That is what makes us and our families holy.

 

CHRISTMAS 2023

 

          It was exactly 800 years ago on this night that Saint Francis of Assisi put together the first Christmas creche in a cave in Greccio, Italy.  Greccio is a small town near Assisi built on a mountainside.  He wanted the people of Greccio to put themselves in the nativity scene, so that they could experience the presence of the Word made Flesh in their midst – God with us.  He prepared a manger and brought hay, along with an ox and a donkey and other animals.  His friars recruited people from the town to take the roles of the human characters.   

            Saint Bonaventure describes what happened.  Francis, who was a deacon, stood before the manger radiant with joy and chanted the Gospel and preached to the people around the nativity of the poor King.  Overcome with love for him, he was unable to utter his name and called him the Babe of Bethlehem.  Master John of Greccio had left the military and witnessed the miracles that resulted from this first creche.  During the Mass, the baby Jesus appeared in the manger.  Francis went to the manger and held the babe in his arms as if to awaken him from sleep.  The people of the town preserved the hay of the manger, which miraculously cured all diseases of cattle and many other pestilences.

            Eight hundred years later, we continue this practice begun by Saint Francis in the creches which we put underneath our Christmas trees at home.  We have a more than life-sized creche in the Parish Life Center, with lots of hay.  We have the carved olive tree from our Holy Land pilgrimage last year.  It contains hand crafted figures connecting us to our friends in Bethlehem who are suffering so much this Christmas. 

            Our creches invite us to enter more deeply into that great mystery we celebrate today.  Jesus did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at.  Instead, he emptied himself and became one of us in the flesh.  He was not born in a royal palace.  Instead, he was born in poverty – in a stable in an insignificant village.  The angels announced his birth not to the rulers in Jerusalem nor to the religious leaders.  They announced it to shepherds living on the margins of society.  The wood of the manger which held him securely would one day give way to the wood of the cross.  On that cross, he would lower himself out of absolute love to take on human suffering and death.  By doing this, he unites himself with our suffering and conquers our death.

            Today, we celebrate this incredible Mystery of God taking on human flesh and dwelling among us.  We hear the announcements of the angels in the Liturgy of the Word and fall on our knees in the middle of the creed, as Saint Francis did in his creche.  Like Francis, we hold the Lord’s real presence in our hands or on our tongues when we receive Communion.  Like the residents of Greccio, we are sent forth to proclaim the Miracle of our Savior’s birth.

            We don’t need to take the hay from our creche.  But, we can take the Christmas Miracle with us.  When we are more patient with family members who get on our nerves, we take the Christmas Miracle with us.  When we listen to those with whom we disagree and not write them off, we take the Christmas Miracle with us.  When we maintain hope that wars will end and peace will be established, we take the Christmas Miracle with us.  When we see our infinite God in the small and trivial and insignificant moments of our lives, we take the Christmas Miracle with us.  No matter what may happen in the coming year, we can take the Christmas Miracle to maintain our confidence that darkness will not prevail.  The Christmas Miracle is Emmanuel – God with us, made flesh, and born in our hearts today.

 

 

 

FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT

17 DECEMBER 2023

 

          King David has been very successful.  After years of fighting, he has finally attained peace.  So, he consults with his prophet, Nathan about building a proper temple for the Lord.  He enjoys living in a house of cedar, while the Ark of the Covenant dwells in a tent.  At first, Nathan agrees with him.  However, after consulting the Lord, Nathan comes back to say that God has greater plans for David.  Nathan reminds the king that all of his successes are not his alone.  They are due to the Lord working through him.  His son, Solomon, will build the physical temple.  God will raise up an heir from his house and make his throne will stand firm forever.  God promises to be a father to this heir.  David’s house and his kingdom shall endure forever.

            This is the last of the Old Testament Covenants in our church’s main aisle.  In the center of the mosaic, there is an image of the Ark of the Covenant, carried by David’s ancestors as they journeyed in the Desert of Sinai from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land.  The Ark of the Covenant contains the tablets given to Moses at Mount Sinai.  Above the Ark is David’s crown.  Like all of the Covenants in our center aisle, this final Covenant represents God’s loving promise and commitment that will never be revoked.

            Saint Luke clearly sees this promise and Covenant fulfilled in the birth announcement to a young Jewish woman in the remote small town of Nazareth.  This birth announcement follows the pattern of former birth announcements in the Old Testament.  The Angel appears and greets Mary with the words, “Hail, full of grace!  The Lord is with you”.  Mary expresses her fear at the sudden and unexpected visit from one of the Lord’s messengers.  Then Gabriel gives her the message.  She is to conceive and bear a son whom she will name “Jesus”.  He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High.”  Mary then raises an objection.  She has never been married and has had no relations with a man.  The angel assures her that the Holy Spirit will overshadow her and gives her a sign.  Her elderly cousin, Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah, have conceived a child in their old age and are now in the sixth month of their pregnancy.

            Mary trusts Gabriel’s word that nothing will be impossible for God.  Even though Mary has no idea what will be involved, she freely agrees and calls herself the handmaid of the Lord.  She opens herself to God’s word and never turns back.  Through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, Mary becomes the living Ark of the Covenant.  There are no words written on stone tablets in her womb.  Instead, she bears the living Word of God who will change the entire history of the world.

            Mary could have said no to the Lord’s request, as Eve had done at the beginning of time.  Instead, she trusts whatever God has in mind.  She would continue to trust the message of the Angel throughout her entire life.  She may have suffered much.  But she never wavered, whether as an immigrant in Egypt or standing on a hill of execution watching her son die a terrible death.

            Because Mary trusted that the  promise made to David would be fulfilled in her, we will celebrate the Mystery of the Incarnation tomorrow and Monday at all the Christmas Masses.  Mary teaches us how to enter into the Christmas Masses.  Like her, we trust that nothing will be impossible for God.  We trust that our celebration of this incredible mystery has the power to change us.  We trust that the Lord will be present to us, not matter what may happen with our families at Christmas and into the New Year.

 

THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT

17 DECEMBER 2023

 

          In this section of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, the Prophet speaks for the Lord to a people living in darkness.  They are poor and brokenhearted.  They had been captives in Babylon for fifty years.  They have finally returned to Jerusalem.  Because most of them had been born in exile, they are in the Promised Land for the first time.  After a long journey, they did not find a beautiful temple and a glorious city that their parents had described.  Instead, they found ruins and destruction and devastation.  Now, they have the very difficult task of rebuilding.

            The Prophet tells them to rejoice heartily in the Lord.  Having freed them from captivity, the Lord comes as a bridegroom meeting Jerusalem, his bride.  He promises that she will be clothed in a robe of salvation and wrapped in a mantle of justice and bedecked with jewels.  In other words, God promises that Jerusalem will reclaim her role to reflect God’s glory and power to all the nations.

            In his Gospel, Saint John sees this prophecy fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ.  John the Baptist is wildly popular with the people.  He has struck a chord by baptizing those who have a change of heart.  But he is also very humble.  In responding to the questions of the religious leaders, he insists that he is not the Christ, the promised Messiah for whom they had waited for centuries.  He is not Elijah, whom the faithful had expected to come again to save them.  He is not the Prophet, another Moses who will lead his people from Roman control to freedom.  He does not allow his popularity to go to his head.  Instead, he points away from himself to Jesus Christ, who is coming as the light shining in darkness.

            In testifying to Jesus Christ, Baptist is the first of many who will encounter him and become witnesses to other people in the Gospel of Saint John.  This will happen to the woman at the well, the man born blind, and Lazarus.  By insisting on who he is not, the Baptist is pointing to Jesus, the light of the world, who will reveal his divinity by saying “I am”  many times in this Gospel, repeating God’s answer to Moses in asking his identity.  “I am the light of the world.”  “I am the Good Shepherd.”  “I am the bread of life.”  “I am the resurrection and the life.” 

            In many ways, we share the darkness of those exiles returning from Babylon six centuries before the birth of Christ.  We live in physical darkness.  Today is one of the darkest days of the year.  We will experience only nine hours and twenty-seven minutes of daylight.  That leaves us with more than fourteen hours of darkness.  Besides physical darkness, we live at a very dark time in history.  We witness the horror of war on too many fronts:  in the war between Israel and Hamas, in the wars in Ukraine and Sudan, and in more conflicts around the world.  Because of the war, there is no celebration of Christmas in Bethlehem this year.  The dignity of human life is ignored on a regular basis in our own country, with gun violence and abortion taking the lives of innocent people.  We live in a deeply divided society where it is easy to shout at one another and argue about what is actually true.  We’ve got climate change, natural disasters and personal insecurity about relationships, jobs, health and retirement.

            And yet, Saint Paul gives us the same advice that the Prophet had given to his people:  “rejoice always.”  On this Gaudete Sunday, we wear rose vestments and light the rose candle.  With John the Baptist, we point away from ourselves and away from any personal darkness to Jesus Christ, the light of the world.  We wait to celebrate his first coming as a poor infant born in a stable.  We wait in joyful hope for him to come again, at the end of our lives or in the second coming.  This darkness will not last.  Our hope is not based on some wishful thinking.  Our hope is based on how God’s light has illumined other dark times.  The light of Christ will prevail.  

 

SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT

10 DECEMBER 2023

 

          In this section of the Prophet Isaiah, the Prophet speaks a word of comfort to his people.  They need to hear it.  They have languished in captivity in Babylon for five decades.  Everything they had cherished had been destroyed – the city of Jerusalem, their temple, their leadership, and their future.  The Prophet gives them hope.  It is not a hope based on wishful thinking.  It is a hope based on God’s faithful promises in the past.  This hope is based on God forgiving them for their infidelity to the Covenant, as God had done many times in the past.  God will make straight paths for them in the desert, as he had done for their ancestors in leading them through a desert from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land.  Unlike their human leaders who had served themselves, God will be a loving shepherd leading them back to Mount Zion, where they will once again proclaim tidings of good news.

            That is why the Lord has led us into this Season of Advent.  No matter how messed up our troubled world may be, Advent invites us to renew our hope that the Lord will come again to make all things new.  At the Second Coming, there will be no more brutal wars and disrespect for the dignity of the human person.  No matter how difficult our personal lives may be, Advent invites us to peer through the darkness and see the light of Christ’s love.  This hope is not wishful thinking, like hoping that the Chicago Bears will turn things around and start winning more games.  It is a hope based on God’s action in the past.

            We hear the beginning of the Gospel according to Mark.  He proclaims incredibly joyful tidings.  Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Anointed One, the long-awaited Messiah.  He is the Son of God, not just another human being speaking for God.  Throughout this new Liturgical Year, we will hear from the Mark’s Gospel.  Mark has already given us the truth about Jesus Christ that people will gradually come to know.  With this truth in mind, we can wait to celebrate the first coming of Jesus Christ in a couple of weeks.  We wait in hope to celebrate that birth will make Christmas much more meaningful for us.  Our waiting renews our hope that the Mystery of the Incarnation makes a difference in our lives.  Our waiting also renews our hope that we will be prepared for second coming of Jesus Christ at a time we do not know.

            Saint John the Baptist gives us some hints on how to wait for the Coming of the Lord.  He does not proclaim his message in the sacred temple or on the crowded streets of Jerusalem.  He goes to the barren desert, where he points the way to the promised Messiah.  Mindful of the food consumed by his ancestors in the Desert, he eats locusts and wild honey.  Like Elijah, the first prophet of ancient Israel, he is clothed in camel’s hair.  We don’t need to eat locusts and honey.  We don’t need to go shopping for camel’s hair clothing.  But, the Baptist invites us to withdraw from the hectic pace of the “holiday season” to spend some time in quiet prayer.  When we take a few moments each day to reflect in prayer, we can be more aware of the ways that the Lord has come into our lives.  Our hope is based on the Lord’s faithfulness to us in the past.  Getting to know him better now prepares us for his Second Coming. 

            The Baptist also calls us to repent.  In quiet prayer, we become more aware of the times we have chosen to ignore the Lord’s presence or deny him by our actions.  Instead of carrying our guilt on our shoulders or blaming other people for our problems, we can bring them our sins to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and give them over to the Lord.  In this Sacrament, he truly takes away our sins.  He gives us the grace to move forward and do what the Baptist did – point away from ourselves and draw attention to Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  That is our hope.  We will not be disappointed.