St Charles Church .org
This is a summary of a Fr. Gerry Creedon homily delivered at St. Charles on December 14, 2003
"HE
WILL REJOICE over you with gladness and renew you in his love" Zephaniah
3:14
The scriptures today speak of reconciliation as a way of preparing for the coming of the Lord.
The news is filled these days with the capture of Saddam. Let us pray for a new beginning of reconciliation for the suffering people of Iraq.
This weekend we celebrated Our Lady of Guadalupe. Juan Diego, an Aztec Indian was given a message form Mary to build a church at Tepeyac, a hill in the rural area north of Mexico. He went to the Bishop to make the petition. The Bishop refused to consider the idea. The indigenous people who lived there were not Catholic. It would be a poor religious and commercial investment. He suggested that Juan bring a sign back from the Virgin that might convince him. Mary advised Juan to look for flowers in a certain spot. He found roses growing unseasonably. He brought them back to the bishop. Unrolling them from his tilda or apron they were replaced by an image of Mary in the costume of a pregnant Aztec woman. .The indigenous population identified with this image and converted in large numbers to Christianity. The chapel Juan built is now among the three most attended shrines in the world . Our Pope has canonized Juan Diego and appointed Our Lady of Guadalupe as patroness of the Americas.
This story is a celebration of reconciliation. The church is open to all cultures. This tradition has come to us borne in the hearts of our Latino immigrants. Here at St Charles we rejoice in the many gifts offered by a multi-cultural parish.
Advent is also a time for family reconciliation. I heard recently of a family whose father had always been the leader in the devotions of Christmas. He has taken off from the family. Oftentimes the most difficult form of reconciliation is reconciliation with what we cannot fix.. Some hurts and losses are only endured by the grace of God. And yet there are many other broken relationships that are only waiting for the first step.
To help us in our reconciling task we will have ten priests to embody Christ's peace in the sacrament of reconciliation this Monday.
May the Advent season bring, our world, our church and our families closer to the Prince of Peace.