December 10, 2009. Homily, December 12, 2009

[The same Gospel as December 8, 2009 and:]

Luke 1:39-47

Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said,, "Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled."

And Mary said:

"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my soul rejoices in God, my savior."

["My soul magnifies the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God, my savior."]

The Gospel of the Lord.

"The Lord is with thee" meaning the God of her fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of Joseph, of David is with her. She must respond to Gabriel, the able-bodied one, the hero of God, the angel who stands before God. She is alone in her response, And her only support is the narrow will of God, and her readiness to believe, and her readiness to obey.

December 12 is the Feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Mary appeared to Juan Diego, Cuauhtlatoattzin [quat-la-toe-at-zin], "Speaking Eagle", on Tepacac Hill near Mexico City, this day in 1531.

Her appearance inscribed on Juan Diego's tilma, made of yucca plant leaves and still fresh and bright today, almost 500 years later, is my "My Lord and My God" moment. From John 20:24-29, where Jesus, after the Resurrection, appeared a second time to the apostles and a first time to St. Thomas. "Thomas, put your fingers into the marks of the nails and your hand into my side and do not be disbelieving, but be believing." And Thomas replied, "My Lord and My God".

December 4, 2009, Homily, Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Luke, 1:26-28:

The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, "Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you." But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end." But Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?" And the angel said to her in reply, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God." Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.

The Gospel of the Lord.

Gabriel: God's able-bodied one, or hero of God.

David was the ancestor of Joseph. David was also the ancestor of Mary.

Mary said "Yes" overturning the sin of Eve, who on the Devil's urging disobeyed God the Father and ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil - original sin.

There have been many aberrations of Marian piety, and we need to stay close to the authentic tradition. St Ambrose gave it luminous expression in his comment on this passage. "Every soul who has believed both conceives and generates the Word of God and recognises his works. Let the soul of Mary be in each one of you to magnify the Lord. Let the spirit of Mary be in each one to exult in Christ."

Compare Mary's visit from the angel Gabriel with Zechariah's visit from the same angel Gabriel [My name is Gabriel. I stand before God.] Mary a humble your virgin in her home. Zechariah a priest of the Jewish faith in the Temple charges with responsibility for the holy of holies, the sanctuary, the Tabernacle. While Mary believes while Zechariah doubts, and is stuck dumb for his impertinence.

November 29, 2009. Homily. December 1, 2009.

Luke 10:21-24

Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, "I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have kept these things hidden from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him."

Turning to the disciples in private he said, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it."

The Gospel of the Lord.

Jesus is exultant on the successful return of the seventy who had been sent out two by two as missionaries. They were sent out as emissaries of the Lord, to witness to the Lord, to cure the sick, to be worthy of their role, and to preach what John the Baptist had preached - repent and repentance. Later, after the Passion, death and resurrection of the Lord, they will preach His way and anchor their preaching with the fact, that He had died for our sins and then rose again and ascended into heaven where He sits at the right hand of the Father as mediator for us.

I am reminded of my own ordination as deacon when Cardinal Egan sent me and the other ordinandi, my class-mates, out with the words, "Read the Gospel, believe what you read, preach what you believe, and practice what you preach."

And the instruction of St. Francis Assisi on how to preach. Preach the Gospel. Use words only if necessary.

November 25, 2009. Homily, Saturday. November 28, 2009.

Luke 21:34-36.

Jesus said to His disciples: "Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap. For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth. Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man."

The Gospel of the Lord.

Only two things are certain: death and taxes.

And we also know, or think we know, that no one gets off this earth alive.

What is our response to agnostics (do not know if there is a God or is not); atheists (deny that God exists)? Well, for atheists, there is no hope.

How does one comment on this Gospel? Jesus was talking at end of days, before His Passion, death and resurrection. Before that time, before the resurrection, there is no hope. Where do we look for hope? Let us look back at the readings of Thanksgiving. Paul to the Corinthians. Paul 's version of Jesus is all after the Resurrection, so that Paul's writings are all of hope: Paul says in Romans, If there is no Resurrection, then our all our preaching is in vain. We preach the Resurrection so that we can say, "O Death, where is your victory? O Death, where is your sting?"

Paul, 1 Cor. 1:3-9.

Brothers and sisters: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I give thanks to my God always on your account for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus, that in him you were enriched in every way, with all discourse and all knowledge, as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you await for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will keep you firm to the end, irreproachable of the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, and by him you were called to fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

The word of the Lord.

November 21, 2009. Homily, November 25, 2009.

Luke 21:12-19.

Jesus said to the crowd, "They will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name. It will lead to your giving testimony. Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand, for I myself will give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute. You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives."

The Gospel of the Lord.

Saint Catherine of Alexandria. 18 year old Egyptian virgin and brilliant scholar, who in the course of her studies, discovered Christianity, was converted by a vision of the Madonna, in 305. The Emperor Maximinius was persecuting Christians. Catherine went to him to plead on their behalf and the Emperor sent his chief pagan priests to argue with her and to bring her to her senses but instead Catherine converted the priests. The converted priests were martyred. The Empress went to see the girl. The Empress listened and was converted, and then the chief of her guard. Each was martyred. Maximinius in a rage sought to have St. Catherine scourged on what became known as St. Catherine's wheel. But at her touch the wheel was destroyed. The Emperor Maximinius had St. Catherine beheaded. The legend is that angels then carried her body to the top of Mt. Sinai.

November 21, 2009. Homily, November 24, 2009.

Luke 21:5-11.

While some people were speaking about how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings, Jesus said, "All that you see here -- the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down."

Then they asked him, "Teacher, when will this happen? And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?" He answered, "See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, 'I am he,' and 'The time has come.' Do not follow them! When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for such things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end." Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be powerful earthquakes, famines and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky."

The Gospel of the Lord.

This is the last week of the Liturgical Year. In this last week we contemplate the end of things. This Gospel has Jesus teaching on the destruction of the Temple. There was but one Temple for the Jews. The Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. It has never been rebuilt. To destroy the Temple was to destroy the identity of the Jewish people.

Father Dowling teaches, "To the ancient Jewish mind, time was divided into two ages, the present age and the age to come. They regarded the present age as so evil and corrupt due to human sinfulness and intransigence that it was beyond the pale of human rectification or divine redemption. God's only option, they concluded, was to destroy the present age and to start all over from scratch. The age to come they pictured as an idyllic time in which God's rule would reign supreme and Jewish nationalism would finally triumph. The transition between the two ages, however, would involve a frightful period called the Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord would entail unimaginable personal suffering throughout the world and widespread destruction of nature and property on an epic scale. It would mark the death throes of the present age and the labor pangs of the age to come."

The reading is from the the Book of the Prophet Daniel where Daniel interprets the dream of Nebuchadnezzar who dreamt the collapse of a mighty statute made of precious metals, with the head of gold, the chests and arms of silver, the belly and thighs of bronze, the legs of iron, the feet of iron and tile. The statute was struck by a mighty stone, the statute crumbled, and the stone expanded to become a mountain and then to fill the earth. The interpretation was that the gold, silver, bronze parts of the statute represented kingdoms to follow Nebuchadezzar until God would set up a kingdom that would last forever.

We are reminded of the words of Percy Bysshe Shelley:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

The lone and level sands stretch far away".

November 15, 2009. Homily, November 17, 2009.

Luke: 19:1-10

At that time Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town. Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man, was seeking to see who Jesus was; but could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short of stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said, "Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house." And he came down quickly and received him with joy. When they saw this, they began to grumble, saying, "He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner." But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, "Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone, I hall repay it four times over." And Jesus said to him, "Today, salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost."

The Gospel of the Lord.

Zacchaeus was the principal tax collector for Jericho. Jericho is one of the oldest cities in the world. In the time of Zacchaeus it was situated on the main trade route between the East and Egypt, at a ford in the Jordan River used for crossing over from Egypt into Israel on the way to Jerusalem. Jericho was also a resort city where the rich spent the winters, and it had an abundant supply of water. As the chief tax collector for Jericho, Zacchaeus took a part of every business transaction that touched Jericho; he was sitting on a gold mine. Today, Jericho is one of the territories governed by the Palestinians, and is a dry dusty waste of a city with but one comparatively wealthy resident, a Jewish lady doctor who tends the people.

A "descendant of Abraham" is one who puts one's faith completely in God.

What is the opposite of "love"? Is it "hate"? No, it is "selfishness". Those who love others are generous to those others.

The word "house" is an oft-used by Luke, important to Luke, and thus also important to Jesus.

Zacchaeus was lost and was found by Jesus.