This is the story for those who miss the point. (This homily series rarely repeats itself but there is only one story that should be told on this festival, and that is the magical story of Babuksa)
Jan 1: Mary, Mother of God and New Year
Dear Friend,
One of our traditional invocations when we want to wish people well is to say ‘God bless you’. A Blessing implies finding favour with God.
New Year
1. Did you know that New Year's Day is the one holiday that is almost universal? It is the world's most observed holiday.
I trust you've made your New Year's resolutions one of which is to be in worship each week. Well done for this first Sunday. I won't ask you if you've resolved to lose the weight you gained between Thanksgiving and Christmas, or if you're planning on joining a health club, or if you're going to run five miles a day. Five miles, by the way, is my total aggregate of a lifetime of running.
Holy Family - Dec 27
The first reading reminds us of duties of children towards their parents, the duty of respecting and obeying parents, authority that stands in the place of God. As people under authority we sometimes like to question our superiors and their decisions, we feel we know better and perhaps we do. Jesus the son of God was the obedient son of Mary and Joseph. He was the obedient son of God. “My food is to do the will of my Father in Heaven”. In these days when authority is questioned there is still place for obedience in our lives.
Christmas 2020
In the first reading the prophet Isaiah prophesies that the northern kingdom of Israel, which had been destroyed would be liberated and its inhabitants would be set free when the Messiah comes. But their liberator would not be a mighty warrior but a little child. God’s ways are not our ways! This little child is God’s answer to man’s needs. A surprising answer but full of promise; this child has many titles foremost among them will be ‘Prince of Peace’.
4th Sunday Advent B - Annunciation
In today’s Gospel, God begins the “Christ event” with Mary, a simple Jewish girl who is at the very bottom of her people’s social ladder; the God who created all things makes the fulfillment of his promise dependent upon one of the most dispossessed and powerless of his creatures. Yet God exalts her humility, her simplicity, her trust in his love and mercy. God’s “favor” belongs the poor, the rejected, the abandoned and the forgotten among us today.
Advent 3 B Sunday - Gaudate - Rejoice
1. From Fr. Tony Kadavil:
1: “Have You Ever Heard John Preach?” As Rev. Fred Craddock once asked, “Have You Ever Heard John Preach?” John the Baptizer was easily the most famous preacher of his generation. The historian Josephus once wrote that in his estimation, this man John was a vastly more important and impressive figure than his cousin Jesus.
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