Church of St. Mary at Clinton Heights

We are all familiar with the three gifts of the Magi: gold, frankincense and myrrh.  Some say that they are symbols of who Jesus is:  the gold acknowledges his royal dignity as the King of the Universe, frankincense proclaims his divinity and myrrh is the foretaste of His redeeming death and burial.  But, what do the gifts mean for us today?

St Gregory the Great was Pope in the late 500’s and early 600’s and offers us another way to view the gifts.  Gregory challenges us to see that these are the gifts expect from us everyday of our life’s

“Jesus wants us to give him “gold” by “shining in his sight with the light of wisdom”.      This gift of the Holy Spirit is the gift to understand life and creation as God does.  When we strive to see the world as God does, we are able to make decisions based on the values of the Gospel.   We offer God the gold of our lives by serving him with every moment of our lives.  All our actions, all our decisions, our views, everything is for the honor and glory of God.

Gregory tells us the “frankincense, the incense used at Mass, symbolizes prayer”.  The incense we use here at Mass is a sign of our prayer rising before the Lord.  We burn it to honor the sacred among us.  Notice what is incensed: the altar: the image of Christ among us the Gospels: The Word of God among us you: the living Body of Christ

God asks us to offer the fragrance of our prayer every single day.  We are called to offer God the very scent of our lives; we are to offer to God the smoke of our joy and sorrows, our hopes and dashed dreams, all every moment of our lives. 

Finally, from Gregory, we learn that the “myrrh is symbolized mortification of the flesh.  We offer myrrh when we offer up the desires of our flesh”.  So, what does that mean to us?  This means we give up the things that get in our way of following Christ even when it causes us discomfort.  Fasting from the computer, our phones, etc. are not comfortable for us today, but when all this gets in our way as growing in the spiritual life, then we need to make a choice.  We fool ourselves into thinking that the only time we give something up or do without is during Lent.  However, it is a necessary part of our spirituality every day.  Not because we must, but, because we want God that much in our lives.  Abstaining from meat on Friday was a mortification to prepare for Sunday, the one hour fast before Communion is doing with out to receive something greater and more important than food.  It is interesting that we all can agree that going on a diet is good for our physical health, Gregory and the gift of myrrh asks us to see that going without is vital for our spiritual health, too.

The mystery of the gifts is a challenge for us today.  As a community of faith, may the wisdom of God direct every moment of our lives as disciples of Jesus.  Let us offer the sweet smell of our prayer at home and here at our worship of the altar.  Finally, may the sacrifices we make for God be a sweet offering to the One who gives us all.

 

 

Over the last few days, most of us have been around our families.  There have been laughs, tears, arguments, disagreements, some of the normal drama has arisen to the surface; but, no matter what, whether we like them or not, they are our families.

The Christmas season reminds us that Jesus was born into the messiness of time and life.  He was born into a human family of a mother and father, aunts and uncles, grandparents and cousins, and family friends.  They had the same laughs we had over the last few weeks and the same arguments; they shed the same tears and laughed as we did.   Like them, the holiness of our families is found in the reality that Jesus is in the middle of it all even when he is not acknowledged.

The family of the church is no different than our families and the family of Jesus.  What makes the Church a Holy Family is the reality that Jesus is the foundation of the family of the Church.

It is from our families we learn how to pray and know Jesus; it is here in the family of faith we learn to pray and to know Jesus.

At our dinner tables at home we share a meal; here we share the banquet of life.

It is in our homes we learn to say:  I forgive you, I love you; here God says that to each of us in the life of the sacraments.

Family life is intrinsically linked to the life of the family of faith: the Church.  Each depends on the other; they can never be separated.  Remember the saying of Fr Peyton: The family that prays together stays together.

In the new year, we need to beg God to touch the hearts of the families of those who do not come to worship.  We need to ask the Mother of God and our Mother to wrap them in her mantle of care, so they know the Love she brought into this world.  We need ask St Joseph to lead them like any father into a life that will bear fruit.  Without our absent brothers and sisters, we cannot be the whole Body of Christ. The family of the Church misses and cares for them.  We need to let them know exactly that.

However, we also need to look at how we live as the family of faith so that when people return, we do not fall into old and unhealthy ways; just like any other family.   St John gives us the yardstick to measure who we are as a holy family of faith:

And his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us. Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them, and the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit he gave us.

To believe in Jesus and be proud and open about it, to love as He loves, and to keep his commandments are what will make us a Holy Family of faith.

May the Lord grant us the grace to be transformed into the mystery of the Holy Family of Nazareth.  May Jesus always be the very rock and center of all we do as a family of faith; here and now.

 

 

We all probably think God doesn’t need anything.  He probably doesn’t need new socks and underwear; probably God doesn’t want a new 4K flat screen, I would imagine that he doesn’t want a new cell phone.  God is probably the hardest person we must buy for, if we even think of Him in our planning.

Do you think anyone ever asks God What He wants for Christmas?

Here is how Darius Rucker — country singer, R and B musician and ex member of Hootie and the Blowfish — answers the question in his song, “What does God want for Christmas”;

“I wonder what God wants for Christmas
            Something you can’t find in a store
            Maybe peace on earth, no more empty seats in church”

I think is a good start for God’s Christmas list.  God, in the reading from Isaiah, promises us a world with no war and violence, but we need to change ourselves and our world, so it can happen.  To be peacemakers means we learn to disagree with respects, to not return violence with violence, verbal or physical, to actively commit ourselves to work for harmony and the common good.  What a great gift to give to God if we would commit ourselves in the coming year to be people of peace.

The most precious gift we can give God is the gift of ourselves.  Darius sings “no more empty seats in Church”.  Our worship here is to give God the glory and praise he deserves from all of us.  Afterall, look what He did.  He took on human flesh and then suffered and died for us.  We cannot ever match that gift.  To give the God the gift of our worship is an act of love.  He created us and gives us everything we need; the least we can do is to say thanks!

Darius ends his song:

            I wonder what God wants for Christmas

What kind of gift from you and me

More sister, more brother, more lovin’ one another

Yeah, I wonder, I wonder what God wants

By now we oughta know what God wants for Christmas

In my words, what God wants for Christmas is you.  What God wants for Christmas is me.  He wants everything:  our love, our worship, our service.  God wants us to put into use all the talents he has given us so that the Kingdom of heaven born in a stable can be born into our world.  God want us to love him everyday of our lives and make Him a priority.

So what does God want for Christmas?

            He wants you.

            He wants me.

Let’s hope he is not disappointed when He opens his gifts tomorrow morning.

In this Sunday’s Gospel, Mary goes to see Elizabeth. It could be that she wanted to be with her relative and help her because of her pregnancy. It is also possible that she left home for a little while to make sense of what was happening. Like Elizabeth, Mary’s life had dramatically changed. Her “yes” to the angel was a “yes” to a new life. I suppose Mary wanted the simple, “normal”, life. Her “yes” to the Lord opened up a path that she couldn’t have even imagined.
Some people may wonder where Joseph was. After all, how could he let his betrothed travel a long distance alone. Some artists will depict the Visitation with Mary greeting Elizabeth and Joseph greeting Zechariah. I think is the most realistic way to reflect on this scene. All four of them were called to say “yes” to God with a “yes” that would mean walking down paths that they could never imagine.y s we begin to celebrate the mystery of Christ’s birth, let us make a commitment to be like these two holy couples and take the risk to say “yes” to God and walk whatever path he lead us down.

There is a big difference between happiness and joy.  Many people think that what they want is happiness and spend a lot of time trying to find it.  However, happiness is a matter of a neurochemical process in the brain.  Maybe this will help to understand this.   I love chocolate chip cookies…. In fact, I can eat a whole box of Freihofer’s chocolate chip cookies in one setting.   Don’t ask me why; they just taste good.  However, the happy feeling doesn’t last long.  Once the sugar rush is over; the happy high is over and I want more.  Happiness is not a permanent thing; it ebbs and flows depending on a lot of things.

Joy, on the other hand, is something deeper and permanent.  Joy results from a deepening and living relationship with Jesus.  Many this example will help.  Just over three years ago, my Mom died at 93 years.  Even though she lived a good live and we were able to keep her home, it was one of the hardest things I have gone through.  On the day of her funeral and everything was over, I went back to my brother’s house, got changed and went out for a bike ride.  I had decided that at the end of the ride I would stop back at the cemetery.  As I rode in the cemetery, got off my bike and walked to her grave, despite how sad I felt, I felt the most overwhelming sense of peace and joy.  My Dad had died almost 40 years ago and she had missed him everyday since.  As I walked to their graves, I knew they were back together and were home with the Lord.  This is joy.  It is not dependent on anything.  Joy is rooted in God himself and is always there and we can always depend on it.

Isn’t this the true meaning of Christmas?  Jesus took on flesh to show us that life is not about chasing fleeting happiness; His birth shows us that life is about a relationship with him that is so deep and abiding that even the darkest moments of life are permeated with His Divine Light and Presence.

As the feast of Christmas draws near, may we find our true gift and joy, not under the Christmas tree, but in Jesus and our relationship with him.  Rejoice in the Lord always in all things.