A Homily - The First Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – Isaiah 55:1-11 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Isaiah 12 ©

Second Reading – 1 John 5:1-9 ©

Gospel Acclamation – John 1:29

The Gospel According to Mark 1:7 – 11 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 The grace of God, the creator of the universe, the grace of God is free, and all the good things God has in store for us come with it; God promises to deliver to everyone.

 The covenant God made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the covenant God made with Moses, Joshua and David, is the same covenant God made the prophets and with Jesus; it is meant to a blessing for all people wherever they are, no matter how near or how far. God promises to deliver the stranger and the sinner this is the grace of God, this is the way Jesus instructed us to follow, this is the way that leads to paradise.

 There is here, be patient; salvation flows from the wellspring of God, from this life into the next world.

 Be mindful.

 Everyone who is, was begotten by God…everyone.

 Out of your love for God you are called on to love all of God’s children, to love them equally and without preference as God does.

 Know this.

 To profess an ideology or to articulate a doctrine is not the same as an expression of love. Keep God’s commandment; do as Jesus said: love your neighbor as you love yourself, care for them as you care for your own.

 Do not assume that just because a person professes to love God that this person actually has love in their heart. Everyone has the capacity for love, and such a profession is a good first step, but it is not proof of anything.

Be mindful.

 Being a Christian, being a follower of Jesus, does not confer any special benefit on a person, not in this life or the next; it only confers a special responsibility on the believer: to treat all people as God would, as beloved members of the divine family.

 Consider the gospel for today:

 The Gospel of John was written more than one hundred and twenty years after the death of Jesus. None of its authors knew Jesus, or John, and none of them knew anyone who knew them.

 Like all of the other Gospels, John was not written by a single person. It was written by a community of people, and more than any of the other Gospels, it was written as propaganda. It was written with the intention of arguing for what that community believed about who Jesus was, what the meaning of his life was, and what his death meant to the early church, to the world and to the entire creation.

 Unlike the synoptic Gospels (Mark Luke and Matthew), by the time John’s Gospel was written, the early church no longer had any concern about ameliorating John the Baptist’s followers. The ethnic Jews in John’s community had either become Christians, or were considered to be enemies of the nascent Church.

 John’s Gospel is overwhelmingly concerned with depicting Jesus as the cosmic savior. Jesus as the Word of God, Jesus the divine sacrifice who takes away the sins of the World…Jesus as God.

 When John the Baptist encounters Jesus, he is merely a witness.

 When John sees Jesus he announces to his followers that he has come, a man greater than himself, one who existed before him (even though he was born in time after him), one on whom the Spirit of God rests, one who will complete the baptism of every believer, because he will baptize with the Holy Spirit, not water.

 This was the crowning achievement of early Christian propaganda. Through this vehicle the Church transformed the man, Joshua son of Joseph, into the being through whom the entire universe came into existence…it is a fine piece of mythology, but it must be understood for what it is, the expressions of faith and hope, not the recitation of history and fact.

 John’s take on this moment stands in stark contradistinction to how it was presented by Mark, who’s Gospel was written closest in time to the actual life of Jesus. Mark’s gospel illustrates a movement from the ministry of John to the ministry of Jesus. It is depicted with minimal fanfare, and only a slight suggestion that the transposition from John to Jesus was ordained by God.

 In Mark’s narrative the Baptist acknowledges the authority of Jesus, and Jesus is presented depicted as a son of God, but not necessarily as God’s own self, as John’s Gospel would later suggest.

 Mark does not claim that Jesus is God, merely that he has the favor of God, as John did before he was arrested and murdered. Jesus is depicted as accepting the mission that John handed him, and receives the sanction of the Holy Spirit at the moment he comes up out of the water, when the baptism is complete.

 It is wise to study the differences in the Gospels, not to be hung up on them because they say present different accounts of the same events, and not for the purpose of reconciling those events through some tortured logic, but to see the evolution of belief as it developed over many decades in the early church.

 

First Reading – Isaiah 55:1-11 ©

Come to Me and Your Soul Will Live, and I Will Make an Everlasting Covenant with You

Thus says the Lord:

Oh, come to the water all you who are thirsty; though you have no money, come!

Buy corn without money, and eat, and, at no cost, wine and milk.

Why spend money on what is not bread, your wages on what fails to satisfy?

Listen, listen to me, and you will have good things to eat and rich food to enjoy.

Pay attention, come to me; listen, and your soul will live.

With you I will make an everlasting covenant out of the favours promised to David.

See, I have made of you a witness to the peoples, a leader and a master of the nations.

See, you will summon a nation you never knew, those unknown will come hurrying to you,

for the sake of the Lord your God, of the Holy One of Israel who will glorify you.

Seek the Lord while he is still to be found, call to him while he is still near.

Let the wicked man abandon his way, the evil man his thoughts.

Let him turn back to the Lord who will take pity on him, to our God who is rich in forgiving; for my thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways not your ways – it is the Lord who speaks.

Yes, the heavens are as high above earth as my ways are above your ways, my thoughts above your thoughts.

Yes, as the rain and the snow come down from the heavens and do not return without watering the earth, making it yield and giving growth to provide seed for the sower and bread for the eating, so the word that goes from my mouth does not return to me empty, without carrying out my will and succeeding in what it was sent to do.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Isaiah 12 ©

The Rejoicing of a Redeemed People

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

Truly, God is my salvation,

  I trust, I shall not fear.

For the Lord is my strength, my song,

  he became my saviour.

With joy you will draw water

  from the wells of salvation.

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

Give thanks to the Lord, give praise to his name!

  Make his mighty deeds known to the peoples!

  Declare the greatness of his name.

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

Sing a psalm to the Lord

  for he has done glorious deeds;

  make them known to all the earth!

People of Zion, sing and shout for joy,

  for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

 

Second Reading – 1 John 5:1-9 ©

Jesus Christ Came by Water and Blood

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten by God; and whoever loves the Father that begot him loves the child whom he begets.

We can be sure that we love God’s children if we love God himself and do what he has commanded us; this is what loving God is – keeping his commandments; and his commandments are not difficult, because anyone who has been begotten by God has already overcome the world;

this is the victory over the world – our faith.

Who can overcome the world?

Only the man who believes that Jesus is the Son of God:

Jesus Christ who came by water and blood, not with water only, but with water and blood;

with the Spirit as another witness – since the Spirit is the truth – so that there are three witnesses,

the Spirit, the water and the blood, and all three of them agree.

We accept the testimony of human witnesses, but God’s testimony is much greater, and this is God’s testimony, given as evidence for his Son.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 1:29

Alleluia, alleluia!

John saw Jesus coming towards him, and said: this is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 1:7 – 11 ©

'You are My Son, the Beloved; My Favour Rests on You'

In the course of his preaching John the Baptist said:

‘Someone is following me, someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to kneel down and undo the strap of his sandals. I have baptised you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.’

It was at this time that Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptised in the Jordan by John. No sooner had he come up out of the water than he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit, like a dove, descending on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on you.’

 

The First Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B)

A Homily – The Epiphany, A Holy Day of Obligation (Year B)

First Reading – Isaiah 60:1-6 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 71(72):1-2, 7-8, 10-13 ©

Second Reading – Ephesians 3:2-3, 5-6 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 2:2

The Gospel According to Matthew 2:1 - 12 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

The prophet is writing in metaphor regarding the understanding that the God of the Hebrew people is the God of all people, the one and only God, the creator of the universe.

 God is the God over everyone.

 The metaphor expresses the hope that at the end of time all people will be united, not just metaphorically but in actuality, that there will be no divisions among us: no war, no enmity, no sorrow, no death. It is an expression of faith in God’s promise to bring everyone together for a common destiny.

 What Isaiah writes here is not an expectation of hope for this world. Isaiah understands that God will not effect these changes in the lives of the people today, the prophet is looking to the eschaton…to the ultimate end of all things…to God.

 Know this:

 God does not intervene in the affairs of human beings, God does not appoint rulers and kings.

 God will not rescue you from the troubles of this world, because God has made you, and everyone and the whole of creation absolutely free.

 God will not intervene; therefore do not petition God as if God were a king.

 Consider the words of the apostle who, like Isaiah, expresses faith in God’s love and mercy, even though he fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between God and humanity.

 Understand.

 God loves us according to God’s nature, not ours…we are as God created us, and God’s creation is good.

 Remember!

 God is the author of life and we were created to share in the life of God. God is grace and grace is best expressed through love…in hope…and by faith, which means trust.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today. There is a great deal to unpack in the story of the Magi.

 Before we begin let us note that in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is visited by three shepherds, not three Magi (also referred to as kings).

 Note also that in Mark’s Gospel, the 1^st to be compiled, there is no reference to these events at all, and John’s Gospel, the last to be written, makes no mention of them either. Apologists for the Gospel tradition claim that Luke and Matthew were relating separate events, and they encourage us not to conflate them.

 I think it is best that we proceed with the understanding that no such events actually took place, what we have in both Gospels is a work of narrative fiction, they are myths, as such they are packed with hidden meaning, at time the support outright prevarications, propaganda and lies.

 Matthew’s Gospel tells us that three wise men, Magi (who are priests of the Persian Zoroaster, visit the Holy family to pay Jesus homage; they present him with gifts of gold and other offerings befitting a royal person: treasures of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

 Matthew is talking about real wealth, enough to set Mary and Joseph up for life. If we accept this story as fact, we should not also hold to the notion that Jesus was the son of a humble carpenter. If Matthew was right, Jesus was fantastically wealthy

 Set aside the veracity of this depiction; the image is intended to do establish that Jesus is a royal person, the heir to David’s throne, making Herod’s fears concerning Jesus legitimate; he was a contender.

 As mentioned, the popular interpretation of this reading is to view the Magi themselves as not just wise men, but as kings in their own right, putting their encounter with Jesus on the level of a diplomatic mission, they are of the same class, and they present gifts of the type that the laws of hospitality would demand royal powers share with one another.

 The reading builds on the foundation of Jesus’ kingship, which the writers of Matthew begin in their presentation of Jesus’ genealogy. It connects Jesus to the astronomers and priestly class of the Persian Empire, to the temples of the aforementioned Zoroaster who represent the principle devotees of the Cult of Mithras, to which Pharisaic Judaism owed a significant theological debt.

 Know this.

 Pharisaic Judaism is the Judaism of the diaspora, otherwise known as Rabbinical Judaism, the sect of Judaism to which Jesus and the disciples belonged, and to which Paul of Taursus belonged.

 The myth is intended to convey these points and these points only: that Jesus is the heir to David and that he is intimately connected to mysteries of the Persian tradition. The same Persian tradition that was practiced by the emperor Cyrus when he released the Jews from their captivity in Babylon five hundred years earlier, allowing them to return to Judea and rebuild their temple.

 The Herodian intrigue in this narrative is of secondary importance. It complements the message concerning Jesus’ identity and sets up the Herodian dynasty as a group of villains that the disciples, along with John the Baptist and Jesus will have to contend throughout their lives.

 The drama with Herod at Jesus’ birth topologically connects the birth of Jesus to the birth of Moses, and while these are important cues, they are not nearly as important as the Persian theme.

 It is important to understand these matters, not because they teach us anything about Jesus, but because they teach us about the ideology of the earlier Chrisitan movement.

 

First Reading – Isaiah 60:1-6 ©

Above You the Glory of the Lord Appears

Arise, shine out, Jerusalem, for your light has come, the glory of the Lord is rising on you, though night still covers the earth and darkness the peoples.

Above you the Lord now rises and above you his glory appears.

The nations come to your light and kings to your dawning brightness.

Lift up your eyes and look round: all are assembling and coming towards you, your sons from far away and your daughters being tenderly carried.

At this sight you will grow radiant, your heart throbbing and full; since the riches of the sea will flow to you, the wealth of the nations come to you; camels in throngs will cover you, and dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; everyone in Sheba will come, bringing gold and incense and singing the praise of the Lord.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 71(72):1-2,7-8,10-13 ©

All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.

O God, give your judgement to the king,

  to a king’s son your justice,

that he may judge your people in justice

  and your poor in right judgement.

All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.

In his days justice shall flourish

  and peace till the moon fails.

He shall rule from sea to sea,

  from the Great River to earth’s bounds.

All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.

The kings of Tarshish and the sea coasts

  shall pay him tribute.

The kings of Sheba and Seba

  shall bring him gifts.

Before him all kings shall fall prostrate,

  all nations shall serve him.

All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.

For he shall save the poor when they cry

  and the needy who are helpless.

He will have pity on the weak

  and save the lives of the poor.

All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.

 

Second Reading – Ephesians 3:2-3,5-6 ©

It Has Now Been Revealed that Pagans Share the Same Inheritance

You have probably heard how I have been entrusted by God with the grace he meant for you, and that it was by a revelation that I was given the knowledge of the mystery. This mystery that has now been revealed through the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets was unknown to any men in past generations; it means that pagans now share the same inheritance, that they are parts of the same body, and that the same promise has been made to them, in Jesus Christ, through the gospel.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 2:2

Alleluia, alleluia!

We saw his star as it rose and have come to do the Lord homage.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Matthew 2:1-12 ©

The Visit of the Magi

After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east. ‘Where is the infant king of the Jews?’ they asked. ‘We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.’ When King Herod heard this he was perturbed, and so was the whole of Jerusalem. He called together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, and enquired of them where the Christ was to be born. ‘At Bethlehem in Judaea,’ they told him ‘for this is what the prophet wrote:

And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, you are by no means least among the leaders of Judah,

for out of you will come a leader who will shepherd my people Israel.’

Then Herod summoned the wise men to see him privately. He asked them the exact date on which the star had appeared, and sent them on to Bethlehem. ‘Go and find out all about the child,’ he said ‘and when you have found him, let me know, so that I too may go and do him homage.’ Having listened to what the king had to say, they set out. And there in front of them was the star they had seen rising; it went forward, and halted over the place where the child was. The sight of the star filled them with delight, and going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and falling to their knees they did him homage. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. But they were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, and returned to their own country by a different way.

 

A Homily – The Epiphany, A Holy Day of Obligation (Year B)

New Year’s Day 2024

Today is a day for beginnings, for taking a single step that establishes the trajectory of countless miles.

 The beginning is a time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct, said the Princess Irulan, in her biography of Muad’Dib; a small miscalculation at the outset, any deviation from the plan no matter how subtle, will cause you to miss your mark by a wide margin.

 This may deter you from your end or get you to a place you never intended to be. Great care must be taken at the beginning; therefore, be mindful of your aim.

 Today it is a day of resolutions.

 Doing is being, is what Ray Bradbury said:

To have done is not enough.

You cannot lay about, and lie about the things you might just do someday.

But do, to win the game.

 Great things are accomplished (and by great I mean great in any sphere: socially, professionally, personally, spiritually, privately), great things are arrived at, built, discovered through a series of small-regular and consistent steps.

 By the steady application of effort we can learn to do, and then ww can do just about anything…we can walk through fire or on the face of the moon.

 Resolve to do something this year; be resolute in your determination, see your target and steady your aim.

 If life is a river, it is a confluence of contradictions; the journey is necessary if you wish to arrive at your destination (at any destination); the process is just as important as the goal.

 The archer is not only concerned with the object of her aim but with the drawing of her bow, with the tension in the string, with her distance to the target and the currents in the wind.

 Prepare yourself so that you may understand these variables…they are always changing.

 Make 2024 a year in which hope for the future of America and her promise does not seem absurd, nor the extension of that hope to the entire world…365 Days from now, hope may be all there is left to us.

 Compassion, accountability, charity, honesty, integrity: call for these things, demonstrate your desire for them through the life you lead and listen to those in need of them; can you hear them crying in the wilderness…

 Today is the first day, it is a day for unity and common purpose.

 Today is a day of beginnings, a day for resolutions, a day for reflection and for joy.

 Today we stand on the fulcrum of a lever, between the past and future, looking forward toward our hopes as we consider the sum of our failures: war and famine, disease and ruin, all the things we strive for while we run our foolish errands. 

 Let each thing fall to its proper place as you move toward your desired end.

A Homily – The Solemnity of Mary (Year B), A Holy Day of Obligation

First Reading – Numbers 6:22-27 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 66(67):2-3,5,6,8 ©

Second Reading – Galatians 4:4-7 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Hebrews 1:1-2

The Gospel According to Luke 2:16-21 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

God may be the created the universe, but God is not a lord, free  the divine name from these earthly titles. God is not a god of tribes and nations, or even worlds, but the God of all creation.

Know that God’s blessing is meant for all God’s children, share yours with the poor and needy and follow God along the way.

Look for the divine in the faces of everyone you encounter, treat them as if they were God themselves, because God dwells within them.

Consider the words of the psalmist, who was when asking God to bless all peoples and nations; to have pity outcast and show mercy to the lost. The psalmist echoes the promise of God.

Be mindful.

God is not confined to one place or one time or one confession of faith. God is the God of everyone, whether they know God or not.

Praise God, ask for God’s blessing, not just four yourself, but for everyone.

Consider the words of the apostle, and reflect on the reality that Jesus’ was a political murder. If you wish to see it as a sacrifice, which means to make something holy, you must understand redemption. Jesus was not purchasing anything for himself or for us when he was killed, he was not paying a debt. He was showing us the way.

Jesus was acting from the spirit of compassion, taking the Sanhedrin’s wrath, and that of the Romans and bringing it on himself, rather than have it visited on his followers and family, his disciples and their families.

His sacrifice was not a magical feat, neither was it is not mystical event; Jesus was acting as a faithful son of God, exercising ordinary compassion in extraordinary circumstances. He was doing what he had been doing everyday throughout the course of his ministry; he was teaching, he was healing, he was protecting his people all the way to his death on the cross.

 Be mindful.

 God’s spirit is with us; the spirit is with us in the memory of Jesus that we carry, we demonstrate it through the loving service we provide to each other.

 Know that God’s spirit animates all of us, we are all God’s children and all of us are heirs to God’s promise, Christian and non-Christian alike.

 Understand this!

 God speaks to everyone; God speaks in the secret chamber of our hearts.  When God speaks God calls us to the service of justice, to be merciful, and to serve with humility.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today, there is a lot packed into this short passage.

 Before we begin to explicate its meaning we must understand that, the apostle Luke never met Jesus. Luke was not one of the disciples, he was a protégé of Paul, and Paul had never met Jesus either.

 Luke and Paul, travelled broadly and met many of those who had followed Jesus. Paul even met with James, who was Jesus’ brother and the bishop of Jerusalem, but they never met Jesus, and everything they knew about Jesus was hearsay.

 Note well, the Gospel of Luke bears Luke’s name but it was not written by Luke. None of the Gospels were written by individuals, they are exercises in collective development. The writing of the Gospels took place over generations, as the communities who authored them did their best to narrate their understanding of the life and mission of Jesus in terms their audience would understand.

 The Gospel of Luke says that Joseph and Mary and baby Jesus were visited by three shepherds. This is presented in distinction to Matthews Gospel which says that the holy family was visited by three Magi, who were “wise men” and Kings.

 The Gospel of John, the earliest Gospel, and that of Mark do not treat the subject of Jesus’ birth at all.

 Matthew’s community, and Luke’s community were each writing to very different audiences, as such, they tailored the narrative of the birth of Jesus to suit those audiences, each in their way creating different fictions that was pleasing to the people to whom they were preaching.

 This is the essence of propaganda; to understand the Gospels, this must be understood first of all. They contain some legitimate historical data, but sifting facts from fiction is difficult. The myths surrounding Jesus are the product of artifice, they did not develop organically over the course of centuries and millennia, they were forced into place to suit the particular interests of particular communities, and some attempt was made to harmonize the diverging story lines later. The Gospels speak to some truths that are universal, and relate some true events, but cannot be relied on as a true account of anything.

 They are, as I have said, propaganda, which is not to say that they are bad, but it is to say that they must be seen for what they are in order to be understood correctly. Because the Gospels are propaganda, they are less reliable as a tool to teach us about Jesus and more appropriately used to teach us about the diverse Near Eastern and Mediterranean communities that formed the early church.

 It is important to bear this in mind when reading the sacred text, they are the product of the human imagination, nothing more and nothing less.

 

First Reading – Numbers 6:22-27 ©

They are to Call Down My Name on the Sons of Israel, and I Will Bless Them

The Lord spoke to Moses and said, ‘Say this to Aaron and his sons:

“This is how you are to bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them:

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

May the Lord let his face shine on you and be gracious to you.

May the Lord uncover his face to you and bring you peace.”

This is how they are to call down my name on the sons of Israel, and I will bless them.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 66(67):2-3,5,6,8 ©

O God, be gracious and bless us.

 O God, be gracious and bless us

  and let your face shed its light upon us.

So will your ways be known upon earth

  and all nations learn your saving help.

 O God, be gracious and bless us.

 Let the nations be glad and exult

  for you rule the world with justice.

With fairness you rule the peoples,

  you guide the nations on earth.

 O God, be gracious and bless us.

 Let the peoples praise you, O God;

  let all the peoples praise you.

May God still give us his blessing

  till the ends of the earth revere him.

 O God, be gracious and bless us.

 

Second Reading – Galatians 4:4-7 ©

God Sent His Son, Born of a Woman

When the appointed time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born a subject of the Law, to redeem the subjects of the Law and to enable us to be adopted as sons. The proof that you are sons is that God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts: the Spirit that cries, ‘Abba, Father’, and it is this that makes you a son, you are not a slave any more; and if God has made you son, then he has made you heir.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Hebrews 1:1-2

Alleluia, alleluia!

At various times in the past and in various different ways, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets; but in our own time, the last days, he has spoken to us through his Son.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Luke 2:16-21 ©

The Shepherds Hurried to Bethlehem and Found the Baby Lying in the Manger

The shepherds hurried away to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. When they saw the child they repeated what they had been told about him, and everyone who heard it was astonished at what the shepherds had to say. As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen; it was exactly as they had been told.

  When the eighth day came and the child was to be circumcised, they gave him the name Jesus, the name the angel had given him before his conception.

 

A Homily – The Solemnity of Mary (Year B), A Holy Day of Obligation