Know - Grow - Go

Regardless of our disappointments and failures in our relationships with others, God always offers us another chance, often in a way we never expected. While the world offers us guilt, shame, and accusation, Jesus offers us the hope that, with His help, it is never too late to resurrect those broken relationships.

This weekend's homily title is meant to be playful, but there is a point here. To be desirable, attractive, special - that's one of those deep desires of the human heart we all experience. In the end, the more we try to manufacture our own acceptance and attractiveness, the more we’re bound to be frustrated. Conversely, the more we open our hearts to God and His embrace, the more attractive we become. True loveliness isn’t found in how we look; it comes from loving God and letting Him love us.

There is only one person in Jesus who has two natures: fully God and fully Man. This is why we honor Mary as the Mother of God, and doing so leads us to her Son, our Lord. As he was born under the law to ransom those under the law, we now are the adopted sons and daughters of God. So glorify, praise, and give thanks to God always that He, through Christ, has intimately opened for us a way to be His children, made possible through the cooperation of Mary, the Holy Mother of God.

God gives us the virtues of contemplation, obedience, humility, and love to create harmony within our families. Consider how you are living out these virtues in your own family. In what ways could you improve and grow to create a more loving environment for your family?

The power of Christ in our hearts can transform all our insecurities and fears if we let go and let the "good news of great joy" steep in our hearts. The Good News of Christmas proclaims that the birth of Christ ushered in a new beginning where sin and death no longer have to dominate us. Remember how much God was and is willing to do for you. He loves you and is with you all the way, in the good times and the bad.

As Eucharistic people, we are called to reverence each other: to honor and show respect to each other, just as Jesus did, because all are made in the image and likeness of God. Through our reception of the Eucharist, let us reverence, honor, and show our love for God and those around us. Show them that we desire communion with them, to be helpers and healers, and through such reverence help build up the Body of Christ.

At Communion time, the Lord comes into our hearts; thus, whenever we receive others into our heart, the Lord is there to meet them whether they realize it or not. The Lord asks us to be Communion for those outside of Communion: to be the love by which others come to know and accept the love of Jesus, even if they don’t know it’s the love of Jesus. It’s as if Jesus uses our love to slip in past the defenses of those who may not know Him, have walked away from Him, or whose hearts, for whatever reason, are closed against Him. Because of who we receive at this table, our love can be not just our love, but an encounter with the Sacred itself.

Many of us have a go-to "comfort food" when we are sick. During the Last Supper, Jesus entrusted His disciples with the Eucharist, the ultimate "comfort food" that heals us and removes the distance between us as we come together to as one in the Body of Christ. We are entrusted with the same mission at the end of Mass, to bring that Eucharistic healing and comfort to others after having received it for ourselves. Invite someone in your life to go out for a meal, and ask God for the grace to share that healing Eucharistic comfort as you listen to them.

While Mary is full of God's grace, since her immaculate conception, she is also obedient and faithful to the Father and eventually to her Son. Mary's humility and willingness to accept God's plan for her is an example for us to imitate in our own lives. May the Immaculate Virgin Mary intercede for us as we aspire to live an immaculate life: a life of total abandonment to the will of God.

We are all called to love in sacrificial ways. Be watchful this week to the needs of those around you who need to see the love of God through you. Be a catalyst of God's love and give yourself in service to another person in need - or, as St. Ignatius of Antioch described, pour yourself out like wheat to be crushed so as to be bread for the world.