Monday, February 03, 2014

Homily - "Waiting for God"

Click HERE to listen to Sunday's homily.


It's pretty sweet to watch the Super Bowl tonight together...as a GW Catholic family.  When the Redskins played the Broncos in the Super Bowl in '88, I watched it with my family.  The Broncos went up 10 points on our Redskins in the first quarter.  My Dad, brother, and I got so upset that my Mom and sister had to leave the room! Then, in the 2nd quarter, the Redskins scored 35 straight points..! That is still a Super Bowl record. My Mom and sister came back into the room to watch it. We could all be friends again (!), partying and celebrating a Redskins win, 42-10. But, that was 26 years ago. It's been over 20 years since Washington was in the Super Bowl.  We keep waiting year after year, hoping to return to glory.

Most of the players in tonight's game have waited their whole lives to play in the Super Bowl. One player has waited his whole career, 15 years. The athletes we most discuss about waiting for years for a few moments of glory are Olympic athletes; we have the Olympics starting up soon.  They train, prepare, and wait for years for a few moments of competition...and hopefully glory. With all of these athletes, they train, prepare, and wait for, as St. Paul says, "a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one" (1 Cor 9:25): eternal life.

Two characters from tonight's Gospel on the feast of the Presentation wait and wait and wait for a crown of glory. Simeon and Anna spend years in the Temple waiting for what Malachi prophesied in the first reading: "And suddenly there will come to the temple The Lord whom you seek".  They spent years waiting to see God. Simeon was told by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death until he had seen God in the Christ. Anna was 84, and spent all day in the temple praying and waiting. And, then it happened! The Lord came to the temple where they were.

The players in tonight's game have waited and dreamed about this moment...and it's here. Their dreams have come true. Their hope is realized. The glory that they have been seeking and desiring is now here.  How much greater is the glory of God! For Simeon and Anna, they experience the awesome glory of God.  The promise has been fulfilled. Their hope is realized.

So many people - so many GW Catholics - desperately want to see God...to hear God...to have an experience with God. You have been waiting for a long time for God to come to you.  Look to Simeon and Anna.  Listen to what you heard tonight: "He is coming". The Lord whom you seek and desire will come to your life, to your heart.

Simeon looked at this little baby who was 40 days out of the womb and said, "my eyes have seen the salvation..a light to be revealed to the nations". His parents were probably thinking, "what are you talking about?" But, we know. Christ is our light and our eyes will see him in a few minutes in the temple / Church...in the Eucharist. We don't have to wait years to see him.  He will come to us in a matter of moments.

At my first Mass, when I consecrated bread and wine for the first time and elevated the Host, people there said that light came through the windows of the Church onto the Host in a spectacular way.  He is our light! And, He will come to me and to you...The Lord whom you seek.

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