An example for all

Teach us how to see past the stuff that our eyes show us.  This is what happens when we are really in love.  Who better to demonstrate this truth than the two children who have recently been awareded the 2012 Sports Illustrated Sports Kid of the Year award.

Check it out for yourself:

For His baptism

In the end, a new beginning

Today, the Church celebrates the Baptism of the Lord.  With this liturgical feast, we mark the end of the Christmas season.  At the end of the calendar year, we may have looked backward at the year gone by, and set resolutions for ourselves for this new calendar year.  Similarly, at the end of the Christmas season, we can look back at the past couple of weeks to consider some of the gifts we have received during this time, and to resolve to use them wisely in the year that lies ahead.

The feasts of the Nativity; the Holy Innocents; the Holy Family; the Epiphany; Mary, the Mother of God and the Baptism of the Lord are all different dimensions of the same mystery, so during the Season of Christmas, we contemplate (as through from different angles) the great gift of grace that was given to us when God came to earth to live among us.  Because we have heard the story of the nativity so often, it is perhaps easy for us to associate these liturgical feasts: contemplating the crèche, we see there the holy family, the mother of God, and the visits of the shepherds and of the Magi to the newborn child, but scripture tells us that Jesus was baptised as an adult, so this last part of the Christmas season might strike us as a bit out of sorts.

In truth, birth and baptism are celebrations which belong together.  In the waters of the Jordan, Jesus was spiritually born, just as we are sacramentally born at baptism.  In a sense, you might say that at his nativity he was physically born, but at his baptism he was born in mystery, and so are we.  When Christ was born in Bethlehem, his mother held him close to her heart, but when he was born in mystery, God the Father embraced him, just as we too are embraced by divine love for the first time at our baptism, and the voice of the Father called out: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.  These are mysterious words which speak of heavenly tenderness.  They speak of a truth that we discover not at the level of reason, but rather at the level of faith.

Baptism is the first of all the Sacraments celebrated by the Church: a new beginning for every one of the Lord’s beloved.  Attempting to instruct his own apostle Titus so that he would understand the significance of baptism, Saint Paul told him that (in Christ) the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to live upright and godly lives while we wait in hope of witnessing the great glory of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  This grace of Christ is a free gift given to all the baptised.  By grace, we learn to see and to appreciate the gifts of God: gifts which have been spoken of since the time of Isaiah the prophet. 

Isaiah foretold God’s desire to comfort his beloved and to establish a relationship of tenderness with his beloved children.  The sign of this approaching gift, according to the prophet was that a voice would cry in the wilderness and urge us to prepare the way of the Lord.  So it was that the day arrived when John and Jesus met in the waters of the Jordan.  John knew that he himself was not the Messiah but I wonder whether he realized that his kinsman Jesus was the one for whom this honour was reserved.  According to the written account, when they met that day, John was hesitant to continue.  Perhaps by grace and faith he had already come to believe that before him was the one who was and is the author of all grace.  Because of his faith, perhaps he witnessed the voice calling from heaven that day: This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.  This same acclamation is sung when we bring a child (or an adult) to the font, although it is only through the ears of faith that we can hear such a song.

As we see the unfolding of this new beginning in Jesus’ life, we might be wise to take this opportunity, not only to be aware of the graces we have been given throughout this Christmas season, but to think for a moment about the ways in which we use these gifts to share the good news of our Savior’s presence with those we meet.

In your bulletins today, you will find a short ‘report’ of sorts about the work that is being accomplished by the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, thanks to our involvement and commitment to proclaiming Jesus’ love to those in our world who are most in need.

Another example of putting our faith into action was introduced in this Diocese almost twenty years ago, when we participated in the RENEW process.  Some of us may remember that experience.  It was perhaps the first time that we had been introduced to the concept of talking about our faith.  After all, Catholics have traditionally not been strong on this kind of conversation.  Yet for us, this was another new beginning.

When the current Year of Faith comes to a close at the beginning of the Advent season next November, parishes in our diocese will begin to experience one of its fruits, for we have been invited to participate in a new phase of the RENEW process, known as Arise together in Christ!  In the coming months, we will hear more about how this experience will unfold, but I can tell you already that from what I’ve seen, it holds great promise for the deepening of faith and heightening the awareness of the graces and gifts given to the Lord’s beloved children at baptism.

After the battle

Funeral homily for Gene Duquette

Yesterday afternoon, I visited with Gene’s children and some of his siblings at the Funeral Home.  Those first moments of gathering are often filled with emotion, so it’s important that we take a moment to recognize that God is present, and we did stop for just a moment to thank Him for the gift of Gene’s life, and to ask him to be near to Gene’s family as they prepared to welcome friends who would come to visit throughout the afternoon and evening.

There was a video display set up in the room.  As we prayed, and then stood and watched, pictures from various moments in Gene’s life were flashed upon the screen.  Memories of times spent helping with the construction of family cottages combined with images of Gene and Pauline’s wedding day – they were only 18 years old then.  There were images of their four children and of their grandchildren as the various milestones of Gene’s life were recalled.  These were moments of celebration; these were moments of relaxation; these were moments which have been treasured, and which should be remembered for years to come.  These were the experiences which have knit this family together, and made you into the people that you have become.

As the images continued, stories were recounted: stories of his dedication to his family, stories of his never-ending energy and willingness to lend a hand to anyone in need, stories of his many hours of pleasure spent with his children, his grandchildren and his great-grandchildren.  Gene spent the better part of 50 years devoting his life to his work, and he spent the better part of his entire life devoting his life to his family.

Today, we gather in this place, together with his family and friends to commend him to the mercy of our God.  Here in this church, Gene and Pauline had come with their children on many other occasions to pray.  Together with their siblings, they also found here a vibrant community of believers, and they played an active part in this community for as long as they could, but it seems that the virtuous persons are always taken from us before their time.  The wisdom that Gene shared with his family, his friends and his coworkers will now have to be shared by those who were privileged to learn it from him.  No length of years ever seems enough when it comes to sharing time here on earth with those we love, and yet our very presence here today is a testament to our belief that Jesus died and rose again and because of this, Gene too will rise again because he died in Jesus on the day of his baptism, and he spent the rest of his years here on earth living by the grace which has been given in Christ.  This is the same grace that awaits all the chosen of the Lord, the grace that we will know in its fullness when we too complete our earthly journey and join him again in heaven.

It’s true that when we are grieving, it’s difficult to understand these mysteries, but the gift of faith helps us to stand in this place with others who have also known grief in their lives: others like Mary and Martha of Bethany and the other Jews who had gathered with them to express their sympathy when their brother Lazarus had died.  Jesus too knew the grief of one who mourns because he had known Lazarus and loved him like a brother.  Because he knew this pain in his own earthly life, he also understands the pain that is ours as we bid farewell to Gene today.  In this life, Gene was no stranger to suffering.  He had cared lovingly for his wife when she too was infirmed, and in the past six years or so, he had lost much of his sight.  This too brought limitations to his freedom, and perhaps curtailed his ability to enjoy the great outdoors.  The second recurrence of cancer also took its toll on Gene’s body as it bound him ever tighter, taking away from him first one freedom and then another.  In his final weeks, even the food he so enjoyed had to be limited.  Yet through all this trial, Gene continued to pray.  On the day I met him in his home, we spoke of the importance of prayer, we celebrated the Sacrament of Anointing and we shared a simple moment of grace.  Today, we commend his soul to the mercy of God who greets him, calling out to him and to us in love: unbind him, let him go free.

Mary, Mother of God

Out with the old, and in with the new

As the midnight hour strikes in various time zones across the globe, celebrations are taking place to bid farewell to the year that was and to usher in the year that will be.  Amid music and reverie which in some instances is extravagant and in others is absent altogether, there is a sense of passage as the clock strikes midnight and its tolls ring out.

In Vienna, the New Year is greeted with the annual concerts of orchestral music by Straus and Mozart.  From Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth issues her customary greeting on this day, and from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, the Holy Father speaks words of greeting and expresses his prayer for peace on the day which has been designated as World Day of Prayer for Peace.

Like the shepherds mentioned in the gospel, we gather around the crèche and dare to dream about the possibility that the child who was born there, whose birthday we celebrated only a few days ago, truly came among us as the promise of peace in a turbulent world.  Peace can seem to be such an illusive reality.  At times it seems that no matter what efforts we extend in an effort to create peace, there is always someone who has to suffer, there is always somewhere in this vast world of ours where someone is hurting.  Although we may be tempted to think our efforts fruitless, consider the fact that even the smallest of actions can carry the promise of hope, and with such promise, great things can happen.

I’m sure that as they huddled in the stable that night in Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph may have wondered whether the promise spoken by the angel was really coming to pass.  After all, the child she carried was to be great.  He was to be called the Son of the Most High.  How could it be that such an exalted king was to be born in a drafty stable?  Even as they were perhaps pondering these questions, the shepherds arrived.  They had come to see the child who had been announced to them by the angels.  I wonder whether Mary and Joseph greeted them warmly or whether they were too tired to protest.  As the shepherds recounted their own encounter with the choir of angels, perhaps the mother and father of Jesus simply smiled that knowing smile as they remembered their own encounters with the celestial messengers.  Did they wonder why it was that instead of the nobility, their first visitors were the outcasts? The scriptures simply say that Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.

At the end of one calendar year, and the beginning of another, it is customary for us to outline resolutions: hopes and dreams for the coming year.  These goals should not be agreed upon lightly.  They allow us to honestly take stock of our lives if we are willing to be honest, and to start afresh by setting things right.  Before we agree on the specifics of this year’s plan, ought we not to do as Mary did: to stand still and ponder the reality that is before us?  This child of God came among us to bring peace, but he needs each one of us to set our hearts and our sights on creating peace.  This child came among us to proclaim the Father’s love and forgiveness, but he needs us to be the instruments of love and forgiveness for our world.

                                 

At the beginning of this new year, let us welcome the blessing of our God, spoken throughout the centuries in the words of Moses: The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.  This blessing is God’s hope that the year to come will bring with it the assurance of His presence, His joy and His peace.  With these gifts, we too can be instruments of peace for our world.  We can proclaim this peace to family members and to strangers alike.  We can demonstrate to them the power of love which we have known in the promise of God made visible in his Son who has come among us to announce the good news that we are all sons and daughters, and therefore heirs of our God and Father.