Saturday, December 27, 2014

Holy innocents



Christmas I (Holy Innocents) Matthew 2:13-18
“Out of Egypt have I called my Son.”
Jesus never authorizes any one to kill for him. On occasion, Jesus does ask us to be prepared to die for him.
The Holy Innocents are among those who died for Jesus. They witness to the power of sin at work in the human soul. And, the witness to the human tendency to reject our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation in Jesus Christ,
Joseph Stalin once commented that you can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs, It was his response to those who criticized him for killing some 30 million of his own people in order to build the perfect society on earth.
King Herod had no interest in building a socialist paradise on earth. He did understand that his power was based in pride and conflict. Through fear of losing his power and anger that the Magi had not reported back to him the identity of the Christ Child, King Herod lashed out in fury and spite.
King Herod’s solution was the final solution: Kill them all. He wasn’t the first to adopt this strategy. He wasn’t the last.
He could have made a different choice. He could have worshipped the Christ Child as the Magi did. He could have rejoiced with the shepherds and sung the glory of God with the angels.
He didn’t. He could only have done those things if he heeded the prophetic call to repent and to prepare. He was not willing to repent. He was not willing to prepare. He had sealed his soul in the way of pride, self-will and fear. He used his authority as king to order the military to commit a terrible atrocity in the name of maintaining order and security.
If King Herod were a modern politician he might have called the Holy Innocents “collateral damage”. He might have called a press conference and announced: the operation to maintain homeland security was successful. We don’t target civilians. We don’t target infants. But, sadly, sometimes these things just happen. Sometimes the innocent die with the guilty.
People some times ask: why does God allow these terrible atrocities. It is a good question. A better question might be: why do people perpetuate and justify these atrocities? Why do so many people in the world accept the concept of ‘collateral damage”? The best question is: what is God doing about this problem?
The Holy Innocents bear witness to the problem of original sin. People are lost in separation from God. The lost don’t want to be found. The lost don’t want to repent and prepare for our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation in Jesus Christ. The lost form their minds, and hearts and wills in categories of rigid, inflexible and uncompromising belief. In those beliefs the lost experience fear and bring forth conflict.
The lost can always justify atrocities in the name of belief, for the purpose of security.
The Holy Innocents also witness that Jesus is the Prince of Peace. Jesus is the original pattern of humanity. Jesus offers us reunification with the One God in the community of the Three Persons of universal unconditional love. Jesus offers us a new life in him. Jesus offers us a new way of living by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.
The way of Jesus is the way of faith. It is the new life of grace. It is the transforming power of divine love.
God sent the holy family to Egypt for safety. Egypt also held a cosmopolitan Jewish community conversant in Scripture, Tradition and Reason. It was an ideal place for the child Jesus to learn some valuable lessons. It was the prophesied place from which the Father called His son to return to Israel.
God also calls us out of the place we find ourselves. He calls us out of separation to be found in Jesus. He calls us out of rigid, inflexible uncompromising belief into a living and transforming faith. He calls us out of fear and conflict into a new life of courageous peace.
The prophet proclaims the word of God the Father: out of Egypt have I called my Son. Jesus finds us where we are and then calls us to journey with the Holy Spirit to a new place of grace, through faith, by universal unconditional love.

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Christmas 2014



Christmas 2014 (Luke 2:1-14)
“I am bringing good news of great joy.”
The joy of Christmas is Jesus, others, you.
In Jesus God speaks to us and reveals to us that He is real, He is personal, He is love, He is Jesus Christ.
In Jesus the infinite and eternal God enters this universe of matter, energy, time and space to unify his divinity with our humanity in a particular person.
When people ask: where is God? God’s answer is a person: Jesus Christ. The reality of God emerges in the personal relationship God offers us in Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the assurance that God loves us- all of us- each of us- so much that He sent Jesus to reset the broken pattern of humanity. Jesus is the second Adam who empowers to follow a new way of life and a new way of becoming.
Jesus is Good News. The Good News is that Jesus reveals and demonstrates for us that God is universal unconditional love.
There is no condemnation in Jesus Christ and so there is no condemnation in God.
Jesus is God the Father’s gift to a lost and broken world. God the Holy Spirit speaks to everyone at all times inviting us to make the one real choice that has immediate as well as eternal results.
The Holy Spirit reminds us that he moved in the hearts of the shepherds to come down from the mountain to welcome Jesus. He reminds us that He invited the Magi to leave their ivory towers and travel east across the desert to bring gifts to Jesus. Even angels left the heavenly realm to sing the hymn of glory for the people of Earth, to announce the holy birth.
Jesus comes to offer a new way of thinking about God and a new way of experiencing God. Jesus comes to offer us a new way to think about other people and a new way to experience other people. And, Jesus comes to offer us a new way to think about ourselves and to experience ourselves.
The new way is the way of universal unconditional love. It is the way of worship, kindness and compassion,  and it is the way of personal transformation.
We celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ in all of the particularities of that birth in human history and in the traditions of our faith and families. We celebrate the birth of a new Way of being alive by grace, through faith in Love.
We celebrate the Good News of great joy that God is real, God is personal. God is love, God is Jesus Christ, Immanuel- God with us and God for us now and forever. Amen.

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Advent 4



Advent 4 (Luke 1:26-38)
“Behold, I am the servant of the Lord, be it unto me according to Thy word.”
Mary placed God first in her life.
On this 4th Sunday of Advent, the Holy Spirit directs the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church throughout the world and throughout time to consider the role of Mary in our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation. She is the woman who is full of grace. She is the one who lived by grace through faith. She is the one whom God the Father chose to be the mother of His incarnate son Jesus Christ.
God is universal unconditional love who pours out grace to everyone. Few partake of that grace. Fewer still value what God offers.
Mary is the woman who chose to become full of grace. Where so many people have said and continue to say “no” to God, Mary says “yes.”
Mary said yes to God by accepting the real presence of God in worship, compassion and personal transformation.
God said: Keep the seventh day, the Sabbath Day, holy to the Lord and Mary said yes.
God said: offer the appointed sacrifice at the appointed time and the appointed place and Mary said yes.
God said prepare your mind, heart and will to enter into the Divine Presence and Mary said yes.
God the Father entrusted Mary to be the mother of God the incarnate Son because Mary had said yes to God the Holy Spirit as He spoke in scripture, worship and human need. The Father trusted Mary to help the child Jesus grow in the knowledge and love of God.
Mary’s “yes” to God is rooted in grace manifesting an attitude of faith to produce an action of love.
The Bible teaches that more often than not we respond to grace in the little things of life. We choose to follow where Jesus leads as we allow ourselves to be embraced by the forever friendship of God in Jesus Christ. As we allow Jesus to walk with us we discern the pattern of love in the smallest and most mundane of choices.
Are you ever frustrated in traffic? God did not create that traffic to test you or to punish you. Human choice creates traffic jams. God invites us to respond to such situations from the place of grace- God’s universal unconditional favor, through faith- trust in Jesus that all things work together for good, in love- the pattern of active dynamic creative and personal relationships.
Mary grew up as one of the many working poor. She never knew from day to day if she would have enough food for her family. She never knew if Joseph would find enough work to pay the bills. She never knew when the military occupation forces might come through her village. She lived in a world of political instability and religious conflict. She also made a real choice to receive the grace of God to live by faith in love.
We have a similar choice. In some ways our choice is easier. We have the fullness of the Bible. We have the record of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. We have the sacramental real presence of God the Son in our midst. Mary had none of those things. She had grace.
We have grace. All people everywhere have grace. There is no one whom God the Holy Spirit exempts from grace. The challenge is choice.
Will we receive the grace the Holy Spirit offers? Be sure, as we receive divine grace into our souls the result will be a change in the way we think, feel and make choices. The Holy Spirit will not allow us to remain locked in any rigid, inflexible uncompromising sets of beliefs. He will change us.
That change is called sanctification. Mary’s role in the Church as Queen Mother of Heaven is to assist us in this process of sanctification- of transforming change.  Mary prays for us and Mary channels the reflected grace of God from her soul to our souls. As she cared for the child Jesus so she cares for us.
As Mary taught Jesus about the religion and faith of Israel so she teaches us about her Son. Mary is the humble and loving holy mother who continues to fulfill her role in the Plan of Salvation as Queen of Heaven for our benefit. Her “yes”, her “AMEN” to the clear and explicit word of God echoes throughout time and in the depths of our souls inviting us to join with her by saying: I am the Lord’s servant, may God’s will be done now and forever. Amen.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Advent 3



Advent 3 (John 1:6-8;19-28)
“Among you stands one whom you do not know.”
There is an old saying: you can’t see the forest for the trees. Sometimes we are so close to a problem we can’t even identify the problem. And. Sometimes we are so close to the solution we can’t accept it.
A skeptic once discussed the challenges of faith with a priest. The priest was having difficulty understanding the skeptic. The priest gently asked: are you concerned that God is not speaking? The skeptic replied: No, I’m worried that God is speaking but we are not listening.
The Bible records that most people most of the time do not listen to God when God speaks. The kings, aristocrats and merchants of Israel even hired false prophets to contradict the message of the true prophets.
Certainly, King Herod did not like what John the Baptist had to say. Herod recognized that John was indeed a true prophet of God. John, as with all of the prophets, observed the world around him. He spoke the truth of human experience. He held his generation accountable for their rebellion against the natural, moral and spiritual laws God had revealed through Moses.
Many people came to John out of fear. They feared punishment. They accepted the outward and visible sign of repentance but lacked the inward and spiritual commitment to personal transformation.
Others simply found John exciting. They viewed him as someone new and different and for the moment entertaining. King Herod enjoyed listening to John in much the same way modern people enjoy listening to popular radio or TV evangelists. Sadly, Herod was not willing to act on John’s call to repentance. He feared his people, his nobles, the Romans and perhaps significantly- his wife- more than he feared God. In the end, at the moment of choice, Herod chose to kill John.
As with John, as with all of the true prophets of God, so with Jesus. John declared that the one the people had expected God to send was already among them. Sadly, Jesus was not who the people expected and not what they wanted.
John issued the call to repent and prepare. He announced the real presence of God with us in Jesus Christ. People missed the prophetic message. Some were not willing to listen. Their minds were made up and nothing that John said could change them. They were lost in the inherited beliefs of their culture.
Some people listened, found the message curious and interesting, but could not hear the reality of divine grace. They were lost in their own demands for God to do their will not His will.
And some people listened, heard but could not accept the prophetic proclamation. Like Herod, they were lost in fear- fear of losing what they valued more than a personal relationship with the living God, fear of losing money and power, fear that following God would mean giving up what they really wanted.
John the Baptist, the last of the prophets warned his generation “Among you stands one whom you do not know.”
This warning echoes throughout history in all cultures including our own. Jesus is God with us. Jesus is the Way of being human that brings us the greatest possible happiness. Jesus is the unknown real presence of God who invites us to know him personally at all moments of our lives. Jesus is God telling us: I want to be known. I am real. I am here. I am Jesus.

Monday, December 1, 2014

Advent 2



Advent 2 (Mark 1:1-8) “
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus is God up front and personal.
For those who say there is no God, God Himself gives the answer. The answer is Jesus.
When speaking with people, religious, secular or spiritual, never argue belief. Moses, the prophets and Jesus himself show us that arguing over belief is futile. Never seek to impose belief by authority. Quoting, “the Bible says” to someone who believes the Bible is filled with errors and contradictions is counterproductive. Similarly, never invoke the authority of the Church in matters of salvation. The Church is the instrumentality of the Plan of Salvation. Jesus is the Plan of Salvation.
The beginning of the Good News of our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation is the archangel Gabriel’s annunciation to Mary that she will be the mother of the Son of God. The Good News unfolds in the context of personal relationships.
Mary and Joseph are the first to greet Jesus into the world. The animals in the stable are right there with them. The poorest of the poor – the shepherds, the richest of the rich intellectual class come in the caravan of the Magi. Angels are also there. As we ponder the meaning of Christmas consider how the personal God reveals himself in a single infant in the context of a series of personal relationships.
This is a pattern. It is the pattern of evangelism. It is how God Himself brings us Good News. It is how God invites us to share this Good News with our families, friends and neighbors.
The pattern of the personal God reaching out to our species through personal relationships is the pattern of the very reality of God. The one God is a co-eternal community of three persons. The Father sends the Son into the world by the power of the Holy Spirit to reunite the lost to Divine Love.
Jesus anoints us with the Holy Spirit to follow the pattern of the Plan of Salvation in the way we affect other people though our relationships with them. The reality of the Plan of Salvation is the Real Presence of God in our lives through our relationships.
This is the meaning underlying John the Baptist, the last of the prophets, declaration that Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit. John could only administer the outward and visible sign of repentance. Jesus is the one who takes away the sin of the world by taking all sin into himself and transforming it by love into love.
Jesus is the co-eternal Beloved of the Father. All of human sin is but a single drop of ink in the vast infinite ocean of love that is God. Jesus takes away sin and transforms sin. His ongoing and indeed never ending gift to us is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the all pervasive and omnipresent reality of Divine Love in the universe, our planet, our species and our souls. He is the one who Helps us to transform our desires and reset our priorities.
Evangelism is our response to the personal presence of God the Holy Spirit in our souls. He invites us into the new way of life and the new way of living by grace through faith in the community of divine love.
John the Baptist points the way. The Way is Jesus. Jesus baptizes us in the Holy Spirit daily, hourly, moment by moment to fill us with the joy of salvation. In that joy, Jesus invites us to celebrate his real presence with us here at the altar of sacrificial love. In that joy, the Holy Spirit enables us to celebrate the birth of Jesus who is God with us. The joy emerges as we learn to live and choose to love in union with the Father, through the Son, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.