Shawn The Baptist - Sunday Scriptures

We often think of a prophet as someone who foretells the future. Sometimes they do that. But in the biblical sense, a prophet is someone who speaks on behalf of God. Maybe it’s a blessing or maybe a curse. The most important thing about being a prophet is speaking what God wants you to speak.

Last week, we talked about how we are all called to be priests in our baptism. Today, we see how we are also all called to be prophets in virtue of our baptism. You may be thinking, “Who am I to speak for God?” In our first reading, we see that being a prophet isn’t so much about your own ability, but rather that you have been give the spirit of prophecy and been anointed by God for this mission. So, if you’ve been baptized, you’ve been given the spirit of prophecy and have been anointed with the Sacred Chrism. You’re a prophet!

Perhaps without realizing it, you’ve been speaking a lot about God. Do you shy away from talking about religion or hesitate to speak up about your faith? Well, you’re speaking. You’re communicating to people that God is not really that important or that your belief in God is private or even embarrassing to you. It’s not that we have to go around overtly talking about God all the time. But, would those you work with and associate with even know that you’re Catholic?

Your life, both your words and your actions, speak about God. You are a prophet. What message are you speaking?

By the late 17th century, Catholics had become so convinced of their own unworthiness that they thought no one was worthy to receive the sacraments or be loved by God. We were supposedly too sinful. Into this misplaced understanding of human weakness, Jesus himself came and appeared to St. Margaret Mary. He revealed the devotion to the love of his Sacred Heart. Jesus did not want to distance himself from us because of our weakness. Just the opposite. Our sins are the occasion for Jesus to show his great love and mercy. He desires to love like this, even though he knows we will fail him at times.

Love is dangerous. It involves risk and vulnerability. To love someone means opening yourself up to being hurt. Still, we need to take this risk. Jesus did. It wasn't even a risk for him... he knew we would fail him. Our mission is to love like Jesus and that means we can't hold back and "play it safe."

In my priesthood, I have had to move many times when I really just wanted to settle down. It would be understandable to decide at a new place that I was just going to put up barriers and remain "distant" from people. It would be safer. After all, I'll probably just get moved again, so what's the use in forming relationships? Yet this is not what Jesus wants, especially not from his priests. He doesn't want us to take the "safe" and distant, approach. Jesus chooses to love us and mix it up in our broken world. We are called to do the same.

As I leave St. Michael's, I am sad that our time together was short. I really did invest and form relationships, and this makes it hard to leave. But I'm glad to have made these relationships and glad that I didn't "play it safe." I know it's also not easy for the people to keep changing priests. To the people of St. Michael's, thank you for loving me and allowing me to love you.

By the late 17th century, Catholics had become so convinced of their own unworthiness that they thought no one was worthy to receive the sacraments or be loved by God. We were supposedly too sinful. Into this misplaced understanding of human weakness, Jesus himself came and appeared to St. Margaret Mary. He revealed the devotion to the love of his Sacred Heart. Jesus did not want to distance himself from us because of our weakness. Just the opposite. Our sins are the occasion for Jesus to show his great love and mercy. He desires to love like this, even though he knows we will fail him at times.

Love is dangerous. It involves risk and vulnerability. To love someone means opening yourself up to being hurt. Still, we need to take this risk. Jesus did. It wasn’t even a risk for him… he knew we would fail him. Our mission is to love like Jesus and that means we can’t hold back and “play it safe.”

In my priesthood, I have had to move many times when I really just wanted to settle down. It would be understandable to decide at a new place that I was just going to put up barriers and remain “distant” from people. It would be safer. After all, I’ll probably just get moved again, so what’s the use in forming relationships? Yet this is not what Jesus wants, especially not from his priests. He doesn’t want us to take the “safe” and distant, approach. Jesus chooses to love us and mix it up in our broken world. We are called to do the same.

As I leave St. Michael’s, I am sad that our time together was short. I really did invest and form relationships, and this makes it hard to leave. But I’m glad to have made these relationships and glad that I didn’t “play it safe.” I know it’s also not easy for the people to keep changing priests. To the people of St. Michael’s, thank you for loving me and allowing me to love you.

We can't evangelize the culture by simply blending in. John the Baptist was strange. The Church and her worship should also seem strange.

John the Baptist was strange. He wore strange clothes and ate strange food. He is called the greatest prophet in history, and yet he left the most important city in the world to go preach in the desert. Why? John was called to prepare the culture for the coming of the Messiah. Why would he leave the very center of culture?

In going to the wilderness, John was not fleeing his mission or abandoning the culture. Rather, in order to better carry out his mission, he knew that he needed to get away from the corruption he saw. In order to have the credibility to speak truth to power and prepare the way of the Lord, he needed to leave worldly influences behind. John knew he could never fulfill his mission or save the culture by himself blending in with it. Rather, he did the opposite. He became strange.

The result of John’s separation from the culture was not that he became isolated, but that people came to him. Other people also wanted to repent of the corruption in which they had become participants. The crowds going out to the wilderness were probably not that big compared to the people in Jerusalem, but this is how God works. He tends to take a small, even strange, group and change the world.

In celebrating the ancient Latin Mass of the Church, we too do something strange. The culture says that in order to evangelize and attract followers you need to make the Sacred Liturgy more “accessible;” to play the music loud and fast, and have a drum set if possible; get rid of any separation between laity and ordained; remove a sense of the sacred in favor of a sense of welcoming. Is that what John the Baptist would do? When it comes to the Sacred Liturgy, I think the more it strikes us as strange and not of this world, the more we’ve got it exactly right. Stepping into a Catholic church, and especially into the Mass, should be the most other-worldly experience anyone can get. Trying to make it more like what is popular in the culture is exactly backwards.

Celebrating a rite that has remained the same for 1500 years is a bold statement in the face of a culture that demands conformity to what is new and popular. Society demands constant updating. Going to Latin Mass is a bit like St. John leaving Jerusalem behind to go to the Jordan. It’s risky. What if people don’t follow? Somehow, I really don’t think John cared. He knew he was doing what God wanted him to do.

In the face of our culture continuing to devolve, I think the Church needs to have the courage of John to know who she is and to speak the truth boldly and clearly. People will come. If the Church steps up to fulfill her prophetic mission, then people will come as surely as they left Jerusalem to go to follow John. I don’t know how many… but I know it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that we are faithful to our identity and mission. That’s what gave John such courage. We can’t change the Church or the culture all at once, but we can change one family at a time. St. John’s last bold act was to defend marriage. May he intercede today for marriage and for each Catholic family to have the courage to be strange.

Today we celebrate the the Solemnity of the Body and Blood and Christ, Corpus Christi in Latin. We might expect to find readings like our second reading from St. Paul. He describes the institution of the Eucharist. But who is this strange Melchizedek guy who is the star of our first reading and psalm? What does he have to do with the Eucharist?

Well, there's some bad news. We don't really know who Melchizedek is. His name means "King of Righteousness." He is also king of Salem, that is of shalom (peace), or even Jerusalem. We also find out that he is a priest. Now there's the connection to our feast today. But Melchizedek is not exactly a priest like we would think of Catholic priests today. Rather, priests in the Old Testament have one very important job; they offer sacrifice. It's not surprising then that we find Melchizedek offering sacrifice. In this case, he offers bread and wine, another connection to today's feast.

So we have a priest, who is a king, who offers bread and wine, and is even greater than Abraham. It's not hard to see who the Church has always seen in Melchizedek a prefiguring or "type" of Christ. But there's one more thing about Melchizedek that makes him meaningful to you and me today. Priesthood and kingship in the Old Testament would normally have been hereditary. You had to be someone special. You had to be from a special family. Melchizedek doesn't come from any lineage that we know of. We don't know anything about him. He seems to have this priesthood and kingship directly from God... and so do we.

Now you may be thinking, "I'm no king and definitely not a priest." But here's the thing, in virtue of your baptism, you are. Like Melchizedek, you don't have to come from some hereditary line. Rather, in virtue of our baptism, we share in Christ's threefold mission as priest, prophet and king. Here again, don't think of "priest" as "your parish priest." Rather, think of "priest" as "someone who offers sacrifice." That's you. You are called to offer sacrifice. Not the sacrifice of bread and wine in the Eucharist, like the ordained priest, but the sacrifice of your life. That's what Jesus did, and that's what you're called to do as a baptized priest. Always come to Mass with some intention for which you will pray. That's part of the exercise of your baptismal priesthood. What sacrifice will you offer to God today?

Today we celebrate the the Solemnity of the Body and Blood and Christ, Corpus Christi in Latin. We might expect to find readings like our second reading from St. Paul. He describes the institution of the Eucharist. But who is this strange Melchizedek guy who is the star of our first reading and psalm? What does he have to do with the Eucharist?

Well, there’s some bad news. We don’t really know who Melchizedek is. His name means “King of Righteousness.” He is also king of Salem, that is of shalom (peace), or even Jerusalem. We also find out that he is a priest. Now there’s the connection to our feast today. But Melchizedek is not exactly a priest like we would think of Catholic priests today. Rather, priests in the Old Testament have one very important job; they offer sacrifice. It’s not surprising then that we find Melchizedek offering sacrifice. In this case, he offers bread and wine, another connection to today’s feast.

So we have a priest, who is a king, who offers bread and wine, and is even greater than Abraham. It’s not hard to see who the Church has always seen in Melchizedek a prefiguring or “type” of Christ. But there’s one more thing about Melchizedek that makes him meaningful to you and me today. Priesthood and kingship in the Old Testament would normally have been hereditary. You had to be someone special. You had to be from a special family. Melchizedek doesn’t come from any lineage that we know of. We don’t know anything about him. He seems to have this priesthood and kingship directly from God… and so do we.

Now you may be thinking, “I’m no king and definitely not a priest.” But here’s the thing, in virtue of your baptism, you are. Like Melchizedek, you don’t have to come from some hereditary line. Rather, in virtue of our baptism, we share in Christ’s threefold mission as priest, prophet and king. Here again, don’t think of “priest” as “your parish priest.” Rather, think of “priest” as “someone who offers sacrifice.” That’s you. You are called to offer sacrifice. Not the sacrifice of bread and wine in the Eucharist, like the ordained priest, but the sacrifice of your life. That’s what Jesus did, and that’s what you’re called to do as a baptized priest. Always come to Mass with some intention for which you will pray. That’s part of the exercise of your baptismal priesthood. What sacrifice will you offer to God today?

Sometimes we think of the Trinity as an obscure theological dogma that was probably invented sometime long after Jesus. While it may have taken a couple hundred years to figure out the language used to talk about God, our readings today show us the work of the Trinity in the very act of creation "in the beginning." If we want to understand the Trinity, just looking around at creation is a good place to start.

Why do we look at a sunset and think it's beautiful? Why does a mountain stream bring such peace? The same God who created sunsets and mountain also created us. And he made us to go together. Being made in the image of God, human beings have the ability to appreciate creation. We can even look behind creation itself to intuit and appreciate the Creator.

In creating the world, our first reading speaks of the role of "wisdom" personified. In fact, in Hebrew, the phrase "in the beginning" which starts the Bible could also be translated "in wisdom." I love the description of the Spirit of God moving on the face of the waters at creation and wisdom "playing on the surface of his earth." Isn't it delightful to think of the Spirit "playing" as he creates the world?

The Spirit is still desiring to work his playful creative ways in our lives today. None of this world had to exist. We didn't have to exist. Yet, the playful creative Spirit gave us elephants, ants, mountains, and even humans. Wonderful. Are you open to the Spirit "playing" around with your life? Maybe you're a little too comfortable with what you're used to. If the Holy Trinity created all this beauty and wonder up until now, imagine what else God could create in us if we let him in.

Sometimes we think of the Trinity as an obscure theological dogma that was probably invented sometime long after Jesus. While it may have taken a couple hundred years to figure out the language used to talk about God, our readings today show us the work of the Trinity in the very act of creation “in the beginning.” If we want to understand the Trinity, just looking around at creation is a good place to start.

Why do we look at a sunset and think it’s beautiful? Why does a mountain stream bring such peace? The same God who created sunsets and mountain also created us. And he made us to go together. Being made in the image of God, human beings have the ability to appreciate creation. We can even look behind creation itself to intuit and appreciate the Creator.

In creating the world, our first reading speaks of the role of “wisdom” personified. In fact, in Hebrew, the phrase “in the beginning” which starts the Bible could also be translated “in wisdom.” I love the description of the Spirit of God moving on the face of the waters at creation and wisdom “playing on the surface of his earth.” Isn’t it delightful to think of the Spirit “playing” as he creates the world?

The Spirit is still desiring to work his playful creative ways in our lives today. None of this world had to exist. We didn’t have to exist. Yet, the playful creative Spirit gave us elephants, ants, mountains, and even humans. Wonderful. Are you open to the Spirit “playing” around with your life? Maybe you’re a little too comfortable with what you’re used to. If the Holy Trinity created all this beauty and wonder up until now, imagine what else God could create in us if we let him in.

In the Bible, if you want to meet God, you go to a mountain. Todays' homily considers why we climb mountains and what we might find.