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Why, oh Why

A homily for the Fourth Sunday in Advent


A darling in the motivational speaker circuit is a guy named Simon Sinek. And his thing is tell me why. Why does your company do what it do. Not what does it do? Why does it do? Because what is not inspiring. What we do isn’t that inspiring. But why we do it inspires people, enthuses people. Gets people to sign on board.


That’s much more important is the why do you understand your why? In today’s gospel, I think we see this. Joseph has gotten the news. Mary is pregnant, they’re engaged and it has to be broken by a divorce. In those days, engagement was strong. But she’s pregnant. And the what, the law says divorce her. And probably everybody in town is saying divorce her and the law is saying stone her.


Her and everybody in town is probably saying stone. Her. That’s the what the what is the law, the what is what people are saying. But Joseph digs in deeper the why. This angel comes to him in the dream and says, Take Mary. I think what is heart was coming. This dream was just what his heart was already telling him.


You love this woman. Do the act of love. Why? Because you love her. And I think that’s the call of today’s gospel is not to do what we do because we do it. Why do we do it? Find out the why. Oftentimes, like in a parish mission statement, a parish mission statement will tell you what the parish does, but not why it does it.


Teresa of Avila has a great quotation, I think. Very good for Christmas time. And she writes, “know that you too are a child of God. So allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love”. Oh, that’s a great why. Not a what, it’s a why. Because we’re a child of God. We’re going to dance and sing.


That’s not a what. That is a profound why. So I’m this as we approaches, as we approach Christmas. Ask yourself, why do I do what I do? Dig deep and it will change your Christmas and change your life.

Saint Teresa of Avila
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Mute Speak and Deaf Hear

A homily for the third Sunday in Advent


There were problems in the early Christian community. The widows of the Greeks complained they weren’t getting the same amount of food as the widows of the Hebrews. And so the apostles say, let’s get deacons, and they can serve. Deacons were formed, instituted, because there was division to heal the division. And I think that’s the call of everyone is to heal the division.


In today’s gospel, the disciples of John the Baptist come to Jesus and say, are you the one who we know for another? And Jesus says, report what you see, that the blind see the deaf hear the lame walk. And I think that’s what Christians do. Oftentimes the community, we don’t want to see each other’s viewpoint. There’s division. We don’t want to hear each other’s arguments or even listen.


We don’t want to walk the extra mile with our brother or sister, but we’re called to be one in Christ, to see the viewpoint, to hear the arguments. To walk the extra mile. Saint Teresa of Avila says, “look for Christ our Lord in everyone. And then you will have respect and reverence for all”. I think that’s the key to being Christlike.


Christ says blind, see deaf. Hear lame walk. And when we see Christ in one another, it’s the same thing. We hear one another. We walk with one another. We listen to one another.

Saint Teresa of the Avila