A little boy was overheard praying, “Dear Lord, if you can’t make me a better boy, don’t worry about it. I’m having a really good time like I am.”

I hope none of us pray that way! I hope all of us want to become better people, to become more like Jesus Christ. Today, we’re going to talk about a very serious topic – controversial, we may disagree on some points. So buckle your seat belts and get ready for the ride. But I think this is a very important topic, something that will start to make us better people and more Christ-like, if we are open to listening.

Maybe some of you saw the Desert Sun front page headline last Monday. If not, it is on your handout – “Should politics and religion intersect?” They took a photo from Mass at our church, and they noted that during the Mass, we didn’t talk about abortion or capital punishment or euthanasia or any other political issues. Well, today, we’re going to talk about those things, and not just because Fourth of July is upon us and elections are nearly here in November, but because our faith means we cannot hide our heads in the sand like an ostrich and ignore the world around us. Politics is part of life, and therefore, part of faith.

I’ve titled this homily “God, Politics and the ‘End of the World,’ ” and we’ll see in a few moments how all that ties together. My subtitle is “God, bless America” but also “God, help America,” because I believe our country really needs God’s help and guidance. We live in perilous times.

First, let’s tackle the essential question from the Desert Sun: Should religion and politics mix?

The answer comes from our readings today. In our first reading, from 1 Kings, God orders the prophet Elijah to name a successor, Elisha, as the next prophet. In the Old Testament, prophets played politics. They were the social conscience of the nation of Israel. They confronted the kings and religious leaders of their day on behalf of the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized, the downtrodden. We’ve seen modern day prophets – Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, Mother Teresa, Dorothy Day who founded the Catholic Worker movement, the activist Trappist monk Thomas Merton, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor who was killed by the Nazis during World War II, and many more. We need prophets – maybe more today than ever before.

The Bible is full of politics mixing with religion. Just look at all the prophetic books in the Bible – eighteen in all. They are listed on your handout – Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Micah, on and on.

Today, there are many important issues we must face, and the church as a moral duty to speak out. Some of those issues are listed on your handout – abortion, capital punishment, euthanasia, racism, sexism, gay bashing, police brutality, labor rights and livable wages, affordable health care, affordable and livable housing, immigrant rights, equal access to good schools for all children in our country. There are many other issues besides this – hunger and starvation in third world nations, the AIDS epidemic in Africa, so on and so on.

What are we to do? And what happens if we do nothing?

Look at the next verse, from our second reading today, from Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Paul talks about freedom, an important word in our country. Brothers and sisters: For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. For you were called to freedom…. But do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh; rather, serve one another through love. For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”—Galatians 5:1, 13-14

We tend to spiritualize this verse, but there are really two kinds of freedom – inner, spiritual freedom and outer freedom, the kind we are supposed to enjoy in this country by virtue of the rights that are protected by the U.S. Constitution. A prisoner in a POW camp or in a Nazi Concentration Camp can experience inner peace and freedom, even though they are imprisoned and without external, outer freedom.
But the Bible speaks of both kinds of freedoms as being important. That’s why God freed the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt.

Look at the last line in our verse today from Saint Paul: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” We as Catholics have interpreted this as respecting life – all life, from the moment of conception to the moment of death. We are unequivocally, 100 percent, totally sold out and committed to life, and we totally oppose anything that diminishes or destroys or degrades human life. This is a black and white issue. That’s why abortion is wrong, for it is taking an innocent life. That’s also why torture is wrong, or police brutality, or assisted suicide or euthanasia, and even capital punishment.

Look at the next verse, Matthew 25:34-36. This is the great judgment scene in Matthew. It’s interesting that Jesus never said we would be condemned if we fail to go to Mass on Sunday, or we don’t follow every liturgical rubric exactly correctly (though I do believe it is important that we go to Mass on Sunday and that we maintain reverence through our rubrics). But Jesus did say that we stand condemned if we fail to love our neighbor by feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, visiting and comforting those in prison.

The bottom line for me is simply this: What would Jesus do? Would he torture prisoners in Iraq or humiliate them by stripping them? Would he abort an innocent and defenseless fetus? Would he beat a suspected criminal who was unarmed and trying to surrender peaceably? Would he pull the switch on the electric chair or administer the lethal injection when life imprisonment would serve the same end?

There is a principle in the medical field: Do no harm. And if there is doubt, err on the side of caution. Some people say a fetus is not a full human being yet. Are you sure, absolutely, 100 percent? Err on the side of caution. Do no harm. Do not abort.

Some say death row inmates are guilty and deserve to die. Many of them -- if not most of them -- probably are guilty. But there already are cases in this country where a person came within minutes of execution, and the execution was stayed, and DNA evidence then proved the person’s innocence. We don’t know (but there is a high probability) that some innocent death row inmates were not so lucky and were executed. We do know that persons accused of murder received atrociously incompetent legal counsel -- in one case, the accused’s lawyer slept through most the trial! Some death row inmates are mentally retarded, others are minors under the age of 18. Are you sure, 100 percent, that our judicial system is foolproof and that no innocent person is on death row? Err on the side of caution. Do no harm. Do not execute.

If not, and if you mistakenly execute an innocent person, you yourself are guilty of murder and collusion in murder!

Catholic social teaching says that violence never can be used simply to exact retribution or revenge. We can’t just bomb an enemy -- or innocent men, women and children in an Iraqi or Afghani village -- just because they are in our way or to get back at their country for an attack on us. Catholic just war principles clearly state that here must be a legitimate good that justifies an attack and outweighs the bad that would result if we do not retaliate. The same with capital punishment – vengeance and revenge is never morally allowed. We must ask ourselves: Are we sure that our motive is not “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” vengeance? Err on the side of caution. Do no harm.

The church needs to take a moral stand on issues. That is politics.

Before World War II, many Christians in Germany did not want to rock the boat when Adolph Hitler took power. They were complacent, naïve, perhaps complicit with the evils of the Nazis. Later, after the war, one Protestant theologian said, “The Nazis first came after the communists, but I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists… and the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up. Then they came for me, and by that time, there was no one left to speak up.”

The same could happen to us, in our country, if we do not speak up and if we sit mutely on the sidelines doing nothing, and if we persecute the prophets of our day, just as the kings and leaders in the time of the Bible persecuted the prophets of their day and age.

Elie Wiesel, a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, writes of the unspeakable horror of the Nazis in his classic book, Night. An excerpt is on your handout: [read of hanging of young Jewish boy]

The SS seemed more preoccupied, more disturbed than usual. To hang a young boy in front of thousands of spectators was no light matter… All eyes were on the child. He was lividly pale, almost calm, biting his lips. The gallows threw its shadow over him…. “Where is God? Where is He?” someone behind me asked…. And I heard a voice within me answer him: “Where is He? Here He is – He is hanging here on this gallows….” That night the soup tasted of corpses. – from Night by Elie Wiesel

When we do nothing, in a very real sense, we are hanging and killing God. The cross of Jesus shows the depth of man’s inhumanity to other men. It also shows the love of a God who would endure such suffering and pain in order to be with us in our pain, and to endure and combat injustices with us. It shows that we too must be willing to take up our cross, and even get ourselves crucified, in order to help our neighbor who is being persecuted and oppressed.

In this country, we have the civil rights movement, led by Dr. Martin Luther King. He said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Once he was thrown into jail in Birmingham, Alabama, and the white pastors in the South wrote a public letter criticizing him as a trouble maker. He wrote back, in his now-famous Letter from the Birmingham jail, that Christians must obey just laws, but when a law is unjust, they must follow the higher moral law of God.

Saint Augustine said the same thing: “An unjust law is no law at all.”

Pope Paul VI put it this way: “If you want peace, fight for justice.”

St. Paul, in our 2nd reading today, said: “If you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” God’s law trumps any unjust civil law.

So we have the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal. We as Christians are called to take a stand against torture and mistreatment of prisoners. In the U.S., millions of unborn babies are killed through abortion. We must take a stand and say clearly, unequivocally – abortion is wrong. And I want to share one story from just last week, and from our own back yard – a story of police mistreatment of one of the youths in our parish.

I must say that I was incensed at enraged when I first heard about this young man’s plight. Perhaps because I know him personally, and he was in one of our youth groups for two years, and because I knew he was innocent. Injustice has a greater impact when it hits close to home and affects someone you know personally. I talked to the young man just last week, and what is on your handout is the story he told me – a story I believe with all of my heart, because I know him and I know he would not lie.

COACHELLA YOUTH HUMILIATED, DEGRADED BY (IN)JUSTICE SYSTEM:
One Innocent Young Hispanic Man’s Horrific Experience

When Marcos (not his real name) awoke at 8 a.m. on a bright sunny morning three months ago, he never guessed that a violent carjacking and rape that had occurred at about the same time 20 miles away would wreck his life for the next two months, and almost for his entire lifetime.

Marcos’ nightmare began later that same night, when police surrounded his home in Coachella, herded his family out into the streets, verbally confronted Marcos in front of a gathering crowd of neighbors, and arrested him for a crime of which he had no knowledge. Only months later would the district attorney curtly dismiss all charges against Marcos with a terse one-sentence statement: “Based on DNA, (Marcos) was excluded as a suspect in the rape.”

But no apology was ever offered by police or prosecutors to an innocent man, falsely accused; or that he was treated as “guilty until proven innocent,” rather than vice versa. Left unsaid was the degrading strip search at the police station that night, where Marcos was forced to stand naked for 30 minutes in a cold concrete prison waiting room, surrounded by numerous male policemen and one female nurse who proceeded to “examine him” and humiliate him as part of the rape investigation. Also left unsaid is the fact that Marcos was forced to sleep on a concrete bench all night in a cubicle the size of a small closet, without any cushion or pillow. Or that he was repeatedly woken up and badgered with questions, with the intent to use sleep deprivation to disorient and confuse him in the hopes of eliciting a confession. Or that he was never offered access to an attorney or read his Miranda rights until the next day. Or that at the jail in Indio later, a guard threatened to put a bullet through his head while other guards stood and laughed. During the course of the late night and early morning interrogation, one of the policemen badgered Marcos, saying, “You’re going to jail for the rest of your life, and your entire family with you, because they are covering for you.”

In black and Hispanic communities across the country, the human story of police brutality and mistreatment is often hidden and ignored. Yet the abuse of authority by some police agencies not only undermines confidence in the U.S. Constitution and its protection of basic human rights, but it also erodes the ability of many good law enforcement officers to gain trust within minority communities, where police are increasingly viewed as “the enemy,” not as friends – as “pigs” rather than “peace officers.” A front page story in the Los Angeles Times on June 24 shows video footage from a television helicopter crew of a brutal “Rodney King-style” beating of an unarmed African-American car thief as he offers no resistance to arrest. In that case, a 16-year-old African American boy who lives in the neighborhood called the beating outrageous and said, “I don’t think I am safe with the LAPD. That’s why people run. We don’t know what to expect.”

An incident similar to Marcos’ was reported by national news media this month, where Juan Catalan, 26, spent 5½ months in prison in Los Angeles on murder charges before his attorney found video footage from an HBO TV show proving that, at the time of the murder, he was attending a Dodgers baseball game with his 6-year-old daughter. In that case, Catalan faced the death penalty if convicted.

In some ways, Marcos and Catalan were lucky that evidence existed to prove their innocence. Other prisoners, especially those unable to hire private attorneys with time and resources to fully investigate false allegations, may not be so lucky. Particularly onerous are situations like Catalan’s, which involve the death penalty.

As I heard this horrific tale of American injustice and police mistreatment, my blood boiled and I felt like the disciples in today’s gospel who wanted to rain hellfire down on the Samaritans. We ought to feel anger – righteous anger when innocent people are mistreated and seen as animals, not human beings. But in our gospel, we learn not to fight injustice with more injustice, anger with more anger. We fight against the wrong, but peaceably.

What does this have to do with the end of the world? We as Catholics are not literalists when it comes to interpreting the Bible. Jesus himself said nobody knows when the end of the world will come. But of course, we must always stand ready.

What worries me is the potential for mass destruction all around us – ecological mass destruction as we destroy the ozone and the environment; moral mass destruction as we abort innocent babies and lose any respect for the dignity of human life; terror and the facile use of weapons of mass destruction. I wonder if we, as a nation, are not on the brink of a moral “abyss” and about to lose all that we cherish and hold dear.

On your sheet it says the “anti-Christ” of civil religion and blind nationalism. Just last week, even many conservative right wingers and evangelical Christians drafted a justice statement warning against too easily embracing one political party or another, or one political viewpoint to the exclusion of another, or blind nationalism and patriotism. Military generals, the military’s own legal branch, Nobel prize winners, former top political leaders in the U.S. government, and many more – Republican and Democrat – have denounced much of what is happening in the U.S. in terms of the inhumane treatment of POWs in Iraq, Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay, and the slippery slope erosion of basic human rights protections under the current presidential administration. Scary stuff!

I believe there is an erosion of freedoms in our country, and a growing disregard for human dignity and human rights, and a growing tendency to embrace violence. In the 1800s, a writer named Alexis de Tocqueville wrote what today is considered a classic work on the United States, entitled “Democracy in America.” He warned against two things: Tyranny of the majority – when a majority in the country, through shear domination of votes, decides to oppress minority groups. Feeding this tyranny, de Tocqueville predicted, would be a loss of our national moral foundation. And I think that it happening now. We shrug our shoulders at injustice and inhumanity and cruelty, but “it’s none of my business.” Yet it must become all our business.

Not just “God bless America” but also “God help America.” Civil liberties and freedoms are being eroded. Families are disintegrating. Respect for life is vanishing.

So -- What can we do?

Martin Luther King said, “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” We must become aware, up to date, engaged, educated about the issues affecting our world. He also said, “The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be…. The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.”

On your handout are seven ways to start getting involved:

1. On the internet – the official website of the U.S. Catholic bishops. This has a wealth of social justice information. Or the Catholic lobbying network, Network. Or Equal Justice USA, fighting to reform the American criminal justice system.

2. We must distinguish between partisan and non-partisan politics. The church does not endorse one candidate over another or one party over another. No one party or candidate is 100 right, or 100 wrong. Partisan politics is when we pick one candidate or one party. Non-partisan politics is when we take a stand on issues. All of us must study the candidates and the issues and make up our own mind based on the evidence, including the moral teachings of our church.

3. Register to vote. Then vote!

4. Watch social justice movies like “Dead Man Walking,” on the death penalty, or “El Norte,” about the plight of immigrants.

5. Support our church’s social justice outreach – maybe even get directly involved. I’ve listed four on your sheet, and contact people and phone numbers: ICUC, Inland Congregations United for Change; CLUE, Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, fighting for worker’s rights; our nw parish Legal Assistance Office, being started by David Saldivar; and our Aguas del Desierto Counseling Center.

6. Support local, state and national politicians who are doing their job well – and protest against those who aren’t.

7. Visit the Holocaust Memorial in Palm Desert Civic Park.

This Fourth of July, God bless America, but also, God help America!

Birth of John the Baptist
June 24, 2007

What’s Your Name?

Anyone here had a difficult week? I was reading last week about a woman who started a brand new job. On Monday, she arrived at her new place of work and immediately was asked to contribute money to a common pot because one of the other employees was retiring. On Tuesday, on her second day at the new job, the employees passed a hat to buy a gift for another worker who was pregnant, for the baby shower. On Wednesday, she went to work and all the employees were asked to contribute for a wedding gift, because another employee was getting married on the following Saturday. Thursday, they passed the hat to buy a cake to celebrate a co-worker’s birthday. You get the idea. She woke up on Friday and prayed and prayed, “Lord, please, please, not another baby shower, not another birthday party nor wedding nor retirement celebration!” As she arrived at work, she was greeted by the community’s mobile health clinic. They were at her office, asking all the workers to donate blood!

This Sunday, we have the Bloodmobile in the parking lot, from 10 to 3 p.m., asking parishioners to donate blood. And it’s truly a wonderful cause. Donating blood saves lives! It’s one way that we, as Christians, can put our faith into action, and I hope many of you will participate. But that’s not why I told this story. Today, as we celebrate the Feast of the Birth of John the Baptist, I want you to ask yourselves one simple question: What is God asking of you?

Maybe it struck you as a bit odd that we are celebrating John the Baptist in June. Usually, it is in Advent, in the weeks leading up to Christmas, when we hear about John the Baptist, out in the desert, baptizing people, exhorting them to repent, and crying out, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord!” So why this feast in June? Why Christmas in the heat of summer? I want to offer two simple reasons:

First: Christmas was a long time ago, and it’s easy to forget, now that we are in June and in the midst of summer vacations – that Christmas ought to be year ‘round, a reminder that we always need to be preparing the way for Jesus, that we always need to remember that God is here with us, in our midst, walking with us at our side, sometimes carrying us when we stumble. Emmanuel – God-with-Us – is what Christmas is all about, but we ought NOT to forget, just because we are six months past December, in June, that God is still with us, and that he always is at our side.

Second: John the Baptist challenges us to repent, to change, to stay constantly alert spiritually, to not fall asleep at the wheel. John challenges us to ask ourselves: What is God asking of me? The church, in its wisdom, placed this feast day precisely on June 24th for a reason. You see, June 24th is the summer solstice, the longest day of sunlight in the year. The sun rises early – 6 in the morning or so – and it sets late – around 8:30 or 9 at night. But after this date, the days grow shorter, little by little until we reach winter solstice in December, the shortest day of sunlight, when it starts to get dark around 5 at night. In John’s gospel, Chapter 3, verse 30, John the Baptist said (and let’s read this together!): “He must increase; I must decrease.” (John 3:30, NAB) In other words, my life is not about me. It’s about God in me. It’s about me fulfilling God’s purpose for my life, not me trying to just live for myself and my own desires and goals and wishes. Real life is about allowing God to be in control of my life. This feast day reminds us of that all-important fact. Just as the sun starts to decrease, I too must decrease, so that God can increase in my life.

In our gospel today, we hear about Zechariah and Elizabeth as they prepare to name their newborn child. How many here who are parents remember naming your children? If it’s a boy, we’ll name him such and such. If it’s a girl, we’ll name her such and such. Many times, we have reasons for picking the names of our children. Maybe it’s based on the saint of the day on which the child is born. For example, anyone here named John or Joanna? That’s because today is your feast day! Or maybe you named your child after a beloved family member who is deceased, as a way to carry on their memory. Maybe you just picked a favorite name, or a favorite saint. Or maybe you named one of your children after yourself! Or maybe you yourself were named after your mom or your dad. Anyone here named after a parent, or anyone here name one of your children with your name? You see, that’s what the family and friends of Zechariah and Elizabeth wanted them to do – to name the child “Zechariah,” after the father. But remember: It’s not about us; it’s about God. It’s about doing what God says, and what God wants, and putting God in control. And so, earlier, an angel had appeared to Zechariah and to Elizabeth and told them, “You shall name this child – what?” -- “John!”

In the Bible, names often have specific meanings. The name “John” means, literally, in the Hebrew language, “God’s favor” or “God is gracious.” And how many of us would agree with that statement, that God is good and gracious toward us? In this midpoint of the year, in the midst of the heat of summer, what a wonderful reminder!

Zechariah was so filled with joy at the birth of his son, John, that the Bible records his song of praise to the Lord. It’s called “the Canticle of Zechariah” – Luke 1:68-79. Catholic monks, and priests, bishops and the pope in all parts of the world, pray the Canticle of Zechariah as part of their morning prayer every single day, 365 days a year – in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Australia. Often, the monks divide themselves into two groups, and they alternate praying different paragraphs of the Canticle of Zechariah. And we’re going to join them today, doing the same. We’ll divide into two parts, and as each groups reads and prays together in the words of Zechariah, let’s look at what the Canticle is telling us.

• Let’s start with Group 1. Together! "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has visited and brought redemption to his people.” Zechariah’s prayer begins with an acknowledgement of God first – “Blessed be God!” – and the good news that God has saved and redeemed his people.

• Group 2: “He has raised up a horn for our salvation within the house of David his servant, even as he promised through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old: salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show mercy to our fathers and to be mindful of his holy covenant.” Zechariah remembers that God loves us, that God has made a covenant, an agreement with us – a promise and covenant to show us love and mercy and to save us from our enemies.

• Group 1, again: “And the oath he swore to Abraham our father, and to grant us that, rescued from the hand of enemies, without fear we might worship him in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.” Here, Zechariah reminds us of why we are here on this earth – not for ourselves, but to worship the Lord in holiness and righteousness, all the days of our lives.

• Finally, Group 2 again, Zechariah’s song about his newborn son, John: “And you, child, will be called prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God by which the daybreak from on high will visit us to shine on those who sit in darkness and death's shadow, to guide our feet into the path of peace."

John was called to be a prophet, the voice of God crying out in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord.” We, too, are called to be prophets in our day, speaking the Good News of Jesus in a world that is so often marred by darkness and the shadow of death – speaking and enacting God’s love and God’s peace. We are called to give people knowledge of salvation – to teach our children and to set them on the God’s path of righteousness. Like John, we are called to be humble and to recognize our rightful place – God is in charge, not us; we are the followers, not the leaders; the Lord is our captain, who gives the orders; we are called to obey God and to do things God’s way; we’re in 2nd place, not 1st place. Finally, John had to sacrifice – to forego comforts and conveniences in order to serve the Lord; to dedicate time and energy to the work of God, not just his own work; ultimately, to give his life in service to the Lord, for we know that King Herod beheaded him. “He must increase. I must decrease.” (John 3:30, NAB)

What is your name? Did you know that it was not just your parents who named you, but also, God? God has named you from before you were even born. You are no accident. God has a plan and a purpose for your life, if only you will embrace it! Listen to the words of John the Baptist’s prophetic precursor, Isaiah, in today’s first reading: “The Lord called me from birth, from my mother's womb he gave me my name. (Isaiah 49:1, NAB)

As we finish up today, I want to get real practical. And to do so, I want to reenact a tradition of a tribe in South Africa. I’ve invited one of our families to come forward. (Invite family to come forward). I’ve asked them, “Which of your kids here is the most mischievous, the one who gets into the most trouble?” And, of course, they lovingly pointed to… (indicate, jokingly, one of the kids). When one of our kids misbehaves, how do we usually react? What do we usually say to them? (Use some examples: “Behave or else!” “No TV privileges tonight!” “Stopping picking on your little brother/ sister this minute;” “Do your homework NOW!”). In this tribe in South Africa, when one of the members starts to behave badly, they put that member of the tribe in the middle of a circle. (Put the mischievous kid in the middle of a circle, surrounded by his/her family). Does anyone want to guess what they do to that person who is in the middle of the circle? No – they don’t beat or hit the person! No – they don’t start yelling and criticizing the person! They start to name, out loud, all the person’s good qualities and talents – and this can go on for hours, even days, until the person is so saturated in positive affirmations that he or she changes their behavior for the better. Let’s try that here… (Invite the family to take a turn affirming their child) We can do that in our own families, can’t we?

The world gives us all kinds of negative names: Stupid, Lazy, Coward, Sissy, Worthless, Drunk, Liar, Gossip, so on and so on. Don’t believe those negative names that others sometimes dump on us, or that Satan tries to convince us is the real me. God is like that tribe in Africa. God renames us, in a positive way… (Come up with a list of positive names from each letter of the alphabet, if possible… Affable, Bright, Compassionate, Dedicated, Energetic, Faithful, Generous, Honest, Imitator of Christ, Just, Kind, Loyal, Mature, Noble, Obedient, Patient, Quietly Prayerful, Respectful, Sympathetic, Trustworthy, Useful, Vigilant, Wise, eXuberant, Youthful, Zealous).

Live a life worthy of the name that God has given you. Put these names into practice at home with your kids, and in your marriage with your spouse, and at work with your co-workers. You can do it. God is with you. God is gracious. God is good.

A final word: Stick with it, even if you fail or fall back at times. Be patient with yourself, just as God is patient with you. Don’t get discouraged. You see, even John the Baptist sometimes faced doubts. That’s why he sent two of his followers to ask Jesus, “Are you really the one? Are you really the savior?” Even Isaiah got discouraged. That’s why he said, in our first reading today, “I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength.” (Isaiah 49:4a, NAB) We, too, can become discouraged or succumb to doubts.

But listen to the second part of Isaiah’s words: “My reward is with the Lord, my recompense is with my God.” (Isaiah 49:4b, NAB) You see, we are never alone – God is always with us – which is what Christmas is about, and why we have this Christmas in June. God is our strength and our reward and our recompense.

Our gospel today ends with these words about John the Baptist: “The child grew and became strong in spirit.” (Luke 1:80, NAB) God wants us, too, to grow and to be strong in the Spirit. That’s why we celebrate this Christmas in June, so we don’t forget what is really most important in our lives. God has given each of us new names, and he invites us to live faithfully our new names, as sons and daughters of our Father in Heaven. It’s not about us. It’s about God. “He must increase. I must decrease.” (John 3:30, NAB). God bless!