Priest. Prophet. King (Christmas) 2021-12-25

Homily – Dec.  25, 2021  /  Christmas __  Title:  Christmas.Priest.Prophet.King

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[__00_]  On the day of your baptism, the priest said to you, what kind of a person are you going to be? Those words – precisely - are not in the baptism or ritual. I made that up!

But there is a sense in which a similar idea is expressed. The priest or did not say -- what kind of person are you going to be – but the deacon/priest approached you and put anointing oil on your forehead and said, You are anointed priest, prophet and king. You were anointed priest, prophet, and King, because Jesus comes as a priest as a prophet and a king.

So what kind of person are you going to be? I like the king part, the best I think, that has the most promise.

[__01_]  It has been pointed out (e.g., Boston College Professor Peter Kreeft, (Video: 7 Reasons Why Everyone Should Be Catholic, Apr 18, 2017)  points out in many superhero movies, perhaps every superhero movie, there is trio of

major figures each personifying a a priest, a prophet, and a king.  Kreeft gave these examples:

·        JAWS [shark is not 1 of the 3]– police chief (king), scientist/oceanographer (prophet), blue-collar shark hunter (priest), 

·        Star Trek,  Captain James Kirk (king),  Mr. Spock (prophet),  Dr. “Bones” McCoy, the simple country physician/doctor (priest)

·        Star Wars,  Darth Vader (king – sometimes the king is evil… just like Old Testament!)  Yoda (prophet), Luke Skywalker / Han Solo (priests)

 

 

 

[__02_]   A common thread here is the priests – as disciples – do work.

Priests are supposed to work.  isciples are supposed to work. The problem sometimes is that I sometimes worry I spend more time worrying about why I am not king, or why I have not some come up with the perfect prophetic wisdom in some situation.

Am I really carrying out the work of a priest? And I learned about being a priest first, not before when I went to the seminary I learned about being a priest from my parents. I learned about honesty, forthrightness, sacrifice devotion to family to work.

Recently, we were talking about something about our first house where we grew up in my hometown, and my father said to my sister-in-law, he said, it took me eight minutes, I could get to the train station walking in 8 minutes. I was amazed at how exact he was in his recollection, I got there in 8 minutes. It was an example to me of how devoted he was to his work. And maybe he cut it close a few times. Missed his train? But he but he knew what it was to work. My mother and father did not rule the house as king and queen. They did not rule the house as royalty.

They ruled the house like priests, they were self-sacrificing for the family and the priests in the heart the home.

Your home is meant to be a little church that's in the Catholic atechism that your home is meant to be the Domus ekklesia, a little church, a domestic church.

[__03_]   And even if your kids don't listen to you, okay, you're afraid, oh, my kids, don't listen to me. Because you thought I should have managed or led them better or something or I should have had more scientific or prophetic wisdom for them.

 And that's why they don't listen to me. But you sacrificed for them. You did priestly things for them, and you still do, I am sure. That means a lot.

Sometimes I'd rather be a king. We'd all rather be kings and queens we'd rather be royalty. But in the theology of the church and the Bible, we are priestly people, you are a priestly person. By your baptism, you're called to do this by sacrifice each day.

And in order to do so in accord with your station, your vocation.

[__04_]   I was reminded of this recently that we're called to make sacrifices in accord with who we are.

          St. Josemaria Escrivá (Spain)

wrote that we should make sacrifices in accord with our station in life not sacrifices their call attention to ourselves.

           

Sometimes we think, Oh, I'm going to go on a 14 day fast, or I'm only going to drink water. Well, that's kind of like extreme and maybe we can't really enter into that.

But can we do something smaller on a smaller basis on a smaller self¡sacrificial basis, he writes, for example, that every time we sit down at the table, every time we sit down to eat is an opportunity to make a little mortification or a little sacrifice, maybe something that no one will notice.

But you'll notice God notices. So for example, don't put sugar in your coffee. And then you're like, I don't like sugar in my coffee anyway, so that's okay. Well then, or make have a half a cup of coffee instead of a full cup of coffee, or don't put butter on your bread. These are little sacrifices. And guess what, nobody notices that you're doing them. But that comes right out of Matthew chapter 6, the gospel of Ash Wednesday, anoint your head and wash your face so that you will not appear to others to be fasting. So don't call attention to your fasts. Or another example that I heard recently was, let's say you're a student, you could fast from looking at your phone or your computer for 55 minutes straight, let's say just 55 minutes straight.

Just read your books, read your notes, don't look at the computer or turn off the internet. Or better yet, don't even have the internet on in your room. Just study for 55 minutes straight reading. That's a sacrifice.

And guess what you're going to notice that you're doing it. If I were to do that, I noticed when I'm doing this, when I turn off my phone for even short periods, I noticed that the phone is off, sometimes even forget it's off, and I forget to turn it back on. That's a blessed moment when I forget to turn the phone back on.

So we're called to give ourselves up to give ourselves back to God each day.

[__05_]    The shepherds are examples of this, the shepherds in the Gospel. If we say what kind of person are you? What kind of person you're going to be? Or what kind of person is the shepherd going to be.

Is shepherd going to be a king, the shepherd is not a king. The shepherds of the Jesus's day were not kings. They were not prophets. They were probably not highly educated.

They were like priests. They were self sacrificing. They were going to adore our the newborn savior. And they were doing the simple work that we were called to do. They were the essential workers of their day, and who are the essential workers the shepherds of our day.

They are delivery truck drivers, driving for UPS, FedEx, Amazon and other organizations. They are workers in 24-hour convenience stores. They are those who sanitize and scrub the hospital floor or the doctor's office. They are people who guide and attend to us in stores. They are shepherds.

And I have to ask myself am I living as an essential worker? Am I living with my faith being essential to my life? Am I a priest? Am I a prophet? Or am I a king?

We're all called to a certain royal / kingliness and wise / prophecy in all of us.   

The “king” aspect calls all of us to be merciful. The prophecy calls all of us to study our faith to know our faith. And then the priesthood calls us to sacrifice.

[__06_]     This past Tuesday I entered the church. As a priest, why always enter the churches as a priest but perhaps I became more aware of this. I entered the church in the vestibule and it is not unusual for a delivery to arrive in the church.

 Given that our church address this building is 1 Eagle Rock Avenue and the rectory next door is also 1 Eagle Rock Avenue so sometimes deliveries from Staples or FedEx or Amazon come to the church and then we have to carry them next door.

Do you also find boxes at the wrong address? Wrong place? Side door instead of front? Garage? Yard?  Maybe they were delivered to your Delivery truck drivers have a difficult job they have a lot of destinations to get to.

There was a unusual package in church. But it was not from AMZN.

Right there in the vestibule was a cage cage with a bunny rabbit inside it to completely domesticated pet rabbit.

I am not joking with you. Somebody told me that rabbit knew there was a manger here. Not because the rabbit thought it was Easter so maybe that rabbit is pretty smart. So in my initial reaction, I felt sorry for myself because I now I had to solve this little problem.

I wanted to be king or I wanted to be a prophet with some instantly Mr. Spock answer. Or, I wanted to demand that someone “beam me up…” to solve this problem.

But I wasn't going to be a king, I wasn't gonna be a prophet, I was going to be a priest. And so eventually the next morning, I got up, and I came over and I took some photos of the rabbit not to put on Shutterfly, but took some photos of the rabbit, email the photos out to several parish staff, devoted parish volunteers, some people who look worked for the township of West Orange, and I was surprised how swift this was resolved.

SPOILER ALERT:  you will be glad to know the bunny rabbit was adopted by a capable and enthusiastic young person who works as a technician at a local veterinary / vet / animal hospital.

It was a reminder to me that I do not carry out the work of this parish alone, that I rely on many essential workers, many staff who help us to carry out the work of the gospel here even to rescue those in need. But also it was a reminder to me not to feel too sorry for myself, but also to pray for the person who left behind an animal that might have been very precious to them. Why?

Is this person or family in crisis? Did they suddenly have to vacate their home? What’s going on? That he or she left a domesticated pet? In a cage? In a church with no note? No explanation of any kind, is a reminder of me to do the work of a priest. Pray for the person, not just the person I know. But even the person I don't know or the person I have not known yet. So, on Christmas, we are called to ask what kind of a person are we but we're also called Remind reminded that by our baptism by God's grace, we are called to remember that we can be priestly people, we can be self sacrificial, to do as the shepherds did to go and adore Christ in love of God and love of neighbor.  [END]

Defensive Measure (2021-12-11, Sunday, Advent)

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Homily –  Dec.  12, 2021  /  Advent 3 (C)

● Zephaniah 3:14-18a   ● Philippians 4:4-7 ●  + Luke 3:10-18 ●

Title:  A Defense of Life

[__01_] When my brother was about 13 years old, and the star baseball player on his little league team, he was abruptly pulled from the team made to quit the team and turned in his uniform to the coach. My brother was not injured. My brother was not unhappy playing baseball, my brother was not failing academically, and clearly the need, the team needed him because it was their star pitcher, my brother was being punished. And yet we all have such a positive memory of this moment as a family of the punishment, which perfectly fit the crime, it was good news, it was an example of my father and mother intervening at their best, and I'm sure you would have done nothing less to protect one of your own opponent, the punishment, the penalty to my brother was good news. The punishment was a defensive measure.

It was also a measure to DEFEND HIS LIFE. I'll explain more about that.

[__02_] Are there some extraordinary moments in which we are not moments when we cannot sometimes experience a punishment or a penalty or a correction as something good, as good news?

          Also, in my own years of beinga  priest, I have received help from both a priest-mentor and spiritual director. What I remember from some of our conversations was that my mentor did not always agree with me. I knew I could be wrong, but sometimes I was astonished at how wrong or off base, I was, I didn't necessarily enjoy finding out that I was wrong. But I am glad for the correction. Now. We don't always enjoy the benefit of the correction right away.

George Orwell, who wrote 1984 (novel), wrote: if Liberty (freedom) means anything at all, if liberty or freedom means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

[__03_]   And if based on that definition of liberty, John the Baptist is very liberated, very free, because John the Baptist is telling people what they don't want to hear.

He's telling this to the tax collectors to soldiers to the general population, not to take more than what you need. Not to have more than what you need, but to give up some of your material goods.

 

[__03.01_]   I am certainly susceptible to this. In other words, to my own brokenness of sometimes trying to solve a spiritual hunger, maybe it's a spiritual hunger where I might feel lonely at some times, or I feel uncertain, or I feel afraid, or something about anything. And I have this spiritual problem, but I try to solve it with a material diet of consumption. So the verse about giving away or giving up some bread, or food resonates with me, Jesus has other food, his word for me to consume.

 

[__04_]  [F-C-F]  John the Baptist is preaching this message, which Jesus Himself will also preach this message that, that it's not only about that my salvation is not only about my private choices, but also how do my actions affect or infect contagiously the choices of others, John the Baptist is warning the tax collectors and the soldiers of his day. And I am one of those tax collectors. I am one of those soldiers who needs to be warned not to amass too many things for themselves, because their choices are a signal to others. And those choices will take root in others. And our choices also take root for good or evil in this community. Many good things we do take root and spread for good. Every we could say that every community or family every home is like its own little garden state, New Jersey, its own little garden or garden state or ecosystem where things sometimes grow on their own. In a Catholic decision on ethics on a Catholic document on ethics and the ethics of life and the sanctity of life. I read this that nations or countries are not machines or equations. Our nation is not a machine or an equation that we can program or fixed our nation or Our country is like an ecosystem. It's like a garden. And a people and the habits and the beliefs and the values and institutions intertwine like a root system. And sometimes, and so good things will grow up. But sometimes bad things will grow up and bad things can sometimes poison other things. And this is why our own Catholic practices of prayer and fasting and almsgiving are so essential, so that we are reflecting. In other words, praying about what's happening, but also that we are restraining ourselves, but fasting from taking too much of even good things, and also reacting charitably. In other words almsgiving to what we encounter in our country or in our high school.

George Orwell also wrote these words George Orwell, author of 1984 wrote that in our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible. Sometimes what we read from politicians, or we might read in the newspaper is a defense of something that is indefensible. And we need our own faith and awareness, to be strong, because we cannot and should not count on political leaders alone to determine what is right and good. I just cite two examples.

1^st , the ETHICS of race, racial relationships, the ETHICS of race, and what we say the ETHICS of choice, and the sanctity of life. First, the ETHICS of race.

[__05.01 ethics of race & equality_] 

Now, we've all lived through this. We're living through this right now, but just remind you of the history of what happened in our country, that slavery was officially abandoned in 1865. But after the abandonment of official emancipation of slaves in the United States, many states and governments were permitted and advocated for a de facto continuation of slavery through Jim Crow laws through segregation, through outlawing of interracial marriage, and countless other acts of so called “justice”.

But it wasn't justice. The citizens of the United States were kind of held hostage while the political elites of the day ran the show. And it took 100+ years of civil rights action after the end of slavery to enact meaningful legislation such as voter registration, and voter justice and voting for the ratio of injustice. In other words, what was indefensible was being defended politically, and we still need to work for harmony and justice in this regard. But that's an example of defending what is indefensible.

 

[__05.01 ethics of choice & sanctity of life_] 

The 2^nd example is the ETHICS of choice and the sanctity of life regarding the ethics of human life. It is our Catholic faith to remember that euthanasia, the care of the terminally ill, and the protection of life, the life of the unborn person is critical. In this regard, abortion is wrong. But that's not the only example of something that's always wrong. So what is really indefensible is sometimes being defended.

That is the right to take the life of an unborn child is being defended the right to take the life of a terminally ill person is still being defended. I urge you if you're Catholic, publicly in life, or even privately to consider the consequences for your own spiritual well being of defending this, your salvation, as well as the scandal you risk leads others into sin. It leads others into sin.

          We are called to remember both the MORALITY and also MERCY.

[][][]  All of us are sinners. Yet Pope Francis calls mercy a "bridge that connects God and man, opening our hearts to the hope of being loved forever despite our sinfulness" (MV 2). The Holy Father also reminds us, "As the Father loves, so do his children. Just as he is merciful, so we are called to be merciful to each other" (MV 9). Life is a gift from God and so is his mercy. May we cherish and promote both!

          This is what confession and absolution are for… while we might experience of the consequence of sin as a penalty, it is also meant to lead us to the prize of God’s mercy.

          This is Good News.

 [__06_]  Why did my brother’s life need to be defended? What was as “indefensible” ?

 When my borther was 13 years old, he was a abruptly pulled from his youth baseball team, because he and his two teammates convinced their coach who should have known better to buy them alcohol.  Just to be clear, while the wrongdoing was the fault of the coach… my brother and his friends were also in the wrong for boastfully asking for the alcohol. They were under age under the drinking age, they were 13 and legal drinking age was is 21.  While the coach was doing something “indefensible”, so were the youths in this case.

So my brother arrived home safely one night, but he was drunk in the middle of the night and my father was immediately suspicious and demanded to know where the alcohol came from. My brother playing the part of the rebellious teenager and perpetrator refused at first tell, and my parents became even more incensed.

My brother again refused to tell but eventually relented. So part of my brother's freedom was that he remained silent. In other words, telling my father he didn't know telling my father what he didn't want to hear. Eventually, my father got the information out of him.

In other words, that the coach was the culprit, the coach bought the bought this alcohol.

My father called the coach, and berated him – to say the least - out on the phone and immediately pulled my brother from the team. My mother proceeded to return the baseball uniform, the jersey to the coach's house by hanging the jersey from the front porch door for all to see. It was like a scarlet Little League letter for the neighborhood.

There was no lawsuit against the coach. My father didn't regard what they my father and mother didn't regard what they did is anything extraordinary, or or that their “precious” child needed to be protected in some super special way. All their precious child needed to do was to be punished to be grounded to be taken off the team. It was the absolutely right measure in terms of pain, proportion and permanence. It was a punishment. But the punishment then was a good news. It was a penalty in the present to avoid a more permanent fall later, I can only help that I would act with similar integrity, or that we all would to defend what and who really needs to be defended and to avoid defending what is indefensible.  [__fin_]   

Immaculate Conception, 2021-12-08, Mass at 7 pm

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Homily –  Dec.  8, 2021  /  Immaculate Conception 

"Catholic Answers" Content / Reference:( https://www.catholic.com/tract/immaculate-conception-and-assumption)

[__01_]  Many years ago, I went to a restaurant at which a musical band was not only performing “live” for the people eating and drinking in the restaurant but the musical band was also recording all of their songs, their entire performance.

          As a result, the sound people had set up the room in such a way to capture the sound but also to preserve the room in advance – from any “faults” or “flaws”

The people making the recording did not want any the sound of glasses knocking together or forks falling on the floor.  They did not tell us to turn of or silence our mobile phones, because this was so long ago, that none of us had cell phones!

          But, if we did, we would have been told to silence or turn off our devices. The recording engineer wanted to create an ideal “recording studio” like environment, even though were not in a recording studio. They wanted an environment of purity, integrity, harmony in the “natural world”.

          Is that possible?

          For them, it was worth trying for…

[__02_]   I use this musical recording example to suggest what the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception means and what it does not mean.

          What it does not means is that Mary as our Blessed Mother Mary is regarded as some type of goddess or or is any way not a natural human being.  Mary is a human person, as you and I are.

          Yet, we also believe that for Jesus himself to be born in a state of purity, integrity and harmony with both God and all of humanity, it was necessary that God should create – in advance – Mary with a soul free from original sin, without the fault or flaw of original sin.

          So, the Immaculate Conception refers to Mary being conceived without original sin.

          Mary was conceived naturally by a mother and father who loved her cared for her.

It’s important to understand what the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is and what it is not. Some people think the term refers to Christ’s conception in Mary’s womb without the intervention of a human father; but that is the Virgin Birth. Others think the Immaculate Conception means Mary was conceived “by the power of the Holy Spirit,” in the way Jesus was, but that, too, is incorrect. Mary was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

The essence of original sin consists in the deprivation of sanctifying grace, and original sin causes corruption.

 Mary was preserved from these defects by God’s grace; from the first instant of her existence she was in the state of sanctifying grace and was free from the corrupt nature original sin brings.

And, since Jesus would be conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, Jesus also was kept free from original sin.

It does not mean that Mary did not exist in the world or that Mary had superpowers, but only that God foresaw the need to create a new place, a new tabernacle, a new ark for his word. Jesus is this word.

Just as the sound engineers wanted to create a pure and harmonious environment for their music – yet in a restaurant where there would naturally be distractions and other noises – the Lord God wanted to create a pure and harmonious environment for Jesus to come into the world, where he could grow and take on our human nature while also having a divine nature.

Jesus is one person with a divine nature and human nature.

We honor Mary the mother of God on this feast day.

Recently, I heard a priest on the Catholic radio station (Father Richard Simon) explain it this way – that the Immaculate Conception is given to us so that we might understand the purpose of the Church as our mother and as the source eternal life and grace.

Right now – and throughout history – when we look around at the church, at members of the church – at the clergy, at priests – at me – we may see people we deem to be unholy and not very good witnesses of Christ and his love. We may judge ourselves to be not very good witnesses.

And, so, if there are all these not very good witnesses, how can we say that there is a “holy Catholic church”?

We can say and profess and believe there is a holy Catholic Church because the church was conceived – originally – with exactly 1 member and she was free from sin.  Mary of Nazareth was the first parishioner, first parish council member, first finance council member, first lector who read the word of God, and first minister of the Eucharist who beheld the Blessed Sacrament.

Mary does not equal the church per se, but it is Mary’s holiness – provided for in advance and her YES – Mary’s YES to God “let it be done to me according to your word” that allows the church to come about through the Birth of Christ.

And, as soon as Jesus conceived the Holy Spirit, he was the Savior to be protected, guarded.

The Immaculate Conception doctrine reminds that the church began – in holiness – with exactly one member. It continues in holiness through its holiness given by God and also by the striving and choices we are still trying to make.

Catholic Answers/Catholic.Com Content:

Mary, too, required a Savior. Like all other descendants of Adam, she was subject to the necessity of contracting original sin. But by a special intervention of God, undertaken at the instant she was conceived, she was preserved from the stain of original sin and its consequences. She was therefore redeemed by the grace of Christ, but in a special way—by anticipation.

Consider an analogy: Suppose a man falls into a deep pit, and someone reaches down to pull him out. The man has been “saved” from the pit. Now imagine a woman walking along, and she too is about to topple into the pit, but at the very moment that she is to fall in, someone holds her back and prevents her. She too has been saved from the pit, but in an even better way: She was not simply taken out of the pit, she was prevented from getting stained by the mud in the first place. This is the illustration Christians have used for a thousand years to explain how Mary was saved by Christ. By receiving Christ’s grace at her conception, she had his grace applied to her before she was able to become mired in original sin and its stain.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that she was “redeemed in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son” (CCC 492). She has more reason to call God her Savior than we do, because he saved her in an even more glorious manner!

To use “fall into the pit example” – we might also that Mary is saved because Jesus is the one who by God’s plan goes down into the pit and gives up his life for all of us.

The objection is also raised that if Mary were without sin, she would be equal to God. In the beginning, God created Adam, Eve, and the angels without sin, but none were equal to God. Most of the angels never sinned, and all souls in heaven are without sin. Sinning does not make one human.  ( https://www.catholic.com/tract/immaculate-conception-and-assumption)

We also recognize – in this teaching – that Jesus wants to make his presence his holiness known not just as an ancient “recording” that was made once and is being played back from a studio or broadcast station over and over…but that Jesus’s word is meant to be ”played” to be “lived” and to be “performed” in your life and my life each day.

Who is For/Against ? (Immaculate Conception, 2021-12-08)

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Dec.  8, 2021  /  Immaculate Conception

 Title:   Who is For/Against ?  On Genesis 3:9-15, 20

Reference: Pope Benedict XVI / Josef Ratzinger, “Farewell to the Devil”

[__00-a_]  Recently, I had the experience of accompanying my mother to a doctor or medical appointment. It was my father and I. Sometimes it's one of my other brothers and my father, but usually one of my siblings or I and my father go to these doctor medical appointments, at which my mother is sometimes questioned.

[__00-b_]  And in this appointment, she was questioned a lot about the medicine she's taking for her Parkinson's symptoms. The doctor and the nurse were, of course trying to be helpful, but due to the complexity of the situation, and my mother's uncertainty, the appointment ended up taking almost three hours. My mother, due to her age and infirmity was not a great and reliable on the “witness stand” to all these questions.

[__00-c_]  And yet she did pretty well under the circumstances under the incessant questionings. As a joke, later, I told my siblings – especially because the appointment was in New York City -- that the whole “episode”reminded me of a TV / Law & Order police interrogation, in which in this case, the suspect or perp, (patient / Mom) would admit to just about anything to have the interrogation over and get a sandwich.

Under the pressure of all the doctor's questions, my mother was not really prepared. For all of this, my father and I were there to help. Fortunately, my mother knew that we were on her side.

The doctor and the nurse who seemed to be the adversary, were also on her side. But sometimes we need help to see who was really for us, and who is against us.

And sometimes we judge in superficial ways, who is really for us and who is against us who's good, who's evil.

Sometimes, we judge what's good simply based on what's comfortable or convenient at that particular moment. For example, just because the doctor asks difficult questions, or puts us through a difficult course of therapy, that doesn't mean the doctor is against us, This could ultimately be for our own good.

Just because we have some difficult homework to do, or soul searching to do, this could also be for our own good for our benefit.

In the 3^rd chapter of Genesis, Adam and Eve might wonder who was really for them, who is against them.

Adam and Eve were being interrogated, questioned by the devil by Satan. Now, shouldn't this have been obvious to them?

That the devil was against them that the devil Satan didn't have their best interests at heart that he was tempting them with this forbidden fruit. Shouldn’t that have been so obvious? It's obvious to us.

And it's even this is even made even more blatantly obvious in the very beginning of the New Testament. What does Jesus do in the very beginning of the New Testament, Jesus knows that Satan is out to get him. And Jesus fully aware of this, Jesus goes out into the desert and he knows he's going to be tempted in the desert by Satan for 40 days.  And, Jesus does not eat what Satan tempts him with.

Jesus goes out there anyway, but he knows what he's getting himself into.

Adam and Eve could have known – but did not what they were getting themselves into.

In the Book of Genesis and other books of the Old Testament, as Pope Benedict XVI points out, Satan the Devil is often concealed or hidden.

In the Garden of Eden, the Satan appears as the serpent who bites with the temptation of pride and power to Adam and Eve. Satan doesn't tell them explicitly to disobey God. He doesn't say I want you to disobey these rules.

Satan doesn't tell them to disobey but he sells them on what they're going to get by eating the forbidden fruit. In this these instance, Satan is concealed.

In another instance – in the Book of Exodus - Satan is concealed, for example, in the creation of the golden calf idol. This happens at the base camp of Mount Sinai when Moses goes up Mount Sinai and the Jewish people are nervous, because Moses is far from them. They feel alone they feel anxious, and the Jewish people melt down all their gold and jewelry. And they create this golden calf and they start worshipping the golden calf.

Now the Jewish people are not I'm told to disobey God, but they are being sold, that the idol in front of them is better than the God they cannot see. Satan is hidden in the idol.

What is the idol in which Satan hides Himself to you or to me is that idle convenience is that idol --  wealth is that idol, popularity, wealth, popularity, security, these are not bad things, but sometimes we turn them into idols and we worship them instead of God or we expect them to deliver goodness to us if we sacrifice for them.  They will not.

 

B16 point is that our unity with Jesus Christ via baptism leads us to be one with Him in battle, and in freedom, and the more visible and power and when we really are aware of holiness, then, when we're really aware of holiness and goodness, then the devil cannot conceal himself to us.

In this respect, if we were to go through life, saying that there's no demon, or that there's no evil, or that there's no evil spirit. Unfortunately, this leads us to the idea that there's really no holiness either. We're truly in danger if we don't acknowledge evil in the world.

Consider the person who goes to the doctor, I'll use the person who goes to the doctor as an example, somebody who goes to the doctor for somebody who refuses to go to the doctor better based on the fact that he or she doesn't want to be questioned or examined or poked or prodded. Nobody wants to be poked or prodded. In that way.

One thing my grandfather said, he said, I don't want to go to the doctor, they might find something. Now, that worked out OK for my grandfather, for a while he lived to be 101, by this philosophy, but even he didn't live forever.

There is still 100% mortality rate on planet Earth, we're all going to die. Yet we all have the potential to live and to live for eternal life right now. The “copay” is in our baptism and discipleship.

Because Christ died for us and gives us a path to holiness, and a standard for holiness. Through His incarnation and by the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary and her revelation as the new Ark of the Covenant, in this regard, we need not fear being questioned. Jesus is our personal Savior, he's real. Who then is Satan, who is this evil spirit we read about in the book of Genesis?

B16 offers this definition. But the specific character of the demonic becomes clear. By anonymity that this Satan is by definition kind of anonymous, is someone asked whether the devil is a person we'd really have to say, well, the devil is the opposite of a person. Because what the devil is the devil's power is not in his prominence, but in his hiddenness, and that we have trouble recognizing him.

And if you think about the evil that can sometimes get between a husband and wife in a marriage, or between a parent and the child, in a relationship in the family, or between any two family members, or any two friends, that evil is sometimes anonymous, it doesn't announce itself so clearly, or it's hidden in an idol. But when we live each day, in holiness, in honesty, and integrity, by love of God, love of neighbor, we have no need to fear the evil. The evil is going to be clear to us. We don't even have to fear the questions of evil, because we have Jesus as our as our Savior, the Holy Spirit as our advocate and the church as our home.   [__fin_]      

Praying. Saying. Staying. Advent, 2nd Sun. (2021-12-05)

__ Click Here for Audio of Homily, Sunday Dec. 5 ___

Homily –  Dec.  5, 2021  /  Advent 2 (C)

● Baruch 5:1-9  ●   Psalm 126   ●     ● Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11 ●  + Luke 3:1-6 ●

[__00-a_] I am procrastinating right now. Procrastinating.  Procrastination can be a struggle. The original dictionary definition is procrastinate means to put off until tomorrow.

Here is a really bad joke about procrastination and an arithmetic or math problem. What do you say, to an arithmetic or math problem that you're having trouble with and that you are procrastinating from? “calc you later”, calculator like catch you later.

We often associate procrastination with the solving of a problem, or the completion of a task or a calculation we cannot make right now.

In my own experience of procrastination or putting things off, I will say that it is often something I do not because I am indifferent to the result, or that I don't care about the results.

It is because I am obsessed with the result. And I don't even want to get started on something because I am unsure of how it's going to turn out.

So perfection can sometimes fuel procrastination. That's me.

I wish to touch on this because urgency is so important in the message of John the Baptist. This urgency in terms of what J.T.B. is --- PRAYING about, what is he SAYING ..and where he is STAYING.

 So praying saying and staying first praying.

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[__01_]   [1^st. PRAYING / meditation] John the Baptist is at prayer in the desert.

 

         

John the Baptist is at prayer. How does prayer fit into your daily life or my daily life, not just right now it's Saturday 530 mass or tomorrow, Sunday. But Monday through Friday,

You might say to me, hey Padre, I don't have time to pray. I'm too busy. I might say the same thing. I'm tempted to say that. But I'm suggesting that prayer is not the cause of procrastination. Prayer can be the cure for procrastination. When something is difficult, we are called to pray about it.

We pray in the 25th Psalm, “make me know your paths.”

1 practical suggestion that was given to me was this. If you're praying about something, or perhaps about someone who is difficult, write that person's name down on a piece of paper, put it in your wallet and carry it around with you. That way, every time you take out your wallet, or your money or credit card or your ID, you're going to be reminded of that prayer. You're not going to forget about it. So we are called to pray about the things that are difficult. And prayer can help us to set our priorities and to overcome that tendency to procrastinate or put things off. So prayer is not a cause of procrastination, prayer or praying can be a cure for procrastination. What is John the bit so that's the praying part.

[__02_]   [2^nd. SAYING / proclamation]      

          John the Baptist is saying something in the desert.

Now there's the saying part, John the Baptist is saying he is speaking he is proclaiming in the desert, from John the Baptist as a proclaimer. He's loud. And in next Sunday's gospel, we read about John the Baptist having many followers,

Many people go out to see him. He is viral, we might say. What about saying something in your life or saying or announcing a decision or making a decision?

Sometimes, we would rather do something about it than say something about it. I think we maybe do you have that inclination that you'd rather do something about it than say something about it.

So for example, if something is wrong, you might say, Well, I'm just going to correct the situation.

I'm not going to say anything about it. I'm just going to do something about it. And then that's good. But sometimes we are called to say something about to communicate things.

So for example, if you are caring for somebody who's elderly, somebody who's sick, maybe it's your parents, maybe it's another person in your life, sometimes we are called to say something to others to keep them in the loop of what we are thinking about.

Proclamation can be important. We are called also to proclaim, to witness to our faith, what can we say?

Simple things we can say we can tell people that we're going to church, we can tell people that we're going to church on Christmas, even people who may not join us for Christmas, we can make sure that we explicitly tell them, when we're coming to church, what mass we're coming to, or why we like to go to that mass.

These are little evangelical statements we can make to proclaim the gospel to others who may not come to church.

And we could even let them know that we're praying for them. Even if they don't join us, we could say, Hey, I'm praying for you when I go to church.

And all of this saying or proclaiming also goes much better  when we are praying when we are reflecting, we were called to pray, for example, Lord opened my lips, or Lord put a guard over my mouth, so that I don't say the wrong thing. So we are calling. So John the Baptist is reminding us of vows about praying, which includes repenting of our sins, and also saying and proclaiming.

 

[__03_]   [3^rd. STAYING / location ]              John the Baptist is staying in the desert. He is preparing the Way of the Lord and he is making straight his path.

And John the Baptist is staying somewhere, he's staying in the desert. He's out in the desert, to find a straight path to Jesus Christ.

Now, we may not have to go out into the desert to discover Jesus Christ. But we are called to recognize that sometimes we do need to separate ourselves from our regular ways in order to find the straight path, to prepare the way of the Lord to find the most direct route.

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John was praying out there in the desert when he grasped this sense of urgency about the Gospel and Christ.

          This does not mean that you and I have to move to the desert or to the wilderness. But, we can recognize that we all can experience God and hear God better sometimes during the “desert” that is a break from our regular busyness or environment.

          Is the “desert” a time/place of physical challenge or even an illness? … of solitude.

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If you were coming to Our Lady of Lourdes today, and you didn't know where our Lady of Lourdes was, you would put it into your GPS and you would take the most direct route to come here. Or if you're going somewhere after this, and you don't know exactly where you're going, either tonight or tomorrow, you're going to put that into your phone or into your GPS device to find the most direct route to that location, I would do the same thing. But do I choose the straight path in my relationships with others. Sometimes if I'm having difficulty with somebody, maybe somebody I'm uncomfortable talking to or I'm not sure what to say, I don't always take the straight path, I may talk to everybody else about the problem rather than the person I'm supposed to talk to about the problem. So Jesus is encouraging us to take the straight path to prepare the way of the Lord. It is true that God can draw straight with our crooked lines. However, taking the straight path is also important. And we do this because we are seeking a perfection not a perfection so that we can have a good appearance, not a perfectionist so that we can make more money, but a perfection so that we can live in harmony with God and in love of God and love of neighbor. I'd like to just read a little prayer

 

He, then, is perfect who does the work of the day perfectly, and we need not go beyond this to seek for perfection. You need not go out of the round of the day.

I insist on this because I think it will simplify our views, and fix our exertions on a definite aim.

 

If you ask me what you are to do in order to be perfect, I say, first-

 ·         Do not lie in bed beyond the due time of rising;

·         give your first thoughts to God;

·        make a good visit to the Blessed Sacrament;

·         say the Angelus devoutly;

·         eat and drink to God’s glory;

·         say the Rosary well;

·         be recollected; keep out bad thoughts;

·         make your evening meditation well;

·         examine yourself daily;

Go to bed in good time, and you are already perfect