{"id":1797,"date":"2018-12-21T19:24:49","date_gmt":"2018-12-21T19:24:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/?p=1797"},"modified":"2018-12-21T19:24:49","modified_gmt":"2018-12-21T19:24:49","slug":"homily-advent-december-21-yr-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/2018\/12\/21\/homily-advent-december-21-yr-i\/","title":{"rendered":"HOMILY ADVENT DECEMBER 21 Yr I"},"content":{"rendered":"

Faith, Forgiveness, Healing and Joy<\/em><\/p>\n

(Zeph 3:14-18; Ps 33; Lk 1:39-45)<\/p>\n

**************************************<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lord has taken away the judgements against you, he has turned away your enemies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those words, a repeat of the first reading from the third Sunday of Advent, along with the gospel account of the Visitation, hint at the way our faith becomes a source of joy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lord has taken away judgements\u201d suggest forgiveness, while \u201che has turned away your enemies\u201d suggests healing. So as early as the time of the prophet Zephaniah, the mission of the future Messiah – to redeem and to sanctify – was being suggested. To redeem is to forgive, and to sanctify is to heal, so Jesus as the Messiah came to forgive us all our sins, and also to heal us of our sinfulness, that which makes us sin.<\/p>\n

In both the Old and New Testaments, how God forgives is described \u2013 God will cast our sins as far as the East is from the West (Psalm 103:12) and not even remember them (Hebrews 8:12). Now that is forgiveness \u2013 if God doesn\u2019t even remember our sins, they no longer exist. Why, then, do we find it so hard to forgive ourselves, or to believe we are truly forgiven? A person in his mid-eighties recently shared with me his struggle to let go of sins of a sexual nature he had committed forty years earlier, and confessed numerous times. I hope learning that God doesn\u2019t even remember those sins will help him to let them go and forgive himself.<\/p>\n

With divine wisdom, God knows forgiveness is only half the story \u2013 we also need healing for our sinfulness, that which makes us sin, or we will just start all over again and fill up the slate. Our sinfulness is our painful emotions like anger, resentment and bitterness \u2013 these are not our fault \u2013 they just are, but need to be addressed and healed. It is also our defects of character and negative attitudes such as false pride, stubborn self-will, self-righteousness, tendency to judge, need for power and control. Again, these are not our fault nor are they sins \u2013 we need healing for these or we will act out of these deeply buried realities in our lives and commit sinful, hurtful acts. This is the Good News of our faith \u2013 we can be forgiven all our sins and healed of all that leads us to sin. That is the role of Jesus as Messiah, to redeem and sanctify. All we need to do is be humble, acknowledge our need for both, and come to him for that forgiveness and healing so freely given.<\/p>\n

It all began with the visit of Mary to Elizabeth, and the spiritual nature of that encounter. The Good News of the Incarnation, the Word become flesh from Mary, was so great that the cousin of Jesus, John the Baptist, leapt for joy when Mary came into the room. John recognized the infant Messiah even when in his mother\u2019s womb. Not only that, Elizabeth exults for joy as she recognizes Mary as the mother of her Lord, so Elizabeth also recognizes Jesus as the unborn infant Messiah. Their mutual joy at this marvellous working of God in such a humble, invisible way in both their lives knows no bounds, nor should it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Helen Gledhow sent me a reflection she receives each day from a Pastor Steve that captures well this moment:<\/p>\n

Two expecting mothers share a bond,
\nthe recognition of the altered balance,
\nthe spherical spirit, the parallel gaze,
\ncompanionship on a hard, bright path,
\nthe magnificent power of giving life
\nthat others can only surmise.<\/p>\n

And yet that gaze, that bond, that power,
\nis yours.
\nWe have too many religions of gods in clouds.
\nGod does not enter the world from the stratosphere.
\nGod enters from within, in each of us,
\nnot might or magic, but in love.
\nMary’s genius was her insight
\nthat the divine, the world-changing Holy,
\nemerges from us like a newborn child.
\nI bear it. You bear it. It’s who we are.<\/p>\n

The Beloved begs us to feel for the leap in us,
\nthe divine child in us that knows
\nits sibling in another, that knows
\nwe are connected in our power to give life.
\nBehold that in yourself, feel for the leap,
\nand know the bond that makes of all humanity,
\nall living creatures, one blessed womb.<\/p>\n

Blessed are you among women,
\nand blessed is the fruit of your womb.<\/p>\n

The Eucharist is akin to a visitation \u2013 Jesus, Messiah and Lord of all creation, comes to us humbly through the Liturgy of the Word, and as we receive his very body and blood given up for us on the wood of the manger turned into the wood of the cross.<\/p>\n

May our celebration deepen our faith in Jesus as Messiah and Lord, open us up to humbly receive his forgiveness and healing, and fill us with the same joy Mary and Elizabeth experienced.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Faith, Forgiveness, Healing and Joy (Zeph 3:14-18; Ps 33; Lk 1:39-45) ************************************** \u201cThe Lord has taken away the judgements against you, he has turned away your enemies.\u201d Those words, a repeat of the first reading from the third Sunday of Advent, along with the gospel account of the Visitation, hint at the way our faith […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1797"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1799,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1797\/revisions\/1799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}