Baptism of the Lord

It’s very unusual for me to take the time to go to the movies. But this week, in a midst of a few days off, I was able to break away … and yup, just like the reported 1.1 million other people, I watched Spider-Man.

While I must confess that my childhood superhero was really to Batman, I think because back then I had a crush on Batgirl, Spider-man is a pretty good runner-up. The latest film, Spider-Man: No Way Home, is breaking all kinds of box office records and resonating with fans young and old. I think I know why …

Tom Holland’s consistently charming portrayal of Peter Parker picks up right where we left him in Far from Home. Doctored footage from a battle overseas exposed his identity as Spider-Man, and Peter must navigate finishing his senior year of high school with the eyes of every smartphone on him and every media outlet at his doorstep.

His friends suffer from their mere association with Peter, and the negative consequences befall his only living family member, Aunt May, played by Marisa Tomei. Aunt May, as both Peter’s legal guardian and director of the local homeless shelter, is Peter’s moral compass. She instructs him to always do good, even while carrying the burden of being misunderstood and facing the ire of others. “This is what we do,” she tells Peter, “We help people.”

In the movie, Peter takes on the daunting task of attempting to rehabilitate each adversary of their evil compulsions. No one is too far past atonement: “Everyone deserves a second chance,” Peter asserts.

… That brings us today to the Baptism of our Lord ... the reminder that everyone deserves a second chance … and when our ancestors turned their back on God … Jesus comes to save us.

Today we celebrate that even Jesus, like us in all things except sin, was baptized. The familiar story is a reminder in these first days of the new year that joining our baptism to Jesus always gives us a new beginning … if we are open and willing to work for it.

Deception, division, diversion, and discouragement are four strategies of Satan as he tries to prize us away from God … but baptism gives us goodness, grace, gathering and graciousness to live up to our prophetic calling.

There is a scene in the movie when despairing and humbled, Peter Parker’s comfort comes from the rallying of his friends who meet him in his sorrow. They call him out of himself and back to his mission of being a bringer of the good. “You have a gift. You have power,” … “And with great power, there must also come great responsibility.”

Most of our generation know this Spider-Man motto by heart. It sums up the entire ethos of who Spider-Man is. We all resonate with this call to step forward into greatness because we are literally made for such a task, to go out of ourselves and love responsibly, as a gift for others.

It’s the theme that I used in writing to our Confirmation candidates for this coming year. And it’s the theme that we focus on today … with great power comes great responsibility. We have been given great power, and now we have to live up to our responsibility.

Because … baptism is just the beginning of the story … it’s the realization of promises, God’s promise to us and our promise to God. That’s why when a family presents a child for baptism there is a process, because it’s the reminder and the assurance that this is not a 30-minute, magical ceremony ... one and done, No! Rather, it’s the public testimony that parents will do all in their power to raise the little one presented to know, love, model and serve Jesus in this world so as to prepare to meet him in the next.

The bulletin this week contains an interesting story about the important role of godparents. In fact, it reports that in one Italian diocese the bishop has suspended it because people presented for the role were not qualified, that is, not measuring up to the important role that a godparent plays in the life of faith of the little one. It serves as a good reminder to us all … we have to mean what we say and say what we mean, especially when we do so in faith.

As Peter Parker recommits himself to the good that Spider-Man will always work toward, so should we also “not grow weary in doing what is right” … our promise to God, even in the face of disappointment and failure. Jesus implored us not to despair in the face of earthly evil: “I am with you always, to the end of the age” God’s promise to us.

Spider-Man continues to resonate with each new generation because, just as with the Gospel challenge of Christ, we are all called, despite our faults and flaws, to be bringers of the good—to practice great love, coupled with great responsibility.

Let’s use this feast of the Baptism of the Lord to recommit ourselves to that. If we can be inspired from the themes of a movie, imagine how much more we can do for one another in real life …

Blessings!

RSM

Second Sunday of ADVENT 2021

This weekend we hear from the prophetic book of Baruch, which was written for three reasons:

1. to explain the Babylonian exile as God's judgment;

2. to praise the wisdom of God's Law;

3. and to foretell the restoration of Jerusalem.

Today's passage is the final chapter of the book. It speaks of hope in God's mercy and justice.

We have heard many times the phrase, “to act in justice” or to wear the "cloak of justice". I think it means being self-integrated, honest, and humble so as to give true worship, that is, worship that is free of corruption and full of compassion.

Baruch links worship and acts of justice in the face of a corrupt Temple bureaucracy. We see that even in the year 586 BC or so, there were challenges to worship because there was, one the one hand, the call to worship God, but on the other hand, that call usually happened in a system that was governed by humans, sometimes, not so good humans. Sometimes the leadership of the Temple was not the best example of the God they worshipped.

That’s not a hard concept to grasp because we know that even now, here in our day, our desire to worship God, here in this “temple”, our parish and our Church, we can sometimes be distracted by clergy or staff or volunteers associated with the institution who are less than stellar examples of faith who are called inspire us. In fact, they might cause the opposite reaction. We might call that our struggle with witnessing hypocrisy. But just as in the time of Baruch, so too in our time, bad ministers, who distract us are not an excuse for us to forego our obligation to worship our God. While hypocrisy is a hard pill to swallow, it does not absolve you and I of our obligation to rise above and be the better person.

Christian hypocrisy occurs when we make ourselves the priority over God. Often hypocrisy is an accusation against a person, but as we have also seen, churches too can become hypocritical and cultivate a culture of hypocrisy. And that culture can blind us not only to the worship we are called to participate in, but blind us to the God we are called to worship in the first place.

While there are many ways that this can happen, here are a few:

1. When the church becomes fixated on external preferences, not internal devotion.

2. When church leaders seek religious prominence instead of humble service.

3. When the church hides double standards with artificial rules.

4. When the church adds to the Gospel in ways that burden people.

I’m sure that you can name some of your own!

In the days of Baruch, the Temple was called to be a beacon for God's glory … a place where both Jews and non-Jews alike could see that glory shine. And that glory came from listening to and trying to emulate God's word.

That’s the reputation that our Church, our parish is called to have, that it be a place where believers and non-believers alike could know, that in that place, there are people who have chosen to live their lives differently. People, who each in their own way give God glory primarily through acts of justice and mercy.

When people tell the story of St Teresa of Avila, what do they say? Do they talk about me? About you? Or about us and what we are trying to accomplish together? What do they say? Because the Church is a reflection of all of us … and how brightly that light of glory shines depends on every person … those who come all the time, and those who will be back just in time for Christmas.

I know that on this side of heaven, a perfect Church is not possible. We would ruin it the moment we joined. We don’t need a perfect Church, we need and have a perfect Savior, but the Church, that is you and I, are called to be authentic … authentic Catholics … each doing the best we can … every day … being perfected by the love of Jesus … who challenges those who are comfortable and comforts those who are challenged.

We work on our own, in our families and together in our parish, so that the One who began the good work in us will bring it to completion.

So, this week, let’s do an authenticity check!

Each of us, looking into our hearts and honestly assessing where we are strong, and where we need some work …

Everyone of us thinking about how we can better prepare the way of the Lord …

We do so not that our light may shine, but that his light, and his kingdom will … !

Blessings!

RSM##

First Sunday of ADVENT 2021

God’s word can find us anywhere — at home, at work, while traveling, even in prison, as Jeremiah discovered:

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still confined in the court of the guard (Jeremiah 33:1).

Prison is bad enough, but as we hear, it gets even worse for Jeremiah, who is forced to serve his prison sentence in the middle of a foreign invasion. Jeremiah began his ministry in 626 BC … a very long time ago!

In addition to these horrifying external realties, Jeremiah also carries the burden of the message, that Judah’s situation is going to get worse before it gets better. And remember, his message is to the people who worship, who are in the temple … people like us … what is the message?

Reform your ways … and your actions …

So, the back story underlines the faithlessness of Judah’s leadership and its disregard for its societal responsibilities, because they:

- Worshipped God in deed only

- Claimed to know the living God, but they were not faithful

- Worshipped God with their lips, but their hearts were far from God

As a result, their actions and their inactions, invited death and destruction into the city’s once mighty walls.

Judah’s faithlessness courts a terrifying encounter with the Hidden God, whose anger undoes creation, human and non-human alike.

- City devolves into a state of chaos, desolation, and lifelessness.

- Once bustling, Jerusalem has been returned to a kind of pre-creational tohu wavohu (Genesis 1:2).

- Without form – unseen and unformed – chaos and darkness

In the words of Psalm 104, “When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust” (Psalm 104:29).

But … the story doesn’t end here. Even while Yahweh roars in anger outside Jerusalem’s walls, he simultaneously offers the promise of a new future, from within the walls of Jerusalem in the person and words of Jeremiah.

I am going to bring it recovery and healing;

I will heal them and reveal to them abundance of prosperity and security.

I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel and rebuild them as they were at first.

I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me, and;

I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me.

God’s forgiveness creates a new future for Jerusalem. This new future will be one:

-in which hidden promises are revealed;

-in which God’s shadowed face will come gloriously into view, and;

- in which justice and righteousness will prevail in the land.

This is what Advent is all about ... our generous response to God’s invitation to be God’s faithful people.

Advent is about the prophets of our time, coming here into our church and preaching to us, challenging us to look deeply into our own hearts, our own, not someone else’s, to see if we have become like the ancients, who:

- Worshipped God in deed only;

- Claimed to know the living God, but they were not faithful;

- Worshipped God with their lips but their hearts were far from God.

Hmm …

Usually, I take the week before Thanksgiving off for vacation. While COVID made it impossible to do so the last two years, this year I was able to take a little break … and I went to Rome … the place I was trained, where I still have friends, and favorite spots to visit and incredible memories.

If you’ve been there, you know that there are magnificent Churches, inspiring pieces of art everywhere, the best pizza in the world and so many other reasons to visit.

Each time I go, I seek something new to inspire me, to touch me, to bring me deeper into why I became a priest in the first place … I guess I seek a sign that I made the right choice with my life and my vocation to the priesthood, cause in these days, sometimes I wonder.

I said that the beginning of this homily that “God’s word can find us anywhere” … On one of our days’ walks, we were at the Vatican and I had to use the restroom … and if you’ve been to Rome, you know that bathrooms are few and far between, and not nearly as hygienic as we have become accustomed to here.

Anyway, at St Peter’s I remembered that at the right side of the colonnade, as you enter the square, there are public bathrooms. Not having much of a choice we walked towards them … and it was at that moment that I had my sign … the living presence of God’s word slapping me in the face with a mighty force …

Because in that little, cordoned off space outside the bathrooms, Pope Francis had ordered a complete change to the layout … yes, the bathrooms were still there, thank goodness, but there were also showers, medical assistance, covid testing and food, all being provided for the poor and homeless of Rome.

This was the sign that God wanted me to see … not the magnificent Churches, not the incredible art, not the best pizza, nor even the cleanest bathroom, but the work of the Church, inspired by the Spirit and ordered by the Pope … to care for the least. BAM!

It was a powerful moment to remind me, that I cannot become like the faithless of Judah’s leadership, worshipping regularly, but disregarding my societal responsibilities … and neither can you.

So, as we begin this Advent season, we will continue to invite one another to care for and share what we have with those less fortunate … we will surely do the traditional things that we have done in the past, but we will also focus more strategically on deepening and expanding our opportunities for response … Lest we too become complacent and return to the chaos of a world unfaithful to God …

God’s living word preaches on, here and now, in the person of Jeremiah who foresaw the dawn of a “new day” … let’s seize that day, today and every day!

RSM##