Saint Sebastian Catholic Church Ft Lauderdale, FL

February 14, 2016

Deuteronomy 26, 4-10 X Psalm 91 X Romans 10, 8-13 X Luke 4, 1-13

No one talks about sin anymore unless it’s someone else’s. Then we’re really good at it, and we can name the offense, the cause, and often we can set the punishment. However, when referring to ourselves, we don’t have sin. We have a few “issues”, but they are hardly deadly. These temptations of Christ that lead us into Lent every year are way too fantastic and dramatic to be very real, so we stand back and admire Jesus for the strength of character he demonstrates and the courage with which he responds to Satan missing the point that perhaps what Luke is teaching us is that an effective response to any temptation might be found in the Word of God, and the use of that Word might well give us what we need to face any temptation. During the time of the Lenten Mission we begin this week, I propose to give you some scripture texts and use them as Jesus does to respond to some serious “issues” that left unaddressed and unchallenged lead to death which is why we call them “deadly sins.”

We are all engaged to one degree or another in a personal, ongoing battle with sin and vice just like Jesus in these verses from Luke’s Gospel. We are living through an age of serious moral decay. Cheating and lying are a way of life today. Although anger doesn’t make most of us murderers, and lust doesn’t make most of us rapists, and greed and envy do not make most of us outright criminals, together with gluttony, arrogance, and sloth, there isn’t much glory in us, and those who have to live with us are miserable. Our failure to live up to the glory that is ours is as tragic as the unhappiness our evil causes.

Every deadly sin fuels harmful social phenomena: lust-pornography; gluttony-substance abuse; envy-terrorism; anger-violence; sloth-indifference to the pain and suffering of others; greed-abuse of public trust; and pride-discrimination.” As long as there is any trace of these evils in our lives, we are less that human and less than what God has made us to be. We have in our faith a treasure of wisdom and tradition, teaching and revelation that leads us to a life of virtue and balance, holiness and joy; that is glory! It is not that pleasure is inappropriate, but glory comes from character and virtue, and a right relationship of one’s self to others and to God. That is where we find pleasure, and that pleasure leads to glory.

So, I am inviting you to spend three nights this week reflecting upon “The Seven Deadly Sins”. Unlike our bodies influenced by our genes; our souls, our spirit, and the lives they animate are free to be shaped by our choices. We can choose to be whole. We can choose glory. We can repent and change, and that is what this Lenten season which we have just begun is all about. I don’t know where we got the idea that giving chocolate or martinis for Lent or dropping some loose change in the poor box was what Lent is all about, but it’s silly and trivial. Besides, most people who give up chocolate more than make up for lost time with the chocolate bunnies and eggs on Easter! God wants more. God deserves more. God expects more. God wants change. There is more and better in us than we have chosen to become. One of the startling facts of life in our times is that no one wants to admit to sin and take any responsibility for its consequences. Lent is the time to do that.

We have been given our nature, but we choose our character. When we say someone is a good man or a good woman, we do not suggest that they are people in whom there is no inclination to evil, but rather that they are people who have wrestled and still wrestle with it and never give in because their quality and their goodness comes from the struggle. I think that is what Jesus learned in that desert. It is what gave him what it took to really withstand the temptations that come later in his life. People learn from the struggle are truly noble. These are people of virtue, character, and nobility. The work of Jesus and his expectation that we change leads us to glory, to Easter, to virtue and nobility.

“Morality is like art, said G.K. Chesterton, “it consists of drawing a line somewhere.” We live in an age in which no lines seem to be drawn at all, or those that have been drawn are being erased. In my 74th year of life and almost 50 years as priest I have come to recognize that an unhealed wound, a kind of sinful restlessness, afflicts humanity and robs us of glory.

Bruce Springsteen, “The Boss” wrote a song that describes our age when he sings: “Everybody has a hungry heart.” I think we are hungry for glory, hungry for the life we should have had by God’s will and God’s original plan for us. But we have traded our glory for something else, and sin is the consequence. Our hunger is for God and the glory that comes from being in God’s presence. The glory of Jesus Christ came from his willingness to suffer in obedience to the will of his Father. Calvary was no short – cut to glory. There isn’t one. We will have no glory and no Easter from a short-cut either. We cannot fill ourselves with things that do not satisfy, that do not fill us or lift us or hold us up.

I want to propose to you that while there are seven sins (not issues) that lead us to death there are seven virtues that when taken seriously lead us to life. I invite you to give some time with me this week for the sake of the truth and glory; three times in this church for the sake of life itself, your life. Sunday night (tonight) we shall reflect upon Pride and Envy, tomorrow Anger and Sloth, Tuesday, Greed, Gluttony, and Lust.  I always save the best till last!  I hope to see you again for prayer tonight night when we might begin to consider how it is that we satisfy our hungers and our thirst, because “everybody has a hungry heart.” The only thing that will satisfy that hunger is found here in this church nowhere else.

Ash Wednesday

Joel 2, 12-18 – Psalm 51 – 2 Corinthians 5, 20-6, 2 – Matthew 6, 1-6, 16-18

February 10, 2016 at St Peter the Apostle Parish & St William Parishes in Naples, FL.

For some of us, and I may well be one of them, this will be our last Lent. With that thought, we might get serious about these forty days, because they are about being prepared for death. That is why we will mark ourselves in a few moments with the ashes to which we shall return. It might then be about time we take this season seriously since it might well be our last chance to get ready for the dawn of our new life.

The Prophet Joel shouts: “Return to me with all your heart.” Where in the world did we ever get the idea that giving up a few goodies like chocolate or martinis or dropping some loose change into the poor box was really enough to prepare us for death or lead us to celebrate the greatest event in history? In fact, is six weeks enough? Viewed in the light of what this season is really about, those things seem rather trivial and silly. God wants more. God deserves more, God expects more. God wants conversion, and that means that something about us will change. That kind of conversion of heart means a lot more than figuring out what to give up.

Fasting is not for weight loss. If that is your goal with fasting: “Amen I say to you, You have already received your reward.” God’s not interested. Real fasting stirs up our hunger for God. Instead opening the door of the refrigerator for snacks, we ought to opening the door of a church for prayer. The giving of alms is not just a seasonal or occasional gift to the poor or some worthy cause remembering to get a tax deduction. If a tax deduction is even in your mind when you give: “Amen I say to you. You have already received your reward. Expect nothing from God. The giving of alms means we stop using the money we have for only ourselves and take seriously the work of the church and the needs of others. When half this world is starving and we spend money on cosmetics, and another pair of shoes there is need for conversion of heart. When there is time to talk and gossip about the faults and mistakes others have made, there ought to be time for some serious prayer about our own mistakes, and certainly some time to ask forgiveness. That would count as a real conversion.

If every Lent was lived as if it were our last, and if every day were lived as though it was our last, we might well find ourselves prepared for that death we acknowledge today, and even more prepared for the surprise and the joy of what will follow for those have seriously and consistently turned their hearts to God.

Isaiah 6, 1-2, 3-8 – Psalm 138 – 1 Corinthians 15, 3-8. 11 – Luke 4, 1-11

February 7, 2016 at Saint Peter and St William Parishes in Naples, FL.

The call of Peter is so dramatic in Luke’s Gospel that it presents a problem. It is the same with the call of Isaiah and Paul heard just before the Gospel. These experiences are so unique that we can easily step back focusing only on those three as though those really called to discipleship have to accept a radical change of life, quit their jobs, leave their family, put everything up for sale on eBay, and be focused on doing God’s will and nothing more. After all, isn’t that what “they” did? Add to that the fact that we tend to think of a Prophet like Isaiah, St Paul, and St Peter as being “saints”, holy and courageous, bold and confident. These are the kind of people God goes after, the bold and the brave.  Excuse me friends, this thinking is ridiculous, and it seems to gloss over the fact that Isaiah did not have a clue about what was going on around him, Paul was a notorious and violent persecutor of those who followed Christ, and Peter was a liar and a coward at the most critical moment of Christ’s life. A closer look at the three of them tells us something more important. This “call” comes to anyone and maybe everyone from an upper-class well-dressed Israelite named Isaiah, to a Roman trouble-maker like Paul, and to a simple fisherman just earning an honest living by the work of his hands.

What this episode of Luke’s Gospel calls into question is who is called, what is the call, and what does it take to respond.

At the historical level, Peter is called. At the theological level as Luke writes it is the church that is called, you and me, The Church. So what is revealed here in God’s Word is our call, and root of our vocation in life. I think it is important to understand that this is about “vocation”, the purpose of and the reason for one’s very life. There is one, you know, a reason for each one of us to be here right now, today, in this place. There is a reason in the mind of God for our very existence. God has called us into this life, not just to eat and breath, reproduce and die. There is a plan in God’s providence for each of us which is why we all have gifts that may differ, but are tools to complete the Will of God.

There is no expectation that we sell our homes, our cars, bid farewell to our families, find a tunic, an old pair of sandals, and learn how to beg. There is an expectation however that we take seriously our unique vocation and seek at every turn to understand what God asks of us and calls us to become as a disciple. It is way more than keeping the rules and going to church. This vocation to discipleship is not for the holy and the perfect, for those who have their lives all in order and spend hours in prayer. It is for people like us who have a past, who live every day conscious of our unworthiness, our mistakes, and brokenness. In fact, it is probably good to remember all of that like Peter who falls on his knees in humility. None the less, he is called, and so is the broken and sometimes sinful church which is no better or worse than any of us. Discipleship and our vocation is not about the past. It is about now and about the future.

I would propose that there are three steps to embracing one’s vocation. First, we need to be absolutely convinced that God is alive and powerfully working within and around each one of us. We need to be unshakably certain that we are loved and worthy to be called, just as we are. Second, based upon that understanding we need to hear Jesus when he clearly says to us, “Do not be afraid.” The job description for discipleship has as its first prerequisite: love. The second is “no fear.” Now the third and final thing we need to do is learn to listen. God is prompting and calling each one of us right now. This is the making of a disciple.

We have all been there: at work, at home, in a store, anywhere. We see something or hear something said and wonder, “Should I respond and help that person?” Then we start trying to figure out if it’s proper, or if we should just mind our own business and what other people might think. By the time we go through all of this rumination either someone else has responded, the person has moved on, or it’s just too late. What kingdom do we serve, the “kingdom of excuses” or the “kingdom of God”? If we are convinced that we are being loved and led, committed to removing fear from our minds and hearts, and becoming skilled at the art of listening then we would not hesitate to act on those promptings we feel within. Those promptings are from God. You are being called to respond. Jesus is saying, “Come, and follow me.” You have an opportunity to be a “fisher of men”!

It takes time to discern whether that inner voice is my own or God’s. That discernment comes once we get rid of the fear and excuses and actually start doing! In listening to these inner promptings, we begin to notice all of the opportunities that become available to us to be disciples. We will realize that my past does not matter. What is important is what I can do. If you find yourself saying, I should ask that person his or her name, then do it! If you find yourself saying, I should help that person carry that load, then do it! If you are driving and see someone in distress and say I should stop and help, then do it! If you see a homeless person and say to yourself I should do more, then figure out what to do!

After Jesus ascended to the Father all those first disciples had was God’s inner voice. They were able to recognize just as they recognized Jesus on the road to Emmaus. We can learn to recognize it as well. And with Lent beginning this Wednesday, we have a full forty days to think about love, fear and listening and how we can become better disciples and fishers of men.

Ordinary Time 4

Jeremiah 1, 4-5, 17-19 + Psalm 71 + 1 Corinthians 13, 4-13 + Luke 4, 21-30

January 31, 2016 at Saint Peter the Apostle Parish in Naples, FL.

Just after the end of World War II a Lutheran minister named Gunter Rutenborn wrote and staged a play he titled The Sign of Jonah that had a profound impact on the city of Berlin which was in ruins. The play takes place in Germany still reeling from the war. It begins with a group of refugees trying to determine who is to blame for the horror. Some blame Hitler. Some blame the munitions manufacturers who financed Hitler. Other claimed that the German people themselves should bear the responsibility for the destruction of their own country.

Suddenly a man in the crowd speaks up: “Do you want to know who is really to blame for the suffering we have been through? I’ll tell you. God is to blame. He created this world. He placed all of this power in such unworthy hands. He allowed all of this happen.”

At first, everyone is taken back by this accusation, but gradually the chorus is picked up by all: God is to blame! God is to blame! And so God is brought down on stage and put on trial for the crime of creation; and he is found guilty. The judge then pronounces sentence: “The crime is so severe that it demands the worst possible sentence. I hereby sentence God to live on this earth as a human being.

Three archangels are called down to execute the sentence. The first angel declares, “I’m going to see to it that when God serves his sentence, He knows what it is like to be obscure and poor. He will be born in a ghetto. There will be shame about his birth, and he will live as a Jew. The second angel vows, “I’m going to see that when God serves his sentence he knows what it is like to fail and suffer disappointment. No one will understand what He is trying to do, and he will be cursed and humiliated despite the good He does.” The third angel swears, “I’m going to see to it that when God serves his sentence, He will learn what it is to suffer physical pain. He will die the most painful and humiliating death imaginable.” And the play ends with the three angels disappearing to carry out the sentence.

And so, God’s sentence is carried out in the Gospel accounts of Jesus, God-made-human. Last month we observed the fulfillment of the first sentence regarding his birth. Today we mark the fulfillment of the second angel’s vow with the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. So convinced that they were perfect, that they were right, that they were the best there is and the most favored and blessed of all peoples by God, they were outraged to hear that there might be others who were different from them yet equally favored, blessed, and loved by God. So indignant were they that they ran off and closed their ears to the news, to the Truth, to the Prophet. No signs were worked among them.

We must take great care and draw an important lesson from this Gospel regarding our own times. A prophetic church is still chased away when the Gospel calls into question the privileges of the self-satisfied. Communism has done this, and secularism is doing it today. Sometimes masked under the veil of super patriotism, there is outrage when the church favors the poor whose poverty is the consequence of economic systems that protect the wealth of a few. The prophetic Christ in his prophetic Church is silenced with ridicule when it speaks of the value of all human life to a violent culture that legalizes murder and calls it a “right” or calls it “justice.”

The audiences who saw The Sign of Jonah and all who have met Jesus of the Gospels understand immediately that God has completed his sentence. God knows what it is to live as a human being – which means that nothing we face today is unknown to God: being misunderstood, run off, silenced, mocked when the truth is spoken, betrayed by friends, it’s all there! The central message of the Gospel Jesus is that God became what we are so that we can better understand what God is and what God is about: love, forgiveness, selflessness. Such is the good news of Jesus who enters human history and sanctifies our humanity for all time.

Ordinary Time 3

Nehemiah 8, 2-4, 5-6, 8-10 + Psalm 19 + 1 Corinthians 12, 12-14, 27 + Luke 1, 1-4; 4, 14-21

January 24, 2016 at Saint Peter the Apostle Parish in Naples, FL.

“Today” is an important word in Luke’s Gospel. He uses it 11 times, and one of those occasions we have already heard in the second chapter with an announcement by angels: “Today is born a savior.” Today is where it’s all happening in Luke’s Gospel from the song of angels through the healing of bodies and souls, on to the betrayal by friends and then his last forgiving moments on the cross when he says: “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” The Gospel, not just Luke’s, is not about the good old days when Jesus was actually preaching in synagogues. Neither is the Gospel about tomorrow or some time way off in the future when eventually things will be good. Those words were spoken for those people to understand who he was and why. The Gospel is about today. As Jesus fulfilled his mission so clearly spoken in that synagogue, things were happening right then. When he saw someone blind or deaf he didn’t say we’ll take care of that tomorrow. When he met someone who was sick he never told them they would get better eventually. When he spoke to that man who came down through the roof, he said: “Your sins are forgiven.” He didn’t say “tomorrow”, or “after you’ve done enough penance”. It happened then.

A busy world and busy people making it so usually find this whole idea of “today” a little challenging. Who wants one more thing to do today when more will probably be left undone at the end of the day than was actually accomplished?  I suspect that those people sitting in that synagogue were doing just fine with Jesus until he sat down and said that word, “Today.” Until that moment, they must have been amazed at how well he read, at how comfortable he was in the synagogue among them. Then suddenly the mood changes with that one word. They were quite used to having the scriptures comfort them and talk about the days to come when things would be great for them again off in the future. They liked it when the preacher told them about how loveable they were in God’s eyes and when the teaching shored up their self-satisfaction. They liked hearing about what God was going to do for them, but then he said that word. He was promising things for others: the poor, the blind, the captives, and the oppressed!

“What about us?” they surely must have been thinking, and the more they listened, the more they got the point. There were no poor, blind, or captives in that synagogue any more than there are poor, blind, and captives here. This message did not offer them anything except a challenge. It was not about them, in fact, it was for them that he said these things. These words were spoken for those people to understand who he was and why he was there. He had no good news for them unless they wanted to confess that they were impoverished, blind, bound, and oppressed. The truth of the matter is, they were all of those things, but they could not admit it. They wanted to be told how good they were, not have someone suggest what they should be doing that day.

The same thing is happening here. We are not poor, blind, captive or oppressed. This Gospel does not offer us any great comfort or pat us on the back nearly as much as it expresses who we are and what we should be doing today. As Paul’s Epistle to the Corinthians says:  “Now you are Christ’s body.” If that is true, then there is no doubt about what we are to do with our lives, and what we are to do today. As Paul suggests, there are no excuses. There’s no putting it off till tomorrow or till we finish what we’re doing later today. There’s no opting out because we’re too old, too tired, or too sick. It is all about what we are doing today.

We are a people who have been anointed with the Holy Spirit no less than Jesus himself. The power, the grace, the gifts of our Baptism and Confirmation make it unmistakable that we are sent to relieve the suffering of the poor and give them some Joy. We are sent to give the blind a vision of the Kingdom of God letting them see the face of God by our merciful presence. We are sent to free those who are held captive by refusal to forgive and release them with mercy. This is to happen today, not tomorrow. If you choose to receive the Body of Christ today and become one with Christ in Communion, then there is no doubt about what you are to do today. The truth of the matter is, the world has its eyes fixed upon us watching and waiting to see if this Scripture passage is fulfilled.

Ordinary Time 2

Isaiah 62, 1-5 – Psalm 96 – 1 Corinthians 12, 4-11 – John 2, 1-11

January 17, 2016 at Saint Peter the Apostle Parish in Naples, FL.

I am of the opinion that we ought to read this Gospel backwards, or at least move the last verse up to the beginning, then we can avoid all the romantic, sentimental, and overtly devotional conclusions that are always being drawn from this episode. John’s Gospel is a lot of things: dramatic, complex, unique, and long, but it is not sentimental or romantic. This story is not about Cana. There is not one reference to that place ever again. The location is unimportant. It is not about the Blessed Mother as much as we might make something of her intervention and the fact that she is present. It is not about weddings or brides and grooms. It is about wine and water when you are ready to explore a sign, and right away that should turn our attention to this table feast. John tells us that it is about revealed glory, and it is a sign, the first of several that make up John’s Gospel and lead people to believe.

As the verses go, something has run out. It is finished, and that’s the point. The old way of doing things is over. With the coming of Christ, the presence of Jesus, something new is at hand, and that is the sign John is putting before us. There are six water jars. That detail is part of the message. Seven is the number of fulfillment or completeness, but here, there are only six. It carries a sense of incompleteness. The old order, the old Law of Moses was not enough. What comes now is the law of Love and the Spirit. A seventh vessel is needed to complete the plan of God, and that vessel is Christ from whom water will flow at the end.

These symbols have to connect if the genius of John’s Gospel message is going to be passed on to us. John begins the episode by saying that “It is the third day”. How could anyone miss the Easter suggestion when the hour finally comes to reveal the glory on the third day, Easter?  This is the “hour” that enters that dialogue with Mary. Some are stunned by the way he addresses her as “woman”, but that word itself should jump us right to the foot of the cross when again he calls her “woman” commending her to John.

Apparently, what happens with the water jars is unknown to everyone but the disciples. They see his glory, or least the beginning of it, and it brings them to believe which is the purpose of the sign: belief!  For those of us who know the end of John’s Gospel, all of these images and these signs begin to come together. It starts here with a feast, and the most constant image Jesus uses for the Reign of God is a banquet feast. It starts here with a wedding, and John is fascinated with the image of Christ the Bride Groom and the church as a bride. It is a significant image in the Book of Revelation with the “Wedding of the Lamb” and all its glory as the last and finest moment of time.

So today as we begin “Ordinary Time, we can see that these Sundays will lead us deep into the Pascal mystery of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ. It is then that his “hour” will have come, at the Supper Feast when wine again is the focus of the message. In the new age, in this new creation, wine will not run out. His sacrifice will be enough for our salvation. The mission of Jesus Christ to reveal in his glory the truth and the presence of God begins here at this feast. The abundance of this excellent wine, by measure today probably about 120 gallons speaks of the superabundant generosity of God that is now, in Jesus, to be revealed. If you have not seen God’s generosity in your lifetime, then there is no reason to believe, but if you have then there is reason to wonder and to ask if anyone has come to faith because of what they see in your life. This gives us reason enough to repeat this story once again as a reminder both of God’s inexhaustible mercy and of how that glory is reflected in the church and in each of our lives.

The Baptism of the Lord

Isaiah 40, 1-5, 9-11 + Psalm 104 + Titus 2, 11-14 3, 4-7 + Luke 3, 15-16, 21-22

January 10, 2016 at Saint Peter the Apostle Parish in Naples, FL. & MS Eurodam

It is a true story that I think we all know, but there is a detail about it that may have slipped your mind. I think that detail is essential for anyone who wants to enter into the event and experience we remember today as a church.

Annie Sullivan is partially blind and she has taught a seven year old blind and deaf student finger spelling during the four months they have been working together trying to break through and connect this child with some reality. One day they were passing a water pump, and Annie Sullivan placed the child’s hand under the running water and pressed into it the word: W-A-T-E-R. From that moment, Helen Keller became a new person who would eventually amaze and inspire so many through her work for people with disabilities, especially the visually impaired.

The story is real, and so is the experience. It is about water. The powerful story of someone isolated, alone, closed off and frightened awakening to a new life is the story of Baptism. It is the experience of knowing who you are in relation to another and to all creation. For Hellen Keller there is suddenly a new relationship with Annie Sullivan that quickly leads to a new relationship with all creation. It is the story we tell today of Jesus Christ who emerges from the desert where he was alone, isolated, and I think perhaps frightened. His experience with the evil one who tempts him had to have been frightening. Then suddenly there is water, and he is not alone. He knows who he is, and his relationship with John the Baptist and everyone else comes into focus.

It’s about water, and it is about what water has done for us. We are not a people who were baptized. We are a people who are baptized. We are called into connections between the reality of our world and the water of baptism. We are called into connections with the one who touches us with water, not a priest or a deacon, but with the one in whose place they stand. The isolation, the loneliness, the emptiness, even the silence of the past collapses into awareness, excitement, discovery, and ultimately joy.

There is no past tense in talking about Baptism. It is a present and living reality. It is an experience that is on-going. You are a lot more baptized today than you were on the day of your baptism. The same thing is true of marriage. You are lot more married today than you were on that wedding day; and I am a lot more priest than I was in 1968 when Bishop Reed put his hands on my head and anointed my hands.

Celebrating the Baptism of Christ leads us to awaken to the reality of our own Baptism. Touching that water when you step into this holy place awakens you and connects you to the others who have stepped in before you, and all those who are connected with us in the Communion of Saints.

A people living their baptism are a people connected to God all through every day and every night. A people living their baptism are a people connected to everyone else who is coming to life just as Jesus found his connection with the blind, the lame, the deaf, the sinners, and the lonely. A people who are baptized are a people who know who they are what their mission in life is set to be. They never forget that they are children of God who claims them as God’s own and loves them.

To this good news of solidarity and healing oneness, Luke adds the significance of prayer. Notice that Luke does not provide any details about the baptism event, but rather its aftermath. Jesus prays. It is his prayer that tears open the heavens for the decent of the Holy Spirit and his true identity by the Father’s voice that acclaims him as the beloved Son on whom favor rests. The details of our own baptism make for family lore, but they are of little importance until we awaken to the sound of God’s voice in prayer. Then we shall know, believe, and act like the chosen ones we are upon whom so much favor rests, and then we shall know what to do with this great gift.

Epiphany of the Lord

Isaiah 60, 1-6 – Psalm 72 – Ephesians 3, 2-6 – Matthew 2, 1-12

January 3, 2016 at Saint Peter the Apostle Parish in Naples, FL. & MS Eurodam

This is perhaps the greatest episode in all the Gospels. It makes this the feast of seekers, of wanderers, and wonderers. It speaks to everyone who will not give way to comfortable indifference. It is the story of good over evil, and of the clever outwitting hypocrisy and political intrigue. It comes upon us at a time when we need to be drawn out of consumerism, credit card bills, all the shallowness of “Seasons Greetings”, and festivities of a New Year that may not be much different from the old one. It is a story and feast that leads us back to love and to wisdom.

While these wise men may have questionable historical roots, they still thrill our imaginations and make us wonder about their visit to this child. Their names do not come to us until an 8^th century monk names them. They do not become multi-racial for another 8 centuries. None the less, we accept their story laden with symbols and rich theological associations, and a story is often the surest and straight line to the truth. Wonder and excitement are important for every one of us, and their story teaches us some valuable lessons.

Searching for the truth can lead you in to a political minefield. The powerful of this world are always threatened by the truth and by simplicity which always reveals what they would prefer to hide. “Yes men” like the men Herod consults will say anything to stay in favor and avoid the truth. It also reminds us that we are not self-sufficient, and we all need help on our search needing discernment to know right from wrong, a lie from the truth, and light from darkness. At the same time the story teaches us that every nation, every race, every culture seeks the light, and in Christ all will come together. It teaches us that every culture and perhaps every religion has some gift to offer God, and we would be wise to never refuse the gifts of strangers. A multi-cultural society and church bears witness to the inclusiveness we shall later see in Christ’s intent in his mission.

In the end, I suppose, this is all about gifts more than magical wise men. It is about one gift given to us richer and more valuable than gold, frankincense or myrrh: the gift of our love. In a stunning short story by O. Henry called “Gift of the Magi” Jim and Della, husband and wife, decide to give each other special Christmas presents. They are poor, but each has a prized possession. Della’s is her lovely long hair; Jim’s is his pocket watch. Della cuts her hair and sells it in order to buy Jim a platinum chain for his watch. Jim sells his watch so that he can buy a set of pure tortoiseshell combs for Della’s hair. Then comes the moment of “epiphany.” The revelation of the love behind both of their sacrifices that is the most precious gift. He ends the story with the affirmation of the loving wisdom of Jim and Della as gift givers. Matthew proposes to us today that it is often the stranger or outsider who can reveal to us, as individuals and as nations, how and what we should be seeking and how to come home to this truth.

Mary, Mother of God

Number 6, 22-27 X Psalm 67 X Galatians 4, 4-7 X Luke 2, 16-21

January 1, 2016 at Saint Peter the Apostle Parish in Naples, FL.

Of all the feasts of Mary, this is the oldest celebrated by the church long before any of the others, and it is the source of everything we know and believe about this woman so favored and blessed by God. What Luke tells us about her provides a clear look at the response of anyone who becomes aware of God’s action in their lives and conscious of the great privilege it is to bear and give flesh to the Word of God. We come here today because we too are aware of God’s action in our lives; aware of the gifts we have, of the faith we share, and the hope that faith has nurtured in our hearts. Clearly we are favored by God and blessed. We live in this beautiful place, in an earthly garden safer than most from the danger and fears that chase too many of God’s children from their homes and loved ones. We are blessed with another year of life and the time to give thanks for the year that has passed.

As Mary continues now in a concrete way to live her calling as Mother of God’s Son, she does so in the context of her place in time and culture. She passes on to her son the tradition of her Jewish faith, and she fulfills what was asked of her by naming him “Jesus” which means, “One Who Saves”. Already in the circumstance of her birthing, there is a hint that all may not always be well, that homelessness, confusion, and anxiety will be part of life. The first visitors she seems to have are not loving, adoring, caring family members, but strangers from the fields, hired hands who come with no gifts and speak of things she may not understand. It is an odd sort of beginning for this mother who already knows that nothing will be ordinary or normal about her life any more.

Her response to all of this, says Luke, is to ponder. There is no complaint, no refusal, no whining, blaming, or attempts to run. She just ponders. It is the second time she does this in Luke’s Gospel, so it must be important, and it will not be the last because it is the best posture and the best response for anyone confronted with the unexpected Will of God. It will be a life-time of pondering for her, a life-time full of reflective silence during which she treasures the good news about Jesus in spite of messages that are often contrary to what she knows by faith.

For us it must be the same this year if not before; a year of pondering, a year that allows for more time of reflective silence in which we can treasure what we heard, what we have seen, and what we are called to become.

1 Samuel 1, 20-28 X Psalm 128 X 1 John 3, 1-24 X Luke 2, 41-52

December 27, 2015 at Saint Peter the Apostle Parish in Naples, FL.

 It was 1893. The industrial revolution a generation earlier had begun to affect family life as it was known then, and the consequent changes in morality were an increasing threat to family life. In response to this Pope Leo XIII established this feast to be celebrated shortly after Easter. While it has moved around in the Church’s calendar since then, it has become more and more widely celebrated on the Sunday after Christmas.

Today “family” has many cultural and moral connotations and challenges for us. We are now living in an age of blended families, single parent families, and even “same-sex” families. We live in an age when child abuse, pornography, and the internet reach into families disrupting and destroying family relations. As a result, the whole idea of The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph might seem to exist on another planet or be light years away from our 21^st century experience. Yet, the Gospel truth we proclaim insists that the family, no matter how it is defined still is the primary school of deeper humanity penetrated by the spirit of Christ. It is a big challenge to live in mutual respect and love; for parents to honor the dignity of their children, and for children to respect the dignity of their parents, each one bound to the other in the love that God has lavished upon us, as John writes in the second reading today.

This familiar story from Luke’s Gospel provides a clue to understanding something that is essential to every human and every family relationship. The clue is found in the description of what Jesus is doing in the Temple. It is easy to miss because too many artists and story tellers have presented us with a precocious child Jesus haloed and white robed lecturing the religious teachers. What Luke actually says is that he was listening and asking questions which is what always leads to understanding. He was not talking, lecturing, correcting, or nagging. He was listening. With a little more good listening in our lives, things could be a lot more agreeable and peaceful. It is an art too rarely practiced in the noise of this age; but it is an essential skill for growing in Holiness.

While the feast and the age in which we live encourages us to look at family life in a personal and somewhat limited or narrow way, there is a larger family for us to consider as well: the Human Family which suffers just as great a challenge as our personal families. There is not enough listening to cries of the poor and refugees. There is not enough listening to those who seem different from us. If there was more, they might not seem so different.

Within the family, we find our identity. Adolescence is the search for and the gradual finding of one’s identity, which suggests that we might wonder what defines that identity. Is it family ties, culture, religious experience, a sense of vocation, a personal creed, or one’s dreams and ideals? Maybe all of them, but what we discover in the Gospel is that Jesus found his identity by affirming his relationship with God. Perhaps that might be a starting point for all of us.

For Mary and Joseph, as for all of you who have accepted the vocation of parenting, there comes a lot of pain in allowing your children independence, allowing them their identity, loving them and not possessing or punishing them when not fully understanding them. What better gift can any of us give for the building up of all family life and the whole human family than the gift of simply listening which in every age and culture is grace that will bear fruit in understanding and peace.