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…

Homily - November 30, 2014 - First Sunday of Advent

Mass readings:   http://usccb.org/bible/readings/113014.cfm

Good evening/morning and Happy new year!

            It’s suppose it’s more a movie for Lent than Advent, for Holy Week actually, but there’s a short but very powerful and beautiful scene in the film The Passion of the Christ that’s very memorable.  To set the scene - Our Lord, tortured and blood, is struggling on the way to Calvary, and his Blessed Mother sees Him at a distance down a narrow alley, sees Him collapsing on the dusty stone street, crushed under the weight of His cross.  Mary has a flashback of Our Lord as a toddler, sees Him tripping and falling and crying, and in her minds eye she recalls frantically running to Him, gathering Him in her arms, comforting Him.  Back to the present, she now runs down this alley and embraces her fallen Son, telling Him “I’m here. I’m here”  Then, despite His agony and exhaustion, He turns to her almost with a smile and exclaims “See, Mother, I make all things new!”

            “I make all things new.”  The quote is found in scripture, but it’s nowhere to be found in the gospels, as director Mel Gibson took some artistic liberties with this film.  Christ proclaims this verse from His eternal throne in the book of Revelation chapter 21 verse 5, the second last chapter of the bible.  A chapter that speaks of a new heaven and a new earth.  And while it wasn’t recorded that Our Lord ever said this verse to His Blessed Mother on His journey to Calvary, it would have been very appropriate, as that is what His mission was, and Calvary is where He accomplished it.

            On this first day of our new liturgical year, on this first day of Advent, this phrase, this passage, “Behold I make all things new” would, I think, be very profitable to reflect on and think about this week.  For this is a time of new beginnings.  Of re-new-al.  A time of starting over.  For Jesus, the Lord of new beginnings, of “do-overs” so-to-speak, came to earth 2000 years ago to make all things new, and during this season of Advent, we anticipate His coming again, on Christmas morn and at the end of our time. 

            So I ask – what is it in your life and mine that is in need of renewal, of starting over, in need of a do-over?  Perhaps it’s some sin that by ourselves we simply don’t have the power to break. 

            Perhaps it’s spiritual sleep – apathy or laziness. 

            Perhaps it’s spiritual blindness – a failure to recognize Jesus coming to us in the face of the poor, the immigrant, the prisoner. 

            Perhaps it’s a relationship that seems hopelessly broken, that by our own power we are helpless to mend. 

            Perhaps it’s a hard heart that is unwilling to forgive, or unwilling to beg forgiveness.

            Or perhaps it’s recognizing the need to finally, truly, follow Christ as a true disciple, a new creation as St. Paul writes to the Corinthians.  Our Lord wants nothing other than our complete surrender to His will and His power, our complete abandonment of our failed, self-centered, sinful ways.  Thomas Merton wrote that real faith is the “willingness to sacrifice every other value other than the basic value of truth and life in Christ.” He wrote “[Real faith] is not just the acceptance of ‘truths about’ Christ. It is not just acquiescence in the story of Christ with its moral and spiritual implications. It is not merely the decision to put into practice, to some extent at least, the teachings of Christ. All these forms of acceptance are compatible with an acquiescence in what is ‘not Christ.’”  Merton continued, “It is quite possible to ‘believe in Christ,’ in the sense of mentally accepting the truth that he lived on earth, died, and rose from the dead, and yet still live ‘in the flesh,’ according to the standards of a greedy, violent, unjust and corrupt society, without noticing any real contradiction in one’s life.”

            My sisters and brothers, now is the time to invite Our Lord to come into our lives anew, to transform us, to make of each of us and our communities a new creation, to bring His healing, His growth, His grace.  “Behold, I make all things new!”

            So in addition to this promise of Our Lord, “I make all things new,” there are three things I’d ask you to take home and think about:

1.      Be awake!  Wake up!  In this Gospel, Our Lord cautions the disciples to stay awake and on guard.  We don’t know the time or place He will come again, either at the end of time or at the end of our own time, but the message is clear – we must wake from all the ways in which we live our lives asleep and with vigilance, watch!  Be awake!

2.      Be open.  Be open minded and open hearted and let the Lord speak to us of the ways in which we need renewal, repentence, and healing.  And watch with open eyes for the Lord’s coming into your life and mine.  He can come in a million different ways, but if we are open to His presence, we will find Him.  One of my professors in diaconate formation would start every class with the question “where did you see God today?” and each of us in class would have to answer.  As the next class drew near, knowing that question was coming, I made sure to walk around with eyes wide open, looking for God, especially in those around me.  So be open to God’s presence in our lives.

3.      Be clay.  The very last line in our first reading from the prophet Isaiah says that we are the clay and He is the potter.  Little children are like clay – impressionable, moldable, teachable.  As we grow older we harden a bit, more set in our ways, more brittle even.  If the Lord is to make of us something new, we must be clay in His hands, soft and malleable.  We must cooperate and let Him do His work in us.  Be awake, be open, be clay.

“See, I make all things new,” proclaims the Savior King upon His throne.  My brothers and sisters, the Lord is coming.  Let us make room for Him to come into our lives, our relationships, our families, our community, our world.  To come and transform us and truly make of us something new.

Happy new year!