My friends, this weekend brings us ever closer to that significant remembrance of a time in history when our Loving God chose to enter into our existence, to become one of us and to, in fact be, “One-With-Us,” Emmanuel at Christmastime!  And it is worth taking a few moments to lift up the difference between becoming, “one of us”—becoming human, and becoming, “One-With-Us,” as brother, friend, model, and Messiah, even. 

    Becoming “one of us,” becoming “human” is perhaps more of a “social thing,” as in taking on an identity.  Becoming “One-With-Us” is more about establishing a “relationship” with us.  I think we can all see that if the “human experience” for Jesus was no more than, “taking on an identity,” we wouldn’t have nearly as much to be joyful about today as we do in the fact and the reality that Jesus/God chose to be “One-With-Us” in all that we experience—suffer and struggle with, find joy in—in other words, Jesus wants to be close to us and One who we can turn to in our daily lives. 

   Through this relationship, if we can keep our eyes on him, we will have a wonderful model of how to live out our own lives.  In addition to keeping our “eyes” on Jesus for a “path to follow,” it will also be necessary to “open our hearts,” rather than our minds, when we decide to follow him. Engaging our “hearts” allows us to do the good in our world that we might never come to with our minds alone.

   Unfortunately, most religions, our own included, are about first engaging our minds, through rules and regulations—dogma, in carving out, “a path to follow.”  This is an okay place to start, but we shouldn’t stay there.  Rules, laws, and dogma are about black and white issues of faith when so much of life falls into “gray” areas, where if we are to do the right, good thing, we will have to look beyond the law, perhaps even break it, to do that needed thing. A prime example out of Jesus’ life: In his time women weren’t allowed in the main body of the synagogue, so Jesus took the “liturgy” out to the hillsides! 

   Merely following rules and laws is the safer way to go—it keeps us out of trouble.  Immanuel Kant, 18^th Century German philosopher said, [We] “must awaken from dogmatic sleep.”  I am not sure what was going on for Kant when he uttered these words, but as an Enlightenment thinker, he was concerned about our “moral responsibility” toward others in the living of our lives. 

   We get a very clear picture from Isaiah in today’s first reading about how we will identify the Messiah in our midst.  This One will bring goodness to the poor, will heal the broken-hearted, proclaim release to those imprisoned physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  Even a cursory look at these traits tells us that engaging one’s heart is going to be more important over all than merely responding from our heads.  A prime example of this is the conflict in the Middle East.

   Isaiah, as God’s prophet says of himself, he must speak because, “God has wrapped me in a mantle of justice!”  In addition, he proclaims that, [God-Yahweh] “is the joy of [his] soul.”  Evidently this prophet in being in “relationship” with God has found solace in the path he has chosen in order to speak of “joy” with regard to it.  We might consider ourselves whether our relationship with God brings us joy. 

   Earlier I stated that looking at the traits that will let us know that the Messiah is in our midst indicate that One who will live out such traits will need to engage their heart.  In John’s gospel today, we hear of another John, the Baptist, speaking of Jesus as “Light,” as opposed to darkness.  If Jesus is One who will shine a “light” on the injustices of this world, calling for all of us who would follow him to do the same, then it should be clear what we must be about. 

   The Baptist said in today’s gospel reading, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness…make straight God’s road.”  We can be sure that for John the Baptist to make such a statement, justice was not being dealt out equally to all. And in my experience, the only way that there can be justice for all is that we engage our hearts, which in effect allows us to truly care for the plight of others in our world. 

   Through the two-year synodal process of Pope Francis, he is making the supreme effort of “engaging his heart,” as he encourages other leaders within our Church, to truly listen, to perhaps—“color outside of the lines,” making our beloved Church more inclusive, more loving—less steeped in dogma and more so, in love. 

   It is also worth mentioning that the Baptist knows who he is, and who he is not—no arrogance, no hierarchy in him—only one who is [unworthy] “even to untie” [the sandal strap] of the One who is to come.  Those within our Church leadership who still need “phylacteries and titles” to be recognized, need to stand in the “Light” of Jesus and his messenger. 

   The Bishops of this country, including our own local bishop need to refocus on the tenets of the Second Vatican Council, along with Francis, and begin to color outside of the lines, as their brother Jesus did, in order that they won’t stay stuck in old-time theology more about power and control, but open themselves and their hearts to the message of love that Jesus demonstrated so well in his life.  If they could do this, the Catholic church might once again be something that we all could as Paul said to the Thessalonians in today’s 2^nd reading, “Rejoice” [in!] Paul also tells us, “to avoid any semblance of evil”—we aren’t doing that when we don’t include all at our tables of worship, or make our loving God, small, in our image. 

   Paul concludes today by imploring us all, “to pray constantly and give thanks for” [all].  I would encourage us to do the same in our final days of “expectant waiting” this next week.  Amen? Amen!

   My friends, here we are at the second Sunday of Advent, and we know that means that the fourth Sunday will be upon us sooner than we think—and even quicker as that same fourth Sunday will be shared with Christmas Eve this year.  Last week I suggested to all of us that we can “wait expectantly,” which is what Advent is really all about, and make cookies at the same time, or whatever other preparations you may be about this time of year!

   Advent reminds us friends, through the Scripture readings that it is good, “to set something aside” for a time, “waiting expectantly” for that special event to happen.  The Scriptures given for this Sunday remind us of this on several levels.  Mark repeats Isaiah’s message as he begins his gospel with another prophet, John the Baptist— “Make a straight path—prepare a way.” One dimensionally, we can see this command as putting our physical house in order because we are getting ready to host guests at Christmastime.  And while we may feel that this is an important part of our preparations, we know that our brother Jesus, and our Loving God, expects us to go deeper. 

   Most of us, at least we women would not think of inviting guests to our homes without preparing the physical space to house them, or planning for guests without preparing enough food, even special foods for the time they will be with us. 

   Our God, through the prophets is asking for no less—in order that we will be ready to hear the radical message of love that Jesus gives to our world, we will need to prepare our hearts “to hear,” to accept, and ultimately share that message with our world.  And we know that this sharing will not always be easy. 

   Isaiah’s words to us today say as much: “…every hill and mountain be laid low.”  To me these words say that we will need some change in our lives to see and to hear Jesus’s message that is, as we said last week, often counter-cultural. 

   That brings us once again to mentioning the ritual color that the Second Vatican Council suggested churches use, going forward, to signify the work and the preparation of the Advent Season—blue.  This color should suggest to us that we are preparing for a “new creation”—Emmanuel—who will bring us new life.  This season is all focusing on Jesus and the “new life” he can bring us if we are open to it.

   As we spoke of last week, this is not a season to “beat our breasts” asking for forgiveness as during the Season of Lent, symbolized by the ritual color of purple.  Advent again, is a time for us to “expectantly wait” and to prepare, and to remember a life coming into our midst, capable of changing in many ways how we live our lives and for whom we live them.  Maybe that is why our present-day Church fathers have, in my mind, wrongly chosen to concentrate on our need for forgiveness, through the ritual color of purple, instead of “new life and creation” in the footsteps of Jesus of Nazareth.  People who feel “worthless and sinful” are easier, I would guess, to control than those empowered by the words of Jesus to extend justice toward all—to give them new life represented by the ritual color, blue. 

   And we would be remiss if we did not mention the wonderful place that our sister-mother-friend, Mary of Nazareth plays in Advent-Christmastime.  The ritual color blue stands to represent her as well and the creative and wonderful life she gave our world. 

   I did find in my search for the reason why our Church went back to the purple, instead of the blue for Advent, an obscure liturgist who suggested that if we used blue for this Season, it would suggest that Advent is “all about Mary.” Now, while it is true that the Season is not all about Mary, I believe we would all agree that she did play a most significant role! But far be it from any hierarchical church man to give a woman, or women in general, any credit for their gifts to our world! 

   We did not meet for the annual feast of the Immaculate Conception this past Friday as is our custom for all the holydays simply because preparing for more than one liturgy in a week is more than your pastor can handle, for the most part. But with this one, there is a double reason, in that it really doesn’t uplift the “Mary” in justice that we should be emulating.  That is why we are singing The Canticle of the Turning today—a real marching song coming from a woman’s heart about the Son she is giving the world—not a submissive, “kept-in-her-place” female, but a strong, decisive woman speaking about justice for all, the justice her Son will bring.  And when I think about her in that way, I realize why hierarchical Church men wouldn’t want to uplift such a woman.

   So friends, let us continue our journey toward Christmas, remembering that our brother Jesus came first and foremost for the lowly, signified by his birth in a stable, to tell us that we are, each one of us, truly loved by our God, no exceptions!  Amen? Amen!

My friends, once again, our Church Year has come full circle and Advent is with us.  Each new Church Year begins separate from our calendar year, ahead of time, to remind us perhaps, that what we do as Christians, as followers of Jesus, the Christ, our brother, and friend, is counter-culture, often times.  Is it counter-culture just because we Christians want to be oppositional? I would say, “no,” but more so because we humans tend to, for the most part, be more comfortable, “hanging with the crowd.” Our “walk” with Jesus demands that we be “uncomfortable” many times when most others choose the comfortable way out. 

   Perhaps a good story can explain this better.  Many of you are familiar with Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who in 1968, established Special Olympics with, I’m guessing, her own sister Rosemary, as well as so many others in our world, with learning disabilities in mind.  These really “special” children found, as they grew, that the world was really not a “friendly” place for them to be. 

   Lynn Schmidt, a political writer, and columnist for the St. Louis Dispatch wrote this past week a counter-culture piece addressing this issue.  The world of sports, in all areas is about competition and ultimately being better than all others, and unfortunately, politics gets involved too.

   The Special Olympics, while named as a competition, is more about comradery and support for all, “trying to do their best,” than about being, “better” than someone else.

   One particular athlete in the latest Olympics struggled to complete a 25 meter walk while using a walker—this is basically 80 feet! All those in the stadium began to cheer for him, as if he were the only one in the arena, to keep going and cross the finish line.  Schmidt said that when he did, “there was not a dry eye.”

   Rather than a crowd cheering for the success of the best among the best in the regular Olympics, this was the people cheering for the “least” among them ability-wise to be a success. So, what does this have to do with the Season of Advent? 

   In the beginning of this homily, I stated that beginning the new Church Year ahead of the new calendar year might be a way to lift up how our entire journey with Jesus our brother, will be counter-culture—we will be continually asked to stand up for the “least” among us instead of the “best.”  And incidentally, this will call us, “to be our individual best! 

   Advent has been deemed for as long as I can remember, a time of “expectant-waiting.”  Our culture, needless to say, does not do well with waiting. This is only too obvious in the way our culture “rushes” to Christmastime, totally by-passing any time of “expectant waiting,” when many of us come out of a Christian background.  We are not, as a culture, “patient waiters,” –we want it all now, and this is certainly driven by our commercialistic society. 

   But still, we as followers of our brother Jesus are called to go deeper.  Many probably look at “waiting” as a waste of time.  Kathleen Norris, mid-west writer with many books to her credit, speaks about “waiting” and “radical waiting” as “life-giving.”  Setting something aside, for a time, preparing for it over time makes us stronger, “gives us vigor,” she says. 

   So, what do the Scriptures have to say?  Each new Church Year rotates between the first three gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark and Luke, and this year, it is Mark’s turn.  As you know, Mark is one of few words: “Stay alert, be constantly on the watch,” is his message. 

   We humans, it seems, have the tendency to look for blame outside of ourselves, when things don’t go well.  This seems to be what is going on in the 1^st reading today from Isaiah.  Even though God has been there for this people over time—showing them the way to go, God seems to be blamed for, “letting [them] wander from [God’s] ways.”  It is Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians that reminds them, and us that, “Jesus … is faithful.” 

   Now being “faithful,” it must be remembered is not about Jesus doing everything for us.  Jesus’ “faithfulness” is about, “showing us the way” by how he lived his own human life—he doesn’t ask us to do anything that he was unwilling to do.  You will recall that last week we celebrated, “not a king above us,” but a servant among us.”  Thus, as Jesus was counter-culture, our “walk” with him will call us, often, to that larger, deeper look at what is needed in our world.  Will that always be easy? No, it will not! But we have great shoulders to stand upon! 

   Evidently Paul’s community in Corinth was, as we say, “walking the talk,” as Paul was thanking God for all the “gifts” bestowed on them through Jesus, the Christ. I find myself likewise thanking God for giving us each other as a community wherein we can challenge each other to be our best, for ourselves, but for others as well. 

   So, in conclusion friends—let Advent into your lives these next 4 weeks, allowing for some quiet moments, even a few each day, to “expectantly wait,” amid some quiet preparations, thinking about how great a gift the Incarnation is! 

***An Advent disclaimer:  These next 4 weeks are not “Lent-light”—a pre-Vatican II concept, represented now, in most, if not all Catholic churches with the ritual color of purple.  One would be hard-pressed to find a diocesan church that doesn’t now use the color purple for these 4 weeks.

    We are a Vatican II parish, so our ritual color for these 4 weeks is blue, used in deference to Mary, our Sister/Mother, but also as a sign of joy as the time draws near that we recall—God-With-Us, Emmanuel.  If you use an Advent wreath during this time, you should use 3 blue candles, and 1 white candle—the white representing the “joy” that our time of waiting is almost over.  The green of the wreath is all about, “hope” in our loving God.  May this time of “expectant waiting” coupled with quiet, anticipatory preparation be a rich time for each one of us.  Amen? Amen!

My friends, parts of this homily I shared 6 years ago, and now, with some updates for 2023, hopefully, it is still meaningful.  Today, the Christian Church Universal celebrates Jesus Christ as King.  The trouble is, Jesus never proclaimed that he was a “king,” at least not in the way that people wanted a king. 

   It would seem, according to Ezekiel that Jesus came as a servant and a shepherd.   Jesus, the Good Shepherd, was out among the people tending to their needs, calling the powers-that-be to justice—challenging them to stop filling their coffers with the hard-earned money of the people, and making sure that everyone, especially the least among them, had what was needed to simply live—a clarion call to each of us today.

   We hear this in the face of the bishops in this country, and especially, Bishop Barron, in our own diocese of Winona, preparing to celebrate in 2024 an Eucharistic Congress, uplifting the elements of bread and wine on the altar—emphasizing the “true presence” in “flesh and blood” of our brother Jesus, with no apparent, real connection to his “body and blood” present in all of humanity, especially that we see this presence in the poor and down-trodden in our world.  

   Our seeming need to proclaim Jesus as king goes back to Old or First Testament times when the people then begged God to give them a king and God acquiesced because they were, as Scripture says, “a stiff-necked people.”  They constantly wanted, as we do, to make God into their own image rather than allowing God to be who God is. Even up until the crucifixion, the apostles, those who probably knew Jesus best, outside of his earthly parents perhaps, thought of him and wanted him, in fact, to be a king who would put down the Romans. They were thinking as humans think, not as God thinks, as Jesus once told Peter, but Jesus was calling them to so much more.

    The gospel chosen for today from Matthew describing the last judgment is a good place to start in describing Jesus’ true presence on this earth. Exegetes tell us that our task as commanded by Jesus is not to simply do humanitarian service, but to work at getting to the heart of why people are hungry, thirsty, homeless, in prison, lost and alone.

    I believe many of us do the humanitarian work as is evidenced in the outreach activities of this parish and that is good, but Jesus, who was not a king in worldly terms, but a shepherd, servant, brother, and friend, encourages us to indeed, get to the heart of the above problems—to see the faces of the people that go along with the statistics—searching out every lost one.  It is too bad that all the thousands of dollars being spent on the Eucharistic Congress this next year can’t instead be used for the “more present” body and blood of our brother Jesus in our world.

   If we get caught up in celebrating Jesus as king that puts the focus on him to save us from whatever danger is out there, and then the attention is shifted from our need to be engaged with our world, as he was with his. As you recall from last weekend’s gospel; we are called to risk, which will sometimes bring discomfort, even be messy at times.

   In a present-day news piece this past week, a man by the name of Jonathan McCory had this to say about “taking risks.”  “Live in the discomfort of your growth, or change.” This is akin to saying, as others have, “Be the change you want to see!” Even though this risky behavior is “messy,”  it is the way of Jesus, it is the way to peace wherein fear of judgment, in the end, is not a worry—in other words, if we walk in Jesus’ footsteps, judgment should not be something we have to be concerned about.  Jesus came to show us the way by being a servant and the example he took for himself often was that of a humble shepherd, one who cared for sheep who would often wander off, like us, get lost and need to be found.  

    Even though most of us aren’t familiar with what it means to be a shepherd as none of us takes care of sheep, the tenets of such work can be carried forward—that of selflessness, patience, understanding and love. We know that shepherds, men, and women were all about caring for their sheep, the ones worthy of the name, bringing them to good sources of pasture and water, binding their wounds when they wandered off, when they were lost, the good shepherds would seek them out, basically keeping them safe.

   This weekend calls us to see Jesus as our Brother and Friend—through the shepherd stories and the beautiful 23^rd psalm. We learn that our God doesn’t want to lord it over us, as a king might, but to be among us, that our God, as the Good Shepherd, will go any distance to find us when we are lost and will always listen, will always understand, will always love us. 

   This is why, the reluctance of Robert Barron, bishop of Winona, to meet with us, even answer our attempts to contact him is so disconcerting, and especially if it is true that when he was appointed by Pope Francis to serve as our bishop, he was quoted as saying, basically, that he wanted to get down and among the sheep!

   Therefore, it is good for us to reflect on this most comforting message of our loving God as a follow-up to last weekend’s parable of the talents wherein some of us found the harsh words of the master in that story, hard to take—that the rich will be given more and that “the more” will be taken from those who have the least.  This is definitely a Scripture message that we don’t want to take literally, as it seems to fly in the face of what we believe Jesus usually preached—in fact, today’s gospel would seem a contradiction to that.  Again, the context is so important. 

   In last week’s gospel, Jesus was trying to prepare his followers for the End Times and the harsh language was to impress upon them the importance of doing the right thing, now! Don’t wait, he was saying, in order to catch their attention. 

   A better way to look at the statement that the rich will be given more and the little the poor have, will be taken from them, is to get beyond the surface story told here.  Reflecting on what Jesus is saying in Matthew’s account of the Last Judgment, we have to believe he means more than the idea given at first glance in the seemingly, “offending” statement of the rich having more at the expense of the poor.

   When we do the right thing—that is, care for those with less and the other Corporal Works of Mercy, when we risk our safety at times for the good of others, when we use the gifts given to us, multiply “the master’s good” (as in last week’s story) in the world, we become richer as persons.  When we “bury the master’s good,” our gifts, and refuse to share in order to take care of ourselves, we become poorer, and the gifts given to us, do, in effect get “taken away.”

   That friends, is the beauty, perhaps the frustration of Scripture—the Spirit of Jesus is always, “alive and well,” so to speak, calling us to be open to more, to stretch ourselves beyond what comes to us at first glance.  Jesus, our brother, and friend certainly doesn’t promise that it will be easy, it will in fact be messy, but in the end, it will be life-giving, as all will be cared for.  We will have created a world worthy of the God who created us in love, gave us Jesus in love and has called each of us to do the same.

   So friends, today let us celebrate Jesus as our brother and friend, one of us, not one apart from us, which the title “king” seems to suggest. When we get familiar with Jesus as brother and friend and see, truly see how he was with others, it is much less easy to discount him or to not recognize him in the suffering humanity of our world.  We move forward friends, as we complete the liturgical year this week and prepare for another with the beginning of Advent next Sunday. May each of us be blessed as we share our gifts, our love, with our world. Amen? Amen!

My friends, being that today we are following our liturgy with a pre-Thanksgiving meal, I thought it might be good to address the virtue of gratitude.  Many times, being “thankful,” saying “thanks” for a good bestowed on us is thought to be the same as gratitude, and we may hear the two words, “thanks” and “gratitude” interchanged.  I would like to suggest that they are different.  Webster’s Dictionary seems to agree.

   “Thanks” the dictionary says, is “an expression of gratitude.”  “Gratitude” is described as “the quality of being thankful,” along with, the readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.” From those definitions, I would say, being “grateful,” is the “grownup” expression of merely being thankful.  We all were raised to say, “thank you” when someone does something good for us.  Now, while we as children, may have said the words to appease our parents or others who thought we should say those words, it is probably true to say that we weren’t “grateful,” at least at that point. 

   The virtue of gratitude, it seems to me, only comes to us humans with lived experience, and the maturity to realize that so much of what I am as an individual is due to others, and what I have been gifted with in life, in order that I can then go on to become the person that I was called to be.

   Some of you may be familiar with Michael Perry, national author, and speaker.  He began his career as a registered nurse and recently was invited to his alma mater in Eau Claire, Wisconsin to give a key-note address. Part of what he had to say, was sharing a piece on gratitude that he had previously written, and the university requested him to include.

   One of the things that perked up my ears and heart in his address, was the word, “privilege.” Michael is aware that from the “get-go,” he was privileged above many others in this world, due to his “whiteness,” the place he had on the economic ladder—not rich, but certainly not poor, which afforded him, shelter, food and so much more, every day.  Many, if not most of us could say the same for our own lives. 

   The gospel for this liturgy might have given some of us reason to pause and think that the employer was a bit cruel.  Again, as with much of Scripture, we shouldn’t take Jesus’ story literally, but remember that he is always trying to teach us something deeper than the words might at first suggest. 

   The story tells us that the “employer” (think God) “entrusted” individual employees (think us) with a gift. I believe that “to entrust” someone with something is different than “simply giving” someone something.  Again, Webster’s would seem to agree.  The “big book of words,” and now I am dating myself, (smile) tells us that “entrusting” means, “assigning a responsibility.” 

   So, my friends, let’s go back to what we always say within these walls, quoting a wise person, “We are spiritual people here, having a human experience.  Our God, who loves us beyond all imagining, as Jesus shared in his earthly life, through stories like the Prodigal, and the Good Shepherd, and the Woman who turned her house upside down in search of a lost coin, gave each of us the wonderful gift of life— “entrusting us” with the responsibility of living out our potential, not just for ourselves, but for others. 

   We might look at the seeming “cruelness” depicted in the Gospel story as God’s “disappointment” in us for not living up to our potential.  And, even if that is the case, God never stops “chasing after us,” as the Scripture translation, The Message says so beautifully in the 23^rd Psalm, or stops loving us, wanting to be in relationship with us, again depicted so beautifully in the story of the Prodigal.

   So friends, this journey of life as Christian followers of our brother Jesus, is about in part, giving back, “paying it forward,” as it were, a bit of what we have been so “graciously” given.

    A piece on the nightly news this past week caught my attention as a couple were lamenting to the newscaster, about struggling financially, comparing themselves to immigrants coming into this country and wondering why, “these people are given so much, and we get so little.” 

   Now, while I am sure there is more to the story than was presented, I can say from experience in working with immigrants coming into our country, that they are mainly given, “entrance” if that, and then temporary helps until they can make it on their own.  Additionally, unlike the light-skinned woman interviewed, all the immigrants coming across our southern border, live every day with the fact that “they are different,” –no small task, which I think we can’t ourselves truly understand.    

   Looking at the first reading then from Proverbs, we get a good road map on how to show our gratitude in being “entrusted” with the gift of our “one wonderful life” –again as someone else said.  This reading was always entitled, The Virtuous Woman, and the Priests for Equality Group, whose version of the Scriptures that we use, saw fit to make this reading, “gender-less” as the virtues depicted here are ones that we can and should all adhere to. 

   Therefore, we should hear in this reading that we are called to, strive after perfect love, instill confidence equally in each other, bring advantage, not hurt, doing our work for the benefit of each other and holding out our hands to the poor.

   Paul tells his converts in Thessaloniki that they are people “of the light” and hopefully, we hear the same for ourselves.  He is telling them that when our God comes, they will be ready because they are trying to be their best selves, sharing what they have with each other, showing their gratitude for all that they have been “entrusted” with.

   As we come to the end of another Year of Grace, it’s good to look at how each of us faces our world—what have we done well, what could we do better? May God bless us all in our discernment. Amen? Amen!