Bellarmine University
FEAST OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
“A Worthy Container”
Rev. Ronald Knott
December 8, 2014
Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you!
Luke 1:26-38
My grandfather had an expression that has stuck with me all these years. He used to say, “Nobody puts a $50.00 saddle on a $5.00 horse!” By that he meant that you should not invest something of value in something that is worthless to begin with!
As a person who has remodeled several houses, I have learned that it is never a good idea to waste good money trying to remodel a house that was built poorly to begin with!
If you want to give your fiancée a gorgeous, expensive diamond for Christmas, you would never think to have that diamond set it in some cheap plastic ring. You would put it in a worthy ring – a ring with enough gold to hold it securely and to show it off!
All these images came to mind when I reflected on this Feast of the Immaculate Conception. There is a lot poetic language surrounding this feast – a “virgin” mother and a “sinless” woman – but what it is saying is simple. When God decided to become one of us, to come to us in the flesh of a human being, he chose the right “setting” for this precious gift, a gift infinitely more precious than even the Hope Diamond. He chose Mary, blessed among all women, sinless from birth, as the mother of Jesus, as the Mother of God.
Just as “no one would put a $50 saddle on a $5 horse, waste good money remodeling a falling-down wreck of a house or place a precious diamond in a cheap plastic ring, God chose Mary as a worthy setting for his most precious gift to humankind – his only Son! In a nutshell, this is the message behind all the poetic language we are given in this ancient Marian feast!
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Sunday, December 7, 2014
December 7 - 2nd Sunday of Advent
Bellarmine University
"Christmas Was Not Stolen, We Abdicated"
Rev. Ronald Knott
December 7, 2014
Prepare his way! Make straight his paths!
Matthew 3
Last week the gentle Isaiah invited us to go up on the mountain of the Lord in order to be instructed in his ways so that we might be able to walk in his paths - instructed in his ways so that we may walk in his paths. This week we hear from a totally different personality than the gentle Isaiah. This week a fiery and uncompromising John the Baptist invites us to go into the desert to be cleansed of our sins in preparation for the imminent arrival of the world's Savior.
Mountains are places to look out and get a birds-eye view of things going on around us. Deserts are places to get a close-up view of the things going on within us. Both mountains and deserts are traditional places where our inner noises can be calmed, our senses heightened - places that help us better discern our priorities. Mountains and deserts are places where we can go to shut out the world and "hear ourselves thinking" as my mother used to call it when she wanted to clear her head.
Last week, we heard about Isaiah speak of "going to the mountain of the Lord" so that when he comes “he may find us doing right and being mindful of his ways.” "Going to the mountain of the Lord" is a metaphor for simply rising above the madness of the world: the hustle and bustle of Christmas that screams out for us to look here or look there, buy this or buy that, eat this or eat that, go here or go there! Advent is designed to be a time to "go up the mountain," to "rise above the madness" for four weeks so as to prepare our selves from the inside out - so that we can "get it" when the meaning of Christmas is proclaimed yet again! Without throwing cold water on the way we celebrate Christmas in this country, I simply tried to make the point that we need to do our homework first! We need to clean out our hearts before we clean our houses. We need to decorate our souls before we decorate our trees. We need to prepare ourselves to receive the spiritual gift of God's unconditional love before we start preparing to give our material gifts of love to each other. It's not a matter of one or the other. A "good" Christmas is a matter of both! We prepare our inside first and things outside second!
Last week the gentle Isaiah told us that we are invited up to the mountain of the Lord for a reason - "so that when God comes he may find us doing right and being mindful of his ways.” This week the fiery John likewise invites people to the desert "to be instructed in God's ways so that they could walk his paths." The huge crowds who came to be instructed by John were so moved by his message that they were inspired to make a complete about-face in the way they were living and begin to walk with God rather than away from him!
To be honest with you, all these invitations to be "instructed in the ways of God so that we may walk his paths" seem so irrelevant to a modern-day American Christmas where "more, bigger, brighter, noisier and flashier" seem to be the real message. Our speech gives us away! "They had over 150,000 lights in their lawn decorations." "You should have seen the table. It was literally breaking down with food!" "We consumed four cases of beer, a case of wine and eight bottles of champagne on Christmas Eve alone!" "I got everything the kids had on their list even though most of it is on my credit cards!" "We went all out this year! The whole family went on a cruise! We'll worry about the money later! You only live once!"
Christians! Somewhere along the line we lost our spiritual grip on Christmas and now others are defining it and shaping it for us! "The Grinch" did not steal Christmas! Commerce did not grab Christmas! Santa Claus and his Elves did not overpower Christmas! We abdicated! We pulled out! We handed it over! We surrendered it! We lost it - all because we tried to celebrate Christmas without doing the "inner work" of Advent! Because we do not do the "inner work" of Advent, when we do get to Christmas we are losing our understanding of what it really means! It's stupid to be mad at others for stealing it from us. We lost Christmas because we fell asleep - because we were not paying attention!
It's still not too late to "go up the mountain" and "out into the desert" for a few hours "to be instructed in his ways" so that we can "walk in his paths." It's still not too late for us as individuals to "reclaim Christmas." The best way to reclaim Christmas, in my estimation, is not by signing up for some silly, loud, organized campaign with signs and TV spots, but for one Christian at a time to silently reclaim it for himself and herself!
"Christmas Was Not Stolen, We Abdicated"
Rev. Ronald Knott
December 7, 2014
Prepare his way! Make straight his paths!
Matthew 3
Last week the gentle Isaiah invited us to go up on the mountain of the Lord in order to be instructed in his ways so that we might be able to walk in his paths - instructed in his ways so that we may walk in his paths. This week we hear from a totally different personality than the gentle Isaiah. This week a fiery and uncompromising John the Baptist invites us to go into the desert to be cleansed of our sins in preparation for the imminent arrival of the world's Savior.
Mountains are places to look out and get a birds-eye view of things going on around us. Deserts are places to get a close-up view of the things going on within us. Both mountains and deserts are traditional places where our inner noises can be calmed, our senses heightened - places that help us better discern our priorities. Mountains and deserts are places where we can go to shut out the world and "hear ourselves thinking" as my mother used to call it when she wanted to clear her head.
Last week, we heard about Isaiah speak of "going to the mountain of the Lord" so that when he comes “he may find us doing right and being mindful of his ways.” "Going to the mountain of the Lord" is a metaphor for simply rising above the madness of the world: the hustle and bustle of Christmas that screams out for us to look here or look there, buy this or buy that, eat this or eat that, go here or go there! Advent is designed to be a time to "go up the mountain," to "rise above the madness" for four weeks so as to prepare our selves from the inside out - so that we can "get it" when the meaning of Christmas is proclaimed yet again! Without throwing cold water on the way we celebrate Christmas in this country, I simply tried to make the point that we need to do our homework first! We need to clean out our hearts before we clean our houses. We need to decorate our souls before we decorate our trees. We need to prepare ourselves to receive the spiritual gift of God's unconditional love before we start preparing to give our material gifts of love to each other. It's not a matter of one or the other. A "good" Christmas is a matter of both! We prepare our inside first and things outside second!
Last week the gentle Isaiah told us that we are invited up to the mountain of the Lord for a reason - "so that when God comes he may find us doing right and being mindful of his ways.” This week the fiery John likewise invites people to the desert "to be instructed in God's ways so that they could walk his paths." The huge crowds who came to be instructed by John were so moved by his message that they were inspired to make a complete about-face in the way they were living and begin to walk with God rather than away from him!
To be honest with you, all these invitations to be "instructed in the ways of God so that we may walk his paths" seem so irrelevant to a modern-day American Christmas where "more, bigger, brighter, noisier and flashier" seem to be the real message. Our speech gives us away! "They had over 150,000 lights in their lawn decorations." "You should have seen the table. It was literally breaking down with food!" "We consumed four cases of beer, a case of wine and eight bottles of champagne on Christmas Eve alone!" "I got everything the kids had on their list even though most of it is on my credit cards!" "We went all out this year! The whole family went on a cruise! We'll worry about the money later! You only live once!"
Christians! Somewhere along the line we lost our spiritual grip on Christmas and now others are defining it and shaping it for us! "The Grinch" did not steal Christmas! Commerce did not grab Christmas! Santa Claus and his Elves did not overpower Christmas! We abdicated! We pulled out! We handed it over! We surrendered it! We lost it - all because we tried to celebrate Christmas without doing the "inner work" of Advent! Because we do not do the "inner work" of Advent, when we do get to Christmas we are losing our understanding of what it really means! It's stupid to be mad at others for stealing it from us. We lost Christmas because we fell asleep - because we were not paying attention!
It's still not too late to "go up the mountain" and "out into the desert" for a few hours "to be instructed in his ways" so that we can "walk in his paths." It's still not too late for us as individuals to "reclaim Christmas." The best way to reclaim Christmas, in my estimation, is not by signing up for some silly, loud, organized campaign with signs and TV spots, but for one Christian at a time to silently reclaim it for himself and herself!
Monday, December 1, 2014
November 30 - 1st Sunday of Advent
Bellarmine University
“Meet Us Doing Right”
Rev. Ronald Knott
November 30, 2014
Would that you would meet us doing right
and being mindful of your ways.
Isaiah 63
To live well is a lot like driving a car – you have to be able to see what is going on behind you, in front of you and all around you, but all at once. You have to learn from your past, plan for your future and be alert to what is happening in your life right now.
In order to live well, during this season of Advent we look back, look around and look forward. Each Sunday for four weeks, we re-read the scriptures that foretold the coming of Christ, we re-read the scriptures that foretell the return of Christ and we re-flect on our lives and how we are living right now “as we wait in joyful hope” for his return in glory. As we wait, as we live each day, we pray in the words of Isaiah that when he comes, God “would meet us doing right and find us mindful of his ways.” To live well, we need to look back, look forward and pay attention to all that is going on around us.
Jesus reminds us in the gospel to be “watchful” and “alert,” warning us that “we don’t know when the Lord will come.” It says that he “may come suddenly and find us sleeping,” so we need to “watch,” “wake up” and “pay attention.”
Living well, alert and watchful, is hard work. Our lazy side must be stood up to, over and over again. Our lazy side tells us that we have plenty of time, that we can get around to it someday and that we can cut corners for a little while longer. Our lazy side is our sinful side. The best definition of “sin” I ever heard was that it is at its root giving in to laziness. When we “sin,” we choose the “easy way” rather than the “right way.” Laziness is the opposite of “staying awake and staying alert.”
All sin is about laziness. Theft has laziness at its root. It is easier to take what belongs to others than it is to work for your own. Theft is a lazy shortcut to getting what we want. Gossip has laziness at its root. It is easier to cut others down to our size than it is to build ourselves up. Gossip is a lazy shortcut to feeling good about ourselves. Pornography has laziness at its root. It is easier to relate to an anonymous printed image than it is to build intimacy with real people. Pornography is a lazy shortcut to feelings of intimacy. Excessive eating and drinking has laziness at its root. It is easier to do the things that feel good to our bodies than it is to do thing that are truly good for our bodies. Excessive eating and drinking is a substitute for facing unpleasant feelings. Taking recreational drugs has laziness at its root. It is easier to take a pill or snort a substance that gives us an artificial high than it is to work for the high of a deeply spiritual life in relationship with God and others. “Following the crowd” has laziness at its root. It is easier to gain acceptance by “doing what everybody else is doing” than it is to “do the right thing” and risk rejection. Yes, all “sin” is about choosing the “lazy way,” about choosing the “easy way” over the “right way.”
Advent is about “waiting in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior.” How do we wait? We wait by being “watchful,” “alert,” and “awake,” doing the hard work of remembering where we came from, where we are, and where we are going. We don’t know when it will happen, but we do know that someday we will stand before God, with our lives in our hands, to give an account of what we have done with the life that God has given us.
Our Advent prayer is simple. It is the prayer from Isaiah, “Would that you would meet us doing right and being mindful of your ways!” While we wait, “do not let us wander from your ways or let our hearts harden so that we quit fearing you.” “Living in joyful hope” is not about “getting ready,” it is about “being ready,” whether it happens “in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning.” Advent is a time to examine our consciences so see whether God might find us “doing right and being mindful of his ways” no matter when he comes! To live well is to live prepared!
St. John Paul II gave us some great advice for daily living when he put it this way: Remember the past with gratitude! Live in the present with enthusiasm! Look to the future with confidence!
“Meet Us Doing Right”
Rev. Ronald Knott
November 30, 2014
Would that you would meet us doing right
and being mindful of your ways.
Isaiah 63
To live well is a lot like driving a car – you have to be able to see what is going on behind you, in front of you and all around you, but all at once. You have to learn from your past, plan for your future and be alert to what is happening in your life right now.
In order to live well, during this season of Advent we look back, look around and look forward. Each Sunday for four weeks, we re-read the scriptures that foretold the coming of Christ, we re-read the scriptures that foretell the return of Christ and we re-flect on our lives and how we are living right now “as we wait in joyful hope” for his return in glory. As we wait, as we live each day, we pray in the words of Isaiah that when he comes, God “would meet us doing right and find us mindful of his ways.” To live well, we need to look back, look forward and pay attention to all that is going on around us.
Jesus reminds us in the gospel to be “watchful” and “alert,” warning us that “we don’t know when the Lord will come.” It says that he “may come suddenly and find us sleeping,” so we need to “watch,” “wake up” and “pay attention.”
Living well, alert and watchful, is hard work. Our lazy side must be stood up to, over and over again. Our lazy side tells us that we have plenty of time, that we can get around to it someday and that we can cut corners for a little while longer. Our lazy side is our sinful side. The best definition of “sin” I ever heard was that it is at its root giving in to laziness. When we “sin,” we choose the “easy way” rather than the “right way.” Laziness is the opposite of “staying awake and staying alert.”
All sin is about laziness. Theft has laziness at its root. It is easier to take what belongs to others than it is to work for your own. Theft is a lazy shortcut to getting what we want. Gossip has laziness at its root. It is easier to cut others down to our size than it is to build ourselves up. Gossip is a lazy shortcut to feeling good about ourselves. Pornography has laziness at its root. It is easier to relate to an anonymous printed image than it is to build intimacy with real people. Pornography is a lazy shortcut to feelings of intimacy. Excessive eating and drinking has laziness at its root. It is easier to do the things that feel good to our bodies than it is to do thing that are truly good for our bodies. Excessive eating and drinking is a substitute for facing unpleasant feelings. Taking recreational drugs has laziness at its root. It is easier to take a pill or snort a substance that gives us an artificial high than it is to work for the high of a deeply spiritual life in relationship with God and others. “Following the crowd” has laziness at its root. It is easier to gain acceptance by “doing what everybody else is doing” than it is to “do the right thing” and risk rejection. Yes, all “sin” is about choosing the “lazy way,” about choosing the “easy way” over the “right way.”
Advent is about “waiting in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior.” How do we wait? We wait by being “watchful,” “alert,” and “awake,” doing the hard work of remembering where we came from, where we are, and where we are going. We don’t know when it will happen, but we do know that someday we will stand before God, with our lives in our hands, to give an account of what we have done with the life that God has given us.
Our Advent prayer is simple. It is the prayer from Isaiah, “Would that you would meet us doing right and being mindful of your ways!” While we wait, “do not let us wander from your ways or let our hearts harden so that we quit fearing you.” “Living in joyful hope” is not about “getting ready,” it is about “being ready,” whether it happens “in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning.” Advent is a time to examine our consciences so see whether God might find us “doing right and being mindful of his ways” no matter when he comes! To live well is to live prepared!
St. John Paul II gave us some great advice for daily living when he put it this way: Remember the past with gratitude! Live in the present with enthusiasm! Look to the future with confidence!
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