Homily 2024/12/29 Holy Family

 1 Sm 1:20-22, 24-28

Ps 84:2-3, 5-6, 9-10.

1 Jn 3:1-2, 21-24

Lk 2:41-52

There’s one line in the second reading which I think sums up all four readings, including the psalm:  Beloved, we are God’s children now;  let that sink in… repeat.  Let me see if you understood:  who here is a child of God?

If I’m a child of God – and you’re a child of God - then that you my sister – you’re my brother.  Today we’re celebrating the Holy Family – yeah it’s about Jesus/Mary/Joseph.  But it’s MORE than that: WE are Family.  (I’ll avoid singing it like the Pointer Sisters)  Does that make you nervous to be in such a big family? 

Personally, I grew up in a large family, something only a few people today can even comprehend… .but it’s ‘normal’ to me.  

My parents had 11 kids – and since that wasn’t enough, we became a foster-home, where we would take in infants before they would be placed with an adoptive family.  Adding one more person to the mix seemed natural to us – and actually added some variety to our lives as we would fight for our turn to hold or feed the baby… but we didn’t fight to CHANGE the baby.

When I was about 15, a cute little blonde-haired, blue-eyed two-year-old girl came to live with us.  For some reason, her Mom couldn’t take care of her temporarily, so we opened our doors to this little angel.  After 4 years of living with us, her Mom made the heart-wrenching decision to put her up for adoption.  We had a family meeting to discuss what we should do.  It was unanimous – we would offer to adopt her.  Seemed only right: she was already part of the family unofficially – so it would be cruel to her (and to us) to rip her away.  So, she became my sister – the youngest of 12 siblings.

How big of a deal do you think that was to my sister?  She probably didn’t realize it at the time, but that one act of adoption changed everything in her life… forever.  It changed her very IDENTITY.  She went from ‘no family’ to ‘huge family’.  She went from ‘no inheritance’ to well… a share in the inheritance.  She went from ‘no home’ to ‘home for life’.  She was even given a new name: Seibert.

Question for you:  what choice did SHE have whether she wanted to become a Seibert?  I’m sure they asked her opinion, but is a kid her age really capable of making that kind of decision?  In the end, the decision was made by my parents and the judge.  That’s what happens in an adoption – it’s not the child’s choice… it is a legal action of the parents who say:  I choose you to be in our family… I will love you forever… I will give you a name… you will live in our house, eat at our table, we will teach you the best way to live and you will have an inheritance with the rest of the family.  Notice – it’s not the child’s choice – it’s the parent’s choice.

THAT is also what happens in Baptism.  God himself ‘adopts’ us into His family.  That’s why we baptize infants…. Baptism is not OUR choice – it is GOD’S choice.  God himself makes a covenant with us… a family-bond.  He says,  I choose you to be in MY family… I will love you forever… I will give you a name… you will live in MY house, eat at MY table, I will teach you the best way to live and you will have an inheritance of eternal life with the rest of MY family.  That one act of adoption changed everything in YOUR life… forever.  It changed our very IDENTITY.

YOU became a BELOVED SON OR DAUGHTER of God – that’s what Paul is saying in that second reading.  To be a Child of God means we are not orphans…. We have a Father – Jesus is our brother – and every one of us here is brother and sister. 

Do we REALIZE what that means?  THIS (Church) is our home.  Does it feel like home to you?

I remember when a cousin came to spend a couple nights at our house.  We awoke one morning to find him in the kitchen rooting through the cabinets to find cereal for breakfast.  To this day, it shocks me that anyone would have the nerve to dig in the cabinets when it wasn’t his home.  Maybe that’s normal to some of you – but even us kids who lived there wouldn’t go digging in the cabinets unless we were given permission to do so.  We were certainly WELCOME to ANY food in the house – because it was our home – but we respected our parents’ authority to decide what we could eat and when.

Which leads to another line in the second reading:  we have confidence in God and receive from him whatever we ask,

As children of God – every blessing in heaven is available to us!  We’re not visitors in God’s house, THIS IS OUR HOME!  However, we respect the authority of our Father and ASK for the blessings He bestows.  We’re not orphans – we’re not visitors – we’re not thieves…

Beloved, we are God’s children now;
Notice the word ‘now’… this is not something we’re waiting for when we die or at the end of time – this is NOW.  God has already adopted us when we were baptized.  We already have access to all the cupboards in heaven.

If you pick up the phone and call your Dad right now – how would he react?  If my dad was still alive, I would have the right to call him anytime and he would joyfully talk with me – because I am his son and he knows me by name.

That’s the kind of access we have to God the Father!  He know each of us by name… personally.

We are not part of the Christian family because of anything we’ve done but because God said so.  There is nothing we can do that will make God love us less – and there is nothing we can do that will make God love us MORE. 

See what love the Father has bestowed on us
that WE may be called the children of God.   And …so …we …are.

2024/05/26 Could God exist and NOT be a Trinity?

Before Mass:

There’s a couple of things I want to call to your attention as you listen to the readings.

1^st reading – Have you ever seen anything this amazing?  That God actually chose a people to be His own?  If you have time to think about it – let it sink in – Israel didn’t choose God - God CHOSE Israel!

2^nd reading  talks about how we are children of God – yeah yeah we hear that all the time – let yourself hear it anew today – God has no grandchildren – he chooses each one of us and adopts us as his child.  Listen for what is says about adoption.

Gospel- This is one of the only places in the Bible that specifically mentions all three members of the Trinity.  BUT – it also it talks about Baptism.  That may sound like a side-comment, but it’s key to our understanding.

Here’s the all-important question for you to Consider today:  Is it possible for God exist and NOT be a Trinity?

 Dt 4:32-34, 39-40    Ps 33:4-5, 6, 9, 18-19, 20, 22     Rom 8:14-17    Mt 28:16-20

Homily

So what do you think?  IS it possible for God exist and NOT be a Trinity?

On one hand, yeah - He is God… so God can be whatever He wants… But God has revealed enough about himself that we KNOW He is a Trinity.  In fact, I’d go so far as to insist that God MUST be a Trinity.

To make my point – let’s start by thinking about who IS God?  This is where you need your thinking caps.  In order to explain what I mean, I gotta pull in two other scriptures:

We didn’t hear it today, but In the first letter of John, he actually gave us a definition of God – see if you can fill in the blank:  “God is ____”  LOVE – God is Love – it’s only three words, but it’s packed with implications.  God is Love.

The other scripture I gotta pull in is Genesis.  Remember when God first created mankind, He said, “let us make Man in our image, in the image and likeness of God he made him, male and female he created them.”

Catch that?  You and I are made in the image and likeness of God.  YOU were made in God’s image, but HOW do You personally image God?   Does God have two eyes, two ears and a nose?  No - What IS God’s image:  We just heard it – God is Love – 

So think for a second – if you are made in God’s image, and God is Love, how do YOU personally image Love? – Let’s ask it this way: is it possible for you by yourself to image Love?  How would you do it? – IDEAS?  you do it by giving someone a hug – or doing something for someone.  See – one person BY THEMSELVES cannot image love – because Love implies relationship.  You can’t have Love without Relationship:  there has to be a Lover and a Beloved – by definition, Love implies more than one person.  Do you see where this is going?  God MUST be more than one person because He is Love and Love is impossible without relationship…that’s where the Trinity comes in.

In God, we have the Father loving the Son, the Son loving the Father, and the Love between them is so real that we give it a name – the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit IS the love that binds the Trinity together.  Perfect love also gives life!  Because God IS love, His greatest desire would be to share himself… so He gave life to all of creation and humanity.

So how do we humans image God?  I propose that the way we image God best is the family.  We have the Husband loving the wife and the wife loving the Husband and the love between them is so real that nine months later you have to give it a name!  The Holy Spirit is the love that binds the family together and the result is a new life!.

God is Love – so He must be a Trinity – He must be a relationship of Love.

God is inviting you into relationship – with others yes, but mainly with Him.  He wants to be your Father.  Did you hear that in the second reading?

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,
but you received a Spirit of adoption,
through whom we cry, "Abba, Father!"

we are children of God,
and if children, then heirs,

When does this relationship begin?  When do we receive the Spirit he talks about?  Baptism – Baptism is an adoption ceremony where God chooses to call you Son or Daughter.

Some people think we shouldn’t baptize infants – ever heard that?  I was doing marriage prep for a couple a couple months ago and the girl said – they weren’t sure they wanted to baptize their kids as infancts – she said – we want to wait until they reach the age of reason to decide for themselves”.  So I asked her, “What age would you say”?  She said  12 – twelve?  Really?  What 12 year old would CHOOSE to go to church?  What 12 year old is mature enough to make a decision that impacts their eternal life?  Some of us don’t reach the age of reason until 40 or 60 or heck, many of us may not be there yet.

Here’s the problem – our culture has lost the truth about baptism.  Baptism is NOT when WE choose God… It’s when God chooses US!  It’s not OUR choice – it’s GOD’S choice.  It’s an adoption ceremony.  So let’s think about what happens in an adoption:

Picture this couple here decides to adopt an infant.  What CHOICE does that infant have whether or not they want to be part of their family?  Zero – seriously.

It’s not a choice of the child – it’s a choice of the parents. 

Parents decide I want this child to be part of my family – I will love them forever, they’ll have my family name, they’ll live in my house, eat at my table, I will teach them, and they will have an inheritance with my family.  This is what happens with adoption – it’s a legal action – a choice of the parents.

Similarly with Baptism – it’s an adoption ceremony– God says, I choose to take this child as my son or daughter – I will love them forever, they’ll live in my house, eat at my table, I will teach them, and they will have an inheritance of eternal life with my family.  Baptism is not OUR choice – it’s God’s choice.

In baptism you and I are grafted into the Holy Trinity.  Just as God is a relationship of 3 people held together by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit binds us to God – even when we stray – the Father still says “you are my son – you are my daughter”. 

Because of this relationship, We call God Father, we call Jesus brother – and every one of us is tied together by the Holy Spirit.

2024/04/21 Who are You

Anybody know who Inigo Montoya is?  Ah… there are a FEW people who appreciate good, classic movies. 

Inigo Montoya is a fictional character from the movie “The Princess Bride”.  His father was brutally killed when he was a boy and Inigo vowed to avenge his father’s death – so spent his life becoming a master swordsman and then went out looking for the man who killed his father.  He practiced his speech for how he would introduce himself when he would meet the murder.  If y’all that know it – say it with me in his Spanish accent:

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

I bring him up because of what he said at the end of the movie -AFTER he had killed his Dad’s murderer.

He said, “It’s very strange. I have been in the revenge business so long, now that it's over, I don't know what to do with the rest of my life.”

Inigo’s thirst for vengeance had become so core to his Identity that he forgot who he was.  You might say, he lost himself in the process.

I think that can apply to any of us here – we tend to forget who we really are.  To make my point, let’s do a little experiment:  Take just 15 seconds and think to yourself how you would introduce yourself to someone you’ve not met…what would you say if you needed to introduce yourself… OK – I’m gonna guess that most of us would give our name – that’s a good start – then we’d probably either tell what we do for a living or tell about our family / how many kids we have.  That’s quite normal in our culture.

The trouble is, especially for men I think, our identity becomes so wrapped up in our job that if our job is taken from us – or even if we retire – suddenly we’re saying the same thing as Inigo: It’s very strange. I have been in this business so long, now that it's over, I don't know what to do with the rest of my life.

And while that may sound like a problem – it’s actually a great opportunity!  Once we take away the crutch that has held up our identity, we find ourselves falling to the next level of identity where we actually ask the question, ‘Who am I, really’?  It’s a lifelong process and we all go through it until the day we die – but I propose to you that this question “who am I’ is the very core of all our questions in life. 

Who we think we are colors every decision.  If I see myself as an environmentalist, then my actions will follow by recycling and reusing.  If I see myself as a chemist, I’d spend my time studying chemistry and running experiments.  If I see myself as an atheist, well actually I don’t know what I’d spend my time doing, because it seems that nothing in life would have any meaning… so I can’t speak for them.

I say all of this because of what Paul tells us in the second reading – “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God.  Yet so we are.”

Does that apply to anybody here?  Anybody a child of God?  Yes – all of us!  When did we become a child of God?  At Baptism.  Baptism is when we receive the two most important parts of our Identity: First – we receive our name.  The very first question in the Rite is ‘what name do you give your child’.  You know, it used to be that baptism was also the naming ceremony… can you imagine – the name of the baby wouldn’t be revealed to the public until it was officially named in the baptism rite!  I think some of the Eastern Churches still do this. 

Then, right after we pour the water and do the actual baptism, there’s a great line in the rite which echoes our second reading, “….this child is now called a child of God for indeed she is!”  Catch that?  We received our name – but then we receive the name of ‘Child of God’.  I remember two years ago on Easter at sunrise I did a baptism for an infant – and when I said those words “this child is now called a Child of God for indeed she is”, she raised her arms as if in victory!!!  It was so cute.  She was probably just filling her diaper, but it makes for a great story.

Every one of us receives our core identity at baptism.  You are now called a child of God.

See – regardless of what we pursue all of our lives – what jobs we have – how many kids we have – in the end that will all just be footnotes to the real story of who we are.  We are God’s children now.

What’s that mean?  If you ‘ve been to any of my baptisms in the last couple years, you’ve heard me explain that Baptism is an adoption ceremony.  Now think about this in human terms for a minute – imagine Joe and Sally want to adopt an infant.  What choice does that child have about whether they want to join Joe and Sally’s family?  Zero.  Baptism is a legal action of the parents to decide that this baby will now be part of our family… we will love them all their life, they will live in our house, they will eat at our table, we will teach them, and they will have an inheritance from our family.

Notice – the child had no part in this decision – it is purely a legal action of the parents.

In baptism, some people seem to think we have to wait until the child is the ‘age of reason’ before we baptize them.  Exactly when IS the age of reason?  I asked a young lady that and she suggested age 12… and I wonder – what 12 year old would CHOOSE to go to church – much less make a decision that impacts their eternal life.

No baptism is not about US choosing God – it is about God choosing us!  Just like Joe and Sally made the decision to adopt, in baptism GOD HIMSELF is saying – I will love you forever, You will live in my house, you will eat at my table, I will teach you, and you will have an inheritance of eternal life!

That’s why we baptize infants….this is not OUR decision, but an act of God. 

When we are baptized, we join the flock of the Good Shepherd – notice not just Shepherd – but GOOD Shepherd.  We trust the Good Shepherd to lead us through life – that he will lead us to green pastures – even when we’re walking through the desert or the valley of death, we can fear no evil for we TRUST that the Good Shepherd is leading us to greener pastures.

Because Jesus is GOOD, then we WANT to be in His flock.  Notice when a shepherd takes his flock to the next pasture, he doesn’t DRIVE them out – he LEADS them out and they WILLINGLY follow.  God always moves first.  He doesn’t force His sheep to do anything.  The sheep know the shepherd – they’ve grown up with him since birth and KNOW him – they TRUST him to lead them to the best pastures.  You and I – most of us are cradle Catholics and we’ve grown up with Jesus – we should KNOW him – we should TRUST him.  In fact, Jesus is the only one who CAN save us.  We heard that in the first reading,

There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved."

Remember who you are – remember WHO’S you are – you are a child of God – you are in the flock of the Good Shepherd. 

Whatever you’re going through today – and I know that everybody here has a struggle they’re dealing with – whatever it is, Call out to the Good Shepherd and TRUST Him to lead you through it.  God always moves first.

 

 

2024/01/28 - Harden Not Your Hearts

 Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dt 18:15-20   Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 7-9     1 Cor 7:32-35     Mk 1:21-28                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

BEFORE MASS

Remember what happened when God gave them the 10 commandments? – if you go back to Exodus you’ll see that God didn’t just speak to Moses – he spoke directly to each person.  God had Moses get all the people to gather around the base of the mountain – and this dark cloud covered the mountain and there was lighting and a loud Shofar – like a horn – and– in that they heard the voice of God speak directly to them….and it FREAKED THEM OUT!  They said – Moses -YOU speak to us – don’t let God speak to us again lest we die!  Keep that in mind for the first reading.

Now there’s a connection between that reading and the Gospel – in a way the Gospel is a fulfillment of the prophecy in the 1st reading.

Oh – and pay particular attention to the psalm, because it kinda threads all the readings together, although it may not be obvious.

HOMILY

What’s the prophecy in the first reading?  God promised to send a prophet from among our own kin - who would speak HIS words.

Then BOOM – in the Gospel, we have – Jesus speaking with authority!  There’s two pieces to that authority– first – you probably already know this – but any good rabbi of the day would be good because he could quote other rabbis – like "Well, Gamaliel says…" or "Rabbi Nicodemus says…"   But Jesus quoted the words of no one – He directly spoke the Word of God - because He IS the Word.  Did you see that – He spoke the word of God DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE… just like in the first reading, except this time He is in human form, so they can bear it.

Y’all knew that, I’m sure.  But there’s another authority here – the first miracle in the Gospel of Mark shows Jesus’ authority over demons. 

1 John 3:8  told us - "the reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil."  The Demons KNEW that.  That’s why they asked the question – “have you come to destroy us?”  They knew who He was and what His purpose was.

Notice Jesus’ authority over them:  The demos must listen to the Word of God.  Why is that?  Demons are what?  Fallen Angels.  Fallen Angels don’t have free will.  They can’t change their minds because their identity is set – see – at the moment of creation angels had one choice – to serve God or not Serve God.  They made their one choice and it was not for God… Lucifer said, Non Servium… I will not serve.  We could get into 'why' he said that, but that’s another homily.  The important point is that these for fallen angels - their identity was set - in effect, they’re hearts were hardened…

But they cannot NOT listen to Jesus.  They must follow His command, because He is Lord of all creation… demons are created beings.  Yes, The Word of God has authority over the demons.

You and I have that same authority – with a twist.  If you and I were to cast out a Demon, we’d have to say – “In the name of Jesus, I say Quiet!  Come out of him!”.  But Jesus didn’t have to add that first part because He has the personal authority.  Our authority is only in His name.  There is power in the name of Jesus.

Notice too that he first told them to be Quiet.  We never want to allow the demons to speak, because they speak lies and plant seeds of doubt and fear and distrust.

Jesus speaks with authority to US too.  You and I are also created beings, but we were made in the image of God – and one of the main ways that we are 'like God' is that we have free will.  When Jesus speaks to US, We can choose to listen or ignore… When we ignore or reject the Word of God - in effect, then we become like the demons…. With hardened hearts.  But When we soften our hearts, we hear the Word of God and let it change us.  

If Today you Hear His voice, harden not your hearts.