ONE GIFT

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “One Gift.”

EPIPHANY

It’s the feast of the Epiphany and the gospel tells us that the three gifts that the Magi or Kings or Wise men brought to Jesus were gold, frankincense and myrrh.

As I was looking for a theme to preach on for this feast, my sermon was going to be “Three Gifts!”

Where I was going to go with this sermon is to try to come up with three gifts I want to give God this year. As I reflected upon that, I found it difficult to come up with even one good clear gift.

Then the obvious jumped out and I was off the hook a bit, “Hey, each Magi gave only one gift to Jesus.”

I found “One gift?” easier to reflect upon.

As we all know Matthew doesn’t tell us there were 3 Kings or Wise Men or Magi – but three became the tradition because of the 3 gifts. And in time the Magi were even given names – Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar – and even descriptions on what they looked like.

That’s good use of the imagination – and it has always challenged preachers and Christian writers to figure out the why of the gifts.

Theorists say the gold represents Jesus as king or living a virtuous life. Incense represents prayer rising to God or the mysterious reality of God – like a cloud of smoke. And myrrh represents suffering – Christ will suffer and die for us.

And we all heard the joke – probably several times, “How do we know that the Magi were men?” Answer: “Because it looks like they kept getting lost. They must have had a gadget – to track the star – that would help them get to where they had to get, and they brought very impractical gifts for a new born baby: gold, frankincense and myrrh.” If they were women, they would have brought diapers, blankets and a baby crib. Okay, gold is a great gift. And they did ask for directions.

ONE GIFT

So to get a practical homily going here: if you were to visit Jesus what gift would you bring?

To help spiritual growth, perhaps it would be better to frame the question this way: “If you were to visit the adult Jesus, the Son of God, what one gift would you bring?”
We can do this. We can approach God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or any one of the persons in the Trinity at any time. This is our faith. This is what prayer life is all about.

We just went through the Christmas season and we took moments to ask ourselves: “Okay, I’m going to drop into to see mom or dad or Aunt Tilly and Uncle Tommy, what gift can I bring to them that makes sense – or is personal?”

So people buy ties or a bottle of perfume or Johnny Walker or a gift certificate to Talbot’s or Home Depot or Target or Barns and Noble, or what have you.

Well, if we were to stop to be in God’s presence, what one gift do I bring to God?

I don’t know about you, but I found this a good question, but also a very tough question.

SOME ANSWERS

It could be a resolution - a New Year’s resolution – and Father Jack Kingsbury’s letter as Pastor to the parish in last week’s bulletin is helpful, if that’s the way I want to go with the one gift question. He suggests making a spiritual resolution and making it practical –manageable – specific, realistic, consistent, doable and with my time limits.

Or it could be Sunday Mass. I am going to make coming to Sunday Mass a joy this year. I am going to pray. I’m going to pause. I’m going to sing. I’m going to enjoy being with these other folks who are part of our parish for one hour each week. During Mass, I’m going to look at my life – my relationships – my use of time – how I’m serving others, etc.

It could be a conversion, a change, a new direction.

I remember giving up solitaire on the computer two years ago for Lent and I made the decision on Ash Wednesday without much thought and I haven’t played a game on the computer sense. Now there is nothing wrong with solitaire on the computer. I much rather play cards with others. That’s one of our strong family traditions. Last year I took up Sudoku and finished a whole book of them. Reason: I want to use my brain more as I age – and I’ve always been weak when it comes to numbers.

It could be reading. It could be walking. It could be more sleep. It could be more anonymous giving to the poor box. It could be volunteering. It could be cleaning and clearing out an attic or a yard, a cellar or a garage or one’s priorities list.

But we have to ask the question: How is what I want to do a gift to God?

THE QUESTION

Maybe the process we ought to follow is to go to God and say: “Is there anything You are asking of me?

Then pause – then shut up – then listen – and maybe God will drop a hint – then and there – or maybe in a moment – an unexpected moment our spouse or boss or both will say, “You know, you have to listen more.” Or, “We need to spend more time with dad. He’s been a bit lonely ever since mom died.”

More or less questions help.

Is there anything I’m doing too much of or is there any thing I’m not doing enough of?

A POSSIBLE EXAMPLE

A great gift might be making less whining the gift to give God and our world this new year of 2008.

I’ve been noticing more and more in the past few years that I have a gift I don’t use enough. It’s called, “The mute button.” Or “The pause button.” It’s right there on the remote or the clicker in my brain and I can hit it any time. I’ve noticed that I have found saying to myself, “I don’t have to respond to this. I don’t have to comment on this. I can keep my mouth shut on this.”

And when it comes to whining, and lots of buttons that get pushed, one major area is Church. We all know the old rule: “You can talk about anything around here, except religion and politics.”

On Friday evening I was reading an excellent article in the Christmas issue of America Magazine. It’s an article on Flannery O’Connor, the American Catholic southern writer. It’s entitled “Flannery O’Connor’s Religious Vision” by George Niederauer, the archbishop of San Francisco. [Cf. America, Vol. 197. No. 21, Dec. 24-31, 2007, pp. 9-14]

It was an excerpt from his Lane Center Lecture at the University of San Francisco – adapted for a magazine article. It is wonderful – loaded with lots of things to think about.

There’s a great gift in itself: to give God, ourselves and others, the gift of more good reflective reading in 2008 – to find ourselves escaping to quiet places and do serious reading and reflecting.

Anyway, Flannery O’Connor was off on the issue of whining and complaining and judging and griping amongst church goers about the church and its priests etc. Being a priest, I would obviously spot this.

She says the surface is easy to judge – but not the interior operations of the Holy Spirit.

Then George Niederauer in his article – as he is talking about all this says Flannery O’Conner made a touching reference to the vocation of Catholic priests, whom she often found to be overworked and unimaginative.

Quote: “It is easy for any child to find out the faults in the sermon on his way home from church every Sunday. It is impossible to find out the hidden love that makes a man, in spite of his intellectual limitations, his neuroticism, his lack of strength, give up his life to the service of God’s people, however bumblingly he may go about it.”

That comment stopped me. More than 40 years ago I decided to give my life as a priest. It’s been great – but I have felt its consequences in missing at times not being married, not having kids, not having weekends, and there is no retirement if one is in a religious order that has priests.

That choice was made more that 40 years ago. How am I living out that life choice today. So I would think the key is to be more specific. How do I want to serve here at St. Mary’s this year of 2008? What do people need?

And it’s the same situation for all of you here – married and single, widow or widower, divorced or what have you. You made your big life choices many years ago. How can you be better this new year of 2008?

CONCLUSION

Specifically, how can I make the gift of my one life better this year – practically, realistically, “impacty”? What’s the one gift I have to look at – and make a good decision about for this year – and then try to give that gift to God and others this year? Amen.

THREE TOWN KIDS

[I like to write a story for our Family Mass - which has lots of little ones present. I'm not sure if this story 'worked' for our tiny town or out of town kids on this feast of the Epiphany.]

Once upon a time there were three kids – who happened to be there in Bethlehem when Jesus was born – because they were town kids. They were neither shepherds not kings’ kids – but they saw the kings and the shepherds when they came to see the new born baby Jesus.

The first two kids were two sisters – aged 9 and 11. They woke up many times the night that Jesus was born – because there was a lot of motion and commotion happening just outside their window. They looked out that window several times that night – because there were so many different voices outside in the dark and in the cold. Their mom and dad owned the Inn that had no room for Mary and Joseph. But that night, there were no rooms for lots of people who had come to Bethlehem for the census. And that night was a cold, clear starry, starry night.

Years later, many years later, after Jesus had grown up, preached, healed, and then was arrested and killed and then for those who believe rose from the dead, these two sisters often said, “Imagine if our parents had let Mary and Joseph have a room in our Inn that night? We would be forever remembered for being in the house in which the Messiah was born.”

But that didn’t happen and that’s getting way ahead of the story.

Back to that night – the night Jesus was born…. The two sisters didn’t get dressed when they looked out their window and saw Mary and Joseph – but they quickly got dressed a couple of hours later when they saw shepherds coming into town. It was strange seeing them. Something seemed different. Something new was happening.

The shepherds’ faces were filled with filled with wonder – filled with light – filled with smiles.

The two kids asked the shepherds from their window, “What’s going on? What’s happening?”

And one of them, a young teen age shepherd, said, “As we were out in the fields tonight, guarding our sheep from wolves, we heard a voice, a messenger, an angel from heaven, appearing to us in bright light. We were terrified. And the voice said, ‘Don’t be afraid. Listen, I bring you good news of great joy – to be shared with everyone. Today in the town of David, a savior has been born.’”

The two sisters went outside without waking their parents. They went to a cousin’s house and threw a rock at her wooden window – in hopes of waking up their best friend. These three did everything together. They knew she would love the action. They knew she would want to come and see this new born baby – born in a stable – who was bringing all these shepherds into town.

The three girls silently headed for the cave - the stable where Jesus was born. They watched the shepherds – watching their eyes and their amazement – especially when they saw the baby was lying in a manger – a small wooden box from which the animals ate.

The three girls watched everything – especially the shepherds watching Jesus. The shepherds – not being townspeople – not being around that often – were interesting to watch. These poor shepherds – uneducated – unknown – whose names were never written down – would be the first to see Jesus.

Why did God make them the first?

The three sisters hadn’t heard something this baby would say years later, “The last shall be first!”

Something new was happening here – and these three girls were the second to see the scene.

These three sisters hadn’t heard something this baby would say years later, “Let the children come to me. These know all about the Kingdom of God.”

Some days later three magi or wise men or kings arrived looking for this same baby. They said they had been traveling for the longest time – following a star – that was leading them to this spot.

When they came into town, they saw these three girls – the Inseparables – playing outside the Inn. They asked these three town kids if they knew where the new born baby was born.

The three said, “Yes, you three have asked the right three. Come and see.”

And these three town kids brought these three strangers to see the new born baby, Jesus.

Once more the three girls watched – this time, three kings, three wise men, as they went to Mary and Joseph and asked to see and hold the baby.

And each of these three kings or wise men or whoever they were, also brought a gift for the new born baby – whom they were calling, “The New Born King.”

The three girls thought the three gifts rather odd – well, maybe not the gold, but incense and myrrh, what are they going to do with these gifts?

The three girls were talking, talking, talking to each other about, “Who is this baby? Why is he so special.”

Then they began to hear rumors and rumbles that King Herod in Jerusalem didn’t like what he was hearing – that a new born king was born somewhere near Jerusalem – and Bethlehem was just a few miles away.

They knew their tiny town was famous because a long, long, long time ago a shepherd boy from that town became the famous King David.

“Wow,” one of the three girls said, “I bet you that’s why Jesus was born here in our little town of Bethlehem.”

They would go to see Mary and Joseph every day – and a few times every day – and that’s how they overheard Joseph telling Mary, “I had this strange dream. We have to go to Egypt – because Herod is going to come and kill every new born baby boy around here. He’s known to do these things. He even killed some of his own sons.”

The three girls said, “Thank God, we were born girls and not boys.”

Then the first of the girls said – the one who always spoke up first, “We have to bring a gift to the baby – but what kind of a gift?”

The second girl said, “Well, it has to be light and easy to carry. But what?”

The third girl said, the one who always spoke last said, “Well, let’s get gifts for their journey. Why don’t we give them something to eat and something to drink? Mom and dad have plenty of food in the Inn. I’ll get a jug of wine. You get some bread – after all Bethlehem means, ‘House of Bread.’ But what about the third gift?”

Silence.

“Then the third girl, who always spoke last, said, “I know. I’ll get a lantern. Besides food, they are going to need light for the journey.”

And that’s what they did – and years later, many years later, when they heard that Jesus often talked about his followers being light to our world – light for the journey, they felt part of the story – especially when Jesus used bread and wine as food for the journey – when at his last supper he took bread and he took wine and said, “This is my body. This is my blood.”

But that’s getting ahead of the story….

So there’s more to come … more stories for other days....

[Painting on top: "The Adoration of the Magi," Sano de Pietro (Ansano di Pietro di Mencio), Italian, 1406-1481, painting ca. 1470 - The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY]