Homily for the week of December 26, 2009

Feast of Holy Family, 2009

1 Samuel 1:30-22; 24-28

1 John 3:1-2, 21-24

Luke 2:41-52

The last weekend of the calendar year is a wonderful time to celebrate the feast of the Holy Family. It’s a time to reflect on the year just ending – on our successes and failures, our times of joy and sadness – and then look ahead with hope and expectation to the possibilities of the coming year.

What’s really great about this feast day is that it’s about something to which we can readily relate. Each of us are members of a family. Families come in many different sizes: traditional family, or a blended family, or a single parent family, or like myself, a member of a parish family. But we are family. So when we celebrate the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, we also celebrate our own families.

We know very little of Jesus' life between His birth and when he was about 30 years old. We also know little about his family life. Joseph, his foster father, was a carpenter, so it was customary that Jesus would follow his father’s trade as a carpenter. He spent most of His life in Nazareth, a little village of about 300 persons.

In the Jewish homes of Jesus' day, until a child was about 12, the mother was the teacher in religion as well as in learning. When a boy was 12 years old the father took over and began to teach him a trade.

The Bible story about Jesus also took place when he was 12 years old. Luke describes an incident in Jesus' life that shows that even in this most holy of families, there were moments of anguish and misunderstanding. Each year parents and their older children went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover. Passover was a time when Jews remembered the time when they had been saved from death by God. After the temple and on their way home, Mary and Joseph discover that Jesus is not with the group of people going back to Nazareth. They go back to the temple to look for him. He had disobeyed them, and stayed to listen to the teachers and to ask them some questions. The teachers are surprised at his questions. His mother, like most Mothers, is concerned what he did, and like most Mother Mary says to Jesus: Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.And, maybe like a lot 12 year old children who are caught doing the wrong thing, he thinks that his mother is making too much of the situation and says: Why have you been looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?

Jesus' reply is, to them, baffling: It is interesting how Jesus definitely asserts that it is God is his father, rather than Joseph, who is his Father. This story marks the time in Jesus' life when he consciously expressed his awareness that he was different, that he stood in a unique relationship with God.

The Church has placed this Feast of the Holy Family in the Christmas Season as an encouragement for all families to be holy. What does that mean? Being HOLY does not mean that we go around all day with our hands folded and our head bowed. Being HOLY means keeping our mind on what it is that the Lord wants us to be and to do. It means having a place in our family for religion and prayer and trying to live the religion and prayer we talk about.

Being holy means keeping the presence of the God alive in our homes. Children need opportunities to pray in their own way. For most families these opportunities are before meals and at bedtime. Moms and Dads also need the opportunity to pray alone and together.

A holy family is also a family where children are honest with their parents, and parents show respect and honesty to their children. It is easy to be dishonest with one another. When that happens the holiness of the family is destroyed.

Throughout the ages, the family has been the cradle of the Christian religious spirit. The first places where the Christian communities gathered were not churches, but the homes of families who opened their doors to the Christian way of life. These domestic churches nurtured the spread of Christianity for over two hundred years. And since then the family has been the single most important teacher of Christian virtue and Christian faith.

Many families today are what are known as blended families. This can happen in two ways. A couple practicing different religions get married. This is not usually a problem until they have children. Unless the parents were active religious persons while dating, and talked about this seriously, I find that often children may receive little religious formation other than Baptism. But many times these two religious traditions can be a blessing.

Another type of blended family is when a man and a woman who were previously married and both have children, get married a second time. This can be especially challenging when they children who are teenagers if their mother and father did not prepare them for this. A new person enters their life. At times the attachment to the Mom and Dad that is no longer there is closer than the relationship with the step-Mom or step-Dad that has moved in. Unfortunately, the two adults do not see this, or if they do, they do not understand it. It is also normal for a Mom or Dad to "stick up" for their biological children. A fragile relationship between husband and wife can develop, especially when there is a fear on the part of the step-Mom or step-Dad that one of the kids might report child abuse as a means of getting out their anger against the man or woman who is not part of what they think is their home. Fear often leads to marital violence, or ends up in separation, not from each other, but from the situation.

However, there is no problem when a father and mother both have a strong religious faith that has always been part of their life. The family is the first community we experience where we begin to develop relationships. We all learn the meaning of forgiveness from our experience of being forgiven within the family. We all learn the meaning of thankfulness as we experience thankfulness within the family. These are done in the ordinary moments of daily family life: at mealtimes, household chores, washing dishes, cleaning rooms, workdays, vacations, expressions of love and intimacy, caring for a sick child or elderly parent, or the death of a child. and even at times of conflicts over things like how to celebrate holidays, discipline children or spend money. All of these are threads from which families can weave a pattern of holiness. It is within family that we are either called to God or driven away from God.

This does not mean, however, that family life is always easy. The family photos you receive with Christmas cards show the perfect family. They don't show debts, infidelity, divorce, people who have left their faith, people who are addicted, kids on academic probation,kids with behavior problems. Yet these are the situations of family life. But in the Bible God never really gave us the picture of the ideal family. In the bible Cain kills Able, David lusts after Bathsheba. Consider even the Holy Family of Nazareth. Joseph considers divorcing Mary when he learns she is pregnant. But in all of these God's love which overcomes all division. On this feast of the Holy Family, take a inventory of your family. Be generous with thanks and praise for what you do well, ask forgiveness for times you have hurt, and praise God for having given you the gift of marriage and family.

Homily for the week of December 20, 2009

Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year C, 2009

Mi 5:1-4a

Heb 10:5-10

Lk 1:39-45

As we near Christmas, children are beginning to drive parents crazy with their anticipation. In some families there is a lot of packing going on as they prepare to travel to spend Christmas with out-of-town family or maybe just go somewhere to celebrate Christmas. A lot of baking and decorating is going on. Business, except retail, will come close to a standstill this week as employees take vacation days, finish their shopping, attend parties, and prepare for the big day.

Not everyone is happy and excited however. For some, this is the loneliest time of year. They might be a long way from family and friends, and others may not have family or friends with whom to celebrate. Some are alone in nursing homes. Some are alone on the streets. Some might be surrounded by people yet feel alone and unimportant.

Many who have lost jobs in the past year struggle to support their families. Some of these workers simply feel discarded and forgotten. While most of us find excitement in our anticipation of Christmas, some find only dread.

We do not want to ruin our enthusiasm and excitement by remembering those who are alone or suffering at this time of year, but we must make the effort to remember those who seem to be left out. It is for these that Christ has come. Just as Mary brought some incredible news and joy to her cousin Elizabeth, we must consider how we might be the bearers of glad tidings ourselves.

Today we might consider Bethlehem, ''too small to be among the clans of Judah.'' Bethlehem was a very small town, more a village really, a short distance from Jerusalem. It was a one-industry town: it produced bread for sale in Jerusalem. The name ''Bethlehem'' actually means ''little house of bread.'' Its only claim to fame was that it was the birthplace of David, thus it is sometimes identified as ''The City of David.'' Beyond this, it was just another overlooked village among many small villages near Jerusalem, ''too small to be among the clans of Judah.'' If Jesus had not been born there, it might even not exist today.

It is an irony that such a small, insignificant place would play such an enormous role in history. It is a reminder to us that those who might seem insignificant -- the poor, the elderly, today's ''widows and orphans'' -- are not insignificant in the eyes of God.

Mary herself was a relatively insignificant person. She was a young girl from another small village. Her responses to the angel Gabriel and even to Elizabeth let us know that even Mary considered herself insignificant. By no means she did suffer from ''poor self-esteem.'' She was just simply humble knowing that she was from a poor family in a poor village.

Mary teaches us a lesson: being from insignificant families in insignificant places does not make us insignificant. We are reminded that idea of significance does not come from places or families. Our significance comes from God. All human life is significant. This was the message of God's choice to become human and enter our world. There were those in Nazareth who tried to put Jesus down by reminding everyone that He was just a carpenter's son, the son of Mary, and everybody knew His family -- meaning no one thought the carpenter's family was anything special. In this context Micah's words take on deep meaning when we ponder how God uses what we might consider insignificant: ''You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah, too small to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel.''

Elizabeth, Mary's cousin, gives a sense of what we can do for those who are alone or feel abandoned or suffer at this time of year. Elizabeth made clear that she recognized that her young cousin from Nowheresville was significant.

Luke's story of Jesus' birth contains in miniature the whole of the Gospel message. Elizabeth's acclamation of faith tells us who Jesus is. The reaction of the not-yet-born John the Baptist becomes another statement of faith in the importance of Jesus. Elizabeth herself stepped aside to point to the significance of Mary and especially the child she carried.

As we count the days until Christmas, we might want to point ourselves and our children to the reality that Christ's coming makes all humanity significant -- born and unborn. We might not be able to change the lot of the poor, but we can acknowledge their existence and their importance. We can teach our children to notice the lonely, for it is to just such as them that Christ has come.

Homily for the week of December 13, 2009

3rd Sunday of Advent, C 2009

Zephaniah 3:14-18

Phil 4:4-7

Luke 3:10-18

There are moments in our lives when we make discoveries that both delight us and propel us into a new phase of living. I remember as a young boy I discovered the five-times tables. I could multiply! And probably got me started in becoming a mathematics teacher and my joy in data analysis. A nurse told me how she thought she was going to wash out of her nursing program because she could not take blood pressure. She distinctly remembers the day she suddenly caught on, and she hasn't had a hard time since.

I once met a young boy with a crippled leg. The boy's father took his son to a church, and there promised him that if they prayed deeply, the son would be healed. They prayed for quite a while, then the father announced to his young son that he was now indeed healed. The boy looked at his leg and saw that there was no change. What was his father thinking? Leaving the church the boy stopped on the steps. He felt funny . . . he felt . . . happy. He felt a great warmth inside and had never been so happy. Suddenly he understood, and he told his father, ''You were right Dad, I have been healed!'' The boy realized that though a brace remained on his leg, God had taken the brace off of his mind.

Life is very much about how we see, and how we see it relates to us personally. Many of those who went into the desert to see and hear John the Baptist had their eyes opened. Both Jews and Gentiles were quite taken with the message of John. They were so taken up with the message of the coming of the Messiah they instinctively knew that somehow they should be living differently than they had been living. It was a moment for them when the light went on.

John helped people to see that those who attach themselves to God are people of true charity. They allow themselves to see and care for the poor. People attached to God strive to live honorable lives, to treat everyone fairly and with respect. These changes in behavior were signs that something new was happening. God was coming. According to Luke, they were filled with anticipation.

Today is Caudate Sunday. The season of Advent originated centuries ago as a time of 40 days in preparation for Christmas. On this Sunday, while reminding ourselves that we still wait, we also remind ourselves that Christ has already come and we allow ourselves a vision of the world as it will be. In a past time, no one did penance on this day.

Zephaniah lived in a time when the Kingdom of Judah enjoyed political independence during the reign of Josiah (640-609 B.C.). However, the time was also a time of spiritual decline when old idolatries reappeared and people worshipped the sun, moon, and stars. Rites other than those worshipping Yahweh flourished in Jerusalem. Because of this religious corruption, Zephaniah announced impending judgement. Fortunately, Josiah was a reformer king. Because of this, Zephaniah announces that the Lord, in His mercy, will spare a holy remnant what will finally enjoy peace.

John the Baptist also offers people a vision, a vision of the world as God intended it to be lived. People who are blessed with extra things will happily share their abundance with those who have nothing. Tax collectors will become just. Soldiers will do their duty to protect people and not harass and abuse them.

How we see the world affects our attitude toward it. If our world is filled with Christ, we can look at crippled legs and not see them. We can be negative and be nay-sayers. We can see faith communities as nothing more than hypocrites. We can be sullen all of our lives. Or we can embrace the vision of the world as it was and as it will be and find ourselves healed.

John the Baptist prepares the crowd for Christ's coming through baptism and a change of heart and behavior. It is only through God's presence that we will find true life and peace. As Christmas approaches we trust in God's loving presence rather than in self-help.

Take a look this week of the progress of your Advent preparations, especially your spiritual preparations. What would John the Baptist say to us today if we asked him what we ought to do? He probably would answer like this:

Homily for the week of December 6, 2009

2nd Sunday of Advent, 2009

Psalm 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6

Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11

Luke 3:1-6

Today we celebrate the Second Sunday of Advent. But we are also on the weekend of December 5-6. Most of you may know, but some of you may no know that the Catholic Church has the important tradition of honoring women and men whose holy life is an inspiration to others. These are teh offical sints of the Catholic Church, and tehre are hundreds of them. These sains represent the wide variety of people who became offical saints of the Catholic Church. Most of them are famous names, and many of us are named after these saints. Whenever we read about their story they can help us to become better persons and by trying to imitate some of the spiritual activities that helped them to be come holy. The witness of the faith in God and in Jesus can strengthen us and give us a model of being a better person.

The Catholic Church gives each one of them a special day in the calendar. It is called the Feast Day of that saint. For example we think of St. Patrick on March 17th, we think of St. Joseph on March 19th. December 6th happens to be the Feast of St. Nicholas. Other than the people in the Gospel stories about Jesus' birth, no other saint is so identified with Christmas as is St. Nicholas.

Most Americans know that somehow our Christmas figure Santa Claus is based on ''Good St. Nick.'' The name ''Santa Claus'' is an anglicized version of Sinkerclass which is the Dutch name for St. Nicholaus. St. Nicholas was a very real person. He was a fourth century bishop, the bishop of Myra, now in modern day Turkey. It was a time of persecution by Roman emperors. Many legends grew up around him, all based on his practice of charity and care for the poor.

One legend tells of a poor man who had three daughters that he could not marry off because he was too poor to provide a dowry. A dowry was property or money that a bride brought to her husband on the day they were marreid. The legend says that in secret St. Nicholas saw to it that the father received three bags of gold for dowries so each of the daughters could get married. It is said that Nicholas, on different nights, threw the bags of gold in the window of the man's house and they landed in the shoes of the children. Even now in Catholic countries, gifts of candy and nuts are placed in children's shoes and stockings on December 6th.

There is growing interest in reclaiming the original saint in the United States to help restore the spiritual dimension of this season. St. Nicholas, a lover of the poor and the patron of children, is a model of how Christians are meant to live. Nicholas's imitating Jesus Christ was the center of his entire existence. Perhaps better than Santa Claus ever can, St. Nicholas can help us reclaim the true center of Christmas-- the birth of Jesus. Such a focus helps restore balance to materialistic and stress-filled Advent and Christmas seasons.

There are many traditions that surround Christmas, but too much historical distance between the origins of our practices and how they are now experienced has robbed many of our traditions of their depth of meaning.

Legends develop to tell and teach an important truth. The truthfulness of the details of legends is not important, but the truths the legends pass on are vital. Whether there is factual truth in the legend of Nicholas seeing to it that a poor man had money for a dowry for his daughters does not matter; it is a legend that began in a truth about a love for the poor and about generosity.

We do not want to destroy our Advent and Christmas traditions, but Advent should help us peel away the non-religious aspects of our traditions and help us reclaim what they were originally meant to do, that is, teach us about Christ coming into the world.

A tradition developed that candy, nuts, and other things were put into the shoes and stockings of children during the eve of the feast of St. Nicholas. It was a tradition that began with the poor. There were no presents the way we think of presents. Candy and nuts were luxuries for the rich. On this eve the children of the poor were reminded that they were not forgotten. They didn't believe that a ''Santa'' figure brought these things, they believed that a saint of God brought these things. There was no question of the connection between filled shoes and the love of God.

An important Advent person was mentioned in the Gospel which I just read. That person is John the Baptist. The people listening to John the Baptist were from all walks of life, but they held one thing in common: they were looking for meaning in their lives. Somehow the faith they had inherited had grown stale and rigid. Rome, a foreign government, occupied the land. There was no middle class; just rich and poor. John the Baptist brought a message of hope to these people. At last the Lord was coming. John's preaching brought excitement to a defeated people. His promise of the coming of the Lord gave people motivation to change and to rediscover their ancestral faith.

John the Baptist might well be considered the worlds first hippie. He live in a desert where there was nothing. He was clothed in a camel hair wrapping with a leather belt to hold it up. He may have sandals, or possibly not. His favorite food consisted of grasshoppers and wild honey. But John the Baptist is in stain glass windows, and churches have been named after him -- like St. John’s Church in Plattsburgh.

This Advent, using our traditions of decorating homes and trees, setting out manger scenes, and even hanging ''stockings by the chimney with care,'' we must reclaim the fervor that John the Baptist brought. Christ is coming. We must make ready. Baruch, the secretary of the prophet Jeremiah, was filled with hope that God would rescue His people in exile. The first reading captures this joy.

We have a lot of tools at our disposal to do the same. Christ has come once, in preparing for Christmas we are really preparing for Him to come again. As the psalm says, let us be '' filled with joy.'' The message of John the Baptist is very simple: PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD. Jesus cannot come unless there is a road, and there will be no road unless we prepare one.