Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Link to today's readings

Isaiah 62:1-5 + Psalm 96 1-2,2-3,7-8,9-10 + 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 + John 2:1-11

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[There is no transcript for this homily]
Delivered at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Mustang, Oklahoma by Deacon Paul Lewis

The Epiphany of the Lord

Link to Today's Readings
Isaiah 60:1-6 + Psalm 72:1-2, 7-13 +  Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6 +  Matthew 2:1-12

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Delivered at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Mustang, Oklahoma

Contained in the womb of Mary is the One whom the heavens cannot contain. He empties himself of the privileges of his divinity in order to enter another world, the world where human beings dwell. The Son of Mary is a stranger in a strange land. He comes from another world, the world of the divine Trinity. 

The Eternal Word of God leaps down from his heavenly home to pitch his tent among humankind here on earth. He crosses the border between the eternal and the temporal to become forever a part of human history.Thus, the Son of God is THE Outsider, the one who comes from a place beyond our understanding. He is the Ultimate Stranger, an immigrant from a land so foreign that no one alive on this earth has yet seen His eternal home. The strangers from the east are the ones who recognize the presence of the Stranger from another world whose star rises brightly in the night sky. Outsiders who live beyond the borders of Israel are the ones who see how the Outsider has gotten inside our human flesh, how the radiant glory of the Divine shines forth in a little child. 

The magi come to adore the newborn King, while King Herod plots to destroy him. Feeling his throne threatened, Herod’s fear grows like a gathering storm. In fact, King Herod embodies the normal human reaction to the stranger, which is fear. Herod feels threatened by the newborn King and is deeply troubled by what this helpless child might do to Herod’s position of power. Thus, he slyly tries to use the magi to obtain information on the whereabouts of the child. 

When the magi go home by another way, Herod, full of fury, sends soldiers to slaughter the children in Bethlehem. Fear is the driving force behind Herod’s cruel slaughter of helpless babes. Herod is so full of fear that he cannot see what the strangers from the east see—that the Son of God has taken flesh as the Son of Mary, that the radiance of God’s eternal love is now embodied in Jesus. However, before the soldiers can kill the newborn King, Joseph, warned in a dream of the impending danger, takes Mary and the child and they flee to a foreign land, Egypt. 

The Holy Family then experience what many families today experience in our country and throughout the world—what it is like to be strangers in a strange land, to start life over in a place far from home where language and culture are different, to be looked upon with suspicion because of being an outsider. The Holy Family survive their sojourn in a foreign land because some Egyptians recognized in the face of this refugee child the face of God’s son and gave him and his parents welcome. 

The most potent divisive force the early Church faced was how to welcome the stranger. The first Christians were Jewish-Christians, and they thought everyone who wanted to join the early Church should become Jewish first before becoming Christian. In fact, the leaders of the early Church in Jerusalem feared the Gentiles from other countries whom the apostle Paul was bringing into the Church. The Jewish Pharisee Paul had to first be knocked off his high horse before he could ever begin to recognize Christ longing to be born in the Gentile people. But once Paul had the scales removed from his eyes, he saw clearly what God was doing in and through Christ His Son. 

In Christ, Paul began to see that the Gentiles are now co-heirs of the kingdom, members of the same body of Christ. In Christ, the strangers who are Gentiles are also co-partners in spreading the Gospel. This revelation rocked the early Church to its core. However, because Peter, James, and the other leaders of the first Church Council in Jerusalem were converted and accepted Paul’s teaching on this matter, the early Church grew and flourished. Otherwise the Church most likely would have folded up and died. 

St. Paul saw how all people are estranged from God because of sin. But because Christ chose to become one with us and die for us, we are strangers and aliens no longer. We are now fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Paul patiently and wisely worked at uniting a Church made up of people who were strangers to one another because of language and culture. Paul preached this truth—there is something stronger than our differences, and that is our unity in Christ:  Whether Jew or Greek, woman or man, slave or free, all are one in Christ. In today’s world where so many Americans are fearful of strangers from other lands, this feast of Epiphany shows us a way out of the darkness of this fear. We can choose to walk in the darkness of this fear, and like Herod, try to get rid of those who we feel threatened by, or shut the doors of our hearts to them. Or we can walk in the radiant light of Christ the Stranger, of recognizing him present in the strangers who come to our parish, our city, and our country.

These strangers from other lands come bearing gifts for the living body of Christ here. Not gold, frankincense, and myrrh but other kinds of gifts. The gift of Faith—a confident, humble trust in God. The gift of Family—rejoicing in the gift of new life and in the God who gives life. The gift of Joy—celebrating the many gifts of God and thus remembering that God is in charge, so the crushing weight of worry and anxiety is lifted. When we welcome the stranger and receive the gifts they bring, we allow the light of Christ’s love to shine through us and lead us to our heavenly home.

Fr. Joseph A. Jacobi

SOLEMNITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, MOTHER OF GOD

Link to Today's Readings
Numbers 6:22-27 + Psalm 67:2-3, 5-6,8 + Galatians 4:4-7 + Luke 2:16-21

Click here to listen to this homily
Delivered at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Mustang, Oklahoma

St. Paul packs so much into a few short verses from his letter to the Galatians. The living word of God passed on to us through the ages from the hand of Paul is so rich and full we can hardly take it all in, much less understand completely what it means.

In the fullness of time, Paul says—in other words, at the “right time”, or in “God’s time,” God sent His Son, born of a woman. How can this be, we wonder, the Eternal Son of God, the One through whom all things were made, becoming part and parcel of his own Creation? How can this be, we ask, the One whom the entire universe cannot contain now being limited to Mary’s womb, dependent upon her for his very life?

St. Paul does not tell us how this can be but does tell us why, why the 2nd Person of the Divine Trinity would humble himself to become human like us. So that we might be made into members of the family of God, so that through Him we might become adopted sons and daughters of God. The Son of God becomes the Son of Mary so we might become sons and daughters of God. What a marvelous exchange! What an incredible mystery of faith!

The proof of our dignity as God adopted children, as St. Paul puts it, is that the Spirit of the Son has been poured into our hearts.  The same Spirit that overshadowed Mary at the Annunciation and made the miracle of His conception in the womb of Mary possible; the same Spirit that descended upon the adult Jesus in the waters of the Jordan and propelled him into his ministry of teaching and healing and casting out demons; the same Spirit which raised Jesus from death to new life; the same Spirit breathed by the Risen Jesus upon his terrified followers cowering in a locked room after his death. This Spirit brings the powerful presence of the Crucified and Risen Jesus into our small lives, so we can relate to the almighty God as His Beloved Son does, by addressing Him as “Abba, Father.”  

Imagine being invited, even empowered by the Spirit to be one with the Son 
in order to relate to the Father as Jesus did—in absolute confidence and trust. How can this be?  We creatures made of dust now vessels of the eternal God, impregnated with the Spirit of the Risen Lord, empowered to have the same relationship of intimacy and trust with God the Father as Jesus did. It is a mystery beyond our ability to understand completely, beyond our grasp.

Paul does not stop there—because the Spirit of the Risen Jesus has transformed us into adopted children of God, joined us forever to the Son of God, we share in the Son’s inheritance—the fullness of life, eternal life. This is our inheritance, this is our destiny.

Wow! Talk about packing a lot into a few short verses. It’s like the eternal God coming to us in something as small as a newborn babe. How to take all this in?  How to understand it all?  


Mary, the Mother of God and our mother in faith, teaches us how to respond
to the Word of God which goes beyond what we can initially understand or comprehend. Mary, the Mother of the Eternal Word made Flesh, shows us how to allow God’s living word to take our flesh and to come to life in and through us.

In the Gospel of Luke, whenever Mary receives the word of God, she never understands it completely upon first hearing, but rather surrenders to is and reflects upon it in her heart. She takes a stance toward God’s word which is the way faith-filled Jews do: God’s word is to be received even if it cannot be understood in the moment. Then slowly, with time and reflection, pondering this word in one’s heart, the full meaning will unfold. This is what faith looks like…..

This is exactly what Mary did upon receiving the Archangel Gabriel’s incredible message that she was to become the Mother of the Son of God. She had questions about what this meant and how it was to come to pass—“How can this be”—but she eventually surrendered in trust, not understanding in the moment completely what was being asked of her, but trusting that God will reveal to her over time the meaning.

At the birth of Jesus again she receives the word of God from a different sort of messenger—shepherds coming to adore her child—who inform her that indeed he is the promised Savior of the world. Once again, she does not understand completely what this means or how it will come about, but she does not reject the message of the shepherds. Instead, she reflects on these things in her heart—she holds their words in her heart and ponders them.

When Joseph and she finally find the 12 year-old Jesus in the temple, after a frantic 3-day search throughout Jerusalem, and he tells them: “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”, the Scriptures tell us that they (Joseph and Mary) did not understand what he said to them, but that his mother kept all these things in her heart.

As our mother in faith, the Blessed Virgin Mary teaches us a life-giving way to respond to the Word of God when we do not understand it. Her example goes beyond the American way of understanding before committing. We Americans are so pragmatic, which can be a good thing, as we try to understand what is being asked of us before acting. But that is not the way of faith, not the way of the Gospel, as our mother teaches us. Rather, trusting the One who speaks to us his saving word, we surrender our lives into his hands in faith, with her, trusting that He will reveal in the future more clearly what is being asked of us.
That the living word of God, which may not make sense to us today, will unfold its meaning in our lives if we will but be patient and reflect upon this life-giving word.


What might Mary, our mother in faith and Mother of Mercy, be inviting us to reflect upon in our hearts, during this Jubilee of Mercy? How would she want us to receive Her Son, who comes to us in hidden and mysterious ways which may not initially understand?

Perhaps, with Mary’s help, we are being called to ponder the following words of her Son, to hold these words as a treasure in our heart throughout this New Year…..

When you welcome the stranger, the King of Kings says, you welcome me.
When you visit the prisoner, the Crucified Lord says, you visit me.
Forgive and you will be forgiven….give and gifts will be given to you.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Be merciful just as your Father is merciful.


Fr. Joseph A. Jacobi