Feast of the Holy Family (Gospel: Luke 2:22-40) Our imperfect families

 

My family lived in Dublin until I was six years old. One time when I was about five I was brought to a party of a school friend, but for some reason I decided that I didn’t like the party and that I wanted to go home. I figured that the best way to do this was secretly. So I told my friend that I would hide out in the yard and that he should come and try to find me after a few minutes. When I got outside I climbed over the wall, made my escape and headed home. The only problem was that I had no idea how to get home. So I headed off and asked a mail-man how to get to York Road, in Dun Laoghaire, where we lived. He looked at me suspiciously, but told me where to go. When I finally arrived home I found a big police motorbike in the front drive. The police officer looked out the door and said, ‘It’s ok. We have found him.’ Maybe that’s where my love of motorcycles began! Everyone was out looking for me. My poor parents were not the better for this experience.  Family life is not easy.

 

This is a feast day which I think can often make us feel disappointed with our own families, although we don’t admit it, because it seems to tell us that our families are not what they should be. Things go wrong and we drive each other crazy. Someone gets into trouble and lets the family down. Marriages don’t always work out. We are afraid what others will think of us.

 

Then we are presented with the holy family, who we imagine were living in bliss all the time. That is not reality. They were poor. When Jesus was born they were homeless. Then with a new baby they had to flee to Egypt to escape an attempt on the child’s life and became refugees. When Jesus was brought to the temple, Simeon told them he was destined to be a sign that would be rejected. He would not be a success. Who wants to hear that their child will be rejected by people? Later they lost him for three days. Can you imagine the stress of losing one of your children for three days?

 

So why are they presented to us as a model? because they had their priorities right. God was at the center of this family. It was the right environment for the person of Jesus to grow and mature. Jesus had to grow up as a person just as all of us do. He had to learn to be responsible, to read and write and learn the Jewish traditions and that takes a long time. It involves a lot of learning for each of us, and a lot of patience and sacrifice on the part of our parents, but how we are formed is vital. There is an African proverb which says, ‘It takes a village to raise a child.’ We all have a part to play, even if that is just encouraging those who are struggling. If there are young families around you who are struggling financially, especially one parent families, look out for them. There is a couple I know who were telling me recently that at one stage, because one of their children was sick, they lost their home in order to pay hospital bills. The husband told me that for several months they lived on next to nothing. We never know how people are struggling and we must look out for each other.

 

We know almost nothing about the first thirty years of Jesus’ life, but no doubt it was very important for his growing and maturing as a person, and to help him be ready for the mission that He lived out for the last three years of his life, teaching people about God and sacrificing himself for us.

 

The main role of our families is to provide a safe, loving environment for us to grow up in, so that we will blossom as people and learn how to deal with the world. None of us come from a perfect family, but that doesn’t matter. It is easy to become discouraged, thinking about how things might have been, or should be, but the bottom line is that we are the way we are. We come from the kind of imperfect families that we come from. The path through our lives often takes unexpected turns and things can work out a lot worse than we had intended. Does it matter? Not in the eyes of the Lord. The Lord is not the one to say, ‘You should be different’. That is what people will say, but that is not what the Lord says. He is always the one who encourages us, reassures us and gives us new strength to keep going.

 

Think of all the people that Jesus came across in the Gospels. He took them exactly as they were, including many people who were causing public scandal. It didn’t matter what faith or cultural background they came from. He always showed great sensitivity to their dignity. Satan discourages, but God always encourages. Jesus called Satan ‘the Accuser.’ He continually accuses us and tries to shame us and make us give up. But Jesus does the opposite. He is always the one to encourage us and reassure us of his presence. What is important is not how we should be, but that we remain open to God. If we are listening and open, then the Lord can lead us forward. All God needs is our openness. Everything that we go through plays a part in forming us as people. The only thing that is important is that we are willing to get up again, to begin again and turn to the Lord for help, as often as is necessary. 

 

If God is not at the center of your family, maybe it’s time to bring him into your family. Is there a crucifix in your home? If not, why not? Are you ashamed or embarrassed to say who you belong to, who is Lord of your life? Apart from God our life is meaningless. Do you ever read the word of God with your family? If you think this seems a bit embarrassing, or over religious, think about how much time you spend watching TV, filling your mind with worldly and often sinful things. Why not read a chapter from one of the Gospels at the end of your main meal together? Pray grace together.

 

There is a wedding tradition which I came across many years ago, from Croatia, if I’m not mistaken. When a couple get married, they have a crucifix blessed at the wedding ceremony and then they bring it to their home. They place it in a prominent place to remind them that God is with them in their marriage. When they are struggling they are to come before the crucifix to ask God for his help. This is the balance that God invites us to have. God must be at the center. Only in God will we find the strength we need to keep going and the very meaning for our existence. Without God our life is meaningless.

 

God understands that family life is not easy, but that is also why He invites us to keep turning to him and asking for his help. That is why the sacrament of marriage is so important, because it is inviting God to be part of that marriage, not just to bless the couple on their wedding day, but throughout the couple’s whole life. God wants to help us, but we must allow him to help us too.

 

Our families may be far from perfect, but God can still work through them to help us come closer to him.

 

I want to finish with this story about a couple I came to know here in Florida. Maria and John (not their real names) got to know each other in high-school and got into a lustful relationship. She became pregnant and graduated six months pregnant. They decided to get married for the sake of the child, but he said they had no love for each other and the first ten years of their marriage was miserable. They endured each other and spent as much time apart as they could.  But after 10 years they both started to take an interest in their faith. They decided they would try to live their marriage exactly as it says in the Scriptures, following what God has laid out for marriage, the role of the father and the role of the mother. He said within a short times things started to change and they actually fell in love for the first time. That was over twenty years ago and he said they have had a wonderful marriage ever since.

 

Surprise, surprise, God knows exactly what will work and He tells us what will work. There is an order to God’s creation and if we listen to what He tells us, it works and will help us more than anything else. God wants things to work out for us, but we must listen.

 

Remember what Jesus said,

“Whoever hears these words of mine and puts them into practice, is like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain came down, the streams rose and the wind blew, and beat against that house, yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

 

But everyone who hears these words and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose and the wind blue and beat against that house and it fell with a great crash.” (Matt 7:24-27).

 

When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom and the favor of God was upon him. (Luke 2:39-40)

 

Christmas Day We are of infinite value in God’s eyes

One thing that everyone here has in common is the desire for happiness. Whether you consider yourself religious or not, everyone wants happiness. And happiness consists of two things, complete fulfillment as a human being and being with our loved ones again. That really sums up what everyone wants. On earth we get a taste of it, but we are never completely fulfilled and then we also lose the people we love. What our faith promises us, is that the possibility of finding fulfillment and being with our loved ones again, does exist. It is waiting for us if we choose it. We choose it by the way we live. God shows us how to live.

 

Christmas is the beginning of the event that makes that possible and that event has three parts.

1.     The Son of God takes on human nature and comes among us.

2.     To teach us about God and why we are here. When people wanted Jesus to stay in a certain place to continue to heal people, he said that it was more important that he kept going to preach to people. Why would preaching to people be more important than healing people? Because to understand why we exist makes all the difference as to how we live.

3.     To atone for our sin, so that we can reach the happiness that God originally created us for.

 

Hopefully we will experience some of that happiness in this life, but it will only be fulfilled in the world to come. In 1858 Our Lady said that to St. Bernadette at Lourdes in France: ‘I cannot promise you happiness in this life, but only in the next.’ And in Fatima when she appeared to three young children, she said, ‘If people knew what heaven was like, they would do everything to change their ways.’

 

God originally gave us paradise. The story of Adam and Eve explains this. It says that our first parents whom we call Adam and Eve, lived in paradise. They were completely fulfilled. God gave them all they could ask for, but God also told them to respect their limitations as human beings: ‘Do not touch the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,’ in other words, ‘Don’t play God, because you are not able for it.’ But out of hatred for God, Satan tempted them and told them that they didn’t need to listen to God and that they could be like God themselves, without God. The only reason that Satan tempted them to reject God, was out of hatred for God and wanting to destroy what was most precious to God, that is, the human being.

 

They gave in to the temptation and rejected what God had told them. As soon as they did, their world began to implode, as God had told them it would. Suddenly, they felt shame, guilt, fear, which they had never felt before. They were no longer at ease in God’s presence, or in each other’s presence. They had lost the harmony that God had given them. The worst part of this sin was that there was no way they could undo the damage. They had lost the happiness that God had given them and they could not win it back.

But because God loves his creation, He didn’t leave us in that state and instead He won it back for us. The death and resurrection of Jesus atoned for our sin and reopened the possibility of that happiness again. The coming of Christ at Christmas is the beginning of that event. That means that Christmas is the feast of the greatest hope imaginable, because it is the promise of the happiness that we long for, if we choose it. It might sound strange to say, ‘If we choose it,’ but not everyone does. We choose what God offers us, by being obedient to what commands us and teaches us, just like our first parents. If they had just listened to God, they would have been fine and it is the same for us. If we just listen to what God tells us, then we will also have that happiness when we die, but we must listen and be obedient to God.

 

Satan told our first parents that they didn’t need to listen to God or obey his commandments and that they could be like God. Satan continues to tempt us in the same way, whispering to us that we don’t need God and we don’t need to listen to God’s commandments. It’s all around us. There are more and more laws which tell us that we need not and should not listen to what God says in the scriptures, even laws which forbid Scripture from being taught and calling it ‘hate speech’ if someone takes offense to it. Notice how public schools are forbidden to teach religion, or even to pray, or have the Commandments visible. So when you find yourself thinking, ‘I don’t need religion. I don’t need to listen to the Bible,’ remember who you are listening to, because that was what Satan tempted Adam and Eve with. He convinced them to reject God and he continues to do the same to us, but it’s done under the guise of liberty, equality and respect.

 

The whole event of Christmas leading to Easter also tells us something that we find hard to grasp; that is, that we have infinite value and worth in God’s eyes, regardless of how our life turns out. It means that God will do anything to get us to heaven. God has done everything to make it possible for us to get to heaven. We generally tend to think that if we really get our act together and if we become holy enough, then we will be acceptable to God and God will let us into heaven. That is not what God teaches us. God teaches us that He loves us totally and completely, as we are right now. We may think of ourselves as failures, or disappointments in the world’s eyes, but we are never a failure in God’s eyes. Think of a little child. No matter how much that child makes a mess of things, you don’t love them any less. You love them just because they exist.

 

There is a Jesuit priest called Fr. Greg Boyle, who since 1986 has worked in some of the toughest gang-land areas of LA. He wrote a book called, Tattoos on the Heart: the Power of Boundless Compassion. Up to the time he published the book in 2010, he had already buried 167 young people, from gangland shootings. In the book, he talks about the fact that most of the young people who end up in gangs, really have little else. Most of them have grown up in homes with no parents, or with parents so wrecked by addiction that they might as well not be there, or of such violence that they have left and lived on the streets. They end up in gangs because the gangs provide them with a sense of belonging. They are a family of sorts. He says that the young people don’t plan their futures; they plan their funerals, because they don’t expect to live long. Young women often want to get pregnant early, so that they will have the experience of having a child before they get killed. Most of them don’t expect to make it past 20.

 

Fr. Greg helps them to see that they are valued, that they have worth and that they are not failures. He says that so many of them have come into his office and just cried, saying that they are total failures and they live in shame. But once he takes an interest in them, learns their name, helps them to see that he has an interest in them, they begin to change and many of them leave the gangs and even get jobs. Once they begin to feel loved and valued, their life starts to turn around. He has now set up an organization called Homeboy Industries.

 

He spoke about one instance where he remembered the name of one young man who came in to him and when he saw him on the street one time, he called out his name, ‘Hey Mike, how are you doing?’ He said the young man was astonished and kept turning back smiling. He couldn’t believe that someone noticed him. He had value in someone’s eyes.

 

Many of us are often afraid that we will not be good enough to get to heaven and that God might refuse us. We even joke about meeting St. Peter at the gates and him going through the book of our life, to see if we meet the grade, or testing us with questions. That is not the teaching of our faith. What the Lord tells us is that we are not capable of getting to heaven by our own strength, but He has made it possible for all of us to get to heaven by his life, death and resurrection. The only reason it won’t happen is if we reject God and we accept or reject God by the way we live.

 

Pope Francis, when he was a much younger priest was head of the Jesuits in Argentina.  During the military dictatorship in Argentina he had to make some very difficult choices. One decision he made resulted in at least two Jesuit priests being arrested and tortured for several months. One forgave him, the other did not and considered him a traitor up to his death. He made bad decisions with very serious consequences. Years later the Lord made him pope. Why would God choose someone to be pope who had betrayed other priests, even if he didn’t intend to? Why would God choose a failure? Because he was not a failure in God’s eyes. He is a human being who made mistakes. Why did he choose St. Peter who also betrayed him? because he saw the greatness in him, just as He does in us. God sees the greatness in us. We are beautiful in his eyes, regardless of the mistakes we have made. We are never a failure in his eyes. And that is why He has made it possible for us to have eternal happiness when we die. And that is what we are celebrating at Christmas.

 

‘The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.’

4th Sunday of Advent, Year C (Gospel: Luke 1:39-45) Who will save me from this wretched state?

 

Today I want to address a question that often comes up when people are talking to me in confession and it is related to what we celebrate at Christmas. Actually it is more of a fear than a question. Almost everyone talks about a particular weakness that they struggle with, whether it be anger, gossip, a sexual weakness, an addiction, or something else and it causes no end of suffering and humiliation. No matter how hard we try, we don’t seem to be able to overcome it. In fact I’ve often heard people say to me that they don’t feel there is any point in going to confession anymore because they just end up confessing the same sin again and again and they don’t seem to be getting any better, so where’s the point? It can make us afraid that we won’t be able to go to heaven because of our weakness. ‘Since I can’t overcome this sin, why would God allow me to go to heaven?’ That is usually the thinking behind it. However, when we think like that I believe we are really missing the whole point of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

 

The truth is that no matter how hard we try to be good enough and overcome our sins, our weaknesses, by our own strength, we continually fall short of the mark. That is our reality. When he wrote to the Christians in Rome, St. Paul put it like this:

Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are redeemed by his grace as a gift… to be received by faith (Rom 3:23ff).

 

In plain English that is saying to us, since all of us have sinned and can never be good enough for God by our own strength, it is God himself who has made up the difference for us. God has made up for us what we cannot do ourselves, through the death and resurrection of Jesus. The fact that we will always be sinners and will always struggle with various weaknesses is no longer a problem, because God has made us ‘good enough’ through what Jesus did. That is what being ‘redeemed’ means. We cannot get to heaven by our own strength, by our own efforts, because we are too weak and too sinful and no matter how hard we try, we keep falling short of the mark. But we don’t have to be afraid of that because Jesus himself has made up for us what we cannot do ourselves.

 

St. Paul also struggled with his own weaknesses which caused him great humiliation. You would imagine with all that God did through him, the amazing conversion experience he had and the many visions of Jesus that he had, yet listen to what he says about it:

I do not understand my own behavior; I do not act as I mean to, but I do things that I hate.  ...the good thing I want to do, I never do; the evil thing which I do not want—that is what I do. (Cf. Rom 7:14-24)

 

And finally he says, ‘Who will save me from this wretched state? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ.’ That is the same fear that people keep telling me about in confession: ‘Who will save me from this wretched weakness? How can I ever come before God in heaven when this is what I’m like?’ This is where God calls us to realize what Jesus has done for us. He has made up for our weakness himself. That is why the coming of Jesus among us at Christmas is such an wonderful event, because it is the beginning of God making up for our weakness, our sinfulness. We are not able to be good enough for God by our own strength, but it no longer matters because Jesus has made himself the bridge between God and humanity. Now we can come before God without fear, because Jesus has made it possible. 

 

Does that mean that we can do whatever we want, since God has atoned for our sinfulness? No. St. Paul writes, ‘Continue to work out your salvation in fear and trembling’ (Phil 2:12). In other words, we must never take it for granted. This is a common modern-day error that you often hear people say: ‘It doesn’t matter what we do as God will forgive everyone in the end anyway.’ That’s not what Jesus taught. We need not be afraid because God has made it possible for us to go to heaven when we die, in spite of our sinfulness, but we also have a part to play. We are called to try and live as God has taught us, obeying his Commandments and living by his teachings.

 

Each time we celebrate the mass we become present to that event—the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross—which made it possible for us to go to heaven. No other sacrifice or offering to God will ever be necessary for us, because the selfless act of Jesus dying for us has done everything necessary. All we have to do is to accept it and ask for it. This is what the second reading is about. No wonder we celebrate the mass every day, in every church all over the world.

 

The mistake we continually make, which causes us to be afraid, is to think that we have to become ‘good enough’ for God by our own strength, but the problem is that that is impossible for us by our own strength. If we stop there, then we would have every reason to despair, but once we realize that it is the death and resurrection of Jesus who has made up the difference, then we have endless hope, because it no longer depends on us being good enough. All we have to do is accept this extraordinary gift from God and continue to try and do what is right.

 

Why does God allow us to go on struggling? God could take away these weaknesses from us if He chose. The reason is because the very weaknesses we struggle with, are often the very thing that keeps us close to God. They make us aware that we are weak and how much we are in need of God’s mercy. St. Paul talks about a particular weakness that he had—although he doesn’t say what it was—and how he begged God to take it away from him. And he said that God gave him this ‘thorn in the flesh’ as he calls it, because of the extraordinary visions and miracles that he was given. This weakness helped him to stay humble. And although he begged God to take it away from him, the Lord said no.

 

Because of the extraordinary revelations that were given to me, to prevent me from becoming proud, the Lord gave me a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan to beat me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take this thing away from me. But He said to me, “[No], My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”’ (2 Cor 12:7-8).

 

No doubt he felt that he would serve God much better if he could overcome his weaknesses, but God doesn’t see it this way. We generally feel the same: ‘If only I could overcome my weakness/addiction, I would be more pleasing to God and I would serve him better.’ Yet, in a mysterious way, the Lord allows us to struggle with our weaknesses, because it keeps us humble and aware of how much we need God’s mercy and strength.

 

A man said to me in confession one time, ‘I have a terrible anger and I lose my temper so often. It causes me great shame. If I could just get rid of this anger I’d be perfect!’ I said to him, ‘You thank God for that anger!’ You can imagine how easily we could become arrogant if we thought we had overcome our weaknesses and we were ‘blameless’ before God, as a surprising number of people think they are. St. Thomas Aquinas says, ‘The only thing that we can take credit for are our sins’. Everything we have is a gift from God, including our abilities, our education, our successes, our health. We have nothing to boast about before God and it is often our weaknesses that help us to see this.

 

So, is Christmas relevant to us in a practical way in our day-to-day living? It certainly is, because the coming of God into our world in the person of Jesus is what reassures us that no matter how weak or sinful we are, the path to heaven will always remain open to us as long as we ask God for it. All we have to do is accept from God this amazing gift which He is offering us. What is the best way for us to prepare for this wonderful feast? by doing what God asks us to do and that is to repent and confess our sins; to acknowledge our sinfulness before God and ask for his mercy.

 

‘Who will save me from this wretched state? 

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ.’ (Rom 7:24)

3rd Sunday of Advent, Year C (Luke 3:10-18) Harvard Atheist Becomes Catholic

 

Dr. Roy Shoeman. Atheist turned Catholic.

Today I would like to share with you an amazing conversion story about a man by the name of Roy Shoeman, born 1951. If you can watch the video of his story I would highly recommend it, as it is one of the most inspiring stories I have heard in a long time.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWDevlijGUI&t=4s

 

Roy Shoeman was born and raised in a very Jewish family, the son of Jewish German holocaust refugees. He received a very Jewish upbringing and education. He then went to MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), which is a very a technical and scientific institute. He says that in college he lost his faith and became an atheist. Having graduated from MIT, he went on to Harvard business school, and completed his degree in marketing. When he graduated at the age of 29, he was invited back to work on the faculty as professor of marketing. He was obviously a very clever man.

 

When he was a child he always believed there must be a God and purpose to life. When he made his Bar Mitzva, which is similar to Confirmation, he hoped that it would be the beginning of a personal relationship with God, but it was not. He said that in fact it was one of the saddest days of his life. He then got caught up with worldly living and went on through high school and college. But having become a Harvard professor at the age of 29 and more successful than he ever dreamed of, he fell into a terrible despair. He had everything, except meaning and purpose; in other words, he had nothing.

 

One day he was out walking in nature and he had the most extraordinary experience of his life. He said that suddenly the veil between earth and heaven disappeared and he could see the spiritual world. He was intensely aware that he was in the presence of God and he could also see back over his life. In an instant he saw most of what is taught in the Catholic faith—although he didn’t realize that at the time—that we live for all eternity, that every action has a moral content which is recorded for all eternity; that everything that had ever happened to him was perfect and in the hands of an all-knowing, all-loving God, not only including the things which had caused him the most suffering, but especially those things, that they all fitted together perfectly in God’s plan. In other words, the sufferings we go through serve a higher purpose, which we are not aware of now.

 

Harvard University

He was also shown the two greatest regrets he would have when he died. The first was all the time he had spent thinking he was not loved, when in fact he was held in perfect love, all his life by God. The second regret was all the time he had wasted doing things of no value in the eyes of heaven. While he felt that life had no meaning, he was shown that in fact life has an infinitely deep meaning and value. He was also shown that every moment of our life has the possibility of doing something of value in the eyes of heaven and that each valued action we do, will be rewarded for all eternity.

 

He says that the most transformative part of this experience was being shown that not only was God with him all throughout his life and held him in the deepest love, but that God was with him through every joy and sorrow he ever experienced. What made him happy, made God happy and what made him sad, made God sad. He realized that we are created to worship and serve God for all eternity. He says he began praying and asking God what his name was. He didn’t care if it was the Buddha and he had to become Buddhist, or Krishna and he had to become Hindu, just so long as it wasn’t Christ and he would have to become Christian. He says he felt that way because coming from a Jewish background he felt that if he became Christian he would be being unfaithful to his Jewish heritage. However, God respected this and did not reveal any name to him.

 

He then went home, happier than he had ever been in his life and began looking into various mystical ideas to try and find out who God was. Initially he tried New Age ideas, but he soon realized this was going in the wrong direction. He prayed every night that God might show him who He is.

 

A year to the day after this experience, he went asleep and was awakened and led to a room where he found himself in the presence of the most beautiful young woman he had ever seen. Without being told, he knew immediately that this was Our Lady. She spoke to him and said, ‘Are there any questions you would like me to answer for you?’ He says that he wished he knew the Hail Mary so as to show her honor and respect, but he didn’t. So, hoping to learn the Hail Mary, but being too embarrassed to admit he didn’t know it, he asked her what her favorite prayer was. She recited a prayer in Portuguese, which he didn’t understand, but he remembered it phonetically and later asked a Portuguese Catholic woman what it meant. She said it was the prayer ‘O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.’ In the dream he found himself asking her how it was that she was so profoundly glorious and majestic. In response, she looked at him with pity and said, ‘Oh no. You don’t understand. I am nothing. I am only a creature. He is everything.’ When he woke the next morning he knew immediately that the God who had revealed himself to him was Christ and that he wanted to become Christian.

 

Straight away he found himself going to a phone book, looking up the nearest Christian Church. He knew nothing about Christianity and the difference between Protestants and Catholics, but he found himself talking to a Protestant pastor. When he shyly asked him about Our Lady, the pastor was not respectful in how he referred to her and this made him realize that he was in the wrong place. In the days and weeks that followed he found himself visiting Marian shrines and realizing that they were all part of the Catholic Church. He also found himself going to mass at times. When he did this, he felt a profound desire, almost lust, to receive the Eucharist, even though he had no idea what the Eucharist was. Within a short time, this led him to becoming a Catholic.

 

He says that not only did he not find himself being unfaithful to Judaism, but in fact he realized he was more Jewish than ever, because he was a Jew who had recognized the Messiah and was now following him. That’s exactly what the Apostles did. As Jews, they recognized Jesus as the Messiah and followed him. One leads directly to the other, which is what we believe.

 

After he became a Catholic, he says he still struggled with some of the teachings of the Church and it was about 18 months before he fully realized that all the teachings of the Church were true, because they are from God. The one he struggled with most was the teaching that people could be condemned to hell for all eternity. Talking to a priest that was guiding him, he expressed his doubt about this teaching. But the priest said to him, 'But it is a dogma (official teaching) of our faith.' In other words, we are obliged to accept and believe it as part of our faith, because it comes from God. He realized that he had been deciding what he should and should not believe, as opposed to accepting the teachings of the Church, because we believe they come from God. Who was he to decide what should and should not be believed. If God had revealed them, then they must be true. From then on he was able to accept what was taught by the Church as coming from God, even when he found it difficult to understand. This can be a challenge for all of us. It is a temptation to think that if a teaching doesn’t make sense to me then I need not believe or accept it. But if we really believe that what the Church teaches is God's teaching, then who are we to decide whether we will believe certain parts of it or not?

 

God gives us the experiences of people like Roy Shoeman, to help us believe. We all need help and encouragement, but testimonies like his are ongoing reminders of God’s wonderful providence among us, guiding us and encouraging us. He is constantly pointing us in the right direction, but always giving us the freedom to accept or reject him.

 

I want to finish with this quotation from the book of Joshua which I love and which expresses how I feel and hopefully what more and more people will embrace.

 

‘Joshua said to the people, “If you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve… As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”’ (Joshua 24:15)

 

‘Oh Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.’

 

2nd Sunday of Advent (Luke 3:1-6) What is God Asking of Me?

 

How would you feel if you got a Christmas card that read like this: 

 

Dear Bob and Mary,

My thoughts of you this Christmas are best expressed in the words of John the Baptist:

“Brood of vipers!
Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.
Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be thrown into the fire.”

Merry Christmas from Fr. Murchadh."

 

I suppose we would add Fr. Murchadh, or whoever sent it, to our list of x-friends!

 

Advent has really become the time of getting ready for Christmas in the sense of buying the gifts we want to give, going to office parties, etc, but this is quite different from the original message. Advent was originally much more penitent than it is now.

 

John the Baptist was sent by God to prepare the people for the coming of Jesus and his message was very strong. ‘Repent, confess your sins, change your lives and look for happiness in God.’ This is the part of Christmas which is easy to overlook. We want the celebration of Christmas, but we don’t necessarily want to have to repent. Just leave us alone and let us celebrate. We want forgiveness, but without having to confess. We want the love and blessing of God without having to follow the commandments. We want faith on our terms. That is called ‘cheap grace’. It is empty and it is not the message of God.

 

The message of God is a wonderful one, but it is also a very demanding one. We can not come and pick what we like. Instead we come and ask what is required of us? That is what the people who came to John asked: ‘What must we do?’ To be a disciple of Jesus is to be a follower. We are not used to thinking this way, because our world encourages us to make sure things are as we would like them. If you’re not happy, move on; but this is not the message of the Gospels. In the Gospel we listen to what it is that God asks of us. We follow God on God’s terms and not our terms. 

 

It's the same mentality when people say the mass is boring. It may be boring at times, but if it is, it is because I am looking to get something out of it. What’s in it for me? No one every says a funeral was boring, because they know why they are there: to honor the dead, to pay our respect. The mass is about me giving of myself, to worship God, to give him thanks and praise for all that we have. If I understand that then the mass won’t be boring, because I am no longer saying ‘What’s in it for me?’

 

Jesus said that John the Baptist was the greatest man ever born of woman, which is quite a statement. He was totally focused on God. He knew what was important and he passed on the message he was given and it cost him his life. When he said that what King Herod was doing was immoral, he was arrested and imprisoned. They shut down his ministry. Then he was beheaded by Herod for speaking the truth. We don’t always want to hear the truth, because it is often demanding and challenges us to change and sometimes it tells us we are wrong. No one likes to hear that. When we were children our parents scolded us from time to time, because we were doing something wrong, or being selfish. But it was done out of love, because our parents wanted to help us grow and learn.

 

If we are serious about celebrating Christmas as a Christian feast, then let us remember the message of John the Baptist: ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is close at hand.’ The term ‘repent’ means turn away from sin, but it can also mean ‘change the direction in which you are looking for happiness.’ That is a message many people need to hear. So many people are looking for happiness in the world, but when the things of the world collapse, they are left disappointed. Worldly things don’t fulfil us. The Lord is reminding us that we will only find our happiness in him. It is only in God that we will find true happiness. The world will disappoint us; God will not. People will let us down, but God will not.

 

The sin of Adam and Eve was a very similar sin to what we see going on today. It involved three things: (1) rejecting the idea that they had to serve God, or listen to his commands; (2) that they could have everything they wanted on their terms, (3) that they could be like God themselves. That is still a real temptation. Why should we have to obey commandments? We don’t like being told we have to obey anyone and yet the word obey literally means ‘to listen intently’ (from the Latin, ‘ob audire’). And if you think about it, it says that Jesus was obedient to the Father. Jesus was equal to the Father, but Jesus was also obedient to him. We are being called to listen intently to what God tells us, to acknowledge that we are God’s creation and that we must obey—listen intently—to what He tells us if we are to find the path to happiness.

 

The most important preparation we can make for Christmas is the interior preparation, the change of heart, the confession of sins. Many people don’t want to have to confess their sins. We think we shouldn’t have to, but this is what God asks us to do and if God asks us to do it, it is for our benefit. Deciding that I don’t need to confess is saying, ‘God, I don’t need your gift and I don’t need to listen to what you ask of me.’ God has given us the gift of confession, through his priests, in order to help us and heal us. It is one of the sacraments of healing.

 

What a shame it would be to die and come before God and then realize that He had given us this gift of his forgiveness and we ignored it, telling ourselves we knew better. When we die we will be shown the good and bad we have done, but we will also see how much God offered us, which we ignored, or refused.

 

What we celebrate at Christmas is the beginning of a great event, the greatest event in history, which happened over 33 years. God coming among us in the person of Jesus—the second person of the Holy Trinity—taking on human flesh, in order to atonement for our sins, so that we could go to heaven when we die. God created us for paradise. We lost it, by rejecting God’s word, but God won it back for us through the death and resurrection of Jesus and now that is ours should we accept it. No wonder Christmas is such a great celebration.

 

As always, the Lord invites us to listen to him and follow him. He will never force us:

I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door to me, I will come in and sit down to eat with him, and he with me. (Rev 3:20) 

 

Those words are from the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible and this message is repeated all through the Bible in different ways. The Lord wants to be at the centre of what we do, but we are the only ones who can allow that to happen.

‘Repent, for the kingdom of God is close at hand.’

 

 

1st Sunday of Advent, Year C (Gospel: Lk 21:25-28, 34-36)

 

I always like the fact that we celebrate Christmas in the middle of winter when the evenings are short and it is usually cold (unless you live in Florida!). Then we begin to light candles and put up coloured lights and decorations to remind us of the coming of our King. It is a time of great hope and hopefully also a time that will bring joy. ‘Advent’—which simply means ‘coming’—is meant to be a time of preparing for two things: we are preparing for the coming of Jesus at Christmas, and we are also remembering that Christ will come again at the end of time. Each Sunday in the Creed we say that, ‘He will come again to judge the living and the dead.’ We don’t know when that will be, but we believe that it will happen. The Lord asks us to ‘stay awake’ and not to forget him, because none of us know when we will die, but the important thing is that we do not forget the Lord, who loves us and who created us. And so each Christmas we remember that Jesus came among us, for us, to help us, to teach us about God, about the world to come and above all to die for us, so that we can join in the happiness of God when we die ourselves.

The best way that we can prepare ourselves is in the heart, by trying to give time to God and being open to what He wants to say to us. The Lord is constantly speaking to us but often we are not listening because we are too busy or distracted. People sometimes ask me if God speaks to me. Yes, God speaks to me all the time, but not through visions or voices. It's usually through other people or through the Scriptures. It took me quite a while to learn how to listen so that I might hear what God is saying to me. Advent is a good time to try and listen again and hear what the Lord has to say to us. That is why the readings are about getting ready for the one who is coming, and not being so distracted by the world around us that we forget him.

One thing that is characteristic of the Gospels is that they are full of hope. The message of God to us—the Good News—is always one of hope and it is certainly something we need in a world where we are constantly hearing of so many terrible things happening around us. 

There is one news anchorman on TV who when talking to a reporter often uses the phrase, 'So just how worried should we be?' One time he was talking to a reporter out in the field after some disaster and he asked that same question: 'So just how worried should we be?' The reporter said that by now there was no danger, everything had been taken care of and there was no need for anyone to be concerned. The anchorman asked again, 'So just how worried should we be?'

The media like to make us anxious, or even fearful, because then we 'stay tuned' which is how they sell their programs. It's their job and they're good at it, but it is in sharp contrast to what God says to us in the Scriptures. 366 times in the Bible are the words, 'Do not be afraid.' Jesus says, 'Why do you worry about what you are to eat and what you re to wear... Your heavenly Father knows you need them all.' (Matt 6: 31). Before Jesus ascends to heaven He says to the Apostles, 'Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. Trust in God and trust in me. (John 14:1).

We don't hear of all the wonderful things that are constantly happening around us: the many acts of kindness that people continually do for each other, looking out for each other especially when we are struggling. This is the Spirit at work in us and this is what makes the world bearable, in spite of the awful things that happen. I have no doubt the amount of good that is done every day far outweighs the amount of evil, but we don't hear about it.

In Nov 2016, several serious fires were started in different parts of Israel, just to cause suffering. Then, to everyone’s amazement one group that came to help out were firefighters from Palestine. As you know there is a lot of tension and hatred between these two countries at the best of times, but there is more goodness in people than evil. We just don’t usually hear about it.

Not long after the war between Israel and Hamas started, when one of the hostages, an 85 year old woman by the name of Yocheved Lifshitz, was being released by Hamas, she turned to one of the Hamas militants, extended her hand and said, ‘Shalom.’ He didn’t seem to know what to do except to accept her hand. Good continually overcomes evil.

Yocheved Lifshitz wishes 'Shalom' to Hamas militant

I often hear of situations where someone is in real trouble, financially. Then when they think there is no hope, someone unexpected comes along and offers them the help they need. God sends someone to them.

After the last hurricane Milton, one of our parishioners lost the roof of her house, which had just recently been replaced, but it was not done properly. She had no way of paying for it. Then two of our parishioners heard about it, stepped up and offered to pay for a new roof. You never hear about things like that on the news. God is at work all the time.

Jesus reminds us that while we get on with the ordinary things of everyday life—eating, drinking, marrying, working—we must not forget the eternal things. It is a warning to us never to become so immersed in time and the things of the world, that we forget eternity. Even though the worldly affairs are important, we must not let them distract us from the reality of God; the reality that we will die, that life and death are in his hands, and that whenever He does come for us, He must find us ready.

 

In one sense we can never be ready enough for God. How do you prepare to meet God? And yet this is what God has created us for and we believe it will be wonderful beyond our wildest dreams, if we have made any effort to be ready.

 

Jesus says that when the Son of Man comes, of two people doing the same thing, one will be taken the other left. What does this mean? It means that although both people were doing the same ordinary things that we all have to do, one of them had not forgotten about God, but the other had; the one who had forgotten was left behind.

 

If we get totally immersed in the world, or in our families, or in our work, then we have missed what it is about, because there is much more to our life than this. 

As you well know, it is often when someone becomes seriously ill, or dies, that we suddenly start realizing how much we have become immersed in the world. We do have to get on with the day to day things of working and living, but we are being told to make sure that we also make time for God. 

 

I think a good way to prepare for a happy Christmas, is to keep it simple and spend some time remembering what it is about. Even go to mass once a week, or spend a few minutes in a church every few days. That way we will remember what we are celebrating.

The Angel said to the shepherds: do not be afraid. 

I bring you news of great joy.

Today in the town of David

a Savior has been born for you;

He is Christ the Lord.

 

Our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King (Gospel: Jn: 18:33b-37)

 

You could sum up what I am about to say with four words: Jesus Christ is Lord. That is really all that matters. Jesus Christ is Lord.

 

Some time ago I was asked to visit a man in hospital. He was probably in his 70s. When he saw me he must have felt uncomfortable, as he began to tell me in so many words, how he didn’t really need me there, as he had a close relationship with God. He seemed to want to prove how tough he was. He then went on to talk about how he was on a first name basis with the Holy Trinity, describing how he related to the Father, Son and Spirit and the Virgin Mary, as if they were buddies at the bar. I can’t remember the exact words he used, but I remember finding myself being disgusted at the way he spoke, as it was so disrespectful. I don’t think he meant to be disrespectful, but it was.

 

The only way we should come before God, is on our knees with our face to the ground, in awe and reverence for who and what God is. Yes, Jesus is our brother, having taken on human flesh, but He is also the creator of the world, the one who will come to judge the living and dead, the one before whom everyone will bow down and tremble. It is so important that we don’t forget that. That is also why we begin every mass by acknowledging that we are sinners and asking for God’s mercy.

 

In the Prophet Isaiah, Isaiah is given a vision of heaven, where he sees God on his throne. His reaction? He is terrified. Immediately he recognizes his sinfulness before God’s holiness and he is afraid it will kill him.

‘Woe is me, for I am lost. For I am a man of unclean lips, who dwell among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.’ (Is 6:5)

 

Then it says that an angel came down and touched him on the lips with a hot coal, to purify him and reassure him he would not die.

 

The Prophet Ezekiel is also shown a vision of heaven:

‘I then saw what looked like a throne made of sapphire. And sitting on the throne was a figure in the shape of a human. From the waist up it was glowing like metal in a hot furnace and from the waist down it looked like the flames of a fire. I realized I was seeing the brightness of God’s glory, so I bowed my face to the ground.’ (Ezek 1:26-28)

 

In Revelations, St. John the Apostle saw a similar vision of Jesus in his glory, except that Jesus comes towards him. He says he was so frightened that he fainted, even though he had lived with Jesus for three years.

 

It is very easy to become casual about our faith, but it is so important that we don’t, that we remember who and what God is, who Jesus is. It is a wonderful thing that Jesus invites us to have a personal relationship with him and he speaks to us as a friend, but we still have to be careful of how we approach God. He is the Lord and master of all things, the King of Kings, the judge of the living and the dead.

 

Think about when you receive the Eucharist. We are receiving the Body of Christ, not a thing, not holy bread, not a symbol, but Jesus, the Son of God. How do you dress? How do you hold it when it is put in your hand? Do you flick it back into your mouth, or walk away with it? When was the last time you confessed your sins, as the Lord asks us to, so that we are not receiving his Body and Blood unworthily? St. Paul writes:

‘Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, will be guilty of sinning against the Body and Blood of the Lord. Each one must examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. Anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks judgement on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick and some have fallen asleep’ (1 Cor 11: 27-30).

 

Does that mean we should be afraid? No. It is Jesus himself who wants us to receive him in the Eucharist. Pope Francis puts it beautifully. He says, ‘The Eucharist is food for sinners, not a reward for saints,’ but we must be careful how we go about it. We can never be casual, or we may bring condemnation on ourselves and that applies just as much to me. In fact, it is more serious for me, because the Lord comes into my hands as a priest in every mass. It is a great responsibility and one which often scares me, because I too will be accountable as his priest.

 

Often you hear people talking about God and religion as if it were something optional. You can take it or leave it, it’s up to you. God is not the optional extra. We are the optional extra. God exists, but we need not be here except that God created us and keeps us in existence. God also entrusted his world to our care, not to do what we like with it, but to look after it. Our world and our gifts and talents have been entrusted to us to use for his glory. When we die we will have to show God what we did with those gifts.

 

On the last three Sundays of the year, including today, we read Gospels that refer to God’s judgement of us. The parable of the ten virgins, five of whom were left outside, because they hadn’t bothered to prepare. They were casual about their role and they were left behind. There is also the parable of the talents, where the king gives different amounts of money to three servants according to their ability. Two of them invested it and he commends them and rewards them. But he condemns the one who did nothing with what he was given. He wasn’t condemned because he did something, but because he didn’t do anything. He was indifferent. Jesus mentioned so many times how there is no room for indifference.

 

There is also the Gospel where at the judgement the sheep are separated from the goats.

‘When the Son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him… and all the nations will be assembled before him. And He will separate them one from another as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.’ (See Matt 25:31-45)

 

One group was condemned. Why? because they didn’t do anything. They didn’t specifically carry out wrong actions, but they didn’t do anything. They had been entrusted with the world and the people around them and they ignored everything and did only what they wanted, ignoring God and ignoring God’s creation. And when they say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and not feed you, or naked and not clothe you…’ And God says, ‘Whatever you neglected to do to one of these little ones, you neglected to do it to me.’ (Matt 25:45).

 

The Lord is reminding us that it is his world, his creation and we have been entrusted with his creation to take care of it. It’s not just about us. It is about God. That is also why it is so sad when we get to the stage where we feel we can go completely against God’s Commandments and say that it is none of his business. We can do what we want. The Lord gave us specific Commandments to follow and we will be accountable.

If you think of something like the border situation, where there are so many people coming across illegally. Understandably it is upsetting and every country has a right to control its borders, but the very first thing, is to take care of the human being in front of you. If here is a person in front of you and they are starving, or suffering, we have an obligation to help them. The second thing is to deal with the political side of things. If you find yourself saying, ‘Why should we help them? They are illegal.’ Remember this Gospel passage. To ignore the basic needs of any human being is to ignore the Lord. He didn’t say, ‘I was illegal and so it was ok not to help me.’ He said, ‘I was in need, but you failed to help me.’ It is easy to get caught up in the political, or legal side of it, forgetting the needs of each person.

 

A few years ago we had a man here by the name of Rami Qumsieh, selling religious artifacts to support the Christians in the Holy Land. Afterwards someone emailed me to say that we shouldn’t have to support them as the Church has lots of money. Think of this Gospel.

 

For us to be faithful means we must make conscious decisions to follow God’s law, continually looking to see if we are living it. That’s why we keep reading the Scriptures. Often God’s laws make us uncomfortable, because they challenge us when we are going off track. The irony is that it is God’s very laws that will lead us to the greatest freedom and happiness, but we must choose. We will be different and it will cost us, because we will meet resistance, just as Jesus said we would. But what could be greater than following the very path that God points out to us, the only one that leads to happiness.

 

Much of our world has rejected the ways of God and we must decide who we follow. But we cannot be casual about it. In Revelations the angel says to one of the communities, ‘I know your deeds, how you are neither hot nor cold, but only lukewarm. I wish you were one or the other. But since you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am going to spit you out of my mouth.’ (Rev 3:15-17). There is no room for indifference. We must choose whom we belong to.

 

‘…At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess, in heaven on earth and under the earth, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the father’ (Phil 2:10-11).