In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Glory be to Jesus Christ.
This morning's Gospel is the Gospel for the Sunday
before Epiphany, and its message is the same
as yesterday's message of John the Baptist, taken
from St. Matthew's Gospel, which is one of repentance.
You probably noticed that each one of the evangelists
has a particular perspective about the one gospel
message of Jesus Christ. And they have a different
way of beginning their gospels. St. Matthew,
as we heard recently, speaks about the coming
of the Magi to adore the Christ child. Luke tells
us about the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary,
and then the birth of Jesus and the coming of
the shepherds. St. John, presumably the last
of the Gospels, widely believed to be, tells
us about who this Jesus Christ is, the person
of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Logos. the Son
of God made flesh, who appeared and we have received
his glory. The particular perspective of St.
Mark is that he gets right to the message. He
tells us about the preaching of John the Baptist,
and John the Baptist's preaching is the same
message that Jesus will... repeat and emphasize
and bring to perfection when it is his turn,
so to speak, to preach this message of the coming
of the kingdom of God, the new relationship between
God and mankind. To prepare for this, we must
prepare, and the message is consistent. Repent.
And repent means It's not a simple action. Of
course, there are simple actions of repentance
which we experience in our life over particular
sins or things that we say or do. But repentance,
in the root meaning of that, it's a continual
process. It's continuous. It's a call to change
our ways. to change our mind, to change our attitude.
How do we repent and change our attitude? Repentance,
again, is not a single action, but a continuous
one. And it's a message not only of John the
Baptist and Jesus, but basically of all the Old
Testament prophets to prepare. and to repent.
Today we commemorate the prophet Malachi, and
he has his own particular perspective on repentance.
He denounces the religious and social practices
and laxity among the people at that time. He's
particularly... anxious about the behavior of
the priests and their laziness in the performance
of their duties. He even goes so far as to use
the strong and charming expression that if the
priests don't change their ways, they should
have dung rubbed on their faces. I hadn't read
that in a long time. Hopefully our priests nowadays
won't get to that level of laxity. The time of
repentance. I think this is very much consistent
with the secular world at this time. New Year's
resolutions. That's so common we hear about that.
Resolutions. I'm going to quit smoking, stop
drinking, lose weight. Notice on the television
commercials right after the holidays and the
first of the year, the frequency of commercials
about losing weight, Nutrisystem, Noom, Liposine,
the whole gamut of these. And these might be
necessary as they are, but I really think...
that repentance and changing of ways applies
to our life of virtue much more directly. And
I would suggest that for myself and for others,
I'd suggest that we work on patience this year.
Patience is particularly difficult for many of
us, myself included. I had on the wall of my
office, right above the telephone, a framed picture
of a priest sitting on the steps of a church
listening to a little boy, and the caption was,
No problem is too small for your attention. Patience
when you're listening to people. Patience for
all of us. In this time, It's particularly necessary
because of the general malaise we have about
this virus business and the pattern of lifestyle
that we have to embrace nowadays. Even weather
like this adds to that general feeling of malaise,
the darkness, the long nights, short days. And
it can become difficult for us to be patient.
to exercise kindness, not only with strangers
or with people that we go grocery shopping with,
but even most immediately with our own family
members. How often we take our spouse, our children,
our parents, our brothers, sisters, whatever
it might be, take them for granted. Use sharp
words. Don't bother listening to them. Let's
work on that attitude of patience. This, by the
way, is mentioned by St. Paul. It's not in today's
epistle. If you go a few verses earlier, he says,
be patient. He gives this whole string of advice
to his son. the young Bishop Timothy. But that
advice is applicable to all of us as well. He
said, be patient. So we should exercise this
patience, not only for the benefit of other people
that we encounter in our life, but even for our
own spiritual well -being and advancement. I
usually, if I don't quote from the scriptures,
or the church fathers or the saints. I usually
choose those folks. But I came across this past
week a quotation from Mother Teresa. Of course,
nobody can disparage her holiness, but she gives
us some advice about patience. People are often
unreasonable and self -centered. Forgive them
anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you
of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are
honest, people may then cheat you. Be honest
anyway. If you find happiness, people may be
jealous, but share it. with them. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have
and even if it is not enough you will have done
your best. Give your best for you see in the
end it is all not between you and other people.
but it is also between you and God. And it was
never meant to be any other way between you and
God and expressing that in your relations with
others. Amen.