Homily for December 14, 2008
When I listen to the advent readings, they are such wonderful ideals: a highway being built through the desert, mountains being brought low, valleys filled in, crooked ways made straight; being sent to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, to set prisoners free. Do you know what I mean? Such wonderful, sweeping, idealistic things that I have trouble connecting them to my life.
At the end of the first reading, God said, "I will make justice and praise spring up from the earth," and I'm sitting there in that chair looking at our cracked walls (By the way, we've made it worse so we can make them better.), I'm looking at those walls and I'm looking at all of us, and I say, so this is justice and praise springing up from the earth?
There was a song and I forget who sang it, maybe some of you will remember it in the 70s, "Is That All There Is?" Do you remember the song? I can't sing, but it went something like, "Is that all there is? If that's all there is, my friends, then let's keep dancing." Remember that song? Well, when I look at what's around me, I wonder, could all of these wonderful words possibly boil down to what we are doing?
This afternoon at 5:30, I'll go to the Women's Prison for Mass. I'll walk across that cold, long yard, go into the chapel, and there will be about 10 women with me. We'll read this reading about proclaiming liberty to captives and release to prisoners, and I will be asking myself, "What possible meaning can that have here? How is what we're doing fulfilling that reading?"
As we read the Gospels, I think the question in the Gospels is, could all of these hopes and dreams be fulfilled in us. Remember the verse in the song, O Little Town of Bethlehem, "The hopes and dreams of all the years are met in you tonight?" Can that really be true?
In my letter in the bulletin, I mention a friend of mine who is a college dean, and he said he was studying the Scripture and thought every page of Scripture is about the graciousness and the mercy and the kindness of God. And he said, “here I am all day working with rules and policies and student behavior. Where is the graciousness in all of this?"
At the end of the reading today, John says, "There is one among you whom you do not know." It reminded me of a story of an abbot of a monastery walking in the woods, depressed about how badly things were going in the life of his community.
And he met an old wise man who said, "Be of good cheer. The Messiah is among you."
And he went back to the monastery, and he got it all wrong, and he said, "Brothers, I’ve got good news. One of us is the Messiah."
And they looked. Who could it be? Could it be Glenn? Could it be John? Could it be Jay? Who could it be? And they began looking at each other and treating each other with reverence and with mystery, and the life of their monastery changed.
Well, I guess what I ended up with in my reflection on the readings for today is the word of Paul in the second reading, where he said, "Our God, who has promised all these things, is faithful and true." Not "Are all these things true?" But "Our God who promised them is true." And therefore he tells us, "Rejoice in God. Be thankful in all things." And mind the words: not "be thankful for all things." "Be thankful in all things." Can you feel the difference in the meaning of that?
I can be thankful, no matter what's happening, not for what's happening there are a lot of things I think are awful but, I think, be thankful in all things. And I can nurture everything that is good and hold onto everything that is good, however small it seems, in that faith that God who promised it is faithful and true.
And by the way, I was reading some stuff about the way words evolve. I found a reflection on the word, “true.” When people get married, they used to say, "I pledge you my troth," didn't they? I pledge you my truth. The real meaning of the word true is not, "Is something out there objectively verifiable," but "Am I true?" Are we true to each other? Is our God true to us? And are we true to our God?
Let's pray as we go on today that we might be true.
At the end of the first reading, God said, "I will make justice and praise spring up from the earth," and I'm sitting there in that chair looking at our cracked walls (By the way, we've made it worse so we can make them better.), I'm looking at those walls and I'm looking at all of us, and I say, so this is justice and praise springing up from the earth?
There was a song and I forget who sang it, maybe some of you will remember it in the 70s, "Is That All There Is?" Do you remember the song? I can't sing, but it went something like, "Is that all there is? If that's all there is, my friends, then let's keep dancing." Remember that song? Well, when I look at what's around me, I wonder, could all of these wonderful words possibly boil down to what we are doing?
This afternoon at 5:30, I'll go to the Women's Prison for Mass. I'll walk across that cold, long yard, go into the chapel, and there will be about 10 women with me. We'll read this reading about proclaiming liberty to captives and release to prisoners, and I will be asking myself, "What possible meaning can that have here? How is what we're doing fulfilling that reading?"
As we read the Gospels, I think the question in the Gospels is, could all of these hopes and dreams be fulfilled in us. Remember the verse in the song, O Little Town of Bethlehem, "The hopes and dreams of all the years are met in you tonight?" Can that really be true?
In my letter in the bulletin, I mention a friend of mine who is a college dean, and he said he was studying the Scripture and thought every page of Scripture is about the graciousness and the mercy and the kindness of God. And he said, “here I am all day working with rules and policies and student behavior. Where is the graciousness in all of this?"
At the end of the reading today, John says, "There is one among you whom you do not know." It reminded me of a story of an abbot of a monastery walking in the woods, depressed about how badly things were going in the life of his community.
And he met an old wise man who said, "Be of good cheer. The Messiah is among you."
And he went back to the monastery, and he got it all wrong, and he said, "Brothers, I’ve got good news. One of us is the Messiah."
And they looked. Who could it be? Could it be Glenn? Could it be John? Could it be Jay? Who could it be? And they began looking at each other and treating each other with reverence and with mystery, and the life of their monastery changed.
Well, I guess what I ended up with in my reflection on the readings for today is the word of Paul in the second reading, where he said, "Our God, who has promised all these things, is faithful and true." Not "Are all these things true?" But "Our God who promised them is true." And therefore he tells us, "Rejoice in God. Be thankful in all things." And mind the words: not "be thankful for all things." "Be thankful in all things." Can you feel the difference in the meaning of that?
I can be thankful, no matter what's happening, not for what's happening there are a lot of things I think are awful but, I think, be thankful in all things. And I can nurture everything that is good and hold onto everything that is good, however small it seems, in that faith that God who promised it is faithful and true.
And by the way, I was reading some stuff about the way words evolve. I found a reflection on the word, “true.” When people get married, they used to say, "I pledge you my troth," didn't they? I pledge you my truth. The real meaning of the word true is not, "Is something out there objectively verifiable," but "Am I true?" Are we true to each other? Is our God true to us? And are we true to our God?
Let's pray as we go on today that we might be true.
Labels: Homilies
posted by Fr. Larry Voelker at
6:36 AM
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