Sunday, January 10 - The Baptism of the Lord

The Baptism of the Lord

Dorothy Day reflecting on the birth of her child Tamar.

The first time I heard the name of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face (to give her

whole title), also known as Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower, was when I lay in the maternity ward of

Bellevue Hospital in New York. Bellevue is the largest hospital in the world, and doctors from all over the

world come there. If you are poor, you can have free hospital care. At that time, if you could pay anything,

there was a flat rate for having a baby - thirty dollars for a ten-day stay, in a long ward with about sixty beds.

I was so fortunate as to have a bed next to the window looking out over the East River so that I could see the

sun rise in the morning and light up the turgid water and make gay the little tugs and the long tankers that went

by the window. When there was fog it seemed as though the world ended outside my window, and the sound

of fog horns haunted the day and night.

As a matter of fact, my world did end at the window those ten days that I was in the hospital, because

I was supremely happy. If I had written the greatest book, composed the greatest symphony, painted the most

beautiful painting or carved the most exquisite figure, I would not have felt more the exalted creator that I did

when they placed my child in my arms. To think that this thing of beauty, sighing gently in my arms, reaching

her little mouth for my breast, clutching at me with her tiny hands, had come from my flesh, was my own child!

Such a great feeling of happiness and joy filled me that I was hungry for Someone to thank, to love, even to

worship, for so great a good that had been bestowed upon me. That tiny child was not enough to contain my

love, nor could the father, though my heart was warm with love for both.

Today’s feast celebrates Jesus’ plunge into the murky waters of the Jordan river. These waters symbolize

chaos to the Jews. When Jesus became man he took on our experience of chaos and darkness. But Jesus didn’t

stay long in the waters of chaos and darkness. He stepped directly out of the water into a new life of dedication

to the will of his Father and to teaching and healing the people.

When we were baptized we received two great gifts. First, we were held in the hands of God who

adopted us, that is, we were given to the world. In what sense? The ritual, aside from water, uses oil and light.

The oil is a symbol of protection against the forces of evil. To be anointed is to be precious, chosen, special

in God’s eyes. The candle lit for us at Baptism is a sign that Christ’s light shall shine through us into the

shadows of a hurting world.

Secondly, we received the power of the Holy Spirit. Isaiah says that the chosen one will not trample

the defenseless and already wounded, but will faithfully bring forth justice , opening the eyes of the blind and

freeing prisoners from their cells. The Holy Spirit’s power given us is power not to hurt or dominate, but to

heal and free.

Today’s feast brings the Christmas cycle to its solemn conclusion. The new birth of the eternal word

of God within us in faith, hoped for in Advent, celebrated in Christmas becomes effective in our renewed

understanding of baptism. We are a new creation. We can transform our dark, cold and broken world by

faithfully living out our baptismal identity. Renewing the face of the earth, living fully in the image and likeness

of Christ and announcing the good news of peace and justice is what our baptismal identity is all about,. We

experience the love the Trinity uplifting us from fear and apathy, enabling us to stand up strong and speak out

clearly and compassionately to the sources of sin and evil in our world. The salvific work of Jesus goes on

through the commitment of each one of us.

Father Tom Heron

Sunday, December 27 - Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus

There is a story about a little boy who one evening after supper asked his dad to read a book to him. The father was comfortable resting in his lazy-boy chair watching his favorite TV program and told his son to see him later. The little boy persisted and finally the father went into his desk drawer and pulled out a map of the world. He cut up the map of the world into jig-saw pieces, scattered them over the kitchen table and told his son to put the map of the world together, come back when he was done, and the father would read him the book.

The Father felt relieved thinking it would take his son at least 2 - 3 hours to put the map of the world together. In ten minutes the boy returned, telling his father he was finished. The father was amazed when he saw the map of the world put together and asked his son how he did it so quickly. The boy answered: “Dad, on the other side there was a picture of a family, so I put the family together and when the family was right, the world was right.”

In most cases, it is within the family that we learned to walk and speak. We learned a measure of security, self-confidence and independence. We came to a sense of ourselves and acquired an ability to appreciate others. We came to have faith in God and a sense of his presence.

The verses in Saint Paul’s letter to the Colossians are among the most eloquent in the New Testament. “Because you are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with heartfelt mercy, with kindness, humility, meekness and patience...” Saint Paul is saying we need these virtues in our homes more than we need consumer goods. These virtues are spiritual clothing for us. They are far more important than matching holiday sweaters with snowflakes and reindeers. Blest is the family wrapped in the warmth of these virtues...

It takes a lot of spiritual courage and spiritual strength to make any family work, and last, and grow. Joseph, Mary and Jesus became a holy family for all of us because they did not seek their own individual, personal wills to be done, but because they lived for God and one another. They dedicated themselves to adjusting and readjusting, when necessary, to doing God’s will as well as they could. God was always at the center of their lives. They adjusted well to the changes in their plans.

Studies tell us that we speak to others at a rate of approximately 140 words per minutes, but we speak to ourselves at approximately 900 words per minute. That is what you are doing right now. Even as I speak, you are making editorial comments to yourself about what I am saying, and one idea triggers another, and you think about that idea, and on it goes. That’s called self-talk. Here is the real importance in this finding. Researchers tell us that up to 70 percent of all self-talk is negative. In other words, you tell yourself all the things that you can’t do, shouldn’t try, will never do, aren’t good enough to do, at a rate of 600 words per minute. For example, “I’m too fat, I’m too dumb, I come from a poor family. I’m a nobody.” Friend you are a child of God. Believe in yourself. Walk as a child of the Divine.

Today, as we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family, it is a good opportunity to reflect on family life today. Families are the pillars of our society, the basic units of society. Family life has been under attack these days despite politicians proclaiming the need for family values. Television mocks, ridicules and insults wholesomeness in family life. Case in point, Married with Children. The increase of divorce, the unemployed father, the depressed mother, the pregnant daughter, and the drug-addicted son all contribute to breakdown as well as financial, emotional and moral stress and strain on the family.

Father Tom Heron

Sunday, December 13, 2009

It is never easy to live with other people; it is much simpler to be a saint alone. In a community, or a family, or a parish, or a group of friends, it is inevitable that we are going to be hurt time and again by others, sometimes so deeply that the pain retains its power for years afterwards. We wound each other so easily and so quickly. These small cuts and bruises, these knocks and blows, the strange and hurtful things that we do to one another, can, if they are left untended, soon develop into running sores. That is why the Lord’s Prayer is to be said twice a day so that “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” will be a constant reminder of the vital necessity of practicing forgiveness. To go round like Cain with hate of our brother leads to disaster. So the heart of community if forgiveness. We can only be healed through forgiveness, and we can only gain freedom through it. Forgiveness is the greatest factor of growth for any human being. But it is demanding; it is an exercise which asks of us honesty and love. It brings us face-to-face with our pain. It forces us to confront it and deal with it, the sooner the better, since unless they are cauterized wounds grow and fester. It is only too easy to keep up an internal conversation by which I chew over that hurting remark, or that undeserved happening, or I refuse to forget some slight, or I go on saying ‘it isn’t fair’ over and over again to myself. Then what began as quite a small grudge or resentment has been nursed into a great brooding cloud that smothers all my inner landscape, or has become a cancer eating up more and more of my inner self. Murmuring or grumbling in the heart must be rooted out before it starts to do terrible damage.