Fr Benjamin's Homily for December 28th

"Family love means sacrifice"

The three persons of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph form an earthly community united in love, and because of this it becomes an image of the Trinity in Heaven. Our own families and loves should likewise mirror God's love, but that kind of love is not easy because it means sacrifice.

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Fr. Joel's homily for Dec. 28

Chr2 - The Family of God
*CORRECTED* I accidentally uploaded the wrong homily; it's probably the Devil's fault somehow. Here is the correct one. Also, it seems to take a long time for the homily to load. We all know the Devil runs the internet, right? I will be switching to a different podcast service soon.
Christmas, the Holy Family. Simeon and Anna recognize the Image of God in the baby Jesus. The Family is also called to be an image of the Trinity, a mirror of God's self-giving and fruitful love. Just as God made Abraham and Sarah fruitful even when it was no longer humanly possible, so too God can work within us to transform troubled family situations into images of the Trinity. (28 Dec. 2008)
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Fr Benjamin's homily for Christmas Eve

"Jesus is the gift that saves"

This was my longest and most memorable homily to date. For Christmas eve I invited the children up to the hear the story of Jesus, and to open a gift that was under the tree in the sanctuary. At one point the microphone stopped working, and several sections have been cut out of the homily to trim that part and some other parts that didn't come out in the recording.
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Fr. Joel's homily for Dec. 25

Christmas Midnight - Return to Innocence
Christmas, Mass at Midnight. As the world became 'adult' we lost our innocence and our hearts grew cold. The Christ Child renews the world by calling us back to our first innocence and simple love. Will we welcome him into our lives? 25 Dec. 2008
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Birth of Jesus in the snow

Fr. Benjamin

Those hoping for a white Christmas are getting more than they bargained for across much of the United States. A white Christmas sounds romantic, but the snow doesn't just fall where it looks pretty, it falls everywhere, to the bitter inconvenience of many. In my determined spirit of not complaining about the inevitable, I am learning to enjoy snow on my feet, my car squirreling around on the road, and skipping my exercise routine in favor of a little vigorous shoveling.

Those of you who aren't as amenable to this weather might wonder why we celebrate the birth of Jesus in the middle of such a dark, cold, uncomfortable time of year. The truth is, it is exactly in the most difficult times of life that we need the birth of a savior. Jesus did not come to earth because he wanted to enjoy spring flowers and butterflies, but because he wanted to take on his own shoulders all our our misery and suffering. Celebrating Christmas now should be a reminder of that. And Jesus saves from much deeper piles than snow!

Have a Merry Christmas.

Fr Benjamin's Homily for December 21st

"The true meaning of Christmas"

Asking people at the mall "What is the true meaning of Christmas?" produces a wide variety of answers, some of them recognizing the place of Christ. It is a dangerous thing to celebrate Christ, because the little baby will grow up and threaten the stability of our selfish world. However, we celebrate Christmas anyway because without Christmas we would not celebrate God's love.

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Fr. Joel's homily for Dec. 21

Adv4 - The Lord is with You
Advent 4th Sunday. The Lord is with David. He accompanied David during his whole career as king and promises to be with his descendants as well. The Lord is with Mary. He was with her in the beginning and promises to continue to be with her as she carries the Christ Child. The Lord is with you as well, and will always be with you. Can you accept this as Mary did? 21 Dec. 2008
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Immaculate Conception

Fr Benjamin

This is a typed copy of my homily on December 8th, Immaculate Conception, due to complaints that I had not recorded it.


"Our reading today begins with the Original Sin of Adam and Eve. Many people despise the teaching on Original Sin because it is negative and it highlights the evil present in human nature. The truth is, Original Sin is a positive teaching. Sin and evil pester us everywhere and they seem to coexist somehow with good. How do we explain both the good and the evil? Some think that there are good people in the world and there are evil people, and the good people do good things and the evil people do evil things. Many Christians take this perspective, but it is a terrible solution because it places some people beyond the possibility of redemption.
Another explanation for evil is that people are nice on the surface but deep down they are vicious, and cruel. Once the social "niceness" falls apart, you see that people are truly selfish and behave like animals. The Church teaches that Sin and evil are not fundamental but superficial. They are a corruption of the beauty that God made, like a beautiful antique that has become dirty and tarnished. Those who have the eyes of faith can see the beauty in a person no matter how corrupted they have become by sin, and this is exactly how God sees us.

Mary is our best example of what the human race is meant to be. She has never been tarnished by sin and she shines beautifully. In the reading of the Annunciation today, we see what God saw in Mary from the very beginning. We see how pure she is and how completely open she is to God and to God's will. Since Mary is so often on top of a pedestal, it is hard for us to see a connection to her, but she is one of us, a fellow human being, and the only distance between us and her is the distance of grace. By our baptism, we participate in the same salvation from sin that Mary enjoys. Through our faith, we are in contact with the same power of God that purifies from all stain of sin.

For women, Mary proclaims the purity that God can bring. A lot of women think that because of the burdens they carry they are tarnished beyond repair. I meet so many women who have committed sins or have had sins committed against them, and they feel themselves to be ugly and unworthy of love. Mary proclaims that there is no woman which God cannot transform and make pure. With a word God can uproot the Original Sin that is so deeply embedded we are sure it could never be removed without killing us. The same God can just as easily wipe away every other sin. God who made Mary pure can make you pure and beautiful like Mary.

For men, Mary visibly proclaims the beauty and dignity that is hidden in every woman. Much of the suffering of women in the world is due to the actions of men. As men, our actions either elevate the dignity of women or serve to undermine it. Knowing that every woman possesses the same dignity as the Blessed Virgin Mary, even if their dignity seems more tarnished or more stained. In the movie "Man of La Mancha", Don Quixote suffers from delusions. He thinks that a windmill is a giant with spinning arms, he sees an inn and thinks it is a castle, and he mistakes a degraded serving girl for a noble and dignified lady. He is the first man to ever treat her as a lady, but because he sees the dignity in her, she begins to see the dignity in herself. Every woman carries the same dignity as Our Lady, and we should treat every woman with the same respect and honor.

Finally, for all Christians, Mary is not only our model but she is our prototype and our inspiration. She believed the words of the angel and because of her faith Christ was brought into the world. By our faith, we receive the same Word of God. It is our call to bring that word out, to "give birth" to it in the world. The world is dark and cold, and it desperately needs the light and warmth of Christ. We must say "yes" to God and bring his Son into the world so that the world might receive his salvation."

Fr Benjamin's homily for December 14th

"The gift of joy"

We tend to ask for smaller gifts from people who can give a little, and larger gifts from people who can give a lot. Have we considered asking God for a gift? One of the best gifts we can receive is joy, which only God can give.
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Thanksgiving at Home

Fr. Joel
There is nothing so fantastic as a good trip home for Thanksgiving. Just like last year, we had a 9:00am Thanksgiving Day Mass. It was a "combined" Mass between the two parishes where I work. Afterwards Fr. Benjamin and I drove together to our home for Thanksgiving. As usual, we had a fantastic meal cooked by my mother. It also featured special wine that my brother and I had bought at the Parallel 44 Winery in Kewaunee. Nothing like wine to make a good celebration great.


This year featured the usual turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry bread, biscuits and home-grown brussel sprouts. It also featured four kinds of squash and wild rice. I forgot how wonderful it is to spend time at home, eat home-cooked meals and chat and play games with family. Our family has the tradition of eating no desert at the main meal. We save it for the evening meal. This year Mom made five kinds of pie, including a delicious new cranberry pie. My younger brother decorated it to look special.

Fr. Joel's Homily for Dec. 14

Adv3 - The Savior is Coming, and is Among Us
Advent 3rd Sunday. We have felt God's power alive and active in the world. This same God wants to dwell among us, to dwell within us. 14 Dec. 2008
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St. Nicholas, Santa Claus, etc.

December 6th was the feast of St. Nicholas, who is celebrated as a protector of children and giver of gifts. Originally the bishop of Myra in modern day Turkey, he was born into a wealthy family and was orphaned at a young age. Discerning a holy vocation he was the beloved bishop of Myra and used his inheritance generously. It is said that he gave three bags of gold for three girls who were too poor to afford dowrys, tossing them through the windows of a house.
In the oldest images I can find, St. Nicholas is pictured with a white beard, a white pallium draped around his shoulders and holding a book. Interestingly he does not wear a hat.


When the Turks were threatening Myra, Italian sailors took his body to the city of Bari, where it is still venerated today. His statue in Bari similarly has no hat, but has three golden balls (apparently signifying the bags of gold from his legend) and he carries a crosier.


As St. Nicholas' story spreads into the west, he apparently loses his original, eastern appearance and takes on a distinctly more western look and begins to wear a miter.


One of the legends of St. Nicholas is that during a famine a butcher killed three small boys, planning to sell them as ham. The saint brought them back to life, and for this reason he is often picture with three boys. This story also reinforces his role as a protector of children.

It is hard to imagine how this holy saint ever turned into the glitzy, commercialized Santa Claus of modern American folklore. I conjecture that Santa is not actually derived from the Christian saint but from Father Christmas, a jolly old gentleman wearing a fur-trimmed coat, sometimes with holly leaves on his head or a hood, and carrying a bag of toys.


Versions of Father Christmas appear in England, France, Germany and Italy, and they seem suspiciously like a holdover from ancient paganism as a personification of the winter holiday. There's a certain charm and grace in Father Christmas.


Of course, in America we don't have time for saints, especially ones who only deliver small gifts. Neither do we have time to savor a jolly character just out of the woods with snow on his boots. So, stripped of his Old World charm and peaceful look, Father Christmas becomes Santa Claus, a high-powered, hard working factory CEO headquarted at the North Pole with an army of worker-elves to answer children's letters and deliver an unlimited supply of toys made-in-China on Christmas eve. A spokesman for commercialism, consumption and greed.


This statue of Santa Claus now stands in the city where St. Nicholas was once bishop, since the Turkish authorities apparently find it less uncomfortable to have a Salvation Army-esque bringer of booty than a Christian saint. I would much rather have St. Nicholas with his crosier and his legend. Even Father Christmas seems like a welcome diversion from this red-suited clown. With all respect to Virginia, I don't mind if Santa Claus turns up missing (or worse) and I can't help wondering if that can be arranged.

Vietnamese in protest aginst police

Fr Benjamin

While you probably won't see this on world news, some 2000 Catholics in Vietnam protested the trial of Catholics accused of "damaging state property." The eight parishioners had been part of a prayer vigil protesting the seizure of their church property by the government. The full article can be found at Asianews:

Fr Benjamin's homily for December 7th

"From the wilderness to the Center"

John the Baptist calls the people to reconnect with their original experience of God. In doing so, he prepares God's way, not by moving mountains, but by moving hearts to deal with those obstacles that the people have been dealing with.
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Fr. Joel's Homily for Dec. 8

Dec8 - The Power of Grace
Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. Mary shows us that we were made for grace, not sin, and that grace can transform even our past. 8 Dec. 2008
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Fr. Joel's Homily for Dec. 7

Adv2 - The Savior is Coming, Prepare for Him
Advent 2nd Sunday. What are we waiting for? A teacher, a prophet, a king? We wait for a Savior, one who will comfort his people and finally make us holy. Make straight the pathway to your heart so that he can enter in. 7 Dec. 2008
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Cellaphone

Fr. Joel

Cell phones are wonderful little inventions. A small device, just larger than a wallet, that you can take anywhere with you. Anywhere in the world someone can pick up a telephone, dial a number, and your cellphone will ring. Amazing.

I decided I needed a new phone. My current phone is slow, has few features, and the battery doesn't last very long. Even worse, it makes an annoying beep when it needs charging (you can't turn the beep off). What really pushed me though was that the parish is using a computer calendar. It would be great if I could keep a copy of the calendar on my phone.

It just so happens that my phone has a little calendar feature. It even supports repeating events and I can synchronize it with my computer. So I copied all the events from the calendar to my phone. Unfortunately, repeating events never end, so once I went on "Vacation", I was on vacation for the rest of my life. Not a bad thing, all in all, except when it came to trying to schedule something. Back to the drawing board.

My carrier, Sprint, frequently sends junk mail with offers for great phones at discount prices. I found a new phone on sale for $250 -- pricey, but it would do everything I wanted. It turns out that the discount only applies if I buy the phone with a new plan. Since I already have a plan, I am eligible for only $75 in discounts, meaning the phone would cost me $475. Sprint only gives discounts to new customers. When my contract expires, I will be eligible for these great discounts if I start a new two-year contract. Hmmmmm, sounds a little like a scam to me.

Where could I get a new phone? A friend gave me a used phone, so I took that down to the Sprint store. Could they activate the phone for me? Absolutely not, it was a Verizon phone. "So, I have to buy my phones from Sprint?"

"Yes, but we have a wide selection," said the cheerful sales lady. "But I wouldn't buy a phone a full price. Wait until next spring when you can get the discounts."

Good advice. It turns out that full price is pretty pricy. All those great advertisements for new deals? They don't apply to me. Just out of curiosity I compared the full price of higher-end phones. Without discounts, a Palm Centro for Sprint would cost me $399. If I had Verizon or AT&T, full price is only $349. If you buy an unlocked GSM phone (which can be used on most carriers by not Sprint and Verizon), full price drops to $299. Who decides what Sprint charges for "full price"? Sprint, apparently.

Now I understand. I have to buy a phone from Sprint. I have to buy from their selection of phones. If I want a phone they don't carry, I am out of luck. Furthermore, I can only get discounts with a new plan, or I pay dearly for whatever they have decided is "full price."

"My battery is starting to fail," I said. "I have looked at three different stores and you no longer carry a replacement battery. If my battery where to die, I would have to buy whatever phone I could afford at full price. Is that correct?"

"Did you get insurance?" She asked.

I didn't. At the time I bought my phone, I had no idea it was so important that the phone last exactly two years. Not more than two years, and certainly not less than two years. I asked if there were any other options and she helpfully suggested I could buy a used Sprint phone on eBay. Now that does not sound like a good idea to me. So I'm back to the drawing board again. Meanwhile, what's on my calendar for next Tuesday? I have no idea.

Fr Benjamin's homily for November 30th

"Waiting for Love"

Advent is a time a waiting for the Lord to come. This waiting is frustrating, but absolutely essential because deep down we are fundamentally lonely and looking for love, and this loneliness can only be filled by the Lord. Our waiting is full of hope and joy, because we know the one we are waiting for.
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