The season of Advent is really short, lasting only four weeks.  The only liturgical season shorter is Christmas, which lasts twelve days.  Today and this week we bring the season of Advent to a close, as this is the Fourth Sunday of Advent.

Advent teaches us something very important about God and our relationship with Him.  Unlike every other religion, Jews and Christians teach that God comes to us.  God created us.  Others believe the same.

God loves us.  Not all religions teach that God loves us.

More important is the fact that God comes to us.  No other religion teaches that God comes to us.  Advent.  “Advenio”, “Advenir” in Latin.  He comes.  Our God comes to us.  That is the most important lesson of the season of Advent.

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In Advent, we learn again of God coming to us.  “Advenio” in Latin.  He comes.  Our God comes to us.  Several years ago, after 9/11, as a  Deacon, I did a lot of work with Muslims on behaf of our Bishop.  I worked in their mosques and with their Imams.  I learned their concept of God.   God, for them, never comes to them.  They must go out to God to pray.  They take off their shoes and kneel before him as they attempt to go to Him.   For Muslims, God does not live in our world.  God has no sons.  God is not a Trinity.  God is “out there”.  He only speaks to us through “prophets”.

As Christians we celebrate the fact that our God comes to us.  This is why we have Advent and Christmas.  God never leaves us.  We are baptized into Him, “Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Jesus tells us that if we eat his flesh and drink his blood, we will have eternal life within us.  That is our Eucharist.  We consume Him.  He lives in us. We are invited to live with Him forever.

Forever.  Eternity.  What is that?

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Christians are not strangers to persecution.  Throughout Salvation History we see persecution and martyrdom of those who refuse to renounce their Faith in God.

Most people don’t realize this, but less than a hundred years ago, Mexico was one of the most advanced Catholic countries in the world, with Catholic schools, Catholic hospitals, orphanages, monasteries and convents.  Less than a hundred years ago, in Mexico, a 14 year-old Mexican boy, José Luis Sánchez del Río, “Joselito”, was detained by Mexican soldiers in the Cristero War.  They tortured him for his faith, even cutting off the flesh souls of his bare feet and made him walk barefoot through the town to the cemetery where he was killed by the soldiers.  Along the way they cut him with machetes and taunted him to get him to renounce Jesus Christ.  At times they stopped him and said, ‘If you shout, “Death to Christ the King” we will spare your life’. José would only shout, ‘I will never give in. Viva Cristo Rey!’”  “Joselito”, as he was called, was canonized as a Saint by Pope Benedict XVI.  Saint Joselito.  This fourteen-year old was faced with “apostacy”, as the church calls it, the renouncing of our faith.  He stood firm against apostacy and held on to his faith.

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I once heard a woman say, “I think my husband was made out of mud.  I was created from the rib of a human being.  That explains everything.”

Men and women say lots of things about each other.  However, what Sacred Scripture says about men and women is of paramount importance, especially in these days when secular culture is putting so much energy into changing the way we see ourselves and in comments about marriage and the way we relate to one another.  This event regarding Divorce happened as a challenge to Jesus.  Listen again to the challenge, and Jesus’ response.

The Pharisees approached Jesus and asked,
“Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?”
They were testing him.
He said to them in reply, “What did Moses command you?”
They replied,
“Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce
and dismiss her.”
But Jesus told them,
“Because of the hardness of your hearts
he wrote you this commandment.
But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.
So they are no longer two but one flesh. 

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The Disciple John was upset when he saw someone not of Jesus’ group doing exorcisms in the name of Jesus, saying to him.

“Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name,
and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.”

Likewise, in the reading from the Book of Numbers in the Old Testament, we hear Moses’ assistant, Joshua, say to Moses,

“Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp, …

Moses, my lord, stop them.”

The Lord had given Moses seventy elders to help him minister to the people.

The LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to Moses.
Taking some of the spirit that was on Moses,
the LORD bestowed it on the seventy elders;
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Imagine this man, deaf and mute from birth.  He had never heard a human word.  He had a speech impediment and was described as mute.  He had never spoken a conversation with anyone.

Now the first words he hears in his entire life are the words of Jesus.  And the first person he speaks to is Jesus.

I can’t help but think of a great contrast between us living today.  How many human words do we hear every day?  What do they mean?  What is so important to be spoken?  Yet, so many words.

However, when was the last time you spoke of Jesus outside of Church?  When was the last time you used his Name when you were not in a church environment?  Why do we have the gift of speech if we never say his name in everyday conversation?

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For the entire history of our salvation there is a tension between God and Man, between Creator and created.  Man constantly tries to control our religion.  God always prevails.  He is, after all, the Creator.  We are his creatures.

We should never forget, God chose us.  We did not choose Him.  God chose us, and he forms us with His Word and Commandments.  Listen again to Moses in the first reading from Deuteronomy.

“Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees
which I am teaching you to observe,
that you may live, …
In your observance of the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin upon you,
you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it.
Observe them carefully, ….”

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Many of you know I was not born into a Catholic family.  The faith of my family was Protestant, “Bible-belt Christian”.  I can recall the moment of my first conversion to the Catholic faith, as it was a powerful moment for me at age 17.  I was driving one night, discerning my faith, reflecting on the Virgin Mary as I drove.  There was a struggle within me.  Then, I made a decision.  I came to a conclusion that changed my life.  I chose.  It was an emotional moment.  My tears begin to flow.  I had to pull over to the side of the road and just cried.  The moment was very emotional, but it was the result of a decision, a personal choice, like I had been sitting on the fence, but then I realized I had to choose.  I could not remain undecided.  I chose Mary and everything she chose.  I decided I could not live without Mary.  Therefore, I chose her Son, and I chose His Church.  These things were inseparable.  So, it forced me to decide.  My life began a new direction as I began to live for the Eucharist, and the Sacramental Life of the Church.

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In the Book of Revelation we read,

God’s temple in heaven was opened,
and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple.

Allow me to show you what the Jews and the Early Church understood up until that time as the Ark of The Covenant.

I invite you to come up after Mass to view it.  According to the Book of Exodus, God told Moses to make the Ark of the Covenant.  He told him precisely how to make it and with which materials, including wrapping it in gold.  Depending upon what measurement you give to a “cubit”, the Ark of the Covenant was approximately four feet long, and about two and a half feet wide and two and a half feet high.  On the lid were two gold statues of cherubim as God’s throne, the “Seat of Mercy”.  The Ark was to be carried on two long poles placed through four rings on the box, two rings on each side. [Read more…]

If you look closely at history, and look closely at current events, you will observe an important theme of history and politics.  In all of history, all government seeks to control religion.  Look at the Church of England.  Look at China and the Catholic Church.  Look recently at government attempts to shut down churches in some states here In the USA due to the pandemic.  In many places ministers and church members have been arrested or barred from their churches.  If you look closely, you will see this theme repeatedly.  Governments attempt to control the Church and church teachings.

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At the Mass, in the Prayer of Consecration, the priest prays,

“Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray,
by sending down your spirit upon them like the dewfall.”
“… Send down your spirit … like the dewfall.”

In today’s first reading from the Old Testament book of Exodus, we find the source of the reference to the “dewfall” in the Mass.
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Our Bible, all of Sacred Scripture, is a book of “echoes” and recollections and prophecy.  The main themes or lessons God is teaching us all point to Jesus Christ and the Eucharist, and resound through all of Scripture.  The Holy Mass, the Eucharist was always intended to be the gathering place where we as God’s children and family would gather around him and experience Him and be fed by Him.  The way to understand the Bible is to understand these echoes and foretellings woven throughout scripture.

When God fed the Israelites in the desert with Manna from Heaven, it was a prophecy and an echo of the Eucharist.  God will feed His people Bread from Heaven.

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We are all called by God in our Baptism, Eucharist and Confirmation.  We are further called by our sacrament of Holy Matrimony and Holy Orders.  The Sacramental Life of the Church is a calling to unity and service in God’s Kingdom.  We are all called by God.

In the case of our religious sisters, Discipulas de Jesus, and Brother Alex a Discipulo de Jesus, they are responding to God’s call by their permanent vows to serve Jesus in a consecrated community of disciples of Jesus.  Fr. Gallo and Fr. Alex are called by their consecration both as Discipulos and as priests of the Church.

By our baptism we are all called to be prophets, like Amos.  Many misunderstand prophecy as fortune tellers of predictors of future things.  That is not true prophecy.  True prophecy is telling the truth, proclaiming God’s Truth.

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God created us.  He created us in His image and likeness.

God created us free, with free will because that is the only way we could ever love Him.  God wants us to love Him.  Only if we are free NOT to love Him, can we choose, freely, to love Him.  He created us to love us, and for us to love Him.  He created us to live in friendship with Him forever.

The only way to have eternal life is to freely choose Him, to be with Him in all things.  This is a choice.  If we choose Him, we choose life.  If we choose to NOT be with Him, to be separated from Him, to only live for the world, then that is our free choice.  But then we don’t choose LIFE.

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I want to ask you to recall for a moment the greatest tragedies or distresses in your life.  We have all had bad experiences, even some that may have endured for a long time; some episodes that may have changed the direction of your life.

I can imagine that you may have cried out to God in your distress, “Why, Lord?”  or “Why me, Lord?”  Or why does God allow suffering?

Today’s readings touch on that human reality.  Suffering does happen.  What do we do with it?

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Well over 3,000 years ago, God made a Covenant with Moses.  God gave His Commandments to Moses.  If the people followed God’s Commandments, they could live in peace and be a people pleasing to God.  We read in the book of Exodus,

When Moses came to the people
and related all the words and ordinances of the LORD,
they all answered with one voice,
“We will do everything that the LORD has told us.”

God proposed his Law to the people.  The people accepted and responded.  This was a contract.  A covenant.  A contract is usually about property.  A covenant is usually about an exchange of life.  Your life for mine, mine for yours.  “You will be my people, I will be your God.”

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What a year we have had! If you simply reflect upon the past year, we can easily see the similarity to Babel, with fear, ambition and faithless arrogance leaving the world in chaos, in fear and disunity.  As a result of the pandemic, fear has taken hold of all societies.  Travel has been shut down.  People are isolated from one another.  In the United States, political division and strife rules our society.  Public schools are in disarray.  Jobs and companies are in chaos.  Congress is so divided that it has become dysfunctional.  This is modern Babel.

Pentecost is often contrasted by the Old Testament story from Genesis regarding the Tower of Babel.  The contrast could not be greater.

The people in the Genesis story ambitiously initiated a project of building a city with a high tower to rule over other people.  The project ended in disarray when the people could no longer understand one another.

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Our readings today look forward to Pentecost, which we will celebrate in two weeks, on Sunday, May 23.

One thing to remember about the Israelites and Jews is that they were brought up to follow strictly the Law of Moses.  Even today, devout Jews are careful to observe circumcision and dietary laws.  In every generation, the Jews were to avoid table fellowship with Gentiles, pagans and non-believers.  These mosaic laws were powerful dividing lines between Jews and Gentiles, the pagans who worshipped and sacrificed to false gods.

If a Jew associated with Gentiles, they were taught that they would become unclean before God.

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You have heard me ask, “Where did Jesus go after the Resurrection?”  The early Fathers of the Church would have answered, “Into the Church”.  Jesus kept his word when he said to them,

“And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

Jesus lives in the Church, as he promised, present to us in the Sacraments.  The only reason we have sacraments is because Jesus is in the sacraments.  Jesus is in the Church.  Jesus is the sacraments.  The sacraments are Jesus.

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We have seen many cartoons featuring an itinerant preacher or prophet with a poster that says, “The End is Near”.

The archetype of this image is Jonah, who prophesied to Nineveh,

“Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed, “

Or, “The End is Near”.

St. Paul, tells us today,

I tell you, brothers and sisters, the time is running out…
…
For the world in its present form is passing away.

Or, “The End is Near.”

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