A Homily - The Third Sunday of Advent (Year A)

First Reading - Isaiah 35:1-6, 10 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 145(146):6-10 ©

Second Reading - James 5:7-10 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Isaiah 61:1 (Luke 4:18)

The Gospel According to Matthew 11:2 - 11 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

Isaiah has written a prayer of hope, do not mistake this poem of praise as the literal truth or the historical record of anything. This is not a recounting of events, or a foretelling of the future; it is a discourse on joy, whose central message is: do not be afraid.

This is a prayer from the school of Isaiah, it is a prayer for healing and restoration, it is a prayer for salvation: a blessed state of being that God, the creator of the universe, intends for everyone to achieve, though not in this life.

This prayer is not a promise concerning the expectations we should hold for this world. It is a prayer reflecting our hope for what we will attain in the next, divine deliverance, not from present peril, but from the material condition altogether.

Isaiah’s reflection highlights the fundamental choice before us:

We may choose to live our lives as if we believe in the things we hope for; the belief in what we hope for is an extension of trust in the divine spirit guiding us through time and space, this mode of trust is the essence of faith, which is not a thing you can possess, nor a state of being, it is an action that is best expressed in its imperfect form…never-completed in the continuance-present.

In the reality we shall experience in the world to come we will witness the entirety of the created order lifted-up in exultation of God; this will not be a state of mindless adulation, it will not be a grand and endless glorification…that is not the way of the divine, who expresses jubilation in direct relation with us…just as we do with one another, in thanksgiving and humility according to the simple—endless bounty of God’s love.

I am with the school of Isaiah when it expresses the hope that we, both as individuals and as the corporate whole, that we will face our fears and watch them disappear; I am with those who teach us to have courage in the present moment, to have patience in the here and now as we engage in lives of service to one another.

I am not with Isaiah when he petitions God for vengeance in pursuit of retribution, noting that most (nearly all) human beings have limits as to what they can endure and those writers in the school of Isaiah, or its editors certainly delineated theirs. Rather, I am with Jesus who took no enemies to himself, even from among his persecutors; he forgave those who betrayed and hurt him, making his final prayer one of reconciliation, which he issued with his final breath from the cross…forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Isaiah’s prayer is a prayer for universal healing, asking each of us to take this prayer and find in our own hearts the will to heal everyone...to be healed ourselves; if you take up this prayer in the present moment you will experience a foretaste of the world we hope for in the here and now.

Meditate upon the wisdom of the psalmist who instructs us to praise God with words and song, praise the author of our salvation. Praise God and set aside the trust you give to princes and kings, and all of the other little-lords of the church and the world. Listen to the psalmist and be wary of his words, knowing in your heart that these are true: God is not a king, and kings are not gods.

Look up on the life of a human being, think about the many years that we have walked the Earth; look down that long arc of time and then reflect on it brevity. Our window of life is but a spark in the night. We are born, we breathe for a time, then we are gone; the Earth itself will not survive the dying of our sun and even our galaxy will vanish in the cold and dark.

Consider these things and consider how happy are those whose who devote themselves to God in furtherance of mercy and justice.

Lift up the oppressed, wherever they are: feed the hungry, free the prisoner, teach the ignorant. Pray for your own faults to be forgiven, your own blindness lifted…accept it when it is given. Advocate for those who need an advocate, care for those who cannot care for themselves. Find those who are lost and bring them home

Be mindful of the teaching of the apostle; if we think of the second coming of Jesus as an actual return, we are mistaken. Jesus will not return in the flesh; we know this because that would be against nature, and Jesus, like all human beings, had just one life to live on planet Earth.

If we think of Jesus returning to Earth as God, descending from the heavens to issue judgement and about the end of time, to draw down the curtain on our drama as if it his was the final scene in the final act of some tragic play; we are mistaken. God will not intervene in the life cycle of our planet, of our solar system, of our galaxy or the universe as a whole…God does not do that, and we know this because we understand that the order of creation, as well as we who dwell in it,  are absolutely free from divine coercion.

Accept these truths and you must know that the apostle was wrong to engage in idle speculation about the end of the world; be mindful of this error; it is poetry not prophecy, do not repeat it as if it were true.

Be patient, live a good and loving life; even in the midst of turmoil; when we fulfill the promise of the way, the way becomes the reality of our lives…at least for a moment.

Praise God, and pray for God’s servants wherever they are, knowing that when the will of God is done, the message is clear and the mission is pure…love one another, as God loves you.

Consider the Gospel reading for today:

John came before Jesus; the lore tells us that they were cousins, but the evidence for this claim is scant. It is said that James, the apostle and bishop of Jerusalem was Jesus’ brother, but that notion has long been rejected by the Church; there is no way for us to know the veracity of these claims…it does not matter.

John came before Jesus and for a time the two of them worked as contemporaries, they were cousins and they were both called to the same mission. It is said that they met at the river Jordan where John was carrying out his ministry of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, ritualized by the baptism of restoration.

John baptized Jesus when they had this meeting, the moment is depicted in the Gospel for today as a passing of the torch from the older to the younger, as when Isaac surpassed Ishmael, or Jacob his brother Essau, as able was set to do before Cain slew him.

There is no way for us to know if this event ever even happened, or if it did that John and Jesus viewed their meeting that day as such...but it does not matter, because the historical realities behind this narrative have been transcended by the allegory and metaphor in which John prepares the way for Jesus, just as the Gospel indicates today. He passes the torch to Jesus, he was arrested shortly thereafter, and shortly after that they cut off his head. 

John and Jesus belonged a movement of the people, the am haaretz, a movement of the people, for the people, a movement that called for justice, unity and the salvation of everyone. They saw their work as something connected to prophetic traditions like the School of Isaiah, to Amos and Hosea, and Zecariah. These two cousins were reformers, they were people whose preaching synthesized the sacred texts, who were able to boil the law and commandments down to their essence, returning them to the people in the simplest form:

Love God, with all your strength and all your heart, and all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.

That is the whole of the law and all the words of the prophet are summarized therein.

Many of John’s followers became followers of Jesus after John’s death. The leaders in John’s group became leaders among Jesus’ disciples, but not all who had followed John came along, and it is to them that the Gospel for today is pointed.

It was written to remind all new Christians: that first there was John, then there was Jesus. It is a political screed. It is a message to the holdouts among John’s group, expressing love and pride in John’s work, while telling them in no uncertain terms that the way, if they should choose to take it, that the way is now with Jesus.

This is the beginning of Church politics and as with all such actions it closed the divide between the two groups in some ways, while exasperating it in others…because that is how we are.

First Reading - Isaiah 35:1-6, 10 ©

God Himself is Coming to Save You

Let the wilderness and the dry-lands exult, let the wasteland rejoice and bloom, let it bring forth flowers like the jonquil, let it rejoice and sing for joy.

The glory of Lebanon is bestowed on it, the splendour of Carmel and Sharon; they shall see the glory of the Lord, the splendour of our God.

Strengthen all weary hands, steady all trembling knees and say to all faint hearts, ‘Courage! Do not be afraid.

‘Look, your God is coming, vengeance is coming, the retribution of God; he is coming to save you.’

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unsealed, then the lame shall leap like a deer and the tongues of the dumb sing for joy for those the Lord has ransomed shall return.

They will come to Zion shouting for joy, everlasting joy on their faces; joy and gladness will go with them and sorrow and lament be ended.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 145(146):6-10 ©

Come, Lord, and save us.

It is the Lord who keeps faith for ever,

  who is just to those who are oppressed.

It is he who gives bread to the hungry,

  the Lord, who sets prisoners free,

Come, Lord, and save us.

It is the Lord who gives sight to the blind,

  who raises up those who are bowed down,

the Lord, who protects the stranger

  and upholds the widow and orphan.

Come, Lord, and save us.

It is the Lord who loves the just

  but thwarts the path of the wicked.

The Lord will reign for ever,

  Zion’s God, from age to age.

Come, Lord, and save us.

Alleluia!

 

Second Reading - James 5:7-10 ©

Do Not Lose Heart; the Lord's Coming Will Be Soon

Be patient, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. Think of a farmer: how patiently he waits for the precious fruit of the ground until it has had the autumn rains and the spring rains! You too have to be patient; do not lose heart, because the Lord’s coming will be soon. Do not make complaints against one another, brothers, so as not to be brought to judgement yourselves; the Judge is already to be seen waiting at the gates. For your example, brothers, in submitting with patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Isaiah 61:1 (Luke 4:18)

Alleluia, alleluia!

The spirit of the Lord has been given to me.

He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Matthew 11:2 - 11 ©

'A Greater than John the Baptist Has Never Been Seen'

John in his prison had heard what Christ was doing and he sent his disciples to ask him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or have we got to wait for someone else?’ Jesus answered, ‘Go back and tell John what you hear and see; the blind see again, and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised to life and the Good News is proclaimed to the poor; and happy is the man who does not lose faith in me.’

As the messengers were leaving, Jesus began to talk to the people about John: ‘What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swaying in the breeze? No? Then what did you go out to see? A man wearing fine clothes? Oh no, those who wear fine clothes are to be found in palaces. Then what did you go out for? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and much more than a prophet: he is the one of whom scripture says:

‘Look, I am going to send my messenger before you; he will prepare your way before you.

‘I tell you solemnly, of all the children born of women, a greater than John the Baptist has never been seen; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he is.’

 

A Homily - The Third Sunday of Advent (Year A)

 

 

A Homily - The Feast of the Immaculate Conception, A Holy Day of Obligation

The Second Monday of Advent (Year A)

 

First reading – Genesis 3:9-15,20 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 97(98):1-4

Second Reading – Ephesians 1:3-6,11-12 ©

Gospel Acclamation – cf. Luke 1:28

Gospel Reading – Luke 1:26-38 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

The reading today from the book of Genesis is a reading from a book of fables, it is myth and metaphor; we cannot take the narrative literally.

Eve is not the mother of all human beings because Eve was not a person, she iconographically represents a link to a more ancient culture. The Garden of Eden was not an actual paradise; rather, it is a reference to early agricultural societies from which some of the thirteen tribes of Israel came…and to the promise of agriculturalism in general.

Adam did not violate God’s trust because Adam was not a person, but narratively represents those who “came from soil,” which is what the name Adamah means, not because he formed in God’s hand out of clay, but because the people he represents freed themselves from servitude and successfully established themselves as a people.

This is not a narrative about the creator and the creation of the universe, it is a metaphor concerning the origins of civilization…which has been widely regarded as being a terrible idea.

This fable narrates a critical moment in the history of the Hebrew people (also known as the Habiru, the Apiru, the Iberu et al, depending on what dialect is being spoken or written). I remembers a time when they lived in a civil-state that was safe and secure, a place in which they had long life, from which they were exiled on account of some violation of their agreement with the rulers of that society; this may well be a retelling of the exodus-narrative, the memory of which would have been lingering in the minds of the people for about two hundred years before they began to be written down at the beginning of the Davidic period. It could recall an earlier event, or it could recall a conglomeration of events. It is myth—not history, it is metaphor—not a factual accounting, it is a fable in the form of a braided narrative.

Consider the wisdom of psalmist and know that even when we confront the hard truths of our faith and its traditions it is still right and good to praise God, the creator of the universe. It is right and good to praise God for the miracle of creation and the divine power that brought us into being, which remains beyond the scope of human comprehension; it is right and good as the psalmist says.

Be mindful.

God is not a giver of victories. God has no enemies, and in God, within whom all things exist and have their being, there is no conflict.

It is never God’s justice that is demonstrated in the actions of human beings, it is human justice. When human justice approximates the justice of God, when we arrive at a just resolution of conflict or inequities through mercy and humility, then and only then are we approximating the good.

God’s power is everywhere; God’s spirit animates the voices that give God praise. God is kind and faithful to all people; God loves us all in full equanimity.

If you seek to make yourself an instrument of divine justice: judge fairly, judge kindly while reflecting on the love God bears to all people; remember the life of Jesus and God whom he called Father.

Consider this:

Is God glorious? What is glory anyway? What use does God have for it?

God is the creator of the universe, but God does not sit on a throne like some dread lord dressed in glory; God’s desire is merely to be in relationship with us, as a loving parent is to a child…sitting with in humility not enrobed in the pretentious finements of glory.

Consider the teaching of the apostle; I share his desire that each and every one of us may come to the full knowledge of God. I desire this because there is hope in the knowledge that God loves us.

Remember, the hopes you have for yourself, the hopes you have for those you love are meant to be extended to everyone, even to those you do not love, for this is the way that leads to understanding our relationship to the divine, which by God’s design, we only discover in relationship to one another.

If you tout the notion that God promises riches and glories to the saints as an inheritance for their commitment to the people of God, remember this, the first will be last and the last will be first; spiritual riches are not counted in the pecunia of gold and silver or other precious things, but in companionship and the love of friends.

Consider the Gospel reading for today and know that whatever the truth is regarding the birth of Jesus, known by his people as Joshua son of Joseph (if in fact there was such a child born to Joseph and Mary, if in fact Joseph and Mary are actual historical persons), whatever the truth of his birth and heritage is, the mission of Jesus as reported in scriptures cannot be served by the insistence on false narratives.

The stories of Jesus’ birth, of the annunciation as we have it presented here, these are myths and metaphors just like the myth and metaphor discussed above in relation to the reading from Genesis, to say otherwise is to deal in propaganda and lies.

First reading – Genesis 3:9-15,20 ©

The Mother of All Those Who Live

After Adam had eaten of the tree the Lord God called to him. ‘Where are you?’ he asked. ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden;’ he replied ‘I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.’ ‘Who told you that you were naked?’ he asked ‘Have you been eating of the tree I forbade you to eat?’ The man replied, ‘It was the woman you put with me; she gave me the fruit, and I ate it.’ Then the Lord God asked the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman replied, ‘The serpent tempted me and I ate.’

Then the Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this,

‘Be accursed beyond all cattle, all wild beasts.

You shall crawl on your belly and eat dust every day of your life.

I will make you enemies of each other:

you and the woman, your offspring and her offspring.

It will crush your head and you will strike its heel.’

The man named his wife ‘Eve’ because she was the mother of all those who live.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 97(98):1-4 (NAB)

The LORD is king; let the earth rejoice; let the many islands be glad.

Cloud and darkness surround the Lord; justice and right are the foundation of his throne.

Fire goes before him; everywhere it consumes the foes.

Lightning illumines the world; the earth sees and trembles.

The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth.

The heavens proclaim God's justice; all peoples see his glory.

All who serve idols are put to shame, who glory in worthless things; all gods bow down before you.

Zion hears and is glad, and the cities of Judah rejoice because of your judgments, O LORD.

You, LORD, are the Most High over all the earth, exalted far above all gods.

The LORD loves those who hate evil, protects the lives of the faithful, rescues them from the hand of the wicked.

Light dawns for the just; gladness, for the honest of heart.

Rejoice in the LORD, you just, and praise his holy name.

 

Second Reading – Ephesians 1:3-6,11-12 ©

Before the World was Made, God Chose Us in Christ

Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ.

Before the world was made, he chose us, chose us in Christ, to be holy and spotless, and to live through love in his presence, determining that we should become his adopted sons, through Jesus Christ for his own kind purposes, to make us praise the glory of his grace, his free gift to us in the Beloved, and it is in him that we were claimed as God’s own, chosen from the beginning, under the predetermined plan of the one who guides all things as he decides by his own will; chosen to be, for his greater glory, the people who would put their hopes in Christ before he came.

 

Gospel Acclamation – cf. Luke 1:28

Alleluia, alleluia!

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee!

Blessed art thou among women.

Alleluia!

 

Gospel Reading – Luke 1:26-38 ©

'I Am the Handmaid of the Lord'

The angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. He went in and said to her, ‘Rejoice, so highly favoured! The Lord is with you.’ She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean, but the angel said to her, ‘Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favour. Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘But how can this come about, since I am a virgin?’ ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you’ the angel answered ‘and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God. Know this too: your kinswoman Elizabeth has, in her old age, herself conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God.’ ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord,’ said Mary ‘let what you have said be done to me.’ And the angel left her.

A Homily - The Feast of the Immaculate Conception, A Holy Day of Obligation

The Second Thursday of Advent (Year A)