5th Sunday in OT † Year C ‘09

Pope Paul VI, quoting the 2^nd Vatican Council, said the Church by her very nature is missionary and the work of evangelization is a basic duty of the People of God. All three readings today speak to the mission of the Church. There are three themes I will speak about this morning and these three words will help you remember them: Encounter; Objection and Response.
ENCOUNTER THE LORD. All 3 scripture readings testify that God desires men & women to encounter Him. Isaiah, a married man with two children, and possibly a priest, has a vision in which he encounters God’s Holiness. He said I saw the LORD seated on a high and lofty throne. Paul, a celibate, a Pharisee, a disciple of Gamaliel; he is zealous, and, according to the Law, righteous. He is a Hebrew of Hebrews. Paul describes his encounter with the Lord with these words: Last of all . . .  He appeared to me. You see Peter, a fisherman from the not so great neighborhood of Capernaum, it’s a place with a reputation like the Bronx, or maybe even Ypsilanti. Jesus got into the boat belonging to Simon (he is not yet called Peter). You might ask what kind of encounter is that? Well, it’s the kind of encounter that caused Peter, James and John to leave everything to follow the Lord! Recent Popes have addressed the importance of this encounter with Christ: Pope Benedict XVI, at a weekly audience in St. Peter’s Square, said our faith is not born from a myth or from an idea, but from an encounter with the risen Lord in the life of the church. John Paul II said Christians must have their own personal encounter with Christ Crucified and Risen, and allow themselves to be transformed by the power of His love. As evidenced by today’s Readings accompanying this encounter there are oftentimes
COMMON OBJECTIONS The first objection is Unworthiness. When sinful humanity encounters the Holiness of God that contradiction caused Isaiah to say: Woe is me, I am doomed, for I am a man of unclean lips. In the Gospel you see Peter fall down at the knees of Jesus and cry out Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. Paul considered himself unworthy because he persecuted the church of God. As Isaiah’s lips were purified so are the souls of those who repent of their sins and turn in faith to the Lord. The second objection goes something like this: I am just not qualified. Paul had a long list of religious and worldly credentials, but he was not qualified by his credentials. Peter had no such list and he was not disqualified for his lack of credentials! What qualified Peter and Paul, and what qualifies you is the encounter you have with the Lord and how you respond to Him. The third objection is: That’s fine for them but God hasn’t called me. That is the wrong answer: The catechism of the Catholic Church says that through Baptism lay people . . . are called to exercise the mission which God has entrusted to the Church (CCC #871). John Paul II addressed these words to all Catholic Lay Faithful: Lay people are personally called by the Lord . . . to also go out and labor in the vineyard (CFL). There are others but the last objection I’ll mention this morning has to do with Age. Like Jeremiah you might think you are too young. Well, John the Apostle was a teenager. You folks who are older than me might think I’m just too old. The prophetess Anna and the prophet Simeon were both advanced in years. Your age doesn’t make a difference!
RESPOND TO GOD In the first sentence of the Gospel you heard that the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God. The first way to respond is to press in on Jesus. Lean into Him, press into Him in such a way that He holds you up! The second way to respond is to listen to the Word of God. Jesus is the word made Flesh. Listen carefully to the readings proclaimed at Mass. Read them beforehand, study them, and, as Ezekiel ate the scroll, so should you devour the scriptures; what you hear take into your heart! Just a side note: remember that Jesus got into the boat belonging to Simon and taught. Today, Jesus Himself still speaks and teaches from the barque, or boat, of Peter which is the Catholic Church. He does this through the Scriptures, Tradition and through the Magisterium of Church, which like Paul hands on (to you) what he first received. The third way to respond is to Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch. In other words, dear parishioners, you have to depart from your comfort zones into the deep waters of living faith. You have to take up the mission of the Church! John Paul II in Novo Millennio Ineunte cried out to the whole church: place yourselves at the service of the new evangelization, to proclaim and bear witness to the wonderful truth of the saving love of God. All of you have family, relatives, friends, neighbors, co-workers and classmates whose eternal destiny may hinge on your response to witness to them the good news of God’s saving love and mercy.

There is an event coming up in our Parish that will enable you to encounter the LORD; to overcome the obstacles that quench your spiritual life; and to enable you to make a fresh, new, whole-hearted response to the LORD. Attend our Lenten Mission every Wednesday evening during Lent. Further details will follow in next week’s bulletin.

4th Sunday in OT † Year C ‘09

READING 1: (Jer 1:4-5, 17-19) In this morning’s first reading Jeremiah teaches you about his Prophetic Mission. Even though this mission will be perfectly fulfilled only in Jesus it is your mission as well! The Catechism teaches you that Jesus Christ is the one whom the Father anointed with the Holy Spirit and established as priest, prophet, and king. The whole People of God participates in these three offices of Christ and bears the responsibilities for mission and service that flow from them (# 783).
There are six points regarding your mission:
BEFORE I FORMED YOU IN THE WOMB I KNEW YOU,
BEFORE YOU WERE BORN I DEDICATED YOU.
1st. His mission and your mission comes from God.
TO ROOT UP AND TO TEAR DOWN; AND TO BUILD AND TO PLANT (Jer 1:10).
2nd. The mission of Jeremiah was to plant or uproot or to build up or to tear down. Your mission is the same as the apostle Paul: the Lord gave me authority for building you up and not for tearing you down (2 Cor 10:8) and (2 Cor 13:10).
A PROPHET TO THE NATIONS I APPOINTED YOU.
3rd. You have a universal mission: Go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Mt 28:19). There is no nation or tongue, people or race, friend or enemy, sinner or saint from whom you can refrain from speaking the message that is both your right and duty to proclaim.
THEY WILL FIGHT AGAINST YOU BUT NOT PREVAIL OVER YOU
4th. Their mission and yours is a mission with risks: They fought against Jeremiah and in Nazareth they attempted to throw Jesus over a cliff. Don’t be surprised when you are delivered up before councils and governors, brought to trial, betrayed by all and even hated by your own family (Mt10:17-22).
FOR I AM WITH YOU TO DELIVER YOU, SAYS THE LORD
5th. Your mission can only be accomplished in the power of God: That is why you can say with Jesus: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me for He has anointed me (Lk 4: 18f)
GIRD YOUR LOINS; STAND UP AND TELL THEM ALL THAT I COMMAND YOU.
BE NOT CRUSHED ON THEIR ACCOUNT
6th. The final point you learn from Jeremiah is that your mission and your message demands a response: That response is either acceptance or rejection.
THE GOSPEL: This morning’s Gospel begins with the same words that ended last week’s Gospel:
TODAY THIS SCRIPTURE PASSAGE IS FULFILLED IN YOUR HEARING
What is the scripture that is being fulfilled? The words from Isaiah 61:1 that Jesus has made His own. In this Inaugural Address, Jesus is clearly saying: He is the Anointed One of God, the Messiah. The time of waiting for the Acceptable Year, the Year of Jubilee is over. The day has come. Today is the day of Salvation. This is the hour; this is the moment. This is the time for God to fulfill all of His promises. And all of God’s promises find their Yes in Him (2 Cor 1:20). God’s promise is to love you as His own son, as His own daughter. To liberate you from your enemies by forgiving your sin. To restore your sight that you might perceive who He is and how He is at work in your life and to deliver you from every one and every thing that oppresses you.
ALL SPOKE HIGHLY OF HIM AND WERE AMAZED AT THE GRACIOUS WORDS THAT CAME FROM HIS MOUTH. His mission and message demands a response: It is good but not enough to speak highly of Him – that is to talk the talk! It is good but not enough to be amazed at the graciousness of His message . . .
ISN’T THIS THE SON OF JOSEPH? It is good but not enough to know His mother, His foster father, His brothers and sisters (they are those who do the will of the Father). It is good but not enough to be familiar with Him, as it were, from a distance.
PHYSICIAN, CURE YOURSELF,’ AND ‘DO HERE IN YOUR NATIVE PLACE THE THINGS THAT WERE DONE IN CAPERNAUM Jesus is being provocative: He owes you nothing. Your expectations of Him can never control Him: Elijah was sent only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon; Elisha the prophet cleansed none in Israel but only Naaman the Syrian. He will intentionally provoke you like He provoked His fellow townspeople: He hurts their pride by not working in Nazareth the miracles that he worked in Capernaum. He provoked them by putting an end to Jewish privileges. He provoked them by giving priority to the Gentiles, as occurs in the examples that Jesus gives of Elijah and Elisha. Today He provokes you: To come out of your routine way of doing things, out of your patterns of mediocrity and lukewarmness. He owes you nothing but He desires to give you everything. That everything is nothing less than Himself.
BUT JESUS PASSED THROUGH THEIR MIDST AND WENT AWAY Don’t let Him elude you this morning: It is holy jealousy, and infinite love, that causes Him to provoke you and to elicit from you the response of love. Be disturbed, be offended, be indignant, be angry, but most of all just be responsive,

AND DON’T LET HIM SLIP BY YOU TODAY!

The Baptism of the Lord † Year C ‘09

A little over seven years ago, early in November, I was on a short-term mission trip in Romania and I was speaking to an English language class of high school seniors. While sharing with them about God’s Love I noticed a girl was crying. She had tracks of mascara streaming down her face. Not wanting to embarrass her any further I didn’t say anything to her during the talk, but after the talk I waited in the hallway to speak with her. I asked her why she was crying and she said: This very morning my mother said to me ‘I wish I had never given you birth’. Knowing that sometimes men could be jerks, I was shocked because I never thought a woman, a mother, could speak to her child that way. Not knowing what to say, but remembering the passage from Isaiah, I tried to console her with these words: Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you (Is 49:15). Dear brothers and sisters, even if you have been unloved, forgotten or abused by a parent, God will never forget you!
Remembering that in three months I would give a talk at a Catholic Men’s Conference on Fatherhood, I made a decision: knowing that many of my young friends in Eastern Europe had experienced alcoholism, abandonment and various kinds of abuse I would ask them to help me prepare the talk by asking: What do you wish your father or mother would have said to you but they never did? I cursorily read emails as they started arriving in November and December. I was at Mass on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord and heard the proclamation of today’s gospel. I was overwhelmed: there were about 75 responses and in each one I heard the pain of their heart’s cry. Each respondent, in different words, gave one of two answers: I wish my father would tell me he loved me; or, I wanted so much to hear my mom’s approval of me. Many of them did not remember so much as a hug from their parents! How ironic that Jesus, the eternal Son of God made man, who forever knew the love of God the Father, should have God the Father speak those very words of love and approval to Him. Heaven, because of Adam and Eve’s sin was formerly closed to humanity. Now God the Father tears open the heavens to say again what He has spoken from all eternity to Jesus:

You are my beloved Son and with You I am well pleased

For those of you who have also never heard your father or your mother speak those words to you; for those of you whose life experience is similar to those of my young friends in Romania (alcoholism, abandonment, verbal, physical, emotional or sexual abuse), don’t let the absence of those words twist your lives out of shape. As John Paul the Great said [Christifideles Laici (Christ’s Lay Faithful) Paragraph #11) Rising from the waters of the Baptismal font, every Christian hears again the voice that was once heard on the banks of the Jordan River: You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased (Lk. 3:22). Make a decision today and renew the promises of your own baptism. Reject Satan, his lies and all his empty promises and believe and put your faith in the words of God the Father to you:

You are my beloved…and with you I am well pleased.

Epiphany of the Lord † Year C ‘09

LORD, EVERY NATION ON EARTH WILL ADORE YOU. With these words the Responsorial Psalm announces the theme of the Epiphany of the Lord. Today we celebrate the manifestation, the revelation to every nation on earth, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. This morning I’ll make four simple points in the homily about what you can learn from the Magi . . .
BEHOLD, MAGI FROM THE EAST ARRIVED IN JERUSALEM
The Magi were more than Kings and Wise Men. They were Scientists, Astronomers, and Physicians; they were Magicians, Astrologers and Wizards; they were philosophers, teachers and probably Zoroastrian priests. As Isaiah prophecies in the First Reading, the Magi are your sons (who have) come from afar (Is 60:4). They came from the east: from Media, Persia, Assyria, Babylonia and all the lands of the Parthian Empire. In all probability their journey of 1000 – 1200 miles may have lasted as long as two years. Although they were pagans and Wise Guys (in the best sense of the word) there is much to learn from them:
THEY SAW HIS STAR AT ITS RISING AND THEY CAME . . . God gave them a sign and it did not go unnoticed! They responded; they acted. Like Abraham, the Magi traveled by faith, not knowing the land to which they were going.
HERE IS THE FIRST LESSON: The Magi left their pagan homelands, you must leave your pagan customs behind; you must be done with sin. The Magi followed the Star to Christ, let faith be the star that guides you on your journey to the Lord.
THEY WERE OVERJOYED AT SEEING THE STAR The Greek says it with more emphasis: They rejoiced exceedingly with great (mega) joy! The Second Reading gives you the reason why you should rejoice: You are coheirs in Christ Jesus . . . You will inherit everything that Jesus inherits!
HERE IS THE SECOND LESSON: Rejoice, be happy, be filled with joy! On your journey to see Jesus you cannot be a sour puss!
THEY PROSTRATED THEMSELVES AND DID HIM HOMAGE. When they prostrated they fell on their knees and touched their faces to the ground. In this action of the Magi you see the wisdom of the wise lie prostrate before the foolishness of a Child in whom are hid all the treasures of the wisdom & knowledge of God. In their bowing you see Science and Astronomy acknowledge Him as the One who ordered all things, Who numbered the stars and gave each of them their names (Ps147:4). In the Magi you see all Medicine and every healing art surrenders to the One Who is the Author of Life (AA 3:15), the Medicine of Immortality and the Antidote to death. In the Magi lying prostrate before the Child you see Magic and Sorcery, Divination and every occult practice defeated and idolatry and every false religion come to an end.
THIS IS THE THIRD LESSON: Humble yourselves. When you kneel before the Lord in a short while at Communion, bend not only your knees but bend your minds, your hearts and your wills to Him.
THEN THEY OPENED THEIR TREASURES AND OFFERED HIM GIFTS OF GOLD, FRANKINCENSE, AND MYRRH. The Greek word for treasures might be better translated as treasure chest. That is where valued and precious treasures are stored.
HERE IS THE FOURTH LESSON: Where your heart is, there your treasure also is. Your treasure chest is your heart. As John Paul the Great often said: Open your hearts wide to Christ. Do not be afraid to offer to Him all that you hold dear: your spouses, children, parents, your friends, your time, talents and also your money. Offer to Him all of your aspirations, dreams, longings and desires. Offer to Him all you are and all you hope to be!