March 7, 2021 At St. Peter the Apostle Church in Naples, FL

Exodus 20, 1-17 + Psalm 19 + 1 Corinthians 1, 22-25 + John 2, 13-25

John’s description of this scene provides so much detail that we are easily distracted or captivated by the whole commotion. The whip, the overturned tables, the chaos of frightened animals suddenly set free, and the money changers running for cover wondering what they had done wrong since their role was necessary for keeping the Temple rules about money with images. With all that going on, it is likely that we give little attention to the message so easily misunderstood: “Destroy this temple and I will raise it up again in three days.” For generations this scene has fueled all kinds of discussion and motivated all kinds of protests over corruption and commercialism all the while giving no though to what Jesus said.

At the time, his opposition went into a rage over the suggestion that he was talking about that building. They even used it as testimony against him at his trial. Meanwhile what was really being proclaimed was never heard. He was talking about the Temple of his Body which was way beyond their imagination, a thought that their faithless thinking could never comprehend.

This is a dramatic and powerful proclamation that strikes at the very core of their belief that the Temple was God’s dwelling place. Of course, believing that put them in control over where God was to be found and how God was to be honored and respected. The challenge of this Gospel is that we have not quite gotten over that kind of thinking. It is so easy to imagine God confined to a church and tabernacle that the implications of what Jesus is saying still gets lost.

The whole wonder of the Incarnation is that God’s dwelling place is first of all, and perhaps best of all found, honored, and respected in human life. Genuine humanity offers an experience of the real presence of God just as truly as any Temple, building, or man-made object. When God argued with the King of Israel over building Temple, and the King tried to bribe God by suggesting that a tent was not worthy of God. Yet God resisted the proposal, but Israel went on with its plan anyway. God had a better plan at the beginning.

When Genesis tells us that God created us in God’s own image and likeness, we ought to get the point that humanity is God’s first choice for a dwelling place. That old Temple was a place of concentrated power that served the privileged, took advantage of the poor, condemned and excluded others. This Gospel invites and challenges us today to examine just how we decide what is sacred and profane. Isn’t it odd that it is a felony to deface a church, and people get in an uproar every time one is vandalized? Yet, there is hardly a whisper of concern when one of God’s people dies of hunger or is homeless living in a car or a tent.

My friends, the very rock of our foundation in faith is the Incarnation, God’s desire to live, to love, and to be revealed in human flesh and blood. God speaks to us with the very human voice of Jesus Christ when we are here together. We must listen and learn. Often, we must repent and change how we think, how we see things, and how we treat each other.

February 28, 2021

This weekend I am serving the Maronite Community in Tequesta, FL

Genesis 22, 1-2, 9, 10-13, 15-18 + Psalm 116 + Romans 8, 31-34 + Mark 9, 2-10

As disciples of Jesus Christ today, we are not much different from our apostolic ancestors. We would like to take the short-cut, but the path to glory goes over this hell of Calvary. Those who choose the will of God over their own will have no way of escaping the humiliation of service, the sufferings of love, and the death not only the death to self-will, but the reality of death for our bodies which may sometimes come painfully and slowly. Yet, we can and must find hope as Jesus did at that moment. For like Jesus, we are privileged to get a preview of coming attractions.

This is the pivotal moment of Mark’s Gospel. It is a turning point in the life of Jesus and in the life of his closest followers, the first one’s called. After this moment, Jesus is headed to Jerusalem, and we have the privilege of knowing what happens there which is why the Church puts this Gospel at this early time in Lent. We are headed to Jerusalem with him in this season. There are some details in this story that can speak to us as clearly as the words of Jesus.

First of all, the description of this event that Mark provides is an unmistakable comparison to the experience of Moses. The cloud, the glowing, the voice, the location on a high mountain is all there, and Mark’s first listeners would not have missed these details and they would have made the connection between Moses and Jesus.

Then there is another detail that we could have caught. The voice that speaks says the same thing that was spoken at the Baptism of Jesus with a slight change. At the Baptism of Jesus, the voice speaks to Jesus. This time, the voice speaks to those apostles. The first time it says: You are my beloved Son. This time it says: This is my beloved Son. What Mark reveals here is the inadequate belief of the Apostles. Two times in this episode, Peter gets corrected. The first time the narrator corrects his by pointing out that he did not understand what he was seeing. The second time, the voice corrects Peter who has called Jesus, “Rabbi”. That voice wants Peter and anyone else paying attention that this is no “Rabbi.” This is God’s Son!

The whole episode reveals how slowly one comes to faith in Jesus Christ, and it admits how difficult it is to accept the reality of the cross and the grim reality of suffering and death. In the Gospel, this is why Jesus tells them to keep quiet about what they have seen, because they do not understand what will have to happen first, suffering and death. They want a short-cut, and so do we. There isn’t one reveals Mark. If the Father’s will is to be done, it will mean being ridiculed, mocked, and abandoned. To get to the glory there will be death. To get to the Resurrection, there will be a Good Friday not just for Jesus, but for everyone.

For Jesus, this experience is a revelation and a confirmation of what he heard and discovered at his Baptism. It was his moment to accept all that was to come. For Apostles the appearance of Moses and Elijah revealed not only who was in their midst, the beloved Son of God; but also, what was going to happen to God’s son. Moses and Elijah were both prophets who suffered greatly for their prophetic role. But, Peter, James, and John didn’t get it. They were not ready. They just simply did not yet have the Holy Spirit. Their appearance should have told that what happened to Elijah and Moses was about to happen again.  To those Apostles, an appearance of Elijah was to signal the end of time and beginning of the new creation. They got that part of it, because they were still trying to take the short-cut. “Let’s get to the glory” is their idea. Their Messiah was going to be a wonder worker, a man of power, strength, and unquestioned authority. At this point in their relationship with Jesus, that idea starts to come apart, and they become afraid.

February 21, 2021 At St. Peter & St. William Churches in Naples, FL

Genesis 9, 8-15 + Psalm 25 + 1 Peter 3, 18-22 + Mark 1, 12-15

It was the very first week of February when I spent a full day with this Gospel text preparing for this moment. I gave some serious thought to speaking before the Gospel rather than at his usual time, but I thought it might get everybody confused and then distracted. It would have been my way of trying to hear these verses without the influence of Matthew and Luke. They give all kinds of details about the desert experience with powerful images and dialogue between Jesus and the devil. Did you notice how Mark handles it? Two sentences. That’s all. It is a good example of how Mark’s Gospel works. It’s always short, but not lacking in depth and meaning.

The scene immediately before this is the Baptism of Jesus. He comes up out of the water of Jordan, “the heavens open and the Spirit descends upon him like a dove,” it says, the then he heard that voice affirming his sonship with the Father. The very next verse is this text today. “The Spirit drove him into the desert and he remained there for 40 days.” You don’t have to have Jewish roots to make some connections here with the clues: Water, Desert, and Forty. Connect the dots. For us there is a message here from God’s living word about Baptism. To help us connect those dots, the Church gives us that first reading today about a flood, a promise, and a covenant.

The language or the “words” that Mark uses suggests great intensity. The Spirit did not lead, coax, or invite Jesus into the desert. The Spirit DROVE him there, and in that desert, he was tested. “Tested” is the most accurate word for what happened as Mark tells it. It’s not temptation in the sense of having to choose right or wrong. It’s a “test” much like the tests we might undergo to see if we have a virus. This test is not some interior struggle. It is a battle of the greatest forces: the holiness of God verses what Mark calls: “Satan.” That whole image of wild beasts and demons is part of the intensity Mark wants us to feel. There is a fierce struggle suggested here between evil and good: wild beasts and angels who waited on him not at the end, but all during his time of testing. He learns to count on this heavenly support, this bread of angels.

For Mark’s first hearers, memories and stories of Israel’s forty days in the wilderness are raised up, and hearing of Jesus in the wilderness tested for forty days, they knew that this one knows them. He knows their trials. This time instead of so often failing the test, rebelling against God, and suffering God’s wrath, there is victory. The wild beasts are tamed. We get from Mark no details of the testing, but we know it had to be strong and clever. Given the relationship Jesus had with God, we can be sure that it was appropriate to his person and his powers. In other words, the greater one’s abilities, power, and influence, the greater one’s temptations.

It is still the first chapter of Mark’s Gospel. What we get today is a preview of the many struggles that will test him during his ministry. It will involve Satan, forces of nature, opposing clergy and even his closest friends, but there is a victory to come. Just as this preview ends up with the victory of Jesus, so will his whole life and ministry. It is natural when hearing this Gospel to look ahead to Gethsemane. It was a garden, but for one night it, too, was a wilderness and another time of trial and testing.

In the end this is all about us and how our hope for victory in the face of every test and trial will end. In the Epistle to the Hebrews it says: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.” In some ways, this whole life we have here is the test. This earth, beautiful as it is, is really a wilderness where Satan and wild beasts can threaten and frighten us. We could name one of the beasts, “Covid” or Cancer, while Satan’s disguise might look like a violent terrorist. Yet, angels feed us on the sacred food of this table as often as we like every day just like that mana in the desert.

For Jesus and for us, the testing begins immediately after Baptism. The wilderness is this life here which, compared to paradise, is a wilderness. We are right in the middle of it these days, and we need this season, as Mark gives us a preview of how it shall be for us all. Listen then to a story of testing and trial. Listen with hope, for as long as we do not repeat Israel’s failures in that desert with doubts and idols, we will find ourselves in the promised land.

February 17, 2021 At St. Peter & St. William Churches in Naples, FL

Joel 2, 12-18 + Psalm 51 + 2 Corinthians 5, 20 – 6, 2 + Mark 6, 1-6, 16-18

Using a word that has its origins in the vocabulary of theater, “mask”,Jesus warns us against being hypocrites.In simpler terms, he tells us to take off our masks so that there is no difference between the inside and the outside. With these ashes today, we turn our lives inside out, and what is hidden inside comes to the surface.

What all of us find inside is a lot of debris. It needs to be cleaned out allowing the mercy of God to find a place that is too often crowded with guilt, resentment, and sometimes, anger. This is not a season to give up or do without. It is a season of becoming. There is no growth found in doing without unless something takes its place.

If we stop something, we should start something. Otherwise, what we stop could find it’s place again. So, I would suggest that if you give something up for Lent you must take up something to put in its place. The point of all this is growth which amounts to conversion and repentance. Penitential acts are at root deeply positive. They give us an opportunity to express our sorrow to God for wrongdoings, and to do so in a spirit of joyful confidence in the mercy of God. Having experienced that mercy, we have it to share.

What we do during the next forty days must set us free, free from our complacency, free from the masks we wear pretending that we are something we are not. It is time now to ask the Lord to do once more what he did on the sixth day; to form the dust and ashes of our lives into humble vessels of his glory. By the Incarnation, by becoming one of us, Christ has changed, made holy and divine the dust of our humanity. His blood soaking into the dust of Calvary’s hill sanctifies the very dust from which we are made.

These ashes we shall soon bless were made by fire.We should remember that we are dust, but that is not all we are. We are created to be fire.

February 14, 2021 At St. Peter & St. William Churches in Naples, FL

Leviticus 13, 1-2, 44-46 + Psalm 32 + 1 Corinthians 10, 31-11,1

Mark 1, 40-45

There are two things to remember as we listen to this Gospel with open hearts, because Jesus has something to say to us today. We have to remember that people in the days when Jesus believed in a theology or a system of reward and punishment. It is a system that is quite nice for those who think of themselves as “blessed” because of their privilege, good luck, or good health. It’s not such a good system for anyone who is sick or who has had string of bad luck. The result of this kind of thinking is that poor people, sick people, those with some disability, foreigners, or someone struggling with sexuality or gender identity ends up being treated like trash.

Into that steps Jesus Christ, the Son of God who refused to buy into that thinking and that attitude. He sees a leper and treats him with respect acknowledging his dignity. In doing so, he exposes that current thinking for how far it is from the will and plan of God. Jesus touches that man, and in doing so, he does not just heal him, he recognizes that this man is fully capable of bearing witness, of being a sign of God’s presence and action in this world. Then, he sends him to the priest inviting that priest to do his job of building up the community. He is actually giving those priests the first chance, before anyone else, to recognize what God was doing through him. They didn’t. They had their own ideas about how God was supposed to work, and who God would choose to reveal God’s presence. And it wasn’t going to be some nasty leper.

It is a powerful and unmistakable lesson about the need for disciples to be humble. You can be sure that those fishermen who had just left everything to follow him got the message and it was a hard one. If they thought for one minute that they should have been the ones sent to bear witness to Jesus, they were wrong. The news that leper had to share was that God does not want anyone cast out, marginalized, or left out. That leper was himself the message. His healing and his strength came from knowing that he was loved and accepted, and that no one could take that away. He was healed by compassion, touched by love, restored to humanity by respect.

It is not until those men called from their nets have themselves been beaten down, disgraced, and shamed by their own actions that they can bear witness to their Savior. It is not until Peter has denied Christ and been restored to his place among the apostles that he has any credibility at all. What restores the apostles who have hidden and failed Christ at the hour of his greatest need was compassion, the same compassion Jesus had for that leper.

Compassion, my friends, is not just pity or feeling sorry for someone. This emption is passion. It is suffering. It is heart wrenching. It is a response from the very depths one’s being. Jesus does not just touch that man with his hands. He touches him with his heart. He feels what that man feels, the desperation of being alone, cast off, shunned, despised. It is as though Jesus would trade places with him, and in some ways, he does. In the end, Jesus is the one who ends up alone, cast out, with a broken body, bloody and bruised that no one would want to touch while that leper goes free.

We are all lepers living like outcasts hiding from one another the truth of our lives. We even hide the truth from ourselves. We hide our sins. We deny our racism and judgements about others we don’t even know.  So, we talk ourselves into believing that sin is something private and personal with no real social consequences at all. The evidence of that is the decline of our use of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. “Why admit to someone else that we have sinned? After all, it’s just between me a God?” No, it isn’t. we avoid the truth that sin is often an attitude like prejudice, racism, sexism. It isolates us from one another avoiding those who are not like us, whose skin is different, or whose accent is different as though we don’t have one to their ears. We will find the key to accepting others, when we begin to accept ourselves as we really are. If anyone in here thinks they are not sinner, they don’t belong here.

The Jesus of this story is a man of kindness, not a man of judgement. This is a man who reveals the mercy, the kindness, and the compassion of God to those willing to ask for what they need. It is not healing from a disease that we need. It is acceptance, compassion, and reconciliation that we need, not just with God, but with each other. That’s why the man is sent to the priests to complete his total healing and reconciliation with those who have looked up him with judgement and cast him aside.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if people began to run around and talk openly about how they had been treated by us Catholics: about the kindness, the compassion, and the respect with which we met them day after day? It’s amazing what people can do for others. People can rekindle hope, bring back a joy for living, inspire plans for the future, restore self-respect and pride, and it’s all a mirror of the infinite charity of God which is what we are all called to be.

February 7, 2021 At St. Peter & St. William Churches in Naples, FL

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

There is a characteristic of Jesus that is a unique element as Mark records the ministry of Jesus. It’s that constant fast-paced movement of Jesus and the crowds who are always chasing around after him. Already in just 29 verses of Chapter one, we hear that Jesus needed to sneak away quietly from everyone by getting up early, but even Simon and his companions track him down. One of the reasons he keeps moving on is to escape those people who are after him because he’s become a celebrity. These days we could call that crowd “Paparazzi”. They are interested in only one thing, another miracle, one more amazing demonstration of power. We have to remember, there was no TV or internet. Someone like Jesus was the best show in town, and no one wanted to miss the next episode or miracle. The people following him have failed to go deeper into what it all means. They have failed to ask the question that matters: “What is God doing here?” In fact, there is no evidence that they think God is involved at all. It’s all sensationalism.

This movement on to another place gives us a sense of how disillusioned Jesus was becoming with these people. No one ever asks who he is. Those healing events are meant to prod people into asking, “Who is this?” and “What is he doing here?”  He wants to preach. They want miracles. We just heard Paul reflecting upon his role and his mission to preach, and the purpose of all preaching is to bring people into contact with God. That’s what I do here, but I’m not the only one. Bringing people into contact with God is a role and responsibility of every baptized man, woman, and child. I have always thought that children do it best. You know, preaching isn’t really about words, and you don’t always have to say something to bring people into contact with God. Every now and then, I get a few minutes of Facetime with my grand-nephews who about two and a half years old. Just listing to them jabber and watching their wide-eyed wonder at the simplest thing, like a caterpillar. Leaves me with a sense that a loving God is very near. When I hear a two-year old laughing, I think I hear God.

Yet, something happens to us as we grow up. We get self-conscious. We get cautious. We worry about how we look and what someone might think of us. We turn our faith into some kind of private matter for fear of offending someone or fear of looking silly or simple minded. Meanwhile, countless opportunities to preach by example and simple kindness slip by forever gone. People who are quick to forgive preach powerfully about the nature of God. People who are patient and kind, slow to anger and rich in mercy make these qualities of the divine believable and desirable opening a path to holiness and nearness to God.

There is something important to learn from the Jesus of Mark’s Gospel that can give our preaching credibility. It is the compassion that continues to motivate Jesus. It is extraordinary, because in spite of his weariness, in spite of his discomfort over becoming the “rock – star” of his age, he continues to love and care about those in crisis or pain. The miracles he works are not to get him more fame and greater crowds, but to awaken faith and trust in the Word of God and restore in all of us God’s vision of a world united as brothers and sisters.

Compassion like his breaks down stereotypes and our flimsy defenses that divide, segregate and marginalize. The ministry of Jesus is about far more than healing the sick. It is more about spiritual healing that does more than heal the body. It heals the soul. Compassion uncovers the basic humanity we all share. It knocks down the walls of self and allows us to realize our connection to all of God’s people. Compassion enables us to open our hearts to others to see one another as more than numbers or races. It enables us to feel the pain of others and compels us to heal that pain. In the compassionate, there is no hint of racism. Jesus healed a centurion’s child. He touched lepers. He met an enemy at a well knowing every dis-reputable thing she had ever done without a hint of humiliating her or abandoning her in disgrace.

In as much as we may preach the wonder of God’s love, we may also work miracles of charity and generosity through which our families and communities may be restored to hope and trust in the God who loves us.

There is a world outside of this church still waiting for a miracle of generosity and forgiveness. In world overwhelmed by anger and revenge, anything that does not give us more of that would be a miracle indeed, and the world may once again acknowledge, honor, and adore the God who is with us.

January 31, 2021 At St. Peter & St. William Churches in Naples, FL

Deuteronomy 18, 15-20 + Psalm 295 + 1 Corinthians 7, 32-35 + Mark 1, 21-28

At the time of Jesus and when this Gospel was prepared by Mark, if there was anything that happened, any tragedy, sickness, or a natural phenomenon that the people did not understand, they attributed it to unclean spirits. They simply viewed miracles differently that we do. In our scientific and technological age, we would look at this scene and ask, “How did that happen? How did he do that?” They asked a different question, “Who is responsible?” Their answer was always the same, God. Their amazement is not with the miracle. It was this new authority. Notice that they don’t talk exorcism. They are amazed at a new kind of authority.

There is something new here for them and for us as well. Jesus speaks with an authority different from the scribes. Their authority came from the power to enforce. They never spoke on their own. They always began by quoting the law or some greater authority.

For Jesus, authority comes from within himself. It comes from his love, from respect, and from compassion. That inspires. What impresses those people in the synagogue is that the action matches the word. This is what establishes his authority. Jesus is not just satisfied with words. He does not go on and on with lectures. He acts. He does something. He sees a need, and out of love, he acts. It is inspiring. That pattern of Word and Act carries over into the church with our Sacraments. Words are spoken, and something happens.

For most of us, just like those folks in the synagogue, it is exciting to find someone who does what they say, who follows up their talk with action. This is the look of real authority. Someone who does what they say gets our respect and admiration. The admiration is inspiring, and it ought to make want to be like that. The teaching of Jesus would simply be abstract, just a lot of nice ideas and theories if it were not for the action that always follows. He shows what can happen when compassion inspires a response and we know that from the way he treats people that no one else at his time would even look or let alone touch.

As a church, as members of Christ’s body, we can’t just talk about mercy. We have to show it. We can’t just talk about forgiveness, we have to give it. We can’t just talk about love, we have to share it. We can’t just talk about, study, or wish for the Kingdom of God. We have to live in it now. What is the point of saying a lot of prayers if we fail to live in the presence of God. There are certain men and women who possess an unaccountable spiritual superiority. This gives them enormous moral authority. They have this authority, not because of an office they hold but because of the kind of person they are. This is the greatest and highest authority of all. It has roots in the authority of God. Jesus possessed this kind of authority. It was unequaled at its time. But since then, it ought not to be so rare. Every disciple of Jesus Christ by reason of baptism and communion as the people of God share in Christ’s authority. It ought to make us trustworthy and give us integrity and a credibility that inspires others to seek the truth and always act and speak with compassion. When that happens, people will not wonder how we did something, but they will know that God is present and active in our lives.

January 24, 2021 At St. Peter & St. William Churches in Naples, FL

Jonah 3, 1-5 + Psalm 25 + 1 Corinthians 7, 29-31 + Mark 1, 14-20

There is a very subtle yet important distinction needed to understand this Gospel. It is the difference between a “vocation” and a “purpose.” They are not always the same. A vocation might be a career or a talent that shows up with a job skill. A purpose is entirely different, and that is what Mark leads us to reflect upon and eventually to resolve as this Gospel moves forward.

            Those men Jesus calls today have a career: fishing. It is their vocation. Jesus comes along and invites them to follow him and discover their purpose. He finds them at work, exercising their skill. He invites them to use that skill for a different purpose. Rather than using that skill to earn money and success, he will show them how to use that skill to win the hearts and lives of others for the Kingdom of God. They are going to keep fishing, casting a net; but the purpose of fishing will be different.

            We all have a vocation that emerges from the skills we were born with or the those we acquired in school. Many educational systems have Vocational-Technical schools that teach the skills of a vocation. When it comes to purpose, there is also a school that we call the Gospel. In that school, we learn how to discern what our purpose in life should be. Parenting is a vocation. The purpose of parenting is to bring children into this life and lead them into everlasting life. Social work is a vocation. The purpose of Social work is to extend the mercy of God to those who need it most. An attorney has a vocation. Their purpose is Justice. Teaching is a vocation. The purpose of teaching it to awaken the minds and hearts of students to recognize their gifts and seize the opportunities that come in life to use those gifts to build a better world.

            So, here we sit as Jesus speaks to us through Mark’s Gospel. There is an invitation being extended to all of us. It is an invitation to discover and realize our purpose in life. It isn’t to make a lot of money. It isn’t to look good, or be admired by others. What Jesus invites us to do and is ready to show us how is to discover why and what we were made for. This arouses in us what I like to call, a “homing instinct” which is a desire for our true home where we shall be what we were always meant to be. That is what he calls those men in this Gospel for. He calls them to become disciples which ultimately means to become like the teacher: to know what the teacher knows, to do what the teacher does, and to be what the teacher is: a child of God. In other words, discipleship is the path to divinization. It is the way we cleanup, polish up, clear up, or whatever you want to call, it is the way we restore how we were made: in the image of God.

            The Incarnation, the coming of God in human flesh in this life is God taking up our fallen humanity. It is a free gift of God’s own loving kindness in a truly personal way. What has been revealed to us by God through the Son and by the power of Spirit is that God is an overflowing fullness of personal relationships: The Holy Trinity. By the sinful choices of human kind, we step out of that relationship, and the consequence is called “individualism”. It is deadly. It shows itself in an attitude that insists on doing things my way, or doing things that I want to do with no thought of how it might affect another. This destroys communion. It breaks up community. The undeniable sign of that individualism shows up in thinking and acting as though I am independent; or, as some like to say these days, “I’m free because this is a free country”. This is not the way home, and that kind of thinking and acting could hardly be further from the image by which we were made.

            There is an invitation offered today. Be my disciples. Follow me, and learn from me your purpose in life. Ultimately that purpose is communion: to be at one with each other and with God. Remember St Paul said to us that there are three things that last: Faith, Hope, and Love. When we come to the end and are awakened into eternal life, there will be no need for faith, and there will be nothing to hope for, but what will last is Love, and to live in that love right now is our purpose, and remembering that is all that matters.

January 17, 2021 at Mary, Mother of Light Catholic Church in Tequesta, FL

In the Maronite Rite it is the Second Sunday after Epiphany and the Gospel text is the same as in the Roman Rite.

1 Samuel 3, 3-20 + Psalm40+ 1 Corinthians 6. 13-15 + John 1, 35-42

Thirty-five verses of John’s Gospel have passed, and then Jesus speaks. He asks a question. It is a question he asks every one of us in this church. “What are you looking for?” It is the question he will ask of those who come to arrest him, and he asks it of Mary Magdalen on the morning of his resurrection. No matter where we are or what we do, and whether we think about it or not, we are always answering that question. Because, everything we do responds to the question and reveals our answer. What we are looking for is the reason we get out of bed in the morning. What we do with our evenings and how spend our weekends says something about what we are looking for. What we read, what we dream about, and what we most want in our lives answers the question, and sometimes it’s not worthy of us.

What it all boils down to if we really stop to look at all of those things, is that we are looking for love. Sometimes we say it. “I would love to take a nap.” “I would have a long vacation.”  “I would love to have that car.” “I would love to look like that.” When we say those things, we know they are silly and shallow, but at the same time, they tell us something about ourselves and our basic need which really has nothing to do with a nap, a vacation, a car, or a look. What we need is love and a relationship that we can depend on, a relationship that is lasting, a relationship in which we can really just be ourselves. What we are in love with affects everything from imagination to our motivation, and all our decisions.

That’s what happened to those disciples who had been hanging around John the Baptist. They fell in love, and as we might say, it was love at first sight. That’s what happened to Samuel when he realized who was calling him. It wasn’t any hero or awesome role model. It was the one who made him. We could call it a vocation, a calling, and the real vocation which we all have in life has nothing to do with the priesthood which we are conditioned to think of first. The first and real vocation we all have is call to be in love, a call to enter into a relationship just like those apostles whose love-story we tell today.

In that moment, struck by the opportunity to make sense of their lives and give purpose to their being, they asked a question. They were not asking for an address or a home town. They were asking him where he will remain. For the word John uses in this question is better translated as where will you remain. Again, it is a word that will come up again when Jesus says: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in them.” In another place he says: “Unless you remain in me you will not bear fruit.”

In answer to their question, he simply invites them to “Come and See.” They do, and where he takes them is not where they may have first thought of. He takes them to leper outcasts. He takes them to the poor, to the homes of sinners. He takes them to Samaria and well where he meets a woman and a whole village of enemies who end up asking him to remain with them. Ultimately, he takes them to an upper room, then to a garden for prayer, and on to hill and a cross where he shows them the truth about love.

So, the question has been asked again today in this place. “What are you looking for?” The only answer that saves, the only answers that give us any hope at all is to finally recognize that we are looking for love, and this is the place to find it. Our most basic vocation is to fall in love, to fall in love with God. I have believed, and it comes from my experience that this is what happens in marriage. Two people fall in love, and that love they share begins to reveal and lead to being in love with God. Cultivating the decision to love can fill up our lives. The Jesus who asks us that question also invites us to come and see, because seeing leads to believing.  “Many began to believe in him when they saw the signs he was doing”, says John. In another place he says: “This is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life.”

My friends, what we have here are four things we ought to cultivate beginning today: seeking, coming, seeing, believing. When we do, we will have come a long way toward really being children of God.

January 10, 2021 At St. Peter & St. William Churches in Naples, FL

Isaiah 42, 1-4, 6-7 + Psalm 29 + Acts 10, 34-38 + Mark 1, 7-11

It is only the seventh verse of Mark’s Gospel. There has been nothing about a birth, the location, or the visitors. In Mark’s Gospel, there is a quotation from the Prophet Isaiah to confirm the work of John the Baptist, and the suddenly, there he is, Jesus, coming up from Nazareth: no choir of angels, no star, no shepherds or magi, just Jesus and John who says nothing in the presence Jesus. The only words are those Jesus hears: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased, and he saw something. Mark tells that he saw the heavens open in the same way the curtain of the Temple would be torn open at the moment of his death. There is no longer anything keeping the divine from the human and human from the divine. It is a moment of revelation for Jesus: Heaven is open to earth. Then comes from Mark a revelation of the Trinity as the Spirit descended upon him.

Out of the waters of the Red Sea emerged the chosen people. Across the Jordan, led by Joshua, the people of God entered the promised land. Now Mark is announcing a new Passover, a new moment of creation. “Spirit” means the “Breath of God”. It is blowing on the water again, and up out of that water comes the new creation, the new Adam, the Son of God. The whole wonder of the Incarnation is described for us here. Heavens opened. Now through Jesus Christ it’s all accessible to us. What was closed by the of Adam and Eve is now wide open because of the choice of Jesus Christ. He chooses to be Baptized. How else could he identify with us completely enter into our human condition?

Whatever Jesus had been doing before, coming up from the water was his moment to discern how God’s life would fill him and call him forth. He heard a voice just like we all hear a voice now and then. We all heard when we were little. That voice when you wanted another candy bar, or just as you were about to escape the boundaries of the back yard. That voice said: “Don’t you dare.  You know what Mom said.” Then we get older, and that voice is still there. It sometimes says: “That was dumb. What were you thinking?” That voice sometimes prods or clobbers, but eventually you learn to know that the voice is right. Then comes that time when we make friends with that voice and we talk: “I’m not sure what to do here.” “What was that all about?” Then, sometimes the voice speaks comforting words: “You belong. You are loved even if you deserve it.” That little voice is really the voice of God speaking to us in the events of our lives, in the people we love, and in moments of confusion and doubt. Jesus heard a voice that day that confirmed that he was loved by God and that he was God’s own.

What we celebrate on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord is what has happened to us all at our Baptism. It is nothing less and nothing more than hearing a voice that says, ‘You are mine.” From that moment on, we begin to live that way, to trust in the promise of those words.  At the time we were brought to the waters of Baptism, we too were claimed by God with the sign of the cross traced on our foreheads. Like a brand that marks livestock for its owner, we have been branded for God. We have crossed over to new life and the heavens are open for us when we hear and head the Word of God. We are not called to simply worship and just believe in Jesus Christ. We are called to believe in ourselves and to believe that all of us are given a share in the same intimate relationship that Jesus experienced with our Father. We are invited to seek God’s will and experience what Jesus experienced when he was obedient to the Will of the Father to the end. When it was all over, as will be for us, God says, “Get up from that grave. Now you have my life in you.”