AD SENSE

3 Sunday A - Reign of God - Come, Follow Me!

Fr. Bill Grimm:

From The Connections:

‘My Monastery Is a Minivan’

When asked our religion, most of us would describe ourselves as “Catholic” or “Christian.”  But we would tend to back away from daring to call ourselves “disciple” or “follower.”  That description rightly belongs to the great heroes of our faith: the apostles and holy men and women of the Gospel, the saints and martyrs, the Francises of Assisi, the Mother Teresas, the Thomas Mertons, the Dorothy Days, the Albert Schweitzers.  Our lives are too ordinary, our professions too worldly to dare imagine that we are doing the work of the Gospel Jesus.
But Denise Roy has found that in her life as a wife and mother she has been doing exactly what Jesus did.  She writes in her book My Monastery Is a Minivan: Where the Daily is Divine and the Routine Becomes Prayer: 
“For two decades, I have broken bread, poured grape juice, preached, prayed, told stories, bestowed blessings, taken care of the sick, heard confessions.  I have been a parent.  These have been the sacraments of my daily life and, I suspect, of yours.  These are simple, sacred acts.  These are how we mediate love, as we minister to our own little congregations -- children, spouse, family, and friends.”
At one time in her life, Mrs. Roy, who is also a psychotherapist and spiritual director, wanted to be a contemplative nun, but she has found her family’s minivan to be her “monastery” where she prays and meditates and transports angels from one location to another.
“If we pay attention, any moment or any place or any person might be a bearer of wisdom,” she observes.  “Nothing is off-limits as a potential source of wisdom, as the dwelling place for divinity.”
Jesus’ invitation in the Gospel to fishermen, tax collectors, farmers, laborers and peasants to be his followers is extended to us, as well.  Jesus’ call to discipleship transcends that moment on the shores of the Sea of Galilee; he calls to us here and now, in our own time and place.  Our baptisms were our acceptances of that invitation to take on the work of discipleship in the homes and classrooms and workplaces and “minivans” where we live our lives.  Christ invites us to follow him and to take on his work, the same work Peter and his brother and fellow fishermen leave their nets to take on: to bring others to God through the Gospel of peace, reconciliation and love.
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Homily from Father Joseph Pellegrino
St. Agnes and the Victory of Christ’s Peace
           
I want to begin by telling you about a little girl, most likely 12, possibly 13 years old,  who took on a mighty empire and won.  The little girl was named Agnes.  At least that is the name she is remembered by.  Agnes means lamb.  She was like a little lamb. Agnes was a child of a noble family in ancient Rome, and lived around the year 300 AD.  She was a Christian in the  last decades of Rome’s persecution of the Christians. At that time, more and more members of the empire were becoming Christian including the noble families and even members of the royal household.  The Emperor Diocletian decided to put an end to these Christians once and for all with one of the worst of all the persecutions of Christianity.  Anyone caught being a Christian would lose all their possessions and be given the option of renouncing Christ or being put to death.

                      
Although a little girl, Agnes was not about to give up Jesus Christ. To complicate matters further, Agnes had caught the eye of the son of the Prefect Sempronius. The prefect agreed that when Agnes grew up she would make a fine wife for his son.  So he called Agnes to his court and offered her gifts if she would give up Christ and marry his son.  Agnes refused saying that she was a Christian and would not marry a pagan.  For this, she was condemned to death, but Roman law  said that a virgin could not be killed.  Sempronius thought he  could solve this dilemma by forcing Agnes to work in a place of sin.  She was taken there in a public display of Roman terror and pagan lust.  But somehow, through God, Agnes was protected from the brutes who attempted to attack her.  She continued to refuse to give up Jesus Christ; so the Romans ignored their own laws and killed her.

                      
Agnes is a witness and a martyr to Jesus Christ both by sacrificing her life for the Lord and by defending her own virginity.  Her death sickened many throughout Rome and ended up being one of the final blows to the pagan empire.  Others would die after her, but within 20 years of her death, Christianity would first be allowed in the empire, and then become the religion of the empire.  Agnes won.  Diocletian lost.  The twelve year old won.  The burly soldiers lost.  Jesus won.  The devil lost.  St. Agnes is so loved in Rome that there are two major Churches dedicated to her–St. Agnes Outside the Walls over the catacombs where she was buried and St. Agnes in Agony located on the Piazza Navona at the place where she died.  Most visitors to Rome have seen this Church located right across from Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers.  Last Tuesday the universal Church celebrated the Feast of St. Agnes.  Her name is also mentioned in the First Eucharistic Prayer.  Not bad notoriety for a twelve year old who lived seventeen hundred years ago.
                      
The story of Agnes’ brief life on earth but continual life in heaven reminds us that God delivers us from the forces of sin. The forces of darkness tried to destroy Agnes.  She must have been terrified at the ways that evil plotted to attack her.  But she trusted in God and  God sent her joy.  He sent her His Son. In the first reading from the prophet Isaiah we heard that the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali had suffered the results of their sins.  But God made it all right. He brought light to their darkness.  He gave them joy and rejoicing.  He sent them, He sent us, His Son.

Our hope, our joy, and our peace are all in Jesus Christ.  Our rest is in the Lord.  Other people might attempt to attack our peace.  We might be threatened with exclusion from the community if we don’t join its immorality, as every middle school, high school and college student, and every adult Christian is threatened.  But our peace is grounded in the Lord, not in being part of the crowd.  We ask ourselves, “Is it really important what they say about me, think about me?  No, if I have to choose, I’d rather choose to live with the Lord than have the approval of those whose actions are in fact rejecting Him, even if they claim to be Christians themselves.” We might be challenged with difficult situations in our family as those we love reject us for taking our faith so seriously. Our homes should be places of peace, but sometimes others in our family are in turmoil and spread this turmoil throughout the house.  We can calm the chaos by increasing our prayer life, by intensifying our adherence to the Lord and thus strengthening His Presence in our homes.  We might suffer the challenges of bad health.  We all know that every one of us will die, but in reality it boggles our minds when we realize that our loved ones or we ourselves will die.  Yet, I have had the blessing of witnessing so many people die in peace, united to Christ, simply taking a step from this world to the next. There are many ways that our peace is threatened, but nothing can remove this peace from our lives  No one can take Jesus from us.  In fact for us determined, committed Christians, the more difficult the challenge in life, the stronger our faith can become.  We trust in our Lord to be with us forever.
                      
Anguish has taken wing.  The darkness is dispelled.  And the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.  And Jesus preaches to us, and teaches us and tells us the reason for our joy, “The Kingdom of God is at hand.”

And Peter and Andrew and James and John are called to proclaim the Gospel to us, the Good News of Jesus Christ.  And we are called to proclaim to Good News to those who are still in darkness.  We tell them that no matter what the world throws at us, life is beautiful when it is Christ’s life.  Like little Agnes, we can conquer all that attacks us, we can remain in peace despite what is happening around us or within us.  Like St. Agnes we can, we must give witness to Jesus Christ.  And like little Agnes, we will live in His Peace.

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Thomas O’Loughlin
Introduction to the Celebration

Gathering around the Lord’s table each week we celebrate the fact that we are the People of God, his chosen ones, those whom he has called to be his hands and voice within the creation. To help us live this life we listen each week to the Word of God giving us a glimpse of the world God intends for us, and challenging us to live up to our calling, and each week we are strengthened with the food of life to enable us to be disciples. Today we hear the story of the beginning of Jesus’s ministry: he came proclaiming the good news; he came healing the sick; he came and called people by name to be his followers. If we wanted to think of the life of Jesus in a sound-bite, it would be these tasks: proclaiming, healing, calling.
Now, let us reflect in silence on who we are, why we have gathered, and ask pardon for our failures as children of God.
 

Michel de Verteuil
General notes

This Sunday we begin the series of readings for the liturgical time called in our tradition  “Ordinary Time”. Ordinary Time actually began last week, but the church spends an extra Sunday celebrating the spirit of Christmas.

Today’s passage then belongs to the beginnings of Jesus’ ministry. It is a very significant time. John has been arrested and Jesus decides he must make his move. He is self-confident, determined; he knows what he is about – a role model for us all in our different vocations and also for the church in the world today. 

Textual comments

- Verse 12: St Matthew makes a clear link  between John the Baptist’s arrest and Jesus’ decision to begin his ministry. The end of one time of hope becomes the beginning of a new and more glorious time.

- Verses 12 to 16: Jesus was entering into a prophetic tradition. He was different – indeed, he was unique – but not totally new. We too, as individuals and as a community, are  both unique and rooted in a tradition.

St Matthew also stresses the significance of Jesus’s choice to start in Galilee. Galilee was situated at the extremes of the Holy Land; it was therefore a symbol of Jesus’s vocation to bring God “to the ends of the earth.”

- Verse 17 is the formula used in all the synoptic gospels to summarise the content of Jesus’ teaching. It comprises three statements, and it is best to start with the third.
             – “It is close at hand”. Je sus is aware that this is a moment of grace. When we enter into God’s work we always have the sense that we are “called”, part of a movement that is greater than us, and that we are merely God’s instruments. As we saw recently, John the Baptist experienced a similar awe when he began to preach.

             - “The kingdom of heaven” is St Matthew’s version of the more common “kingdom of God”, reminding us that the Jews were reluctant to use the name of God. This biblical expression means God’s plan for the world – “the world as it would be if God were in charge.” The Old Testament spelled out God’s plan in detail, for example in the Genesis description of creation before the fall; in Isaiah 11:6-9 and 65:19-25; in Amos 9:11-15. God’s kingdom has two characteristics: harmony and abundance.

             – “Repent”. Jesus knows he is calling for a revolution in thinking. The sure sign that we understand God’s kingdom is that we are – and encourage others to be -  dissatisfied with the status quo.


We celebrate people who “begin their preaching with this message.” Nowadays many of them are not members of our church and do not even share our Christian faith, but they challenge us, both as individuals and as a church.

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John Litteton
Gospel Reflection


Jesus devoted his public ministry to preaching about the nearness of the kingdom of heaven and to inviting people to become his disciples. His lifestyle was guided completely by God’s will and he challenged his listeners to accept God’s will in their lives by rejecting sin and being faithful to his teaching.

As we reflect on Jesus’ preaching, his most important message is repentance for our sins. In other words, Jesus challenges us to turn away from the darkness of sin so that we can live in the light of God’s loving presence. Sin alienates us from the kingdom of heaven. Repentance demands humility and a fundamental change of heart. Otherwise we cannot truly be Jesus’ disciples.

Central to repentance is genuine sorrow for our sins. Authentic sorrow is an outward manifestation of the inner journey of conversion. Unfortunately, however, we use the word ‘sorry’ so often and so carelessly that our sincerity is questionable. What, then, does it really mean to say ‘I am sorry’?

To be sorry means to be sorrowful or saddened. Saying that we are sorry for having caused offence and hurt acknowledges that we are saddened because of the wrong that we have done and the hurt that we have caused.

Significantly, we are saddened not only because we have offended God or hurt another person but also because we have diminished our own dignity as people made in the image and likeness of God.

If we have no sense of the harm that we have caused when we say that we are sorry, or if we have no intention of changing our behaviour in the future, then our sorrow is insincere because it is incomplete. We cannot claim to be motivated and guided by God’s will if we are not repentant disciples.

When we celebrate the sacrament of reconciliation sincerely, by confessing our sins and being sorry for them, we demonstrate that we are humble and repentant. We express sorrow for Our sins, knowing that God forgives us as we are absolved from Our sins. God also gives us the grace and strength to resist temptation and avoid sin. Then our sorrow turns into joy.

Are there any occasions when we are saddened by what we have said or done to another person? Is it easy for us to say ‘Sorry’, or is it difficult for us to do? Valuing and appreciating forgiveness requires sorrow. We have the opportunity of celebrating God’s forgiveness sacramentally by going to confession and acknowledging our sorrow.

Repentance is central to our lives as Jesus’ disciples. Therefore, let our prayer be: Lord God, teach us to be repentant. Encourage us to change our minds and to soften our hardened hearts whenever we offend you and hurt other people. May we realise that, in doing so, we also diminish our own dignity. Help us always, through repentance, to return to your love by changing the direction of our lives and being faithful to your Son’s teaching. 

For meditation

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand. (Mt 4:17)

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Homily notes

1. The gospel passage presents us with picture of Jesus continu­ously engaged in three activities: Proclaiming, Healing, Gathering. We can look at it as a snapshot of the work of Jesus, and of his identity as the Messiah (‘the anointed one’ / ‘the Christ).

2. Jesus is the one who announces the gospel in the town of Capernaum, in the countryside, in the synagogues, all through Galilee. His call is for people to change, change ways of living with one another, change the way we think about the world, others, self. And know that God is close to us, lov­ing and caring: ‘The kingdom is at hand.’

3. The corning of Jesus brings forgiveness, healing, renewal, and wholeness. He calls on us to change lives and minds, and he brings us God’s pardon. He invites us to a new life and he empowers us to set out to live that new life. The God who is close is the God who is gentle and forgiving.

4.  He gathers around him, calling each person by name, a peo­ple. We are no longer isolated individuals but part of his new people. We change, start over, and seek to follow him as part of the community who has heard his call and received for­giveness through him.

5.  We often forget how these gospel pictures can show us the essential dynamics of being a Christian in clear, strong images – and such is the case today – so let the images speak clearly and do not cloud them with many words.

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Scripture prayer

“Without a revolution of the spirit, the forces which produced the iniquities of the old order will continue to be operative, posing a constant threat to the process of reform and regeneration.”  Aung San Sun Kyi, Myanmar, leader
Lord, we remember with gratitude the great liberation movements
which have been your blessing for our time:
- the declaration of human rights,
- the affirmation of women’s dignity and right to equal treatment,
- the struggle for independence in former colonies,
- sharing of gifts between different churches, religions and faiths,
- the breakdown of all forms of racial discrimination,
- the recognition of the rights of children.
All these movements arose at a time when their leaders were imprisoned
in one way or another, but new life emerged in unexpected places.
It was like when John the Baptist was arrested and Jesus returned to Galilee
and began preaching that a new era of grace was at hand.

Lord, we remember turning points in our lives
- we started working with the poor;
- we joined a religious community;
- we entered public life.
A path we had followed previously was leading nowhere,
and we knew we had to move to a new place,
not to Nazareth, the place where we were comfortable,
but to a border country,
so that people who lived in darkness would see a great light,
and on those who dwelt in the land and shadow of death
light would dawn.

“Inter-religious dialogue has taken on new and immediate urgency in the present historical circumstances.”     Pope John Paul II

Lord, we thank you that the church today has decided, like Jesus,
to go and settle in the border country,
between races and religions, on the far side of the Jordan,
where the nations meet.

Lord, we pray today for those who are feeling lost
- rejected by family and friends,
- overwhelmed by remorse,
- having failed an important examination.
We pray that some Jesus may go and sit with them,
so that the prophecy of Isaiah may be fulfilled,
and they who now live in darkness will see a great light,
and on them who dwell in the land and shadow of death a light will dawn.

“By sharing in the cross of the Salvadoreans, the church becomes Salvadorean and credible.”    Jon Sobrino

Lord, we thank you that, in many countries,
the church, like Jesus, has left centre-stage and gone back to the margins,
settling where people live in darkness and in the shadow of death.

“I have to teach my people that together we can build the people’s church, a true church.
Not just a hierarchy or a building, but a real change inside people.”   

Lord, we thank you that Jesus is still preaching his message
that your kingdom is within our grasp
and we must change our values.

HOMILIES: 

1.     Connections: 

THE WORD:

Galilee is the centerpiece of today’s readings.

In Jesus’ time, Galilee was the most populated and productive region of Palestine.  The great roads of the world passed through Galilee, making it a strategic target for invasion.  White-sailed ships crept up the Mediterranean coast from Alexandria and caravans traveled through the region from Mesopotamia and Egypt.

Galilee, unlike the rest of Palestine, had an international perspective, in touch with many non-Jewish ideas and influences.  Josephus, the Roman historian, wrote of the people of Galilee:  “They were fond of innovation and, by nature, disposed to change and delighted in sedition . . . The Galileans were never destitute of courage . . . They were ever more anxious for honor than for gain.”

In a few lines, Matthew sketches a new beginning in human history: the arrest of John and the end of the First Testament; the beginning of a New Testament in the teaching and healing ministry of Jesus in Galilee and the call of the first disciples from their fishing nets along the Sea of Galilee.  Jesus’ beginning his public ministry in Galilee is, for Matthew, the fulfillment of an ancient oracle concerning the Messiah: that, through the darkness of Galilee’s Assyrian captivity, the “great light” of their deliverance will appear (Reading 1).
 
HOMILY POINTS:

Like Peter, James and John, we are asked by Jesus to take on the work of discipleship; we are asked to leave our “fishing nets” -- our own needs and wants -- to follow the example of love and servanthood given to us by Jesus; we are asked to rebuild our lives, homes and cities in the justice and peace that Jesus proclaims.

Jesus calls his disciples of every time and place to be “fishers” of men and women, to use whatever “nets” we possess, in whatever oceans and seas we find ourselves, to catch the falling, rescue the endangered, gather in the lost and forgotten.    

Christ is the light that illuminates our minds and souls with a new vision of the human condition: in the light of Christ, we are able to recognize one another as brothers and sisters, children of the same God; in the light of Christ, we realize our own need for healing and forgiveness and are then able to bring such transformation into our lives and the lives of others. 

2.     Rev David Rider 

Purpose: As our Holy Father Emeritus Benedict wrote in his first encyclical, “Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” The person of Jesus eagerly desires to have this encounter with us and to give our lives this decisive new direction. 

From 1939-1944, Israel Zolli served as the chief Rabbi of the synagogue of Rome.  Zolli came from a long line of prominent rabbis, and after years of study and a position as rabbi in the Italian city of Trieste, he was offered the prestigious post of leader of Rome’s Jewish community.  Devout and steepped in his tradition, Israel Zolli loved his God and loved being Jewish, suffering greatly with his people during the years of the Second World War.  In 1945, he did something that surprised everyone: he converted to Catholicism.  While it is true that a combination of factors led him to this decision, including years of studying the New Testament and the teachings of Jesus, there was one experience in particular that finally compelled him to embrace Christ.  While in the synagogue leading the Yom Kippur service one evening in 1944, he suddenly had a mystical experience in which, as he recounts in his autobiography, “I saw Jesus Christ clad in a white mantle, and beyond his head the blue sky.  I experienced the greatest interior peace.” 6  All of the sudden he heard the words, “You are here for the last time.”  Zolli did not share what he had experienced with anyone and, thus, was surprised when that night, while preparing for bed, his wife told him that during the service she had seen a figure resembling Jesus with his hands on Zolli’s head as if to bless him.  As if this weren’t enough of a confirmation, his daughter then shared with him that she had recently seen a figure that she recognized as Jesus Christ in a dream.  Zolli knew that the time had come for him to become a Christian, and so, a few days later he resigned from his position as chief rabbi of Rome and sought out a priest for instructions in the Catholic Faith.  On February 13, 1945, Israel Zolli and his wife were baptized Roman Catholics, followed a year later by their daughter.

The dynamic at work in the story of Isreal Zolli is one that has been repeated in the lives of countless Christians throughout the ages.  While more often than not the life-altering encounter with Christ does not happen in such an extraordinary way, nonetheless when it does happen life is changed forever.  Once we have fallen in love with Jesus, we live and choose differently, and life is never the same again.

In the first reading from Isaiah we hear it said that, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone.”  Our Gospel then cites this same phrase when Jesus moves to Capernaum, identifying the great light of Isaiah with the person of Jesus.  All of us who have had a life-changing encounter with Christ can be said to be people who have seen a great light after having walked in darkness.  That darkness might have been a total lack of faith, or a faith that was rather superficial, or a turning away from goodness to a life of sin.  The great light might have been a sudden realization of God’s goodness and love, which moved us to a more radical love of him, or an enounter with committed Christians whose way of living the Gospel opened our hearts to a relationship with the Lord, or perhaps, an experience of suffering which convinced us that we could no longer live without Jesus at the center of our lives.  If we have ever felt ourselves drawn by grace into a deeper, more personal relationship with Jesus, then we can identify ourselves with the people who, walking in darkness, have seen a great light.

At the end of the Gospel we hear the opening words of Jesus’s ministry: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  These are the words that, in some way, each of us hears after Christ breaks into our lives.  We realize that following Jesus means that we can no longer live the way we once lived.  For Isreal Zolli, the words that indicated this to him were simple: “You are here for the last time.”  When Christ draws us into a deeper relationship with himself, he shines his light into the sinful, selfish, broken areas of our lives as if to say also to us, “You are here for the last time.”  The repentance that follows, and which must continue for all of our lives, is not a repentance motived primarily by fear of eternal punishment, nor a desire for eternal reward, nor is it a repentance motived by a desire to follow rules and be ethical, but rather a repentance motived by love for another.  Just as a young man who is in love with a girl acts differently because of a desire to please his beloved, so, too, the person in love with Christ acts differently because of a desire to please the one with whom he is in love.  People who are in love act differently.

What if we have not yet had this experience of encountering Christ in such a definitive way?  Well, all we need to do is open our hearts a little bit and invite him in.  God will not reject the sincere prayer of anyone in whom he finds even a spark of the desire to know him more personally.  He has already been pursuing us all of our lives, and wants nothing more than to help us move from being merely committed to our religion and going through the motions, to experiencing true intimacy with him. If we allow him in to do this, our lives will never be the same again.  As our Holy Father Emeritus Benedict wrote in his first encyclical, “Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” 7  The person of Jesus eagerly desires to have this encounter with us, and to give our lives this decisive new direction.

I’d like to give the last words to the man who probably best expressed the type of “repentance” that happens when those who walk in darkness finally see the great light that is God.  Fr. Pedro Arrupe, a 20th century superior general of the Society of Jesus, put it like this:

Nothing is more practical than finding God, than falling in Love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything.  It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, whom you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in Love, stay in love, and it will decide everything. 

3.     Fr. John Speekman 

We are contemplating in our liturgy, in the Word and in the Eucharist, the face of Jesus - the human face and the divine face of Christ, asking, as we gaze at him: Who is this man?

 Just as the presence of an invisible heavenly body can sometimes be detected by the deflection it causes in the orbits of other heavenly bodies, we now look at the effect Jesus has on the lives of others and we come to understand him as we watch others change the direction, the orbit of their lives. 

Hearing that John had been arrested ... 

This news comes as a shock. Why was John arrested? If we were to ask him he would most likely say: I was only doing my job. 

You see, John was a prophet. It was his vocation, the purpose of his life, to prepare the people for the coming of the Lord.

It was to reveal him to Israel that I came ... 

When all is said and done, there is only one way to prepare for the Lord and that is to repent of sin and do good. So it was John's job to get the people ready. They asked him: What must we do then? (Lk 3:10) He told them: Share with the poor, be honest, don't intimidate, don't extort. Be content with your pay. 

It's very hard to speak the truth to people. Not many will do it. It means going out of our comfortable orbits, changing direction. John did it even though it must not have been easy for him, but he loved Jesus, who was the invisible star around which his life circled. 

Then one day he had to take his life in his hands and tell Herod it was not lawful for him to marry his brother's wife. How do you do a job like that? Do you write a letter? 'Dear Herod, I am writing about your wife and all those other crimes you've committed ...' 

Do you stand under the bedroom window and yell it out? 'Hey, Herod, I know you can hear me!' and then run away. 

Or maybe make an appointment for an interview and break it to him gently. 'Now, Herod, I don't mean to offend you, and please don't get upset, but ...'

 I don't know how John did it but he did it and found himself in deep trouble.

 Herod the tetrarch, whom he criticised for his relations with his brother's wife Herodias and for all the other crimes Herod had committed, added a further crime to all the rest by shutting John up in prison. (Lk 3:19-20) 

We priests often have to tell people difficult truths. 'You mustn't receive Holy Communion till your annulment is through. You can't be a lector till you stop living with your boyfriend. If you deliberately miss Mass you must first go to Reconciliation before you receive Communion again. I am not able to offer you Holy Communion because you are not a Catholic. If you want to be an altar server you must come to Mass every Sunday.' On and on the list goes. 

It's difficult to tell some people unpleasant truths but that's the vocation of a prophet and every priest is a prophet through the Sacrament of Holy Orders.

 Some people take the truth easily. They like it. They are even grateful. But others can get very, very angry when you tell them the truth. 

Do not rebuke the mocker, he will only hate you, rebuke a wise man and he will love you for it. (Pr 9:8) 

I remember a young couple who were living together and still coming to Communion. I told them it was against the law and displeasing to Jesus. They got very upset. They went home and complained about it to mum. Fortunately their mum was a believer and backed me up all the way. Next day they came back and admitted I was right. They arranged to set a wedding date. The day before the wedding he went to Confession and as soon as she can the bride will attend the catechumenate and become a Catholic.

Unfortunately others don't respond so well and call you all sorts of names - conservative, backward, confrontational, a bully, and worst of all, divisive. It is my experience that however gently and lovingly you tell some people they will become your enemy if you correct them. Well, that's the price of being a prophet and, of course, John the Baptist paid it in full.

John was a witness to Christ. He did not care about what people thought of him. He had come to call people to repentance and that is what he courageously did. He did not care about peer pressure. He did not care what the other members of the golf club, the mother's club, or even the Bible Study group said about him. He didn't even care what the leaders thought of him: 'Brood of vipers, who warned you to fly from the retribution that is coming? But if you are repentant, produce the appropriate fruit .. '(Mtt 3:8) 

John bore courageous witness and, as the Mass Preface for his feast says, his death was his last and greatest act of witness to your Son. 

When John came out of the wilderness of Judea and spoke his raw message with the challenging command: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand, one might be forgiven a feeling of disquiet, for thinking 'Hmm, this fellow had better tone down a little or he'll get people upset and angry with him. He could even find himself in trouble.'

If this is so, what do we feel when we hear from Matthew? - From that moment Jesus began his preaching with the message, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand' (Mtt 4:17). 

4.     Andrew Greeley 

Background:

Jesus patently did not see himself as a political and military leader. Indeed his claims are in striking contrast of the messianic portrait in the reading from Jeremiah which is the first reading today.   

 However, his claims were clearly offensive to his fellow townspeople. Indeed, he might have had less trouble with them if he announced, like several other populist leaders of his era, that he was proclaiming a holy war against the Romans and would lead a march on Jerusalem.   

 As we saw last Sunday, however, his vision of the New Age was drastically different. So he was offensive to his neighbors both because he made and outrageous claim and because the claim was not, as they saw it, radical enough.

 Story:

A famous novelist came back to his home town after many years.   He had pledged to contribute two million dollars for a new hospital. Many of his friends from his school days were invited to a reception for him and his wife. Some of them ignored the invitation. Why only two million, they muttered. He could have paid for the whole hospital with all the money he has. The rest went to the party, but they were not particularly happy about the whole event. Who does this guy think he is? He’d been a quiet, unobtrusive little guy when he was in school, the kind of person you’d hardly notice. He generally was not invited anywhere. None of the women in his class would have considered dating him if they had been asked, only he never asked. They had heard rumors that his novels were about the town and about them. They believed the rumors of course, but since they hadn’t read any of his books, they didn’t know for sure.  

 He had to find a freshman to take to the senior prom! So he’d made a lot of money on his novels?  

 Why did that make him a big deal?  

 OK give the money for the hospital, but you should have given more with all you have, but don’t show up in town and expect us to cheer for you. You’re not a big deal now and you never were. Nor were they impressed with the beautiful woman he had married. (They had known her an obnoxious freshman.) Anyone can look beautiful if her husband has a lot of money. She was still cheap despite all their money. They didn’t join the receiving line, because they didn’t want to have to talk to either of them. However, he had the nerve to walk around the room and say hello to everyone and recall incidents from their school days which they never remembered. They tried to be polite but it was very hard. Then they went home and said to their children. He’s not a big deal. He never was. 

ILLUSTRATIONS: 

I am a collector of lists. I want to share with you this morning my favorite list of all time. It's a list of answers given by English school children on their religion exams.
Noah's wife was called Joan of the Ark.
A myth is a female moth.
Sometimes it is difficult to hear in church because the agnostics are so terrible.
The Pope lives in a vacuum.
The Fifth Commandment is "Humor your father and mother."

This is my favorite of all: 

Lot's wife was a pillar of salt by day and a ball of fire by night.

The point is: right answers are important, but have you thought about this - so are right questions! So the right question I want to raise with you today is this: How long has it been since you had a powerful moment that changed your life forever?

The New Testament was written originally in common Greek and the Greeks had several different words for our one word love.

Agape = unconditional love
 Eros = erotic... bargaining love (I'll do this for you if you do that for me, which, if you think about it, is not really love at all)
Phileo = philanthropic, brotherly, sisterly, or humanitarian love
Storge = family love.

New Testament Greek also had two words for time - chronos and kairos. Chronos, which give us our word chronology, is tick-tock time. Each second is exactly like the one that preceded and the one that follows it. It is boring time, humdrum time, drudgery time, meaningless time, empty time. Let me paint the picture of chronos time.

Imagine a convict in a prison cell; a lawyer with insomnia, who hears the unrelenting incessant ticking of a clock; an office worker who hates his job and can't wait for 5:00 to come so he can get out of there; a college student in a 3-hour biology lab (right after lunch) all experience chronos time. Chronos time is empty time; it is a void that must be filled. It is time we must "put in" or endure. It's what we are talking about when, of all things, we talk about "killing" time. So, chronos equals tick-tock time, humdrum time, boring time, and routine time. 

Thank God, there is another kind of time. It is called kairos.  Kairos time is full time, vital time, crucial time, decisive time, God’s time.  Kairos moments are those powerful, extra-special moments that are packed with meaning.  While chronos is tick-tock time, kairos is when time stands still. How long has it been since you a moment so powerful that time stood still?

Kairos is when God breaks into the routine and speaks loud and clear and you are touched so powerfully deep in your soul that you can never be the same again.  A cartoonist depicts an idea with a light bulb flashing.  It is a Voila! moment, an â€Å“ah ha” experience.  Theologians call it the moment of revelation.

 Kairos is a key word in the New Testament.  When Jesus started his ministry he came into Galilee preaching and saying, â€Å“The time is fulfilled.  The Kingdom is at hand.  Repent and believe in the gospel.  And the word for time there in Mark was not chronos, it was kairos.  This was crucial time, decisive time, God’s time.

Jesus’ life was packed with kairos moments: 

Zacchaeus as he saw him in that sycamore tree.  They connected and that was a kairos moment. Blind Bartimaeus nobody else was paying attention to him but Jesus heard
his cries, connected with him, and it was a kairos moment.

The hemorrhaging woman came up behind Jesus, touched his robe, and he connected with her, and it was a kairos moment.

Jesus had so many of those moments. We read one this morning: The kairos is fulfilled. And what did Jesus do right at that kairos moment? He called his disciples. It was a meaningful moment for them. It wasn’t just another tick

of the clock. How long has it been since you had a powerful moment like that, that changed your life forever?  How long has it been since you had a kairos moment in a chronos world?  Kairos moments are all around us if we have the eyes to see them, the ears to hear them, and the hearts to feel them. Now, this morning I want to share with you three kairos moments that I have experienced that changed my life.  I am going to be very personal because kairos moments are very personal. 

I. The Kairos Moment of Encouragement
II. The Kairos Moment of Love
III. The Kairos Moment of Inspiration
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The Lifesaver App - 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 

 As children we all had to study for and take "vocabulary tests" - learning a new list of words, their spelling and definitions, every week. As we continued on in school, read more books and studied more subjects, our vocabulary naturally expanded. Then to get into college, we took SATs (Scholastic Aptitude Tests), some of the most important of which are called "Vocab Tests."

Building up our word bank is a never completed project. Best-selling author Bill O'Reilly even has a vocab test every night on his #1 Cable News show, "The O'Reilly Factor." The great thing about a truly "living language", like English, is that it is always changing, adopting, adapting, and adding new words, new concepts, new elements.   

How many words do you use in everyday discussions in 2014 that a few years ago would have had no meaning whatsoever? When did you first learn to speak "coffee," so that you could communicate your beverage choice with the barista. Phrases such as "Venti, black-eye, half-cap, mocha frappuchino" that would have been complete gibberish a couple decades ago now come tripping off the tongue without need for an interpreter.  

In 1998 a new Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan movie made a big deal of an emerging concept. "You've Got Mail" highlighted the strange new world of "e-mail" created by the expansion of the Internet. In 2006 another snazzy word was reconfigured when "Twitter" was born. By 2012 there were over 34 million "tweets" sent per day. Technospeak is a language that continues to expand exponentially. We used to increase our vocabulary by reading "the classics." Now we can only increase our new and necessary vocabulary for living in the twenty-first century by reading our "emails" "tweets," and "blogs." It seems we will all need to pass weekly vocab tests throughout our lives.  

Yet for all the words we add, we always lose a few to the historical dustbin. There are now thousands of "apps" we can download onto our smartphones and tablets. But try asking anyone under the age of 25 what "app" stands for and you will probably get a blank look. After all, an "app" is . . . an "app."  

But an "app" is really shorthand for "application" - that is, "a use to which something is put." An "app" isn't a "thing." An "app" is an activity. An "app" is not a noun. An "app" is a verb. As we struggle to keep up with a language and lifestyle that is ever changing, we should keep in mind this original definition of "app" - because application makes a world of difference between the "real" and the "hypothetical."

Disciples of Jesus are called to give application to, that is, to actually "apply," our faith to our life and our lifestyles...
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 Trying Something New  

After falling twice in the 1988 Olympic speed-skating races Dan Jansen sought out sports psychologist Dr. Jim Loehr, who helped him find a new balance between his sport and his life. He also helped Jansen learn to focus on the mental aspects of skating Peter Mueller became his coach, putting him through workouts that Dan has since described as the "toughest I have ever known." By the time the 1994 Olympics arrived, Jansen had more confidence than ever. He had set a five-hundred-meter world record just two months earlier. The Olympic title in that event seemed to belong to him.

Unfortunately, Jansen fell during the five-hundred-meter race. He was disappointed and shaken. But, Dr. Loeher immediately advised him to start preparing for the one-thousand-meter race. He said, the five-hundred-meter race is gone. Put it behind you." However the thousand-meter race was Jansen's weakest event. But, there was no other chance for him to receive a medal. Jansen won the one-thousand-meter race and did it in record time. Since Jansen had followed the wisdom of his coach, he had put his failure behind him and tried something new.

We can play it safe and remain secure in what we know. Like the fishermen, our lives will remain in the darkness until we are willing to follow and move in a new direction. Jesus called the disciples to something that would not only give purpose and meaning to their lives, he called them to a vocation that would change the world. They followed, and from then on their lives would never be the same.

Keith Wagner, Ice Fishing, Anyone?
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 Working for Christ 

Christianity began as a working man's religion. No, that is not the gospel according to Marx; it is the Gospel According to Matthew. Matthew tells us that immediately after Jesus began a public preaching ministry, he took four fishermen as his apprentices. He was walking by the Sea of Galilee and spied Andrew and Peter casting their nets. He called them to follow him, promising to make them fishers of men. In Matthew's Gospel, then, linked tightly together are Jesus' ringing pronouncement, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," and his invitation to the fishermen, "Follow me."

You and I, who believe in Jesus Christ and count ourselves his disciples, are not to follow a trade or profession as though it were the Holy Grail. We are to follow Jesus. Work is to take a secondary role in our lives. If Christ is truly our Master, then work cannot be equally important. We may be engaged in work, but never married to it. And whenever we are pressed or tempted to make work supreme, we are to recall the story of the four fishermen. We are to remember how they left their nets and their boats to go and be with Jesus, to do what he would have them do. 

John C. Purdy, The Call to Adventure
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Follow Me... 

"Follow me, and I will make you fishers," said Jesus. Fishing takes practice, preparation, discipline. One must learn how to best throw the net, how to make the mouth of the net come open too. I can throw the actual cast net a long way, but I can't always make the net come open so that it will actually form a circle around the fish. One must learn how to cast the line on a rod. Again, some folks can cast a long way, but their accuracy is awful. There may be fish on the right, but they know only how to cast the line to the left. There may be fish on the left, but they keep casting to the right. Casting, like discipleship, is an acquired habit. It rewards practice.

Fishing is noticing the weather, watching the wind and the clouds. Fishing, like the gospel, dear friends, like the gospel, fishing is always practiced in context. It does no good to sit at one lake and wish I was on some other lake. It does no good to stand at the ocean and wish the weather were different. On that day, in that place, I fish in context according to what the conditions are.

So it is with the proclamation and the living out of the Christian gospel. It does little good wishing that we were somewhere else, in a different time or in a different country perhaps. Our context is this time and this place. Know where the wind blows. Watch the clouds. 

Samuel G. Candler, Follow Me and I Will Make You Go Fishing
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A Job vs. A Ministry

Someone has said there is a huge difference between having a job at church and having a ministry at church. 

... If you are doing it because no one else will, it's a job. If you are doing it to serve the Lord, it's a ministry.
... If you're doing it just well enough to get by, it's a job. If you're doing it to the best of your ability, it's a ministry.
... If you'll do it only so long as it doesn't interfere with other
activities, it's a job. If you're committed to staying with it even when it means letting go of other things, it's a ministry.
... It's hard to get excited about a job. It's almost impossible not to get excited about a ministry.

An average church is filled with people doing jobs. A great church is filled with people involved in ministry. 

Mickey Anders, The Beginning of Ministry
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The Angle of Grace 

Being a Christian is about taking a particular angle towards life. It is the angle of grace. Each of us-every one of us-perceives reality and the world in a different way; yes, but Jesus teaches us to see the world from the angle of grace. Wouldn't our Christianity be richer if we accepted angles more easily? Wouldn't our Christianity be more beautiful if we bent toward the angle of grace?  

Samuel G. Candler, Follow Me, and I Will Make You Go Fishing
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A Problem of Presentation

Jesus came preaching that "the kingdom of heaven is at hand." What was there about that kingdom that got these fishermen so excited? And why are we not just as excited? Maybe we don't understand what the kingdom is. Or maybe it just hasn't been presented very well.  

It reminds me of a woman who read somewhere that dogs were healthier if fed a tablespoon of cod liver oil each day. So each day she followed the same routine. She chased her dog until she caught it, wrestled it down, and managed to force the fishy remedy down the dog's throat.  

Until one day when, in the middle of this grueling medical effort, the bottle was kicked over. With a sigh, she loosed her grip on the dog so she could wipe up the mess. To her surprise the dog trotted over to the puddle and begin lapping up what had been spilled. THE DOG LOVED COD LIVER OIL. It was just the owner's method of application the dog objected to.  

Sometimes I think something like that has happened to the good news of the Kingdom of God. It has been so poorly presented to us that we have never been captured by its attractiveness and its power.  

King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com
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Essential Personnel 

Even if we live where it rarely snows, the phrase is a familiar one. When budget talks collapse and the government shuts down, this is the phrase that is trotted out. When the earth suddenly moves under the people of California, often a certain group of people are called out while the rest are told to stay at home. When tornadoes blow through the Southwest and disrupt everything in their course, only certain people should risk the dangers involved. These are maintenance people, road crews, ambulance drivers, fire fighters, electric and gas company workers, truck drivers, and a whole host of service people who are taken for granted when things are running smoothly. We call them "essential personnel." 

Think about that phrase. Think about what it means to be essential personnel. Then, if you want to be humbled, think about what it is like to be non-essential personnel. Consider the fact that the world can go on without some of us. The good news is that in the church we are all, or at least all can be, essential personnel. We are called to be a special group of people and to do some important things. 

William B. Kincaid, III, And Then Came The Angel, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.
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Turning Toward the Light 

A little boy named Bobby entered his first science fair in second grade. Because his Mom has a green thumb, they decided to experiment with the growth of plants. He took two small green plants and placed one on a sunny windowsill and the other in a cardboard box. After a couple of weeks, Bobby checked on the two plants. The one on the windowsill had grown a couple of inches and had vibrant green leaves. The one in the box had actually grown a bit, but it had lost all of its green color, becoming almost white and its leaves drooping. Thinking that the plant might die, Bobby cut a hole in one side of the box, like this, and set the box, with the plant inside, by the windowsill ... with the hole facing toward the incoming light. Well you know what happened ... but Bobby was so excited by this discovery...
**********
From Father Tony Kadavil's Collection:

1: Light and darkness:
 
Terry Anderson, a journalist for the Associated Press, was seized and held hostage in Lebanon for seven years; blindfolded almost all of that time, Anderson described his experience in this way, “Deepest darkness, fumblings, uncertainties are frightening. More frightening is the darkness of the mind, when outside light makes no impression and inner lights go dim. . .” [Den of Lions, Crown Publishers, Inc. (New York: 1993).] In November of 1965, a power failure plunged seven northeastern U.S. states and Ontario, Canada, into a darkness which lasted for more than thirteen hours. About thirty million people living in eighty thousand square miles of territory were affected. In 1977, another, less severe, power failure darkened New York City for fifty-two minutes. Losses due to accidents and looting were in excess of one billion dollars. In the Holy Scriptures, light and darkness serve as symbols for good and evil. In today’s first reading and in the Gospel, Jesus is presented as the One sent to remove the darkness of sin from the world. Through Isaiah, God promises that His people will see an end to the darkness of oppression and separation. Today’s Gospel shows us how the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled in Jesus. 

2: Remain in politics and exert a Christian influence there:  
 
Those of you who saw the remarkable film Amazing Grace remember the story of William Wilberforce. Wilberforce was a British politician who, after his conversion to Christianity, became England’s greatest anti-slavery advocate. It was through his tireless efforts that England eventually outlawed slavery, paving the way for the end of the slave-trade in the Western world. But William Wilberforce almost missed his calling. After his conversion, Wilberforce considered leaving politics for the ministry. He wasn’t sure how a Christian could live out his faith in “the world.” Fortunately, Wilberforce turned to a man named John Newton for guidance. Newton, of course, was the author of the much-loved hymn, “Amazing Grace.” Newton was a former slave trader who had renounced the trade after his conversion. Newton convinced Wilberforce that God had called him to remain in politics to exert a Christian influence there. It was John Newton who gave William Wilberforce the wake-up call that kept him championing the cause of freedom for Britain’s slaves. Four men, fishermen by trade, were toiling at the nets beside the Sea of Galilee when they received a wake-up call from Jesus. And their whole world was turned upside down.

3:  Labor room suspense:
 
Three men were pacing nervously outside the delivery room at a hospital when the head nurse came out beaming.  To the first she said, "Congratulations, sir, you are the father of twins." "Terrific!" said the man, "I just signed a contract with the Minnesota Twins and this'll be great press." To the second man the nurse said, "Congratulations to you too.  You are the father of healthy triplets!" "Fantastic!" he said.  "I'm the vice-president of 3-M Company. This'll be great P.R.!" At that point the third man turned ashen and ran for the door. "What's wrong, sir?  Where are you going?" called the nurse. As he jumped into his car, the man shouted, "I'm dashing to my office to resign.  I'm the president of 7-UP!"  (Msgr. Dennis Clarke). John the Baptist and Jesus surprised the self-righteous Jews by their call to repentance. Today’s Gospel, from the fourth chapter of Matthew, offers us Christians an equally surprising and shocking announcement by Jesus: “Repent; the kingdom of God is near.”