Buddy and Jesus

Nativity of the Lord–At the Vigil Mass/At Night

    One of the newer Christmas movies that has become a staple of most people’s Christmas movie watching is “Elf” starring Will Ferrell.  It’s hard to believe, but it came out in 2003!  For those who are not fans of Will Ferrell and didn’t watch the movie, “Elf” follows Buddy the Elf, a human child who was raised by elves at the North Pole, even though he is much larger than they, and Buddy’s quest to find his real dad, who works for a publisher in New York City.  Buddy goes from the innocence of working with the elves for Santa to the Big Apple and all that New York City entails.  One of the many classic lines from the movie is said by a narwhal who looks like the animals from the 1964 Christmas movie, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,”: “Bye Buddy, hope you find your dad!”  
    In many ways, Christmas is the opposite theme of “Elf.”  Instead of humanity, represented by Buddy, searching out his dad, the true meaning of Christmas is that our heavenly Father, through the Incarnation of His Beloved Son, sought us out.  God did not abandon us, like Buddy’s father, Walter, did.  Instead, we ran away from God by sinning.  Adam and Eve rejected God in their pride and by their disobedience, and created a chasm between us and God that only God could close.  Throughout the centuries God our Father sought us out in love, and showed us ways that we could approach him and reject sin.  But time and time again we returned to sin because it felt better, or because, in our own pride, we didn’t want anyone else telling us what to do.  God gave us the Law to teach us, and the prophets to clarify how God had created the world and how to live justly.  But we disobeyed the law, and ignored or even killed the prophets so that we didn’t have to hear the voice of God.  But God did not leave us to the death that comes from sin.

    God came to us in a way that would disarm our pride: through a tiny baby.  Jesus took flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and was born for us [tomorrow,] Christmas Day, as the beginning of the way that God the Father would reconcile us to Himself.  Buddy the Elf, though naïve, did not always endear himself to Walter.  Christ, born in the humblest of conditions from the humblest of parents, was not naïve, but truly innocent, and, especially in His infancy, we couldn’t help but love Him.  Throughout the rest of His life, He would show us just how much the Father loves us, even to the point of shedding His Precious Blood on the cross to remove the chasm between God and us and open for us eternal salvation in heaven.  There is no greater love that God could have shown than humbling Himself to take on our human nature, and then, though innocent, laying down freely his life for us so that we didn’t have to endure eternal death in Hell.
    But while the Incarnation, God-made-man, is the greatest Christmas gift of all, we still have to accept that gift.  And like the Central Park Rangers who try to stop Santa, there are those who don’t want to see us accept the gift of eternal salvation, within and without us.  Outside of us, there are fallen angels who do not want to see us reunited with God.  They send us temptations and try to get us to fall into the same trap Adam and Eve fell in as they rejected God’s rules because they wanted to do it their own way, and disobey God.  Inside of us, even after we’re baptized, we still have concupiscence, that drive to disobey God.  We would rather be our own boss, our own god, even, than serve the true God.  Whether from within or without, when we tell lies, even small, white lies; when we skip Mass out of laziness or lack of interest; when we fail to pray every day; when we allow our desires to take control of us; when we use others as means to an end, no matter how good our intentions, we show God that we do not want Him as our Father.  We show God through our actions that we don’t want to receive the best Christmas gift ever: the gift of eternal life.  And God, because He loves, us, respects our free will; He will never force His salvation on us.
    But, as a loving Father, He will also never stop searching for us, seeking to draw us to Himself.  And even if we do claim God as our Father and avoid rejecting Him through mortal sin, He works each day to draw us closer and closer to Him, through Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, so that we can receive all the good things He desires for His children.  
    So today let us recommit ourselves to our heavenly Father.  We don’t have to travel from the North Pole to New York City to find Him.  He is right here, in this church, offering His love for us.  Accept that love that so wanted you that He humbled Himself and truly became for us a little baby.  And show that acceptance by the choices you make each day, the love you give back to God through obedience and love to Him, which is the only gift He desires from you.  O come, let us adore Him. 

Battling the Liar

Dedication of St. Michael the Archangel
    In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  I tend to quote country songs a lot, and given that country songs have been described as “three chords and the truth,” it’s not surprising that they can draw one closer to God and His truth.  One such song that connected with our celebration of St. Michael the Archangel today is by a country artist who recently gained Genesee County connections: Jelly Roll.  
    The song he sang is called “Liar” and to me it speaks about the voice of the one against whom St. Michael fights: the devil.  Jelly Roll sings about how he let the devil “drive around my mind” and “played me like a fool.”  Some of the lies that the devil tells are: “Drink another whiskey / Pop another pill / Money makes you happy / Heaven isn’t real / You won’t find nobody to love / Because your heart’s too broke.”  But he recognizes those lines for the lies that they are, trying to keep him down in the suggestions in his head, in the dreams he has at night, promising to be his friend, but the devil’s just “blowin’ smoke” because he’s “nothing but a liar.”  

Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome

    The work of St. Michael is precisely to foil the lies of the devil.  He fights for Christ, who is the Truth, and works to cast Satan and the fallen angels away from us, who can sometimes be so susceptible to the lies of the prince of this world.  The tempter often has cunning lies that seem like they’re the truth, preying especially on our weaknesses, our vulnerabilities, our wounds.  He did the same thing with our first parents, Adam and Eve, when he tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, telling her that she wouldn’t die if she ate the forbidden fruit, but that she would be like God on her own terms.  On the one hand, it may be hard to believe that Eve would buy into that lie.  She had perfect earthly happiness, communion with God and with nature around her, and lacked for nothing.  Why would she give into the lies of the ancient serpent?
    Why do we?  We may not have perfect earthly happiness, or perfect communion with the natural world which gives us fruit without effort, but we have God Himself who enters into us!  God not only walks with us in the cool of the evening, as He did with Adam and Eve, He humbles Himself to enter into us the Most Holy Eucharist, to fill us spiritually with His presence.  And yet, how often do we turn away from God, disobey His commands, and listen to the lies that the devil feeds us?
    Maybe it’s not excessive drinking, or drugs.  Maybe it is for some of us.  But I am willing to bet that each of us has had moments where money became our God and we thought if we just had enough of it we would be truly happy.  Or maybe we doubted whether there’s anything beyond this world, if all the rules that we follow and the ascetical practices we do will amount to anything, or if death will be the end.  Or maybe we have bought into the lie that no one could ever love us because we’re so broken that we’re not worthy of love.
    When we have those lies in our head, we should turn to St. Michael the Archangel, or our guardian angel, or our patron saints and ask them to bring the light of Christ to cast out the darkness of temptation and sin.  Pope St. Gregory the Great, while preaching a homily, said that St. Michael’s name in Hebrew means, “Who is like God,” and, “Whenever some act of wondrous power must be performed, Michael is sent, so that his action and his name may make it clear that no one can do what God does by his power.”  Whereas Lucifer, the light bearer angel, sought in his pride to contend with God, St. Michael allows God to be God and work His power through whomever God chooses.  
    And that can be a lesson for us when fighting evil.  From time to time, we might even be tempted to think that we are powerful enough to fight the devil and his fallen angels on our own terms.  But that is pride, and leads to our downfall.  Yes, we have a higher dignity than the angels, since Christ became man.  But angels are more powerful than we are, and we should not seek to fight them on their own terms.  Rather, rely on God’s helpers, whether angels or saints, and especially the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph, to allow God’s grace to cast down any evil spirits who seek the ruin of our souls.  Follow the example of Michael and not try to grasp at power, but allow God’s power to work through them and through us.
    There are many lies that the devil tries to get us to believe.  Some of those lies we may have recognized in Jelly Roll’s song.  Some of the lies the devil tells differ from those, but are no less powerful.  But Christ is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life, and if we wish to come to the Father, we must hold fast to the truth, name the lie that the devil tells us as false, and run towards St. Michael and the saints to help us stay connected to the truth.  May St. Michael and all the holy angels defend us always and keep us united to God–the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.