HOMILY for February 23, 2020: 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

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7^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Church of the Nativity

February 23, 2020

Disarming Enemies

By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato

Life with Family – Week 4

We are in the final week of a series all about family – your family and mine – and how they impact our faith.

Throughout this series we have been seeking to engage and equip you to shape your experience of family with your commitment to faith. Yes, shape how you experience family with your faith as a resource, as a firm foundation on which to stand. 

God wants to use our families to come to know him and learn to love and serve him. Leading with our faith can deepen the way we can know, love, and serve God.  

And our family can be that place, and in the process we can experience greater love, harmony, and peace.

Defensive Posture

For most of us, ‘peace’ is not the word we think of when we think of our family.  Conflict is inevitable in family life.  And conflict often escalates and builds on itself. 

It’s the “yeah/yeah, YEAH/YEAH,” syndrome that I learned growing up on the streets of Brooklyn, NY and being part of a street gang. Yes, I know, it’s hard to believe, but no less true! I was an Imperial Spade. (Snap fingers)

When we feel attacked, it’s very natural to respond in kind. “yeah/yeah, YEAH/YEAH”  

When our family members accuse us of something, our first instinct is to bring up something worse than they did.  

In this escalating, even petty things can suddenly turn into contentious stand-offs.   

Gospel

In today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches us a different response when others hurt us.  

Rather than responding in kind or just merely capitulating to it, we’re called actually to treat our aggressors better than they deserve. 

For us who follow Jesus it’s no longer an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. It’s no longer the escalating “yeah/yeah, YEAH/YEAH!”

Rather than retaliation or escalation, it’s to be: offer no resistance, right cheek/left cheek, give to the one who asks.

Then Jesus pushes it even further: love your enemies; pray for those who persecute you. Prayer opens up the flow of grace and empowers you to love where love is difficult and this prayerful openness strengthens the practice of your faith within your family.    

Conclusion

This response can be incredibly disarming and can completely change the way your family deals with conflict. It’s worked in my family, particularly with my older brother. It can work in yours.  

Join us after communion to hear Tom Corcoran dive deeper into this powerful message.

HOMILY for February 2, 2020: Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, Cycle A

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Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, Cycle A

Mercy Ridge Hermitage

February 2, 2020   

Forming Good Habits

By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato

Habits 

This morning, I want to reflect with you on habits.

Habits! If we think about it for just a second, all of us can easily see that we have habits in our lives.

When I get out of bed in the morning, I brush my teeth and shave and shower and get dressed. And all of this is habit.

When we go to bed at night, we make sure that the doors are locked and the lights are out. Habits.

We get in the car and automatically buckle our seatbelts. Habit.

We may drive to work or to the grocery store and not even think about which roads to take or which turns to make. Habit.

There is an expression that we human beings are creatures of habit – creatures of habit! I’ve heard an estimate that 40 to 50% of the things we do in everyday life are out of habit – amazing!

Definition of Habit 

A habit can be defined as any practice that we do regularly and routinely with little or no effort of the mind or the will.

So, any practice that we do maybe every day, maybe even at the same time every day. And we do it without having to think about it or having to decide whether to do it or not.

We just do it automatically – something that has become automatic probably from just doing it over and over again. So, A habit is any practice that we do regularly and routinely with little or no effort of the mind or the will.

Habits: Simeon and Anna

In today’s gospel, we see these two older persons: Simeon and Anna.

They are like warm, wise, loving grandparents. And what strikes me is that Simeon and Anna have habits of faithfulness.

They come to the temple regularly. They pray every day.

And these habits of faithfulness to God give them hope and peace. Simeon has the hope that he will see the savior of God before he dies.

His habits of faithfulness sustain this hope. And this in turn makes him so peaceful that he is ready to die after he has seen the Christ Child.

Simeon offers that beautiful prayer that we hear today: “Now, master, you can let your servant go in peace, for my eyes have seen your salvation.” The same thing is true for Anna.

She is eighty-four years-old and gives thanks to God upon seeing the Christ Child. Her habits of faithfulness have also sustained her hope and brought her inner peace.

Our Habits 

Today, I want to recommend three habits of faithfulness for us to consider. 

If we don’t have any of these in our lives right now, please consider trying to develop one of them. If we already have one of these in our lives, maybe we are ready to adopt a second.

So, maybe a habit of pre-set prayer – a habit of praying the Our Father or the Hail Mary, a decade of the rosary, a novena, an Act of Contrition, a psalm from the Old Testament. Some habit of pre-set prayer, a prayer composed by someone else and that we may have learned by heart, praying a prayer like this we each day and, if possible, at a set time each day.

Or maybe a habit of meditative prayer – a habit of reading a short passage of a gospel – one parable or teaching or action of Jesus – and reflecting to see what God is saying to me and wants me to do here. A habit of meditative prayer each day and again, if possible, at a set time each day.

Or maybe a habit of thankful prayer – a habit of looking back on the day and thanking God for both the simple and the special blessings of that day. A habit of thankful prayer, maybe at the end of each day, sometime in the evening or right before going to bed.

  

Conclusion

So, pick one or two of these habits of faithfulness.

Make this part of your everyday life. Let this practice become a habit – an automatic.

And see if it doesn’t do for you what habits of faithfulness did for Simeon and Anna. See if it doesn’t sustain you with hope and give you