Hey everyone!
I hope that you're having a terrific Christmas week. As many of you know, I am the campus minister and director of the Newman Catholic Center here at Montclair State University. Today, I'm leaving with about 30 of our students to attend the FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) Conference in Orlando Florida
If you'd like to follow us there - check out our blog, which will be updated continually from the trip:
http://msunewman.blogspot.com
Thanks and say a prayer for a safe trip for us!
Father Jim
Tidings of COME-Fort and Joy!
MERRY CHRISTMAS! May the celebration of the Word of God being made flesh and dwelling among us in the birth of Jesus Christ bring His eternal love, His abundant joy, His heavenly peace to you and yours!
Here’s my homily for Christmas, which is based on the readings for the Mass of Christmas Day with the Gospel Reading comes from St. John. They can be found here: http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/122509c.shtml
If pollsters, those companies and firms that interview people to get their opinions are correct, then many, people aren’t feeling very“Merry” this Christmas. For example this one poll last week talked about how there’s a record level of pessimism with less than 27 % of those interviewed saying they believed things would be better for their children than it has been for them. Over 60% agreed with the statement that they believed that the nation was in a state of decline.
There’s a lot of reasons offered for these negative feelings - the economy, two ongoing wars, other global concerns, the economy. There’s an awful lot of things on our minds. And just hearing that many people around us are worried, that has the ability to deflate us and make us even more worried, concerned or pessimistic than we were before.
I have to admit, just talking to family, friends, and other people, those polls seem to ring true. People seem pretty down. And if we could put aside these national or global concerns, many have their own worries, anxieties - right there, just beneath the surface. The woman who talks about feeling completely alone (even though she’s married) The man who is seriously giving thought to doing something he knows is wrong but is so tempted because he wants to feel something (and right now all he feels is numb) I’ve heard more than a few variations on those types of stories. Add stories of people who are battling life-threatening illnesses, or those who have lost someone this Christmas - it’s understandable why there seems to be wide-spread pessimism.
I know - geez Father - Merry Christmas!
I don’t share all this to bring everybody down. My gut tells me that’s where a lot of us are coming together this Christmas day, 2009. And with a week until the new year, people work very hard to burry or mask these depressing thoughts for a day or so, to try to have a “Merry Christmas” and hope to get through this week. Next week, we will watch a ball in Times Square waiting for the New Year hoping that somehow 2010 has to be better.
Just thinking about these things, I was reminded of a particularly difficult Christmas season a couple of years ago, that I felt pretty pessimistic myself. It had been a rough year for my family and I. My goddaughter was suffering through a serious health crisis (and by extension, my brother, sister-in-law, and entire family suffered with her) which was coming after a year that was marked by unexpected deaths, trials and losses. As the Christmas music, decorations and sounds, smells and sights of the season seemed to intensify with each passing day (even in the lobby of a Children’s Hospital) I really felt the gap between joyfully entering into the season and the complex realities of life that were all around.
One afternoon, numbed by these thoughts after mindlessly surfing the internet jumping from website to website, I came upon some words that our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI shared in a homily. He explained that the Church could sum up this season with just two words: ‘God comes.’ And he went on to explain that in that short little expression, those two words contain this new, evocative power about them. Because the great news we celebrate is that we’re not talking in the past tense like —God has come, and we’re not simply hopefully awaiting some far off future promise like —God will come, but in the present—‘God comes.’ He explained that the more we sit with that thought, we realize that this is a continuous present, an ever-continuous action: it happened, it is happening now and it will happen again. In every moment, ‘God comes.’ - Benedict XVI (Dec. 2006)
I remember sitting there in that Hospital lobby and the simplicity and power of those words had a beautifully calming and healing effect. In the pains we endure - God comes. In the trials and stresses we face that seem insurmountable - God comes.
That’s why we celebrate Christmas. The day when everything got better for all of us, in every age, in every situation, for all eternity. Hearing this Gospel reading kind of throws people who come for Christmas Mass. John’s Gospel isn’t as familiar, it’s a bit difficult to listen to - particularly if we’re looking to hear the familiar, real story of Christmas. But there’s a brilliant reason we’ve just heard proclaimed what we heard. The Church gives us this reading on Christmas to move us beyond Bethlehem, to move us away from the crib.
Because too often we get stuck there. We remain transfixed on the Nativity. We stay with a remembrance of a historical fact of the man Jesus being born. But the Church doesn’t want us to remain in Bethlehem remembering that God came.
Christmas is meant to cause us to rejoice with the Shepherds that the Word of God, JESUS has become Flesh.
Christmas is meant to make our hearts want to join the song of the Angels that God has made his dwelling among us.
Christmas inspires hope within us to search with the wonder, faith and trust of the wise men, even when He feels so distant and far away, knowing in our heart of hearts that He will be found, because God comes.
To a nation and a world that is seemingly consumed with tension, and anxiety; in the less-than perfect situations that all of us have to deal with in our lives, may the true meaning, the true beauty of Christmas eclipse those realities, with the ever ancient, ever new, ever present words of good news of “great joy for all people” - - God comes.
Here’s my homily for Christmas, which is based on the readings for the Mass of Christmas Day with the Gospel Reading comes from St. John. They can be found here: http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/122509c.shtml
If pollsters, those companies and firms that interview people to get their opinions are correct, then many, people aren’t feeling very“Merry” this Christmas. For example this one poll last week talked about how there’s a record level of pessimism with less than 27 % of those interviewed saying they believed things would be better for their children than it has been for them. Over 60% agreed with the statement that they believed that the nation was in a state of decline.
There’s a lot of reasons offered for these negative feelings - the economy, two ongoing wars, other global concerns, the economy. There’s an awful lot of things on our minds. And just hearing that many people around us are worried, that has the ability to deflate us and make us even more worried, concerned or pessimistic than we were before.
I have to admit, just talking to family, friends, and other people, those polls seem to ring true. People seem pretty down. And if we could put aside these national or global concerns, many have their own worries, anxieties - right there, just beneath the surface. The woman who talks about feeling completely alone (even though she’s married) The man who is seriously giving thought to doing something he knows is wrong but is so tempted because he wants to feel something (and right now all he feels is numb) I’ve heard more than a few variations on those types of stories. Add stories of people who are battling life-threatening illnesses, or those who have lost someone this Christmas - it’s understandable why there seems to be wide-spread pessimism.
I know - geez Father - Merry Christmas!
I don’t share all this to bring everybody down. My gut tells me that’s where a lot of us are coming together this Christmas day, 2009. And with a week until the new year, people work very hard to burry or mask these depressing thoughts for a day or so, to try to have a “Merry Christmas” and hope to get through this week. Next week, we will watch a ball in Times Square waiting for the New Year hoping that somehow 2010 has to be better.
Just thinking about these things, I was reminded of a particularly difficult Christmas season a couple of years ago, that I felt pretty pessimistic myself. It had been a rough year for my family and I. My goddaughter was suffering through a serious health crisis (and by extension, my brother, sister-in-law, and entire family suffered with her) which was coming after a year that was marked by unexpected deaths, trials and losses. As the Christmas music, decorations and sounds, smells and sights of the season seemed to intensify with each passing day (even in the lobby of a Children’s Hospital) I really felt the gap between joyfully entering into the season and the complex realities of life that were all around.
One afternoon, numbed by these thoughts after mindlessly surfing the internet jumping from website to website, I came upon some words that our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI shared in a homily. He explained that the Church could sum up this season with just two words: ‘God comes.’ And he went on to explain that in that short little expression, those two words contain this new, evocative power about them. Because the great news we celebrate is that we’re not talking in the past tense like —God has come, and we’re not simply hopefully awaiting some far off future promise like —God will come, but in the present—‘God comes.’ He explained that the more we sit with that thought, we realize that this is a continuous present, an ever-continuous action: it happened, it is happening now and it will happen again. In every moment, ‘God comes.’ - Benedict XVI (Dec. 2006)
I remember sitting there in that Hospital lobby and the simplicity and power of those words had a beautifully calming and healing effect. In the pains we endure - God comes. In the trials and stresses we face that seem insurmountable - God comes.
That’s why we celebrate Christmas. The day when everything got better for all of us, in every age, in every situation, for all eternity. Hearing this Gospel reading kind of throws people who come for Christmas Mass. John’s Gospel isn’t as familiar, it’s a bit difficult to listen to - particularly if we’re looking to hear the familiar, real story of Christmas. But there’s a brilliant reason we’ve just heard proclaimed what we heard. The Church gives us this reading on Christmas to move us beyond Bethlehem, to move us away from the crib.
Because too often we get stuck there. We remain transfixed on the Nativity. We stay with a remembrance of a historical fact of the man Jesus being born. But the Church doesn’t want us to remain in Bethlehem remembering that God came.
Christmas is meant to cause us to rejoice with the Shepherds that the Word of God, JESUS has become Flesh.
Christmas is meant to make our hearts want to join the song of the Angels that God has made his dwelling among us.
Christmas inspires hope within us to search with the wonder, faith and trust of the wise men, even when He feels so distant and far away, knowing in our heart of hearts that He will be found, because God comes.
To a nation and a world that is seemingly consumed with tension, and anxiety; in the less-than perfect situations that all of us have to deal with in our lives, may the true meaning, the true beauty of Christmas eclipse those realities, with the ever ancient, ever new, ever present words of good news of “great joy for all people” - - God comes.
EXPECTING THE UNEXPECTED
PLEASE CONSIDER HELPING OUT THE NEWMAN CATHOLIC CENTER WITH OUT CHRISTMAS APPEAL - Read More HERE
EXPECTING THE UNEXPECTED
Hi everyone, here’s my homily for December 13, 2009 - the Third Sunday of Advent. The readings can be found at http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/121309.shtml . Thanks for reading and all your comments and feedback! God Bless- Father Jim
HOMILY:
From the “that was unexpected” category comes this story that made international headlines about a year ago: This guy out on Long Island owns a deli and one day a man comes in with a baseball bat with the intention of robbing the deli as he demands that the owner hand over the cash from the register. The owner pulls out a 9 mm rifle and orders the man to drop to his knees as he points the gun to his head. At this point, there’s a couple of ways we kind of would expect the story could have gone: He could have delivered some “street justice” - taking matters into his own hands. He could have called the police and simply waited until the cops arrived to arrest him and allow the real justice system to react.
But what happened next was pretty unexpected. As the robber was on his knees, he started to sob, apologizing for doing such a stupid thing. He started to explain how he was out of work– and talked about how his family was going through a terrible time because of his unemployment. After a few moments, the deli owner put his rifle down, made the man a sandwich, gave him $40 cash, and with that the would be thief vanished.
For some people, you can imagine when they heard this story thought things like, “That was unsafe” or “that was foolish.” Some might have even been more jaded thinking “all he did was allow this man to go off and rob someone else.” In fact the story didn’t end there. This past week, the New York Post did a follow up story reporting the deli owner just received a thank you letter with $50 enclosed (I guess the $10 extra was interest). The letter, from the “repentant thief” said “When you had that gun to my head I was 100% [sure] that I was going to die. . .Now I have a new child and a good job make good money staying out of trouble and taking care of my family. You gave me forty dollars thank you for sparing my life. Because of that you changed my life."
It sounds like the stuff of great literary works or tug-at-your-heart type movies. But in “the real world?” We don’t really expect things like that to happen. Even after all the details of this story has been made public, there’s a temptation to attach a disclaimer saying “this is really a terrific story, but, let’s be realistic... that’s not how things normally would go.”
And in a sense, isn’t that sad? We expect that a stupid decision by this would be robber and the deli owner would end with one of two options - some type of bloody end or a guy ending up in prison. But, the normal didn’t happen- and instead something that was quite unexpected occurred. Because of that, the lives of the would-be robber, the deli owner (and perhaps numerous others who have heard this story) have been forever changed.
Yet we get stuck with our expectations that things will remain normal - that nothing will ever change. It seems each generation has people wishing that things would be different - that there wouldn’t be things like war and that peace would actually be a reality and not just an ideal; that life would be respected from conception to natural death or that the poor would be cared for ...but with age, and as these trials and struggles continue without much obvious change - cynicism grows. We become disappointed that these constant problems have yet to be solved, those ideals have yet to become reality. And so we begin to think those things were just that – ideals that would never become real.
So we lower expectations thinking maybe the world out there will never change we’ll settle for some change in own little corners of the world. Maybe we can experience peace in our families – in our own lives. Maybe our lives and the lives of those around us would be respected. Yet, even there, apathy seems to find a way to enter in on these local levels as we shrug in disappointment saying “He or she is never going to change.” “What’s the use, no one cares?” With these types of attitudes, people continue on a type of hamster-wheel existence. Exerting immense energy, keeping up frantic paces - wondering why we never move.
Into these present day realities, we hear John the Baptist, continuing his proclamation from last week where he announced that God was coming to His people - which was quite expected news (we have to remember that it had been promised for centuries) that seemed to catch the people of his time as something unexpected. Upon hearing it though - something stirred within them. “Maybe this time the hopes, the dreams, will be realized” they thought. “Maybe,” they hoped, “finally the cycle, the patterns and the normal routines of destructive behavior would be broken.”
John the Baptist’s preaching started to raise hope in their hearts - in their lives as news that God was coming to save them (and all of us) from that brokenness was dawning.
“What should we do” they asked - John tells us somewhat expected commands- Live according to God’s commands - share what YOU have with those who have nothing - don’t abuse don’t take advantage of others. Live in the ways that God expects us to live. Break out of the routines, patterns and bad habits of the world – and then expect to be saved by the God who created you - loves you and desires your ultimate happiness.
The Gospel tells us the people were“filled with expectation”- their hearts were so moved by his words that they began to wonder - could John himself be the Christ himself? John would be clear that he wasn’t - but that Christ was coming... and so he kept trying to help people prepare.
For us here and now - there’s what 11 shopping days to Christmas? Most of you are getting ready for final exams. It’s hard to think about just those two things. Very familiar patterns are unfolding: Traffic will be crazy each day closer to December 25th as people shop crazily to find gifts that will probably need to be returned for being the wrong size, color or thing altogether. Some of you will be cramming, crashing, caffeinating and stressing these next days. And then you return home to many normal traditions and expectations that all of us bring to the annual celebration of Christmas. Things that can be familiar, sentimental and sometimes incredibly lacking all at the same time.
Yet in our hearts and souls – if we can take a moment to really listen, we can hear our deepest desires, our quiet longings, our unspoken hopes that maybe this Christmas, Jesus Christ will truly, completely enter into our lives and change them - Maybe that coming to us will begin to change our own corners of the world. Maybe that will set in motion the immense gift of God’s Love, the power of the Holy Spirit unleashing Jesus Christ’s gift of Peace to the world. Far-fetched? Too “idealistic?” The cynic doesn’t want to get their hopes up - but the heart of the believer thinks “maybe.”
The thing is, God respects our freedom too much to impose on our plans. He wants to break through to us – but the choice is ours. What will we do? Will we continue with what is normal - the same old patterns, the same old routines? Or will we awaken to the rejoicing of the Church over the Saviors presence among us coming to each of us. Calling us to be open to something different. Something even unexpected – like a robber who repents. Like a deli-owner who’s merciful.
Will we embrace John’s call, live radically gospel-centered lives- live in ways the world finds unexpected so that our hearts will reflect the very presence of Christ coming to his people? If we do, if we listen and respond to that call to conversion, we may find this Advent leading us to a Christmas that’s unlike anything we’ve come to expect...
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