August 5 2019 - St. Mary Major Basilica - Christmas in August

My pilgrimage to Rome at the end of May took me to the beautiful basilica whose dedication we celebrate today. The present basilica of St. Mary Major was built in the fifth century, not long after the Council of Ephesus affirmed Mary’s title as “Mother of God.”  The basilica is the largest and oldest church in the world honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary.  It stands atop one of Rome’s seven hills, and despite many restorations, still has the character of an early Roman basilica, in fact, it inspired the architectural design of this Church of St. Ignatius in many ways.

For four hundred years today’s feast was called “Our Lady of the Snows”.  According to legend, the basilica was constructed on the site where the Mother of God produced a miraculous mid-summer snow fall and left her footprints as a sign.  The legend has been long celebrated by releasing a shower of white rose petals from the dome of the basilica every August 5.

Below the Basilica’s main altar are relics from the manger of Bethlehem, in which Mary laid the newborn Savior of the World.  At the Basilica, in a sense, it is Christmas every day as groups of pilgrims will approach the manger and sing the beautiful Christmas hymn “Silent Night”. And I can say that it was deeply moving to sing “silent night” in this roman basilica, with 25 other priests from the diocese of Cleveland and our Bishop, and to imagine that the Christ Child was laid in this very manger.

The Christmas Creche is such a powerful symbol of our faith. It’s a symbol that our Good God chose to be born in the poverty of our world, that his mother who embraced him with such tender love, embraces us as well, and teaches us how to embrace her son, as well. And then to be make pilgrimage to this ornate basilica, to see the Creche adorned with gold and jewels, is to share in the Church’s veneration throughout the centuries. Christians have made the basilica so immensely beautiful, they’ve adorned the Creche so beautifully, because our faith is beautiful, and that beauty leads us to love, it leads us to God.

At the beginning of the Holy Year of Mercy, Pope Francis opened the holy doors at St. Mary Major and said, “Let us allow Mary to lead us to the rediscovery of the beauty of an encounter with her Son Jesus.

May Our Lady help us live out our beautiful faith, lived in the poverty of the world, that it may lead many to an encounter with Christ the Savior, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
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That Our Lady may lead all people to the love of Christ, protect the Church from all evil, and aid us in the mission of the Gospel.

That all government leaders may be awakened to the supreme dignity of every human life, and that all people of our nation may work together for an end to the culture of death.

That through Immaculate Mary, Queen of Peace, hatred, violence, and cruelty will cease in the world, especially today, we pray for the victims of the mass shootings around our country.

That the sick may draw strength, consolation, and healing by turning to Our Lady, who
intercedes for us from her place in heaven.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

We pray, O Lord our God, that the Virgin Mary, who merited to bear God and man in her chaste womb, may commend the prayers of your faithful in your sight. Through Christ our Lord.

Christmas 2017: "They wrapped him in swaddling clothes."

What child is this, who, laid to rest,
On Mary's lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,
While shepherds watch are keeping?
This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing:
Haste, haste to bring Him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

“What Child is this,” What child is this whose birth we gather to celebrate this day? We learn a lot about his identity and his mission, by the company he keeps, by those who gathered for his birth: Angels, shepherds, wise men, a carpenter, and a sinless virgin: seekers, workers, the humble. There are certainly some seekers, some workers, and maybe even some angels here tonight. As my favorite Christmas card says, “the wise seek him still.”

We also learn a lot about the Christ child by where he was born: not in a royal palace, not in a hospital, not in his family home, not even in the village inn, but in stable, a cave used for housing and feeding animals in the backwater town of Bethlehem. We have a God who chooses to be born into “straw poverty”, who teaches us to seek him and to serve him in his poor ones.

But I’d like to focus not on those who witnessed his birth, nor on his place of birth, I’d like to focus on his clothes. When the angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds, by what sign were they to know him? His swaddling clothes. “And this will be a sign for you,” the angel said, “you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger."

There is a story about a number of priests who were on a retreat with the famous biblical scholar, Donald Senior, and they were going around the room talking about their favorite biblical passage.  One priest said his favorite passage was, “Lord, to whom shall we go, you have the words of everlasting life.”  Another priest said his was, “Let it be done to me according to thy word.”  The priests expected the noted biblical scholar to have some complex passage from St. Paul’s letters, but he said his favorite passage was, “and they wrapped him in swaddling clothes”.  They wrapped him in swaddling clothes.  He says, “we have a God who was a baby in a manger, we have a God who wore a diaper, we have a God who was wrapped in swaddling clothes.  That’s how accessible, that’s how loveable our God is.  He’s a baby.  And he wants us to pick him up, and embrace him, and kiss him, and he wants us to tell him that we love him, and need him, that he has changed our lives, and that we will spend our lives loving him.”

On Christmas Eve a few years ago, Pope Benedict wrote, “God is so great that he can become small. God is so powerful that he can make himself vulnerable and come to us as a defenseless child, so that we can love him. God is so good that he can give up his divine splendor and come down to a stable, so that we might find him, so that his goodness might touch us, give itself to us and continue to work through us.”

His swaddling clothes certainly speak of Our Lord’s humility.

Yet, the swaddling clothes have another significance.

Bethlehem wasn’t known for much, but it did have one industry, you might call it. The shepherds of Bethlehem raised lambs for the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. They were Levitical shepherds and raised the lambs that would be used in the Passover sacrifice in the Jerusalem temple. And when it was time for these lambs to be born the shepherds, would bring them into the shepherd’s cave and then they would be swaddled because the sacrifice had to be without spot or blemish.

A baby born in the same place as the sacrificial Passover Lambs, swaddled like a Passover lamb, pointed to the fact that this child was the Lamb of God born to be the sacrifice which takes away the sins of the world. Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen would often say, some men were born to live.

He was born to die for us.
Why lies He in such mean estate,
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christians, fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.
Nails, spears shall pierce him through,
the cross he bore for me, for you.
Hail, hail the Word made flesh,
the Babe, the Son of Mary.

The cross he bore for me, for you. This is why he was born. Or as we recite in the Creed: "For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man." The Creed itself links these two ideas: his birth and our need for a Savior.

Had our greatest need been knowledge, God would have sent us an educator.  Had our greatest need been technology, God would have sent us a scientist.  So too had our greatest need been for money, God would have sent us an economist.  Had our greatest need been for pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer. But, because our greatest need was for redemption from sin, God sent us a Savior.
His very name, Jesus, means “God saves”. As the angel said to Joseph, “you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

To us is born a Savior, into the poverty of Bethlehem, to bring us the riches of heaven.
To us is born a Savior, who is wrapped in swaddling clothes, that we may know we are wrapped in God’s love.
To us is born a Savior, who brings healing to the most broken of the human family.
To us is born a Savior, who commands the storms of our life to “Be still!”
To us is born a Savior, who casts out demons from the darkest souls.
To you is born a Savior, the Passover Lamb, who allows his hands and feet to be nailed to a cross to rescue us from our sin.
To us is born a Savior, who pronounces our sins forgiven and who feeds us with his flesh and blood, that we might have eternal life.
To us is born a Savior, who sends us out to bring his scattered sheep into one flock, the Church.
To us is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ, the Lord, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: 3rd Sunday of Advent 2016 - Preparing for True Christmas Joy

The third Sunday of Advent is traditionally called Gaudete Sunday – Gaudete is Latin for rejoice – during this holy season we look forward in joy for the coming of our savior.

Even though the winter weather is a bit of a downer, and even though consumerism permeates the season; the decorations, images, and music still serve as excellent reminders of the true source of joy of the season—we celebrate Christ.

For example, the evergreen wreaths and Christmas trees remind us of the undying love of God, always green and fresh, even in the middle of darkest, coldest winter. That God loves us, even in the dark times of our life, fills us with joy.

The lights and glittering bulbs remind us that Christ's light came to conquer the darkness of sin and ignorance, and that more beautiful than the most elaborate Christmas light display is the human soul which shines with the light of Christ.

The symbol serving as the greatest reminder are the manger scenes. Many of you have started to assemble your manger scenes in your homes or even your yards: a wonderful way of reminding the surrounding neighborhood of the sacred event we prepare for this season.

In many places Catholics wait until the feast of the Immaculate Conception to erect their manger scenes, and many have the custom of not laying the figure of the baby Jesus in the manger until Christmas eve. Whatever your custom, our manger scenes remind us that God truly became one of us, born a babe in Bethlehem’s plain, son of God and son of Mary, born to save us from our sins.
And this is the cause of our joy, that we are saved. He is the proof that we are not abandoned by God to the evil and violence and selfishness of the world. He is the proof that sin does not get the last word, that God does come to deliver us, that sin isn’t allowed to reign in us; that God does come to fill us with light and joy and peace.

Many of our neighbors, colleagues, and family members, unfortunately have forgotten this truth; they get wrapped up in the superficial, they can’t see who the lights, the trees, the decorations, the presents, point to.

In the Gospel, we heard of a man whose entire life was focused on pointing to Christ. John the Baptist had been imprisoned for preaching about Jesus. He wasn’t a fool or a madman, he knew that preaching about Jesus had political repercussions. But he was a man of faith, who believed that preaching about Jesus Christ was worth dying for.

John knew that if you weren’t prepared for Jesus by turning away from sin, you might just miss him…just like so many in our culture do today.

News of John’s imprisonment spread to Jesus, and upon hearing John was facing imminent death, Jesus, as we heard in the Gospel, spoke to the crowds about John. Who did you go out to the desert to see? Jesus asked. Remember, John had drawn people out to the desert from miles around. This was no small feat. Many traveled great distances; the terrain was difficult; provisions had to be hauled along; and for most, the trip home, was a grueling uphill climb out of the Jordan valley.

What brought you? To see a reed swayed by the wind? Jesus asked. In other words, did you go out to see a people pleaser, to listen to someone who is easily swayed by public opinion and who relays back to the public only what they want to hear? Did you come out to the desert simply to be entertained? Similarly, why did you come to church today? Simply, to be entertained? I think not. There are certainly more entertaining venues than this.

Jesus, then dug a little deeper: did you go out to the desert just to see someone dressed in fine clothing? Some people are very attracted by wealth, celebrity. They dream about becoming best friends with Hollywood movie stars. John’s concern wasn’t about forming a cult of adoring fans.
Jesus, then revealed the real reason so many went to see John: they longed to hear the words of the prophet. Our deepest longing is for God, and John was sharing with them, how best to prepare for God. You want joy, you want peace, you want deliverance? Prepare your hearts for God.

When we come to Church a deep desire in us is fulfilled, whether we recognize that or not; a desire to give to God the worship we owe Him, the desire to open our minds and hearts to be formed by God, our souls to be nourished by God. This is why people were going out into the desert, this is the reason they went to so much effort and were attracted by this very strange preacher, who ate locusts and dressed in camel hair.

This Advent we recognize the need to focus more deeply on the message of John the Baptist; that if we truly desire to experience Christmas joy, we must prepare our hearts well, by repenting of our sins, by engaging in daily prayer and meditation and acts of mercy.

But also, we recognize that we are called to be like John, to call others to focus on what really matters. Perhaps it means putting up a manger scene in your yard or house for visitors to see; perhaps, you might invite a fallen away Catholic to our Advent penance service, to speak to them about the importance of living the faith and confessing their sins and going to mass.

John was willing to suffer for Jesus, to be imprisoned and even to be martyred. It may surprise you, and it’s somewhat of a paradox, but that willingness to suffer for Jesus is the key to deep Christian joy.

Rejoice, the Lord is close! Prepare your hearts well for his coming, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.