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Homilies are posted no later than during the week
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2 Advent
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Second
Sunday of Advent - B Cycle - Mark 1:1-8
A theologian had a painting of the crucifixion in
his study. It showed John the Baptist with a long bony finger pointing
to Jesus. One day a visitor asked, "What is your job?" The theologian
walked over to the painting and said, "I am that finger." Do our lives
point people to Christ? Or do they turn them away from Him? Before you
answer, remember what Gandhi said, "I would have become a
Christian if ever I had met one."
In a recent year, Joseph Donders writes, "One
third of
all the books in the United States were written on Jesus."
Given that remarkable fact, can you fault the Church
setting up the training camp season that is Advent at the opening of a
new Liturgical year? The Church gives us four weeks to burn off
ten pounds of ugly spiritual fat. Thus we will be properly ready to
greet the Nazarene on His annual Christmas visit.
St Mark today in 1:1 heralds Him without any
hesitation as "Jesus Christ the Son of God." He shows no doubt, no
hesitation. Talk about clearing the decks for action. Plato
wrote, "To find the maker and father of this universe is a hard task;
and when you have found him, it is impossible to speak of him before
all people." I do not know whether the Evangelist Mark ever read that
line while working in Rome with St Peter. But one point is certain.
Mark tells us in in this Gospel he disagrees with Plato.
Elizabeth Vanek catches the spirit of this season:
"Advent is the season of the pilgrim God...We often speak of our
journey towards God, but, in reality, it is God who does most of the
traveling." The last four miles you might say He leaves to us. The
ideal would be to cover one mile in each of these Advent weeks. The
first mile should already be behind us. The slowest of us can walk a
mile weekly in even the oldest sneakers.
Instead of selling out, a bishop suggests that our
challenge is to stand out. This Advent abstain from food one day each
week to better understand what hunger is. And why not give 10% of your
income to a charity? Stand out.
Advent is designed to bring out Abraham Lincoln's
better angel in us. We should be advancing toward the peace this season
promises. And, as Donders says, "peace is the opposite of pieces; to be
at peace means to be of one piece."
We should all make this verse quoted by
William Barclay the capstone of this Advent: "In youth, because I could
not be a singer, I did not even write a song. I set no little trees
along the roadside because I knew their growth would take so long. But
now from the wisdom that the years have brought me, I know that it may
be a blessed thing to plant a tree for someone else to water or make a
song for someone else to sing."
John the Baptizer's message can be summed up
in that one
word, "Repent." In Mark 1:5, the Master Himself also went on
the record, "Repent and believe in the Gospel."
What better way to turn over that famous new
leaf than
arranging a prime time rendezvous with the Teacher in confession.
St Augustine wrote, "The confession of evil works is the first
beginning of good works." Barclay notes that it is only when we say, "I
am a sinner" that Jesus can say, "I forgive." CS Lewis writes that
though God made us without our consent, He will not save us without our
permission.
And, as we walk away from that encounter with the
Master, dwell on the story that says that Christ takes all our
confessed sins and hurls them to the bottom of a deep lake. Then on the
lake shores, He nails a large sign that reads "NO FISHING."
George Eliot reminds us, "It's but little good
you'll do watering last year's crops."
A woman had a vision of Jesus. She went and told her
priest. He said, "I will not believe unless your Christ tells you my
sins. The woman returned. The priest asked what his sins were. She
replied, "Jesus said He has forgotten them."
It is well said that if you want God to be
pleased with you, then you must please God. Confession would be a good
start.
The monk says that this Christmas, instead of
dreaming of and unhappy. Become a Christian that Gandhi would
admire.
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http://www.st.ignatius.net/pastor.html
2 Advent
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2
Advent: If We Want Change, We Need To Change
He
didn’t look like them. He didn’t talk like them. He was not
part of the crowd that had always held power. Yet he talked about
change. And the people listened, and followed.
John
the Baptist dressed in camel’s hair and had a leather belt. He
didn’t dress like the Scribes, Pharisees and Temple priests. He
never was part of that crowd. But John the Baptist talked about
change that was certainly coming. The thing is for the change to
take place, it was the people who had to change. If there is
going to be no more war, then people need to stop hating others.
If there is going to be charity and care for all, then people needed to
look inside their hearts and pull out the justice of God that resides
there. If there is going to be change, then people needed to
change.
That
is the change we can believe in. “Prepare for the Lord,” John the
Baptist proclaims in the Gospel for this Second Sunday of Advent.
Prepare for the Lord by preparing yourselves. And the people from
throughout the Judean countryside and the inhabitants of Jerusalem went
out to the Jordan River where John was preaching. And they
confessed their sins. And they were baptized. And the
change had begun.
We
all want our country and our world to be better. We all want a
cure for cancer and AIDS and malnutrition and every ailment or
condition that is killing people. We all want the poor to be
cared for. We all want an end to violence both that which is
carried out by terrorists and that which takes place in every
town and city throughout the world. We all want peace. But what
are we doing about it? The heart of John the Baptist’s message is
that if we want change, if we really want the One who will reform the
world and return mankind to God’s original plan, then we need to change.
This
is tough. It is just so much easier to sit back and expect the
government to change, the world to change, other people to
change. But if we really want change we can believe in, the we
need to change.
The
Gospel is calling us to look to ourselves. Perhaps someone
has mistreated us. We were innocent, and that person attacked us.
Maybe it was a parent who constantly belittled us. Maybe it was
someone at work or at school who really enjoyed making our life
difficult. Perhaps it was someone we barely knew, who took it
upon himself or herself to berate us. How have we
responded? Sadly, many times I have responded by matching
nastiness with nastiness. Perhaps you have too. How can we
expect there to be peace in the world, when we respond to hate with
hate? If we want the world to change, we need to change.
Perhaps our economic position in life has been rather poor. We
shop at discount stores and buy inferior products because we simply
can’t afford to buy brand name clothes, brand name food, and so
forth. But do we hope that some day we will have so much that we
will be able to squander our money? So many professional athletes
have given horrible examples of greed. So many are making five million
or more and spending ten million or more. Is this our idea of success?
Are we looking to ourselves first? How can we expect there to be
an end to world poverty when our basic attitude, our deep
hope is to someday be able to be selfish? If we want the world to
change, we need to change.
John
the Baptist knew that he was striking a chord with people. He saw
them responding to his preaching. The Gospel of Luke says that
the crowds asked him, “What shall we do?” He said, “If you have two
cloaks, give one to someone who has none. Share your food with
the hungry.” When the dregs of Jewish society, the tax collectors
sincerely asked him, “What shall we do?” he told them to stop cheating
people. Even soldiers asked John what they should do. He
responded that they stop bullying people and acting unjustly. John
wanted to make one thing clear, though: People should not be changing
just because they were drawn to his words. He was merely
preparing them for the One whose words would be those of the Word of
God. “One mightier than me is coming after me.” “I am not
worthy to even take off his shoes. What I do is earth bound, I am
baptizing with water. What he will do is infinitely beyond the
earth. He will baptize with the Holy Spirit.”
Our
determination to reform ourselves, to change ourselves so that we can
change the world is not merely based on humanitarian needs, but is
based on the spiritual. We belong to Jesus Christ. We are His
People. He has called us to make His Presence real throughout the
world. For us, love is not merely the opposite of hate.
Love is the Presence of Jesus Christ within us and among us. For
us charity is not just the opposite of greed. Charity is the Lord
working through us to care for others.
Every year we priests go on rants about how so much of our society is
trying to destroy the original meaning of Christmas. We decry the use
of the terms “Holiday Season or Winter Holidays, or Seasons Greetings.”
And we should. We are saddened that a spiritual celebration has
been transformed into a series of drinking parties. And we should
be. But, perhaps, we should all be less concerned with the
commercialization of Christmas and the debasement of Christmas from the
birth of a poor child in a stable to the celebration of materialism,
and be more concerned about what we are doing to Prepare the world for
Jesus Christ. What John the Baptist is telling us is to look within,
change our own attitudes, and then trust God to allow this change to
have a part in the transformation the world.
Change we can believe in will only take place if we are the ones who
change. That is what it means to Prepare for the Lord.
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http://stmaryvalleybloom.org/
* available in Spanish - see
Spanish homilies
2 Advent
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The
Collect
(December 4, 2011)
Bottom line: In the Collect, we gather the strands of our lives. We do
so in a focused way - a way that sets the tone for the entire Mass: To
the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit.
A reporter asked actor Martin Sheen about his faith. He said that he is
a practicing Catholic. Then he added, "And I plan to keep practicing
until I get it right." That's a good motto for us as we learn the new
missal. Before giving the homily, I would like to practice three
gestures:
The first gesture is new, but familiar to those who remember the old
Latin Mass - or to those who have attend Mass in others languages, such
as Spanish. It is the "striking of the breast" during the "Confeteor" -
the "I Confess" prayer. We say "through my fault, through my my fault,
through my most grievous fault." As we are saying those phrases, we
strike the breast. This is a biblical gesture. After the people
witnessed Jesus' crucifixion, they went home "beating their breasts."
(Lk 23:48)
The second gesture is not new, but many neglect it: Before we listen to
the Gospel, we make the sign of the cross on the forehead, lips and
heart. It indicates that we desire to receive Jesus in our minds and
hearts, so that his words might be on our lips.
Thirdly, during the Creed we bow at the words, "And by the Holy Spirit
was incarnate of the Virgin and became Man." The bow is profound. If
your hands were extended, they would touch your knees. We bow at Jesus
taking on human flesh, that is being "incarnate of the Virgin Mary" by
the Holy Spirit. Those gestures will help enter the mysteries in a
total way: mind, spirit and body.
Now, the homily proper:* This Sunday I would like to focus on a small,
but significant change. It will not require any practice, but knowing
about will help have a deeper appreciation of what happens at Mass. At
the conclusion of the Introductory Rites, we have a short prayer. The
old missal called it the "Opening Prayer," the new missal says,
"Collect." It is spelled the same as the verb "to collect," but is
accented on the first syllable: CALL-lect. The word comes from the
Latin: cum, meaning "together" and ligere meaning "gather." The
collect, then, gathers together the prayers of the community.
Benedictine Father Jeremy Driscoll gives this definition of the
Collect: "A prayer whose purpose is to collect into a few short lines,
all the strands of what has taken place so far, as well as all the
strands of our many individual thoughts, which come from many
directions..."
When I look at the congregation at the beginning of Mass, I am often
aware specific situations: A parishioner diagnosed with a serious
disease, a young person struggling with his faith, a man who has lost
his job, a couple facing difficulties in their marriage, a person
tempted by some sin, as well as people who have received joyful news.
The collect gathers together all these strands of our lives.
If you listen carefully to the collect, you will notice that it has a
structure. As Fr. Driscoll says, the Collect follows a "pattern,
according to a very ancient usage." It begins by addressing God. For
example, this Sunday: "Almighty and merciful God." Then we make a
request. This sunday it is a double request: "may no earthly
undertaking hinder those who set out in haste to meet your Son." In the
readings we hear about things could hinder us: guilt, aridity, fear,
impatience, apathy, a refusal to acknowledge sin. But God is powerful
and full of mercy. So we ask him to remove those obstacles.
The second request is that, by learning heavenly wisdom, we would gain
admittance to his company. It would require a more spiritual man than I
to analyze that request, but I will say this: None of us will
experience the "comfort" that describred in our readings speak until we
ask for "heavenly wisdom" and by that wisdom enter into God's company.
Nothing this world offers will give us lasting peace and comfort.
The Collect concludes by acknowledging the Trinity. As we say today
"your Son...who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy
Spirit, One God, forever..." As Fr. Driscoll observes, in the Collect,
"we have the shape or pattern of prayer that will mark all the praying
of the Mass": To God the Father, through Jesus his Son, in the Holy
Spirit.
To sum up: In the Collect, we gather the strands of our lives. We do so
in a focused way - a way that sets the tone for the entire Mass: To the
Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. Amen.
**********
*Remember what the General Instruction to the Roman Missal says about
the homily: "The Homily is part of the Liturgy and is highly
recommended (Cf. Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, Constitution
on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, no- 52; Code of Canon
Law, can. 767 § 1), for it is necessary for the nurturing of the
Christian life. It should be an explanation of some aspect of the
readings from Sacred Scripture or of another text from the Ordinary or
the Proper of the Mass of the day and should take into account both the
mystery being celebrated and the particular needs of the listeners (Cf.
Sacred Congregation of Rites, Instruction Inter cEcurnenici, 26
September 1964, no.54: Acta Apostolicae Sedis 56 (1964) p.890)" (GIRM,
no. 65)
General Intercessions for the Second Sunday of Advent, Cycle B (from
Priests for Life)
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http://www.agreeley.com/homilies.html
2 Advent
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December 4th, 2011 A.D.
Second Sunday in Advent Mark 1, 1-8
"Prepare the way of the Lord"
Background:
The early Christians had a problem with the Baptist. He had preached
the nearness of the the kingdom of God before Jesus had. And Jesus had
been baptized by him. Thus the Baptists disciples could claim that
their master was prior to and therefore superior to the master of the
Christians. So they rearranged history a little bit of pedagogical
purposes.
The Baptist was not so much about an apocalyptic intervention of God
which would punish all sinners as he was preaching about the coming of
Jesus who would embody the kingdom of God.
In fact, the kingdom as preached by Jesus was a kingdom of love and
mercy lurking near to and all around humankind, a difference which is
perhaps more important today than it seemed to the early Christians.
Story:
Once upon a time there was a company which was in a bad way. The last
three CEOs had been dummies. The companies stock had lost 60% of its
value, its market share had decline by thirty percent, it’s bright
people were leaving, morale among the employees was at rock bottom. The
worst part of the trouble was that the product they made was still the
best in the market. But the previous leaders had been lazy and mean and
had spent most of their time awarding themselves and their friends huge
bonuses. They paid not attention to advertising or marketing.
Finally a new board was appointed at the stockholders’ insistence. They
fired the last CEO with a thunderous denunciation. They warned the
employees that all their jobs – and their pensions – were in grave
jeopardy. The workers were terrified.
Finally the new CEO arrived. He was expected to fire half the workers,
cut back on expenses, and give the company the good shaking that
everyone said it needed. Instead he walking around the building, smiled
at everyone, assured them that everyone would be all right and that he
didn’t plan to fire anyone. Another fool they said. Then he met with
the union leaders to get their suggestions. They told him the truth
that the produce was the best in the business. I thought that too, he
said.
Then he hired new marketing and advertising director, brought in new
advertising and public relations firm and launched a very clever
television campaign. By that time everyone in the company admired him
and worked hard for him. In six months the company was well on the way
to recovery. “You catch more flies with honey,” a top executive said of
him. And added, mixing his metaphors, “some nice guys finish first.”
And the new boss merely said, “the fear of the lord is the beginning of
wisdom, but only the beginning. |
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http://www.saintvincentarchabbey.org/sunday_homily
2 Advent
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Second Sunday of Advent
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Mark 1:1-8
Cycle B
Gospel Summary
At the very outset, Mark declares his gospel to be the "good news." He
dares to say this in a world that is broken and weary because this
gospel announces the consistent divine initiative to bring about a new
creation where peace and harmony will prevail over pride and violence.
This new beginning occurs at the coming of Jesus and easily transcends
the original creation in scope and significance. If in fact God's dream
for a world of peace and justice has not been fulfilled, it is due
entirely to the obstacles, which we have placed in its path.
Thus, when Mark tells us that the career of John the Baptist was
described already in the words of Isaiah (40,3), he is also telling us
that opening the road for the coming of the Lord is still a major
problem. The desert is a wild and challenging place, a place that
demands attention, for it strips away all that is superfluous in human
life. We are still preventing the coming of the Lord by refusing to
open ourselves to the radical implications of the message of Jesus.
It is for this reason that the baptism of John is called a baptism of
repentance. It represents an expression of regret for having refused to
accept fully the implications of the coming of the Lord. On the other
hand, it has a positive aspect also which is a declaration of personal
readiness to make room in our lives for the Lord, however costly that
may be..
Life Implications
One of the major ways in which we prevent the coming of the Lord is our
fear that, if we don't focus our attention primarily on our own
interests, we will lose control of our lives and be pulled apart by the
needs of others. In fact, Jesus means to choose to commit oneself to
live as unselfishly as one's freedom permits…which usually means a
little more than we think is possible. This doesn't mean that we should
become doormats but it does mean that the needs of others must not be
the last and least concern in our lives. In other words, it means to
put our lives and our futures into the hands of a gracious God as we
strive to make the love and gentleness of Jesus present in our world.
All of this may sound like a life of endless self-denial and very
little fun or happiness. However, such a conclusion can be reached only
by those who have not really tried to live by the wisdom of Jesus. The
fact is that those who really care about others are the happiest people
on earth. In this Sunday's gospel, John the Baptist urges us to remove
the roadblocks of fear and self-centeredness in our lives and thus
assure a truly joyous Advent celebration.
Demetrius R. Dumm, O.S.B.
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http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/lowhome.html Meeting Christ in the Liturgy
2 Advent
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Second
Sunday
Isaiah 40, 1-5.9-11; Psalm 85;
2 Peter 3, 8-14; Mark 1: 1-8
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
"O come, o come, Emmanuel."
"But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a
woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so
that we might receive adoption as sons." (Gal 4:4-5) This is "the
gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God": (Mark 1:11) God has visited
his people. He has fulfilled the promise he made to Abraham and his
descendants. He acted far beyond all expectation - he has sent his own
"beloved Son." (Mark 1:11) (CCC 422)
The Catechism beautifully expresses what we anticipate and celebrate in
this Advent season. We take special efforts in liturgy and life to
prepare ourselves anew to receive our Lord in the commemoration of his
birth in a fitting spiritual way as we answer the call of John the
Baptist to "Make ready the way of the Lord, clear him a straight path."
We also mark the historical birth of Christ in a continuing witness of
the historicity of our faith. What we recite in the Creed did indeed
really and truly take place.
We believe and confess that Jesus of Nazareth, born a Jew of a daughter
of Israel at Bethlehem at the time of King Herod the Great and the
emperor Caesar Augustus, a carpenter by trade, who died during the
reign of the emperor Tiberius, is the eternal Son of God made man. He
"came from God," (Jn 13:3) "descended from heaven," (Jn 13:3;6:33) and
"came in the flesh." (1 Jn 4:2) For "the Word became flesh and dwelt
among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as
of the only Son from the Father...And from his fullness have we all
received, grace upon grace." (Jn 1:14, 16)(CCC 423)
Many movies and television shows treat the subject of faith and the
supernatural. Some books purport to be "autobiographies" of God, some
seek to remake Jesus Christ as a sinful human being, denying His
divinity. Some of the most popular entertainment denigrates the
authentic Christian faith and attacks the Church. It is often the case
that when a religious figure or authority encourages Christians to
avoid buying or reading certain books or viewing certain films that are
inimical to the faith, there is a public outcry against "book banning",
and fear-mongers dredge up images of a rebirth of the inquisitions or
book burnings.
For those who understand that salvation comes through faith, and that
the faith must be loved, cherished and protected, it just makes good
sound sense to avoid books, films and any influences that would deny or
undermine what we know to be the truth. What good could come of reading
a book which denies the Son of God existed, that he knew who he was,
that he rose from the dead? What of a movie that denies the need for
faith, that attacks Christ's Body, the Church, or commits sacrilege
against the Sacrifice of the Mass? St. Paul teaches in one of his
letters, "say only the good things men need to hear." Our Lord reserved
his most severe condemnation for those who scandalize the faith of the
weak. It is for these reasons that we seek out those things which feed
and nourish our faith, and reject or avoid those things which are
destructive or corrosive of our faith.
The first and ordinary means of growing in the Faith is our encounter
with Christ in Word and sacrament. In the liturgy, the source and
summit of our Christian life, we have the highest source of the
upbuilding of the kingdom within us and within the communio of our
Catholic Church.
Active participation in the Mass helps us to avoid experiencing it as
an empty ritual. Begin or renew the practice of the prescribed postures
for the Mass, for these are practical means of entering more deeply
into the Paschal mystery fully present in the Eucharistic sacrifice.
These include, (1), a bow of the head at the holy names of Jesus, the
three persons of the Trinity, the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saint of
the day in whose honor the liturgy is offered; (2), a profound bow at
the words: "by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin
Mary and became man" in the Creed; (3) the striking of the breast at
the words "that I have sinned through my own fault" in the Confiteor;
and (4), the "strongly recommended" sign of reverence, such as the
genuflection while in procession to receive Communion or kneeling to
receive the Body of Christ.
By our actions as well as our words we show our sincerity as we pray "O
come, O rod of Jesse's stem; O come, O come Emmanuel." Let us grow more
profoundly in our desire for the coming of the Lord in the liturgy that
we may be found acceptable on the great day of His coming in glory.
I look forward to meeting you here again next week as, together, we
"meet Christ in the liturgy," Father Cusick (Copy with Permission)
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http://www.ctk-thornbury.org.uk/
2 Advent
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Second Sunday of Advent, Year B
Mark is an Evangelist who doesn’t mess about. He goes headlong into
things.
As he tells us, here we have the beginning of his Gospel. Then in only
the first eight verses that we have as our reading for today he briefly
gives us an important prophecy from the prophet Isaiah, and then pushes
John the Baptist on to the stage. But in four short verses he manages
to sum up completely his whole life.
Then in the very next verse he brings on Jesus and, before you know it,
has him baptised. We are swiftly moved on to Jesus temptation in the
wilderness and by verse fourteen, before we have even turned the page,
Mark launches into an account of Jesus’ public ministry. Whew!
It is breathtaking, and it is wonderful. Mark goes straight for it. He
is a no-nonsense Evangelist, no frills, just the essentials. But you
can understand his logic. It is after all Good News, and so why go
around the houses. Get down to basics, and do it fast.
Not only is he swift but he is also uncompromising. We get the prophecy
about a messenger coming before Jesus and as soon as he gives it to us
Mark says: ‘…and so it was that John the Baptist appeared in the
wilderness.’ No qualifications. From prophecy to fulfilment in one
breath.
And not some people from Judea and not some people from Jerusalem went
to receive Baptism from John. No, for Mark tells us it was all the
people from Judea and all the people from Jerusalem.
Neither is it the Good News about Jesus who was a nice bloke and who
from reading this story about him you might come round to thinking that
he was the Son of God. No, for Mark, it is unequivocal. This is the
Good News about Jesus, the Son of God.
Mark is a true believer and he is not going to hang around and wait for
you to make up your mind. He gets in there and proclaims the Gospel. He
is, in a way, just like John the Baptist—uncompromising. And I believe
that is just how one should be with the Gospel—uncompromising. Why be
anything other? Why water it down. Why apologise?
We have been given a precious treasure. We have been given a sacred
duty by the High King of Heaven. In the words Mark himself uses, we
have been instructed to ‘Go out to the whole world, proclaim the Good
News to all creation.’
In his own way the prophet Isaiah is just as uncompromising: ‘Let every
valley be filled in, every mountain and hill laid low.’ Plenty of work
there for the JCB drivers in our congregation. And I’m sure they
wouldn’t hang about either.
But Isaiah also gives us a tenderness that is found missing in Mark.
Yes he has the trumpeter go up the high mountain to blare out his
message at Jerusalem and he has the Lord coming in glory, with power
and as a victor. But he also lets us know the gentler side that the
Lord will be like a shepherd feeding his flock and gathering his lambs
to his breast.
But what is all this about? The answer is clear: both Isaiah and Mark,
in their somewhat similar but yet also quite different ways, are
proclaiming to the world the most important event that ever happened or
ever will happen to the human race —the incarnation of our Lord and
Saviour, Jesus Christ.
This incomparable event that burst on the world over 2000 years ago
deserves some direct language. And I suggest that it deserves some
direct language even today, perhaps more especially today.
People around us are watering our religion down, in fact we do it
ourselves, ‘Oh, it’s only a small sin, God wouldn’t worry his head
about that.’ Listen to yourselves saying it to yourself if not to
others.
When it comes to Christmas even Christians reduce the holiest night of
the year to the level of twittering robins on a glitter covered
so-called Christmas card with a capital X. The razzmatazz of the
multi-million pound shopping conglomerates has hijacked Christmas and
reduced it to a saccharine coated message of shop-till-you-drop.
Mark and Isaiah and John the Baptist, and even Jesus himself, all used
uncompromising language. Why? Because surely they knew better than
anyone that the message of God would be compromised all down the line
till today and well beyond.
But it wasn’t what the commercial world would do that bothered them it
is what you and I do. It is about our belief and our faith and whether
we actually do give precedence to the teaching of Jesus and the rules
and doctrines of his Church or not.
So let us stick to our guns. Let us have the confidence of a Mark or a
John the Baptist and stick our necks out a bit and take up the task
that Jesus has given us to go out and proclaim the Good News.
Notice the words ‘go out’ —not stay in and watch the mass from
Westminster Cathedral on the telly. Be clear about it, just going out
to Church on a Sunday morning is already in a very concrete way already
beginning to carry out this mission.
But it is also more active than that. It is important to get this far,
here to Church on a Sunday; but from here we are impelled much further.
As the priest says at the end of each mass, ‘Go in peace to love and
serve the Lord.’ That’s active. After all, loving and serving the Lord
can’t be done sitting slouched on a sofa.
Loving and serving the Lord is what we are here for, it is our
privileged task; we were chosen and selected for this sacred ministry
by God himself. So let’s not shrink back from it, let’s not water it
down; let’s not compromise it.
And by our loving and serving we will be creating that ‘new heaven and
a new earth’ that St Peter talks about. The world about us will one day
collapse into flames and something entirely new will be revealed by God.
But it won’t be new or unfamiliar to us, because we know that it will
be the fulfilment of all that God has promised, of all that we have
been proclaiming, of all that we have been waiting for.
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These
homilies may be copied and adapted for your own use;
however, they may not be commercially published without permission of
the author. |
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