Homily for January 27, 2013 (3rd Sunday C)

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

Last Sunday we heard the first words and the final words of the Mother of the Lord Jesus in the Gospel of John.  Today in our readings from the Sacred Scriptures we hear the first words proclaimed to the people of Israel after their exile in Babylon.  We also hear the first words proclaimed by the Lord Jesus at the beginning of his public ministry.

In our reading from the book of Nehemiah -- Ezra, the priest and scribe, had gathered the people of Israel for the solemn reading of the Torah.  This was a proclamation of the five books of the Law that God had given to his people through Moses.  It is very likely that this was the first gathering of the people since they had returned to Jerusalem from their exile in Babylon.  Three generations had passed since the chosen people of the Lord had gathered in the holy city.  When the people of the Lord heard the word of the Lord and the explanation of his holy word, the people wept.  They wept because they knew that they had not lived as the Lord had invited his chosen people to live.  Yet, my brothers and sisters, the word of the Lord given through Ezra is not a word of condemnation.  The word of the Lord is a message of joy and a message of hope.  “Do not weep . . . Today is holy to the Lord . . . Do not be saddened, for rejoicing in the Lord must be your strength.”  The word of the Lord called the chosen people of the Lord to life in his Spirit.

The Lord Jesus, in our gospel today, preached for the first time in the synagogue of Nazareth.  After his baptism by John and his time of temptation in the desert, he had returned to the town where he was raised.  Taking the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, the Lord Jesus read, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me, to bring glad tidings to the poor.  He has sent me to bring liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”  When the Lord Jesus had finished reading, he rolled up the scroll.  There would be no long day of the reading of the scriptures as in the days of Ezra.  There would be no extended commentary on the passage of prophecy.  The message of the Lord Jesus in the synagogue of Nazareth was simple: “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

The passage from the book of the prophet Isaiah was fulfilled because the passage referred to the Lord Jesus.  The Spirit of the Lord was upon him.  He had been anointed to bring glad tidings to the poor, to bring liberty to the captives, and to bring the recovery of sight to the blind.  The Lord Jesus, at the beginning of his public ministry, was announcing that he had come to bring the Spirit and he had come to bring life.  The Lord Jesus had come into the world to bring the good news of the love of the Father to those whose hearts were broken.  He had come to set us free from the power of sin and death and to heal the blindness of our souls by the light of his glory.  The Lord Jesus had come to break the forces of oppression with the power of his word and the blood of his cross.  And the Lord Jesus did this for us, not so that we might live for ourselves, but that we might live for him.  When we live for the Lord Jesus we share in the sacred task of bringing glad tidings to the poor and healing to the broken hearted.  But dear brothers and sisters, we are able to share the good news and the healing power of the Gospel only because we have received the good news and the healing power of the Gospel.

As we now enter into the mystery of the Lord’s love and his healing power in the Eucharist, let us place our poverty of spirit before the Lord.  Let us admit our blindness and our need for liberation.  And let us joyfully receive the Spirit of the Lord so that his words may be fulfilled in our living.  Amen.

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

Homily for January 20, 2013 (2nd Sunday C)

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

Words are important.  First words and final words are of particular importance.  Today in our reading from the Gospel of John, we hear the first words spoken by the Mother of Jesus in this Gospel.  We also hear the final words spoken by the Mother of the Lord in the Scriptures.

The Blessed Mother, along with the Lord Jesus and his disciples, were invited to a wedding at Cana in Galilee.  The grand and extended celebration which was customary in that culture and at that time was nearly ruined when the wine ran short.  This would not have been seen by the guests and the wedding party simply as a lack of preparation.  This would have been taken as a sign that the abundant blessing of God had not descended on the newly married couple or on their family.  It is for this reason, out of a loving concern for the couple and their family, that the Mother of Jesus breaks her sacred silence.  They have no wine.  The first words of the Mother of Jesus that are recorded in the Gospel of John express a fact, a concern, and a petition.  There is a particular quality of the words spoken by a mother that a simple phrase can contain such meaning and such power.  With her simple phrase, Mary presents the need that she is aware of, her concern for those affected by this need, and her request that her son respond with divine power to that need.

We do not know from this passage in the Gospel if the Mother of Jesus was related to the family of the wedding couple.  Cana is several miles from Nazareth.  She may have been a distant relative or simply a member of the larger community.  We do not know the place of that couple in the life of the Mother of Jesus. 

But we do know our place. 

We were created in the image and likeness of God.  We have been marked with the cross, washed in the water, and anointed with the Spirit to bear the likeness of the Son of God, to bear also the likeness of her Son.  We are not distant relatives of the Mother of the Lord Jesus.  We are not neighbors.  We are her children, because we are united by the bonds of sacramental grace to her Son.  Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, with complete confidence and childlike faith we reveal our needs and our concerns and our petitions to the Mother of Jesus so that she will present them to the Lord Jesus as her needs and her concerns and her petitions.  There is a particular power in the words spoken by a mother to her Son.

The final words spoken by the mother of the Lord Jesus in the Scriptures are spoken to the servers at the wedding feast.  Do whatever he tells you.  These final words contain an invitation to obedience for the servers and the confidence of a mother in the power of her Son.  It was a word of obedience spoken by the Virgin Mary many years before this wedding that brought about the Incarnation of the Son of God.  It was the response of obedience by the servers at the wedding that brought about the first sign that the Kingdom of God was at hand in the Lord Jesus.  It is our word and our response of obedience to the invitation of the Lord and the instruction of his mother that draws us more and more into the life of God Most High.

As we now enter into the great mystery of the Wedding Feast of the Lamb of God, we reveal our needs and our concerns and our petitions to the mother of the bridegroom.  With confidence we turn to the Mother of the Lord and listen attentively to the words of her Son.  And we pray to obediently respond to whatever the Lord tells us, so that Jesus Christ may be praised as his holy Mother prays for us.  Amen.

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

Homily for January 13, 2013 (Baptism of the Lord)

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

Today we celebrate the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, and with it, the end of the Christmas season.  On the feast of Christmas, we received the gift of the baby Jesus in the manger at Bethlehem, the Word of the Father now in flesh appearing.  On the following Sunday we celebrated the feast of the Holy Family, and we received the loving and protective care of Saint Joseph and the Blessed Mother.  Last Sunday we celebrated the feast of the Epiphany and with the Magi from the East, we presented the Child Jesus with the gold of our thanksgivings, the frankincense of our prayers and the myrrh of our sorrows and sufferings.  Today, with the feast of his baptism, the Lord Jesus offers to us a final Christmas gift.

You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.  Only three times do we hear the voice of the Father in the Gospels.  Twice the message is the same.  You are my beloved Son. These sacred words addressed to the Lord Jesus are the same words that God the Father addresses to each of us through the waters of Baptism.  The last gift of Christmas that the Lord Jesus gives to us is a share in his own relationship with the Father.  In Baptism, we are united to him, and are claimed as the Beloved of the Father.

In the Baptism of Jesus we learn about both his identity and his mission.  We learn who he is and what he has come to accomplish.  Seeking baptism from John, whom the Lord Jesus called the greatest man born of woman, the Lord signaled that the age of the prophets had come to an end.  He had come among us to give comfort to his people, and like the Good Shepherd he had come to feed his flock and gather the lambs and lead them with care.  He had come to give himself up for us, to deliver us from all lawlessness, to cleanse us and make us his own people.  And he had come to share with us his own identity as the Beloved of the Father.  He mission to us was to share his own relationship with us.  Created from the love of God, we are now called to communion with God.   We are united both to Jesus’ identity as the Beloved and to his mission through the waters of our Baptism.

In baptism, we receive the seed of our vocation, that particular way that the Father has given to each of us through His Son and in the power of the Holy Spirit to be drawn closer to himself.  No matter our vocation, priest, religious, married, single, in all of our vocations we are called to holiness.  In all of our vocations we are called to participate in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist.  Each of us received a mark on our soul at Baptism giving us a place in the Church’s worship.  The Church invites us, as the Second Vatican Council teaches, to actively participate in the Sacred Liturgy.  Active participation is first of all, a disposition of the soul, it’s an internal matter.  Just as love is at work in the heart, long before it is at work in action or speech.  We are called to come to the celebration of the Mass prepared in our souls and then in our speech.  The love of God poured into hearts at baptism pours forth from our lips in praise of the Father’s glory.

We are claimed and named, dear brothers and sisters, as beloved children of the Most High God in the waters of Baptism.  Marked with the cross of Christ, washed in the blood of the Lamb, and anointed with the oil of gladness, as the beloved children of the Father, our mission is to reflect the Father’s love and reveal the face of Christ. 

As we enter into the mystery of the Lord’s love in this Eucharist, let us again receive the gift that the Lord Jesus offers to us and our identity as the beloved of God.  Let us lift up our hearts and our voices with the Church on earth and the hosts of heaven.  And in the silence of our hearts after with receive the Lord in Holy Communion, let us listen for the voice of the Father as he calls to us, his beloved children.  Amen.

Preached at Santa Clara Catholic Church, Oxnard, CA 

Homily for January 6, 2013 (Epiphany of the Lord)

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

Today we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord.  With the celebration of this feast we bring to conclusion the twelve days of Christmas.  During the season of Advent, we joined with John the Baptist as we prepared to welcome the Lord Jesus.  On the feast of Christmas, the shepherds and the angels guided us to manger at Bethlehem.  Today we join with the magi from the east as we encounter the Child Jesus and as we present our gifts to him.

Led by a star in the heavens, the magi provide for us a pattern for living our faith and joining in praise of the Son of God.  The magi, the wise men, seek the Lord, they worship him, the give their gifts to him, and they go forth from him.  With the magi, we seek, we worship, we give, and we go.

Guided by a star, these magi set out from their native land.  The magi were not Jews.  They were not members of the chosen people of God.   Yet, they are the first to show us that the Lord Jesus had come into the world for all people and all nations.  The mission and message of the Lord Jesus would be for the whole world.  The magi followed the star in response to the call of God to a deeper and more intimate relationship with him.  We come, dear brothers and sisters, to the celebration of the Eucharist responding to the same invitation.  We, like the magi, seek the Lord and come to be fed by the Word of God and the Bread of Life.

When the magi found the child Jesus in the arms of his mother Mary, they fell down in worship.  They recognized their own unworthiness and they recognized the majesty and the goodness of God.  The magi had come to worship because they now saw the one whom they had been seeking.  As we enter the Church, we bend our knee and bow our heads to Christ truly present in the Blessed Sacrament.  We reverence the image of Mary, our Lord’s dear Mother, for she always desires to draw us closer to her son.  At the beginning of each Mass, we call to mind our sins.  We recognize our own unworthiness and we beg the mercy of God Most High.  Like the wise men, we come to worship the one who loves us and the one who has come to save us.

Having sought him and worshiped him, the magi presented their gifts to the newborn king.  The three gifts that were presented show at the beginning of our Lord’s life on earth both who he is and what he had come to do.  The magi present to this child the gold that is appropriate for one who is a king.  They present to him frankincense because he is the High Priest of the heavenly temple.  And they bring him a gift of myrrh, because this child was born to die for the sins of the world.  We will not hear again of myrrh in the gospel, until the holy women bring myrrh and other spices to the tomb very early in the morning on the first day of the week.  Truly brothers and sisters, the cross of Calvary casts its shadow even unto Bethlehem.  In these three gifts we see that the Christ child is indeed King, and God, and Sacrifice.

In every celebration of the Eucharist, we are invited to present our gifts to the Lord Jesus.  In our baptism, we were each anointed priest prophet and king.  In every celebration of the Mass, we bring the gold of our joys and thanksgivings, the frankincense of our prayers, and the myrrh of our sorrows and sufferings.  As the bread and the wine are brought to the altar, each of us, like the magi, bring our gifts and offerings.

And when we have presented our gifts, and after the Lord Jesus has given us the true gift of himself in Holy Communion, our lives cannot be the same.  The magi, having encountered the child Jesus, departed for their country by another way.  They had seen God face to face and life could never be the same again.  They could not walk the same road, at least not in the same way, for they had now seen the one who is at the end of the journey.  We beg our Lord for the grace to be transformed by his body and blood, and to truly become what we receive in Holy Communion.

And then, perhaps dear brothers and sisters, having sought the Lord, worshiped him, presented our gifts to him, and been sent forth from him, our lives will be for someone else, a star that lights the way to Jesus. Amen.

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

Homily for the Solemnity of Mary (January 1, 2013)

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

There is an ancient tradition that on the final day of the year, or on the first day of the New Year, three kinds of prayers are offered.  The Latin titles, which are really the first words of these prayers, are: Miserere, Te Deum Laudamus, and Ave Maria.  The Miserere refers to  Psalm fifty-one, which is the great canticle of repentance offered by King David after his great sin.  It begins, Have mercy on me O God, according to your great kindness.  The Te Deum Laudamus refers to the great hymn of praise that is sung in the Liturgy of the Hours.  It is similar to the Gloria that we sing at Mass, and begins: You are God, we praise you.  And the words Ave Maria are the words that the Archangel Gabriel addressed to Our Lady, Hail Mary.  Asking for mercy, giving praise to God, and turning to Mary, are not a bad way to conclude a year.  They are, in fact, not a bad way to conclude each day.

Today we celebrate the solemn feast of Mary, the Mother of God.  We recall today, one week since Christmas Day, the naming of the child Jesus.  In that holy name, through which the dawn and fulfillment of salvation have broken upon us, we receive the blessing of God and the true meaning of life.  Today we hear of the visit of the shepherds to the manger.  These shepherds, who were poor and lived apart from the rest of society, are the first to greet the child Jesus.  Through the message of an angel and the songs of the choirs of the heavenly hosts, these shepherds received the good news of great joy that the Savior of the world had been born in the City of David.  With haste, the Scriptures tell us that the shepherds travelled to Bethlehem.  With haste they travelled, and so nothing unnecessary could be taken with them.  The heavy burdens must be left behind, because the Lord Jesus Christ desired to sanctify the world by his most merciful coming.  These shepherds have known mercy.  Coming to Bethlehem, and finding Mary and Joseph and the child in the manger, they glorified God for all that they had seen and heard.  These shepherds have shown us praise.  And these shepherds, these simple men, have brought us to Mary, and she has shown us Jesus.

Mary, the Mother of God and Mother of the Church, ponders the great mystery of salvation and redemption, the great mystery of suffering and glory, and the great mystery of divine love in her immaculate heart.  Rightly then, dear brothers and sisters, do we turn to Mary at this transition from year to year so that we might be transformed in this year from glory to glory.

Mercy, praise, and Mary, let us take these words for our New Year’s resolution.  Let us implore the mercy of God today so that we can leave the heavy burdens behind us and go with haste to Bethlehem.  Let us join our voices to the song of praise that the Church, on earth and in heaven, sings in praise to the glory of the Father.  And let us turn to Mary, asking her to keep us in her heart, that we may be drawn ever closer to the heart of her Son.

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