Gospel, Homily and Coffee

Often I hear people speak of what they perceive as threats to the faith, to the church, to God.  OHHH, it's secularism. OHHHH it’s those other religions. OHHHH it is the immorality of our world these days. OHHHH it is the Republicans, it's the Democrats, it’s this group or that group, it’s this idea and that idea. Crazy. Btw, often what people mean when they say this, is that the threat is to their own individual idea of faith, church and God.  And that is the “threat” if you will to faith… it is our own lack of depth, lack of understanding, our own lack of wisdom. I hope this does not come across as too arrogant or prideful, but being Christian, being Catholic, our tradition and faith is amazing.  The depth that we have in our understanding of Jesus, and what he teaches and what he signifies is so full. There is so much to explore, navigate through and uncover; so much to show us the meaning of this world, our lives, all of reality. Where does this need to begin? Th...

My maternal grandfather was a storyteller. As a child, on Summer days on our porch he would make up stories that I loved. I also loved hearing about his family which he was a bit more reticent to share. One story was of a youngers' sisters wedding that lasted 3 days! This was amazing given how poor my great-grandparents were, as simple coal mining immigrants. Then sadly, after about 10 years of marriage and around six kids, her husband died. So here she was at 28 years old, widowed with kids. She herself would die tragically a few years later leaving those kids orphaned.  Or the other story of how a man on the town came to my great-grandfather and declared that he wanted to marry a Bailey girl. So my great grandfather apparently told the oldest unwed she was it. That daughter said “no", because this man was too short; but her sister Mary agreed; and my Aunt Mary and Uncle George were married almost 60 years with 8 children. If they were 5' 3, that would have been ama...

God inspired Sacred Scripture. We believe this as Catholics. So how did we write our Sacred Scripture? Did any of the writers of the texts sit down and say “Today, I will write a book of Sacred Scripture?” Did Micah one day just have that thought? Or did God appear and dictate what was to be written? The People shared experiences, they shared their stories of how they perceived God was present to them and to the people. These stories were passed along eventually were written down and shared more and more. In time the community decided “yes, these are true experiences of God”, and accepted them. The community wrote and formed scripture. This includes the Gospels. We know there were other Gospels written aside from our four. They all shared their experiences, their understanding of Jesus and his mission; but of all those, the four were accepted by the community of believers as those that reflect the true intent of Jesus. There was no secret Church cabal that gathered in a back...

(I am not preaching this weekend, the Deacon's are, but here is a homily nonetheless!) REJOICE!  St. Paul admonishes us to REJOICE, giving the name to this 3rd Sunday of Advent.  Why REJOICE?  What is there to rejoice in? John the Baptist performed a baptism in which people publicly would announce they were going to change their lives and how they acted.  This is not a bad thing.  It becomes an act of will based on the persons desire to make changes. Jesus did something different; it was something more substantial, going to the core of our very being.  Jesus opens to us the Way of the Spirit, the Way of God's divine love which induces a change in us and how we choose to live. God's love, the person of the Holy Spirit, when truly accepted for what it is induces that change. Think a moment about electric stoves:  they have that coil which only heats us when an electric change is introduced and induces the atoms to vibrate and create the heat. God is love...

This past week, as I do at least once per year, I meet with teens being formed for confirmation and answer their questions. And there are always some questions that are fairly easy to answer; chocolate: and some more difficult. One of those questions from this past week: How do we know God is real? How do we build our connection with God? One of the most important hallmarks in human life is when we learn to walk. It is amazing to watch how children take those steps and watch parents encourage, support and affirm. To learn to walk takes a lot of Trust! The baby has to learn to trust in those wobbly chubby legs and to trust that Mom and Dad will be there. And we know mostly this takes a little time. The child will fall; sometimes innocently on the behind, other times with a bit more drama. This trust will form us for the rest of our lives. If we do not find trust in our parents, then more than likely trust will be difficult for us in the rest of our lives. How do we know God i...