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Homily

The Beatitudes or Blessings

January 30, 2017 by holyname Leave a Comment

“Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” Jesus challenges us with this task in every time and place.  How often people shy away and make the excuse: “I’m only human. I’m not perfect.” Jesus never requires anything of us without giving us the means to acquire it. He calls us to perfection and, in turn, gives us the Beatitudes as the road-map to the path of perfection.

The Beatitudes have been called the Magna Carta of the Christian life, and the Charter of the New Covenant.  By striving to live them, we will grow in holiness.  In today’s Gospel, Jesus takes a seat on the Mount which signifies the ancient gesture of a teach communicating important truths to his followers.  The Beatitudes challenge us to measure ourselves against them.”

The eight Beatitudes, St. John Paul II, said are the road signs that show the way. It is an uphill path, but He has walked it before us:  Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the clean of heart. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness.

What better way could we examine our consciences than to prayerfully reflect on the Beatitudes, their meaning in one’s life, and most of all to ask the question: “Am I living them?”  Even if we have failed to measure up to them, we can begin anew through the grace of God’s mercy in the sacrament of penance.  Jesus has given us the roadmap to heaven; let us do all in our power, with His grace, to reach our destination safely.                                                                                                        Fr. Paul Burke, Holy Spirit College

 

 

 

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Filed Under: Homily

What is the Astuteness of the Christian?

January 24, 2017 by Holy Name Monastery Leave a Comment

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

 Right to Life (January 23)  St. Paul (January 25)

First Reading   Isaiah 8:23-9:3          Second Reading  1 Corinthians 1:10-13,17
Gospel Reading  Matthew 4:12-23

In this Gospel the power of Jesus’ call is immediately evident – Peter, Andrew, James and John dropped everything to follow Jesus immediately.  Jesus doesn’t have to pitch the idea to these individuals nor does he need to persuade them.  Each has little reason to leave their current way of life.    Each seemingly has a steady job.  Most importantly they have familial ties to their vocations as family men and fishermen.  Now, in the new lifestyle they were inaugurating, their security would come from life in a mutually supporting community, where the needs of each one were taken care of.

Having begun to assemble his company of companions, Jesus turns to his ministry, as the Gospel describes it: teaching in the synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people.   He moved quickly and determinedly from one place to another … planting dreams, raising expectations, and opens doors of possibility.  His followers witnessed a dramatic alternative to the emptiness and despair that filled the lives of the people immersed in an atmosphere devoid off their trust and hope.

Whether man or a woman, when one joyfully responded to Jesus’ call to follow, and entered Jesus enterprise, their lives were dramatically changed.  They became agents of new possibility for all who came into contact with them – beacons of encouragement for the discouraged – inviting the stranger to faith in God and purpose in life.

The late Speaker of the House “Tip” O’Neill loved to relate a valuable lesson he’d learned early in his career. During his first political campaign, one of O’Neill’s neighbors told him: I am going to vote for you tomorrow, even though you didn’t ask me to! O’Neill was surprised and said: Why, Mrs. O’Brien, I have lived across from you for eighteen years, I cut your grass in the summer, I shoveled your walk in the winter; I didn’t think I had to ask for your vote! Mrs. O’Brien replied: Oh, Tommy, let me tell you something … people like to be asked!

A vital faith community will always be asking … inviting followers just as Jesus did.
It is never enough to simply welcome people when they happen to visit, we must also invite them to join us in our worship and ministries.  Without a direct “ask” a vocation may be stifled or a prayer-partner lost.  My mother spoke with great admiration for the Benedictine Sisters who were her teachers in elementary school.  I asked her once when she didn’t become a Sister – she replied “None of them asked me – so I figured I was not worthy.”  Of course, I would not be here telling you this story if she’d been asked and said YES.

Tomorrow (Monday, January 23) the church leads us in prayer for the sanctity of all life: for an end to abortion, euthanasia and the death penalty.  And more than that: to honor, respect and love all God’s people without reservation.  I invite you to listen to these words of Pope Francis (adapted slightly to be gender inclusion):

The Christian cannot allow her/himself the luxury to be an idiot, that’s clear. We don’t have the luxury to be fools because we have a very beautiful message of life and we’re not permitted to be fools.  For that reason, Jesus says, “Be astute, be careful.”  What is the astuteness of the Christian?  In knowing how to discern who is a wolf and who is a sheep. 

And when … a wolf disguises itself as a sheep, (the Christian) knows how they smell. “Look, you have the skin of a sheep but the smell of a wolf.” And this, this mandate that Jesus gives us is very important. It’s for something very great.  Jesus tells us something that attracts our attention, when someone asks him: “Well, why did you come into the world?” “Look, I come to bring life and for that life to be in abundance, and I am sending you so that you can advance that life, and so that it will be abundant.”

Jesus didn’t come to bring death (of the body), but rather, the death of hatred, the death of fighting, the death of slander, that is, killing with the tongue.  Jesus came to bring life and to bring the abundant life, and he sends us out, carrying that life, but he tells us: “Care for it!” Because there are people bringing us today the culture of death.  That is, life interests them insofar as it is useful, insofar as it has some kind of utility and if not, it doesn’t interest them.  And throughout the world, this weed has been planted, of the culture of death.

How beautiful is caring for life, allowing life to grow, to give life like Jesus, and to give it abundantly, not to permit that even one of these smallest ones be lost.  That is what Jesus asked of the Father: “that none of those whom You have given me be lost, that all of the life that You gave me to care for, might be cared for, that it might not be lost.”  And we care for life, because He cares for our life from the womb.

Caring for life from the beginning to the end. What a simple thing, what a beautiful thing.  Father, is that why there are so many wolves who want to eat us?  Is that why, tell me?  Who did Jesus kill? No one.  He did good things. And how did he end up?  If we go down the road of life ugly things can happen to us, but it doesn’t matter. It’s worth it.  He first opened the way.

So, go forth and don’t be discouraged.  Don’t be fools, remember, a Christian doesn’t have the luxury of being foolish, I’m going to repeat this: an idiot, a fool – you can’t give yourself that luxury.  You have to be clever, be astute!     Care for life. It’s worth it! “

~ Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
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Filed Under: Blog, Homily Tagged With: astute, Christians, Faith, God, Gospel, Jesus, Pope Francis, Prayer

Why is Jesus called by this strange title, “the Lamb of God”?

January 17, 2017 by Holy Name Monastery 1 Comment

First Reading Isaiah 49:3,5-6    Second Reading  1 Corinthians 1:1-3
Gospel John 1:29-34
Today we hear the story of what John the Baptist witnessed when Jesus, his cousin, approached him in the river Jordan where John was baptizing those who came forward.   Last Monday we heard Matthew’s account of Jesus’ baptism.  The two accounts differ because the evangelist we hear today does not describe the baptism.  Instead, in John’s account, John the Baptist announces that he knows that Jesus is the Son of God. He cries out, giving witness about who Jesus is. He says that he saw the Spirit descend upon Jesus. By this sign, John the Baptist knew that Jesus was the one who was to come after him.

We hear two familiar titles for Jesus. John calls Jesus the “Lamb of God” and the “Son of God” identifying Jesus’ ultimate purpose is to redeem humanity. We need to know who Jesus is, if we want to be his disciples. We also need to know what his mission is, if we want to be good disciples.

Why is Jesus called by this strange title, the Lamb of God? It refers back to the origins of the great Jewish feast of the Passover that commemorates when the people were told, in order to escape punishment, that they should smear the doorposts of their houses with the blood of a lamb. When God’s angel struck, he passed over the blood-painted houses of the Israelites and their children were spared. They had, in effect, been saved by the “blood of the lamb.”  The lamb then becomes the sign and symbol of the liberation of God’s people from slavery and oppression. But for us – and this is what John the Baptist’s means – Jesus is the new Lamb which brings freedom and liberation.

The purpose of John’s baptism was to make Jesus known to Israel.  John’s witness is an excellent example of what it means to be a disciple. By our Baptism, we are called to be disciples – to make Jesus known to all the world by our words and by the witness of our lives.

This Wednesday we will begin the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  The theme for 2017, “Reconciliation – The Love of Christ Compels Us” was chosen to mark the 500th anniversary year of the beginning of the Reformation.  Two accents are reflected: the main concerns marked by Martin Luther’s Reformation and our recognition of the pain of the subsequent deep divisions which continue to afflict the unity of the Church.  Christians are encouraged to pray and to view this week as a first step toward reconciliation.

Each year on his birthday, our nation takes time to stand back and contemplate the impact of Martin Luther King on the course of history. It may be tempting to treat this day like any other.   But, many of us cannot forget; we grew up in a segregated society.  Most of us remember attending – or for that matter teaching in – racial segregated school. We went to all-white schools.  We can remember “whites only” water fountains, lunch counters and seats on the bus.  The name of Martin Luther King, Jr. represents the blood, sweat and tears of many, many people.  Praise God for people who live by the courage of their convictions.

Tuesday evening, in his farewell address, President Obama reminded our nation:  “For white Americans, it means acknowledging that the effects of slavery and Jim Crow didn’t suddenly vanish in the ’60s; that when minority groups voice discontent, they’re not just engaging in reverse racism or practicing political correctness; when they wage peaceful protest, they’re not demanding special treatment, but the equal treatment that our founders promised.”

In 1956, Rev. King realized just how parched he was, how needy he was for a drink from God’s fountain of live-giving water.  On January 27 of that year, he received a phone call: “Nigger, we are tired of you and your mess now, and if you are not out of Montgomery in three days, we’re going to blow your brains out and blow up your house.”  Dr. King was so disturbed by this threat to his family and was especially concerned for his newborn daughter.  He went to the kitchen seeking solace from a steaming cup of coffee.  As he began to muse he was confronted with a vision in the kitchen.

In his words: Rationality left me…and I started thinking about many things.  Something said to me, you can’t call on daddy now; he’s in Atlanta – You’ve got to call on that something, on that person that your daddy used to tell you about, that power that can make a way out of no way.  And I discovered then that religion had to become real to me and I had to know God for myself.  I bowed down over that cup of coffee, I never will forget it.  I prayed out loud: Lord, I’m down here trying to do what’s right.  I think the cause that we represent is right.  But Lord, I must confess that I’m faltering.  I’m losing courage.

Almost out of nowhere I heard a voice.  “Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness.  Stand up for justice.  Stand up for truth.  And lo, I will be with you, even until the end of the world.”   Dr. King recounts that he was ready for anything after this.  He experienced renewal from the fountain of life.

Tuesday is a national day of prayer for reconciliation and healing.  Let us take this opportunity to renew our baptismal commitment.  With all these celebrations (this week)  we are impelled to revisit our own “vision in the kitchen” and like genuine messengers of God to respond with the sentiments of tomorrow’s responsorial psalm: “I will announce your justice in the vast assembly; I will not restrain my lips, as you, O Lord, know.” Further, with the words of the psalmist we pray: “I waited, waited for the Lord, and God stooped toward me and heard my cry. He put a new song into my mouth, a hymn to our God. “

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
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Filed Under: Blog, Homily Tagged With: Christian, God, Jesus, Lamb of God, National Prayer Day, Prayer, Rev. Martin Luther King, Son of God

The face of God on earth

December 21, 2016 by Holy Name Monastery 2 Comments

I believe that Jesus Christ,
the unique son of God,
is the face of God
on earth
in whom we see best
the divine justice,
divine mercy,
and divine compassion
to which we are all called.

Through Christ
we become new people,
called beyond
the consequences
of our brokenness
and lifted to the fullness of life.

By the power
of the Holy Spirit
he was born
of the woman Mary,
pure in soul
and single-hearted—
a sign to the ages
of the exalted place
of womankind
in the divine plan
of human salvation.

He grew as we grow
through all the stages of life.
He lived as we live
prey to the pressures of evil
and intent on the good.

He broke no bonds
with the world
to which he was bound.
He sinned not.
He never strayed
from the mind of God.

He showed us the Way,
lived it for us,
suffered from it,
and died because of it
so that we might live
with new heart, new mind,
and new strength
despite all the death
to which
we are daily subjected.

—edited from “A Creed,” In Search of Belief  by Joan Chittister
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Filed Under: Blog, Homily Tagged With: Chirst, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Joan Chittister, mercy, poem, The face of God on earth

The Waiting Begins

December 19, 2016 by Holy Name Monastery Leave a Comment

4th Sunday of Advent

First Reading:  Isaiah 7:10-14                  Second Reading: Romans 1:1-7

Gospel: Matthew 1:18-24

Each night for the octave before Christmas which begins tonight, we ask Christ to come, calling him by a different title in the Magnificat Antiphon, familiarly called the O Antiphons”.  These antiphons were developed during the Church’s first centuries, soon used widely in monasteries and by the 8th century they were in use in both the monastic and the Roman breviary (Divine Office).   They were originally in Latin and traditionally chanted. The O Antiphons are also used with the Alleluia for the Gospel Verse at Mass. The last one is sung at the Evening Office on December 23rd – there isn’t one for the evening service for Dec 24th because that is already the vigil of Christmas, so we are no longer waiting.

An interesting note that is not apparent in English, but it can be seen clearly in the Latin. Sometimes you see the phrase ERO CRAS on banners or cards listing the O Antiphons in Latin because if we take the first letter of each Latin title for Christ and write them in backwards order, we get “ERO CRAS, a Latin phrase that means “Tomorrow, I will Come.” Before tomorrow does come, Let’s take a stroll along the path of the O Antiphons …

O Wisdom!   Sirach (24:3) says:  “From the mouth of the Most High I came forth, and like mist covered the earth”.  Wisdom “reaches from end to end mightily and governs all things well”.  Wisdom is the foundation of fear of the Lord, of holiness, or right living: it is wisdom whom we bid to come to teach us prudence.

 

O Adonai and Ruler of the House of Israel! In Exodus (6:6) we read: “I will rescue you by my outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment”. With this second antiphon we progress from creation to the familiar story of God manifesting himself by name to Moses and giving his law to Israel as their way of life.

 

O Root of Jesse!  Isaiah (52:13-15) prophesied the restoration of David’s throne – a new branch budding out of the old root. Christ is the root of Jesse in a two-fold sense: he is the descendant of David, who was the youngest son of Jesse, and he inherited the royal throne.  The angel foretold to Mary, “The Lord God will give him the throne of David his father.”

 

 Key of David  Isaiah (22:22) makes a prophecy: “I will place the key of the House of David on his shoulder. When he opens, no one shall shut; when he shuts, no one shall open.”  The key and scepter are traditional symbols of kingly power and authority. Jesus shared his authority when He entrusted the power to “bind and to loose” to Peter and the ministers of his church. We look to Jesus to unlock the fetters of our shadow selves that keep us so tightly chained to bad habits and the stumbling blocks that impede our spiritual maturity.

 

O Rising Dawn!  Peter’s epistle echoes the sentiment of the prophet Malachi (2 Peter 1:19): “Keep your attention closely fixed on it, as you would on a lamp shining in a dark place, until the first streaks of dawn appear and the morning star rises in your heart”.  This title is variously translated “morning star”, “Dayspring”, “rising sun”, “radiant dawn”, “orient”.  All beautifully express the idea of light with its brightness bringing healing and warmth to cold hearts.  We pray this petition daily in the Benedictus: “the morning sun will rise upon us … guiding us in ways of peace.”

 

O King of the Gentiles and the Desired of all nations!  Thus says the prophet Isaiah: “Therefore, says the Lord God: See, I am laying a stone in Zion, a stone that has been tested, a precious cornerstone as a sure foundation”.  This sixth antiphon, in the words of Isaiah and Jeremiah, (Isaiah 28:16 and Jerimiah 10:7) clearly addresses the savior as the king of the gentiles and the Desired One of the nations, the cornerstone on whom our spiritual foundations are laid. We call on Christ to once again breathe new life into us.

 

O Emmanuel!   In this the seventh antiphon, we are reassured by the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 7:14): “The Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel”.  With this last antiphon our expectation finds joy in the certainty of fulfillment.  We call Jesus by one of the most personal and intimate of his titles, Emmanuel, God-with-us.

Our Advent Scripture readings have been stressing the truth that Christ is the fulfillment not only of Old Testament hopes, but present ones as well. Our repeated use of the imperative “Come!” embodies the longing of all of us for the One who is to come in many ways – He came historically at Bethlehem in the fullness of time. He comes to us sacramentally.  He will come again at the end of time.  Christ comes to us also in the two-fold consecration of the Body and Blood of Christ and to us in Communion.  He comes in the words of Sacred Scripture and in the person of our confreres, our family and neighbors.  Christ comes in a special way through our corporate commitment actions – through the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.

In this final week of Advent we fix our attention on the messianic promises proclaimed by the ancient prophets.    The O Antiphons add a mood of eager expectation to the liturgy that builds throughout these seven days and climaxes at Christmas midnight Mass when the church sings: “I proclaim to you good news of great joy: today a Savior is born for us.”

~ Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
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Filed Under: Blog, Homily Tagged With: Advent, Birth of Christ, Christ, God, Jesus, Week 4

Discrimination in Happiness

December 14, 2016 by Holy Name Monastery Leave a Comment

The truth is that the Christmas season is unabashed about the purpose of the Christian life. “I am bringing you good news of great joy,” the angel says to the shepherds on the hillside outside of Bethlehem about the birth of a baby in a stable there (Luke 2:10). Good news of great joy, we learn at the beginning of the liturgical year, is what searching for the baby is all about. It’s how and where we’re searching that matters.

“Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times,” the Greek playwright Aeschylus wrote. But that’s wrong. Happiness does not require choice some of the time. Happiness requires choice all the time. It requires learning to choose between what is real and what is fleeting, what is worthless and what is worthwhile. But that does not make the effort either impossible or unacceptable. It simply requires discrimination.

It is discrimination, the ability to choose between one good in life over another, that the liturgical year parades before our eyes over and over again, year after year, until we finally develop enough maturity of soul to tell what lasts from what pales, to discern what’s worth having from what isn’t, to know what happiness is rather than what satiety is.

Meaning, we discover, has nothing to do with what is outside of us. It has to do with what we have come to see within our souls. It has to do with the vision that is within us rather than with the things we are heaping up around us as indicators of our success, our power, our status. Joy is not about what happens to us, the manger indicates. It is the meaning we give to what we do that determines the nature, the quality of the lives we live.

—from The Liturgical Year by Joan Chittister

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Filed Under: Blog, Homily Tagged With: Christmas, discrimination, Good news of great joy, Happiness, Joy

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