Dreamer

 

4^th Sunday of Advent

Cycle A

 

Are you a dreamer?

 

What are your dreams? We talk a lot about the American Dream. Is that what you want for you and your family? Success, money, possessions, the ability to make something of yourself? Do you have dreams for your children and grandchildren, that they have a life even better than yours? Have you lost your dreams? Are dreams only for the young? Has life sabotaged your dreams? Do you have dreams for eternal life, pondering and wondering what life in heaven will be like?

 

Joseph was a dreamer. Matthew records four dreams of Joseph. In his first dream, Joseph is told “do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins”. In his second dream, Joseph is told, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him”. In his third dream, Joseph is told, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead”. And in his fourth dream, Joseph is warned to go instead to Galilee rather than Judea.

 

Joseph had other dreams, probably very simple dreams. He probably had dreams of what his life with his new wife would be like. He was a worker, a businessman and a craftsman. He probably had dreams of what kind of life he could provide for his young family. But Joseph also had different kinds of dreams. In his dreams God spoke to him and asked for his obedience. They were clear communications from God, and they required a willing recipient. Joseph was open to the voice of God and listened in faith as that willing recipient.

 

We honor and revere St. Joseph as one of the greatest saints, and rightly so. First and foremost, he was great because of the choices he made in life. Today’s Gospel refers to him as a “righteous man” and as a man who “did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.” Therefore, his greatness is primarily on account of his moral righteousness and obedience to the will of God. We often reflect on Mary’s yes to God in the annunciation; Joseph was also given the choice to participate in God’s plan, even though he most likely didn’t understand exactly what that entailed. Like us in our lives, Joseph came to understanding gradually, through living every day in the presence of God Himself.

 

Joseph also responded with complete submission and full determination. The commands Joseph received were not insignificant. His obedience required that he and his family travel great distances, take up residence in strange lands, and do so all in faith.

 

It’s also clear that Joseph took his vocation seriously. Pope Saint John Paul II gave him the title “Guardian of the Redeemer.” Over and over, he showed his unwavering commitment to his role as the guardian of his legal Son, Jesus, and of his wife, Mary. His life was spent providing for them, protecting them and offering them a father’s heart.

 

In so many ways, Joseph was just like us. Unlike his son, he was not a great teacher, yet he taught the Son of Man how to read and write and to measure and use tools. He was not a miracle worker, yet he healed the cuts and scrapes when his little boy fell down. He did not preach, in fact, he speaks no words in all of scripture, yet he was the first witness to the Messiah when he named his son Jesus, God Saves His People.

 

We are all called to participate in God’s plan for our lives and for the salvation of the world. Like Joseph, we are called to do so by being obedient to God’s call in our everyday lives. Raising our families, supporting our children in their missions, being completely devoted to our spouses.

When Joseph doubted, God gave him a dream, and he trusted in it. When Joseph was afraid, God gave him a dream, and he trusted in it. When Joseph was unsure of what the future would bring and what he should do, God gave him a dream, and he trusted in it.

 

Be a dreamer. Dreams are good, if they follow the will of God. Even the American Dream can be good. Because dreams are all about hope. God has placed His dream within you. When you doubt, trust in the dream. When you are scared, trust in the dream. When the future is uncertain, trust in the dream.

 

Because His dream for you is eternal life.

 

He's Ready for You

 

1^st Sunday of Advent

Cycle A

As I get older, I tend to think about my mortality more than when I was younger. I think most of us do. There are more years behind us than ahead. Friends our age are dying. We’ve lost our parents and sometimes our siblings. Our bodies start failing us. Maybe we’ve gone through a serious illness. When we are young, we feel invincible. We don’t think about our own deaths. As average lifespans get longer, many young people are never touched by death. Grandparents are in their lives, healthy and active. Or they live far away, sight unseen.

Death is for the old. When a young person, especially a child, dies it is always seen as a tragedy. We have become desensitized by the violence and death we see in the media. Two whole generations have never lived through a major war. Death always seems to take us by surprise, and I think it is because we don’t think about it. We don’t want to think about it.

I have seen more and more people my age and older falling away from God, and it doesn’t make sense to me. I would think that as death is closer people would prepare for it, try to get closer to God and many do, but what must have happened in those other peoples’ lives to have caused them to either shut themselves off from the reality of God or even more common, to become indifferent to faith. I would think that now is the time to get ready for the inevitable, to make changes in my life to correct bad habits and atone for sins of the past, to make my peace with God and others while there’s still time.

I don’t think most of those folks are actively rejecting God or their faith, they just have lost interest. They are indifferent to faith, it has faded in importance, or life has beaten them down so much they have come to a fatalistic view of death. It will come, there’s nothing they can do about it, and after all, why should they worry about an afterlife? It either isn’t there or everyone will go to heaven. They don’t think there will be consequences for their actions.

The church teaches that there are three comings of Christ. The first is the actual incarnation in the person of Jesus of Nazareth 2000 years ago. The second is the final judgment, when Christ will come in all his glory to judge the living and the dead. The third is… today. That’s the coming that most affects us. We weren’t there 2000 years ago to witness the first coming, and we have no idea when he will come again in glory, nor can we control it. The only thing we can control is our acceptance of Jesus’ coming into our lives today.

 

If we take care of Christ’s third coming, the second coming will take care of itself. It is through the third coming that we are prepared for the second.

 

You have been preparing for today for the whole of your life. You have been preparing for your death from the day of your birth. You have been making ready for the coming of the Lord from the day you were baptized.

How ready are you? What have you done with the grace that God has given you throughout your life that has brought you to today? More importantly, what do you intend to do going forward? How will you respond to God’s call in the future?

It’s the first Sunday of Advent. New Years Day for us Catholics. The word Advent means coming, as in the coming of an event that has been anticipated. Today we begin the new liturgical year, and as you can see, the colors have changed to purple from green, we have our Advent wreath all set up and lit, and the gospel readings are from Matthew rather than from Luke. Of all four gospels, Matthew has the most references to God’s judgement, that it is a reality we need to prepare for.

 

Every year, as we prepare to celebrate and commemorate Jesus’ first coming at Christmas, the readings focus our minds and hearts on His second coming. And so, we are called to remember that there will be a judgement day, there will be a time when Jesus will come in glory to judge the living and the dead. And we need to prepare for it.

 

One will be taken; the other will be left behind. How many times have we and a friend been at an event, or heard a homily or listened to a talk, or read a book or an article, and one of us gets it and the other one doesn’t? Many times, our understanding of these things is due to our openness to the message, our level of commitment to it, or our level of knowledge about the subject. It’s the same with the gospel. We are all here this morning celebrating together, hearing the same scriptures and saying the same prayers. Who will be taken and who will be left behind? Which of us will acknowledge Jesus’ coming into our lives this day and which of us won’t? And which of us will use that knowledge to change our lives in preparation?

 

The Son of Man will come when you least expect him. When you don’t think he’ll show up. When you don’t want him to show up. When you think everything’s going just fine and you don’t need him. When you don’t have time for him in your busy lives. He has a habit of just showing up, uninvited, at the weirdest times.

 

Those are times of opportunity. The beauty of the gospel is that you can accept it at any time in your life. Even if you haven’t exactly been a saint, and few have, you always have the chance to choose God. Whether you recognize or acknowledge it or not, God has always been there, calling you to him. Even at the very last moment of your life, if you’re finally ready, He’ll be ready for you.

It's Not How You Start, It's How You Finish

 

29^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle C

Ex 17:8-13

2 Tim 3:14-4:2

Lk 18:1-8

 

Jim Redmond died three years ago this month at the age of 81. You probably don’t remember him, but he was the father of Derek Redmond, the British sprinter who tore his hamstring in the 400 meter qualifying race in the 1992 Olympics. Upon Jim’s death the media ran clips again of that emotional moment in Barcelona when Derek pulled up limping early in the race. He fell to the ground and writhed in pain, but what was really excruciating to see was the agony in his face, the crushing disappointment that all those years of struggle, pain, training and preparation had come crashing down in an instant. He would not fulfill his dream of an Olympic medal after all.

 

Derek could have just laid there, but he struggled to his feet and began limping around the track. That determination to finish would in and of itself have been an heroic example of drive and perseverance, but suddenly a middle aged man came running onto the track. It was his father, Jim, who ran up behind his son, put his arm around him, and helped him limp along towards the finish line. You can imagine he had been there throughout his son’s entire track career, from high school through college, sacrificing alongside Derek, supporting him in his goal of winning Olympic gold. But for Jim it was more than just disappointment. Like any loving father he also felt the pain of his son’s agony. Like any good father he needed to be there to console his son, but even moreso, to continue to support him in the face of disaster. Jim could have told his son to stop, to make the pain go away, to give up. But instead he put his arm around him as he wept and they limped down the track together.

 

Several officials tried to stop him, because helping Derek would disqualify him from the race. Jim kept pushing them away. It was not just Derek’s race; it was Jim’s as well. It didn’t matter if they were disqualified. They had to finish. That was all that mattered. They had started this race years ago together and they had to finish it together. Jim had been there to celebrate all of Derek’s wins, now he was there also at the lowest point in his life. All you heard Jim say was “He’s my son, he’s my son.”

 

Derek never competed effectively again, and if he had won that race you probably would not remember his name today. But his heroic drive to finish, his persistence in the face of terrible disappointment and pain, made his performance, and his father’s actions that day, immortal. So much so that 30 years later his father was remembered for it on the day he died, and the inspiration millions of people have received from that moment in time is his legacy.

 

It’s not how you start that matters, it’s how you finish.

 

Excellence in anything requires hard work, sacrifice, preparation and practice. We believe this, it’s in our DNA. We have something deep within us that drives us and inspires us to win. It’s more than just a competitive spirit; when we have a worthy goal or purpose we can achieve amazing, unbelievable, heroic results. We see it in all areas of our lives, in sports, in our work, in our relationships, and we idolize our heroes who reach the pinnacle of their dreams, especially if they have had to overcome overwhelming obstacles.

 

There’s a reason why that drive is so much a part of human nature. It’s not just so we can succeed in our earthly goals. God put that drive in us to help us achieve the ultimate goal in life of our own salvation. Never, ever, ever give up on your faith. All other endeavors pale in comparison. Never cease to pray, to study, to train, to practice your faith. It doesn’t matter what setbacks you encounter in life. Keep your eye on the goal and persevere to the end. It’s all about finishing the race.

 

When Jesus told the disciples how difficult it is to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, they threw up their hands in frustration and asked, “Then can anyone be saved?” Jesus gives us the key today. Be persistent in your prayer to the point of annoyance. Pray always and everywhere, pray constantly, make your entire life a prayer, never stop asking your Father for what you need, never stop praising him, never stop asking for forgiveness, never stop thanking him for his mercy. Never stop serving others. Never cease to love.

 

And if you tire, get your friends to help you. Like Moses in our first reading, when you just can’t keep doing it, when the battle seems lost, when there is no hope, surround yourself with people who will hold up your hands for you and keep you steady. Stay faithful together around the common goal and help each other get to heaven. Help each other be faithful. Faith cannot be experienced or lived outside of a community of believers. One person is not an army. Just as top athletes require coaching and support from others, you cannot be saved alone.

If we are truly to live the Kingdom of God, our faith cannot be something we just think about on Sundays or when we sit down at the dinner table. Our awareness of the presence of God must be foremost in our thoughts and in our actions. And so often it is the simple, mundane actions of our lives that can be the most heroic.

We usually expect that sort of devotion from our priests, don’t we? I mean, it’s their job, right? But they have the same busy lives as we do, they are pulled in so many different directions, they get tired and frustrated, too. Do we hold ourselves to the same standards? It’s inconvenient to drop everything to be by the side of a sick friend. Do it anyway. It’s hard to tear yourself away from your computer to listen to your teenager complain about what her friends did to her that day at school. Do it anyway. Never cease to do good. Never take your eye off of the people around you. Anticipate their needs. Never expect anything in return. Forgive one another constantly. Never hold back your love because you are not shown love in return. Never say it’s someone else’s job to care. It’s yours. Never rest on your laurels. Never give up on God because He has never and will never give up on you.

 

Don’t worry if it will be enough. It will never be enough. And yet it will always be enough.

Image Jesus Christ who was persistent until the very end, giving his last ounce of strength and last drop of blood for your redemption. Even on the cross, he forgave those who were torturing him. Even if you run the race poorly you can finish well. He promised paradise to a criminal who at the very last moments of his life repented of his sins. Victory is yours for the taking if you never give up.

 

The story of Jim Redmond is a perfect metaphor for God. God is with us throughout our entire race. He coaches us, guides us, inspires us, and admonishes us. He rejoices with us in our victories and shares in our deepest disappointments and suffering. God doesn’t care how many times we fall and fail. He is there to pick us up from the ground, put his arm around us and limp along with us to the finish line.

 

Like any good father would do.