Solemnity of STS Peter & Paul Apostles C Sunday Homily by Fr

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  Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles C

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

What do you see when you look at yourself these days? What stands out for you? And what do you wish you could hide? What do you want others to see? And what is the last thing you want them to see? 

I ask those questions because I think it is easy to take one aspect or quality of ourselves, a particular time in life, a choice or a series of decisions, something that’s happened to us, or something we have done or left undone and let that, better or worse, define and identify us. Perhaps we see ourselves as a one-hit wonder or a three-time loser. 

There have been times when I felt like I was the worst thing that I had ever done or the most painful thing that had ever happened to me. At other times, I felt like I was my best accomplishment or success. I have not only seen myself in those ways. Sometimes, that’s how I have seen others. Maybe you know what I am talking about. Maybe you felt those things too and saw yourself or another like that. 

It is as if we take a snapshot of life, hold it up, and say, “This is the reality.”Well, maybe it is at that moment, in that place, under those circumstances, or maybe it is not. Either way, life is much more like a movie than a single photograph. 

That means we are neither our best day nor our worst day. We are neither our flaws nor our virtues. None of us are ever just one thing. All of us are a mixture. If there is anyone in the scripture who makes that point, it is Peter. He is a mixed bag. But so am I. I suppose you are, too. And yet, in today’s gospel, Jesus says to Peter, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven.” 

I have often thought that Peter’s confession of Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the living God”is the rock on which Jesus builds his church and the reason Peter is given the keys of the kingdom. Peter got the answer right. But his confession happened at a particular moment in time, in a specific place, under the circumstances. What if it is really the mixed bag of Peter’s life that is the rock on which Jesus builds his church? And what if the mixed bag of Peter’s life is the ring on which Jesus hangs the keys of the kingdom?

Have you ever thought of yourself as the rock on which Jesus built his church? Have you considered that maybe Jesus is giving you the keys to the kingdom? Why not? I will bet your life and my life are as much a mixed bag as Peter’s. So, let’s open the bag of Peter’s life and see what we find. 

Peter correctly answered Jesus’ question, and Jesus said, “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah.” So, what are we to make of the rock and the keeper of the keys when, just four verses later, he will rebuke Jesus, and Jesus will say to him, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.” Which is it? Is Peter blessed or Satan? Is he the foundation stone or an obstacle? Maybe the most we can say is yes, yes, he is. And maybe we are, too. 

Peter had enough faith to walk on water and enough fear to sink like a rock. Who among us today doesn’t know what it is like to live in the tension between faith and fear?

    Sometimes, Peter gets it when nobody else does. When many of Jesus’ disciples were turning back, he asked, “Do you also wish to go away?” Peter answered him, “Lord to whom can we go? You have the words of everlasting life. We have come to believe that you are the Holy One of God.” Other times, he didn’t get it. “Explain this parable to us,” he says. And Jesus answered him, “Are you still without understanding?” 

You know what that is like, right? I do. Sometimes, I don’t know how I know; I just know that I know. At other times, I don’t understand; I'm clueless. 

    Peter often lived at the extremes. He could be stubborn and convinced he knew how things should go. Sometimes, old patterns and beliefs took over in him. Does any of that sound familiar in your life? It is what we see at the foot washing when Peter says, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus said, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Then Peter wanted everything washed, not just his feet but also his hands and his head. 

    On the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter says, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” But just a couple of chapters later, he says to Jesus, “Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” Maybe it is a spectrum we all live on. We have had mountaintop experiences, and we have had days when we wondered if this faith journey is getting us anywhere and what difference it is making.

    Peter commits himself to Jesus, saying, “Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you.” Jesus then takes Peter, James, and John to pray with him in the Garden of Gethsemane. He is grieved and agitated. He wants their presence and prayers, but they promptly fall asleep. Not once, not twice, but three times – a rather ominous number. Peter will, in fact, deny Jesus. Not once, not twice, but three times. It is only when the cock crows that Peter wakes up.

Showing up and being present for another, ourselves, and life is some of our most challenging work. It is so easy to sleepwalk through life.

    When they came to arrest Jesus, Peter drew his sword and cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant. What happened to “blessed are the peacemakers,” “love your enemies,” “turn the other cheek?” Our swords often contradict Jesus’ gospel of peace and nonviolence.

    So, there is the rock on which the church is built. There is the ring on which the keys of the kingdom hang. What do you think? 

Here is what strikes me. Jesus never goes to Peter and says, “Peter, give me back the keys.” And he never says that to you or me. And never goes to Peter and says, “Peter, I think I am going to go find another rock. You are not the one.” And he never says that to you or me.   Peter is the one. So are you. So am I. We are the ones. We are the ones on whom the church is built. We are the ones entrusted with the keys of the kingdom. 

    And it must mean that there is something about the mixed bags of our lives that the world needs. Jesus sees something in the mixed bag of our lives that has value and purpose, even when we don’t or cannot see it. He trusts it more than we do. 

What do you see when you look at the mixed bag of your life? When I look in mine, I see faithfulness and commitment, contradictions and inconsistencies, progress and backing up, times when I rose to the occasion, and times when I ran away. I guess that your bag holds similar things. That’s what we saw in Peter’s bag. 

So, what do we do with the mixed bags of our lives? Jesus says to do three things with them. “Feed my lambs.” “Tend my sheep.” “Feed my sheep.” That’s what he told Peter too. Three times he asks us. I don’t think he asks us to do that despite the mixed bag of our life. He asks us knowing that the only way we can do those things, the only way they have meaning and value, is if we do them with and through the mixed bag of our life. 

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

    What does that mean and look like for you today? Tomorrow? Next week and next month? Feeding lambs, tending sheep, and feeding sheep from the mixed bag of your life. Look deep in the mixed bag of your life. You and I have something to offer. We are the ones. Amen.

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Easter Sunday (JN 20:1-9) "Light that will shatter the darkness" by Fr Russ.

This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it! In today’s gospel passage, we hear how Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb in the early morning “darkness.” You see, the Easter story begins in darkness. When you think about it, that’s how our discovery of the Risen Christ begins: in darkness, literal darkness and figurative darkness. There must be a Good Friday before an Easter Sunday. No one can be ready to encounter Easter until he or she has spent some time in the early morning darkness where, of all things, hope can be found. We dread darkness, don’t we? But we fear even more what might be beyond it. I remember an Emily Dickenson poem that begins: “We grow accustom to the dark when light is put away.” It goes on to postulate that “we fit our vision to the dark…” Easter’s first light illuminates the darkness. You see, Easter is not about bunnies, springtime, and girls in pretty dresses. Easter is about more hope than we can handle.

If you listened closely to the gospel that was proclaimed, you will notice that Jesus is not present. There is only the empty tomb and three primary figures: Mary Magdalene, Peter, and the Beloved Disciple. They each must interpret what the empty tomb means. For we hear how: “they did not yet understand that He had to rise from the dead.” Let us take a look at these three people.

First, there is Mary M. She thinks that the empty tomb means that someone (the gardener) has taken Jesus’ dead body. She believes that He is really dead. We hear that “she does not know.” But she will know. If our passage had gone on for a few more verses, we would hear how the Risen Christ appears to her and shows that He is really alive! It is her experience of the Risen Christ that brings her into the light, into the “know.” Remember: The Samaritan Woman at the well and the man born blind, they didn’t know who Jesus was either until Jesus enlightens both! In Jesus appearing to her, Mary M. gains a special status officially commissioned to bring the “Good News” to the disciples. You may say that she is the “Apostle to the Apostles.” Second, Peter looks at the empty tomb and burials cloths. He only sees what Jesus has left behind. He isn’t sure what to make of the whole thing. Third, the Beloved Disciple looks and we are told:” he saw and believed.” But it was, at this point, an uncertain belief. We hear that statement again about not understanding that Christ had to rise from the dead. While today’s Gospel passage proclaims His absence, yet, belief in the risen Christ begins to blossom.

It seems to me, that the three disciples are much like those who come to mass on Easter Sunday. One group includes those who believe and come to mass, not just on Easter, but every Sunday. For them, the empty tomb brings joy. Another group includes those who wrestle with faith and doubt from time to time. They come regularly to mass, but not every week. For them, the empty tomb brings comfort. A last group include those who maybe come to mass on Christmas and Easter, or Ash Wednesday and Palm Sunday. For them, the empty tomb story brings hope. No matter what group you may be in, experience of the Risen Christ can bring you into greater light, into the “know” like a Mary M.

You see, Easter’s first light illuminates those dark places we have become used to; it focuses our attention on what we have never seen before; it dares us to imagine possibilities beyond our limited understanding of what is possible. Easter calls us out of the darkness that shrouds our lives and into the light of possibility, of healing, of re-creation. In His rising from the dead, Christ enables us to bring into our own lives all that He lived and taught and gave; the love, compassion, generosity, humility and selflessness that ultimately triumphs over hatred, prejudice, despair, greed and death. The empty tomb is the sign of perfect hope; that in Christ all things are possible, that we can live our lives with meaning and purpose, that we can become the people God created us to become. 

May we not fear or shrink from Easter morning’s first light but embrace that light and hope it promises in the Risen One. One who is forever in our midst, witness the Paschal Candle; keep your eyes fixed on it; because it will shatter the darkness.

 “There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" 

by Fr Russ Harbaugh

OT, WK2A (2023)

Today’s gospel story takes place in Bethany, a village East of the Jordan River. (Remember: Lazarus, Martha/Mary they lived in Bethany) What you might not know, there was a scared hill site there which was believed to be where the Prophet Elijah ascended into heaven. (Remember: the fiery chariot) (Remember that it was thought that Elijah would appear before the messiah came, so that is why John the Baptist uses this area to baptize the people. Also, it is here that John the Baptist baptizes Jesus. John witnesses the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus and later refers to Jesus as “the Lamb of God.” John heralds Jesus’ coming as the Messiah, a Messiah who is sacrificed for sin. The first of the Disciples are called convening the new Israel and Jesus’ public ministry is about to begin. We, too, begin our discipleship with our baptism.

Even though last Sunday we celebrated the Epiphany, the next day was the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord and beginning of Ordinary Time in our Liturgy. So, this makes this the Second Sunday in OT. Each year on the Second Sunday in OT, our Gospel readings come from a different section of the Gospel according to John, not the gospel associated with that liturgical Year. This is Year A so we would expect Matthew to be the gospel, Year B would be Mark, and Year C would be Luke. But this doesn’t happen. Instead, we hear John 1:29-34 (John the Baptist witnessing to Jesus); next year John 1:35-42 (the call of the first disciples), and the next year John 2:1-11 (the Wedding Feast of Cana, the first of Jesus’ Signs).

In today’s gospel, John the Baptist’s words reflect the evolving awareness regarding the messianic and divine nature of Jesus. The gospel stresses the pre-existence of the Word (namely Jesus) with God from the beginning of time, already destined to be the Messiah even before His conception. This is evident in John the Baptist saying things like the fact that Jesus existed before him. We all know that John was actually born before Jesus in time, but Jesus is the pre-existing Word of God, the Son of God. John the Baptist also used another image for Jesus: The Lamb of God. He has in mind the lambs that were sacrificed daily in the temple. Two one year old lambs without blemish were sacrificed every day- one in the morning and one in the evening. These daily sacrifices were made year after year even in times of famine when food was scarce and people were starving. When John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and said: “There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” he had those sacrifices in mind. In effect, John was saying that the Jews offered lambs daily in the temple for their sins but the Lamb of God is the only one who can save us from sin. Only Jesus can save us from our sins. The gospel today reminds us that Jesus would pay the price for bringing this salvation. Jesus willingly came and willingly suffered the terrible death of the cross for you and me. He was willing to pay the price, no matter what that entailed.

Before Holy Communion, the priest holds up the Body and Blood of Christ and says, “This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those who are called to the supper of the Lamb.” As we hear and respond to these words, can we commit to doing God’s will no matter what the price? Can we testify to Jesus by living as He did, as a servant who lays down His life in sacrifice?

  What really matters to God by Fr Russ Harbaugh

WK 25C (2022)

Today, we celebrate the 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time as we make our way through the Gospel according to Luke, Chapter 16:1-13. It is contained in a larger section that is usually referred to as “The Journey Narrative,“ which began in Chapter 9 and concludes with Chapter 19. We heard it begin at mass for the 13thSunday and the Journey Narrative excerpts will end on the 31STSunday, the last Sunday in October, October the 30th. During this journey, on which, He has resolutely determined to go to Jerusalem to suffer, die, and rise for you and me, Jesus is telling his Disciples then, and us today, what it means to be His Disciple. HRM people would say that if we jotted down the themes for these Sundays on a 3x5 card, we would wind up with a Job Description for a “Christian.” So, this is really important stuff.

Today, we hear a parable that Jesus uses to teach. Remember: a parable is a story that isn’t about what it seems to be about. What do I mean? Well, if it talks of fishing, it is not about fishing; if it talks about farming, it is not about farming; if it talks about baking, it is not about baking, etc. They are all about the Kingdom of God or how God really works. This parable is considered to be among the most difficult texts to understand. The great St. Augustine, remarked that he couldn’t believe this story came from the lips of Jesus! It’s called the Parable of the Dishonest Seward. The title hints at what all the fuss is about. 

The steward, in this parable, is so dishonest that when he is fired and before the clients get to know this, he found a way to protect his future with a blatant criminal activity in that he lowered what each of the farmers owed to the absentee landlord. Why would Jesus recommend this criminal steward as someone we should learn from? He is a crooked schemer and despite all of his dishonesty, the man represents someone who is smart enough to ensure that his interests, however unscrupulous, will be protected in the future. Jesus is urging us to act with the same determination in things that “really matter to God” to ensure our spiritual future. The whole point of the parable is to remind us to pay attention to what truly counts, what “really matters to God.’ We need to experience divine love that will transform us. This is our future. Jesus is saying to prepare for our future we must put all energy and talents into ensuring that our lives are fully committed to God. I am afraid that we are not totally focused on our spiritual wellbeing. 

We think our spiritual future is something we can put off or focus on later. It reminds me of a story about Satan and his minions. It is graduation day and he is about to send some new demons into the world, and so he asks how are they going to trick mankind into sinning. One says he will convince mankind that God doesn’t exists. Another says he will convince people that Jesus Christ is not God. The next says, he is going to convince people that they have all the time in the world to deal with their spiritual wellbeing. Satan smiles and says that he will go far!

How can we keep our energy and focus on “what really matters to God?” Give that our first priority. Make prayer central to our lives. Devote ourselves to deeper study and practice of prayer. How many people do you know who complain that they don’t have time to pray and focus on spiritual matters. St Francis de Salles assured us that “everyone of us needs half an hour of prayer each day. Except when we are busy, then we need one hour!” 

The dishonest steward used his wits to get what he wanted in the material world. We need to be just as industrious to get what we want in spiritual matters. We can use prayer to do this.

"The Way of the Cross is our Road to Heaven by Fr Joseph Hastings

The meaning of the cross can get watered down today. It’s become more of a fashion statement, where people wear it as jewelry without any connection to Christ or the conversion of life it calls us to. But for the Christian it’s a symbol of salvation and a call to a particular way of life.

As a symbol of salvation it reminds us of the price that was paid to free us from sin, and the love that God has for us. Jesus said in the Gospel that God loved us so much that he sent his Son not to condemn the world, but to save it. God desires everyone to be saved, and the crucifixion is a testimony to this fact.

As a call to a particular way of life you may remember Jesus’ words from another part of scripture, he said “I am the way, the truth and the life.” As the way to heaven we have to imitate him who St. Paul said “humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.”

The way of the cross is our road to heaven. The cross is our victory and the remedy for sin, and will always remain a pledge of God’s unconditional love for us.

One night a burglar broke into a house. While sneaking around he heard a voice say: “Jesus is watching you.” There was a cage in a dark corner, and in the cage was a parrot. He asked the parrot, “Was it you who said Jesus is watching you?” The parrot replied, “Yes”. Relieved the burglar asked, “What’s your name parrot?” The parrot said “Clarence.” The burglar responded “that’s a stupid name for a parrot. What idiot named you Clarence?” The parrot answered, “The same idiot that named the Rottweiler Jesus.” 

Jesus is watching you is a very true statement. It’s something we may not always be aware of if we don’t remain in the presence of the Lord. In speaking to her sisters about prayer, Teresa of Avila once said to “have a picture, according to one’s taste, of the Lord and to keep it continually before one’s eyes, so that the sight may stir us to converse with him.” This mental image was a tool to help the sisters return to the Lord throughout the day and remain in his presence. Even St. Paul advises us to “Think of what is above, not what is on earth.” Because if we think about Christ and the mysteries of our faith, and carry an image of Christ within us, we will become more aware of the fact that Jesus is always with us; that even now he holds us in existence and we can’t escape his notice.

I would imagine a lot of people have had an experience like Qoheleth in our first reading, where you labor a lot of hours, you do all sorts of things in the world, but at the end of the day you may wonder ‘what’s the point in everything’; thinking “Vanity of vanities, all things are vanity.” This is probably more so for those who chase after the pleasures of the world leaving God out of it, because things are vain and pointless without Him. 

We do have to be careful in the way we interpret our readings though. Between the vanity of things, Paul telling us to think of what is above, and the foolish man that accumulated a lot of wealth, there’s obviously a clear message of not getting too attached to the things of this world, but we also don’t want to get so detached from the world that we’re trying to escape it thinking the world doesn’t matter or that the material world is bad. 

We may even use prayer as our means of escape. We convince ourselves that it’s just me and God, and believe that if we grow in our spiritual life we’ll become less involved in the world. As Christians though we’re not called to escape the world, but to live in it. Prayer helps us to grow in our relationship with God so that we can become better and more involved with the world.

Rather than calling us to escape the world I’d argue that our readings are more about having a healthy attachment to the things of this world, by putting everything in its proper place and giving primacy of place to heavenly things and the works of salvation. The way we learn to live like this is by living in the presence of God; by learning from the life of our Lord. If we look at Jesus’ life his approach is a bit different than the rich man in the Gospel. He wasn’t concerned with accumulating a lot of material wealth and building up security for his life here on earth. His concern was the will of his Father; to live in his presence and teach us to become rich in the things that matter to God. 

If we keep that image of Christ with us throughout the day, if we ponder the mysteries of our faith, then the things that are important to him will become more important to us. We’ll desire to move away from sin and become rich in the things that matter to God. Some of those things are the virtues. 

Now, think for a moment about a mother with a few unruly kids. She’s constantly trying to keep the house clean, but not matter how many times she cleans it, it quickly gets messy again. If we relate this to our spiritual lives we can say that the house is our soul, that sin is the mess, and our passions are like unruly kids that cause the mess. They’re attracted to so many things in the world dragging us left and right; causing us to indulge here and there when we give into the temptations that excite them. 

What we have to do is practice virtue to keep our passions in check, and bring a proper order to our souls. For example we practice temperance to moderate our attraction to pleasures and balance ourselves in the use of created things. Fortitude makes us steady in the pursuit of the good, and helps us to persevere through difficulties. Prudence is being able to look at a situation and know what ought to be done, and justice helps us give to other’s what is their due, one of which is religion (giving due honor and worship to God).

The virtues are the riches we want to clothe ourselves with. They’re the things that matter to God. But to grow in virtue and holiness we need to remain close to Him, by remaining in his presence and learning from him. As we grow in virtue, like a sacrament God will work through us to pour his grace into the world. He’ll sanctify those around us and help us to see that the world is beautiful, that it’s not something to escape from, but something God wants to transform through us. by Fr Joseph     18thSunday Ordinary Time Year C

  Luke's Journey Narrative: Your “job description” of what you must do to be a “faithful & prudent” servant of Jesus Christ by Fr Russ Harbaugh

         As you know, our Sunday Gospels readings come from the Gospel according to St. Luke in Ordinary Time in Year C, the liturgical year that we are in. Scripture scholars and commentators make a point of telling us that Luke’s Greek in his gospel is the best Greek in the New Testament. As a matter of fact, this is true except for the first couple chapters, the Infancy Narratives, that are written in the common Greek of the Septuagint (LXX), the Greek form of the Hebrew Bible, it is therefore, more archaic. Luke does this on purpose because it is the link in his gospel from the Old Testament to the New Testament. Scholars tell us that the Greco-Roman world of his time would have read the gospel and its Volume II companion, the Acts of the Apostles, we call it, if not for its religious content, then for its literary content. Some would have read it as romance literature for its literary quality. Compare Luke’s Gospel with Mark’s. While Mark has some literary quality, the Greek and style is more readily listened to than read. Luke has a higher literary quality. Luke uses some literary techniques to make his story more readily understood by the reader. “… after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you…” (See Lk 1:1-4) One of these literary techniques is the gathering of some of his material into what we call, The Journey Narrative.

Luke’s gospel reaches its turning point with Jesus setting out for Jerusalem, where He will be put to death. Luke devotes 10 chapters to this journey, 9:51-19:27. (Far longer than Mark where there is also the journey to Jerusalem). We hear from this section of Luke’s gospel from Week 13 to Week 31 of Ordinary Time. That is 19 weeks! Over 51% of Ordinary Time in Year C comes from the Journey Narrative. Some years ago, as this sunk in, I started recording on index cards the primary focus of each gospel reading. As much as I am a trained administrator, I can’t find those cards! So, for this instruction, 

[Your “job description” of what you must do to be a “faithful & prudent” servant of Jesus Christ]:

            I went back and took another look at them and here follows what I found in these readings.

Jesus comes first and foremost. Total commitment to Jesus Christ.

Disciples are meant to bring peace.

The parable of the Good Samaritan: who is my neighbor? Do good to all others even those we think of as enemies.

Mary/Martha. We need actions and contemplation in our lives. Each of us has his/her own gifts from God to bring to others.

Perseverance, especially in prayer.

Our lives are not about amassing “stuff.” Don’t be crushed by possessions. The real treasure in life is selfless and affirming love. Stewardship. We belong to God.

“Preparedness.” Integrity and trust are the qualities of the “faithful and prudent” servant. The gift of time.

Life is full of vulnerabilities and fragileness. The constant that bridges these divisions is God’s love. The Gospel demands: compassion, forgiveness and justice. Commitment to Christ often means taking a stand on certain things that may put us in opposition to others: “rejection.”

“The narrow gate.” Grace of God frees us to transform our lives and find new purpose in our broken but still very much meaningful lives. Humble yourself. Don’t be afraid of making yourself small.

Humility. Don’t have to be the center of all things.

Discipleship means integrating Christ’s teachings into our daily lives. Cost of discipleship versus cheap grace. Carry our cross daily. Prefer Christ to all things. When Jesus says, “hate father and mother” He really means letting one’s family go. “Hate” is more accurately translated as “prefer.” In Jesus’ society, the family relationship was the most important relationship. He is telling us that He must come first. Our relationship with Him is the most important relationship. Renounce possessions.

Prodigal Son Parable. God is ”prodigal and extravagant” with His forgiveness.

“Dishonest Steward’ Parable. What really matters, what really counts: the divine love that will transform us. While the Dishonest Steward used shrewdness, we use prayer. Total commitment to Jesus should be the driving force in our lives.

See God in our midst and in the poor. Behold the dignity in every human being. Show our faith in every day actions.

Need to increase our faith. Big things can come from small acts. Parable of the Mustard Seed.

Gratitude in all things. “God is good, all the time, and, all the time, God is good.”

Perseverance. Prayer. Hope. The Parable of the Persistent Widow.

Humility. Parable of Pharisee and the Publican.

Story of Zacchaeus. Don’t defraud anyone.

Certain themes keep coming back: importance of prayer, persistence, love of God and others, compassion, forgiveness.

I urge you to pay very close attention to the Gospel readings during this time. You might want to try your hand at making your own list of the important things you find in them. Then, you will have your “job description” of what you must do to be a “faithful and prudent” servant of Jesus Christ.

As we proceed through this liturgical year, let us think of the themes in our gospel readings for Weeks 13-31 as a kind of blueprint or job description for being worthy to be called a Christian. We may be overwhelmed when we put it all together. After all, in the Gospel according to Matthew, we hear Jesus say, that “His yoke is easy and His burden light.” How can that be after hearing all this? Because God always presents us with His grace and with that grace we can say to the ”mountain move.” 

All things are possible with God’s grace, God’s help! 

      Christmas can seem like something in the distant past. The radio is no longer playing our favorite Christmas tunes, and the decorations and trees are mostly down. Despite what the worlds doing, the Church is still celebrating the mystery of Christmas. It’s a season that extends to the Baptism of the Lord and before Vatican II it was even longer, going until Candlemas, or the presentation of the Lord in the temple.

As we near the end of the Christmas season our Gospel brings us back to where the season started, the manger in Bethlehem. I’d imagine that was a dark night, maybe even a cold night, and yet in the midst of this darkness a light shined in the sky above guiding the Magi to the true light of the world lying in a manger below. 

     We hear of darkness in our first reading. Isaiah told us that darkness covered the earth and thick clouds covered the people. Darkness may remind us of the darkness that covered the earth in the creation story, when the “earth was without form or void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” This formlessness and void was known as a primordial chaos, there was no order or structure to anything. Later it became associated with sin; the darkness people choose to live in separated from God.

     In Genesis God spoke and brought order to this disorder, he gave life to all things, in a word he created. In our Gospel today God speaks again. Through his word he enters into the darkness of our world as an infant and as a child lying in a manger he intends to recreate or make us and the whole world into a new creation. 

     We see this in the story of the Magi. The Magi weren’t Israelites, they were Babylonians or Gentiles. They had come a long way to see this king born to the Jews. Usually these men are spoken of as Magi, Wise Men, or Astrologers. It’s also thought that they were kings. As kings their reaction to Jesus is very different than King Herod’s. They don’t feel threatened as if Christ came into the world to overthrow their kingdom, but they’re humbled that this newborn king of kings came to be among his people. When they arrive in Bethlehem they honor and adore him and adorn him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

     There’s a painting titled “Adoration of the Magi” painted by a follower of Giotto. In this painting Jesus is on Mary’s lap, there are angels on one side of them, and two Magi on the other side. The third Magi is kneeling down in front of Jesus with his crown on the ground beside him. Bishop Barron says that “the crown laid at the feet of Jesus represents the Magi’s recognition of Jesus’ authority and kingship.”

     This recognition and encounter with the Lord led to a change in the lives of these three men. We’re told that they returned to their land, they continued to be Babylonians, but they went back a different way. Like the Magi when we really encounter Jesus, we may go back to being employees as the grocery store, bake shop, bank, or wherever else we may work but we’re changed; we’re not the same when we return.

     You may have heard the story of Alphonse Ratisbonne before. He was a Jew born in Francein 1814. After his brother converted to Catholicism and became a priest, Ratisbonne went the other direction by becoming an atheist and persecuting his brother. At one point in his life he wanted to travel from Naplesto Malta but got on the wrong boat and ended up in Romeinstead. In Romehe ran into a Catholic convert who knew Ratisbonne’s brother. This man, knowing Ratisbonne to be an atheist, challenged him. He asked if he would wear the Miraculous Medal and every night and morning pray the Memorare prayer. Ratisbonne agreed to do it, he figured that it couldn’t do any harm and it would prove how ridiculous Catholics were.

One day he traveled to a church in Rome, Sant’Andea Della Fratte, and in this church the Blessed Mother appeared to him. This experience led to his conversion; he was received into the Church, entered the Jesuits and became a priest. He was changed by this experience and didn’t go back the same way he had come. This experience later influenced Maximillian Kolbe and convinced Kolbe of the power of the Miraculous Medal. 

      Today we celebrate Epiphany Sunday. Epiphany means manifestation. Christ will manifest himself to us in different ways over the next three Sundays. Today, with the Magi, he’s manifested as the king of all nations. Next Sunday at the Baptism of the Lord he’ll be shown to be the Son of God. Finally, the following Sunday, we’ll hear about the wedding feast at Canaand the miracle of the water changing into wine will manifest Christ’s divinity.

     The reason Christ manifests himself to us is because he has a plan for us to come to know the one true God, be saved from our sins, and share eternal life with him. In short you could say he manifests himself to us because he wants us to know the love he has for each of us. 

St. Paul says in our second reading that this manifestation or revelation wasn’t made know to people in other generations before the time of the apostles. There is a unique manifestation of God through Jesus Christ, and this manifestation comes to us through that “lowly handmaid”, the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

      As the Mother of Christ, Mary’s role in salvation history is to bring Christ to the world and bring the world to Christ; something that we saw in the conversion of Ratisbonne. Like her, we have a similar role to play. Ratisbonne was an atheist, yet his story shows us that we can do things like wear the Miraculous Medal, or pray the Memorare, to enter more deeply into the mystery of Christ. By going deeper into this mystery we’re transformed; the darkness of our sins begin to fade as we’re filled with the light of Christ.

     Like the Magi who go back to their country with news to share of a newborn king, we become lights to the world. Christ enters the world through us and through us others are led to Him. 

Perhaps today in our prayers we can stand with the Magi near the manger at Bethlehem and “gaze in deep wonder at what they see: heaven on earth, earth in heaven, man in God, God in man, one whom the whole universe cannot contain now enclosed in a tiny body.”

       If we allow this mystery to change us, if we don’t go back the same way we’ve come then it will be through us that God impacts the future generations of saints. It will be through us that he manifests himself to the world. 

              The devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary has been around for a long time in the Church. More attention was brought to it in the 1600’s when John Eudes went around preaching about the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. But it really took off after the miraculous medal apparitions to Catherine Laboure and then more recently the message of Fatima.

At Fatima, Mary appeared to the three children and said: “to save poor sinners, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart” & then at a later time Jesus told Sr. Lucia “I want my Church to put the devotion to this Immaculate Heart beside the devotion to my Sacred Heart.”

This statement was not meant to take away from attention or pride of place we should give to our Lord in our lives, but it really adds to it. No one was more united to Jesus during his earthly life than his mother; from her he received his body and blood. She was the one that nurtured and cared for him as child and suffered with him during his passion and death. It is her heart that he wishes every disciple to have, because the Immaculate Heart is the perfect heart of the disciple.

There are a few things that we can take away from the Immaculate Heart. If we look at scripture there are at least two places in the Gospel of Luke where Luke speaks about Mary’s heart. The first is just after Jesus’ birth, and the other is in our Gospel today when Joseph and Mary find Jesus in the temple. In both we’re told that “Mary kept all these things, the mysteries of her Son, & pondered them in her heart.” Her actions teach us that our interior life consists in remaining close to our Lord by continuously meditating on the mysteries of His life.

We also learn that Mary’s heart was an open heart. It was from this heart that she gave her fiat, and grace was brought into the world as Christ was conceived in her womb. Hers is a heart that is open to the will of God & fully devoted to God, and she wants us to have this same heart.

I was reading about the image of the Immaculate Heart, and someone wrote that her heart is outside her chest in the image and that Mary is pointing at it as if she wanted to give it to us; to share her heart with us, so that we can have the same virtues, the same purity and love for God that she had.

We heard about a new creation in our first reading, at Baptism we’ve each become a new creation, and in this new order of grace Mary is our mother, the mother of the Church. Her heart not only burns for love of God, but it burns for each one of her children as well, meaning all of us. 

As our Mother her wish and plea to us is that all her children will repent and turn to God, and then make reparation for the sins against her Immaculate Heart and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We can do this with her help by asking Mary to give us a heart like hers; an open heart, a pure heart, a heart filled with love for God, so that as God the Father gave Jesus to us through Mary, we likewise can respond and return to him through Mary and her Immaculate Heart. 

         Today we remember the first holy martyrs of the Church; those children or holy innocents Herod had killed in Bethlehem. Herod’s not so different from Pharaoh in the book Exodus. Both men had power and authority over their kingdom and lot of wealth. When God’s plans interfered with their plans rather than humble themselves and do as the Magi did, who visited the Lord and gave praise and honor to God, they felt threatened and gave into sin & death.

  Pharaoh had all the males born to the Hebrews thrown into the Nile, and Herod had male children age 2 and under killed in Bethlehem. One thing we learn is that temptations, especially ones based on irrational fears, try to convince us that we’ll gain something by giving in, but in reality it takes everything away from us – and separates us from the one who gives us everything. We see a strange turn of events in the story of Herod. He thought he would secure his kingdom and his title as King by slaughtering the infants. Eventually he died, and it’s the very ones who were murdered, the infants who gained the true kingdom of heaven & whose blood bears witness to Christ.

We too called bear witness Christ by our lives. The stories of Pharaoh & Herod show us that there will be persecution and struggles along the way, but if we remain faithful to Christ and with His help resist our daily temptations then we’ll have everything because we’ll have the Lord. Today we ask the holy innocents to pray for us, that we may always be kept innocent from serious sin so that one day like them we may inherit the true kingdom of heaven.