Sunday, December 29, 2013

On the Eve of Christ's birth



~Christmas Vigil Mass~
December 24, 2013
Our Lady of Fatima and St. Patrick’s parish

Tonight we remember the ancient Christmas story.  A story of how Joseph and Mary made their way to Bethlehem, about how no place could be found at the inn for Mary when it came time for her to have her child…and how this child was laid in the straw of a manger – rapt in swaddling clothes.  And we remember those famous first visitors of the holy family – the shepherds keeping watch in their fields…how an angel appeared to them (angels inspire awe and fear – you know).  And how the angel said to them: Do not be afraid; for behold I proclaim to you news of great joy.  For today in the city of David you will find a savior has been born for you who is Christ the Lord (...) and suddenly there was a great multitude of angels praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on earth.”  We sense the inherent joy in the biblical passage, we insert ourselves in the scene and perhaps we allow ourselves to relish this joy, because we are spectators to it on this night or perhaps we are nostalgic for Christmases past.  There is something magical about this night, the children know it (with all the sugar pulsing through their veins) but we feel it too, at least on some level.  For others it can be only a bittersweet time of year.  But just as we remember the ancient Christmas story, the shepherds, the manger, Jesus the little infant in the crèche, the angels – there is more to the story.  Did you notice what a strange gospel we read from tonight?  It was not the familiar one that we’ve heard often and even look forward to.  Instead it was a seemingly unending family tree:  Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob and so on for about 14 generations.  What a strange gospel for such a celebratory night!  What can it (from Matthew’s gospel) possibly have to tell us that we don’t already know from the more familiar reading of the Christmas story?  (By the way, that familiar Christmas story from Luke is read at midnight Mass.)

It tells us how Jesus, born the son of God and son of Mary, came from a true human family, a lineage.  This may seem of passing importance but not for the Jews for whom Matthew was writing.  For them it was important to see Jesus’ lineage and I might suggest it could be for us too.  For one reason in particular, that Jesus’ family tree was not without its bad apples, ruffians, adulterers, murderers.  The sweet infant we peek in on at the manger scene, bathing in a serendipitous afterglow of Virgin birth indeed had a historical family with some serious misfits.  But isn’t it part of God’s good news that He can use what seems like only misfortune and heartache to produce new life and hope.  Surely this is a message many of our hearts need to not only hear but also experience this Christmas.  We are not forgotten by God – no matter how far we may have wandered.  Even to the heart enduring the most bitter resentment or shrill discontent there is hope in Christ. 

When we look at the family tree of Jesus its too easy to just hear middle-Eastern names like Salmon and Jesse, Obed and Boaz and pass quickly by them – they fail to register as significant after the first dozen or so – somewhat like the barcode of a toy flashing across the checkout line or the dull hum of the code as we punch in on our credit or debit cards after one of many Christmas purchases – after awhile we’re punchdrunk with it all, we fail to notice.  So I wonder if it would be ok to wonder whether Salmon ever had a falling out with his inlaws, Did Jesse ever have to overlook an offence or mend a fence after a row with his grandmother or mother.  How did Obed first learn that disobedience had consequences or how to smile at life even when it kicked him in the teeth?  When did Boaz first experience what it was like to be betrayed and how did it feel to till the grounds of forgiveness?  And when was it that he first began to look after his elderly father Salmon when he started forgetting who he was.  All of a sudden the lives depicted in this long list take on a shape not unlike that of our own and we see some of their difficulties – and some of our own.  Christmas is not a magic pen that eliminates these tensions like a Tide stain remover.  Instead its message seeks to put us into contact with one who can help us deal with these daily and sometimes dramatic dealings…and his name is Emmanuel – God with us (…) or as the gospel says, “Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary.  Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ.”

This Jesus, though a king in his own right, does not insist on us coming to him crawling on hands and knees, doing him obeisance.  Instead he appears on this holy night as a simple babe, of whom no one should be afraid to encounter, to approach, and to worship.  This Jesus broke bread for us and called it his body, he has called us here each Sunday to eat and be nourished for the rough road of the spiritual journey.  Tonight once again, through the priest’s hands, he breaks bread and pours wine, reminiscent, recalling, reengaging in the moment on the cross when he gave his all for us (…) Your mercy Lord, I will sing forever (psalm response).  This is the fulfillment of the words from the prophet Isaiah ‘you shall be called my delight and your land espoused…for the Lord delights in you.

The Lord delights in you.  Maybe not in everything you are doing or have done.  He certainly doesn’t delight in sin and bitter resentment and despair…and these we should turn towards him and the help that is around us, we should never give in to despair.  The Lord delights in you.  And that is why He has given you his son.  Jesus, the way, the truth and the life.

Alleluia! Tomorrow the wickedness of the earth will be destroyed: the Savior of the world will reign over us.

That’s a piece of good news you can hang your stocking on!

Penance: Keeping our Glasses Clean



ADVENT Penance Service
Wednesday December 18, 2013


One of the things I have a hard time with is keeping my reading glasses clean.  It’s usually not until my mother points out how ghastly they’ve become that I actually take the time to clean them.  Maybe you’re like me too, if you wear glasses.  It’s amazing how much dirt can be on them without us really taking time to notice.  Usually its someone else who points it out to us.  There could be a parallel here to the spiritual life.  We don’t know how funky our lives have become, how out of focus things have become because we so become used to our sins that we no longer notice them.  Then it falls to a penance service to help us regain a more realistic view, an opportunity to step back and examine more carefully our heart, our soul.  Sometimes we come internally kicking and screaming…we don’t want to be here, we’re skeptical, we’re uncomfortable, yet there is something which draws us – we’re not sure from quite what that something is and we’re not sure we like it.  Confession itself is something that takes a certain level of humility, and this is part of its primary blessing – to allow the penitent to speak the truth before God and before the representative of the Church, his priest.  It is a salve for the soul – its healing effects are not there just because your parents think it a good idea you be here, or your Catholic conscience which keeps pecking like a woodpecker at the back of your mind to come to the "sacred seal" – No, there is more going on here, and there is more at stake.  There is a battle we face with our human pride and a wrestling with inner demons that would prefer to be left alone – that we did not lay our burdens and sins at the feet of Christ in His confessional.  Or we struggle on the other end of the confessing spectrum, we feel despite our best recollection we don’t have any sins to confess and therefore find ourselves in the unenviable position of knowing inherently that we’re not saints yet but we cannot find much worthy of confession and this troubles our hearts.  Yet what a grace to do our best, in both these cases, to name our sins and to receive forgiveness – ahh, new life with the Father – the freedom for which we long, what a small price we are asked to pay for the beginning of all graces – being set right with God and His Church, knowing – or at least believing as we do that only in this way do we receive the forgiveness we seek.  I hope you will permit me a few more words, I pray they be not like the hot air that comes out of our mouths on a crisp day, words that serve only to fog up our glasses.  Let us strive to keep our inner eye, the eye of the heart, clear, by proving ourselves willing despite the battle within – willing to bring ourselves before God and his Church – not putting it off any longer!  Even baby steps and a small act of faith in moving towards the Eternal God is grounds for abundant blessings!

A word on sin.  From our first reading from the prophet Isaiah it is clear…sin offends God!  With one hand we shed blood and with the other we offer to God prayer offerings.  Think of our society.  We do indeed shed blood and yet think God does not see.  But God does see.  And this hypocrisy offends Him.  The ways in which we climb into bed with our secular culture and do not speak up when the opportunity presents itself.  How cloudy our glasses become…how quickly we fog up!  Yet Isaiah speaks rightly when he says, “though your sins be like scarlet, they shall become white as wool.”  Nothing stands in the way of God’s grace being poured out on the contrite person who confesses his or his sin…nothing overcomes God’s good news.  Sin offends God, repentance pleases Him – therefore let us do what is right and good and be blessed by the lightness of heart that comes to the reconciled – those who no longer listen to the lies of the enemy of our souls – those who escape from under his crude whip and walk again as sons and daughters of light.  With our blessed Mother Mary at our side we seek His face, to walk once again in light.  As Jesus proclaims in tonight’s gospel, “I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.”  We either live in that light or we live in the darkness – there is no middle ground.  Tonight we choose where we want to live.  We claim as our own one of two places.  Aren’t we blessed to have the best choice in front of us, sitting alongside us, a fellow journeyman along the rough paths of life, a priest.  An imperfect man, a man who lives with his own limitations and in need of the great mercy of God, yet chosen to bring this mercy to his brothers and sisters.  What a privilege.  What a responsibility!  And both of us priests wear glasses so we will not dwell too long on your sins, for we have our own to consider.  And yet, being from the outside, we may be able to offer some word of insight or consolation…perhaps a word on fire with the love of God – spoken quietly to you – in hushed tones, by a poor priest who stands in need of God.  Do not be afraid to approach him.  He is but a poor vessel and he knows it!  Be not afraid.  Open wide the doors of your heart to Christ!

Thursday, December 5, 2013

From My Noggin'


Preaching - Sunday - Evening Prayer II - December 8th

It takes a special kind of preacher to be able to say the kinds of things St. Paul says and get away with it.  Perhaps it was his fierce loyalty to Christ or his unwavering love of the Church, but he had a way of getting to the heart of the matter as he does in tonight’s two verses plucked from his letter to the Romans.  He says a lot in a little.  He says it clearly…even bluntly – yet without harshness.
“It is now the hour for you to wake from sleep, for our salvation is closer than when we first accepted the faith.”

He is not talking here about waking up from literal sleep, of course, but instead the spiritual sleep of malaise and discontent that can lull us into a sullenness that is unbecoming of the Christian – especially, he adds, when you consider the time for our salvation (ie. his return) is near at hand; certainly closer now than when we first believed.  Paul’s voice resounds like a clear bell “it is now the hour for you to wake from sleep”.  He is speaking to his audience, the Church of Rome nearly two thousand years ago, yet he is also speaking with us – here and now – challenging us to shake off the cobwebs of our indifference and yawning sobriety and to ‘come alive’ once again – opening ourselves to the fire that can come only from the hearth of Christ, drawing life from having set deep roots in the stream of the sacrament of salvation – His Church.  Let us not overlook how Paul links salvation with the acceptance of the faith “for our salvation is closer than when we first accepted the faith”…the Church is the one who holds the faith – not any one believer.  The Church, under the authority of Christ transmitted down throughout the lineage of the Church’s apostles and Popes, bishops and finally to the people of God down through the ages, aided as (she-the Church) is by the witness of the lives of the saints, men and women who allowed Christ’s glory to shine amidst the grime and darkness of this mortal life – a life fraught with difficulties and pain, shouldering burdens of disease, distrust and discontent…yet overcoming these trials through the precious gift of ‘the faith’, especially as witnessed to by the Church’s sacrament of love, the most holy sacrifice of the Mass where Body and Blood are given and received – to serve a greater end: new life!
Paul infers that he may have caught his audience napping – not only the Church of Rome but us too.  And we must admit to an unhealthy somnolence!  One wonders is it not through our own somnolence, our own silence that our society calls death a choice and unchaste love ‘fulfillment’ or an exercise in diversity.  Is it not our own family members who have been evangelized by worldly thought patterns  - and we who have been asleep in the light?  Yes, and more, we may be feeling unwilling to change – to awake from our slumber.  Yet salvation, and the truth, remain.  Perhaps we could allow our hearts to come alive through St. Paul’s associate, the Holy Spirit, this Advent.  Perhaps a modern translation Paul might arrest us by saying, stop it with the sleep apnea, wake up.  But in order to wake up we need rest?  Have you thought of this.  In order to wake from sleep it is first necessary to have gotten sufficient rest.  And this is what Advent affords us…rest.  A time of recollected listening so that we might ‘hear’ His voice anew.  His voice in our hearts.  His voice calling us to depart from the ways of darkness and self-gratification and turning around and heading into the light.  A turning from our old and stubborn ways that are life-sapping and turning our hand to a new way of being, not with pollyannish frivolity – nor beating ourselves over the head with our own foolish shortsightedness – but awaking to His word in our hearts.  A word that seeks to heal and purify the putrid, to cleanse the decay, to renew the shambles and to do so with the healing power of Christ. 

I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since “no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord”.  The Lord does not disappoint those who take this risk; whenever we take a step towards Jesus, we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with open arms. Now is the time to say to Jesus: “Lord, I have let myself be deceived; in a thousand ways I have shunned your love, yet here I am once more, to renew my covenant with you. I need you. Save me once again, Lord, take me once more into your redeeming embrace”. How good it feels to come back to him whenever we are lost! Let me say this once more: God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy. Christ, who told us to forgive one another “seventy times seven” (Mt 18:22) has given us his example: he has forgiven us seventy times seven. Time and time again he bears us on his shoulders. No one can strip us of the dignity bestowed upon us by this boundless and unfailing love. With a tenderness which nev-er disappoints, but is always capable of restoring our joy, he makes it possible for us to lift up our heads and to start anew. Let us not flee from the resurrection of Jesus, let us never give up, come what will. May nothing inspire more than his life, which impels us onwards!  (Pope Francis’ Apostolic Constitution Evangelii Gaudium, art. 3)

Indeed, onward Christian soldier, Christian brother, Christian sister, Mother, Father, child of God – let us remember (je me souvenir) “the day draws near.”  This is not bad news, or sad news, but the best news.  The difficulties of this day are drawing ever closer to their close, to their end, we shall not suffer interminably, if we hold on to our faith – the faith – the source of our hope and identity as believers.  Yet we should not underestimate the faith and strength needed to persevere…so let us not go back to the darkness “but put on the armor of light.”  To be fitted with armor one must go to the armory.  In our Catholic tradition we identify the armory as the Scriptures, prayer, adoration, emulation of the saints, conversion from sin, devotion to the Sacred Heart, to Mary and the saints, to the Eucharist, to family prayer, to prayer among married couples, to understanding the ways the devil and his minions use to get at us – and to get away from them!  And the bearing of our crosses, to lift high the cross in exultation, even as its weight threatens to break our spirit and suffocate our breath forever.  Yet this cannot occur, so long as we keep ourselves grounded in the truth, and arrayed in the armor of light.  Let us be truth-tellers and cross dwellers – willing to bear one another’s burdens, and placing all our broken pride at the foot of his cross and taking one halting step after another, to follow Him always and to all places.  Amen.