Jesus, Loser and King of Losers

Jesus loses. He empties himself to become a man. He preaches that we must lose our pride, our power, our treasures, and our very selves. And then he loses even what he had as a man. His public preaching and his passion are the same lesson told two different ways. Jesus loses out of love. Loss is the language of love, and he invites us to love —and therefore lose— too. This is the kind of king he is, and the kind of kingdom he is launching.

A Visitation vs. A Staying

The 9am Mass had a pretty bad first draft of this homily, so I rewrote it entirely for the evening Mass. I think most people could probably follow it the second time. It compares and contrasts the visitation that God had been promising Israel (Mal 3:1, Luke 1:68 & 78, Luke 19:44) and which will come again (2 Thes 2:1-2) with what Jesus is doing with Zacchaeus and with us after the Ascension.