This is a weird time of year isn’t it? Golly, people you don’t even know are saying “Hello” to you. Strangers smile at you. We get Christmas cards from people we hardly know. We give extra nice things to the letter carrier or the hair stylist. It’s weird.
Well in keeping with the weird theme, I need some help with the homily today from kids [invite a few up]. I have these wooden airplanes and I want you to fly your plane and hit that target. [We do this a few times]
Well some planes landed too far to the right or left. Some went way too far. Generally we’ve come close a few times. None of the attempts were perfect. And that pretty well describes how life is for most of us . . . we often miss the mark.
Let’s get back to the weird motif. The gospel is about one of the weirdest dudes in the bible . . . John the Baptist. He wears clothes made of camel skin (which is itchy, but warm) His diet is of grasshoppers (locust) and honey. His home is in the desert. And he draws a crowd because he tells them how rotten they are.
Now let’s take those apart . . . camel skin presents the great prophet Elijah (who wore a hair coat and leather loincloth, from Zechariah 13:4). So John was considered the new great prophet that the people were expecting before the coming of the Messiah.
Eating locust and wild honey demonstrates that John doesn’t cave in to all that is produced by materialism of the day. That is, all the stuff produced by a corrupt society, which he condemns.
The scripture doesn’t give details about the people he baptizes but as described more in Matthew and Luke’s gospel . . . he calls the people corrupt, awful, big sinners. But who isn’t. If you and I were there with John, he would be calling us sinners. Because that is what we are. All of us.
And maybe you haven’t done some huge sins, but trust me . . . we have all sinned. Even if it’s the sins of omission. That is, not doing the things we could have been doing. All of us miss the mark. Just like the kids with the planes.
So what do we do? Well that’s what is so good about our faith . . . we have the sacrament of Reconciliation. It covers the big sins and the little ones, like missing the mark. Being “off.” Not being at our best.
And sure we can always talk to God on our own about our sins. And sure we have the penitential rite at the beginning of every Mass, which makes us more aware. But what we have is a ritual of absolution. A sacrament by which we are assured of God’s grace. So we come to the sacrament not only to get renewed, but to receive grace . . . and that’s a blessing.
We have a communal service tomorrow/today (Sunday) at 1pm. There will be 5 priests present and two spiritual directors. And it’s not a time to belabor how awful we are, but a time to “get back at it” and get grace to start over. We miss the mark constantly, but the more we practice [fly another plane], the more we come closer to who God wants us to be.