Homily for Third Sunday of Advent - Year A

 The readings for Third Sunday of Advent may be found at:  

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121122.cfm

This Sunday, we celebrate the Third Sunday of Advent, known as Gaudette Sunday, translated from the Latin as Rejoice Sunday.  

We rejoice as we light the rose-colored candle of our Advent wreath.  

We rejoice as we wear rose-colored vestments at this midpoint of Advent.

And we focus, if only briefly, on the light coming into the world through the birth of Jesus at Christmas.

And let’s be honest, with Christmas comes many expectations.

Of the people we might see, the gifts we might give and receive or the places we might go.

But not all expectations are created equal.  

Sometimes they are of rejoicing and celebration.  

Sometimes they are expectations of dread or anxiety or worry or fear.

And sometimes, these expectations can imprison us, just like John the Baptist was imprisoned in today’s gospel.

The thing that can be dangerous about expectations is how they can shape our attitudes, our beliefs, and the way we relate to people. 

They can even shape our image of who God is, where God can show up, and how God should act. 

If God doesn’t meet our expectations we can be quick to question God, rather than ourselves. 

Oftentimes, we trust what we think God should be doing more than we trust what God is actually doing.

In this way, we are like John the Baptist.

He was a man of expectations. 

Last week’s gospel showed John to be a voice crying out in the wilderness, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 

John expected a new kingdom with a new, powerful leader. 

These expectations gave him the confidence to turn his back on the religious establishment, to go to the desert, and to seek God in the wild and untamed places of life.

Today’s gospel speaks to a very different picture of John. 

Today he is a prisoner questioning his expectation, “Are you the one, or are we to wait for another?” 

How did he go from being a prophet in the wilderness with answers to a prisoner in a cell with questions?

Now, Herod put John in jail for criticizing him for taking his own brother’s wife.

But it was John’s own expectations of who the Messiah is and how the Messiah would act that imprisoned him his thoughts. 

Like us, his vision of the kingdom was too small, his expectation of the Messiah too narrow and he is a saint!

That’s the danger of holding our expectations too tightly. 

Our expectations can blind us to what is coming. 

We can imprison ourselves as we confine God’s work and life to our expectations. 

We want God to make our lives easy.  Instead He calls us to live more deeply. 

We want God to eliminate our suffering.  Instead, He stands with us in our pain. 

We want Him to make us strong.  Instead, He calls us to discover His strength in our weakness. 

We want God to make our enemies pay.  Instead He commands us to love them. 

We want to be served.  God tells us to serve.

And each time God dismisses our expectations - He is helping to break down our own prison walls.

And when that happens, we must decide.

Will we escape the prison of our expectations or stay where we are and rebuild the walls? 

It would be so much easier if Jesus would just come, do, and be as we expect. 

But he won’t. 

He won’t leave us in our cells.  

He loves us too much.

The Season of Advent is the season of breaking out of jail. 

It is the season of escaping the jail of our expectations of God. 

Christmas is in two weeks.

Rejoice!  There is still time to prepare the way for Jesus.

As you finish your shopping, cookie baking, meal planning and preparing for holiday celebrations; 

be sure to prepare properly by making a good, sacramental confession.

Submit to the greatness of God and His love.  

Receive the gift of absolution and His mercy.

The door of our cell may be locked - but its only locked from the inside. 

Jesus is coming and mercy awaits.  

And that is absolutely a reason for all of us to Rejoice this Sunday!

Homily for Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

The readings for Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time may be found at:  

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111322.cfm

Believe it or not, we are at the end of another church year. 

In fact, next Sunday is Christ the King Sunday, the last weekend of the liturgical year. 

So, it makes sense that the readings this Sunday are about the end of the world and what to look for before it comes. 

In today’s passage from St. Luke, Jesus is in the Temple at Jerusalem. 

He is nearing the end of his life on earth. 

At that time, the temple was one of the most impressive buildings in the world. 

To most Jews it was a place built to last forever. 

But just as Jesus said would happen, the temple was completely destroyed. 

For many Jews it must have seemed like the end of the world.  

But just like them, we are not able to predict when the end will come.  

Sacred scripture gives us signs, but it doesn’t predict.  

Instead, Sacred Scripture shows us that God is in control - so that we are not afraid. 

To see and have confidence in God. 

God’s plan doesn’t center around our comfort.

Instead, it focuses on hope in our eternal reward.

As St. Luke writes, Jesus tells His disciples and us, some of the warning signs. 

First he warns us to, “Watch out that you are not deceived.” 

When the FBI trains its agents to identify counterfeit notes, they don’t study fake bills. 

Instead they study genuine currency – how it looks, how it feels, how it smells. 

They get to know the real thing so well, so thoroughly, that it’s easy to spot the fake. 

And the key to knowing what is fake is...knowing the truth. 

We must not fall into Satan’s trap. 

His strategy has not changed. 

The first thing he did to Adam and Eve was to deceive them. 

The first thing he did to Jesus when He started His ministry was try to deceive Him in the wilderness. 

Our spiritual enemy is still at it today, disputing, denying and displacing God’s Word.

So Jesus warns us, “Do not be deceived”.

Jesus also warns us “Do not fear.” 

If our hope is in God and if we believe that He is in control, we can be confident – even in this broken world. 

So many of us place our hope in things and people rather than God. 

Now, hoping in God, doesn’t mean we’re not affected by world events. 

We feel the pain of loss, anger when things go wrong and fear of tragedy just like everyone else.

These emotions are normal and emotions are God given. 

But emotions inform, they don’t decide - and emotions, what we feel, never changes the truth.

We take refuge in the truth, in knowing that God is in control. 

Jesus told us “not to be afraid” - that when we face difficulties, not to give in to the fear of this world, but instead to focus on God.

Jesus tells us clearly, not to be distracted. 

In this world, bad things will happen.  

But these things happen to bring us closer to Him by providing us “an occasion for testimony”. 

When the world is comfortable and times are good - people forget about God. 

But, Jesus said that the coming of difficulties is an occasion for us to testify. 

When bad things happen, the world will ask ‘why’ and look for something to believe in - for somewhere to find hope.

But we don’t have to look.

Our hope is in the truth - our hope is in Jesus. 

We may not be able to answer the ‘why’ or ‘when’, but we can answer the ‘what’. 

If we hope in the things of this world, we will always be disappointed. 

Someday, the end will come.

But Jesus is not a liar.  

We have the answers to the test.

This week, let us pray not to be distracted by the why and the when of short-term worries and anxieties.

Instead, let us better understand the what - that God sends us out to bring people to Jesus Christ so they can be forgiven just as we have been. 

To glorify God and have a personal, intimate relationship with Him.

To focus less on what we feel or what is fake and more on what is genuine and lasting and true.   

Homily for Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

The readings for Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time may be found at:  

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101622.cfm

We live in a world of immediate gratification.

We want what we want and we want it now.

A few years ago, researchers studied how long people would wait on a web page for a video to start playing.  

The study was of 67 million people over a 10 day period.  

Researchers found that people started leaving a web page after having to wait for two seconds for a video to start.  Two seconds!  

By the 8 second mark, 90% of people had given up and moved on to another page.

Raise your hand if you are one of those 2 second people.  

I might be guilty of that one.  

The fact is that we are super impatient as a culture.  

We don’t like waiting for websites, food to come or traffic lights to turn green.

But what happens when this impatience spills over into our spiritual lives?  

When we go to God in prayer but don’t get what we asked for?  

It may not be a big deal if we are praying for something small - but what if it’s something big? 

What if we or someone we know are really struggling and we are asking God to answer our prayer to help? 

We’re tempted to give up if we feel like God doesn’t answer our prayers.

Jesus understood that when our prayers go unanswered we can become discouraged and give up hope. 

In today’s gospel passage by St. Luke, Jesus is telling us to always pray and to never lose heart.

He tells us that being consistent and persistent in prayer is one way we show the strength of our faith in God.

He tells us not to give up.   Especially when things get hard.

Maybe our prayers don’t get answered because we’re not reconciled to God or we need to pray more.

Maybe it’s not the right time - Abraham was told God would give him a child - and it took 25 years for that to happen!  

Maybe it’s not the right thing - Sometimes what we pray for is selfish, like winning the lottery, so God doesn’t answer that prayer.  

Maybe, God answers our prayers, but maybe not exactly the way we wanted. 

Maybe what we prayed for is just not part of God’s plan.  

The reality is that our faith is tested as we struggle to accept the answer God does give us.

Prayer is about trusting God. 

It is an act of faith and that’s why it’s important.

Today, Jesus tells us not to give up because God is not like the dishonest judge. 

God is not indifferent to our needs.

In fact, God is far more ready to hear our prayers than we are ready to pray them.

We must not give up.  

We must continue to pray because when we pray we express our faith in God’s inherent justness.  It also helps us to build spiritual endurance.

God is not like the dishonest judge...He is just and gracious and He dearly loves us.

We are supposed to be like the widow, to persist, to not give up.

Despite no answer, she didn’t lose hope and kept at it until the judge answered her. 

When we lose hope, our prayers stop.

When we feel the weight of daily life it can sometimes feel like God isn’t even listening.

But Jesus encourages us to persevere in prayer.  

If this dishonest judge ended up answering this helpless widow because she kept asking, how much more will God answer us as His children?

And even if we don’t always get the answer we want, keep at it and trust God because God has a plan.

This week, I ask you to consider.

The night before Jesus was killed, before he prayed “Not my will but your will be done”, 

He first prayed to God to “Let this cup pass from me.” 

Essentially, he prayed to be spared.

The next day Jesus was killed.  And in the process, He reconciled the human race to God, saved us from our sins, and gave us a shot at everlasting life.

Think about that for a bit.

The greatest victory ever achieved in the history of the world happened in a moment when our own Savior didn’t get the answer he wanted to His prayer.

And where would we all be if He had.

Homily for Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

The readings for Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time may be found at:  

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/091822.cfm

So many things compete for our attention, don’t they?

So we do what humans do.  We adapt, multitask, doing multiple things at the same time.

And we think we’re pretty good at this, by the way.

But, neuroscientists have done extensive studies on multitasking.

And these studies show that multitasking is not something anyone does well. 

Overwhelmingly, they show people don’t really do multiple things at the same time at all.

Instead our brains just move quickly from one task to another to another to another.

We’ve seen this, right?  Just watch someone driving a car and paying attention to their cell phone at the same time.  Looking up, down, up, down, up, down, but never both at the same time.

Science confirms what we already know.  

If we are doing one thing, we are not doing the other.

So while we think we are good at doing multiple things at the same time, science says - not quite.

Jesus says as much in this week’s gospel from Saint Luke, when He says no servant can serve two masters.

Jesus is saying that true disciples can’t do the things of heaven and the things of this world both at the same time.

Instead we need to change our approach so that everything we do becomes a type of service to God and our neighbor.

When we work, we need to work like we are working for Christ.

And we need to remove things from our lives that get in between us and God.  

Whatever they are.

It’s been said that opposites attract, but Jesus says it quite clearly - 

Our mind can’t be devoted to heaven and earth at the same time.

Our heart can’t love both God and the world fully. 

It’s one or the other.

Let’s be clear - God wants all of us.  He made us in his likeness and image.

The world wants all of us too and it doesn’t want us to have even the slightest relationship with God.  

And it gives us a million reasons not to have one.

God calls us to love every person like ourselves, to love even our enemies and to do good to those who hurt us. 

The world teaches us it’s ok to hate and to get back at those who hurt us.  It encourages us to make everything about us.

God commands us to speak the truth. 

The world hates nothing more than the truth. Instead it wants to flatter us, gossip, criticize and defame us. 

God wants us to be humble.  To trust and hope in Him.  To live simply.  To dress modestly.  To be patient and give thanks.  To deny ourselves.  To fast and to pray. 

The world tells us to be self-confident and trust in ourselves.  To celebrate our appearance.  To do what we feel.  To complain.  To demand our rights.  To blame others for our problems.  To take all life has to offer. 

When we pray, if we pray - twice as many competing thoughts flood our brain as when we’re watching tv or at a sporting event or out to dinner.

At Holy Mass, our mind wanders to what we have to do later or how we can leave the Church quickly, so we can move on to the next thing on our list.

Do we make time for confession?  This is when the world really kicks it up a notch, stacking so many things in our way that for one reason or another, we don’t ever seem to make one.

And as a result, we can go days without prayer, weeks without mass and years without repentance and absolution.

Heaven and earth.

What person can serve them both?

Jesus tells us.  No one can serve two masters.

There is no middle ground. 

This week, I ask you to consider.

This life is a dress rehearsal for eternity.

What matters most is how we use our time and our things in this life.

While we still have time.

When death comes it will be too late. 

In our day to day choices…

Do we glorify God or do we glorify ourselves?

In our quiet moments, let us pray to God for the strength to live honorably.  To give generously. To seek good for others.  To remain faithful to Him and to obey His Word.  To go to confession when we know we’ve fallen short.

Let us be reminded that we are all servants.

And no servant can serve two masters.