December 15, 2024 Homily: Fr. Vigoa — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:02the theme for this third Sunday of
2. 0:05Advent as it is every year is
3. 0:10Rejoice the church even calls this
4. 0:12Sunday celebration but I by a fancy name
5. 0:16gal
6. 0:17Sunday it's taken from the traditional
7. 0:20entrance anapon in the mass in Latin G
8. 0:25in
9. 0:26Domino meaning rejoice in the lord
10. 0:29always
11. 0:31ways this precise phrase was taken from
12. 0:34St La St Paul's letter to the
13. 0:36Philippians which we heard as our second
14. 0:40reading the city of Philippi is in
15. 0:44Greece and it has an interesting
16. 0:47history Philip II of Macedon the father
17. 0:51of Alexander the Great conquered the
18. 0:54city in about the year 380 before Christ
19. 0:58and Philip renamed the city after
20. 1:01himself he later became a Roman city in
21. 1:04about the year 42 before Christ the city
22. 1:08of Philippi was where the Emperor
23. 1:10Augustus decisively defeated the forces
24. 1:13of Brutus and casassus who had murdered
25. 1:17Julius
26. 1:18Caesar Philippi also has the distinction
27. 1:22of being the site of the very first
28. 1:25Christian Community founded by St Paul
29. 1:30so what we have in our second reading
30. 1:32today is St Paul writing to the faithful
31. 1:35Community he had founded there in
32. 1:37Philippi a community that he deeply
33. 1:41loved this letter to the Philippians is
34. 1:44one of the most joyful letters in all of
35. 1:48scripture as I said Paul Loved These
36. 1:50people and was very much impressed by
37. 1:53their faith a faith that he was
38. 1:56continuing to encourage them but the
39. 2:00most striking fact about this joyful
40. 2:02letter is that is where Paul was when he
41. 2:06wrote this
42. 2:08letter including this fa phrase he wrote
43. 2:11Today rejoice in the lord
44. 2:14always because you see Paul was in
45. 2:18prison probably in Rome or in Ephesus
46. 2:21Scholars don't really know exactly where
47. 2:24he was
48. 2:26imprisoned but he's under the threat of
49. 2:28execution
50. 2:30and in the midst of that he writes these
51. 2:32words to the Philippians and to all of
52. 2:34us rejoice in the lord
53. 2:38always how could he say
54. 2:41that he's in prison God only knows what
55. 2:45prisons were like back in the time of
56. 2:49Paul but he was imprisoned precisely for
57. 2:51preaching the faith of Jesus Christ the
58. 2:54same Faith he is praising the
59. 2:56Philippians and the same Faith he's
60. 2:58urging
61. 3:00us to stay
62. 3:03faithful so how can he say rejoice in
63. 3:06the lord
64. 3:09always why would the Philippians believe
65. 3:12him and why would they want to follow
66. 3:15what he's
67. 3:17saying so this Sunday we're challenged
68. 3:20to ask ourselves what is Paul actually
69. 3:23getting
70. 3:25at I think the answer has enormous
71. 3:28consequences for all of us
72. 3:30today first of all what he's not getting
73. 3:33at is this fake emotional
74. 3:36high or putting on a pasted on smile on
75. 3:40your face all the time it's not about
76. 3:44falsely claiming that everything is
77. 3:46great all the
78. 3:48time or some goofy state of exaltation
79. 3:52at every
80. 3:53moment that would deny
81. 3:56reality and it would be false
82. 4:00so that can't be what he is talking
83. 4:03about when he says rejoice in the lord
84. 4:07always and it's also not about false
85. 4:13optimism sometimes one's Earthly future
86. 4:16is far from
87. 4:19ideal and indeed Paul's Earthly future
88. 4:22was pretty
89. 4:24bleak as it was for a lot of Christians
90. 4:26at that time including the Philippians
91. 4:30so it must be something else that Paul
92. 4:32is getting
93. 4:34at and it's
94. 4:37this for St Paul the Incarnation and
95. 4:39birth of Jesus Christ which we celebrate
96. 4:42of course at Christmas as well as his
97. 4:45death and Resurrection were game
98. 4:48changers it changed everything about
99. 4:51life the way you lived life the way you
100. 4:53looked at life everything about your
101. 4:56life changed
102. 4:59the resurrection of Christ singled
103. 5:01signaled to St Paul that a victory
104. 5:05unimaginable significance had been
105. 5:09won and you hear that Victory language
106. 5:12that Paul talks about all through his
107. 5:16letters the victory of Christ was so
108. 5:19profound that nothing in the world no
109. 5:21power on Earth could undo it it was the
110. 5:25victory over sin and death and the
111. 5:27Triumph of the eternal life of Christ
112. 5:30and to those who had been grafted onto
113. 5:33Christ through
114. 5:34baptism becoming members of his bodies
115. 5:37and shares in his Divine Life St Paul is
116. 5:41writing to those baptized people here to
117. 5:45all the faithful Christians he's saying
118. 5:48nothing can undo the victory of that
119. 5:51Christ has won for
120. 5:53us
121. 5:55except us abandoning the Lord and
122. 5:57falling back into sin
123. 6:00but nothing can take you away from uh
124. 6:02from sharing in that
125. 6:05Victory no
126. 6:07failure no loss no sadness no illness
127. 6:12not even death can affect the victory
128. 6:16that Christ has won for us and he
129. 6:19desires to share it with
130. 6:22us and St Paul would later say to the
131. 6:25Romans who were also significantly being
132. 6:28persecuted
133. 6:30neither
134. 6:31anguish or distress neither persecution
135. 6:35or famine neither nakedness or Peril or
136. 6:38the sword nor any other creature will
137. 6:41ever be able to separate you separate us
138. 6:45from
139. 6:47Christ no in all these things we conquer
140. 6:50overwhelmingly to hear the victory
141. 6:52language from St
142. 6:54Paul through him who has loved us
143. 6:57through him who has conquered
144. 7:01everything it is because of all of that
145. 7:04that St Paul today then can say rejoice
146. 7:06in the lord
147. 7:09always that's why the Philippians
148. 7:11believed him and that's why St Paul
149. 7:14urged them to be steadfast in the faith
150. 7:17even from the depths of this dank and
151. 7:20dark prison cell rejoice in the lord
152. 7:24always for victory is his and
153. 7:28Ours I think the message for gal gal
154. 7:32Sunday is pretty
155. 7:34clear and this is the one reason why
156. 7:36Christian the Christian faith spread so
157. 7:39fast and so far in those early
158. 7:43centuries and the reason why it
159. 7:45continues to draw people to the faith
160. 7:48today you can lose the whole world but
161. 7:52as long as you have Jesus Christ you
162. 7:54have
163. 7:56everything we could say the opposite is
164. 7:58true as well you can gain the whole
165. 8:00world have everything that you can
166. 8:01imagine but if you lose Jesus Christ you
167. 8:04lose
168. 8:08everything the Christian faithful are
169. 8:10always known as joyful people or at
170. 8:14least they should be joyful
171. 8:17people and it's easy to understand
172. 8:20why St Paul articulates the hope that is
173. 8:23anchored in the heart of every
174. 8:25Christian Jesus Christ has won the
175. 8:28victory in the baptized faith F will
176. 8:29share in that Victory and nothing can
177. 8:32touch
178. 8:34that the Lord rejoices when we invite
179. 8:36him into our
180. 8:38lives even if we open the door of our
181. 8:41souls just a little bit the Lord
182. 8:46rejoices and how great is God's joy when
183. 8:49we open the door completely wide and
184. 8:53accept the gift of Salvation where he
185. 8:55offers us in Christ Jesus our lord
186. 9:00every time we turn to him with all of
187. 9:02our hearts Our God rejoices in
188. 9:06us even if we
189. 9:10hesitate of course God rejoices when
190. 9:12someone Falls completely in love with
191. 9:14him when gives when they give their
192. 9:17whole and complete heart to them of
193. 9:19course the Lord rejoices in that but
194. 9:22what about those of us who hesitate
195. 9:24those of us who are conflicted those of
196. 9:27us who are confused those of us who
197. 9:29sincerely find certain Church teachings
198. 9:32or decisions to be off-putting or or not
199. 9:35for
200. 9:36me does God take Delight in us when we
201. 9:39find ourselves in such
202. 9:42situations well the answer is a
203. 9:43resounding
204. 9:45yes didn't Jesus Delight in his
205. 9:48conversation with a Samaritan woman at
206. 9:50the
207. 9:51well think of the extended conversation
208. 9:54that Jesus must have had with Nicodemus
209. 9:56far into the night
210. 9:59the Lord does not turn a cold shoulder
211. 10:02when we have questions or conflicted
212. 10:05feelings if God takes Delight in us
213. 10:08while we are still very much a work in
214. 10:12progress what then should we what then
215. 10:15should be our attitude towards
216. 10:19others our family members our friends
217. 10:22our
218. 10:24colleagues if we want to experience true
219. 10:27Joy this Advent season then let us
220. 10:30joyfully open our hearts to God who
221. 10:33rejoices over us and allow his Delight
222. 10:37to spill over into our
223. 10:41relationships the Philippians believe St
224. 10:44Paul because they saw his
225. 10:47Joy they knew that he loved
226. 10:50Jesus and they understood what Christ
227. 10:53had done in Paul's
228. 10:55life a joy that wasn't crushed by
229. 10:58imprisonment or
230. 11:00persecution they knew his words weren't
231. 11:04empty they saw in him the proof that
232. 11:06Christ victory was real and that nothing
233. 11:09not even suffering not even death could
234. 11:12take away the joy of belonging to
235. 11:15Jesus and because they believed their
236. 11:18Joy became
237. 11:20contagious it spread through their
238. 11:22community and Beyond drawing others to
239. 11:24Christ even in the face of severe
240. 11:27persecution
241. 11:29This Joy was the engine to their faith
242. 11:33wasn't just because of words it was
243. 11:36because they lived
244. 11:38it and that Joy was
245. 11:42irresistible the other Church didn't
246. 11:44grow because Christians were powerful
247. 11:46wealthy it grew because of something the
248. 11:48world desperately needed and it was
249. 11:50because of joy in Christ I want what you
250. 11:54have what is it that makes you so joyful
251. 11:56how can you live your life that way I I
252. 11:59want that
253. 12:02too so we need to ask ourselves this
254. 12:05Sunday do we have that Joy do we believe
255. 12:09this for
256. 12:12ourselves do people see in us the same
257. 12:14kind of unshakable hope and peace that
258. 12:17the Philippians
259. 12:19lived or do we let the struggles of Life
260. 12:22Rob us of that
261. 12:25Joy because here's the truth a miserable
262. 12:29Christian will never attract anyone to
263. 12:33Christ if we live with constant
264. 12:35negativity or despair how can we
265. 12:38proclaim the good news and who will
266. 12:40believe
267. 12:42it but when we live our lives with
268. 12:46joy Even in our struggles we become like
269. 12:49St Paul and the Philippians lights
270. 12:52shining in darkness beacons of Hope in a
271. 12:55world that is
272. 12:57hurting I want what the Philippians had
273. 13:00don't
274. 13:02you I want that kind of joy that can not
275. 13:05be shaken the kind of faith that
276. 13:07rejoices even in the hardest of times
277. 13:10this is the joy of galete Sunday this is
278. 13:13what we celebrate today just before
279. 13:16Christmas so my invitation to to you my
280. 13:19brothers and sisters on this Sunday is
281. 13:21open your heart completely wide to
282. 13:23Christ's
283. 13:24Joy if you're hesitating kick down that
284. 13:28door
285. 13:29and he will meet you where you're at
286. 13:32just as he met the Samaritan woman at
287. 13:34the well or Nicodemus at night and when
288. 13:37you do let his Delight spill over into
289. 13:41your life into your relationship and it
290. 13:44will witness to
291. 13:46others so this
292. 13:48week find one moment each day to rejoice
293. 13:52in the Lord let his victory fill your
294. 13:55heart and as you carry that Joy May
295. 13:58others see see Christ in
296. 14:01you so that they may be drawn to
297. 14:06Christ rejoice in the lord always I
298. 14:09shall say it again
299. 14:12Rejoice let's live that Joy let's share
300. 14:16that joy and may it lead others to that
301. 14:20same unshakable hope that changed the
302. 14:23world forever amen