How to Be a Holy Family

Feast of the Holy Family

            If there’s one time of year that we associate with family, it certainly would be Christmas time.  Whether our family is far or near, almost everyone I know tries to make it home to be with family for at least part of Christmas.  Sometimes the weather gets in the way.  Others cannot be with family due to service in the military.  But the goal is always to be home for Christmas time.

            It makes great sense, then, that in this Octave of Christmas, the eight days that the Church celebrates Christmas Day itself, that we celebrate the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.  We take time to focus on that First Family of our Faith.  We try to emulate their example, and be a holy family ourselves.

            The Church takes great care in protecting families.  She teaches that the family is the domestic church, the home church, because is it not the family where the faith is passed on from one generation to the next?  Is it not in the family where daily sacrifices can be offered to God as fitting worship?  Is it not from the family that we are sent out to pass on what we have received?

            In our own times, family life can be strained and difficult.  It is no longer the case that most extended families live fairly close to each other.  Whether due to the economy, or even simply due to the fact that people are more mobile now than ever before, extended families are often separated by great distances.  And time seems so much more precious now, with more opportunities for parents and children alike.  Working with the children of our parish school, in one sense I cannot imagine what it takes to make sure that Bobby is at basketball, and Denise is at dance, and Jimmy is at hockey, and Julie is practice for the clarinet, all at the same time, of course.  On the other hand, as a spiritual father of this community, I can understand as I try to make it to the sports games, the band concerts, the plays and musicals, and all the different activities of adults and children alike to show how important each person is not just to me, but to Jesus, whom I represent.

            Besides the strain within family life, there are also external pressures on the family.  While the Internet has allowed people to keep in touch and to share valuable information with each other, it has also plagued many families, especially, but not limited to, fathers or sons, with the evils of pornography, Internet and gambling addictions, and double lives.  These evils tear away at the trust that is necessary in families, and they can often lead to extra-marital affairs and the objectification of others, especially women, as means to the end of gratification.  No wonder, then, the divorce rate is up and more and more families are broken.

            In the midst of this, the Church does not merely stand as a nay-sayer, just pointing out what is wrong and the dangers.  The Church, based upon God’s Word of life and truth, offers us guides to help us be the holy family that God has created us to be.

            Our first reading mentions a first and key ingredient to a holy family: going to the temple.  Hannah had pleaded with God for a child, and the Lord had blessed her with a son, Samuel.  After Samuel was weaned, Hannah brought him to the temple of the Lord, and gave him back to God.  Now, don’t leave all your children here after today’s Mass; that’s not what I’m suggesting.  But, bringing your children to Mass with you is so important!!  To show your children that a relationship with God is key to your life is to pass on the faith and be a missionary to those who do not fully know Jesus: your children.  Children know that what you make time for is important, and if you make time for God in attending Mass on Sundays and Holydays, they will know how important that is.  If, instead, you drop them off at religious ed and then return home, or even if you let them go to class while you go to Mass, and then just let them join you half-way through, you are not helping yourself to be a holy family.  Or, if you send your child to our parish school or Lansing Catholic, but then don’t go to Mass on Sunday because they have already gone once this week, then it will be much harder to be a holy family.

            But our relationship with God has to go beyond the walls of this Church.  Prayer life as a family is also a key ingredient in order to be a holy family.  Remember that old saying, “the family that prays together stays together”?  It was a wise saying!  Prayer as a family in the home is a great way to be like the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.  And it has to go beyond Grace Before Meals.  Many parents pray with their children before bedtime, so that the child’s last activity before falling asleep is not TV, or video games, but is time spent talking and listening to God, often remembering those who need prayers in the family because of sickness or struggles.  At whatever time of day you choose, make it a habit to pray together as a family and/or read the Bible together with favorite stories, at least from the Gospel.

            There are other pieces of advice that the Church gives, based upon the Word of God and 2,000 years of being a Mother, like not making other things (including sports) a god; gathering around the table for dinner on a regular basis; guarding children from adult-themed TV shows, movies, and websites; and certainly having families support one another.  But the two I mentioned today are a good start.  Does it mean that there won’t be any difficulties?  Certainly not!  The Holy Family, as we heard in our Gospel today, wasn’t always on the same page.  Or think about the long journeys that they took, first to Egypt to escape King Herod, then to Nazareth, and St. Joseph died before Jesus began His earthly ministry.  Holy does not mean easy.  But it does mean united to God, who can help us to carry our crosses.  And what truly makes a family holy is that, each day, while juggling all the activities of family life, the family is trying to do the will of God as best as it can, and offering everything that happens to the Father as an acceptable sacrifice through Jesus the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit.          If we truly want to make society, which is just a conglomeration of families, a better, safer place, then we have to start in our own homes by making Sunday Mass a priority, by making prayer a priority, and by supporting each other in good times and in bad, so that we can strive to do the will of God, and be a holy family here in Michigan.  

Wonder & Awe in the Presence of God

Nativity of Our Lord

            What can we say on this holy day?  What words measure up to the mystery that is celebrated in this holy Mass?  What rhetoric could match the truly awesome gift that we celebrate tonight: Emmanuel, God-with-us, a God who loves us so much that He sends His Only-Begotten Son?  There are no words.  There is but silent adoration.

            Not even the Gloria, the song of angels, quite does this celebration justice.  Their words, while fitting praise of God, pale in comparison to the mystery of the Word-made-flesh who dwelt among us.  That God should marry to Himself a human nature, never to divorce it from Him for all eternity, is a gift which can only be properly praised with silence.

            How struck with awe the shepherds must have been when they approached the Christ Child!  After taking in wonderment about the angels singing in the heavens, I can see them approach the Blessed Virgin Mary and Joseph, and the little child, and just stop and kneel down and look with love on the Face of Love Himself.  Words fail in the presence of the Divine Word.  Who could have guessed, though it was foretold by all the prophets, that God, from whom the Israelites shrank back when He appeared to them in fire on Mount Sinai, would reveal His presence in our human nature? 

            This silence in the awesome presence of God is not a vacuum of sound.  It is, instead, the active presence of the raising of hearts to the Lord in a way that not even the human voice can make known, but only our souls can share in the power of the Holy Spirit, with inexpressible groanings, love for Love Himself.  This silence is not an absence, but is a presence.  It is a power that is expressed as the union of God and His People is achieved in a marvelous new way.

            In this active silence nothing else matters, only Him.  All the cares of the world are irrelevant not because they have no importance, but because all things that are important are only important in Him. 

            And in this Mass, as in every Mass, Jesus Christ, the Divine Word, Son of the Eternal Father, chooses to become flesh, and give that flesh to us in the Eucharist.  In this Mass, as in every Mass, we have the chance to come before our ever-living God, who, “in times past, spoke in partial and various ways, but in these last days he spoken to us through the Son.”  Not in a pillar of fire, or trumpets, or thunder, as on Mount Sinai, but under the appearance of a host.  And as that mystery takes place, we, like the shepherds, kneel down in adoration.  We respond to the Mystery of Faith, but our words do not fully express what just happened, as Christ is made present for us again in the angelic bread, the panis angelicus, a food though which is not for angels, but in which Jesus joins Himself to us humans in one of the most intimate unions that exists in all the universe.

            And because of this, and especially on this holy night/day, in order to honor the mystery made present, there are special vestments, a precious chalice, smoke rises before God as the sign of our prayers, and the spoken word does not even seem quite fitting so those words are sung as an expression of our joy.  All of these are ways, including your presence here, that the holiness of the mystery is expressed.

            But this mystery is not meant to be kept to ourselves.  After kneeling in adoration we are meant to fulfill the words of the prophet Isaiah, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings glad tidings.”  The mystery is not a secret, but a proclamation of joy to a sorrowful world; a proclamation of hope to people in despair; a proclamation of light to the people who walk in darkness.  This mystery of Christmas begs us to conform our lives to it, and to spread it to others.  If God loves us so much that He would join a human nature to Himself in Jesus, then what should we not give in return for that love?  What part of our lives is off-limits to the God who spared nothing for us?

            Let us keep our hearts silent and focused only on Jesus in adoration as we celebrate these sacred mysteries.  For in the Eucharist, as when Jesus was born, Christ our God to earth descends now, our full homage to demand.  

God Chooses Hobbits

Fourth Sunday of Advent

            I have now seen “The Hobbit” two times since it’s release on Friday.  While there have been a number of criticisms, I found myself enjoying the movie and its presentation of the classic book by J.R.R. Tolkien.  Certainly some license was taken; that always happens with movies.

            At one point, as the dwarves are discussing the drawbacks to having a burglar who has never burgled before, Gandalf mentions that Smaug, the evil dragon, will not recognize the smell of a Hobbit like he will of a dwarf.  Plus, Gandalf mentions, the Hobbit is small and will not attract much attention. 

            Now, it’s no secret that Tolkien was a Catholic.  He was a very devout Catholic.  And he permeated his writing with a Catholic worldview and Catholic theology.  I don’t know if he meant to compare Gandalf with God (in fact, I think scholars relate the wizards more to archangels), but we see in our readings today that God also uses the small to accomplish his work, those who will not attract much attention.

            Our first reading mentions the smallness of the city of Bethlehem of the Tribe of Judah.  It is too small to “be among the clans of Judah,” and yet “from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel; whose origin is from of old, from ancient times.”  God doesn’t choose the large city of Jerusalem to bring forth the Messiah, but the little town of Bethlehem.

            And in choosing Mary to be the Mother of God, it is not a famous personage, or a grand queen in the secular sense, but a quiet, humble maiden in a small, quiet town.  And in the Gospel passage today where we hear about the Visitation of the Blessed Mother to her cousin Elizabeth, it is two, small people, not noticed by the world, who recognize the coming, the Advent, of the Messiah.  In fact, even the littlest one, St. John the Baptist in the womb of his mother, leaps for joy in the presence of the God whom John will later point out as the Lamb of God.

            How much does our society tell us that we shouldn’t be small and unnoticed.  We have TV shows whose aim it is to take people from being unknown to being stars of music.  YouTube is full of people, including, sadly, children, who do stupid stuff just to get their 15 minutes of fame.  So many of us desire to be “big time.”  We want to be famous and well known.  The more Facebook friends or followers on Twitter we have, the better.

            In the midst of this, God doesn’t say that it’s wrong to be well known.  But He wants to make us well known, rather than us try to slingshot our way into notoriety.  Bethlehem wasn’t waging a campaign like, “Who Wants to be the City of the Messiah.”  Mary did not try to posture so that she could be the one that God chose as the Mother of the Messiah.  It was all about simply doing the will of God, and letting God make them known.

            In fact, Mary knows that she will be very well known.  After this passage, she prays the words that the Church has echoed down throughout the ages: “From this day all generations will call me blessed.”  But why will Mary be blessed?  Because “the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is His Name.”  God is the agent of Mary’s blessing and notoriety.  And the same has happened with so many of the saints.

            Look at our first pope, St. Peter: I’m quite sure that, sitting in his boat on the Sea of Galilee, he wasn’t dreaming of leading the disciples of the Messiah and being the one to speak for Christ in a unique way.  Or St. Augustine of Hippo in the 5^th Century: as a believer in two powers, one of good, one of evil, in his youth, the last thing he had on his mind was being one of the most prolific theologians the Catholic Church has ever seen.  Or St. Thomas Aquinas: in writing his Summary of Theology for beginners, his Summa Theologiae, he probably never dreamed that a later pope would require his teaching to be part of the curriculum in Catholic seminaries.  Or St. Kateri Tekakwitha: as she was exiled from her New York village of Native Americans because she had embraced the Catholic faith, she probably never dreamed that centuries later she would be added to the list of saints who called America their home.  Or Bl. Teresa of Calcutta: I’m sure that as she was picking up dying people with rotting bodies in India she did not anticipate the fame she would have while still alive, let alone after her death.  Or even those still working on being saints, like Pope Benedict XVI, or Timothy Cardinal Dolan or Francis Cardinal George: in the small towns in which they grew up, I’m willing to bet that none of them dreamed of having the large responsibility in governing the Church that God has given them today. 

            It is not for us to work on being famous, or being well known.  We are called to be faithful to God and serve Him by serving His People with the gifts and talents that God has given to us.  If we do that, then we will be known by the only Persons who really matter: the Persons of the Blessed Trinity.  And if God recognizes us because we have configured our life to the image of His Son, then we will join the ranks of the truly famous, the lives truly worth celebrating, the lives of the saints.  

How Can We Rejoice?

***Please Note: This Homily was given off-the-cuff, 

and the text below represents my best attempt reconstruct what was said***

Third Sunday of Advent

            Most people know that I like to prepare my homilies and have a text in front of me when I preach.  It helps keep me from going off on tangents, which I like to do.  I prepared my homily on Friday morning, and, as I stand here now, the one I wrote doesn’t seem to work well.

            Our Mass today focuses us on joy.  It’s called Gaudete Sunday, which means joy.  We light the rose (not pink!) candle, and I’m wearing a rose vestment to represent the fact that we’re more than half way to our celebration of Christmas.  Listen again to our first reading: “Shout for joy, O daughter Zion!  Sing joyfully, O Israel!  […] The Lord, your God…will rejoice over you with gladness…he will sing joyfully because of you as one sings at festivals.”  Our psalm for today continues: “Cry out with joy and gladness,” in the response, and the verse includes, “With joy you will draw water at the fountain of salvation.”    St. Paul takes up the same word in our second reading from his letter to the Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord always.  I shall say it again: rejoice!” 

            And yet, with all that has happened in the past week, we might wonder what there is to rejoice about.  This past week I had the honor, though it was not an honor that I would have wanted, to concelebrate the funeral of a 49-year-old man who succumbed to cancer, and who leaves behind a widow and five children.  And then on Friday we learned about the shooting of young children in Connecticut.  Perhaps some of you have had your own personal sorrows during this past week, and we’ve all certainly had some in the past month or year.

            So at a time like this, how can the Church tell us to rejoice?  How dare the Church tell us to rejoice!  But we do rejoice.  We rejoice because we are closer to celebrating the birth of Jesus, the light of the world.  We rejoice because Christ is like the light of that rose candle, in the midst of the darkness of the world, and in the darkness with is so thick you can almost feel it, Jesus says to us, “Do not be afraid.  Follow me.”  We rejoice because we are more than halfway to our celebration of Christmas, and because with each passing day, we are one day closer to Christ coming again, to bring the fullness of His Kingdom, where there will be no more death, no more sorrow, no more tears, no more sin. 

            We rejoice even in the midst of death because of Jesus who said, “I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me will never die.”    We rejoice because our God loves us so much that He does not abandon us in our pain and our mourning.  We rejoice because our God came among us and wept at the death of His friend, Lazarus, just as He weeps now at the senseless violence.  We rejoice because our God loves us so much that He gives Himself to us, to become one with us, in the Eucharist, so that we can touch our God.  Our God loves us so much that He allows us to hear Him in His Word. 

            If our joy is in this world, then it is not a time of rejoicing.  But if our joy is in Jesus, than we can rejoice.  We rejoice because our wait is almost over; our King is coming and will not delay; the day of our salvation is at hand.  

The Best Things

Second Sunday of Advent

            From time to time, surfing through the channels on the TV, I’ll see a worship service for a mega-church, or a televangelist ministry.  Most times I skip over them, but every once in a while I stop and listen to what is being said.  Because we share faith in Jesus Christ, a lot of what is said is very familiar and is consistent with what the Church teaches.  However, there are some that preach what’s called the “Gospel of Prosperity,” that is, if you tithe 10% of your adjusted gross income, and you come to Church, and you do all these different things, you’ll never have to worry about money, a house, family problems, etc.  It’s easy to see why people are drawn to that message: who wouldn’t want all the good things that this earth has to offer?  But often, those who are truly striving to live out their faith do have to struggle with a lot of issues, whether of money, or health, or family.  Our view, then, as Catholics, is not quite the same as those who preach the Gospel of Prosperity.

            However, the Word of God tells us today, and we certainly believe, that God wants the best for us.  God doesn’t just want a mediocre life for us, floating along with some good stuff, and some bad stuff.  God wants the best for us.  But God’s beneficence, His over-flowing goodness, is not limited to the things of this earth.  In fact, the things of this world often get in the way of truly drawing closer to God, though this is not always the case.

            Today in our first reading, the Prophet Baruch proclaims to us that God wants to do us good!  He wants us to take off our robes of mourning and misery, and put on the garment of rejoicing, the cloak of justice.  God wants the best for us, and He is going to make that best thing possible.  He is going to level the mountains for us so that we don’t have to climb, and he’s going to fill in the valleys for us so that the way is not hard.  He will lead us in joy “by the light of his glory, with his mercy and justice.”  Where is this path leading us, this level path?  This path is the path to the best things in life, which is not a thing at all, but a Person, a Communion of Persons, a Trinity of Persons, God Himself.  The best of all is God, and He wants to give us Himself.  That is why we pray and wait during this Advent season, to recall the moment when we could see the face of God in Jesus, and to get ready for that time when Jesus will come again, not as a little baby, but in all His glory in majesty.

            But, because we have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God, as St. Paul says in his letter to the Romans, we need guides.  Sometimes we can see the path and we’re ready to start walking.  Other times we lose sight of where we should be going, and we need a person to show us the way.  That’s where our Gospel comes in.

            St. Luke tells us about the ultimate trail guide of all time, St. John the Baptist.  He came to prepare the way of the Lord.  He came to show the straight path, to announce that the valleys have been filled in and the mountains have been made low, and the rough ways have been made smooth so that all people can see the salvation of God.  He’s there to point out the way, to announce it, and to prepare people to make that journey to true prosperity with God, the prosperity, the blessedness, of the saints.  St. John the Baptist preaches repentance, the way to see the path, to recognize Jesus who is Himself the Way.  He is the one who points to Jesus, when He comes, and says, “Behold the Lamb of God!  Behold him who takes away the sins of the world!”  Because of this, Jesus says of him that of those born from women, there is none greater than John the Baptist.

            And yet, Jesus also says that the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than St. John the Baptist.  How can this be?  How can we be greater than the Precursor of the Lord?  Well, we, too, are called to point out the Lamb of God.  We, too, are called to help others find that path to true blessedness, the path that leads to God.  Under the guidance of Holy Mother Church, who tenderly and firmly helps us to understand what God has revealed through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit, we are called to point out to others the way to true happiness.  Sometimes it happens by correction, or advice to avoid this or do that, whether it be with a family member, a co-worker, a friend, or whomever.  Other times it is simply by the joy and peace that we display as we conform our lives, not to this age and its opinions, but to the enduring Word of God, which is the same yesterday, today, and forever, even as it is applied in new ways to ever-changing circumstances.  We, like St. John the Baptist and (dare I say) the Blues Brothers, are on a mission from God, to help others find that straight, level path to God.

            Sometimes it will mean prosperity for us.  There are certainly many people to whom God gives many blessings, and invites them to share those blessings with others.  Other times, those closest to God are the ones who suffer the most, like Job, the apostles, the saints who were martyred, saints who put up with great trials like St. Kateri, St. Damien of Molokai, Bl. Teresa of Calcutta.  Some people very easily understand the loving and cheeky words of St. Teresa of Avila, “Lord, if this is how you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few of them!”  But, whether, by the standards of this world, we are blessed or cursed, what truly matters is that we are prospering in drawing closer to God and following His will in all things, so that we can follow along the straight and level path to God, which will give us the desire of every heart, and the best thing that there is: communion with the Blessed Trinity itself.

Why Advent?

First Sunday of Advent

            As I prepared this homily for the First Sunday in Advent, a question arose in my mind: why do we even have advent?  Christmas songs began on some radio stations on All Saints Day, November 1.  Christmas decorations went up in most stores at about the same time.  So why take this time, this season of hope, this season of penance?  Is it just an excuse for the clergy to swap vestments from green to violet, with rose stuck in on the third Sunday just for good measure?  Why bring out a wreath with four candles to mark the passing of time?  We have iPhones and Droids which have much more sexy apps to countdown to Christmas.  Why Advent?

            Advent is lost to the extent that it’s misunderstood.  It loses its force and its power when we don’t know why we do what we do.  And to understand in order that we might believe, perhaps we need to take a look at Advent again, to capture its beauty and its power.

            Advent comes from the Latin word adveniens and means “a coming.”  What we celebrate in Advent is not just any coming, any expectation for any person, but the expectation for the Person who reveals man to his very self, as Gaudium et spes, 22, from the Second Vatican Council says.  We are awaiting Jesus.  Because we are only 23 days away from the celebration of Jesus’ birth, that naturally leads us to feel like we are preparing for Christmas.  But St. Bernard of Clairvaux reminds us that Advent is really a celebration, an expectation, of three comings of Christ: the first coming at Bethlehem which we celebrate at Christmas; the second coming of Christ at the end of time, which our readings focus on today; and the thid coming of Jesus: the desire of Christ to come into our hearts daily and make a home there, so that Christ might be born in us.

            To help us prepare for the first coming, the celebration of Jesus’ birth at Bethlehem, we use symbols: some in the home, some at Church.  In the Church we use an advent wreath with four candles, traditionally 3 violet and 1 rose, to give us a visual reminder of how close we are.  And candles are fitting because they remind us of Jesus who is the light of the world.  The closer we get to celebrating the birth of Jesus, the more light there is, even as the days get shorter around us and darkness increases.  Even the traditional colors of the candles are dark, and yet the third rose candle reminds us that our wait is almost over, that we are more than halfway to the joyful celebration of our knowledge that “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.”  In your homes you might have an advent wreath as well.  Others will use a calendar where you open little panels that reveal a fuller picture of the Nativity, sometimes with recommended passages from Scripture, other times with little chocolates.  However as we draw closer to celebrating the birth of Jesus, we are meant to be more and more excited as the day of celebration draws near.

            The second coming is the main focus of the first two weeks of advent, when we still hear readings of how Jesus will come in glory to establish the fullness of His kingdom, where Christ is King of the Universe and all others are subject to Him.  That is why advent takes on a penitential tone, because all of us are in need of further conversion.  Some of us may be more ready than others for Jesus’ second coming, but we take on penances to atone for our sins that have placed ourselves or another on a throne, rather than Jesus.  Whether Jesus comes on December 21, or tomorrow, or whenever, Advent reminds us to stay awake and be ready for the bridegroom to return.  For at the moment we least expect, He will come.  We light our candles in imitation of the wise virgins who kept enough oil in their lamps to be ready to welcome the Bridegroom with their flames burning brightly.

            The third coming of Jesus—His desire to enter into our hearts—is something that we can grow in every day of the year, not just at this time.  But we take this special time to redouble our efforts to make straight the pathways of our God.  We take this time to level the mountains and fill in the valleys that make an obstacle for Jesus to come to us.  Just as we clean our house to welcome family and friends over for Christmas celebrations, so we should be daily striving to clean our hearts and souls to welcome the Trinity into us.  Maybe we take time each day to slowly read over the meditation from the Little Blue Book, or Magnificat, and spend the time and energy it takes to develop a deep, strong relationship with the Lord; maybe we attend sung Evening Prayer on Friday evenings at 6:30 p.m. at St. Thomas to stretch our usual forms of prayer; maybe we join a Bible study, or a faith-sharing group; maybe we celebration the Sacrament of Reconciliation on the usual days or with the greater Lansing area on December 16 at 2 p.m. at St. Thomas; whatever we do, the key is that we are trying to make more time for Jesus so that He is comfortable in our hearts, rather than a stranger.  And, we pray for those who have been away from the Lord, away from His Church, inviting them to join us again in this holy place, because Christ wants to enter their hearts as well, and He often uses His disciples to extend that invitation.

            If we treat this time no differently than any other; if we figure that we’ve been preparing for the parties, the eggnog, the gift giving, and the hype of the secular celebration of Christmas since November 1, then I can assure you that you won’t be ready when Christ comes: for the celebration of the first coming at Christmas; for the celebration of the second coming at the end of time; and for the daily desire of Christ to come into your heart.  But, if amidst the hustle and bustle of the secular season, you take time to spend with the Lord in prayer, getting to know Him better and letting the symbols touch your heart and soul, then I can also assure you that you will know the joy of the angels as they sang “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will,” as we celebrate the first coming; you will know the joy of the elect as Christ comes a second time as the eternal King of Glory, with everything subjected to His reign; and you will know the joy of the abiding presence of God as He comes into your heart and makes His home there, truly making you a temple of the Holy Spirit, and the dwelling place of God.