Tuesday, December 2, 2025

 Tuesday of the First Week in Advent

(Isaiah 11:1-10; Luke 10:21-24)

A short story entitled “Attitude Adjustment” tells of a priest who gets hit by a train while driving.  Father Jim survived the crash because somehow he failed to clasp his seatbelt and was thrown from the car.  He was left a mess, of course.  His face was racked and his brain discombobulated. During his recuperation Fr. Jim made many mistakes from a loss of perspective.  The bishop had to retire him to doing children’s liturgies. 

At the end of the story the priest reads the parable of the Good Samaritan.  When he finishes, he asks the children why God permitted the Jewish man to get beat up so badly.  One six-year-old answers that God wanted to teach the man a lesson for hating Samaritans.  He says that the man needed an “attitude adjustment.”  Then the children start asking Fr. Jim about what had happened to him.  They show him healing concern as if they were all the Balm of Gilead wrapped in children’s clothing.  No doubt, Fr. Jim now realizes why the accident happened and why his life was spared.  God allows such tragedies so that people might look into the eyes of a stranger and find a friend.  Furthermore, God wants His children to act as healing balm to one another.

In today’s gospel Jesus cites children as understanding God’s gracious will.  He indicates that they know more than the wise and learned know how we should show concern for others.  In Advent more than preparing for Christmas, we are waiting for Jesus to come to judge us.  We know that he will give a thumbs up if we work to heal the wounds of those who are hurting.  If we require an attitude adjustment, let it be.  We have to work to heal the wounds of those who are hurting.

Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Memorial of Saint Francis Xavier, priest

(Isaiah 11:1-10; Luke 10:21-24)

Of the four great killers of humankind – war, disease, famine, and natural disaster – war is the hardest to bear.  Disease and natural disaster have an inevitable quality.  They may take the greatest number of victims, but there is no one to blame except, for some, God.  Today famine is mostly a by-product of war.  Armies burn up fields to starve their enemy.  Human malice brings about war and intensifies in its duration.  Once engaged in battle soldiers often perpetuate grave crimes for the sake of victory.  For this reason the prophet in today’s first reading envisions the bitterest of enemies reconciled.

The peace does not just happen.  A leader endowed with the divine Spirit comes to rule the world with justice.  He does not take advantage of the poor but gives all people their due.  He makes the arrogant cower while he comforts the weak.  Christians have seen this hope fulfilled in Jesus.  He lifted up the lowly without ignoring the better off.  His compassion acted on behalf of the poor, the sick, and the crazed.  As he tells his disciples in the gospel reading, “’Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.’”

Today the Church celebrates St. Francis Xavier.  As much as anyone, St. Francis worked for reconciliation among peoples.  He traveled to faraway places to embed himself among the poorest of the earth.  He sought Jesus in others and found Jesus to no small extent in himself.

Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Tuesday of the First Week in Advent

(Isaiah 11:1-10; Luke 10:21-24)

A short story entitled “Attitude Adjustment” tells of a priest who gets hit by a train while driving.  Father Jim survived the crash because somehow he failed to clasp his seatbelt and was thrown from the car.  He was left a mess, of course.  His face was racked and his brain discombobulated. During his recuperation Fr. Jim made many mistakes from a loss of perspective.  The bishop had to retire him to doing children’s liturgy. 

At the end of the story the priest reads the parable of the Good Samaritan.  When he finishes, he asks the children why God permitted the Jewish man to get beat up so badly.  One six-year old answers that God wanted to teach the man a lesson for hating Samaritans.  He says that the man needed an “attitude adjustment.”  Then the children start asking Fr. Jim about what had happened to him.  They show him healing concern as if they were all the Balm of Gilead wrapped in children’s clothing.  No doubt, Fr. Jim now realizes why the accident happened and why his life was spared.  God allows such tragedies so that people might look into the eyes of a stranger and find a friend.  Furthermore, God wants His children to act as healing balm to one another.

In today’s gospel Jesus cites children as understanding God’s gracious will.  He indicates that they know more than the wise and learned know how we should show concern for others.  In Advent more than preparing for Christmas, we are waiting for Jesus to come to judge us.  We know that he will give a thumbs up if we work to heal the wounds of those who are hurting.  If we require an attitude adjustment, let it be.  We have to work to heal the wounds of those who are hurting.

Homilette for Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Tuesday, I Week of Advent

(Isaiah 11:1-10, Luke 10:21-24)

The fact that secular historians at the time virtually ignored Jesus Christ causes a bit of embarrassment to Christians. After all, we must ask, how could people not take interest in such an extraordinary event as the resurrection?

However, beyond the first centuries of Christianity, the world did take notice. Historians began to measure time in two great epochs: “before Christ” (B.C.) and “in the year of the Lord,” which is the English translation of the Latin anno domini (A.D.). True, many writers today out of deference to non-Christians use “before the Common Era (B.C.E.) and “in the Common Era” (C.E.). But such a distinction only underscores the universal knowledge of Jesus Christ.

In the gospel today Jesus openly acknowledges his relationship with God. He is the son of the One who abides outside His own creation but maintains the dominant role in it. The learned, Jesus adds, cannot see this perhaps because the compassion that would allow anyone to offer his son to the world to be manhandled is beyond human reckoning. Jesus also intimates, however, that simple people do not notice the scandal and accept gratefully the presence of God’s anointed one in their midst.

Even though people know that time is generally portrayed with reference to Christ, some may not be aware of the unimaginable love which he came to reveal. Our role as Christians then is to testify to that love by our actions. Isaiah predicted the coming of Christ by a remarkable peace among natural enemies – wolves and lambs, lions and calves, cobras and babies. Our lives should witness to him by a similar goodwill to those whom others are leery of. We speak to the troubled and welcome the stranger. In these ways we let the world take notice of God’s love in Christ.