Homily for the Feast of the Holy Family
27 December 2009
St. Frances Cabrini Church, Hoxie
Year for Priests
For daily readings click here
Today’s Gospel for the Feast of the Holy Family is a scriptural amber alert. Jesus is lost, for four days, and his parents are anxiously searching for him. It seems obvious that what we have here is a transgression of the fourth commandment by the 12 year old Jesus. Being obedient to your parents means treating them with respect and being responsible enough to let them know where you are so they do not worry about you. So when Mary and Joseph finally catch up to Jesus after navigating the chaos of Jerusalem for three days, they let Jesus have it. Rightfully so, or so we would think. Even as they are overjoyed at finding him, they do not fail to let him know that he has caused them a lot of anxiety. So we would naturally expect Jesus to say ‘I’m sorry. Mom, Dad – I should have let you know where I was going to be so you didn’t worry. I’ll never do that again.’ But this is not what we hear from Jesus. Nothing even close to an apology. In fact, not only does Jesus not apologize for being disobedient, not only does he not confess to breaking the fourth commandment, but he also uses the occasion to teach his parents and to point out their lack of faith. Jesus has the audacity to point out the sin of his own parents, by pointing out to them that they should have found him sooner. ‘Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ It is almost as if Jesus, upon learning that his parents have been anxious, chastises them for their lack of faith, and suggests that perhaps they should have stayed behind like he did.
Well, this can happen in life. Sometimes kids can teach parents. Sometimes parents have to learn from kids. Sometimes kids make parents better parents. Sometimes kids can be the vehicle God uses to remind everyone of what’s really important. I’m afraid that if the world didn’t have kids, we would have to invent them. Kids make the Christmas season more real and exciting. They help all of us to see the Christmas mystery through new eyes when our own eyes grow tired and cynical. So even when we get tired of all the attention kids need, and all the thousands of times they need to be corrected and directed, the truth is that kids draw out the very best from us when we tend to get self-absorbed. Jesus in today’s Gospel, even while exasperating his parents, is drawing out the very best in them, especially when he points out their lack of faith.
Pope Benedict points out that to know Jesus is to know Him as the one who always talks to God the Father face to face, as with a friend. We see the intimate conversation between the Father and the Son taking place in the Father’s house, the temple, where Jesus remains after the feast of Passover. Those who know the Father only secondarily through the law and prophets are astounded that Jesus knows Him so intimately, as if He is speaking to the Father face to face, as with a friend. Because of this ongoing conversation, Jesus knows and does the Father’s will better than anyone else, even from a young age.
In doing the Father’s will, Jesus is truly the son of Mary and Joseph, who have also done the Father’s will perfectly. Mary does not speak to God the Father face to face as with a friend, but her fullness of grace made her perfectly ready to respond should the Father’s will be made known to her, as it was by the angel Gabriel. Even after giving birth to Jesus, this readiness to do the will of God remained in Mary, and she follows this will as best as she could understand it until her heart is pierced at the foot of the cross.
In the scriptures chosen for this Feast of the Holy Family, particular attention is given to the role of the husband in a holy family. So on this day we rightly turn our thoughts and our affection to St. Joseph, who even though he does not speak to the Father face to face like his adopted son Jesus, nor does he have the fullness of grace possessed by his wife Mary, still does the will of the Father perfectly. Joseph, we might assume, had even less understanding of what was happening to his life. He received instructions not face to face, nor through an angel, but only remotely through his dreams, and yet he did not take any of the available exit ramps, but fulfilled the Father’s will as he understood it, protecting and providing for his wife and child so that they may both fulfill the mission the Father had given them.
We see in Jesus, Mary and Joseph a family that is truly holy in its desire to do the will of God. Jesus plays the role of encouraging his foster father and his mother to continue to seek this will of the Father above all things. Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house? This question of Jesus encourages us as families to go to Church together as much as we can, so that we are encouraging each other as families to seek and to do the will of God together. Pope Benedict points out repeatedly that the family is God’s chosen instrument. It is the school of faith and love where we learn how to be generous. The family is that intermediate institution between the individual and society. Good families guarantee that society is not just a close proximity of individuals all seeking their own interest, but is truly a communion of love between persons who all seek the common good. You cannot have a good society without families wherein parents teach children and children teach parents how to be generous. The vocation of man is to love, and the family remains today, despite being attacked from many sides, the place chosen by God where that vocation is deepened and most perfectly realized. +m
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Christmas Homily
Christmas Homily 2009
St. Frances Cabrini Church
Hoxie, Kansas
Year for Priests
For daily readings click here
Everyone is telling me I have to go see the movie The Blind Side. I’m not a big movie guy, I’m more of a sports guy, but since this movie involves some football, I may go see it. From the trailers, I sense that this really is a great Christmas story. A rich family encounters a young man lost in the cold, and lost in life. They take the risk of bringing this young man into their comfortable life, and the result is almost miraculous. The young man, despite every bad break he has had in life, compounded by his own weaknesses as a person, is able to turn his life around, and to become a success. But the key in the movie is that the rich family takes a chance. They go outside of their comfort zone, and their perfect life, in order to try to win the soul of this young man who was lost. And despite every reason that it shouldn’t work out, it does.
The story of the Bible, and the story of our salvation, is like the Blind Side. The story is a story of God changing Himself, especially when He doesn’t have to. God is perfect in Himself, lacking nothing, and not needing to create anything to be happy. As we learn in revelation, God is a perfect communion of three persons who love each other so completely that they are able to share one nature. This perfection, like the cozy family in the Blind Side, lacks nothing. The Trinity has everything, and creating the world adds nothing to the greatness of the Trinity. But like that family in the Blind Side, we see in the story of our creation, the Trinity is willing to go outside of itself. The result is creation, the universe, and you and me, made in the very image and likeness of God, sharing in the intelligence and will of the holy Trinity.
God stops, as it were, like the family in the Blind Side, to share some of who He is. So from the beginning of the story, we see that God is love. He does not need to share Himself, but since God is not just Almighty and Everlasting, but also Love, God creates. Love takes the risk of sharing, even when you don’t have to. The result is that even though you and I do not have to exist, we do. We are real because God is love.
Of course in the story of our salvation, we see, and we experience, that God is also just. We are all going to die. That is justice. When Adam and Eve fail to love, they receive the punishment of death, a punishment that we share in. Since the time of Adam and Eve, it is possible for all of us to catch a lot of bad breaks in life. Life is still overwhelming good, but it is tenuous. Lots of people catch bad breaks even in a good world. Creatures that do not always love can not always live. What would it mean to live forever but to never have to love? The vocation of man is to love, and so those who do not love cannot live. That is justice, and God is just. We see this in the punishment given to Adam and Eve, we see it in the great flood, we see it in the vengeance that God takes upon His enemies.
But in the story of our salvation, this justice of God is always giving way to God revealing Himself to be love. Throughout the story, God continues, like He did at the dawn of creation, to go outside of Himself. God refuses to call us, his greatest creation, an experiment gone bad. Instead, he continues to raise up righteous men to lead His people, He gives the law and the prophets to correct those who stray from Him, and what is more He makes a promise that He will never abandon His people and that He Himself will come to rescue His people. God puts forward the promise and hope of a Messiah who will make everything the way it is supposed to be. God’s justice while never fading, always gives way in the story to the revelation of God as love. In the story, we see that God will never stop going outside of Himself. It is his nature to do so. God is love.
A person who is love, when He is unable to change the person He loves, instead changes Himself. This is the miracle of Christmas that we celebrate with great joy tonight. God, since He is just, is unable to remove the punishment that gives our lives shape and meaning, the punishment of death. And God, since He is love, is not willing to stop sharing and to take back the freedom that allows us to go as far away from Him as we want to. So what does love do in this situation? Love, instead of forsaking the one it loves, forsakes itself. Unwilling to go away from us who continue to go away from Him, God instead goes away from Himself, and who He is in perfection, in order to take up our human nature. God did not need to create the universe, much less did He need to create us in His image and likeness, and much much less did He need to become One of us. But because God is love that is so far beyond our understanding, He forsakes Himself to born of a Virgin. Like the rich family that goes outside of itself and places everything they have at the disposal of the young man they pick up, so too the mystery of the Incarnation, where out of love God places everything that He is within the context of our human nature. Jesus, the one born of the virgin, is truly and fully God. God joins all of Himself to the human nature of Jesus. God, who is love, is all in! Jesus is true God, and true man, as we say in the Creed.
Because God is just, it was written from the time that man had become sinful that no one could see the face of God and live. But in the mystery of the Incarnation, God who is love has forsaken Himself so completely that the exact opposite is true. God has forsaken Himself in the Incarnation so completely that to see the face of God is no more threatening to our humanity than to encounter a helpless baby! In fact, God has forsaken Himself so completely that to see the face of this child is not to die, but to live. For this is eternal life, to know the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. To see the face of Jesus Christ, which is possible because of this holy night that we celebrate with such joy, is to see God as He really is, to see Him as pure love, a love so far beyond our imagining, and to heed the message of the angels to the shepherds, to not be afraid of this love, but to proclaim it to the world with great joy!
My dear friends, see what love the Father has for us His children. See how far God’s mercy and love go beyond His justice, so that we need not fear Him, but can encounter Him truly in the Christ child. When God forsakes Himself to become one of us, because He is love, He does not do it comfortably. He is born on the move, in the cold, in poverty and completely vulnerable. In the Christ child, anyone who has caught a bad break in life, and there are millions that have, and many in this Church tonight, can find hope in the baby Jesus. Being born in the most humble and vulnerable of circumstances, all who are made vulnerable by sickness and every kind of natural evil can know on Christmas that Jesus is coming to be with them. We rejoice in Jesus’ coming on this holy night, for He is truly Emmanuel – God with us! There is not a circumstance in our lives, and not a corner of the world, where God is unwilling to go to be with His people. Christmas teaches us this. God will forsake Himself to go anywhere, for He is love. So whenever we find our yoke being hard and our burden heavy, we can look in hope to Jesus, and can imagine how he would live the circumstances of our lives, and know that with Him the yoke will be easier, and the burden lighter, for He is willing to carry it with us.
Christmas is a special, special night, a night where all the promises God has made to us are renewed in the hearts of man, where all things become possible for those who hope in Christ’s coming. For not only has Christ come among us at Bethlehem, he continues to come to those who look to Him. For all those who choose to be with Jesus, the future will be much different than the past, and with Him, the story of each one us will have a glorious ending!
And yes, my friends, the story of Christmas, the story of Christ’s birth, which is an important point in the story of our salvation which is already too good to be true, is a story that will give way to another chapter that is even better. This baby Jesus, who even being born in poverty is already greater than Caesar Augustus and all his armies, who has legions and legions of angels that will ensure that His kingdom will never end, is destined to not only share the circumstances of our lives, but to even take on our sinfulness. Jesus will not only join us in all the bad breaks life will give us, he will even take on the bad breaks we make for ourselves, through our personal selfishness. And so even on Christmas, we do not end the story with Hark the Herald Angels Sing, but we end the story with the celebration of Mass, recalling that God because He is love will forsake Himself even beyond the manger in Bethlehem to the wood of the cross, where His love becomes even more unbelievable and palpable to us. Through the Eucharist, the saving mysteries of Bethlehem, where God becomes truly with us, and Calvary, where God Himself offers the sacrifice that saves man, come forward in history and are fully present to all who have come to encounter the living and true God as He really is. God is love – and as far as we may go away from Him, He forsakes Himself to go farther. God is love – He is Emmanuel – and tonight He chooses to be with us His children, wherever we may be. +m
St. Frances Cabrini Church
Hoxie, Kansas
Year for Priests
For daily readings click here
Everyone is telling me I have to go see the movie The Blind Side. I’m not a big movie guy, I’m more of a sports guy, but since this movie involves some football, I may go see it. From the trailers, I sense that this really is a great Christmas story. A rich family encounters a young man lost in the cold, and lost in life. They take the risk of bringing this young man into their comfortable life, and the result is almost miraculous. The young man, despite every bad break he has had in life, compounded by his own weaknesses as a person, is able to turn his life around, and to become a success. But the key in the movie is that the rich family takes a chance. They go outside of their comfort zone, and their perfect life, in order to try to win the soul of this young man who was lost. And despite every reason that it shouldn’t work out, it does.
The story of the Bible, and the story of our salvation, is like the Blind Side. The story is a story of God changing Himself, especially when He doesn’t have to. God is perfect in Himself, lacking nothing, and not needing to create anything to be happy. As we learn in revelation, God is a perfect communion of three persons who love each other so completely that they are able to share one nature. This perfection, like the cozy family in the Blind Side, lacks nothing. The Trinity has everything, and creating the world adds nothing to the greatness of the Trinity. But like that family in the Blind Side, we see in the story of our creation, the Trinity is willing to go outside of itself. The result is creation, the universe, and you and me, made in the very image and likeness of God, sharing in the intelligence and will of the holy Trinity.
God stops, as it were, like the family in the Blind Side, to share some of who He is. So from the beginning of the story, we see that God is love. He does not need to share Himself, but since God is not just Almighty and Everlasting, but also Love, God creates. Love takes the risk of sharing, even when you don’t have to. The result is that even though you and I do not have to exist, we do. We are real because God is love.
Of course in the story of our salvation, we see, and we experience, that God is also just. We are all going to die. That is justice. When Adam and Eve fail to love, they receive the punishment of death, a punishment that we share in. Since the time of Adam and Eve, it is possible for all of us to catch a lot of bad breaks in life. Life is still overwhelming good, but it is tenuous. Lots of people catch bad breaks even in a good world. Creatures that do not always love can not always live. What would it mean to live forever but to never have to love? The vocation of man is to love, and so those who do not love cannot live. That is justice, and God is just. We see this in the punishment given to Adam and Eve, we see it in the great flood, we see it in the vengeance that God takes upon His enemies.
But in the story of our salvation, this justice of God is always giving way to God revealing Himself to be love. Throughout the story, God continues, like He did at the dawn of creation, to go outside of Himself. God refuses to call us, his greatest creation, an experiment gone bad. Instead, he continues to raise up righteous men to lead His people, He gives the law and the prophets to correct those who stray from Him, and what is more He makes a promise that He will never abandon His people and that He Himself will come to rescue His people. God puts forward the promise and hope of a Messiah who will make everything the way it is supposed to be. God’s justice while never fading, always gives way in the story to the revelation of God as love. In the story, we see that God will never stop going outside of Himself. It is his nature to do so. God is love.
A person who is love, when He is unable to change the person He loves, instead changes Himself. This is the miracle of Christmas that we celebrate with great joy tonight. God, since He is just, is unable to remove the punishment that gives our lives shape and meaning, the punishment of death. And God, since He is love, is not willing to stop sharing and to take back the freedom that allows us to go as far away from Him as we want to. So what does love do in this situation? Love, instead of forsaking the one it loves, forsakes itself. Unwilling to go away from us who continue to go away from Him, God instead goes away from Himself, and who He is in perfection, in order to take up our human nature. God did not need to create the universe, much less did He need to create us in His image and likeness, and much much less did He need to become One of us. But because God is love that is so far beyond our understanding, He forsakes Himself to born of a Virgin. Like the rich family that goes outside of itself and places everything they have at the disposal of the young man they pick up, so too the mystery of the Incarnation, where out of love God places everything that He is within the context of our human nature. Jesus, the one born of the virgin, is truly and fully God. God joins all of Himself to the human nature of Jesus. God, who is love, is all in! Jesus is true God, and true man, as we say in the Creed.
Because God is just, it was written from the time that man had become sinful that no one could see the face of God and live. But in the mystery of the Incarnation, God who is love has forsaken Himself so completely that the exact opposite is true. God has forsaken Himself in the Incarnation so completely that to see the face of God is no more threatening to our humanity than to encounter a helpless baby! In fact, God has forsaken Himself so completely that to see the face of this child is not to die, but to live. For this is eternal life, to know the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. To see the face of Jesus Christ, which is possible because of this holy night that we celebrate with such joy, is to see God as He really is, to see Him as pure love, a love so far beyond our imagining, and to heed the message of the angels to the shepherds, to not be afraid of this love, but to proclaim it to the world with great joy!
My dear friends, see what love the Father has for us His children. See how far God’s mercy and love go beyond His justice, so that we need not fear Him, but can encounter Him truly in the Christ child. When God forsakes Himself to become one of us, because He is love, He does not do it comfortably. He is born on the move, in the cold, in poverty and completely vulnerable. In the Christ child, anyone who has caught a bad break in life, and there are millions that have, and many in this Church tonight, can find hope in the baby Jesus. Being born in the most humble and vulnerable of circumstances, all who are made vulnerable by sickness and every kind of natural evil can know on Christmas that Jesus is coming to be with them. We rejoice in Jesus’ coming on this holy night, for He is truly Emmanuel – God with us! There is not a circumstance in our lives, and not a corner of the world, where God is unwilling to go to be with His people. Christmas teaches us this. God will forsake Himself to go anywhere, for He is love. So whenever we find our yoke being hard and our burden heavy, we can look in hope to Jesus, and can imagine how he would live the circumstances of our lives, and know that with Him the yoke will be easier, and the burden lighter, for He is willing to carry it with us.
Christmas is a special, special night, a night where all the promises God has made to us are renewed in the hearts of man, where all things become possible for those who hope in Christ’s coming. For not only has Christ come among us at Bethlehem, he continues to come to those who look to Him. For all those who choose to be with Jesus, the future will be much different than the past, and with Him, the story of each one us will have a glorious ending!
And yes, my friends, the story of Christmas, the story of Christ’s birth, which is an important point in the story of our salvation which is already too good to be true, is a story that will give way to another chapter that is even better. This baby Jesus, who even being born in poverty is already greater than Caesar Augustus and all his armies, who has legions and legions of angels that will ensure that His kingdom will never end, is destined to not only share the circumstances of our lives, but to even take on our sinfulness. Jesus will not only join us in all the bad breaks life will give us, he will even take on the bad breaks we make for ourselves, through our personal selfishness. And so even on Christmas, we do not end the story with Hark the Herald Angels Sing, but we end the story with the celebration of Mass, recalling that God because He is love will forsake Himself even beyond the manger in Bethlehem to the wood of the cross, where His love becomes even more unbelievable and palpable to us. Through the Eucharist, the saving mysteries of Bethlehem, where God becomes truly with us, and Calvary, where God Himself offers the sacrifice that saves man, come forward in history and are fully present to all who have come to encounter the living and true God as He really is. God is love – and as far as we may go away from Him, He forsakes Himself to go farther. God is love – He is Emmanuel – and tonight He chooses to be with us His children, wherever we may be. +m
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Don't stop saying Merry Christmas on December 26th!
Just a reminder to everyone. The Christmas season lasts at least until Epiphany (January 3rd) and if you would rather, until the Baptism of the Lord (January 10th!). So keep saying Merry Christmas. I can live with Advent 'collapsing' into Christmas a little early, even if I don't like it, but the problem with beginning to say Merry Christmas too early is that we stop saying it too soon! Keep saying Merry Christmas well into January - I dare you! People will think you're an idiot, but that's a good thing. A chance to catechize and to evangelize! And leave those Christmas trees up and lights on as well! And with the prices 'dropping' after Christmas, why not give a little Epiphany gift to those you love! Again, another chance to catechize and evangelize. Remember, Jesus didn't get his presents until Epiphany!
Saturday, December 19, 2009
KU basketball . . . they are smooth!
I can't remember ever feeling less anxiety following a KU basketball team. Maybe in 2008 I thought we had all the pieces as well, but this year especially, I just feel like everyone on the team is playing with confidence, and everyone is finding a way to contribute, and no one is trying to do too much. I don't know how Bill Self gets them to commit to his principles of basketball. I guess if they don't, there will be no playing time. He has the advantage of not having to play anybody . . . not even his All-Americans. So everyone has to buy in to get on the floor. There are plenty of spoiled KU basketball fans who will point out that we don't always play well, and of course, we haven't. But the principles Kansas uses gives us the best chance of being consistently successful. Here are the principles that I observe.
1. No easy baskets. We don't press, and I love this. Even with all the players we have, pressing is the easiest way to give up an easy basket. We don't do it. We rarely zone. Sometimes we turn it over, yes. Sometimes our man-to-man defense gets beat, yes. But whenever we even think of lessening up on the man-to-man defense, Self calls a timeout and recommits everyone to the defensive principles of guarding every shot. Our team never worries about its defensive identity. The team never thinks of changing defenses according to the opponent. The principle is simple. Challenge every shot. No easy baskets. KU gives up fewer easy baskets than any team in basketball. I really believe that. It is a far cry from when Roy was here.
2. Play fast and play hard. Never give up easy points for the sake of getting in a running game, but run as much as you can. Have fun!
3. Throw it down low, as much as possible. Sometimes the bigs drive you crazy with the sillly plays they make or don't make, or the 'bunnies' that they miss, but throwing the ball to them opens up the offense. It creates so many opportunities and puts so much pressure on the defense when the ball is within 5 feet of the basket. You can ALWAYS throw it back out, but you must commit to throwing it in. Sometimes KU forces it, but the interior passing leads to more jams and more easy buckets than any team in basketball.
4. Play unselfishly. Even when one player is playing well, you never think that KU this year is going to rise and fall with just one player. They have plenty of guys who can make shots, so they are able to play this way. No one kills this team by shooting too much! It is great.
As Roy used to say, enjoy the ride KU fans. This team gives us a great chance to win it all. It is a great collection of players and coaches. We may not win it all, but we have a better chance than anyone else. We can rely on ourselves and trust in each other. Let's really enjoy this KU basketball team!
JPII and PiusXII declared venerable together . . . coincidence?
Maybe it's just coincidence, but if so, I like the coincidence. Pius XII and John Paul II, the two popes most jeered and revered, respectively, by the Jewish people (at least in how it has been played out in the media) were made venerable today by Pope Benedict XVI. Both were declared definitively by the Church forever to be men of heroic virtue! This declaration by the Church says to the world that given the thorough investigation of the Church, and taking into account all the criticisms levied (and each Pope had his share of criticism) the virtue of these men was not found wanting; what is more, it may truly be called 'heroic!' Admittedly, John Paul II made it to this distinction much faster than did his predecessor Pius XII, but they both made it. Today's simultaneous declaration of these men as venerable signals strongly that it makes no sense to laud one of these men while disaparaging the other. Although we all have our favorite heroes, today's declaration says both these men are heroes. I am blessed to have met John Paul II personally, so of course I think he was the best, but today's declaration makes me want to know even more about Pius XII - maybe he was even better! At least the possibility is there after the Church investigated both men thoroughly! If Pope Benedict XVI made these two venerable together intentionally, I am a fan! If it happened, coincidentally, I'm no less grateful!
Friday, December 18, 2009
St. Lawrence staff bowling
A nice break at the end of the semester. The St. Lawrence staff entered into some 'bonding' and friendly competition at the lanes at 9th and Iowa. This was the maiden bowling experience for Srs. Simona and Elena, and even Sr. Clara rolled a few down the lane even though her doctor said she shouldn't! Fr. Steve came through with a 150 plus game, not knowing that because he writes the checks, everyone was letting him win. At times, with all the giggling and high fiving, I thought I was watching the NFL today pre-game show, where the guys say nothing but then chuckle incessantly. But I think it was authentic fun. My shoes had neon green laces, and felt pretty new, so at least there was that.
Mary lost her planner, and so should you!
Homily
4th Sunday of Advent
St. Lawrence Catholic Center
20 December 2009
For daily readings, click here
Two improbable pregnancies were both going well. The birth of two miracle children, literally, was about to take place. Who can blame these two women for wanting to get together in person? If nothing else, these two women were the only women of their time to know the sex of their babies - in advance! Not through a sonogram, mind you, but through the unassailable technology of direct angel testimony! Who could blame Mary for running in haste to see for herself that Elizabeth's pregnancy was going well, and vice versa? It is quite natural to want to share both the anxiety and the hopeful anticipation that a pregnancy brings. I understand that women oftentimes have a lot to talk about in such circumstances! How much more intense is the visit that we encounter in this morning's Gospel, between women expecting children in such unpredictable circumstances. One who was thought to be barren, the other who conceived not through a man, but through the power of the Holy Spirit. Part of the excitement of expecting a child is trying to find out as much as we can about the child before he or she is born, and to try to create some prediction of when the child will come and what he or she will look like. But these women literally had no idea. There was nothing ordinary or predictable about these pregnancies. Even John the Baptist got into the enthusiasm, with his 'hello Jesus' somesault in the womb of Elizabeth!
The joy of these two women, and the intensity of their visitation, comes from their having let go of their own expectations of how life would go for them. Neither of these women were able to plan the pregnancies they were now experiencing. These pregnancies, both of them, were not something these two women did, but was something that was literally done unto them. In fact, we see that Mary found favor with God precisely because she was the worst planner in the world! Blessed of all women, she was the one most ready not to tell God how she expected her life to go, but to let it be done unto her according to His word. This is not to say that Mary did not have dreams for her life, but it is to say that she was the most ready of all women to sacrifice those dreams in order that she might believe that what was spoken to her by the Lord would be fulfilled. In this, Mary is the mother and queen of all vocations, which always require a sacrifice of our expectations in order that God may do something even greater in us. So saying that Mary was the worst planner ever is to say that she was most ready to accept the plan of God in her life.
In these finals days of Advent, we must let these two women free us from our expectations as well. Their lives had changed so much in the last year, and so have ours. These women's lives were about to change so much more, and so are ours. But to experience the mystery of Christmas as profoundly as these two women were blessed to experience it, we must like them let God move us beyond our expectations of how things will go tomorrow. They didn't know what it would be like to give birth to the greatest man ever born of a woman, and to give birth to the Son of God. We do not know what tomorrow will be like either, nor is it good for us to know. It is better for us to wait in hope and expectation and yes, joy, like them. May we never turn into the people who have to control tomorrow, or who are afraid of the newness and excitement that tomorrow brings. Tomorrow may indeed bring adversity, but it will also bring joy, for God is coming to visit us tomorrow, in just as improbable a way as He came to Mary and Elizabeth. When the Lord comes to visit us, may He find us excited enough to leap like John the Baptist, knowing that we too will soon see the face of God, like He did, if only we can shed the fear of not knowing how exactly He will come. He will come in a way and at a time, that we least expect, and because Mary was truly ready for this, God came to her, and she was chosen of all women to be the first to see the face of God!
Mary, make us as ready as you were for the birth of your Son, as He desires to come visit us once again wherever we are in the holy days ahead, as surely as He once came among us in the humble circumstances of Bethlehem. May we be as surprised and ready to receive Him today in the Holy Eucharist as you were surprised but ready to believe that what was spoken you by the Lord would be fulfilled. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Amen. +m
4th Sunday of Advent
St. Lawrence Catholic Center
20 December 2009
For daily readings, click here
Two improbable pregnancies were both going well. The birth of two miracle children, literally, was about to take place. Who can blame these two women for wanting to get together in person? If nothing else, these two women were the only women of their time to know the sex of their babies - in advance! Not through a sonogram, mind you, but through the unassailable technology of direct angel testimony! Who could blame Mary for running in haste to see for herself that Elizabeth's pregnancy was going well, and vice versa? It is quite natural to want to share both the anxiety and the hopeful anticipation that a pregnancy brings. I understand that women oftentimes have a lot to talk about in such circumstances! How much more intense is the visit that we encounter in this morning's Gospel, between women expecting children in such unpredictable circumstances. One who was thought to be barren, the other who conceived not through a man, but through the power of the Holy Spirit. Part of the excitement of expecting a child is trying to find out as much as we can about the child before he or she is born, and to try to create some prediction of when the child will come and what he or she will look like. But these women literally had no idea. There was nothing ordinary or predictable about these pregnancies. Even John the Baptist got into the enthusiasm, with his 'hello Jesus' somesault in the womb of Elizabeth!
The joy of these two women, and the intensity of their visitation, comes from their having let go of their own expectations of how life would go for them. Neither of these women were able to plan the pregnancies they were now experiencing. These pregnancies, both of them, were not something these two women did, but was something that was literally done unto them. In fact, we see that Mary found favor with God precisely because she was the worst planner in the world! Blessed of all women, she was the one most ready not to tell God how she expected her life to go, but to let it be done unto her according to His word. This is not to say that Mary did not have dreams for her life, but it is to say that she was the most ready of all women to sacrifice those dreams in order that she might believe that what was spoken to her by the Lord would be fulfilled. In this, Mary is the mother and queen of all vocations, which always require a sacrifice of our expectations in order that God may do something even greater in us. So saying that Mary was the worst planner ever is to say that she was most ready to accept the plan of God in her life.
In these finals days of Advent, we must let these two women free us from our expectations as well. Their lives had changed so much in the last year, and so have ours. These women's lives were about to change so much more, and so are ours. But to experience the mystery of Christmas as profoundly as these two women were blessed to experience it, we must like them let God move us beyond our expectations of how things will go tomorrow. They didn't know what it would be like to give birth to the greatest man ever born of a woman, and to give birth to the Son of God. We do not know what tomorrow will be like either, nor is it good for us to know. It is better for us to wait in hope and expectation and yes, joy, like them. May we never turn into the people who have to control tomorrow, or who are afraid of the newness and excitement that tomorrow brings. Tomorrow may indeed bring adversity, but it will also bring joy, for God is coming to visit us tomorrow, in just as improbable a way as He came to Mary and Elizabeth. When the Lord comes to visit us, may He find us excited enough to leap like John the Baptist, knowing that we too will soon see the face of God, like He did, if only we can shed the fear of not knowing how exactly He will come. He will come in a way and at a time, that we least expect, and because Mary was truly ready for this, God came to her, and she was chosen of all women to be the first to see the face of God!
Mary, make us as ready as you were for the birth of your Son, as He desires to come visit us once again wherever we are in the holy days ahead, as surely as He once came among us in the humble circumstances of Bethlehem. May we be as surprised and ready to receive Him today in the Holy Eucharist as you were surprised but ready to believe that what was spoken you by the Lord would be fulfilled. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Amen. +m
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