Deacon Larry

 

Fifth Day in the Octave of Christmas

1John 2: 18-21; John 1: 1-18

Dc. Larry Brockman

“Tolerance”.  Our secular, pluralistic, society preaches tolerance- tolerance of everyone’s right to believe in their own thing; tolerance of everyone’s right to do their own thing.  And yet we need to make the distinction between tolerance on the one hand, and compromising our faith on the other hand. 

You see, truth, is what we are all seeking.  And believing and acting on the truth is what we are called to do.   Now, the gospel says clearly:  “Grace and truth came from Jesus Christ”.  And what is the truth about Jesus Christ?  Well, today’s gospel defines much about what we have come to know about the Christian God.  It served as the basis for many of the key decisions made about Jesus divinity and humanity in the great church councils over the first 400 years after Christ.  The truth is that Jesus is God, and was God in the beginning.  At the same time, the truth is that Jesus lived as a human being, and taught us to adopt the values that he lived.  It is so clear for a Christian.  God gave us the Gospels to help us cut through all the ambiguity about what God expects of us.  The Gospels, and the New Testament scriptures, are His word to us.  The scriptures are the Word of God, and are truth- not the writings of Christian Scientists; not the writings of Jehovah Witnesses; not the Mormon scriptures; not the Hindu Scriptures, not the Koran, and not the writings of the great Chinese traditions; but our scriptures. 

Now St. John said something very interesting:  “Every lie is alien to the truth”.  And if we believe in the truth of Jesus, then these other writings, no matter whatever else they might be to others, do not tell the truth about Jesus, and so they are alien to the truth.  It is important for us to understand that when we are practicing tolerance because our tolerance can sometimes be misinterpreted as concurrence,.and that is wrong. 

Now I’m not suggesting that we be radicals who pick fights and, argue with people of other faiths, nor am I advocating forcing other people to accept our faith.  But I am suggesting that it is our obligation in a pluralistic society, to live our faith, and to be steadfast in it.  When we live what we believe, others will see that, and it will serve as a testimony to the truth. 

Let me give one concrete example:  It’s not Happy Holidays; it’s Merry Christmas.  Tolerance implies that we smile when someone says “Happy Holidays” and move on.  Living our faith means that we politely point out that “You mean Merry Christmas, because Jesus is the reason for the season.” 

   

Thursday of Fourth Week in Advent

Gen 49: 2, 8-10; Mat 1: 1-17

Dc. Larry Brockman

Wasn’t that exciting!  42 times we heard that “A” became the Father of “B”.  Wow!  Did you get anything out of it? 

Well, believe it or not, there are some fascinating things that one can get out of this genealogy.  First, since 7 was considered the perfect number, and 2 times 7 was even more perfect.  Then the scholars tell us that Matthew wanted all of us to know, that God purposely arranged for the Messiah to come after three phases of the history of the Israeli people, God’s chosen people.  Not only that, all three phases were perfect of length- 14 generations.  The first group of 14 traces the lineage from Abraham through all the great prophets to David.  This represents the rise of Israel.  The second group of 14 traces the history to the Babylonian exile.  This represents the fall of Israel.  And the third group of 14 brings us from the low in Israeli history to the birth of the Messiah. 

The genealogy is meant to establish a solid line tracing Joseph’s lineage back through David to the first of the Patriarchs, Abraham.  And yet, the purity of this lineage is flawed.  How so?  Well, did you notice the mention of four women in the genealogy?  It was rare to mention women in Jewish genealogies.  But even more astounding are the facts behind who these women were.  Two were prostitutes (Tamar and Rahab); one was a non-Jew (Ruth); and the fourth was someone else’s wife who was stolen by David after he arranged for her husband’s death.  These are hardly elements of a pure and regular lineage.  Scholars speculate that these elements of irregularity were purposely brought up in the midst of the 3 perfect periods of the lineage in order to prepare us for the irregular circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus.  Namely, that Joseph was not the biological Father.   

All in all, what does this mean?  Well, that God brought the Messiah into the world in perfect harmony with his plan; that the Messiah came at exactly the perfect time; that even those who were not perfect contributed to this plan, because God will work his plan despite anything that mankind does; and that Joseph, while not the biological father, embraced his son as his own, establishing Jesus as the fulfillment of the covenant with Abraham, and the promise that the Messiah would be descended through David.   

So, we have a God of His word, an all powerful God who knew what He was doing, and a God, who through the miracle of the virgin birth, gave us his son, both fully human and fully divine.  God is indeed great- Rejoice! 

   

Thursday of the 2nd Week in Advent

Is 41: 13-20; Mt 11: 11-15

Dc. Larry Brockman

 “The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence.”  That’s what we just heard.  Yes, indeed, you, the elect, those who have a grasp of the Kingdom of God, those who are committed to Jesus Christ, suffer violence in this world, just as Jesus could see the forces of evil marshalling against His disciples and Himself.  They were poised to do violence, and they did.  It will always be so in this world, because the Kingdom of God is not of this world. 

And so, expect it, expect the suffering that comes with the challenge of living in this world even as you are attached to the Kingdom.  The suffering is all around us in the form of sickness and infirmity; problems in relationships, job losses and economic difficulties and yes, even random acts of violence done to us.  None of us are exempt from the realities of suffering in this world. not even those who have all the money in the world.  The local news testifies to that.  We are like the people Isaiah speaks of in the first reading, “maggot Israel”- what a metaphor! 

Sometimes we feel like it too, for as Isaiah says: “The afflicted and the needy seek water in vain”.  And yet, we must never forget that the Lord is always there for us, and like anybody that is on a long journey, the goal is to get through all of the inconveniences, and yes, even sometimes pain, to get to the other side safely.  If we believe and trust in the Lord, then it will happen for us, and even as dramatically as Isaiah predicts this morning, because trusting in the Lord, all of us can experience the desert being changed into a marshland.   

 

Thursday of the 1st Week in Advent; St. Francis Xavier

1 Cor 9: 16-19; 22-23; Mark 16: 15-20

Dc. Larry Brockman

You never know.  You never know when you have impact on people.  In St. Francis Xavier’s case, he began a mission to the Far East at the age of 46 in the year 1552.  This mission took him to India, Sri Lanka, Japan, and China.  Three centuries later, even though Christianity was brutally suppressed in Japan in all that time, the Faith was still found there.  Indeed, you just never know what effect your efforts will have.   

Now all of us are called, as part of our Baptismal promise, to evangelize in word and deed.  Our working orders are laid out in today’s Gospel.  To profess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead.  And that’s how we proclaim the good news of Christ, the Gospel- by living our lives as Christians by what we say and by how we project ourselves in what we do.  Paul tells us that we are obligated to live and proclaim the Gospel. It is not something we should boast about.  It is simply our duty. 

And the great thing about that duty is that we just never know.  We never know when it will have an impact on those around us.  But you can be sure of this- others see how you act and what you do- in the grocery store; at the Christmas Party you attend; in the classroom; at the office; while you are working in the yard; in an emergency; and when you meet someone in need.  Indeed, our lives are full of opportunities to evangelize, just by being who we are, but in a Christian way.  Most of us will not have to go out and put our lives on the line in a strange land like Francis Xavier.  But all of us will be given these opportunities.  And, you just never know when you will have an impact.  But God knows, and he’s counting on you.   

Advent Reflection Service

Dc. Larry Brockman

Christmas Cards, visits to Santa Claus, Christmas Cookies, Holiday Office Parties, Erecting the Christmas Tree, Putting up the Outside Lights, Buying everybody a gift, wrapping the gifts, cooking the Family celebration dinners, and lots more- it’s all got to get done.  We’ve all got to do it.     

But wait a minute, where is Jesus in all this?  Well, that’s why we are here tonight, to put Jesus back into Advent and Christmas.  Where do we begin?  Let’s first ask the question- Why do we do all this Christmas stuff?  Is it because it’s just part of the secular ritual of the season; is it because it’s what everybody does?  Or is there a better reason?  Well, how about this reason?  We do all this because of the joy we feel over the fact that God loved us so much he sent his only son into the world in human form- God incarnate as man, fully human and fully divine. 

Think about that- I mean really think about it.  For thousands of years before the birth of Jesus, people believed in some higher being or beings.  But, they were transcendent- that is, distant and separate from us, unapproachable.  There was no way we could relate directly to God.  And then, Jesus was born into the world.  Jesus was born as all of us are- in relative obscurity, in an ordinary way (and in his case, among poverty).  But, Jesus was born as both fully human and fully divine.  Here was the image of the one true God, no longer transcendent, but visible and available in a way that all of us could relate to- as one of us.  Gone was the transcendence that separated us from becoming close to God.  In other words, God became immanent to us- as openly available as any other person at the time.  Wow! What a great cause for joy.  Because now, after thousands of years of mystical conversations with a transcendent God, here was a manifestation of God we could touch and feel and relate to, a manifestation of God that had the same likes and dislikes, habits and needs, temptations, and limitations as all of us.  If that doesn’t bring joy, it should, because there is nothing else like it; no other earthly religion that guarantees it, that God loved us so much that he showed himself as one of us;.and showed us that we could live a life that was pleasing to him even with all our limitations.   

How do we know all this?  Recognize first of all the promise, the promise in our first reading that a savior would be born, and His name would be Immanuel- God Saves.  And then we were told where it would happen- in Bethlehem, in our second reading.  In our third reading, Paul unlocks for us the mystery of the mission of God-made-man, the mission to dwell among us, suffer and die by fulfilling the Father’s will, and finally, His resurrection and coming to power.  And how does God send his Son amongst us?  Well, in our fourth reading we see that Jesus was born of a woman; a woman who said yes to the will of the Father; a woman who had dreams of a normal marriage and family, but was called to sacrifice herself for the will of her God, and she said “yes”.  This is a challenge we all face.  The challenge to say yes to whatever the Father sends our way, for better or worse, richer or poorer, or sickness or health.  And then, in our fifth reading, we hear the incredible story of Jesus birth told in the Gospe,.the promise fulfilled; the God-made-man a reality.  But it happened in the most humble of circumstances, as humbling as any of the circumstances of the least amongst us- so real; so earthly; so bazaar.  But wait, it gets better.  Because the promise of the messiah was made to the Jews. and Mary and Joseph were Jews.  So, in our sixth reading, we see the promise extended- extended to lowly shepherds who were the first to give testimony to the miracle of the incarnation.  This is a symbol of the universal gift- to all nations, not just the Jews.  And then finally, we hear what was called the last Gospel in the old Tridentine Mass.  John gives us a theological summary of the meaning of it all.  The Word existed from the beginning with God the Father, and became man.  That defines clearly that Jesus is both God and man.  And so, during the four weeks in Advent, we wait in joyful expectation of the coming of our savior.   

But why four weeks; why so long?  Because our role is not so much waiting for the coming as it is preparing for the coming.  You see, the coming of the Christ child is something that happened, and so we can relive it, we can remember it, and we can experience the joy.  Thank you Jesus   

But, that first coming, the birth of Jesus, is a reminder that He will come again.  Yes, there will be a second coming of Christ.  And that second coming requires preparation, .because with that second coming comes judgment.  The chronicle of John the Baptist’s activity in the readings during Advent is our clue.  Because his message is clear.  Repent and “Prepare ye the way of the Lord”. 

As Jesus said in Sunday’s Gospel, that second coming can come at any time for any of us-  It will most likely come when we least expect it.  Are you ready? Are you satisfied with the way you are living your life?  Or is there something about the pattern of your life that needs a change?  What is it that gnaws at you and says the track I am on is just not right.  It may be because you are too harried with job and responsibilities, always cutting corners to get as much into the agenda as possible; but never having enough time to do things the right way and to put things into the right priority.

Or perhaps you spend too much time absorbed in your own world, immersed in video games or football or telephone marathons with your friends.  These are addictions of a sort.  Then there are classical addictions: addictions to food or alcohol or drugs or pornography.  And as a result of your preoccupation with your interests or your addictions, your work or family or household affairs suffer the consequences. 

Or perhaps you have settled into a pattern of withdrawal, of non-involvement, where days and weeks go by and all of your activity revolves around yourself.  Perhaps its because of depression or older age, and it is so much easier to just not get involved, and so you don’t extend yourself by getting out and relating to others. 

These are all patterns that can harbor sin in a social context, because the life styles that foster them ignore the responsibility we have to participate fully in the world in the context that God has planned for us.  We need to reflect on our lives, and do what we can to steer them in the right direction.   

And so, I’m asking you to do something a little different this Advent.  Do enjoy the season- the Cookies and Tree and Santa, and gift giving and all of that.  But set aside some time each day, just a little time each day, to think about the direction your life is taking, and the impact it has on others- your family, your work associates, and society as a whole.  What can you do differently that makes a difference?  If you are harried; how can you slow down and feel the pulse of God urging you in His direction.  If you are in a slump; how can you respond to little urges to get involved or to make a difference?  If you are addicted, how can you clean up your act? 

In any event, don’t let this Advent pass you by.  Get ready for Christ.  He is coming.