Author: St. Charles Borromeo

Homilies, Podcast

4th Sunday Advent – Fr. Gribowich homily

| St. Charles Borromeo

[Fr. Gribowich is concluding his studies at U.C. Berkeley, as well as assisting at St. Joseph the Worker Church in Berkeley]

Transcript:
Good morning, everyone!

Happy 4th Sunday of Advent! I was here with you for the first Sunday of Advent, and now I’m here with the last Sunday of Advent. Maybe one of these years I’ll be here at Christmas, too, but that’s not going to happen this year, either, because I leave to go back to New York tomorrow. And I actually, unfortunately, this will come to the end of my time here at Saint Joseph’s, because my program at Berkeley wrapped up this semester, so I will not just be leaving and then coming back. I will be leaving pretty much for good, although I do hope to come back and visit in April, so I ask for your prayers.

And it’s very providential that the last time I will be able to spend with you, we hear this Gospel that speaks of how the birth of Jesus comes about through the lens, if you will, of St. Joseph. Since it’s very providential to be here at the church of St. Joseph and to preach about our patron saint, and of course during Christmas time there are not that many Christmas readings. In fact, the infancy narratives only happen in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew. So we hear them often, and of course, we hear them so often, that we tend to kind of glossed over some of the details. But every single word in the scripture can ultimately be looked upon as being purposeful in some type of way, and if we look at how Joseph is described in this Gospel, I think it gives us some insight as to how we as Christians are called to live our lives.

Firstly, Joseph is known as a righteous man. He was a righteous man and therefore he knew what was right, and the fact that he learned that his soon-to-be wife was pregnant and he knew that he wasn’t the father, he knew that what to be right would be to somehow get out of this arrangements, to get out of this future marriage. He was righteous. Continue reading “4th Sunday Advent – Fr. Gribowich homily” →

Homilies, Podcast

4th Sunday Advent – 11:15 am (Fr. Smith homily)

| St. Charles Borromeo

Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730437.

Transcript:

Most preachers have a “Christmas is getting too commercial” sermon in their repertoire. I used mine last year, commenting that no pastor would be able to responsibly spend on a church’s Christmas decorations what a New York department store did on its windows. I also noted that the professional ad men on Madison Avenue had so targeted our children that they could tell us in July what we would be buying in December.  

After the Mass I was informed by several parishioners that department stores* are on the decline, and even the ones that still exist don’t do that much with windows anymore. This didn’t surprise me. The last time I tried to buy something in a department store, I felt that I was imposing on the sales staff. What did surprise me was that we now have ad women, the agencies are not on Madison Avenue* and we are really being targeted by algorithms. I was asked if I ever noticed that the advertisements on my screens are for things I might actually want, and that this might not be by accident. Frankly, I thought it was magic.  

*(Note for those under fifty: a “department store” is a large store stocking many varieties of goods in different departments and “Madison Avenue” as a term refers specifically to the agencies and methodology of advertising.) 

Now my basic point was that there are two Christmases. The Christmas that is our national day of consumption and the Christmas that is the celebration of the birthday of Jesus. One is transactional, the other relational. we cannot use the means of the former to increase the latter. If anything, I think the observations of our parishioners reinforced this. Also, I have gotten a very powerful ally.  Continue reading “4th Sunday Advent – 11:15 am (Fr. Smith homily)” →

Homilies

Fourth Sunday of Advent – Living Faithfully and Firmly in God’s Favor

| St. Charles Borromeo

The Prophet Isaiah, Benedetto Gennari, 17th century, Burghley collection

FIRST READING
Isaiah 7:10–14
December 22, 2019

Today we return to the 8th century BC with First Isaiah. Indeed, we can date it rather precisely to 735 BC and the Syro-Ephraimite War. Although this is a rather grubby incident in Jewish history, it provided Isaiah with an opportunity to demonstrate artistic craftsmanship, theological profundity, and political acumen.

We must begin with the political realities—indeed with the basic political reality of the day. The two major powers, in what we have now come to call the “Middle East,” were Egypt to the south and a power to the north, usually the Babylonians or Assyrians. Smaller nations and tribal groups had to make their way around them. We have seen that this has been true with the two Hebrew nations of Israel (the north) and Judea (the south). Another political entity, which had to play the same game, was Syria, which constituted the area around Damascus.

The leaders of Israel and Syria thought that Assyria was declining, and they could rebel against it. They pressured King Ahaz of Judea to join them, and when he refused threatened to attack him and place another on his throne. The ensuing war is called the Syro-Ephraimite war, because Ephraim was the most powerful tribe in Israel.

When this news reached Jerusalem, “the heart of the king and heart of the people trembled, as the trees of the forest tremble in the wind.” (Is. 7:2)

All three writers who used the name Isaiah in the Old Testament believed that their God was the Lord of history, and that, having chosen the Jewish people, would never abandon them. This indeed is one of the great kept promises of history. Isaiah 2 and 3 celebrate the miraculous return of the Jewish people to Jerusalem after the exile, and we see the otherwise inexplicable survival of the Jewish people to this very day.

This hope is found not only in Isaiah but throughout the Bible, most clearly in 2 Samuel 7:12–16 when the LORD said to David: Continue reading “Fourth Sunday of Advent – Living Faithfully and Firmly in God’s Favor” →

Messages from the Pastor

Pope’s Message on Meaning of Nativity Scenes

| St. Charles Borromeo
Selections from the Apostolic Letter Admirabile signum
on the meaning and importance of the nativity scene
Pope Francis
December 1, 2019Under the sponsorship of the Religious Education Ministry, we at St. Charles Borromeo have for several years have blessed the baby Jesus figures that will be used in our home crèches at Sunday Mass. Pope Francis understands the need for all of us to have family traditions and devotions which are passed down from one generation to the next and has given us this year a wonderful meditation. The full text may be found at http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_letters/documents/papa-francesco-lettera-ap_20191201_admirabile-signum.html. Selections however may be found below:

The enchanting image of the Christmas crèche, so dear to the Christian people, never ceases to arouse amazement and wonder. The depiction of Jesus’ birth is itself a simple and joyful proclamation of the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God. The nativity scene is like a living Gospel rising up from the pages of sacred Scripture. As we contemplate the Christmas story, we are invited to set out on a spiritual journey, drawn by the humility of the God who became man in order to encounter every man and woman. We come to realize that so great is his love for us that he became one of us, so that we in turn might become one with him.

With this Letter, I wish to encourage the beautiful family tradition of preparing the nativity scene in the days before Christmas, but also the custom of setting it up in the workplace, in schools, hospitals, prisons and town squares. Great imagination and creativity is always shown in employing the most diverse materials to create small masterpieces of beauty. As children, we learn from our parents and grandparents to carry on this joyful tradition, which encapsulates a wealth of popular piety. It is my hope that this custom will never be lost and that, wherever it has fallen into disuse, it can be rediscovered and revived.

The landscapes that are part of the nativity scene also deserve some mention. Frequently they include the ruins of ancient houses or buildings, which in some instances replace the cave of Bethlehem and become a home for the Holy Family. These ruins appear to be inspired by the thirteenth-century Golden Legend of the Dominican Jacobus de Varagine, which relates a pagan belief that the Temple of Peace in Rome would collapse when a Virgin gave birth. More than anything, the ruins are the visible sign of fallen humanity, of everything that inevitably falls into ruin, decays and disappoints. This scenic setting tells us that Jesus is newness in the midst of an aging world, that he has come to heal and rebuild, to restore the world and our lives to their original splendour.

God’s ways are astonishing, for it seems impossible that he should forsake his glory to become a man like us. To our astonishment, we see God acting exactly as we do: he sleeps, takes milk from his mother, cries and plays like every other child! As always, God baffles us. He is unpredictable, constantly doing what we least expect. The nativity scene shows God as he came into our world, but it also makes us reflect on how our life is part of God’s own life. It invites us to become his disciples if we want to attain ultimate meaning in life.