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.