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Homily

4th Sunday of Lent – Lost and Found

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Joshua 5: 9a, 10-12; Ps. 34:2-7; 2 Cor. 5:17-21; Lk. 15:11-32

Lost and found is at the heart of today’s gospel but it “lost” to the extent that the soul is dead, dead by sin, dead by choice, dead by consequence of God’s righteousness.  The soul that was dead has returned to life by the sacrifice of Jesus, found his way back by consequence of his own suffering from rejecting God the Father, found his way back by confessing the truth of his sin.  This is the human condition in which we struggle between our will and the call to follow God’s will. 

The first reading reminds us of the Israelites who were lost in the desert, after suffering the “reproach of Egypt” and the hardness of their hearts, but now entering the land of Cana reconciled to the Lord.  The Lord is merciful in search of hearts who desire his mercy.  The mercy of the Lord cannot be taken for granted simply because we were once baptized into the Lord but now live a life that is self-centered insensitive to the other and the key “other” is God. 

In a culture of death, God has been evicted from the public square, rejected by agnostics and atheists, ignored by the “spiritual” minded, and taken for granted by those who claim to believe in a God but have little understanding of who God is.  These are lost in themselves in the desert they have created for themselves.  The promise land is close but they choose to turn and go their own way. 

As baptized Catholics we can very much be like the two sons in the gospel parable.  We can turn away from God and live a life governed by our own will without the grace of God’s blessing.  We see it in both sons, each driven by their own will.  The son that left the Father to indulge in his passions suffered the greatest consequences as we do when we go about living our life without going to Church, without even a prayer.  It is all about us and our passions.  The son who remained was the complaint one but his heart was resentful of the Father, angry at his brother, and bitter with his state in life.  We too can be faithfully compliant claiming “I’m a good person” and yet resentful of our state in life angry at God for our troubles. 

The Father says to us, “My son (and daughter) …everything I have is yours”. The Lord is ready to fill us with his blessings but we fail to ask, to seek, and to trust.  We want the control and don’t know how to let go and let God be our guiding light.  The Lord will not mislead us but he will set the path of our greatest good, the path of the greatest treasure for heaven.  Earthly treasure has its purpose to serve and be multiplied that we may be of greater service to others as we are reminded, it’s not about us but about God.  When we offer ourselves and our treasure to God then there is no limit to what he can do in our lives.  Right purpose leads to the best outcomes and a life well lived. 

We become lost in our world, a world of everyday challenges and we lose focus on the “Big picture” purpose of even existing.  We are God’s creation, created to participate in God’s salvation plan.  When we order our life in line with his plan we enter into God’s “new creation”.  The old way of looking at things no longer carries the same meaning or serves the same purpose.  Jesus makes all things new.  This is our Lenten call to come and be reconciled with God.  Give him our sins, our failures, our selfishness, our control and accept his will.  The Lord who makes all things new will also change us from within.  In God we find our true self and we will never be misled. 

Warning!  God does not seek to simply make a “correction” in our life.  God seeks a transformation of our souls.  He is patient, he is kind, he is merciful, he is the fullness of love and the transformation he wants is for us to live in the image of Jesus fully human but also fully called to the divine life. 

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Homily

3rd Sunday of Lent – Chosen One

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Ex. 3: 1-8a, 13-15; Ps. 103:1-4, 6-8, 11; 1 Cor. 10:1-6, 10-12; Lk. 13:1-9

The Lord picked Moses as the Chosen One to rescue his people from the Egyptians.  God is kind and merciful and hears the “cry of complaint”, he knows the suffering of his people and he sends us his messengers to rescue us in our time of need.  Moses prefigures Jesus as has many a prophet and other chosen ones, Joseph, son of Israel, King David, even John the Baptist at the time of Jesus.  The mercy of the Lord is endless but it comes in the form of a messenger, someone ready to set aside their life and respond to the call. 

The call to be a chosen one is not just for a few “chosen ones”.  It doesn’t just apply to priests or the Pope, it applies to all baptized Christians called to make an impact in this world, the world in which we live in, our family, neighborhood, and community. Our calling is to bring the mercy of God to others with the love that meets the need of the moment. 

The second reading points this out “our ancestors were all under the cloud” in a humanity where we all have our own free will God wishes all to be saved.  He used Moses to guide them all “through the sea”, that is the waters of baptism, “baptized into Moses in the cloud” of the Holy Spirit that was working to increase their faith and “in the sea” of the waters of baptism that God opened up to save them.  Just as they passed through the Red Sea, we have passed through the same waters of salvation in our baptism. 

They “All ate the same spiritual food (of manna in the desert) and drank the same spiritual drink” of the rock to quench their thirst now made manifest to us in the Eucharist.  St. Paul tells us that “rock” was “the Christ” present then and before time began to save them and yet “God was not pleased with them for they were struck down in the desert” something to contemplate. 

In our time there are many who have come to the fountain of baptism to be received into the kingdom of God.  Many of us find ourselves in the desert of life’s hardships, like many of the Israelites in the desert and fall away from the practice of the faith.  Could it be that in the same way many become struck down by their own sins and die prematurely not as a punishment but as an act of mercy to save us from ourselves while there is still a small light of hope for God to keep us from damnation.  As scripture says, “these things happen as examples for us” to remain close to our God who rescues us not only from this world but from the temptations of our own humanity in order not to fall into the pit of sin. 

Now is the time to repent.  Jesus gives us an interesting question in the gospel for us to ponder.  He speaks of the guilt that we all carry and separates it from the suffering of the people.  He wants us to understand that “bad things happen to good people” and it is not a sign of their sin.  This was often the view of ancient times.  When something bad happened, it was a punishment from God for their guilt. In Jesus time, leprosy was seen as a punishment form God.  Jesus wants to correct the record bad things happen because there is evil in this world.  Often it is the evil that comes from the heart of a person and not from nature.  In other words, we can be our own worst enemy and our downfall. 

Why is there a rise in autism in children?  It is not a punishment from God but a consequence of how we may be manipulating nature as a society.  Why is there a rise in childhood obesity?  It is not because of bad parenting but a consequence of what we are adding to foods to trigger hunger, change hormones, and add preservatives that affects our metabolism.  Why is there a new concern with fluoride used to prevent cavities?  Fluoride can also lead to stiff and weak bones.  God didn’t do it, we did it.  So, let us not look to God when things go bad. 

It happens often that that parents will raise their children in the faith, go to Church and teach them good morals and values.  The children grow up and decide they are not interested in church, not sure if they believe in God at all.   Parents are left wondering “where did we go wrong?”  Imagine all the love God has for us, the guardian angels he sends us to protect us, the mercy to forgive us of our sins, the blessings he desires to pour out in us and our response is?   “I don’t get anything from coming to church”, “I prefer to spend my time doing other things that I enjoy”, “I don’t have time for church, I’m too busy!”  This is the struggle within many families. 

God is patient, God in kind and today in the parable we see how God is also merciful with us.  He waits on us to bear fruit.  Jesus is our advocate asking God the Father to allow time to cultivate our faith, to forgive us of our sins “for they know not what they do.”  This was part of Jesus prayer on the cross “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do” even as they crucified him.  Some ask “why do you Catholics keep Jesus on the cross?  He is risen.”  He remains on the cross for our sins many of which we do know and keep doing and some that we don’t even realize that brings him great sorrow. 

You may have heard it said in reference to age that 60 is the new 40’s living longer and younger.  When it comes to growing in our faith 40’s may be the new adolescence, still rebellious, living for ourselves, waiting for another day to mature in our faith.  This lent is our call to repentance, to remain among his chosen ones let us not miss this opportunity before it is gone. 

Finish with this story I shared during the Lenten talks.  When I was a little boy living in the barrios of Houston.  My mother went to visit a friend of hers along with me.  The woman had a child of my age, and he had many toys.  We were poor so my joy was waiting for the Salvation Army to bring me a box of toys for Christmas otherwise like in those days you used your imagination to create your toys.  Coming home my mother must have seen something in my behavior.  She asked what was wrong.  I said “nothing”.  She asked three time and each time I denied anything was wrong but at the same time I walked backwards to the bedroom.  When I got to the bed, I pulled out a toy car from under the pillow.  Back to the woman’s house to return that toy.  How many sins did I commit that day?  Stealing, lying, envy to start.  How many sins before and since then I hate to imagine.  Thank God, God is merciful. 

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Homily

7th Sunday Ordinary Time – Love one another

Posted on by Deacon Joe

1 Sam. 26: 7-9, 12-13, 22-23; Ps. 103:1-4, 8, 10, 12-13; 1 Cor. 15:45-49; Lk. 6:27-38

Today in the gospel the Lord makes clear what it is to truly “love one another”.  When he calls us to “love your enemies and do good to those who hate you” he is reminding us of what we as humanity did to him and how he responded to our rejection of him then on the cross and now by our sinfulness.  Jesus prayed to the Father to forgive us of our sins. 

Jesus loves us even when we strike him on the face with our sins.  He continues to give to us who ask for his mercy, to those of us who forget to show our gratitude for our very life and all we have.  Instead, we judge, we measure what we give, we refuse to forgive, and in doing so we limit all that God desires for us to receive in his abundance of grace. 

David recognized that Saul was a chosen one of God even as Saul sought to persecute and kill David.  Saul chose to act mercifully in return and not kill Saul when he had the opportunity instead, he acted with love and brought about the conversion of heart in Saul.  David acted in the image of Christ for the goal is not to conquer the enemy but to bring about a conversion from the desire to sin to the desire to love and bring peace.  This is what it means what it means to go from being “earthy” to “spiritual”.  The earthy destroys while the spiritual builds up what is good to something better. 

We are being called to bear the image of the “heavenly one” and shed the sins of the “first man, Adam” by taking on the call from the heavenly one and bear his image.  This we cannot do alone but with Christ all things are possible.  It is possible through our surrender to Christ so that by seeking we will know the way, and by the love of one another will we also rise with him every day and in the final coming. 

Jesus is ready to reveal himself to us but are we ready for him?  It is difficult to shed the scales of earthly life when we prefer to excuse ourselves for our weakness, faults, and sins claiming “I’m only human”.  Our definition of being “only human” is a false view of God’s creation for our humanity.  To be fully human in God’s eyes is to be perfect as he created us to be in his image.  God’s “perfect” is love, love one another. 

To be fully human is to rise above our weaknesses, faults, and sins and seek something greater for ourselves not something less.  The greater part can only come through our creator who gives us the power and grace to move mountains that stand in the way of becoming God’s great saints.  To settle for earthy beings is to settle for sin and sin leads to death. 

We are born earthly, that is with the fallen nature of the first Adam but God provides us his spiritual nature through Jesus by coming to receive him in the sacraments of the church.  Baptism washes away our sins and covers us with the spiritual blessing to enter into the spiritual life but we must also mature in this life to be all that God created us to be.  This requires our will for God cannot save us without us.  In his image we were given a soul to unite our mind to his, our heart to unite our love to his heart, and our will to accept the will of the Father through obedience, the obedience that guards and helps us to reach the promise land, the heavenly kingdom, the love that lasts for eternity.  Love one another! 

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Homily

6th Sunday Ordinary Time – Blessed are you

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Jer. 17: 5-8; Ps. 1:1-4, 6; 1 Cor. 15:12, 16-20; Lk. 6:17, 20-26

Blessed are you who believe all that the Lord has proclaimed for great is your reward in heaven and the beginning of heaven is now.  Now has the kingdom of God come to those who believe and are firmly planted on fertile ground.  This is the promise of God from the beginning of time for those who trust in the Lord.  Blessed are you when trust leads to hope and hope to the revelation of God with us. 

Blessed are you who witnessed Christ raised from the dead that we may hope and believe that our day is coming.  Recall how not only Jesus rose from the dead but with him the graves were opened and many witnessed the souls who had fallen asleep rise with him.  Death was conquered on the cross and with it, judgment came into the world that our death is now our personal day of judgment before the Lord.  If we have died with Christ then we are certain to rise with him.  The lesson of dying to ourselves is the teaching Jesus gives today in the gospel. 

Blessed are you who recognize your own poverty corporal and spiritual.  Corporal because all we have is a gift from the Lord to be shared and spiritual because we recognize our own weaknesses, brokenness, and sinfulness.  We are humbled wounded warriors for Christ that in our poverty he may dwell to bring us our victory in battle. 

Blessed are you whose hunger cannot be satisfied with food only but with righteousness in doing he will of God.  The essence of food is to nourish both body and soul in order to rise up against the enemy and conquer evil with good. 

Blessed are you who weep for your sins and the sins of the world.  Your joy and laughter are the mercy and forgiveness from the Lord.  Prayer, fasting, and charity are the weapons against sin that all may come to the truth. 

Blessed are you when you stand firm in your faith in a world that seeks to “cancel”, intimidate, and even persecute you for resisting the lies that are treated as norms of social acceptance that are anti-religion and separate God from the world. 

This is the Christian way that opens the gates of heaven.  Many have chosen to go their own way hoping to insulate themselves with a simple belief that a good God will bring all to heaven so “just live and let live”.  Others have become the resistance in opposition to God’s law disguised as serving the good of society by accumulating power and control for themselves.  Jesus did not say “all roads lead to heaven”.  He came to show us the way, his plan of salvation and we are wise to listen and to follow.  

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Homily

Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Mal. 3: 1-4; Ps. 24:7-10; Heb. 2:14-18; Lk. 2:22-40

 Mary and Joseph take Jesus the infant to present him to the Lord in the temple to comply with the Law.  Simeon recognizes the child as the Lord’s “salvation…a light of revelation”.  He also foretells to Mary that she will be tested through suffering with the words “you yourself a sword will pierce”.   How are we prepared to face the test of suffering? 

Jesus tested through suffering comes to help us being tested in our own suffering.  This is the way that the Lord God prepares the way for himself sending his “messenger” of the covenant that he desires to have with his people.

Jesus comes through great joy as the joy we experience at the birth of a child but he also comes through suffering as we encounter him on the cross in his suffering for our sins.  We prepare for both by being a people of faith, hope, and love.  In faith we believe that even our suffering has merit in the salvation of our souls.  It is the “refiner’s fire” spoken of in the first reading reminding us of our mortality and destiny as suffering helps purify our souls. 

Our hope lies in knowing that our suffering even in death is not the final ending of our lives but another of the tests we must endure to enter into the glory of God.  God is love and love is our final destiny that is now and is coming in greater force.  Love allows the cross of suffering to be bearable in the most difficult of conditions.  Love sets us free from suffering and from the evil one. 

The presentation of the Lord represents our faith, hope, and love of God and like Anna the prophetess in “prayer and fasting” we wait upon the Lord and speak of this child Jesus as the beginning and the end of our salvation.  Jesus a “light for revelation…and glory” for his people. 

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Homily

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time – A Jubilee Year

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Neh. 8: 12-4a, 5-6, 8-10; Ps. 19:8-10, 15; 1 Cor. 12:12-30; Lk. 1:1-4; 4:14-21

Jesus proclaims “a year acceptable to the Lord” and this is our Jubilee Year because he is with us to bring the “glad tidings” to his people.  Pope Francis has declared this our Jubilee Year to pour out special graces upon God’s people and upon this world. We come to him as one body to celebrate because “Today is holy to the Lord your God”.  Let us recognize God’s holiness in his mercy and love as he cleanses us of our sins and restores us in our own call to holiness. 

“Rejoicing in the Lord must be your strength!”  A Jubilee year is a year of rejoicing giving thanks for all the Lord’s blessings.  The Lord comes to set us free, free of sin, free of evil, free of fear.  The Lord comes to be our strength in a world that remains lost within itself, he guards us against the temptation to follow ideologies of human creation.  Truth comes from the Lord in perfect law, clear commands, right judgment, and lifegiving word.  It is up to us to trust and to follow. 

We follow best when we follow together as one body bring our God given gifts to the service of our faith in God.  As we read today “all the parts of the body, though many are one body” and we all live in the one Spirit of God.  We are each given a different state of life to serve the different needs of the one body.  Even among clergy, a bishop cannot live an isolated contemplative life and neglect his flock, nor a married man ignore his call to work for the support of his family, nor a woman spend her time in prayer when her children need to be fed.  We are each living a different state whether single, married, widowed, young or elderly yet each state offers us an opportunity to be a voice for God right where we are.  It all begins with a state of being a person of love that transcends God’s love for each other. 

In God’s divine wisdom we were all given different gifts in the service of one body that requires of us to come together in support of each other.  We need the other in our life and cannot be living in the illusion of “self-sufficiency”.  There is an inherit interdependence in humanity that we may be humble in receiving and giving of each other to one another with love and generosity.  The body though one is most reliant on the head which is our high priest who reveal himself today as the word made flesh.  Jesus is our Godhead, the source of our life and our salvation.

Jesus’ revelation of himself comes to “proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord”.  Are we ready to celebrate his victory over death and to enter into his glory?  Are we ready to be the difference in our time, in our state of life, with those who share our space, our world, our hopes and dreams?  Our hope and dreams are for the eternal joy to come and it begins now in this our Jubilee year.   

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Homily

The Baptism of the Lord – My chosen one

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Is. 42: 1-4, 6-7; Ps. 29:1-4, 59-10; Acts. 10:34-38; Lk. 3:15-16, 21-22

Jesus is “my chosen one” whom the Lord is well pleased.  When we speak of the baptism of the Lord, we refer to Jesus being baptized by John but we should also recognize the words of John who states “he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire”.  Through Jesus’ baptism of us we become his chosen ones.  To be chosen is to be called for a greater good into the kingdom of God.  We are chosen to fulfill a purpose in salvation history.  Jesus “my chosen one” came to free us from sin through his passion, death, and resurrection.  Do we recognize our chosen purpose? 

We are chosen to live holy lives in the practice of our faith.  To give to God our praise and worship and to allow him to work through us in the care, conversion, and covenant of his people.   Care comes through the corporal and spiritual needs of others with the understanding that if one part of the body of Christ suffers, we all share in that suffering and so we lift each other up.   Conversion by our witness in the way we live our lives that gives testimony to our faith.   Covenant by obedience to the commandments and the moral and ethical choices that place God first.   Our “right actions” are to be right before the eyes of God. 

In Jesus we find “the victory of justice” and live in covenant with him.  Jesus came to show us the way and he did it by his care for the people, calling them to conversion by offering himself up to the Father for our salvation and always being one in covenant with the Father and the Holy Spirit, three persons in one God.  The victory of justice is to always remain as one with God in the Trinity by doing the will of God.    

Justice is the right action before the eyes of God.  Peter recognizes that the right action of a follower of Jesus is to “show no partiality” based on a person’s state of life that is Jew or Gentile.  Partiality is for the separation of sin from the sinner.  Jesus comes to free us from our sinfulness through “fear” of the Lord and by “acts uprightly”.  “Fear” of the Lord is not the Old Testament view of fear of punishment but fear of separation from the Lord as revealed by Jesus.  Upright acts come through love of the Lord and neighbor.  Love desires and acts for what is in the best interest of the other. 

The love of God for his people meant that what was in their best interest was sometimes a difficult road to travel as we see the Israelites wander in the desert for forty years.  Their final destination was relatively a short distance compared to the years they spent in the desert but it allowed their souls to be purified.  Love of God often comes with cross to carry for our own salvation that we too may act uprightly and be called his chosen ones.  How do we handle our hardships of life?  Some may question God with “why God”, others may find it as a punishment coming from God, while others may simply believe it has nothing to do with God and blame it on “bad luck”.  None of these attitudes serve God’s purpose which is to prepare us for his coming, to free us from sin, and to lead others to himself. 

John points to Jesus as the chosen one who will baptize with “the Holy Spirit and fire”.  Thus, the Spirit of fire comes through Jesus to us by that same baptism of water and the Holy Spirit.  We are anointed priest, prophet and king into the priesthood of Jesus.  We are given the fire to proclaim his word in upright action and to live within the kingdom of God even as we live our earthly pilgrimage.  For this reason, we claim to be in the world but not of the world.  The Passover has been given to us and death has no power in our souls.  In time we shed our mortal bodies to rise up to immortality.  To be among the “elect” is to fulfill a purpose greater than ourselves, to lay down our lives at the feet of Jesus and let God by our God and we be his chosen ones. 

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Homily

Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary – the Mother of God

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Num. 6: 22-27; Ps.67:2-3, 5, 6, 8; Gal. 4:4-7; Lk. 2:16-21

Why the Mother of God?  This is the question we get asked as Catholics.  Mary is just the mother of Jesus we are told.  This is the question that is often raised by our protestant brothers and sisters.  Mary is the mother of God because we believe in one God in three persons.  The mystery of the Trinity is that there is but one God in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Jesus lets his disciples know that in seeing him they see God.  What more explanation do we need?  The argument continues “but Mary is the creature and God the creator, how can Mary be before the creator?”  Mary is the creature in who God the creator chose to become incarnate and become visible for our salvation.  He who is and always will be chose Mary as the vessel to manifest his infinite glory. Mary is thus both the Mother of God and Mother of the Church.

Mary as a Jew received the blessing of the Israelites as we hear it from Elizabeth “blessed are you among women” for the Lord’s face shines upon her with kindness and peace to bear “God’s son born of a woman”.  For this reason, we also say to pray to Jesus through Mary.  If Jesus is our brother who intercedes for us to the Father, then Mary is our mother.  The maternal love of a mother always points us to do the will of her son just as she responded at the wedding of Cana with the words “do whatever he tells you”.  A mother’s love always seeks mercy for her children but she also seeks obedience to the father.   

In baptism we are his adopted sons and daughters.  This raises the question then “if it takes baptism to become children of God, what are we before baptism?”  We are God’s creation that is creatures of God with a soul in need of a Father, Mother and brother.  Often the general assumption is made that just by being born we are “children of God”.  All creation belongs to God but baptism makes us reborn of spirit and truth, adopted sons and daughters, temples of the Holy Spirit to share in his divinity.  Baptism is the gate to heaven and to the kingdom of God given to us by Jesus as he commanded his disciples to go and baptize “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” for our salvation.

What was the message given by the angel to the shepherds we hear in the gospel today.  It was the message they had been waiting for that this child was to be the “savior, the messiah” who has come to free us.  Jesus was born during the reign of Ceasar Agustus who was seen as a “god” who was the savior bringing peace to the region.  The world then expected a new king to come and rule over them.  They had no idea the type of king that was born to Mary.  A king both human and divine bringing freedom of sin through mercy and love.  Not exactly what they were hoping for and for this reason in the end they all cried out “crucify him”. 

Today the God of mercy and of peace offers us a different world in the midst sin, war, crime, and hate.  It is a world of his love and peace.  It is transformative when we choose good over evil, when we seek virtue over indulgence, when we show mercy over vengeance.  It is a call to live the word made flesh that is to put on Jesus and let him rule over us.  Through faith we receive power, through suffering we receive redemption, through death comes the resurrection and through judgment a new majesty. 

What New Year’s resolution will we make this year that we will soon be forgotten?  Is it to improve our health, improve our relationships, work to reach a financial goal?  Usually, we focus on what is temporary and forget the eternal.  We are to resolve to prepare ourselves for eternity, for a closer walk with Jesus, for spiritual growth and understanding and to be all that Jesus is calling us to be.  We don’t want to just reach for the stars we want to reach for heaven.  There is no place like home and home is where God is.  God is with us, welcome home.    Happy New Year!

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Homily

4th Sunday of Advent – Blessed are you

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Mt. 5: 1-4a; Ps.80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19; Heb. 10:5-10; Lk. 1:39-45

“Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb”.  Mary is not only blessed among women but blessed among all humanity for her act of faith having believed in the word spoken. 

Blessed are we when we believe and accept the word of God that comes to us in scripture and in the teachings of the church.  Blessings come through acts of faith, hope and love.  The Lord waits for us to turn to him, seek him, and love him to shower us with his blessings as a father loves his child. 

Blessed are you Elizabeth by the Holy Spirit for having believed to give birth to the child John to prepare the way of the Lord as a voice for repentance.  John prepared the way with a baptism of repentance but who baptized John?  Could John be Jesus’ first baptism in the Holy Spirit in the water of his mother’s womb? 

Born of spirit and water, John came into the world ready to lay his life down with the knowledge of a prophet having encountered his savior in his mother’s womb.  Blessed are you the unborn children who have died before birth whether by natural cause or by those who chose to end its life for the love and mercy of God is the innocent.  Yours is a special place in the kingdom of God. 

Blessed are you who fulfill the “will” of God by which “we have been consecrated” through our baptism to the Lord.  Do we realize we are born with special gifts to fulfill a calling that adds to the kingdom of God?  When we live to serve God’s will, the Lord adds to the graces we need to not only overcome all trials, hardships, and even persecution but to live in the glory of God with joyful triumph over sin, temptation, and evil. 

Again, blessed are you who believe and then act on that belief trusting in the Lord.  We are reborn in baptism to be great disciples as priests, prophets, and kings and no evil can enter when we remain faithful to the Lord. 

Blessed is this season of Advent as a time of preparation not only to get our home ready for Christmas but to prepare our souls for the Lord’s coming.  The temptation of Advent is to spend our time and energy in the external signs of his coming like a good Martha but it was Mary who chose the better part to sit and be still open to the Word of God. 

The better part for a Catholic is taking time to make a good confession, reconciling and making peace with family and friends, coming to Church to give thanks to the Lord for the blessings of this year and giving the gift of self by our love for others. 

The blessing of Advent is the giving of Jesus to us and our giving of self to him.  In this the word is fulfilled “He takes away the first to establish the second”.  God the Father takes away the sacrifice for fulfilling the old law and gives us the new law by example of his son Jesus as a sacrifice of self. 

It is in giving of ourselves that we are born to eternal life.  This Advent let us be true lovers of God by the many ways we can be a blessing to others by the gift of self that is greater than any material gift wrapped in paper.  There was a priest back in the 80’s who would sing the same little chorus at daily Mass here at St. Francis Xavier “Count your blessing, count them one by one…” 

We are more prone to keep count of the things that go wrong than all the blessings to go right in our life.  Sometimes even when something is a setback it can be a form of blessing reminding us to trust in the Lord, give it to him, and remain at peace knowing all things work for the good of those who serve the Lord. 

The psalm prays for the desire to see the face of the Lord and yet we can only see a reflection of his face when we gaze upon a newborn baby or see a mother bird hover over the nest of her babies, or a 90 year old man sit in silent prayer.  It is moments like these that we realize there is a greater purpose in life than to simply to go about our business absorbed by the demands of this world.

Blessed are we when our life is set in right order before the face of God.  The God who sees all and knows the depths of our hearts will reward his faithful this Advent with his coming to fill us with his love, mercy, and grace.  Let us count our blessings and give thanks for the gift of Christ our Lord born in a manger to show us the way. 

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Homily

3rd Sunday of Advent – Rejoice in the Lord

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Zep.3: 14-18a; Ps.12:2-6; Phil. 4:4-7; Lk. 3:10-18

Rejoice in the Lord who comes with the good news of salvation.  This is the 3rd week of Advent and the color of the candle is pink to represent the joy of the Lord’s coming.  It also signifies the joy of the Shepherds when the angel told them that Christ was to be born.  We are to come to the Lord in a spirit of thanksgiving in our prayer and petition knowing that we belong to God and our peace rests in him. 

Anxiety, stress, worries then is a sign that we lack the peace of God and our minds and hearts are restless not with fear of the Lord but with fear of the world.  Fear and worry not only steal our joy but it can lead to despair and darkness separate from the light of Christ.  We cannot rejoice in the Lord simply by hearing the good news but by living the good news.  This is the message of John the Baptist who gives to each the answer to “What should we do?”  We rejoice in the Lord by doing what is right, just, charitable, and loving. 

We rejoice in the Lord because the “great and Holy one” is among us and “the Lord has removed the judgment against you”.  The Lord comes with glad tidings of his mercy to wipe away our sins.  He restores us to wholeness in recovery of our brokenness.  It is up to us however to avoid sin and the near temptation to sin.  This is not easy but we can begin by avoiding people, places, and things as much as possible that tempt us to sin. 

The people ask, “What are we to do?”  Treat others as you would like to be treated and know when to engage and when to walk away.  Two young seminarians were walking through the mall on a summer day where there were young women lightly dressed in shorts and tops.  One could not avoid staring while the other simply tried to look away.  One said to the other, “I think its time to leave and go to the car and say a rosary.”  Which of the two made the request to leave speaks to the faithful heart.  It could have been the one who had had enough temptation or the one who simply felt no need to be in that environment. 

“What are we to do?”  We rejoice in the Lord, trust in the Lord, pray to the Lord and give thanks to the Lord for the answer to our prayer that his will be done.  We rejoice in the Lord when we pray “Blessed be God, blessed be his Holy name, all glory and honor is yours almighty Father”.  We rejoice in the name of Jesus that we have been redeemed, forgiven of our sins, and restored to holiness.  This is why we rejoice in the holy cross of Jesus and carry it on us as a sign that we belong to him and he is our savior. 

What are we to do with anxiety?   We read that we are to “have no anxiety at all” but anxiety and worries are not the same thing.  Worries come from our thoughts and we can change our thinking about a situation.  Our thought can lead us to action to face our worries and resolve our concerns.  We also can surely pray and petition to the Lord all our concerns.  Anxiety however goes beyond our thoughts as an attack on the body. 

First of all, as someone who has suffered with anxiety it can be a very debilitating cross.  It is the evil one’s thorn at my side that remains despite all prayer and learning how not to feed into it.  It does not come from my thoughts or else I would long have changed my thinking.  It comes suddenly as an autonomic nervous system response of the body.  The body is broken and gradually begins to fail us.  Our soul however can also be injured from anxiety but it can be healed and learn to be free from the attack of anxiety even if the autonomic response of the body remains.  We must prepare for the death of the body but rejoice in the freedom it will bring to the soul for we will be given a new body that will not perish and body and soul will be eternal.  This is our joy in the Lord that our God comes to renew us and set us free from sin, sickness, and the death of this body.

Advent is our time to rejoice in the Lord for his coming is our freedom. 

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