The Seventh Day in the Octave of Christmas

Lectionary: 204

Children, it is the last hour;

and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming,

so now many antichrists have appeared.

Thus we know this is the last hour.

When I came to, the first thing I asked, "Is this really happening?"

The EMT assured me it was really happening. It took me a minute to remember I had been bicycling on a country road, several miles from home; and a few more minutes to realize I was lying on my back in an ambulance.

It was not exactly an out-of-body experience but I was glad to find myself back in my body, despite a host of injuries yet to be determined.

Several months later a cop told me he had been there at the crash site. As he watched the helicopter take off, another rescue worker said, "He'll never make it. A guy gets hit by a truck going sixty miles an hour. He'll have a lot of internal bleeding. He's a dead man."

Fortunately, at the time, nobody told me that. I just knew my day had been seriously interrupted and it might be awhile before I got back to work.

You never know when that "last hour" might arrive.

On this last day of the year, Saint John reminds us of time and its passage. We are, after all, creatures of time. We have a presentiment of eternity. There ought to be such a thing but we can't really imagine it. All of our scientific research and accumulated knowledge tell us only of time. There is past, present and future time; but no hint of eternity in our material world. And yet it ought to be there.

Our faith tells us that Jesus has come from eternity and the Eternal Father, to lead us into Eternal Truth. A "man like us in all things but sin," he too was subject to time, an Earthling made of this world's mud. His first century world was much smaller than mine. I've been to Australia; he never heard of the place. I've seen pictures of the Earth from outer space; he would have assumed the Earth is flat. Like me, he was a man of his time. 

But there was that eternal aura about him. To meet Jesus, to experience in his presence a healing of body, mind, and spirit, was to know in an instant of time the height, width, and depth of eternity. There was in his company an assurance that "We are bound for glory," and it surpasses anything this world can offer or imagine.

We have tasted eternity and cannot help but want another, deeper draught of it. Saint John must then step in and warn us, "...many antichrists have appeared." They promise what you crave to know. They guarantee shortcuts to satisfaction, fulfillment and endless bliss. Do not follow them!

There is only one Christ. You'll have no doubt when he returns; his glory will sweep like the dawn from one end of the sky to the other, in the twinkling of an eye. Until then, do not believe in those who make such claims. Your faith will recognize what your eyes cannot see, what your mind cannot comprehend.

A year ends; we begin another. We are creatures of time with faith in eternity. We'll know it when we see. In the meanwhile, we wait and keep faith.

The Sixth Day in the Octave of Christmas

Lectionary: 203

Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, sensual lust, enticement for the eyes, and a pretentious life, is not from the Father but is from the world. Yet the world and its enticement are passing away. But whoever does the will of God remains forever.

We live in this world, but are not part of this world. Like Jesus we love the world, but not the things of this world. Or, to put it another way, we love the world as Jesus loved the world, and not on its terms.

A wise parent can understand that. Foolish children want parental love and try to tell the parent how they should be loved. They have an endless list of demands; only some are reasonable; many are impractical, impossible, or dangerous. And, often, if they get what they demanded they have already forgotten that they ever wanted it.

The world is like that. Stumbling about blindly, it reels from need to desire to fear and greed. What is universally known today is forgotten tomorrow, and who even remembers it? 

Science was supposed to end this endless muddle. It would tell us the facts, what was real, essential, and vital. But, the fact-driven American diet pursues one fad after another, spurred on by the latest scientific research, which reverses its doctrines almost as quickly as they're infallibly declared.

I know a very intelligent man, a lawyer, who cites "scientific research" to prove there is an everlasting war between "Caucasian" and "Negro" people. The two "races" are instinctively opposed to one another. "It's a fact!" he says, as if race, Caucasian and Negro have been scientifically isolated and defined.

For all that is in the world,

sensual lust, enticement for the eyes, and a pretentious life,

is not from the Father but is from the world.

I do not disparage the scientific endeavor but I see how "Science" is sometimes proposed as an alternative to faith. The word is invoked like a solemn oath: "Science says...." And the discipline is used by some as a comprehensive philosophy; what cannot be scientifically studied, measured, and comprehended does not exist. Where Christians believe and trust in God for their Wisdom and Counsel, non-believers claim to know, and must put their faith in increasingly unreliable facts. Where Christians use trusted skills and knowledge, the fool claims mastery of all knowledge. Such nonsense is soon revealed as sensual lust, enticement for the eyes, and pretentious.

... the world and its enticement are passing away.But whoever does the will of God remains forever.

The eleventh step of Alcoholics Anonymous says it well enough: We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
Beginning each day in prayer, ending each day with gratitude, we ask the Lord to tune our desires to God's desire, and direct our inclinations to that which God deems desirable. We tried it our way. It didn't work. We obeyed our own impulses and proved to the world what fools we could be. We turned to God and found wisdom. We turned to Jesus and heard his invitation, "Come follow me." We set our sails by the Spirit and found smooth sailing in turbulent seas. 

The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

Lectionary: 17

When the magi had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you.

Read today's gospel again and notice that the phrase,"the child and his mother" appears four times. They are, for Saints Matthew and Joseph and -- apparently -- God, inseparable. 

I have sometimes noticed that I thought I knew someone until I met his family. I worked, studied, prayed and played with my seminary classmates for many years but meeting their families was like a revelation. I have had a similar experience at the funerals of friars, when their families joined us in prayer. Suddenly, the lights went on! The mannerisms, expressions, and opinions of the friar's family explained much about the friar.

Joseph's relationship with Mary began with the troubling discovery that she was pregnant, followed by an angel's message,

Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

After that, Joseph's life was consecrated to "the child and his mother." That was his calling and the meaning of his life. His faith was fidelity to his duty to them; his devotion, their welfare; and his mission, their protection. "The child and his mother" were like a sacred icon Joseph carried from Bethlehem to Egypt to Israel to Nazareth in Galilee.

Saint Joseph was not challenged by today's existential questions, "Who am I and where do I belong?" The "just man" knew himself as a Jew in the tradition of Abraham, Moses, and David. The midnight angel clarified his relationship with "Mary, your wife." Their relationship was his calling.

Often, when I have met people safely outside the purview of identity politics, they have been introduced as "my daughter" or "my mother." The name of this particular person didn't seem important at the time. At the front door of the church or in the cafeteria line, the relationship satisfied my curiosity.

Their names could vary, depending on who wanted to know. The government knows one name; the family, another; a friend, a third. Names and nicknames are assigned by relationship, but the relationship tells me who they are.

Young people are often encouraged to ask, "Who am I?" but they are told, "You should do this outside of your relationships to family, friends, class, race, or career." "Who are you really?" as if that identity is floating in an ethereal, mystical world and should be discovered by alchemy. Perhaps you can find it with art! Try drawing, poetry, or music. If those things fail, try yoga, sex, or drugs.

Sanity is with the woman who tells me, "This is my granddaughter!" and the young woman who allows herself to be introduced with that sobriquet. If there is time and opportunity I will be glad to know her name.

We live in a complex world and most of us are known in many different settings, with different responsibilities, privileges, and expectations. Very often we must choose which relationships to honor and explore, and which to disown or shun. Society eagerly, carelessly assigns identities by race, politics, religion, education, wealth, and gender. Some identities are coveted and privileged; others, despised. Some are optional; others are forced upon us. Some, like white, black, gay, and straight mean different things to different folks, and have only a vague connection to our genetic structures.

Christians find our identity through Baptism. Espoused by the Lord, all our relationships begin with Christ. In that sacrament we hear the Angel's word, "Do not be afraid to take Mary into your home." She is the Church, our mother and first family.

On this Feast of the Holy Family we thank God for the identities, names, relationships, and places the Lord has assigned to us. We pray that we will be found worthy of these honors as the Holy Spirit guides us in this world.

Feast of the Holy Innocents, martyrs

Lectionary: 698​

Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt,

and stay there until I tell you.

Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him."

Since the early 1970's it has been easy to associate this dark feast with abortion in the United States and around the world. There are many shrines and memorials in Catholic institutions throughout the country dedicated to the innocents. We must protest this horror at every turn; it is a fatal cancer upon many nations.

But the murder of children has metastasized and in the past few years we have watched in horror as children and their teachers were slain in elementary schools and high schools. They are humans sacrificed for the fictitious "second amendment rights" of white men. These young scholars too are "holy innocents," along with those murdered in shopping malls, cinemas and concerts. 

Christmas and the Birth of Jesus are often regarded as mythological events in a mystical world that never actually existed. The story might begin with "Once upon a time" or "In a galaxy far, far away." The coming of the Word made Flesh could be dismissed as pleasant pap for children but there is nothing mythologically pleasing about Matthew 2:16-18. The story is at once a horror too familiar and too unspeakable. Children should not have to learn of it; adults should not have to talk about it.

Where Saint Luke reassures us with a pastoral scene of shepherds watching their flocks by night, Saint Matthew shocks us with a brutal reminder of the desperate, savage cruelty of our world. This is no place for children. In this world some people do unspeakably cruel actions for no other reason than they can. King Herod knew nothing of these children, their mothers, fathers or families; nor did he care. But, like that of children who die by abortion and the toddlers in kindergarten, their blood cried to heaven for revenge.

However, because we believe in the word of God, the Church invests the story of Holy Innocents with the promise that justice and mercy will embrace.​ Though they are too young to understand much of anything, we place on their small heads the crown of martyrdom. They are frolicking lambs protected and closely watched by our Good Shepherd. No harm can touch them; no threat come near them.

King Herod will die but his evil will persist; in God's time it will track down and destroy the Lamb of God. From all eternity the Father has known our world is no safe place for the Innocent. And yet he sent us his son. 

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

Today, as we see racism in the United States oppressing minorities within our borders and opposing refugees near our borders, we recognize Herod's legacy. He is that rough beast slouching toward Bethlehem​. He cannot be stopped by war or peace, by education or enlightenment, by prosperity or austerity; only Christians willing to pay the full price as Jesus paid, can stop him. 

Feast of Saint John, Apostle and evangelist

Lectionary: 697

They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter

and arrived at the tomb first;

he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.

When Simon Peter arrived after him,

he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,

and the cloth that had covered his head,

not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.

Then the other disciple also went in,

the one who had arrived at the tomb first,

and he saw and believed.

Amid the wonder of Jesus' resurrection and the disciples' race to the empty tomb, there may be a bit of humor: "the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first."

He was also the one who "saw and believed."

We could not say of either disciple, "he understood." The one who arrived first "got it" but could not say what he had. He understood enough not to go in first.

"I'll let my superior do that!' he might have said, as I often do when I meet a situation bigger than me. "That's beyond my pay grade."

And Peter did go in first, with "the other disciple" trailing behind.

That unnamed disciple is you and me. We call him "John" but he is a literary device the Evangelist uses to place you and me within the gospel, mystified, aware, devout and privileged. We don't understand and don't pretend to understand what has happened here on Easter Sunday or Christmas Day. 

I see a bit of humor because it falls to Peter to try to explain what they found when they arrived at the tomb. They didn't find anything! Now what's that supposed to mean? The tomb was open; the body was gone; the burial cloths were rolled up in a separate place. Does that mean something?

John knew what it meant, as you and i understand. The Lord has been raised from the dead!

But what does that mean?

It means -- to use the phrase of the Irish poet Yeats -- "a terrible beauty is born." Our lives will never be the same. The world must come to terms with this in all its dimensions: religious, political, economic, social and so forth. This incident must saturate and illuminate every facet of human, animal, vegetable, and mineral life. The universe must know about it.

John knew that, though he could not explain it.

We know it, though there are so many ways in which we'd rather not.

Eventually, understanding and clarity will come. We'll never grasp the "fact" of his resurrection entirely. It is beyond comprehension. But we'll allow this Good News to change us day by day, and through us to change our world. This enlightenment will penetrate the dark places in my reluctant, suspicious heart even as it overcomes the fears, resistance, and refusals of the nations. The resurrection of Jesus, like the light of a star, is not seen instantaneously throughout the universe. It arrives in time and changes everything in God's time.

We -- the privileged, the blessed -- see and believe what we cannot yet understand.

Feast of Saint Stephen, first martyr

Lectionary: 696

When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say.
You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.





I should have read Luke Timothy Johnson's Prophetic Jesus, Prophetic Church more than once. He opened new avenues of thought in my mind and prayer in my heart. I think more of the Holy Spirit's action in our Church and my life.
Dr. Johnson shows how Saint Luke highlights the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus and the life of the Church. The two books -- the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles -- were meant to be read together. As the Spirit impelled Jesus on his way to Jerusalem, it drove the disciples from Jerusalem into the whole world. It's unfortunate they are grouped separately in our New Testament.
In fact, the Holy Spirit is manifest on every page of the Old and New Testaments, if we are willing to feel that Presence.
In today's gospel Jesus reassures his disciples that, when they come for you, the Spirit will be with you.
The birth of the early church was not a welcome event, neither in Jerusalem nor in Rome. The exuberant joy of Jesus' disciples met serious resistance and sobering hostility as soon as they arrived to announce the Good News. The Spirit assured them their message was needed. The world is dying without the Word of God. Wars, disease, famine, and pestilence plague the nations because they do not know God.
And because they will not listen.
Just look at what happened to Christmas. At its core is the story of an infant born in poverty, and a man who will die by public execution. Christians celebrate it as a wonderful story of God's mercy but it somehow became an orgy of consumption and forced merriment -- with little reference to God, much less The Burning Babe.
In response the Church introduced the feast of Saint Stephen. Let us temper our joy with a sobering story of martyrdom. Rather than discarding the whole Yuletide, as some denominations did, let us consider what happened to Stephen.
His joy is palpable and irrepressible. He is on a roll, a gambler who can't lose, a tennis player firing aces, a basketball player hitting nothing but net. He has given himself to the Holy Spirit and the Spirit speaks through him. Cursing, beating and bruising stones cannot distract him. Even as he is dying he keeps his eyes fixed on the Lord and shouts to everyone,

"Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."

This "protomartyr" follows the footprints of Jesus and demonstrates the power of the Holy Spirit for every Christian who would set out on the Way.  

The Nativity of the Lord: 2019

Mass During the Day Lectionary: 16

And the Word became flesh

and made his dwelling among us,

and we saw his glory,

the glory as of the Father's only Son,

full of grace and truth.

In the past few years the news media have been awash in "alternate facts" and we have come to realize facts are not what they used to be. They were supposed to be snippets of truth, small, hard pieces of reality. They were discovered, identified, and isolated by science; they were truths not revealed by God. They could be used to build hypotheses which, after sufficient testing and much experience, could be accepted as useful theories.
A theory was useful if it successfully explained what happened and predicted what would happen. When I open my hand the pen falls to the floor. I know why it happened: masses curve space and objects moving through space collide with each other. I predicted it; it happened; the theory of gravity is both reliable and useful. I can assume it's true. 

I use these theories and facts all the time, without much reference to God. I turn the ignition key and the engine starts. I didn't invoke God to make it work; it happened because the science is reliable and true. 

But in the twentieth century scientists discovered facts that proved contrary theories. Is light a particle or a ray? It can't be both but it acts like both, with no theory except "relativity" to explain it.
Facts are really man-made inventions; the word itself comes from the Latin facere, meaning "to make." As in manufacture and facsimile.  Facts are components of theories which help explain reality, but theories can become rickety as facts accumulate. When enough fail to fit the prevailing theory, the theory collapses. It must be replaced by another which will successfully explain what did happen and predict what will happen. 

Learning that facts are "man made" leads to certain inevitable questions: Who are the scientists? Who sponsored the research? What questions did they ask? What answers did they expect? Why did they ask that question? What biases did they assume? Why do their new facts matter?

More importantly, with the advent of "alternative facts", we realize that All the facts in the world don't add up to the Truth. Sometimes they can be used to contradict the truth, as when we tell "white lies" which are ostensibly true but intentionally misleading. Losing faith in facts and those who create them, some people doubt there is any truth. Perhaps truth is only one person's opinion, contradicted by the opinions of other people. Perhaps, in the absence of facts, there is only power, and those who survive are the most powerful.

On Christmas Day Christians celebrate the Truth made Flesh who lives among us. He is not a fact though his birth, death, and impact are historical facts. He is the Word of God who abides forever, a word pronounced in many languages and defined in none; a Word which governs the Church without being governed by the Church.

On Christmas Day, as we again recite the Nicene Creed, Christians declare our faith in "the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth." Historically we know that Gospel Truth finds both welcome and rejection. It is popular and despised. The Gospel can build civilizations, cultures, and societies as people embrace the Truth; and when they stray into deception, the Gospel abandons them to their fate. They are left to cry Lord, Lord in the night, outside the City walls.

Today, we celebrate the Birth of the Savior who is Christ the Lord and we must admit that facts do not save us. We can bludgeon our opponents with facts and they'll laugh at us. Or we can live the truth in love, respectfully and with God's own patience, and watch as Salvation History unfolds before us. We cannot control the outcome; clearly no mortal controls our political, economic morass.

Rather, we praise God that our Savior is born, and our eyes have seen the glory of his coming.

Tuesday in the Fourth Week of Advent

Mass in the Morning Lectionary: 200

'It was I who took you from the pasture

and from the care of the flock

to be commander of my people Israel.

I have been with you wherever you went,

and I have destroyed all your enemies before you....

In today's first reading, the Prophet Nathan conveys God's word to David. The Lord reminds the shepherd king of his past deeds, "It was I who took you from the flock!" Just in case, you may have forgotten that you are not a self-made man. You were, in fact, nobody; the last and least of your brothers. With that reminder I will tell you where we go from here, "And I will make you famous like the great ones of the earth...."

Having attained a minor greatness, the king of a small kingdom when the nearest great nations -- Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia -- were suffering internal political chaos -- David wondered how he might perpetuate himself. What better way than to build a massive stone temple? It would be known as "David's Temple." It made eminent sense because David was already enjoying palatial splendor while the Ark of the Covenant rested in a goatskin tent. How fair is that?

Through Nathan the Prophet, the Lord scotched the idea. "Have I ever complained about my tent?" and, "I will build a house for you to last forever!"

So the King amassed building materials for a temple and his son erected the building that would be known as "Solomon's Temple." David was content with the promise.

Christians recognize the fulfillment of that promise in the Birth of Jesus. He assumed the title "Son of David" in accordance with the Angel's word to Mary:

the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,

and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,

and of his Kingdom there will be no end."

David was content to govern his kingdom and write poetry, including Psalm 127, "Unless the Lord build the house, the labor in vain who build it."

Salvation History teaches us that our own ambitious projects must fail unless they are inspired by God from the start. Nothing we build can last forever. But the Word of the Lord lasts forever and, as we share the Word with our children, neighbors, friends, and strangers our own names are invested in the story of Salvation. The Lord will remember our names as he remembered Lazarus, and he will call us to life in his time, on That Day. He will neither remember nor resurrect the houses we built or the companies we created. 

In the meanwhile, we pray that we might know what to do to build his kingdom. And we pray that we'll know that voice when he calls us. Having heard the familiar sound of his voice in our daily worship, we'll come leaping out of graves and urns to greet the Lord.

Monday of the Fourth Week of Advent

Lectionary: 199​

Lo, I will send you

Elijah, the prophet,

Before the day of the LORD comes,

the great and terrible day,

To turn the hearts of the fathers to their children,

and the hearts of the children to their fathers,

Lest I come and strike

the land with doom.

Two dinosaurs are standing together, looking out to sea. Noah's ark can be seen in the distance. One dinosaur says to the other, "Was that today?"

"Timing is everything." they say. Human beings, unlike other creatures, are deeply aware of time. Where other animals act instinctively by the season, the human being must study times and seasons to decide what to do and when to do it. Many centuries went into the formation of an accurate calendar to help farmers determine when to plant which seed. The solar calendar proved to be more useful despite the religious preference for the lunar.

Our annual celebration of Christmas reminds people of spiritual opportunities, and the danger of ignoring them. Our Catholic tradition, for instance, encourages us to "go to confession" sometime between Ash Wednesday and Pentecost. You might not go to hell if you miss it; but, like the dinosaurs, you might regret it nonetheless. Advent is also a penitential season, an opportunity to consider our willingness to greet a "Savior." Occasionally we should ask, "Do I need a savior?" and, "From what must I be saved?"

I'm sure there are some who have it made in the shade and habitually ignore the opportunity. They may suffer vague memories of fire-breathing teachers and preachers who threatened children but they have discarded all that like yesterday's fashions.

But some of us look at the present crises -- there are many -- and despair of a technological, social, political, or religious fix. There aren't enough silver bullets. Despite the promises of pretentious politicians, snake oil salesmen, and telegenic preachers, we cannot save ourselves. We have lost our wars on poverty, drugs, and suicide. There are no more formulas, programs, or new ideas. Even if we knew what to do we could not agree on the timing.

Christmas reminds us to look to God our Savior. When we have despaired of saving ourselves and turned to the Lord, the Holy Spirit, that effervescent grace, will tell us what to do next.

Fourth Sunday of Advent

Lectionary: 10​

He had no relations with her until she bore a son, and he named him Jesus.

Nothing is more extraordinary than the birth of a baby. Nothing is more ordinary than the birth of a baby. It happens all the time, in good times and bad, when convenient and inconvenient, when expected and unexpected, welcome and unwelcome.

Where Saint Luke speaks of the Messiah's birth in a manger -- his mother's "firstborn son!" -- and glory-singing choirs of angels appearing in the heavens to scare the bejesus out of the shepherds, Saint Matthew simply says, "she bore a son." 

At that moment, the Evangelist seems more interested in Joseph's faithful obedience. He listened to the angel, set aside his hesitation, welcomed her into his home, and named the child as the angel had directed him.

Also, "he had no relations with her," though the angel had said nothing about that. The remark concerns the miraculous conception of the child, not their intimate life behind closed doors. (The ancients didn't need to sexualize every important relationship. It's just not that important.)

Both Saints Matthew and Luke, in their stories about Jesus' conception and birth, show how those who hear the word of God must keep it. That is, they must act according to God's specific directions even when there are no particular moral issues.

People often assess their standing before God as, "I've done nothing wrong." They observe the laws of the land and their particular denomination or religion. Their behavior on most occasions is civil. They might go further, like the Pharisee in the temple, to enumerate their virtues. But that happens, for the most part, only when they feel challenged by a religious authority. More often, they make a point of not wearing their religion on their sleeves.

Had Mary and Joseph acted like that, we would not be saved. Had the Apostles played it safe, avoiding controversy and disagreement, we would know nothing of Jesus. We might celebrate a Winter Holiday with festive lights, gift giving, sumptuous food and stimulating drink; we would sing seasonal songs about sleigh bells ringing and Frosty the Snowman. We would wear warm, festive clothing. We might even observe a moment of peace, a temporary ceasefire when we acknowledge that our differences pale before our similarities. We would live as the pagans live, without a substantial reason to hope or an assurance of God's mercy.

Saint Joseph and his Virgin Wife made a difference because they heard the word of God and kept it. That keeping was more than lip service and more than begrudging conformity. Loving the Lord, confident of God's mercy, believing in God's justice, they wanted what God wanted. They were hungry and thirsty for justice.

In today's gospel Saint Matthew tells us of Joseph's bewilderment and his decision. He didn't know what to make of Mary's pregnancy and he seriously considered calling off the marriage. Clearly, that was the tradition and the normal expectation. Whatever his feelings for her might have been, he was dedicated to God's will above all else. Things for her  and for himself could never go well if he simply followed his own impulses.

Joseph was named after the Patriarch Joseph and he had that spiritual master's gift of dreams. We might call it intuition; but it was a divine intuition, shaped and directed by the Spirit of God. Divine intuition must operate within the darkness of faith, the Cloud of Unknowing. It cannot claim scientific certainty or rational authority. It pays attention to every impulse -- both those within the individual and those of society. Its rationality is open to reason, fascination, beauty, necessity, and desire -- and waits in prayer as God's will appears.

Wisdom knows,

Unless the LORD build the house,

they labor in vain who build.

Unless the LORD guard the city,

in vain does the guard keep watch.

It is vain for you to rise early

and put off your rest at night,

To eat bread earned by hard toil—

All this God gives to his beloved in sleep.

        Psalm 127

There really is no point to doing something without the assurance of God's spirit. Whether it be a soap bubble or an Egyptian pyramid, it cannot last without God's go-ahead. And so the young man waited and watched until the Angel revealed the answer to his prayers.

Saturday of the Third Week of Advent

Lectionary: 197

When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
"Most blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

Tobit cleverly presented two different dramas, separated by great distance; and, as the stories converged, revealed how God hears and answers our prayers in marvelous and clever fashion. Saint Luke uses the same trick to even more wonderful effect, as he presents the infancy narratives of Saint John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth. 

All four evangelists recognized John as the forerunner of Jesus. Though their styles and messages were quite different, and they worked in very different places -- John in the Jordan River and Jesus in Capernaum and Jerusalem -- both were undoubtedly inspired by God and suffered a similar fate. It is only fitting that their nativities should be intertwined. 

Today's gospel is the centerpiece of five different stories. There are two stories about John's conception and birth, and two stories about Jesus' conception and birth; the disparate narratives converge when their mothers Mary and Elizabeth meet. 

If Saint Luke was not familiar with the phenomenon of Mary's apparitions throughout history -- including Mexico City, Lourdes, Knock, and Fatima -- he should have been. He created the format for her appearances! She travels a great distance; she appears unexpectedly; she is greeted with delight by the visionary; who expresses wonder and humility; and she brings good news of God's mercy. 

The only thing different about this apparition is that Mary has not passed through the veil of death, but there is some dispute about whether she ever did! 

Isaiah described her welcome mission as he sang, 

"How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news; Announcing peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation....

The Church has always felt great affection for Mary and honored her with many titles. As she tells Elizabeth of her good fortune she becomes the first of Apostles and their Queen.  May she bless her Church today as we announce the Joy of Christ to our family, neighbors, friends and strangers. 

Friday of the Third Week of Advent

Lectionary: 196

But Ahaz answered,

"I will not ask! I will not tempt the LORD!"

Then Isaiah said:

Listen, O house of David!

Is it not enough for you to weary men,

must you also weary my God?

Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign:

the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and shall name him Emmanuel.

In Australia I learned of a eucalyptus tree that bears a very hard-shelled nut. It suffers no harm when it falls to the ground; it does not germinate even when the rains come, as they rarely do. The shell must be broken by a forest fire, and then it will germinate if and when the rains come.

King Ahaz was such a character. Hard shelled, he could not simply accept the prophet's invitation to, "Ask for a sign from the LORD, your God...." He had to oppose the Lord, standing in the way of mercy for himself and the nation.

And so Isaiah slammed him with a prophecy too good to be true, "the virgin shall conceive and bear a son...." If it seemed to the wise absurd and unimaginable, it is nonetheless wisdom in God's plan.

Today we hear the Gospel of the Annunciation; we live again that critical moment when the young woman of Nazareth accepted, immediately and without hesitation, God's plan for her. Once again we recognize her fright at the sight of an angel. She knows enough of legends and symbols to know already that her life will never be the same. If the child-woman had some ideas about her future with Joseph of Bethlehem, marriage and children, neighbors, family and the endless toil of poor women, everything was suddenly upended. 

But this extraordinary woman had been prepared since birth to leap into graceful opportunities. Her assent would never be an adolescent whatever, a passive aggressive, foot-dragging resistance. Learning that her elderly kinswoman Elizabeth was pregnant, she immediately set out to see the miracle. 

In SARRTP, (Substance Abuse Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program) I meet Veterans who sit in on the discussions, listen to stories about sickness and recovery, and return to their routines four weeks later. They say as little as possible, supposing that "I am not the kind who speaks in groups." Invited directly to, "Tell me a story!" they cannot remember any, and are unwilling to do the work of remembering.  They were, however, when under the influence, confident and outspoken; even obnoxious and obstreperous. 

Someone -- the director, counselor, nurse, or chaplain -- has to inform them, "It doesn't work that way." If you will not push yourself into uncomfortable situations, if you will not summon the courage to remember, speak, volunteer, and act differently than you have ever acted before, you will return to your sickness. You will never recover. 

Ahaz would not ask. He assumed a posture of fake piety and said, "I will not tempt the Lord." Mary stood up and declared her readiness to follow the Lord wherever he would lead. Opening the door to her own salvation, she invites the nations to come with her. 

Thursday of the Third Week of Advent

Lectionary: 195

...for he will be great in the sight of the Lord.

He will drink neither wine nor strong drink.

He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb,

and he will turn many of the children of Israel

to the Lord their God.

He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah

to turn the hearts of fathers toward children

and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous,

to prepare a people fit for the Lord."

Introducing Saint John the Baptist, Saint Luke describes the mission of a prophet: to prepare a people fit for the Lord. Jesus will undertake the same ministry, pushing it far beyond Saint John's limited work and finally completing it.

Saint John will be prepared by strict controls on his life from the day of his birth: "he will drink neither wine nor strong drink." Like the legendary Judge Samson, "...the boy shall be consecrated to God from the womb, until the day of his death.’”

Jesus will also be consecrated to God from the day of his conception, but he will enjoy the freedom of God's children. His hair will be cut; his food and clothing, standard fare.

Every anointed of God must be invested with the Holy Spirit, whether they are priest, prophet or king, and so Zechariah's son will "be be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb."

When Christians baptize their infants they invoke the same Holy Spirit, especially when the deacon or priest daubs Sacred Chrism on the crown of the baby's head.

Saint John, the Angel says, will go before God "in the spirit and power of Elijah."

What do we make of Elijah? It is hard to ignore his fearful aspect. I think of that series of incidents when the king sent a troop of fifty soldiers to arrest him. Elijah couldn't be bothered and called down fire from heaven to consume the whole unit. Neither they nor their king had showed deference to the Lord God of Hosts. A second group met the same fate. Finally, in fear and trembling, a third group begged him to come and he consented.  Following a contest with five hundred pagan priests, he personally cut each man's throat!

If John the Baptist is invested "in the spirit and power of Elijah," he will be fierce, a prophet who cannot be ignored.

But his ministry will be far gentler; he will "turn the hearts of fathers toward children..." A society like ours, suffering a plague of absentee fathers, must appreciate John's ministry. He will restore the institution of family, hopefully with men and women and children assuming their respective places as husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, cousins, grandparents, and so forth. In fact, he will die in defense of marriage. The responsibilities of family were never easy; they weren't supposed to be. They too must be "filled with the Holy Spirit."

John will turn "the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous...." The "Russian strategy" is to foment chaos, especially by persuading rival parties that no one speaks the Truth, and everyone has an agenda. "There is no such thing as Truth," Mr. Putin might say, "there is only power." The biblical Herods and Pontius Pilate understood that, as did the Caesars. 

The prophets of the Old and New Testaments, however, relied on "righteousness," that is, "the Word of the Lord which abides forever."

When the child is born, we will hear Zechariah describe the particular kind of freedom we enjoy: "...he will give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins." They will enjoy a freedom which the "disobedient" can never understand. 

Freedom is the ability to do what I don't want to do, generously and eagerly. It must include the willingness to recognize and acknowledge my sins, and receive forgiveness for them. We learn it from the Spirit of the Prophet John.

Power prepares people for servility; the Spirit prepares "a people fit for the Lord."

Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent

Lectionary: 194

As king he shall reign and govern wisely,

he shall do what is just and right in the land.

In his days Judah shall be saved,

Israel shall dwell in security.

This is the name they give him:

"The LORD our justice."

The scriptures equate justice and salvation. In God's mind they are the same thing. Unfortunately, we humans can never quite imagine what that city, state, or nation might look like. We're happy enough to dream of our particular salvation as a place of prosperity and security with a fair amount of pleasure. Some people might also want some challenging adventures; they would serve like spices to an otherwise bland existence, provided the outcome is always a return to healthy stasis.

But a state where everyone is satisfied, safe, prosperous, and pleased, where everyone is blessed and honored as God's image, with the dignity of God's people? I might imagine such an Eden but it will bear little resemblance to another's Edenic place. C.S. Lewis, in The Great Divorce, imagined such a place as Hell, where everyone lives in pristine solitude, satisfied and content to be undisturbed by others. Many Americans have tried to create that retirement home for themselves, a space occupied by one aging adult and one or more pets.

In that kind of hell, every person would be a king, and would have no need for One to "reign and govern wisely" over them. However, in the real world where many of us live, despite our marvelous technology, advanced education, and sophisticated government with its highly efficient bureaucracies, we have not been able to "bring forth" justice, mercy, or salvation for ourselves. To use Isaiah's bleak expression:

We conceived and writhed in pain,

giving birth only to wind;

Salvation we have not achieved for the earth,

no inhabitants for the world were born.

(In such a world, the unborn are aborted.)

I recently attended a lecture about the ecological disaster Americans (among others) are making of the world. The lecturer, an engineer, concluded her presentation with a dozen or more new technologies which offer hope. None is a "silver bullet," she said, but these and other great ideas might serve as effective "silver bbs." Economical and exciting, they might reduce our carbon footprint and provide sufficient relief to the atmosphere.

I was not persuaded. In my personal experience, and after hearing many stories of many people, I believe we need a "Savior who is Christ the Lord." No matter how charming the technology, we'll find a way to turn it to evil if we are not governed wisely by One blessed with the Wisdom and Spirit of God.

Welcome Christmas! Welcome a Savior who reigns over me and my impulses, ideas, fears, and ambitions. Welcome a Savior who is willing to suffer with us the defeat of our best ideas and most hopeful enterprises, who goes down with us and raises us up again by the Authority he has received from God.