Category: Sunday Homilies

As Christians, we celebrate the New Year twice!  Of course, there’s the new year that we celebrate on January 1st, but TODAY, the First Sunday of Advent marks a new year for us as well.  If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably given up on making New Year’s Resolutions because so often we stop making them to avoid breaking them!  I also stopped making them on that one day of the year, because I found it was important to my life as a Christian to make resolutions all the time throughout my life.  IT IS important to capitalize  on occasions and events, especially those that beget reflection and contemplating life.  Maybe for some of us, like me – January 1st has lost that appeal.  For us Catholic Christians (and many other Christians who celebrate Advent too) we ought to take this very first day of the New Year in the liturgical year as an opportunity to make some Christian resolutions.  

Christian resolutions might include to find ways to be more committed to our Christian lives; a resolution to be a better Christian this year than we already are.  Maybe to try a new form of prayer that we live in faith and hope will deepen our relationship with Jesus.  Maybe to be cognizant of our time and finding a way to give ever so slightly more time (or a lot more time if we can) to helping others or being with loved ones and those in need.  Giving money and material things are very important of course, but in the world we all live in with lives seeming busier and busier – time is of the essence.  As a family, we might consider a way we could pray together in an engaging and meaningful way.  As a family, we might begin the “New Advent Year” by coming up with a way to put together a Christmas hamper to give to another family in need.  Our Advent Resolution might also be to really take time to consider how we might become more free to live and give ourselves as Christians in a world that like it or not, needs the strong and solid Christian witness now more than ever.

As you can see, I am only reaching the tip of the iceberg here.

I might also suggest that there is a big difference between worldly resolutions and Christian ones.  It’s been my own experience that when we fail, the world isn’t always friendly to these failures.  How many of us have made the New Year’s resolution to “get fit” and then find things get in the way of that and yet we’ve got this gym membership we’re paying dearly for all year?  Or we sign up to play a sport and then we find it impossible to make it?  The difference is that our Lord is a Lord of encouragement and love.  We celebrate the Son of God coming into the world when we, as a People of God got things so completely wrong, and He brought us back again.  And He keeps bringing us back.  Advent is a time that most of our parishes have Reconciliation Services (I spend a lot of time in Advent & Lent going to many of those parishes), with many priests hearing many confessions.  I often offer to people I meet in the confessional this thought or perspective: Jesus calls us to “be perfect as My Heavenly Father is perfect (Matt 5:48)” but then in His deep love for us, gives us the “gift” of confession when we’ve fallen short.  Perfection is still and always our goal and the desired end for a Christian, but we have an understanding God who loves us despite our failings, falls, shortcomings, weakness – He loves us no matter what and encourages us to just pick ourselves up and keep trying.

Broken “resolutions” are just a sign we need to keep working at it; joyful and determined to be the best Christians we can be.  As we begin this season of Advent, let’s all make the commitment to make more of an effort to be the people our Lord and God created us to be; if each of us do that one more little thing: the world will be transformed by it.

A short reflection based on Fr. Chris’ homily given at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish on the First Sunday of Advent.

This blog post begins my Advent series, but is also from a homily for the First Sunday of Advent.

Before I entered the priesthood, I was a bus driver for Mississauga Transit. Each year, we would have a little ceremony where drivers who had an accident-free year were given a little award. I remember one year, one of the veterans who had an impeccable record for good driving [it was like a 20-year award] was asked what his secret was to being a great driver.  Without missing a beat, he said “I kept my eyes on the road!”  Of course we all laughed, but there’s a truth about that I’ve never forgotten because when I think of the Christian journey and especially our readings today that begin our Advent part of that journey – I think it’s good advice for us all to be mindful of as we begin again and re-dedicate ourselves as Catholic Christians.  “Keep your eyes on the road”.  We can all become distracted by other things.  We can all lose focus from time to time.  We can all fall into sloppy or unhelpful habits that make us feel more comfortable for a short time, but don’t help us where we are going.  This happens when we are in the car – or bus as the case may be.  It also happens in our Christian spiritual lives too.  We see many accounts of it with the Apostles and other disciples in the Gospels, and I’m sure that most of us can see it in our personal lives as well.  Here we are in Advent, four weeks of it before Christmas.  We have time to prepare for the greatest gift of our faith: the Incarnate Son of God, Jesus.  God loves us so much He came into the world to get us back to where He wanted us to be. That’s all of us!  Keeping our eyes on the road in our faith helps us see Jesus really is with us, always: sacramentally, through His Word, in and through others and heaven lies ahead.  Advent is a joyful time and we intently and intentionally prepare ourselves for Christmas – not only with shopping for gifts and food (although these things are important for bringing us closer to one another) we need to stop for a moment each day along the way and be mindful of why we do those things: food, family, presents: we do it because we are thankful.  We do it because we see life, the Christian life we have been given as a gift.  What does God tell us about love?  If we love Him, the gift we offer the Lord in the way we love Him is to love others.  We have four weeks to prepare for His greatest gift of love and all we have to be thankful for in that, to of course be thankful for the coming of the Lord but also to be thankful for what we have as well.  Our faith and our personal lives need to meet each other in a deeper and more attentive way in Advent.  In this way, we have the “big picture” and are keeping our “eyes on the road” so to speak.

When we keep our eyes on the road, just as when we drive we also can anticipate troubles and problems that lie ahead and how we can respond rather than react to them.  If we see brake lights ahead of us, we are able to be prepared and slow down or stop slowly and cautiously.  But if we are moving along not aware of what’s ahead, we slam on the brakes and quite possibly whatever’s in front of us and then we need to deal with the setbacks.  Often we’re not able to handle the situation we face.  Part of our Advent preparation is to look ahead.  We hear readings about Our Lady and St. Joseph and how they handled tough decisions, impossible decisions even – with a trusting faith in God.  We hear of Anna’s prophesy that Mary would experience a sword that would pierce her heart.  Her bundle of joy would be a source of pain and sorrow for her.  But we see she turned to her faith, she trusted the Lord and while this doesn’t take it away she realizes this can’t take away from the joy of the moment, and when the sad or heart-piercing moments of her life come (as they will) she is as ready as she is to embrace the moment she lives in now.  The Holy Family will teach us that we too must draw strength from our faith, praying for a deeper trust in the Lord and thus a deeper faith.  None of us want to spend our lives reacting to things (because we live in anger, frustration, bitterness) when we do.  We want to be able to respond even to the challenges and hardships we face with love all around us.  When we are thankful for all we have our problems seem less significant.

My friends, let us spend this Advent season with our hearts, minds and souls focused on all we have to be thankful for in our lives, on the source of the strength and courage we have been given in faith and let us “keep our eyes on the road” so to speak trying our best not to be distracted from focusing on faith, love and family once again.  May this be a most Blessed Advent season for each of you.  And may God bless us all!

In my role as Director of Vocations right now, I don’t have the opportunity to baptize very often these days.  I loved baptisms and I always felt an excitement when I was the celebrant of them at the parish.  To welcome new members into the Body of Christ was beautiful – absolutely beautiful!  I would often give variations of the same homily, where I would talk about Jesus’ baptism and where I share John’s account was the Holy Spirit descending and the Father declaring: “This is my Son the Beloved in whom I am well-pleased.”  I would extend this to these children and young people and declare in the name of Christ as a priest: that the Holy Spirit is descending and the Father is declaring “This is my son/daughter, beloved and in whom I am well pleased.  There may be some who feel I am taking some license here, and others who feel I am wrong but hear me out: I declare this because it is Jesus’ Baptism they are being baptized into, and beyond our simple and somewhat simplistic and limited ways of understanding, if it’s His Baptism, then it has the same effects!  I also believe in faith that this is true and DON’T imply that this means anything unless the family and the baptized child lives his or her Christian faith; and this I offer we must all work together to give him or her every chance to do.

I speak about Holy Baptism today because I think about this beautiful first sacrament every time I ponder today’s Gospel.  Jesus declares: “Ephphatha!” (be opened) and this we ministers of baptism mark the baptized with at their baptism.  We do what Our Lord Himself does in the powerful action of opening one’s senses to allow God the Holy Spirit to enter; but everyone involved can also contribute to closing those senses too.  If a baby’s heart, mind and soul are opened by Christ through the minister; his or her heart, mind and soul can be closed by others who choose not to teach the child the Christian faith, or teach a misguided version of the faith.  I also think of the terrible sins of the clergy; and I wonder how many beautiful children who had every possible hope of being dedicated and amazing Disciples of Christ had this taken away from them by people with chose evil over good.  There are many things we can do to close a person off from God’s possibilities for them but the Good News is that there are many things we can do to work with God in continuing to allow His Will be Done and that when they become Beloved Members of the Body of Christ – that they respond to the “miracle” Jesus performed (among others) on the day of their Holy Baptism: “Ephphatha! Be open to receive My Life; to be My Light and to share My Word, My Love with everyone you will meet in this glorious life you’ve been given!”

Today we celebrate the First Scrutiny in many of our parishes.  With the elect recently entered into our Book of Elect and preparing themselves in these remaining weeks of Lent to enter into the waters of baptism, seeking to die to self and live for Christ – today through Jesus’ Gospel encounter with the woman at the well; they (we) are reminded of our need for God who is Himself the wellspring and from Whom we have our thirst quenched and who gives us what we need to truly live.  As an adult convert, I recall as a Catechumen Elect, the preparation many years ago for this day, the first of my Scrutinies.  I remembered reflecting upon the many places in my soon-to-be “old life” where I “drew water”.  Drawing water from the desires and expectations of others in the world no long quenched my thirst.  Tasting the water of success, the water of other’s praise, the water of having enough money to quench my own thirst became tired and not fulfilling.  Even though my heart was becoming the Lord’s, I was still living with those things and while it seemed compelling to simply throw all those things off and totally and completely to live for Jesus – I was not ready for that.  The words were really sinking in though and the profound experience I had as an Elect was drawing me even closer to the Body of Christ where I would one day give up those things.  The profound grace and blessing I have been given is that because of my experience, I was able to be with RCIA groups most years ever since.  As a seminarian I was afforded the opportunities to journey with others and so, to reflect as well on these Scrutinies again as a catechist with them.  As a priest, to preach on the Gospel and to identify with the Elect as well.

Now as a Catholic Christian man with 15 years of Scrutinies under my belt, my reflection on this First Scrutiny is one I share with the committed Catholics today.  We need to pray for these people who seek to prepare themselves and will in short weeks be asking the Church for Baptism, Eucharist and Confirmation.  The conversation this woman in today’s Gospel has with Jesus is one which each of us needs to stop and have with Our Lord today.  Do we still recognize Jesus at the places where we draw water from in our lives today?  Where we pray, our churches or our special places?  Are we drawing water and allowing Jesus to really and truly speak to us, or are we denying part of what our lives are or what they have become so we simply don’t have to deal?  If we are, then we need to be really honest with the Lord.  When the Elect go through the Scrutinies, they are reflecting on and allowing the Lord to accompany them on the journey into the waters which means repentance, acknowledgement of the darknesses that still exist, the hurts, the pains, the sorrows – the areas of our lives that just aren’t right yet.  The Light (of Christ) will come, but first we must acknowledge where we aren’t ready to be nourished and ask in this moment for the grace to let go and let God take over.

What does that mean for you?  I know what it means for me.  It means that as I pray for the Elect (and while it’s different for me right now, not in parish ministry: I pray in a more universal way), I also pray for the areas of my own life that are dark, where I haven’t been all that I can be for Jesus and for other people, the people He calls upon me to serve as a priest.  I pray for more strength to respond more generously, to acknowledge more truthfully and with greater clarity the wounds, issues, shortcomings and infidelities of my own heart – those areas I need to drink more wholly of the Living Water that has satiated me for all these year.  Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is my hope that all of us take this blessed day to do the same.

One of the most important “learnings” (or re-learnings for most of us) on the Christian journey is to learn how to trust; in particular – to Trust God.  God has never given any of us a reason not to trust Him, although we sometimes see things that way.  People give us many reasons not to trust them, we even give ourselves reasons not to be trusted and thus to be untrusting of others.  Whatever those reasons or circumstances we need to re-learn how to trust God as Christians.  In today’s First Reading at Mass, we hear the story of Abraham and Isaac and it may seem from our vantage point that God plays with Abraham to see how close he will come to trusting Him and then at the final moment stops the plan to sacrifice or kill Isaac and praises Him for His steadfast trust.  I know that I have heard many reflections on this Gospel from a humanistic point of view give us a sense of God’s desire for blind and complete devotion to Him.  In fact, nothing could be more superficial because it would be wrong for us to assume that was His relationship with Abraham.  Instead, I would suggest that this Gospel highlights trusting in God no matter what the circumstances.  God is not telling Abraham to sacrifice or kill his son, but instead to trust in Him.

The same can be said for the Apostles today as they spend time with the Lord on the mountain and He is Transfigured before their very eyes.  As we can see in this Gospel, there’s not a lot made clear, there’s not a lot of understanding given them here.  Instead, they encounter a foretaste of heaven which they will have to hang onto when the tough days which lay ahead come to them.  They are yet to experience the Paschal Mystery, and when they do the faith and trust that is being built up here, is going to be tested to be certain.

So too is this something that we need to ponder with our own Christian lives.  Are we ready to trust totally and completely in the Lord?  Are we giving thanks everyday for what we are given and the grace and blessing, the Glory of God we experience each time we have an encounter with the Lord in prayer, through the Sacraments, in our faith communities?  Are we ready for the time when each one of us will be called upon to fully participate in the Paschal Mystery (the suffering, death, Resurrection and then participation with the Communion of Saints) which we will be called to do?  Do we listen for the voice of God calling out: “Behold, this is my Beloved with whom I am well pleased!”  He declares us beloved too as we join our Lord in the Sacraments.  We join our Lord as we live out lives of Discipleship, lives committed to deep and committed vocations.

Let us consider the faith and trust we have in the Lord our God today and every day of our lives.

We celebrate today the first Sunday in the season of Lent.  We began the season with the marking of ashes; reminding us of both our mortality and our need to renew our lives and so if we truly entered into this season with those two things in mind, we should be ready for humble introspection and reflection.  That too, is an important part of this season for all of us.  It is part of the circle of life.

The circle of life happens whether we want it to or not; we are born, we grow quickly absorbing, learning, growing, developing until we reach full growth and then while the growth and development may slow down, it is either made sweet and healthy by humble reflection and introspection or it’s made bitter/maybe bittersweet by scepticism, cynicism and pessimism.  We are either filled with hope or mired in hopelessness.

Friends, Lent is about wanting the best for ourselves and for each other.  If we’re mindful that death will come to us all, we aren’t meant to be dire, downcast or gloomy about this, but to realize we’re on a timeline and while we ought to appreciate, enjoy and savour our lives – we are called to live the lives we’ve been given with meaning and purpose.  If we acknowledge we are called to “turn away from sin [selfishness and living for ourselves in the moment] and turn towards the [hope-filled] Gospel; our lives get better and our lives stay better!

That is the foundation, the fertile ground I hope we are all allowing ourselves to be rooted in as we begin Lent.  In today’s Gospel, we hear of Jesus in His desert experience, taking on temptation and suffering, being pulled away from God and remaining committed and resolved to stay close to the Father.  We hear of His temptation in the desert followed by His Proclamation that begins a Lenten experience for Him and His followers.  Believing in the Gospel comes with a price.  Turning away from sin doesn’t make life easy in any way.  Meeting temptation with resolve is not an easy thing to do.  All three of these statements are absolutely true and they ought to be essential and real statements for the Christian; for the Disciples of our Lord.  They are true, they are not easy to swallow – but they are only part of the story.  The greatest part of the Christian “story” or life is in what is received.  That – is more profoundly great than absolutely anything given by us for it.  We have to remember that.

As we prepare this Lent for more humble introspection and reflection, let us stop and consider our own lives lived up to this very moment in time and let us ask ourselves what more are we prepared to do, to receive the love of God and a deeper faith into our hearts, minds and souls.