1ST Reading- Isaiah 60:1-6
2ND Reading- Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6
Gospel: Matthew 2: 1-12

This is the “Epiphany of the Lord”. We celebrate with great joy that our Savior, our Messiah, has come into the world-yes- as a little babe born of a virgin, in a stable laying on a bed of straw and wrapped in swaddling clothes. God has come to us to save us from the slavery of sin.

And so we celebrate on this day, the manifestation of God in Christ and the extension of God’s saving love to all people. God has come into the world manifested in Jesus, the true light of the world, to guide us with a beautiful light that illumines our hearts our minds and our souls.

What an Epiphany – how special humanity is to God the Father, that He would come to us, to seek us, as little babe, in a stall, in Bethlehem, who later would even suffer and die for us, and be raised from the dead, opening the gates of heaven to us. How special we are.

And so, the story goes. The Magi came from the east, about 700-800 miles away prompted by a star they saw “at its rising.” They traveled to Bethlehem where they brought Jesus gifts of Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh; gifts fit for a King. They Journeyed far and as they left Bethlehem, they were inspired by a new star, the one whose light had filled their hearts, minds, and souls. Once seeing Jesus, the Magi had an Epiphany in knowing that God had revealed himself to them forever changing their lives.

God revealed himself to the Jews through the scriptures and to the Gentiles through nature. Since the Magi were Gentiles, Matthew’s gospel for today shows them receiving a revelation through astrology, a star.

These “Wise men” represent the former way of thinking, wondering and philosophizing. They come to surrender to this new Epiphany, this “One God” Who is for all and is also known as the God who does the seeking and finding. The Magi are figures of the world who did the seeking and found God. The Light is initiated by God and this Light is meant for the whole world, Jew and Gentile alike.

As with the shepherds, these Wise Men continue in somewhat of a liturgical manner. Can you see us doing the same thing? They arrive having wandered in faith-we have come here today after wandering through our lives in faith.

They have an offertory procession giving precious gifts very important to them-we process bringing gifts of bread and wine that will become Jesus and we bring ourselves. They have a time of adoration-we have the consecration where we come adore. They leave adoring and praising God, a sending if you will- as we leave we are sent adoring and praising God.

Just imagine coming 7–800 miles. The Magi must have come across some obstacles, some difficulties along the way whether it was potential robbers and especially harsh terrain. But they were inspired by that star they saw at its rising. Can you imagine such a star? Can you see the new star as the priest presents the Eucharist and says: “This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world?”

When we start out on a journey going down some road (whether it is in following a vocation-Christian or other) we too are attracted by something bright-an ideal, a vision, a hope. But this initial “star” does not remain forever above us. It grows dim, clouds get in the way and blocks it from us.

We do expect to encounter on our journey difficulties and even doubts. Some people think or feel like they are losing their faith when they experience doubt. This should not bother us too much. Doubt brings questions and questions bring knowledge and even fills our mind and heart with wisdom. We must believe that the darkness of our trials will pass and once again we will see the initial star beckoning to us as the Magi saw the star over Bethlehem.

The Magi are models for us on our faith journey. They were single minded. They did not let difficulties and hardships get in the way of their journey to Bethlehem and their journey to spread to others what they had found there. When they had found Christ, they offered Him gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. This shows how ones life is changed when finding Christ.

Hearts are awakened and they burst into life. When we find and encounter Christ and offer our gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh, in the form of our love for Him, he will always help us open up the treasures of goodness and charity that lie within each of us, so that we can offer gifts of time, talent and treasure to our brothers and sisters, especially those who are poor and vulnerable.

I can’t help but remember something I heard last week at Church. I am sure this happens to you at some point in time during each week or even every day. What I remember and that has stuck in my memory is what Father Rick said in his homily. “Things of the past enlighten the present”.

How can we not be affected, in a very profound way, with our encounter with God? How can we not be affected every time we come to this altar to receive Him?

I can’t help but think that because of what we encounter here does effect us at this present time. After we leave this Church, after we have encountered God in the Eucharist, how can we not go out of here praising and glorifying our loving God? How can we not emanate his Love wherever we are, wherever we go? Does the things of the past enlighten the present? You know the answer, and it also enlightens the future.

Can we use the Magi as an example? Having worshiped Christ, the Magi returned to their own country by another route. This suggests not just a new geographical route, but a new mentality. Having met Christ and heard his gospel, we too will travel through life by a different route. We will have different attitudes, different values,

different goals. It is impossible to encounter Christ without it affecting the way we live our lives.

As we go from here to start another week, let our focus be on God’s presence around us: Could be a beautiful sunrise, a beautiful sunset, a streak of lightening, the roar of thunder, the beauty of the sun’s rays on wet grass, the beauty of a new born babe, and the Epiphany that God presents himself to us in the Sacraments.

My sisters and brothers, Let us go from here with our hearts, minds, and souls ever transformed with the light of the new star, Jesus Christ. Let us go from here as the Magi left Bethlehem, praising and adoring Him.

Two verbs jump out at me in these readings: bless and reflect. In the first reading from the Book of Numbers, we hear an ancient Jewish prayer dating back to the time of Moses, “The Lord bless you and keep you! The Lord let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The Lord look upon you and kindly and give you peace!” I imagine that prayer was on Mary’s lips as she reflected on all that was happening to her: the birth of a son whose father was not Joseph and the visit of shepherds and their message.

I could use the opportunity to reflect on Mary, the blessed Mother of God, but given the circumstances that some of us find ourselves in, I think we need to reflect on how blessed we truly are. Just as Mary reflected on the events she experienced, good and bad alike, we need to take time to ponder the events and the people in our lives. Many of us feel that our life is filled with little things thus may seem so mundane. We heard, “The Lord bless you and keep you!” Yet, we may not realize just how blessed we truly are.

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Mary, Mother of GodRead More »

The opening hymn brings to mind the story of an inquisitive four year old who happened to be strongly rooted in the “why” and “tell me” stage of life. The boy was helping his father set up the Christmas decorations. Imagine the scene with boxes scattered about the living room, now listen to their conversation:

“Daddy, why are there so many lights? What do all these colors mean? Why did you cut branches off the Christmas tree and hang them on the door? Did you help your daddy when you were big like me? Why do we bring a tree in the house? Mommy’s gonna be mad if you make a mess.”

Does that sound familiar? Well, the conversation continues. The little boy was helping his father sort out ornaments for the tree when he asked, “Daddy, what does ignore mean?”

The father explained patiently, “Ignore means not paying attention to people when they call you.” Immediately the little boy looked up at his father and said, “I don’t think we should ignore Jesus.”

Puzzled, the father knelt closer to his animated son and replied, “I don’t think we should ignore Jesus, either, son. I think we should give him our full attention. Why do you say that we ignore him?” His son answered, “But, Daddy, that’s what the Christmas carol says, ‘Oh, come let us ignore him.'”

The real word, as you and I both know, is adore. “Oh, come and let us adore him, Christ, the Lord.” And this is what countless Christians are doing this night/day around the world. We gather to adore Christ, that is, to worship him and rightly so, for as the son of God, he has saved us from our sins and given us the precious gift of eternal life.

Adoring Jesus however isn’t reserved only for Christmas. Ever since the first Easter, as prescribed by the third commandment, Christians have gathered every Sunday to worship and adore Christ. We Catholics call our time together the Mass, which as you can see now has a new translation. While the words have changed somewhat, the meaning and the purpose of the Mass remain the same. This is our time to worship God. Our gifts of bread and wine become for us the body and blood of Jesus.

Another name for Mass is Eucharist, which in Greek means “thanksgiving.” The Mass is our time to adore Jesus as a faith community and our time to thank God for what we have been given. Of course, sometimes we are not always grateful for what we have been given. Despite the thoughtfulness of the giver, have you ever not appreciated or been disappointed by what you have received?

The week before Christmas, a young woman, named Julie, was complaining to her closest friend, “I spend time, energy and money to find my mother-in-law a Christmas present, and no matter what I give her, she won’t like it.” Her friend replied, “You haven’t even bought it yet. How can you be so sure?”

“Easy. She never likes anything I give her. She never likes anything anybody gives her. Every time it’s the same response. She mumbles a weak thank-you if you’re lucky. Then, a day or two later, she’ll ask for the receipt so that she can get something more practical. And if you give her something practical, she’ll find another reason to return them…wrong color, wrong size, wrong something or other. She never gladly accepts a gift!”

When it came to gifts or compliments, Grandma Kellen simply could not and would not accept one graciously. Julie finally brought a beautiful snow dome with a nativity scene, thinking it would be something her mother-in-law would enjoy for years to come. Much to Julie’s delight, her mother-in-law really did appreciate the gift.

Months later, Julie’s 4 year old daughter had a temper tantrum at her birthday party because the gift of a raincoat was not her favorite color so Grandma Kellen took her to another room for a little “time out.” Julie peeked in to see what was going on. There she found the two of them cuddled together in a rocking chair.

“Now, Jenny, you mustn’t cry because people don’t give you what you wanted. I used to do that, always wanting something different, until I got that snow dome from your mother. As I kept turning it over and watching the snow fall on the nativity scene, I realized that if Jesus and Mary and Joseph could accept the gifts of the shepherds and the wise men, even though those gifts may not have seem too practical, well, so could I.”

Grandma Kellen imparts a timely message for us this Christmas. There might be a present or two that you may not appreciate, but when given out of love, there is much to appreciate, even if the gift may not seem so practical or be just what you wanted.

We have before us the most precious gift that we could ever want: the gift of God with us, Emmanuel, Jesus, the Son of God, yet how readily do we appreciate what we have been given? Our attention is focused on him here and now, but will our attention be there next weekend or the weekend after or say on the fifth Sunday of Lent or Easter? Or might we be doing just what that little four year observed? Might we be ignoring Jesus because we have too much else to do or don’t fully appreciate this gift for whatever reason or excuse we come up for not coming again and again to give thanks to our Savior at Mass?

Oh, come let us adore him, Christ the Lord, not just this day, but every week wherever we may be.

The setting is a small town in the Deep South. Atticus Finch, a lawyer by profession and a widower, lives with his two young children: a son, Jem, who is in the fifth grade and a daughter, Scout, who is in first grade. Though he is strict, he is good to them and they love him. An upright man and an excellent lawyer, Atticus has become unpopular by agreeing to defend a black man who has been charged with a serious crime. Although the man is innocent, he stands little chance of getting a fair trial for many in the town are very prejudiced.

At the end of the street there lives a cranky elderly woman who is always giving Jem and Scout a bad time whenever they pass her house. What hurts the kids most of all are the names she calls their father because he is defending the black man.

One evening, Jem decides he has had enough from her. He hops over her fence and destroys some of her flowers, including her prized camellias. He then runs home. When Atticus comes home, he shows his son some camellia buds and asked, “Jem, are you responsible for this?” After admitting to the act, his father said, “Son, you shouldn’t have done that.”

Jem protests that the old lady never has anything nice to say. “You should hear the things she says about you. I really did it because of you.” Atticus then tells Jem, “To do something like this to a sick old lady is inexcusable. Now go and apologize to her for what you did.”

Reluctantly he does. The woman asks Jem if he would agree to come and read to her for two hours each day for a month. Jem is horrified, but his father insists that he must do what she is asking of him. So each evening after dinner, Jem and Scout visit the old lady and read to her. They both hate it for she remains as cranky as ever and continues to insult their father.

Each evening after they had read for an hour, the old woman would start to tremble violently. The housekeeper would then tell them to leave so that the old lady could take her medicine. As the weeks go by, the fits become less frequent and less severe. When the month is up, Jem wants to quit but his father said, “Just one more week, son.” That week, he notices she had no more fits but she was just as cantankerous as ever.

One evening, Atticus comes home and tells Jem and Scout that the old lady had just died. He then tells them something which changed their whole attitude toward her. He told them that she was addicted to pain killers and was determined to kick the habit before she died. Those fits which Jem and Scout had seen were withdrawal symptoms of her drug addiction. “Did she succeed?” they asked. “She did,” Atticus replied. “And just before she died, she told me that she would never have succeeded if you hadn’t come and read to her. She wanted me to thank you with this gift.”

Jem and Scout were flabbergasted to discover a beautiful, white, waxy, perfect camellia in the box. “Why can’t she leave me alone?” Jem screamed. Hugging him, Atticus said, “I think that is her way of telling you that everything’s all right now.” Those two children didn’t realize the full significance of the task their father had asked them to do, yet they obeyed him in a spirit of love. That scene, by the way, comes from a modern classic published 50 years ago, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee.

In the gospel, we see how Mary also consented to what was being asked of her: to become the mother of our redeemer. She was willing to the will of God despite the risk involved. When she said, “Yes,” I imagine Mary had little idea of what she was in for. Despite the pains she later experienced, she never waivered from doing God’s will. In good times and bad, she relied on God, who in turn enabled her to remain faithful. Without that initial consent, given at the annunciation, we wouldn’t likely be here today.

Each of us said yes many times over when we have undertaken commitments and responsibilities at our baptisms, our weddings, the day we were hired, along with countless other promises we have made. And when we did, we did not always know what was in store for us. Like Mary, we have to affirm our “yeses” many times over and as we do, we sometimes need to ask God to help us remain faithful to the commitments we have made.

Sometimes we cannot see the full meaning of what we are asked to do by God or someone else. As it was for Jem and Scout, fulfilling the commitment at hand may be challenging, especially if the task is unpleasant or if we are left feeling that no one appreciates what is being done. Like Mary, we have to go on confirming our consent in a spirit of loving obedience to God’s will.

This last week of Advent can be wonder days for families. There will be work and stress ahead but look for the possibilities for love and joy: decorating the home, shopping for a special present for someone you love, baking cookies, caroling, sending cards, taking time to reflect on the mystery we will soon celebrate or to ask God for the grace to handle all that needs to be done without feeling helpless. When we feel helpless, we feel the need to have control over what is going on in our lives and when we can’t, we might turn to abusive power. Not only does that hurt our relationships but it also contradicts the meaning of Christmas.

Like Mary, we are the living temple of God’s presence. What we say and do when done out of love goes far in making God’s presence felt by those around us. There is a reason to hold a loved one closer, to hug our children, to dress the season with hope, warmth, and holy splendor. When you go forth, make this last week of Advent a good and loving week so that you can make this a Christmas your family can long remember with joy.

Recently I was reading a book by Arthur Simon titled; “How Much is Enough?” “Hungering for God in an affluent culture”. In chapter four subtitled “Rushing to nowhere”, the message fit so well especially in this time of year, with all the commercialism around us leading up to Christmas day and what lay under the tree. This time of year we move so fast that we miss what this Advent Season is all about!

Chapter four of the book starts off with a story that goes like this: “They were running hand in hand, and the queen went so fast that is was all Alice could do to keep up with her. And still the queen kept saying, Faster, Faster!”….The most curious part about the thing, is that….however fast they went, they never seemed to pass anything.

“In our country”, said Alice… “You’d generally get to somewhere else— if you ran very fast for a longtime as we’ve been doing.”

“A slow sort of country!” said the queen. “Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”

Ours is a restless culture. Life has become excessively busy for a large portion of the population. We start moving so fast that we do forget to stop and smell the roses, we fail to stop and reflect on what Advent is all about. We create stress in our lives that becomes part of our body’s clock.

What happens when we drive up to another vehicle on the highway that is going 50 MPH in the 55MPH speed zone? Anxiety sets in,

We look for a spot to pass even though the destination is only 2 miles away. Let me give you another scenario: It is already half way through Advent but I haven’t got half the presents I need to get. I haven’t sent half the cards I need to send. Panic starts to set in. I start to run faster and faster going nowhere, I start to go down in flames, CHRISTMAS BURN OUT!

But despite how I feel, I speed up only to miss all that is passing me by, and still the big day, Christmas, is only a few days away. I frantically go from place to place, to fill my list of presents. Will I even make it? Will I have enough time even to enjoy the season? Dose this sound familiar to some of you?

What is so special, even in the midst of all this panic and stress, the Church sends us the third Sunday of Advent which is called Gaudete Sunday, a name meaning Rejoice, a name derived from the ancient entrance antiphon; “Rejoice in the Lord, and again I say Rejoice!”

One might say, why should I rejoice? The day was long and hard, and I’m tired. A crazy person tried to run me off the road. Another was following so close to my rear bumper I thought that person was a passenger in my rear seat. I battled the crowds to fill my list of presents. I don’t need someone with a smiling face telling me that I should be happy!!

But we also know that there is a reason why centuries of tradition have focused this 3rd Sunday of Advent on the need to rejoice!!!

As we in the Church wait for the coming of the Lord in his full glory, we can get just a little bit tired. After all, we have been waiting for over 2000 years.

We can forget that even though the Lord is not with us yet in his Glory, He is still with us. John the Baptist had to tell the people that: “There stands among you – unknown to you – the one who is coming”.

And you know, it is the same for us today, even though we can so easily forget it. However, Gaudete Sunday is a reminder of why we should be rejoicing.

As we dig through the crowds at K-Mart and Wal-mart, as we shop till we drop, as we stand in the long lines at the Post Office the to mail those last minute cards, as we go to work, as we go to bed at night, the Lord is with us.

We may have forgotten who it is that gives us the strength to face another day, we may have forgotten who it is that gives us the grace to experience every little joy and happiness that comes our way.

Most of you can remember the days when the pews were over half full during the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. Now days we are very lucky to see 2 or 3 in the pew at any given time. We even forget that Jesus is among us over there in the Tabernacle. Do you feel he deserves at least a bow as we walk by?

The Lord is always here with us, every moment of our lives, no matter where we are, where we go. He himself, is the one who sustains us. Doesn’t this give us a reason to Rejoice? You bet it does. And here in the Mass we are given the clearest expression of our Lord’s presence – because he comes to us in Holy Communion. This is so evident in the revised translation especially when we say; “Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof–yes, Jesus is coming to us. He has not and never will wait for us. He is always coming to us.

Very soon the bread and wine will be changed so that they are no longer bread and wine but are the Lord’s body and blood, soul and divinity. And even now, at this very moment he is present in our tabernacle, present in his physical reality.

Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist is not an isolated event in our lives. His perfect unsurpassed presence here is also a reminder that He is continually present to us in many other ways in our lives.

In the homily I gave just a couple of weeks ago, I talked about how we could see Jesus in others, in the sick, the imprisoned, in the homeless, and in the one sitting next to you this very moment. And He lives in us if we allow him to do so. He comes to live under our roof, to live in us and through us. If we would only remember- Rejoice, I say again Rejoice. John the Baptist does not want us to forget and neither does Jesus.

As we go forward to complete our shopping lists, as we go forward to get those Christmas cards mailed in time, as we continue to prepare ourselves for that special day on the 25th of December, as we contemplate what those presents are under the tree, let us not forget that we are celebrating the birth of Jesus and also preparing ourselves for when He will come in His full glory.

But let also remember that Jesus is with us now. Let us give Him thanks and praise and let us “Rejoice in the Lord, and again I say Rejoice!!!!