2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time 2023 - Extraordinary Time

 

The Christmas season has ended, and we’ve returned to the observance of Ordinary Time. Each of the seasons of the Church year certainly has its own spirituality and themes—a rhythm that is to mark our lives.

During Advent, the church prepares for the coming of Christ and during Advent we are to become quieter, more reflective, meditative like a mother anticipating the birth of her child, like Blessed Mary anticipating the birth of her son. During Christmas of course we celebrate Christ’s birth with hymns of praise. We give gifts, we gather with family and friends in a spirit of cheer and generosity, always with an eye to the needs of the poor whose condition Christ shared—born into the straw poverty of the Bethlehem stable. 

Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday, February 22nd this year, is a season of intensified prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and concrete acts of penance; we unite ourselves to Jesus in the desert, his Passion and suffering on the cross, and we meditate on his great love for us throughout all that he suffered.

Then during Easter, of course we celebrate the Resurrection; we focus on courageously proclaiming that Christ is risen, alleluia, and breaking the bonds of all that keeps us from proclaiming and living Christ’s victory over sin and death.

But now we find ourselves once again in Ordinary Time. And during ordinary time we focus on the ordinary life of the Christian. But that’s not boring or unnoteworthy. There is holiness to be found and practiced in the ordinary dimensions of life. There is holiness to be found in cooking and cleaning and conversations and working and resting and family life and visits to the grocery and hardware stores and the doctor’s office and civic life, in aches and pains, and successes and failures. There is holiness to be found and practiced in everyday life, in ordinary day-to-day life. 

Our Christian faith makes the life of the ordinary Christian extraordinary in a number of ways.

Firstly, unlike those without faith, Christians live conscious of God of with us throughout all of life. We celebrated at Christmas—that Christ is Emmanuel—God-with-us. And He is. He is with us in our trials, in our sufferings, in our poverty, in our fears, in failures, and in the ordinary. That gives us extraordinary and supernatural consolation, comfort, strength, and guidance.

And we live not just conscious of God. But the Christian lives with God truly present in his soul. The Christian becomes a walking tabernacle, a divine temple. This is extraordinary. For the Christian is not simply flesh and blood, but the baptized Christian, with God dwelling in his soul brings God into everything he does. Our lives become extensions of the dominion of God, prisms for the light of God to shine from within, antenna to receive and transmit the Word of God in the world. God is made known, his divine life and power become detectable through us. 

Secondly, unlike the rest of the world, the Christian lives grounded in the Truth of God’s moral law. The Christian seeks to rid themselves of what humans shouldn’t be doing and to do what humans should be doing. Christians restrain ourselves from what is forbidden and do what is commanded by God himself. Christians observes all the “thou shalt nots”—observing the moral law—and also seek the perfection of virtue and the cultivation of the fruits and gifts of the holy spirit. 

And this is extraordinary. For the ordinary state is just to follow our feelings. Just do what everybody else is doing, accept the mainstream values, tolerate the breaking-down of society.  That’s normal, that’s expected, that’s how to fit in. But the Christian is called to do the opposite of the ordinary. Not to imitate the world, but to imitate Christ. Not to fall into the depravity and corruption of the mainstream, but to resist it; not to tolerate evil, but to be a force of Good, to draw souls away from evil and toward God. 

The Christian vocation is anything but ordinary. Nothing is more unexpected than the Christian authentically living the faith. When you observe a Christian making use of a spiritual gift you recognize that something extraordinary is happening. When a Christian speaks in a prophetic way, or engages in selfless works of charity, or organizes people to accomplish something for God that they could not accomplish on their own, that is extraordinary. And we’re called to do these things every day, to live extraordinarily every day. I can’t think of anything more a pastor would rather see than parishioners bringing forth their gifts in service to the mission of the parish in extraordinary ways. 

A final way Christians are extraordinary is the way by which we suffer. All people suffer. All people get sick, age, and experience the effects of mortality. Suffering is ordinary. But Christians can suffer in an extraordinary way when we unite our sufferings with Christ, in what is called redemptive suffering or reparative suffering, by what is called “offering up” our sufferings.  

When Christians consciously, intentionally unite our ordinary sufferings to Christ, accepting the share in the cross of Christ, we are able do something that is eminently extraordinary. We are able to be a conduit of healing and grace for the world. We can say, “Lord, let my suffering be for some good” and that prayer is heard by God. Through redemptive suffering we can make amends for sins against God, remitting the time we would spend in purgatory, doing penance for others, and winning grace for the conversion of hardened hearts. 

Ordinary Time: it might seem boring to some, but if you are conscious of your mission, your identity, and the opportunities for holiness, it won’t be anything less than extraordinary. For the glory of God and salvation of souls.

1st Sunday of Advent 2019 - Sacred Season of Preparation

Happy Advent Everyone.

The most important things in life require some preparation, don’t they? When parents discover they are expecting a new child, they prepare a room for the child and a crib; the room is decorated, clothes are purchased, a baby shower is thrown. When a couple becomes engaged for marriage, they prepare, they plan. They meet with the priest for marriage preparation, they attend a pre-cana day, the reception is planned, the wedding garments are acquired, a home is made ready.

Similarly, when a young man realizes his call to the priesthood, his seminary formation involves nine years of theological training, experience in different ministerial settings like visiting the sick in hospitals and nursing homes, visiting the imprisoned, learning how to craft a homily, teach in the classroom, and celebrate the sacraments.

We prepare for big tests, big presentations and tasks at our jobs, we prepare emotionally to tell someone difficult news, we prepare our wills for the end of our lives.

A priest friend of mine would often say, “everything prepares us for something else.” Often the sufferings of the past and present help to prepare us for some future task, that will require great character and faith and endurance. St. Paul even says that our sufferings help us to console others who suffer.

The Church year, the Liturgical Year, revolves around two axes, Christmas and Easter, the two most important feasts of the Church year. They are the most important feasts because they celebrate the two most important events in human history. Christmas of course celebrates the birth of the God-Man, our savior and Lord, Jesus Christ—God taking on human flesh, uniting himself to humanity to save us from damnation. And Easter celebrates the accomplishment of that salvation, the Lord’s victory over death—His resurrection. For what would life have been for us had Christ not come as our redeemer.

Those two feasts of the Church year are so important that they both have entire seasons to prepare for them. The season of Lent prepares us for easter, and the season of Advent which begins today prepares us for Christmas.

So how does Advent prepare us for Christmas? Well, certainly through the gift of time. 4 weeks to prepare for what has become for many people quite a stressful holiday. 4 weeks to space out all of the physical preparations, the shopping, the planning of parties and gatherings, the decorating, the Christmas carols, the baking of Christmas cookies.

But more importantly, yes? Are the spiritual preparations. How does Mother Church by her Advent liturgies and Advent symbols help us spiritually prepare for the celebration of the birth of the Christ-Child?

Certainly, the scriptures are of pre-eminent importance during Advent. Particularly, we read through the book of the prophet Isaiah. We read from Isaiah on each of the four Sundays of Advent, and also on the majority of the weekdays.

But why Isaiah? Why of all the books of Sacred Scripture do we read from Isaiah so extensively? The book of the Prophet Isaiah contains so many of the themes of the Gospels, it is sometimes even called the “fifth Gospel”. We read in Isaiah of the call of God’s people to practice justice, the need for repentance, the reality of judgment, God’s promise of salvation and proclamation of mercy; the need for God’s people during times of darkness to practice faith and hope.

But Isaiah is read during Advent because it contains Scripture’s clearest proclamations of the coming of the Messiah. God will intervene in history--history filled with so much strife and chaos, war and oppression, injustice and sadness. The Messiah will enter into our lives bringing the peace and reconciliation our hearts long for, And will establish the Church to light to all nations of God's salvation.

If possible, come to daily mass to hear Isaiah’s promises. If you can’t, make sure you take time every day to at least read from the Scriptures, to allow Isaiah to fill you with hope this Advent. The daily Scripture verses are printed in the bulletin; if you visit the US Bishop’s website, you can sign up to have the daily scripture readings emailed to you. 

In our Gospel for this 1st Sunday of Advent, we may be surprised that we don’t hear a story of Mary or Joseph preparing for the Lord’s birth, or Magi or shepherds preparing to meet Him. Rather, we hear a message from Jesus himself from one of the last chapters of the Gospel of Matthew. The Lord speaks of how the people of Noah’s day were not preparing for what was to come, but, instead they were eating, drinking and having a good time, and so were unprepared and unrepentant when the flood came. And in his own day people were failing to prepare for the coming of the Messiah.

Here the Lord gives us a warning and our marching orders for Advent. “Stay awake” he says. Make sure you are prepared for God wanting to break-in to your lives through prayer, reflection on his Word of God, and repentance of sin.

It is certainly appropriate during the season of Advent to make a good confession. Confessions are available every Saturday here at St. Ignatius from 3:30 to 4:30, and between the two sunday morning masses. We will have a communal penance service with our cluster parishes at St. Mel’s next Tuesday evening, Dec 10, at 7pm, and of course I’m always happy to schedule an individual confession throughout the week. For what better way to prepare our soul for the Lord coming more deeply into our lives, than by confessing and receiving absolution for those sins which weigh us down, our failures to love the Lord as we should.

“You know the time;” Paul says,  “it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep.” What are the spiritual practices that will awaken you from whatever spiritual lethargy has crept into your life? It’s not too late to come up with a good spiritual plan for your Advent preparations: take up some spiritual reading, plan your Advent confession, make a list of the good works you hope to engage in.
We will never regret the time given to the Lord to prepare spiritually for his coming, to prioritize faith during this busy season. By striving to live in the presence of Christ, with the mind and heart of Christ this Advent, you will prepare room for him to dwell in you this Christmas, for the glory of God and salvation.

Baptism of the Lord 2019 - Something New

Where have we been and where are we going this liturgical year? The Liturgical Year began with the season of Advent. We heard from the prophecies of Isaiah, the promises of God to send a Savior to Israel, and we heard those same prophecies echoed in the preaching of John the Baptist. And concluding Advent, we heard God’s promises beginning to be fulfilled, as the maiden of Nazareth consented to God’s Holy Will, and the word took flesh in the Virgin Mary's womb.

Advent longing made way for Christmas rejoicing at the birth of Our Savior, God made flesh. We traveled with humble shepherds to adore him who was born into the humble poverty of the Bethlehem stable. Last week, we celebrated the great feast of the Epiphany, and traveled with wise men from the east. What made them wise? They set out on the great journey—the greatest journey: to find God. They left their worldly comforts that they could behold the face of the Christ. And upon finding him, they honored him as God and King and Savior.

We celebrate now, at the end of the Christmas season, the Feast of the Lord’s Baptism. Fast forward 30 years from Bethlehem. For 30 years, the one named Jesus, lived in virtual obscurity. These are sometimes called the hidden years of Jesus’ life because Scripture does not go into detail into the intervening years between the Lord’s birth and the beginning of his public ministry. What we do know is that during the greater part of his life, Jesus shared the condition of the vast majority of the human race: a life spent without evident greatness, a life of manual labor.

Jesus lived a life of simple faith, obedient to Mary and Joseph in the house of Nazareth.  He learned the carpenter’s trade, he worked with his hands, he worshiped at synagogue, he made pilgrimages to Jerusalem and celebrated the Jewish Feasts, and he he lived a life of virtue, preparing for his great mission of preaching the Gospel and dying for the atonement of our sins.

Around the age of 30, Jesus’ cousin, John, the son of Elizabeth and Zechariah was preaching a baptism of repentance down at the Jordan River, at the very spot where Israel had come into the promised land after 40 years in the desert, the very spot where Elijah was taken up into heaven on a flaming chariot.  In fact, John was dressed quite a bit like old Elijah and proclaiming Elijah’s warning: “repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.”

At the Jordan, Jesus’ season of hiddenness came to an end and the season of his public ministry began—a time of miracles, and healings, where the power of God’s kingdom would be manifest. “It was time” to do battle with the forces of evil and the prince of darkness.  “It was time” to fulfill his Father’s will, no matter how much suffering he would have to endure.

Throughout the upcoming Liturgical Season of Ordinary Time we will hear and reflect upon the Lord’s words and works. But I think it is quite significant that the season of Christmas, in which Christ is adored and honored as God, ends with this event, his baptism, in which he associated Himself with us. John preached to sinners, that sinners should turn their lives over to God, and to mark that new beginning with a ritual, with baptism. And Jesus underwent that ritual. The sinless Son of God associated himself with sinners.

If Christmas has taught us anything, it’s that God is not interested in remaining distant from us. He is born into poverty like most people in human history. He lived a hidden life of manual labor like most people in human history. And in his baptism he identifies with all of us needing to hand over our lives to God to make a new beginning, an end of sin and a new beginning of goodness.

So that’s where we’ve been: in a season of hearing about how God wants to break into our lives. Where are we going? Ordinary Time. Monday morning, I will don the Green Vestments once again. Why Green? Because Green is the color of growth. And in Ordinary Time, we focus on the spiritual growth the Christian Disciple is to always be seeking.

What does spiritual growth consist of? Becoming more like Christ. Allowing Christ to live in us. Christ yearns to live through the members of his mystical body, and that means we must learn to place Christ at the center of everything we do and say and are: including Him in our daily schedules and activities, meals, chores, conversations, parenting, work, vacations, civic responsibilities, decisions, problems, crises, accomplishments, and losses. It means going down into the waters with him and rising out of them with less selfishness, perversion, greed, sloth, anger, and impatience. It means allowing the whole of your life to become charged and changed by God’s presence—allowing the grace of our baptism, and the grace of the sacraments to unfold in your life, to bear new spiritual fruit.

Every season ends that it may give way to something new. Christmas ends, that the one born at Christmas, may impact, infuse, change, and transform our Ordinary Lives. Today, the Christmas season ends and the season of Ordinary Time begins, a season where each of us are to focus on putting the teachings of Jesus Christ into practice in our ordinary day-to-day lives.

So we do well to consider: what from our past needs to come to end that we may begin something new? What vices need to end that we may more faithfully live out our baptismal discipleship? Where in my life does spiritual sloth need to come to an end so that new spiritual practices may begin: daily scripture reading, visits to the blessed Sacrament throughout the week, a daily rosary perhaps, time volunteering at your parish. Where does lust need to be put an end, in order to begin a new life of purity. Where does resentment and bitterness need to come to an end, in order to begin a new season of peace and gentleness and gratitude and joy?

Pope Benedict wrote: “Immersion in the water (of baptism) is about purification, about liberation from the filth of the past that burdens and distorts life—it is about beginning again, and that means it is about death and resurrection, about starting life over again anew…in a world marked by sin, it is a Yes to the entire will of God and solidarity with our estranged brother.”

May all that is sinful come to an end, that, in the words of our second reading, we may reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age, as we await the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of our great God and savior Jesus Christ,” for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: 2nd Sunday in OT 2017 - "Renamed and Called"

The Christmas season has ended, and we’ve returned to the observance of Ordinary Time. Each of the seasons of the Church year certainly has their own spirituality and themes.

During Advent, we reflect on the coming of Christ: our lives are meant to take a quieter mood, a reflective mood, meditating, anticipating Christ’s coming, like Mary anticipating the birth of her son. During Christmas of course we celebrate his birth with hymns of praise, we consider how our lives are called to be filled with the light and beauty and splendor of his presence.

Lent, which we will begins on Ash Wednesday, March 1st, this year, is a season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, concrete acts of penance; we unite ourselves to Jesus in the desert, Jesus in his Passion and suffering on the cross, we meditate on his great love for us in what he suffered.
Then during Easter, we of course celebrate the Resurrection; we focus on being free from all that keeps us from proclaiming and living Christ’s victory over sin and death.

But during Ordinary Time, we focus on the ordinary life of the Christian, which is really an extraordinary thing, when you think about it. For the Christian is certainly called to live an extraordinary life. The life of sin is what’s ordinary; following the whims of the culture, giving in to every passing fancy, every disordered desire. The life of the Christian, however, is out-of-the-ordinary: the Christian lives conscious of the presence of God in our lives, conscious of God’s moral law, the commandments, the virtues, the examples of the saints, the power of the sacraments. The Christian life is an extraordinary calling to the life of grace and holiness and charity
.
Though we are in Ordinary Time, Mass began today with an extra-ordinary ritual. In the rite of Acceptance and Welcoming. Geoff, Michael, Amanda, Megan, and Jennifer, stood before you today, publicly declaring their desire to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church. Though they were baptized into different protestant denominations, they seek the extraordinary. They publicly declared, “what you Catholics believe, I want to believe”, “what you Catholics do, I want to do”, “the Sacraments that you Catholics receive, I want to receive”, how extraordinary!  We also had three others, Tawny, Karie, and Jodie, Catholics who declared their desire to complete their Sacraments of initiation. If you are a Catholic who hasn’t received the Sacrament of Confirmation, please contact the office, so that you can undergo preparation to receive this powerful sacrament which completes baptismal grace.

I’d like to turn our attention to the second reading today, simply to the opening line, the beginning of Saint Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. There is something in Paul’s address that sums up, in a very simple way, what the ordinary life of the Christian is all about. Paul begins his letter in an ordinary way, a way that was typical to letters of the 1st century.

He introduces himself as Paul. We know that Paul he was born with a different name, with the name of Saul. And that the name of Paul is a new name, a new name he received when he began the new life of a Christian, a believer in Christ-crucified-and-risen. This change of name is consistent with the ancient biblical phenomenon of receiving a new name from God, when God calls you to something new.

For example, Abram, when called by God to become the Father of a New Nation, is given the new name, Abraham. Jacob’s name was changed, after wrestling with God, to identify him as a patriarch of the people of Israel, who would so often wrestle with remaining faithful to God and understanding the ways of God.

Jesus renamed Simon son of John as Peter, prince of the apostles, the rock upon whom Jesus would build his Church. And here in our second reading, Paul introduces himself by this new name, acknowledging that he has begun a new way of life, an extraordinary way of life, under the discipleship of Jesus Christ in union with his Holy Church.

At the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, we Catholics choose new names, to identify ourselves as new creations through the grace of the Sacraments. In many religious orders, a new name is given, when the person enters the order, and of course the Popes continue this practice as well; Jorge Bergolio took the new name of Francis, when he became successor of St. Peter, Bishop of Rome, Pope of the Holy Catholic Church.

This renaming is to help us realize that once we have encountered the Lord, that changes us. Once we receive a calling from God, that changes the direction of our life. Becoming a Catholic requires change. Going to confession, requires the repentance of sin and also the desire and intention to change. The Ordinary Life of the Catholic involves openness to change. We dispose ourselves to the grace of the Sacraments so that we can grow in holiness, we can love our neighbor, we can love our enemy a little more. Hopefully, each of us has changed for the better since this time last year. If not, we need to do some serious soul-searching and make more frequent use of the Sacrament of Confession.

This new name, this new identify, is a discovery of our truest self. The great theologian Hans Urs Van Balthasar said, “you do not know who you are, until you find yourself in Christ.” Before that, you have some identify, but it’s not your truest identity. The attachment to worldly ways and worldly philosophies and worldly errors, that’s not who we are meant to be. We are meant to be people of light, people of goodness, people of truth, and to be Christian is to acknowledge that only as a disciple of Him can I discover what it means to be truly good and truly happy; only in Christ can I become my truest self.

So much of our unhappiness in life is caused by not knowing who we are meant to be, not knowing the point of our suffering. We do well from time to time to reorient ourselves with what it really means to be a Christian. Am I truly allowing my Christianity to permeate every dimension of my life?

Now listen to how Paul introduces himself, “Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God”. He identifies himself in the passive voice, “called to be an apostle” by someone else. How does modern man explain himself? “I’m my own man, It’s my life, my decision, my projects, get out of my way.” Paul has tapped into a different way; he’s discovered that happiness and fulfillment aren’t obtained simply by being a self-determined person.

The Christian receives his identity, he receives his faith, he receives his moral compass, from a higher authority than ourselves. As Christians we don’t determine right and wrong for ourselves. We don’t determine the ways our rituals are celebrated, we don’t determine what is true and what is false. This disposition of receptivity is fundamental, for without it how can we receive the gift of life which we lost through sin?

Paul writes to the Church who he says is “called to be holy”. May we strive to be worthy of that calling, faithful to that calling. May the Holy Spirit help us identify those parts in our lives we have yet to conform to the grace and truth of God, and may that grace continue to renew, reshape, and reform us, to become the people God made us to be, for the Glory of God and salvation of souls.