Homilies

Next weekend is our Stewardship Commitment Sunday in which we ask you to place in the second collection the stewardship commitment card you received in the mail this week.  May our giving not be a burden but an opportunity to serve and make a difference in our parish life.   As we have been the recipients of the generosity of parishioners who have preceded us, may we do our part in witnessing to the love of God in all the ways we share ourselves with each other.

When the song of the angels at Bethlehem is stilled, when the star in the sky that guided the magi is gone, when the magi have returned to the East, when the shepherds are back with their flocks, the work of Christmas begins:  to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among people and to make music in the heart.

In celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany, may the story of the Epiphany be our story as well.  We are today’s magi who come to discover and encounter the Christ child. The magi symbolize what is restless in the human spirit seeking for a greater depth of meaning and purpose in life.  They left behind what was comfortable and safe and took considerable risk in traveling to another country in search of the Lord.  The magi speak to our restless human spirit seeking to discover the spiritual meaning and longing for that which ultimately satisfies us. May each of us be in touch with our restless human spirit that is looking for something more in our spiritual journey.  How is the Lord calling us to move beyond our comfort zone and follow a star that will lead us to that deeper relationship with Jesus that we seek? My hunch is that the Lord is placing a star in our life on this Epiphany day that we are to follow.  That star may not be in the sky but possibly be the star that in the heart of someone you are called to love and to help and to serve.  That star may  be in the hearts of the poor who we are called to reach out to.

This past summer, my wife Jody and I went on a New England cruise. Also traveling aboard the ship was a large extended family celebrating a reunion. Members of the group were always easy to spot because they all wore matching t-shirts with their family name on them. In fact, they had a different colored shirt for each day of the cruise. In today’s second reading, St. Paul tells us exactly how to “dress” as members of God’s family - chosen ones, holy and beloved, and as members of our own family. He tells us to “put on” heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience and forgiveness. And, over all these, put on love.

To ponder means more than thinking, organizing, worrying, doing, procrastinating, scurrying, etc.  To ponder means that we pray with a faith-filled heart over the joys and the struggles and challenges of the day.  It means to meditate, quiet down and know we are surrounded by God’s unending love.  We give thanks for the blessings of the day.  May we commit ourselves again to imitating Mary's openness to God’s will and her love for Christ and His Church. May the blessing that the Lord said to Moses be the blessing the Lord speaks to each of us: The Lord bless and keep you. The Lord let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace.

The mystery of Christmas celebrates that the power of God comes to us in a tiny infant. In one simple unassuming sentence, the Christmas mystery is revealed.  From the evangelist Luke:  “While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son.”  The power of God comes to us in a tiny infant.  God is with us in the Bethlehem infant born to Mary and Joseph.