Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, cycle B

Mark 1:29 - 39

Some of my grandchildren bought me a T-shirt with a picture of a manatee floating in the water. The caption on the shirt says “Going nowhere fast”. I think they may have been commenting on a bad habit I have. For example, if you live in Longmeadow, you probably have experienced one of our famous Longmeadow Street traffic jams. They seem to occur without rhyme or reason, at different times of the day, but most often in the morning. If you are a native, you probably have tried going through the back streets to get ahead of the column of traffic trying to get onto the highway going north. I confess I give in to this temptation now and then. Once, after driving around on back streets and coming back to Longmeadow street, my wife pointed out that the truck that had been ahead of us had just crossed the intersection where we were waiting for the light to change. I pointed out that while that was true, we had at least been moving a lot faster than if we had stayed on Longmeadow street.

During the middle ages, religious scholars went to great pains to develop lists of sins, to help priests with the administration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. One sin was given the latin name of “acedia” and implied pointless activity. It was viewed as another form of laziness. I see a similarity between my behavior on Longmeadow street and this.

If you put yourself in today's gospel, up to this time Jesus has been baptized, he's spent time in the desert, he's collected some disciples, he's preached and worked miracles. But this day was different. Because his fame was spreading, he ended up spending most of the day healing and driving out demons. When there was a lull, he slipped off to be by himself, or rather, to be with the Father. You and I can identify; there are times when we really need to be alone for a while, especially if we've been very busy or spent a lot of time among people. But for Jesus, it's not to be. His new disciples find him and say, Lord,why are you sitting here when there are healings to be done and demons to be exorcised? Come on, let's get moving!” And Jesus replies, “Sorry, I don't know where the time went. Line up those crowds and I'll get back to work.” Actually, if you were listening, he didn't actually say that. He said, Let us go into the neighboring villages so that I may preach there. For this purpose I have come.”

Jesus knew why he had come. His purpose was to make people aware that the kingdom of God was at hand, that God was with his people, that God wanted to care for them like a shepherd cares for his sheep. And the miracles were just meant to show this. The miracles just underlined the message. The Gospel of Mark, the oldest Gospel, often seems to show Jesus in a very human light, learning something, changing his behavior in view of what he's learned. And here Jesus has learned that if he gives in to the temptation to heal and drive out demons for everyone who comes to him, he will never get the message out. And if he doesn't take some time to touch base with the Father, if he doesn't pray, he'll soon not be able to do that either. And for the rest of Mark we see Jesus teaching the crowds, performing a miracle here and there, conferring with his disciples about what it all means, and going off by himself to pray. Jesus has learned that to be an effective person, there has to be a certain rhythm in life.

For Jesus, making people aware of the kingdom of God was his reason for being. He wanted people to know there was an alternative life style, a way to go through life, which meant three things: putting your trust in the Father and returning his love, looking after each other's needs, and not becoming a slave to possessions or status or power or pleasure. Jesus promised that if we adopted this way of life, it would bring us joy, a joy that would last for eternity, that would be there even if we were suffering, even after we died. And Jesus wanted to reach everyone with this good news, which can only be transmitted from one person to another. If I see that your joy comes from the way you live, I will be interested in perhaps living that way myself. And that's why he called apostles, and that's why he founded a Church.

So as we approach Lent, let us ask ourselves three questions:

First, do we know our purpose? How clear is it? Does it align with the kingdom of God or is it at cross-purposes because something other than God is at the center?

Second, what is habitually getting in the way of my living a kingdom of God life style? If you can't think of at least one or two things, you are either completely in the kingdom of God or you are sadly misled. Because even the great saints saw in their own holy lives distractions. Saint Gregory the Great was living a happy life as a monk when he was elected Pope. He received the title “Great” because of the many reforms he initiated, his spiritual writings, and his efforts to unify Christianity. But in one of his letters he lamented about how his duties as Pope seemed to be keeping him from the life of prayer and contemplation to which he felt he had been called.

Third, how are we helping spread the message of Jesus, that the kingdom of God is at hand, that there is a way to find a lifetime of joy and eternity with the Father in heaven? And if we don't see a little of the joy of the kingdom in our own lives, perhaps we need to find it.

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, cycle B

MARK 1:21-28

AS YOU KNOW THIS IS YEAR B IN THE LITURGICAL CALENDAR, AND WE ARE READING THE GOSPEL OF MARK. FOR A LONG TIME THIS GOSPEL WAS THOUGHT TO BE SORT OF A READER'S DIGEST CONDENSED VERSION OF MATTHEW, AND MATTHEW WAS THE AUTHORITATIVE GOSPEL. THE CHURCH DREW THE MAJORITY OF ITS READINGS FROM MATTHEW. THE OTHER THING ABOUT MARK IS THAT FOR A LONG TIME IT WAS FELT THAT, BASED ON THE GRAMMAR AND SMALL VOCABULARY OF MARK, IT HAD BEEN WRITTEN BY SOMEONE WHO WASN'T VERY FLUENT IN GREEK. HOWEVER, IN THE LAST FIFTY YEARS OR SO, BIBLICAL SCHOLARS HAVE LEARNED A LOT ABOUT MARK. IT IS THE OLDEST GOSPEL, PROBABLY WRITTEN DURING THE LIFETIME OF SAINT PAUL, AND MATTHEW AND LUKE BOTH BORROW FROM IT. MARK HAS A VERY COHERENT THEOLOGY, DIFFERENT FROM MATTHEW AND THE OTHER GOSPEL WRITERS. AND FINALLY, MARK SEEMS TO B DELIBERATELY USING UNSOPHISTICATED GREEK IN ORDER TO DRAW THOSE WHO HEAR THE GOSPEL INTO THE STORY – KIND OF LIKE THE WAY HEMINGWAY TRIED TO MAKE HIS STORIES SO SIMPLE THAT PEOPLE READING THEM WOULD NOT NOTICE THE WORDS.

TODAY WE SEE A VERY SHORT GOSPEL IN WHICH THOSE WHO ARE OBSERVING JESUS ARE FIRST OF ALL ASTONISHED AT HIS TEACHING, AND LATER, AMAZED AT HIS TEACHING – AFTER HE'S DRIVEN THE EVIL SPIRIT OUT OF THE MAN. MARK USES THE GREEK WORD “THAMBEO” THIRTY FOUR TIMES IN HIS GOSPEL. DIFFERENT TRANSLATORS TRANSLATE THAMBEO INTO AMAZED, ASTONISHED, SHAKEN, DUMBFOUNDED – EVEN FEARFUL. IT SEEMS AS THOUGH THERE ISN'T A WORD IN ENGLISH THAT IS THE EXACT EQUIVALENT. WHEN WE READ AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION, WE DON'T PICK UP ON THIS. BUT MARK IS DEFINITELY MAKING SURE THAT HIS READERS KNOW THAT THE PEOPLE WHO HEAR JESUS ARE AMAZED.

NOW WHEN I WAS GOING TO SCHOOL I HAD SOME PRETTY GOOD TEACHERS; AND I'VE HEARD SOME PRETTY GOOD SERMONS AND TALKS DURING MY LIFETIME. BUT I DON'T EVER RECALL BEING AMAZED OR ASTONISHED WHEN I WAS BEING TAUGHT. SO WHAT'S GOING ON WITH THESE CROWDS? AFTER ALL, WE READERS UP TO THIS POINT IN THE GOSPEL HAVE SEEN JESUS WORK MIRACLES, BUT WE HAVEN'T HEARD HIM TEACH, EXCEPT TO SAY “REPENT AND BELIEVE THE GOSPEL, THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS AT HAND.” AND MAYBE THAT'S WHERE THE ASTONISHMENT, THE AMAZEMENT COMES FROM. BECAUSE IF JESUS WERE JUST TEACHING, HIS HEARERS WOULD PROBABLY NOT BE STIRRED UP MUCH. BUT IF HE WORKS MIRACLES, THEY ARE PUT INTO A SITUATION WHERE THEY MUST MAKE A CHOICE. THEY CAN BELIEVE HIM, WHICH MEANS THEY BETTER DO WHAT HE SAYS, WHICH IN TURN MEANS CHANGING THEIR LIVES; THEY CAN TRY TO IGNORE HIM, WHICH MANY DO. IF YOU REMEMBER THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER AND THE SEEDS, ONLY A FEW OF THOSE WHO HEARD THE PARABLE LATER ASKED HIM TO EXPLAIN IT. I ASSUME THE REST WEREN'T INTERESTED IN HEARING AN EXPLANATION. FINALLY, THERE WERE PEOPLE, AS WE KNOW, WHO CONCLUDED THAT THOSE MIRACLES OF JESUS COULDN'T COME FROM GOD, BECAUSE CERTAINLY GOD WOULD NOT BE TELLING HIS DEVOUT FOLLOWERS TO REPENT. SO THEY DECIDED HIS MIRACLES CAME FROM THE DEVIL.

IF YOU REALLY BELIEVE JESUS, THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS AT HAND. AND JESUS SAYS OVER AND OVER THAT YOU CAN ENTER THE KINGDOM, RIGHT NOW. IT'S NOT IN SOME DISTANT FUTURE. BUT ENTERING THE KINGDOM REQUIRES CHANGING YOUR LIFE, AND A CHRISTIAN IS ALWAYS CHANGING HIS OR HER LIFE. WHAT IS THIS KINGDOM? IT'S NOT A PLACE, IT'S A STATE OF BEING; IT'S AN ALTERNATIVE LIFE STYLE. JESUS SAID THAT IT'S NOT OF THIS WORLD. AND THOSE WHO FOLLOWED HIM CONTINUED TO BE AMAZED AT HIS TEACHINGS: THE FIRST SHALL BE LAST AND THE LAST FIRST; IT IS EASIER FOR A CAMEL TO PASS THROUGH THE NEEDLE'S EYE THAN FOR A RICH MAN TO ENTER THE KINGDOM; YOU ARE TO WASH EACH OTHER'S FEET; BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO MOURN, BLESSED ARE THE PERSECUTED; AND PERHAPS THE HARDEST OF ALL, “THE SON OF MAN MUST BE TORTURED AND PUT TO DEATH, AND RISE ON THE THIRD DAY”. WHEN WE READ THE GOSPELS CAREFULLY, AND PUT OURSELVES IN THE PLACE OF THOSE WHO WERE MOST COMMITTED TO FOLLOWING JESUS, IT'S NO WONDER THAT THEY WERE CONSTANTLY BEING ASTONISHED AT HIS TEACHING.

IT WASN'T SO LONG AGO THAT THERE WAS A CATHOLIC CULTURE. WHEN MOST OF US WENT TO OUR OWN SCHOOLS, WHEN MOST OF US FREQUENTED THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE ON A WEEKLY OR MONTHLY BASIS; WHEN WE REALLY FASTED DURING LENT AND ABSTAINED FROM MEAT ON FRIDAY; WHEN WE SHOWED RESPECT FOR THE EUCHARIST BY KNEELING TO RECEIVE, BY BOWING TO THE TABERNACLE, BY PARTICIPATING IN EUCHARISTIC PROCESSIONS AND ADORATION – THERE WAS A SENSE THAT WE WERE LIVING AN ALTERNATIVE LIFE STYLE. I'M NOT SAYING WE SHOULD GO BACK TO THAT TIME, BUT WE SHOULD ASK, ARE WE SO AMAZED AND ASTONISHED AT JESUS' TEACHINGS THAT WE ARE REPENTING, CHANGING THE WAY WE THINK AND ACT, LIVING IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD WHICH IS AT HAND? OR ARE WE HARD TO DISTINGUISH FROM OUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS.

THERE WAS A POST ON MY FACEBOOK FEED THE OTHER DAY. IT SAID SOMETHING LIKE THIS:

WHEN I TALK ABOUT JUSTICE FOR IMMIGRANTS, THEY CALL ME A DEMOCRAT.

WHEN I PROTEST ABORTION, THEY CALL ME A REPUBLICAN.

WHEN I PROTEST RACISM AND RACIAL INEQUALITY, THEY CALL ME A DEMOCRAT.

WHEN I WANT GOVERNMENT TO LIVE WITHIN ITS MEANS AND SPEND MONEY WISELY, THEY CALL ME A REPUBLICAN.

WHEN I SUPPORT THE COMMON GOOD AND SOLIDARITY, THE SAY I'M A DEMOCRAT.

WHEN I BELIEVE IN STRENGTHENING THE TRADITIONAL FAMILY, THEY SAY I'M A REPUBLICAN.

WHEN I SPEAK OUT AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY THEY CALL ME A DEMOCRAT.

WHEN I AM AGAINST USING PUBLIC MONEY TO FUND CONTRACEPTION, THEY CALL ME A REPUBLICAN,

BUT IN REALITY, I'M JUST A CATHOLIC WHO BELIEVES WHAT HIS CHURCH TEACHES.

WE SHOULD BE AMAZED AND ASTONISHED AT WHAT JESUS TEACHES, IN THE GOSPELS AND THROUGH HIS CHURCH. AND WE SHOULD REALIZE THAT HE IS ASKING US TO REPENT, WHICH MEANS TAKE UP AN ALTERNATIVE LIFE STYLE. AND HE PROMISES THAT IF WE DO THAT, WE MIGHT VERY WELL BE PERSECUTED. BUT HE ALSO PROMISES THAT WE WILL SHARE ETERNAL LIFE WITH HIM. THE FRENCH AUTHOR LEON BLOY, WHO HAD BERN AGNOSTIC AND WROTE SCATHING ARTICLES DERIDING THE CHURCH, UNDERWENT A MIRACULOUS CONVERSION LATER IN LIFE. HE WAS TO HAVE SAID, “THE ONLY TRAGEDY IN LIFE IS NOT TO BECOME A SAINT.” SO REPENT AND BELIEVE THE GOOD NEWS, AND PREPARE TO BE ASTONISHED AND AMAZED AS YOU FOLLOW JESUS.

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, cycle B

Mark 1:14-20

Last week we heard John's version of the calling of the first apostles. You remember – John the Baptist said to Andrew and another of his disciples, “There goes the Lamb of God”. And they got up and followed him. Later, Andrew went and brought Peter to Jesus, where Jesus gave him a new name. This week we hear Mark's version; Jesus comes into town and tells Peter and Andrew to follow him, and later James and John . Which is the true story?

There are some people who figure that if it is in the bible that's the way it happened, and when they come to something like this, they try to figure out how both could be true. And one solution that has been given is that the first story took place before the second. Andrew and Peter, and presumably James and John, had been invited by Jesus to be disciples – to come and see. They had been listening to his preaching and were part of the crowds that followed him. But they kept their day jobs. Later, Jesus asked them to join his inner circle. So maybe both stories are true.

But what we just did is something called “harmonizing” the gospels. We made up a story to explain how both accounts could be true. Now that's all well and good and there are some excellent Lives of Christ which do a lot of this; but sometimes it's better to let the gospel story speak for itself.

And I think what Mark is trying to emphasize is the fact that the first four apostles gave up everything – family, possessions, livelihood – to follow Jesus. Whether they gave everything up gradually or suddenly is not the point. In fact, after the Resurrection when Peter can't think what to do next, he decides to go fishing. He returned to doing what he did best.

I think it's good that there are two stories. It emphasizes that Jesus doesn't call us just once, but many times in our lives. He is always saying, “repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” It is not in the future, it is at hand, and our job is to change the way we think and act in light of this fact; that's what “repent” really means.

How do we know when we are being called? Because I suspect that if Jesus' call was obvious, none of us would have a problem answering his call, even if it meant going out and living in the desert. After all, if we are doing his will, what do we have to worry about? Some people have those kind of calls – A brother deacon who recently passed away, went on a Cursillo at the invitation of a friend, and had an overwhelming sense that he was called to the diaconate. I, on the other hand, thought about it off and on from the time it became a possibility for a married man, which was about fifty years ago. I was busy being a physician and helping raise a family, but every now and then the idea would surface again. I took care of a patient whose son was a deacon, and they encouraged me to look into it. I finally did, and although I never had an experience like my brother deacon, I gradually accepted the fact that this was probably God's will.

So how do we know something is God's will? The answer is that it is something that brings us closer to the kingdom of God. Saint Paul tells us that Jesus' disciples are all called to charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. When we see that we are not practicing these virtues, we know we aren't answering out call.

But Jesus also calls us to specific things, and I think that's more difficult. When I met my wife, I fell in love, and she did as well, and that was a call to marry. Next thing I knew, I was called to be a father. Later on a grandfather. When I was in college, I felt called to be a physician. As I studied medicine, I felt called to be a specialist in Internal Medicine. And as I was studying that field, I felt called to be a specialist in Cancer Medicine. Did all these calls come from God? I think so but I can't prove it.

I think when God calls us, there are three things that suggest the call is from God.

First, we find that we have a desire to do something we are not presently doing, and what we want to do we can see is a good thing, which somehow will bring the kingdom of God closer.

Second, we have an aptitude for the task at hand. You don't get a call to be a father unless you are married. You don't get a call to be a deacon unless you are a Catholic man who takes his faith seriously.

Third, you recognize that if you answer the call, you have to give something up. We see that over and over in the gospels; the four apostles give up everything to follow Jesus; the rich young man can't give up his many possessions and chooses not to follow Jesus. Mother Theresa gave up her life as a teaching sister for middle-class Indian children to follow Jesus into the slums. Sometimes we give up time, sometimes other opportunities, sometimes we have to make great sacrifices. But you can't answer Jesus' call without taking up a little bit of his cross.

And remember, Jesus keeps calling. He keeps inviting us to go deeper, to draw closer to him, So many of the saints answered the call within a call. St Therese of Liseaux as a Carmelite sister felt called to a unique vocation of embodying love. Saint Maximillian Kolbe as a Franciscan priest felt called to embrace martyrdom and give up his life for someone else.

You and I find ourselves in certain states of life – we have professions that occupy most of our waking hours; we have relationships that demand our attention and our energy, and we have our own spiritual development to attend to. And the Kingdom of God is at hand, and Jesus asks us to change the way we think, to sense the closeness of the kingdom, and then to recognize that he is always calling us and we need to train ourselves to hear and answer that call.

Someone once said that the only real tragedy is to not become a saint. And becoming a saint goes part and parcel with answering the call of Jesus.

Second Sunday in Ordinary time, cycle B

John 1:35-42

Our modern civilization is pretty peculiar. One of the things that's normal for human beings is to progress in physical, mental and emotional development by modeling yourself after various role models. A small boy would model himself after his dad or an older brother; a little girl would look to her mother or an older sister for clues on how to behave. As time went on, the role model might change, and indeed, change many times. Sometimes it would be a teacher or a coach, other times, a movie actor or a famous athlete. Eventually if someone was oriented to a career, a practioner of the craft would take on job of being a role model.

Our western society began to break this pattern down during the Vietnamese war and the days of the Hippies. Young people began to question their role models, and eventually came to the conclusion that modeling yourself on someone of the older generation was a losing game. Even though most of us weren't hippies or war protesters, the attitude was there. Question authority. Look at the older generation with deep suspicion. And those who should have been role models felt threatened by those expectations, and also by the fact that role models had to model how one was to live – ethically and morally, spiritually and emotionally. And as young people grew older, they shunned the job of being a role model.

But we are hard wired, and the need to model yourself creeps out in unexpected ways. I remember a particular time when I was working. The person who was leading my study group had come from another part of the country, and whenever he felt the discussion was getting pointless, he would summarize by saying, “at the end of the day....” an expression I had never heard before. But within a week or two, everyone was saying 'at the end of the day...” before making a summary statement. I'm sure you can think of examples of your own.

I had many role models – my dad, one of my uncles, a priest who taught in our high school – but one person stands out. When I was in medical school it was the first time in my life I was not in a Catholic school. I felt a little lost, because very few of my classmates were religious at all, let alone Catholic. You have to remember that during those years there was a distinct Catholic culture, and that seems to be dying out. Anyway, I learned of evenings of recollection given by an organization called “Opus Dei” and I began attending them. There I met a man who was a dental surgeon, and taught at the University of San Francisco. As I got to know him, I saw that he worked hard to be as good as he could be at his profession and teaching it to his students. At the same time he was totally in love with his faith. For him, the vocation he had was a religious one, or could be made into a religious one, because of his faith. He kind of embodied the whole purpose of Opus Dei, which could be summed up in the words, “your work is holy; it is the way you will become holy; and it is the way you will make the world holy”.

John the Baptist has been proclaiming that he was just a forerunner, he wasn't the Messiah. Nevertheless he attracted a lot of disciples. There's a tiny religion in Southern Iraq who call themselves Mandeans. Their origin is lost in history and they are very secretive, but they believe that John the Baptist was the Messiah, and will come again. I suspect during the early days of the Church there were still followers of John, and in fact they may have been seen as rivals to the Christian movement. Our Gospel tells us that John points to Jesus and says he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The two disciples get up and follow him. At this point we have the dialogue: Jesus says, “What do you seek?” and the disciples, oddly, answer, “Where are you staying? And Jesus replies, “Come and you will see.” It turns out that the best translation of what the disciples said is “Where do you abide?” and that was an expression that in modern English probably meant something like “What makes you tick?” or more politely, “we want to know what is special about you”. And Jesus does not stop and say, “Well, I'm the Son of God and the second person of the Trinity and the Word made Flesh.” He says, “come and you will see.”

The disciples did, and over the course of three years they had ample time to model themselves on Jesus – and the author of the Acts of the Apostles takes pains to show us that Peter and Paul preach, work miracles, and even raise the dead – so well have they absorbed the pattern set down by their Master. And that's really the whole story of Christianity – people noticing something special about another person, and resolving to model themselves on that person. Our role models, who in turn had role models, are the saints and other holy persons.

We've just finished celebrating the Incarnation – the fact that God became a human being. It's a mystery that we'll never fully understand, but maybe one of the reasons was so that we would have a role model for how to be a holy human being. I could tell you that getting to know Jesus requires careful study of the gospels, but that's not really true. After all those who knew Jesus best didn't even have gospels to study. Gospel study is good, but it's not for everyone. Before literacy became widespread, Christians knew the story of Jesus' life, death and resurrection from what they heard in church, or saw depicted in the stained glass windows. Getting to know Jesus does require knowing about his life, but it also requires role models. Because when we meet a real Christian, we meet Jesus himself. And just as we need role models, we need to be role models, and be conscious of the fact that we are role models for other people.

When I met my friend in Opus Dei, I was attracted to how he blended his medical vocation with his religious vocation. There were some things about his life that I would not want for myself, and that's ok as well. No role model is perfect.

Saint Paul understood this very well; he told the Corinthians “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ”. So who is your role model? And if you don't have one, maybe having one will help you progress in your Christian life. And who are you a role model for? I'm reminded of another quote from the gospel of Luke: “It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.”

Epiphany, 2018

Matthew 2:1 – 12

What would Christmas be without the Three Kings? As you can see, one is old, one is African, and one looks like the King of Hearts in a deck of cards. There is a whole literature on them, including the names Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar. Of course they were also called Apellus, Amerus, and Damasius by a historian in the middle ages. There are stories about how each of them after returning to wherever they came from set out to lay the groundwork for the apostles who would be the first missionaries. But all we really know is right here. They were called “magi” which may or may not mean “astrologer” We don't know how many there were. There weren't any camels, unfortunately. All we know is that they gave Jesus the highly symbolic gifts of gold, for a king, frankincense for a high priest, and myrrh for embalming a body.

Matthew, who always tries to line up Jesus' life with the prophecies of Isaiah and the figure of Moses in the Old Testament, is at work here as well. The first reading tells us about camels and gold and frankincense. And the prophecy says that “you shall be radiant at what you see, and your heart shall throb and overflow” – and the magi were overjoyed when the start they were following stopped over the home of the Christ Child. And we could say a lot more about Matthew's approach to telling the story of Jesus, but not right now, thankfully.

There are some things we can say, though, that might apply to our own lives. First, the Magi and Herod both receive the same revelation – that the ruler who is to shepherd Israel will come from Bethlehem. And we have no indication that Herod did not believe this. Indeed, Herod must have believed it because he later on ordered the slaughter of all the boys under the age of two years. Now Herod in the scriptures is a villain, and in real life he wasn't much better. He executed three of his sons and his favorite wife because he thought they were plotting to take over his throne. It's said that Herod was so upset about having to kill his wife that he wandered around in mourning for several days. Probably we don't see a resemblance in ourselves to Herod. But we are with him when something comes along that demands change. Even though all of us know we will grow old, get sick, lose loved ones and eventually die, we cling to what we have, often long after we should let it go. In our house, just as an example, we have stuff we got more than 50 years ago, plus boxes of stuff our children had, and it's very hard to part with these things, even though nobody including us, wants them. And that's a minor issue, of course. But there are more serious ones, like the man with early Alzheimer's disease who won't stop driving, or the doctor who is way passed his prime but continues to operate on patients. We are like Herod, we cling to things, even though if we stepped back and thought about it, everything in our lives comes from God.

The Magi, on the other hand, receive their revelation and do something about it. They leave their homes, travel through foreign lands, probably at night, since they are following a star. And when they reach their destination, they are overjoyed as they part with their gifts. Maybe that's a model for us. Instead of clinging to the past, to the status quo, to stuff, can we leave our comfort zone for God? I don't mean becoming a missionary to a foreign land or joining a monastery, although maybe one or two of us are called to that sort of thing. I mean rather, looking at what makes us uncomfortable and asking whether this is something God wants me to do.

In my own situation, I never thought I would enjoy visiting people with declining physical and mental abilities; in fact, until Father Reilly asked me to help out at the Jewish Geriatric Facility, I would not have chosen that for a ministry. But despite my discomfort, I began, and now I look forward to the opportunity – I get a chance to meet Christ suffering in these people, and I in some limited way bring Christ to them. Certainly by diving into your own discomfort you quickly learn whether it is going to help you grow as a Christian or is definitely not for you.

And like the magi, we are all given gifts, gifts for the building up of the Church. Saint Paul says each Christian is given a charism. The Magi joyfully gave their gifts away when they met Jesus. How are we giving our gifts away? Do we even know what they are?

And maybe another insight is that when the Magi had met Jesus, it says they went home by a different way. We have just celebrated the fact that God became one of us, that the Divine broke into his own creation with the intention of drawing it all back into himself – we know that a great mystery of our faith is that God has chosen to build up his kingdom through us. There is no back up plan. We know the kingdom will come, but whether our lives will help bring it about or get in its way, depends on our choices.

Herod learned of the newborn king and he did not change; perhaps in his brutality he became even more himself. The Magi encountered the newborn king and went home by a different route; they allowed themselves to be changed.

You and I encounter the risen Lord every time we celebrate the Eucharist. We experience God breaking into the world at every Holy Mass. If we encounter Christ and are not changed, what is the point? If we are still part of this world, where violence, consumerism, poverty and perversion continue to rule the culture, we are not in the kingdom. But if we follow Jesus example, if we go by a different route, then the kingdom is coming and we are bringing it on.

The Holy Family, 2017

Luke 2:22-40

Like many of you, I'm a grandparent. It's a good life; the grandchildren are usually on their best behavior when they drop around, because they know their grandmother and I are easy touches for cookies and soda and a little cash, maybe. We can sort of pick and choose when we see them, although there is the occasional baby sitting job or the last minute car ride that someone needs. And we don't have to worry – at least not as much as we worried about our own kids. The heavy worrying is the parents job, not ours. And all in all we enjoy our grandchildren, not all at once, mind you, but in small doses. During this Christmas season we've seen all the grandchildren, all nineteen of them, so we've had an overdose.

But there is one thing about being a grandparent that comes to mind every now and then. I look at my six year old granddaughter and realize that I won't be around when she graduates from college. I see my seven year old grandson and know I won't be there when he gets married. Seeing the little ones is a reminder of my own mortality.

Today we see Simeon and Anna, two elderly people, maybe grandparents in their own right, as they marvel over the Christ child. Simeon prays the prayer that all the clergy and religious in the church pray every night, “Now you can dismiss your servant, O Lord...” Simeon most likely dreamed about the day when the Messiah would come in triumph and rescue Israel. Maybe he thought of him as a powerful king, or a great prophet, or the High Priest who would reign forever – the leading thinkers were not clear on what role the Messiah would play, but all agreed it would be prominent and triumphant. But Simeon knows he will never witness the moment for which he and countless other Jews have waited his whole life. He must be content with a glimpse of the infant.

And I don't know how my grandchildren will end up. I can hope that they will have good lives, that they will stay in the Church, that if they are to get married they will find good spouses. But we all know that those hopes might be dashed. We live in a world where drugs and alcohol destroy lives; where a war may break out and a promising young man or woman will die or be severely crippled defending our country. And many of us have had first-hand experience of a child or sibling, someone dear to us, losing his or her faith.

Simeon had faith, faith that God had a purpose for the world. And if God has become flesh, if God is driving the universe toward a goal only He can see, then Simeon can take comfort in the fact that he himself is caught up in God's ongoing creative action. We remember Simeon because of the words recorded in scripture; but we should also remember that even though Simeon spent a lot of time in the temple, most of his day was taken up with the usual human activities of working for a living, eating, sleeping, and all the other things that even here in the 21^st century occupy most people most of the time. But all of that is part of Simeon's life as well. If Simeon's prophecy and prayer that made it into the gospels is part of God's plan, then so is the rest of Simeon's life.

And if I believe that God is at work in the world, drawing all things to himself, bringing order out of disorder, gradually building a kingdom that will last forever, a kingdom where what will be on earth will be as it is in heaven, then my short little time on this earth takes on infinite importance, because I am part of God's plan – in fact, a necessary part. God invites me to be a co-creator of his kingdom, as he does my grandchildren. And I don't know what that kingdom will look like when God's work is finished. Sometimes we think our role is very small and unessential; after all, God will get what he wants, right? But I think that's the point of the wounds in the body of the Risen Christ – our imprint will be on God's kingdom, good or bad.

The other thing I know about the kingdom is that my role in building it doesn't involve some heroic act; it doesn't involve me founding a religious order or writing a deathless spiritual classic or converting a nation of pagans. All the great things we can point to in our church's history are really works of God through willing individuals. Mother Theresa was willing, but I suspect you could have found several hundred dedicated holy religious sisters who would also have been willing. The only thing I can bring to God's table that is really mine is love. Saint Therese of Liseaux is a doctor of the Church because of her great insight that it was not doing great things that brought about God's kingdom, but doing the little things with great love.

So what I can hope for my grandchildren is that they will help build up God's kingdom by learning to do little things with great love, and that they will also understand that they are not insignificant, that because they are sons and daughters of God whatever they do is of God, whether it has to do with doing the dishes or sweeping the floor or running a business or becoming an entertainer. And in embarking upon life with great love they bring the kingdom closer.

And as we enter a new year that should be our resolution; this year we will strive to see that there is glory in everything we do; that God is close to us when we act out of love; and that we can act out of love in every action we perform. And as we practice allowing love to be our motivator, instead of greed or anger or envy or fear, we gradually become love, and then we are on the right side of history – because in the end, Love wins.

Christmas, 2017

John 1:1-18

I was named after my father. My name is Donald Joseph, and my Father's was John Donald. He in turn was named after his father, whose name was John Silas. We named our son Donald John and threw in the name Matthew as well giving him a choice about what he wanted to call himself. And it's interesting to find out why people were given the names they have. Some people spend a lot of energy drawing up names for their children. I had an Uncle and Aunt who named each of their five children with a name that began with M. I don't know why, maybe they just liked that letter better than the other 25. And I'm sure everyone knows someone whose first name seems to have been selected to go with the family name – Like the movie star Rip Torn. And what do we do with names? Many people make a conscious choice to be called something else; I know several people who have chosen to go by their middle name, and even when they sign their name the first name is remembered by a letter. Names are random sounds and at the same time they take on meaning from the person who is given the name. Names resonate with connections. After World War II, the rather common name “Adolph” became extremely rare for quite a while. And I suspect few babies, at least in liberal Massachusetts, will be named Donald for many years.

The gospel of Luke has the familiar story of the annunciation, in which Gabriel tells Mary that she will bear a son and is to name him Jesus. In the Gospel of Matthew an angel appears to Joseph and tells him the same thing, to name this child Jesus.

The name Yashwah was not unusual among the Hebrews. The successor of Moses, who actually led the Israelites into the promised land, had the same name – only we pronounce it Joshua. Other variations we meet in scripture include Jesse and Joses. But Jesus did not get his name from his parents, it came by way of angels directly from God, and God doesn't do anything frivolously; The Son he sent in to the world could have no other name.

Yashwah means “God saves”. I think we all would agree that this is an appropriate name, after all, we Christians believe that God became a human being to save us. But sometimes we ask, how does that happen? Fathers and doctors of the Church have come up with different ideas. They all seem to revolve around the idea that Jesus pays off a debt that we could never pay off, or that Jesus offers his life to his Father in place of our lives. Salvation seems to be a transaction. But I think the names of Jesus may suggest something different.

Another name for Jesus is found in the first part of the Gospel of John, where he is called “Word”.

A very unusual thing about human beings is that our minds are formed by words. The theologian Hans Urs Von Balthazar wrote: “After a Mother has smiled for a long time at her child, the child will begin to smile back; she has awakened love in its heart, and in awakening love in its heart, she awakes also recognition.” But of course the other thing a mother does is speak words to the child, who through those words begins to recognize that he is not alone, that he is loved, that he belongs. We know of situations where children were raised without words, and the result is that if they attempt to learn their language as teens or young adults they never achieve normal socialization, and in fact never become very fluent. To be without words is to be isolated, lonely and incapable of fully participating in our human society.

And maybe that's what Jesus as the Word is all about. We human beings, even when we have families, even when we have loving relationships, eventually realize that nothing is permanent, nothing lasts forever; our assumptions are shaken to the core. I recently talked with a friend who had just had a heart attack. It was mild, he had stents placed, he was back to normal a few days later. But he was totally shaken; he said he had to re-evaluate everything, having had a personal brush with death. And he is a man of faith.

Jesus as the Word of God is like a mother's words that begin the process of bringing a baby into his full humanity; The Word of God tells us that we do not need to fear, there is meaning in the world, there is a plan for each of us. The Word of God calls us out beyond the fear, darkness, and chaos that prevents us from entering the world of self-expression, thought, and conscious love. The Word of God calls us into a relationship which is the end of being alone, being frightened, being at the mercy of the world, our own bodies, and other people.

When we respond to the Word that is part of what is meant by being saved; we've been made free from the limitations our human condition puts upon us, and from the ultimate limitation, which is death. Because the third name for Jesus is the name given by the prophet Isaiah, who said that a virgin would bear a child and his name would be called Emmanuel, God with us. And when we realize that God is with us, that he is closer to us than our own heart, that he will never withdraw his love, than we can say with Paul, “If God is with us, who can be against us?” and “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

Jesus …..Jesus ….Jesus. When God names something, it becomes what God has named it. And there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.

Go forth today breathing the name Jesus on this day we celebrate the birth of our Savior.