S. Joseph Krempa - Captured Fire: Seasonal and Sanctoral Cycle, Year One

CAPTURED FIRE
The New Daily Homilies
Seasonal and Sanctoral - Year One

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Krempa, S. Joseph.
Captured fire: the new daily homilies / by Stanley J. Krempa.

p. cm.

eBook ISBN: 978-0-81891-516-1

1. Catholic ChurchSermons. 2. Sermons, American I. Title.

BX1756.K782C36 2008

252.6dc22

2008035227

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Table of Contents

Seasonal Homilies

Isaiah 2:1-5; Matthew 8:5-11

Advent, if we really keep it as Advent, is a wonderfully sublime season of the Church year because it carries within it the grace of beginning again. Advent is not just a time to remember the ancient yearning of old Israel for a Redeemer. It is also very contemporary.

Each year, we face new challenges and are faced with a new aspect of our lifes mission as well as the need of new graces. In Advent, we use old Israels prayers of expectation to express the needs we have today.

Maybe we are like the ailing boy for whom the centurion prays in todays Gospel reading. Some of us may need healing in our body. All of us, however, need healing in our soul. Many of us carry within us interior wounds and scars of the past year and now seek to be made whole.

Maybe we are like the Gospel centurion praying for people in our personal life or in public life. Many people we know have lost their way and need the strength and wisdom to return as well as the gift of being faithful in an unfaithful time.

Maybe we are like the loyal remnant Isaiah describes who in the middle of vast cultural corruption are called to be the cloud by day or the fire by night to show people another way to live. We can be the people of the mountain to whom others can come to rediscover the way and word of the Lord.

It is helpful to identify during this first week of Advent the graces we need during this season and make them the focus of our prayer and reflection. Seeking the special gift from the Lord that we need at this point in our life will make our Advent unique and productive. It will also provide a strong counterweight to the commercial tsunami that usually swamps the quiet spirituality of this season.

We can also pray that the Lord will give us the grace to recognize His response when it comes.

Advent is not just about what God has done in the past but about what God can do in our world and in our life today.

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

This powerful and poetic section from Isaiah in todays first reading is an annual part of our Advent season.

Isaiah describes the age of the Messiah. He will be a king from the line of Jesse and David, fulfilling the promise to Abraham. He will not judge people by outside appearance, as we tend to do, but by their inner need, discerning the truth of each persons life. He will be indifferent to gossip and hearsay but will do and say the right thing for each individual, acting in the spirit of the Lord. Those are virtues about which many of us can only dream.

From him will come a healed creation. Ancient, seemingly genetic animosities will start to dissolve. Wolf and lamb, calf and lion, cow and bear, old enemies, will discover what they have in common. This is a very picturesque way of saying that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, knowledge not only of the head but of the heart as Gods will and word are lived and practiced.

The promise of Isaiahs words did not come to an abrupt finish with Jesus, as though Jesus were a piece of beauty that once touched our earth, like a visitor from outer space, and then departed only to be nostalgically recalled.

What Isaiah says of the Lord should be true of those who follow Jesus as well. What old animosities are we willing and ready to heal? Do we judge people by appearance, gossip and rumor? Do we seek to speak the truth and promote fairness in our world? Are we working to heal the ruptures within creation, within our families or Church?

Jesus plan was that we continue His work because it is needed in every generation. How else do we explain the joy of the Lord in todays Gospel reading as the Apostles return from their very first mission with the news that even the demons were subject to them in Jesus name?

Each year, Advent reminds us that we do not have to settle for the world as it is. There is the new creation of Christ always germinating in our midst, always ready to be born. The promise of that new creation resides within the community of believers and can spread from among us into the world. First, however, it has to come to birth among us and not remain only a glowing promise.

The promise of Isaiahs words still move the human heart because they speak to a deep yearning for peace we all have. Through our Baptism, we have the grace and power to begin to let that promise start to come true today.

Isaiah 25:6-10; Matthew 15:29-37

Jesus healing of the crippled, deformed, blind and mute attracted a huge crowd. This led to the dilemma of feeding so many people. It became the occasion for Jesus to multiply the loaves not only to satisfy the hunger of those who followed Him back then but to show how the Eucharist will satisfy the deep hungers of the soul of those who follow Him today.

The Eucharist is the place where we encounter the Risen Christ teaching and healing today. At the Mass, the redemptive Death of Christ is made present no longer to win salvation which was done once and for all, but to make that salvation available concretely and individually in every generation for the living and for the dead. Each Mass localizes and applies the power of the Death and Resurrection of Christ.

Here, at the Mass, when we try to listen to Gods Word and worthily receive the Lord in His Eucharist, Jesus continues to heal, to nourish and to give strength.

In the Office of Readings for today, St. Bernard reflects on the three comings of Christ. The first coming at Bethlehem was a unique event. The last, Christs coming in glory, will also be a unique event. The third coming is between the other two as Christ comes to us quietly and spiritually in our daily life. This coming occurs over and over.

St. Bernard remarks that in Bethlehem Christ came as our Redeemer. At the end, Christ will come as our Judge. In the middle coming, He is our strength for living. The Eucharist has been called esca viatorum, food for the journey and food for travelers on the road to heaven.

As we prepare to celebrate Christs unique birth in Bethlehem at Christmas, we can try to appreciate the abiding, Emmanuel presence of Christ in the Eucharist and in the Mass. Here, Jesus still teaches. Here, Jesus still heals. Here, Jesus still gives hope. Here, Jesus is food for our lifes most serious and important journey, the journey to heaven.