Your Redemption Is Near

Reflections on the Readings

First Sunday of Advent - December 2, 2012 - Year C

The Year of Faith 

By Dennis S. Hankins

Readings For This Sunday

Your Redemption is Near

"Now when these things begin to take place, look up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near." - Jesus

Zig Ziglar, the premier motivational speaker and teacher of the last fifty years, passed away Wednesday, November 27th.  He was 86.  I went to his website and came across this quote he posted from his mobile phone on November 24, 2012:

"F - E - A- R: Has two meanings:

1. Forget Everything And Run

or

2.  Face Everything And Rise

The Choice is Yours!"

These are profound and inspiring words given Mr. Ziglar was four days from his passing from this life into the love of God.  It's as if he was taking a final look at his life and its remaining hours and remembered he had nothing to fear.  That's a faith to pray to have anytime and especially at the hour of our death.

In the Gospel reading, Jesus is not talking about the sky falling.  The 'signs' in the sun and moon and stars, the powers of the heavens shaking, is God's response to those who live in defiance of his law.  Specifically, Jesus is talking about Jerusalem and its hallowed temple and the shallow reception he received from both.  He came to his own and his own received him not.  More broadly his words speak of God's judgement in any generation who resist his overtures of mercy and grace.  While this will cause great fear and foreboding for some, it is not the end of the world for those who love him and rejoice in his coming.  The encouragement of Jesus is that whenever these 'signs' occur we can look up or as Zig said, "Face Everything And Rise!"

In the season of Advent we sense the nearness of Christ and his saving love.  We take these few weeks before Christmas to meditate upon the meaning of Christ in us and among us.  This is a time to cultivate an earnest expectation for Christ and his kingdom.  Extended shopping hours and more sales and Christmas 'bargains' wear us out.  Many are pooped by the time the real celebration of Christmas arrives on December 25.  The Church in its wisdom gives us this season of hopeful waiting to reflect on how much room we are willing to make for Christ in our lives and all of our living.

Our lives become too cluttered.  We close in on ourselves with our stuff and things and shut out God and others and live unaware of the beauty of the earth and friendship and brotherhood.  We live too much of our time thinking that earth is our home.  But earth is not our destination and time is not our own.  There's a word in the Christian vocabulary that addresses these concerns.  It is the word sanctify.  It means to see ourselves as special witnesses of Christ.  It means keeping Sunday set apart as a day of worship and rest.  Sunday begins the week.  Advent precedes Christmas and prepares us to celebrate the coming of Christ.  Time measured this way becomes a gift of God to us.  God calls us to be more than squanderers and consumers.  God asks us to believe that his eye is on the sparrow and that he knows the number of hairs on our head and that we are salt and light to the world and that he can do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.  This is why Jesus says, "But take heed to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a snare..."  

In the second reading we hear the exhortation to increase and abound in love toward all.  This is an invitation to openness.  To be open to God's love and to be open toward all in whom God's image is found.  We are also called to perfection.  In our hearts God's holiness prepares us to live with a healthy understanding of the last days, and worthy of the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints, and of eternity.

The first reading opens up with a promise.  Jeremiah the prophet sees the future filled with justice and righteousness.  That new time comes from a Branch springing forth from the house of David.  The Branch is reminiscent of the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden.  From this Branch we may eat and be filled with the righteousness which comes from faith in Christ for the Branch is Christ.  Even in Jeremiah's day the nearness of redemption was felt and believed.  Isn't our redemption nearer than when we first believed? 

I have listened to more than one scary sermon on the 'end of time.'  It was tempting after hearing one of those hell fire and brimstone sermons to Fear Everything And Run!  However, today's readings as well as most of the Advent Sunday readings are about finding our way.  We have an invitation to explore how we will more fully embrace the coming of Christ, now, tomorrow, and when it blossoms in its fulness in God's own time.  There's nothing scary about that.  Nothing is meant to be scary about that.  Living with our hearts turned toward our eternal home we can in the interim Face Everything And Rise! 

But as the insightful Zig Ziglar said:  The Choice Is Yours!  

Amen.

Dennis Hankins is a parishioner at Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral, of the Diocese of Knoxville, TN.  Prior to his uniting with the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil 2006, Dennis served as a priest in the Charismatic Episcopal Church. You can email him at dennishankins@gmail.com   His website is:  www.dennishankins.com 

            

A King In Our Heart

Reflections on the Readings

The Solemnity of Christ the King - November 25, 2012 - Year B

The Year of Faith 

By Dennis S. Hankins

Readings For This Sunday

A King In Our Heart

Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingship were of this world, my servants would fight, that I might not be handed over to the Jews; but my kingship is not from the world."

So where is the kingdom of God?  The Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God was coming.  The mystery of God's law of love does not come with signs to be observed.  Jesus said, "Nor will they say, 'Lo, here it is!' or 'There!' for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you."   

Jesus does not persuade us by the edge of a sword.  Truth dripping with the love of God is the message of Jesus.  Many ask cynically, "What is truth?" Jesus speaks words that bring the fresh breezes of truth.  Hearts touched by these winds of grace recognize the Captain of their salvation.  They receive with unfettered joy his yoke which does not chafe.  They carry the burden of his truth; a burden that is not heavy.  

Pilate wrestled with the accusations that brought Jesus before him.  Pilate's world was fraught with the politics of war and conquest and subjugation.  The words 'king' and 'kingdom' and 'kingship' had singular meanings for him.  Kings fight battles that bring humiliation for the conquered and power for the undefeated.  That was Pilate's world.  Now this Jesus, charged with political treason, speaks as a King of Truth.  Jesus said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free."  It is an inner freedom that brings us back to the God who is Love.  Our liberation comes from the teaching of Jesus who knows that evil things come from within; they imprison and defile us.

The inner sanctuary of our life is called the heart.  It is here where we regain our understanding that we are created in the image of God.  It is to this immeasurable place of her being Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity invited the Thrice Holy One to make his home.  Her prayer is worthy of our contemplation:

O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me forget myself entirely so to establish myself in you, unmovable and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity.  May nothing be able to trouble my peace or make me leave you, O my unchanging God, but may each minute bring me more deeply into your mystery!  Grant my soul peace.  Make it your heaven, your beloved dwelling and the place of your rest.  May I never abandon you there, but may I be there, whole and entire, completely vigilant in my faith, entirely adoring, and wholly given over to your creative action.

In this Year of Faith we seek a deeper conversion and love for God.  This is the meaning of the Holy Father's announcement of this important theme.  We need a closer walk with the Lord.  Everyone of us need to more actively invite God's presence into our lives.  There is no one who does not need new eyes to see again the splendor of truth.  The Psalmist proclaimed, "Thy word have I hidden within my heart that I might not sin against thee."  The Gospels give us the life and teaching of our Lord.  Try reading these four books again in this Year of Faith and let the life and words of Jesus and his love come into your heart.  Let us renew the love we had at first for Christ and make him again the King of our heart.     

Into my heart,
Into my heart,
Come into my heart, Lord Jesus.
Come in today, come in to stay,
Come into my heart, Lord Jesus.

Amen.

Dennis Hankins is a parishioner at Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral, of the Diocese of Knoxville, TN.  Prior to his uniting with the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil 2006, Dennis served as a priest in the Charismatic Episcopal Church. You can email him at dennishankins@gmail.com   His website is:  www.dennishankins.com 

He Is Near

Reflections on the Readings

Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time - November 18, 2012 - Year B

The Year of Faith 

By Dennis S. Hankins

Readings For This Sunday

He Is Near

"From the fig tree learn its lesson:  as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near.  So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates."

The apocalyptic genre found in Scripture reveals what we should understand about the past, the present, and the future.  The meaning of the word 'apocalypse' translated from Greek refers to 'uncovering' or 'revealing.'  For example, the Book of Revelation, a text within the canon of Holy Scripture is a prophetic document that discloses its message in liturgical language, actions, and visions.  Rather than being a 'dark' book resistant to being understood, the Sacred text helps us to 'see' into heaven itself.

The Gospel before us today gives us a glimpse into the past, the present, and the future.  

First, what about the past?  Jesus underscores in this prophetic discourse the rejection of himself and of those associated with him.  Graphic language in the tradition of the prophets is descriptive of the events that will be earth shaking.  The sky did not literally fall, but the events in time are defined with cosmic signs and disturbances.  Everything that could be shaken was shaken. Sacrilege in the Temple preceded its destruction in 70 AD.  Persecution of Christ's followers was so intense that no one would have survived that ordeal had the Lord not 'shortened the days' of their persecution.

False Christs and false prophets were rampant.  They were spectacular in their efforts to lead people astray, especially the elect.  Their message was packaged in deceitful presentations of signs and wonders.  With these feats they sought attention for themselves.  Jesus gave this warning before his Passion and Ascension into heaven.  "Take heed, he said; I have told you all things beforehand."  Is there anything here we should pay attention to in our time?  You better believe it.

Secondly, let's consider the present.  The best thing to do about the present is to live in it.  Endless speculations about the future are futile.  Jesus said, "But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."  There is a huge Christian book industry churning out countless volumes swimming in words with endless confidence in their facts about the end of time.  But no one really knows, do they?  At least that's what Jesus said.  Nevertheless, millions of dollars are made in the production of DVD's and books declaring with ambitious energy the certainty of the time of the eschaton.  "Take heed and watch, Jesus said, for you do not know when the time will come."  Let's say it all together, "I do not know when the time will come."  

In this present time as in the past and until Jesus comes we must help the world to see and to know the Son of man coming in clouds with great power and glory.  In scripture, clouds denote the presence of the Lord.  Incense in the Mass reminds us that Jesus is near.  

From sea to shining sea we must work until Jesus comes again.  In the New Evangelization we want everyone to know who Jesus is.  We want everyone to know that he is not far off, but near to all who call upon his name.  Our work is a labor of love - to love the world as Jesus does until we have hugged as many as we can to the foot of the old rugged cross.  Such love is not easy. It is right that we should pray for the fire of the Holy Spirit to help us to be fervent witnesses.  On our knees we should ask that we may always be credible.

This world is not our final destination.  We are on a journey to our true home.  We are seeking a true homeland.  As such we are strangers and exiles on the earth.  And in our time here we should invite as many as often as we can to find there new destination in the Christ of the Church.  A better country, that is, a heavenly one is represented in time and in eternity by the Church.  Our status as pilgrims does not make us irrelevant or insignificant in the world.  We are the salt and the light of our communities and of our families.  

Third, let us think a moment about the future.  Inspired by the Holy Spirit we are marching to Zion.  Many things may remind us that this world is not our home.  But the most significant witness of this truth lies deep inside you and me.  A promise of a new home and a new body and a new day was given to us by our Baptism.  And our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.  

So that we may not lose heart, we are nourished along the way by the Holy Food of Christ's body and blood.  In this way we participate in the divine nature.  And renewed as we are by this gracious banquet our soul is invigorated by the nearness of him who promises that he will never leave us nor forsake us.  And in the sweet by and by when the morning dawns eternally we shall be changed in a moment and in the twinkling of an eye.  This feast of faith of this most Holy Eucharist feeds us with the newness of hope that one day we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is.  

1) When morning gilds the skies, my heart awaking cries,
may Jesus Christ be praised!
Alike at work and prayer, one purpose I declare:
may Jesus Christ be praised!

2) New strength comes night or day when from the heart we say,
may Jesus Christ be praised!
Let sin and evil fear, when this sweet chant they hear:
may Jesus Christ be praised!

3) Discordant humankind, in this your concord find,
may Jesus Christ be praised!
Let all the earth around ring joyous with the sound:
may Jesus Christ be praised!

4) Be this, while life is mine, my canticle divine,
may Jesus Christ be praised!
Be this the eternal song, through all the ages long:
may Jesus Christ be praised!
Amen. 

    

Dennis Hankins is a parishioner at Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral, of the Diocese of Knoxville, TN.  Prior to his uniting with the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil 2006, Dennis served as a priest in the Charismatic Episcopal Church. You can email him at dennishankins@gmail.com   His website is:  www.dennishankins.com   

Women of Faith

Reflections on the Readings

Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time - November 11, 2012 - Year B

The Year of Faith 

By Dennis S. Hankins

Readings For This Sunday

Women of Faith

And a poor widow came, and put in two copper coins, which make a penny.

Today's readings present to us women of extraordinary faith.  Both are widows.  Both are living hand to mouth.  Both have a robust faith.  Each one is transparent in her trials, but not showy.  The widow at Zarephath explains, "I'm gathering some firewood and then I'm fixing what will be the last supper for me and my son.  After that we will die."  

Jesus observes the grandiose contributions of the wealthy as they give their offerings at the Temple.  They parade toward the Temple Treasury hoping to be seen.   And then a widow slips in unnoticed and anxious and willing to give what she has determined to give.  Her last two copper coins make a little clink as they fall to their destination landing against all the coins of the rich folks.  But Jesus explains that she put in more than the rich folks because she put in all that she had.   

Elijah encourages the widow at Zarephath.  "Don't be afraid.  Make me a cake first and then make something for you and your son.  For the Lord God of Israel, says, 'The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, until the day when the Lord sends rain upon the earth.'" The generosity of this widow and the widow in today's Gospel is sacrificial.  Such sacrificial generosity does not go unnoticed by the God who gives abundantly, pressed down, shaken together, and running over! (Luke 6:38)

The life of faith is an adventure in generosity.  Jesus said, "For the measure you give will be the measure you get back." (Luke 6:38)  Finger pointing and playing the blame game creates only more of the same.  Cornering people with accusations we can't prove is the first ingredient to losing friends.  The widows in todays readings don't blame God nor judge and blame others for their situations.  Faith teaches us not only how to be generous with our money but it teaches our heart how to be rich in mercy and love and forgiveness.  Jesus said, "Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over."

God invites us to be generous with our time, our talent, and our treasures.  It is important to remember that little is much when God is in it.  Whatever we give, no matter how small, if given and shared with the love of God it becomes more than we can imagine.  God loves a cheerful giver.  St. Paul taught that he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.  When we give with the joy of sharing our giving becomes more than what we share.  It becomes a gift of God's immeasurable love.  The next time you are asked to play your piano piece for some one in the old folks home, do it for the love of God and you will be blessed beyond measure.  

I am the firstborn of six children.  My daddy sometimes worked two jobs to meet the needs of his growing family.  He transformed the old Prior house on Second Street in Huntingburg, Indiana into a respectable house in the neighborhood.  The old paint on the exterior had to be scraped off.  When daddy finished painting that house it glowed with new life.  I still remember the smell of old wall paper being steamed off the walls.  New coal stoves were installed on each end of the house to keep us warm in the winter.  I only remember a full table of food every time we sat down to eat.  Daddy's generous efforts put a roof over our heads and from mommy's kitchen we had enough to eat.  She had a close relationship with him who multiplied the five loaves and the two fish.

My mother cultivated in me a deep longing to know God.  She taught me that the sky was the limit in how I could serve Him.  When I conducted her funeral service I spoke about her memorable faith.  Even when she was dying her love for God and her family never diminished.  "It's a pretty day," she said, even when it was cloudy and rainy and when her life was draining away.  From her I learned that life is rich and full of God's goodness.  She didn't meditate on scarcity but rather she mused on God's inexpressible gift.  In her heart was a melody of love that spilled out over all of us.  It is the example and memory of her indomitable faith that has helped me to hold on to God's unchanging hand through some pretty dark days. 

Mary is also a woman of great faith.  Elizabeth said of Mary, "Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord."  Mary's faith is the reason we have a Savior.  Against great odds personally, socially, and within her own faith community, Mary embraced the message of Gabrielle.  From a heart of faith she said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word."  Because Mary believed, Christ appeared at the end of the ages to take away sin by his sacrifice.  With his own blood, Christ appeared in the presence of God on our behalf.  And when time shall be no more, Christ will appear a second time, not to take away sin, but to bring salvation to all those who eagerly await him.  

What a difference women of faith have made in our lives and in our world.  We are richer because of their love of God.  Through their eyes we are blessed to see God and to gaze upon his goodness and to see the hope of our salvation more clearly.  Amen.

Dennis Hankins is a parishioner at Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral, of the Diocese of Knoxville, TN.  Prior to his uniting with the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil 2006, Dennis served as a priest in the Charismatic Episcopal Church. You can email him at dennishankins@gmail.com   His website is:  www.dennishankins.com   

            

  

       

Test of Fire

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The Kingdom of Life and Love

Reflections on the Readings

Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time - November 4, 2012 - Year B

The Year of Faith 

By Dennis S. Hankins

Readings For This Sunday

The Kingdom of Life and Love

The invitation to live in the fulness of love has never been rescinded.  When I first accepted Jesus into my heart I encountered this love.  Conversion is a wonderful thing.  I would never discount it.  But conversion is bigger than a moment in time.  It's a doorway into many opportunities to grow in our faith.    Conversion is a road on which we should encounter more seasons of grace to be converted more deeply and profoundly.  Conversion, therefore, is not a destination.  It's the very beginning of many more moments of changing, of conversion, of growing, in the love of God.  

Dare we pray more fervently for an increase in faith and hope and love?  I vote yes!  We need many grace moments to keep us vibrant and alive and growing in Christ.  Jesus, our high priest and intercessor is alive and powerful in his love to help us to see and know the Father.  Through him we come to God.  Jesus is holy.  Jesus is innocent.  Jesus is undefiled.  And he is higher than the heavens.  Through him and in him and by him we are called to love God without reservation.  We are invited to love God with every fiber of our being; to love him with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind and with all our strength.  We will love our neighbor better when we know God better and love more deeply the God who first loved us!   

We think of Mary when we think of someone who loved God with all of their being.  With all of her heart, soul, mind, body, and strength she gave her consent to carry in her womb God's holy love.  In the midst of holy history a virgin conceived in her womb the precious Son of God.  In the many centuries since, every generation has called her blessed.  

When the message of the gospel is preached we are encouraged to have child like faith.  It is a child who helps us to remember what it means to be full of trust and faith.  I remember my childhood.  It was filled with exuberant energy spent in playing neighborhood football and basketball and wiffle ball.  And then I'd take a break to deliver my newspapers.  There were lazy days of summer and play and competition.  Those days were filled with the indescribable joy of victory and the agony of defeat.  To all of this I gave my complete and undiluted time and energy.  I played hard and slept good.  

Those were especially happy days I enjoyed my family, my friends, and my faith.  My prayers were innocent and big back then.  I have not been notified that God has shrunk in his power and love and abundant life just because I've grown older.  We are reminded that he never changes - he is the same yesterday, today and forever.  Perhaps we need to recover the fervency of our first love for Jesus.  Let us remember that it's with the unfettered way of a child that we are encouraged to respond to the gospel of life and love.  

The birth of Mary's child was God's love gift to the world.  And true to Isaiah's prophecy, this little child led us to the love of God.  He is still leading us. 

Great is the number of those who long to be like a child again and to love God without restraint and inhibition.  Someone shouts out, "The kingdom of Life and Love is not far from you!  Keep following that child."  At that moment, Mary looked out over that numberless throng and smiled.  Amen.    

Dennis Hankins is a parishioner at Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral, of the Diocese of Knoxville, TN.  Prior to his uniting with the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil 2006, Dennis served as a priest in the Charismatic Episcopal Church. You can email him at dennishankins@gmail.com   His website is:  www.dennishankins.com