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The Monday After | Knowledge of Jesus
00:22:53
An unexpected introduction to a man and his son at a Christmas party has led me to a deeper knowledge of Jesus. I begin and end this 3rd Advent reflection with that story.
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Hello again, everyone. I know that some of you weren't able to be in the church yesterday because of the snow. So I'm really glad we can be here together like this. Hope this helps you to stay connected. But to those of you who were able to hear the homily, I'm going to share a story about something that happened last night to me after the Sunday masses. So I hope you'll stay around as well, too, to hear the homily in a new way. I'm going to begin and end with a reference to what happened to me at this Christmas dinner, and I hope you're excited to hear it. So this is the third of the fourth four talks during this Advent season. This one is the Knowledge of Jesus. So, yeah, a couple weeks ago we spoke about emptying ourselves of the superficial or materialistic spirit of the world so that we can live from this desire for God. God alone can satisfy our desire for perfect love, not the world. And then last week we spoke about learning that about our humanity, that our hearts are restless until they rest in God. So that's what I become aware of when I begin to look honestly at my life, you know, like, with the spirit of God. This week we're going to ask a question of Jesus. We're going to say, are you the one who is to come? Are you sent from the Father to fulfill our desire for God, or should we look for another? And we'll ask it that way because John the Baptist asked that question when he was in prison. We heard this Sunday the Gospel. Was he sent his disciples to Jesus with the question, are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another? John the Baptist had a deep sense that he was a deep intuition and even an experience in the Jordan of saying, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And hearing the Father say, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. But when it comes to being in a prison and getting ready to be decapitated for pronouncing him the Messiah, you just want to be sure. And it's okay to confirm that belief. Like Thomas, who was like, look, I'm not saying he's not raised from the dead. I'm just saying I will believe when I can touch the wounds, when I can see him. I don't want to worship a ghost. I want to worship God, a man. And that's the thing. Like something real in the flesh. So we're like John the Baptist today. We're like Thomas. We want to see if we can touch Christ a little bit, so we can confirm how our faith, confirm this intuition we have that he is indeed the One who is to come, and that we don't need to look for another, but just try rather to adhere to him, to remain in Him. So last night I went to the home of some parishioners who had me for Christmas dinner. And they've had me every year since I've been here at the parish. So I've been there before. It's become a kind of tradition to go to this home. They don't have children of their own, so everyone who's at that table feels like family. They're wonderful hosts. And they said to us last night, we've invited a father and a son from across the street. The father was recently divorced, experienced some sadness about that, but then suffered a terrible stroke, lost his job. And what we learned last night at that table, as he shared the story himself through his broken speech, he lost, like all of his friends, he's almost completely alone. There's one person in his life, and that man was sitting next to him. That was his son. And his son, who's a senior in college, was there quietly alongside of his father, loving his father, staying with his father, serving his father. And this dad was saying, but my son gets me. He doesn't leave me. He knows me. He loves me. That's what we got to see last night. We cried when we heard this father speaking like this. The man is otherwise well put together. He's good company, Nice disposition and temperament. It's just that people in the world who are generally trying to survive find it really difficult to love in a challenging way. And it would be challenging, of course, but I think it would be worth it because I think it would be a great blessing to be close to this man. So we invited him to stay with us at Christ the King. He's not Catholic, he's a Protestant, but he doesn't even go to the Protestant church anymore because he and his son found that that community didn't really follow up with him to see how they were doing. That happened to my grandmother, too, by the way, who was Methodist. She came back to the Catholic Church because the community of her small Protestant church didn't ask her how she was when she got, like, sick toward the end. She also came back because her grandson became a priest. But in any case, that happens sometimes, you know. Well, I said, come to Christ the King. You will meet friends there, which we would love to be blessed by you. Good man. I hope he does. So we'll see. To be continued. But I mention it because hearing that Father speak about the Son in that way was like hearing God the Father say about his Son, Jesus, he loves me. He stays with me. Even when the whole world leaves me. He knows me. So that's what's going on here, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the one sent from the Father to reveal to us this eternal mystery that is the Father. Jesus himself said, and we see it in the Scriptures, no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him. And that's who we believe we are as Christians, those to whom the Son wishes to reveal the Father. What a privilege. But in any case, you can see it begins with the privilege that Christ himself enjoys by being the eternal Son of the Father. Eternal, because he also said to some Pharisees when they were saying, hey, we're sons of Abraham, we're children of Abraham. Don't come here with this new authority, some new and eternal covenant stuff. We don't need a new Testament. But Jesus said before Abraham was, I am meaning like before the world existed. I have been with the Father. You see, that's a bold claim. No one, unless, except for a few crazy people on the stage of human history, have said that. Most religious leaders claim to have a way to God, but Jesus is the only who said, I am the way to God. Now you might say, well, he's crazy too, but we have to try to verify and confirm that he is not. So we will, we'll try that. He also said, I am the good shepherd. I lay down my life for my sheep. And he said, I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life. I am the bread of life. If you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will have eternal life. And at that point we thought, maybe he is crazy. And a lot of people went away from him. But these apostles and disciples, they stayed with Jesus, saying, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. You know, we don't understand. You're a great mystery to us. But we believe that when you speak, we believe that you can satisfy our desire for God. The eternal word. Television Network EWTN Jesus is the eternal Word. And Mother Angelica wanted the word that goes forth from her network to be Christ's own word, the Word made flesh. We call him right in the Church, as St. John called him in the Gospel. Son of God and Son of Mary. So Jesus the Theology is that he is 100% divine and 100% man. If you're interested in that kind of thing. It's called the hypostatic Union. He's not 50% God and 50% man, but he's 100% God and 100%. It's a great mystery, this marriage between heave and earth that takes place in the person of Jesus. And that's what the church is supposed to be like, this place where heaven and earth are wed, where they become one, the two become one flesh. We said it this weekend in the homily. Jesus is begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father, as we say in the Creed, through Him all things were made. Now that begotten, not made, struck me when I was in the seminary reading the book called mere Christianity and C.S. lewis's chapter called Begotten Not Made, when he said, look, man makes, say, a sandwich or something, but begets a child. The child is of the parents, and so God has made us, but Jesus is of the Father because he was conceived by the Holy Spirit. I remember when I read that, everything changed for me. I was touched deeply by that. But. So that's the theology, the spirituality behind, you know, who Christ is as he reveals himself to us through the Scriptures and the teachings of the church. But what does that mean for us? Like, so what? In a sense, right? Even if he is God, how can I have a relationship with him? And one that satisfies my desire for God? Is he the one who is to come, or should we look for another? Now, John the Baptist sent some of his disciples to Jesus with that very question. I mean, again, I said before, like, even if John. If John the Baptist is asking that, we can surely ask that. And then Jesus says to those disciples, go back to John and tell him what you hear and you see. And he says, the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf can hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news preached to them. And he adds, blessed is the One who takes no offense at me, like, blessed is the One who lets me into their life, into their struggle, into their hardship, or in John's case, into their imprisonment. And that's why John the Baptist sent his disciples to ask Jesus because it was not easy to be in prison, but if he could confirm that Christ indeed was and is the Messiah, the one who is to come, maybe he could make a good death, make a good end of this. Maybe he could stay faithful to the end with A martyr's courage to accept his circumstances, to give his life for this God who has come to give his life for us, right? So that's what I think Christian can offer us. We can confirm his identity, the divinity, and then let him in. So we see what he's doing in people's lives. Giving sight to people, enabling them to move with service and generosity who once were lame, or bring healing to those like lepers who hate themselves and who were also excluded from society. He restores us to communion with others. He enables the deaf to hear. He helps people to recognize the truth when we hear it. He gives new life to the dead, meaning not just physically raised, but like he forgives us our sins so we can come out of the confessional, like coming out of a tomb. But also like enables us to forgive others so we can come out of that self entombment where we imprison ourselves in bitterness and resentment toward others. And the good news, having the poor preach to them, that's like benediction, good words, right? Blessings. He speaks to them. You are loved, you are not forgotten, you are known, and you are destined for glory. I mean, this is what he means when he says, and blessed is the one who takes no offense at me. If you don't put up a wall or create a defensive posture towards me, if you let me into your life, I will enable all these things to happen for you too. I will give you happiness right where you are, peace right where you are. I will give you joy and freedom in your circumstances, like this third Sunday of Advent, this Gaudete Sunday, this Rejoice Sunday. Rejoice because the light which is coming to us is with us, to set us free in our circumstances, right? Where, wherever we are. I mentioned yesterday my first pastor, Father Tom Harold, he used to say, the bishop said to him, let the priesthood embrace you. Let the priesthood embrace you. And I'm beginning to understand what he means by that. If we allow Christ into our lives, then we should also be able to permit our circumstances, no matter how difficult they may be. Our vocation, our situations, our conditions, right? If Christ is with me, I will be able to bear it all gracefully and even wait for glory joyfully, right? As the readings said this weekend. Because I know that my story can lead to my glory if Christ is with me. And then we mentioned Cardinal Van Thorn or even Father Walter Cisik with the Soviet Union mission work, but being thrown into the gulags, the prisons in Siberia. But Cardinal Van Thuan, the Vietnamese bishop who got thrown into solitary confinement after we pulled out of Vietnam and the North Vietnamese came down into South Vietnam. But both of these men, Father Walter Ciszek and the cardinal, they were so gracious to other prisoners and to even their guards that they were responsible for the conversion of many of these men. Because they were like, how are you so graciously experiencing what's happening to you? How come we can't crush your spirit? They would say, because Christ is with me. He knows where I am, and I allow him to be here with me. That's what they were doing. And both of them, by the way, celebrating Mass at the risk of their lives in a clandestine way, a sneaky way. Cardinal Van Duan was allowing a little bread and a little wine to be snuck into him through a flashlight so he could hold in the palm of his hand the presence of our Lord in the Eucharist. And also Father Walter Cizzik used to sneak off to the woods to celebrate Mass at the risk of his life and the prisoners who would join him so that with a little bread and a little wine that they could find, they were able to have the presence of Christ with them in the Eucharist. We mentioned also yesterday, St. Paul, when he was in prison, I think in Philippi with some other Christians, there was that earthquake that so shook the prison that the gates of their cells opened. And the guard was there and saw that and thought that they would have surely escaped. Now, the guard was going to be punished for this, so he took out his own sword to take his own life. But St. Paul, when he saw that, he says, no, no, no. He says, do no harm to yourself. We are all still here. We're all here. And that guard was so amazed that Paul and those others didn't escape when they had the chance, that he was like, why wouldn't you run away? And they said, well, Christ is here with us. Wherever we are. We are free because he is here with us. Like, to whom shall we go? Where are we going to run off to? As long as he's here with us, we can be happy wherever we are. And that guard asked for baptism, and he and his whole family were baptized. You can read that in the Acts of the Apostles. So this is, I think, why we want to be able to confirm that Christ is truly the one who was sent from the Father to fulfill our desire for God and then let him into our lives. Let him, and take no offense in him, and let him into our circumstances. I mentioned yesterday a couple of the masses. I'm struck now by praying, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. I'm beginning to see what that means. Trespassing would be like. I'm leaving my place where God has me, and I'm kind of pressing into yours just for the sake of getting away from my own, you know, I don't mean to offend you, but I am inserting myself into your life only as a means of getting away from my own. It's sin, basically, when I pretend for a while that I'm someone else, right? And I go elsewhere, the netherworld. And then people do that to me too. You know, people are in our lives, maybe sinning against us in different ways, but maybe not always so maliciously, but nonetheless because they're just trying to escape something that they should otherwise be dealing with or inviting God into. So when we kind of run around, we're just trying to escape our circumstances. We ask God to forgive that. Rather, lead us not into that temptation. Just deliver us from evil wherever we may be. Let not evil have the last word in our lives. We know that we will suffer. It's the very nature of life in a fallen world. And we know that to follow you, Lord Jesus, is to take up our cross. But deliver us from evil and grant us peace in our days that free from sin and all distress, we may await with joyful hope the eternal life to come and even the second coming of Christ. That's how we pray in the church. But you can see how this invitation is to let Christ be with us where we are now. I said this yesterday. I think this is what true courage is. The courage to accept my life. And the only way I'm going to have that courage is if I let Christ into my life. So I don't want the false courage of the world, which it says, escape from your life. Redefine yourself, reinvent yourself, give yourself a new identity. No, I don't want to just escape from my reality. I want to live in reality and be unafraid or unencumbered or unhindered by my circumstances. Remember the prisoner? I tell you about him sometimes. I met him and became friendly with him over the years, who had been in prison for 18 years. And when he got out, he shared that he came to understand true freedom when he was in prison because he realized that if he needed to get out of prison in order to be happy, then he would still be imprisoned by his circumstances. You know, if I need the perfect circumstances in order to be happy, then I'm still imprisoned by my Circumstances, isn't that interesting? So I know I'm kind of repeating myself, but I want to drive home that point because. And I'll kind of draw to a close here. But that father at the table last night, he was happy because his son was there with him. And that son encouraged him to accept this invitation to this Christmas dinner where he was met with that hospitality and those people, myself among them, and he was happy. He told us his story of his own volition. After about two hours of conversation and food and wine at the table, he opened his heart to us. And I think he did so joyfully. Even as he was talking about how terrible and painful things have become for him and how he feels imprisoned by his condition and even abandoned. He, I think, was joyful. You know, at the end of the night, when I said goodbye to him, I didn't want to be too much of an imposition. I mean, I'm the priest at the table, right, trying to say, come to the church. And I didn't want to think I was just proselytizing to make him do anything. But. So I just, you know how I like to give everybody a hug, but this time I just put my hand out to say, you know, nice to meet you. And he went in for the hug. Isn't that cool? I was like, oh, let's go. I'm like, let's go. It's really special. But look, his circumstances are the same today, but hopefully they were a little less of a burden to him because of the dinner, you know, last night, and the people and the spirit of Christ with him at the table. So I'll end with this. I said this yesterday. I know a lot of you are suffering from difficult illnesses and diagnoses yourself, and the way that you try to handle them with grace and allow Christ into them encourages me a lot to live my own circumstances, my own story. I know some of you are in tough situations and positions at work. I know some of you are unemployed and looking for work. I know some of you experience dysphoria and unhappiness with the way that you look or your state in life or your gender. I know that some of you wrestle with your sexual orientation. And I admire how some of you let Christ into that experience so you can live the truth of your humanity and resist the temptation to redefine yourself. I know that some of you experience different forms of depression and how hard that can be because you feel saddled by this thing without anybody asking you, because you kind of inherit this temperament or disposition from some great uncle or something. Not easy. But I admire the way that you even just let me know you let people into your life who come to you in the name of this Jesus. I'm like, you know, that's the key. That's the. And then, of course, some of you in relationship problems, whether you're married and wrestling with a spouse or single and feel alone, those of you who are wrestling with your parents or sad because your parents are divorced or divorcing and feel brokenhearted because you love both of them and feel like that war between them is happening in your own heart, I see the way that you try to, like, let God help you, and I'm proud of you for that. And I admire that to the point where I'm encouraged by it. And for those of you who are parents, I see the way that a lot of you struggle with your children, especially those who are in their 20s and getting swept away by the riptide of the culture and saying cruel things to you and, you know, callously denouncing what you yourself love and only ever wanted them to love. But the fact that you keep letting God into it is very inspiring and I'm encouraged by all of you. So I hope that you hear today that we can indeed confirm that Jesus is the one who is to come. And we need not look for another. We just need to let him into our hearts. Because as he said to John the Baptist, which gave him courage in his imprisonment and therefore can give us courage as well. He does give sight to the blind, and we're seeing that in our own lives. You see people like this, the lame people who once were paralyzed are walking again. You can see that lepers are being cleansed. People are looking in the mirror and more content to be who they are and are being also able to find communion with others again. The deaf can hear. People who couldn't hear it are now able to hear the truth. The dead are raised through being forgiven, accepting forgiveness, and also being able to forgive others. And the poor have the good News proclaimed not just about them, but directly to them. People who really are not don't have access to the privileges that so many others do in this world. Nonetheless, are comforted and find confidence in an eternal happiness that awaits them. Christ has come, I think, to help us to believe that our story can lead to our glory. And what is that glory? It's a share in the divine life of this Son of God.