December 20, 2018

This gospel story of Mary and Gabriel sums up the beauty and mystery of this season of Advent and the season of Christmas.  It also is at the heart of our vocation as Christians. 

God desires to come into our world to redeem it, to bring peace and joy, to enter into it as fully as possible.  Yet, God cannot do this without the Fiat of the young virgin. The angel tells her not to fear, assures her that she is blessed, and then waits for her response.

Filled with grace, Mary trusts God’s word and humbly answers with her simple and profound, “Yes.”  “Be it done unto me according to your word.”

As Christians, each of us needs to beg the Lord for that same grace: to say “Yes” to whatever God asks and to be free from fear, trusting instead in God’s presence with us.

God waits for our Yes each day in order that Christ’s redemptive work continue in the world today.  

May that miracle begun in Nazareth be part of our lives today and every day. 

First Sunday of Advent

The Scriptures on this First Sunday of Advent offer wise advice for our season of waiting.  We need to remember God’s promises, ask the Lord for strength, and be vigilant concerning what is to come.

Jeremiah’s prophetic word assures us that God is about to fulfill His promise by raising up for David a just shoot.  The shoot is an heir, and the heir, of course, is Jesus, the Just One, or as today’s reading from Jeremiah concludes, “The Lord our justice.”  We often think of Jesus during this season as the promised Prince of Peace, but we remember Pope St Paul VI’s words, “If you want peace, work for justice.”  There will be no peace in the world until justice has been established.  Jesus’ mission to bring justice and peace is now the mission of the Church, of each of us, and we have to commit ourselves to both praying for and working for justice and peace. 

It is good to remember as well the other promises that Jesus has given us: He will be with us until the end of the age; the gates of hell will not prevail against us; anything we ask in His name will be given to us; the Holy Spirit will be our Advocate and Guide and will give us the words we need and will empower us to do the works that Jesus did.  God is faithful to His promises and it is good that we keep this close in our minds and hearts during these days of waiting upon the Lord.

In the second reading, Paul writes to the Thessalonians and prays that the Lord will strengthen their hearts.  This strength will make them holy and will enable them to conduct themselves in ways that are pleasing to God.  In the gospel, Jesus with His words to the disciples tells us of the need for strength in order to endure what will come upon the world.    We need strength, He says, to resist carousing and drunkenness and being overwhelmed by the anxieties of daily life.  The gospel passage finishes with Jesus exhorting the disciples, “Pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.  Are we doing this or do we give in to fear in the face of what is happening?

Jesus also tells the disciples, “Be vigilant at all times.”  The followers of Jesus need to watch what is happening, to read the signs that appear, to realize what needs to be done.  If they are not vigilant, Jesus says, they may not escape the tribulations that are coming and more importantly they may not be able to “stand before the Son of Man.”  If we had to stand before Jesus this day, would we be able to do so confidently?

Jesus was born on the first Christmas and as He ascended into heaven, He promised that He would come again in glory.  We remember the first coming as we celebrate the Feast of the Nativity of the Lord and we profess our faith in the second coming each time we gather for the Eucharist on the Lord’s Day.  But we know too that Jesus comes to us often in our daily lives, in our prayer, in those who are in need, and in many other ways.  We pledge again during this season of waiting to be vigilant and to be on the lookout for the many ways Jesus comes to us each day.  Do we expect Jesus?  Do we see Jesus? 

Advent is the time when we remember God’s promises and ask for the strength to be faithful and persevering.  We need to watch and be ready for the coming of the Lord.  All that has been spoken will come to pass.  Do we believe that?  Do we ask for what we need each and every day?  Or are our anxieties or our carousing crowding out God’s place in our minds and hearts? 

This holy season of Advent reminds us that now is the time to put our hope and trust in the Lord so that we will not be put to shame at the hour of His coming.  We cannot delay, for we know not the day, nor the hour, when He will come. 

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The disciples were surprised at Jesus’ response to the Pharisee’s question about divorce, which is why they waited until they were alone with him in the house before they asked him about it.  But Jesus made it clear to them what he was saying, namely that divorce was not permissible because it is not God’s plan. 

The Protestant churches allow for divorce and remarriage, as did the Jewish community of Jesus’ time, but the Catholic Church, as is stated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 2384 – 2385, remains faithful to the teaching of Jesus in today’s gospel.  This is a difficult teaching for today since divorce is so common in society today for Catholics and non-Catholics alike.  But that does not change what Jesus says in Mark’s gospel as he speaks of God’s plan at creation as told in the book of Genesis, which is today’s first reading. 

At the time of Jesus, there were different views on divorce among leading Jewish rabbis and their followers.  Rabbi Shammi’s position was that a wife had to be guilty of some kind of sexual infidelity in order for a husband to divorce her.  Rabbi Himmel held that if a wife did something as relatively unimportant as overcooking dinner, her husband could divorce her or put her away.  With such differing views, it is no wonder that the Pharisees wanted to know where Jesus stood on the question. 

When Jesus asked the Pharisees what Moses had to say, they referred to the Law in Deuteronomy that allowed a husband to write a bill of divorce to dismiss his wife.  But Jesus then responds with a quote from another Book of the Torah, namely Genesis, saying that Moses allowed divorce because of the hardness of hearts.  God, having created man and woman, joined them together, and what God has joined together, “no human being must separate.” 

When the disciples later question Jesus on it privately, Jesus does not back down at all, but rather adds that if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.  Scholars believe that Mark’s gospel has Jesus also mention women divorcing their husbands, because, unlike Matthew’s gospel, which only speaks of men, Mark’s gospel was written in Rome and addresses Gentile Christians as well as Jewish Christians.  Unlike Jewish society, where only men could initiate divorce, in the Greco-Roman world, women could initiate divorce as well.  

It is clear that Jesus took his disciples by surprise with the seriousness of his teaching and we are challenged today by Jesus’ teaching on the permanence of marriage and the prohibition of divorce and then remarriage after divorce, since it is so common. 

The teaching of the Church has a pastoral approach to all of this in paragraph 2386:

It can happen that one of the spouses is the innocent victim of a divorce decreed by civil law; this spouse therefore has not contravened the moral law.  There is a considerable difference between a spouse who has sincerely tried to be faithful to the sacrament of marriage and is unjustly abandoned, and one who through his (or her) own grave fault destroys a canonically valid marriage.

There is tremendous need for pastoral sensitivity when a marriage ends in divorce.  The Church allows a couple to separate and divorce civilly.  People may still receive Communion in that situation.  It is remarriage that complicates matters and it is then those affected by divorce ought to turn to the Church to learn about annulments.  Divorce and remarriage are emotional and very sensitive issues and it is hoped the Church can help to bring healing and a peaceful resolution.  What is important, however, is not to deny or water down what Jesus taught as it continues to be the teaching of his Church today.

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

In today’s Scripture readings from Numbers and Mark, Joshua, Moses’ younger assistant, and John, the youngest of Jesus’ apostles, share an outlook toward others which is limiting and not helpful.  They know who are in their group and who aren’t and they are quick to judgement and action when they see others moving in who are not part of the group.

In both instances, the perceived outsiders are using gifts of God to do God’s work: Eldad and Medad are prophesying and the exorcists John saw were using the name of Jesus to set people free.  Joshua and John both wanted it stopped, while Moses and Jesus did not share their concern or their desire to bring it to an end. Being older and wiser, Moses and Jesus have a different mindset and understanding concerning the work of God.

These Scriptures present us with a question - Are we like Joshua and John or are we like Moses and Jesus? Do we approach life with an “us and them” attitude or are we open to others, especially those who are quite different from us, yet clearly close to God?  Do we have too narrow of an idea of who God works in and through or are we open to be surprised and grateful for what God can do in and through others?

Jesus’ words in the second half of today’s gospel pose an even more crucial question to us - Are we determined and decisive when it comes to fighting sin in our lives? Jesus mentions hands and feet and eyes. The hands and feet speak to our sinful physical activity. The eyes concern the ways we sin in our mind and in our heart. Needless to say, Jesus was not calling for His first followers or for us to hack off limbs or gouge out eyes.

Rather, Jesus is telling us that we need to do whatever it takes to keep ourselves from sin.  When we are honest with ourselves, and especially if we ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten us, we realize there are things in our lives that lead us to sin. Perhaps there are some relationships we have, or some places we go, or seemingly harmless things we do that we need to avoid. If we get angry often, we need to get help to understand the roots of the anger and how we can handle it better.  If alcohol poses a serious problem for us, then we shouldn’t drink. Jesus’ hyperbolic way of speaking shows us that we have to rid ourselves of anything and everything that keeps us from being the person God wants us to be, especially if not doing so could land us in hell.  

God is good and so we do not have to do this ourselves.  God is ready and waiting and eager to help us to grow in holiness. We can seek God’s help by turning to the Holy Spirit for guidance, praying over and studying the Scriptures to know Jesus more, and relying on the sacraments for the sanctifying grace that will bear fruit within us.  And all the while, we trust in God’s love and mercy every step of the way.

When we do all this, we will grow in holiness and be able to see God’s work in us and in others. Most importantly, at the end of our lives we will be welcomed into the joy of heaven. When we arrive there, perhaps we will be surprised to see who is there with us, for our God is a God of surprises.

Joshua and John learned from Moses and Jesus how God works in others in unexpected ways, and if we don’t learn that for ourselves here, in heaven we will see it in those there with us.

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

A crisis often forces a decision.  The more upsetting the crisis, the more urgent is the decision.  Yet, St. Ignatius of Loyola counseled that a decision ought not be made when one is not at peace.  It would be similar to trying to turn a ship around in a storm.  There is too much danger that the ship could go down.  One would do better to wait out the storm and then change course, if need be.

Joshua is calling on the people of Israel to decide again to serve the Lord in the first reading.  Paul, in the second reading, exhorts couples in marriage to decide to love each other as Christ loves the Church.  And some followers of Jesus decide to leave him because what he has said is too hard for them to accept.  It is decision making time in all three readings.  Coincidentally, for many of us, the recent reports of sexual abuse by priests and consequent cover-ups and lies by bishops, have created a painful crisis that forces us to consider whether we can still choose to be members of the Church. 

As a priest who has seen all of this from a front row seat, I judge no one for leaving the Church.  Some young people took their lives as a result of what they suffered at the hands of some sick priests.  Some priests have taken their lives, unable to face the future after what they had done. Some bishops have considered the reputation of the Church to be a higher priority than the health and happiness of young people and have lied and misled others as a result.  The enormity of the evil that has surrounded us for many years now has caused unspeakable sadness.  When faced with all of this, some will be unable to walk into a Church again.

Now is the time for decisions in the Church.  It is a time for action for all of us.  The pope has to act.  The bishops have to act.  It is a time to repent, to turn back to the Lord, and to rid the Church of the sinfulness that has so devastatingly damaged the Church.  It is a time to bring things into the light and to speak the truth.  There are more dark days ahead.  Things will get worse before they get better.  We walk the way of the cross again, but there is no other way to new life on the other side.

As a son of St. Ignatius, I trust his advice to wait out the storm.  As a priest whose life is centered in the Eucharist, I cannot walk away from the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present with us in the Church.  Like Peter, hot-headed, fearful and sinful at times, I have no other place to go.  I have decided to stay with Jesus, which means, for me, staying in the Church.

All of us have decisions to make.  And while we consider where we should go, we also think about what we should do.  God will guide us, in different ways, no doubt.  What is important is that we seek God’s will and once we are sure we know what that is, we carry it out.  In the meantime, we wait and pray and cling to the Lord, who alone can bring us peace.

20th Sunday of Ordinary Time

“Watch carefully how you live … because the days are evil” writes St Paul to the Ephesians in today’s second reading.  Given what we have heard and read of the abuse that some priests, bishops, and even cardinals have done to children, young people, and even their younger brother priests, we agree with St Paul and say that these days, our days, are evil too. 

 We struggle with feelings of anger, betrayal, confusion, and disgust.  We don’t hear enough words of outrage or promises of change, justice and repentance from our bishops.  Instead we are chastised because some chose to withhold financial support from the church.  And saddest of all, some of us have decided already that they have had enough and will not be back to church, perhaps ever again.  These are indeed evil days and, as St Paul said, we have to be careful then how we live.

In today’s first reading, wisdom is personified as a lovely Lady who has prepared a meal, compete with choice meat and wine.  She has sent out her maidens inviting all to the feast, especially those who are simple and lack understanding.  She asks us to “forsake foolishness” that we may live and “advance in the way of understanding.”

This is a poetic representation of the Lord God as a beautiful woman who has only good things to offer us to eat and drink, as well as the most helpful gifts of wisdom and understanding.  Perhaps we might hear in it a call to seek a sense of tranquility and being cared for in the middle of the painful and pitiful situation that threatens to overwhelm us. God’s word reminds us that God is still very much with us, even in all of this, and God offers us what we most need.

Likewise, in today’s gospel,  as we continue to hear Jesus in the Bread of Life discourse from John 6, the Lord promises us himself, his flesh and blood, that is given for the life of the world. When we eat his flesh and drink his blood, we remain in him and he remains in us.  We will have life and will live forever.

It is times like this when we need to hold on and believe that God is with us and that evil will not be the final word.  No doubt there are still more painful days ahead as yet more deeds of darkness are brought into the light. But with God’s help and presence, we will still be standing when the storm of sin is through.  

In the meantime, we need to “advance in the way of understanding” as the book of Proverbs promise.  We need also, to try to understand God’s will in all of this, as St. Paul exhorts us.  But most importantly, we need to cling to the Lord in the Eucharist, for Jesus with his flesh and blood can care for us there in ways that will sustain us from now into eternal life. 

 

In Matthew 16:18, Jesus promised that the powers of death will not prevail against the church. In these evil days, we need to remember that and cling to those words as well.  God is with us.  Jesus remains the center of the church and he and those of us who remain with him will prevail, despite the sins and sufferings that surround us.

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our goal in life, the reason God created us, is to know, love, and serve God in this life, so as to be happy with God forever in the next.

The Scripture readings today offer three things we need to do that will help us to get to heaven.

In the first reading the prophet Elijah is fleeing for his life. He is exhausted, and unable to keep going. But God provides for him. An angel gives him bread from made flesh who has become one of herheaven and something to drink and enables him to travel for 40 days to the place where he will be safe with God. Like Elijah, we need to trust God to help us, to give us what we need to keep going, particularly when life is difficult.

in today’s gospel, a continuation of John 6, the Bread of Life discourse,Jesus tells those listening to him that he is from heaven. Jesus is telling them that he is divine and they need to believe in him in order to have eternal life. We too need to believe that Jesus is God, the Word of God made flesh, who has become one of us, so that just as he shares in our humanity, we will be able to share in his divinity.  

As the Bread of Life, Jesus offers himself to us - body, blood, soul, and divinity -  so in the Eucharist. Through the Eucharist, Jesus is our food for the journey and enables us to live forever.

In the second reading, Paul tells the Christian community in Ephesus that they need to be imitators of God. There is no place for hatred or any ungodly behavior in their lives. Rather, to be a Christian is to be like Jesus: merciful and loving, and willing to offer oneself as a sacrifice to God.

Having heard God’s word, we ask the Lord to help us to trust God for all we need.  We ask for the grace to believe in Jesus, the Bread of Life, so that he might show us the depth of the Father's love for us. And we need to imitate God, to be like Jesus, in order that we might live with him forever. Trust, belief, and imitation of the Lord will set us firmly on the path to heaven. 

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Grumbling and believing are two things most of us do well, but not, of course, at the same time.  Speaking for myself, thanks to the grace of God, I do not grumble as much as I used to, and again with the help of God’s grace, I have grown in faith and belief, even when everything in me wants to grumble. There are times when I battle within myself not to grumble, but instead to put my faith and trust in the Lord. What makes the difference is remembering to keep my eyes on Jesus.

In today’s first reading from Exodus, the Israelite community is in the desert, grumbling against Moses and Aaron, and not without reason.  They were in a tough spot and things were not going the way they had expected them to go.  Nothing good happens when people are “hangry” and that they were. And, as we all know, once a few good grumblers get going, others join in, and rather quickly, everyone is drawn into giving voice to their unhappiness. God’s people were complaining, demanding, and fearful, and were not believing that God cared for them and was with them.

But the Lord God heard their grumbling and gave them bread from heaven, proving that God would provide for them.  However, the Lord was testing them as well, to see if they would follow God’s instructions. God gives us what we need, but it seems there is always a catch. God always call us to go beyond ourselves, not to be content with where we are, but to keep growing. 

In today’s gospel, the crowds were looking for Jesus.  They were hungry for more of God’s word and for signs, and for anything else that Jesus could give them.  When they found him, what Jesus did give them was an invitation to believe in him, to trust him, to come to him.  He told them he was the bread of life and he alone could satisfy their every hunger and thirst.

Do we believe that today?  Do we believe that Jesus offers us the same invitation and the same assurances? There is much in our world, our Church, and our personal lives that might cause us to grumble and to lose faith.  Yet, in the midst of all of it, Jesus is with us and asks for our faith and trust. 

Even with Jesus with us, we will still be tested.  There will be more suffering and confusion to come, but we trust that Jesus will remain with us through it all. With God’s grace, we can resist the temptation to grumble and despair.  Instead, again with God’s help, we need to keep our eyes on Jesus, listen to his words, and put our faith, weak as it might be, in him and him alone, for he is the bread of life.   

15th Sunday of Ordinary Time

The Twelve whom Jesus had called were the Lord’s disciples, meaning that Jesus was their teacher and they were His students.  In today’s gospel, they become apostles as well, meaning that they were those who were sent.  Jesus had work for them to do and so He sent them out with His authority to do what He had been doing.

In Baptism, we are joined to Jesus and become both the Lord’s disciples and apostles.  Each of us enters into a relationship with the Lord and learns both from Jesus and about Jesus.  We are also apostles, sent by the Lord to continue His work in our world.  At the end of every Mass, having been enlightened by God’s word and nourished with the Body of Christ, we are commanded to go forth, to continue the work of the Lord.

There are three lessons to learn from Jesus’ instructions to the Twelve that will help us to become better disciples and apostles.

Jesus sent the Twelve out “two by two.” The lesson there is that we need to work together – all of us – no one ought to be alone because no one can do it alone.  We all have different gifts and God needs all of them in order for the Church to do her work.  We ought to complement each other, to do what we can, and to let others do what they can.  The possibilities of serving Christ and His Church are many and there is a place for everyone to make a contribution. 

Jesus told the Twelve to take very little with them.  They were to travel light and to be content with where they found themselves.  The lesson there is that we need to trust God for everything.  When God has a work for us to do, God will supply our every need.  When we have many possessions, we run the risk of relying on them, rather than on the Lord.  St. Paul, one of the most powerful apostles in the history of the Church, assures the Ephesian Christians in today’s second reading that God has given us every spiritual gift.  We lack nothing if only we trust God to give it to us.

Jesus instructed the Twelve that they were to do what He had been doing: to preach repentance, to drive out demons and to heal the sick.   Those same works are needed today and they are not limited to the clergy.  When a person speaks to a family member or friend about the need to get a new way of thinking and living, it can be powerful and lead to serious change and growth.  There are so many ways to help others to be set free.  Again, these are but a few works that the Lord asks of all of us, His current apostles in the Church today.

Going to Church on Sunday and offering a prayer or two each day is not enough.  We need to have a relationship with the Lord so that we can hear what He asks of us.  Jesus will send us out to do what He did and to do what the Twelve did.  We will continue the work that has been done for centuries: preaching, helping others to become free and healed through the person of Jesus, alive and active in the Church today.

When we go forth and work together, trusting the Lord for everything, Jesus’ work continues and lives are saved.  We, disciples and apostles of Jesus, are called to this.  May we ask Him for direction and guidance and then beg the Lord for the grace and fortitude to carry it out.

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The story in today’s gospel is a sad one.  Jesus has returned to Nazareth and the people there do not have faith in Him.  They have known Him since He was a boy.  They know His family.  They knew Him as the carpenter who worked with Joseph and then was especially solicitous of Mary, His mother, after Joseph’s death.  They had heard reports of His preaching and healing and deliverance ministry and His many followers, but they would not accept Him.  As a result, since they had no faith in Him, He could do little for them.

The same is true for us.  We need to have faith in Jesus.  We need to trust Him and have a relationship with Him in order for Him to be able to work in our lives.  If we don’t work to get to know Jesus through the Scriptures and prayer and especially in the sacraments, we are the same as those in Nazareth who knew Him, but did not believe or trust what He had to say or offer.  We need to have a personal relationship with Jesus based on an abiding trust in Him in order to have Him work in our lives.  The poor example of those from the Lord’s hometown reminds us not to make the same mistake.

We can also learn from the other mistake they made, especially in our dealings with others.  Those in Nazareth did not have faith in Him because they thought they knew Him.  That false sense of familiarity led to a lack of freedom they needed to get to know Him as the Christ, the Anointed of God.  He couldn’t be who He said He was because they mistakenly believed they already knew Him. 

Don’t we do the same thing at times when we presume to know someone and make a judgment based on what we see?  We judge people based on where they are from or what they look like or how they act, especially in our interactions with them.  We don’t take the time to get to know them in any real way because we have already made up our mind and too often we are wrong in our assessment. We don’t give others the benefit of the doubt or put a good interpretation on what we see or hear.  We are too quick to dismiss others.  And like those in Nazareth who did that to Jesus, it is a loss for us. We ought to be open to others, especially to the possibility that there is more than what meets the eye.

A third lesson today’s Scriptures offer is from St. Paul who learned that God uses our weakness and will give us the grace we need to do God’s will, even in the suffering and struggle that comes from our weakness.  We don’t know exactly what Paul was struggling with, but the Lord’s message in response to his prayer was clear.  God would give the grace needed to do what had to be done, but the weakness would remain to show Paul that the strength was from the Lord and not himself.  Paul learned the hard way, which is often the best way, that when he was weak, God would give him strength.  He expressed the same sentiment later in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.”  God works the same way in our lives as well.  Weakness can be a good thing when and if we are open to God’s strength, rather than thinking we can do it ourselves.

God’s word today assures us that we will be better disciples if we put our faith in Jesus and refuse to judge others, especially when we base such a judgment on our limited knowledge of others.  And learning that weakness is something God can use will help us to follow the Lord more faithfully as well.  Rather than disappoint the Lord as did those in Nazareth, we can give Him joy by our trusting Him, even we are weak.  When we have faith, the Lord will supply the grace. 

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jesus’ encounter with Jairus and the interruption from the woman who desperately wanted to be healed both teach us how we might approach Jesus in prayer.

We all have fears and while we try to avoid thinking about them, it is good to bring them to the Lord in prayer.  Jairus feared he was going to lose his daughter, so he sought out Jesus.  The sick woman feared she would never get better and so she, too, in a humble, but literal way, also reached out to Jesus.  We do well also to go to Jesus and speak to Him about our fears.

Jairus and the sick woman both had fears, but more importantly, they both had faith.  They trusted Jesus and believed that He could help them.  Jairus was desperate to have Jesus come into his home and touch his daughter.  The sick woman simply wanted to touch the cloak of Jesus, believing that would be enough, and she hoped not to bother Him as she did so.  The two of them remind us that we are not all the same and the ways we go to Jesus are different.  But the Lord is always there waiting for us.  What we need to bring are faith and trust in the Lord.

At the Last Supper, Jesus told the disciples, “I call you my friends” and He says the same to us.  We should not hesitate to go to the Lord with our fears or whatever else we need to share with Him.  Jesus is a friend who loves us intimately and infinitely.  Once we come to know the love He has for us and the burning desire He has for us to speak with Him, we look forward to being with Him in prayer. It is then our fears are healed, our faith is strengthened, and our friend Jesus never fails us.

The Nativity of John the Baptist

The Church calendar celebrates only three birthdays: Jesus on December 25, Mary on September 8, and John the Baptist on June 24.  All three are immensely important in the story of our salvation, which is why we honor the day each of them were born with great joy and thanks to God.

John the Baptist was an amazing person. The story of his birth, as told by Luke, parallels that of Jesus.  There was an angel, and a name for the child given by God, and something of the miraculous since John was born to an elderly couple.  Clearly, this was a special child and there was great rejoicing, both at his birth and at the Visitation, when Mary and Elizabeth praised God for all that the Lord had done for them.

John was the great prophet who prepared the people for the coming of the Messiah.  He preached fearlessly, calling people to baptism and repentance from their sins.  When Jesus appeared, John was the one who pointed him out as the Lamb of God, and directed all to follow Jesus.  John’s life ended suddenly because he was faithful to his call to proclaim the truth, despite the price, even when speaking to the great men of his day.  Clearly, God had a plan for John’s life, and his life was marked by the humility of one who knew he was a servant of Someone greater.  John was filled with the Holy Spirit, who enabled him to remain faithful from his time of preparation in the desert to his death in a jail cell.

Jesus said that no one born of woman was greater than John the Baptist, yet Jesus went on to say that the least in the Kingdom of God was greater than he.  John was the bridge between the Old Testament and the New.  His life was all about preparing for the coming of the Lord.  He baptized Jesus at the Jordan, yet John died before Jesus gave His life on the cross and John was not a witness to the Resurrection.  Nor was he in Jerusalem for the coming of the Holy Spirit and he did not share in preaching the Good News to the world, as the apostles and other believers did.   

But each of us are witnesses to Jesus and are in the Kingdom of God.  In many ways then, we are more blessed than John was, or as Jesus said, we are greater than John, since we have been given a share in Christ.

We too, then, can believe that the Lord has a plan for our life.  Like John, we need to witness to the Lord in our actions and words.  We have to put God first and to live as a servant of Jesus with humility, as John did.  Humility is not weakness.  It is a strong, powerful virtue that comes from knowing who we are and who we are not.  We are not God.  We are not in charge of our lives.  We are servants.  We are children of God.  We are brothers and sisters of Jesus.  And like John, we need the Lord to increase, and we must decrease.  It is God’s will we seek, not our own. 

John lived a faithful, humble, powerful life because he was filled with the Holy Spirit.  We too have received the Holy Spirit through the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, and the Spirit is eager to come to our aid any time we ask.  When God asks much of us, the Lord always supplies what is needed through the gifts and fruits and working of the Holy Spirit within us.

It is John’s birthday we remember today, and rightly so.  But because of our place in the Kingdom, we know that what God did through and for John, God can do for us as well.  What we need is the willingness to be a faithful, fearless servant like John, living only for Jesus, giving all that God asks. May God grant each of us such blessings.

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Kingdom of God is a great mystery, but it is all important.  We profess to desire its coming each time we pray the Lord’s Prayer.  Jesus told us to seek first the Kingdom of God and all things then will be given to us.  The Kingdom is not a place.  Instead it is all about God’s will and the importance of God’s will being done not just in heaven, but everywhere, including within each and every one of us, since Jesus as told us that the Kingdom of God is within us.

In today’s gospel, Jesus likens the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed, something very small and seemingly unimportant.  But when the tiny mustard seed is planted and grows, it is transformed into a strong, sturdy mustard bush.   Compared to the majestic cedar, the central image of Ezekiel’s prophecy, a mustard bush is without much merit.  A mustard bush is not much to look at and since they were plentiful, mustard bushes were not worthy of note.  But God likes small and unimportant, and when given permission, the Lord can do great things from something and someone seemingly insignificant.

When we seek to do God’s will, we further the Kingdom of God in our world and in our lives, often in small matters.  But that is enough for God, who is able to do so much more than we could ever imagine, whenever we give God permission.  Perhaps in looking back, we can see the hand of God at work, but most times, as St Paul says in today’s second reading, we walk by faith and not by sight.  We have to trust that when we say yes to whatever God asks in any situation, the Lord will take it from there and further God’s Kingdom in ways that remain invisible to our eyes.

God can do anything.  Nothing is impossible for God.  Yet, the Lord needs the humble cooperation of people like Mary of Nazareth and Simon Peter, like Teresa of Calcutta and Maximilian Kolbe, and like you and me.  When we seek to say yes to God in small things, we grow in virtue, opening up the possibility of the Lord trusting us later with bigger things.  Regardless, we know that God needs our willingness to plant either mustard seeds or shoots of cedar.

St Paul reminds himself and all of us that we will give an accounting to the Lord, the Judge of all, at the end of our lives.  We will receive recompense for all that we have done.  At that time, it will be asked, did we seek God’s will?  Did we do all that the Lord asked of us?  Were we faithful, and when we were not, did we trust in God’s mercy and begin again? 

Each of us individually, and all of us together, have to seek the Kingdom of God and God’s righteousness first in our lives.  That frees God to work and to accomplish all that God desires.  The Lord needs us.  May we seek the blessing of the Father, the mercy of Jesus, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit each day of our lives, so that the Kingdom of God may grow both in our world and within us.