Sunday before Theophany 2021

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Glory be to Jesus Christ.

This morning's Gospel is the Gospel for the Sunday

before Epiphany, and its message is the same

as yesterday's message of John the Baptist, taken

from St. Matthew's Gospel, which is one of repentance.

You probably noticed that each one of the evangelists

has a particular perspective about the one gospel

message of Jesus Christ. And they have a different

way of beginning their gospels. St. Matthew,

as we heard recently, speaks about the coming

of the Magi to adore the Christ child. Luke tells

us about the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary,

and then the birth of Jesus and the coming of

the shepherds. St. John, presumably the last

of the Gospels, widely believed to be, tells

us about who this Jesus Christ is, the person

of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Logos. the Son

of God made flesh, who appeared and we have received

his glory. The particular perspective of St.

Mark is that he gets right to the message. He

tells us about the preaching of John the Baptist,

and John the Baptist's preaching is the same

message that Jesus will... repeat and emphasize

and bring to perfection when it is his turn,

so to speak, to preach this message of the coming

of the kingdom of God, the new relationship between

God and mankind. To prepare for this, we must

prepare, and the message is consistent. Repent.

And repent means It's not a simple action. Of

course, there are simple actions of repentance

which we experience in our life over particular

sins or things that we say or do. But repentance,

in the root meaning of that, it's a continual

process. It's continuous. It's a call to change

our ways. to change our mind, to change our attitude.

How do we repent and change our attitude? Repentance,

again, is not a single action, but a continuous

one. And it's a message not only of John the

Baptist and Jesus, but basically of all the Old

Testament prophets to prepare. and to repent.

Today we commemorate the prophet Malachi, and

he has his own particular perspective on repentance.

He denounces the religious and social practices

and laxity among the people at that time. He's

particularly... anxious about the behavior of

the priests and their laziness in the performance

of their duties. He even goes so far as to use

the strong and charming expression that if the

priests don't change their ways, they should

have dung rubbed on their faces. I hadn't read

that in a long time. Hopefully our priests nowadays

won't get to that level of laxity. The time of

repentance. I think this is very much consistent

with the secular world at this time. New Year's

resolutions. That's so common we hear about that.

Resolutions. I'm going to quit smoking, stop

drinking, lose weight. Notice on the television

commercials right after the holidays and the

first of the year, the frequency of commercials

about losing weight, Nutrisystem, Noom, Liposine,

the whole gamut of these. And these might be

necessary as they are, but I really think...

that repentance and changing of ways applies

to our life of virtue much more directly. And

I would suggest that for myself and for others,

I'd suggest that we work on patience this year.

Patience is particularly difficult for many of

us, myself included. I had on the wall of my

office, right above the telephone, a framed picture

of a priest sitting on the steps of a church

listening to a little boy, and the caption was,

No problem is too small for your attention. Patience

when you're listening to people. Patience for

all of us. In this time, It's particularly necessary

because of the general malaise we have about

this virus business and the pattern of lifestyle

that we have to embrace nowadays. Even weather

like this adds to that general feeling of malaise,

the darkness, the long nights, short days. And

it can become difficult for us to be patient.

to exercise kindness, not only with strangers

or with people that we go grocery shopping with,

but even most immediately with our own family

members. How often we take our spouse, our children,

our parents, our brothers, sisters, whatever

it might be, take them for granted. Use sharp

words. Don't bother listening to them. Let's

work on that attitude of patience. This, by the

way, is mentioned by St. Paul. It's not in today's

epistle. If you go a few verses earlier, he says,

be patient. He gives this whole string of advice

to his son. the young Bishop Timothy. But that

advice is applicable to all of us as well. He

said, be patient. So we should exercise this

patience, not only for the benefit of other people

that we encounter in our life, but even for our

own spiritual well -being and advancement. I

usually, if I don't quote from the scriptures,

or the church fathers or the saints. I usually

choose those folks. But I came across this past

week a quotation from Mother Teresa. Of course,

nobody can disparage her holiness, but she gives

us some advice about patience. People are often

unreasonable and self -centered. Forgive them

anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you

of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are

honest, people may then cheat you. Be honest

anyway. If you find happiness, people may be

jealous, but share it. with them. Be happy anyway.

The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.

Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have

and even if it is not enough you will have done

your best. Give your best for you see in the

end it is all not between you and other people.

but it is also between you and God. And it was

never meant to be any other way between you and

God and expressing that in your relations with

others. Amen.