Dear Friends, 

Again, my apologies for the lateness of sending this homily–I managed to pick up a “bug” and was in bed pretty much for Christmas Day–ugh! But my family took wonderful care of me and our Christmas celebration moved ahead with a few changes. 

Again, my wish for each of you is that the peace, love and joy that Jesus brings will be with you all now this Christmas and always! 

Pastor Kathy

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As always friends; we begin this Christmas Eve homily as with all homilies by looking at the Scriptures—they are the best source for the truth that God wants us to know.  The prophet Isaiah has sent his timeless message through the centuries that we heard tonight as followers of Jesus have heard on every Christmas past and will into the future, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light!”  Our brother, Martin Luther King, Jr. was known to have said, “Darkness cannot put out darkness, only light can do that!”

So, we must heed the words of these prophets, Isaiah and Martin on this glorious night in order that we might keep our eyes on Jesus, always and forever.  Perhaps that is what is at the heart of all the woes within our beloved Catholic church today—that our leaders lost sight of his message of unselfish love and care for others.

Isaiah continues, “A child is born to us.”  Recall with me the birth or births of children in your lives, whether you physically gave birth or not, perhaps a nephew or niece or friend’s child. Remember the great hope you felt and still feel in the potential of those children, the goodness you saw at their births, that you still see as you watch them grow.

Paul in his writing to Titus, that we just read, spoke simply, the truth, “The grace of God has appeared!” Is not every birth the grace of God? Yes! And for that reason; we need to lose the theology within our Church that speaks of this “grace” as “sin.” Whenever and wherever a birth happens there is new hope, “original blessing,” not “sin!

Luke proclaims why we are joyful tonight—“the angel said, “You have nothing to fear!” God to Bethlehem, that little backwater town, insignificant really in the history of the world—but there you will find the “grace of God,” “an infant, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.”  The shepherds were told that this would be their sign that indeed they had found something very special!

We cannot miss the point of that first Christmas friends, because it is the point of each Christmas!  The “grace of God” will be found in simplicity, in beauty, in goodness—all around us—we don’t have to look far!

I love a good story and I think you do as well, because it is often through stories that we can hear spiritual truths that we otherwise might miss. This story some may have heard before, but it is one of the truly good stories that speaks so well what our God’s purpose was in the Incarnation. So whether you have heard it before, or this is the first time, hear it tonight in a new way.

There once was a shoeshine man named Sam who worked the same corner in his little stand for almost 50 years now.  He hated his job.  He didn’t mind the weather conditions so much; the hot of summer, the cold of winter—he made enough to live on, the YMCA had good beds and his friend Cal, had good chili at the corner diner.  No, what he really hated was how people looked on him, or maybe more accurately, was how he looked on himself.

One cold December day while he was shining a customer’s shoes, a little girl appeared at this stand—she was standing near the space heater Sam kept to warm himself and his customers.  The little girl kept looking at him until he jokingly told her to scram, she was bothering him.  She said, “I’ve come to grant you a wish.” “A wish huh?”  The man whose shoes Sam was shining looked up from the paper he was reading and said, “You talking to me Sammy?”  Sam replied, “No, I was talking to this little kid.”  The man looked around, “What kid, Sammy?”  She of course had disappeared and Sam thought perhaps his mind was playing tricks on him.

A few moments later, Sam heard the girl’s voice again and now; she was standing next to him, whispering in his ear.  This time he played along thinking that his friend Cal at the diner was playing a trick on him.  Sam said, “Okay, I’d like to be the richest man in the world.”

Immediately, Sam found himself caught up in something like a whirlwind and he was transported to a grand house—he suddenly had everything materially imaginable.  He couldn’t believe his good fortune!  He could now truly enjoy life and he did!  But after a few months; this got old—something seemed to be missing and he realized that having things didn’t really make much difference—the world hadn’t changed any—still, no one listened to him.  So, he called in the little girl who he had kept her on as an advisor.

Sam told her that he wanted power—he wanted to be the most powerful man on earth.  That was a pretty big order—she said she needed to ask her supervisor, but after a bit she returned, snapped her fingers and Sam now became, King Samuel!  The world now functioned at his command—wars began and ended at his word.  He now not only had enormous wealth, but absolute power.

One day he was out about town with his entourage and he heard singing—it was coming from a church.  He entered and asked an old woman at the back what was going on.  “Why your majesty; they are praying.”  Now thinking that they were praying to him, but needing to hear her say it, Sam asked, “Whom are they praying to?”  The old woman became very quiet and responded, “Majesty, they are praying to God!”

The king could hardly believe his ears! He stormed out of the church and with his entire entourage, returned to the castle. He called in the little girl and raged at her, “I thought I was the most powerful person on earth, but my subjects are praying to one more powerful than me. So, I want you to make me God.” –PAUSE- She asked if he was sure and Sam replied, “Make me as God would appear if God came to earth.” This time she didn’t have to ask anyone, just snapped her fingers and Sam was back at his shoe shine stand.

Friends, throughout Advent we have reflected on the wonder and mystery of our God electing to come and have a human experience with us and it is unbelievable really, when you think about it—that God would love us this much!  Christmas is all about love and joy expressed—God could think of no other way of letting us know how much we are loved, then to come into our midst, to be one of us, and with us. It is the love that brings “light” to our darkness.  And Christmas and Jesus’ coming among us only makes sense if we then do as he did in our lives here.  His coming among us isn’t about “the cross” as some like to remind us this time of year—but about the love, the life well-lived in our brother, Jesus’ footsteps.

Meister Eckhart, a Dominican theologian who lived 600 years ago in Paris says it well I think: “What good is it to me if Mary gave birth to the Son of God [all those years ago] and I do not also give birth to the Son of God in my time and culture?  We are all meant to be mothers of God.  God is always needing to be born,” [Bolding mine] to dispel the darkness with our light; the light of our goodness, love, mercy and care for people and our world.

May our good, gracious and merciful God who gave us our brother Jesus bless us all in the task of Christmas today, to bear Jesus again and again—in our world, to see, perhaps as Sam eventually did, that God resides now, here, where each of us lives and works, making all that we do, good, in that light. If not here, than not at all!

Amen? Amen! Merry Christmas!

 

Dear Friends, 

I am sorry for the lateness of this homily from yesterday, but if you weren’t with us yesterday, reading this now before the Christmas Eve liturgy today, beginning at 4:15 P.M. with the singing of carols, you will find it a very good lead-in to tonight’s homily. 

And if you can’t be with us tonight, I wish you and your family near and far the best of what Christmas brings to all of us–peace, love and joy! May you find these gifts this night and throughout the 12 days of Christmas in perhaps surprising and wonderful ways. It is good to remember that just as the Magi had to travel  and search for the Christ Child, we too much search…

My love to each of you,

Pastor Kathy

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My friends, three years ago; I used this homily and finding this week, except for a few time-sensitive comments, it was still quite appropriate and being that I needed to do two homilies this week, I thought, you would be OK with hearing this one again!  A question for each of us to ask today on this 4^th and last Sunday of Advent might be:  “Just what was God up to in the Incarnation?  I invite you to think about the anticipation of a long-awaited event—the coming of special guests—family or friends at this wonderful season of the year, a new baby, job, home.  We have all been in one or more such times of waiting, and have experienced the almost palpable excitement for things to start.  That was our grandson Elliot’s reaction yesterday when he saw for the first time, all the presents under our tree, “I can’t wait!” And that is where we find ourselves too, today, on this 4^th Sunday of Advent—on the threshold of something great! The Gospel for today tells us that, “Mary proceeded in haste to see Elizabeth!”  She didn’t know exactly what this visit with her aunt would mean; only that she needed to go!

This reading from Luke, along with the others we just heard, bring together the major themes we have looked at during the season of Advent:  promise, repentance, transformation and joy—and now we are on the threshold of entering into that joy.  A purely human manifestation for me that we are almost there comes each year when we put up our Christmas tree and decorate our house. We always do that about a week before Christmas and then, for me at least; we are at the point of having the preparations move into a special place. The quiet waiting is over–the joy is becoming palpable.  Family begins to gather and gifts start to show up under the tree—a manifestation of the felt love of family and friends.

So what is all this joy really about? What was God up to in the Incarnation?  Today’s readings show us clearly that Jesus, the Christ was born into ordinariness, if not abject poverty.  He appeared incarnate the first time in a backwater town, Bethlehem—the only other notable inhabitant up until that time had been David and no one of any import is known to have followed Jesus. Micah speaks of the “smallness” of Bethlehem out of which this long-awaited event will happen!  That should tell us a great deal about the man we Christians say we follow—not in greatness did he come, but in lowliness—a great sign of what his concern throughout his short life will be and what ours must be as well.

In today’s Gospel, we see Mary, a young maid, going to help her matronly aunt, who like Mary is with child.  Nothing unusual here, except for Elizabeth being pregnant in her later years.  Young girls would often go and help older family members.  But certainly there was more to God’s plan than this.   The two growing babies recognize each other from the sanctuaries of their mothers’ wombs. We catch the excitement through the Gospel words, “When I heard your greeting, my baby leapt in my womb for joy!”

Our loving God probably knew that in an unbelieving world where others would doubt the truth of what each woman proclaimed; they would need the affirmation and support of each other to confirm what each knew had happened within her as a response to her faith and trust in a loving God. This is what Mary’s “blessedness” proclaimed by Elizabeth is really all about—Mary’s faith and trust in a loving God—and that this same God would be faithful to her—her Magnificat shows her to be a woman of strength. In addition, we are presented with Elizabeth, both women to truly emulate in our own lives.

Another question that we might ask:  “Why does God choose the ordinary to show us the divine?”  It might be to direct us back to God wherein all is possible; thus in simplicity; we can see greatness.  We talk a great deal here about seeing Jesus in the everyday events of our lives and the point being, if we miss him here; we may miss him altogether! If it is a problem for us, seeing greatness in the simple, the ordinary, maybe it is because we insist that the divine has to come in loud and flashy ways, rather than through the ordinariness of life: through babies at their mothers’ breasts, through children playing, through moms and dads, and grandparents, through young and old, through all the professions represented here as we go about our daily tasks to make our world better.

The readings today insist that the Incarnation comes to the most ordinary among us and all that is required from us is an openness to do God’s will—a willingness to answer God’s call.  The reading from the author to the Hebrews states that this willingness to answer God’s call and do God’s will was the motivating force in Jesus’ life. The words of Scripture, “God, here I am, I have come to do your will” confirms this for us.

Jesus is proof that God doesn’t want our sacrifices, holocausts, or sin offerings.  What God wants is our open and willing hearts.   Such was Mary’s heart in her “yes” to God as was Elizabeth’s in welcoming Mary into her home.  In the actions of both of these women, they welcomed into their hearts and into our world, the long-awaited Messiah.

And when did we ever need a messiah more than now as our country grieves the loss of so many these past years to gun violence.  Six years ago when these same readings were shared; we were newly grieving the loss of 26 children and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT—hoping that the deaths of 6 year-olds would finally cause our country to do something to take guns out of the hands of the mentally ill. We may be now on the cusp of some much needed change to keep our people safe with the coming new leadership in our Congress.

The examples of Jesus, Mary and Elizabeth in our Scriptures today should give us a great deal of hope even in the face of the violence which we haven’t as yet got our arms around, but finally are making some progress through the voices of our youth who have clearly said, “Enough!”  If we follow their examples, the prophets of our Scriptures of old and of today, then each loving action we personally do in faith says that the Incarnation has taken place—that Jesus lives within us and by extension then—in all of God’s people.

I believe that what God was really all about in that original Incarnation was to come among us, be one of us, to show us how to be our best selves. I say “original” because you see friends, the Incarnation continues today if we allow it to.  It has been said, we need to give birth to Jesus in each time and place because each time and place needs God to come into our existence in ways that we can understand.

In the Incarnation, Jesus lifts us all up.  We are told that in the face of weapons such as are being used in these mass shootings, those immediately affected, could do little.  But in our daily lives there is much that we can do—advocate for stricter gun laws and allocate funding to adequately assist those with mental illness.

Additionally, when we contemplate the Incarnation and all that it means; we must as a Church realize the travesty it is for us to ever, in any of our Catholic churches, deny people access to the Eucharist.  We then effectively stop the Incarnation from happening in those lives.  We, each of us, are the conduits for God’s presence to be felt in our world—we have an awesome responsibility to welcome all and work for the good of all, think immigrants and especially the most innocent in our midst, as evidenced in our Scriptures today.

A final point that I think it is important for us to meditate on today, given our Scriptures, is the case of Mary and what it was like for her to be found with child in the society in which she lived.  Elizabeth addresses her as “blessed among women.”  Probably many in her neighborhood, if truth be told, gossiped about her and some even shunned her for what they felt was only too obvious.  It couldn’t have been easy for her—Scripture doesn’t tell us—but her family may not have believed her story—even Joseph didn’t at first.  After all, it was quite a fantastic story when one thinks about it—pregnant by the Spirit of God—carrying the long-awaited Messiah!  At the very least;  there was ridicule and shunning.  At the worst, a woman could be stoned in the streets for carrying an illegitimate pregnancy.

But our sister, Mary wasn’t a remote, supernatural being, but a flesh and blood human that came to be called “blessed” through her willing response to God’s call.  Feast days like the Immaculate Conception remembered on December 8^th serve only to remove Mary from the flesh and blood human that she was who struggled just like all of us do.  If Mary was without sin, perfect, in other words; she wasn’t human, and if she wasn’t human, then what does that say about Jesus?  Our God never had any problem with our imperfection—she/he, made us that way.  In fact, last weekend, the Scriptures told us that our God “Sings joyfully about us!”  These are the Scriptures we must remember and forget the messages about Jesus’ only purpose in the Incarnation was to save us from our sins by his death on the cross.  We must remember that he “lived” for us too, to show us how to live and to remind us, because we seem to often forget, that we are loved mightily by our God!

We stand now on the threshold of something great as we remember at Christmas time once again that divine love became more fully present in our world through Jesus, the Christ. We assure that divine love will continue in our world if we give birth again and again to Jesus through our lives.  Every time we try to be more understanding, more merciful, more gentle, more kind, more just; when we strive to see the divine in each other, even the most seemingly wretched among us—then and only then, do we incarnate Jesus once again into our lives.

I believe my friends, this is what God was all about in sending Jesus to begin life in poor and humble surroundings, to live a life that wasn’t about glitz and power,  in order that we would know that each of us can be instruments of God’s love, peace and justice in our world. This is what we celebrate each year at Christmas time—the promise and the possibility of love born again into our world. Amen? Amen!

My friends; we are at the mid-way point in our Advent journey, actually more than mid-way as Advent, due to this year’s Church calendar, will be shortened—it all depends on where the first Sunday of Advent falls.   But this Sunday in the Advent cycle is always special—we know it as “Gaudete” which is Latin for “rejoice.”

So, it is good at this point to look back and see some history.  After the Second Vatican Council, with all of our liturgy being updated so that it made more liturgical sense, the traditional color of Advent was changed from purple to blue in order that we would change our thinking of Advent as a time of penitence to a time of quiet waiting.  The color blue is in deference to Mary, our mother and sister, a true woman of strength and patient waiting.  The tone then was intended to help us prepare, yes, but less in a penitential way and more in a way of quiet, yet joy-filled waiting.

Advent calls each of us to patient waiting as well, to being people of strength, willing to walk in our brother Jesus’ footsteps when it is easy and when it is not so easy, as his earthly mother did.

Sometimes we get set in our ways and are unwilling to change as some of the Catholic churches that still use purple and pink candles on their Advent wreaths, protesting that, “We like it the way that it was, without being open to a new way of thinking.  The old way may seem more comfortable, but this isn’t about being “comfortable” but about being “meaningful.” The beauty of the Catholic church’s liturgy has always been in its rituals, its signs and symbols pointing to a greater truth—a richer idea than what is at face value.

Vatican II taught that the season of advent should not be looked at as a time of penance and sadness, indicated by the liturgical color, purple, as we use for Lent, but one of joy and patient waiting indicated by the liturgical color, blue.  The white candle used on the Advent wreath is the color for “joy”—one could use the color pink or rose  as I have done with my stole and the drapes in our liturgical space—as rose is also a color for joy.

The liturgical colors and Scriptural readings are meant to align and when they do, what the prophets are trying to convey to us have a much better chance of doing just that! All the readings for today are about joy, about seeing our God as one of love, not someone that we should fear.

The prophet Zephaniah, in the first reading proclaims that we should, “Shout for joy, that we “should sing joyfully because God is in our midst.”  And not only this, but that, “God rejoices over us with gladness, renews us in love, and sings joyfully about us!” Both the psalm which is from the words of the prophet, Isaiah and Paul’s letter to the Philippians are about joy as well.   So, if we were to use the traditional color purple, which indicates a time of penance, it just wouldn’t fit!

Some churches still use the color purple for their Advent waiting and I can only guess it’s because they are still objecting to the changes of Vatican II or they just don’t understand the purpose behind the signs and symbols that are so beautiful within the Catholic church and give us the tone to strive after with each liturgical season.

For those who were at Mass last week or may have read my homily for the 2^nd Sunday of Advent, you know that I spoke about the seeming, “wrongness” of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception because it does not convey who Mary was—a strong woman, willing to speak truth to power as she does in her Magnificat, but is instead a diversion in that understanding.  We would do better as a Church to rename the feast, “Mary of the Magnificat” to truly uplift who she was. In her joyous testament of faith, she proclaims the God of her heart who was not only her Friend, but who became her Lover, her Child, one who would bring justice to the land, tear tyrants from their thrones, and lift up the lowly. So, if we were ever looking for a mystery—there it is!  That is the reason we are singing the “Canticle of the Turning” in today’s liturgy as it is a modern version, post Vatican II that indeed raises up all these traits which are more the truth about who Mary was. This sung canticle is a marching song for proclaiming the good that God has done and continually does through us.

That is also why a Church hierarchy comprised of only men is all wrong.  These men don’t speak for women, nor do they know what to do when confronted with a strong woman. They tend to want to put them on pedestals and when these women persist in asking, “why,” as God wants all of us to do when confronting the Scriptures; and injustices in life, the hierarchy burns them at the stake or excommunicates them! How would our Church be if all the God-given gifts were uplifted?  Just as using the wrong liturgical color is a diversion from the truth trying to be conveyed in the liturgy; not seeing the true place of women in our Church and world, called by God to be part of the wonderful mystery of God-with-us, is a diversion too; and it fails to help us see our God as God truly is—inclusive, all about love, wanting the same from us.

The beautiful and joy-filled readings for today conclude with John’s example in the gospel of Luke about how we are to be as Jesus’ followers.  John says that, “He is not worthy to untie Jesus’ sandals.” So, we too, must come to know as John did, who we are meant to be and who we are not meant to be.  As spiritual beings here, having a human experience; we are not to be about becoming as “well-to-do” as possible, but to see to it that all our sisters and brothers are simply, “well”–that everyone’s needs are being met—that we are treating others as we want to be treated.

So, my friends; let us complete our Advent time clearly focused on Jesus, seeing our God as one who “rejoices in us” not one to fear, but one to love as we have been loved, each one of us.  Amen? Amen!