There Might be a Party - Reflection 3rd Sunday

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/012620.cfm

Does everyone know the Simpsons on T.V., Homer the Dad, Marge the mom, and Bart one of their children? In that television show, when Homer and Bart convert to Catholicism, Marge imagines herself in Heaven. St. Peter directs her to a quiet, reverent and austere Protestant heaven.

Then, she notices Homer and Bart in Catholic Heaven. In Catholic Heaven, people are dancing, kissing, drinking wine and beer, and even a fight breaks out. Homer and Bart are enjoying themselves. 

Marge was sad. She wanted to be with her family so she goes to St. Peter and asks to speak to Jesus. St. Peter says, sorry Jesus is hosting the party in Catholic heaven. 

I tell that story to contrast with this one. I went to a church one time and the preacher said I wasn’t going to heaven. I hope he is wrong.

The preacher said Catholics, Baptist, and all who say they are Christians would never know heaven, unless they joined his Church. It had the secret to heaven

That’s not the kingdom of heaven Jesus was preaching about.  “Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  

Despite what the Simpsons portrays, heaven is not divided up, “Don’t let there be  divisions among you; be united in the same mind and for the same purpose.”

I went to a Church and the preacher said I wasn’t going to heaven.

The kingdom of heaven Jesus proclaimed was for those who heard his message and followed him.

The first to follow him was Simon Peter. You may have heard of him.

Walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea. He said, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him.

Jesus called Simon Peter to be one of his first disciples. Jesus built his church on him. Jesus gave him the keys to heaven.

But, Simon Peter wasn't perfect. He was stubborn. He was hot tempered. He was scared. He was a sinner. He denied Jesus, three times. Despite all these faults, Jesus never said he wasn't going to heaven.

Then, there was Paul. Another person of who you may have heard. Paul grew the church. He guided the Church. He was the apostle to the gentiles. He wrote most of the books of the New Testament.

But, Paul wasn't perfect. He persecuted Christ. He tried to destroy the Church. He was pompous. He was an elitist. He was a sinner. Jesus never said he wasn't going to heaven.

But many Christians just listen to the preachers. The church is divided today because instead of following Christ, christian fall into the rivalries of man. Over the centuries there have been many men and many rivalries.

Even today, the body of Christ is saying, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” The names have only changed.  

I went to a Church and the preacher said I wasn’t going to heaven.

Friends, is Christ divided? There is only one holy catholic church. That is catholic spelled with a small “c” to include all believers.

That was the Church started by Peter, guided by Paul, and shepherded by the early church fathers. But, some where, at some time, and in some church, a preacher said to someone your not going to heaven.

Instead of preaching the gospel, a preacher preached flawed human wisdom. Someone preached that error with human eloquence to empty the cross of Christ of its meaning. Human error and arrogance empties the cross of the one who calls to us, follow me. 

This week was the national walk for life in Washington DC. Today is our local one. All that truly preach the gospel of Jesus Christ will be united, walking together.

But there are churches that do not respect the unborn. For many, the life of an unborn child is nothing more than a choice. 

A choice is hamburger or pizza. A choice can be abundant blessings and joy or despair and darkness. A choice is Christ or not Christ, Christ or anti-christ; and, most Churches are looking for a big bad boogie man.

The anti-Christ is the one who twists Word of God into their own words. The anti-christ is the man or the woman who chooses not to follow him. 

I went to a Church and the preacher said I wasn’t going to heaven. Jesus Christ proves him wrong by calling us to follow him. He is with us. He is our salvation.

And there will be a party of abundant blessings and joy.

Be good, be holy, and preach the gospel by the way you live your life and live one another. 

Amen.

Bumps & Bruises - Homily 2nd Sunday OTA

Readings

My wife and I went to daughters last night. As we drove up no one was home, but she pulled in immediately behind us. My daughter said, I knew it was daddy, I could tell by the way his head leans.

Some people may notice my head leans to the right.

It’s from football. Forty-five years ago with no high tech training equipment players would just line up, fire off the ball, and give the opposing player a shot to the head. Sometimes you did it a half speed. Step up and the other guy would give you a forearm shot to the head and then you would return the favor.

It was the same thing in college; only they hit you harder.

Then add a couple bad wrecks and my head now leans to the right when I’m relaxed. By the grace of God, I was never really injured. I still have all my wits about me; but according to my daughter, my heads not on straight.

Our community of St. Lawrence has been beat up a little over the past couple of months. We’ve lost priests. We’ve lost our vigil mass. Our church has experienced bumps and bruises to our ministry.

So, let us start with this prayer:  Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.

That prayer is from the Psalm 40. The Psalm goes on to say: I have waited, waited for the LORD, and he stooped toward me and heard my cry.

Can you hear Jesus praying that prayer? Abba, Father, Here I am, I come to do your will not mine.

That must be our prayer as well, to do God the Fathers will here on earth in Christ Jesus’ name.

The prophet Isaiah writes that the LORD declares: You are my servant, through whom I show my glory.

But the missal omits the next verse. “I have used all my strength, and it has all been for nothing. My judgment is with the Lord and my work is with my God.”

Jesus must have prayed this in the Garden the night before his crucifixion

As Christian’s believers we have said that prayer, maybe not in so many words. We know that prayer when we share the gospel with others or feed the hungry, visit the sick, cloth the naked, and try to live like Christ in this world. And the world does not want to hear us. Even those we help may not hear us.

In all the opposition of Christ work, we may think our ministry is a failure. People look at Christians doing Christ work; do they see the glory of God in us?

Do you think the people passing by Christ on the cross saw the glory of God in him then!  No, they mock him and spit on him and cursed him.

Was this the same man that John the Baptist saw coming toward him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”

Yes!!

Yet at his death, Jesus’ life work was a few and disciples (men and women) who denied him, and then ran and hid.  Christ was to bring salvation to the world and on that day, it looked like failure.

“I have labored in vain. I have used all my strength, and it has all been for nothing.” But all that is Christian faith and the Church came after the death of the Messiah.

St Paul’s words of greeting to believers: You who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy, with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

All those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. Grace to you.

Grace is enough.

The apostles and first Christians were just a handful of people. But now, there are Christians in every part of the earth. In many places, their faith is outlawed. They are persecuted and many times martyred for faith and belief in Christ.

Do you think they cry out - I have labored in vain. I have used all my strength, and it has all been for nothing. No, they pray this: Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.

They share the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ even in death.

Here at St. Lawrence, all that has taken place in the last six months has made it hard to all our ministries staffed. The St. Vincent de Paul has stopped their meals program. Parents do not to bring their children to PSR. It is hard to get altar servers.

Friends do not be afraid, start with this prayer: Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will. The LORD will hear us.

Pray for our church, our ministry, and our lives in Christ; we succeed through God’s strength, in God’s sight, and in God’s time. “My judgment is with the Lord and my work is with my God.”

We are all called to Christ. He called me and my heads not even on straight.

Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.

Be good, be holy, and preach the gospel, by the way you live your life and love one another. Amen.

Leave the Light On - Reflection Feast of the Epiphany

The light in our guest bedroom was not working. It just stopped. I tested and found the switch was bad, so I decided I needed to replaced the wall switch, but, not immediately.

I finally did it yesterday. The light still did not come on.

Thinking what it could possibly be, I came to the conclusion that as I was crawling around in the attic, I must have knock something loose. I decided to finish my repairs later that night.

I didn’t. 

I got up early this morning, walked to that room and flipped the switch and the light still did not come on. 

Maybe it fixed itself during the night.

Before I climbed into the attic, I thought I would check the wiring in the fixture itself. I walked over to the fixture, took off the cover, and immediately saw the problem. I put in a light bulb. 

It hard to let a light shine if you don't have a source of light.

Today scripture begins with the prophet’s cry to Jerusalem, “Rise up and let your light shine.”  It was a cry to a people and to the city that was in a downtrodden and desperate state. 

It was not just a cry to overcome the economic and social woes that had been forced upon a people and city over the ages. It was more importantly a cry to rise up and shine in the light of God’s glory.

The prophet promises all nations will witness the light of the LORD’s glory that comes forth from the salvation of Israel. The light that Jerusalem provides to the world is God’s redemption and in that redemption people of all the world will be able walk in God’s glory.

That prophecy is repeated In the Psalms in the cry for God’s justice to include all the world and all the nations within it. The psalm proclaims the Kings will bring tribute to the LORD and God and his glory will be manifest to all nations.

That is what epiphany celebrates.

Science tells us there was something special in the sky at that time. The magi saw it. They knew it meant something specials. They saw this light in the sky as a manifestation of the glory of God. And they followed it and came to the child they found under the star.

The scripture does not give us their names or their number but only the gifts - frankincense, gold, and myrrh.

Tradition tells us who they are:

Gaspar has brown hair and wears a green cloak and a gold crown with green jewels. He is the King of Sheba. Gaspar brings Frankincense to Jesus. Frankincense represents Jesus’ divinity.

Melchior, who has long white hair and a white beard, wears a gold cloak and Is the King of Arabia. Melchior is said to have brought gold to Jesus. Gold is the sign of Jesus Christ’s kingship.

Balthazar is the King of Tarse and Egypt and is man of color. He has black and wears a purple cloak. Balthazar brings Myrrh.  The myrrh foretold his suffering.

The magi represents the rest of the world that is not Israel. The rest of the world made of anonymous people that comes from obscurity and returns to obscurity. In a simple way testifying to the light of Christ and the glory of God.

Even then those who recognized Jesus as something more than just a man were persecuted. They paid him homage and praised him as king; because of that they were warned not to return to Herrod, and left by another route.

Just like the magi, the light of Christ is revealed to us. People of every race come voluntarily to Jesus. We are brought to the light of Christ through the apostles, through the scripture, through traditions, and by the Church.

We cannot let the light that is the Glory of God shine in the world unless we have the source of that light.  We are to share that light of love in us through the gospel of Christ Jesus with the world.

Rise and let the light of Christ shine in you. Be good, be holy and preach the gospel by the way you live your love one another. Amen.

Family - Homily for the Feast of the Holy Family

Family

I woke up this morning to a pop-up on my phone saying it was my cousin’s birthday. In a large extended family, there is always someone to learn from; he will be older than me for 10 days.

And today is the celebration of the Holy Family. 

My family even though not perfect in so many ways, we are a holy family. My family is my grandparents, mother and father, in-laws, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, aunts, uncles and cousins and not the least of all my wife, children, and grandchildren.

I have been part of worshiping communities all my life, which are families of faith. That’s why St. Lawrence is so important, it is a family of faith.

When you put all those together you get a pretty big extended family. Some are fallen away, some are broken, and all are sinners. Yet, all have touched my life to make me who I am today.

Believe it or not, all of them have made me a better person; and hopefully, a holy person.

Think about Jesus’ family. 

There is the Holy Family the Church celebrates, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus; but, in Jesus time a family would have been enormous and quite extended. Joseph and Mary had family and relatives in Bethlehem. They probably had relatives in Egypt that helped them find refuge. And in Nazareth, probably everyone was part of Jesus’ extended family.

A family that was an extended Holy Family. It was an extended family that was part of the fully divine and fully human Jesus’ fully human life. Jesus, a descendent of King David, lived out his destiny influenced by this family.

That is true for all of us. 

Our family is who we are. A family can be the source of our greatest joy and our greatest source of disappointment. A family can be the source of our greatest contentment and our greatest source of drama. A family can be a well of empathy and a pit of apathy. A family can be one extreme or the other.

Family is where we can experience profound sufferings, great heroics, and even our most significant encounters with God. Family is the place we come from and people we know and love.

Family is were we find patience, humility, the courage to forgive, the comfort of kindness, and it is were most first encounter God.

But in the modern world the definition of family is changing. Family may not always include a father or mother. In our culture, family is not always the important thing. Instead, the world has become so self centered families get in the way.

We see it in:

The man who should be a father but is more in love with self than family. He forgets his promise to God to love and protect the one he has chosen to be his wife. He forgets the children that are part of him. 

The couple who thinks careers, belongings and sex is more important than a child.

The horror of abortion, where the self (both in the man and woman) is more important than the life of a child. 

The woman who should be a mother but is more in love with self than family. She forgets her vow to God and to her husband and children that she carried in her womb.

The self centered ego turns its back on family and turns its back to God. 

This ego destroys family with abandonment, abuse, hate, and endangerment. It is suffering Jesus experienced for us. God does not want anyone to know that suffering. And, sometimes families fail.

That is the importance of the extended Holy Family; because, family influences our destiny. Family comes together to make us who we are in this life. It is relationship and responsibilities That extends from parents to child; from child to parents; from the old to the young; and, from the young to the old.

That is why the community of faith is so important. As a family of believers, we are all part of each others extended Holy Family. This community of St Lawrence is our Nazareth.

Men be holy in your role as a father. Women be holy in your role as a mother. Children be holy. As an extended family be holy as uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, cousins, nieces, nephews, and godparents.

Friends pray and realize we are the family that brings Christ to the world through our family. It is done through a Holy Family. It is done through an extended Holy Family.

Be good, be holy, and preach the Gospel beginning with our family by the way we live our lives and love one another. Amen.

WWGJD - A Reflection on Peace 4th Sunday of Advent

WWGJD

This is the fourth Sunday of Advent which is associated with peace. This weeks scripture is about finding peace. 

It begins with Isaiah.  When the kingdom of Judah was fighting the kingdom of Israel. Ahaz the King of Judah was looking for peace. 

Isaiah spoke for God. He said to Ahaz, “Do not be afraid.” And Isaiah continued,  “the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.”

In the Gospel according to Matthew, Joseph was looking for peace when an angel of the LORD appeared and said “Do not be afraid!” The angel tells Joseph “... you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”  

The Gospel continues, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord has said through the prophet: Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.”

St. Paul declares the Good News to the Romans that it was Christ Jesus who was promised by the prophets in Holy Scriptures. 

His gospel: Christ Jesus is the Son of God. We are called to belong to Jesus Christ. In that we are called to be the beloved of God. We are called to be holy.

St Paul salutation, “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” It is a greeting of peace for all of us on the fourth Sunday of Advent.  

Now, I want to share with you a little story about peace. 

This week, my daughter shared a story about my six year old grandson. It is a story about finding peace. I think it can explain this weeks scripture.

My grandson had gotten angry at school and then he did something to get a conduct mark. My daughter told him, instead of reacting, take a minute and ask yourself WWJD - What Would Jesus Do?

His mother told him “do not be afraid and angry, but, know peace by thinking about Jesus.”

That 6 year old theologian thought for a little while and answered. “Momma, it should beWWGJD - What would God Jesus Do?”

He has a point there.

A couple of days later, my daughter is totally frustrated at my youngest grandson who is getting close to the terrible twos. She scolds him. Her oldest son says to her, “Relax Mom - ask yourself WWGJD?”

To know peace ask yourself, WWGJD? What would God Jesus Do?  Scripture tells us what he has already done. To know that is to know peace. 

His name will be Emmanuel, which means God is with us. Isaiah also speaks this of God’s peace:  You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Is 26:3

The words that truly allows us to know peace:  You are to name him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. 

It is through Jesus Christ born in a manger and crucified on the cross we find and know peace in this world.

Jesus said to his disciples, Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Jn 14:27 “..in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” Jn 16:33

WWGJD - What Would God Jesus Do? - for us to know peace?

He came into world for us and He will come again.

Be good be holy and preach the gospel of Christ Jesus by the way you live your life and love one another. Amen.