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Homilies are posted no later than during the week
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Christmas
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Feast of Christmas - B Cycle - John 1:1-18
A student asked a Christian professor how
Confucius and Buddah would differ from Christ. He responded with a
parable.
A woman fell into a deep hole. Try as she
might, she
could not climb out. Confucius looked in. He told her, "Poor woman, if
you had paid attention to me, you would not have fallen in there in the
first place." Then he made himself scarce.
Buddah approached. He too spotted the woman.
He said to himself, "If she can just manage to get out of that hole, I
can give her genuine aid." He continued his journey.
Along came Jesus. He spotted the woman. He was
moved with pity. He jumped into the hole immediately to assist her out.
This story illustrates the Incarnation. We
gather here
to celebrate the concern of God for each of us. His willingness to
parachute into enemy-occupied territory in human form for our sakes is
illustrated by the birth of His Son today. (CS Lewis)
The Incarnation moved a saint to say, "His birth
makes me want to kiss the ground because His feet trod the same earth."
It prompted Alexander Smith to write, "Christmas is
a day that hold all time together. "
St Irenaeus summed up this feast well when he
wrote, "God became man so that man might become God."
Pope Gregory XIII in 1584 brought together the
Roman
Martyrology. In that celebrated book, much attention was paid
to the proclamation of the birth of Him who "is the radiant light of
God's glory and the perfect copy of His nature."
This announcement attempts to locate the
arrival of the
King of kings in space and time. It underlines the Catholic
affirmation that the Jesus, born in Bethlehem, is indeed the
Ruler of time and the Lord of history.
"In the five thousandth one hundred and
ninety-ninth
year of the creation from the time when God in the beginning
made the heavens and the earth out of nothing. In the two thousandth
nine hundred and fifty-seventh year after the flood.
In the two thousandth and fifteenth year from the birth of Abraham. In
the one thousandth five hundred and tenth year from Moses and the
exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt. In the one thousandth and
thirty-second year from the anointing of David king. In the sixty-fifth
week according to the prophecy of
Daniel. In the one hundredth ninety-fourth Olympiad. In the seven
hundredth and fifty-second year from the foundation of the city of
Rome. In the forty-second year of the rule of Octavian Augustus, all
the earth being at peace, in the sixth age of the world: Jesus Christ,
the eternal God and Son of the eternal Father, willing to consecrate
the world by His most merciful coming, being conceived by the Holy
Spirit and nine months having passed since His conception, was born in
Bethlehem of Judah of the Virgin Mary, being made man. THIS IS THE
BIRTHDAY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST ACCORDING TO THE FLESH."
Some dolefully say that they would better have
appreciated the birth of Christ had they lived twenty centuries ago.
Dorothy Day says that is rubbish. Furthermore says Dorothy, "Nor will
those who live at the end of the world have been born too late."
Dorothy Day would endorse the thought of Morton
Kelsey: "I am very glad Jesus was born in a stable because my soul is
very much like a stable filled with strange and unsatisfactory
longings, with guilt and animal-like impulses...tormented by anxiety,
inadequacy, and pain. If Christ could be born in such a place, He can
be born in me also. I am not excluded."
A second Dorothy this one named Smith adds an
addendum. She opined that "Christmas is a gift that we cannot keep
until we give it to someone else. Christ is always with us, always
asking for room in our hearts and the hearts of others."
John Betjeman stresses the same point: "No
love that in a family dwells, no caroling in frosty air, nor all the
steeple-shaking bells, can with this single truth compare, that God was
man in Palestine, and lives today in Bread and Wine."
I wish everyone a Christmas filled with joy
and a life
as gentle as only a four year old can picture it.
Do remember though the sound advice of a sage.
It's easy to think Christmas. It's easy to believe Christmas, but it's
hard to act Christmas. So, care deeply. Give freely. Think kindly. Act
gently and be at peace with the world. But remember peace is much more
than a season. It is a state of mind and a way of life.
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http://www.st.ignatius.net/pastor.html
Christmas
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The Prince of Peace
“For
a child is born to us, a son is given us; upon his shoulder dominion
rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince
of Peace.”Prince of Peace.We speak a lot about peace at
Christmastime.We singabout a child sleeping in heavenly
peace. We wish each other Christmas Peace.
What
is the peace that Jesusbrings? Sadly, it must not be
the absence of war.If that were the case then Jesus’s life would
have been a terrible failure.
How
can we understand the peace that Jesus brings?
Perhaps we should consider the way that peace is presented in the
Bible.In the creation stories in Genesis, when God created the
world it was a formless wasteland
with darkness covering the abyss and a mighty wind controlling the
seas.The first Divine Act that God calls good is the creation of
light. The second Divine Act that God calls good is the separation of
the waters into the waters above the sky and the waters on the
earth.The third action God calls good is the separation of the
waters from the land.
Throughout scripture the sea is a symbol of chaos and turmoil.
God eliminates chaos and turmoil. He controls the sea.In
scripture sin is used interchangeably with chaos and turmoil. God
controls the sea.God brings order to chaos. God
conquers sin.
In
the Eden story, the peace of mankind is shattered by mankind choosing
materialism over the spiritual, andselfishness over sacrificial
love. This is not a quaint story about apples.It is an
explanation of our continual choice of the physical over the spiritual,
chaos over peace.The tranquility of Eden is constantly destroyed
by mankind choosing to push God aside, by mankind choosing
sin. But creation had been entrusted to mankind.If
some of us choose sin, there is another one of us who chooses
God.If some of us choose the material, there is another one of
us who chooses the spiritual.If some of us choose selfishness,
there is another one of us who chooses sacrificial love.If some
of our lives add to the chaos, there is another one of us whose life
brings peace.
We
use the phrase: “Jesus came to forgive sins” too loosely.We use
the phrase, “He is the Prince of Peace” too vaguely.It all seems
sweet, even sappy.Jesus’ life should not be trivialized in this
manner.Jesus came as one of us to lead us towards a completely
different world view.He points us towards a mind set of self
giving,
sacrificial love.He calls us to embrace the spiritual as a
greater reality than the material.He calls us away from
thechaos of sin to the peace of the Kingdom of God.
That
is all verytheological, now let’s get more specific.When
I sin, when you sin, I, we, are inchaos.Oh sure, I can
pretend that nothing is wrong.I can pretend that I am only doing
what everyone else is doing.I can even blame the Church for
putting me on a guilt trip.And, yes, I can find noted
psychologists and counselors who are willing to tell me that there is
nothing wrong with my choices as long as I am happy with them.I
don’t even have to pay noted psychologists to tell me that.For
$7.95 I can find a self help book or two or ten that will affirm me no
matter what I am doing. But none of this removes my
turmoil.Thefact of the matter is that when any of us jump
into sin, we plunge into chaos.
Let
me illustrate this through two examples of people in chaos who come to
the Church seeking comfort.
A
man makes a horrible choice.He leaves his wife and children for
the sake of a new and passionate love, or at least lust.He does
his best to convince himself that he is making the best choice for
himself.He even finds professionals who support his
choice.He should be happy, but when he thinks about his wife and
children
and how he has forever altered thefuture he could have had with
his family, he realizes that his life is a mess.He is in chaos.
A
young woman is forced into a horrible choice.She allows the life
within her to be destroyed because so many are telling her that it is
the best thing for her to do.Only, they don’t have to live with
the result.Perhaps these authority figures in her life carry a
greater responsibility than she does for what happened, but she is the
one who is suffering.She is the one who cannot think about a
child without being immersed in pain. She is the one
who is in turmoil.
These are just two of many examples of how wedestroy our peace,
our tranquility, by choosing sin, by choosing turmoil.I am sure
all of us can add many other instances.
We
have all heard it said that the devil works hard to bring us
down.Actually, I don’t like this saying because it is a
convenient way for any of us to deny our responsibility for the chaos
of our lives.No, it is not that “devil that makes us do
it.”We don’t need his help.We don’t even have to work
hard to destroy our lives.We are capable of doing this all too
easily.
But
no matter how much turmoil we may be in, it does not matter to
God.God brings us back to Himself.And He does it
quickly.He raises us from chaos and turmoil and sin
instantaneously.Do you know why?Because God wins.
He always wins.At least, He always wins as long as we let Him
win.
So
the man who has destroyed his family turns back to God and becomes a
new person, one who is loving and giving.By the end of his life
his children and perhaps, even his former wife, recognize that his
goodness has overcome the pain he inflicted.They remember their
father and her former husband for the good man he had become and the
way he brought God’s love to them.He dies in peace.God
wins.He always wins.At least, as long as we let him win.
So
the woman suffering the trauma of the abortion puts herself in God’s
hands.As Pope John Paul II said in his 1995 encyclical
Evangelium Vitae, the Gospel of Life,she can become stronger
than before because she recognizes the value of human life.To
quote the Holy Father: you can be among the most eloquent defenders of
everyone’s right to life.Through your commitment to life,
whether by accepting the birth of other children or by welcoming and
caring for those most in need of someone to be close to them, you will
become promoters of a new way of looking at human life.She can
live in peace.God wins.He always wins.At least, as
long as we let Him win.
“For
a child is born to us, a son is given us; upon his shoulder dominion
rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince
of Peace.”Prince of Peace. What is the peace that Jesus brings?
The peace that Jesus brings is the freedom from chaos in our own
lives.
If
we can have the courage to embrace the life he proclaimed with his
life, a life where the spiritual is primary, a life where the greater
value is in what is given, a life of
charity, the unselfish concern for the welfare of others, then we can
enjoy the Peace the Lord came to bring every moment of our lives. God
does not want any of us suffering even if we are suffering the results
of our own actions.He wants to comfort us.He wants us to
be at peace.
He
saves us from the chaos we have afflicted upon ourselves.His
name is Jesus.That is the name the angel told Joseph to give Him
because He will save His people from their sins.He saves us from
ourselves.He is the Prince of Peace.
May
you and your families live in the Peace of Christ.
Merry Christmas!
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http://www.geocities.com/seapadre_1999/
* available in Spanish - see
Spanish homilies
Christmas
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The
Tiny Footsteps of Jesus
(December 25, 2008)
Bottom line: St. Katharine Drexel teaches two Christmas lessons: love
for Jesus in his humility and solidarity with the poor.
Merry Christmas! Don't be afraid to say it. Merry Christmas!
To begin this Christmas homily, I would like to tell you about a girl
who wanted a special gift - the greatest gift anyone could ask for. She
was nine years old and she wrote a Christmas letter to her adopted
mother. "I am trying to study hard," she wrote, "so that I may make my
first Communion this year." At that time children had to be at least
ten or eleven to make their First Communion.* The year was 1867. The
city was Philadelphia. And the girl's name was Katharine Drexel.
Her dad was a multi-millionaire banker. Katharine could have had any
gift money can buy, but she understood the greatest gift: Jesus. Once
he came as a tiny baby. Now he comes in the humble form of bread.
Katharine of course did receive Jesus in Communion. She attained her
greatest Christmas wish. After that, she started spending time in
prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.
In her late teens, Katharine became a secular Franciscan, embracing
voluntary poverty. When she was twenty-one, her adopted mother died and
two years later her dad, leaving an inheritance estimated at twenty
million dollars. Katharine continued to live her personal vow of
poverty. With prudence and good Stewardship, she gave away the entire
fortune. She had a special concern for Black and Native Americans,
eventually founding a religious order dedicated to their spiritual and
material needs.
I am telling you about Katharine Drexel for a reason. A fairly obvious
reason: this past year many people are hurting because of the economic
meltdown. In the midst of this crisis, Katharine Drexel teaches us two
Christmas lessons: love for Jesus in his humility and solidarity with
the poor.
Recently a man approached me who had that spirit of solidarity.** A
member of a neighboring parish, he heard that we give Christmas gifts
to the needy. He then pulled out of his pocket a handful of grocery
store gift cards. I thanked him and mentioned that we have many
families who have lost their jobs in recent months. I asked him how he
was doing. He told me his family's "college fund" had shrunk by about
thirty thousand dollars. Next to him stood his grade-school-age son. He
said they had talked about how other families were hurting - and they
wanted to do something to help them.
The Spirit that touched Katharine Drexel continues His work. He
inspires people to put their faith in Jesus and share with the needy.
Pope Benedict spoke about this. He expressed hope that the financial
crisis cause people to look at Christmas differently this year. The
crisis, he says, can help people "discover the warmth of simplicity,
friendship and solidarity." As the pope stressed, these are the
"characteristic values of Christmas."***
To conclude I would like to return to Katharine Drexel - not as a young
girl, but as a mature, elderly woman. She is now called Mother
Katharine because she is superior of a religious congregation she
herself founded. She writes a Christmas letter to her spiritual
daughters. In this beautiful letter she says: "Reflect on the infant
Jesus, how tiny were His feet. We do not have to do anything too great
in our lives; just follow in those tiny footsteps. Then, let God do the
rest and He will transform those tiny footsteps of ours into giant
strides which will help us to carry the Peace, the Hope, the Love, and
the Joy which is Jesus Christ to all whom we meet."
After writing that letter, Mother Katharine suffered a severe heart
attack that caused her to retire. She lived, however, another twenty
years. Those years she spent mainly in prayer before Jesus in the
Blessed Sacrament. She died on March 3, 1955 at the age of 96. In the
year 2000, Pope John Paul declared her a saint. This Christmas as we
face the great challenge of solidarity with the needy, let's ask her
intercession. St. Katharine Drexel, pray for us. Like you, may we
follow the tiny footsteps of the infant Jesus.
**********
*In 1910, Pope Pius X allowed children to receive Communion when they
reached "the age of discretion." Cardinal John Wright gave this
explanation:
The Decree Quam Singulari, in treating the age at which children are to
be initiated into their post-baptismal sacramental life, had to face
(as had a decree on frequent Communion by the Sacred Congregation of
the Council, five years before) certain doctrinal and ascetical errors
that had become deeply rooted in Catholic life at the opening of the
century, at least in some parts of the world. One of these was the
pretense that a greater discretion is required for first Communion than
for first Confession. This, like most of the other errors, was rooted
in Jansenism: for example, one was the idea that to receive first Holy
Communion requires a nearly complete knowledge of the Articles of Faith
and, therefore, an extraordinary preparation. In effect, this means
deferring first Communion for the riper age of 12, 14 or even older.
Another error was the pretense that "the Holy Eucharist is a reward
(for virtue), not a remedy for human frailty," a conceit which is
contrary to the teaching of the Council of Trent that Holy Communion is
"an antidote by which we are freed from our daily faults and preserved
from mortal sins.
**A true story. If you wish to use it for your Christmas homily, say "I
recently read about a man who had that spirit of solidarity. He
approached a priest whose parish gives Christmas gifts to the needy,
etc."
***Here is a longer quote from the Pope's audience:
Because of the environment that characterizes it, Christmas is a
universal feast. Even those who do not profess to be believers, in
fact, can perceive in this annual Christian celebration something
extraordinary and transcendent, something intimate that speaks to the
heart. It is the feast that sings of the gift of life. The birth of a
child moves us and causes tenderness. Christmas is the encounter with a
newborn who cries in a miserable cave. Contemplating him in the manger,
how can we not think of so many children who even today see the light
from within a great poverty in many regions of the world? How can we
not think of the newborns who are not welcomed and are rejected, of
those who do not survive because of a lack of care and attention? How
can we not think, too, of the families who desire the joy of a child
and do not see this hope fulfilled?
Under the influence of a hedonistic consumerism, unfortunately,
Christmas runs the risk of losing its spiritual significance to be
reduced to a mere commercial occasion to buy and exchange gifts. In
truth, nevertheless, the difficulties and the uncertainties and the
very economic crisis that in these months so many families are living,
and which affects all of humanity, can be a stimulus to discover the
warmth of simplicity, friendship and solidarity -- characteristic
values of Christmas. Stripped of consumerist and materialist
incrustations, Christmas can thus become an occasion to welcome, as a
personal gift, the message of hope that emanates from the mystery of
the birth of Christ.
All of this, nevertheless, is not enough to assimilate fully the value
of the feast for which we are preparing...
General Intercessions for Christmas (from Priests for Life)
Spanish Version
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http://www.agreeley.com/homilies.html
Christmas
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http://www.saintvincentarchabbey.org/homilies/index.lasso
Christmas
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http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/lowhome.html
Meeting Christ in the Liturgy
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Isaiah 52, 7-10; Psalm 98; Hebrews 1, 1-6; John 1, 1-18
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
The nativity of the Lord, the blessed feast of Christmas, is about the
gift of God that none of us can ever repay. It is not only the birth of
Christ; perhaps it is more the birthday of all those blessed to be
baptized into the saving death and resurrection of our incarnate Lord.
The Catechism has this to say about the Incarnation:
Jesus is conceived by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary's womb because
he is the New Adam, who inaugurates the new creation: 'The first man
was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.' (1
Cor 15:45, 47) From his conception, Christ's humanity is filled with
the Holy Spirit, for God "gives him the Spirit without measure.' (Jn
3:34) From 'his fullness' as the head of redeemed humanity 'we have all
received, grace upon grace.' (Jn 1:16) (CCC 504)
THE CHRISTMAS MYSTERY
Jesus was born in a humble stable, into a poor family. (Lk 2:6-7)
Simple shepherds were the first witnesses to this event. In this
poverty heaven's glory was made manifest. (Lk 2:8-20) The Church never
tires of singing the glory of this night:
The Virgin today brings into the world the Eternal
And the earth offers a cave to the Inaccessible.
The angels and shepherds praise him
And the magi advance with the star,
For you are born for us,
Little Child, God eternal!
(Kontakion of Romanos the Melodist) (CCC 525)
We sing with the angels in each Mass as we anticipate our own meeting
with the incarnate Lord born this day, and at each liturgy, in the
Eucharist: "Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, Dominus Deus sabaoth, pleni sunt
caeli et terra gloria tua, hosanna in excelsis. Benedictus qui venit in
nomine Domini, hosanna in excelsis."
Looking forward to meeting you here again next week as, together, we
"meet Christ in the liturgy" - Father Cusick
(Publish with permission.) http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/
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http://www.ctk-thornbury.org.uk/
Christmas
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Father Bonar will not be posting homilies for Cycle B to allow himself
time for other projects. His collection of homilies (including homilies
for Cycle B) is available at www.clydebonar.com.
Christmas |
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These
homilies may be copied and adapted for your own use;
however, they may not be commercially published without permission of
the author.
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