A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Luke. Jesus rejoiced in the holy spirit and said, I offer you praise, oh father, lord of heaven and of earth, because what you have hidden from the learned and the clever you have revealed to the merest child. Yes, father. You have graciously willed it to be so. Everything has been been given over to me by my father.
No one knows the son except the father, and no one knows the father except the son and anyone to whom the son wishes to reveal him. Then our lord, turning to his disciples, said to them privately, blessed are the eyes that see what you see. I tell you, many prophets and kings wish to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. And this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen.
For some of you, it may be repetitious, and I apologize. Only in a way, though. Because what happened on Thanksgiving Day after our dinner still clings to me and has terrific meaning for our day and age. After this sumptuous fair, we were gathered around and every practically everybody there had read Graham Greene's Monsignor Quixote, which I highly recommend to you for your advent reading. By Graham Greene, Monsignor Quixote Cervantes, by Graham Green, however.
And then the talk turned to the article in the Time magazine on the Catholic church in America and how some Catholics are trying to keep their faith. It's a hard fight. And then a gentleman who was there, about 70 years old, not one of the most faithfully practicing Catholics, from Chicago, an Irish, a physicist and a mathematician, PhD, and all that, was listening and saying very little. And then he came in and said, and it didn't seem to have any bearing on what we were talking about. But I the more I think about it, the more bearing it had on what we have been talking about.
Because here is this man now at the end of a very illustrious scientific career, a man who's made his name in mathematics and in physics and in business management, A man who has seen a lot of life and experience and had got and had a very good Catholic elementary education. He he then referred to his aunt who was a who was a sister and is now dead. And he says that one of the most vivid memories he has now was the way she would point to him when he was a little boy and say, look, Jimmy, remember, god loves you. And she would do this time and again right out of the blue. She'd stand up there and say, look, Jimmy, remember, god loves you.
And that's the gestures he made when he when he was telling us this. That's what that's the thing that's clinging to this man at the age of 70 with one foot in the grave or maybe two and a half for all I know. We all have about three in the grave, you know. Remember, Jimmy, god loves you. Can there be any can there be any message that anybody can give in the name of Jesus Christ more basic than that?
We talk about ourselves. We talk about our fulfillment. We talk about religion as if it was just another YMCA venture or a KFC or a Masonic Lodge. We talk about religion as a culturally enervating, invigorating, cultivating thing. I remember a Yale student, I've mentioned this, but it still clings to me, how he was going on about religion religions being equally good because he was a religious guy, this this young man.
He really was. And I said, well, if all the all these religions that you're talking about are equally true, then they're all equally false, obviously. And I said, therefore, I don't want any parts of any of them. And he turned to me scandalized. He said, you can't say that.
I said, why can't I say it? He said, because we need religion. I said, why do we need religion? And this young man who was the editor of the Yale paper, an undergrad, said, because it keeps us civilized. Well, maybe it does.
I don't know. Doesn't seem to work with everybody. But is that what a religion is all about? Is religion about god or man? That you see, that's the basic question.
And the way you answer that question is going to determine an awful lot of other things. And there's nothing more basic than that simple statement. Remember, Jimmy, god loves you. And that young boy had problems, believe me. I know about that.
Because there were times when he had to be assured that in this whole universe, there was somebody who loved him. And his aunt was telling him, Jimmy, remember, god loves you. Take this to heart. We're talking about Advent. We're talking about Advent, and and so much of what we say has to do with the future.
Forget it. Our blessed lord has come. It's a fact. God loves you. Just think of that word god sometime.
What do you mean? When what what concept do you have in your head when you say god? And you say that this being, this this absolutely indescribable being whom we say is omnipotent, omniscient, all loving, all wise, eternal, know, all of these adjectives and nouns that we use, all of them tinge with anthropomorphism, making godlike to ourselves, but and we can't escape that. But we're saying that that enormous being, we can't form a concept of it. We can't use any words which are accurate.
That from all from all eternity, not when I was born or when I was conceived, but from all eternity, this being has loved me, individual me, and cares for me, and sent his son to be my savior. Perfect past tense, not the future. Christ has come. And what the church is trying to do, and I think could do better, is to emphasize that while our god loves me, while he sent his son to save me to be my savior, he doesn't force me to be saved. God doesn't force feed me.
I have to open the door to Christ. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Famous painting. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. And on that door, there is no doorknob or latch or anything.
It can't be opened from the side Christ is staying standing on. It can only be opened from your side. And that's the whole point of Advent, that we are preparing ourselves, renewing ourselves. No matter how well we've done, no matter how hard we've tried, Advent is a time to renew those efforts, to renew our faith, our love, our worship of God, to put God first. That's not easy to do.
Believe me. It'll all come out fair and square if you remember. Jimmy, remember, god loves you. In the name of the father, and of the son, and holy spirit. Amen.