HOMILY DECEMBER 23

An Infinite Horizon of Faith

(Mal 3:1-4;4:5-6; Ps 25; Lk 1:57-66)

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Olivier Tremblay, an Oblate who works with university students in Eastern Canada, spoke at an Oblate symposium once. He noted that youth today lack hope, because they don’t have an infinite horizon of faith into which they can situate the events of their lives. They are at the mercy of what happens to them any particular day, and if that is too painful, like a break-up of a relationship, they may even take their own lives.

Today’s readings offer us an infinite horizon of the possibility of renewed relationships through faith, forgiveness and healing.

Our faith, according to Malachi, is in the one who “comes suddenly to his temple,” the “messenger of the covenant in whom we delight,” the one who will refine us. According to the psalm, it is in a “good and upright Lord” who redeems, teaches, guides and is steadfast love. And we know that according to John the Baptist, our faith is in Jesus who is all these things, plus the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. According to Adam Exner OMI, our faith is in Jesus who came with a two-fold mission: to redeem and to sanctify; to forgive and to heal. That is our infinite horizon of faith that fills us with hope for transformation.

That transformation involves relationships. Spirituality is all about relationships and connectedness. As human beings in this world, we operate on four levels of relationships: with God, others, ourselves and all of God’s creation.

It begins with a covenant relationship with God, who consistently desires an intimate covenant relationship with God’s people, beginning with a couple, Adam and Eve, then a family, Noah, then a tribe, Abraham, then a nation, Moses. With David, it became a covenant of unconditional love, and with Jesus, it culminates in a covenant of mercy, forgiveness, compassion, unconditional love and total non-violence, sealed in the sacrifice of his body and blood.

This faith transformation takes place through forgiveness and healing, the two-fold mission of Jesus. Malachi speaks of one who is like a refiner’s fire and fuller’s soap, who will purify and refine the Israelites into holiness and righteousness. He refers to the return of Elijah, whom we know was John the Baptist, who would turn the hearts of parents to their children, and vice versa. And we know that John the Baptist in turn spoke of Jesus who would baptize with power and the Holy Spirit, who would take away sin, unlike his baptism with water that could only point out sin and call to repentance.

It is only Jesus who can truly redeem and sanctify us. Redemption comes to us, as the psalmist proclaims, when we repent, confess and come to him to receive his forgiveness for our sinful actions. But there is more. Sanctification come to us when we pray for healing of our sinfulness (that which made us sin). That healing is what truly transforms us into Christlikeness and helps us walk in God’s ways and paths.

A final element that Malachi brings out is the healing of relationships – hearts of parents and children turned to each other. There is as great a need for that now as ever, with so many families struggling with dysfunction and woundedness, and people finding it so challenging to get along in the workplace.

After both my parents passed away, I invited my siblings to the family farm house where we grew up, for a family healing retreat. We prayed together, shared our stories to catch up on each other’s history, did some family imaging, some forgiving, celebrated the Eucharist together and finished with a family supper. At that time some of us were also getting involved in Engaged Encounter and Marriage Encounter which, with its focus on feelings, helped us to communicate more deeply and effectively. We experienced some healing of hearts turning towards each other.

That experience has led me to conduct several other family retreats, with two more coming up in January at the Star of the North. Most often, there is recovery from an addiction involved, and the need to heal the wounds of family members affected by that addiction. Humble faith and communicating with love, offering forgiveness and seeking forgiveness, is at the core of these retreats. And every time I am involved in such a retreat, I can’t help but think of that line from Malachi, “He will turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the hearts of children to their parents.”

The Eucharist that we celebrated as part of our family retreat was the best way we could have ended our retreat – giving thanks to God for the gift of his Son Jesus by offering him back the same gift that he gave to us – the one who redeems and sanctifies, forgives and heals, who makes us whole.

May our celebration today strengthen our faith in Jesus as redeemer and healer, renew our relationships at all levels, and provide us with that infinite horizon of faith and hope that empowers us to love as he has loved us.