Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God, Cycle A
January 1, 2002
Holy Trinity Church
Reflection That Makes a Difference
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
ERMA BOMBECK
Our well-known American humorist Erma Bombeck once came up with a list of six New Year’s resolutions.
With Erma’s typical combination of wit and insight, her six resolutions go like this:
1. I’m going to clean this dump just as soon as the kids grow up.
2. I will go to no doctor whose office plants have died.
3. I’m going to follow my husband’s suggestion to put a little excitement into my life by living within our budget.
4. I’m going to apply for a hardship scholarship to Weight Watchers.
5. I will never lend my car to anyone I have given birth to.
6. And, finally, just like last year, I am going to remember that my children need love most when they deserve it least.
MARY
With all of Erma’s wit, she ends with a very insightful resolution.
That resolution – about loving her children when they deserve it least – seems to be the result of some reflection. Erma must have reflected on her role as a mother and on her children’s needs and discerned what she was called to do.
In today’s gospel, Mary is also presented as a person who reflects. Saint Luke says that after she has given birth to Jesus and the shepherds have visited, “Mary treasures all these things and reflects on them in her heart.”
So, Mary is a reflective person. She looks carefully at what is happening and looks at all of this through the eyes of faith.
This reflective spirit enables Mary to see God acting in her life. It leads Mary to go along with what God is asking her to do.
Well, the example of Mary calls us to the same reflective spirit in our own lives. This can be especially appropriate on New Year’s Day.
If we are inclined to make some New Year’s resolutions, I recommend that reflect a bit and focus our reflections on the three dimensions of time – on the past, then the future, and finally the present. I recommend that we focus on these and see what resolution is appropriate for us.
POSSIBLE RESOLUTIONS
First, the past. Maybe we need to resolve to stop saying things like “If only I had done this” or “If only I had not said that.”
Usually, our “if onlys” are a waste of time and energy. We cannot bring back or re-do the past.
On the other hand, if our regret is based on an appropriate feeling of guilt, then let’s ask for forgiveness from the person involved or from God. In this way, let’s bring the past to completion and just let the past be past.
Then, the future. Maybe we need to resolve to stop saying things like “What if this happens” or “What if he does that.”
Again, usually our “what ifs” are a waste of time and energy. They are almost always focused on something in the future that we can do nothing about.
In truth, the only thing we can do about the future is live today the best we can with our future goals in mind – both our earthly and our heavenly goals. So, maybe we need to take Mary’s approach and trust more that God will be with us and support us through whatever happens.
And finally, the present. Maybe we need to resolve just to give our attention to the person we are now with or the thing we are now doing.
So often we are thinking about the next person or task or what I will say just as soon as the other person stops talking. So often we are not really “with” or present to the person we are talking with or the thing we are doing.
Maybe we need just to focus on how God may be present to us right now through your husband or wife or friend or in leading a project at work or cleaning the house or whatever. We can usually find God and the richness of life right here – in the present moment, in whatever we are doing.
CONCLUSION
So, Erma Bombeck’s humor and Mary’s reflective spirit might lead us to some thoughtful resolutions at this junction of time that we call New Year’s. Happy New Year!
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for Christmas December 25, 2011: What's in a Song?
Christmas, Cycle B
December 25, 2011
Saint Margaret Church, Bel Air, MD
Our Lady of Grace Church, Parkton, MD
What’s in a Song?
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM
Back in the nineteenth century, in the 1870’s, there was an American preacher named Phillips Brooks.
One December, shortly before Christmas, Phillips Brooks visited the Holy Land. On that Christmas Eve, he made the trip from Jerusalem to Bethlehem on horseback.
From a distance, Brooks saw the little town of Bethlehem lit up against the darkness of the night. That sight made a great impression on him and a year later it inspired Brooks to write some verses.
His church organist quickly composed a tune to go with them. That hymn has become a standard for our celebration of Christmas. I’d like to speak it to you so you can listen carefully to the words.
“O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie! (gesture)
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by; (gesture)
Yet in thy dark streets shineth (gesture)
The everlasting light; (gesture)
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.” (gesture)
INTERPLAY OF DARKNESS AND LIGHT IN SCRIPTURE
“Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light” – those words have really captured my attention this Christmas. They express the contrast between darkness and light that Christmas is all about.
In tonight’s 1st reading, the Prophet Isaiah says: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom, a light has shone.”
Isaiah is looking ahead to a moment when God will penetrate the darkness that fills so much of our lives with gloom. He foresees a moment when God will break through and be a light penetrating that darkness.
We now see Isaiah’s prophecy fulfilled in the birth of Jesus. And yet, it is interesting that even the story of Jesus’ birth tells us that the star which guides the Wise Men to Bethlehem does not drive all the darkness away.
Instead, the light of that star shines in the darkness and is a steady sign and guide. I suggest that for us, the light of Bethlehem operates in much the same way.
LIGHT AND DARKNESS TODAY
Each one of us, perhaps each in a different or similar ways experiences some form of darkness. In that very darkness, we are invited and even urged to look to the light of Bethlehem.
Perhaps we find ourselves in the darkness of ANXIETY ABOUT OUR FINANCIAL SECURITY or our job. In this darkness, the light of Bethlehem gives us hope by finding our real security in Jesus and by trusting that God’s providential care will watch over us.
Perhaps we find ourselves in the darkness of FEELING LONELY AND ISOLATED after the death of a spouse or other loved one. In this darkness, the light of Bethlehem assures us of Emmanuel, God-with-us, as we walk through the tunnel until we reemerge into fuller light.
Perhaps we find ourselves in the darkness of DOUBT AND QUESTIONING, of wondering why we are living and what we really believe. In this darkness, the light of Bethlehem gives us a vision for where we are going and how to get there.
Perhaps we find ourselves in the darkness of COLD, OF A MARRIAGE THAT HAS GROWN COLD or of alienation from a child or parent or close friend. In this darkness, the light of Bethlehem offers us the warmth of God’s love and moves us to extend and accept signs and glimmers of that love.
Or finally, perhaps we find ourselves in the darkness of FEELING STUCK, TRAPPED in some habit or addiction or compulsion that is self-defeating and destructive. In this darkness, the light of Bethlehem assures that human growth is always a possibility and invites us to search like the Magi for persons or programs that can help us with that growing.
CONCLUSION
So, “In thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light.”
The light shines in the darkness of Bethlehem and it shines today in our own darkness, as well.
Yes, the darkness remains, but – and that a big “but” – there is indeed light with the birth of Jesus, Emmanuel, God-with-us.
Let’s look to that light in whatever darkness we may have. Let us allow the light of Jesus lead us to:
➢ Hope
➢ Comfort
➢ Vision
➢ Warmth and
➢ Growth
All are the gifts that only the light of Bethlehem can give us.
December 25, 2011
Saint Margaret Church, Bel Air, MD
Our Lady of Grace Church, Parkton, MD
What’s in a Song?
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM
Back in the nineteenth century, in the 1870’s, there was an American preacher named Phillips Brooks.
One December, shortly before Christmas, Phillips Brooks visited the Holy Land. On that Christmas Eve, he made the trip from Jerusalem to Bethlehem on horseback.
From a distance, Brooks saw the little town of Bethlehem lit up against the darkness of the night. That sight made a great impression on him and a year later it inspired Brooks to write some verses.
His church organist quickly composed a tune to go with them. That hymn has become a standard for our celebration of Christmas. I’d like to speak it to you so you can listen carefully to the words.
“O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie! (gesture)
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by; (gesture)
Yet in thy dark streets shineth (gesture)
The everlasting light; (gesture)
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.” (gesture)
INTERPLAY OF DARKNESS AND LIGHT IN SCRIPTURE
“Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light” – those words have really captured my attention this Christmas. They express the contrast between darkness and light that Christmas is all about.
In tonight’s 1st reading, the Prophet Isaiah says: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom, a light has shone.”
Isaiah is looking ahead to a moment when God will penetrate the darkness that fills so much of our lives with gloom. He foresees a moment when God will break through and be a light penetrating that darkness.
We now see Isaiah’s prophecy fulfilled in the birth of Jesus. And yet, it is interesting that even the story of Jesus’ birth tells us that the star which guides the Wise Men to Bethlehem does not drive all the darkness away.
Instead, the light of that star shines in the darkness and is a steady sign and guide. I suggest that for us, the light of Bethlehem operates in much the same way.
LIGHT AND DARKNESS TODAY
Each one of us, perhaps each in a different or similar ways experiences some form of darkness. In that very darkness, we are invited and even urged to look to the light of Bethlehem.
Perhaps we find ourselves in the darkness of ANXIETY ABOUT OUR FINANCIAL SECURITY or our job. In this darkness, the light of Bethlehem gives us hope by finding our real security in Jesus and by trusting that God’s providential care will watch over us.
Perhaps we find ourselves in the darkness of FEELING LONELY AND ISOLATED after the death of a spouse or other loved one. In this darkness, the light of Bethlehem assures us of Emmanuel, God-with-us, as we walk through the tunnel until we reemerge into fuller light.
Perhaps we find ourselves in the darkness of DOUBT AND QUESTIONING, of wondering why we are living and what we really believe. In this darkness, the light of Bethlehem gives us a vision for where we are going and how to get there.
Perhaps we find ourselves in the darkness of COLD, OF A MARRIAGE THAT HAS GROWN COLD or of alienation from a child or parent or close friend. In this darkness, the light of Bethlehem offers us the warmth of God’s love and moves us to extend and accept signs and glimmers of that love.
Or finally, perhaps we find ourselves in the darkness of FEELING STUCK, TRAPPED in some habit or addiction or compulsion that is self-defeating and destructive. In this darkness, the light of Bethlehem assures that human growth is always a possibility and invites us to search like the Magi for persons or programs that can help us with that growing.
CONCLUSION
So, “In thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light.”
The light shines in the darkness of Bethlehem and it shines today in our own darkness, as well.
Yes, the darkness remains, but – and that a big “but” – there is indeed light with the birth of Jesus, Emmanuel, God-with-us.
Let’s look to that light in whatever darkness we may have. Let us allow the light of Jesus lead us to:
➢ Hope
➢ Comfort
➢ Vision
➢ Warmth and
➢ Growth
All are the gifts that only the light of Bethlehem can give us.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Weekly Homily for December 18, 2011: 4th Advent -- The Power of Stillness
4th Sunday of Advent, Cycle B
Terranuova Hermitage
December 18, 2011
The Power of Stillness
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
STILLNESS
This afternoon, I want to ask you to do something with me.
I am asking that for two minutes, we just sit here and let’s all be silent – completely silent. I recommend that either we keep our eyes closed, or we keep our eyes focused on the image of the resurrected Christ or on the tabernacle.
In these two minutes, don’t recite any prayers and try to let go of any worries or thoughts about what you are going to do the rest of the day. Let’s just try to be – to be with God.
And maybe every 10 to 15 seconds, just silently repeat the words: “Emmanuel – God is with us.” “Emmanuel – God is with us.”
Okay! Let’s begin and try this. [Pause – 2 minutes]
PRAYER OF STILLNESS
Okay. I want to say a few things about what we just did.
We can call this the Prayer of Stillness. It may not be easy for us.
It is almost counter to how we live in our culture. Most of us, most of the time, including me, are always doing something.
It is difficult for us just to be instead of to do. One author says that we have become human doings instead of human beings.
I think this has affected our spiritual lives. We may think that a life of faith, a spiritual life, or prayer is just doing things like the set prayers here at Mass.
It does include that. But it also includes just being – being with God.
And, in fact, maybe this is the most basic and most essential part of spirituality. Maybe the lack of this is why some people today find religion or church or spirituality empty – just not meeting their needs.
MARY'S STILLNESS
I am led to this today because of Mary, the Mother of Jesus.
The gospel at one point tells us that Mary treasures and reflects on what is happening in her life. This tells us that there is a stillness in Mary’s life – a Prayer of Stillness.
I believe that this stillness, her being, just being with God, this is what enables Mary to deal with the message of the angel in today’s gospel. She questions how she can conceive this child.
But in the end, Mary says, “Okay!” Her inner stillness, her Prayer of Stillness enables her to do this.
WHAT STILLNESS DOES
I recommend that our making time just to be with God, like we did a few minutes ago, can have positive effects on our lives.
We see this right in the Scriptures today. This Prayer of Stillness can help us to be receptive, as Mary is.
It disposes us to listen – to take in what God or what another person is saying. It opens us to messages that are in words or messages that are not in words but in the very stillness.
The Prayer of Stillness also calms us. It gives us an inner peace.
Again, we see this in Mary today. She is troubled and she questions, but in the end she is at peace with what is happening.
Maybe the first reading about King David gives us the underlying value in the Prayer of Stillness. David wants to build a house for God, a great temple.
But God says, “You’re going to build a house for me? No way!
“I’m going to build a house for you.” God means not a building, but a “house” of successors to lead God’s people.
In effect, God is saying to David, “Don’t worry about what you’re going to do for me. Instead, allow me to do something for you that will be much much more important.”
Well, in the Prayer of Stillness, instead of our speaking words and offering prayers to God, we are allowing God to do something for us. We are allowing God to come to us and speak to us and form us as persons.
Our being with God allows God to affect our very being. And that can have dramatic effects on who we are and what we do and how we relate.
CONCLUSION
So, I recommend: try this Prayer of Stillness on your own.
Don’t bite off too much at least to begin with. Maybe just 2 to 5 minutes.
It can have dramatic effects. After all, it enabled Mary to bring the Son of God into our world.
Terranuova Hermitage
December 18, 2011
The Power of Stillness
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
STILLNESS
This afternoon, I want to ask you to do something with me.
I am asking that for two minutes, we just sit here and let’s all be silent – completely silent. I recommend that either we keep our eyes closed, or we keep our eyes focused on the image of the resurrected Christ or on the tabernacle.
In these two minutes, don’t recite any prayers and try to let go of any worries or thoughts about what you are going to do the rest of the day. Let’s just try to be – to be with God.
And maybe every 10 to 15 seconds, just silently repeat the words: “Emmanuel – God is with us.” “Emmanuel – God is with us.”
Okay! Let’s begin and try this. [Pause – 2 minutes]
PRAYER OF STILLNESS
Okay. I want to say a few things about what we just did.
We can call this the Prayer of Stillness. It may not be easy for us.
It is almost counter to how we live in our culture. Most of us, most of the time, including me, are always doing something.
It is difficult for us just to be instead of to do. One author says that we have become human doings instead of human beings.
I think this has affected our spiritual lives. We may think that a life of faith, a spiritual life, or prayer is just doing things like the set prayers here at Mass.
It does include that. But it also includes just being – being with God.
And, in fact, maybe this is the most basic and most essential part of spirituality. Maybe the lack of this is why some people today find religion or church or spirituality empty – just not meeting their needs.
MARY'S STILLNESS
I am led to this today because of Mary, the Mother of Jesus.
The gospel at one point tells us that Mary treasures and reflects on what is happening in her life. This tells us that there is a stillness in Mary’s life – a Prayer of Stillness.
I believe that this stillness, her being, just being with God, this is what enables Mary to deal with the message of the angel in today’s gospel. She questions how she can conceive this child.
But in the end, Mary says, “Okay!” Her inner stillness, her Prayer of Stillness enables her to do this.
WHAT STILLNESS DOES
I recommend that our making time just to be with God, like we did a few minutes ago, can have positive effects on our lives.
We see this right in the Scriptures today. This Prayer of Stillness can help us to be receptive, as Mary is.
It disposes us to listen – to take in what God or what another person is saying. It opens us to messages that are in words or messages that are not in words but in the very stillness.
The Prayer of Stillness also calms us. It gives us an inner peace.
Again, we see this in Mary today. She is troubled and she questions, but in the end she is at peace with what is happening.
Maybe the first reading about King David gives us the underlying value in the Prayer of Stillness. David wants to build a house for God, a great temple.
But God says, “You’re going to build a house for me? No way!
“I’m going to build a house for you.” God means not a building, but a “house” of successors to lead God’s people.
In effect, God is saying to David, “Don’t worry about what you’re going to do for me. Instead, allow me to do something for you that will be much much more important.”
Well, in the Prayer of Stillness, instead of our speaking words and offering prayers to God, we are allowing God to do something for us. We are allowing God to come to us and speak to us and form us as persons.
Our being with God allows God to affect our very being. And that can have dramatic effects on who we are and what we do and how we relate.
CONCLUSION
So, I recommend: try this Prayer of Stillness on your own.
Don’t bite off too much at least to begin with. Maybe just 2 to 5 minutes.
It can have dramatic effects. After all, it enabled Mary to bring the Son of God into our world.
Thursday, December 08, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for December 11, 2011: 3rd Advent -- "O Come, O Come, Emmanual"
3rd Sunday of Advent, Cycle B
December 11, 2011
Mepkin Abbey, Moncks Corner, SC
“O Come O Come Emmanual”
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
THE HYMN
I think we would agree that the most familiar of all our Advent hymns is O Come, O Come Emmanuel.
This beautiful, classic hymn dates back to the year 800. It contains words and verses like these:
“O Come, O Come Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel. That mourns in lonely exile here, Until the Son of God appear.
“To us the path of knowledge show, And teach us in her ways to go. O Come, O Rod of Jesse’s stem, From every foe deliver them.
“That trust your mighty power to save, And give them vic’try o’er the grave. Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, And death’s dark shadow put to flight.”
A SAVIOR, FROM WHAT?
At its heart, this hymn powerfully and poetically expresses our yearning and desire for a savior and salvation.
It is the Advent hymn because this season is about a savior and salvation. But that immediately raises an important question for us.
Do you and I, as people who tend to be rather independent and self-sufficient, do we honestly believe we need to be saved? Do we really believe we need a savior?
Or, to put it differently, from what precisely do we need to be saved? These are important questions of faith especially during this Advent Season.
Paul Tillich, the great Lutheran theologian, has a great insight into why we need a savior and what we need to be saved from. He says that today we need a savior as much as people did in the time of Isaiah and before the coming of Jesus.
And the need for a savior continues because we continue to labor under three fundamental anxieties: anxiety (1) About death, (2) About meaning, and (3) About guilt.
These three anxieties exist right in the heart and core of our humanity; they seem to be written into our DNA.
FROM ANXIETY ABOUT DEATH
First, let us hear a word about the fundamental anxiety about death.
We know that eventually we will die, and often we shy away from thinking about it. We start showing some gray, and probably aren’t too pleased.
We may find ourselves getting tired and having less energy, and we try to avoid admitting it.
We resist facing up to these things because they remind us if only subconsciously of death.
FROM ANXIETY ABOUT MEANING
Then we have a fundamental anxiety about meaning – about the meaning of life.
This anxiety may show itself in our drive for affirmation or our need to be right. It may show itself in wondering why we even do our routines of personal care, household chores, or work or business. It’s all so much of the same over and over and over.
We may worry that we are missing something in life.
We may have a deep, gnawing feeling that our basic life choices have left us incomplete and that there must be more to life.
FROM ANXIETY ABOUT GUILT
Finally, we have a fundamental anxiety about guilt.
We sense the evil in the world and some darkness within ourselves. We sense that we have something to do with the lack of goodness.
We know also that sometimes we do wrong in spite of our good intentions. We know we try hard and may do better, but we’re never completely good.
SALVATION FROM THESE THREE ANXIETIES
Given this human condition, Advent may be the best time of year.
➢ It invites us to link a physical pain or limitation to our anxiety over death.
➢ It invites us to link a nagging worry or even our desire for more and more of something to our anxiety over meaning.
➢ Advent invites us to link our gut feeling that the world is out of kilter or that there is something in disarray in our own lives to our anxiety over guilt.
So considering our human condition with these fundamental anxieties, Advent may be the best season of all.
When we allow Advent to lead us to these anxieties, it is then we discover our need for a savior.
We need a savior to transform death to resurrection, and so we sing: “Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, And death’s dark shadow put to flight.”
We need a savior to give fundamental meaning to our lives, and so we sing: “To us the path of knowledge show, And teach us in her ways to go.”
And we need a savior to forgive us when we are caught in guilt, and so we sing: “O Come, O Come Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel.”
Advent puts us in touch with our need of a Savior and leads us to find this need fulfilled in Jesus.
December 11, 2011
Mepkin Abbey, Moncks Corner, SC
“O Come O Come Emmanual”
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
THE HYMN
I think we would agree that the most familiar of all our Advent hymns is O Come, O Come Emmanuel.
This beautiful, classic hymn dates back to the year 800. It contains words and verses like these:
“O Come, O Come Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel. That mourns in lonely exile here, Until the Son of God appear.
“To us the path of knowledge show, And teach us in her ways to go. O Come, O Rod of Jesse’s stem, From every foe deliver them.
“That trust your mighty power to save, And give them vic’try o’er the grave. Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, And death’s dark shadow put to flight.”
A SAVIOR, FROM WHAT?
At its heart, this hymn powerfully and poetically expresses our yearning and desire for a savior and salvation.
It is the Advent hymn because this season is about a savior and salvation. But that immediately raises an important question for us.
Do you and I, as people who tend to be rather independent and self-sufficient, do we honestly believe we need to be saved? Do we really believe we need a savior?
Or, to put it differently, from what precisely do we need to be saved? These are important questions of faith especially during this Advent Season.
Paul Tillich, the great Lutheran theologian, has a great insight into why we need a savior and what we need to be saved from. He says that today we need a savior as much as people did in the time of Isaiah and before the coming of Jesus.
And the need for a savior continues because we continue to labor under three fundamental anxieties: anxiety (1) About death, (2) About meaning, and (3) About guilt.
These three anxieties exist right in the heart and core of our humanity; they seem to be written into our DNA.
FROM ANXIETY ABOUT DEATH
First, let us hear a word about the fundamental anxiety about death.
We know that eventually we will die, and often we shy away from thinking about it. We start showing some gray, and probably aren’t too pleased.
We may find ourselves getting tired and having less energy, and we try to avoid admitting it.
We resist facing up to these things because they remind us if only subconsciously of death.
FROM ANXIETY ABOUT MEANING
Then we have a fundamental anxiety about meaning – about the meaning of life.
This anxiety may show itself in our drive for affirmation or our need to be right. It may show itself in wondering why we even do our routines of personal care, household chores, or work or business. It’s all so much of the same over and over and over.
We may worry that we are missing something in life.
We may have a deep, gnawing feeling that our basic life choices have left us incomplete and that there must be more to life.
FROM ANXIETY ABOUT GUILT
Finally, we have a fundamental anxiety about guilt.
We sense the evil in the world and some darkness within ourselves. We sense that we have something to do with the lack of goodness.
We know also that sometimes we do wrong in spite of our good intentions. We know we try hard and may do better, but we’re never completely good.
SALVATION FROM THESE THREE ANXIETIES
Given this human condition, Advent may be the best time of year.
➢ It invites us to link a physical pain or limitation to our anxiety over death.
➢ It invites us to link a nagging worry or even our desire for more and more of something to our anxiety over meaning.
➢ Advent invites us to link our gut feeling that the world is out of kilter or that there is something in disarray in our own lives to our anxiety over guilt.
So considering our human condition with these fundamental anxieties, Advent may be the best season of all.
When we allow Advent to lead us to these anxieties, it is then we discover our need for a savior.
We need a savior to transform death to resurrection, and so we sing: “Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, And death’s dark shadow put to flight.”
We need a savior to give fundamental meaning to our lives, and so we sing: “To us the path of knowledge show, And teach us in her ways to go.”
And we need a savior to forgive us when we are caught in guilt, and so we sing: “O Come, O Come Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel.”
Advent puts us in touch with our need of a Savior and leads us to find this need fulfilled in Jesus.
Thursday, December 01, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for December 4, 2011: 2nd Advent -- Breaking News: Read All about It!
2nd Sunday of Advent, Cycle B
Mepkin (Trappist) Abbey
December 4, 2011
Breaking News; Read All about It!
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
BREAKING NEWS!
Today, when we watch news shows or news channels on TV, we often see the words Breaking News on the screen.
Breaking News appears when a story has just happened or is happening even as it is being reported. So, last spring, we saw Breaking News when President Mubarak of Egypt was forced to resign.
This week, we saw Breaking News when our Federal Reserve and five other central banks intervened to alleviate the debt crisis in Europe.
This evening, if we have not been watching the football game late this afternoon, we hope to see Breaking News telling us about the Raven’s win over the Browns.
Breaking News is meant to grab our attention away from anything else. It means that something important is happening right now and we don’t want to miss it.
MARK'S NEWS
This image helps us to appreciate today’s gospel.
Mark starts off: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ…” The word “gospel” that Mark uses means proclamation.
It is the same word that civil rulers used back then when they had something important to “proclaim” to the people. Mark in effect is saying, “This is the proclamation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God…”
So, right in the first sentence, Mark explains why there is a “proclamation” about this ordinary man from Nazareth – why he is Breaking News. There is a “proclamation” about Jesus because he is the “Son of God.”
This means that God has entered our world in the person of Jesus and shares our humanity. This is the Breaking News of who Jesus of Nazareth really is and it forms the very first sentence of Mark’s gospel.
MORE NEWS: JOHN AND JESUS
Then, right after telling us this, Mark gives us some background – kind of like the next 30 seconds worth about the Breaking News.
Mark tells us that a man named John the Baptist is to introduce this Jesus to the world and he says John tells us something about Jesus even by his lifestyle. So, Mark says that John’s diet consists of locusts and honey – not my idea of a good meal!
Mark recalls these foods because each of them tells us something about Jesus. In the Old Testament, God sends a plague of locusts to punish the evil pharaoh in Egypt – in other words, to uproot or destroy evil.
And so, John’s eating locusts tells us that Jesus comes to destroy evil. In today’s first reading, Isaiah gives us some beautiful images – the images of leveling mountains and filling in valleys and smoothing rough roads.
These images are not to be taken literally. In other words, we are not literally going to do these things to prepare for the Savior’s coming.
Instead, these images point to areas of evil or sin that we need to address. For example, we are to “level the mountains” of busyness and preoccupation with so many things that get in the way of some reflective prayer or prayerful reflection and our entire relationship with God.
We are to “fill in the valleys” of human need wherever we see it, whether in a grieving neighbor who needs companionship or a homeless person who needs a bed. And we are to “smooth out the rough roads” of relationships by patiently and respectfully trying to work through misunderstandings or hurts.
So, the locusts in John’s diet are symbolic – they call us to deal with any area of evil or sin in our lives.
Then, throughout the Bible, honey is a symbol of God’s special care for us.
The honey that John eats looks back to Isaiah’s words today, “Comfort, give comfort to my people.” Jesus, whom John is introducing, gives us the comfort of God’s presence.
Jesus gives us an inner peace and hope. He brings us comfort, but still we have to open our hearts and level those mountains and fill in those valleys and smooth those rough spots that can keep the Lord away from us.
CONCLUSION
So, we have a wonderful proclamation or Breaking News here at the beginning of Mark’s gospel today.
Mark does not want us to miss this – that Jesus is the Son of God and that he is here with us. And he wants us to do all we can – through the images of locusts and honey – to allow Jesus to be with us as fully as he wants to be.
Mepkin (Trappist) Abbey
December 4, 2011
Breaking News; Read All about It!
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
BREAKING NEWS!
Today, when we watch news shows or news channels on TV, we often see the words Breaking News on the screen.
Breaking News appears when a story has just happened or is happening even as it is being reported. So, last spring, we saw Breaking News when President Mubarak of Egypt was forced to resign.
This week, we saw Breaking News when our Federal Reserve and five other central banks intervened to alleviate the debt crisis in Europe.
This evening, if we have not been watching the football game late this afternoon, we hope to see Breaking News telling us about the Raven’s win over the Browns.
Breaking News is meant to grab our attention away from anything else. It means that something important is happening right now and we don’t want to miss it.
MARK'S NEWS
This image helps us to appreciate today’s gospel.
Mark starts off: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ…” The word “gospel” that Mark uses means proclamation.
It is the same word that civil rulers used back then when they had something important to “proclaim” to the people. Mark in effect is saying, “This is the proclamation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God…”
So, right in the first sentence, Mark explains why there is a “proclamation” about this ordinary man from Nazareth – why he is Breaking News. There is a “proclamation” about Jesus because he is the “Son of God.”
This means that God has entered our world in the person of Jesus and shares our humanity. This is the Breaking News of who Jesus of Nazareth really is and it forms the very first sentence of Mark’s gospel.
MORE NEWS: JOHN AND JESUS
Then, right after telling us this, Mark gives us some background – kind of like the next 30 seconds worth about the Breaking News.
Mark tells us that a man named John the Baptist is to introduce this Jesus to the world and he says John tells us something about Jesus even by his lifestyle. So, Mark says that John’s diet consists of locusts and honey – not my idea of a good meal!
Mark recalls these foods because each of them tells us something about Jesus. In the Old Testament, God sends a plague of locusts to punish the evil pharaoh in Egypt – in other words, to uproot or destroy evil.
And so, John’s eating locusts tells us that Jesus comes to destroy evil. In today’s first reading, Isaiah gives us some beautiful images – the images of leveling mountains and filling in valleys and smoothing rough roads.
These images are not to be taken literally. In other words, we are not literally going to do these things to prepare for the Savior’s coming.
Instead, these images point to areas of evil or sin that we need to address. For example, we are to “level the mountains” of busyness and preoccupation with so many things that get in the way of some reflective prayer or prayerful reflection and our entire relationship with God.
We are to “fill in the valleys” of human need wherever we see it, whether in a grieving neighbor who needs companionship or a homeless person who needs a bed. And we are to “smooth out the rough roads” of relationships by patiently and respectfully trying to work through misunderstandings or hurts.
So, the locusts in John’s diet are symbolic – they call us to deal with any area of evil or sin in our lives.
Then, throughout the Bible, honey is a symbol of God’s special care for us.
The honey that John eats looks back to Isaiah’s words today, “Comfort, give comfort to my people.” Jesus, whom John is introducing, gives us the comfort of God’s presence.
Jesus gives us an inner peace and hope. He brings us comfort, but still we have to open our hearts and level those mountains and fill in those valleys and smooth those rough spots that can keep the Lord away from us.
CONCLUSION
So, we have a wonderful proclamation or Breaking News here at the beginning of Mark’s gospel today.
Mark does not want us to miss this – that Jesus is the Son of God and that he is here with us. And he wants us to do all we can – through the images of locusts and honey – to allow Jesus to be with us as fully as he wants to be.
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