Fr. Dave's Homilies

Click here for the Gospel reading.

At first glance, the Gospel seems to focus on healing - both physical and spiritual. Yet there is a line at the end of the Gospel that we need to pay attention to. Jesus says to his followers - Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come. Jesus did not come just to be a miracle worker. Jesus healed people because he wanted it to lead to a deeper faith. He cast out demons because he wanted people to be free so they could put their faith and trust in Him. Jesus raised people from the dead because he wanted people to know that He was the Lord of the living and the dead. The purpose of Jesus was to tell us that He is the way, the truth and the life. Jesus is the full revelation of the Father in Heaven. He came to set us free from sin through his death and resurrection.

St. Paul, in our 2nd reading, states that he is all on board with the mission of Jesus. For St. Paul, his whole life is about spreading the good news - the dying and rising of Jesus. Nothing else mattered to St. Paul. In fact, he says that an obligation has been imposed upon me. The actual meaning here if you look at the Greek is that he would be under a curse if he doesn’t preach the Gospel. He has to do it. He has to evangelize. That’s his mission and what he has been called to do. At the end of that reading, he says that - I have become all things to all, to save at least some. He is describing his method of evangelization. The way he preaches depends on the person who is listening. If he is in the synagogue, he will preach in a way that is appropriate for Jews. Then outside of the synagogue when with Gentiles, he will preach in a way that is appropriate for them. St. Paul adapts the Gospel to the audience to whom he is preaching it. He doesn’t water it down. He doesn’t downplay its importance. He does this so that his audience has a chance to receive the saving message of Christ.

Bishop Barron, in his homily for this weekend, proposed this question - what if the dominant concern for your life is bringing people to Christ? What if that is the number one priority in your life? What if no matter what is going on in my life, I will do whatever it takes so that people have a chance to hear or experience the good news? Bishop Barron even said this - when you wake up and think of your day - when you are thinking about all the things that you have to do - what if you first ask yourself, how can I today bring someone to Christ? Many of you are probably thinking - excuse me? There is no way that I am going to evangelize. I don’t know how to do it. Or I am afraid to do it. I will let the professionals do it. Unfortunately, that is not an option. Our faith is not private or just something between us and God. Yes, we go to Mass on Sundays and pray and help out at the parish or some charity. We live our lives in a way that the Church asks of us and we let others live how they like. Yet, everyone who is baptized is asked to evangelize. In fact, it is a requirement. We are all called to be missionary disciples.

If that is the case, you may wonder - well, I don’t have any training. How can I evangelize others? Great point. But we don’t need training. All we need is a relationship with Christ. Is that the problem? Because if you don’t have a relationship with Christ, you have nothing to evangelize. You can’t evangelize because you don’t know the good news. The Church exists to evangelize. If we are not evangelizing, we are dead. We have no life - we have no purpose. What we are doing here at Mass is basically for show if we are not evangelizing. But let’s assume that is not the case. Let’s assume you all have a relationship with Christ.

Bishop Barron gave some very concrete ways to evangelize. Here is one scenario. Suppose you come into contact with someone who really annoys you. Rather than asking why this happened, ask why God put this person in your path and how can I evangelize this person? Suddenly, this person, who may still be annoying, you now see them differently because they are someone in need of the good news. They are someone who is loved by God. While we must evangelize through our words, never underestimate the power of a good and virtuous moral life. Kindness, compassion, mercy and gratitude go a long way. If people see that in you, they will associate that type of behavior with being a Christian Catholic. On the other hand, if you are crabby and rude and angry, that too impacts people. People will associate that behavior with being a Christian Catholic.

The key to evangelizing is not convincing someone to join the Catholic Church. The main task in evangelizing is to meet people where they are at and then introduce them to Jesus. They Holy Spirit will take care of the rest. If Jesus is our best friend, that should not be a problem. If these people trust us, they are going to be open to the good news. When they trust, they are open to those important questions about purpose and meaning in life. It may be true that we have not been very good at evangelizing but we can’t make excuses anymore. The reason the Church exists is to evangelize.

Our task is not just to get ourselves to heaven. We are to bring along as many people as we can. The salvation of so many souls is on the line.
 

Click here for the Gospel reading.

Some of the great military stories are those that involve a secret mission. Most of these secret missions involve a person or a group of people who are given one goal to accomplish. What they are being called to do is very critical to the overall mission. They are prepped on all the details. They know everything they need to know about their mission. They practice exactly what they are supposed to do. They do it over and over again. They plan for everything that could go wrong and how to react if it does. Sometimes this preparation can take years because it is so important. Once they are ready for the mission, they wait for the word from their commander to carry out this mission. This is what I thought of regarding today's Gospel.

Usually, we hear about Mary’s role. Rarely have I ever considered what it was like for the angel Gabriel. While we don’t have any idea how it happened and everything that led up to it, I would say it was probably one of the most important missions ever given to anyone. I read one Christian preachers' interpretation of how it might have happened. He writes it from the perspective of Gabriel. This is what he wrote. God told me - "Gabriel, you have a most delicate assignment. I am sending my Son to redeem the earth. To do this he must become a human himself. Your mission is to announce this plan to the young woman I have chosen to be his mother. "Her name is Mary. She lives in the village of Nazareth in Galilee. She is betrothed to be married. That means that she is already considered a wife, though she is living at home until the final ceremonies a few months from now. And Gabriel ... she is a virgin." He went on to describe my role and briefed me on the various contingencies, concluding with these words. "Gabriel, by all means, be gentle." I arrived one spring morning as Mary was climbing the path from the well and came to where I was sitting on a large boulder. She's only a child, I thought when I first saw her — only twelve or thirteen. Betrothed at that age? But such were the customs of that place and I was assured that the Father knows what he is doing. As she approached, I stood, dressed as I always dress — long white robe, golden sash, and so forth.
 
What happens after that is what we heard in the Gospel today. What do you think Gabriel felt when he arrived to ask Mary? I assume he was overjoyed and nervous! Ever since the evil angel Lucifer screwed things up in the Garden of Eden, God’s plan would start to unfold. For centuries, angels would bring messages to God’s people. The prophets did their best to proclaim how this might all play out. They talked about the coming of the Messiah and gave many signs to watch for. Everybody was longing for this day. And it was Gabriel who would be the one to reveal God’s plan. But that is not all. Gabriel had to wait for the answer. Everything depended on Mary’s answer. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, wrote a beautiful homily about waiting for Mary’s response. He wrote that when the angel Gabriel spoke of God’s message to Mary, the angels in Heaven awaited her answer. And not only the angels, but our first parents, Adam and Eve, and the whole mankind of earth, barred from paradise, gazed upon Mary and waited for her most generous response.

Everything hinged on this moment. For centuries, God had been getting His people ready for this moment. All of creation was waiting for Mary’s response. Obviously, we don’t need to hold our breath. We know how she answered. While this is a beautiful image for us to pray with and to be inspired by, there is no doubt that God is waiting for our answer. The fact that you are here today or watching this from somewhere means that you have given God a yes. The “yes” that our God desires is like the yes that Mary gave. Pope Francis referred to Mary’s yes as a full yes. There were no conditions. She didn’t hold back. Throughout her whole life, Mary said yes to God. For us, Pope Francis said, we are experts in the “half-yes”. In other words, we have been known to make excuses. Or we tell God, not today but tomorrow. I will admit that giving our full-yes to God is really difficult. It is hard especially when the culture gives us a completely different message. The culture tells us that we are entitled to certain things or that we can put things off if we have other things that we want to do.

So how do we say yes like Mary? One suggestion that I read was to be the person God created you to be. Obviously, as Catholics, that means staying close to the sacraments and prayer. But one piece of advice given that I thought was extremely important was to let Jesus interrupt you. In other words, be open to the Holy Spirit. If you think about it, how many times does God try to interrupt our day? Those are great moments to say yes to God. Whenever a family member or coworker needs some help, that is an interruption. Whenever we hear of someone who is homebound and is in need, that is an interruption waiting for a yes from us. Whenever we are asked to pray for someone, God wants us to be interrupted to spend time with Him. The more we allow these moments to happen and we give our yes, the more our lives are changed.

God is waiting for our yes. Not just once but every day and every moment we are interrupted. In these final days of Advent, we will be interrupted. May no one have to hold their breath and wait for our yes. Let us follow the example of Mary with our generous yes. And for every yes we give, know that Christ is alive and in our midst.

Click HERE to go to Deacond Rod's homily for this same weekend.