A Homily – The First Sunday of Advent (Year C)

First Reading - Jeremiah 33:14-16 ©

Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 24(25):4-5,8-9,10,14 ©

Second Reading - 1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Psalm 84:8

The Gospel According to Luke 21:25-28,34-36 ©

 

NJB

 

Listen!

 The Church is steeped in the prophetic tradition of the Hebrew people.

 Jesus was a prophet, not a fortune teller or a seer; he was critical of the power structures that governed the people in his day. He spoke directly to the people in his time, as a witness to their suffering and the injustice they experienced at the hands of the wealthy and the powerful, in response to which he called for love and mercy.

 Remember.

 God, the creator of the universe, God does not intervene in the affairs of human beings. God does not establish royal houses or tear them down. God does not do these things, because God has created us and the entire universe free from divine coercion.

 God’s only intention is to teach us the way of justice and lead us to it in humility, by calling us to love and mercy.

 God does not choose between contending tribes or nations, God does not designate winners and losers. God has no favorites; God has no enemies.

 If you follow the way you will discover peace, even in the midst of calamity; if you follow the way you will learn to be generous in times of abundance and scarcity both.

 Consider the wisdom of the psalmist; lift-up your spirit, give your life to God, seek mercy and distribute it. Grow in the spirit of forgiveness…not merely to those who have done you wrong; move yourself to forgive God also, God who made you a creature who can experience pain and brought you into being in an unjust world.

 Do not expect God to take sides with you in any conflict; that is vanity. God loves all of God’s children fully and equally; the divine does not discriminate between one child and another.

 If you ask God to punish the faithless, the promise breakers, you must know that you are asking God to punish you yourself; we are all faithless, we are all promise breakers.

 When you pray, pray for wisdom and guidance, pray in a way that acknowledges God’s desires that you be well. If you pray for God to do anything for you, you are praying in vain. God will not intervene in your life, either to your benefit or your detriment, to reward or punish you.

 Be mindful of God’s mercy as it applies to you and to everyone; God allowed for your existence even knowing all your crimes; since the beginning of time God knew them, God has not forgotten them…and loves you anyway.

 All the ways of God are kindness and mercy, follow the divine example as we see it reflected in the person of Jesus. Love one another and all humanity; be a vehicle for love as God desires it. Love one another even as God loves you.

 Know this.

 God’s purpose in creating us with the knowledge of right and wrong fixed in our hearts and minds, the divine purpose in creating us as beings us with conscience, for creating us in the divine image is so that we may learn to love, excepting both the joy and the grief that flows from it...into it, encompassing it.

 To be a follower of Christ…to be a Christian, is not about what you believe, it is not about what images or ideas you have in your mind or about who or what God is…or is not. To be a follower of Christ…to be a Christian has nothing to do with the structure of sacred rituals or what songs you sing, creeds you consent or rituals you have enacted. To be a follower of Christ…to be a Christian has only to do with the quality of life you lead.

 It is God’s desire that we lead a moral life, a just life, a life characterized by good works, by charity, compassion and humility, a life of love in service to our sisters and brothers. We find our well-being in this and thus we are saved.

 Remember this on the first Sunday of Advent, and carry it with you throughout the year. God is the creator of the entire universe, all lands belong to God; all seas, all planets, all stars, all galaxies; everything and everyone living exists within God who sustains us all.

 Remember.

 God did not end the captivity of Jacob, the Hebrews did, with Moses and Joshua leading them through the desert (if you believe it).

 This is not hubris; it is greater hubris to think that God loves a special people, a people chosen above all others, than to think that the Israelites escaped bondage under their own power.

 Reflect on this; think deeply on it as we consider the Gospel reading for the day, and the trouble that always accompanies our interpretation of prophecy.

 The authors of Luke report that they have given us the words of Jesus, though they never met him; instead they presented this myth and placed lies in the mouth of their teacher.

 Jesus never spoke about the end of the world, he knew nothing about it; rather, he was concerned overwhelmingly with the injustice and suffering he witnessed to in his own time.

 Jesus did not seek to motivate us through fear, he was a beacon of love.

 If the moon were to slip in its orbit either falling toward us or away from us, that would be a sign of the end of the world (but only the world as we know it).

 Tens of billions of years from now, when the sun has spent the last of its nuclear fuel; the end of the world will begin…not one moment sooner.

 Know this.

 The stars are in fact so distant from us, that what happens with them has next-to-nothing to do with what happens here, and long before our sun burns itself out, our galaxy will collide with another, that collision will radically change life on this planet (billions of years from now), when human beings won’t even be recognizable as the beings we are.

 As has already been stated, God does not interfere or intervene in our lives and our choices. As such the only futures we can predict are those that flow naturally from their antecedents that are discernable right now. For instance, we can predict climate change because it is happening, and the antecedents for it were laid down decades ago; we cannot stop it. We can predict the continuation of wars, of terrorism, of economic injustice, because they are present realities and matters of statistical certitude. We can predict the continuation of social injustice, not because God has decreed that these things will continue or come to pass, but only because we have not yet made the determination to change them ourselves…to change ourselves and take up the way.

 First Reading - Jeremiah 33:14-16 ©

I Will Make a Virtuous Branch Grow for David

See, the days are coming – it is the Lord who speaks – when I am going to fulfil the promise I made to the House of Israel and the House of Judah:

‘In those days and at that time, I will make a virtuous Branch grow for David, who shall practise honesty and integrity in the land.

In those days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell in confidence.

And this is the name the city will be called:

The-Lord-our-integrity.’

 

Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 24(25):4-5,8-9,10,14 ©

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

Lord, make me know your ways.

  Lord, teach me your paths.

Make me walk in your truth, and teach me:

  for you are God my saviour.

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

The Lord is good and upright.

  He shows the path to those who stray,

He guides the humble in the right path,

  He teaches his way to the poor.

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

His ways are faithfulness and love

  for those who keep his covenant and law.

The Lord’s friendship is for those who revere him;

  to them he reveals his covenant.

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

 

Second Reading - 1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2 ©

May You be Blameless When our Lord Jesus Christ Comes Again

May the Lord be generous in increasing your love and make you love one another and the whole human race as much as we love you. And may he so confirm your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless in the sight of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus Christ comes with all his saints.

  Finally, brothers, we urge you and appeal to you in the Lord Jesus to make more and more progress in the kind of life that you are meant to live: the life that God wants, as you learnt from us, and as you are already living it. You have not forgotten the instructions we gave you on the authority of the Lord Jesus.

 

Gospel Acclamation - Psalm 84:8

Alleluia, alleluia!

Let us see, O Lord, your mercy and give us your saving help.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Luke 21:25-28,34-36 ©

That Day Will be Sprung on you Suddenly, Like a Trap

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars; on earth nations in agony, bewildered by the clamour of the ocean and its waves; men dying of fear as they await what menaces the world, for the powers of heaven will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand erect, hold your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand.

‘Watch yourselves, or your hearts will be coarsened with debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of life, and that day will be sprung on you suddenly, like a trap. For it will come down on every living man on the face of the earth. Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen, and to stand with confidence before the Son of Man.’

 

A Homily – The First Sunday of Advent (Year C)

A Homily – The Fourth Sunday of Advent (Year A)

A Homily – The Fourth Sunday of Advent (Year A)

  

First Reading – Isaiah 7:10-14

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 23(24):1-6 ©

Second Reading – Romans 1:1-7 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 1:23

The Gospel According to Matthew 1:18-24

 (NJB)

 

Listen!

 God is not a politician.

 The creator of the universe is not a kingmaker. God does not give victory in battle; God does not appoint winner and losers. God, Immanuel, the God of Jesus Christ, God is with all people, at all times, in all places.

God loves each and every one of God’s children, God’s love is without measure and flow through all people equally.

God stands with all people, whether or not any of them stand with God.

Be mindful of this.

All things and person have their being in God. God is the foundation of all that is. Without God there is nothing, and in nothing there is not even the possibility of being.

If you wish to climb the mountain, if your desire is to find God, that is fine, do it; God desire to be found. However, the path to God is closer than you might think; turn to your neighbor, see God reflected in their face.

God is there.

See them, behold the face of God, and in the presence of divine give thanks, give thanks for your neighbor, with your neighbor give thanks, demonstrate God’s faithfulness to you, demonstrate that faith living in you; trust the divine and demonstrate it through love.

There is no other way.

Do not worry about your own holiness, such pretensions are immaterial. Rather, believe that God loved you before the creation of the world, when only the possibility of you existed and know that even then you were loved and desired. Believe that this is true of all things and beings, this is true of everyone; everyone is loved by God, everyone is a vessel of God’s holiness.

Believe that this is true.

If you seek God’s blessing you will find it in the service you provide to your neighbor, to your mother and father, to your sister and brother, and know that God desires to see you blessed. If you seek to be justice, to be justified or justification in anything, find it in humility practice it in mercy.

Remember this:

God is not confined to the pages of a book, to inked scratching’s on parchment or vellum, or the printed word on paper, neither is God bound by the history and mythology of a single people. We may look to the histories and the traditions for glimpses of God, for the remembrances of past encounters, but we seek the living God in living beings, for God is alive in us.

Therefore always bear this metaphor in mind: the first time we saw God, when the first parent walked with the creator, then the world was a garden and that was paradise. There was no talk of kings, and no talk of the glory of God victorious in battle…let us return to that.

 Now listen!

 Do good and reject evil, and remember that the apostle Paul was not chosen, rather, he made a choice and chose to preach the Gospel.

 He was not converted, he converted; he underwent kenosis and metanoia, a turning around followed by the embrace of God.

 In all humility, remember this: Jesus descends from David through his father Joseph (if he was at all), he was a human being…this is a simple truth. And remember, Jesus was not a lord or king, he rejected those title and words to that affect were hung on the cross to mock him. Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary and Joseph, he was a Rabbi and a healer.

 The record of his life tells the story of a man whose life and works provide an unparalleled example of goodness and the fullness of grace. He was not a conduit of grace, he was a manifestation of grace, emanating from the seed of the divine (God in God’s fullness) that exists in potential within all of us. Jesus’ mission was not to confer on human beings something that they lacked, but to activate in them something that is innate, the inherent capacity for good and a receptivity for God’s love.

 Now consider this when you read the Gospel for today:

 Mary was betrothed to Joseph and Joseph was of the House of David. She became pregnant before their wedding, according to God’s, the design God put in place for the propagation of all human life, according to no other design.

 It is reasonable to assert that Matthew’s narrative, depicts Joseph as having second thoughts about his marriage, taking Mary into his house as he had promised, and about being a father even though he had gotten Mary pregnant already, and that in the examination of his conscience, by listening to the spirit of grace within him, he made a choice; he embraced the truth, and accepted responsibility for his child.

 David received Mary as his wife, he brought her into his house; they named their child Joshua, after the great hero of the Israelites. They gave him a great name and pinned their hopes on him, in that hope and trust (which means faith) they encountered the presence of God, knowing then   that God was with them, inasmuch as they were with each other.

 If Joseph had succumbed to his fear and weakness and rejected Mary when she was with child (and that was a real possibility), in that time and place, Mary would have been destroyed; she would have become an outcast with no standing in her community, she and her child would have gone into servitude and likely would have perished after much suffering.

 The narrative shows that Joseph was humiliated by his weakness and humbled by his doubt moment of doubt; he came through that moment have learned what it means to truly love.

 He choose good, he rejected evil.

 If you believe it.

 

First Reading – Isaiah 7:10-14

The Maiden is With Child

The Lord spoke to Ahaz and said, ‘Ask the Lord your God for a sign for yourself coming either from the depths of Sheol or from the heights above.’ ‘No,’ Ahaz answered ‘I will not put the Lord to the test.’

Then Isaiah said:

‘Listen now, House of David: are you not satisfied with trying the patience of men without trying the patience of my God, too?

The Lord himself, therefore, will give you a sign.

It is this: the maiden is with child and will soon give birth to a son whom she will call Immanuel,

a name which means “God-is-with-us.”’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 23(24):1-6 ©

Let the Lord enter! He is the king of glory.

The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness,

  the world and all its peoples.

It is he who set it on the seas;

  on the waters he made it firm.

Let the Lord enter! He is the king of glory.

Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord?

  Who shall stand in his holy place?

The man with clean hands and pure heart,

  who desires not worthless things.

Let the Lord enter! He is the king of glory.

He shall receive blessings from the Lord

  and reward from the God who saves him.

Such are the men who seek him,

  seek the face of the God of Jacob.

Let the Lord enter! He is the king of glory.

Second Reading – Romans 1:1-7 ©

Our Apostolic Mission is to Preach the Obedience of Faith to All Pagan Nations

From Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus who has been called to be an apostle, and specially chosen to preach the Good News that God promised long ago through his prophets in the scriptures.

This news is about the Son of God who, according to the human nature he took was a descendant of David: it is about Jesus Christ our Lord who, in the order of the spirit, the spirit of holiness that was in him, was proclaimed Son of God in all his power through his resurrection from the dead. Through him we received grace and our apostolic mission to preach the obedience of faith to all pagan nations in honour of his name. You are one of these nations, and by his call belong to Jesus Christ. To you all, then, who are God’s beloved in Rome, called to be saints, may God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ send grace and peace.

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 1:23

Alleluia, alleluia!

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son

and they will call him Emmanuel,

a name which means ‘God-is-with-us’.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Matthew 1:18-24

How Jesus Christ Came to be Born

This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph; but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph; being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally. He had made up his mind to do this when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.’ Now all this took place to fulfil the words spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel, a name which means ‘God-is-with-us.’ When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do: he took his wife to his home and, though he had not had intercourse with her, she gave birth to a son; and he named him Jesus.

The Fourth Sunday of Advent (Year A)

A Homily - The Third Sunday of Advent (Year A)

 A Homily - The Third Sunday of Advent (Year A)

  

2022.12.11

  

First Reading - Isaiah 35:1-6, 10 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 145(146):6-10 ©

Second Reading - James 5:7-10 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Isaiah 61:1 (Luke 4:18)

The Gospel According to Matthew 11:2 - 11 ©

  

(NJB)

  

Listen to the prophet Isaiah is a prayer of hope. Listen and be mindful, do not mistake the poetry written here as the literal truth or the historical record of anything.

 This is a prayer from the school of Isaiah, it is a prayer for healing and restoration, it is a prayer for salvation: a state of being that God, the creator of the universe, that God intends for everyone …but not in this life.

 This prayer is not a promise concerning the expectations we should hold for our lives in this world. It is a prayer reflecting our hope for the next.

 The hope that is expressed here is the hope of divine deliverance, not from present peril but from the material condition altogether.

 There is a fundamental choice before us:

 We may choose to live our lives as if we believe in the things we hope for; the belief in what we hope for is an extension of trust in the divine, this mode of trust is the essence of faith, which is not a thing you can possess, nor a state of being, it is an action best expressed in the imperfect form…never complete in the present.

 In the next world we may witness the entirety of the created order lifted-up in the exultation of God; we may experience it like that, but this will not be a state of mindless adulation, it will not be a grand and endless glorification…that is not the way of the divine, whatever jubilation there will be, will have the form of thanksgiving and humility according to the simple—endless bounty of God’s love.

 I am with Isaiah when they express the hope that we will face our fears and watch them disappear; I am with those who teach us to have courage in the now, and patience in the present moment, being of service to one another.

 I am not with Isaiah when he petitions for vengeance in the hunt for retribution. Rather, I am with Jesus who took no enemies to himself, even from among his persecutors, who forgave those who hurt him, making that his final prayer…issued from the cross.

 This is a prayer for healing, for universal healing; take this prayer from Isaiah and seek in your own heart the will to heal everyone. Take up this prayer and in that moment you will experience world to come in the here and now.

 Now, listen to the psalmist who instructs us to praise God, creator of the universe, to praise God with words and song, God is the author of our salvation

 Praise God and leave aside the trust you give to princes and kings, and the other little lords of the church and the world. Listen to the psalmist and before wary of his words, knowing in your heart that God is not a king, and kings are not God.

 Consider the life of a human being, consider the many years that the human beings have walked the Earth; consider its brevity. Our window on life is but a spark in the night. We are born, we breathe for a time, then we are gone. Consider that the Earth itself will not survive the dying of our sun and that even our galaxy will vanish in the cold and dark.

 Consider these things and consider how happy are those whose help is God, the creator of the universe. Happy are those who assist God in the divine work of mercy and justice.

 Lift up the oppressed, wherever they are: feed the hungry, free the prisoner, teach the ignorant. Pray for your own faults to be forgiven, your own blindness lifted. Advocate for those who need an advocate, care for those who cannot care for themselves. Find those who are lost and bring them home.

 Be especially mindful of this:

 If we think of the second coming of Jesus as an actual return; we are mistaken. Jesus will not return in the flesh, because that is against nature, and like all human beings we each have but one life to live on this Earth.

 If we think of Jesus returning to Earth as God, of his coming to bring about the end of time, drawing down the curtain as if it was the closing of a play; we are mistaken. God will not intervene in the life cycle of our planet, of our solar system, of our galaxy or of the universe as a whole…God does not do that, the order of creation is absolutely free from divine coercion.

 This must be accepted and you must know that the apostle was wrong to engage in speculation of this nature.

 Be mindful of this error; it is not prophecy, do not repeat it.

 Take these words to heart: be patient, live a good and loving life; even in the midst of turmoil. When we fulfill the promise of the way, the way becomes the reality of our lives…even if only for a moment.

 Praise God, and pray for God’s servants wherever they are, knowing that when the will of God is done, the message is clear and the mission is pure.

 It sounds like this: love one another, as God loves you.

 Consider the Gospel for today:

 John came before Jesus; it is said that they were cousins, but the evidence for this claim is scant.

It is said that James, the apostle and bishop of Jerusalem was Jesus’ brother, but that claim has long been rejected by the Church. There is no way for us to know the veracity of these claims, and it does not matter.

 John came before Jesus; for a time the two of them worked as contemporaries, they were cousins who were both called to the same mission. It is said that they met at the river Jordan where John was carrying out his ministry of repentance and the baptism of restoration.

 John baptized Jesus when they had this meeting, the moment is presented in the Gospel for today as a passing of the torch from John to Jesus.

 There is no way for us to know if this event ever even happened, or if it did that John and Jesus viewed this encounter as such...but it does not matter, because the historical realities behind this narrative have been transcended by allegory and metaphor.

 John prepared the way for Jesus, just as the Gospel for today indicates. He was arrested shortly thereafter, and shortly after that he was murdered. 

 John and Jesus belonged to a movement, a movement of the people, the am haaretz, a movement for the people, a movement that called for justice, unity and salvation all people.

 They saw their work as something connected to the prophets like the School of Isaiah. They were reformers, they were people whose preaching synthesized the sacred texts, boiling the law and the commandments down to their essence, then returning them to the people in the simplest form.

 “Love God, with all your strength and all your heart, and all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.”

 That is the whole of the law, and all the words of the prophet were summarized therein.

 Many of John’s followers became followers of Jesus. The leaders in John’s group became leaders among Jesus’ disciples, but not all who had followed John came along, and it is to them that this gospel is pointed.

 It was written to remind all new Christians: first John, then Jesus.

 As a purely literary device this story builds upon a theme of the ancient Hebrews, derived from the patriarchal narratives wherein God’s favor falls to the younger son; for Able over Cain, for Isaac over Ishmael, for Jacob (Israel) over Esau, for Joseph over all of his brothers.

 Today’s gospel is in essence, a political screed. It is a message to the holdouts among John’s group, expressing love and pride in John’s work, while telling them in no uncertain terms that the way is with Jesus.

 This is the beginning of Church politics, and as with all such actions, it brought healing to some aspects of the divide while exasperating others.

 Such is the way of human beings.   

 Listen and be mindful.

  

First Reading - Isaiah 35:1-6, 10 ©

 God Himself is Coming to Save You

 Let the wilderness and the dry-lands exult, let the wasteland rejoice and bloom, let it bring forth flowers like the jonquil, let it rejoice and sing for joy.

 The glory of Lebanon is bestowed on it, the splendour of Carmel and Sharon; they shall see the glory of the Lord, the splendour of our God.

 Strengthen all weary hands, steady all trembling knees and say to all faint hearts, ‘Courage! Do not be afraid.

 ‘Look, your God is coming, vengeance is coming, the retribution of God; he is coming to save you.’

 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unsealed, then the lame shall leap like a deer and the tongues of the dumb sing for joy for those the Lord has ransomed shall return.

 They will come to Zion shouting for joy, everlasting joy on their faces; joy and gladness will go with them and sorrow and lament be ended.

  

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 145(146):6-10 ©

 Come, Lord, and save us.

 It is the Lord who keeps faith for ever,

  who is just to those who are oppressed.

It is he who gives bread to the hungry,

  the Lord, who sets prisoners free,

 Come, Lord, and save us.

 It is the Lord who gives sight to the blind,

  who raises up those who are bowed down,

the Lord, who protects the stranger

  and upholds the widow and orphan.

Come, Lord, and save us.

 It is the Lord who loves the just

  but thwarts the path of the wicked.

The Lord will reign for ever,

  Zion’s God, from age to age.

 Come, Lord, and save us.

 Alleluia!

 

 Second Reading - James 5:7-10 ©

 Do Not Lose Heart; the Lord's Coming Will Be Soon

 Be patient, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. Think of a farmer: how patiently he waits for the precious fruit of the ground until it has had the autumn rains and the spring rains! You too have to be patient; do not lose heart, because the Lord’s coming will be soon. Do not make complaints against one another, brothers, so as not to be brought to judgement yourselves; the Judge is already to be seen waiting at the gates. For your example, brothers, in submitting with patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

  

Gospel Acclamation – Isaiah 61:1 (Luke 4:18)

 Alleluia, alleluia!

 The spirit of the Lord has been given to me.

He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor.

 Alleluia!

  

The Gospel According to Matthew 11:2 - 11 ©

 'A Greater than John the Baptist Has Never Been Seen'

 John in his prison had heard what Christ was doing and he sent his disciples to ask him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or have we got to wait for someone else?’ Jesus answered, ‘Go back and tell John what you hear and see; the blind see again, and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised to life and the Good News is proclaimed to the poor; and happy is the man who does not lose faith in me.’

 As the messengers were leaving, Jesus began to talk to the people about John: ‘What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swaying in the breeze? No? Then what did you go out to see? A man wearing fine clothes? Oh no, those who wear fine clothes are to be found in palaces. Then what did you go out for? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and much more than a prophet: he is the one of whom scripture says:

 ‘Look, I am going to send my messenger before you;

he will prepare your way before you.

 ‘I tell you solemnly, of all the children born of women, a greater than John the Baptist has never been seen; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he is.’

  

The Third Sunday of Advent (Year A)