God can do so much more with your life then you can do with it…..”Our Lord shall come with power; he will enlighten the eyes of his servants”

Today the Universal Church honors St Francis Xavier, a founding member of the Jesuit Order and missionary to Asia….Francis Xavier met Ignatius Loyola at the University of Paris…..Francis Xavier came from a noble Spanish family as did Ignatius Loyola, he was a great athlete and a scholar…..He had a wonderful life of wealth, power and prestige in front of him…..Instead he chose a different path…..”He emptied himself, taking the form of a slave…….He humbled himself becoming obedient to death…….Because of this, God greatly exalted him”……….Francis Xavier encounter the living God and this encountered changed the course of his life….Any person who encounters Truth incarnate is never the same…..And because of this encounter the world was not the same…St Francis Xavier brought the Catholic faith to India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia & Japan….His impact in the Christian world is second only to St Paul as far as the miles he traveled and the souls he converted to Christ……….All because of his encounter with the Carpenter from Nazareth….What makes the son of a noble family give-up everything the world has to offer?…The answer was clear to Francis Xavier - Such a person does not give up such a life for a myth or lie

“A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom”

As Catholics it’s so important to familiarize ourselves with the lives of the saints….The saints were real people who did incredible things….What was their secret?…They had an authentic encounter with Christ…Far too many people view Jesus as just a word…He was just some "guy" who lived 2000 years ago to many…But if you step back and think about how millions upon millions of people have changed their lives because of Jesus Christ - Its simply hard to grasp….Jesus said he was the Truth…And each of us deeply desires to live a life of Truth - But we are afraid…...When someone speaks the Truth, something resonates deep within the human heart

"He shall rescue the poor when he cries out, and the afflicted when he has no one to help him. He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor; the lives of the poor he shall save."

Before we can be filled with God, we must empty ourself…This is what the saints did and do….As a 54 year old man I have seen many people come and go in my life…I always marvel at how I knew a person in one chapter of my life and now that same person changes….Marriage is one of those “encounters” with Truth…Marriage changes a man…He becomes selfless…He lives for his wife and children…Marriage is a Sacrament and God helps a man to make this change…I have seen this many times in my life…A person I knew “changed” once he got married…..Similarly, if we take our Catholic faith seriously and allow the grace of the Sacraments, daily prayer and fasting to take hold of our life, we too will change….St Paul puts it this way….”Yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me”…..This kind of “change” is very real and is available to us all…..We see this example in the lives of the saints but also in many Catholic couples who live their marriage Sacramentally…This is the road to heaven…”To die to ourself”…Far too many people have a misconception of what it means to “go to heaven”…..What do you mean Joe?…….The road to heaven is a constant call to die to ourself…..But I believe in Jesus Joe, isn’t that enough?…..Of course we must believe in Jesus, but if we do not try to imitate the life of Christ and live what he taught - Then “Jesus” is simple just “a guy” or a word that gets “thrown around” a lot……The saints show us this lived example in real time…And as a result, God uses them…God can use us too if we let him.

On that day, The root of Jesse, set up as a signal for the nations, The Gentiles shall seek out, for his dwelling shall be glorious.

St Francis Xavier shook the foundations of the world because he fully embraced the will of God and emptied himself, allowing the Holy Spirit to empower him….If he did not say “Yes” to the Lord, he would have been just another “rich kid” who went to a good college and made money when he got out - No different then today…Instead, Francis Xavier chose a different path and countless lives were changed because of his choice - His YES….This “path” is available to each of us….When you have been blessed with an education and come from a good family, like St Francis Xavier, its very easy to choose the path laid out for you - The path we all have been indoctrinated to take by our society….However, if we really want to make a difference…And deep down everyone wants to make an impact…Then we must “Let-go” and “Let God”…This kind of choice begins with an authentic encounter with the living God…Because God is real…People do not give up wonderful lives for a myth or a lie….So why settle for second best?…..God can do so much more with your life then you can do with it…..”Our Lord shall come with power; he will enlighten the eyes of his servants”

“I rejoiced because they said to me, "We will go up to the house of the LORD."

Today at Holy Mass we hear in the first reading from the Prophet Isaiah…..”In days to come, The mountain of the LORD's house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills. All nations shall stream toward it”….Isaiah is giving his people and us as well something to hope for….There is something better on the horizon…..And only Jesus can deliver it….All of us are flawed and everything we touch as human beings are consequently flawed as well……People and governments since the beginning of time try to create “heaven on earth” in so many different ways……All of those efforts ultimately fail….Christ is the “missing piece” that our humanity requires…All people whether they realize it or not are incomplete…Until we realize this and accept the one who only can complete us…We will be like a dog chasing its tail…Whether on Central Park South in Manhattan, in a hut in Tanzania or in housing projects on the Southside of Chicago…..The human race was made by God and when God is rejected, something breaks within us….This is reality….And this reality is visible to all…..The only thing that stands in our way of “filling in the missing piece” is our pride

“Many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven"

All people need hope…Something to look forward too…Something to strive for…Once a person loses that hope - They are finished…..As we get older we realize all the “things” of this earth do not fully satisfy…..Whether it was career advancement, academic achievement or even in the people we love…..Nothing and no one is perfect…That reality should tell us something…We were created for “something” else……….Life has a way of humbling people…And its when we embrace humility….Realize and accept our limitations…And acknowledge our weakness…Its than that a “door” opens and God awaits on the other side of that door…..Billy McGill was born poor in Liverpool England…He left home at 16 to be a Longshoreman never to return to his native country again…..I got to know Billy where I would attend daily Mass a number of years ago in Lyndhurst New Jersey…Billy was a “rough guy”…He lost his family…He lost his house…And when I met him after digging himself out of the hole he created…Starting all over…He found his Catholic faith and was a daily communicant at the Church I attended…..Look at what it took for Billy to get where God could work with him?……In many ways and for many people, this is what it takes…..Rock Bottom!……God allows us to pursue “everything” we "think" we want and need….And when we get it…We find that it does not fully satisfy…I would go to Giant Football games with Billy before he died…..As an older guy, he was very generous and if you met him you would never know the life he once led……Billy eventually got cancer and my wife and I would visit him in the hospital shortly before he passed away…He told me as he was lying in his bed he could hear the man in the bed next to him crying out as he was about to die…Billy told me with tears in his eyes he prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet for the man silently and was assured that Christ took mercy on his soul…Billy lived a rough life and was not dealt the best hand…He made big mistakes and when he “hit rock bottom” he found God and in finding God he found peace…..I think of Billy often and I have peace when I think about him knowing Jesus took care of him….Billy was a Longshoreman and construction worker…And Jesus was a Carpenter….Jesus always takes care of his own!

“Come and save us, LORD our God; Let your face shine upon us, that we may be saved”

The Prophet Isaiah reminds us today at Mass….”They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again”…..The hope of the human race is not found in “things”…Its only found in God…..Mankind still has not “bought in”….Like a dog chasing its tail….Chasing after one thing after the next….When I first got married Billy would stop over my house and give me advice like he was my father…..One day I offered him a Guinness beer…..Billy used to drink a lot but not any more…He kindly turned the beer down, looked at me as he smiled and said…”In every bottle of Guinness beer Joe there is a baby”…Once again Billy was right….My wife and I had five children in ten years of marriage…….The Longshoreman from Liverpool England “figured it out”….With a smile on his face and his Divine Mercy Chaplet in his hand…He figured it out!

“I rejoiced because they said to me, "We will go up to the house of the LORD."

The King of Kings was born in a barn….Are we willing to find him there?……In the world of the forgotten……Born in a barn, Christ came into the world

Today Advent begins in the Universal Church….A time to prepare for the birth of Jesus Christ…Advent is like a “mini” Lent…A time to increase our prayers and fasting to focus our mind and heart towards Christ's birth….During this time I often spend some time sitting before a Nativity scene after daily Mass….The statue of the Child Jesus is not in the manger yet but Joseph and Mary are there…Siting in a barn full of animals…..During the time I spend kneeing before the Nativity…I think just how hard is was for Joseph and Mary…They were fully human…They had so much faith and trust but that did not take away what they had to endure and what they were up against….Then here comes baby Jesus, the King of Kings…Born poor and born for the entire world……The Nativity scene, set up in Catholic Churches around the world during Advent is in a sense a mirror image of what our hearts should look like before the birth of the Christ-Child on Christmas Day - Humble……When we acknowledge out own “poverty” before God - God “raises us up” and fills us with Himself

“Your ways, O LORD, make known to me; teach me your paths, Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior, and for you I wait all the day”

Its hard for me sometimes to focus on the true spirit of Christmas in the New York Metropolitan Area…So much “flash” and “bling”…..Before I was married I would spend the three weeks before Christmas in India serving the poor with Mother Teresa’s sisters….There was no “flash” and “bling” there….When I would fly out of JFK airport in New York and land in Kolkata it was like flying back into time….Life was “stripped down”…..I lived, ate and saw a side of life that is so different from what I was used to in New York….Coming from the “flash” and “bling” of a New York Christmas and landing into a third world city always made me reflect…It helped me to “enter into” Advent…To prepare my heart for the birth of the Savior of the World…………In every city there is what is commonly referred to as an “under-belly”, where a segment of society lives what is invisible to the rest of “polite society”…..Even where we live in New York / New Jersey….You do not have to go too far to find this “under-belly”…....This was the segment of the world Jesus entered…...Born in a barn - The first people to find him were shepherds in fields, the lowest rung of society…..Many times its in this “under-belly” of cities around the world where the Catholic faith is strongest……On Wednesday’s in Lower Manhattan the Missionaries of Charity would give out food to shut-ins living in boarding houses above storefronts in Chinatown…I have gone with them there a number of times….My eyes could not believe how people in my city, one of the richest cities in the world lived - Living in closets with next to nothing - I remember this one man who would only open his door a crack to receive the food the Sisters gave to him…He was clearly mentally handicapped and all alone in this world…This is the world Mary and Joseph entered when they gave birth to the King of Kings….The world of the forgotten……Born in a barn, Christ came into the world for us……I have learned that we do not have to fly halfway around the world to “find the Christ child” as I would do before I was married…Jesus can be found broken and alone right on the street you live on!….In order to find him we must “enter into” Christ’s poverty making our hearts humble, recognizing our own poverty, which we “mask” with “flash” and “bling”…..It’s there we will encounter something we never knew existed

“Good and upright is the LORD; thus he shows sinners the way. He guides the humble to justice, and teaches the humble his way”

So the question today is…How will you make this Advent special?…How will you prepare your heart for the birth of the King of Kings?…..”Then the LORD said: Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD; the LORD will pass by. There was a strong and violent wind rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the LORD—but the LORD was not in the wind; after the wind, an earthquake—but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, fire—but the LORD was not in the fire; after the fire, a light silent sound”…….Christ is found in the “under-belly” of our heart….Under our “mask”…..In the “flash” and “bling” of what we Americans know to be Christmas we will not find him….The King of Kings was born in a barn….Are we willing to find him there?……In the world of the forgotten……Born in a barn, Christ came into the worldrist came into the world