Homily for December 30, 2012 (Feast of the Holy Family)

May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.

Almost a week ago, we celebrated the Nativity of the Lord Jesus Christ.  After four weeks of preparation in the season of Advent we were welcomed to the manger at Bethlehem.  Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth, and we are invited to the Temple in Jerusalem some twelve years after the birth of the Lord Jesus.

Perhaps right now your house looks a lot like my rectory.  There is stuff everywhere.  There are the remnants of Christmas celebrations: pieces of wrapping paper, several cards that were sent to me, several cards that I intended to send, and delicious and delectable deserts that I will promise never to eat again after the beginning of the New Year.

And yet, in the midst of all of the celebrations and the travelling we are invited to cast our gaze on the Holy Family and look to them as the model of family life.  Our readings today from the prophet Sirach and the Apostle Paul speak to us about the beauty of family life and the conduct of a household that lives by the law of love in Christ Jesus.  However these readings only apply to some of us.  The feast of the Holy Family is not a feast only for some of us.  The feast of the Holy Family is a feast for all of us.

The message of the feast of the Holy Family is that this is our feast day.  By the will of God our Loving Father and the power of the Holy Spirit, we have all been made members of the Holy Family in Christ Jesus.  Through his words and his glorious cross, the Lord Jesus extended the meaning of family beyond the bonds of blood.  For he himself has told us that everyone who hears the word of God and keeps it is his brother and sister and mother.  From the cross, the Lord Jesus entrusted his Blessed Mother to his beloved Apostle John with the words, “Son, Behold your mother.”  And after his glorious resurrection, he told Mary Magdalene to go and tell his brothers that he was going ahead of them to Galilee.  He had never called them his brothers before.  Jesus Christ, in whom all things are made new, has extended the meaning of family, and made us all members of the Holy Family in him.

 Because we have been united to one family through our baptism into Christ Jesus, the Holy Family extends beyond all distance as well.  Wherever the Eucharist is celebrated and wherever the Blessed Sacrament is reserved, wherever the members of the Holy Family gather in prayer, then the distance that separates us falls away in the unity that is ours in Christ Jesus.  Wherever we go, through the celebration of the sacred mysteries in the Church, we are always meeting more relatives in our family.

And we can be confident, dear brothers and sisters, that the Holy Family transcends not only blood and not only distance.  The Holy Family transcends even the bounds of death.  For Christ our Savior has conquered sin and death by the blood of his holy cross and he has promised eternal life to all those who are united to him.  But at this time of year, amid the joys and the celebrations, we often feel the pain of death and loss rather intensely.  As we gather for meals around the table, it is hard not to notice that there are chairs that are empty.  But my dear brothers and sisters, there are no empty chairs at the banquet of the Holy Family.  There are no empty chairs because the table extends beyond even death.  Here on earth we celebrate a foretaste of the feast to come.  Every day in the celebration of the Eucharist we are invited to be united more and more to Jesus Christ and the banquet of the Kingdom of Heaven.  We pray with our Holy Family on earth and with the members of the Holy Family that the Lord has called unto himself.

As we now enter into the mystery of the Lord’s love and the feast of the Kingdom, we celebrate our place in the Holy Family that extends beyond blood, and distance and even death.  On this feast of the Holy Family, on our feast day, we join with the choirs of angels and the citizens of heaven above, and proclaim: Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to people of good will.  Amen.

Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC

Homily for December 23, 2012 (4th Advent C)

May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.

Our time of preparation is almost over.  It can be measured in hours.  During these four weeks of the season of Advent we have been preparing to welcome Jesus Christ.  On the first Sunday, as we began our time of preparation, we pondered the mystery of Christ as the one who fulfills the promise of the prophets, as our model of holiness and as the one who teaches us to watch and to wait.  On the Second Sunday of Advent we received our guide for the Advent season in the person of John the Baptist.  John the Baptist invited us to prepare the way of the Lord and make straight his paths.  On the Third Sunday of Advent, as we were invited to rejoice at the nearness of the Lord, John the Baptist pointed us to one who is to come.  The task of John the Baptist, as our guide in this time of preparation to welcome Jesus Christ, was to prepare the way of the Lord, to proclaim his presence, and to adore him when the glory of the Lord appeared.

Our readings today surprise us with the very small places from which the plan of the Lord will unfold.  In our reading from the book of the prophet Micah we hear the announcement that a tiny city will again be the birthplace of a great king.  Bethlehem, whose name literally means “the house of bread”, is the city where David the King was born.  In a small and unexpected city, the glory of the Lord who is both King and Shepherd will soon appear.

In our reading from the gospel of Luke we do not hear the name of Jesus nor do we hear the name of John the Baptist, yet both of them are there.  Both of them too small to be seen, veiled in the sacred wombs of their mothers, the final prophet sent from God proclaims the presence of the Lord and adores him.  Today we hear the first part of the mystery of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Elizabeth.  Following her encounter with the Angel Gabriel, and her grace-filled word of acceptance of her place in the plan of the Father, the Blessed Virgin Mary traveled in haste to visit Elizabeth.  The humble virgin of Nazareth is now the mother of the Lord, and when her greeting reached the ears of the mother of the prophet of the Most High God, the unborn John the Baptist leaped for joy.  It is an unborn child who is the first to offer worship to Jesus Christ.  Though he is a child too small to be seen, John the Baptist guides us to adore the presence of Jesus Christ.

Elizabeth and John the Baptist rejoice because the Mother of the Lord had come to them.  During our time of preparation in the season of Advent, we too have been privileged to welcome the Mother of the Lord, who is our mother as well.  On the eighth of December we celebrated the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrating the first moment of the life of Mary and the triumph of the grace of God.  On the twelfth of December, we celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe and we rejoiced that the Mother of our Lord had appeared on our continent. 

John the Baptist has guided us during the weeks of Advent as we prepare to welcome Jesus Christ.  For the final hours of our time of preparation, our guide has brought us to Mary, and he adores the Lord present in her womb.  Let us now turn to Mary and journey with her to Bethlehem.  Let us accompany her who will bring forth her firstborn son, who is both Christ and Lord.  And with the anticipation and joyful hope of this holy Mother, let us enter into the mystery of this Eucharist and complete our preparation to welcome Jesus Christ.     

Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC

Homily for December 16, 2012 (3rd Advent C)

May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.

It is difficult to rejoice when we encounter tragedy.  It is difficult to speak of hope when we are confronted with violence, hatred and evil.  The events of Friday at an elementary school in Connecticut draw our focus from a time of rejoicing to a time of sorrow.  It is difficult, dear brothers and sisters, to rejoice and to preach about hope.

And yet, the days of the prophets of Israel and the days of John the Baptist and the Apostle Paul were no less violent or troubling.  In fact, the passage that we read this Sunday from the prophet Zephaniah is the only hopeful passage in that entire book that bears his name.  The Apostle Paul, who invites us to rejoice always, lived and died amid great persecution.  The preacher of grace and truth was executed outside the walls of the city of Rome because of the great hatred for his faith in the Prince of Peace.  And John the Baptist, our guide for the season of Advent, was killed not because he was a political revolutionary, but because he defended the dignity and the sanctity of marriage.  All three of them, Zephaniah, Paul and John the Baptist could speak to us about violence, hatred and revenge, but they call us to rejoice and they speak to us of hope.

In this season of Advent as we prepare to welcome Jesus Christ, we are given this third Sunday as a day to rejoice in the midst of our preparation.  The purple vestments that signify a time of conversion and preparation are set aside in favor of the color rose that signifies a moment of subdued joy.  The joy that we celebrate on this third Sunday is the announcement that the Lord is near, that he will rejoice over us, that he will renew us with his love, and that the Lord will sing joyfully because of us.  Even in the midst of sorrow, and even, dear brothers and sisters, as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, the Lord is near.  In every circumstance and in every vocation, the Lord is near, and he calls us to conversion, and he calls us to rejoice.

In our reading from the Gospel today, the crowds approach John the Baptist and ask, “What should we do?”  The crowds are asking how they should conduct their lives now that they had embraced repentance and accepted the baptism of John for the forgiveness of their sins.  The message of John is simple.  The people are called to live in a spirit of justice and a spirit of generosity.  This was the message to every group and every vocation.  But more than advice about ethical conduct, today John the Baptist gives us a direction.  John the Baptist points, not to himself, even though the crowd would have eagerly followed him.  John the Baptist points to the one who is to come.  He points to the one who will baptize with the Spirit and with fire.  John the Baptist, exercising his role as the last of the prophets, directs our attention to the Lord Jesus, the one in whom all creation will be renewed, all suffering will be sanctified, and all sorrow will be overcome by the power of his cradle, his cross and his empty tomb.  John the Baptist, who guides us as we prepare to welcome Jesus Christ, does not give to us the answer to the deepest questions and longings of our hearts.  John the Baptist points us to the one who is the answer.

With our hearts pierced by sorrow and tragedy, and yet comforted by the call to rejoice in the message of hope, we enter into this celebration of the Lord’s victory and his love.  We rejoice in the promise that the Lord is near and that he will renew us with his love.  And we ask for the grace to follow the direction of John the Baptist, and hear the good news that we are soon to welcome Jesus Christ.

Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC      

Homily for Our Lady of Guadalupe (December 12, 2012)

May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.

I saw her, and I wept.  In the summer of 2006, while I was studying the Spanish language in the city of Guanajuato, I traveled to Mexico City, and there, in the Shrine dedicated to her, I saw her, and I wept.  I wept because when I gazed at her miraculous image, I knew that the mother of my Lord had come to me.  In her and through her, we rejoice, dear brothers and sisters, because in her and through her, we have come to know him in whom we find salvation.  It is through the Virgin Mary that we have been able to receive the Lord Jesus Christ.  Tonight we are gathered together to honor the Virgin of Guadalupe because she has given to us the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father, and because she has called us her children.

When the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Juan Diego, Our Lady gave him three things.  Saint Juan Diego was given a message, he was given beautiful flowers, and he was given her image.  The message was for the bishop and it was a request that a chapel be built on that site.  The beautiful flowers were the miraculous proof that Our Lady provided with her request.  And the image, her beautiful image, was imprinted forever on the cloak that he wore.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, we have come here to this Church and to this celebration because we recognize that the Virgin of Guadalupe is the Mother of the Lord.  The Virgin of Guadalupe is our Mother.  The Holy Catholic Church is our Mother, and we should never look anywhere else for such a loving mother.  The message that we receive from Our Lady is that she wants a chapel built.  Our Lady wants a chapel built in our hearts, in our homes and in our lives, for the honor and glory of her Son.  She wants us to build this chapel with the food that we receive when we assist every Sunday at the celebration of the Holy Mass.  She wants us to build this chapel in your homes through the Sacrament of Marriage and through the constant and consistent education of your children in our Holy Catholic Faith.  She wants to build this chapel in our lives as we imitate the love and the compassion of her Son who is Christ and Lord.

Today we bring her flowers, and we gently place them before her.  Today, the Blessed Virgin Mary gives to us the prayers of her holy rosary.  In our meditation on the mysteries of the life, ministry, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, in the company of the Blessed Virgin, we speak to her, and we come to know him. 

Today, we receive the gift of her image.  The image of Our Lady is given to us so that we may remember her love for us, and so that the image of the Lord Jesus may be seen in us.  Our Lady of Guadalupe invites each of us to live our lives as reminders of her love for all people.  When we reflect the love of Our Lady of Guadalupe, then we share the love of Jesus Christ.

As we now celebrate the mystery of the Lord’s love present to us in the Eucharist, let us commit ourselves to the Virgin of Guadalupe and to our holy Catholic Faith.  Let us receive the request of Our Lady and build the Chapel that she desires in our hearts, our homes and our lives.  And let us ask for the grace to carry her image within us, so that we may reveal the image of the Lord Jesus.

Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe!  Viva Cristo Rey!  Amen!

Preached in Spanish at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC

Homily for December 9, 2012 (2nd Advent C)

May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.

Last Sunday we began the season of Advent.  We heard that the purpose of the Advent season is to prepare to welcome Jesus Christ.  Today we hear that message again as we are invited to prepare the way of the Lord.  Today we also receive a guide for our time of preparation.

In our reading from the book of the Prophet Baruch, we hear that the city of Jerusalem and the chosen people of the Lord are told to take off the robe of mourning and misery.  They are told to prepare to receive the glory of the Lord, for the mountains will be made low, and the age old depths and gorges will be filled to level ground.  In those days the Lord will lead Israel by the light of his glory, and when everything is prepared, the people will see the glory of the Lord.

We hear in our reading from the letter of Saint Paul to the Philippians that God is at work and preparing us to complete the good work that he has begun in us.  We are being prepared so that our love may increase and we may be pure and blameless for the day of Jesus Christ.

And today in our reading from the Gospel, we hear the announcement that the salvation of God is near.  Today in our gospel, we receive our guide for this time of preparation.  For the next three Sundays, we will encounter John the Baptist, and he will guide us as we prepare to welcome Jesus Christ.  Today we are introduced to John and hear about the times in which he lived.  We hear about the kings and the rulers of earth, and the High Priests of the temple that will pass away, as we hear the cry of the final prophet who will announce the coming of the Messiah.  It is the task of John the Baptist to prepare the way of the Lord, to proclaim his presence, and to adore him when the glory of the Lord appears.

Today, John the Baptist invites us to prepare the way of the Lord.  Echoing the voice and the words of the prophet Isaiah, John invites us to make straight the paths of the Lord, for every valley shall be filled in and every mountain and hill shall be made low.  John proclaims that the winding roads will be made straight and the rough ways will be made smooth.  And finally he announces that all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, on this second Sunday of Advent, the Lord invites us through the preaching of John the Baptist to examine the paths of the Lord in our own lives.  We are invited to look into our own souls and carefully reflect on the valleys that need to be filled in and the on mountains that need to be made low.  In other words, dear brothers and sisters, we must look at those things which prevent us from welcoming Jesus Christ.  

This is a difficult time of year for many of us.  Perhaps this year you mourned the loss of a loved one, or perhaps at this time of year you mourn the passing of a loved one long in the Kingdom of God.  We cannot deny our sadness and our grief because to do so would be to deny our humanity.  But we can ask the Lord to receive our sadness from the valley of our hearts as an offering unto him.  Whatever our sadness or whatever our difficulty, or even whatever our sins, John the Baptist guides us to make them an offering to the Lord, so that the Lord himself will make straight his paths.

As we now enter into the mystery of the Lord’s love made present to us in the Eucharist, let us joyfully receive the guidance of John the Baptist.  Let us welcome the work of the Lord within as he accomplishes his good work through us.  And let us ask for the grace to offer our whole lives as an offering to Lord that we may live in the light of his glory.

Come Lord Jesus. Amen.

Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC

Homily for Immaculate Conception (December 8, 2012)

May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.

The season of Advent is a time of preparation and a time of anticipation.  We are preparing to welcome Jesus Christ and we celebrate this season in anticipation of his birth.  Today, we celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  It is a feast of preparation and a feast of anticipation.

The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary celebrates the day that Mary was conceived in the womb of St. Ann.  Today is not a celebration of the day when the Blessed Virgin Mary conceived the Lord Jesus.  We celebrate that event on the feast of the Annunciation on the 25th of March, some nine months before Christmas Day.  The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary celebrates that Mary was conceived without original sin.  From the first moment of her conception, from the moment when her life began, the Blessed Virgin Mary belonged entirely to God.

The grace of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a grace of preparation.  From the first moment of her life, when she can do nothing for herself, it is the grace of God that saves her.  The work of salvation and the work of sanctification always begin with the action of God.  In the Immaculate Conception, the Blessed Virgin Mary is prepared to be the mother of the messiah.  She is given the grace to be able to give herself completely to the will of the Lord.  It is the grace of her Immaculate Conception the enables her to respond to the words of the Archangel Gabriel: “Let it be done unto me according to your word.”  The Blessed Virgin Mary is prepared by her Immaculate Conception to be the first tabernacle of the Lord Jesus.

The grace of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a grace given in anticipation.  This special grace is given to Mary in anticipation of the redemptive work of her Son, in whom alone and through whom alone is the salvation of the world.  The Blessed Virgin Mary is the first to receive the grace that will be won on the cross of Calvary.  Mary receives this grace in anticipation of the glory that will be revealed.

We celebrate the mighty work of Almighty God in this time of preparation and this time of anticipation.  We join with all creation and with every generation and name Mary as one who is blessed.  As we celebrate the Eucharist today, we give praise to the God of Heaven above who claimed Blessed Mary at her conception, for He claimed us in our baptism.  We ask the Lord for the grace to prepare, with Mary, to receive the gift of the Lord Jesus, at Christmas.  And we await, in joyful anticipation, for the glory that will be revealed.

Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC

Homily for December 2, 2012 (1st Advent C)

May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.

Today we begin the season of Advent, and we begin a new liturgical year.  The year of grace, 2012, and all of its joys and sorrows are now commended to the mercy of God, and today we begin again.  The liturgical year begins with the season of Advent, which is a season of preparation.  The vestments of the priest and the deacon are purple showing us that this is a time both for preparation and a time for conversion.  In the Christmas season, we will see the white vestments signaling the joyful celebration of the birth of Christ.  During the season of Lent we will again see the purple of penance and conversion.  The Easter season is celebrated in the brilliant gold and white fitting for the celebration that Christ Jesus is raised from the dead and lives forever.  In Ordinary Time we see the green that signals for us a time of growth as we hear the teaching of Christ and come to know the heart of Christ.  In every season we are invited to a deeper relationship with Christ.  In this Advent season, we are invited to prepare to welcome Jesus Christ.

In our readings today we are called to prepare to welcome Jesus Christ as the one who fulfills the promise made long ago.  Our reading from the prophet Jeremiah calls us to recognize Jesus Christ as the Son of David.  The Lord who is to come will bring justice and peace.  In him we will recognize both a king and a good shepherd.  In this Advent season, we are called to prepare to welcome Jesus Christ as the gift promised to us at the dawn of creation.

Our reading from the letter of St. Paul to the Thessalonians calls us to prepare to welcome Jesus Christ as the model of holiness.  We see in Christ Jesus the one who loves without measure.  The life of Christ is life that is lived as a total gift to the Father.  It is also a life that is lived as a total gift to his people.  Christ Jesus lives forever giving himself completely to us so that through him, and with him and in him, we can be given completely to the Father.  In this Advent season, we are called to prepare to welcome Jesus Christ as the one who will teach us how to love.

In our reading from the Gospel of Luke we are called to prepare to welcome Jesus Christ who teaches us how to watch and to wait.  During the Advent season our readings invite us to prepare to welcome the return of Christ in glory and to welcome his birth at Bethlehem.  During the first half of the season of Advent we are called to watch and to wait for the day of redemption.  Our reading from the gospel of Luke warns us of the signs and wonders that will accompany the return of the Lord. We are called to be vigilant in our prayers and vigilant in our anticipation of the glory of the Lord.  Attentive as we must be to the needs of each day, we are invited to keep our focus on the unending day of eternal life.  In this Advent season, we are called to prepare to welcome Jesus Christ who calls us to wait in joyful hope.

My dear brothers and sisters, we begin our new year of grace with a time of preparation and conversion.  We are called to prepare to welcome Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of the promise of the Father, as the model of perfect love and perfect holiness for us, and as the one who calls us to await his coming in joyful hope.  As we now celebrate the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise in the mystery of the Eucharist, we celebrate the new beginning that the Lord offers to us today.  We ask for the grace to recognize the gifts of the Lord as he reveals them to us.  And we ask for the gift of joyful hope as we prepare to welcome Jesus Christ.

Come Lord Jesus.  Amen.

Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC