Hi everyone, here’s my homily for December 13, 2009 – the Third Sunday of Advent. The readings can be found at https://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/121309.shtml . Thanks for reading and all your comments and feedback! God Bless- Father Jim
HOMILY:
From the “that was unexpected” category comes this story that made international headlines about a year ago: This guy out on Long Island owns a deli and one day a man comes in with a baseball bat with the intention of robbing the deli as he demands that the owner hand over the cash from the register. The owner pulls out a 9 mm rifle and orders the man to drop to his knees as he points the gun to his head. At this point, there’s a couple of ways we kind of would expect the story could have gone: He could have delivered some “street justice” – taking matters into his own hands. He could have called the police and simply waited until the cops arrived to arrest him and allow the real justice system to react.
But what happened next was pretty unexpected. As the robber was on his knees, he started to sob, apologizing for doing such a stupid thing. He started to explain how he was out of work– and talked about how his family was going through a terrible time because of his unemployment. After a few moments, the deli owner put his rifle down, made the man a sandwich, gave him $40 cash, and with that the would be thief vanished.
For some people, you can imagine when they heard this story thought things like, “That was unsafe” or “that was foolish.” Some might have even been more jaded thinking “all he did was allow this man to go off and rob someone else.” In fact the story didn’t end there. This past week, the New York Post did a follow up story reporting the deli owner just received a thank you letter with $50 enclosed (I guess the $10 extra was interest). The letter, from the “repentant thief” said “When you had that gun to my head I was 100% [sure] that I was going to die. . .Now I have a new child and a good job make good money staying out of trouble and taking care of my family. You gave me forty dollars thank you for sparing my life. Because of that you changed my life.”
It sounds like the stuff of great literary works or tug-at-your-heart type movies. But in “the real world?” We don’t really expect things like that to happen. Even after all the details of this story has been made public, there’s a temptation to attach a disclaimer saying “this is really a terrific story, but, let’s be realistic… that’s not how things normally would go.”
And in a sense, isn’t that sad? We expect that a stupid decision by this would be robber and the deli owner would end with one of two options – some type of bloody end or a guy ending up in prison. But, the normal didn’t happen- and instead something that was quite unexpected occurred. Because of that, the lives of the would-be robber, the deli owner (and perhaps numerous others who have heard this story) have been forever changed.
Yet we get stuck with our expectations that things will remain normal – that nothing will ever change. It seems each generation has people wishing that things would be different – that there wouldn’t be things like war and that peace would actually be a reality and not just an ideal; that life would be respected from conception to natural death or that the poor would be cared for …but with age, and as these trials and struggles continue without much obvious change – cynicism grows. We become disappointed that these constant problems have yet to be solved, those ideals have yet to become reality. And so we begin to think those things were just that – ideals that would never become real.
So we lower expectations thinking maybe the world out there will never change we’ll settle for some change in own little corners of the world. Maybe we can experience peace in our families – in our own lives. Maybe our lives and the lives of those around us would be respected. Yet, even there, apathy seems to find a way to enter in on these local levels as we shrug in disappointment saying “He or she is never going to change.” “What’s the use, no one cares?” With these types of attitudes, people continue on a type of hamster-wheel existence. Exerting immense energy, keeping up frantic paces – wondering why we never move.
Into these present day realities, we hear John the Baptist, continuing his proclamation from last week where he announced that God was coming to His people – which was quite expected news (we have to remember that it had been promised for centuries) that seemed to catch the people of his time as something unexpected. Upon hearing it though – something stirred within them. “Maybe this time the hopes, the dreams, will be realized” they thought. “Maybe,” they hoped, “finally the cycle, the patterns and the normal routines of destructive behavior would be broken.”
John the Baptist’s preaching started to raise hope in their hearts – in their lives as news that God was coming to save them (and all of us) from that brokenness was dawning.
“What should we do” they asked – John tells us somewhat expected commands- Live according to God’s commands – share what YOU have with those who have nothing – don’t abuse don’t take advantage of others. Live in the ways that God expects us to live. Break out of the routines, patterns and bad habits of the world – and then expect to be saved by the God who created you – loves you and desires your ultimate happiness.
The Gospel tells us the people were“filled with expectation”- their hearts were so moved by his words that they began to wonder – could John himself be the Christ himself? John would be clear that he wasn’t – but that Christ was coming… and so he kept trying to help people prepare.
For us here and now – there’s what 11 shopping days to Christmas? Most of you are getting ready for final exams. It’s hard to think about just those two things. Very familiar patterns are unfolding: Traffic will be crazy each day closer to December 25th as people shop crazily to find gifts that will probably need to be returned for being the wrong size, color or thing altogether. Some of you will be cramming, crashing, caffeinating and stressing these next days. And then you return home to many normal traditions and expectations that all of us bring to the annual celebration of Christmas. Things that can be familiar, sentimental and sometimes incredibly lacking all at the same time.
Yet in our hearts and souls – if we can take a moment to really listen, we can hear our deepest desires, our quiet longings, our unspoken hopes that maybe this Christmas, Jesus Christ will truly, completely enter into our lives and change them – Maybe that coming to us will begin to change our own corners of the world. Maybe that will set in motion the immense gift of God’s Love, the power of the Holy Spirit unleashing Jesus Christ’s gift of Peace to the world. Far-fetched? Too “idealistic?” The cynic doesn’t want to get their hopes up – but the heart of the believer thinks “maybe.”
The thing is, God respects our freedom too much to impose on our plans. He wants to break through to us – but the choice is ours. What will we do? Will we continue with what is normal – the same old patterns, the same old routines? Or will we awaken to the rejoicing of the Church over the Saviors presence among us coming to each of us. Calling us to be open to something different. Something even unexpected – like a robber who repents. Like a deli-owner who’s merciful.
Will we embrace John’s call, live radically gospel-centered lives- live in ways the world finds unexpected so that our hearts will reflect the very presence of Christ coming to his people? If we do, if we listen and respond to that call to conversion, we may find this Advent leading us to a Christmas that’s unlike anything we’ve come to expect…
