Our Jewish ancestors were awaiting the MESSIAH who, in their eyes, would be a great prophet like Elijah, a high priest like Melchizedek or a king like David. They were expecting someone larger than life to come along. But the one we Christians recognize as the Messiah was a humble man who was born and raised among the common people, under the poorest of circumstances, misunderstood, rejected and crucified. In time we ended up recognizing in Him, not only the Messiah sent by God but His son: “God from God, Light from Light, true God and from true God” as the creed goes which we proclaim each Sunday at Mass.
Ours is a Messiah that was completely unexpected. It is perhaps those unexpected life-turn that we need to pay more attention too. We lead very rigid and over scheduled lives and tend to fear any changes in our plans for we see a change of plans as a bad thing. But what if these unexpected turns wind up giving us what we desire most in life yet were afraid to even hope for, because we thought it impossible?
A child was born in a manger over 2000 years ago and unexpectedly brought joy, hope, compassion and healing to the world over. Let’s embrace the unexpected. Merry Christmas!
Homily Christmas 2021
For two years now we have been living with the pandemic and all the restrictions attached to it; washing our hands, keeping our distance, no handshakes, no hugs and so on. We had to get used to it and we did. One of those restrictions though, I had a hard time getting used to and still do- it is the wearing of the mask. Ofcourse, I understand, it is mainly through talking, singing, shouting, and coughing, that is through the mouth that the virus is spreading. But to be efficient, this mask has to cover not only the mouth but the chin and the bottom half of the nose. With this mask on, everyone has become a stranger to everyone else. That is the bad side of it. My best friend, my neighbour that I have known for over forty years, has suddenly become a stranger to me! On the other hand, as they say, every cloud has a silver lining for it is an ill wind that blows no one any good. I cannot help but think on this Christmas Day about Jesus behaviour with people, which He invites us to imitate: walking with them, listening to their pain, suffering and diseases, giving hope to all those who passed His way. Crucified, without any hope because of a devilish situation, He could still say to those being crucified with Him "Truly I tell you today you will be with me in Paradise". This is the reason why Christ was born, grew up and died for us. This is what Christmas is about and has always been about- Hope and Compassion. Merry Christmas to you all.
Homily
Dec. 19, 2021 Lk 1:39-45 Fourth Sunday of Advent
Today’s readings focus on the meaning of Christ’s coming rather than on the details of His birth which will be developed at length at Christmas. The first reading foretells the coming of an era of peace and the second one sets the main conditions for this coming: a religion of the heart. As examples of what a religion of the heart means, the Gospel presents to us two women, two cousins, Elizabeth and Mary, who happen to be both pregnant at the same time. The Gospel will present them to us as models of hope, belief and love. Models of hope, because like all mothers of the world, they hope that their sons will be normal, heathy and the pride of their parents. Models of belief also because in the Angel’s visit to Mary and in the unexpected pregnancy of Elizabeth, they acknowledge God’s presence. And models of love for even if she is pregnant herself, Mary will cross the mountains of Judea to tend to her cousin’s pregnancy.
Like Mary and Elizabeth, we too, Christians, have become people of hope, belief and love. Of hope because, far from being discouraged on account of the huge problems our societies have to face, we believe that it is possible to do better; of belief for whatever be the fight we have to do, we know that we are never alone; models of love because, as Christians, our privilege weapons are respect and fairness.
Our world is neither better nor worse than the one we come from and the one we enter into. The only difference between the then and now is the fact that today’s world is the one which God has given to us to live in; and that God is as present now in our empty Churches as He was in the filled to the brim ones of the past. Let us not be afraid then to face our world. God is with us. Amen
Homily
Dec. 12, 2021 Mk. 3:10-18
Third Sunday of Advent
In today’s Gospel, John the Baptist is presented as the forerunner of the Messiah to whom people go for answers. For they see him as the voice of God and expect him to tell them what they have to do to be saved.
To their question, John gives a triple answer: Share what you have, do not ask for more than you deserve and abstain from violence. A triple advice which has to do with daily life and shows that faith is first of all a question of self commitment. In our societies, we have thousands of plans, reports and suggestions written in hundreds of “white books” and covering fields of human activity. But these plans and suggestions will be of no avail if they are not based on personal honesty, eagerness to share and a general attitude of respect towards citizens. Values which ultimately are based on our Christian faith.
So let us pledge ourselves to act the way we ask everyone else to act: Let us strive to be honest, sharing, respectful, joyful, compassionate, calm, mild, benevolent and thoughtful. And let us ask God to make us able to discern what really matters from what does not. Doomsayers are wrong: humanity has a future. Let us ask God to become people of trust. Amen.
Homily
Dec. 5, 2021 Matthew 3:1-12
Second Sunday of Advent
“All flesh shall see the salvation of God…” It is this short sentence of today’s Liturgy which caught my attention this week. “All flesh” meaning every human being and the “salvation of God” always implies the universal peace, a peace which lasts only if grounded in justice and brotherhood.
For years in the world, the leaders of our planet have pronounced thousands of heartfelt speeches about the necessity of creating peace and controlling guns and weapons’ sales and use. Companies and institutions have endowed themselves with ethical codes and so on. And the results? On every level of society, and almost each week, endless accusations and lawsuits for fraud, cheating, embezzlement and so on. As if there were nothing to do but to resign and endure.
Should we still believe in a better world as the first reading seems to suggest? No, if put our expectations in an omnipotent Messiah coming from above and who would solve our problems.
But yes, if we roll up our sleeves and keep on doing what so many of you already do and do so well: spend time at your sick partner’s bedside, look for peace rather than for vengeance, welcome newcomers into our community, try again and again with young people, and so on. That kind of humble and daily service may look too small to be efficient. Like the see of the parable of our Lord talks about, which is small but produces a hundred per cent. Like our education you gave your children and whose results you see only years later.
A smack is showy and noisy while a handshake is quiet and most of the time goes unnoticed. But it always opens a door while the other one slams it shut. As the Psalm says “handshaking makes flourish righteousness” Amen.
Homily
Nov. 28, 2021 Lk 21:25-36 First Sunday of Advent
In the province of Quebec, the last sixty years have been a period of affluence that our ancestors and even our parents have never known. We never lived so long and so healthy. We never had so much information and so many possibilities of promotion as we have now. And yet, our daily conversations are haunted with an overall pessimism which poisons our lives. As if we have lost hope in the future. As if the end of the world would be coming soon. As if we were going to be the victims of the frightening calamities that our Lord speaks of in today’s Gospel. Is there something for us in these outdated predictions? Let us acknowledge first that calamities were never absent from history, every century has had it’s own, including ours. We just have to think about the endless wars we have been going through and the pandemic. But as frequent and awful as they may be, those calamities are not the focal point of Jesus’ speech. The focal point of His speech is that God watches over us and than, in the end, He will take us with Him. Consequently, as the Advent Liturgy rightly points out, we must not indulge in endless laments about the good old days forever gone, or about the emptiness of worldly things or to dream of paradise forever lost. The incoming four weeks will remind us that we don have to fear but to give a positive glance to all the wonderful efforts which are made for peace around us and roll up our sleeves to do our share. Fashions, opinions, theories, plans, projects even health pass away. But love, friendship, respect, attention, service never do, for they are forever. Amen.
Homily
Nov. 21, 2021 Jn 18: 33-37 Christ the King
It may appear strange to call Jesus of Nazareth, King. For this title hardly means anything nowadays and if it does, it is a negative one. Although some of us, who remember the second World War, may have kept, and rightly, a positive memory of the courage that the royal families of their countries showed at that time. But for the vast majority of us, a king has become a kind of ornamental flower pot who, from time to time, engages in long parades, wears strange clothes and sits in old fashioned carriages to visit us at our expense. They come, make speeches, shake a few hands and go back to their modest eighty-eight room castle. Such an image has hardly anything to do with our God. For our God is a man of the people, not born in a palace but in a small and unknown place. He preached during three years before being crucified for the wrong reasons. What kind of a relationship then can exist between the real Jesus and a King? This title attributed to Him by His disciples comes from the experience they went through after the resurrection. After having met their risen Lord and Master, it became obvious to them that He was not just the prophet they thought he was. To rise from the dead puts someone above the average level of humanity. And, at the time, the titles that seemed fit to express the new reality were the titles of King and Lord. Through this experience, they understood that our Lord was Himself the Lord of creation and the ultimate goal of human life. Through Him we know that the world did not come into existence by chance, that human beings are not accidentally born from the lucky encounter between blind molecules floating in the voids and that the human quest for happiness is not a sinister non-sense. On the contrary, we believe that an eternal life of happiness awaits us in the company of God and of all our fellow humans. The only thing which is asked from us in counter part is to answer God’s call in our daily lives. Let us then start walking now. For, with our God, it is never too late to start. Amen.