Saturday, December 19, 2009

This is beautiful... lots to think about here....

The root of man’s joy is the harmony he enjoys with himself. He lives in this affirmation. And only one who can accept himself can also accept the you, can accept the world. The reason why an individual cannot accept the you, cannot come to terms with him, is that he does not like his own I and, for that reason, cannot accept a you. Something strange happens here. We have seen that the inability to accept one’s I leads to the inability to accept a you. But how does one go about affirming, assenting to, one’s I? The answer may perhaps be unexpected: we cannot do so by our own efforts alone. Of ourselves, we cannot come to terms with ourselves. Our I becomes acceptable to us only if it has first become acceptable to another I. We can love ourselves only if we have first been loved by someone else. The life a mother gives to her child is not just physical life; she gives total life when she takes the child’s tears and turns them into smiles. It is only when life has been accepted and is perceived as accepted that it becomes also acceptable. Man is that strange creature that needs not just physical birth but also appreciation if he is to subsist . . . If an individual is to accept himself, someone must say to him: “It is good that you exist” – must say it, not with words, but with that act of the entire being that we call love. For it is the way of love to will the other’s existence and, at the same time, to bring that existence forth again. The key to the I likes with the you; the way to the you leads through the I.

Principles of Catholic theology: building stones for a fundamental theology - By Pope Benedict XVI

Friday, December 11, 2009

Third Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year C – 2009

thermometer I wrote this homily with 102 temperature so if it doesn’t make sense be merciful.

Today if I could crawl into your little heads,
I think I would find thoughts like;

I can’t wait until these exams are finished.

I can’t wait until I have nothing due.

I can’t wait until I can sleep as long as I want and then roll over and sleep some more.

I can’t wait for my mother’s cooking.

I can’t wait t see my friends.

I can’t wait to be with my family.

I can’t wait to be in my own room.

I can’t wait to be home.

Today is the third Sunday of Advent.
Today we lit the pink candle.

It is usually called Gaudete Sunday, or the Sunday of Joy

Try preaching about joy to a church filled with students facing a week of final exams.

I would rather call today “I can’t wait Sunday”
Or “expectation Sunday.”

In the Gospel we heard that upon listening to John the Baptist everyone was filled with expectation.

They couldn’t wait for the Messiah and neither can we
They couldn’t wait for freedom and neither can we
They longed for the joy which we would enjoy with his coming and so do we.

You see when we have faith, when we choose to believe,
it is impossible to live our lives without expectation
and it is impossible to live our lives without joy.

If there is no joy in our lives
if there is no expectation we have to ask ourselves what have I forgotten?

Where has my hope gone?
Or maybe, where has my faith gone ?

When you have faith,
real faith,
life giving faith,
it is impossible not to be filled with hope.
The two go hand in hand.

When you have faith…
It is impossible not to think or dream about the next beautiful possibility that God who loves us will send our way.

Now your exams are the most important thing on your mind. Maybe some of you have papers to write…

Next you will be worried about comps and if you graduate.

Next you will be worried about who your spouse will be,
some of you are already worried about that.

Next you will be worried about where you will work and if you boss likes you.

Next you will be worried about your kids and how many friends they have.

Next you will be worried about your job and who is getting ahead of you.

Next you will be worried about what college your kid can get into and how you will pay for it.

As the aches and pains of life creep up on you,
you will worry about your health and the health of those you love.

Someday you will be worried about your 401 K

I would venture to say that very few of you here even know what a 401k is.
Trust me, Someday you will worry about it.

Life will always be filled with worries..

And sometimes there will be challenge after challenge after challenge,

but “I can’t wait Sunday” reminds us to be filled with expectation and hope

To be honest
I can’t wait till all of you go home, especially the kid you gave me the flu.

And I know
that I won’t be able to wait until all of you come back.

Get your work done.
And don’t complain that you have too much to do,

You’ve had the whole semester and
you had lots of fun so suck it up.

No matter where you are in life
Be filled with hope
Be filled with expectation and
Be filled with joy

That was the message of The prophet Zepheniah in the first reading

That was the message of Gospel.

And that is the message of “I can’t wait Sunday.”

Saturday, December 05, 2009

Second Sunday of Advent Year C 2009

In the first reading from the Book of the Prophet Baruch,

God gives hope and healing to his people,
He gives hope and healing to his people who mourn.

They mourn the loss of their children,
They mourn the loss of their families, and their friends

They watched with unspeakable sadness as those whom they loved were marched off into exile by the Babylonians.

Can you imagine seeing your family, being marched away?

Can you imagine how it felt having little hope of ever seeing them again?

The people in the first reading mourn the destruction of their city,
the loss of the temple,
and they especially mourn the loss of their relationship with God.

Even though Baruch probably wrote 400 years after the Babylonian exile.

He calls it to mind to give hope to his own people.
They too faced terrible persecutions.

His message is simple.
God gave hope to His people during the Babylonian exile,
and God will give you hope.

All hope comes from God.

And so in the first reading the Prophet tells the people of Jerusalem to go to heights and look to the East and the West.

He wants them to see the return of those who were taken away.

He wants them to see the power and mercy of God.

He wants us all to know that those who were lead into exile were “remembered by God”
He never forgot them.
He never stopped loving them.

God’s love is so great that He even lowers the mountains and
fills in the valleys
to make their journey home easier.

He wants to make it easy for them to come home.
He wants to make it easy for everyone to come home.

In the Gospel, Luke situates the ministry of John in a specific time and place.

He sets the date of John’s ministry according to the reign of the Roman Emperor

He announces that John’s ministry is taking place in Galilee

And he announces the religious leaders of the time.

Luke wants us to know that John was a real person.

He wants us to know that he was not a pious legend but a real person.

John  lived at a specific moment in time, and at specific place on earth just like me and just like you.

What is John’s message ?
it is simply this..

He challenges us to Prepare the way of the Lord…

Just like God prepared the way for the return of the exiles to Jerusalem

We have too prepare the way for God to come in our lives.

We must level the mountains of pride which make it so difficult for us to really love God and our neighbor.

We must fill in the valleys of our weakness and selfishness.

We must make the path to our heart straight by living thought filled, reflective and holy lives.

What does all of this have to do with us?

Like the people of Jerusalem all of us have been in very desperate straits.

All of us have had moments when we were tempted to lose hope.

And all of us have had to acknowledge that our weaknesses and our sins have often been the source of our despair.

The first reading reminds us that God’s love is greater than our sin or brokenness.

It reminds us that God’s love is greater than our infidelity.

The Prophet Baruch reminds us that God’s mercy is beyond limits.

With God there is always hope.

The Gospel clearly tells us that we must prepare a way in our hearts for God.

Just like God prepared for the return of His people 
We must prepare for the coming of our savior.

Like God we must lower the mountains and fill in the valleys. 

Our hearts are filled with so many things

We have
Mountain of distractions.
Mountains of worries and concerns
Mountains of desires
We believe in mountains of false promises
Who among us doesn’t have Mountains of stubbornness and pride

We must level those mountains.
and
We must fill in the valleys of laziness .

We must
Fill in those valleys of bad habits which we just don’t want to give up.

And what about those valleys of bitterness and anger when we refuse to forgive?

We have to fill in those valleys so that God can come.

We must make straight the pathways to our heart by living thought filled and thoughtful lives.

So often we wander around life being pulled in this direction or that direction.

So often we place ourselves under the influence of whatever catches our eye and the pathways of our life are crooked indeed.

The readings today remind us that

Advent is a time of preparation.

It is a time of expectation.

It is a time of hope.

Advent demands an active response from us

We are half way there… next week we light the pink candle.

We all know that the closer we get to Christmas the less time we will have.

If we haven’t carved out a little more space or time in our life for God during this advent it is not too late to do so.

“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.
Every valley shall be filled
and every mountain and hill shall be made low.”

Amen