Following Jesus can feel like riding a roller coaster.  There are ups and downs, trills and panic, excitement, and eventual relief but the image lacks one thing. We know where a roller coaster will let us off. We don’t know that about Jesus. We see in today’s Gospel that we may know where we will start but not where he will bring us.

The Magi didn’t even know that. Magi were originally Persian priests who advised the king especially by interpreting his dreams and consulting the stars. As we see Herod and his brain trust of priests and scribes took their reason for traveling to Jerusalem at face value. It was a common belief that the birth of a great person would be prefigured in the stars. Their news would have been profoundly upsetting to Herod who thought himself “King of the Jews.” He was so paranoid that he killed so many heirs that it was said to be safer to be Herod’s pig than Herod’s son. Herod feared that this King would be the long-longed-for Messiah who would displace him. His advisors told him that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem several miles from Jerusalem and sent the Magi on their way.

Continue reading “Homily – Epiphany (Fr. Smith)” →

Because we first heard Christmas stories as children, we can think of them as nursery tales; simple and unsophisticated remnants of our youth. Those which are found in the scriptures, however, are embedded in the Gospels and are mature, profound, and part of a sophisticated presentation. None more so than Luke.

Luke is a very thoughtful writer, and we must read him carefully and often to truly understand him. Only then will the interconnections be revealed and become real. Luke wrote both his Gospel and the “Acts of the Apostles”, and we must take them as a whole. After many readings the importance of the parable of the Sower becomes clear. Remember the story: a farmer planted his crop by casting seeds onto his field. Some fell on a path and were trampled, some on rocky ground or among thorns where they could not grow but others on good ground where they produced fruit a hundred-fold.

Continue reading “Homily – Mary, Mother of God (Fr. Smith)” →

Christmas is a time for tradition. Many of these traditions, both for family and church, were interrupted during the COVID pandemic, and although we are not yet fully recovered some will be brought back this year with proper care and diligence. For the Parish, the most wonderful return has been our Christmas Pageant with the children in the religious education program. If you did not see it, please check this link. I hope that many of us will have been able to visit family and enjoy other Christmas activities from trimming the tree to decorating the cake.

The liturgy, however, never takes a vacation and always allows us a special participation in the celebration of the Nativity. The music, the creche and the stories allow us every year to reflect on what it means that God became man. It has been said that tradition is the living faith of the dead and it certainly a pattern that is handed down to us. (See Footnote 1 below.) These customs should not be changed too radically. That would prevent us from making our Christian history our personal one as well. Every year we should approach these symbols and stories and sing these songs with a deeper understanding of the mysteries they proclaim. Year after year this allows us to see if we have grown in our faith and understanding.

Continue reading “Homily – Christmas (Fr. Smith)” →

Today’s reading contains a most curious verse: “Joseph her husband; since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly” It clearly says that as he was righteous, which at its core meant law- abiding” he would not take Mary as his wife. Yet he did, does this mean that he forfeited being considered Righteous? For many of his contemporaries, it would. To understand this why we need to step back a bit.