The Great Paradox of Christianity

 

Deacon Dave · OT6C Beatitudes

Homily for the 6th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Feb. 16, 2025. The Gospel of St. Luke 6:17-26. Topic: The Great Paradox of Christianity 

 Struggle, sacrifice, self-denial…. These are all a part of our lives and not just when things go wrong or are difficult. Oftentimes, we intentionally embrace a challenge when we want to better ourselves or our situation. For example: If we want to advance at work we put in extra effort and time to prove our dedication. If we want to improve our appearance and health we'll take up a strict diet and commit to a program of physical fitness. In other words, if we want something bad enough, we’ll do whatever it takes to get there, 

 In today’s Gospel, Jesus presents us with the challenge of four Beatitudes, a word that means “Blessings” and four “Woe-itudes” (If I may call them that). These teachings are called “paradoxes of Christianity” because they take experiences or situations which seem either ideal or to be avoided and flip them on their backs. Jesus takes things that we would label as blessings and shows that they can also result in a curse. In a similar manner He speaks of difficult situations and shows how they can be turned around to our ultimate benefit. These teachings of the Lord were consoling and hopeful to the people who heard Him. 

We have to remember that most of those who followed Jesus were not the elite and the nobles. Quite the contrary, they were primarily the ones who had absolutely no voice and no status in the world of the Roman Empire. In that culture, if you were a widow or an orphan or a slave or a disabled person or a beggar you were despised and had no recourse or advocate to plead your cause. So when news spread of a man named Jesus, who had great power from God and who declared that the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven would open wide to people like you…well, these downtrodden people treasured His every word and followed Him wherever he went. This is the backdrop to today’s teachings. 

 Christ was telling those who counted for nothing in the eyes of the rich and powerful that their social condition and struggles are not the sum total of who they are. And furthermore, they are actually blessed because their situation in life puts them in a place where, unlike the well-off, they well know that they depend upon God for their daily needs. His words assure them that the justice of God will make right all that was wrong and reward them for remaining faithful even in the most difficult of times. So, he is not counseling them to just stay put and accept their lot in life as if this is the end of their story. Rather, He is lifting up their hearts and assuring them that better times are to come, perhaps here and now but if not, then for sure in the hereafter. 

 On the other hand, Jesus is reminding those who think they have it made in life to stop and think again. He is warning them that a life of abundance can so easily become a trap that leads to woe in the next life. How so? Because, if in their wealth and plenty they did not provide for the needy and the outcast, then their riches will rise up and condemn them at their judgment. It’s an eternal woe to have been so blessed by God but to have been unmindful of others and to not pass it on and pay it forward. However, it’s never too late for them to hear Jesus speaking to their hearts and to repent of their ways. Then they, too, can begin to walk the pathway to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

 To all of His disciples, be they rich and poor, the Lord closes His discourse in today’s Gospel by saying that they will be blessed if people hate them… and cursed with woe if people speak well of them. Why? Because if “worldly people” hate us it means that we must be doing something right as far as living as a Christian goes. It means that we must be reflecting Jesus and his Gospel because He, too, was maltreated for standing up for justice and truth. On the other hand, if those who hate Christ are speaking well of us it’s a pretty good indicator that we are failing in our mission as Christians. You see, an authentic Christian life should be like a “living examination of conscience” in the world. The good that we do and the love that we bear even for those who oppose us should make people stop and make a moral inventory of their lives. But, if our words and behavior do not upset the status quo they will like us or at least leave us alone. However, "playing it safe" by "going along to get along" is in no way, shape or form a viable option for a faithful follower of Jesus. And it definitely does not lead us to the Kingdom of God. 

 So, for our own sake and for the sake of our neighbor, let’s take to heart the words that Jesus speaks to us in today’s Gospel: Blessed are you who struggle. Blessed are you who sacrifice. Blessed are you who embrace self-denial for love of God and others, for you shall be forever rewarded in the Kingdom of Heaven. But woe to you who have served and pampered yourselves in this life. Woe to you who have lived without thought for your needy brothers and sisters. By choosing to have your consolation and your comforts here and now, you have forfeited enjoying them forever in eternity. This is the great paradox of Christianity.

Turning Our Lives Over to God

 

Deacon Dave · Turning Our Lives Over to God

Homily for the 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 9, 2025. Readings: Isaiah 6:1-8; 1 Corinthians 15: 1-11; Gospel of St. Luke 5:1-11. Theme: Turning Our Lives Over to God 

 When we hear the words, “I surrender” or “I give up” we tend to think of the humiliation of defeat, the loss of power and control over our lives. Most of us fight hard against saying these words because we want to avoid being thought of as weak, incompetent or incapable. And yet, one of the many paradoxes in the teachings of Jesus is that we can only become spiritually strong when we admit that we are interiorly weak; we can only be lifted up to greatness after we acknowledge our utter nothingness before God. This is precisely the lesson that all three of the holy men in today's Scriptures teach us. Each one had an up-close-and-personal experience of God which totally transformed their lives. Each one had a life-changing encounter with God that moved them to surrender their own self-image and ideas in order to become what God wanted them to be. 

 In our first reading the prophet Isaiah experienced a profound vision of God in all His glory. Isaiah was hesitant to take up the prophet's mission of calling the people to repentance because he was aware of his own sinfulness. In addition, he knew that saying “yes” to God’s call would bring opposition, rejection and ridicule into his life. And so fear made him hesitant to do what needed to be done. But in beholding the Lord’s glory and being cleansed by the Divine Touch, he surrendered to God saying, “Here I am Lord, send me.” And as a result of his surrender, Isaiah became the greatest prophet of the Messiah in the entire Old Testament. And to this day, almost 3,000 years later we still repeat at every Mass the words that he heard chanted by angels around God’s throne, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts, heaven and earth are full of your glory…” 

 Our second reading presents us with the experience of St. Paul. In our reading he doesn’t go into the details of how he was called by the Lord (we learn about that from his other writings) but he makes reference to it. Before the Risen Christ appeared to him he was full of himself, cocky, stubborn and arrogant. He was convinced that he was God’s agent and solution to the problem of an annoying little branch of Judaism called The Way, whose members believed Jesus of Nazareth to be the promised Messiah. Surrendering was the very last thing this self-sure Israelite was likely to ever do, so God had to literally knock him to the ground and temporarily blind him so that he could see clearly and exactly the kind of arrogant man he had become. Long story short, Paul did surrender and was transformed into a tireless missionary for Christ, an inspired author of the New Testament, and the Apostle to Gentile Christians. 

 Lastly, our Gospel tells us about the conversion experience of Simon-Peter, which happened while he was having a real bad fishing day. As we know from so many other stories about him, Simon was headstrong, impetuous, and self-sufficient; a totally “alpha” kind of guy. He knew the fishing business like no one else and wasn’t about to be told how to do it more effectively by a carpenter from the backwoods village of Nazareth. But for some reason, perhaps it was the look in Christ’s eyes or the authority in his voice, or maybe cocky Simon thought he would teach this carpenter a lesson, so he decided to give in, to surrender. And lo and behold! He hit the jackpot and ended up with the biggest catch of fish in his career! Simon then surrendered to Christ with as much passion and gusto as he had at first resisted Him, saying, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” The strong-man facade he has built around himself crumbled as he acknowledged who and what he truly was at heart. His dropping of pretenses and self-sufficiency freed him to become Peter, the first pope, the rock upon which Jesus built His Church. 

 It seems to me that all three of these holy men speak to us about our need to get rid of any false self-images and give up the many self-serving plans that we have in mind. They call us to open our hearts in humility and step forward with trust in what God has in mind for us instead. While it is true that all three of them were already connected with God in some way, it was on their own terms. But their stories show us that letting go of the personas we project and the plans that we have in mind for ourselves are nothing compared to what God has in mind for us. The transformation of ourselves into something beautiful for God is indeed possible and the Lord wants to do this for each one of us. But it requires that we turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God every day in a spirit of surrender, willing to give up our own ideas and plans to embrace those of the Lord as did Isaiah, Paul and Simon-Peter.

Jesus the Light of the World

 

Deacon Dave · Jesus the Light of the World

Homily for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, Feb. 2, 2025. Gospel of St. Luke 2:22-40. Theme: Jesus the Light of the World 

 Today we observe the Presentation of the Infant Jesus, a liturgical celebration that dates all the way back to the Third Century. In times past, the Presentation of the Lord marked the end of the then much-longer Christmas Season because it is the last time in the Bible that we are told about Jesus as a baby. Today’s feast was also known by a secondary title, the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, because along with the baby-dedication ceremony there was also a mandatory Jewish ritual of cleansing a woman spiritually after childbirth. 

 On the surface level, the Presentation of the Lord recalls the time when the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph took their 40-day old Child to the Jerusalem Temple to dedicate Him to God. But it was also the fulfilment of God’s Promise to Israel that His Glory (which means His Presence) would one day return to the Temple to purify it and rededicate it to true worship. To understand this, we need to know a little bit about the backstory. You see, at the time of King Solomon, which was about a thousand years before the birth of Christ, God’s Glory first entered the Temple. The people saw this happen when fire descended from the sky and entered into the sanctuary. This manifestation of the Lord's Presence remained there for centuries but left the Temple after the Jews persisted in worshiping idols instead of the One True God. At that time, the prophet Ezekiel saw the Glory depart from the temple. This leaving and returning of the Divine Presence is what the prophet Malachi is referring to in today’s First Reading. S

o that’s the liturgical and historical background of today’s feast in Judaism. But it also has an additional spiritual meaning for us Christians. This can be found in the words which the elderly Simeon proclaimed as he took the Baby Jesus into his arms, and inspired by the Holy Spirit, called Him the light of revelation to the Gentiles. This meant that Jesus the Messiah had come for all people and not just for Israel. To better appreciate what this title of Christ as the “Light” meant to the people of his time, we have to recall that they did not live in an artificially and constantly illuminated world as we do. 

 There were no street lights nor home electrical systems in those days. We take light for granted in our times and only feel the vulnerability of darkness when we have to endure long-term power outages. But they lived much of their time in darkness dependent upon fires, torches and candles. And so they knew from experience that darkness meant the threat of harm because danger loomed potentially around any corner. So to such people light was a very positive symbol! It was a huge blessing and a welcomed advantage! It meant safety because you could see who was around you and where you were going without losing direction. Light meant safety because criminals would not act up when they could be so easily seen. 

 Jesus is the spiritual Light of the world. His words and actions show us the clear way to live and act. His teachings scatter the darkness of error, dispel the clouds of confusion and lift the fog of superstition. The Light of Christ reveals the real inner truth of things that might look good and desirable to us on the outside, such as some lifestyles that are presented as beautiful, affirming and life giving. But in reality they inject spiritual poison into those who embrace them and shroud them in spiritual darkness. If we turn away Christ and extinguish the light of Faith in our lives we are in danger of harming ourselves because we have chosen to stumble through life on our own, trying to find our way through the darkness. 

 Because the Presentation hails Christ as the Light of the world, the use of candles to celebrate it arose in Jerusalem in the Fourth century. We know this from the journal of a Spanish pilgrim named Egeria, who attended a Presentation Procession in Jerusalem in the year 380 AD. Then during the early Middle Ages the custom arose of blessing candles on today’s feast, carrying them in procession at Mass, and then taking them home to use in personal devotion. This gave rise to nicknaming today’s feast Candlemas, which means Mass of theCandles. 

 Candles are a powerful symbol for the Presence of Christ. They spread warm light in a darkened room. They glow with a gentle light that can bring calmness to the soul and when scented they fill the air with a pleasant aroma. In power outages a candle can become the place where we gather with one another in safety. All of these attributes of a candle can also be applied to Jesus. He enables us to focus on what is important and true; His Presence brings calmness to the soul and His goodness is like a fragrant scent that gets our attention and attracts us to follow Him. Even the physical composition of a candle can speak to us about Christ if we look upon the wax as correlating to His body, the wick to His soul, and the flame as a reminder of His divinity. 

 When we were baptized we received a blessed candle to symbolize the spiritual light of Christ. We were invited to keep this spiritual flame burning brightly and to walk by its light. We were told to allow it to guide our choices and steps through life until the day when the Lord would come to bring us home to Heaven. How have we been doing with this? Are our baptismal lights still shining brightly?

A Jubilee of Hope!

 

Deacon Dave · A Jubilee of Hope!

Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Jan. 26, 2025. Gospel of St. Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21. Theme: A Jubilee of Hope! 

 The Holy Father, Pope Francis, has declared 2025 to be a special Holy Year called the Jubilee of Hope. How appropriate it is, then, that in our Gospel today Jesus also announced the start of a Jubilee when He told the congregation in the Nazareth synagogue that He was initiating “a year acceptable to the Lord”. In ancient Judaism, a Jubilee was a special year and a joyful occasion when slaves were to be set free, debts were to be forgiven, and confiscated lands were to be returned to their rightful owners. 

 However, Jesus was transforming it into a new kind of Jubilee. It wouldn’t be about the restoration of land but rather about the restoration of sight to the blind and health to the sick. It wouldn’t be concerned with eliminating financial loans but on the forgiveness of the debt of sin. And Jesus’ Jubilee would not focus on the return of property but rather on the return of people back to a right relationship with God and one another. In addition, Jesus’ New Jubilee wouldn’t be confined to any particular time or people or place. It would be for anyone anywhere who desires peace of heart on earth and eternal life in Heaven. 

In declaring the Jubilee of 2025, Pope Francis wants us to realize that the Lord can and will do for us today these very same wonderful things that He did for others during His public ministry. The only thing that can stop this from happening in our own lives is us, that is, our own lack of trust in Him. You might recall that in the Gospels whenever Jesus works a miracle and heals someone He always praises their faith, that is, the expectant hope that they have in His power and willingness to help them. It is this kind of faith that is born of hope which brings about their cure. And so for the very reason of building up our confidence in Jesus, the Holy Father has dedicated this special year to the virtue of hope. Hope is a spiritual power that is infused into us at our Baptism along with the virtues of faith and charity. These three divine gifts form a kind of packaged deal, so to speak, that are given to us so that we can live a truly Christian life as God’s adopted children. 

I think we all know that the virtue of faith means that we believe in God and all that He has revealed to us. And I think we would all agree that the virtue of charity is what empowers us to love God and express this love by the way we treat others. But what about Christian hope? What exactly is it? Coming up with the answer tends to be a challenge for many people. I think the best way to define it is to first of all say that it is not the kind of hope that we usually talk about in our everyday language. You see, we use hope as an expression for something that we would like to happen, that we wish would happen, but aren’t really sure if it will or not. This kind of hope is full of uncertainty. It gives us no assurance whatsoever but leaves us wondering, hanging in mid air. 

 But Christian hope, on the other hand, is quite the opposite! It’s the firm conviction that God will always be faithful to His Word. And so we expect, and not simply just wish, that what He says will happen because we know Him to be a Father Who always keeps His promises. Christian hope then can be defined as confident expectation and trust in the Word of God. And the ultimate promise that we confidently expect to be kept is that of our eternal salvation, that is, an existence marked by joy and glory with God and one another in Heaven. 

 But even before then, while we still journey through life here on planet Earth, the virtue of hope comes to our aid. It enables us to persevere through thick and thin, confident in God’s Word which says that all things will ultimately work out for the good of those who trust in Him. Hope buoys us up with the promise of Jesus Who said that He would be with us always and this can help us to not give into worry, temptation and discouragement. So, even if the world around us seems increasingly evil. Even if some of the leadership of the Church seems rampant with corruption. Even if our personal lives are experiencing some sort of turmoil in the present or uncertainty about the future, Christian hope can still continue to shine brightly within us! It assures us that life is worth living and that what we may be going through right now is temporary and will pass. 

 Now, this kind of hope isn’t at all the same thing as being optimistic or exercising “the power of positive thinking”. Those things are based on undependable and fallible human effort. Christian hope, on the other hand, is firmly rooted in God and is an actual supernatural power that always resides within us. We already possess it. We just need to remember this and that it can be activated at any time by faith and prayer. And so to this end, Pope Francis urges us to say to ourselves, “I have hope, because God walks with me and holds my hand. God does not leave me to myself. The Lord Jesus has conquered evil and has opened the path of life for me.” 

 Just as the cross is the symbol for faith and a heart is the symbol of love, so the anchor has become the symbol for hope. This is because God’s Word in the Letter to the Hebrews says, “We have been given hope as a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls.” (Heb. 6:19) This means that just as an anchor safely holds a ship secure during a violent storm, so our trust in Christ can give us stability in times of turbulence and difficulty. With this anchor of hope to ground us, we can face any adversity because another passage of the Word of God from the Letter to the Philippians says, “I have learned that anywhere and at any time I can be content…for I have the strength to face all things by the power of Christ living in me.” (Phil. 4:12-13)

Changing So Much More Than Just Water!

 

Deacon Dave · Changing So Much More Than Just Water!

Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Jan. 19, 2025. Gospel of St. John 2:1-11. Theme: Changing So Much More Than Just Water! 

 The Church’s Liturgy has spent the last two Sundays gradually moving us out of the Christmas Season and back into Ordinary Time. In each step along the way, the Gospels of those Sundays unveil Jesus’ true identity. The first of these was 2 weeks ago on the Solemnity of the Epiphany wherein Jesus was manifested as King of Kings to the Magi. The second revelation took place at last Sunday’s Baptism of the Lord, when Jesus was affirmed by the Father’s voice and the Spirit’s visible manifestation as the Anointed Savior of mankind. And now this Sunday’s Gospel with its demonstration of the Lord’s power over the elements brings us a third revelation of Jesus as Lord and Master of Creation, that is, God come in the flesh. 

 On the surface level of factual history, this event is a recounting of the Lord’s first public miracle. But everything that Christ said and did goes so much deeper than surface level. His words and actions have meaning and application to people of all times and places. And so the story of the wedding at Cana isn’t just about the miraculous transformation of elements. It was just the attention-getting opening act, so to speak, that jump-started Christ’s 3-year long public ministry and turned people’s attention to this previously unknown carpenter from Nazareth. 

This miracle is really about more than changing water into wine. It’s also a sign that Jesus can change people, can change each one of us, from what we are into what we want to become as His disciples. It’s a sign and a promise that we can experience a personal transformation if we listen to Mary’s words to “do whatever He tells you.” Our Lady at Cana encourages us to turn to Jesus, Who will open up whole new possibilities in our lives. Faith, which is another word for trust, is the foundation of this transformational spiritual experience and if we truly place our trust in Jesus then we will see miracles of grace starting to take place within us as the Lord begins to gradually change us from the inside out. 

The first reading in today’s Liturgy sets us up to receive the transformational story of Cana. In it the prophet Isaiah speaks to the people of Israel who are suffering the humiliation of defeat and exile at the hands of their enemies. He tells them that if they trust in God they will be changed from being “Forsaken” and “Abandoned” into being “Chosen” and “Blessed”. To put this into modern day vocabulary, we can say that they will go from being “Failures” and “Losers” into becoming “Champions” and “Winners” by the grace of God. Isaiah’s prophecy is telling us that the negative and hurtful things we have experienced in life are not the last word and that our present - as well as our future - can be free of what we have suffered in our past. He is encouraging us to be faithful to God Who can and will bring good out of bad if we allow His grace to touch and change the trajectory of our lives. It all depends upon our decision to have confidence in God’s love no matter how things might seem in the present and boldly move forward trusting in His Word. Jesus can change our past into a very different and hopeful future, just as He changed ordinary water into fine and expensive wine. 

 Another example of transformation culled from this story can be seen in Cana itself. Before the Lord’s miracle there, it was just another out-of-the-way backwoods village. Which, like Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth, was so insignificant that it wasn’t even on the map. But ever since that unforgettable wedding reception, it has become a place of pilgrimage, a shrine of faith, a sign of hope. So even the transformation of that little town itself teaches us that we don’t have to be awesome and spectacular to attract the attention and miracles of Christ. We don’t have to be great and amazing in the estimation of others to become “somebody” in the eyes of God. He can and will transform our ordinary and often-times humdrum lives by His extraordinary grace if we just trust in Him and follow Mary’s advice to “do whatever He tells you”. 

 And that brings us to another very important lesson of today’s Gospel that we cannot overlook: the presence and role of Mary. St. John emphasizes that she is not just there as one of the wedding guests nor as a witness to her Son’s first miracle. Rather, she is actually the one who brings it about and thus initiates the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. It was at a word from His mother at Cana that Christ recognized that the time had come to reveal Himself and begin the process that would transform His reputation from that of a village carpenter into of the long-awaited Messiah of Israel. The Gospel is showing us that Mary is likewise willing and ready to intercede with Jesus on our behalf about the changes we need in our lives. And it shows that we can be confident that Jesus will be touched by His mother’s concern for us and our needs and work a miracle of grace for us just as He did for her and the Cana newlyweds.

Why Was Jesus Baptized?

 

Deacon Dave · Why Was Jesus Baptized?

Homily for the Baptism of the Lord Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. Gospel of St. Luke 3:15-22. Theme: Why Was Jesus Baptized? 

 Today’s feast of the Baptism of the Lord brings our Christmas Season officially to an end. And so today’s Liturgy ushers us out of Bethlehem, and moves us forward to the banks of the Jordan River. Jesus is no longer a baby in the manger but now comes to us as a 30-year old man. We encounter Him approaching his cousin, St. John the Baptist, who because of his fiery preaching and devout life, was mistakenly thought by many to be the Messiah. However, John sets them straight, telling them that they had picked the wrong man for the job but were about to meet the Real Deal in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. 

 To understand what’s going on at the Jordan River, it’s important to remember that Jesus was not baptized because He had any sins to be washed away. Even though He shared fully in our human nature He was always the faithful Son of God Who had nothing for which to repent. Rather, Jesus insisted on being baptized to show His solidarity with us sinners as our Savior and to sanctify the element of water which He would use as the sacramental channel for His saving grace. So in short, Jesus was not baptized because He needed it but because we do. The story of Jesus’ Baptism teaches us that what happened to Jesus at his Baptism, is also what happens to each one of us at ours, just in a different way. 

 The first thing we hear about after Jesus comes up out of the water is that Heaven was opened. And this is precisely what Baptism does for us. It re-opens the way to Heaven which was closed to us by the original sin of Adam and Eve. Recall that they were given the choice of living in obedience to their Creator or of going it on their own terms. They freely chose to turn their backs on their intimate relationship with God and the effects of their choice was passed on to all us, their descendants. Jesus came to undo what they had done. He came as Savior to heal the spiritual disability of original sin and to reunite us with God. And so this first step towards Heaven is taken by being cleansed in the Jesus-sanctified waters of Baptism. 

 The next marvelous thing we see happening to Jesus at the Jordan River is the Holy Spirit coming down upon Him under the appearance of a dove. Now, we might wonder why God chose to appear in the form of a dove? Well, because the dove is a biblical symbol of peace and innocence. By the waters of Baptism, we are made innocent through the forgiveness of sin and we make our peace, so to speak, with God. Baptism puts us into a right relationship with God as our Father, with the Son of God as our Savior and with God the Holy Spirit as our Sanctifier. The innocence and peace we receive from this Sacrament remains with us as long as we remain faithful to the baptismal promises to reject sin and Satan, to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and to live what He teaches us through the Bible and his Church. Should we ever fall away from these promises they can become ours once again through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. And the Good News is that in God’s rich mercy there is no limit as to how many times this can happen! 

 Finally, the Gospel tells us that God the Father’s voice was audibly heard declaring Jesus to be His Beloved Son in whom He was well pleased. And this is exactly what God the Father thinks about each one of us, about you and about me! We have become spiritually one with Jesus in Baptism and so through Him, with Him and in Him, we become God’s beloved children in whom He finds delight! The Scriptures assure us that God rejoices over you, rejoices over me, rejoices over each one of us personally because He is a Father who unconditionally loves us. And it’s this conscious awareness of God’s personal love that moves us from the inside out to want to live in a way that delights Him in return. 

 So often, too often really, we seem to get that backwards and think that we have to be good and earn God’s love before we can receive His blessings. But it’s not that way it is with God at all. This is not at all what the Gospel of Jesus teaches us. God loves us freely, totally and unconditionally simply because we are his. From all eternity He foresaw each one of us - knowing full well the good and the not so good within us - and He so fell in love with what He saw that He called each one of us into existence at the proper time. And as if that wasn’t already enough, God then sent His very own beloved Son into the world as our Savior so that we could have visible proof of His love, be freed from the spiritual alienation of sin and live with Him forever. 

 And so it’s good that we move on from the Nativity of the Lord because that was just the beginning of the story of Jesus of Nazareth. If we compare the life of Christ to a book, we could say that staying at Christmas would be like never getting past the first chapter. Never getting caught up in its dramatic plot of interesting characters, miraculous cures, and powerful teachings. Never reaching the exciting apex of its conclusion with the stunning events of Holy Thursday through Easter Sunday. So you see, the Baptism of Jesus follows upon the heels of Christmas because it sets us up for the rest of the story. Through the Gospels proclaimed at the Liturgy over the following weeks and months, we will learn more and more about the marvelous and awesome things that God has done for us and still does through the Christmas Gift that is Jesus Christ.

What is My Epiphany Response?

 

Deacon Dave · What is My Epiphany Response?

Homily for Epiphany Sunday, January 5, 2025. Gospel of St. Matthew 2:1-12. Theme: What is My Epiphany Response? 

 The Christmas Season has two major feasts, each of which proclaims that the Savior has been born for us, but each with its own particular slant. The first of these is Christmas Day itself when the birth of Jesus is revealed to the Jewish shepherds of Bethlehem as the fulfilment of God’s promise of a Messiah in Israel. The second is today’s feast of the Epiphany to the Magi wherein the mission of Jesus as Messiah is expanded to include those who are outside the confines of Judaism. As the early Church grew and spread throughout the Roman Empire, the Epiphany became a very important celebration because of its joyful message that all peoples can receive forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life through Jesus, Who is Lord and Messiah. 

 That Jesus is the Universal Savior of the world is nothing new for us to hear today. But in first century Israel the very idea that the Messiah had come for the good of all peoples and nations was utterly revolutionary and controversial! The Hebrews had been raised and taught to believe that only Israel was God’s Chosen flock and that the Gentiles were spiritually unclean and alienated from all that was holy. There were bitter arguments and fiery disagreements over it among the first Christians. who were by and large Jewish converts, but the truth won out. We hear it from St. Paul in his Letter to the Ephesians which is the second reading of today’s Liturgy, “the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and co-partners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” 

 And so in response to this controversy the Apostle St. Matthew included the Epiphany in his Gospel to show that from the very beginning, Jesus revealed Himself to the Gentiles as well as to Israel. But another important thing that St. Matthew teaches us in his retelling of the story is that people can have very different responses to learning about Jesus Christ. The Epiphany story has intriguing and intense drama seen in the various ways in which people can respond to the Good News that God has sent his Son into the world as its Savior. As we start off the New Year, which is typically a time to evaluate our lives and make resolutions for improvement, let’s take a look at these characters and see if they can help us to identify and, if need be readjust, our own response to Jesus. 

 The first type of response can be found in the reaction of Herod when he learns about the birth of the Newborn King of the Jews. Now, Herod was a very wicked man whose jealousy to rule over his kingdom had led him to kill one of his wives and several of his own sons whom he saw as threats to his throne. So, it’s no surprise that he would order the slaughter of the little boys of Bethlehem in an attempt to get rid of the Christ Child. Herod saw Jesus as a threat and wanted Him out of his life at any cost. He cared only about his own status and situation with prestige and power being the false gods he worshiped in his life. His response to the news about Jesus was that of fear, the fear of losing what he possessed and this led to rejecting Christ. 

 A second type of response can be found in the Jewish scholars whom Herod called to advise him about the Messiah’s birthplace. They knew the Scriptures very well and were aware of the prophecies about the Messiah. They were, after all, the professional Bible experts of their day. Yet when the news of His birth reached them they did nothing at all. They stayed put in Jerusalem rather than go to Bethlehem (which is only 5 miles away) to see for themselves if their long-hoped-for dreams about the Savior of Israel had indeed come true. But their response to Jesus was apathy, a complacent yawn. They were comfortable and happy with life as they knew it, and they didn’t want a Messiah and his teachings to disturb their status quo. 

 The third type of response is the one we find in the Magi themselves. They were utterly consumed, totally captivated, by the quest to find the One whom the star proclaimed. They had invested a lot of themselves, their time and energy, in studying the prophecies and charting the constellations concerning the Messiah. They spent long hours mapping out their route to Jerusalem, gathering up supplies for the trip, and selecting precious gifts to properly pay Him homage. Stories tell us that later in life they heard the Gospel of Jesus from early Christian missionaries, they gave up their pagan religious practices to serve Christ as their God and Savior. The response of the Magi was one of faith which brought them the joy of new life in Christ. 

 So, today’s liturgy might be placing before each one of us a very important and personal question: What is my own response to the Epiphany of Jesus as King, God and Savior? Like Herod, does part of me find Christ and His teachings to somehow be a threat to my present lifestyle? Would I rather have Him out of my life rather than change my behavior? Or perhaps do I respond more like the religious scholars by thinking that Christ and Christianity are a disturbance to my comfort zone? Does following Jesus’ Gospel demand too much of a change from me? Finally of course, St. Matthew’s Epiphany story hopes to inspire us by the example of the Magi. They were totally committed to following the star, to finding the Newborn King and pledging their fidelity to Him. Encountering Jesus changed their lives forever. They had discovered in Him everything for which they had been longing and searching. Is that how Jesus is for me? Is this my response to Him? 

 There’s probably a tiny trace of Herod and a little bit of the Jewish scholars in all of us now and then. But as we begin this new year, let’s ask the Lord for the grace to respond wholeheartedly to the Epiphany more like the Magi. Let’s be willing to do whatever it takes to personally encounter Christ in our lives. Let’s take up the journey to Jesus and not be afraid of what might lay ahead. If we walk by the light of faith, like the Magi following the star, we will surely discover Jesus in a newer and deeper personal way just as they did.