Be Perfect, Not a Perfectionist (7th Sunday, Year A)

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One of my favorite toys growing up was a simple piece of plastic, or more accurately, a whole bunch of plastic pieces that millions of kids enjoy around the world. They are Legos, those awesome building blocks that provide creative license to construct whatever your mind can come up with. I was not exceptionally gifted in lego-building but I would spend hours making all sorts of things, whether following instructions for a specific kit or turning a pile of plastic into something fun and occasionally dangerous. The only people I know who don’t like Legos are usually parents who are either digging them out of the mouths of toddlers and pets or accidentally stepping on them with bare feet and unintentionally educating their children in the nuances of the English language. 

It’s not surprising then that I was pretty excited to see the new lego movie which came out 5 or 6 years ago. Like many animated family movies, there is something for the little ones to enjoy and another level of humor and teaching for the adults in the audience. Without giving too much away, the movie opens around the boss of the lego worlds. His name is Lord Business and he is a type-A control freak who wants perfect lego worlds. He believes everyone should always follow the directions and he tries to engineer the population to act and think the same; creativity is discouraged. He goes nuts whenever someone veers from his vision of perfection, which is really just uniformity. In order to put an end to people’s creative actions, he comes up with an evil plan to freeze everyone in place so that people can stop messing with his stuff!” I won’t tell you what happens after that but one thing is certain: the vision of perfection that Lord Business has is not very healthy, happy, or fun.

There is another vision of perfection we have been listening to over the past few weeks from an infinitely more benevolent Lord. It is the Sermon on the Mount, which has served as our gospel during this month of February. In this teaching, Jesus is educating his listeners, including you and me, about what it means to be a perfect Christian. He has been showing us it is no longer simply about avoiding sin and trying to keep the commandments. That’s a good first step. But Jesus is telling us we have to go even further than just staying away from evil; we must actively pursue what is good. We must not only eliminate sinful actions from our lives but also the evil feelings, desires and attachments that make them possible in the first place. He tells us we are called to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. We are meant to be the leaven that builds up everyone around us. In fact, today’s gospel commands us to be perfect, even as our Heavenly Father is perfect. 

Is this a typo? Is Jesus exaggerating? Is he crazy? Is Jesus just another Lord Business who wants the world to look his boring way so he can be happy? The answer to each of these is no, no, no, and no! Our Lord is not exaggerating when he lays down this incredible standard. He knows how weak we are, he knows we often settle for far less than perfection. But he also knows our potential when we cooperate with his grace, especially in the seven sacraments. Because he is willing to work with us every step of the way towards spiritual perfection, he makes it a command. 

God’s perfection does not look like that of the Lego tyrant. Our Lord does not want us all to be the same, like Christian clones or spiritual robots! He gives us certain universal commandments and principles to follow which enhance our freedom and the freedom of others. Even better, Jesus wants every person to leave their unique mark on the world by living these commandments and beatitudes according to the unique gifts and talents they have received. Each of us will make our own contribution to history and to our Catholic faith. Those who follow Christ and his command to be perfect should be among the greatest, most talented, most interesting, most important people in history. God wants you to be creative in your journey to perfection and he wants to have a relationship with you that is unlike the one he has with anyone else. It might seem hard to believe but it’s true!

If we are striving for God’s perfection, we should not be looking around, trying to gain the praise of other people. This Godly goodness will make itself visible in ways like loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us, we will forgive those who hurt our feelings or talk about us behind our backs. It will enable us to go the extra mile with those who demand something of us and keep us from turning our back on those in need. 

God’s vision of perfection for us is not easy; in fact it is humanely impossible. We cannot accomplish it on our own. It will be messy, we are going to make mistakes, we are going to miss the mark, and sometimes we will fail. Following this command to perfection will be uncomfortable, it has to be. It will require sacrifice and it will mean standing up to people who are doing wrong to us and to others. It will mean defending the truth, which is often unpopular, it will mean that we are sometimes mocked and rejected, even by people who should be supporting and loving us, maybe even family and friends. Growing towards God’s perfection means never settling for being better than most or comparing ourselves to other people. 

In the end, being perfect as our heavenly Father, is not about never making a mistake. It is about loving as He does, seeing others and ourselves with the eyes of God, which are always full of compassion, mercy, and self-sacrifice. This is what we are capable of and this is what we are destined for. So let us commit ourselves completely to this command of Christ, using our gifts and talents to pursue Godly perfection, knowing this is what will bring us to our heart’s desire. And let us thank God for being with us every step of the way to guide and encourage us towards that perfect love of heaven.

Keep the Commandments and You Shall Live (6th Sunday, Year A)

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  My parents are incredibly frugal, fiscally responsible, thrifty, cautious, and prudent. I’m sure providing for 14 hungry children will do that. I continue to be amazed that they raised 14 children on my father’s middle class salary. Of course there is no such thing as a free lunch and that rule certainly rang true in our home. My mom had a whole list of house jobs listed on a series of float charts, grids, and venn diagrams. This outline of domestic duties was displayed on the side of the fridge and occupied a major chunk of real estate. These charts, which would have driven Cinderella to despair, were sub-divided according to weekly and daily tasks, many of which were only slightly less-difficult than what you might find in the labor camps of the Siberian Gulag. Each of us had our rotating jobs which were completed only after Mom had inspected our work and given her seal of approval. I was always amazed at her x-ray vision; she knew every time we took a shortcut, cramming stuff under furniture, in drawers, or in closets. Until her approval, all merrymaking, playing outside and other frivolities were on hold. But there was a light at the end of the tunnel, a reward to the hard labor that reduced my tender, young hands to little more than stubs of worn and weary flesh and bone. After the weekly gauntlet of manual labor, my parents would take us to the corner drugstore in Bridgeton and we would receive our allowance of an entire $.50 to spend on a candy bar. Talk about the working poor!  

As you can imagine, this weekly visit to the candy store was quite exciting. For those of us who were steel-willed, we could choose to save several weeks worth of allowance and purchase something more substantial and glorious. I decided to go down this road because I wanted to purchase a box of Cheez-its for myself. Imagine the luxuries of having 16ounces of mature cheddar crackers all to yourself! After a number of weeks, I saved enough for my box of Cheez-its and I had two very difficult choices: 1) I could do the reasonable thing and enjoy a serving of cheese-its several times a day until the box ran out (allowing, of course for the occasional thievery of my marauding siblings) or 2) I could eat the entire box in one sitting and truly enjoy every single one of the cheese-its for myself. Despite the warnings and advice of my parents, I choose the second route and paid dearly for my choice.

The lesson I learned from those cheese-its was very simple and clear: choose the right thing and you will have happiness and more cheese-its for later. Make the wrong choice and you will loose everything you had and more, if you know what I mean.

A similar, more profound lesson is being taught in today’s readings. Listen again to the straightforward message from the Book of Sirach: “If you choose, you can keep the commandments, they will save you; if you trust in God, you too shall live. Before man are life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses shall be given him.” Jesus confirms this wisdom of Sirach and takes it one step further when he says: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.”

You can’t get more simple than this: keep the commandments and you will be saved. Follow the laws of God and the words of Christ and you will be eternal life and happiness. At the heart of our faith, things really are this simple. Obey God and you will enter heaven, disobey God and you will suffer eternal punishment. The choice is completely up to you; God will not force you either way. 

But if heaven and hell are really this simple, who in their right mind would ever choose to go anywhere but heaven? Why do we see so many people, including ourselves, choosing to disobey God’s law and break the commandments? Why do we endanger our immortal souls and our eternal happiness if this is so cut and dry?

The answer can be found in the words of Christ, as he explains the ways he has come to fulfill the law. For Jesus and those who follow him, keeping the law is no longer simply avoiding the big sins like murder, adultery, blasphemy, and frivolous divorce. It is no longer good enough to avoid serious sin while constantly giving in to the desires and motives of the heart which lead us to reject the love of God and our fellow man. What Jesus reveals to us is that truly keeping the law is only done when we get to the root of our sins. And if we want to choose to keep the commandments and gain eternal life, we have to be willing to root out all of those things that lead to sin; no matter how small or insignificant they seem.  

In other words, it is not enough to want heaven; we have to work towards it minute by minute, day by day, year by year, bit by bit. We can’t be ok with simply avoiding the big sins while falling in lesser ways with indifference. If this is our approach, sooner or later we will fall into those bigger sins anyway. Jesus isn’t satisfied with us being good people when we could be saints. That’s why he tells us in the gospel the shocking news that if a hand leads us to sin, cut it off, if an eye tempts us, pluck it out. Does Jesus mean this literally? No, but he does want us to understand we are engaged in a life or death struggle with sin. Keep the commandments and we live; disobey them and spend eternity in misery, separated from all love and friendship.

The truth is, no one starts out saying “I want to go to hell or I want to be a murderer, an adulterer, or a blasphemer.” We get there by fostering anger against others, by holding grudges, gossiping freely, indulging our desires, telling lies and allowing ourselves to become jealous of other people. These inclinations of the heart are the first seeds of violence against others and if we don’t work on them, they will explode into much more serious sins. The same is true about purity, We have to be willing to give up anything that makes it easier to lust after others. That means we might have to cut off the premium cable which offers impure entertainment around the clock. We may need to change the way we joke with our friends or browse the internet. It means we might have to eliminate certain shows from Netflix or Hulu, even though they entertaining. The same is true for the sin of blasphemy. We have to be willing to protect the name of God, using it only in prayer, not in surprise, anger, carelessness, or exasperation. It may make us feel old fashioned or silly, substituting other words, but it keeps us from becoming comfortable sinning in much more serious ways.  

The message of today’s reading is both radically simple and difficult; keep the commandments and you will be given eternal life. But the only way we can do this is to root out those things, those inclinations which lead us to sin. Jesus commands us to get to the bottom of our sinfulness, to the heart of what leads us away from him and to eliminate it completely. Anything less is unacceptable. The good news is that we don’t do this alone. Christ gives us the Church and the sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Reconciliation to assist us in this slow and gradual work. So thank God for the many ways He calls us above our sinfulness and weakness and let’s chose to keep the commandments so we might enjoy life and love forever in Heaven!

The Church Belongs to Us All (3rd Sunday, Year A)

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The second reading this weekend seems very appropriate for us today, even though it was directed to a growing but fragile Christian community in Corinth more than 1900 years ago. At the time, St. Paul was addressing the cliques and divisions that were forming within the Church in that city. And the fact that they often worried more about their sports teams than their eternal salvation! Some believers were separating themselves according to who baptized and brought them into the Faith. It was turning into a competition, a pecking order according to which apostle people felt was most powerful, prestigious, or holy. Even though everyone belonged to one faith, in a short time, there were at least 4 rival groups. Understandably, he expresses outrage and disappointment over what was happening to their faith, how it was becoming a source of argument and division when it should have been a source of mutual strength, comfort, and unity.

Paul’s words remind me of one time (not the only time), as kids we did something really stupid. We got our grubby little hands on some old eggs and decided to throw them against our shed in the backyard. We had a great time and thought it was the funniest thing we had ever done. Mom and Dad disagreed. Before sending us out to clean up (and by the way, dried eggshells are like nature’s superglue) we received a well-deserved lecture from the parents. Of course it included a sprinkling of outrage and “how could you do something like this…” But what I remember clearly and what made a lasting impact was when my parents asked how we could have so little respect for something that was not only theirs but ours.

I hear that same question in Paul’s words today. This beautiful faith, the gospel, the Good News, Christianity doesn’t just belong to THE CHURCH or the Pope or bishops or priests: it belongs to each of us too. And while no one person owns our Catholic Faith or can take credit for it, we all have a share in it and should take pride in how we act as believers. These days, just like the days when Paul’s audience was working through their issues, it is easy to focus on the things that separate and divide us. Even when we are here in church, it is possible to compare ourselves to other people, other parishioners and try to rank ourselves. That’s how a parish gets divided between Democrats or Republicans, rich or poor, living in the neighborhood or commuting from further away, day-school or public school, new parishioners or been here forever—-you get the picture.

Something we see clearly in the gospels over and over again is how Jesus draws people together. In our passage from Matthew, we hear that he calls some of the apostles to follow him and, amazingly, they leave everything immediately and do it! We might think the apostles were this merry band of brothers with blissful, carefree lives, but they were from very different families and viewpoints. Even in the gospels we hear they fought, argued, and got jealous of each other. Only Jesus could have taken their diversity, their seemingly incompatible backgrounds and made it into something that was both enriching and unified. We see this pattern over and over again, not only in Scripture but also in history. When Christ is at the center of human lives and efforts, the resulting blessings never belong to or benefit one person or group. They end up enriching all people. 

If we apply this pattern to our actions and the activity within the Incarnate Word family, it becomes easy to see where God can be found. His blessing will be on those ministries and groups that bring people together and lead them to focus on the One who unites all of us in the first place, Jesus Christ. On the other hand, if we find ourselves forming groups that isolate others or put people down, chances are, we are wandering into the same mess the Corinthians were. 

One of the great paradoxes of Christianity is that because it is owned by no one person, it belongs to everyone. It’s ultimately not important who baptized us, what parish we grew up in, or which Catholic high school we graduated from; what matters most is that in all these things, Christ unites us. He is the common bond that brings together, in this active, busy parish, people of very different means, backgrounds, and viewpoints. Jesus is is our claim to fame, our source of pride. He brings unity to our diversity and enables our little gifts and efforts to have outsized effects. And when we encounter other Catholics, other Christians, from other parishes and other faith traditions, our mindset should not be one of competition or seeing who is better but rather how we can support each other and cooperate in spreading the Good News that Jesus offers. At the end of our life, God will not care what parish we belonged to, whether we went to the 7:15 or 6pm Mass, what neighborhood we lived in, or if our parish and professional sports teams were champions. He will want to know if we served him and introduced others to the love and truth Jesus Christ offers. It can be easy to lose perspective of what is truly important in life and in the Church, which doesn’t make us bad people but it does make us people in need of correction, just like the Corinthians.

To wrap up, I want to return to what I learned after egging the shed. Jesus didn’t have to share the Church with us. We certainly don’t deserve to help build it and represent it with our lives. In his generosity, he invites us to take ownership and to share in both the blessings and the responsibilities of caring for our Faith and helping it to spread. Let’s never forget the privilege we have been given and make sure our thoughts, words and actions always honor the great spiritual treasure he shares with us through our Catholic faith! It is not only his but ours.

What is Human Life Worth? (2nd Sunday, Cycle A)

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This Friday in our nation’s capital, hundreds of thousands of Americans will march together to celebrate human life and dignity and also protest the fact that infanticide has been legally protected and promoted in our country for the last 47 years. Whenever I’ve gone on the March for Life, I’ve felt a mixture of sadness and joy. Sadness, because over 60 million innocent children have lost their lives since 1973 and yet so many still remain indifferent or excuse themselves from doing anything to change this tragedy. Sadness, especially as a priest, as I think of the millions of moms and dads whose hearts have been shattered by their decision to choose abortion. This is the hidden price of abortion most people don’t see unless they’ve helped in the healing process for men and women who’ve made that choice and are burdened by years of shame and guilt. But on the March there is also an overwhelming sense of joy. Joy because you realize you aren’t alone; the crowds grow larger and younger every year. The crowd is not just Catholic, it is composed of people of good will from all backgrounds, ages, and demographics. God and the gift of life cannot be defeated; the question is how many people must pay the price for our decision to try and decide who is and who isn’t worthy of life. 

The issue of abortion cannot be resolved without first reflecting on the value of human life. How we value human life at its most vulnerable, innocent moments determines how we treat ourselves and others: the poor, the immigrant, the disabled, the unborn, the infirm and the dying - not to mention the person who makes my life difficult or who I struggle to forgive. The question is fundamental: Where does the value of human life come from? Why does human life have worth at all? Today's Gospel gives us the answer; human life has value because of what God was willing to pay for it.

In his book on the Holocaust, Martin Gilbert writes about a concentration camp prisoner. Before his arrest, the man was a successful jeweler in Holland. The Nazis robbed him of his possessions, but he managed to smuggle a small amount of gold into prison. He hoped to survive imprisonment and use the gold to begin a new life. But, with the lack of food, he grew thinner and hungrier. In desperation he took the gold and showed it to a guard. He asked the guard what he would give for it. The next day the guard returned, reached into his pocket and pulled out two potatoes. They were small, shriveled and starting to rot. The prisoner looked at them. He hesitated for a moment, then handed the gold to guard and quickly ate the uncooked potatoes.

Gilbert comments that the exchange represented a scale of worth. In that concentration camp, a few scraps of food were more valuable than gold even though normally the gold would be worth thousands of dollars. Those potatoes had value because of the price someone was willing to pay for it.

Something similar applies to the value of human life. This Sunday we hear the price Jesus is willing to pay for human life - for yours, for mine, for all of humanity. When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming, he said, "Behold, the Lamb of God.” In the Old Testament, every Passover, the Israelites would select a lamb, a young male sheep. The lamb had to be a year old, the age when his meat and wool fetched their highest price. Each family would offer a young sheep for the sacrifice in atonement for their sins. The priest placed the lamb on the altar and opened its throat so blood would flow out. The blood of the lamb brought forgiveness and restored the Chosen People relationship with God.

When St. John saw Jesus, he recognized him as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." Like a young sheep placed on an altar, Jesus would give his blood, his life for us. That is the highest possible price, because Jesus is perfect man and true God.

If you were to ask where our value comes from, you would have to say: It is not because we are so intelligent. Nor because we are so charming, or so good, or so beautiful or so strong. We may have some of those qualities, but they do not last for very long. In the end, our worth does not come from our brilliance or virtue or beauty or strength or anything we produce or accomplish. We are valuable because God was willing to pay the ultimate price for us. Our lives are not our own to throw away as we please. We were created by God, in his holy image and we have been redeemed and ransomed by his death on the cross. Our lives, so to speak, belong to him. 

It is important for us to say that today. We live in a society confused about the value of human life. Many people want to claim total autonomy over their lives and even the lives of others. Some want to seize the power to pronounce which lives have meaning and purpose while designating others to be unworthy of the care and sacrifice their existence might require. We see this playing out as more states and countries allow abortions after prenatal testing for disabilities like Down Syndrome, Trisomy disorders, and even preferred gender. Others push for physician assisted suicide, claiming it is "death with dignity." As Christians we cannot support any of this. We know that life has incalculable value. The Lamb of God has paid the ultimate price so that each of us could have life and have it to the full.

We of course want to do what we can to ease the the suffering of others, especially the terminally ill and profoundly disabled. But we do not believe suffering is completely worthless or beyond God’s power of redemption. We can join our suffering to the Lamb of God. What a person endures, for the sake of Christ and in union with him, can have great value. This applies especially to the suffering involved in one's final illness, living with a disability, or caring for someone with special needs. In fact that is what separates us from animals, where efficiency and survival of the fittest reign supreme. The sick, the unborn, and the disabled are not problems to be eliminated but images of God to be loved. This message is hard to proclaim and even harder to live but it is needed now more than ever. Each human life has incalculable worth, even in the face of great suffering and the most severe limitations. As Christians we know we have been purchased at a high price. Our dignity doesn’t come from what we accomplish or provide for others. It is part of who we are as persons created in the image and likeness of God and redeemed by Blood of the Lamb.

It’s not possible in one homily to go through ALL the reasons we are called to value human life, from conception until natural death. For sure, there are natural and philosophical arguments as well. But it cannot be denied that human life has value for the same reason that gold has value, because someone was willing to pay for it. If our Creator and Savior thinks that highly of each and every one of us, we have no right to think less of ourselves or others for any reason. This week, let us thank God for the gift of our life and recommit ourselves to defending this basic right for all people. We place all our efforts under the protection of Mary as we say…Hail Mary…

The Shock of New Birth (Baptism of the Lord, 2020)

To listen to this homily, click here.

Some people have strange minds and see the world in a different light than most others. Tim Burton, the director of movies like as Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, the Nightmare Before Christmas and The Corpse Bride, is a prime example. When I have watched his movies, I often think, “how does he come up with this stuff?” However, he had an experience which topped anything he depicted in his films, an experience that not even his unusual mind was prepared for. He said, “You really can't prepare for it. It's the most natural thing in the world yet the most shocking, somehow.” Tim Burton was referring to the birth of his first child.

Burton makes a good point. Nothing on this planet can really compare with the birth of a baby. Each child possesses a potential and a value which cannot be quantified; babies bring hope. As the Bible teaches, we are created in the very image of God. That we can participate in the conception of such a being, whose soul and resurrected body will live forever, should stun us.

That natural event, with its power and potential, rightly amazes us, yet something else should shock us even more. Today’s feast of the baptism of the Lord reminds us that something similar happens in the spiritual world whenever someone receives the sacrament of baptism. In beginning his public ministry, Jesus risked misunderstanding by allowing John to baptize him. It made him appear as less than John and of somehow needing spiritual cleansing. Neither was true, as John himself testifies. But the fact Jesus would accept such a risk shows how important he considered baptism to be to his message of salvation. It would become not only a vehicle of conversion, but of new birth. The early Christians struggled with this. Why did the sinless Christ accept a baptism that implied repentance? As St. Augustine and other Fathers pointed out, Jesus was baptized not for his sake, but for ours. The waters did not transform him; he transformed the waters.

Our family has been blessed with many babies. I personally believe being around little ones softens the heart of a person in the best possible way. That’s why I always want our families with young children to feel welcome here; their presence benefits all of us! For example, one of the blessings of holding a little baby is how peaceful and happy they make us. People spend hours simply holding their children and looking at them with love. Even the smallest thing they do brings such delight to their mother or father: a little smile, a funny face, a goofy sound. People delight in their babies, not for what they do but simply for who they are. 

What we do for babies, God does for you and me at every instant. You might say God spends all eternity contemplating us. And his attention is never divided. Even though he has lots of children, he focuses completely on every one of us with undivided affection. Not because we have done something to deserve it, but because of Jesus, who instituted the sacrament of baptism, which allowed us to be adopted into God’s family. Because of those saving waters, God has said to us the same sacred words he proclaimed to Jesus, “You are my beloved son, my beloved daughter. With you I am well pleased!”

You and I don’t earn the Father’s Love nor have we done anything to deserve it. But he doesn’t care about that! In spite of our unworthiness, He gives it freely and unconditionally. There is nothing in the world we could ever do to make God love us more. And yet, how sad that we usually interact with God as if it were up to us and our actions to make him like us. As if it were in our hands to do enough to persuade God to send a little love our way. No wonder we beat ourselves up so much when we sin and fail and realize our weaknesses!

Think about this:

What would look different in your life if you believed God loved you unconditionally? How would it change your perspective? Would it make you more daring in living out your faith, knowing that you always had a loving God at your side? Imagine the freedom that would come with knowing in your bones that no matter what you did, successful or not, you could not lose the love and approval of God! How might it change the way you treated other people? Realizing the One who is madly in love with you is also loving them in the same way? Would it add passion to our faith, our prayer, our daily lives?

How good it must have felt for Christ as he came out of the water and heard the voice of his Father! If you have never heard that voice, I pray for you now, I want you to know that God is crying out those same words every day, all the time. You are alive because God loves you, thinks of you and wants you here. Every moment of every day he is thinking of you specifically, he looks on you with love, he is smiling and crying and feeling everything you do. He wants us to know of his mad love for us fickle and sinful children, that is why he sent his beloved son in the first place, to shatter our deafness and indifference.

When you find your faith tested, perhaps by sickness or financial problems, by struggles in your family, or even  abandonment by the people who should be there for you, remember Jesus has claimed you. We belong to him and in him we belong to each other. Because of him we also hear the Father's voice, “You are my beloved son, my beloved daughter. With you I am well pleased.” Shocking, undeserved, but ultimately and always true!

There are Three Types of People...(Epiphany, Year A)

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The Solemnity of the Epiphany is one of the oldest liturgical celebrations of the Church, possibly even older than the observance of Christmas. It’s message is that in Jesus all people have been saved from the destruction of sin.There are three moments the ancient liturgies referred to as epiphanies or manifestations of the Lord: the homage of the magi, the Baptism of the Lord, and the changing of water into wine at Cana. The Eastern and Orthodox Churches combine all three events in one celebration. The Roman Catholic Church separates the three and zeros in on the worship of the magi for today’s feast.

To guide our reflection on the Epiphany, I’d like to offer a quote from Blaise Pascal. He was a seventeenth century scientist and philosopher who, among other things, invented a primitive calculating machine that became the forerunner for the modern computer. Those of us who feel lost around computers and smartphones or curse the confusion technology brings can try to forgive Pascal for that. One of the good things he left us was this quote:

"There are only three types of people; those who have found God and serve him; those who have not found God and seek him, and those who live, not seeking or finding him. The first are rational and happy; the second unhappy and rational, and the third foolish and unhappy.”

We see those three types represented in our readings at Christmas time. Among the foolish and unhappy is King Herod. He pretends to seek God, but his real concern is to defend his power and pleasure at any cost. He was far from happy. Tortured by suspicions, he murdered scores of innocent babies after the visit from the Magi. He also wiped out members of his own family, including his wife and two sons, who he was convinced, were plotting against him. This caused the Emperor Augustus to remark, “I would rather be Herod's pig than his son." Herod, in an extreme way, represents the class of people who neither seek nor find God.

At the other end of the spectrum are those who have found God and serve him. Two obvious examples are St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mary. We can also include the shepherds in that happy group.

In the middle are the Magi. They represent all honest seekers of truth and goodness found ultimately in God. From the Greek "magoi" we get our English word "magic" or "magician." They were not illusionists like modern magicians, but they studied the heavens and tried to figure out the relationship between the stars and what is happening on earth. The Magi are also called "Wise Men" because they followed the celestials signs that led them to Christ.

We do not know what those signs were. There is a fascinating documentary called “The Star of Bethlehem”. You can actually watch the whole thing on YouTube. The hour-long film recreates the heavens at the time of Christ’s birth and offers some compelling ideas of what those signs would have looked like to the Magi, be that a comet, an alignment of planets or something along those lines. Whatever it was, it led the Magi to Jerusalem, then to Bethlehem. When they arrived at the dwelling of Joseph and Mary, they stopped being seekers and now it was time for adoration. They worshipped the child and acknowledged him as God. And they gave gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, which honored Jesus' kingship, divinity, and priesthood.

One last thought on the Magi’s search for the messiah; they ultimately found him, not in the royal city of Jerusalem, not in a kingly palace, or the sanctuary of the temple. They found him in the little town of Bethlehem in the most ordinary of circumstances. The same will be true for us most days. We have to seek Jesus every day of our lives. Finding the Lord and the happiness he offers is not a one-time event; it is a mindset, a way of life. More often than not, we will encounter him in the mundane details of living out our vocation, in our homes, at work, and interacting with the people God places in our life. We should never give up on finding God! We should not grow weary of looking for him even though at times he may feel far away or hidden from our sight! We can only imagine there had to be moments where the Magi felt the same as they journeyed slowly towards Bethlehem, yet they never gave up or stopped looking.

The Magi serve as an inspiration and example on how we can seek the Lord and serve him. We have confidence that all who honestly look for God will find him. So we ask the help of the Magi, Mary, Joseph and all the saints for the grace and determination to seek God always and as we find him, to serve him so we can experience the happiness and peace that Jesus longs to give us.

What Made the Holy Family Holy? (Feast of the Holy Family, 2019)

To listen to this homily, click here.

I hope you all are having a wonderful celebration of Christmas and enjoying the opportunity to spend extra time with your friends and family. This holy time is centered on families and that’s one of the reasons the Church designates the Sunday after Christmas as the feast of the Holy Family. None of us come from perfect families but by the wisdom and grace of God, it is the place where we learn so many holy and important lessons, virtues, and life skills.

There’s a story, written by Bret Harte in 1868, called the Luck of Roaring Camp. It takes place in a community of gruff, hard drinking, fierce, miners looking for gold. They were the type of guys who were always looking out for themselves and had no problem using cutthroat tricks to get ahead and make their fortune. One day a pregnant woman named Cherokee Sal stumbled into camp. She died giving birth, but incredibly the child survived. Deaths were common in Roaring Camp but a birth was something unheard of. The men of the camp took responsibility for the baby. They began taking turns caring for him. They decided to build him a clean cabin; he was their baby, and they were determined to give him a proper home. To hold him and sing to him was considered a privilege. They demanded previously foreign things like decent language, quiet, cleanliness and moral order. The men began to shed their roughness, anger, and selfishness. The little child transformed this outpost of rough, crude miners into a community of generosity, tenderness and compassion. The baby called forth from these reckless characters a dignity, a purpose, and sense of beauty, wonder and joy. 

Children will do that to people. Many young couples refine their lifestyles when a baby comes. They want the baby to be brought up with the best they have, by being the best people they can be. Many people who had been away from church return to their faith after the birth of a child. They want their baby to grow up with a real loving relationship to God and be a part of a worshiping community. Children can bring out the best in their parents and I’ve certainly seen this happen as my siblings have formed families of their own. 

This is what God has done for us through the birth of His son. He has called us from living self-centered lives to lives of compassion, peace and joy.  Jesus Christ has transformed humanity, making humanity holy, just as He is holy. 

Let's look a little closer at the members of the Holy Family and their relationship to each other. We begin with Joseph. In the Gospel of Matthew, Joseph develops into a fierce defender of the family, who does everything possible to keep the Holy Family together. He could have sent Mary away to have her baby without the scrutiny of the neighbors at Nazareth. This seemed like the most logical path until the angel appeared to him in a dream. Thankfully Joseph had the faith to trust God and form a family with Mary and Jesus. When danger threatened the life of the child, he didn't leave the family to protect himself, nor did he send Mary and Jesus away to fend for themselves. He took them to Egypt, and then, keeping the family together, returned to Nazareth. Joseph is presented as a protecting and unifying figure. 

During her pregnancy Mary was a vigilant mother. After Jesus' birth, she remained ever-watchful and present. St. Luke said Mary pondered in her heart everything that involved her child. She was present during the Lord's ministry, waiting and watching to see what would take place.  She was present standing beneath the cross, supporting and loving her son, through it all. Mary's role in the Holy Family is to nurture with holy encouragement, support and guidance. Mary was not, as some would like to say, a single mother. She took her place in the Holy Family alongside Joseph and together as a team they fulfilled their roles as husband and wife, mother and father.

Jesus is the center of the Holy Family. All children have the right to be the center of their family’s love and care. As an infant and a child he depended on his mother and father and is subject to them. He also knew that their every move will be for his well-being and development. His is the Love that made the Holy Family holy even before his human nature was able to preach the good news of salvation. 

So here we have the Holy Family as a model. The Father fights against anything in the world that would destroy his family. The mother creates the home and nurtures the family. The child is the love around which the family revolves. 

For this reason, the Church offers the Holy Family as a model to our families. Perhaps the roles of mother and father may merge or differ, but the basic action of being a community of love that protects and nurtures children is quite realistic. Like Joseph, our fathers, along with their wives, must protect their families from the forces of the world that try to destroy the family. We might not be dealing with a murderous King Herod, but the forces of evil have sent drugs, licentiousness, and materialism to kill the souls of our young people. 

Like Mary, our mothers, along with their husbands, must embrace their role to be present and nurture their children with a watchful spirit. This is more than just providing the basics of food, education, and shelter. Equally, if not more important, is the task of helping children learn how to seek and find the presence of God in their lives. Mothers, along with fathers, must nurture their children with spiritual food. As children witness their parents choosing right over wrong, giving over selfishness, caring for people who are hurting, this example will feed children the spiritual food that transforms a Christian into a follower of Christ. 

Our families should revolve around the love of children. They are only yours for a brief time. They demand the best of who you can be. Then they will leave to form their own families, but because of them, their Moms and Dads have grown into better people and through years of family life, have made the love of God real for the world. 

At Roaring Camp, the presence of the baby transformed rough men from being self-centered to being self-less. In a sense, the baby called those men to holiness and formed them into a sort of family.  On the Feast of the Holy Family we pray we all may hear the cries of the Infant Jesus, calling us to the humble holiness that is the heart of the Catholic family.