1/3/2012 – Homily for Tuesday in the Octave of Christmas – 1 John 2:29 – 3:6

        We are in the first week of the new year of 2012, and we are still in the Christmas season.  We will be hearing excerpts from the letters of John in our first readings this week.  These letters were probably produced by the same community that wrote the Gospel of John.  That community wrote these letters probably more than 100 years after Jesus’ birth, so they were wrestling with a great deal in terms of trying to understand who Jesus really was.  We can hear this community being called to have confidence in its faith in the Lord, in the identity it has as the children of God.  However, we hear the community deal very openly about sin, about the need to give up our sinfulness if we are to truly become followers of Christ. 

         When I was a seminarian, I spent a summer working as a chaplain at Baptist Hospital in Jackson.  That was a very wonderful experience, but it was very challenging and difficult at times as well.  Every week, we would have to write down a pastoral ministry conversation that we had with a patient whom we visited, and then our professor and fellow classmates would give us a critique of that conversation, high-lightings our pastoral strengths and weaknesses.  Even though we all have our gifts as well as our struggles, it is difficult to look at them and to name them and to try to grow.  I really grew a lot that summer in my ministry, and I think it shows how important it is to look at our sins and to try to achieve a conversion of heart in our journey of faith.

         May we all acknowledge ourselves as true children of God, but may we also accept that responsibilities and challenges that this identity entails.   

1/2/2012 – 1 John 2:22-28 – Monday - Homily for St. Basil the Great & Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors of the Church -

        Today, we hear some very harsh words in the first letter of John, with charges of “liar” & “anti-Christ,” about those who intentionally deceive us about our faith.  Why would we hear such a harsh message right in the middle of the Christmas season, right after our joyous celebration of Mary, the Mother of God?  Perhaps it helps us to know that this letter was written when the Johannine community was splitting apart, probably over differences in their belief about Jesus' divinity.  The author of this letter is writing in order to warn his community of some members who have broken away, who possibly deny that God was fully present in Jesus, his begotten Son.   Today, too, we unfortunately see a lot of factionalism in our Church.  Some in our Church today think that their interpretations & views of the faith are the only true ones; they think that anyone with a different outlook is not loyal to the Church, not true to the faith.

         Divisiveness & factionalism aren't modern developments; we can it in the writings of the New Testament. But, its persistence in our human society isn't something we should just passively accept.  Today's readings touch us in our own modern reality, they encourage us to work toward unity & dialogue in our community of faith.  I can attest that I have been edified & challenged as a priest by those here in our parish who maybe have a different theological perspective than my own. Being open to the diversity in unity that exists in our Church is so important.

         We have 2 great saints & doctors of the Church to celebrate today in the context of unity & defending the faith.  St. Basil was an influential founder of monasticism in the East, a bishop & great defender of the faith against the Arian heresies in the fourth century. Basil's friend, Gregory of Nazianzen, became the Archbishop of the great city of Constantinople in this same era after it had been under the control of Arian bishops for over 3 decades.  Gregory helped restore the true faith in that holy city; his teachings remain a great example for us to this day. 

         I found this quote from St Basil, which I really love, which really challenges us to live out our faith: “The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry; the garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of him who is naked; the shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot; the money that you keep locked away is the money of the poor; the acts of charity that you do not perform are so many injustices that you commit.”

         With Gregory of Nazianzen & Basil the Great as examples for us, may we be called to work together for our faith.  May we be true to the faith that has been passed down to us by the early Church Fathers, a faith that is still taught to us through Tradition, the Scriptures, & the Magisterium of the Church.  Let us pray that one day we may all be one in the faith, that our work for Church unity will never cease & will bear fruit.  

12/31/2011 – Homily - Saturday - The seventh day in the octave of Christmas – John 1:1-18

       Today, as we mark the last day of the year of 2011, we hear the very poetic and beautiful beginning of the Gospel of John.  It is interesting to compare what we hear in the beginning of John’s Gospel to some of the other Gospels.  While Matthew begins with Jesus' genealogy & Luke starts with the story of the Elizabeth and Zechariah as parents of the man who would prepare the way for Jesus, the Gospel of John starts with the theological images of the Word of God, of a light shining in the darkness, of the Word of God being made flesh.  I think the only way to truly understand & appreciate the beginning of John's Gospel is to approach it as a beautiful work of poetry that eloquently expresses the truth about God and about the coming of Jesus into our world.

         But, in our modern, practical, common sense view of things, we may wonder why John the Evangelist would begin his Gospel with a poetic description of the Word of God.  Well, the “Word of God” was a common expression among the Jews in ancient Israel.  In their Hebrew Scriptures, God's word was active, creative, and dynamic.  John describes Jesus as God's creative, life-giving, and light-giving word that has come to our earth in human form.  Jesus is the wisdom and the power of God that created the world, the wisdom and the power that sustains it.  Jesus assumed a human nature in order to accomplish God's plan of salvation.  Jesus is the Son of God who does not cease to be God and Lord, but becomes a human being and our brother. 

         If we are going to behold the glory of God, we will do it through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the word of God, the Logos, the Word that was with God in the beginning, the word that is God's total utterance, resulting in all that has been created, both the visible and the invisible. 

         God is the almighty, the Father of light.  His eternal word came down from heaven in the silent watches of the night.  May we open our hearts to receive this word of God, to receive the light.  May we increase our vision and our faith with the rising of the dawn, that our lives may be filled with God's glory and his peace. 

12/28/2011 – homily for the feast of the Holy Innocents – Matt 2:13-18 - Wednesday

       Right after we celebrate Christmas, our Church recognizes 3 feast days in a row, representing the people from different walks of life who worship & honor Jesus at his birth.  The day after Christmas is the feast of St. Stephen, a martyr in the early Church whom we can see as representing all who have sacrificed and given their lives for our faith.  Next, we have the feast of John the Evangelist, who is representative of all the Church leaders, both laity and ordained, who work tirelessly for our faith.  Today, we celebrate & honor the Holy Innocents, children who were massacred by King Herod in Bethlehem when he had heard of Jesus' birth.  Martyrs, church leaders, and children: they all honor Jesus at his birth. Two of these feasts recognize those who died for our faith, showing us how the shadow of the cross, the sacrifice Christ made for our salvation, is an essential part of the message we hear this Christmas season.

         As Matthew tells us about the massacre of the holy innocents as part of  the story of the Magi, he quotes the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more.”  Jeremiah portrays Rachel, the wife of Jacob, the patriarch of the people of Israel, as weeping at the place where the Israelites were herded together by the conquering Assyrians for their march into the Babylonian captivity. As Rachel is imagined weeping for her people forced into exile, as the parents of the children massacred at Bethlehem weep for their loss, what do we have to weep for today in our modern world?  We see children & families suffering and torn apart by violence, or by alcohol and drug abuse; we see innocents killed by abortion; we see many in our world and in our own society go to bed hungry for lack of food to eat.  We certainly have a lot to weep for ourselves. 

         Yet, yet in the midst of this weeping, he hear a message of hope and liberation to the people of Israel forced into exile.  Herod's actions were brutle and painful, but they weren't the final word.  God gives us hope in the birth of Christ.  Through Jesus’ birth into our world, God proclaims his kingdom and promises us salvation.  How are we called to help proclaim this kingdom that is here already yet is still not fulfilled?  

12/27/2011 – Homily for the feast of St John the Evangelist – John 20:1-8

       We celebrate the feast days of the Evangelists and the Apostles in our Church’s liturgical calendar, signifying to all of the faith how important these men are to the founding of our Church, to the way their efforts helped pass down the faith to us.  Today, we celebrate the feast day of St John the Evangelist.

         Even though we just celebrated the birth of our Savior into the world a couple of days ago, today we are hearing a reading from one of the last chapters in John’s Gospel, as we hear about how the followers of Jesus arrived at his empty tomb, astonished and shocked.  They had believed in Jesus, the Son of God, the Savior of the world, but they had just seen him put to death.  They were trying to make sense of everything, of the events that ended Jesus’ life here on earth, events that did not make sense at all.  Mary Magdalene and Peter were the first to reach the tomb.  What they saw did not fit into their hopes and expectations.  Yet, when John reached the tomb, he went inside, he saw, and he believed. 

         Sometimes things happen in our own lives that don’t make any sense.  Sometimes our lives take a direction that we can’t anticipate, that tests the very core of our faith.  Yet, we are asked to lift all of this up to the Lord.  We are asked to walk by faith. We are asked to believe. Just as these early followers of Christ were often confused and bewildered, we are called on to follow the example of John.  May we look at all that is going on around us.  May we face that reality.  Yet, in the midst of the conflicting and confusing messages we receive in our lives, may we believe.  

12/23/2011- homily for Friday of 4th week of Advent - Psalm 25:4-5, 8-9, 10, 14; Luke 1:57-66

        Today’s psalmist asks the Lord to guide him in the way of truth and teach him his paths.  In many ways, that is the journey most of us as Christ’s disciples have tried to follow during the Advent season.  Here at St. Mary parish in Yazoo City, we have adopted the theme for Advent to follow the signs of this season to help us to prepare for the birth of Christ into our world, to follow the symbols, the rituals, and the devotions of the season to lead us and guide us.  These signs, these rituals, these symbols, help us express our openness to letting God teach us & guide us in our lives, just what the psalmist expresses to us today. 

         The Gospel reading about the birth of John the Baptist describes for us the consequences of Elizabeth’s and Zechariah’s preparation for God will in their lives. Their journey certainly had some twists & some turns for them, but their preparation & their willingness to listen to God enabled them to not only stand up against peer pressure from friends & relatives, but it also enabled them to speak & act in a way that brought others to recognize the presence of God in their lives.  Their son would later grow up to be the man who directly prepared the way for Jesus & his ministry.

         Today’s readings are quite appropriate, preparing us to celebrate our joyful Christmas Eve celebrations tomorrow.  May the Lord lead us & guide us, opening our hearts as we enter the Christmas season with the birth of Christ into our world.  May this upcoming liturgical season of Christmas help us to learn more about God’s truth & laws. 

12/22/2011 – homily - Thursday of 4th week of Advent – Luke 1: 46-55

         We are entering the final days of Advent as we prepare for the birth of our Lord into our world.  During this Advent season, we’ve heard from a lot of prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, just to name a few.  Today, we hear Mary sing the Magnificat while she is visiting her cousin Elizabeth.  If we picture Mary reaching her cousin’s residence, we can imagine this extraordinary scene in which four of Christianity’s greatest prophets are assembled together.  Two of these prophets are Mary and Elizabeth, the two women who come together during their time of pregnancy.  Both are pregnant under extraordinary circumstances: one is with child yet still a virgin, while the other became pregnant after she was well past her child bearing years.  The other two prophets present are in their mothers’ wombs: John the Baptist and Jesus. And, as the Gospels enfold, the people of ancient Israel will learn what Jesus is all about, that he is much more than a prophet.  So, in many ways, this is an extraordinary meeting between Mary & Elizabeth. Yet, in other ways, what takes place is an ordinary event between two women helping each other & reaching out to each other in their time of need. 

         As we hear Mary’s Magnificat this morning, we can see how it still resonates with all of us in the circumstances of our lives, through the lens in which we view the world.  All of us have our own points of view, entrenched in how God is present to us in the particular reality of our lives.  So, I wonder: how would we sing the Magnificat to God in the circumstances of our own lives, in the lived reality in which our journey of faith takes place, in which God meets us in the here & now?  Take someone in our universal Church who is a great example of faith, such as Mother Teresa of Calcutta.  In many ways, so many people throughout the world admired Mother Teresa because the Magnificat she sang in her life was a song of love and charity toward others, yet, it was not necessarily a song of words. 

         May the words of Mary in the Magnificat enter our hearts & help us to create a place there for the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.