How Lenten Masses are like Braveheart!?!?

 + J. M. J. +

Things this priest thinks about...

Some time ago, I realized that sitting in the confessional, often on a Saturday morning, waiting for people to come reminded me of something... what was it?  I realized it was just like sitting in my deerblind, all my senses attuned, hoping to hear a leaf rustle or a stick crack.  And, then, often it would be a squirrel! Similarly, just when I would think someone was coming towards the confessional, I would realize it was just the building settling!

Well, recently, something like this happened again! We did a silent recessional during Advent at St. Al's and St. Anne's, a simple way to simplify the liturgy and create a sense of waiting and expectation during these preparatory seasons.  Singing is very good, and so is silence!  Frankly, during Advent, it didn't go so well! There was lots of rustling, lots of people who didn't realize what we were doing or why, and some people who were disgruntled about it!  Discussing it with the team, I decided that we would try it again during Lent, but with more effort to explain and remind people of it.  However, as we got started, it all just fell into place, and people have been really good about standing quietly in their places, with relatively little grabbing for jackets and purses and making noise!  If fact, I have felt a very beautiful stillness and quiet during those moments after the blessing as I kiss the altar, and genuflect at the foot of the sanctuary, and then quietly follow the altar servers out.  But, once again, it reminded me of something and I couldn't quite place it!

And, then, last Sunday, I placed it... that hush, that pause, that expectation... my own hope that nobody would make a break for it and spoil the moment... it reminded me of the scenes in movies where everybody's waiting in the ambush, or the attack, for the special signal!  A trumpet, a flare, and then the tumult is unleashed!  Oftentimes, someone will mess it up and jump the gun... or the general will say, "If anybody charges too early, I'll skewer them myself!"  Or, from the Battle of New Orleans, "Ol' Hickory said we could take 'em by surprise if we held our squirrelgun fire till we looked 'em in the eyes..."

That's what it feels like as I'm processing out in the hush, hoping no one jumps the gun!

One time I didn't time it right with the closing hymn, and the final verse finished while I was still only halfway down the aisle, and I could feel everyone just pouring out of the pews behind me, and I thought to myself, "Ol' Ben, don't stumble now, or you'll be a goner!"  I had the distinct impression I would be trampled down by the hoard!

+ A. M. D. G. +

To Gaze upon another's Face

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the Second Sunday of Lent, Year A

This morning as I drank my coffee, I was looking at my garden seeds.  As it was - 16 F below zero, I was wondering if I'll every be able to plant tomatoes!  Just buying those seeds was an act of hope!  And I think that's why the Church gives us our Gospel this Sunday!

Our Gospel this Second Sunday of Lent tells us of this amazing encounter between Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, and how Peter, James, and John were witnesses to it. They gazed upon the Lord Jesus in His glory, and they gazed upon Moses, representing the Law, and Elijah, representing the Prophets. They heard the Father’s voice, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

Last Sunday we heard of Christ’s temptation in the desert, and I talked about the reality of the devil and the spiritual battle in which we live. This Sunday the Church places before us this image of grace and beauty, as if to balance the rather dire prospect of spiritual combat. When we gaze upon the beauty of the Lord’s Face, we are equipped to persevere and to overcome. It seems that this may have been why Jesus brought Peter, James, and John with Him up the mountain, so that seeing His glory they might not despair when they also saw His Passion.

We begin to experience the power and beauty of this encounter when we gaze upon the faces of our brothers and sisters. It seems to me that no musical instrument approaches the beauty of the human voice, and no scene or image in the world surpasses the beauty of the human face. Think of all the portraits and photographs… think of the icons of the Lord and the Saints! Many things in the created world are very beautiful, but when we gaze upon the face of another, when we look into another’s eyes, all other things pale and fade in comparison.

Perhaps we often think of this in the context of romantic love, and perhaps we remember what it was like to have a middle-school crush on someone, and to think about them obsessively, unable to turn our attention to anyone else! Our gaze can be immature, or compulsive, and this isn’t what I’m talking about. Think rather of the beauty of a little baby’s face, or the beauty of your grandfather’s weathered face… think of the beauty of someone you’ve loved and struggled to love for many years. The greatest beauty isn’t produced by make-up or youth or genetics or PhotoShop, but rather by love, and all the sacrifices that love makes, and all the joy that love brings, even in the midst of wounds and loss.

 I hope that some of you have seen the beautiful film Bella, which tells the tale of a woman who finds herself pregnant at a very bad time, and the broken man who walks with her in her time of testing. The film, whose name means beautiful, is beautiful on many levels, but one thing I’ve noticed as I’ve watched it with many different groups is that the majority of the film is comprised of the interplay of the two main characters’ faces. Neither of them is particularly glamorous in the film, on the contrary, they are both in the midst of deep loss and failure, but their faces are open to each other, and as the story develops, more and more open to each other. It is a love story, but not a superficial romance, and the audience is drawn into the faces and the struggles and the love.

Notice, too, how rarely we actually look into another person’s face! We’re rightly taught not to stare when we’re little, and in many circumstances it would be rude to simply lock eyes with each person we encounter. There is power in such a gaze, and vulnerability.

Just as there is rightly caution in our faces when we meet other people, perhaps there is often caution and hesitation when we seek to gaze upon the Lord’s face. Our psalm says, “See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him, upon those who hope for his kindness…” God never ceases to gaze upon our faces, holding us in love, even in existence, by His look of love, but we often fail to look back with open eyes. The words of our entrance antiphon today are beautiful, “Of you my heart has spoken: Seek his face. It is your face, O Lord, that I seek; hide not your face from me.” This is the eternal and infinite desire of our hearts, to gaze upon the Lord’s face, and if we will respond and cooperate with God’s call, this is how we will spend eternity, in loving, and being loved. Peter babbled in the light of Jesus’ glory about building tents, and when they heard the Father’s voice, they fell down, very much afraid. We should not lightly assume we are ready to see God’s face, or to hear His voice, but we should seek them nonetheless. God’s love for us is, in St. Paul’s words, “made manifest through the appearance of our savior Christ Jesus, who destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” If we will allow the light and glory of heaven to shine in our eyes, to shine into our hearts, we will be made ready to gaze upon the light of the Father’s countenance, to see His face, which will fill our hearts.

We are in a battle with the World, the Flesh, and the Devil, and our Lord Jesus was Himself tempted. The same Jesus who was tempted allowed three to glimpse His glory that day, and He calls us into that same glory. May we notice the hunger in our hearts, and may we look for the Lord, and may we receive Him now, His own Body and Blood, which sustain and heal and prepare us for the day when we will see Him Face to Face.

+ A. M. D. G. + 

Spiritual Combat: Revealing the Enemy's Tactics

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Notes for the First Sunday of Lent, Year A

As some of you may know, I was able to ski the 50 K Classic race at the Great Bear Chase in Calumet today, and I think it was particularly appropriate during this Lenten Season of Penance… I’m not light, or light on my feet, and I’m not in great shape, and with about 10 miles to go, I tweaked one of my hamstrings, so I had plenty to offer up!

Why is penance so necessary in our fallen world? Why does the Church call us to penance so steadfastly?

Our readings today in our readings unveil the source of sin and death, and also of tell us of Christ’s victory over both sin and death.

We begin in Genesis… Adam and Eve are created free, free from sin, but free to choose toward God or away from him. When they encounter the serpent, the dragon, they give into fear and cunning. We often imagine Eve alone with a snake, but the Hebrew text really suggests Adam present but standing back, letting Eve face the Enemy alone, and the word that we often translate snake or serpent, had more the connotation of dragon or monster. With disobedience to God, everything began to unravel… and I suspect you can relate to this in your own life, I know I can!

One of the favorite metaphors in our Catholic Tradition of our encounter with the Enemy and with sin is “spiritual combat.” The point is not that we are called to violence, nor to glorify war, but rather to recognize that we DO have an enemy who desires our despair and destruction. It can be daunting to realize that spiritually we are at war, but it would be far worse to be under attack and to pretend it’s not happening. In our popular culture, one of the devil’s biggest victories has been to convince many people he doesn’t exist.

Adam and Eve do NOT resist, rather, they listen, and Eve enters into conversation with the tempter, she allows a note of doubt to enter in, “Did God really tell you not to…..” Again, I suspect that most of us recognize that voice all to well.

As we recognize that we are in fact under attack, that there are in fact enemy forces who seek our ruin, our Gospel gives us great reason for hope and courage… Christ has encountered the Enemy, He has done battle, and He has won. In the desert, three times Christ was tempted in His humanity, and those three temptations line up with St. Paul’s list of the sources of temptation: The World, the Flesh, and the Devil.

Christ encounters first the temptation of the Flesh… to use His power to provide Himself with bread, even though the Holy Spirit has taken Him into the desert to fast and pray. We often have opportunities to satisfy our physical and spiritual hungers contrary to God’s law, both in obvious ways, like lustful actions or gluttony, but also in more subtle ways, like sloth or pride. It seems to us in the moment of temptation that only acquiring what we desire will bring us peace… and Christ gives us the true answer, that we do not live by bread alone, but rather by the word of the Father.

Next, the devil attacks through the temptation to tempt God, to presume on God, and to gain power in a worldly way. When we make the things of God subservient to the world, when we seek to shine in the eyes of others rather than God, when we treat faith and sacrament as a means to worldly respect, we worship the world rather than God. What sets the agenda in our lives? Is it the world’s voice, or worldly ways? Or is it God and His Church? Each one of us can go deeper in placing God first and at the center, and allowing His Law to structure our lives.

Finally, the last temptation is the devil, he attacks Jesus through the attraction to worship him and so gain immeasurable power. It is often the case that we can get ahead in the world by sinning, and it is often the case that faithfulness to God comes with a price. Perhaps there are not so many people who have literally sold their souls to the devil, but there are very many who began cutting a corner here, and a corner there, and got ahead, but ended up deeply embroiled in sin. Again, at least in small ways, I think this too we have all experienced.

The devil departs, having been vanquished by the Living Word, Jesus Christ, at least for a time. In the Gospels, the battle will continue through the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Romans, and it will reach its climax on Calvary. It is sobering to recognize clearly that we are under attack, but it is true, and in that attack, we also know that we have a victor and a savior… as St. Paul says, “…through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous.” That victory comes to us now on this altar… may we bring all the places we are tempted and attacked into the light of prayer, place them on this altar, and receive from this altar the victor, Jesus Himself, and His Saving Remedy, His Body and Blood.

+ A. M. D. G. +

From a blood feud to a balanced scale to a rushing river of mercy!

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the 7th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A
We continue this week to hear from the Sermon of the Mount from the Gospel of Matthew, for the third Sunday in a row. Just to set the stage, remember that two weeks ago Jesus spoke of the need to be salt and light, and I focused on making that concrete in service to those in need, whether materially or spiritually. Then last week Jesus made it very clear that His Good News, the Gospel, is about the fulfillment of the Law, not the elimination of the Law. To summarize, following Christ necessarily involves concrete witness in our words and actions, as well as an ongoing and deep conversion whereby we fight sin both exteriorly, but also in our hearts.

I hope my words were challenging to you, I know they challenge me to live out of them, to follow my own advice so-to-speak! I pause for silence after each homily first because the Church tell me to do this in the rubrics, but I also do it for you, so if I’ve succeeded by God’s grace in saying something true, it can sink into your hearts. But I also pause so that I can allow the truth I’ve tried to express to sink into my own heart! I am just as much in need of conversion as you are, and that moment of silence helps me to embrace it. I also normally apologize to the Lord for my homily!

If the last two weeks are challenging, to serve those in need, to seek constant and interior conversion, then this week’s serving of the Gospel ups the ante considerably! Jesus’ teaching here would have gone considerably against the common Jewish understanding, and it goes against the deep structure of our fallen human nature. A desire for justice and fairness is a gift from God, but our typical pattern of fighting fire with fire is not!

Jesus begins with the so-called lex talionis: “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” This phrase is a direct quotation of from Exodus and Leviticus. It’s often held up as a barbaric practice, but in fact it’s a major improvement on actual human behavior… think of blood feuds or vendettas or mafia and drug cartel behavior, where the violence continually escalates. Think of the Cold War arms race, where each round meant that Soviets and Americans were facing each other with ever greater capacity to destroy. Mired in sin, if someone insults us we punch them in the face, they take out a gun and shoot back, and then our family rapes and burns their entire village. This is the human pattern under the reign of sin, and requiring that retaliation be similar in kind and scale is a major step in the right direction. However, it’s not the whole journey… and this is where once again Jesus’ intensifies the call of the God to us. The Jews were called to love the members of their own tribe, other Jews, and to treat Gentiles with justice. The Law limited them to fair and balanced retaliation. As Christians, we are called to forgiveness, and even to generosity towards those who harm us. We are called not merely to reject destroying our enemies, but we are called to love them.

To love our enemies… we’ve all heard the phrase many times, but if we’re honest, have we ever even tried? Remember… love is to choose the good of the other. It’s not primarily or essentially feeling warm and fuzzy towards them. At times we feel warm tenderness and affection for those we love, but not all the time. If loving our enemies meant feeling warm and fuzzy towards them, it would be an irrational and impossible teaching, but love is most fundamentally a choice, not only a feeling. With God’s grace we can choose to love our enemies, we can choose to seek their good.

Just pause and call to mind your enemies, or those you struggle to love: is it your spouse, your parent, a sibling, or a child? Is it a co-worker or your boss or your roommate? Is it the professor who gave you a failing grade or the student who ignores you and treats you with disrespect? Is it connected to a wound buried deep in the past, or from something that happened yesterday? Not infrequently we bury hurt and anger and bitterness deep in our hearts and try to pretend it’s not there… but that venom hurts us first and most of all. Holding onto a grudge, holding onto anger…. it’s like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies!

Concretely, how do we follow this call from our Lord, this teaching that He modeled for us perfectly on the Cross? First, ask for God’s help… “Lord, help me to want to forgive… fill in the blank.” If we can ask for God’s grace we have begun the journey. Forgiving and loving doesn’t mean that what happened wasn’t bad, or that we want it to happen again. It doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten or that the wound is perfectly healed. Forgiving a thief doesn’t necessarily mean we leave the door unlocked, and loving someone who has hurt us doesn’t necessarily mean we step back into the place where we were hurt. But it does mean beginning to give God our hurt and pain and anger, and it does mean praying for the person, the enemy, who has hurt us, and it does mean trusting that God can do in us that which we cannot accomplish alone.

St. Paul tells us that we are temples of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in us. Will we open all the doors, all the cupboards, all the nooks and crannies in our hearts to the Holy Spirit? As we receive Jesus’ Body and Blood, poured out on the Cross from which He forgave His executioners… will we allow His saving Blood to flood into those places? If we can make this choice today, and then again tomorrow, truly God’s light will shine in us and through us! In our silence now, let us ask God for the courage to welcome Him into all the places that have been boarded up.

+ A. M. D. G. +

What God has prepared for those who love Him: a choice for authentice Christian freedom.

+ J. M. J +

Homily Template for the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

This Sunday, we hear of a choice we are invited to make, and we hear of it from various angles! Our first reading, from the Book of Sirach, echoes language used in Deuteronomy… before us we have fire and water, life and death, good and evil! If we keep the commandments, they will save us, if we trust God and choose that which is good, and true, and beautiful, we shall live!

We all know that the choice isn’t quite that simple… our conscience knows imperfectly on its own, it is often persuaded by ignorance or advantage, or comfort. And even when we know clearly what is right, as we often do, it can be devilishly hard to reach for the good, when the evil is so attractive and easy! To choose God, and truth, and right, is a mystery… only God sees perfectly all the labyrinths and layers of our hearts, and yet He still calls us to choose.

What choice, then, brings us joy and freedom? Mysteriously, it is often the same choice that brings us struggle and challenge but also growth. When we choose truth, when we turn from darkness into light, with all that it costs, peace grows on the deepest level of our hearts, and a light dawns in the shadows of this world. Our psalm refrain states something that we know is not completely true in this life, “Blessed are those who follow the law of the Lord.” The Book of Job is the test case… following God and His Law often embroils us in every sort of difficulty, and then we see those who play along to get along, those who go with the flow, those who ignore God’s law… they often seem to flourish. But, then, there is a bigger scale, a bigger horizon… not just this mortal life with its creature comforts, but even eternity. Our Psalm today is Psalm 119, the longest psalm in the bible, and each section begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet… first aleph, the bethel, then gimmel, and so on, all the letters, each in turn, praising God’s law. We just hear a few of them, and I want to read you two verses that immediately precede the final verses we heard:

I cling to your decrees;
Lord God, do not disappoint me.
I run the way of your commandments
since you have set me free. (Jerusalem Bible)

What is freedom? It is not merely the absence of restraints, the absences of limits. Imagine a hockey game without the boards, imagine a basketball game without the rules? You would have nothing, just a mess. What happens if I ignore the instructions of Volkswagen to put only diesel in my diesel engine? What happens to your bread if you decide that you’d rather not add yeast? Every day we encounter the life and structure and growth and creativity that come from limits and boundaries. These aren’t perfect analogies, but they point us to the truth… authentic freedom comes not when we are completely unrestricted, but rather freedom grows and deepens when we choose the good, the true, and the beautiful, and most mysteriously, freedom comes when we follow what Blessed John Paul the Great called “The Mystery of the Gift:” the deepest fulfillment and the fullest freedom come to the human person in the total gift of self. Who is the freest man in history? Jesus Christ, on the Cross, held there only by the bond of love… no nails could have restrained The Second Person of the Trinity! Who is the freest woman in history? Not Eve, who ignored God’s simple command, but rather Mary, our Blessed Mother, who said Yes to God, Fiat Volunta Tua, may it be done to me according to your word! By her free choice to empty her life into the Father’s hands, infinite fullness and joy burst into the world, hidden in the tiny child in her womb!

This brings us to our Gospel… Jesus came to set us free, but because He came to draw us towards true freedom, that doesn’t mean no rules, no law… rather it means the law is brought to fulfillment in us… not only do we avoid outright murder, but even hatred. Not only do we avoid sleeping with someone who is not our husband or wife, but we even fight against lust in our minds and hearts. Rather than carefully following the procedure for divorce, we struggle to be faithful to our vows even unto death. Not only do we avoid formally making false oaths, but we avoid taking the Lord’s name in vain and all vulgarity. This is a daunting teaching to anyone who carefully examines his or her heart, but it is the invitation from the God who wants to set us free… not free from exterior restraint, but free for that which is best, truest, and most beautiful, free for God and His Law, free to follow Christ, free to imitate the Blessed Mother and say yes to God.

The Enemy has lied to us about freedom from the very beginning, and that lie has never been shouted more loudly or gussied up to seem more attractive than in our own time. Every sort of sin is presented as desirable and even necessary, even as a right in many cases. But no matter how many movies glorify and justify and gild hatred and lust and infidelity and lies, they are still death dealing, and they still bear bitter fruit. But, in Christ, with His grace, no matter how challenging, no matter how counter-cultural, no matter how disparaged or ignored, the battle to live true freedom in virtue, in truth, bears rich fruit, and plants the seed of deep peace in our hearts.

We come to this altar, now, and if we’re honest, if we know our own hearts, we know that we ALL come as beggars, that we come desiring and hoping to receive Him who we have not always served, Him who we have not always honored. We began with the penitential rite, remembering our need for God’s mercy, and before we receive we will say with one voice, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof.” It is true, and yet still the Lord comes to us, and still He offers us healing and mercy in confession, healing and nourishment in the Eucharist, where we begin to taste the joy Paul spoke of in our 2nd reading:

What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard,
and what has not entered the human heart,
what God has prepared for those who love him,
this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.

May we know our poverty now, may we cry out to God for mercy, may we be filled with hope and courage as we know that He offers us Himself, and with Him in our hearts, we can choose life and live the joy that flows from authentic Christian freedom.

+ A. M. D. G. +

God working in our hearts... not what we expect!

+ J. M. J. +

 Draft Homily for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

We celebrate today this beautiful Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the Temple. God who is Incarnate in the world becomes known on this feast to two more who have been waiting for him, Simeon and Anna. In Jewish practice, the Holy Family is at the Temple for a sacrifice and purification. As with the Lord’s Baptism which takes place some 30 years later, Jesus doesn’t need to be redeemed by a sacrifice, nor does Mary need to be purified. Jesus continues to humbly take upon Himself our need for expiation, not needing it Himself, and Mary participates in this. Our 2nd Reading form the Letter to the Hebrews echoes this mystery:

Since the children share in blood and flesh, Jesus likewise shared in them… he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every way… because he himself was tested through what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.

Jesus takes upon Himself our whole condition, He is with us in radical solidarity in all human experience, except He never Himself sinned. Free from sin, though, He still bore all the consequences of sin for us.

Simeon and Anna have both mysteriously been moved by God to wait and recognize the Messiah. God enters His own Temple, and only these two very humble old people recognize Him! What faith and trust it must have taken for them to wait, to hope in God’s promise, to be available to the movement of the Holy Spirit when He moved their hearts. They see the Holy Family come in, a simple humble family, and yet they had the eyes of faith to recognize that here was the Messiah! Simeon affirms the fulfillment of the prophets when he says:

…my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel.

God has entered His Temple, His world, His creation… God has come Himself with light and glory, for the People of Israel, and for ALL people! This is why today’s feast came to be known as Candlemas, and why we bless our candles today… the candle is always a symbol of Jesus, Light of the World! Simeon and Anna’s hearts must have been full to the bursting with praise and thanksgiving… and very likely the people around them must have thought they were batty!

It would have been hard for the people there in the Temple to believe or understand, not because they were ignorant of the prophecies, but precisely because they knew the prophecies and constantly discussed them.  The Jews of Jesus' time were in ferment, longing for the Messiah who would deliver them from the Romans, constantly discussing the prophecies, and many false Messiahs arose and were killed.. God fulfilled the prophecies, He DID come, but not as people had expected! Listen again to what the Prophet Malachi had foretold, 

And suddenly there will come to the temple the LORD whom you seek,…But who will endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he is like the refiner’s fire, or like the fuller’s lye. He will sit refining and purifying silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, Refining them like gold or like silver that they may offer due sacrifice to the LORD.

The prophet and those who heard him were expecting God to come with force and power, sifting through the people, burning away the impurity. When gold or silver are purified, they are heated until they are molten hot, and all that is impure is burned away or it floats to the surface as dross to be discarded... it's not gentle!

Didn’t God fulfill His promise? Did the prophet or people misunderstand? I would propose to you that God DID keep His promise, but not the way His people expected! Jesus did sift the hearts and lives of those who encountered Him… but quietly, sweetly, gently… Those who encountered Him did have to make a decision… will I follow Him, will I receive Him? However, that choice wasn’t forced upon them with an outward show of force or power, and yet they had to make a choice. Those whose hearts were small and humble, like Mary, like Joseph, like Simeon, like Anna… they were able to receive Him, they were able to respond, they were able to notice God at work and present, a baby child.

So what about you and me? Are we looking for God, paying attention? Do we desire to know His will and work in our midst? Do we desire to cooperate? It is easy for me to be full of my own thoughts and plans and values, such that I don’t even seek God. And if we do seek God, are we only open to His work if it fits our template? Must He strike down the person who disturbs us, or could we let Him soften our hearts? Must the person who has hurt us grovel at our feet, or could we hear an invitation to recognize that we too need to ask forgiveness? Must He eliminate our suffering, or might we recognize an invitation to walk with Christ who walks with us to Calvary? Must God wave His hand and eliminate sickness and sin instantly, or can we hear Him inviting us to be His hands and voice and feet?

In the midst of all the crazy claims about what Pope Francis is doing, listen to his own words from Evangelii Gaudium, the Joy of the Gospel, because I think they fit with our readings today!

3. I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. // No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since “no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord”. // The Lord does not disappoint those who take this risk; whenever we take a step towards Jesus, we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with open arms. // Now is the time to say to Jesus: “Lord, I have let myself be deceived; in a thousand ways I have shunned your love, yet here I am once more, to renew my covenant with you. I need you. // Save me once again, Lord, take me once more into your redeeming embrace”. // How good it feels to come back to him whenever we are lost! // Let me say this once more: God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy. // Christ, who told us to forgive one another “seventy times seven” (Mt 18:22) has given us his example: he has forgiven us seventy times seven. // Time and time again he bears us on his shoulders. // No one can strip us of the dignity bestowed upon us by this boundless and unfailing love. // With a tenderness which never disappoints, but is always capable of restoring our joy, he makes it possible for us to lift up our heads and to start anew. // Let us not flee from the resurrection of Jesus, let us never give up, come what will. // May nothing inspire more than his life, which impels us onwards!

Simeon and Anna were invited to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, and they held the Baby Jesus in their arms. You and I are invited now to a renewed personal encounter with Christ, and in moments we will receive Him into our hands and onto our tongues. God NEVER tires of forgiving us… No one can strip us of the dignity bestowed upon us by this boundless and unfailing love! Hearing this beautiful invitation, may we respond with generous love!

 + A. M. D. G. +

 

Octave, Incarnation, Theotokos... Placing ourselves in Mary's hands!

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God

Today we celebrate many things! First of all, it is the Octave Day of Christmas… as at Easter, the Church extends our joyful celebration through 8 days, and the 8th day is the day of Resurrection, the day of the New Creation. The idea of a Sabbath comes from God resting, and inviting all creation to rest, on the 7th day, but Jesus rose on the first day of the week, the day after the Sabbath, the Eighth Day! So, today, the Octave Day of Christmas, we celebrate the filling up of the joy of Christmas, and the way that God is doing something new and beautiful in our midst! Christmas does not end today, but in a certain sense this first and most intense time of celebration is filled up.

The Church also continues to place before us today the mystery of the Incarnation, God taking on flesh and dwelling among us. God came into the world through the free and loving choice of Mary to cooperate with God’s surprising plan. She pondered all that was happening in her heart, wondering and waiting on God’s initiative. We also hear in our Gospel of Jesus being circumcised, this very fleshly and earthy and human sign of the covenant. God has really come to dwell with us, to live and walk in our midst, to enter into the whole human experience, eventually bearing the whole burden of sin, despite never having sinned.

The sheer paradox and mystery of the Incarnation is captured very elegantly and succinctly in the title of Mary that we celebrate today, Mother of God. In Greek, this title was rendered Theotokos, literally, the God-bearer. In 431, at the Council of Ephesus, this title was rejected by the notorious Nestorius, and by that act he placed himself out of communion with the prayer of the Church, and with the Church itself. The title, though, is less about Mary per se, and very much focused on Christ… in one short phrase, we know that Jesus is both God and man. The God is out in the open, and of course anyone who has a human mother is human… and so when we acclaim Mary Mother of God, we summarize all the deep reasons for joy during this Christmas season!

You may have noticed that I’ve said nothing yet about the reason most people are celebrating this evening! In many ways it is more coincidence than anything else that this feast takes place as the new year begins, but I think it is as fortunate, even a providential coincidence! What better news to receive as one year ends and another begins… God is in our midst, at our side, and we are entrusted into the loving prayers of Jesus’ mother, Mary! It is very fitting that we gather for the Eucharist, the most perfect form of thanksgiving, as we look back on the year past. It was certainly a mix of good and bad for each of us, a combination of sin and grace, and yet God was at our side in the midst of it all, drawing good from all things. As we come to this altar this evening, we can place all that the past year has held there, asking God to transform it.

Having given thanks, we can look ahead, with fear, with hope, with uncertainty, with eagerness, to 2014. And again, it is good that we are here in church, about to receive the Lord’s Body and Blood, that which we most need to sustain us in all that lies ahead. Like Mary, God invites us to say “YES” to Him this year, entrusting ourselves into His hands. Like Mary, God invites us to treasure all things in our hearts… His words to us, the people in our lives, the opportunities God gives us to serve Him.

So, tonight, we continue to receive the news of Christ’s birth with joy, we continue to ponder on the deep mystery of God among us, and we cross the threshold from one year into the next with thanksgiving and with faith-filled hope. We place ourselves in Mary’s hands and Mary’s prayers, trusting that she will lead us to her Son, trusting that she will help us to say yes to Him as she did!

+ A. M. D. G. +