Homilies

North Hollywood, CA 12-31-06

"The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God... Make
ready the way of the Lord, clear Him a strait path." (Mark 1:1-3)

Best wishes for a very happy and prosperous new year.

How beautiful and how fitting it is to bid farewell to one year and to start a new
year with this special reading: "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the
Son of God." We start the New Year with outstanding good news; this is what the
word gospel means, good-spell. Good News, this is what religion is all about.
Good news of the Son of God becoming a human being, one of us. The Son of
God who lives from all eternity, in the fullness of time came and dwelt among us.
"His name is Jesus that is Savior; because he delivered His people from their
sins." His name is Emmanu-El, God is with us. And if God is with us, who can
prevail against us? He came in order to give us life and give it to us in
abundance. This is one of my favorite verses and I will never have enough of
repeating it. It is John 10:10” I came so that they might have life and have it more
abundantly.” So let us enjoy life in abundance in the New Year. He became one
with us, so that we become one with Him. This is the beautiful message of
Christmas. The Birthday of Jesus; and this is the good message for a happy,
healthy and prosperous new year.

Three weeks ago, we read at the Divine Liturgy the parable of the great feast, “A
man gave a great dinner to which he invited many.” Religion, my friends, is Good
News, not a burden, not a heavy load. Our Lord told us: “Come to Me, all you
who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you
and learn from me, I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for
yourselves. For my yoke is easy and my burden light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
Religion is like a free pleasure trip. If we miss the boat, we have but ourselves to
blame. Religion sometimes - and I say sometimes - is like a medicine, hard to
swallow, but necessary. I know people, especially children who hate their doctor,
especially their dentist. That is not right! Doctors prescribe a medicine or impose
a special diet. They do it because they love us, not because they want us to feel
miserable. Thank God for doctors. Without them, half of us, maybe, would not be
here today. Religion, in its codes of do's and don'ts is all good news. Its
commandments are recipes for good health, spiritual, mental and physical alike.

God's laws like most civil and criminal laws are there for our benefit and our
protection. At the beginning of the baptismal service, the priests places his right
hand on the head of the one coming to be baptized and says a very beautiful
prayer; please listen to it the next time you attend a baptism. With other things,
the priests pray: “Lord, enable him/her to carry out all your commandments and to
observe all your precepts; for if a person does these things, he/she will find life in
them.” This is true also of civil just laws. For instance, the law of fastening your
seat belt. I like those big signs: "Buckle up. It is the law." More importantly, it
saves lives. It is not there to saddle us and to make us feel uncomfortable. We
keep the law and the law keeps us. God's Law is good news. Thank God for
telling us His Will. Thank God for the Gospel, the Good News!

"Prepare (make ready) the way of the Lord; make straight His paths," preached
John the Baptist. The Lord is eager to come down and dwell among us, to show
us the way to true happiness. We also are called to be like John the Baptist,
opening the way to Him in our hearts, in our families and in our society. Our
religion is not a secret to keep carefully, but good news to shout from the roof
tops. It is a voice shouting in the desert: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord.”

As bishop or priest, I am called to remind people of the reality of religion and of
the love of God to us, as did John the Baptist. As a teacher, you are called to do
the same for your students. As parents, you are called to do the same for your
family. If not a teacher or a parent, you still can be a good neighbor or a good
citizen and work to prepare the way of the Lord. The one who spread good news
is the first one to enjoy its effect. The one who distributes flowers is the first one
to enjoy their fragrance.

It is true, however, that we can not be the Lord's forerunners, if we are self-
centered and if we seek our own comfort instead of common good. John the
Baptist was wearing camel hair clothes. He was feeding on wild honey (I don't
mind that!) and grasshoppers. Grasshoppers? Yes. Grasshoppers are a poor
version of crab meat. They have a small amount of meat in their legs. But how
much crab meat can you get out of a grasshopper? The idea is that we have to
sacrifice our own comfort if we want to spread the good news. Especially, we
have to seek the Lord's glory and not our own. John the Baptist kept proclaiming:
"He must increase while I must decrease." (John 3:30) This is the logo of a happy
life: "He must increase, while I must decrease." This is the motto of “Overeaters
Victorious,” those who ask God to direct their eating habits toward moderation.
“More of Jesus, less of me. Less of me, more of Jesus.” This, for sure, does not
diminish us, to decrease while Jesus is increasing in us. The ideal would be to
have our old self even disappear to concede the place to Jesus. This is what
happened to St. Paul. "Life for me is Christ," "It is not I who live, it is Christ Who
lives in me." This is the challenge we received at our baptism: "All of you who
have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." People should not see us, but
see Christ through us.

Grown-ups know this; but I want all of you children to notice how short the days
during this time of the year are. Did you notice that just three days before
Christmas come the longest night and the shortest day of the year? From
Christmas on the days get longer and the nights shorter. This is why Christmas
has been called the Feast of Lights. We sing at Christmas: “Your nativity, O Christ
our God, has shed the light of knowledge upon the earth.” How nice it is to think,
yes to know, that if we walk with Jesus we will have more and more light and joy in
our lives.

"We read a letter from its first line," says the Arabic proverb. How is our new year
going to be? If we review our New Year's eve and our first two days, may be the
best portion of our new year is our being in church right now, hearing the good
news, emptying ourselves of our own egoism, having Jesus increase in us and
"making ready the way of the Lord". Let us shout aloud the good news that God
is alive, that God is with us. Let us not just say it; let it show it on our face and in
our words and in our good deeds. Let us remember every day of this year and
let us remind all those around us that God is our Father. He loved us so much
that He gave us a Brother, our Lord Jesus and He gave us His Holy Spirit to lead
us to do good. Let us reflect God’s love, God’s light and God’s goodness in all
what we do. If we remember something nice we heard in this Liturgy, let us
proclaim it to those around us. Let us show a joyful face, so that those who see us
see the good effect of our coming to church. Keep smiling; keep reflecting the
light of God. If you see someone without a smile, give him/her a smile of yours.
So, let your light shine before everyone, that they will see your good deeds and
glorify your Father who is in heaven.

Have a happy and healthy New Year and a wonderful Epiphany!

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