Homilies

The theme of today’s Gospel can be summed in two words:  STAY AWAKE. In some ways, this Advent theme to stay awake is counterintuitive.  It doesn’t mean “don’t get any sleep.”  Stay awake is certainly not the advice parents give to children when it is time to go to bed.  Staying awake doesn’t mean setting your alarm clock to anticipate this major religious event of the coming of the Day of the Lord.  It can’t have this meaning as the Gospel tells us we do not know the day nor the hour.

Today we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King. Here in the United States we sometimes associate kings with the abuse of power and control and it is hard for us to think about a suffering king or a selfless king – a king who cares so much that he literally dies for his people. When Pope Pius XI instituted this feast he wanted to address a world that was, and still is, suffering under the illusion of false gods, the gods of consumerism, exploitation, racism, and mass injustice. He envisioned Christ as a “King of Peace who came to reconcile all things” who came not to be served but to save and serve all. This feast is meant to help us understand that we are all called to truly be Christ’s hands and feet.

This time of year is a time of dying, but this reality doesn’t have to be terrifying.  As the leaves fall from the trees and have died, as the days grow shorter and the hours of darkness increase, we are very much aware of the change of seasons and the cycle of life.  But as was inscribed in the haunting song of Bette Midler’s THE ROSE:  “Just remember that far beneath the winter snow lies the seed that in the spring becomes the rose.” So too, just remember beneath the adversity we face in the Church and in the world, far beneath the winter snow there lies a seed planted in our hearts that in the spring becomes the rose of God’s love.

The resurrection of Jesus is the linchpin of Christian faith, the source of our hope, the cause of our joy.  In the light of a resurrection faith, we seek to place God first in our lives. On this Stewardship Commitment Sunday, we are inviting you to reflect on the spirituality of stewardship.  It means we wish to place God first in our lives.  It means we live a life of gratitude, conscious of the many blessings that are part of our lives.  We are inviting you to make a stewardship commitment of time and talent.

In having the faith even the size of a mustard seed is an incredible God-given gift.  The potential of the faith that we have is enormous.  In fact, nothing is impossible with God.  When our gift of faith is a quality of life, a way of living, and a way of seeing, we will encounter the Lord in all that we say and do.    As we gather at Mass today, you may have come with family members, but with faith-filled eyes may we see all of us gathered as sisters and brothers coming together in the name of Jesus. When we trust in the faith that has been given to us by our faithful God, to raise $230,000 CMA dollars to help people in need across our diocese is very, very doable.  In fact, it is a privilege for us to share from our resources to help others in need.  This is not a burden.  This is living out our high calling as disciples of the Lord Jesus. 

Today’s Gospel begins with the words:  “There was a rich man.”  The real message in this parable of the rich man is that he needs to see his life in the context of stewardship.  We could critique Jesus in his parables as always talking about money.  Did not Jesus get the memo that money is personal, and you are not supposed to talk about it?  After all, we come to Church to pray. Very, very true.  We come to Church to pray.  We come to Church to raise our awareness about spirituality, do we not?  We come to pray and reflect on our longing for God. In last Sunday’s Gospel and this Sunday’s as well, Jesus stays on point to an essential component of spirituality and discipleship -- what we do with what we have is to the heart of discipleship.  Jesus is saying again and again in Luke’s Gospel that we are to share what we have with those who don’t have.  We are to serve and to help and to love one another.