Merry Christmas! Homily from 11pm Mass, Christmas Eve, St. Kateri at Christ the King,

Good evening and Merry Christmas!

One of the Christmas traditions in my house is that every year, my wife and I buy a new crèche – a new manger scene.  We have a tiny snowglobe manger scene, a fine porcelain stable with the Holy Family and the three kings, we have one from our honeymoon in Hawaii made from a coconut. Last year we bought outdoor figurines – for which I just build a five-foot tall stable out on the front lawn.  After 26 years of marriage, we’ve got at least that many baby Jesuses in the house.

One of the things I noticed about these creches is that most of them, if you pick it up and look on the bottom, says “made in China.”  In fact, I had to search the house to find one  (other than the coconut crèche which was in fact made in Hawaii) that wasn’t made in China.

I know there are Christians in China, but they’re few and far between.  In a recent trip there, I saw one tiny building from a distance that might have been a church, but in four days there never almost nothing to do with religion, especially Christian religion.

 So I got to thinking, and maybe you’ve wondered this, too, what goes through the mind of these Chinese factory workers, who all day long put the red noses on Rudolph, paint the scarves and buttons on Frosty, and especially what goes through their minds as they paint Mary’s shawl blue and gold or the baby Jesus’ cheeks pink? 

My mind drifted off, and I imagined myself outside the factory gate as the workers filed out at the end of the day, and imagined that one of them, somehow knowing that I’m a Christian, walks up to me and asks me something like this –

“What gives with this reindeer and snowman? And this baby, in a stable, in a manger, surrounded by mother and father and farm animals and shepherds? What’s that all about? Who is this little baby whose cheeks I’ve been painting pink all day long?

“Oh and my bus comes in five minutes so please - make it quick!”

Five minutes to explain your faith, five minutes to explain the wondrous feast we celebrate this night, five minutes to speak of the Savior of the world – what would you say?

After some thought and prayer, I decided this is what I would tell her:

I would tell her  –

“First of all, forget the reindeer and snowmen.  It’s all about the baby.

“You see, we Christians believe that the God who created the universe, who created you and me, loves us more than we can ever comprehend.  But since the beginning of time, since there were people on earth, humankind has rejected that love, turned away from that loving God.  God drew together a nation, a chosen people, and even this beloved Hebrew people turned away, even after all that God had done for them.  He had freed them from slavery in Egypt, had given them His law (not for His sake but for their own benefit), and gave to them their own land, blessing  them with abundance. 

“Still, they turned away, neglecting the poor and weak, worshipping false gods or not worshipping at all, and sinning against the law He had given them.  He sent prophets to call for them to change their ways, even caused their nation to fall and be exiled, but He relented and brought them back.  Still, they were unfaithful to the covenant He had made with them.  They were hopeless, lost in their godless ways, wandering in the dark, doomed to live apart from Him, in this life and in eternal life.

“But God so loved His people that He refused to give up on them.  Refused to leave them alone.  In the fullness of time, He sent His very Son to become one of them, to save them and restore them to His friendship! God made man. A King, like His forefather David. “That little baby whose face you spent the day painting? That’s Jesus, that’s Him!  It’s all for the grand celebration of His birthday.

But the story doesn’t end there. No.

“We believe that He grew up, and like His Father all through history, He was also rejected and was even killed.  But that had to be, as three days later, He rose from the dead, and by His death and resurrection, He opened for us who believe in Him the gates of eternal life.  He ascended to His Father, but left them the gift of sacrament, His very Body and Blood to strengthen them.  Sent His Holy Spirit to empower all who believe in Him.  And drew together a new people of His followers, a Church, to carry on His mission, to live as He taught, and to spread word of Him to the ends of the earth.”

Here comes her bus down the street, so I have only a moment to get in a last word:

“But this story isn’t a history lesson,” I continue.  “No! He lives! Even though He was born 2000 years ago, He lives today, and longs to be in relationship with every one of us, with me, with you!  So that we who have truly encountered Him are changed forever, and live only for Him.  Him who is our only hope in this dark and sinful world.  That by our encounter with Him we learn to reject godless ways and worldly desires and live according to the law of love He has written on our hearts.  As we await His coming again at the end of time!”

“Here comes your bus,” I say.  “Thank you for listening, and thank you for your hard work to make our Christmas special! God bless you!”

* * * * * * * * * *

My sisters and brothers, it’s not about the reindeer and the snowmen or Santa Claus.  It’s all about Him.  Much of the world and certainly much of our nation will find some measure of happiness this Christmas, whether they know Him or not.  Happiness in seeing relatives who live far away, or the return of students from college, the homecoming of a son or daughter serving in the military.  The giving of gifts.  Or simply the partying and feasting.

But we’ll only experience real joy by recognizing in this tiny newborn baby Him who desires to be the king of our hearts.  By seeing in the gift of this little child a God who loves you and me beyond all measure.  By recognizing that we – you and I - need a savior, that by ourselves we are doomed to self-centeredness and powerless against temptation and sin.  That in the manger of Bethlehem lay the only hope for this dark world.  And that real joy, and peace, come from complete abandonment of ourselves in relationship with Him.

Brothers and sisters, if you have been blessed with this kind of faith, if you come here this holy night with great faith in Him and great joy in your hearts, praise and thank God and ask Him to deepen that faith.

If you have been away from Him, whether a few days or a few weeks or many years, or if you’ve never really known Him, pray! Pray that He come into your heart anew and set your heart on fire with love and faith, and yes, His great joy. 

No matter your past, no matter the condition of your heart or the yoke of sin you bear this night, He sleeps there in the manger with arms open, He hangs there on the Cross with arms stretched wide, to embrace you and welcome you and let you know His immeasurable love and mercy. He bids you – come home!

My dear sisters and brothers - Joy to the world - the Lord is come! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Preached December 21, 2014 - Fourth Sunday of Advent

Mass readings:  http://usccb.org/bible/readings/122114.cfm

            There’s an old saying, and you’ve probably heard it before, first published by a man named William Shedd, and the saying goes like this:

            “a ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.”

            Mary was looking forward to a nice, safe, life.  Probably a poor peasant girl, she was betrothed, promised to marry, a good man with a steady job, Joseph. A man who would provide well for her and any children they would have, care for them, protect them.  Yes, her parents had chosen well for her, and Mary had to be quite happy and content with the life that lay ahead of her.

            But the Lord God had other plans for her.  Sent His angel to her with a different kind of proposal, an offer to, so to speak, leave her nice safe harbor and set out on the high seas.  To announce to her God her Father’s plan – that she was to become the mother of the Son of God, the promised Savior, the most high, the King of Israel like His forefather David, indeed to be recognized as the King of the universe!  To become the Mother of God Himself!

            I sometimes wonder what Our Lady might have said to the angel if she could have foreseen, then and there, what her life would be like.  If she could have set aside her obvious shock at this outrageous proposal from the angel and if she could have had a clear vision of what lay ahead.  Her assent, after all, her “yes”, her “fiat” to the angel and the Lord God would mean both incredible joys and incredible suffering lay in store for her. 

            It would mean incredible joys – the visit to Elizabeth, the birth of the Babe in the stable, presenting Him at the temple, finding Him in the temple.     

            It would mean fear – the night flight to Egypt. 

            And sadness – hearing of the slaughter of the innocents. 

            And incredible sufferings – watching her Son rejected by the holy and powerful, arrested, tortured, condemned and killed by the Romans.  Any mother will tell you the pain a mother feels when her child is suffering is worse than bearing the pain herself! 

            But she would know incredible glory, too – oh if she could foresee His glorious resurrection and ascension!  Or her own assumption and coronation as Queen of Heaven!

            But even if she could have foreseen everything, the good and the bad, the rough and stormy seas of her life, I dare say her answer would have been the same, for she exhibited the three virtues, three important lessons you and I can learn from this woman, from this Gospel.  These three things say something important about her.  And something important about God.  And those three things are trust, openness, and obedience.

            First of all, trust.  Mary was a person of great faith.  She had learned the scripture accounts; in fact in paintings of this Gospel scene of the Annunciation, Mary is usually seen reading holy scripture when visited by the angel.  So she knew that the God who had liberated her people from slavery in Egypt is a faithful God, who can be trusted to keep His word.  She knew from the prophets that time and time again, even when the people turned away, God was faithful and continued to love His people. Worthy of trust and faith.  And she knew from the prophets that God would keep his promise to send a savior to His people.  So she trusted in the Lord, her rock, her stronghold.

            And she was open, open to the will of God.  Mary exhibits a radical openness which above all, requires humility.  An attitude that says “You are God and I am not.”  That says “you created me for a purpose.” An openness which lets God mold and fashion us, like soft, wet clay in God’s fingers.  Openness even to a lifelong change of plans, to a request to pull up anchor and head out into deep waters.

            And finally, obedience. “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord.  May it be done to me according to your word.” Powerful, beautiful words.  This is the obedience of faith of which St. Paul writes in today’s passage from his letter to the Romans.  It is a surrender, to God’s will, an assent to God’s plan for her, as different as that was from any plan of hers, or of her betrothed, or of her parents.

            My brothers and sisters, those are three qualities – trust, openness and surrender – as well as the virtue of humility which underlies all three – which we find sorely lacking in today’s world.  We live in a world basically guided by the immortal words of Frank Sinatra – “I did it my way.”  A me-centered world - what’s in it for me? What can I get out of this? A world more and more with the attitude “I don’t need anybody telling me what to do.”

            The example we ponder today of Mary and her fiat, her “yes” by which the world has come to know its Savior, is counter-cultural – for her example stands in stark relief against our self-centered, “my-way” world. 

            You and I, sisters and brothers, are being called this day, in these last few days of Advent, to ponder this Gospel anew and reflect on the profound example given to us of this humble, holy woman. How can you and I pursue the same virtues of trust in God, openness to His call and obedient surrender to His word? 

            And ponder for the last few days of this holy season of advent and the joyous feast of Christmas, how you and I will let this humble little child, God made flesh, soon to be born of this holy humble woman, how will we let Him change our lives?  No matter our age, no matter our station in life, He is calling you and me to something new, something greater, to a deeper commitment to serve Him and His people as His humble handmaid.

            How will we answer His call? Will we trust in Him who has done so much for us, who has done everything for us?  Will we be open to hear His call? Will we joyfully surrender to His will in humble obedience?

            Will you and I, by our “yesses” to Him, let Him change our little corner of the world?

Homily - Sunday December 14 2014 - Third Sunday of Advent

Mass readings:  http://usccb.org/bible/readings/121414.cfm



                It is a dark, dark world.  Pick up a newspaper and or go online to read the news for a few minutes and it’s pretty easy to get downright depressed. 

            An Iraqi clergyman reports that four Christian youths, threatened with their lives unless they forsake Christ and swear allegiance to Mohammed, refuse.  And are beheaded.  Protests, even riots, in Ferguson, MO and all across the country.  3000 people killed on 9-11 and our nation resorts to torture in response.  Thousands dying of Ebola in Africa, out of sight.  And I could go on.  Darkness all about.

            And we have darkness in our own lives, huh?  Who among us hasn’t experienced the emptiness and gnawing loneliness from the death of a loved one?  Or the heartbreak or anger perhaps of a broken relationship? The fear of an announced layoff, the panic of a doctor’s diagnosis.  The despair and powerlessness of being imprisoned in a sinful habit or addiction.  Or the sadness of a grown child turned away from the Faith?  Darkness in each of our lives.

            Against the darkness of the world and our lives, Holy Mother Church today gives us a one-word response:  Rejoice!  Rejoice!  Kind of silly, huh?  I mean how is it that we are called to rejoice when engulfed in the darkness of our world, of our lives? 

            The answer, of course, is also one word: Jesus!  Jesus Christ, Our Lord, the light of our dark world.  The light of Whom the Evangelist John speaks in the Gospel I’ve just proclaimed.  Jesus Christ, who came to us 2000 years ago and is coming again – on Christmas morn and at the end of time.

            Who by His life, death and resurrection, gave to us the only answer to the darkness of this world, the only hope for the darkness of our lives.  He came once, and comes again, as Isaiah prophesied, to heal the brokenhearted, to bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and free those imprisoned.  To proclaim to the world a Gospel of love, a Gospel of joy!  Rejoice then, for Christ is near!

            Now the devil’s advocate in the congregation might say, “oh, but Deacon Ed, Jesus came into the world 2000 years ago and the world is still mighty dark.  What say you about that?

            To which I’d give two answers:

            First, imagine what the world would look like today if Jesus never came.  Kind of like that favorite of Christmas-time movies, It’s a Wonderful Life.  You’ve probably seen the film many times, but in case you haven’t, it’s the story of George Bailey, set someplace in upstate New York just before Christmas.  George, in a moment of despair one dark night, decides it would be better never to have been born and jumps off a bridge into the icy-cold swirling waters below.  Clarence, his guardian angel working to get his wings, comes to save George, and then shows George exactly what the city of Bedford Falls would have looked like had George never been born.  How much worse life would be there had there been no George Bailey.  The result is a deep conversion in George, he concludes his life has been important, that he has had a profound effect on all those around him, and he repents of his decision.

            So, dark as our world is, try to imagine how much darker it would be without Christ having been born.  And the only way to do that is to imagine what it would look like without committed disciples of Christ, the Church.  An example - Time Magazine just named the Ebola fighters as 2014 person of the year – these people from around the world who have risked their health, indeed their lives, in an effort to stop this epidemic.  Why?  Many give their faith in Jesus Christ as the answer. 

            One woman, Mother Teresa, by her faith in Jesus Christ, spent her life establishing missions to the poor and dying in 610 locations on all seven continents. 

            And imagine how dark the world would be without Catholic hospitals, schools, universities, missions and charities. 

            And imagine our own community without committed disciples of Christ giving of their time in food pantries, hospices, and soup kitchens, and giving of their resources to feed the hungry and clothe the naked.  Yes, there is darkness in the world, but there is the light of Christ all around us.    

            Second, Christ isn’t done yet.  The Kingdom isn’t finished.  He came into the world to start it all, and He accomplished all that is necessary for the Kingdom by His life, death and resurrection, but He left it and ascended to His Father.  Now, guided by the Holy Spirit and fed by His very Body and Blood, we, His disciples are tasked with working toward the Kingdom’s completion.  Tasked to carry His light into the world.  Like John, to testify to the light. 

            And you and I do that, I think most of all, by living joyfully.  If I invite Jesus Christ to be the light of my life, the center of my life, I will have nothing to fear, for I will have hope.  And His light, His love will overflow from me.  To be sure, His joy will overflow from me.  Such that the world will be a very different, better place by my having been here, by His having been here, working through me.  If Jesus Christ is not already the light of your life, not already your peace and yes, your joy, pray for Him to come to you anew this Christmas time.

            It is said that on a perfectly dark night, the flickering of a single candle can be seen lighting the night as much as thirty miles away.  My sisters and brothers, let us joyfully anticipate the coming of Jesus Christ into our lives anew, so that through us, Christ may bring ever increasing light into our dark world.  And let us live in joyful hope for the coming of Our Savior, Jesus Christ, at the end of the age.

December 8 2014 - Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary (Patronal Feast Day of the United States of America)

Mass Readings:     http://usccb.org/bible/readings/120814.cfm

            I saw Father Morgan at a function on Thursday evening, and he asked me if I’d be open to preaching on Monday for the feast of the Immaculate Conception, and I said “sure.”  Then Thursday night and all day Friday and into Saturday I started to freak out a bit – what am I going to say about Mary, the Immaculate Conception, conceived in the womb of her mother St. Anne, without stain of original sin? And I wondered - what can I say that will make a difference in your lives and mine?

            And the more I thought about it, the more and more I felt unworthy.  Unworthy.  I mean, who am I, sinful as I am, to stand up here and speak of the Holy Mother of Our Blessed Lord?  And I mean holy not only as in free from original sin, free from any sin or defilement, but holy as it really means, set apart, completely “other.”  The more I contemplated her holiness, her spotlessness, well, the more “other” I felt, the more I felt my own sinfulness and defilement, and the more I realized how far below I am to the ideal.

            And as I contemplated her up here and us down here, it occurred to me how necessary it was that she be conceived without sin.  Here was the Blessed Mother of Our Lord, chosen before the world began to uniquely cooperate in our redemption by bringing the only Son of God into the world, chosen by God to be the first tabernacle of Our Blessed Lord.  I ask you to look up there to the high altar.  See the beautiful, bright, golden tabernacle in which Our Lord is reserved.  Beautiful and sacred as it is, Mary was ever so much more sacred, as she was the first tabernacle, carrying within her God Himself!  So it makes perfect sense that God would have created this woman without stain of sin, holy and immaculate, as it was her mission from the moment of her conception to carry within her Jesus, and bring to us her Son’s salvation!

            That’s all well and good, it’s a non-negotiable dogma of the Church, believed by the faithful for centuries, going back to the earliest days of the Church, even if it was only defined as a dogma 160 years ago, but what does that have to do with you and me?

            And what comes to mind is that you, and I, are also tabernacles of Our Blessed Lord. Now none of us were conceived immaculate, but nonetheless whenever we eat and drink of the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord, we, too, hold within us Jesus Himself.  So, sinners that we are, we are obliged to be as free from sin, as free from stain or defilement, as we can possibly be when we receive Him into us! 

            It didn’t take too much contemplation on the mystery of this feast, on the ideal of this immaculate mother of Christ, and I concluded I needed to get myself to the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  For even though you and I are not without sin, when we step out of the confessional, that is as close as we’re going to get on this side of the grass.  Now surely the Sacrament doesn’t inoculate us from sinning again.  But frequently confessing our sins and seeking God’s mercy in the Sacrament, and frequently receiving the Lord in Holy Communion, Christ works within us, sanctifying us, making us more and more holy.

            For while we were not conceived without sin, to be without sin is our goal, and indeed, our eternal destiny if we’re to be counted among the saints. For nothing stained or defiled or sinful will be found in heaven.  Our Lord Jesus will, by His death and resurrection, free us once and for all from sin and lead us, a holy and immaculate people, as His gift to His heavenly Father. 

            So let us call upon Mary, Mother of God and Holy Immaculate Conception, to pray for us:

Hail Mary, Full of Grace…