As a diaconate student I had to prepare homilies for my homiletics teacher, the Very Rev. Walter Madej. He had me present the readings, Gospel, the invocation to the Holy Spirit and my homilies from the Ambo.

What I liked was that he paid attention to every detail, from my demeanor and speaking style to the the rubrics and content.

In honor of the Pope’s recent encyclical on love and the upcoming Valentine’s Day holiday I am presenting a reworked version of my student homily Unrequited Love:

My brothers and sisters,

The risk of love is that it may be rejected. The rejection of true love is a great sin.

I am not speaking of love in the sense of romantic or erotic love which may be transitory, but love in the sense of Godly love.

God’s love is the love that is within us. We are created with the love of God within us. It cannot be any less for we are created in God’s image.

While we find an imperfect imitation of God’s great and perfect love in our earthly existence, in the future we will see and experience the perfection of God’s love.

St. Paul tells us:

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”

What St. Paul tells us gives us great hope. However, it is preconditioned on our loving Him who loves us. It is a two way street.

There is nothing better in the heavens or the earth than loving God and having an absolute, unquenchable desire for Him.

Why then do so many reject God? Why do so many deny Him?

Those who engage in the rejection of God are engaging in the rejection and denial of the deepest and truest love. They completely miss the perfection of love.

Beyond that, their rejection pains all of humanity. This is the pain of sin and the pain of sin always comes from our rejection of God’s love.

We reject God’s love by harming ourselves and our neighbors. We sin when we reject the image of God in each human person. This terrible sin, this rejection, is compounded when we feel someone, anyone, is unworthy of love.

The ultimate outcome of this sin is that we reject God Himself. Every sin is a diminishment of us and of humanity. This continued action —“ breaking down God’s gift of love within us —“ makes us less. Eventually it leads to the outward and inward rejection of Christ Himself. We have rejected Christ in us and Christ in others, why not reject Him altogether?

This rejection is a type of suicide. This rejection is an attempt to kill an essential part of ourselves and of all humanity. That is why it is most sinful.

A professor once said that the opposite of love is not hate; rather it is ignoring the other person. It is acting as if the other person does not exist.

The opposite of love then is denying and rejecting its existence. Along with rejecting love’s existence we diminish to nothingness those offering love, most especially God Himself.

My brothers and sisters,

God’s act of love made manifest in His creating us was rejected when man initially turned his back on God. In our rush to be gods unto ourselves we rejected the existence of the One who gives all love —“ absolute, perfect, generous, unceasing love.

But God did not quit. God revealed and gave of Himself more and more throughout time. He refused to close the door.

Reflect on those books of the Old Testament and upon the moments where God offers and humanity accepts.

Those are beautiful moments! Unfortunately they are often followed by complete rejection. God, the giver of all love is continually rejected by His own people.

Studies have shown that the name of Jesus, the Messiah, appears over one hundred times in the Old Testament. The texts of the Old Testament reveal His actual presence at creation and at moments with Abraham, Moses, Joshua, and Jacob. The continuous action of Christ is found throughout the Old Testament.

Finally, in the course of time God presented Himself and placed Himself into our hands. His Son Jesus becomes incarnate for our salvation.

Jesus, co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit is finally sent by the Father as God’s consummate gift of love. This ultimate act of love in the person of Jesus is rejected.

Think of Jesus looking down upon Jerusalem. In Luke we see Jesus, not just knowing what is to come, but all that had happened before, Jesus who knew the history of rejection, experiencing great sadness:

As he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If this day you only knew what makes for peace–but now it is hidden from your eyes.”

Earlier in Luke Jesus laments

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were unwilling!”

He is rejected by our sinfulness. By our rejection of the lover’s very existence love itself was killed —“ finally killed on a cross.

Yet God provided for the resurrection. God’s love could not be killed. Jesus’ death fulfilled God’s love by opening the path to God. Jesus showed us how to be the best of lovers. Jesus opened the pathway and gave us His gift of grace. Jesus then gave us the sacraments and the Church itself as visible realities attesting to His love.

My friends,

It is up to us. We must end this cycle of rejection. We must take charge of our calling and put God’s love above all else.

By the consummate lover’s undying gift our earthly life is not the end. Death is not final. When we die it is not the turning off of a light, passing into non-existence.

Because of the love of God and the promise of the resurrection, a way is open to eternal life and happiness. We have a way to peace, joy, and unity in heaven. Heaven is the perfection of God’s love. Jesus is the way.

Dearest,

To reach heaven we are called to answer yes to God’s love. We are not to leave His love unrequited. We are called to be changed, to be re-created, re-born, and re-generated.

There are so many examples for us. They begin with our call to imitate Mary’s yes. We are called to imitate the Apostles conversion at Pentecost. We are called to follow the examples of the Saints and —those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith—. We are called to join ourselves to Christ.

The world of today is and indeed the people of the centuries before us were experts at rejection, at ignoring love. Even so, God never closes the door.

So to action! We need to show God’s love. We need to acknowledge its reality in our own lives and in the lives of our friends. Yes, and even in the lives of our enemies. The lover exists and His presence is before us always. Even to the end of time.

Bow down, worship, for we are unworthy but oh so blessed to enter this relationship with God. We are blessed by His free gift of Love. We need to show that love and we need to live it. We cannot dare to leave God’s love unrequited.

Yes, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.
But who will endure the day of his coming?
And who can stand when he appears?

Faith —“ pure, simple, faith.

My dear people,

Do you have faith? Do I have faith? I would say that it is nearly impossible to know if someone has faith. Sure, they might appear to be holy, good, committed to the Church. But do they have faith? Do outward signs reveal something about what is inside?

It is a difficult question. Even when we examine ourselves we may be left wondering. Do I have the faith God asks me to have?

Did the prophet Malachi have faith?

The people of Israel had returned from exile in Babylon. Malachi looked around and saw that the Jewish people had very quickly given up on being thankful, on being faithful. Malachi was actually a pen name. His prophecy was so strong and critical of the priests, rulers, and people of the time that he had to hide his identity. Malachi criticized everyone’s religious indifference.

Malachi’s time was much like ours. The people had stopped being thankful for God’s love. For all that God sets before us; the beauty of the world and the dignity of every life. The people took pagans as wives and turned from the Law. They turned from God to what they thought was rational and critical thinking. They thought they could reason everything out. God became someone they could challenge and question, rather than God whom they should worship and adore.

Does that sound familiar? Hasn’t the world given up being thankful to God? Do we mix with and accept those who do not accept Christ —“ and do so on their terms. Do we pray and work for their conversion? Do we place our faith in reason rather than revelation?

Did Malachi have faith? Indeed, and he proclaimed it:

Lo, I am sending my messenger
to prepare the way before me;
And suddenly there will come to the temple
the LORD whom you seek,
And the messenger of the covenant whom you desire.

He believed and proclaimed what the Lord told him. He lived it.

A Orthodox Priest, Fr. Stephen Freeman, recently wrote, —…the simple prayers and, yes, experience, of someone who doesn’t do all that we attempt in theology, but actually prays, is simply closer to God.—

On this Solemnity of the Presentation we ethnic Poles, as well as many of the Catholic faithful have candles blessed. They are referred to in Polish as —gromnica— or the thunder candle.

This candle is a sacramental. Something symbolic and holy that helps us to focus our thoughts on God, on our faith. The sacramentals prepare us to receive God’s grace

Boiling it down, the simple faith found in the use of this candle, of having this candle in your home and using it, is one of those seeds of faith. It is a means by which we show our faith and proclaim our faith.

When Grandma heard a storm coming or the power went out, when someone was ill or in trouble, she brought out the gromnica, and placing it in the window, lit it. She then sat down and prayed.

It was an act of simple faith. God will protect us. The Blessed Virgin, Matka Boska Gromnica, will watch over us and intercede for us.

My brothers and sisters,

As a child watching this I learned, not intellectually, but by faith-filled example. I learned the reality of complete faith and complete trust in God. There is nothing to fear, God is with us.

I learned that nothing can withstand the prayer of the people and the blessing of the Church. Not sickness or death, not storms or darkness. God’s light penetrates all.

This is how we learned our faith. I pray that every family teach their children by example. Knowledge, the theology that edifies faith will come in time.

I call on you, here and now, make your life a life of faith. Do it in words, by example, and in your studies. Be a person of faith in the home and at work.

That is the key to faith. The key is living it.

When you come to this church, when you genuflect, bow, come forward for Holy Communion, when you take ashes on your forehead and get your throats blessed, when you kneel at the consecration of this awesome sacrifice —“ what are you doing? If you have no faith you are a fool and a clown. If this be not the Christ, if this be not God, what are you doing?

Be faith-filled in everything you do and every moment of your life. Remember to live your faith. If you do these things, do them with true faith. Do them with complete love, trust, and worship of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Simeon and Anna waited. They waited in faith and prayer. They waited for the promise of God, a promise Malachi proclaimed 500 years before their time, a long wait and a long time to persevere in faith. A lot of water went under the bridge before the fulfillment of all our longing and hope.

And Simeon, on seeing the Christ, proclaimed in the Temple:

Now dismiss Thy servant, O Lord,
In peace, according to Thy word:
For mine own eyes hath seen Thy salvation,
Which Thou hast prepared in the sight of all the peoples,
A light to reveal Thee to the nations
And the glory of Thy people Israel.

He died in faith. By faith you will endure the day of His coming and stand when He appears.

Amen.

My brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus,

You are a member of the Church for a reason. The reason is your belief in Jesus Christ.

Have you ever given serious thought to what you believe?

By belonging to the Polish National Catholic Church you believe some very important things.

The first reading today may leave you confused about what you believe. Is Jesus just a powerful prophet? Frankly no, He is more than that. He is God Himself.

So let’s take a moment to focus, to clarify, and to review what your being here says you believe. By belonging to the Church you believe:

• There is one God
• There are three persons in one God.
• All three are equal and eternal.
• Jesus is the second person in the Holy Trinity, the Son of the Father.
• Jesus was born into the world at a moment in time, of the Virgin Mary, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
• Jesus is truly God and truly man.
• Jesus died a horrible death on the cross and was buried.
• Jesus died for your sins —“ to redeem you.
• Jesus rose from the dead.
• Jesus ascended into heaven.
• Jesus will be your judge upon your death and on the last day.

You believe that the Church is the ordered body of Christ and the commissioned teacher of all that is true.

You believe in the seven sacraments, the communion of saints, and that the Church is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.

You believe that the Holy Eucharist is the real presence of Jesus Christ, body, blood, soul, and divinity and that when you receive the Eucharist you are eating Jesus’ body and blood, not bread and wine.

You believe that Christ commissioned His church to forgive sins.

You believe that God created us, that we were born innocent and good, that evil is real, and that evil tempts us.

While believing in the reality of evil, you do not believe in the personification or anthropomorphization of evil into the devil, Satan, or any other being.

You believe that God offers a continuous opportunity to repent from evil, both in this life and the next, and that the door to heaven is only shut when we shut it.

You believe that you must make an active choice for God in order to best prepare yourself for eternity.

You adhere to the Confession of Faith of the Polish National Catholic Church and all it contains.

You believe that the pope is a bishop like all other bishops and is, by faithful tradition, the first among equals. He is not infallible and cannot proclaim doctrine except as a result of a truly ecumenical synod.

You do not subscribe to the notion of the Immaculate Conception nor to the bodily assumption of Mary into heaven.

This list does not cover it all, but is does raise a serious question. Can you validly say you believe all these things? Can you believe them even if your senses and logic tell you differently? Can you believe them just because the Church says so?

When we stand for the Creed we do not say —We believe— as some other Catholic or Protestant churches do. We each say —I believe.— This is a very strong statement. This is a proclamation of something extraordinary.

My friends,

Belief in the truth is difficult in the face of the world. Setting aside your personal ideas and agendas, and agreeing with the Church is difficult as well. While these difficulties are real, and while we do not sit down and actively review and enumerate our beliefs each day, we need to take time to assess them.

God has given us the grace to be included in His Church, an inclusion that carries not only a myriad of blessings, but also a great responsibility.

I can only speak for myself. I believe each and every one of these things. I believe them even when my senses tell me different. I believe them because the Church says so. To put it even more simply I fall back on the words of the children’s song: I believe because the Bible tells me so.

Do not be fooled. Many cults and ‘world religions’ claim to believe in Jesus Christ, or they acknowledge Him in some way. The problem is that they do not believe in the Jesus Christ presented in the Bible and proclaimed by the Holy Catholic Church —“ Jesus who is God.

In the Bible Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to His Church and left the Church as His instrument. Together, the Bible and the Church are here for our salvation, to lead us home to God. Jesus set it up this way on purpose, and being God, He knows what He is doing.

My faithful people,

When we reflect on today’s Gospel we need to remind ourselves that we cannot stand here and be astonished like the people in Capernaum.

The people were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.

…and again,

All were amazed and asked one another,
—What is this?
A new teaching with authority.
He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.—
His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.

We need to stand strong in our faith, reassured by our belief, and the promise of Jesus Christ. We cannot simply be here because we think Jesus is a cool, famous guy; a kind of millennial Hollywood star. We cannot be like others who turn Jesus from God into a mannequin of their own making. They create a false Jesus who is just a thing that supports, justifies and fulfills their own desires.

If you are coming here to be social, to have a good time, to eat some cool blessed wafers and drink wine, to kneel, bow, and be blessed by the power of a cool guy, to listen to some interesting philosophical fables, you are deluding yourself.

If you are going to other churches thinking they are just as good and just as equal, you are mistaken.

We, need to heed Paul’s words:

I am telling you this for your own benefit,
not to impose a restraint upon you,
but for the sake of propriety
and adherence to the Lord without distraction.

Therefore I tell you —“ adhere to the Lord without distraction, stand and profess, with the Church, your belief in Him.

Now Nineveh was an enormously large city;
it took three days to go through it.
Jonah began his journey through the city,
and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing,
—Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,—
when the people of Nineveh believed God;

My brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus,

I imagine Jonah’s message was very clear to the Ninevites. —Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.—

The Ninevites did not wait for Jonah to personally announce God’s message to each and every inhabitant. Everyone from the smallest to the greatest got to work. Everyone, the king included, put on sack cloth, covered themselves in ashes, and did not eat for forty days.

We are very concrete people. We do not like it when we cannot get our arms around an issue. We want to understand and we want guarantees.

How many people have ever asked someone close to them if they love them? Do you love me? Whether said out loud or in the silence of our hearts, the question shows our inability to understand.

Love is not concrete. We can only grasp at the idea or emotion of love based on our experience. Even symbols of love – flowers, candy, jewelry (you can see I am a man), do not guarantee what is unfathomable.

I would dare say that you would have liked Jonah’s message. It was very concrete and was delivered as a guarantee. You might have tried to run away, some might even give in to a doubt about the existence of a God that delivers retribution, but I think the majority would do penance.

Even Paul, in the early Church, gave into the concept of an almost immediate end time. Early Christians believed that the world would pass away, and the kingdom would be ushered in, in their lifetime. They were a little shocked when people started dying and the end hadn’t come.

Listen to Paul:

I tell you, brothers and sisters, the time is running out.

Not quite as concrete as the forty day scenario, but nevertheless, pretty close at hand.

Now here comes Jesus:

Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:
—This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel.—

These words and our experiences tell us that we have no idea when the end is coming. Jesus himself was in the dark on this —“ and told us it was a knowledge reserved to the Father.

Suddenly it is not so clear. Suddenly we want to sing with the psalmist:

Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.

I think he is asking God to give him a clue.

We want that more concrete statement. OK Jesus, give me forty days and I’ll get things fixed right up. And while we sit and wonder and dream and philosophize about God’s knowledge, our life passes away.

If it isn’t clear yet, let me say it again:

—The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel.—

It is time for less talk and more action. Fewer meetings and more work. For the Kingdom is at hand. Take action, and work for the Kingdom. We are to make a major change in our lives, for the Kingdom.

I tell you, I know the Kingdom, and it is a wonderful place. It is fertile fields and a land flowing with milk and honey. It is the new and eternal Jerusalem descending from the sky. It is a marvelous mansion with a room prepared just for you. It is a banquet at the table of the Lamb. It is that place where we shall stand about the throne of the Lamb and sing Alleluia, Hosanna to the Son of David, the Eternal King, the Alpha and the Omega.

Jesus extended a gold plated invitation to us and sealed it in His blood. He is giving us every opportunity to make the choice for Him. He is giving us every chance we need to set ourselves aright.

—This is the time of fulfillment.—

Act now.

Amen.

Eli said to Samuel, —Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply,
Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.—
When Samuel went to sleep in his place,
the LORD came and revealed his presence,
calling out as before, —Samuel, Samuel!—
Samuel answered, —Speak, for your servant is listening.—

Samuel grew up, and the LORD was with him,
not permitting any word of his to be without effect.

My brothers and sisters in Christ,

Does God need man?

It certainly appears that way. Throughout the Old a New Testaments God called men and women into His service. Finally, at that moment in time determined by God, the Father sent His only Son into the world to speak to us as a man. To speak to us in a way we can clearly understand.

God called the men and women of biblical times, not because He had to, for God can do all things. God does not need to address us in ways we can fathom with our senses. But he called them nevertheless. He called them so that His action within our lives is consistent with the revealed truth.

What is revealed truth?

Revealed truth is that truth that can be seen and understood. It is universally acknowledged truth. It takes the form of what our senses can perceive, what our minds can know, and what our hearts and souls know is right.

The revealed truth is written into each and every one of us from the time of our conception. We call this the Natural Law. The natural law is the rule of conduct which is written into us by God, our Creator. It is how we can know God, how we can know right from wrong, how even heretics, pagans, and those not evangelized, can know God. It is part of the very depth of each human person’s nature written by the hand of God.

The fullness of revealed truth lies in Christ Jesus and His word as taught and interpreted by His Church. God is the truth revealed to us by His grace.

My family in Christ,

St. Paul writes of the humanness of God’s saving work. He tells us once again that our humanity has been paid for by the Son on the cross.

Do you not know that your body
is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,
whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
For you have been purchased at a price.
Therefore glorify God in your body.

God calls you today. The sacrament of God’s Word, proclaimed to you today, the sacrament of the Word, taught to you today, calls you.

Check your hearts. Examine whether the knowledge of God is within you. Stop, be quiet, and listen.

…

Your very nature is calling out, I believe! I have faith in God! You are here for a reason. Even if that reason is masked by other reasons, you cannot deny that the call to faith in God and His truth is within you.

God is calling you today. Like He called Samuel, He calls you.

Brothers and Sisters,

He calls you because God desires to communicate with you. He calls you by what He wrote upon your heart from the moment you were conceived. He calls you in ways you can see, feel, and hear.

Consider the great sacrament of the altar, the most holy body and blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ. What we see with our eyes and taste with our tongues supplies us with something our senses cannot perceive —“ but that is known in our hearts; that which is known by God’s call and our faith. The sacrament is Jesus Himself. We physically take Him into ourselves.

St. Thomas Aquinas writing about the Holy Eucharist said: Praestet fides supplementum, Sensuum defectui. Faith supplies that which our senses fail to perceive.

In today’s Gospel St. John proclaims:

—Behold, the Lamb of God.—
The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus.

When Father Andrew stands here and says: —This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,— will you stand up to receive Him?

I tell you, do not just receive Him, but like St. Andrew get to work, with joy in your heart, and let everyone know. Let God use you.

Like Andrew cry out:

—We have found the Messiah— – which is translated Christ

…and bring all people to Jesus.

Here is Isaiah speaking about the messiah

I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice,
I have grasped you by the hand;

My brothers and sisters,

This applies to us as well. We are called by God’s action in the Holy Spirit. Every man, woman, and child is called.

I love the story of Cornelius. God surprised Peter here. God did something unexpected. Cornelius was a gentile. Remember last week, we spoke of how the gentiles came to worship Christ. The Magi were our representatives. As gentiles, we are grafted unto the vine. We are part of that vine now, not separate, not unequal. We are Israel.

Many Evangelical Christians are Christian Zionists. Their views on the end of the world, called pre-millennialism, call on them to support the Jewish people as having a unique, separate, and parallel role with the Church. They support the reestablished Israel and believe that Israel’s existence will bring about the end of the world. They hold the Jewish people and gentiles as separate.

My friends,

We are not separate. Rather we as gentiles are equal heirs, equal partners in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus Christ is our Messiah; He is the world’s Messiah.

The Jewish people continue to hold a dear place in the heart of God, for God has not forgotten His promises to them. Their role as Israel by the flesh and their place in the history of salvation is only known to God, but that role is assured.

So we must not get caught up rhetoric that differentiates the Jewish and gentile peoples. Trust rather in what God has done. Cornelius the gentile —“ and his whole household received the Holy Spirit right in front of Peter’s eyes. Peter subsequently baptized them. Peter was confounded, taken off guard, he was not in control. God showed him what He wanted.

As with Cornelius, God has taken us by the hand and has called us. As Isaiah eludes, He calls us to be

a light for the nations,
to open the eyes of the blind,
to bring out prisoners from confinement,
and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.

Your baptism is your inclusion. You have been made part of the vine. Your inclusion in the new Israel carries both rights and responsibilities.

When you consider your role as the new Israel and your place in the Polish National Catholic Church, by right of your baptism and by your choice, you must not forget that its teachings are authentic and true. You must not forget that they are different. That they are not Roman Catholic or Protestant, nor can you easily equate them. You must remember that they are authentically catholic.

That is why, when you step outside, because you think something else is appealing or true, or when you walk away from the PNCC because you think another faith tradition is ‘just as good,’ you endanger your soul.

Do you understand what they teach? Do you understand what you are buying into? Do you understand that integrity calls you to study and come to a well informed decision before you endanger your soul? Do you understand that the PNCC places its emphasis not in tomes of rules, but in the Holy Spirit’s guidance in your life?

Do not let anyone fool you into believing that there are answers in Hinduism, Buddhism, or Islam. Don’t let anyone fool you into believing that some shadow of a seed or truth found in other faiths makes them right. That shadow is only the realization of the fact that all of humanity is called to the one God. It is symbolic of the fact that all of humanity is justified, sanctified, and made adopted sons and daughters by the saving action of Jesus Christ alone. The wholeness of God’s love and justice, the complete truth, is found in Jesus.

Jesus didn’t need to be baptized. He said however that he needed to fulfill all righteousness. He did so to show us the truth and the Father Himself proclaimed it from the heavens:

[As Jesus came up] out of the water
He saw the heavens being torn open
and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him.
And a voice came from the heavens,
—You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.—

Then the shepherds returned,
glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen,
just as it had been told to them.

My brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus,

The PNCC Solemnity of the Humble Shepherds is part of our rich heritage, and is another one of those unique feasts and solemnities that are not celebrated in other Catholic or Christian churches.

Who were these shepherds and why does the PNCC celebrate them? 

First of all, they are like us and our ancestors.  They were, in a particular way, like the men and women who worked to build and spread the PNCC across the United States and the world.

Remember that not many of our founders were rich, well educated, movers and shakers.  They were not people of power, means, and status.  They were humble working people.  They knew that their bread came by the sweat of their brow.  They knew what it meant to stand together, to help a neighbor and co-worker, to be strong in family and in faith.  They knew that their families were where the seeds of hard work, devotion to God’s Church, and love were planted.  They knew by first hand experience what the motto they left for the Church says: Truth, Work, and Struggle and through these Victory!

It is too bad that there aren’t similar solemnities and feasts worldwide. 

You know that the struggling Church is the Church that is sustaining the rest of us.  Look at the Church in Africa where strong, traditional Christianity is practiced, and where many suffer for the faith.  Look at the suffering Church in the Middle East and Asia where the penalty for faith in Jesus Christ is death.  Their values, their martyrs blood is what makes us strong.  The blood of martyrs is indeed the seed of the Christians. 

Like the suffering and the martyrs of today, and our humble immigrant ancestors, these shepherds were poor. 

The shepherds were not rich men living on a ranch and raising sheep.  They were rough and tough men, who lived out in the scrub and on the hillsides. They did not spend their evenings and nights in a house, rather they spent their time with the sheep —“ watching them, protecting them, and sleeping near them.  They were loners.   They were cunning, fearless, vigilant guardians whose deep and fierce love for their flocks made them a formidable force.  They inherited their trade from their fathers and passed it on to their sons.

These rough, tough, hard men were used to hard work.  The shepherd didn’t have much: He had an animal skin bag in which he carried his food —“ bread, dried fruit, some olives and cheese. He had his sling which he used as a weapon. He had a staff, a sort of short wooden club often studded with nails, which hung on his belt. And he had his rod —“ the shepherd’s crook.

The first visitors to the Christ child were these men, whom we honor today.  The heavenly host came to them in all its majesty.  These rough cut men did not disbelieve. They did what they were trained to do.  They went to see.  On seeing they believed.

We honor them not just because they trusted, saw, and believed, but because they gave glory to God for all of it.  For what God had done.

Do we glorify God for what we have heard and seen? 

Is your first thought as you leave the church, thank you God for bringing Your light into my life?  Is your first thought one of praise for God forgiving your sins, giving you His Word, and for His Son’s coming into your body, heart, and soul?  Is your first thought, thank you God for allowing me to be here today?

God I praise You.  Repeat it with me.  God I praise You.  Repeat this constantly.  Repeat it every morning and each night.  Repeat it at meals, at work, and at rest.

My friends,

Creation is marvelous.  Like the shepherds we are very much in touch with creation; the things around us.  Like the shepherds we are tasked with hard work.  And, like the shepherds, more than the created has been revealed to us. 

We know God.  We know Him because of His Son, Jesus Christ.  We know Jesus Christ because of the Church. We know God by God’s mercy only, because God wants us.  We can do nothing to make God love us or save us. 

Today’s second reading bears repeating:

When the kindness and generous love of God our savior appeared, not because of any righteous deeds we had done but because of his mercy, He saved us through the bath of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he richly poured out on us through Jesus Christ our savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.

Like the shepherds we must be thankful for being allowed to hear and see.  We must come here more and more and do so with the sole intent of glorifying and praising God.  We do so by our worship of him, by our sorrow for our sins, and by constantly taking him into ourselves.

Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people,
He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

My brothers and sisters in Christ

Does this statement strike you as odd?  Herod didn’t even know what he should have —“ where the Christ was to be born.  The king of Judea did not know.  He had to check his reference library.

Not only did he not know, he was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

Not only did he not know, he was oblivious to the signs all around him.

Why?

Maybe he thought it wouldn’t happen.  Maybe he thought it would be different.  Certainly all of Jerusalem (except perhaps Simeon and Anna) thought it would be different.

How like people today!

And like people today, they held onto their expectations while they nailed Him to a tree.  They held unto their expectations even though they saw the signs and heard the Word.  They held on in the face of the fire of the Holy Spirit and the subsequent teaching of the Apostles.  They are still holding on today.

But what about us.  We, the gentiles.  The outsiders.  Paul tells us exactly:

We are coheirs,
members of the same body,
and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus
through the gospel.

My family in Christ,

Through the preaching of the Gospel, our baptism, and the gift of the Holy Spirit we are the adopted sons and daughters.

Adoption, it has been said, is an act of knowing love.  You cannot really rush into an adoption.  You have to plan, prepare, be interviewed, wait and wait, and the wait some more. 

We, the gentile community, waited a long time.  We had no foreknowledge, and very little preparation for our Savior.  We didn’t have an expectation of anything.  But we are adopted.  We are grafted onto the vine.  We are co-heirs, members, and co-partners.  And God did this by an act of knowing love.  Love for you and me.

We are not accidental family members, in-laws, or a distant cousin.  We are the sons and daughters of God.

No, the king did not know.  The people did not know.  The scholars only knew the technical details.  The gift of knowing was given to the magi by the Holy Spirit.  They were given the gift of a seeing heart.  Like O Henry’s —Gift of the Magi—, their hearts were motivated by love. 

The Magi had no foreknowledge, but they saw the signs.  They had no ancient gift of faith, but fell on their knees before Jesus, presenting their gifts.

You are here, you see the signs, the child, the manger, the mother and father, shepherds and magi.  You are here to be forgiven your sins, to hear the Word, and to feast on His body and blood.  You are here to present your gifts, not of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, but the gift of yourselves.  You are here each week and work very hard to bring others to Christ.

By your adoption you are made part of the one Body of Jesus Christ.  Because of your adoption you are motivated by the love of God.  Because of your adoption you wish to include everyone.  All because of His sacrifice offered for you and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Come, children of the King, kneel before Him! O come let us adore Him!

[Note: In the PNCC we observe the 8th day within the Octave of the Nativity as the Solemnity of the Circumcision of our Lord. The Solemnity falls on Sunday, January 1st, 2006. The PNCC does not celebrate the ‘Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God’ which is a Solemnity observed according to the Roman Catholic Liturgical calendar.

Unless superseded by a Solemnity of the Lord, the Sunday following the Nativity is the Solemnity of the Humble Shepherds. The Solemnity of the Humble Shepherds will be observed Sunday, January 8th, 2006]

New Year —“ parties, festivities, football games, parades, and we are here to focus and reflect on the circumcision of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

God entered into a covenant with mankind, he entered into a contract with us through the Jewish people and told them that from the seed of Abraham would come the Savior. It was a contract sealed in flesh and blood.

In the time of Abraham the making of a covenant, or contract, required that the parties sacrifice an animal, divide it in half, and walk between the divided parts. It was a sealing of the contract in flesh and blood. In Genesis 15 we read:

Abram put his faith in the LORD, who credited it to him as an act of righteousness. He then said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as a possession.” “O Lord GOD,” he asked, “How am I to know that I shall possess it?” He answered him, “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon.” He brought him all these, split them in two, and placed each half opposite the other; but the birds he did not cut up.

When the sun had set and it was dark, there appeared a smoking brazier and a flaming torch, which passed between those pieces. It was on that occasion that the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the Great River (the Euphrates).

Think about this passage. Who walked between the pieces of the cut up sacrifice? God alone as both a smoking brazier and a flaming torch. Abram did not pass through. God, in reality, made a covenant with Himself to make Israel great; to give Abram and his descendants the land.

Later, in Genesis 17, which we read today, God promises to make Abraham the father of —a host of nations.— Not just one nation, but a host of nations.

God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, told him that He would make him —exceedingly fertile— and that He would make —nations of him— and that —kings shall stem from him—.

God tells Abraham that His covenant will be an —everlasting pact— and the He will be his God and the God of his descendants after him—. That is, the God of a host of nations.

God also said to Abraham: “On your part, you and your descendants after you must keep my covenant throughout the ages. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you that you must keep: every male among you shall be circumcised.

Today, Jesus Christ is circumcised. God is once again making a contract with Himself, in flesh and blood. Jesus, the new covenant and the fulfillment of the old, is circumcised. Jesus, God Himself, as the sacrifice, sheds His blood.

Because Jesus is truly God and truly man he sanctifies the flesh. Let me ask you, do we believe the flesh is evil? To this the Church must say no. We do proclaim, along with Paul that because of God’s action, because of the atoning death of His Son, Jesus Christ, even though unmerited by us, we have been granted righteousness by our faith.

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Yes, we all fall short and with Paul we know that —in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.—

Jesus, God himself, took on our flesh to show us that perfection in our flesh is not only possible, but is our destiny. That even though we fall short we are welcome into the kingdom.

We know we fall short in our flesh and that we are imperfect. But Jesus meets people where they are to show them the way out of sin.

You are called to make a decision. You are called here to make a decision and to move along the road, the narrow path to perfection.

I can guarantee you that you will not reach it before you die. I can however guarantee and what our Church teaches is that once you make that choice for God you are changed forever by that very choice, there is no going back. As Paul told us already, —righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.—

It is a serious decision, to circumcise yourself. To circumcise yourself not in the sense of the flesh, but in the sense of the spirit. We teach and proclaim that your choice for God will open up the treasures of eternity for you and that God Himself will give you His love, in the form of grace, through the sacraments, so that you are strengthened for that journey.

God is all perfection, all truth, and all justice. He is faithful to His covenant, the contract He made with Himself to save us. Now is the time to stand, to look at yourself and to choose. Every day in the grace of God is a new year, a new and perfect eternity in the presence and love of God. Choose today to partake of the free gift won for us by God Himself.

Take yourself back, back across the years, the centuries, the millennia. Go far back in time, back to the time of creation. Back, to the beginning.

There aren’t too many people around right now, but you notice a subtle difference amongst those that are. Certain people focus on the here and now, on getting the job done, on hunting, gathering, and fishing. Others do the same, yet, they seem to be the ones who always cry out for more.

No, not more food, but more. They know there is something more.

Now walk forward with me. There’s Abram. He received a message; he packed up and left, with his old barren wife. He’s crossing the desert. I hear later that he’s now called Abraham. He heard from that mysterious something more. Whatever that more is has made a blood covenant with Abraham. They have a contract, to become a great nation.

Still further along we find Moses, leading that people out of Egypt. The contact has matured, the nation is large, and they are going to claim their inheritance. They were slaves and cried out, we need more, save us, we are hungry for more! And remarkably, they now meet with that something more, first on a mountain, then in a tent, in the desert. They know its laws, and well, they know His name —“ Yahweh. I am.

The years fly by faster now. Judges, kings, prophets, each in their own way, faced with struggles, confronting sin and mistakes. David is told that an eternal king shall be his descendant.

More kings, some, many, self interested louts. Then the exile. The great and minor prophets, Hosea speaking God’s love poetry to the people: Come back to me with all your heart.

When Israel was a child, I loved her,
and called her out of Egypt as my own.
But the more I called to her,
the more she turned away from me.
Yet I was the one who taught them to walk.
I took my people up in my arms,
but they did not acknowledge that I took care of them.
I drew them to me with affection and love.
I picked them up and held them to my cheek.
I bent down to them and fed them.
How can I give you up, my people?
How can I abandon you?
Could I ever destroy you
or treat you harmfully?
My heart will not let me do it!
My love for you is too strong.

And so we arrive in the poor, overcrowded, dirty streets of Bethlehem. In a barn out back of the city. We are no more than objects, not even called human beings by the government in Rome. We are slaves once again. And we are hungry, thirsty, alone, and broken hearted.

Some years later we stand in the presence of a remarkable man from Nazareth. We find him on the other side of the lake and we ask him:

Teacher, why did you come here?

Jesus answered them and said:

I am going to tell you an important truth that you need to understand.

You are looking for me not because you saw a miracle, but because you ate loaves of bread and your hunger was satisfied.

Don’t work for the food that spoils but for the food that gives life for eternity, which only the Son of man can give you.

For I am the only one the Father has commissioned to give eternal life.

They asked:

What must we do in order to earn this food that gives life for eternity?

Jesus said to them:

The work you can do to please God is to believe on the one whom God has sent.

I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes on me will never thirst.

The Jews began to start grumbling about Jesus because he said he was the bread of life that came down from heaven. They said:

Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph? Don’t we know his father and mother? How can he say he came down from heaven?

Jesus answered them:

I am the living bread that comes down from heaven and once a man eats it he will never die, but live forever. The bread that I give is my flesh, given for the life of the world.

The Jews began to discuss what these mysterious words meant.

We know what these words meant. We know because we are here. We kneel here and acknowledge our knowing every week. We kneel here still hungry, but with the blessed assurance that he came to feed us and to save us.

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, we are hungry and we are here now. You came this day to reconcile us because the Father’s love is so strong. You came to feed us with your body and blood, to save us. May our hunger for you, for your word, for your body and blood be our only desire. Welcome Lord Jesus, welcome into my life.

Amen.