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We long for something more in troubling times when Nationalism and Individualism have left us wanting...
We search for something or someone greater than ourselves. My strength, guidance, and comfort come from my greater power: whom I call God, Jesus, Lord! Come let us journey together.
New Year...New Beginnings ...
The Star Still Shines
From the Prophet Isaiah 60:1-6 “Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come…”
I say to you, people of St. Bernard Parish, rise and let your light shine; be a shining star for others to follow. Today we celebrate the Feast of Epiphany – awakening, an opening of the mind and heart. We remember the story of how the Maji, the wise men from the East, came to visit the new king of the Jews. They did not find what they expected, a newborn baby boy held in his mother’s arms – safely! So many stories and tales have been told through the centuries about who these men were.
They were leaders, wise learned men of their people and nation. Do you think they would have or could have seen a star and followed it for hundreds of miles, it would have taken months perhaps? Living that methodology today would take us far off the path; we are seekers like they were in search of the newborn king of the Jews. Epiphany is not a tale of Kings from the east. Kings do not get along they are better at doing battle to gain more land and wealth than to seek out a king of the Jews. A more plausible experience would have been a shooting star, we see them sometimes, right? Whatever it was it gave the Maji something to lead and guide them along their way. The Maji remind us that we too are called to walk in the light; the star that guided the Maji is the star that still shines for us today.
Pope John Paul II was and still is today a shining star for us to emulate in our own lives. JP II was a light that guided the church for 25 years. He became the most traveled Pope in history. He visited far-flung countries that little was known about and yet became a sign of hope and compassion to the peoples he met along the way. His star still shines brightly.
There was a woman who had an Epiphany, an awakening to the needs of others. She was a rich woman living in a big house in New York. The star she saw took her into the places where the poor, the marginalized, the throwaways of society stayed. Her money brought the poor and volunteers together they became The Catholic Worker Movement that has many ministries across the country. She and her volunteers are the Stars that shine brightly for all to see and be drawn into the service of the poor. Her star still shines!
There was another man who had a dream that one-day white people and black people would be judged not by the color of their skin, by the content of their character. His name, Martin Luther King, Jr. His star has given so many people hope that one day they will be equal and that all people live in peace. Those who follow him remain hopeful that the sin of racism will one day be no more. MLK was and remains a guiding light in the darkness, his star still shines.
A saint walked among the poorest of the poor in Kolkata (Calcutta), India, bringing dignity to the sick and dying. She spent years in this ministry that has foundations in many countries around the world, The Sisters of the Poor. She gave us the example that you do not have to do remarkable things to help others, do small things with great love. Her star still shines in her sisters that continue her work and dream that no one should die in the streets alone, abandoned. Her star still shines through us when we practice her morning prayer: God, “how can I help?”
These are but a few whose shining star still leads many to follow them and assume their noble causes. We are called to be shining stars, living our faith aloud for all to see and hear. We are Christians which means we are followers of Jesus Christ. He came to show us by his example how we are to live our lives. His three-year mission can be summarized in three words, Service to Others. His mission must become our mission to do all we can to serve the needs of our brothers and sisters who have so much less than ourselves.
We do this best when we realize we are called to be shining stars in our daily life, to keep the dreams of so many who have gone before us in serving humanity.
I want to close with a song that expresses so clearly what our mission is and how we are to live it.
Longing for peace, our world is troubled. Longing for hope, many despair. Your word alone has power to save us. Make us your living voice.
Christ, be our light, shine in our hearts, shine through the darkness.
Christ, be our light, shine in your church gathered today.
Many the gifts, many the people, many the hearts that yearn to belong. Let us be servants to one another, making your kingdom come.
Christ, be our light, shine in our hearts, shine through the darkness.
Christ, be our light, shine in your church gathered today.
Christ, be our light, shine in our hearts, shine through the darkness.
Christ, be our light, shine in your church gathered today.
Let us stand and shout our praise to God who has come to live with us. Shout and sing, let heaven know we are here…
Christ be our light, shine in your church gathered today.
Christ is our light! Christ is our light! Praise the Lord! Praise God!
The Star Still Shines
CHRISTMAS - GOD WITH US
Isaiah 9:6 “And His name will be called…Mighty God, Prince of Peace, wonder counselor, Everlasting Father.”
We have arrived, Christmas Day 2021! The question is, how did we get here? How did we make it through the card-sending and receiving, shopping, giving, and receiving gifts; the fast pace of the past couple of weeks to get to this big day?
We might have been so distracted with all that glitters, that we have forgotten or minimalized the great event that Christmas is…the birth of Jesus, The Christ. These things are important, so much so that we get caught up in the under-toe of this commercialized lifestyle that Christmas has lost its real meaning. It’s hard to resist the glow of twinkling lights, shiny paper, all the planning that went into preparing Christmas dinner; perhaps we have spent little time contemplating this great feast, the enormity of Christmas – Emmanuel – God with Us.
It’s hard, I know, to wrap our minds around the idea that the Great Amen, creator of the universe, and all the wonders of what we can see – our blue planet floating in the darkness of space; we are but a speck in the Milky Way of thousands of solar systems, and countless other Planet Systems that are too far away we cannot see them. And yet, scientists have studied the universe for as far as we can see with the Hubble telescope that was sent into space in 1990.
This morning around 7:30 am Nasa launched a new telescope into outer space that will travel for 30 days to arrive at its permanent place among the stars. The goal is to investigate space, to perhaps find the beginning of the universe, searching for answers to its origin, how did we get here?
It was here, on our tiny blue planet floating in endless space that God Almighty, Everlasting Father decided to become one with us in our humanness. Joining flesh to flesh as one. In the limitless black universe its hard to get our minds around the idea that a beautiful baby boy, born of the womb, just as we are, in a shall nowhere town, called Bethlehem. Wonder Counselor, Prince of Peace, He is God, creator of all that is wrapped in a diaper.
Divinity arrived, heaven opened and placed the Omnipotent, Almighty God who made himself breakable. A baby boy who was totally dependent upon Mary and Joseph to care for him - feed him, clothe him, and yes let’s get real, change his diaper. Until one day time had passed, and they found him in the temple teaching the Rabbi, “today you have heard this prophecy proclaimed to you.”
Why did God choose to become one with us? Come with me on a journey back to the time when the Creator was born of Mary’s womb. Let us paint the scent of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus in Mary’s arms. Now use your imaginations, stop being an observer – place yourself in this barn where animals are kept out of the cold. Paint yourself into this scene - where are you? What place have you taken up, are you standing, sitting, kneeling? Are you close in with this family or at a distance? Describe for yourself what you see, smell, hear, touch…is the baby Jesus crying,restlesss, or sleeping securely in his mother’s loving, protective arms? Where is Joseph in your painting? Where are you in your painting?
Our senses have been so dulled over time that the image is one of plaster pares, beautiful flowers, Mary looking like she just stepped out of Vogue magazine. The scene each year is clean and sterile - where is no life in that scene, it speaks nothing of the harsh reality of the time and dreadful circumstance that this baby was born into. It’s been all cleaned up, we have forgotten this is a barn where animals survive the cold of winter; not at all the sterilized hospital delivery room that we have carried in our heads over the years.
What did God choose to become a human? He chose to be born of simple, poor, God loving parents in a small nothing of a town – what good could come from Bethlehem? A helpless, needy infant, not the mighty King riding on a horse dressed for battle, called upon to drive out the Romans and establish the Kingdom of Israel.
The Great Amen, I Am who Am, Yahweh God chose to be needy, breakable; there is no image of a person that is more helpless and needy than a baby. Choosing to enter our life as a human God showed us how we are to be for each other – dependent, cared for, and loved as only a mother can love her newborn baby. The painting that you have placed yourself in is to be a constant reminder of who we are to be for each other – a mother, a father, a friend, a neighbor, a companion along the way, who is as dependent as a baby; and as strong, self-giving, and self-sacrificing as a mother with her baby boy in a manger where animals come to feed and sustain life. Jesus is the one who will sustain our life when we put ourselves completely into his arms with trust and faith.
The manger, the feeding traff is where we can come, to lay down our burdens, to see with our own eyes the great God Almighty in his incarnation that holds us up, gives us hope and a peace that only those who make themselves breakable as a newborn baby, will find a new life that can walk on water, heal the blind, give food to the hungry, shelter the homeless. Bread and wine blessed and broken into his body and blood to feed us who come to Bethlehem, to the manger and kneel before the infant King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, whose reign will last until the end of days.
People of God - Are you wilh me? Stand up…raise your hands in praise of our God who is one of us, lives in us and loves us beyond all telling! Let me hear you shout to the heavens - Praise the Lord…Praise the Lord…People of God sing: Hallelujah…Hallelujah…Emmanuel – God with us. Amen! Amen! Amen! Sing out with me now…Praise the Lord…King of Kings…Prince of Peace…Come stay with us…. Praise be Jesus Christ! Can the church give me an AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!
