Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

Sirach 3:2-14; Colossians 3:12-21; Matthew 2:13-23

Our Parent really knows how to live it up. Instead of spending his first years on Earth as a pampered monarch in waiting, he chooses a life on the run, getting hauled all across the Middle East, one step ahead of mortal peril, utterly dependent on others. Why? Because while we fret over power dynamics and lines of authority, our Brother proclaims with his very life that family is all about dependence and subordination. We belong to one another, just as much as we belong to our God.

Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)

Isaiah 9:1-6; Psalms 96:1-13; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-14

"Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord." Woo-hoo! God is here to fix all our problems and clean up our messes! It's like a fairy tale come true; if fairy tales included crucifixion. Now, I'm not trying to be a buzzkill. Today is a day for rejoicing. But as we celebrate our good fortune, let us also remember that grace comes on God's terms not our own. So do not expect our Savior to adhere to our blueprint for the kingdom. He has her own plan in mind for what we need.

Fourth Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 7:10-14; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-24

"God is with us." What sort of sign do you need to believe such a claim? A virgin birth? A man rising from the dead? A mighty church? How about an angel appearing in a dream, commanding you to do the illogical? Or a righteous man choosing to quietly obey such dreams? Is it any wonder that Joseph goes so unappreciated? What did he ever do, except believe. How unextraordinary.

Third Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 35:1-10; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11

Why must we be patient? Are we waiting for God to act? If that was case, surely, two millennia would have been plenty of time for them to make whatever is to happen, happen. So we must be waiting for something else, perhaps something internal rather than external, like the scales falling from our eyes, because if anything ever required superhuman patience that would be it. The splendor of our Parent surrounds us, but we refuse to see it because it does not resemble our vision of the kingdom. What fools we are! How many times must we be told that the kingdom flips our expectations on their head, whatever those expectations might be? Yes, a season of patience is exactly what we need.

Second Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 11:1-10; Psalms 72:1-17; Romans 15:4-9; Matthew 3:1-12

The kingdom is for all of us. Jesus came and is coming for all of us: Jew and Gentile, Christian and Pagan, believer and unbeliever alike. There is no "chosen people" among our many tribes, just one family of the one God. Let us prepare our hearts during this Advent season to receive the gift of such truth, for we so desperately need it. Right now, millions of us are in mourning for Nelson Mandela, a man who tried to teach us the truth about our family. We are rightly celebrating his life and his work. But this very same week, we also buried the ashes of 1,464 brothers and sisters whose bodies went unclaimed. If we lived the truth of our family, none of those siblings would have their remains lying in a common grave. We would be memorializing each one of them as loudly and proudly as we are now doing for Mandela. But we do not do so, because according to our scales Mandela was important and unclaimed persons clearly are not. The truth of our family tells us that our scales are ridiculous. None of us are any more or less important than the rest of us, for we are the one family of the one Parent. Such unquenchable truth is straining to be born once more. Will you prepare to live it?

First Sunday of Advent

Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:37-44

Wake up! Get ready! "The day is at hand." I wonder how many Black Friday commercials used those very same slogans? Given the willingness of so many of us to sacrifice Thanksgiving for the sake of consumerism, it seems clear whose cries penetrate our hearts and minds. But what will that choice truly cost us? "One will be taken, and one will be left." Is that because our Parent only loves half of us? Or is it a prediction that too many of us will have our faces so buried in the feed trough that we will never even notice God standing in front of us? Perhaps it is generous to believe that only half of us will be in the latter category. Yes, "one will be taken, and one will be left." Which will you be?

Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

2 Samuel 5:1-3; Colossians 1:12-20; Luke 23:35-43

As we dwell on the nature of true kingship, let us also consider what it means to be a good subject. Are we willing to embrace that title and everything that goes with it? To fall in love with our lord's sovereignty? To freely choose the life of an obedient servant? To give ourselves over to their will so completely that it becomes our own? To surrender control of our impotent little lives and become one with our master? To take our place at their side, not as slaves, but as cherished members of a royal family? To serve our king with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength, and all our mind?

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Malachi 3:19-20; Luke 21:5-19

The End Times: parochialism at its finest. We will bathe in "the sun of justice". They will be reduced to nothing more than "stubble". Such hopes are understandable. But are we looking for redemption or vindication? And is the kingdom a home for the chosen few who have persevered or the entire family, including the proud, the persecutors, the collaborators, and all the rest of the weaklings who do evil? Does anyone need God's "healing rays" more than them? No one should be denied such grace.

Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

2 Maccabees 7:1-14; Psalms 17:1-15; Luke 20:27-38

What sort of life will the resurrection bring? Are our assumptions about that life any less ridiculous than the scenario offered up by these Sadducees? We cling so furiously to this blade of grass known as human civilization, that we conjure up visions of the afterlife consisting of more of the same only prettier. But our Parent is the God of all that is living, not just the few grains of sand we happen to know about. Whatever they have in store for their children is going to be more magnificent than we can possibly imagine. And when their glory appears, our joy will truly be full.

Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

Wisdom 11:22-12:2; Luke 19:1-10

"For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost." But why are we lost? Perhaps it's because we refuse to acknowledge our lowdown, dirty sinfulness. Or maybe it's because we buy into that story a bit too enthusiastically, especially when the lowdown, dirty sinner is our neighbor. How many more times and in how many more ways must God express to us their love and mercy before we finally believe it? "For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made."