I think I’ll go back to requiring listening to this talk for all my premarriage preparation. Deanna, your English-speaking folks would benefit from it too.
I *dare* all my married and in-relationship friends to listen. It don’t matter if you’re Catholic; the reasons for *not* doing this thing to your body don’t have anything to do with Catholics. You show me how the things that Paul, the guy who led the Roman Catholic Church until the late 70’s, was wrong about what he predicted.
In this time during which we await the coming of our Savior, I challenge all to ponder the humility it took for Mary to be open to the life God wanted to place in her womb. And then ponder how we got to the state that life is an illness we must medicate ourselves to prevent.
Just sayin’
Birth Control – The Pill – Why use contrapcepton? Why Not? – by Dr. Janet Smith
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Gospel reading is here (but not yet…do y’all listen? This is what delays my uploads!).
Homily audio is here (again, it’s slightly different from the written; I’d be interested in any comments – Later. I’ll post it later).
Introduction
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” That’s what John the Baptist told the people who heard him preaching in the desert in Judea. “Repent! The Kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
This kind of message clashes with the world around us, doesn’t it? The world outside these walls is consumed with…well, consuming. “Christmas is coming! Come on, buy your “stuff” before it’s too late! Your Christmas cards need to go out! Have you started planning that Christmas party yet? How’s your credit? Don’t worry about your credit…just buy it!”
Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that there’s something wrong with planning to get things done on time, or with buying gifts, or planning get-togethers, or generally being busy at this time of the year. The problems start when the buying and partying and being busy become the only thing. If that happens, we risk forgetting what’s coming…who’s coming.
John the Baptist shouts, “REPENT!” But…repent of what?
He says that the kingdom of heaven is “at hand”. When and where, exactly, is “at hand”? And how do we get there?
Move I
John the Baptist is a strange figure as described in this Gospel. Matthew is pointing us toward the prophet Elijah; this is important because the people of Israel were expecting the return of Elijah as a prelude to the coming of the Messiah! Matthew, the Gospel writer, explicitly ties John the Baptist to Isaiah’s prophesy, and tells us that John is the “voice of one crying out in the desert”. All of this points us to Jesus as the Messiah, in a way that any Jew of Jesus’ would understand.
What was John doing in the desert? He was baptizing people “in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins”. John was preaching repentance, and people were flocking to him!
But his choicest words in this Gospel passage are reserved for the Pharisees and Sadducees; he challenges them to show proof of their repentance by changing their ways. Then he threatens them with eternal punishment if they fail!
Move II
Our circumstances are radically different from those of the Jews of Jesus’ time. They were oppressed; we live in freedom. By modern standards, they were poor; even the poor in our society are better off than they were. Most of us don’t walk around in fear that the government will just decide one day to kill us off; the Romans could just kill them in the street, and no one would care. Compared to them, we live pretty benign existences, don’t we?
One drawback to not living under pressure is that it can make faith an optional part of our lives. When you’re living in fear of death, God is an ever-present part of one’s thoughts; when Christians stopped being persecuted they kind of let that focus on God slip just a bit.
But still, we show up for Mass. And we send our kids to PRE, or to Catholic school, to reinforce the faith we teach them at home. We make sure our kids complete the Sacraments of Initiation, and then we do our best to get them to Mass even after they don’t have to show up.
We ourselves frequent the sacraments. We receive the Eucharist; we get anointed when we’re sick; We go to confession. We try our best to understand why we’re here. In many ways, we’re just like the people who traveled out into the desert to be baptized by John.
Move III
But in some other ways, brothers and sisters, we risk falling in with the Pharisees. And our risk is, perhaps, greatest during this season of the year, when we’re super busy, but when we should be most focused on Christ.
The coming of Jesus that we’re focused on in these early weeks of Advent is not His coming as an infant; as important as that event is, it is not the event that saves us. John’s message is that Jesus is coming as King, that He’s coming as Judge. And if we don’t repent, we risk losing everything!
Repent of what? Well…most of us aren’t wallowing in sin. But none of us is perfect. And all of us fall into sin on occasion. The repentance John is preaching covers everything in our lives; it covers the TV shows and movies we allow into our homes; it covers the books and magazines we read; and it covers the way we relate to our spouses, our children, and our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. If any of those things leads us away from God, then it must be put aside.
And it covers all our holiday revelry. Jesus’ birthday is an occasion for celebration. But we must not lose sight of what’s most important: Our eternal salvation.
Conclusion
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” Repent, for Jesus is coming! Be better than we are, because a new order of things is being put in place by Christ!
This is the message of Advent. All that hubbub outside of here is OK; but it misses the point. We have to get it, that the Kingdom of heaven is already here; we experience it every time we turn the things of the world upside down, so that it resembles Isaiah’s description in our first reading. We see the Kingdom of heaven we serve the poor, instead of making them serve us. The Kingdom of heaven is here when we act selflessly instead of clinging to our “stuff”. The kingdom of heaven is here, every time we act justly, every time we show mercy; It’s already here, every time we let our attitude be like Christ’s.
Let’s party! But let’s pray, too. Have fun, but let’s remember that the gifts we have, and the gifts we give, are ultimately from God, and that they need to serve God’s purposes. And let’s examine our lives: where’s the “good fruit” that shows our repentance?
Because…the kingdom of heaven…is at hand.
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Brothers and sisters:
Pope Benedict XVI has asked us as the Church to make more and better use of the social media (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.) to further our efforts in the New Evangelization first outlined by Pope John Paul II. God knows that many,if not most, of us are very connected to one another. I personally have five or six email addresses, a Facebook account, this blog, a Twitter account, three cell phones, one of which is an iPhone, three computers, and a Wii; if someone can’t reach me, it’s probably that they aren’t trying very hard!
And yet, We sometimes manage to talk about…not a lot. At least, in terms of eternity, we talk about things that are…well, let’s just be charitable and call them “slightly less important”.
So what?
Here’s what.
I’m issuing a challenge, to everyone connected to me through all these various ways and means, but especially to my brothers and sisters at St. Ann Catholic Church in Bartlett, TN. I challenge you to do three things:
1) Connect to me. My blog address is http://deaconchip.net. My Twitter account is @DcnChip. On Facebook, I am DeaconChip Jones. My parish email is chip.jones_at_stann.cdom.org (substitute an @ symbol for the _at_).
2) Look through those I am connected to, and connect to the people you know. IF you can tell they are St. Ann people, but you don’t know them yet, connect to them anyway! Let’s start drawing our community together in the virtual space of the Internet, since we all spend so much time there!
3) Start discussing. Ask Questions. State opinion. Enter conversations. Reach out to others. Read the things that I and others link to. Learn more about this faith you’ve embraced! Use your internet time for something other than Farmville, or shopping, or the unmentionable stuff. Start setting apart a space for yourself on the Internet that is HOLY!
There’s the challenge. You have time; if you can play Bejeweled, or Farmville, or the hundred other games on Facebook; if you can aimlessly link around for blocks of time, if you can visit those places that maybe lead us away from God, you can spend some time on things that bring Him closer.
Join me. Let’s talk. You won’t be sorry!
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The Gospel Reading is here.
Homily Audio is here.
What are we afraid of?
We fear death, in our culture. We spend billions of dollars every year to trying to keep people from dying; we look at death as a failure when it comes. We hate the thought of dying; even when we’re going through it, we don’t like to talk about it with our closest family members. Even people like me, who are supposed to minister to people when they experience a death, are uncomfortable around death.
The daily news brings death right up to our doorstep; violent weather, warfare, terrorism, evil people; all seem to threaten us, or to threaten someone, with loss of life! Anyone my age or older spent hours away from home when we were 8, 9, 10 years old; no one worried about us. Today… how many of us would wait more than 10 minutes before getting in the car and to look for our children? We’re very aware of death.
But…how does this focus on death affect us? What does this concern about death…keep us from doing?
What, exactly, are we living for? And what, if anything, are we willing to die for?
Here at the end of the liturgical year, our readings ask us to reflect on the eschaton, the End Times. Each week, we get another glimpse at what Scripture has to say about the end of the world, when Jesus returns to establish new heavens and a new earth. Everything points to the reason for our hope: that Jesus Christ has died, is risen, and will come again.
The first reading today is from the Second Book of Maccabees. This reading tells us two important things. First, the brothers were willing to die rather than disobey God’s laws. Second, they believed in an afterlife that was worth dying for. The seven brothers were bold in their belief in the resurrection.
The Sadducees of today’s Gospel were equally bold in their disbelief in the resurrection. The Sadducees just couldn’t imagine any life after death that would be any different from the life they were living. And Jesus turns their question on its ear by explaining that the life they are thinking of is nothing like life with God after death! Then He goes on to remind them of Moses, in whom they did believe, and of how the Lord described Himself on Mount Horeb: “…the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”. Jesus explains, in terms the Sadducees can’t deny, that the Resurrection of the dead is real.
Unlike the Sadducees, we live in this age of technology where it seems that we can do almost anything; doctors and hospitals exist precisely to push back illness and death. We work hard to make our bodies strong, to eat the right way, and to maintain the right weight. And we shepherd our finances carefully, investing here, making a smart purchase there, to prepare for our old age. We act, sometimes, as if we’re never going to die, and we carefully prepare for a long life.
On top of this, we make decisions about what we do in response to our Christian call with the fear of death in our minds. We can be apprehensive about putting ourselves out there for people, especially for strangers, because we can’t always control what happens.
So what does all this have to do with the End Times? How does this affect what we do every day?
Basically, Jesus is telling us not to fear death. He is assuring us that death is no end, for the Christian. He is telling us that even those who have preceded us in death are alive, because God is the God of the living.
But…death…kinda sucks, doesn’t it? At least, it does for all of us who are left behind. Death leaves a hole in our lives. It takes out people we love. Death hurts. And we can spend years mourning the loss of loved ones.
But brothers and sisters, the problem is not with death itself. Our problem is with our conception of death. The culture strives to make us all think that this… is all that there is, and that we have to “go for the gusto” in this life so that we don’t miss out. And thinking like that, there is nothing, really, that is off-limits or out-of-bounds. Sin doesn’t matter…being faithful doesn’t matter.
We have to deny the lie. We have to embrace the “everlasting encouragement and good hope” of which Paul spoke in the second reading, and let Jesus ”encourage [our] hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word”!
Yes, death sucks. But as our readings point out, there is something more.
It’s understandable that we might fear death. Most of us have experienced death in our lives, and it isn’t pleasant.
But Jesus, through his death and resurrection, has shown us that death has no real power over us: death is only a step along the path to eternal life with God. The seven brothers in the first reading understood this; the Sadducees in the Gospel reading didn’t.
But we have the advantage of knowing that, just as Jesus was raised from the dead, all of us will be raised to eternal life with God. This is the core of our faith, and once we embrace it, it frees us in a way that nothing else can, to live life for God.
So…what do we live for? What are we willing to die for?
The seven brothers knew.
Do we?
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Gospel is here.
Homily audio is here.
Why Be Thankful?
Having “an attitude of gratitude” is polite. When someone opens a door for us, we’re expected to say “thank you”; when we do something nice for someone and they don’t thank us, we get a little huffy. For most of us, this is an attitude our mothers helped us learn: It’s polite to say Thank You.
But, at the end of the day, why does it matter? The door opened; we didn’t hit it on the way in. What difference does it really make if we thank the person who opened it for us or not? Other than making the opener feel bad, how does not thanking that person make any difference at all?
The answer to that question is obvious. Not acknowledging someone who does something nice for us is rude. And since we don’t want to be rude, we thank people who help us.
But…what about God? How’s our “attitude of gratitude with Him? And what does our attitude say about us, and about what’s most important to us?
Naaman (Nay-uh-mun) understood what it meant to be thankful. Naaman was a pagan, the commander of the armies of the King of Aram. But he had a problem: Naaman had contracted leprosy, which was incurable and contagious. Naaman couldn’t keep his job and his status without help. His wife’s servant girl, a captured Israelite, told him to go to Samaria to see Elisha. After resisting what Elisha instructed him to do, Naaman finally obeyed…and what happened? He was cured.
Now flip to the Gospel. The ten lepers ask Jesus to heal them. He tells them to go see the priests, and on the way, they were healed! No drama…no flashing lights and thunderclaps. The Gospel says, “As they were going they were cleansed.”
These two events have a lot in common. They were told to do something…they did it…and they were cured of their leprosy! Dive deeper, and again, there are more things in common: Naaman’s cure convinced Him that God alone was the one he should worship. The Samaritan leper came back to Jesus, praising God, and thanked Jesus for curing him.
Now…look even deeper. Naaman had a conversion experience. He would worship the God of Israel alone. And what did Jesus tell the Samaritan leper? “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.” Your faith…has saved you. The Samaritan’s belief in Jesus…had earned him eternal life!
For our part, we buy into this. We know God can and does work miracles all the time. The lives of the saints are full of them; everyone knows at least one story of someone who was cured, or someone who was saved from death, through circumstances that can only be described as miraculous.
But it strikes me that our technology is advancing so quickly these days that things that were unimaginable even ten years ago have become commonplace! So many “miraculous” things happen every day that we almost want to sue someone when we don’t get that miraculous outcome!
And where does that leave us? It leaves us, as a culture, with a loss of the sense of the miraculous. It leaves us with broad swaths of people, even people of faith, who end up losing the understanding that God acts in our world. It leaves us, some of us, at least, with an inability to really see what’s going on around us. And it leaves us without the “attitude of gratitude” that really is the point of all of this!
What do I mean? Here’s what I mean.
It’s miraculous when a heart surgeon can take a beating heart out of one person and put it into another one. But without the right attitude, the surgeon and the patient can think it’s all about the surgeon. But who gave the surgeon the gifts to perform the operation? God. Who created our bodies so fearfully and wonderfully that it’s even possible to transplant a heart? God.
And this takes us back to the stories from today’s readings. Ten lepers were cleansed. Only one came back to thank Jesus and praise God. Did the other nine become unhealed? No! But the one who returned got the greater good: “…go, your faith has saved you”.
The “point of all of this” is that the Samaritan leper showed one quality the other nine lacked: gratitude. And because of that, he was earned eternal life. With us, God isn’t going to punish us because of our lack of faith, as Paul said in his letter to Timothy, “If we are unfaithful, [Jesus] remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” The miracles that God makes possible will still occur. But without that “attitude of gratitude”, we might just miss the most important thing: eternity with God!
How’s our attitude of gratitude”? Do we recognize the miraculous in the every day? Do we acknowledge the faithfulness of God in our lives, in the gifts great and small that come to us?
Or is it all about us, and how good we are, how hard we’ve worked, and how much we have achieved on our own merit?
God will be faithful no matter what. And God’s gifts will be given whether we acknowledge Him or not, because “He remains faithful” as Paul said.
But how much are we missing, if we don’t recognize God’s hand in our lives? How much are we losing, if we can’t see the miracles in our lives…as miraculous?
We get huffy when we open a door for someone, and they ignore us. Do we do any better by God when we fail to acknowledge His work in our lives?
God is good, all the time. Shouldn’t we let Him know that we know that?
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Gospel audio is here.
Homily audio is here (listen to it; it’s a little different from the text below, but I’m too lazy to transcribe the changes!).
“Where’d You Go?”
GPS is a wonderful thing! You can just put the address you’re trying to get to into that puppy, hit “Navigate”, and turn by turn, the thing tells you exactly where to go! Most of us have access to a GPS now; our phones even have them included. And if we can’t get GPS on our phone, there’s always MapQuest, or Google Maps, or other services to tell us how to get to where we’re headed.
But since that’s the case, since we can use a computer to see places far and near, and a computer will tell us exactly how to get where we want to go…how do we still manage to get lost? With so many resources to show us the way…how do we manage to lose our way?
As it is with the physical, so it is with the spiritual. With so much help out there, how do we manage to still get lost? And what hope is there for us when we do?
More importantly: do we even realize it when we’re lost? And do we leave God asking, “Where’d you go?”
This is not a new problem. In the Old Testament reading today, Moses is intervening with God on behalf of the Children of Israel, who (yet again!) had descended into worship of idols! What were they thinking? Where did they go, that they forgot that it was God who saved them from Egypt, that it was God who was leading them to the Promised Land! How did they get so lost that, not once, but twice, they decided to worship an idol they’d made themselves, instead of the God who made them?
And yet, Moses is able to turn away God’s wrath at His people, simply by reminding God of all He had promised to them! The just punishment owed to the people of Israel was turned back…by God’s mercy.
And look at the Gospel for today. Jesus tells two parables, all about something lost being found. The first parable, about the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to find the one, is the subject of many a painting of Jesus. The second, though, about the woman sweeping the house to find her lost coin, is a little tougher to picture.
But in both cases, Jesus’ point is the same: God wants the lost to be found! No effort is too great to expend to rescue a sinner! And heaven rejoices when the lost get found!
We don’t relate as well to those stories, because we don’t live the same way the people of Israel did in Jesus’ day. But they still apply to us.
The first lines of the Gospel give it away. What was the complaint of the scribes and Pharisees against Jesus? “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Jesus’ offense, in their minds, was hanging out with sinners! Jesus went to the trouble of telling not one, not two, but three parables to address their complaint, because He came to us to rescue the lost! Jesus didn’t show up as a man just to high-five the righteous. He came because, like Paul, all of us get lost sometimes, and all of us need to be found!
“But Deacon Chip”, one might say, “I’m not that bad! I come to church, I try to be a good person…surely this isn’t about me!”
Think about it for a minute, though. Sure, there are people who willfully ignore God, who flaunt His commandments, who live lives that are intentionally opposed to God. They’re probably not here today.
But going back to the parables from the Gospels: How did that sheep get lost? There is safety and security in the flock! Was he intentionally ignoring the shepherd, just to be hard-headed? No! More likely, the sheep got distracted by something, and when he looked around, the flock had moved on without him. Or he took a wrong path, one that looked like it was going where the rest of the flock was headed, but that turned off suddenly, leaving the sheep stranded.
And how did that coin get lost? It was worth a day’s wages; surely the woman would have paid attention. Did she just throw the coins around carelessly, or was it that one just rolled away on its own?
There are a lot of ways we can end up in sin, without even trying hard. We think we know the way we should go, only to find we’re not where we thought we’d end up. Or we get distracted by something: a pretty person, or a strong emotion; something bad happens, like an illness, or the death of a spouse; or maybe we make a wrong turn, and then can’t find our way back.
Today’s Gospel tells us, though, that God is ever on the watch for us. God wants to forgive our sins. He wants us to be with Him, not separated from Him. And He will spare no effort to find us when we get lost!
It’s funny how we can still manage to get lost, in spite of all the technology that is available to us to help us understand where to go.
And it’s sad, as well, how we can manage to wander away from God, in spite of all the information available to us about life in Christ.
Jesus tells us in today’s parables that God yearns for us to be with Him. He tells us that no effort will be spared to find us if we get lost.
We all wander away from the path we should be on. When we do, God is there to ask: “Where’d you go?” And then, He’s there to pick us up and return us to where we belong.
Are we distracted…by the world? Are we allowing ourselves to be led down the wrong path…by Satan, and by the flesh? Are we allowing sin to make us deaf to the turn-by turn directions of our spiritual GPS?
Where’d we go?
God’s looking for us…
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Audio of the Gospel reading is here. Audio of the below homily is here.
With absolutely NO reference to the film by the same title, I must say, “There’s something about Mary”. There’s something about Mary, the Mother of Jesus, which makes some people just crazy. There’s something about Mary, Mother of the Church, which embarrasses some people. There’s something about Mary, Holy Mary, Mother of God, which causes many Catholics to run away from any association with her. Some of our separated brethren mock us about Mary. Some of them think we aren’t Christian because of Mary. And some of them just flat won’t talk about Mary.
But as I said…There’s something about Mary. There’s something about her that should educate us. There’s something about her that should encourage us. And there is something about Mary that should drive us to strive to be like her. And it is these things that our Feast today, the feast of the Assumption of Mary, celebrates.
So…what is it about Mary?
On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII defined the dogma of Mary’s Assumption: “the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.” Simple. When it came time for Mary to die, she went to heaven, body and soul. The Pope didn’t say she died, though most seem to think she did. He said that she was “assumed”, meaning she was “drawn up”, into heaven, and that both her body and her soul were glorified.
This dogma should give us hope, not embarrass us. As I said, there’s something about Mary. One thing “about Mary” is that she was conceived without the stain of Original Sin. This made her into the perfect vessel that she would have to be in order for God to come to Earth through her.
So, what do the Scriptures have to say about all of this? Today’s readings help us to understand, even if they don’t paint the entire picture.
The first reading, from the Book of Revelation, is all about Mary. The very first lines connect the Ark of the Covenant, God’s presence among the People of Israel until they lost it, with the Ark of the New covenant, Mary. The Old Testament Ark contained the word of God, and reminders of His presence with His people. The New Testament Ark, Mary, also contained the Word of God: The Word Made Flesh, who came to dwell among us! There’s something…about Mary!
The Gospel today teaches us why we refer to Mary as we do. What’s the Marian Prayer that everyone knows, the one that comes to mind first? The Hail Mary! And where did it come from? The Scriptures! “Hail, Mary, Full of Grace, the Lord is with you” is the greeting that the angel Gabriel used in Luke 1, verse 28. The next part? That comes from the Gospel! Elizabeth says, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb”. Second part of the prayer! The rest is just a petition from us to her, to pray for us; we ask her to do this because we know (from the Scriptures) the Jesus listens to her in a special way. Because…There’s something…about Mary!
So why do they beat on us so about her, our separated brethren? Sadly, brothers and sisters, it’s out of ignorance, out of a lack of understanding, rooted in a little prejudice, about what we really believe. And the situation isn’t helped by our attitude toward Mary.
Mary is our Mother. But how often do we check in with her? She’s not God. But she is in Heaven with God. She is the Mother of the Church. She is our model, our exemplar, our guide to living the Perfect Christian Life. Mary was assumed into Heaven precisely to show us what’s in store for us at the end of time; she just received the Promise first, as a reward for her faithfulness, and out of recognition of her unique status. She was conceived without sin. She gave her fiat, her “Yes” to God when asked to be the mother of His Son.
And she did this in spite of what it would mean! Mary was an unwed mother at a time when adultery and fornication got you killed. She said Yes to God at a time when a pregnancy out-of-wedlock would disgrace generations of a family. She submitted herself to God’s will…And she received God’s reward. And at the end of the day…isn’t that exactly what we are all called to do, to submit our will…to God’s will?
There’s something about Mary, brothers and sisters. Actually, there’s a ton of stuff about Mary. And so many of our separated brethren just don’t know.
Maybe it’s time we found out. Maybe it’s time Mary, the Mother of God, the Mother of our Lord, and our Mother, becomes more than an embarrassment, more than a subject that makes us run away.
“The Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.” That’s what the feast we celebrate today is all about.
But do we embrace it? Do we believe it?
Those are important questions. Because if we don’t accept this dogma of our faith, what does it say about what we believe about everything else the Church teaches, believes, and proclaims to be true?
Mary was assumed into Heaven, body and soul. Her earthly body was glorified, just as we hope ours will be at the end of time.
There’s something about Mary…something that made God take her to Himself at the end of her life. Shouldn’t we find out what it is?
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It;s a shame when life gets so busy that one neglects the things one really benefits from. I have made a solemn commitment to myself to start blogging again; I’ll start with last Sunday’s Homily as soon as possible. Heck, I think I’ll even upload the audio!
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Audio of this homily is here.
There is a brief children’s homily before all this (don’t freak out!).
We are re-presenting the Last Supper tonight.
Listen to the word we use: “re-presenting”. Like our Jewish forebears, the things that we do by command of God (or by command of Jesus) “in remembrance” are not just memorials, and not just reenactments.
When we “do this in remembrance” of Jesus, by His command…we are actually there. That’s why we read the narrative from Exodus, where God commands Moses to save the people of Israel on the night of the Passover, but also to establish this day as a memorial feast…“which all your generations shall celebrate”. God expected the Israelites to remember His saving act…forever.
We need only connect the dots, here, Church, to understand what Jesus was doing at the Last Supper. What Kind of meal was this? The Passover. What was it that Jesus said? “Take…Eat…Drink…do this in memory of Me.” He set the Apostles up with a substitute sacrifice, a new covenant in His blood. And Paul tells us in the second reading that, “as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes”. So, at each Eucharist, we are re-presenting, and re-proclaiming, the One Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross! We received this gift from Christ; we now celebrate it daily as a memorial in the truest sense of the word: we “make present” His saving sacrifice every time!
There’s something else we’re going to do here tonight, too. After the homily, Father Coy will perform the Mandatum: He will re-present the Washing of the Apostles’ feet at that same Last Supper.
Why do we do this? We do it to show how we are supposed to live out Christ’s commandment to “Love One Another”!
We are used to shoes; we don’t really “get” what an act of humility this washing of feet was for Christ. This was work usually reserved to servants; its purpose was to wash of all the dirt, and animal waste, and other assorted crud that gathered on the feet of folks who walked around all day on dirt roads they shared with animals! Their feet didn’t just stink; they were filthy!
And yet, God Himself bent his knee to wash their feet! And what did He tell them about it? “If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet.” Our love for one another, especially as leaders in the Church, should be expressed in humble service!
That’s why the pastor is washing feet! Husbands, that’s why we should be washing our wives’ feet! Parents…that’s why we should be washing our children’s feet! To love as Christ loved, and to love as Christ commanded us to love, requires humility. It requires sacrifice. And it requires a willingness to die to self for those we love!
So…what are we doing here? We are Remembering. We are Re-presenting. And we are celebrating the beginning of the actions of our Lord that ultimately saved us all.
Christ didn’t have to die for us…but He did. Christ didn’t have to give us His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the Eucharist…but He did. And Christ didn’t have to wash his disciples’ feet. But He did. He did all of those things. For us.
You showed up tonight to begin the celebration.
Remember what you see. Keep coming back.
Show Up to pray tomorrow morning while Christ is being beaten and abused.
Show Up at noon as he is crucified. Come back at the Horu of mercy, 3:00, when he died.
And show up as we venerate His cross tomorrow evening, and recall the events of His passion and death.
And show up…when we celebrate His Victory.
Christ will be here.
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Audio of this homily is found here.
Everybody take a moment and collect yourselves. That was a workout!
And, I fear…That’s the way we so often approach this Passion reading each year. After all, we hear it twice, every year: once from a Synoptic gospel (Matthew, Mark, or Luke, then once from John on Good Friday. I mean, the reading is almost as long as the rest of Mass combined, right? And we stand for all of it!
But, brothers and sisters…why do we do this? Why do we suffer through so much verbiage on Palm Sunday? And why do we go through such long liturgies during the rest of Holy Week?
This week, Holy Week, is the high point of our liturgical year.
But…why?
Why is it Holy?
Holy Week is Holy Week because the events we re-present during this time are the events that saved us! I mean, think about it:
- Did Jesus Incarnation save us? No. It was special, and we celebrate it at Christmas, but it did NOT save us.
- Did Jesus save us by restoring sight to the blind? Cool…but, NO.
- Did Jesus set us free from sin by curing the lame? NO.
- Did He save anyone by Curing the deaf? Restoring speech to the mute? No.
- How about by feeding the 5,000 plus folks? NO. Walking on water? NO. Raising Lazarus from the dead? NO.
No, NONE of those thing were what saved us from Hell. What saved us from Hell is the choice Jesus made: the choice Paul discussed in the second Reading:
“Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.”
THIS is what saved us! GOD…emptied Himself! God the Son, obedient to God the Father, and died for us! The Act that is saving us, even right now as we deal with the sin in our lives, is THAT ONE. THAT’S why a Corpus is on every crucifix. And THAT’S why this week is Holy: because everything that happened to save, and to keep on saving every one of us happened during that week!
But…So what?
I’ll tell you So What. SHOW UP.
Our sin, brothers and sisters, was nailed to the Cross this week.
SHOW UP.
Our savior became the first-born from the dead this week. And His choice, HIS death, gave all of US the ability to be born to new life!
SHOW UP.
The most important thing Christ left for us, and the most important thing He did for us, came about this week!
SHOW UP!
Show up for the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday! Show up to venerate the Cross of the Lord on Good Friday! And come see our new brothers and sisters in Christ be received into the Church at the Easter Vigil! SHOW UP!
This Holy Week, remember what Christ did for us! This Holy Week, ponder God’s goodness. Think about God’s Mercy. Consider His Love.
John 3:17 says, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”
The Most Important Things in your eternal life and mine are being made present in this sanctuary this Holy Week. NCAA Basketball can’t touch this.
SHOW UP.
Tall, Bald, and Called 