Homily - Sunday
Saint Charles Catholic Church, Imperial Beach / San Diego, CA
For years I tried to time my visits back home to New York to
be during the summer, with dreams of fishing and camping, and picnicking in the
warm NY summer air. Unfortunately, it always seemed that there was a need to schedule
the visit to the colder months of the year. I went home for Christmas when my Mom’s
health took a turn nearly a decade ago and we thought we were going to lose her,
she came around and ended up doing much better. But I remember that it snowed
and we had a picturesque white Christmas that year. I returned again a couple of years later for
my nephew’s wedding, it was on the day after Christmas, and it snowed that year
too. Again, a couple of years later I was encouraged to come home for a family
reunion to surprise my parents for Thanksgiving… and it snowed then too, it was
looking like it was going to snow every time I went home to New York but a few
years ago I was finally able to make it out for a late summer visit and spend some
time fishing with my little brother and Dad, and spend time camping with my mom
playing her favorite game: Rummicube, just like we did as kids, Finally this
time it didn’t snow. The following summer Dad’s cancer came back and I was able
to go home and see him one last time while he was still semi-active, while he
wasn’t anywhere near 100%, at least it didn’t snow. This spring, in the end of
April we returned for his funeral, and guess what… it snowed in April too,
Thanksgiving and Christmas, snow is expected, but Easter too?!?! It seemed the curse
was back… when Dave visits Rochester, expect snow.
For those of you that have never left San Diego, elsewhere there
is a phenomenon known as seasons, where summer turns to autumn and the leaves
change color and fall to the ground, this is followed by a season that is
colder yet, where this white stuff called snow, falls out of the sky, in
seemingly never ending amounts, and then just when you think you can’t handle
the cold, and the snow anymore, the sun once again makes a visit through the
clouds, and spring begins, and eventually summer returns.
Just as most of the world goes through seasons every year, so
does the Church. As we celebrate Thanksgiving and the rest of the country is experiencing
the beginning of winter, the Church will be getting ready for the coming of
Christ, at least the anniversary of the coming of Christ as baby Jesus that we
celebrate at Christmas. The new liturgical year in the Church will be coming soon,
at the beginning of Advent, to prepare for that coming of Christ. But today’s
Gospel speaks of another coming of Christ when he returns again. One that we
don’t prepare for with Advent, but we prepare for every day of our lives, for
we do not know the hour of His return.
Daily we struggle with the choices not only between obvious right
and wrong, the black and white choices, but with the many grey ones as well. We
make choices between two things both that have goodness, sometimes these are
easy unnoticed choices, other times they are life changing difficult decisions.
This process of decision making requires we have a fully formed conscience, our
moral character, that our decisions are shaped by what pleases God, not by what
is most pleasing to our senses, or what makes it easiest for us. Sometime these
decisions are tough, and require much thought and prayer.
But ultimately it is our decision to love God by doing what
we discern God loves, or wants, by doing what we believe will best please God.
If we try to live our life pleasing God when he comes to judge the living and the
dead, he will look favorably on us.
All of us will undoubtedly make bad decisions, sometimes we will
make decisions not based on our love for God, but on other temptations, and for
those decisions, we need to repent, and ask God for his forgiveness in the
Sacrament of Reconciliation, where we are restored to God’s favor.
It is how we prepare ourselves for the coming Christ and our
final judgement. Because unlike the seasons of the year, that come with a cycle,
and some reasonable expectation of when they will occur, we do not know when
Christ will come again.
But that is not the only way we prepare for the coming of the
Lord. We also want the Lord to recognize us when he comes, to know us. If we
never make him present in our lives, if we never pray, if we never make Christ
visible to others how will he recognize us?
Thanksgiving is a time of year that serves to give us an
opportunity to reflect on the many graces we have been given. A time to thank God
for the roof over our head, the food on our table, the family and friends that
have gathered with us. It can also be a good time to recognize the abundance of
graces God has given us: whether you won the Billion dollar Powerball, or you realize
that you have more clothes than you can wear, or more food than you need, or a walk-in
closet large enough to house a family… Thanksgiving can be a time to re-examine
our needs, and share our surplus. Especially our surplus of Love which is
giving by God at no cost to us so that we may pass that love on to others,
especially those most in need. In the seasons of our lives we should aim to be
the bringer of warmth and sunshine, not the cold and darkness. We should be the
bringer of Christ into the lives of those that surround us.
You will be happy to know that my most recent trip to New York
this last September, was again without snow, yes I am not always the bringer of
the snow. Be thankful for our San Diego weather, but realize that with the
struggles of those cold winters, comes the beauty of a forest of fall leaves
changing colors, and the picturesque scene of a white Christmas, and the
bountiful beauty of spring blossoms. So also be thankful for the struggles in
your life, as they can be the source of their own unique beauty.
