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Transcript of Homily
Back to Skokie to see the old folks.
Us old folks.
So... it’s always good to have you home.
Welcome.
In a few minutes we will recite the words
of our Lord’s last supper.
Which was a Passover meal, you know?
We Christians.... celebrate Passover every
day. ]
We remember the victory of... of God, the
triumph of God over the forces of evil..
Every day when we say Mass.
And tonight, though it is Christmas, we
will celebrate Passover just as if it were Easter.
It is...It is the same thing..
And in the Gospel of John there is a very
interesting phrase, I... those of you who are parishioners know I
am an old Greek teacher
And I’ll throw a little Greek in... so
you know, if you forgive me tonight.
But.. Greek and Latin have very long sentences,
they go on and on and on like mine do.
But there is a very short sentence in the
Gospel of John just after Jesus says the words “On the night He was betrayed
He took bread and said the blessing and break it and gave it to His disciples.”
Just after Jesus did that.... Judas goes
out to betray Him, and.... the text says in very, it sticks out in you
in the Greek text because it is so very short, it says “It was night.”
This is a reference to a Jewish Passover
song.
In a couple months... it’s, I think it’s
Passover in Easter, it’s early this year.
and in a couple months our Jewish neighbors
will be singing singing at the end of the Passover a song called “( ?
? ?? )” and in that song.... ( ? ? ??) It’s remembered, in the middle
of the night.
That’s what the title means.
That all the good things.. And all the
bad things that ever happened in Israel happened in the middle of the night...
It was at midnight that God took what seemed
horrible and turned it into blessing.
The song says, “In all doubt preforms
it’s miracles in the night. At the beginning watch of the night. When
( ? ? ) caused Abraham to be victorious. It was at midnight. And Israel
wrestled with the angels..and prevailed against him, it was in the middle
of the night. The first born of the Egptians... it... in the middle of
the night. Delivered the Jews from the plots of ( ? ? ?) In the time of
Ester... and it was in the middle of the night. And then the point watchmen
in the city of Jerusalem, all the day and all the night, aluminate as if
the night of day, the darnkess of our night, for it is in the middle of
the night.”
You know... it is in the middle of the
night... when things seem the darkest.
And the most impossible that we find God...
God is to be found at the end of our rope.
And of course the fist Christmas was certainly
in the middle of the night.
And what a dark night it must have been...
for our Blessed Mother...
There was no room in the Inn...and she
was about to give birth... she was young and frightened and far from Home.
And in the middle of the night her labor
pains began..
And she found a place to give birth...
And in the darkness of that night... a
great light showed to the whole world.
And in our lives, when we are often in
the middle of the darkest night of our lives.. We find God.
Now all advent I have been saying that...
when I was a boy.. We were forced to memorize caticism questions.
And the first question was ”Who was God?”
And I think the whole congegrassion knows
this by now... God is the supreme being.
And who made you?
God made me.
Why did God make you?
God made to know Him, to love Him and to
sereve Him.
In this world.
And to be happy with Him forever.
We live in a world, as I”ve been saying,
tells you that happiness is the result of the accumulation of material
property and power.
But you... and I .... if we’ve heard
the Gospel.. We believe that, though money and power are not of themselves
bad, they’re nuteral.
But they will not make ya happy..
The only thing that can make you happy
is to know, love and serve God.
Happiness... the happiness that you hope
for yourselves and the happiness that you hope for your children... is
attainable only on the premise.
That you know God.
This is what our Catholic religion teaches.
And this should cause all of us to wonder.
Because yo usee the message of our faith
and the message of this evening is that you can know God.
You know the creator of all things.
You may not know physics.
You may not be smart.
Or famous.
Or Rich.
You may have no power in this world.
But you can know God...
And if you know God.... you will love Him.
And if you love Him, you will serve Him,
and if you serve Him you will be happy with Him forever.
You can know God.
The message of Christmas... is that Jesus...
is the visible image of the invisible God.
The God Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who delivered
the people in Jeruslam repeatedly in order to save the whole world made
Himself visible in the form of a baby... in his mother’s arms.
Not a concurring general, not a great theologian,
not a respected High Priest.
But a poor child in a poor girl’s arm
in a poor stable.
You can know God.... and if you are a Catholic
in the state of grace... and you receive communion, you like Mary can embrace
God.
We want God to love us.
He does.
That’s a given.
The wonder of this mystery is that you
can love God... .you can embrace God.
That Jesus was born in a barn in Bethlehem
means that you and I and Mary and Joseph can hold God in our arms.
We can hold God in our hands.
The meaning of life begins with this truth...
God made me to know Him.
So I ask you... do you know God?
And if you’ve known God.... is it time
you renewed your acquaintance with Him?
How can you know God?
It is very easy to know God.
St. Augustin said to wish to go is to go.
I remember the story of a young man...
who had a teacher at his university who was a believer... and he went to
this teacher and said, “I hear that you’re a Christian. Well, I want
to know God. What must I do?”
He said well go into the country on a
field and look up at the sky on a starry night...
And at the top of your lungs, shout “God,
if you exist.. I want to know you.”
And the young man did it and he came back.
And the teacher asked, “How did you feel?”
He said, “I felt pretty foolish”
He said, “That’s a good start”.
You see...if you ask to know God... then
it becomes God responsibility to reveal Himself.
It is that simple.
To say of the bottom of your heart, “God,
if you’re there, I want to know you.”
Not that I want you to give me this, not
that I want you to do this for me.
If you were God you would do this or be
like this...
The right question is, “God, if you are
God, I want to know you. I want to know you as you are.”
God made you.
And God made me to know Him to love Him
and to serve Him.
And to be happy with Him forever in Heaven.
Christmas is God’s promise, that as He
embraces you, you can embrace Him.
That you are held in the palm of His hand.
He too would be held in the palm of yours.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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