Homilies

Homily – Epiphany (Fr. Smith)

| Fr. William Smith

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.

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Events, Videos

Community Mass – Epiphany

| St. Charles Borromeo

On Sunday, January 8, 2023, join us in person or online for the Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord. There will be fellowship after each Mass today – please stay for coffee and more!

Our current Sunday Mass times are:

Today’s readings will be from Cycle A.

Entrance: The First Nowell – 460

Readings/Psalm – 1011

Offertory: We Three Kings of Orient Are – 463

Communion: What Child Is This – 466

Closing: Go Tell It on the Mountain – 428

The Gather 3rd Edition Hymnal/Missals are available for use in the church – pick one up as you enter and return it after Mass. Instructions on how to use the hymnal missal are available here: https://www.stcharlesbklyn.org/hymnal-missal/ .

Today’s readings are also available to read online at the USCCB website https://bible.usccb.org .

Scriptual Commentary

Epiphany – How God Has Chosen to be Present

| Fr. William Smith

The Magi Journeying (Les rois mages en voyage),
James Tissot, 1886-1894 (Brooklyn Museum)

Fr. Smith’s Commentary on the Second Reading
Epiphany of the Lord
Letter to the Ephesians 3:2–6
January 8, 2023

The readings for the feast of the Epiphany are the same every year. This reasoning is obvious for the Gospel of the Magi, but the other readings are perceptively chosen as well. The Letter to the Ephesians speaks of how the light of Jesus can be with us today as much as when he was in the manger in Bethlehem. We will repeat the commentary from last year but with a different conclusion. The word of God is alive and can illuminate every time and place.

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Homilies

Homily – Mary, Mother of God (Fr. Smith)

| Fr. William 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.

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Events, Videos

Community Mass – Mary, Mother of God

| St. Charles Borromeo

On Sunday, January 1, 2023, join us in person or online to honor Mary, the Mother of God, and welcome the New Year.

Our current Sunday Mass times are:

Today’s readings will be from Cycle A.

Entrance: Mary, First among Believers – 893

Readings/Responsorial Psalm – 1007

Offertory: Away in a Manger – 448

Communion: Hail Mary: Gentle Woman – 889

Closing: Joy to the World – 437

The Gather 3rd Edition Hymnal/Missals are available for use in the church – pick one up as you enter and return it after Mass. Instructions on how to use the hymnal missal are available here: https://www.stcharlesbklyn.org/hymnal-missal/ .

Today’s readings are also available to read online at the USCCB website https://bible.usccb.org .