The Pursit of Happiness

 

Deacon Dave · The Pursuit of Happiness

Homily for the 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time, February 1, 2026. The Gospel of St. Matthew 5:1-12. Theme: The Pursuit of Happiness

 ​In today’s Gospel, Jesus begins his famous Sermon on the Mount by proclaiming the Beatitudes. While “blessed” is the traditional English translation for the Aramic word the Jesus uses to start off each Beatitude, in everyday use it meant “happy”. Happiness is a goal that we all seek. It’s what we are all striving to attain as we make our way through this difficult world. Even our Declaration of Independence ranks it right up there as a God-given right along with the pursuit of life and liberty! And so Jesus is telling us that real happiness, the kind that satisfies the innate desires of the human heart and endures forever, is to be found in living the values and principles of his Gospel. 

 Jesus begins by praising those who are “poor in spirit”. That “in spirit” part is very important because it’s referring to a heart that refuses to be enslaved by material things. And this applies to both the wealthy and the poor. Both are susceptible to the green-eyed monster of greed! Consumerism drives us to buy way more than what we need and slick advertising misleads us into thinking that happiness consists of possessing everything we want. But Jesus says that true and lasting happiness comes to those who are not possessed by their possessions, but who live a life of uncomplicated simplicity. The poor in spirit trust in God to help them provide for all their needs. 

 “Blessed are they who mourn” may sound a bit odd at first, because who thinks of grief as a blessing? But what is being praised here is a heart that has empathy for the pain and suffering of others. A person can only truly mourn if they have a compassionate heart and Jesus declared such people to be blessed because they have not closed themselves off from the suffering of others. He promises that God will reward and comfort them in their own sorrows and struggles. 

“Blessed are the meek” refers to the “humble” or “lowly”, to those who count for nothing in the eyes of the world. They are the “nobodies” who are without power, prestige or position in society. They will be filled with happiness in God’s kingdom while those who oppressed them will be dealt with in God’s justice. They will inherit the new world which Christ will bring about when He returns in glory. ​

 Jesus used a familiar experience when speaking about the Beatitude of righteousness, which means living a godly life. His listeners were working class people living under an oppressive tax-heavy government and in their poverty they knew what it was like to go to bed with an empty stomach. Many of them also lived by the desert wilderness where water was precious, so they knew what it was like to be extremely thirsty. Jesus says to them, in effect, “Happiness will come in abundance to those who cherish life with God even more than they desire food for their aching stomachs and drink for their burning thirst.” 

 The next Beatitude, that of mercy, calls us to treat those around us with kindness and to extend forgiveness to those who harm us. Jesus is saying that if we show compassion and forgiveness to others, then we will experience the same from God in return. It’s kind of a matter of “what goes around, comes around”. So, if we want God to be merciful and forgiving to us, we must be merciful and forgiving to others. It’s a non-negotiable. There’s no other way around it! 

 Moving on, we come to “Blessed are the pure in heart” which people often misinterpret to mean sexual purity. But being pure or clean of heart in biblical language means striving to do things with the right intention, that is, out of love for God and others. Jesus told us what order our priorities in life should be: God first, others second, and ourselves last. Happiness comes to those who have their priorities in life straight for they will be blessed here and now as well as bask in the Presence of God for eternity. 

 The famous Peace Prayer of St. Francis can help us put the next Beatitude into practice. It spells out for us the definition of a peacemaker as one who sows love where there is hatred; pardon where there is injury; faith where there is doubt; hope where there is despair; light where there is darkness; and joy where there is sadness. Peacemakers as those who promote unity and harmony among others which makes them a reflection of God their Father. 

 The last two “blessings” about those who are harassed for their faith actually form just one longer Beatitude. Jesus warns us that persecution of all kinds will indeed come our way because of our relationship with Him. He was ridiculed and slandered during His ministry and ultimately persecuted in His Passion. And we should not expect to be treated any differently. But He promises eternal happiness to those who suffer injustice because of their fidelity to him and to his Word. Their true friendship and loyalty will not go unrewarded. 

 The Beatitudes are non-negotiables for citizenship in the Kingdom of God. They are not simply passive blessings because we happened to be baptized but they are a call to actively embrace a Gospel-based lifestyle in imitation of Jesus. Do I realize that this is what I signed up for when I made a commitment to Christ? And now knowing this, do I still want to press forward with that commitment? The reward for doing so is great because it is guaranteed to bring us the ultimate happiness that we all seek. Those who embrace the Beatitudes are among God’s faithful remnant whom Zephaniah praised in our First Reading. They are living examples of the people St. Paul talks about in today's Second Reading, where he says that God’s power is at work in those who are despised by the world which counts them as nothing. But Christ disagrees with the world and counts us as “something”, that is, as his friends who are worthy of inheriting the Kingdom of Heaven!

"He sat down and taught them..."

That All May Be one

 

Deacon Dave · 260125_002

Homily for the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, the Conclusion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Jan. 25, 2026. Theme: That All May Be One 

 Today is the end of the annual worldwide Week of Prayer for Christian Unity that has been taking place every Jan 18th-25th for the past 117 years. The inspiration for it came from a prayer that Jesus spoke at the Last Supper in which he made a heartfelt plea to God for the unity of his Mystical Body the Church, saying, “May they all may be one, Father, as I am in you and you are in me, may they be one in us…so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (Jn 17:21-23) Notice that Jesus linked Church Unity to the world’s acceptance or rejection of him as Lord and Savior. That puts a great responsibility upon us and therein lies the reason why we should all be very concerned about restoring Church Unity. 

 What those words of Jesus at the Last Supper mean is that his Message of salvation hasn’t reached as many hearts and hasn't changed as many lives as it could have by now precisely because of us. That is, because of the lack of credible witness we have given to others as the Body of Christ. What the world has seen from us throughout much of history up til today is a divided and broken Christianity. What it has heard from us as Christians is a babel of voices as various denominations preach a different and often conflicting version of the allegedly same Gospel. So in the midst of all this confusion caused by us, how in the world are those who do not yet know Christ supposed to take him and his Message seriously? 

 Well, in 1908, a small group of Episcopalians in New York, called the Society of the Atonement, began a quest to heal the broken Body of Christ. They felt called to find the Church that was personally established by Jesus Christ himself and do what they could to share their discovery with others. They delved more deeply into the New Testament and were struck by the words of Jesus to Simon-Peter, declaring him to be the rock upon which the Church was to be built. They studied ancient Christian history and saw that whenever there were disagreements over what Jesus’ words meant or how Christians were to live the Gospel, they turned to the pope for the final answer. In other words, they saw quite clearly that the Holy Father was the bond that held the Church together as one Family in Christ. 

 The truth of their discovery was easy for them to see by looking at the trail of a broken Christianity all around them. They saw that they were part of this problem and so they were determined to become part of the solution. They saw that whenever the role of the pope had been ignored or was outright rejected, it brought nothing but division that bred even more division with each breakaway group defining their own interpretation of Christianity. This was why there were (and still are) thousands of different and often opposing Christian denominations each claiming to be preaching the same one Gospel of Christ! 

 That group of Epicopalians became convinced that the Holy Spirit was leading them to share their discovery with other non-Catholic Christians and thus do what they could to help bring about the fulfilment of Jesus’ Last Supper prayer for unity. Knowing that the task ahead of them was wholly dependent upon the grace of God and the conversion of hearts, they started the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and soon after this they became members of the Catholic Church. They practiced what they preached. Unbeknownst to them at the time, they had lit the fire for what would become a worldwide movement for the reunion of Christians that is called ecumenism. Their very small and humble Week of Prayer soon spread to other denominations and was officially embraced by the Catholic Church at Vatican II in the 1960s. But by the turn of the 21st century this ecumenical movement had sadly lost much of its original purpose, enthusiasm and energy. 

 At the beginning of this year’s Week of Prayer, Pope Leo has called for a revival of this quest for Church Unity. It is a stated and important goal of his papacy. He reminded us that real unity can never be built at the expense of truth and that we do not seek unity through compromise, but through conversion— beginning with ourselves. He asks first of all that we each make Jesus’ heartfelt plea for unity a special intention in our own prayers, especially when we recite the Lord’s Prayer that all Christians share in common. He reminds us that while there can be great diversity of style within Church Unity, if we are to be faithful to Jesus’ original intention, then what we ultimately seek is the corporate reunion of all Christians as one flock gathered around the pope as the earthly shepherd of the Church. 

 And so what does promoting Church Unity look like for us here and now? Well, along with prayer as Pope Leo asks of us, we each really need to know the Bible and our Catholic faith well enough to share it meaningfully with others. It doesn't mean you need a degree in theology or be ordained as a minister. It just means that you need the determination to do so because the grace and gifts of the Holy Spirit are already within you and have equipped you for this task. As a parish we try to help you do this by offering Bible Study every Sunday morning and by sending out Flocknotes that teach the Faith every week. I can assure you from personal experience that studying the Bible in the light of history can be very effective for deepening your own personal faith-commitment as well as in helping others find their way into the one sheepfold of Christ. 

 As a matter of fact, it's the very reason why I am standing here before you today because, you see, I myself have traveled the road to Church Unity. When I was a young man I was drawn to Jesus but confused by the smorgasbord of various flavors in Christianity. I knew that I had to bite the bullet, change my lifestyle and commit to Christ but I just didn’ t know where to do that. I wasn't terribly attracted to Catholicism and as a matter of fact it was dead last on my list. And in Protestant circles I was so happy to hear people say, “I used to be Catholic until I started reading the Bible.” Because that made me confident that I wouldn’t end up Catholic. 

I began an intense period of Bible study, however, I arrived at a very different conclusion! And so afterwards whenever I would hear someone say they stopped being Catholic after reading the Bible, I would reply, “Well, that’s really interesting because I wanted so badly to be Protestant but then I started really reading the Bible and that’s what brought me to the Catholic Church.” And so here I am before you today…which I think shows us that God has a great sense of humor!

Two of my Saintly Heroes...

Fr. Paul Francis Wattson and Mother Lurana White

Founders of the Society of the Atonement and the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. 

Both are now candidates for sainthood in the Catholic Church.

Behold the Lamb of God!

 

Deacon Dave · Behold the Lamb of God!

Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time. Jan. 18, 2026. The Gospel of John 1:29-34. Theme: Behold the Lamb of God! 

 If there’s a title for Jesus that we Catholics hear the most and yet probably understand the least, I would say that it’s the one proclaimed in today’s Gospel: Lamb of God. We are so familiar with saying it and hearing it at every Mass that I think it may have become just one more of those “Catholic things” that we no longer stop to really think about because they are so familiar to us. It’s kind of like the way so many of us look upon a crucifix. We are so used to it being on the walls of our churches or homes that we no longer really see it for what it is: the bloody corpse of a tortured man. But the thought of Jesus as “Lamb of God” should arouse within us the same sentiments of pity, love, and gratitude as that of the cross. Why? Because they are really one and the same thing just expressed in two different ways. 

 To grasp this connection we need to take a brief look at the religious worship of Judaism, the spiritual womb out of which Christianity was born. The religion of the Old Testament was significantly associated with animal sacrifices offered in atonement for sin. Lambs, whose white wool coats became symbols of purity and holiness, had a preeminent role in these sacrificial Jewish liturgies. And the most important of them was that of Passover which we retell in our Liturgy every Easter. God commanded that the blood of a sacrificed lamb was to be smeared on the doorposts of Hebrew houses in Egypt granting them protection from death. Then, after the family ate the flesh of this sacrificed lamb in a special ritual meal, they took off on the Exodus journey. 

 However, these ritual sacrifices were insufficient to actually remove sin and actually wipe away their guilt. Why? Because both the Jewish priest making the sacrifice and the people offering the lamb as a proxy for themselves, were sinful human beings with no power whatsoever to bring about atonement for sin. A better way was needed and God himself provided this better way. You see, the only way that true and effective atonement could be made was if the one making the sacrifice was himself utterly free of sin and motivated by pure and perfect love. In other words, the human race stood in need of a perfect and all-holy human being who would thus be able to offer up a perfect and all-holy sacrifice on behalf of all! And this put us in quite a quandary because no one among us stood before God free from sin! 

 And so, to make this seemingly impossible condition possible, God himself became man. This was the only way it could be done. With the consent of God the Father and by the power of the Holy Spirit acting upon Mary, God the Son freely gave up the glory of his heavenly realm in order to truly become one of us. And this is why the Gospel of John tells us that, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone whoever believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (Jn 3:16) Finally, true atonement for sin became possible! The sacrifice of Jesus, the Lamb of God, accomplished what millions of animal sacrifices could never ever do, because it had divine love and divine power behind it. And this sacrifice of Jesus as the victim-lamb had actually been foretold by the prophet Isaiah, 700 years before it took place. He said that the Messiah would be like a lamb brought silently to the slaughter, to take the sins of the people upon himself and wash them away through his blood. 

  The Passover ritual of the Old Testament was a foretelling of the Great Passover of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. His Precious Blood of Atonement was first poured out on Good Friday and then has been ritually re-enacted ever since in every Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Just before Holy Communion, the priest like St. John the Baptist, points out to us the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He directs us to turn our eyes towards the Lord, whose heart is full of compassion and pity for us in our weakness. This is why we respond with the plea for healing and forgiveness. Then we acclaim Jesus as the Lamb of God three times, and in the first two of these petitions ask him to “have mercy on us.” 

 But why do we change the last invocation, to “grant us peace”? Because the Lamb of God brings us serenity of heart since we know we are immensely loved. He bestows upon us serenity of mind because he has brought our sins with him to the cross. And when that Lamb rose triumphantly from the grave our sins remained behind, dead, buried and gone. And so we know that by grace through faith we have been freed from the guilt of our sins and this fills our hearts with a peace that the world cannot give.

Why was Jesus Baptized...Why Was i Baptized?

 

Deacon Dave · Why Was Jesus Baptized...Why Was I Baptized?

Homily for Baptism of the Lord Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. Gospel of St. Matthew 3:13-17. Theme: Why Was Jesus Baptized…Why Was I Baptized? 

 Today’s feast of the Baptism of the Lord brings our Christmas Season officially to an end. It ushers us out of Bethlehem, and moves us fast-forward 30 years to the banks of the Jordan River. Jesus is no longer a baby in the manger but now comes to us as a young adult, a tradesman from the village of Nazareth, who is about to start out on the mission for which he was born. In the Gospel reading we encounter him approaching his cousin, St. John the Baptist, the last of the Old Testament prophets and the one who was chosen to see the fulfillment of what all the prophets had foretold. John had the task of preparing Israel for the Messiah’s public arrival and now the long-awaited day had finally come. 

 To understand what’s really happening in this story, it’s important to remember that Jesus was not baptized because He had sins from which to repent. Rather, Jesus began his public ministry as our Savior by showing solidarity with us who are sinners and who do stand in need of repentance. He entered the Jordan River with St. John the Baptist as his first step in washing away our sins. By means of his divine presence submerged into the river, he intentionally sanctified the element of water, empowering it to become an instrument for spiritual cleansing in the Sacrament of Baptism. So in short, Jesus was not baptized because He needed it but because we do. And 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 these first humans were given the choice of living in obedience to their Creator or of living life on their own terms. And whatever they chose would be not just their fate, but the fate of all of us who descended from them. They freely chose to separate themselves and the human race from an intimate relationship with God. But Jesus our Savior came precisely to undo what they had done. He mended the relationship and closed the spiritual rupture they caused, bringing about a reconciliation between humanity and God. And so our first step towards Heaven is taken by leaving the ways of Adam and Eve and uniting ourselves intimately with Christ through Baptism. 

 The next wondrous 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 manifest himself in the form of a dove? Well, it could be because the dove is a biblical symbol of peace and innocence. By the power of the Holy Spirit who comes down upon us at our 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 Creator and Father, with the Son of God as our Savior and Brother, and with God the Holy Spirit as our Sanctifier and Life-giver. The innocence and peace we receive from this Sacrament remains with us as long as we remain faithful to our baptismal promises to reject sin and Satan, to trust in 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 we can reclaim them once again through the Sacrament of Confession. And the Good News is that God is so rich in mercy that there’s no limit as to how many times we can seek and receive this post-baptismal reconciliation! 

 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 at our Baptism. when we become uniquely his! Through Jesus, with Jesus and in Jesus, we become God’s beloved children in whom He finds great delight! The Scriptures assure us that God rejoices over you, rejoices over me, rejoices over each one of us personally and not because of anything we have done but simply because of who we are and who he is. We are his children! He is our Father who loves each one of us unconditionally! And it’s this conscious awareness of God’s personal love that moves us from the inside out to strive to become the best that we can be by doing our best to live in a right relationship with him after our Baptism. A

nd so, it’s good for us that we move on from the Nativity in Bethlehem to the Baptism in the Jordan River. You see, 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 and world-changing 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 for us today, through Jesus Christ, his Christmas gift to us that keeps on giving!

Keep Mary in Your Mind and Jesus Will Grow in Your Heart

 

Deacon Dave · Keep Mary in Your Mind and Jesus Will Grow in Your Heart

Homily for the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God, Jan.1, 2026. Galatians 4:4-7; Gospel of St. Luke 2:16-21. Theme: Keep Mary in Your Mind and Jesus Will Grow in Your Heart. 

 The figure of the Madonna holding the Baby Jesus has been a favorite subject of artists and sculptors for centuries. I think it’s because it’s an image that really captures the heart, warms the soul, and directs the mind to that special bond that exists between mother and child in every culture, in every time, and in every place. The intimate bond between Jesus and Mary has always had a cherished place in popular Catholic devotion, where it has been treasured as something precious and vital. As a matter of fact, the pre-eminent and most ancient title that we give to Mary is the one that honors her maternal bond with Christ that we are celebrating in today’s Liturgy: Mother of God. 

 Now, isn’t that an amazing thing to think about? God the Son, Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Eternal Word through whom all things were created, became a man and had a mother who carried him in her womb, nursed him at her breast, loved him with all her being and was always there for Him. She pondered her memories of Him throughout her life as all mothers do and as today’s Gospel reminds us. But at the same time, it’s important to remember that in calling Mary the Mother of God we do not mean that she pre-existed God or that she is greater than God as some people mistakenly think. 

 Instead, this beautiful title of Mary attests to the fact that she made it possible for God to come to earth as our Beloved Brother and Savior. She made it possible for the God of Creation to actually and personally experience His creation as a real man, living in every way as we do except for sin. Her motherhood made it possible for Jesus to truly be Emmanuel, God-with-us. Due to her cooperation with God’s grace and plan, Christ was able to heal and transform our humanity from the inside out, so to speak, by participating in it and blessing it with His divinity. 

 Calling Mary the Mother of God tells us why she is so very important to the entire story and saving mission of Jesus. But it also tells us that she is very important to the stories and lives of everyday Christians like you and me. Without her there would be no Christmas. Without her we would not be Christians. Without her we would not be the adopted sons and daughters of God that we are. And for these reasons we rejoice to participate in the Liturgy today in her honor as a way of saying “thank you” for doing her part in the plan of God for our salvation! 

 St. Paul makes reference to this maternal mission of Mary in our Second Reading. He reminds us that God the Son came to earth and made possible our divine adoption as children of the Father precisely because of a woman, namely, Mary. And so the blessings of her motherhood have also been extended to us and have become an important part of our own story as Christians. But Jesus didn’t just use Mary as a means to an end and then disregard her. He didn’t toss her aside once she served the purpose of enabling him to come in the flesh to planet Earth. Her mission as Mother of God, Mother of Christ and by extension, Mother of Christians, is meant to continue forever. 

 And so, we should strive to have a bond with Mary and open our hearts to her love just as Jesus did. Jesus and Mary lived in a deep and mutual relationship of love, a life-long interpersonal relationship as Mother and Child. Imagine what this must have been like for two people who, because they are both free from sin, were able to love perfectly, to love unselfishly, to love completely. Consider the deep emotion, the heartfelt joy in each other’s presence. Ponder the unbreakable bond between them, from the first-time Mary held that precious Infant in her arms on that first Christmas until the last time she held Him, bloody and lifeless, on Good Friday. 

 St. Paul tells us elsewhere in the New Testament that as Christians we are called to have the same attitude and outlook as Jesus in all things (see Philippians 2:5). So, this obviously would include our devotion towards Mary. Let’s ask Jesus today for the grace to love and honor Mary like He did. And let’s ask Mary to mother us as she mothered Him; to form us through her prayers and her active spiritual presence in our lives into living images of Jesus, her Beloved Son and our Beloved Brother. There’s a saying in Catholicism based on Mary as our best example of discipleship which goes like this: “Keep Mary in your mind and Jesus will grow in your heart.” I think that committing to doing so would make an excellent New Year’s resolution for us all!

Joseph, the Unsung Hero of Christmas

 

Deacon Dave · Joseph, the Unsung Hero of Christmas

Homily for the Fourth Day of Christmas, Holy Family Sunday, December 28, 2025. Gospel of St. Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23. Theme: Joseph, the Unsung Hero of Christmas 

 Christmas is full of so many supernatural events that are the very heart and soul of the Nativity story that we all know so well. We hear of Mary and the miracle of a Virgin Birth. We are told of angels announcing the Messiah’s arrival to shepherds. And we follow Magi who are guided by a miraculous star to pay homage to the Newborn King. But in all of this, St. Joseph remains the man behind the scenes and so he has often been called the “over-looked member of the Holy Family”. But on today’s feast of the Holy Family, I would like to propose that it is actually Joseph who is the unsung hero of Christmas. And I say this because If we take a good look at the entire story we can see that this hidden, silent and dependable man is in fact someone who made Christmas as we know it possible. 

 Today's Gospel shows Joseph doing what he did best: going into action for the sake of Jesus. You see, when the Magi came to pay homage to the Newborn King, they had innocently and inadvertently revealed the Messiah’s birth to Herod which sent him into a frenzy. And then, after they had secretly returned to their homeland and Herod realized that he had been tricked, he ordered the slaughter of all male infants of the region in order to eliminate the threat and nuisance of a Newborn King. But thanks to Joseph’s quick and obedient response to a heaven-sent dream, the Baby-Messiah was already on the road to Egypt by the time Herod’s henchmen arrived in the little town of Bethlehem. So we can honestly say that St. Joseph literally saved Christmas! 

 However, that wasn’t the first time that he had stepped up to the plate to save Jesus and Mary. Many months before, he ignored the village gossipers of Nazareth, and boldly took Mary into his home as his wife. Now, he could have played the victim and made a big deal out of the socially humiliating situation of her pregnancy, but he wasn't that kind of guy. Enlightened by an angel-dream, he reaffirmed the love that had drawn him to Mary in the first place, and with this very same love he embraced her child as his child, as their child. He gave both Mary and her unborn Son the care and protection they needed in that culture, and so we have here another piece of the puzzle as to how St. Joseph made Christmas as we know it possible. 

 Soon after this, Joseph was called into action once again for the sake of his budding family. He had to travel to Bethlehem in obedience to the Roman census and this wasn’t an easy task back then. But he knew that if he ignored this duty they would face strict fines and Roman justice. So Joseph traveled with his 9-month pregnant wife on a 10-day long, 90-mile journey by donkey and on foot, from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Then once there, he had no choice but to accept shelter for them among the animals in a stable-cave. But you see, Joseph's commitment to always doing the right thing even when it’s difficult, brought about the fulfillment of the prophecy which foretold that the Savior would be born in Bethlehem. And so, we can chalk up another one to Joseph for making Christmas as we know it possible! 

 And then 8 days after Jesus was born, Joseph again publicly stood up for the Christ Child. He proudly named him at his circumcision ceremony, which may not seem like a big deal to us today. But back then this was not just a religious ritual. It was also a binding legal action. Joseph was in fact declaring by this action that Mary’s baby was now his very own son, with every right and every claim to his family line and family name. This was a huge thing in ancient Israel, because the paternal bond of adoption was considered stronger than that of biology since the child was intentionally chosen by the father and not just a product of happenstance. And so Jesus became a true member of the House of David and thus once again, through Joseph, a Christmas prophecy was fulfilled which foretold that the Savior would be a royal Messiah, a descendent of the great King David. 

 Now as if all of this itself wasn’t enough, there is still another very important reason why St. Joseph is the unsung hero of the Nativity. And it has to do with the very meaning of Christmas itself and not just with events surrounding it. Christmas means that the Savior was born a man so that he could show us, by word and example, how to live as children of the Father and reach Heaven. But here’s the thing: both the Bible and the Church teach that even though he was God, Jesus had to learn what it was like to actually BE a man, which is something very different from being the Creator of man. BEING a man was something that he could only learn through lived experience. And so God the Son needed a male role model who could show him exactly what being a man looked like. Just as he had found the perfect mother for himself in Mary, so he found the best of fathers for this very purpose in Joseph and personally chose him. 

 Jesus lived under the daily gaze and direction of Joseph, who gave him a shining example of virtuous masculinity. He learned from him how to grow into a good and honest man of God, who met his responsibilities and thought of others before himself. This means that the Man Jesus, whom we meet and see in the Gospels as our Savior and Teacher, was very much the product of Joseph of Nazareth. And it’s because of this, because of Joseph’s nurturing, that we ourselves can now turn to Jesus with confidence because, as we say, “like father, like son”, and Christ had the very best of examples to follow! So, we can thank St. Joseph in great measure for giving us the Jesus we know and love today. ​ Joseph was totally and truly a father and role model to Jesus from his conception and birth and then beyond as they lived out their daily family life in Nazareth. And so to me, this is the best reason we can have for being devoted to St. Joseph ourselves, just as Jesus was, and for honoring this silent, strong and dependable man as the unsung hero of Christmas.

We Would’ve Never Thought of This!

 

Deacon Dave · 251224_001

Homily for the Solemnity of Christmas. Gospel of St. Luke 2:1-14. Theme: We Would’ve Never Thought of This! 

 I never cease to be amazed every time I look at a Nativity scene and gaze at the animal’s manger. For I see something astounding, something beyond belief, something that cannot be ignored. I see God, the one True God, Creator of our amazing vast universe, lying there as a human child, a baby, an infant. And there He is…vulnerable…dependent…having come to share our humanity in the flesh, so that we can one day come to share in his divinity by grace. 

 Back when I was an unbeliever searching for belief, one of the reasons I found the Nativity story so authentic was precisely because it is so totally opposite of anything and everything we human beings create concerning God and religion. If we look at the history and the practice of religion across the ages, we see that when it comes to worshipping gods, we humans design them simply as superhuman-versions of ourselves. All one has to do to see this is look at ancient Greece and Rome, or examine the Vikings of Scandinavia or the Druids of the British Isles and see what manmade gods and religions look like. These manmade gods are reflections of what we ourselves in our innermost selves aspire for and want to possess: Power. Prestige. Position. 

 But now look at the Child in the manger and try if you can see any hint of that power, prestige or position. Is this a god we would create to edify us, to empower us, to motivate us, to provide us with great things? Or is this a God whose life story turns everything we humans ever thought about God and religion upside down? There’s no way we would have ever imagined that the God who is almighty and eternal would love each one of us so much, so passionately really, that it would break his heart to remain apart from us. There’s no way we would have dared to believe that this awesome God would become one of us and roll up his sleeves to get dirty with us in the messiness and busyness of living as a human being! Man-made gods just don’t act like that! It would be too far beneath them. And yet, that’s exactly what the Word and Son of God set off to do with his birth in Bethlehem! 

 This Child lying in a manger would grow up to preach and teach a Gospel of truths that are very different from seeking power, prestige and position.. He will teach mercy and forgiveness, compassion & generosity. He will inspire and instruct us to serve one another even to the giving up of our very lives, which He himself would one day do to prove His great love for us. There is just no way we humans would have ever come up with a god and a birth like this one our own. 

And that’s why every time I see the Nativity scene of Bethlehem with its Child in the animal’s manger, my faith becomes more and more deepened. And it makes me want to echo to others the good news which the angels announced at that first Christmas: “I bring you tidings of great joy…today in the city of David the Savior has been born for you, he who is both Christ and Lord.” Merry Christmas!