Sleep Tight

Sleeping with the angels

Luke 2: 25-32

 Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.  This man was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.   It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.  He came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform the custom of the law  in regard to him, he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying: “Lord, now let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled: my own eyes have seen the salvation which you prepared  in the sight of every people, a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel.”

            Do you have a nightly routine before you go to sleep, or as you prepare for bed?  Some people religiously brush their teeth and floss, others wash their face, I suppose women must have to remove make-up or put cucumbers on their eye-lids and curlers in their hair. Can you tell I’m not married?  Remember the T.V. show “The Waltons”?  Every episode ended with the Walton family’s nightly routine: they each said “good night” one by one, “Good night, John Boy,” “Good night, maw,” “Good night, paw,” etc.  We do the same thing at the rectory each night.  If you drive by about 10 p.m. you’ll hear, “Good night, Fr. Andrew,” “Good night, Fr. Pius,” “Good night, Fr. Jason,” “Good night, Fr. John Boy.”  We’re a very close-knit fraternity.

            Actually, what priests DO say as their last words of the day are recorded in today’s gospel, the so-called “Canticle of Simeon.”  When Simeon sees the Baby Jesus, he recognizes him as the promised Messiah, and says – really he sings – “Lord, now let your servant go in peace, your word has been fulfilled; my own eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared in the sight of every people.”  In other words, once Simeon saw Jesus, he could sleep in peace – and ultimately die in peace – because bundled up in Jesus was every blessing for which humanity hungers.  Every night as Simeon fell asleep, he only needed to count one sheep, the Lamb of God, and all the blessings he brings.  And that is every priest’s nightly routine, and that helps him to sleep with the angels.

            My friends, do you have trouble falling asleep, or suffer from insomnia?  Sometimes, sleep aids are helpful, but I try to avoid them.  Instead, try counting the one Sheep, like Simeon did, and remember all the ways you saw God’s salvation during the day, that is, count all your blessings.  It’s funny how powerful prayer is as a sleep-aid.  When I lead the prayer at home with my family, as soon as I make the Sign of the Cross, my nephew makes this huge yawn!  That was just the Sign of the Cross, I’m afraid the Rosary would make the poor kid comatose.  So, after you brush your teeth, and wash your face, and put in your curlers, say a prayer like Simeon before you close your eyes, count the blessings and salvation you saw that day.  That will help you to sleep with the angels, too.

            Praised be Jesus Christ!

Room for Religion

Living our faith in daily life

 Luke 2:22-23, 38-40

When the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses,  They took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord, and to offer the sacrifice of a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons, in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord.When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

              I have a curious habit at meal-time that our parish staff loves to tease me about.  We often eat lunch together, and when it comes to dessert, I always leave one bite on my plate uneaten.  Eventually, someone got up the courage to ask me why I did that, and I replied, “It’s for Elijah.”  Obviously, that wasn’t a very adequate answer, so when they pressed me to explain, I said, “I thought you’d never ask!”  I went on: “The Jews have a custom of leaving a place-setting for Elijah at the Passover Meal.  According to tradition, Elijah will return to announce the coming of the Messiah at the Passover meal, and the Jews want to be prove they are ready for him.”  So, to show a little solidarity with our Jewish brothers and sisters, I leave a little dessert for Elijah.  Just in case he comes at lunch time, I can say, “See, Elijah, I saved some cheesecake for you!”  Now, this practice also has a pragmatic, practical side: That custom constantly reminds me to leave a little room not only for Elijah but really to leave room for my religion.  It helps me remember that faith shouldn’t just be something we do for an hour a week on Sunday and then leave on the church steps and ignore for the rest of the week.  We should find room for our religion in our daily duties, even in our daily dessert.

             Today is the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.  I think one thing that made the family of Nazareth especially “holy” was that they lived their faith in lots of little ways every day; they made room for their religion.  For example, today’s gospel says: “When they had fulfilled the prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth.”  That phrase, “fulfilled the law of the Lord” is used 6 times in today’s gospel.  You see, the Old Testament contained 613 rules and regulations for Jewish life, all the way from washing dishes to how far to walk on the Sabbath.  In other words, Jewish faith was not a purely private matter just for the Sabbath synagogue, but something that was woven seamlessly into the fabric of life.  I’m sure Mary and Joseph set an extra place for Elijah every Passover, even though they didn’t have to: the Messiah was already sitting at the table for every meal!  You see, as the Holy Family “fulfilled the law” they made ample room for religion in their family life, helping them to be a holy family.  Holiness means integrating your religion into your whole life.

            Speaking of making room for religion, that reminds me of this Little Johnny joke.  One day a Sunday school teacher of preschoolers wanted to test their understanding of how real Jesus is.  So, she asked her class: “Where is Jesus today?”  Steven raised his hand and said, “He’s in heaven.”  Mary was called on and she answered, “He’s in my heart.”  Little Johnny, waving his hand furiously, blurted out, “I know, I know!  He’s in our bathroom!”  The whole class got very quiet, looked at the teacher, and waited for a response.  The teacher was completely at a loss for a few very long seconds.  Finally, she gathered her wits and asked little Johnny how he knew this.  Little Johnny said, “Well, every morning my father gets up, bangs on the bathroom door and yells, ‘Good Lord, are you still in there?!’”  Now, folks, that is NOT what I mean about making a little room for religion in our family life.

            May I share with you the one criticism I consistently hear about Catholics?  This is probably the most scathing comment anyone could hear.  It’s that we’re hypocrites.  People say: Those Catholics party all week long, go to confession on Saturday, and file down the aisle for Communion on Sunday.  Now, we all know that’s not true: Catholics don’t go to confession!  But the rest of it may be true, isn’t it?  Now, obviously that’s a caricature, an exaggeration, but every exaggeration still bears within it a grain of truth.  The root of the problem is we have not made room for religion all week long, in little ways, observing all the customs and commandments of our faith like Jesus, Mary and Joseph did.

            Here’s a real easy way to see how much room you’re making for your religion in your life.  You can always tell what’s important to someone by how they spend their time and where they spend their money.  Take a minute today and glance at your calendar – how much time do you spend on your religion in a given week?  Then, take a quick look at your checkbook – how much money do you spend on your religion in a week?  Then, look at where you DO spend most of your time and money and that will tell you what’s MOST important to you; in other words, that’s what you’ve made room for in your heart.  Archbishop Fulton Sheen said that we very much needed the Protestant Reformation in the 1500’s, but the reformers reformed the wrong thing.  There was nothing wrong with the way the Church taught, her doctrine, but there was a lot wrong with how Catholics behaved, how we lived our faith.  And that is true today.  I am convinced that if Catholics truly lived our faith – made room for our religion daily – the whole world would be Catholic!  Let me give you an example of one Catholic who’s doing that: Pope Francis.  He knows there’s nothing wrong with what the Church teaches, but we have a lot of room to grow in how we practice our faith.  Pope Francis doesn’t leave Elijah a bite of his dessert; he left Elijah his whole papal apartments when he moved out!  Is it any surprise more Catholics are returning to church, after seeing his example?  Non-Catholics now speak about the Catholic Church with more respect and reverence.

            Make a little more room for religion in your heart, by spending more time and money on your religion, and so people will stop caricaturing Catholics as hypocrites.  Maybe you can begin by leaving a bite of your dessert for Elijah.  But just make sure the room you leave for religion is not only in the bathroom.

            Praised be Jesus Christ!

Christmas Contemplation

Seeing God’s goodness in everything

Luke 2: 7-14

Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear. The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

                                                                                         

            One of Shakespeare’s lesser known plays is called “As You Like It.”  Have you heard of it?  Even though it gets little publicity, it contains one of my favorite lines in all Shakespeare.  Duke Senior, exiled by his jealous brother, finds refuge in a deep forest.  The Duke, however, is not bitter or resentful as you might expect.  Instead, he’s actually optimistic and even joyful in his new home.  He explains why to one of his attendants: “And this our life, exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones and good in everything” (As You Like It, II, i).  That’s my favorite line: “Sermons in stones and good in everything.”  Now, to tell the truth, I’ve heard some sermons that sounded more like the preacher was throwing stones.  Haven’t you?  That always reminds me of the joke about the woman caught in adultery.  Jesus says sternly to the crowds: “Let the person who is without sin cast the first stone.”  Then, suddenly from the back of the crowd, a lady throws a rock that barely misses the woman.  Jesus says, “Mom, stop it!  I was trying to make a point.”  (If you didn’t get that, you must not be Catholic.)  But the duke somehow heard God’s voice in trees and brooks and stones, and he saw God guiding his life even though he himself was in exile, that is, he saw something “good in everything.”

            Many years ago, when Pope John Paul was a young priest, he traveled to Paris with a friend.  Standing in a crowded subway, Karol Woytila (the pope’s original name), spontaneously stretched out his arms and declared, “What a great place for contemplation!”  His friend looked at him bewildered and said, “What??  People are rushing back and forth, some people are shouting, children are crying, trains are screeching and you fell like contemplating??”  The pope perceived the same thing that the duke discovered: when you look carefully at creation, you glimpse God’s grace and goodness in everything.  Stones can preach sermons, and crowded metros are monasteries of contemplation.

            In the gospel today, an angel invites shepherds to gaze closely at creation – really to contemplate – in order to see something marvelous and miraculous.  The angel announces: “And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.”  The swaddling Baby was a sign of God’s grace and goodness in something ordinary, just like God’s goodness is swaddled in stones and subways.  But the angel wanted them to see more than that.  What was that?  Well, at Christmas, God becomes a man, and in a sense, eternity enters into time, heaven enters into earth, the Creator becomes part of his creation, Shakespeare becomes an actor in one of his plays, just like Alfred Hitchcock used to make a cameo in all his movies.  And when God did that, he touched everything with grace, and in the words of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ famous poem: “The world became charged with the grandeur of God.”  In other words, the angel invites the shepherds to a kind of “Christmas contemplation” not only to see how the Baby of Bethlehem begins a new creation, where there are “sermons in stones and good in everything,” but also to see that God is with us, he is one of the actors on the stage of our lives and we are never alone.  You see, when Jesus stands beside you, he helps you hear those sermons in stones and you feel like contemplating in a crowded metro.  You see good in everything.

            Now, here’s an unexpected place to find the goodness of Christmas.  On Christmas Eve a young man thought it would be nice to buy his wife a little gift for the next day.  Always short of money, he thought long and hard about what the present might be.  Unable to decide, he entered Bloomingdale’s cosmetic section and asked the girl, “How about some perfume?”  She showed him a bottle costing $150.  He muttered, “Too expensive.”  The young lady returned with a smaller bottle for $75.  “Oh, man,” he said, “still far too much!”  Growing rather annoyed, the sales girl brought him a tiny $25 bottle and offered it to him.  The young man said, “What I mean is that I would like to see something really cheap.”  So the sales girl handed him a mirror.  Some of you men may want to stop by the store on the way home and buy a bigger bottle of perfume.  That man heard a sermon in a mirror that day.  Christmas means Jesus is always beside us and speaking to us.

            Folks, I know it can be hard to contemplate God’s goodness sometimes, especially at Christmas time.  The commercialism has all but suffocated the spiritual meaning of the season.  Those who have lost loved ones through death feel their absence acutely at the holidays.  Families broken by divorce and deep divisions feel Christmas gatherings are for

ced and phony and can’t wait to leave.  Nonetheless, I am convinced there is “good in everything.”  Let me illustrate this Christmas contemplation with an email I recently received.  It’s a list of things to be thankful for.  It read: “I am thankful for the wife who says it’s hot dogs tonight, because she’s home with me and not out with someone else.  I’m thankful for the husband who’s on the sofa being a couch potato because he’s home with me and not at the bars.  I’m thankful for the teenager who’s complaining about doing the dishes because it means she’s at home and not on the streets.  I’m thankful for the taxes I pay because it means I’m employed.  I’m thankful for the mess to clean up after a party because it means I’ve been surrounded by friends (keep that in mind tomorrow).  I’m thankful for the clothes that fit too snug because it means I have enough to eat.  I’m thankful for the lawn that needs mowing, the windows that need cleaning, and the gutters that need fixing because it means I have a home.  I’m thankful for the huge heating bill because it means I am warm.  (Here’s my favorite.)  I’m thankful for the lady behind me in church that sings off key because it means I can hear.”  My friends, the mystery of Christmas means you begin to see and hear and feel everything differently because Jesus is at your side speaking to you through all these things.  You will never stand alone on the stage of your life and delivery a soliloquy like Hamlet.  Christmas means you will never be alone.

            “And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones and good in everything.”  Why?  Because Christmas has changed all creation into a monastery for contemplation.

            Praised be Jesus Christ!

The Neck

Allowing Mary to turn our heads

Luke 1:57-64

            When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child she gave birth to a son.  Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her, and they rejoiced with her.  When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child, they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother said in reply, “No. He will be called John.”  But they answered her, “There is no one among your relatives who has this name.”  So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called.  He asked for a tablet and wrote, “John is his name,” and all were amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed, and he spoke blessing God.

             I often think of the advice the mother of the bride gave her daughter in the movie, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.”  Do you remember it?  The bride was getting cold feet and threw herself on the bed crying and sobbing uncontrollably.  The mother calmly counseled her, saying, “Honey, there are only two things you need to remember to have a happy marriage.  First, the man is the head of the house.  And second, the woman is the neck.  And the neck can turn the head.”  May I ask how many men have suffered whiplash with how fast their wives have turned their heads?  The Church describes marriage as a “consortium vitae,” a sharing of life, an equal partnership, a mutual give and take, and that’s certainly true.  But anyone married for more than five minutes knows that the neck can and will turn the head.

             In the gospel today we see the neck turning the head as John’s name is bestowed on his circumcision day.  The neighbors and relatives ask what the parents will name the child, and his mother, Elizabeth, says, “He will be called John.”  The people, however, protest and turn to the his father, Zechariah, for help.  But Zechariah had suffered enough whiplash in arguments with his wife and knew he better agree.  So he wrote on a tablet: “John is his name.”  You know, sometimes, the Bible gets a bad rap for being “misogynist,” treating women as second class citizens.  Anyone who thinks that has forgotten that while the man is the head, the woman is the neck.  Just ask Zechariah.

             My friends, who is turning your head these days?  On this penultimate day before Christmas, every advertisement tries to turn our heads to buy this and to grab that gift.  Instead, may I suggest you allow a woman to turn your head?  Oh, it’s not some sexy super model, but rather a simple Super Mom, the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Indeed, a thousand years ago, St. Bernard of Clairvaux had described Mary as “the neck” connecting Christ the Head with his Body, the Church.  Today, let Mary be your neck and turn your head away from all the commercialism and cacophony surrounding this season, and rather to the quiet contemplation of the coming of Christ.  Pray the rosary, sit silently in the darkened church, go for a long walk with your dog, read the Bible stories of Jesus’ birth slowly.  Let Mary turn your head to Christ.  After all, truly “wise men” know better than to argue or resist.

            Praised be Jesus Christ!

Mutual Admiration Society

Appreciating what is good in another

Matthew 21:28-32

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: “What is your opinion?  A man had two sons.  He came to the first and said, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’  The son said in reply, ‘I will not,’ but afterwards he changed his mind and went. The man came to the other son and gave the same order.  He said in reply, ‘Yes, sir,’ but did not go.  Which of the two did his father’s will?”  They answered, “The first.”  Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the Kingdom of God before you.  When John came to you in the way of righteousness, you did not believe him; but tax collectors and prostitutes did.  Yet even when you saw that, you did not later change your minds and believe him.”

             I remember when I first heard the phrase, “mutual admiration society.”  I was a newly ordained priest serving with Msgr. Hebert at Christ the King.  One day he said a parishioner had complimented me on a homily, and I immediately complimented that person on something I admired about him.  Msgr. Hebert said, “Well, you both have a little mutual admiration society.”  By the way, you could never quite tell if Hebert was being sincere or sarcastic when he talked to you; it was probably both.  I’ve always liked that phrase ever since.  That phrase comes close to the ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle’s definition of friendship, as two people who love what is good in the other person. (Nicomachean Ethics, VIII).  But before you can love something good about the other person, you have to see the good in them; you must appreciate that good.  In other words, you have to create a mutual admiration society.  You see, Hebert was teaching me the rudiments of friendship in his simple, sarcastic way.

            In the gospel today, we see what is arguably the greatest friendship in the whole Bible, namely, the friendship between John and Jesus.  It was the greatest friendship because they both had the most good to love in each other.  We know in what glowing terms John spoke about Jesus, saying, “Behold the Lamb of God.  I am not worthy to loosen his sandal straps.  He must increase, and I must decrease.”  Well, today Jesus returns the compliment saying, “When John came to you in the way of righteousness, you did not believe in him; but tax collectors and prostitutes did.”  Hebert would say John and Jesus had a little mutual admiration society.  In other words, each one deeply admired the words and works of the other man.  In Aristotle’s language, they loved what was good in the other person, the beginning and end of all friendship.

             My friends, I am convinced that seeing the good in another person is not only the basis of friendship, it is the bedrock of any relationship.  Why do married people sadly get divorced?  They can no longer see what is good in the other person; they only see the faults and failures.  They are not a mutual admiration society.  On the other hand, newly married couples can only see what is good in the other person; they are blind to the bad.  How did Abraham Lincoln convene a cabinet of his former rivals?  He created a “mutual admiration society.”  Each man could appreciate the talents and tenacity of the other men at the table.  If there is someone you are not getting along with – and there always is! – try to see something good in that person – and there always is! – by creating a little mutual admiration society.  That is the beginning and the end of all relationships.  And I say that in all sincerity and no sarcasm.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

The Social Universe

Keeping Jesus in the center

 John 1:6-8, 19-25

              A man named John was sent from God. He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to testify to the light. And this is the testimony of John. When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to him to ask him, “Who are you?” He admitted and did not deny it, but admitted, “I am not the Christ.” So they asked him, “What are you then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.” So they said to him, “Who are you, so we can give an answer to those who sent us? What do you have to say for yourself?” He said: “I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘make straight the way of the Lord,’” as Isaiah the prophet said.”

            Everyone loves babies!  Raise your hand if you don’t love babies.  Exactly.  Everyone loves babies because even when they are bald they are beautiful; their fat rolls are actually a sign of being healthy, and sometimes even their poop smell good!  Whenever a baby enters the room, all eyes turn towards it, and all hearts melt.  Have you noticed how people make perfect fools of themselves trying to get the baby’s attention or to make it laugh?  Now, all this lavish love and adoring attention is healthy for the baby’s psychosocial development, according to the renowned psychologist Erik Erickson.  The baby feels like the sun at the center of the human universe, everyone and everything revolves around it.  Once a baby was crying at Mass while Archbishop Fulton Sheen was preaching, and the mother finally took the baby outside.  After Mass the archbishop found the lady and said, “Madam, your baby was not bothering me.”  The lady replied, “No, I left because you were bothering the baby.”  So, even priests revolve around babies.

            But Erikson also recognized that the baby must mature and realize it is not the sun at the center of the social solar system.  It must learn to share with others, to wait its turn in line, to even love others more than himself or herself.  This process of discovering one’s own identity is felt most acutely in adolescence.  Mark Twain once famously quipped: “When I was a boy of seventeen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around.  But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in four years!”  Of course, it wasn’t his father who learned something, it was Twain.  He learned to stop putting himself at the center of the social universe by appreciating and loving others.  Sooner rather than later we must all learn we’re not the sun at the center of the social universe.

            In the gospel today we meet the one man whose job it was to tell us who should be at the center of the social universe, that is, we meet St. John the Baptist.  Listen to how the gospel of John – that was a different John – describes John the Baptist: “A man named John was sent from God.  He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.”  The gospel touches the core of John’s identity, that is, “he was not the light, but came to testify to the light.”  And later, when John is asked if he’s the Christ, the gospel repeats: “He admitted and did not deny it but admitted, ‘I am not the Christ’.”  I am sure John the Baptist also experienced Erickson’s stages of development from baby to adolescent to adult.  But as John moved out of center stage, he taught that Jesus is the “Son” at the center of the social universe.  In other words, the social universe should revolve around Jesus, the true light.

            Now, sometimes, helping move people out of the center of the universe can backfire.  One day a man came to Mass still hungover from a drinking binge the night before.  He fell asleep during the priest’s sermon, and so the priest decided to make an example of him.  He said softly to the congregation: “All those wishing to go to heaven, please stand.”  The whole room stood up, except the sleepy man, of course.  Then the priest said more loudly: “And he who would like a place in hell, please stand up!”  The weary man, catching only the last part, groggily rose to his feet, only to realize he was the only one standing.  Confused, he said, “I don’t know what we’re voting on here, Father, but it seems you and me are the only ones standing for it!”

            Today, ask yourself this question: “Who or what is at the center of my social universe?”  What is the most important person or thing in my life that makes everything else secondary?  Of course, we’d all LIKE to answer: “Well, it’s Jesus, naturally!”  But not so fast.  Here’s an easy litmus test to see if Jesus really is the center of your life.  Is there anything that really bothers you or absolutely annoys about other people – maybe their driving, maybe how they eat their foot too fast or slurp their coffee, how they snore, children who cry in church, priests who preach meandering mindless homilies, mother-in-laws who are busy-bodies or daughter-in-laws who are not good enough for my son, a bishop who has all the wrong priorities, a president who doesn’t work with congress, terrorists and Taliban, Republicans and Razorbacks?  Whenever we feel like the 17 year old Mark Twain and declare: “That person or group is so ignorant I can hardly stand to be around them,” realize that in 4 more years you might feel very differently.  In other words, you are still standing at the center of your social universe, not Jesus.

             Here’s another example.  Have you noticed how people use the word “Christmas”?  They say, “We’re going to have Christmas at grandma’s and then we’re going to have Christmas at Uncle Jimmy’s, and then we’re finally going to come home and have Christmas at our house.”  What does “Christmas” mean for them?  It means the moment we open presents, not the moment of Christ’s birth.  Folks, Christmas is a birthday, not a moment to open presents.  When we use that language, we’ve put gifts at the center of Christmas, rather than Jesus.

             That’s why the ancient Greek Temple at Delphi had only two words written above the door as your entered, “Know Thyself.”  Most of us don’t know ourselves very well; we don't know we are still standing at the center of the social universe.  We believe we’re like the cute, chubby baby that everyone else should gush over and look silly trying to make us smile and laugh.

             Every Christmas we celebrate the birthday of Jesus, who comes to us as a little, bald, chubby baby.  Jesus was the only Baby not only born at the center of the social universe, but he was the only one who was supposed to stay there.  Only Jesus is the light, not John the Baptist, not anyone else, not Christmas presents, and certainly not you or me.

             Praised be Jesus Christ!

Elijah Redivivus

Seeing John as opening act for Jesus

Matthew 17:9A, 10-13

            As they were coming down from the mountain, the disciples asked Jesus, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” He said in reply, “Elijah will indeed come and restore all things; but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased.  So also will the Son of Man suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.

            I’ve never been to a concert before, and I really have no desire to go.  I can’t fathom why anyone would spend good money, go gaga watching someone look silly jumping up and down on stage and do something that sounds more like yelling than singing.  But there is one thing I do appreciate about concerts – they invariably have an “opening act.”  Before the featured artist comes on stage, a lesser-known singer will perform.  It’s kind of how at Mass a deacon reads the gospel before the priest gives the homily: every deacon is a priest’s opening act!  The purpose of an opening act is to warm up the crowd and get them excited for what’s coming next.  They build up people’s expectations and then the featured artist comes on stage and everyone goes crazy!  Yep, that’s pretty much what happens at every Sunday Mass.

            In the gospel today, we hear that even Jesus needed an opening act, namely, St. John the Baptist.  But apparently, the disciples were like me and had never been to a concert before, so they ask Jesus, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”  And Jesus basically answers that like any great artist, he, too, needs an opening act.  John was basically “Elijah redivivus,” (Elijah born again).  But unlike the concert crowds that go wild for Ozzie Osborne and Miranda Lambert, the crowds awaiting a Messiah killed both John and Jesus.  But that’s not because John was a poor opening act; instead, he did his job perfectly, preparing the way for Jesus, whose own great act would be his saving death on the cross.  Fulton Sheen said, “E

veryone comes into the world to live, but Jesus came into the world to die.”  That’s why John was his perfect opening act.  Every great artist needs an opening act, even Jesus.

            My friends, I would like to suggest to you that the 4 weeks of Advent are also like the opening act for Jesus.  In fact, Advent really should take on the character and personality of John the Baptist.  If John is Elijah redivivus, then Advent is “John redivivus” (John born again).  John said repent and so we should make a good confession in Advent.  John said take care of the poor, so we should help the needy in Advent.  John said believe in Jesus, so Advent should help us deepen our faith.  John said, “I must decrease and he must increase,” and so the daylight diminishes until Christmas and then begins to increase after the birth of the Son of God.  You see, the whole season of Advent is a huge, 4-week opening act for the main attraction, Christmas, where Jesus walks on the world stage and the crowds go wild and crazy.  Every great artist needs an opening act.  You know, I’ve never even been to a concert, but even I know that.

            Praised be Jesus Christ!