Christmas 2023

As preached by Brother Christopher
Holy Wisdom Church

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.” Gal 4:4

 

 

Christmas is such a blend of powerful stories that have the potential to renew us. In Luke’s presentation of the incarnation which we heard last evening, the angel announces to the shepherds, “I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior is born to you, the Messiah, the Lord...” Truly this is good news, news we have waited for during the entire pre-Christmas season. Yet with every Christmas there is always the temptation to reduce its mystery to a historical event long past, one that makes us feel sentimental and nostalgic but misses its real significance for this present hour. Today Christ is born, born anew in our hearts if we allow the mystery to be rekindled again. This is what we do at liturgy. Part of what makes the liturgical year so engaging is its unique ability – year after year – to re-open the mysteries of our faith at ever deeper levels, allowing us to become contemporaneous with them, knowing them from the inside, from the heart, and in the process, continuing to grow and change. We get to become Christ bearers, not only to each other, but to a world that is in desperate need of Christ’s presence.

          For this is the longing of every human heart, which is highlighted in this morning’s gospel from Matthew. We can easily imagine the Magi, symbolizing the entire Gentile world, traveling miles and miles over desert sands responding to that inner yearning. They travel principally at night, by faith, doggedly following the star that illumines their path. For this was no ordinary star; as St John Chrysostom observes, ‘no other star has this capacity to guide, not merely to move but to beckon, to go before them, drawing them and guiding them along their way, first to Jerusalem where they learn of the biblical prophecy, then on to Bethlehem, directly over the place where the child is to be found. There, in the most ordinary of circumstances, they find Jesus with his mother Mary and significantly, they immediately prostrate themselves and do him homage. They prostrate on behalf of the whole Gentile world, all those who are not part of Israel. Here, at the very beginning of the Gospel we see the tearing down of the dividing walls between races and cultures. This Messiah, the true King of the Jews, is God’s revelation to the entire world and from an eschatological perspective, it is already being realized.

          These stories are formative, having shaped our identity as Church and as individual believers. The fact that they have been retold so often over the centuries points to their power, and their potential to transform us. But only if we allow them to speak to our hearts. Can we find ourselves in these stories? Can we feel the joy of the Magi as they see the star long-guiding them reappear after their meeting with Herod? Can we know the awe they experienced as they gazed on the newborn Jesus with his mother? Can we, just like them prostrate before the newborn child and offer him our lives? Finally, can we feel Mary’s continued bewilderment and awe at the infant nursing at her breast, the one who just as surely holds the universe in the palm of his hand?

These stories are the very antithesis of anything nostalgic or sentimental. They seek to be living and active in us, agents of transformation that bring us into ever deeper relationship with the mystery that reveals itself this day. Let us use this feast as a launching point for the renewal that God seeks to inspire in our lives and in our world.  Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

 

 

 

Homily: Luke 11:1-13, December 10, 2023

 As preached by Sister Rebecca

Holy Wisdom Church

In today’s Gospel, Luke writes about the disciples who are asking Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.” Implicit in that request is their admission that there are things that they don’t understand about prayer. I wonder if the disciples, while observing Jesus in prayer, were drawn to imitate him.

 

Jesus responds:  When you pray, say “Our Father in heaven,” meaning that God is infinite, mysterious, and beyond human comprehension. Yet, this transcendence of God doesn’t mean that God is remote or unknowable. C. S. Lewis writes that as humans we need “limping metaphors” to express our relationship with God in his “magnetic mercy” which draws us to himself. There is no need to stress or strain, to grope in the darkness, for God has created us; he is near to each one of us, as close as breath itself. Jesus indicates that God is not only “in heaven” but is also near and dear as a loving father to every person. God is infinite, yes, but he’s also intimate. And so, of the first two words of the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father,” Paul says the same thing in the Epistle to the Romans. We shouldn’t relate to God as a slave who fears a master, but as a child who feels safe with a parent: “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:6). “Abba,” the Aramaic word that Jesus used, means something like “Papa.” The word is used only three times in the New Testament, and it conveys a startling sense of human intimacy with the divine Infinite. It was a word that little children first learning to speak used for their father, and that Jesus himself used to pray to God in the Garden of Gethsemane.

 

Because God is like a tender loving father, Jesus invites us to pray, to keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking, he tells us. “And when a child asks for food, like a fish or an egg, no parent would ever give him a poisonous snake or scorpion. How much more will God give good gifts to his children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask?” says Jesus.

 

So prayer at its deepest level is not about getting something, solving a problem, or resolving issues. Rather, all prayer is a radical receptivity to the Holy Spirit, which itself is inspired by that same Holy Spirit! We will come to know that it is God who creates within us the desire to pray for whatever we need or want. But we need to surrender to the Divine Spirit, letting go of our small minds, and embracing contemplative practice.

It is here that we experience moments of awe and wonder.  Returning to Jesus’ prayer to the Father: “hallowed be your name”: the word “to hallow” is in old English term for “to sanctify,” to make holy, sacred. When we experience moments of awe, we are allowing God to be hallowed in us—and in the midst of this sacred presence we know we are forgiven and loved unconditionally.  At the same time, all is forgiven. We hold no grudges, negativity toward others or any of creation. This is a sheer gift of the Spirit.  But in order to live in this sacred atmosphere we need daily nourishment—not just for our bodies, but soul food—the manna.  This bread is received in many ways, especially in the Eucharist, but is available also whenever we need it. It comes in many forms: grace, guidance, trust, consolation, moments of enlightenment, friendships, loving kindness. This latter, in unexpected ways: a smile, someone holding a door for us when we happen to need it, and even in little silly ways that bring a bit of humor into our frustrations:  What comes to my mind right now: I was shopping at Hannaford and picked up a little netted bag of tomatoes.  As I was pushing my cart down an aisle, several little tomatoes escaped through a hole in the net, and they went sailing down the aisle!  I was very worried someone might step on one, slide, and fall! As I went after them a tall, lanky 16-year-old came from behind me, looked at the tomatoes rolling down the aisle, turned to me and said: “Lady! That sucks!” And I couldn’t help laughing.  Small stuff! But many such things like this can cut through our over-seriousness and worry.

In the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, there’s a story about Macarius the Great (born c. 300), a former camel driver. One day someone asked him how to pray. “There is no need at all to make long discourses,” he advised. “It is enough to stretch out one’s hands and say, ‘Lord, as you will, and as you know, have mercy.’ And if the conflict grows fiercer say, ‘Lord, help!’ He knows very well what we need and he shows us his mercy.”

 

“Western culture today and in our times presents us with an incredible challenge: it tends to be an extroverted culture and a ‘can-do’ culture.  Prayer too easily has become an attempt to change God and aggrandize ourselves instead of what it was meant to be—an interior practice to change the one who is praying.  This interior transformation will happen if we sit calmly before this uncanny and utterly safe Presence, and allow the Divine Gaze to invade and heal our unconscious, the place where 95 percent of our motivations and mindless reactions come from.”  (Paraphrased from a quote by Fr. Richard Rohr.)

We need to stand back:  go to that space of loving Presence, be open to God’s gaze and return the gaze.  Then, as Meister Eckhart so perfectly said, “the eye with which we look back at God will be the same eye that first looked at us.”  We just complete the circuit!

I’d like to end these reflections with a poem by Edwina Gateley, entitled “Silent Prayer.”

This is my prayer—

That, though I may not see,

I be aware

Of the Silent God

Who stands by me.

That, though I may not feel, I be aware

Of the Mighty Love

 Which doggedly follows me.

That, though I may not respond,

I be aware

That God—my Silent, Mighty God,

Waits each day.

Quietly, hopefully, persistently.

Waits each day and through each night

For me.

For me—alone. 

Sermon 193 December 17, 2023: Dn 14:31-42; Col 3:2-9; LK 13:18-30 Three Youths

As preached by Brother Luke
Holy Wisdom Church


In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

What do a walk in the woods, a gaze into the night sky, peering into a microscope, and a flight across the ocean all have in common? The wonder of how small one human being is next to the vastness of God's creation. What does the Psalmist ask? "What are mere mortals that you should even think of them?" [Ps 8:4] And yet, Christ's mission is to remind us just how much God loves his creation. How much God wants us to grow into the loving and compassionate people that Christ is modeling for us. If we manage that, what is its fruit? I think this morning's gospel lesson gives us a clue.

Something small has within itself what it takes to become something large, even beyond imagining. What is the Kingdom of God like? A mustard seed, a measure of yeast? That is what God has planted in our hearts. That's where the kingdom of heaven starts. But it needs to be nourished to grow.  How we do that will begin to give us a glimpse of what the Kingdom of God is like. One thing we can say for sure at this stage is that it is bigger and more awesome than anything we might imagine.

Contemplating the night sky and the cosmos it unveils, always stirs up both wonder and tension. The tension is one's inability to truly grasp the nexus of time and space with the infinite. We live bounded by our experience of finitude. What we touch, what we see, what we hear starts and stops. But God is beyond such boundaries. And so is the Kingdom of God. But we can at least begin to imagine what the boundless possibilities are.

Our life on this earth is like the mustard seed planted in the ground. It begins to grow and it pokes it tender first shoots out of the ground into the air to meet the rays of the sun. The nutrients in the ground and the energy from the sun are both required for the plant to grow and meet its full potential. The ancients thought of the sun as a god, and in Christian thought we often refer to Christ as the Sun of Justice, particularly at Christmas time.  This Sun of Justice is bringing us a message from the God beyond our bounded horizon, a message we need to pay attention to if we are to grow to our fullest potential.

So what is that message? St Paul reminds the Colossians that now their "life is hidden with Christ in God [3:3] so they "must get rid of ... : anger, passion, and hateful thoughts." [3:8]. And St Matthew recounts Christ's description of Judgment Day, which has echos in this gospel passage: I don't know you if you forget to help those in need, the poor, widows, prisoners, marginalized. For in the Kingdom of heaven everyone without exception lives by the two great commandments; to love God and to love your neighbor.

How is that working in our world today? We can find many examples of people doing just that, however, we also continue to see some of the worst examples of human folly, especially the wars we continue to inflict on each other for purposes that are far removed from God. By so doing, we forsake heaven and create hell. Which is why following Christ along the narrow path is essential to bring about a glimpse of heaven on earth and prepare is us to be co-creators of heaven here and beyond. And if we seek divine help we will discover as did Daniel: "You have kept me in mind, O God; you have not deserted those who love you." [14:38]

Glory be to Jesus Christ!

Sermon 192 November 12, 2023: Hos 10:2-8, 11-12; 2Cor 9:6-11; LK 7:36-50 Magdalene: Gratitude

As preached by Brother Luke

Holy Wisdom Church 

In the name of the Father and of the Sone and of the Holy Spirit. 

     Party crashers can be so annoying! They are unexpected. They stress out the host and guests alike. The mind goes wild. One wonders what are they going to do to upset well-laid plans? How can we get them out as quickly as possible? If they really disrupt things will we have to face the authorities? And the worries go on and on. And of course, they weren't invited for a reason, they are most like very unsavory characters! 

    To catastrophize is so easy to do. It is a thin line between strategize, that is preparing for future eventualities, and catastrophize, imagining the worst. However, for Simon the Pharisee, aka Simon the Leper, the host of the dinner party for Jesus, his failing was not to catastrophize but to criticize, not so much the behavior of the uninvited guest, but Jesus' response to her. For Simon, she was who she was and Jesus should have known better. "If he were really a prophet he would know what kind of a person she was." 

     We humans tend to put people in boxes and leave them there. Jesus, however, is always showing us another way. In today's gospel lesson, Mary is our party crasher. In so many of Jesus' encounters with people in need, he goes to them, or meets them in an apparent chance encounter, under a tree, by a pool, on the road, by a well, and then responds to their requests. But something different happens here. Mary goes to him. She intentionally seeks out Jesus, but asks for nothing. Instead, she pours out her heart to him, not in words but rather in gestures. She doesn't have to say anything. She weeps on his feet and then dries them with her hair. She kisses his feet, then pours expensive perfume on them. 

    Jesus is always reminding us, by word and deed, of the two greatest commandments: love God and love your neighbor. How we do this varies from person to person and from circumstance to circumstance. This dramatic story is designed to get our attention, to magnify the underlying message. But we can't love our neighbor if we only love the neighbor who behaves according to the rules or conventions that we prefer. There can be no litmus test for love. No qualifying formula. 

     And Jesus' response to this love shown him by Mary, is to assure her that her sins, those actions she now regrets and wants to leave behind, are forgiven. They are forgiven not only by his word but by her faith that drew her to him and led her to show her love for the one who can save her. And her sins may have been great in her mind and in the opinion of those who knew her, but they could not prevent her from receiving the forgiving love of God. Her demonstration of love toward Jesus in advance of hearing the word from Christ, was a sign of gratefulness to him for being received and not being rejected. The world may well reject her, as did Simon, but God is not like us and sees to the core of the person where the true self created by God is still available to be uncovered and released. 

    By contrast, the Pharisee, Simon the leper, had been cured of his disease by Jesus, and yet his attitude toward Jesus remained restrained and skeptical. He did not show even the simplest gestures of love on greeting Jesus. And he questions whether Jesus is really a prophet at all, much less the Son of God. 

    Jesus knows Simon's thoughts, but in his response, Jesus is not angling for praise and recognition, he doesn't need that. Rather, he is demonstrating to Simon, and to us, what God's love really looks like. It comes without precondition and it looks beyond our many failings. And when our hearts and minds finally absorb the enormity of that reality, love can burst forth from us just as it did from Mary Magdalene. And the more often that happens, the more widely the healing impact of God's love will spread throughout the world. And how glorious will be the praise we and all God's creation will sing in thanksgiving and adoration! 

Glory be to Jesus Christ!

Sermon 191 October 4, 2023: Tb 4:5-11; 16-20; 1Cor 1:26-31; Mt 11:25-30 “St Francis”

 As preached by Brother Luke

Holy Wisdom Church

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit! Frenchie. 

That’s our boy. St Francis. If you want to read an entertaining book about St Francis and learn why he got that name, read Julien Green’s biography of St Francis. Giovanni was his baptismal name. His father, Pietro di Bernardone, was a cloth merchant and land owner. He was also a great enthusiast for things French. He made frequent trips to France to buy cloth and Giovanni would go with him. Consequently, his son also became a great fan of things French: food, songs, clothes, the people. Wherever he went it was not unusual for him to break out into song, French chansons. He was a playboy and he was known as Frenchie, that is, Francis. But our playboy had a conversion experience that changed his life and the lives of many others. And that is where today’s scripture lessons meet the new Francis. 

 Jesus thanks his father for hiding God’s words of life from the learned and clever but revealing them to children. This passage is telling us that to receive this message requires openness. A child’s openness. We are all children of God. But all to quickly we can lose our childlike openness and sense of wonder as we gradually grow into the adult molded by our experiences and society. We become learned and clever but we forget how to really listen for God’s messages. A little child has no agenda, lives by relying on others and takes in new information without the filters of adult experience. But God can break through the barriers we have erected and that is what happened to Francis. But then Francis had to drop the facades and revert to that child-like openness to let Christ in. And he did. How? 

 This is where the image of the yoke appears. A yoke is for two not just one animal. A yoke of oxen is two oxen. So, when Jesus says my yoke is easy and my burden is light, he is telling us this because when we take on his yoke, we are yoked to Christ. We are saying not only that we need him, but that we want him to be with us, in us, as we live life with him. As St Paul says, “not I who lives but Christ in me.” 

 And isn’t that how Francis lived his life after his conversion experience? In Tobit we read the counsel given to him and can see this as exactly what St Francis lived. “Remember the Lord your God all your days.” “Live uprightly… Do not turn your face away from any poor man… Give of your bread to the hungry… Give all your surplus to charity… Bless the Lord on every occasion…” This captures St. Francis’ heart perfectly. 

St Paul says to the Corinthians: “God made [Christ Jesus] our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” This happens for us only if we are active participants. And here is where the story of St Francis becomes the message for us. St Francis strove to embody Christ and to live faithfully the message. It doesn’t mean we all join the Franciscans. It means living with the assurance that Christ is with us in everything. Does it mean smooth sailing at all times? No. Was it for St Francis? Hardly. He had to manage a growing community, juggle the human reality of his followers, negotiate with a skeptical Vatican to get recognition for is order, balance the diverse views of what his community should look like, all the while preaching the message of Christ far and wide, and ultimately letting go of the reins of leadership to let his order evolve according to God’s plan. 

He did not deviate from his belief in the sanctity of his mission or in the final authority of the church. He dared to engage with the competitive faith of the Muslims and ventured into the heart of Islam in Egypt during the Crusades, to attempt to convince the Sultan to become Christian. The purity of his intensions safeguarded him even in danger. His sincerity was never in doubt. He truly “put on Christ” in all he did and was marked by the wounds of Christ’s passion. 

He set the bar high for us lesser mortals, but the model can be lived at different levels. Take Christ’s words and deeds seriously, be guided by them in all you do and trust that the ultimate outcome is a blessing for a life lived for Christ’s sake. 

Glory be to Jesus Christ! 

Cure of the Demoniac and St Peter’s Mother

 As preached by Sister Cecelia
Holy Wisdom Church

Oct 8^th 2023

ISAIAH  43: 15-21, 44:1-5, 1CORINTHIANS 15: 20-26, 35-38, LUKE 4: 31-39

A writer of spirituality who also preached, once wrote that the definition he found in the Oxford English Dictionary to preach was: “to give moral advice in an obtrusive way.” He commented; “No wonder people do not want to hear them.” To obtrude is to offer or force ideas upon others without being asked.

Hopefully our homilies would not be defined that way. Our aim here at NS is to reflect ourselves on what the words of scripture might mean for ourselves and then perhaps to share it with others. To break open the words of scripture as frequently they are not too easy to understand.

 One way of looking at Scripture is that the words envelope or clothe a truth or a mystery and there are indeed many layers in understanding the core value contained therein. Often one layer of clothing after another needs to be removed to get to the ultimate meaning. The initial understanding can be quite different than the ultimate understanding.

According to the gospel of Luke, the healing of the demoniac and Peter’s mother-in-law were some of the earliest healings that Jesus did. The people were amazed and in awe of Jesus’ words and actions and they spread the news so that a great many brought their sick to be healed. Peter’s mother – in – law rose up on being healed and set about to serve others- a lesson we can ponder on hoe do we serve.

In this morning’s epistle, St Paul writing to the Corinthians, assured them that Christ had truly risen as we will also rise. Then people asked what kind of body will each of us have?  In earlier times it was thought that the body left the soul completely and the soul then joined again with God. Another thought we are still individuals joining God as a body/soul being, being able to accept the mystery of how that could be. While Jesus rose body and soul, and was seen, the body was somehow different than it had been when Jesus walked this earth.

Paul was impatient with the questions about what kind of body, if any, when we died, but led them to realize the body is like a seed that must fall into the ground to sprout and come to life.

 What kind of lives will we have?  Do we take time to reflect on whether we are reacting to life or are we responding to it? If we are reacting, what is behind our reactions? If responding, what enables us to do so? Reflecting, contemplation, breaks us open to ourselves. The fruit of contemplation is self- knowledge, not self -justification.  When we see ourselves as we really are, we will not be so quick to condemn another. Rather we will seek to console, rather than be consoled. The prayer of St. Francis mentioned by Br Luke on Wed. will become our prayer as well. We will come to understand that kindness, compassion, understanding and accepting of the other is the mark of holiness we can aspire to. It is the seed that has fallen into the ground and can grow daily.

Be encouraged by remembering Jesus promise to send a paraclete: an advocate, an encourager, a friend, someone who is at our side, someone who sees our troubles and works with us to improve situations. We are not alone!

Christ is in our Midst!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

go

August 20, 2023 Wisdom 13:1-13, Romans 14:13-23, Matthew 16:1-12

As preached by Sister Cecelia
Holy Wisdom Church

Early peoples were so impressed with creation that they made gods out of what had been created: fire, wind, water, sun, and moon among a host of others. God’s imagination has created creatures that run, walk, swim, slither, waddle, hop, and fly. We witness on this earth profuse expressions of our God creating life. That is why Scripture summarizes the wonder of God’s creation with these simple words: God is Love.

To be fashioned in the image of God, as Scripture says, means that we are gifted with this potential. We are not merely consumers; we are life-giving creators. We can create peace and justice. We can create connections between diverse peoples. We can create art and music. We can plant, grow, and cultivate life.

Metanoia, conversion, is an ancient concept. Early seekers went to the desert to escape the spiritual aridity of the cities, the lack of love within these cities. Their “flight from the world,” and their separation from the systems and corrupted values that drove the world around them, was fundamental to the conversion of seeking purity of heart and single-mindedness in their contemplation and search for this God of love.

Changing the way we go about the externals of life is not all that difficult. Real change is changing the way we look at life. That is the stuff of conversion. Monastic life is very helpful, but any kind of community living can be beneficial to our conversion.

We do not need to leave where we are in order to contemplate God. Jesus—the healer, the prophet, the teacher—was surely contemplative as he walked the dusty roads of Galilee surrounded by the sick, the children, the disciples, and crowds of the committed and the curious.

“Flight from the world” is not about leaving any specific location. It is about shedding one set of attitudes, one kind of consciousness for another. We need a different state of mind. We have to be in our workplace with the good of the whole world in mind. We have to be in the home with the good of those we live with as our first concern. Is that self-denial? Perhaps. Jesus does tell us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him. It means denying our false self. The true self recognizes who I am in relation to God. Losing my life means surrendering day after day.

Love then is not just a warm fuzzy feeling. It is a mindset, an approach, a behavior, a decision, a choice. It means opting to treat others well and to do right by them out of an open-minded, open-hearted, and open-handed spirit of goodwill.

What makes prayer and the contemplative inner life so compelling is that it is a progressive initiation into a mystery that has been unfolding throughout the ages and in our own life span. The mystery is such that it can never be taken in fully at once. It takes patience, as it is revealed more and more through time, expanding its scope, through the Spirit helping us to see and perceive how limitless is the love that draws all creation into the very life of God. 

Nothing is forever. Change happens. Learning to live in the now, realizing the value of the present makes for a fullness of life. 

Christ is in our midst!