Homily for the Week of November 27, 2011

HOMILY: FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT, 2011 Year B

Mk 13: 33-37

We begin today the first week of Advent. Advent means new beginning. For the Church Advent is the beginning of a new year. For the first time in 45 years we are celebrating Mass using the new translation of the Roman Missal. We have changed the color of the clothes an altar cloths to Roman purple. Diane of Country Expressions stopped by this morning to arrange the Advent wreath. But as with everything else, we can easily let these weeks of Advent pass us by and not affect us spiritually. It is so easy for us to follow the crowds and tend to make Christmas a materialistic day rather than a spiritual day. Yet, Advent every year means hope in the future coming of a loving God to us. This Advent brings us to the 2011th anniversary of the birth of Jesus. Advent is a time of hope, but Advent is also a time of waiting.

All waiting is about anticipating something. At sports arenas, people wait with anticipation and excitement for games to begin. Children as well as adults wait to open gifts.

Waiting is most likely not your favorite activity. As children we could hardly wait for birthdays, free days and holidays. But as we got older we wanted things to happen more quickly. At times we wait for something to happen, and at other times we wait for something not to happen. Each year the Catholic Church gives us 4 weeks of Advent as a time of waiting and pausing. But waiting must be connected with preparation. Advent is 4 weeks of the spiritual preparation time for Jesus to be known in our life, in our family, in our parish, in any place where we might be.

Two thousand years ago a woman without a husband in her 8th month of pregnancy was waiting for the birth of her first child. It would soon become known that this child was the Savior promised by Isaiah who would save us from our sins. He would be given the name Jesus.

The Bible readings today give us a sense that we are getting ready for something. Isaiah asks God to return. He uses the example of clay, the same type of clay which many of you may mold when you make ceramics. He speaks of himself as clay in the hands of a potter. God is the potter, creating us in his image and likeness, but helping us not to go astray or to break the mold.

In Psalm 80 we are told that all will be all right as long as we prepare ourselves. When, however, we come to the section from Mark's Gospel, the emphasis shifts slightly. There's no more asking God to do all the work and take all the responsibility for our readiness. Mark tells us to stay awake. The master of the house may come unexpectedly. Seldom did persons at the time of Jesus travel by night, so the warning is presumably against daytime negligence rather than an order not to fall asleep at the wheel.

Advent is a time of waiting for the birth of one who was promised centuries ago to bring good news to the poor, and deliverance from those in prison. This year it is a time of 29 days during which we are invited to renew our desire to STAY AWAKE; to WATCH so that we might be ready for the coming of Jesus. Advent means more than getting out the Christmas crib or the Christmas tree with its decorations or the poinsettias or the Christmas candy or the Christmas cards.

Advent is a time for us to prepare ourselves religiously for the coming of the Lord Jesus who wishes to be born anew in our lives. Advent is a time of proclaiming death to the deeds of our life that prevent us from giving birth. Because death is so difficult and so much to be avoided, then Advent in a spiritual sense, is a time of suffering and self-denial. That is why we have purple--a color associated in the church with suffering and waiting. Advent comes at the shortest days of the year, the darkest days almost as a reminder that we must take an honest look at how our lives can easily be filled with darkness.

Advent is also a time when we are encouraged to see the good in others when it is so easy for us to complain about the bad things that others do. Jesus came to be the light of the world. We will soon light one candle of this Advent wreath to remind us that we too must see the light and goodness in others.

Try to make this Advent a time of joy and celebration in much the same way that you would do if you were expecting a child. Advent can also be a time for us to start again on doing the good things we have been putting off.

Let’s spend Advent attending. Attend to the personal needs we have long neglected: the need for excitement, the need for rest, the need for attention. Attend to the needs of others: the need for understanding and caring. The spirit of Christmas is the birth of Jesus. Make room in your heart and life for Jesus and God.

As today’s Gospel tells us, we’ll never know when the time will come for us to be judged. So whatever we are doing, we ought to be doing it to become the person God means for us to be.

Homily for the Week of November 20, 2011

THE SOLEMNITY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST THE KING, 2011 Ezekiel: 34: 11-7; Ps 23: 1-6; 1 Cor 15:20-28; Mt 25: 31-46

You may wonder how relevant is this feast of Christ the King to Americans. We in the United States have never been much for kings. Our nation began with a nasty war to free us from a king. Today most Americans find monarchies are curious and quaint. All this combines to make us all but shrug at the notion of celebrating today’s special Mass in honor of Christ the King. Yet, so very, very often our prayers use the image of king and kingdom. In the OUR FATHER we prayer your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. At funerals we pray that the person will enter the kingdom of God.

The gospel highlights the paradox of the Christian life. The reading gives us an image of a large crowd of people who gather in front of Jesus whom they call King. The scene is one of judgement where the blessed enter the kingdom prepared for them, and the accursed enter punishment prepared for them. Those of you who read and pray the Bible often will recognize that today’s passage is just like the Sermon on the Mountain where Jesus gives us the Beatitudes.

Perhaps it is difficult to reconcile the story of the Last Judgement with the mercy and love of God. The feast of Christ the King celebrates God's love and justice. In the first reading, God is presented as a shepherd who cares for each of his sheep. The shepherd seeks each out, knows each by name, strengthens, heals and bandages the wounded. Christ the Good Shepherd deepens this understanding in the story of the shepherd who seeks out the one lost sheep out of a hundred sheep in the pasture. He carries the sheep home on his shoulders.

I am sure that if any of you are spiritually honest with yourself you will notice that as you grew up and went from one age to another you found a different emphasis in your faith and religion. There may have been times when religion met very little to you, or you just did not care, or you did everything because someone else wanted you to do it.

And then there were times when you again renewed your faith, because you could find nothing to replace it, and it became YOURfaith. Don’t worry if there are times like this. The story of the lives of the saints are filled with such events. For example, Teresa of Avila, known as one of the great spiritual leaders of all times. had been a nun for 20 years when she experienced a true conversion to Jesus. After this she spent her life helping others as Jesus tells us, and bringing changes in the church of her day. It was then that one day she read the Bible passage of today and then wrote: Jesus has no body on earth but yours; no hands but yours; no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes by which he is to look out. Yours are the feet by which he is going about doing good. Yours are the hands with which he is to bless each day.

God shows tremendous concern for the sheep that have wandered away from the flock. They are in danger from predators. God proclaims that He will rescue them. We have seen God come as promised in the person of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd. The most beloved of the psalms, Psalm 23, speaks of life at the coming of the Saviour. We shall not want for anything. Like sheep like a rich pasture with moist grass, we shall have our fill. Not only will our physical needs be answered, our soul will be refreshed. The ancients saw the soul as the force that animates the body, meaning that our entire being will be refreshed when our Shepherd comes for us.

It seems clear that if the needy, the poor, those who feel unloved, are to be taken care of as Jesus would have done, you and I must do it. Then it must be my eyes and your eyes that will see their needs, that will recognize Jesus in them, and help them with love and compassion.

In a sense Jesus is like a financial advisor to whom you go at the end of the year to get help with your taxes. But the audit in this case is the condition of my spiritual life at the end of my life. But is it not surprising that Jesus says nothing here of whether or not I have kept the commandments, gone to Church, received the sacraments, or prayed everyday. None of these are not mentioned, because they are presumed as the basis for being a good person. Without these religious acts it is impossible for us to do what Jesus asks of us today.

At the end of life we will not be judged on how many diplomas we have received or how we have ranked on the athletic teams or how much money we have made or how many great things we have done. We will be judged by: I was hungry and you gave me to eat, I had no clothes and you clothed me, I was homeless and you took me in. Very often it is easier for us to satisfy these physical needs than the deeper human needs like: Hungry, not only for bread, but hungry for love; naked, not only for clothing, but naked for human dignity and respect; homeless, not only for want of a room of wood or brick, but homeless because of rejection.

At the end of the Church's year and as we prepare for Advent, we are invited to take a look at our lives. Can I see the times of darkness or the times when God has healed me? Are their times when God's love, through love of those around me, rescued me from darkness and despair? Do I thank God for this love? Have we seen Jesus in others and in ourselves? Yes, I’ve see you many times, you can all say. And then Jesus will reply: Come with me to the place I have prepared for you from the beginning of the world. What a reunion that will be!

Homily for the Week of November 13, 2011

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), 2011

Readings: Prv 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31; Ps 128:1-5; 1 Thes 5:1-6; Mt 25:14-30

Our Gospel story today speaks of sums of money that would never be actually paid to servants. Given the way a story works, and to emphasize a point, Jesus exaggerated. Using today’s federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour as a base, five talents would be worth about two million dollars. Two talents would be worth about $696,000, and one talent about $348,000.

Our Gospel today is from a section of Matthew Gospel that deals with our death and what happens after our death. It has been chosen to prepare us for next Sunday’s celebration of the Feast of Christ the King. Jesus tells today’s story to help us understand the ground rules for judgement when he returns.

Today Jesus tells us a story about a wealthy man who went away on a journey. He entrusted large portions of his money to three of his servants. The servants were entrusted with money beyond their wildest imagination. He did so without any instruction, giving the servants the freedom to use their own discretion and initiative with how to handle their responsibility for the money. He gave different amounts of money to each of the servants. The first two servants invested the money during the master's absence and it yielded great returns. The third servant, however, was fearful of investing. The servant buried the money he was given and returned the full amount to the master when he came home. The master was pleased with the investments of the first two servants, but was very upset with the third one. It is very clear that the one with the single talent was nor punished fo receiving less than the other two; rather he was punished because he buried what he had received from the master and didn’t put it to good use. To those who have much, much more will be given. To those who have little, even that little will be taken away.

This story is not about the stock market. It is about God. It is about what we do with our gifts, financial or otherwise. It is about the end times, the end of the world, the end of our lives. Whatever is given to us—money, talent, opportunity is for the glory of God and a help to getting us to heaven when we die. As the story makes clear, the entire judgement of each individual is based upon our service to the least of our brothers and sisters.

God has entrusted us with generous gifts that are no less valuable than that which the rich man entrusted to his servants, and like the rich man, what God expects is not an ordinary return. We have been given a gift called faith, and faith must be invested. Like the rich man, God expects us to make what is entrusted to us increase. If our faith is to become anything more than it is now, we must risk our gift. Too often, though, we either squander our gift of faith outright or we so rarely use it that, like a fine musical instrument not played often enough, it rots away and loses its tone and beauty.

In its most fundamental sense, the image of the talent represents the bounty of life itself, as well as the preeminent gift of faith. If we are among those fortunate enough to reach the maturity required for personal responsibility and to have the opportunity to use the talents of life and faith, it is incumbent upon us to invest our gifts, not hide them out of fear or laziness.

This story is less about money than about what happens at the end of our life. It is about gifts and giving gifts. Whatever is given to us by God -- whether it is money, or special abilities, or opportunities, are given, not to grow stale but to be increased. And the way that we are to be judged on that increase is not on how much we have kept for ourselves, or how important it might make us, but how much we have given away -- how well have we served one another. And serving is defined as how well we have helped those among us that have the least: the least money, the least natural abilities, the least opportunities, and least faith.

The goods of the world and the wealth derived from our labor must be used for God's glory and human assistance. What is more it wealth is most effective in the service of God and ministry to the poor, homeless, and hungry.

Notice that in this Bible story, it is the owner’s work that the servants are to do, his money that he hands over to them; and it is obvious that he expects them to do something with those funds.

God has given each one of us talents. Sometimes out of laziness or lack of ambition, or sometimes because we are afraid of failure or ridicule, we do not share our talents. The gospel today challenges us to take a risk and invest our gifts for the greater good of God's people. We do this ourselves as adults, but we must also try to help our children recognize their talents and use them in a productive way.

On most college applications there is a section in which you are asked to describe your hobbies and talents -- those things that you are good at but that aren’t part of your regular school courses. This is a place where you tell what clubs and sports you belong to, what instruments you play, or what volunteer and service organization you work with. Colleges are looking for students who are talented and unique. The good news is that your abilities and talents are always good enough for God. God gave us our unique abilities in order to serve others. He made us everything we are and everything we are not. God doesn’t care if you stand out and win first place. To God the thing that matters is that you use your talents in service of others. We are all made differently so we all need each other. Today we are invited to use our God-given gifts. If we don’t we will lose them.

Homily for the Week of November 6, 2011

Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2011

Wisdom 6:12-16; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Matthew 25:1-13

Different people have very different attitudes toward time. At one extreme are those who are early for every occasion and filled with panic at the thought of being late or in some way unprepared. At the other extreme are those who will be late for their own funerals. And somewhere in the middle are the economically efficient group who pride themselves on arriving just on the dot so that not a minute of life is wasted by waiting around. Close relationships between people of different types can create a lot of tension. It is a part of life in which each group finds it very difficult to understand the other's point of view.

The story that I just read of the sensible and foolish bridesmaids can sound very puzzling to us. For one thing, we do not usually have young women accompanying the bridegroom at weddings. In fact our custom is to keep the genders apart, with the groom assisted by the best man and the bride by the bridesmaids. But Jesus is not trying t give us advice about weddings.

Jesus is giving us a more urgent message. Jesus is talking about death. Jesus tells this story toward the end of his public life. He will soon be facing His death on the cross. Jesus the bridegroom will be taken from his disciples,. They will not be prepared. Not only do the sensible bridesmaids refuse to share their supplies with the foolish; the bridegroom, when he comes, refuses to recognize the latecomers. And it could be argued that it is only because of his delay that the foolish ones have found themselves in their predicament!

Many people blame God in a similar fashion when things go wrong in their lives. Surely God could have had the foresight to arrange things differently. But God has the more urgent concern of getting us to understand the principles of wisdom, the first of which is the need to be awake, to be alive to what is happening around us. We are constantly being challenged to be aware of what is going on around us and to make sure our resources are capable of dealing with what life throws at us.

Sometimes we sleep our way through life. It can feel more comfortable to avoid struggling with things we feel we can do little about anyway. We get fixed into our patterns of behavior which may, for example, include always being early or late. We excuse our lifestyle by pointing out that in a hundred years no one will remember our little actions. But what happens when we are really challenged or in pain? Then we need more substantial answers. If we are caught napping in our relationship with God, we may find ourselves feeling uncomfortably far from help.

Just as we know that Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming, we should know that our final day will also come. Jesus made three things clear: First, all things will come to an end. Second, we must prepare ourselves for this. Third, preparing ourselves for the end is not frightening, but rather a labor of joyful expectation. Putting off preparing for holiday celebrations is one thing. Jesus tells us today that we actually can also run out of time trying to make our lives acceptable to God: At one time in our lives each of us will knock on God's door. We do not want him to say to us: I do not know you.

We cannot — and should not — live as though death is right now, but we should live as if we know it is coming. Just as we know that Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming, we should know that our final day will also come.

What God asks us to do is prepare ourselves by increasing our ordinary awareness of what is happening in our lives. The Book of Wisdom says that if we are on the alert for Wisdom, we will quickly get rid of anxiety from our lives because of wisdom. The path to the truth may be a painful struggle, but it is the path to healing and wholeness. The pattern of Christ's life and his ongoing presence help us face up to what we might prefer to keep hidden or avoid.

If Jesus were present in person here today he would ask: Is there some part of your life you would prefer not to pay attention to?

Let us ask Jesus to make us wise so as to increase our understanding and acceptance of ourself. Remember a time in our life when we might have felt angry with God for our situation. Looking back on that time, do we see how we may have grown in wisdom or understanding as a result of our difficult time? Each day may be our last. The last things are the lasting things: this moment of gratitude, this one gift of another breath, this particular person before me, this chance to hope, this hour to believe. It is all now. Eternity is now. And God is with us. All that we need is to be alert.