Homily: Epiphany, January 6, 2013


On the Solemnity of Mary, New Year’s Day, I preached about a suggested project for the year, maybe even what you’d call a resolution. Spiritual life is just like everything else in our lives, we have to work on it. You are never standing still in your relationship with God. You’re moving one way or the other, for better or worse. Well, the resolution or project I suggested for the year was to focus on our experience of the Mass. You come every week, it’s the center of our spiritual lives as Catholics. Vatican II called it the “source and summit” of Christian life. Just being here is a big win for your relationship with God.

But since you’re here, and since this is the central point of your spiritual life, it’s worth working on getting the most out of it. It’s good to want to get more out of Mass. I’ll tell you what’s even better, though: wanting to put more into Mass. I’m going to be preaching on this from time to time this year, and the Feast of the Epiphany is a great chance to start.

When the Magi came to see and worship the newborn King of Kings, that alone was worth doing. But they didn’t come empty-handed. I’ll bet everyone can name the gifts they brought: Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. Is this the most important part of their visit? Definitely not. To encounter Christ, to worship him, that’s the most important thing. What they receive is infinitely more than what they bring. But what they bring is still important.

If you picture the Magi kneeling before the manger presenting their gifts, there’s a part of the Mass that corresponds to that. It’s called the Offertory, right in the middle of Mass between the petitions and the Eucharistic Prayer. It’s when we make our offering: taking up a collection, bringing up wine and bread, offering it all to God.

Now by that time we’re probably 35 to 40 minutes into the Mass, you’ve been sitting for awhile, and maybe - just maybe - you’re a little more likely to sort of zone out. Even while you’re singing an offertory hymn, you can do that while being kind of zoned out. So the hymn, instead of a prayer, becomes just sort of filler music, something to pass the time while the ushers take the collection and the priest says whatever prayers he says up there.

But the offertory is actually a critical part of the Mass, and should be a critical part of our praying the Mass. And the key is all about what we are offering.

Let’s learn from the Magi. Why gold, frankincense and myrrh? Because they’re the three items every newborn really needs? I don’t think so. Actually these gifts are highly symbolic, and they match up perfectly with what we should be bringing at the offertory.

The first is gold. Rare and precious. Hard to get. Valuable to sell. For the magi to give any amount of gold must certainly have represented a significant transfer of their wealth. It’s not hard to see this at the Offertory of Mass, as the collection baskets go around. 

Now some people are a little squeamish about this, and I can understand why. The Church is sometimes accused of being basically a highly profitable global shakedown operation based on fear. I saw a graphic of the Pope captioned “money is the root of all evil... so give it to us!” And we learn to watch out for people who use religion as a profitable venture. One insomniac night I was watching in horror as a television preacher went on and on about Hebrew prayer shawls, and how miracles would happen if you prayed with a prayer shawl, and how God would hear so so much more clearly if you prayed with a prayer shawl, and here you can get one for three easy payments... ugh. We’re right to feel disgust and disappointment at that.

But when you make an offering in the collection plate, here’s what I think of. I think of the mornings in about 1985 when Dad was leaving for work, grabbing his keys and a stethoscope to head out the door, and my little sister would burst into tears and throw her arms around his leg and say “Daddy please don’t go!” But he had to go, and he had to be on time, and he had to find a way to pry her off his leg without traumatizing her too much... and he went to work, and earned a paycheck to support his family and when Sunday came a piece of that went into the collection. And that’s what I think of when I deal with parish finances. And that’s why I have no patience for anyone who wants to belittle monetary contributions. What you put into that basket keeps this church running, keeps the boiler on, supports a priest and parish staff, and takes care of people who are poor and need our help. And I hope you feel very, very good about doing that. And when the basket goes around, I hope you experience your offering as what it truly is: an offering to God, to maintain His Church and help His People.

Frankincense. What’s incense for? It’s a sign of worship. And worship is something we must bring to Mass. It’s an attitude, a disposition. In the collection we offer what we have. In worship we offer who we are. That’s even more important. It’s worth remembering often what liturgy is for. Why do we do this? It isn’t to be entertained. It isn’t as a social occasion. It isn’t to check off a box so we can say we’re good church-going folk. Liturgy is for the worship of God and the sanctification of the Church. And worship of God comes first. In a few minutes I’ll say “let us give thanks to the Lord our God” and you’ll say “it is right and just.” Worship is justice. We worship God because God ought to be worshipped, because He is worthy of worship, because we would be sorely wrong to fail to worship Him. So when you’re coming to Mass, bring your frankincense. Come here with the primary purpose of worshipping God. If you spend an hour in prayer with a heart of worship, you will never ever say anything silly like “I didn’t get much out of that.” Gold: what we have. Frankincense: who we are. We praise. We adore. We worship. We spend an hour or so in the direct presence of the author of all goodness, truth, beauty, and love. Ponder what God has done, meditate on his creation, and feel the intensity of his love for you, and lay down your frankincense at every Mass.

The wise men brought Gold for a king, and incense for God, and we do the same. The third gift is more mysterious. Do you know what myrrh is? It’s a burial ointment. Sort of their version of embalming. Gold for a king, incense for God... and now this kind of ominous foreshadowing of death. Think how people would react if you showed up at a baby shower with a coffin or something. But the third gift of the Magi acknowledges that this King and Lord will also lay down his life for others. He will give himself away completely, even unto death. Gold offers what we have in generosity. Frankincense offers who we are in worship. Myrrh offers our share in the Cross of Christ.

Everything in Christian life flows from the Mass, and everything comes back to the Mass. Whatever sufferings you have, big or small, little inconveniences or big disappointments or soul-crushing grief, you lay them at this altar. The collection comes up to build up the church. The bread and wine come up to become the Eucharist. But your lives have to come up too. And not just suffering, but joy and triumph too, all of it. Wrap it all up and lay it on the altar. Because Mass is where ordinary things become divine. What He does with bread and wine He will do with your life. Take this away today if you forget everything else: the most ordinary bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, the real presence of God, and what he does with bread and wine he will do with your life. And your sufferings, offered here, become one with His for the forgiveness of sins and the redemption of the world.

So, yeah, kind of a big deal. The offertory of the Mass. Don’t let it be just killing time while the collection is taken and the altar prepared. It turns out you’ve got a lot to do in those few minutes. Just like those three wise men with their gold, frankincense and myrrh, we offer God what we have, who we are, and our very lives, and all this comes to the altar with bread and wine. And that’s where God takes over and the miracles happen. Every Mass.

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