Homily for the week of December 26, 2010

Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, 2010

Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14

Psalm 128:1-2, 3, 4-5

Colossians 3:12-21 or 3:12-17

Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23

Today there are about 214 million international migrants in the world, a number that has doubled in the last 30 years. We hear a lot about those from Mexico and Central America who want to come to the United States, but we hear very little about the Catholics in Iraq and in China who are leaving those countries so that they can practice their Catholic religion without being afraid of being killed in church or on the streets.

In a sense the Holy Family was also migrant family. Today’s Gospel tells of Joseph’s dream in which he is told that Herod intends to kill the baby Jesus. Joseph and Mary flee with Jesus to Egypt, a traditional place of refuge for Jews. They faced a treacherous desert crossing. The Gospel does not give us the details, but we can only imagine Mary and Joseph’s fear as they travel under the cover of darkness and all the hardships they endured. When they arrived in Egypt they had to navigate an unfamiliar language and culture. Who helped them along the way? How did Joseph find work? When could they get back to Nazareth?

We know very little about the Holy Family. Matthew tells us that Mary and Joseph returned with Jesus and live in Nazareth. Luke tells us about the family going to Jerusalem for the Passover, and they lost Jesus in the Temple for about 3 days. This is all!

This weekend we have come to Mass and church to honor the Holy Family of Nazareth -- the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and to honor all families -- to honor your family. Certainly the Holy Family was very different than any of your families, but in many ways it had the same daily needs as your family.

Each of us have a different experience of family depending on the family in which we live or were brought up, or we are forming. We have all sorts of understandings of family. Families come in a lot of shapes and sizes. The so-called traditional family is becoming a smaller and smaller majority. Single parent families, foster families, and blended families make up a large percentage of families in today’s society. In addition to all of these families, for many people family can mean more than those to whom we are biologically related. Some of you may understand family as those group of closely-linked, mutually supportive persons with whom you frequently interact. However, regardless of your understanding of family, the Holy Family of Nazareth can give us something to consider. It can be a model for the Christian family.

The life of the Holy Family was unique in the world. Its life was passed in silence in a little town in Palestine. It underwent trials of poverty, persecution and exile. The family faithfully practiced their Jewish faith, The Holy Family glorified God in an incomparably exalted and glorified way.

Fortunately, most of us value our family and understand its importance for the formation of good and deceit children. Unfortunately, at times we can get caught up with the routines and demands of daily living and do not take the time to take care of this treasure known as family.

Experience tells us that our religious development is based on the type of family relationship in which we grew up. Our image and understanding of God and what God is like is patterned closely on our image of and our relationship with our own father. A child rejected by a father, a child for whom a father is only a punisher, a child who has never known a father, may find it hard or nearly impossible to believe that God loves this boy or girl. The Lord’s Prayer, the Our Father, would be hard to understand.

Often kids do not find the models of family around them, and unfortunately they model themselves after actors they see in the movies, or even the other kids in school or on their school bus. Children watch; they listen; they learn. For good or bad, what parents have patterned in their own lives will be mirrored back in their children. Often at an early age parents have lost any influence on their children.

Children and teenagers, for the most part, are not harmed by the small nagging and quarrelling that may go on between their father and mother. But if they see or sense that their parents or stepparents has no real love for them, it is almost impossible for them to believe or accept the basic truth of our religion that God loves us, and that God cares for us, and even forgives us.

On this feast of the Holy Family, recall the times members of your family have cared for you, have hugged you or held your hand or showed other signs of caring. Think also of someone in your family who needs your forgiveness. Think of someone you know who looks up to you. How can you help them to see that they too have good qualities and are looked up to by others? How do you treat others? How do you behave in public or when you think no one is looking? What is one way that you try to grow in holiness? Let the images of family in our bible readings for today find an application to your understanding of family -- your family.

As we gaze upon the Nativity scene, ask Joseph and Mary and Jesus to help us to be holy parents, holy husbands, holy wives, holy children, holy grandparents. This may well be the best contribution we could ever make to our society and to our family.

Homily for the week of December 19, 2010

The Fourth Sunday in Advent, Year A 2010

Isaiah 7:10-14

Psalm 24:1-2, 3-4, 5-6

Romans 1:1-7

Matthew 1:18-24

If you have been participating at Mass and listened to the Bible readings during these past 3 weeks, you have done a lot of spiritual travelling. You have climbed the Lord's mountain and hiked into the desert for John the Baptist's baptism at the river Jordan.

Today we meet Joseph, the hidden member of the Holy Family of Nazareth. St. Matthew mentions that he is a carpenter. So today we enter into the simple home of Joseph, the carpenter in Nazareth.

We have heard that he will have a son who will become a helper in his carpentry work. Joseph does not speak a word in the entire Bible. What we know about him comes mostly from Mary. But certainly in the small village of Nazareth everyone would have known that Mary and Joseph are engaged to be married, and she is pregnant. Mary and Joseph are not yet married. Jewish culture had little tolerance for an engaged woman who was pregnant by someone other than her intended. Joseph is a righteous man, faithful to all the demands of the Jewish law. The Jewish law would call for the death of the apparently adulterous Mary. But Joseph is unwilling to denounce her publicly and searches for a way out. There cannot be a secret divorce; two witnesses are needed.

Joseph’s first solution is to avoid a public trial and leave Mary quietly without declaring the reasons. This solution would preserve Joseph’s reputation, but Mary would still be exposed to public shame. The only way to preserve Mary’s honor would be for Joseph to complete his marriage to her and adopt the child as his own. In order for Joseph to make this choice he has to shift focus away from concern about his own righteousness and reputation and turn empathetically toward Mary. Only when he can make her the center of his attention, allowing himself to feel her distress, can he make the divinely directed choice that will uphold her honor at the price of his own.

In so doing, Joseph mirrors the divine action of empathy with humankind manifested at Christmas. Just as the Holy One rectifies the broken relationship with humanity by becoming one with us, so Joseph rescues a dishonorable and potentially deadly situation by choosing to unite himself completely to Mary. Joseph exemplifies what their son Jesus will later teach his followers: one must go far beyond what the law requires in order to fulfil it truly.

As a foster father Joseph cared for Jesus, his foster son. A few weeks after Jesus' birth Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to Egypt so that Herod would not kill him. As Jesus was growing up Joseph taught Him the trade of carpentry. In his workshop of Nazareth, Jesus would have learned about the raw materials of his craft: which wood was best suited for chairs and tables, which worked best for yokes and plows. Joseph would have taught Jesus the right way to drive a nail with a hammer, to drill a clean and deep hole in a plank, and to level a ledge or lintel.

Joseph also passed on to Jesus the values required of a good carpenter. Values like patience in waiting for the wood to dry; the need for judgement to ensure that your plumb line is straight; the need for honesty in charging the people a fair price; the need for persistence in sanding until the table top is smooth. All of these qualities which Joseph taught Jesus for about 18 years of Jesus life helped Jesus as he began to do the work that God had sent him to do. Joseph helped to fashion Jesus into the person most needed for the salvation of the world.

As a father Joseph with his wife Mary were also Jesus' first teacher in the Jewish faith. Joseph introduced Jesus to the great men and women of the Jewish religion. He taught him the Hebrew Prayers. He prepared him for his bar mitzvah, and encouraged him to listen to the rabbis in the synagogue.

But almost as soon as Jesus started his own work as Our Saviour Joseph disappears. By the time that Jesus began his preaching Joseph has died. Joseph is not listed among the guests at the wedding feast of Cana when Jesus first began teaching.

Years ago I visited the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. In the church there is a huge portrait entitled The Death of Joseph by the Spanish artist, Francisco Goya. The sick Joseph is lying in a bed. Standing beside the bed is a young Jesus, probably 16 or 17 years old. Jesus is without a beard, staring at Joseph. Sitting by the bed is Mary. It is an unusual picture of the Holy Family capturing the death of Joseph. It is much like death today where the family gathers as one of the family leaves in death.

Like Joseph, many people --maybe we ourselves -- come to face a dark night of fear, of pain, of confusion and frustration. Maybe all of our efforts to do something good has failed in spite of our best intentions. Maybe the physical and emotional suffering that we thought had by-passed us catches up with us when we are least expecting it.

It is when we feel saddest and are in our worst moods that God tries to talk to us most directly. It is right there in the dark night of doubt and anguish, that God directs our hearts to follow God's will. Even today nature reminds us of this as we are in what is known as winter solstice -- when night is longest and daylight is shortest. But in a few days we begin a day of longer brightness -- a pattern of our life.

The hidden life of St. Joseph is shared by many people. The middle age unmarried woman who looks after her aged mother; the loving parents of the autistic child; the single mother who has to work two jobs to provide for her children; the caring wife who feels unappreciated by her husband; the teenager who struggles to be good.

Let us pray that the spiritual sawdust from the hands of St. Joseph will bless them and us as it did Jesus.

Homily for the week of December 19, 2010

The Fourth Sunday in Advent, Year A 2010

Isaiah 7:10-14

Psalm 24:1-2, 3-4, 5-6

Romans 1:1-7

Matthew 1:18-24

If you have been participating at Mass and listened to the Bible readings during these past 3 weeks, you have done a lot of spiritual travelling. You have climbed the Lord's mountain and hiked into the desert for John the Baptist's baptism at the river Jordan.

Today we meet Joseph, the hidden member of the Holy Family of Nazareth. St. Matthew mentions that he is a carpenter. So today we enter into the simple home of Joseph, the carpenter in Nazareth.

We have heard that he will have a son who will become a helper in his carpentry work. Joseph does not speak a word in the entire Bible. What we know about him comes mostly from Mary. But certainly in the small village of Nazareth everyone would have known that Mary and Joseph are engaged to be married, and she is pregnant. Mary and Joseph are not yet married. Jewish culture had little tolerance for an engaged woman who was pregnant by someone other than her intended. Joseph is a righteous man, faithful to all the demands of the Jewish law. The Jewish law would call for the death of the apparently adulterous Mary. But Joseph is unwilling to denounce her publicly and searches for a way out. There cannot be a secret divorce; two witnesses are needed.

Joseph’s first solution is to avoid a public trial and leave Mary quietly without declaring the reasons. This solution would preserve Joseph’s reputation, but Mary would still be exposed to public shame. The only way to preserve Mary’s honor would be for Joseph to complete his marriage to her and adopt the child as his own. In order for Joseph to make this choice he has to shift focus away from concern about his own righteousness and reputation and turn empathetically toward Mary. Only when he can make her the center of his attention, allowing himself to feel her distress, can he make the divinely directed choice that will uphold her honor at the price of his own.

In so doing, Joseph mirrors the divine action of empathy with humankind manifested at Christmas. Just as the Holy One rectifies the broken relationship with humanity by becoming one with us, so Joseph rescues a dishonorable and potentially deadly situation by choosing to unite himself completely to Mary. Joseph exemplifies what their son Jesus will later teach his followers: one must go far beyond what the law requires in order to fulfil it truly.

As a foster father Joseph cared for Jesus, his foster son. A few weeks after Jesus' birth Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to Egypt so that Herod would not kill him. As Jesus was growing up Joseph taught Him the trade of carpentry. In his workshop of Nazareth, Jesus would have learned about the raw materials of his craft: which wood was best suited for chairs and tables, which worked best for yokes and plows. Joseph would have taught Jesus the right way to drive a nail with a hammer, to drill a clean and deep hole in a plank, and to level a ledge or lintel.

Joseph also passed on to Jesus the values required of a good carpenter. Values like patience in waiting for the wood to dry; the need for judgement to ensure that your plumb line is straight; the need for honesty in charging the people a fair price; the need for persistence in sanding until the table top is smooth. All of these qualities which Joseph taught Jesus for about 18 years of Jesus life helped Jesus as he began to do the work that God had sent him to do. Joseph helped to fashion Jesus into the person most needed for the salvation of the world.

As a father Joseph with his wife Mary were also Jesus' first teacher in the Jewish faith. Joseph introduced Jesus to the great men and women of the Jewish religion. He taught him the Hebrew Prayers. He prepared him for his bar mitzvah, and encouraged him to listen to the rabbis in the synagogue.

But almost as soon as Jesus started his own work as Our Saviour Joseph disappears. By the time that Jesus began his preaching Joseph has died. Joseph is not listed among the guests at the wedding feast of Cana when Jesus first began teaching.

Years ago I visited the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. In the church there is a huge portrait entitled The Death of Joseph by the Spanish artist, Francisco Goya. The sick Joseph is lying in a bed. Standing beside the bed is a young Jesus, probably 16 or 17 years old. Jesus is without a beard, staring at Joseph. Sitting by the bed is Mary. It is an unusual picture of the Holy Family capturing the death of Joseph. It is much like death today where the family gathers as one of the family leaves in death.

Like Joseph, many people --maybe we ourselves -- come to face a dark night of fear, of pain, of confusion and frustration. Maybe all of our efforts to do something good has failed in spite of our best intentions. Maybe the physical and emotional suffering that we thought had by-passed us catches up with us when we are least expecting it.

It is when we feel saddest and are in our worst moods that God tries to talk to us most directly. It is right there in the dark night of doubt and anguish, that God directs our hearts to follow God's will. Even today nature reminds us of this as we are in what is known as winter solstice -- when night is longest and daylight is shortest. But in a few days we begin a day of longer brightness -- a pattern of our life.

The hidden life of St. Joseph is shared by many people. The middle age unmarried woman who looks after her aged mother; the loving parents of the autistic child; the single mother who has to work two jobs to provide for her children; the caring wife who feels unappreciated by her husband; the teenager who struggles to be good.

Let us pray that the spiritual sawdust from the hands of St. Joseph will bless them and us as it did Jesus.

Homily for the week of December 12, 2010

The Third Sunday in Advent 2010

Isaiah 35:1-6a, 10

Psalm 146:6-7, 8-9, 9-10

James 5:7-10

Matthew 11:2-11

A construction worker once told me that he had posted a notice at the entrance to a parking garage indicating a new height restriction. At the same time, he constructed the appropriate barrier at the new height. He then realized that his van, which he had left within the parking garage, was above the approved height. He was imprisoned, unable to get his van out.

There are many forms of imprisonment. Some people are sent to prison by society for crimes committed. Some are "prisoners of conscience" who are locked up behind bars for political reasons or because they have spoken out against corruption. Some are imprisoned in their homes either because they are elderly or handicapped and need constant care. Sometimes, too, people are afraid to leave their homes and walk into the street. And many others, like the construction worker, imprison themselves almost without realizing it, until the realization that their life lacks any happiness or peace. More and more persons today become prisoners of their addictions. Some persons can't free themselves from their video games or TV, their ipods or cell phones or shopping malls.

This past week the news reported how a young man controlled by anger went to a missionary school shot 7 persons; another high school student goes to his high school and kills several students because his girlfriend left him. Whatever the reason for imprisonment the effect is the same. Being in prison can mean being controlled by four walls and unable to see beyond them. It can mean being unable to move. It is a hopeless situation.

But we are told today by Isaiah that this does not have to be. Isaiah encourages his friends. He is encouraging the people to be strong and not be afraid. God will strengthened the feeble and the weak, restore sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, movement to the lame. Sorrow will turn to joy. What seemed to be a lifeless desert will bloom with abundant flowers. Isaiah encourages us to believe that God can transform our lives.

Finally, in our Gospel, it is John the Baptist who is in need of encouragement. There comes a time in almost everyone’s life when a person wonders whether all the hard work and all the commitments are worth anything. Are you really making any difference in the world? Have you done with your life what you had hoped? Are you missing out on opportunities that you may have passed by? That seems to be John the Baptist’s frame of mind in today’s Gospel. He had taken up a radical, lifestyle, fasting, praying, calling people to repentance, preparing the way and watching for the Coming One. Was he right? So John sends his disciples to ask Jesus if all his preaching was right on target.

Jesus replies. Jesus says to the crowds that John was “more than a prophet” and that there has been “none greater than John the Baptist.” Presumably, this assurance is also conveyed to John, giving him heart to be able to quell the doubts and to endure patiently to the end. His sending the disciples with the big question allows Jesus to say simply, “Check it out.” Jesus then makes reference to the prophetic poem we hear from Isaiah in the First Reading. The blind see, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the mute speak and they become evidence for John’s disciples and Matthew’s readers that Jesus is the Messiah.

We, too, like Isaiah and St. James and John the Baptist should be encouraged by these readings. They remind us that our lives can also be transformed if we are patient and place our trust in God The message of Advent is that God is here. present among us-- not only 2000 years ago in the person of Jesus Christ but here in our everyday lives. We need only be prepared to recognized him.

With the Advent season more than half over, with Christmas less than 12 days away, it is time for us to deal with the prisons in which we have placed ourselves. Have we allowed ourselves to think of Jesus as unapproachable, ready to clean up and clear out the useless, powerless, helpless? Or is this Jesus the loving, forgiving, compassionate, gentle one who still is willing and able to heal the blind, the lame, the lepers, the deaf and the dead and all in our society who are considered as nuisances. Is he the sharer of our ups and downs, does he inspire us to do better and greater actions, to heal wounded and hurting hearts, intensely loveable and loving. Most of all , do we see ourselves as poor enough to have Jesus proclaim to us the good news that says we are good because God loves us, and not that God loves us because we are good.

In our second Bible reading today St. James encourages us to be patient because the coming of the Lord is at hand. But patience is usually difficult for everyone. Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow - that is patience. Patience is something you admire in the driver behind you and scorn in the one ahead. Patience is the companion of wisdom. Patience does not mean sitting back doing nothing. Like John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus, a farmer or gardener meticulously tills the soil, clears away the rocks and weeds, and carefully plants the seed. It takes both the hard work of the farmer and the gift of rain, over which one has no control, to produce the anticipated harvest. Patience is doing everything one can, while at the same time, relying utterly on the divine provider. The way to keep a firm heart in the waiting time. We must keep from complaining. Just as Jesus helped John’s disciples to see the evidence of God’s saving presence in their midst, we must look for the sprouts of hope that spring up even in the most parched desert. Expecting to see the desert bloom or roses in December, as did Juan Diego, whom we remember on this feast of Our Lady of Guadeloupe, we keep hope alive with patient endurance even in the midst of suffering and doubt.

Let our prayers and our Christmas greetings and our Christmas visits and our Christmas gifts these last days of Advent convince us that indeed Jesus is the one who is to come. He is the one who comes to feed us spiritually. Because Jesus is coming and in fact is already here in our midst at this Mass, we know for sure that we do not have to look for another Lord and Savior. Jesus is enough. Jesus is all we really need. Jesus IS the good news that we who are poor need to hear and then in turn proclaim over and over again.

Homily for the week of December 5, 2010

Second Sunday of Advent, 2010

Isaiah 11:1-10

Psalm 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17

Romans 15:4-9

Matthew 3:1-12

In 1996 a small child fell into a gorilla exhibit at a zoo in Chicago. A mother gorilla with her baby on her back went and scooped up the child and took him to a safe place. She guarded the child until the zookeeper could come and take him out through a metal door at the back of the exhibit. Such scenes surprise us. Gorillas are wild animals, and so our enemies. We observe them in zoos, but we do not live with them.

Our first reading, however, gives us a very different vision of the world and its wild animals. Isaiah is the one who wrote this reading. Isaiah has a dream or a vision of what it might be like in a world that Jesus talked about so often. In this world the baby will play by the cobra's den. The wolf will be the guest of the lamb. The leopard and the kid will lie down. The calf will eat with the lion, the cow and the bear will be neighbors.

This sounds like a children's book where animals do simple things together. But the truth is that this is what we long for. We long for a world filled with God or goodness or peace. Isaiah gives us a picture of a heaven of universal peace and justice. Who would not want to go to a place where the wolf is a guest of the lamb; where a calf and a young lion browse together; where the cow and the bear are neighbors; where the baby plays in the cobras den? This scene is especially appealing when people at the time of Isaiah were at war with each other. But this paradise can be ours if we truly follow the advice of John the Baptist in our today's Gospel.

Isaiah advises us to be patient in trying to live out gifts of understanding, justice, faith and goodness. The Jewish people had been conquered by a lot of outsiders, but Isaiah is hopeful. He says: God will intervene, be patient. He offers a day when human suffering would be healed and evil would disappear. But the people would have to trust God, and have to wait.

By the time that Matthew comes along, he tells us that most of our waiting has ended. God will finally send a person by the name of Jesus. A preacher by the name of John the Baptist arrives. He lives in the desert. John is the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth and the cousin of Jesus. He was born much after a woman would normally have a child. John the Baptist dressed himself in camel hair, and ate locust and honey. He lived much of his life in the desert.

In all of our Bible readings there are references to the desert. It seems that whenever anyone had to make an important choice, they spent time in prayer in the desert. John the Baptist went to the desert in order to be closer to God. The Jews learned to depend on God while in the desert. He gave them manna and quail to nourish them in their hunger and from a rock came water to quench their thirst. In the desert, John the Baptist learned to depend on God, and through him the cry to repent and make straight the paths to God would again resound.

John was concerned that those who follow him have a good life. He tells people that they have to repent. Repent means that we are sorry for anything bad we have done. REPENT, FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND, he says. If we are to have a future, he says, we must reform our lives.

John's command to REPENT basically means this: Change our heart and our conscience about what is important in our life, and then change our life accordingly. We must be willing to turn our life around. Repent means we must shape up, reorganize, readjust, renew. We must repent, not because we are afraid of the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, but because that is the only way that we will recognize Jesus when he comes.

Just in case we missed the point of John's sermon, we can read a little further in our Gospel and come to the very first sermon that Jesus himself gave. WHAT DO YOU SUPPOSE JESUS PREACHED? The same point that John the Baptist gave. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, Jesus says.

There is much more that John and Jesus gave us in their sermons. But the message of this weekend in Advent is to Repent. To Repent is not one of our common expressions. To repent means to improve and renew our lives. But to repent is not easy.

For many of us to repent may mean to bring our actions back in line with those that Jesus taught us. Whenever we wonder what we should be doing, it would be great if we asked ourselves the question: WHAT WOULD JESUS DO IN THIS SITUATION? It is a reminder to do our best to live the values, ideals and virtues taught by Jesus. How would Jesus advise me to turn my life back to him? How do I witness at home, to my spouse, to my children, in my work, and in my parish? Do I understand that my example is powerful? I need to feel the urgency of fulfilling the mission that Christ has given me in my particular state in life. When I receive Holy Communion, I receive the food I need to help me in my mission.

None of us are prophets or preachers like John the Baptist. But each of us may seek to do as the Baptist demands. Through repentance we can rediscover the mercy of God. Through sorrow for our sinful ways, a sorrow that is eager to put right what we have disrupted, we can make straight the way of the Lord. The best way to judge ourselves is not by what rules we do or do not keep, but by how well we live out the gifts of the Holy Spirit already within us.

Often there are moments in our lives that seem like a desert, but it is in these moments that God brings us closer to him. We should not be afraid of experiencing dryness or difficulties in prayer because it is then when God helps us trust more in him. As we receive and send cards, as we buy gifts, as we put up Christmas decorations, let us remember whose birth it is Let each of these activities be used as a prayer to be thankful that we believe. It is only in this way that we will truly reform ourselves and prepare the way for the coming of Jesus.

Homily for the week of November 21, 2010

The Solemnity of Christ the King, 2010

2 Samuel 5:1-3

Psalm 122:1-2, 3-4, 4-5

Colossians 1:12-20

Luke 23:35-43

During the past week I stopped by one of the local stores. I happened to overhear a woman who was standing not far away who apparently met someone whom she had not met for a long time. She said: Henry, I am so happy to see you after all these years. My, how you have changed. I remember you as being tall and you seem so much shorter. You used to have a pale complexion and it is really so ruddy now. Good grief, how you have changed in five years. Finally, the man got a chance to talk, But my name isn't Henry. To which the woman calmly responded: Oh, so you've changed your name too.

If the importance of a word or concept in the Bible were to be judged by the number of times it was used, then certainly the word KING would the greatest place of honor. There are no less than 6,318 references to kings or kingdoms in the Bible. However, for nearly all of us the notion or idea of king has little meaning since this country broke away from England in 1776. In the United States we've never known a king. Perhaps the only remnant of kings and queens is in our American high schools when students chose a classmate to be crowned the king and queen of the Junior Prom.

Many years ago an Italian artist worked for a long time on a very large piece of marble. After years he gave it up, saying I Can't do anything with this. He threw it away. Forty years later another Italian artist from Florence by the name of Michaelangelo found the marble in a pile of rubbish. He immediately saw that he might be able to do something with it. After three years of carving he produced one of the world's greatest sculptures known as David.

This is the King David, son of Jesse, who lived 2500 years before Michaelangelo, who is talked about in the book of Samuel. He is the David that wrote many of the prayers known as psalms. In his early life David had no faith. He murdered persons whom he did not like, and went against most of the 10 commandments that had been given to his Jewish ancestors. His father did not think he could be a leader so he left him in the fields to take care of the sheep. But somehow God saw the possibilities in the young farmer David. He changed his way of life, and decided that he could do good for the people in his country. He brought enemies together to talk about peace, and they did. He led them to God. David never wanted to take this honor for himself praying that everything is from God. But they insisted that he be known as their King David.

In a few weeks from now we will hear the Bible tell us that a person by the name of Jesus will be born in Bethlehem who will be from the kingly line of David.

Normally when we think of kings and queens we picture castles and crowns, jewels, pomp and ceremony. We think of riches, power, and glamour. Today we honor Jesus as our King. The first public record of Jesus being publicly named a king was the cross on which he was nailed. The Romans placed a sign above his head as he hung on the cross. Written were the lettersINRI, which in Latin mean: Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews. When you go home today, look at the crucifix on the wall in your kitchen or living room and you will find those letters: INRI.

We honor a person who has none of the ways of those kings. Just recall the scene: his throne was a cross, his crown was made of thorns, his servants were his executioners, and the people closest to him were common criminals. The cross shows us the kind of king Jesus is: he is one who cares for us right to the end. He cares enough to suffer and to even give up his life for those he loves. He cares enough to be misunderstood and rejected. He cares enough to seem a failure. He is a king who cares, and is prepared to make any sacrifice for the sake of those he loves.

Jesus was and is a contradiction to any who try to live as he taught us. His disciples thought they would get all kinds of power from him. He would give them the best letter of reference, or best jobs, or make them MVPs on His team. But what does he tell them: Anyone who would be first must be last, the servant of all.

Today's Gospel reminds us just how personally Jesus fulfils his saving mission on earth. Only in Luke's' Gospel do we find this incident in which Jesus guarantees the salvation of one of the criminals crucified with him, the familiar Good Thief. This thief, referred to as Dismas, prays to Jesus as both are dying and says to Jesus: JESUS, REMEMBER ME WHEN YOU COME INTO YOUR KINGDOM. Jesus remembers him and tells him YOU WILL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE.

Jesus focuses on the necessity for us to follow him day by day. In the midst of all difficulty and bad times, we find hope, words of encouragement, new life comes to us. Within ourselves we find a renewal when new ideas let go of the bad and painful. Old habits of sin must be destroyed if the newness of Jesus is be part of us. Our future is one of constant renewal. We are always in the process of renewing our responses to the will of Jesus for us. We renew our spiritual life, not by world shaking actions, but by actions that show we are thankful and loving: by reading a book to a child; by listening to an elderly parent; by listening to a young person who feels alone; by leading prayers at home at meal time; by teaching your children or grandchildren about Jesus; by making Advent a time of preparation for the birth of Jesus, and not just a time to buy more and more gifts.

If Christ were in this church today he would be advising us that in God's kingdom even the guilty can find welcome, no matter what their crimes, lifestyles and misdeeds.

On the cross Jesus gave comfort to repentant thief even as he extends comfort to us as we hang on our own crosses. No matter what we have to bear in life, no situation is beyond Christ's healing power.

Homily for the week of November 14, 2010

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2010 year C

Malachi 3:19-20a

Psalm 98:5-6, 7-8, 9

2 Thessalonians 3:7-12

Luke 21:5-19

Everyone faces problems they may never be able to solve. However, the most important aspect of solving any problem is looking at it within its context, that is, what are the factors that surround it or affect it. The Bible has to be read in several contexts. First we have to look at who were the authors. The writers of the Bible were always responding to something. In most cases they were answering someone's question about a particular situation or about Jesus. The question the passage is responding to is still a question we ask today. As and example in the Gospel I just read Jesus was asked: When will the end of the world happen? And how will we know when that is to happen?

This leads to a second important part of understanding a Bible passage: what is happening in our lives right now? The depth of personal meaning a passage has for us will vary depending on what is going on in our lives today. Reading about a healing miracle will have a certain meaning for someone who is terribly ill and another meaning for someone who has never been sick.

This information on the circumstances surrounding an event is very helpful for approaching today’s readings. Our first reading from Malachi and our Gospel passage from Luke were all written with an eye toward the future. The purpose of these passages is to help us understand and cope with events occurring now and to help us find hope in our future when God will prevail over everything.

Our first reading is from the book of Malachi. Malachi was a chronic complainer. Yet he says that God is like the sun. It is the same sun that warms us in winter but that can give us a serious sunburn in summer. God too is experienced in different ways. The evil experience him as a blazing oven; the good as a healing ray to give them spiritual warmth. And Malachi tells us that a day is coming when God will show his divine face to all who are living. Malachi wanted to remind us that ultimately God is in charge and that God will set all things right. It is this reminder that helps us endure. He reminded the people that while things are bad in this world, we are not really of this world. We can endure because this life is not the one we were born for. We were born for life with God in heaven.

No doubt many people, and maybe some of you, have great fears in our nation today. Our primary fear is an economic one. With the huge deficit, we fear what might come. We worry about what will happen if the nation goes bankrupt. We think, “What about Social Security and Medicare? Will they be there for me?” This fear is not unreasonable.

Our Gospel today was written by St.Luke’s as a time when people were also living in fear. Accepting Jesus Christ had forced a change in lifestyle. Many were afraid of the Roman authorities who did not like Jesus. Some were leaving the Jesus out of fear of persecution or even death.

Numerous fundamentalist preachers on and off TV, keep telling us that we are in the last days, and that the end of the world is coming soon. How do they know this? Because they take a sentence here and a sentence there from the Bible and determine that the current events show that the world as we know it is passing away. The early Christians also thought that the world would end in their lifetime.

These self proclaimed authorities. of course, ignore other passages such as in our last reading today, where Jesus warns us about false alarms. Jesus cautions us that we must be more concerned about living our faith day by day than worried over the date of the end of the world. Jesus says of these false prophets: DO NOT FOLLOW THEM.

A week ago more than 50 Iraqis and 3 Catholic priests were shot to death in an attack in a Catholic church in Baghdad as the people were participating in Sunday Mass.

Jesus never promised his followers then or now freedom from trials or even from disasters. He did promise that he would be with us amid disasters. Jesus made that promise from his own experience. That experience was finalize on the cross.

Often we think God acts one way for good people and another way for bad. We often believe that if the Lord isn't doing what we want, we simply have to change from bad to good and he will give us what we need.

But today's three readings give some different advice. We see a God who is always doing good things for his people whether they are themselves good or bad. His actions come across to us in different ways because we respond to them in different ways.

Jesus does say, though, that before that last day comes we will have to live according to our belief. He says we are called to endure patiently. Jesus is our model and our hope. That is why we are here today. We need a weekly spiritual transfusion from Jesus that will give us the strength to endure the humanly unendurable; to hope where we see no hope; to continue the journey when we feel our strength is at an end.

Today and this week let us think about our own lives. Think of the opportunities we have to do little things that no one even notices. Picking up a piece of trash and disposing it properly. Smiling at someone who seems down. Thanking a clerk at a checkout counter. Visiting a neighbor who is lonely or is grieving. Being pleasant with co-worker. Giving a positive response. Being kind to a classmate who has just been bullied. This is how we fill our heart so that when the time comes, we take it with us. Best of all Jesus is always with us to help and encourage us.

Homily for the week of November 7, 2010

Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2010 C

2 Maccabee 7:1-2, 9-14

Psalm 17

2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5

Luke 20:27-38

A small boy asked his father: Dad, what will happen to you when you die? Oh, that's easy to answer, came the confident reply. "I just go out like a light." There was a moment's silence while this was digested. Then came the second question: But Dad, what if there is someone waiting to switch you on again?

People in the United States have mixed feelings about death. On one hand, we spend lots of time and money trying hold off the moment of death. We add safety features to cars and homes, go on the latest diet or exercise craze, and take life-enhancing herbal supplements -- all with the hope of starving off death a few more years. On the other hand, movies and television often feature violent death to attract viewers. Death seems to fascinate us --as long as it's someone else's death.

Most teens and most adults would rather not think too much about their own death. This usually isn't hard to do, because most people in our country rarely have to address the reality of death. Yet everyone once in a while we have to face the death of someone we know well. Or maybe have to face the possibility of our own death because of an accident or a serious illness. At time our minds race with the thought: what will happen to me when I die?

Facing our own death isn't easy. It can be sobering, even frightening to face the big unknown. Some people are thrown into despair and even depression thinking about death. Our Catholic faith has answers to the question of death, as do most religions. But we have the advantage because the person who supplied those answers has actually died and risen again. Believing in Jesus' promise that we will rise to a new life does not completely take away the sting of death, but our faith does help us understand that death is not a final ending but a new beginning.

This past Tuesday we celebrated our belief that the souls of the faithful departed are in God’s merciful presence. Is death simply the end, like putting out a light or snuffing out a candle. If there is life after death, what is it like? We have all asked questions like these. It is right to consider them on this November weekend, when the natural world of vegetation has died, and as we remember Veterans Day. It is good to hear the words of Jesus about life after death.

All our Bible readings today have a forward look. They describe a today out of which a future flows. Because it is our present faith in God that ensures our enduring life.

There is within the human spirit a will to live—not only our earthly life, but beyond it. Most people want to be remembered for having made a difference in the world during their lifetime, no matter how long that life will be. Sometimes we muse about what we would want on our tombstone. For what do we most want to be remembered? For people in Jesus’ day, it was important to leave their mark in the world through the children they left behind.

The notion of resurrected life only began to emerge some 200 years before Jesus. Ideas varied about what it would be like. In the first reading today, we see the belief expressed that only the just would be raised, not the wicked. In other texts we find the notion that both would be raised, the former for eternal reward, the latter for everlasting punishment.

By Jesus’ time, there were two large sects within Judaism: the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The Pharisees had come to believe in a resurrection of the body. Jesus told them that life after death is not the same as life on earth. What Jesus promised is that life with God is the very thing for which we are born; therefore, it will be a happiness we cannot imagine. We can no longer die for we will be like angels.

Jesus replied that there was no need to think about heirs. The dead will be children of God. Marriage to preserve a name will have no place. Life after death is not an extension of life on earth, but a radical renewal of life that knows no more death.

There is an ancient play called EVERYMAN. In it God sends Death to the hero to tell him that his life is over. When the hero recovers from shock, he asks Death to give him a few minutes to invite his friends who are Money, Fame, Power, and Good Works to go with him into the after life. Death agrees. To the hero's dismay, however, the only person who accepts his invitation is Good Works. The rest refuse. The point is that as we pass through death from this life to the next, one thing alone will matter-- our Good Works.

Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, a psychiatrist has interviewed hundreds of people who have been declared clinically dead and then revived. These people commonly report experiencing a kind of instant replay of their lives. Many have told her that when it comes to this point only two things are relevant: the service they gave to others, and love. All those things we think are important, like fame, money, prestige, and power are not at all important.

Our religion teaches us that death is not an end to life, but the passage to a new life that will have no end. In Baptism we began a relationship with Divine Love. Love does not end, nor do loving relationships die. They may change, but they continue.

Our Catholic faith teaches that there are three distinct modes of existence in the next life, and we identify these places as heaven, purgatory and hell. Where we go after death is very much our choice. No one is predestined to heaven or to hell. God is a loving God and acts to save everyone. But some choose not to be saved and to reject God. Hell is the inheritance of all who wilfully turn away from divine love through what is known as mortal or deadly choices for which we have not asked forgiveness. Hopefully, our choices take us in the direction of God. Usually we will know that we have made the wrong choice if we feel uneasy, bored, selfish, restless. But we will know that we have made the right choice if we feel good about it: if we experience, joy, peacefulness, harmony, love, patience, kindness, faith, generosity. While on earth Jesus is with us regardless of our choices. We make the right choices through his help. If we make the wrong choices he holds out his hands to forgive us.