Transcript:

I would first like to extend my prayers that you will have a happy and a blessed Christmas. I speak not only for myself, but for Monsignor LoPinto and Father Gribowich. This is a still a blessed and wonderful time of year, however difficult it may be this particular year. I remember my parents telling me about what Christmas was like during the Second World War. My father was off in Europe fighting, and my mom was at home, and I now understand if the Christmas song “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” was sung, my parents would kind of hold hands and almost tear up. So for those of you us who are not being able to see our families this season, let us remember that the Church is a family because of what we celebrate here today. Jesus has truly made us brothers and sisters, and it is also good to see so many and hear so many familiar things at Christmastime. We have the hymns so beautifully sung and played by our our music ministry. We have the altar wonderfully decorated. We see the creche and all the symbols within and it does give us a sense that this too shall pass. There’s something more permanent.

But and among the people, or the groups that we see at this time, are the shepherds. Shepherds are a very important part of the stories of Jesus’ birth. They receive a special invitation by angels to meet Jesus, yet but they disappear from history immediately afterwards. They do not appear in the Gospels again. Luke does not have even one of them encounter Jesus or the Apostles at any time or place even in the Acts of the Apostles. There are no – as far as I can tell – legends about them. Despite their powerful introduction to Jesus, why did they simply vanish? Luke’s answer is simple: they did not ponder. 

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

When I first became interested in community organizing, I went to East New York to visit the 
Nehemiah Houses. East New York was once described as the place where civilization went to die. All I knew about the
Nehemiah Houses was that they were designed not so much for the residents of the community as with them. I did not know what to expect but I found lovely one family bungalows with meticulously kept lawns. Modest and unassuming but they radiated pride of ownership. When I returned to my rectory in Bed-Sty I looked out my window to an apartment house financed by Jackie Robinson and designed by professional architects from the finest materials a few decades before the
Nehemiah Houses. They had by then deteriorated to the point that I had to ask for a guard to bring me in and out when I went on communion calls. I could not understand the difference but, as we see today, John the Baptist could have explained it to me. 

Continue reading “2nd Sunday of Advent – Fr. Smith Homily” →