Homily delivered by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Alfonso, SJ
28 November 2022
Monday of the First Week of Adven
Mutationes. That’s what we Jesuits call this odd tradition or practice in our seminary. We can only stay in a room for one semester. At the end of the sem, we move out and transfer to another room. It is a training in detachment, even from the roof on one’s head. But more than that, it trains us to be on the go always; we are supposed to be missionaries, and so we are always on the move.
I share this story in anticipation of the very busy month ahead of us all with the start of Advent. For sure, we will be moving around a lot—parties, reunions—and some of us will also be traveling back to our home provinces or to your favorite holiday getaways or back to our country in the case of our OFW kababayans. And as we are seeing as early now, after two and a half years of being cooped up in our homes during the pandemic, many of us are really raring to go. Movement. Whether it’s moving on, moving back or moving forward. That indeed seems to be the spirit of the season. There is surely a lot of movement, of going to and fro, in the Christmas story that slowly unfolds in our liturgy during advent and Christmas. The angel goes to Mary, Mary hurries to Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem so Joseph can be enlisted in the imperial census, etcetera. Even the first readings from the Old testament have had the same refrain these past days: “Come, let us climb the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob that he may instruct us in his ways.” That’s from yesterday’s first reading. But our favorite of course is from Isaiah: “The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shone.” And our Psalm this past week resonates with this theme of moving, walking, going: “Let us go to the House of the Lord.”
But we need to clarify something here. As the great Denzel Washington would say, “do not equate movement with progress.” We may be bustling and hustling no end this season, but that may all be physical exertion which typically leads to exhaustion, then to holiday blues. The movement in our advent scriptural readings is not merely physical, although there is that, but more importantly the movement there is internal, spiritual. It involves the mind and the heart rather than the feet. The Gospel today for example clearly points that out. The centurion asks Jesus to heal his sick servant but he tells Jesus that he doesn’t have to go to his house: “Just say the word and my servant will be healed.” Jesus is moved internally by the centurion’s faith and lifts him up above all the Jews. The advent movement we desire then is internal, involving a mutationes or conversion of our hearts and our minds. Symbolically, in our biblical stories whether in the old or new testament, this simply meant that the movement is either towards the mountain of Zion or Bethlehem. Let me end then with the story of the first Belen which as we know was put up by St Francis of Assisi in Greccio, Italy in 1223. But what inspired Francis to stage this now favorite Christmas tradition? It is said that in his pilgrimage to Israel, our saint felt deeply the presence of the baby Jesus in Bethlehem and so upon his return to Italy, he created the first Belen. Indeed his journey to the home of our Lord moved him to share the image of that home to the whole world. My dear friends, like St Francis then, and our biblical heroes this advent, may all our movements this time of the year lead us back home to Bethlehem, to the baby in the manger. AMEN.
Radyo Katipunan 87.9 FM
Homily delivered by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Alfonso, SJ
28 November 2022
Monday of the First Week of Adven
Mutationes. That’s what we Jesuits call this odd tradition or practice in our seminary. We can only stay in a room for one semester. At the end of the sem, we move out and transfer to another room. It is a training in detachment, even from the roof on one’s head. But more than that, it trains us to be on the go always; we are supposed to be missionaries, and so we are always on the move.
I share this story in anticipation of the very busy month ahead of us all with the start of Advent. For sure, we will be moving around a lot—parties, reunions—and some of us will also be traveling back to our home provinces or to your favorite holiday getaways or back to our country in the case of our OFW kababayans. And as we are seeing as early now, after two and a half years of being cooped up in our homes during the pandemic, many of us are really raring to go. Movement. Whether it’s moving on, moving back or moving forward. That indeed seems to be the spirit of the season. There is surely a lot of movement, of going to and fro, in the Christmas story that slowly unfolds in our liturgy during advent and Christmas. The angel goes to Mary, Mary hurries to Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem so Joseph can be enlisted in the imperial census, etcetera. Even the first readings from the Old testament have had the same refrain these past days: “Come, let us climb the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob that he may instruct us in his ways.” That’s from yesterday’s first reading. But our favorite of course is from Isaiah: “The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shone.” And our Psalm this past week resonates with this theme of moving, walking, going: “Let us go to the House of the Lord.”
But we need to clarify something here. As the great Denzel Washington would say, “do not equate movement with progress.” We may be bustling and hustling no end this season, but that may all be physical exertion which typically leads to exhaustion, then to holiday blues. The movement in our advent scriptural readings is not merely physical, although there is that, but more importantly the movement there is internal, spiritual. It involves the mind and the heart rather than the feet. The Gospel today for example clearly points that out. The centurion asks Jesus to heal his sick servant but he tells Jesus that he doesn’t have to go to his house: “Just say the word and my servant will be healed.” Jesus is moved internally by the centurion’s faith and lifts him up above all the Jews. The advent movement we desire then is internal, involving a mutationes or conversion of our hearts and our minds. Symbolically, in our biblical stories whether in the old or new testament, this simply meant that the movement is either towards the mountain of Zion or Bethlehem. Let me end then with the story of the first Belen which as we know was put up by St Francis of Assisi in Greccio, Italy in 1223. But what inspired Francis to stage this now favorite Christmas tradition? It is said that in his pilgrimage to Israel, our saint felt deeply the presence of the baby Jesus in Bethlehem and so upon his return to Italy, he created the first Belen. Indeed his journey to the home of our Lord moved him to share the image of that home to the whole world. My dear friends, like St Francis then, and our biblical heroes this advent, may all our movements this time of the year lead us back home to Bethlehem, to the baby in the manger. AMEN.
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