St. Thomas the Apostle Parish

Homily for Gaudete Sunday

It is a pre-Christmas tradition in the media to ask people, especially celebrities, What's the best Christmas present you ever got?

 

We all have unforgettable memories of finding under the Tree one Christmas a gift that made us especially happy, something that brought a lasting joy to our hearts, maybe even something that changed our lives.

 

For me, the best present I ever got under the Tree was not a material gift. It was twenty years ago, just a few weeks after my grandmother died at 96. When we were putting up the Tree in our family home, we decided to put it in a different place. We put it where my grandmother's chair was in the living room, the place where she spent a fair amount of time in her final years. We moved her chair and put up the Tree, and decorated it. It looked different there, but, in a meaningful way, it filled a void in our hearts.

 

On Christmas Day, as we were picking up the gifts in front of the Tree, we noticed, worn into the pile of the carpeting, my grandmother's footprints. It was an emotional reminder of the gift that my grandmother was to our family and a reminder that she was still with us. It was the best gift I ever got.

 

It was also a reminder that my grandmother always liked to give but wanted little, if anything, in return. It was a reminder of how she focused more on what she could give rather than on what she could get.

 

As you think about an answer to the question, What's the best Christmas present you ever got? also think about the best present you ever gave. It was probably something about which you put in a great deal of thought and effort. The receiver was someone you loved very much and wanted to make happy. And the gift, in all probability, demanded more time, more effort, and, probably more money, than you had planned.

 

But when you gave it, you could sense that you had touched the receiver deeply, that the person realized the effort and love you put into the gift. Your gift may have even changed or transformed the person's life. And you felt more joy over the gift than had you received the gift yourself.

 

Such gift-giving is not only the true spirit of Christmas, but it is the essence of Christ's invitation to us to be His followers. Christ calls us to find joy not in seeking our own joy, but in seeking joy for others. 

 

As the God of love gives Himself completely and totally in the birth of His own Son, may we find joyful fulfillment in giving totally and completely of ourselves to God and to one another.+

Homily for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

On a December morning in 1531, an Aztec man named Juan Diego was on his way to church. As he passed a hill at Tepeyac, near present-day Mexico City, Juan heard a voice calling him by name. Looking up, he was surprised to see what appeared to be a young Aztec woman. She told him to go to the bishop and to tell him to build a shrine on the hill, the site of an ancient Nahuatl shrine. The bishop ignored Juan.

 

In her second appearance, the woman identified herself as the Mother of God and she told Juan to go back to the bishop with her request. Again, the bishop rejected the idea.

 

In her third appearance, she instructed Juan to gather a bouquet of roses, which were growing, out of season, at her feet. So, Juan gathered up the roses in his cloak and brought the roses to the bishop. When he opened up his cloak to present the flowers, both the bishop and Juan Diego were amazed to see, imprinted on the fabric of the cloak, a full-color image of the woman Juan Diego had seen.

 

That is the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the feast we celebrate today. But the apparition was also a turning point for the Church in the Americas. The apparitions took place ten years after the conquest of Mexico by the Spanish in 1521. Christianity was the religion of the conquerors but offered little to the native people.

 

All that changed after Guadalupe. Mary spoke to Juan not in Spanish but in Nahuatl, Juan’s native language. She seemed to be one of them and all the symbolism she appeared in spoke to the native people. She said that she wanted her shrine to give forth all of her love and compassion to the inhabitants of that land 

 

Mary’s appearance was an experience of conversion: Within six years of the apparitions, nine million Aztecs were baptized. It was also a moment of conversion for the Church itself: The Church became the Church of the poor and oppressed and was no longer the religious arm of the conqueror but the voice of God’s justice and compassion. +

Homily for Friday of the 2nd Week of Advent

Jesus was a careful observer of people, and He often spoke about the kingdom of God using everyday images drawn from people’s daily lives. Today we find Him using His observations of children at play in the marketplaces. Sometimes their play simply reflected the joy of life. They happily pretended to play pipes while other children danced to the music. At other times their games reflected the sorrows of life, perhaps what they had seen at the death of an elderly neighbor. Some of the children sang dirges while the others mourned and wailed in response. But some children refused to join in any game; they wouldn’t dance when the pipes were played, and they would not mourn when dirges were sung.

 

The unresponsive children reminded Jesus of some dour, unresponsive adults; They would neither mourn in response to the grim message of John the Baptist nor dance in response to Jesus’ more joyful message. They dismissed John as possessed and Jesus as a glutton and a drunkard.

 

It is interesting how our LORD identified His own ministry with the piper and the dance. His life and His message are good news — the Good News of God’s love for us.

 

God calls us to move in harmony with the “music” of Jesus, the “music” of His Spirit in our lives. We try to attune ourselves to the LORD’s rhythm and melody and allow it to shape all that we say and do. That is our Advent calling in preparation for our celebration of the birth of Jesus. +

Homily for Thursday of the Second Week of Advent

What Jesus says about John the Baptist in today's Gospel passage is high praise indeed, " among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist." John is deserving of such recognition because, as Jesus says, he is the prophet to whose coming all of the Jewish Scriptures looked forward. He is the Elijah figure who, it was believed, would immediately precede the coming of the Messiah.

 

Yet, having praised John the Baptist for his unparalleled status, Jesus goes on to make an even more extraordinary statement, "the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." John was beheaded before he could hear and respond to Jesus' preaching of the kingdom of God. However, through the Gospels and the Holy Spirit's coming upon us, we have heard and responded to Jesus' preaching of God's kingdom. That places us in a more privileged place than that of John the Baptist.

 

Advent is a time to give thanks for the Gospel and our faith response to it. It is time to grow in our appreciation of that gift and the quality of our response to it. +

Homily for the Memorial of St. Juan Diego

Many things can make us feel overburdened: being overtired, overworked, a marriage in trouble, ill health, and numerous other difficulties in our lives.

 

Jesus spoke words of hope to people burdened by the Jewish Law's demands, for in failing to observe them, they often felt marginalized. He did not offer them a new law. Instead, He offered Himself as their guide to life. He called them to learn from Him. "Come to me," He said, and "learn from me." 

 

We learn from His example as well as His words. His teaching is visible in who He was (and is) and how He lived.

 

To learn from someone, we should spend time with them. In saying, "Come," Jesus is saying, "Come and stay." He calls us into a friendship with Him. It is in being with Him that we learn to live as we ought to live. If we come to Him and remain with Him, we will find that his yoke is easy, and his burden is light.

 

The way of the Gospel is demanding, but our relationship with Jesus makes it much less demanding than it would otherwise be. St. Paul assures us that God's power at work within us is "able to accomplish immeasurably far more than all we can ask or imagine." By remaining in Jesus, as branches on the vine, our lives will flourish and bear much fruit. +

Homily for the Memorial of St. Ambrose

It’s a part of life that, on occasion, we encounter obstacles of one kind or another; things that we must work through as we journey toward a goal. In these times, it is tempting to lose sight of our goal and to give up on it.

 

In today’s Gospel passage, the friends of a paralyzed man wanted to get him to Jesus, but they found that other people were blocking their way. Instead of giving up or turning back, they found a way around the crowd, climbing up onto a roof with their friend and lowering him down through the tiles before Jesus. Jesus was very taken by their faith, by the persistence of their faith.

 

Here was a small community of faith — the paralytic and his friends — that kept their focus on the LORD as they journeyed toward Him, intent on reaching Him despite the obstacles and challenges they encountered along the way.

 

In many ways this small community of faith can be an inspiration for us this Advent season when we are called to keep journeying towards the LORD, to keep our focus on Him despite whatever obstacles may be at work in our lives that could keep us from the Him. Jesus surprised them all by first saying to the man, “As for you, your sins are forgiven.” The paralytic needed spiritual as well as physical healing and his spiritual healing took priority.

 

As we keep our focus on the LORD this Advent, let us look to Him for our own spiritual healing.+

Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Advent

Back in October of 1908, when Henry Ford first produced the Model T, he told the American public that they could have the car in any color they wanted – as long as it was black! 

 

Since the earliest days of automobile production, many cars have been built, and many different designs and colors have been offered. Every year, car enthusiasts eagerly await the newest models and concepts.

        

For the past couple of decades or so, there has been a trend to make new cars look like some classic older models. It is a “retro” look. The new Volkswagen Beetle, Chrysler’s PT Cruiser, the new Ford Thunderbird and Ford GT, and the new Dodge Challenger, Dodge Demon, and Chevy Camaro are examples of this trend. These cars have all the latest technologies loaded into a nostalgic design.

        

 In our first reading today, Isaiah showers our senses with all kinds of images and models: filled valleys, leveled mountains, fiery prophets, gentle shepherds. These images are very familiar to us today, but they were quite new when Isaiah revealed his prophecy. 

 

In the midst of this looking ahead to what is to come, in our second reading, Peter tells us that we are to patiently await the new heaven and earth the Messiah will bring, even if it takes a thousand years.

        

In our Gospel reading, St. Mark introduces us to a sort of “retro” prophet – John the Baptist – a kind of Old Testament figure to begin his New Testament Gospel, a character out of synch with his time. Indeed, our readings about the old and the new seem to be out of synch with each other.

        

But isn’t that the real message of Advent? What is new is old. God has always loved us. The Messiah is the ultimate sign of that love. And what is old is new. The message of salvation is as fresh today as it was 2,000 years ago. God’s promise of love remains for us if we remain faithful to God. Advent is what brings the old and new together, like John the Baptist.

 

If we look at our family celebrations of Advent and Christmas, we see that there is always a link to the past, to relatives who have left us. Yet, in a sense, they are still with us. And, while living out those old traditions, new traditions merge with them and become a part of the larger tradition of future generations. The present bridges the past and the future. 

 

As we celebrate the faith and traditions that have been handed onto us, we hand them on to others and keep the Gospel alive and active in our world.+

Homily for Saturday of the 1st Week of Advent

Although we believe that Jesus was like us in all things, except for sin, the Gospels rarely refer to the emotions of Jesus. Today, however, Matthew notes that when Jesus saw the crowds, “His heart was filled with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.”

 

Compassion happens when we resonate or identify with the needs of others and are moved to action. Jesus’ compassion for the crowd expressed itself in two ways in the Gospel: First, He told His disciples to pray that God would send workers into His harvest. The troubled and abandoned people needed workers to journey with them and to lead them.

 

Second, Jesus appointed some workers Himself. He summoned twelve of His disciples and instructed them to proclaim His own life-giving message and presence to others.

 

Do we recognize ourselves in today’s Gospel reading? With whom in this reading do we identify?

 

Perhaps, sometimes, we may be among those who are troubled and abandoned. For those times, today’s Gospel reassures us that the LORD is with us in our time of distress; He is always drawing near to us in His compassion.

 

At other times we may be among the workers whom the LORD sends forth into His harvest to journey with those who are troubled and abandoned. In those times, the Gospel assures us that, in sending us, the LORD will also empower us for the work He is asking us to do.

 

Let us pray, then, that, regardless of our situation in life, we may always feel the LORD’s presence within us and around us, and that we may both experience and share with others the compassion of the LORD. +

Homily for Friday of the 1st Week of Advent

The two blind men in today’s Gospel passage don’t merely ask Jesu to heal them; they come up to Jesus and say, “Son of David, have pity on us. That was an expression of their faith in Him. They follow Him until He reaches the house to which He is going, and they go inside, at which point Jesus turns to them and says, “Do you believe that I can do this?” Their answer to Jesus’ question was another expression of their faith, “Yes, LORD.”

 

This image of the two blind men making their prayer of faith as Jesus walks along invites us to keep on praying out of our faith. Like the two blind men, we very often pray when we are aware of our needs. Thankfully, most of us have the gift of sight, but we are all needy in other ways. There can be areas of blindness in our lives that need healing; we all struggle with weakness and disability of one kind or another, ways in which we are broken and vulnerable. The example of the two blind men encourages us to keep turning to the LORD in prayer, even when He appears not to be listening to us. Ultimately, our prayer of faith will not go unanswered.+

Homily for Thursday of the 1st Week of Advent

All of us can recognize the weather images that Jesus uses in today’s gospel: “Rains fell, floods came, and the winds blew.” Here in New England, especially this week, we could easily add snow to Jesus’ list, and still understand the message He is giving us.

 

In addition to storms we experience in our weather, we can also be hit by “storms” of a different kind, regardless of where we live in our world. As individuals, we can find ourselves battling against the elements of life, as we struggle in one way or another.

Jesus warns that all of us will at some time face the “storms of life,” and He wants to help us to get through them. When storms come, will we find ourselves tossed about helplessly, or will we be able to withstand the storms and move through them and beyond them?

 

Jesus wants to be our rock when the storms come. If we listen to His words and act on those words, we will remain safe even when storms break around us. Jesus brings us back to the basics: the doing of God’s will as He has revealed it to us. If we keep on returning to that focal point, the LORD will see to it that we endure, regardless of the strength of the storm. +