First Sunday of Lent

Link  to today's readings
Genesis 9: 8-15 + Psalm 25: 4-9 + 1 Peter 3: 18-22 + Mark 1: 12-15

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

In the Synoptic Gospels—the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke—the tempting of Jesus in the desert happens immediately after his baptism by John the Baptist. There is a natural connection between the baptism of Jesus and what follows—40 days in the desert being tested by Satan. Jesus of Nazareth, as the Fully Human One, aligns himself completely with sinful humanity by embracing John’s baptism, which is a baptism for sinners.

The sinless one, Jesus, becomes one with the brokenness of every human being
by being washed in the waters of the Jordan River. Then he does what every human being does daily—he enters into battle with the Father of Lies. The same Spirit which descends upon him at his baptism propels him into the desert to do battle with the powers of evil. It is the same Spirit which strengthens him during his time of testing by reminding him of the Heavenly Father’s words at his baptism:  “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.”

The Gospel accounts of the temptation in the desert in Matthew and Luke are explicit in their account of Satan tempting Jesus around his identity as beloved son. Even though Mark’s Gospel does not mention these temptations specifically, it stands to reason that Jesus, who recently heard his Heavenly Father’s voice speak these powerful words of love and pleasure in him, would find Satan attacking that which is most important---his identity as Beloved Son.

During this intense time of testing in the desert, Jesus’ identity as Beloved Son
deepens and grows as he resists the Tempter and Father of Lies. When he is hungry, the Spirit whispers, “Let your Father’s words be your daily bread.”
When he is thirsty, the Spirit reminds him, “Drink from the living water of God’s love.” When he is tired and feels like not persevering, the Spirit sustains Jesus,
assuring him that he can do all things in the Father who strengthens him. So, with the help of the angels sent by His Father to assist him during this time of testing, and by the sustaining power of the Spirit, Jesus emerges from the desert overflowing with the Good News of the Father’s faithful love. Thus, the first words out of his mouth are, “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”

Jesus has great good news to share of God’s faithful, enduring love, but before this news can be received, repentance needs to occur. Before we can give ourselves fully to the Gospel and to the one who speaks the words of truth, we must turn away from the lies we live by. What prevents us from receiving the Good News Jesus brings—we yield to the temptation to believe in something else. Repentance demands finding and letting go of the beliefs which contradict
the Good News, which are opposed to the gospel Jesus preaches and lives.
We must identify and reject the lies on which these beliefs are built.

Because Satan is the Father of Lies, he tempts us into building our lives on beliefs that are contrary to what Jesus teaches. What are some of these lies on which these destructive beliefs are built? “If you are suffering from sickness, God does not love you. You are no longer God’s beloved son or daughter.”
“If you have lost someone you love to death, God does not love you. You are no longer God’s beloved child.” Other lies whispered in our ears by the Father of Lies: “Health and beauty are necessary for happiness OR money and lots of material stuff make life worth living.” Or, “My welfare is more important than yours,” and its corollary, “There is not enough for all of us, so I need to grab and hold onto whatever I can.” “No one can be trusted.” “You hurt me, so I have a right to revenge, or at the very least to nurture resentment toward you for the rest of my life.”

We are often not aware that we build our belief system on these lies, and other lies, which contradict the good news that we are God’s beloved children at all times and in all places.

What we are invited to believe in first of all, and last of all, and everywhere in-between, is in the Good News that we are beloved sons and daughters of God. As we turn away from the false beliefs which drain the love and life out of us, we turn toward the Great Good News of our dignity in God’s eyes. God takes pleasure in us, delights in us, calls us His beloved daughter, his beloved son,
because by baptism that is what we have become. This is our deepest identity.

We give ourselves not only to this Good News and allow it to shape and form our life, but even more importantly, we give ourselves to the One who enfleshes the Good News of God’s saving love, Jesus himself. In doing so, we “believe” in the fullest sense of that term, for the Greek word for “believe” in the Gospel is “pistouen,” which means “to give one’s heart to.” So, when we believe in Jesus, we give our hearts to him, we turn toward Him and enter into a life-long relationship with Him. 

TURN AWAY FROM GREED, TURN TOWARD THE ONE WHO BECAME POOR
SO WE MIGHT BECOME RICH IN GOD’S MERCY.
TURN AWAY FROM ANGER, TURN TOWARD THE PRINCE OF PEACE.
TURN AWAY FROM ENVY, TURN TOWARD THE ONE IN WHOM WE POSSESS EVERYTHING OF LASTING VALUE.
TURN AWAY FROM PRIDE, TURN TOWARD THE SUFFERING SERVANT
WHO WASHES YOUR FEET.
TURN AWAY FROM LUST, TURN TOWARD THE ONE IN WHOM ALL THE BEAUTY OF GOD’S LOVE RESIDES.
TURN AWAY FROM SLOTH, TURN TOWARDS THE ONE WHO IS YOUR STRENGTH.
TURN AWAY FROM GLUTTONY, AND BE FILLED WITH THE ONE
WHO SATISFIES THE DEEPEST HUNGER YOU HAVE FOR LOVE.
TURN AWAY FROM SIN, AND TURN TOWARD THE ONE WHO ENFLESHES THE GOSPEL.

When we repent, what we discover is that not only are we beloved sons and daughters of the Father in heaven, but we are also beloved brothers and sisters of the Son of God. Joined to Him by the power of his Spirit, we have the power to reject every lie. Joined to Him, our brother in all things but sin, we have the strength to overcome every temptation. He has won the victory for us over the Tempter in the desert, he has won the victory for us by his life daily poured out in love, he has won the victory for us from the cross.

He is our brother who is also our Savior, so that even when we yield to temptation and fall into sin, he saves us there. From the wood of his cross a new ark has been built, which carries us through the floodwaters of sin and death into new life.

Fr. Joseph A. Jacobi

Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Link to today's readings
Lev. 13: 1-2, 44-46 +  Psalm 32: 1-2, 5,11 + 1 Cor. 10:31-11:1 + Mark 1:40-45

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

“If you wish, you can make me clean.” The cry of the leper pierces Jesus’ heart, and in that cry, Jesus hears immense pain. Not just the physical pain the leper feels from this disease that eats away at his body, but a deeper pain. For this man has been cut off from his loved ones, his contagious disease isolating him from the very ones he loves. He lives outside of town with the other lepers, no longer able to feel the caring touch of his spouse nor to hold his children in his arms. Such overwhelming sorrow issues forth in this cry of despair to Jesus, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” No one in town comes within touching distance of this man, who has been commanded to keep people at a distance by shouting out, whenever he sees another human being, “Unclean. Unclean.” Stay Away! Stay Away!  

But there is even a deeper hurt, for this leper, a suffering which he probably does not even want to face, and this is feeling cut off from God. For by the Jewish purity laws no leper can step into the temple to offer sacrifice to God, no leper can fulfill their religious duties to God. The leper is unclean in the harshest sense of the word—he is not even worthy of being touched by God, he feels abandoned by God. The sight of this broken man, the sound of pain in his voice, the awareness of all these crushing levels of pain, affects Jesus physically. 

“Moved with pity” are the words used to express Jesus’ reaction, but the original Greek word— “splagchnizomai”—conveys much better what happens to Jesus. “Splagchnizomai” means to be moved in one’s inmost parts, literally in one’s bowels. In other words, Jesus felt compassion in his guts, he is physically moved in the depth of his being by feeling the pain of the leper within himself. Jesus is physically moved to do something for the leper in love. So Jesus stretches out his hand and touches this man who no one touches. 

In doing so, the leper who has felt cut off from others and from God, is re-connected and made whole, in body, mind, and spirit. By touching someone who is unclean, Jesus not only cleanses his body of the leprosy but also grants him a deeper healing—communion once again with others and with God. By touching the untouchable one, Jesus assures the leper that no one, no matter what they have done or what illness they carry, that no one is beyond the loving touch of God.  

Jesus does this throughout Mark’s Gospel, reaches out to touch the untouchable ones in love, bringing them out of isolation, reconnecting them to others and to God. Last week we saw Jesus do this with Simon’s mother-in-law, knocked off her feet by a fever, cut off from others by her sickness, unable to welcome Jesus to her home. When the disciples tell Jesus about her sickness, Jesus goes immediately to her bedside, and grasps her hand, and lifts her up, and the fever leaves her. No one wants to touch others who are sick for fear of catching what they have---Jesus, on the other hand, reaches out to these ones who suffer in isolation, and touches them. 

Or take the encounter Jesus has with the deaf & mute man later in Mark’s Gospel. (Ch.7) This man has been cut off from others and the world in general, because he is unable to hear, and because he cannot hear, he cannot speak of the desires of his heart. Jesus takes this man away from the crowd and touches him, putting his fingers in his ears, and spitting, touching his tongue. The very body parts that are broken are made whole by Jesus’ touch, and this man, cut off from others because of his disease, can now hear for the first time the words, “I love you” and speak those words in return.  

Pope Francis, throughout his almost two years as our spiritual leader, has been challenging us to touch the untouchable ones, to feel their pain, and to be moved to do something to ease their pain. In his homily addressed to the 20 newest Cardinals of our Church, Pope Francis challenged them to go out to those whom the world shuns, to those living on the outskirts of society. Last year on Holy Thursday Pope Francis went to a detention center where juvenile offenders were being held, cut off from the world and their loved ones, and he washed their feet. In doing so, the Pope said by his actions, “If I can touch you in such a loving way, imagine how God wants to touch you in love and heal your deepest hurts.”   

As missionary disciples of Jesus Christ, we are invited by Him to reach out and touch others who feel cut off from the human community and from God. To recognize that we have the power within us, by the Spirit given to us, to be instruments of His healing touch. 

This past Sunday afternoon, four of our Communion Ministers to the Homebound, Deacon Paul, and I visited our fellow parishioners who are confined to their homes because of illness or advancing age. We celebrated the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick with them. Part of that Sacrament is the laying on of hands, when the priest places his hands on the person’s head and prays in silence. At that time I invited those who had come with me on these visits, as well as family members of the homebound, to step forward and touch the person. As we together stretched forth our hands and touched our sister or brother who felt cut off from others because of their sickness, something palpable and powerful happened. A healing connection took place between them and us, as we, the Body of Christ, reached out in compassion to touch the suffering Body of Christ in them.

During the upcoming Lenten Season, we are called to such acts of charity, so that our hearts may expand in love of others. We need to go before God in prayer and ask God to reveal to us who we are being called to touch in compassion, who God wants us to touch as an instrument of His Son’s healing love. 

There are people in nursing homes and hospitals and prisons who feel beyond the touch of God who are crying out to us, “If you wish, you can make me clean. You can be my connection to God, the bridge over these troubled waters of my life.”  There are people on the streets of Oklahoma City who need more than food and shelter—they need one person to place a hand on their shoulder and listen to their story in love. There are members of our own families and of this parish family who have chosen to isolate themselves, who have made the decision to cut themselves off from this community of faith or from our own particular families. 

What would happen if we made the effort to reach out to them? Even if they rejected such an act of love, at the very least they would know they are not forgotten. 

We can be moved to love in such a life-giving, healing way because we are touched by God in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit in this Eucharist. Here we are touched by God in a bodily way as we consume the Lord’s body and blood. By doing so, we experiencing healing physically, emotionally, and spiritually—on all levels of who we are the Lord comes to us in love and touches whatever parts of us we consider unclean, beyond the touch of God.

The message is loud and clear---the Lord Jesus Christ wills our healing, longs to assure us that though we may feel alone or abandoned by God, He is always with us.

Fr. Joseph A. Jacobi

5th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Link to today's readings

Job 7:1-4, 6-7 + Psalm 147:1-2, 3-4, 5-6 + 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23 + Mark 1:29-39

Click here to listen this homily

Delivered at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Mustang, OK by Deacon Paul Lewis

I think all of us, lector included, had a particularly challenging job today.

Those closing lines of that first reading from Job…My days happiness again.

The Word of the Lord.

And our response…Thanks be to God!

One could rightfully ask…After hearing that, what am I thankful for?

Is that really “The Word of the Lord”? ...are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope. Remember that my life is like the wind; I shall not see We don’t hear from Job much in our Sunday readings.

In fact, I researched it...over the normal three year rotation…twice.

Job is one of the most interesting books of the Bible. It begins by describing Job as an upright man who fears the Lord. Job is a man of many riches. He has seven sons and three daughters… He has seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, a thousand oxen, five hundred donkeys and enough servants to take care of all of this.

There is a dialogue between God and Satan. God says, "Have you seen Job? There is nobody like him. He possesses fear of Lord, is a good and upright man,

and he avoids evil." Satan's response... "Well yeah! Of course he is! Look at all of his riches. Take his riches away, and he'll curse you.

God puts his faith in Job and gives Satan the ability to inflict misery on Job's life.

Job's children, his possessions, his servants, and eventually his good health, is taken from him.

This dialogue in Job, between God and Satan, has been interpreted as evidence of a divinity who is cruel and permits the torture of creation. This fails to see the deep issues of the text that the author wants us to see. This dialogue is simply a technique to lead us to some of the deepest questions of the Bible... Do humans serve God for themselves and their own profit? Can God create one who truly worships freely?

In Old Testament times, wealth and success are seen as evidence of one's faithfulness to God. Poverty, disease, and calamity were seen as evidence of God's justice. Those that suffer must have offended God. We see evidence of this in the Gospels. When the man born blind is presented to Jesus, the question is asked, "Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

Retributive justice is what we might call it.

We must always remember...God's ways are not our ways.

When I worked in the hospital I would hear family members referring to their sick loved ones as having “the patience of Job.” It puzzled me, because patience is not a virtue that I would ever associate with Job. Read Job sometime. He complains throughout. And who can blame him. He's lost everything. There is no such evidence that Job possessed any patience. It wasn’t until later, when it was pointed out to me that the King James version of the Letter of James, Chapter 5, verse 11, speaks of the “patience of Job.” The original Greek word is hypomonē. A better translation is steadfastness, perseverance, or endurance.

Job’s steadfastness, perseverance or endurance is without question. His patience…that’s questionable.

Despite his complaining, he holds steadfast to his love of God. When his friends try to convince him that God is punishing him for some wrong, when his wife tries to get Job to curse God for his misfortune, Job is persistent. "No! I may not understand all of this, but I know that this misery is not punishment, and I will not curse God."

Job's faithfulness, and our faithfulness, ultimately lead to God's good works,

whether that be in this life, or the next.

Job is a figure for the good and innocent sufferer. When evil people suffer we may reason, with that attitude of retributive justice, they are getting their just desserts. But when the innocent suffer we can’t come up with a reason to justify their pain. Job can find no rationale for what happened to him. He is overwhelmed by his loss, physical pain and mental anguish. What was worse was his confusion about how God seemed to be treating him. He voices his complaints to God, but he doesn’t give up on God. He won’t break his relationship with God. In fact, by the end of the book his relationship with God deepens and grows stronger. Like Job our faith is tested by unreasonable suffering. How can we justify it? Where is God when we are at our lowest points? Is God with us or against us? Is our suffering a sign that we have displeased God and are being punished?

G.K. Chesterton writes: “Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances

which we know to be desperate. … Exactly at the instant when hope ceases to be reasonable, it begins to be useful.”

It's interesting to note that Jesus wants to travel from town to town to preach.

Casting out demons, healing miracles, point to what is to come... life in the heavenly kingdom. With a profound faith, with a relationship with Jesus, all will eventually know healing.

The cross is something we will all bear, and it is the reminder that this life is not an end in itself, but a path to heaven. While there will be the joy of Christmas at many times in our life, the sorrow of the cross follows. Hope is the gift which allows us to enjoy the goods of life without depending on them, and endure the challenges in life without being consumed by them.

Despite what we might consider a gloomy passage, Job points us to hope, hope that we now know to be the person of Jesus. May Job's prayer be ours... Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.

-Deacon Paul Lewis

3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time

Link to today's readings
Jonah 3: 1-5 + Psalm 25: 4-9 + 1 Cor. 7: 29-31 + Mark 1: 14-20

Click here to listen to this homily
Given at Holy Spirit Catholic Church on January 25, 2015

This is the only time we hear from the Book of Jonah in the 3-year cycle of readings. Scholars agree that it is not a historical book, but more of a didactic tool, a way to teach about the greatness of God’s mercy. That mercy flows into the lives of the people of Nineveh through the most unlikely of prophets, Jonah himself, who is not too excited about his mission.

You know the story. Jonah runs the other way when God first calls him to go to Nineveh. Why? The Ninevites are part of the hated Assyrian Empire, fierce enemies of the people of Israel. Jonah wants no part of extending God’s mercy to his enemies. Besides, they might even kill him. But God has other plans as fleeing Jonah is tossed overboard into the sea and delivered to Nineveh via sea-mail. After those 3 days in the belly of the whale, Jonah reluctantly does what God asks. Amazingly, God uses the prophet’s half-hearted in his call to repentance—“40 days more and the city of Nineveh will be destroyed” to shake up the people of Nineveh, from top to bottom. Immediately,  the people repent, from greatest to smallest.  Immediately! The Ninevites hear the call of God, and they leave their former way of life, in order to follow in God’s way

Jonah’s response---he sulks.  In fact, he becomes angry with God when a

little bush that gives him shade from the scalding sun shrivels up and dies.

So God tells Jonah, in no uncertain terms, that the lives of the people of Nineveh are more important to God than a little shade bush.

Jonah is challenged to see that God’s ways are not his ways, that God’s mercy

is greater than he can understand, even saving his enemies from their evil ways. This little book in the Old Testament reveals the universal call of God to salvation—the Divine Desire to save all people!

The Church chooses to pair the message of God’s mercy calling people to repentance with today’s Gospel passage in Mark because of Jesus’ call to repentance. But the message goes to a whole new level in this Gospel passage. For now it is God in the flesh making this appeal, “Repent, and believe in the gospel.” Now it is the Son of God calling out for people to repent, not a reluctant prophet.

The Greek word for “repent” is “metanoia”, which literally means, “change your mind,” “change the way you think.” Jesus challenges those first hearers of his message and us to change the way we think about God. You think the kingdom of God is far away—well, it’s right here at hand. You think God is distant--think again, because God is close enough to touch in Jesus. You think God does not care about your life—then listen to the Good News—God does, even enough to become one with us in Jesus in order to show us the way to life.

The focus in the Gospel is not so much on what those first disciples are leaving behind, but rather on what they are gaining. They are gaining a friend who desires their highest good, a friend whom they will eventually come to know as their Savior and Lord.

After all, everyone is going to give their life to someone or something,

everyone is going to spend their life following someone or something.

Why not choose to follow Jesus who promises abundant life? Why not give one’s life fully to Jesus who helps them see God and God’s doings in a new way?

Many people hear this Gospel passage and think about it in terms of “vocation”, that is the call of God to a special few to leave everything behind in order to follow the Lord. So they think this story is about those who choose to follow the call to a “religious” life:  to become a priest or a monk or a nun. But this is simply not the case—for the Lord Jesus calls every one of us to follow him.

He calls every one of us to repent and believe in the great good news of the gospel.

The fathers of the 2^nd Vatican Council spoke about this in terms of a

“universal call to holiness.” Every single person God creates is called into a deep relationship of love with God by being a disciple of the Lord Jesus.

Lay People are not called to leave everything like the first disciples.Repentance instead means re-prioritizing your life. You are not called to leave job and family, but to make the following of Jesus in daily life your #1 priority. To say by the choices you make in life, “My relationship with Jesus comes first. Everything else falls into place after that.”

What James and John teach us by leaving their father in the boat in order to follow Jesus is that family cannot be more important than our relationship with Jesus. What all four of those first disciples teach us by leaving their work behind

to follow the Lord is that one’s job cannot become one’s God.

So, repentance for all of us is a matter of reprioritizing, of making our relationship with the Lord Jesus the most important matter of our life. To always ask the question:  “Does this person or this thing help me follow the Lord or is this person or thing drawing me away from the Lord?”

Being a disciple of Jesus Christ does not mean our lives will be easy or free of trials or other difficulties. In this “Year of Mark,” as we journey with Simon Peter and Andrew, James and John, and the other disciples, we will discover that being a disciple of Christ Jesus can be challenging. We will see our story written in their story:  misunderstandings, failures, and suffering are all part of the story.

Along the way we will learn with them from the Lord how the power of self-giving love for the benefit of others transforms the world.

That humble service of others is the way to greatness in the Kingdom of God.

That the way to abundant life is not by taking but by giving. That the way to joy is not by possessing more or better things, but by being more fully possessed by the love of Christ.

That the way to lasting peace is not the way of trying to control everything in our life, but by surrendering our lives with Christ to the Father. Which is what we do at every celebration of the Eucharist.

Fr. Joseph A. Jacobi

2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

Link to today's readings
1 Samuel 3:3b-10, 19 | Psalm 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10 | 1 Corinthians 6:13c-15a, 17-20 | John 1:35-42

Click here to listen to this homily
Given by Deacon Paul Lewis at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Mustang, OK on January 18, 2015

This past week, the Church began what might be described as the wearing of the green. The Christmas decorations are put away and the Church enters into this period we call Ordinary Time, at least for a few weeks until we begin Lent next month. The Gospel we will hear from most during this coming year is the Gospel of Mark. However, because it is the shortest Gospel, we will also be hearing from the Gospel of John on a few of these Sundays of Ordinary Time.
 
Today is one of those days. If we look back at our own life, we know where we were when we experienced significant moments. It was December 25, 1984, at about 7:30 in the morning when my wife and I first felt the kick of our oldest son. I know where I was and what time it was when my mom called to inform me of my grandfather’s death. I know the moment that I heard about planes slamming into the World Trade Center. We know these moments of our lives.
 
When we tell the stories, we recall what time of day and where we were when they happen. “It was about four in the afternoon.” These are words that often get overlooked in this Gospel reading. Perhaps it is seen as an insignificant detail. 

Who are these two followers of John the Baptist? We know one is named Andrew who is the brother of Simon Peter. What about the other? It is understood by many scholars that this un-named disciple is the Evangelist himself, the disciple whom Jesus loved, John the Beloved Disciple.
 
It is from him that tradition tells us this Gospel was handed down in the late first century. And so John, just like us, is telling the story. “It was about four in the afternoon.” These are not insignificant words to be passed over. They mark that moment when John, and Andrew, ceased being followers of John the Baptist, and become disciples of Jesus Christ. It’s that moment in time when Jesus asks, “What are you looking for?” They reply, “Where are you staying?” And Jesus answers, “Come and you will see.” Their lives will never be the same.
 
When we encounter the scriptures, sometimes we do so from a rather historical/critical viewpoint. We tend to want to intellectualize this encounter.
There is a place for that, and it is good to delve into that... at times! But Jesus waits for us to encounter him on a more personal level. This evangelist, John, wants us to experience what he has experienced. Jesus desires that we make this Gospel about ourselves. 

And so, as people of faith, Jesus poses the same question to us. “What are you looking for?” What is it that we seek? Do we allow others to tell us what we are looking for? Too often, we allow political agendas, talk radio, surveys and news tell us what we should think or do rather than being fully engaged in our world directly. This is especially true when we look at political figures. It's easier to let so-called political commentators tell us what we should think, and who we should demonize.
 
As people of faith, faith in Jesus Christ, we are called to more. We might allow others to tell us what it means to encounter Jesus rather than pointing us to and opening the doors to the mystery of Jesus’ presence in our lives. We may find ourselves idolizing what others have, what they do, who they are, rather than discovering the unique ways God reveals himself in and through our own personal lives. It is what we might call secondhand faith. This kind of faith is not transformative. Second hand faith denies the freedom to encounter this Jesus who beckons us, "Come and you will see."
 
I can describe to you a beautiful sunset, tell you about the colors I have seen,
but to truly know what is being described, one has to be there and experience it themselves, firsthand. Would we rather hear a love story, or would we rather fall in love and live the love story? Would you rather know about Christ or know him? That’s the difference between a secondhand faith and a firsthand experience. We must choose whether we will be spectators of Jesus' life or participants in his life.
 
That was the choice John the Baptist set before his disciples. John “was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God!’” It was their moment of decision. Would they stay or would they go? Would they settle for a secondhand faith, information and facts about Jesus, or would they choose a firsthand experience of his life? If they choose a firsthand experience they will have to leave John behind. They will have to let go of that which is familiar, comfortable, and known. The will have to open themselves to something new and something different.
 
Looking back on our lives, we can probably remember times like that. It can be difficult to let go of a secondhand faith and life. It usually means there will be more questions than answers. What are you looking for? Where are you staying? Those are not so much questions to be answered as they are experiences waiting and wanting to be lived. A firsthand experience invites us to discover the answers by living the questions.
 
Think how different today’s gospel would be if Jesus had just answered their question. “Where are you staying?” “Oh, it’s just a couple miles down this road. Second house on the left.” What do we do with that? How does that change anything? What difference does it make if we know Jesus’ address but we are not invited in? We might as well stay where we are.
 
But that’s not how Jesus responds. Jesus offers more than his address. “Come and see,” he says. There is reassurance and promise in his words. That means that he has something for us. It means that he is opening himself to us and inviting us in. He has gone ahead of us and prepared a place for us. Regardless of what’s going on in our life he makes it safe to move forward and take the next step in confidence that his life and presence await us. “Come and see” is his invitation to find ourselves and discover our lives. "It was about four in the afternoon." 

Many of us have had "four o'clock" moments. Mine, as I've described before was June 24, 2012 at about 8:30 in the evening. Many of us can mark that time in our life when this "Come and see" from Jesus has been deeply personal. And it is not something that we can make happen. As a wise spiritual director told me one time, all we are to do is to just show up. Show up in the silence and prayer. Show up and ask, "Rabbi, where are you staying?"
 
Jesus is there waiting, waiting for our asking, waiting with anticipation for that moment when our lives will never be the same, waiting to share with us our four o'clock moment.

Baptism of the Lord - 11 Jan 2015

Link to today's readings

Isaiah 55: 1-11 + Psalm 29: 1-4, 9-10 + 1 John 5: 1-9 + Mark 1: 7-11

Click here to listen to this homily
Given at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Mustang, OK on January 11, 2015

Why spend your money for what is not bread, your wages for what fails to satisfy? We are no different from the people of Isaiah’s day. We think this thing or that thing will satisfy our hunger, but we find ourselves still hungry, still dissatisfied. We are like a kid 2 weeks after Christmas—the toys he thought would bring him lasting happiness are pushed to the side, and he is looking for something more. Except as adults, we waste our wages on bigger toys, but nothing ever seems to fill the hole in the soul, nothing ever quenches our thirst.

We are hungry for God, hungering for God, and nothing but God can satisfy that hunger. For we who are hungering for God, we need not waste our wages,

for we do not need to pay for the freely given gift of the bread come down from heaven, Jesus, the Christ. So the Lord invites us to come and drink of His love and experience new life: Come to the water, all you who are thirsty.

With the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, we conclude this Christmas Season.

The Scripture readings gleam with the glory of this Season, when God became human to feed our hunger for union with God. The word of God that we break open today reveals how Christmas is connected to Easter. The birth and life and death and resurrection of Christ are all necessary to seal the everlasting covenant God has made with humankind.

The One who was born that we might no longer die forever, the One whose birth has given us new life and whose death has destroyed the power of death---he is the One who seeks us out to feed us with His love, to share with us His life.

The Sacraments of the Church usher us into this life-giving, thirst-quenching,

hunger-satisfying relationship with God through Christ in the Spirit. Baptism, Eucharist and Confirmation---traditionally called the Sacraments of Initiation—draw us into the eternal covenant the Triune God has made with humankind,

to love us always and share with us divine life. In the waters of baptism, we died with Christ, and rose with him to new life, as adopted children of God. We drank of the water of new life and entered into a new relationship with God and with all the baptized as a member of the family of God. Beloved by God, the favor of God rests upon us. We no longer need to go on a frustrating search, looking for love in all the wrong places, because love has found us.

The Son of God, born in a rush of blood and water from the womb of Mary, is born again on the cross when the soldier’s spear opens up his side--- blood and water rush forth, signs of the sacramental life of the Church. The free and complete gift of his life on the cross opens the door for us into the house of God, to dwell with God forever. At every Eucharist, when we drink from the cup of the New Covenant, drinking of the Blood of Christ, we renew the Covenant of our baptism.

So, we rise up from the waters of new life in order to come to the table of the Lord, to celebrate his life-giving death until the end of time, to drink of his life poured out for us. Jesus Christ is the Living Bread come down from heaven who satisfies our hunger for God and as we receive Him, the life of God grows in us.

The Lord’s mercies are renewed in us each time we eat and drink of his Body and Blood, and we remember who we are—God’s beloved sons and daughters.  

Sealed by the same Spirit which tears open the heavens, uniting heaven and earth, we are confirmed in the new life in Christ. Our life in the Spirit, sealed at Confirmation, is nourished over and over again at every Eucharist. As we come streaming forward to receive the One for whom we hunger and thirst, we renew our commitment to Jesus Christ, to make him the center of our life, our heart’s number one desire.

The way God made us, we need to constantly renew our commitment to Him.

That’s why the weekly celebration of the Sunday Eucharist is so central to our faith — it is the way that we renew our commitment to hold up our end of the covenant sealed in the blood of Christ. We do not practice our faith in private, all alone. In order to believe, and to nourish and strengthen our belief in God’s goodness and love, we do so as members of a community of faith.

Those who come to the life-giving waters of baptism are not left on their own,

but come to the table of the Lord with others.

Together, we help each other renew our part of the covenant and we help one another to be faithful to the One who faithfulness to us is everlasting. The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord teaches us that our faith is about more than adoring a cute infant in a manger. The life of faith means engaging in a adult relationship with the Son of God who asks something of us. He wants to teach us how to live as a beloved child of God. Jesus’ way of living needs to become our way of living, his mission become our mission. He asks us to follow him by continuing his mission of giving himself to a world that hungers for him. He gives himself to others in and through us.

Like Jesus, our baptism is the foundational event of our life, for from baptism flows our true identity. With the beloved Son of God, we were adopted into God’s family as beloved sons and daughters. So that even when we feel empty, we can be full of the knowledge that we are still God’s beloved sons and daughters. Even as we live in a world which is not safe, where acts of violence can take our loved ones from our sides or even do harm to our own life, we still know who we are—beloved.  Even when we are powerless in the face of sickness or other suffering, we, like the Beloved Son on the cross, can still cry out, “Abba, Father” because we are still God’s beloved sons and daughters.

But we need the help of each other, as brothers and sisters in the family of God, to remind one another of our God given dignity, of our eternal status as beloved children of God. Too often we focus only on our failures and shortcomings, and forget who we are. Others wake us up to the divine presence residing in us.

About a month ago, a young boy was leaving church after Mass, and as he scooted by me, he said, “Bye, God.” Then, as he went by Deacon Paul, he said, “Bye, Jesus.” Deacon Paul and I looked at each other and laughed, but afterwards I thought of the gift the little child had given, pointing out the divine dwelling within us. Alone we too often forget who we are, but with others, we remember. On our own it is difficult to remain true to who we are, but with others help, we can remain faithful to our God-given identity.

In this way we fulfill our mission by continuing the divine presence on earth.

Fr. Joseph A. Jacobi