The Fifth Day in the Octave of Christmas

 Lectionary: 202

“Lord, now let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled: my own eyes have seen the salvation which you prepared in the sight of every people, a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel.”

A few weeks ago, I celebrated a weekday Mass in the church of Saint Theresa Benedicta of the Cross, in Bright, Indiana. Born Edith Stein, this promising philosopher and student of the atheist Martin Heidegger converted from Judaism to Catholicism as a young woman. She entered a Carmelite monastery in Cologne but was transferred to Echt as the Nazis gained control of Germany. When they invaded the Netherlands they also violated her cloister and took the nun away to share the fate of God's chosen people. 

The Jewish nun was canonized by Pope Saint John Paul II amid some controversy. Did she die as a Christian martyr or a Jewish woman? This "daughter of Israel" died for the faith which entered human history in the person of Abraham. And she remains, like millions of Christian and Jewish martyrs, 

"a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel.”

Saint Luke, in particular, stressed Jesus's Jewish origins. The Roman Empire tolerated thousands of religions with their innumerable gods so long as they were willing to pay the Roman tax. But they suspected new religions because they always reshape social, economic, and political institutions. New religions are trouble and who needs trouble? 

With his stories of John the Baptist, Simeon, Anna, the circumcision and purification of Jesus, and the missing adolescent found in the temple, the Evangelist placed the Lord squarely within the Jewish religion. 

He and the other New Testament writers believed the Christian movement, which welcomed both Jews and Gentiles, was not a new religion. It was neither a protest nor reform of Judaism but a fulfillment of the ancient religion. With many citations from the Hebrew scriptures, they demonstrated how the LORD had guided Jewish history and inspired Jewish prophets, sages, and lawgivers to prepare the way of the Lord. 

Jesus did nothing that was not foreseen from long past, nor did his disciples, although no one could describe precisely how the Gospel would appear. If the crucifixion and the resurrection of the Messiah were shocking and unexpected, they nonetheless fulfilled the ancient prophecies. As Jesus himself explained to the disciples on the road to Emmaus:

Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 

Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures.

But Roman and Nazi authorities saw through the subterfuge. They knew that religion does make a difference, whether it's Jewish, Christian, or Catholic. We could not worship, or pretend to worship, the Roman emperor. We will not countenance slavery, abortion, racism, euthanasia, or eugenics. The children of Abraham and the disciples of Jesus must protest these assaults on human dignity; not to do so betrays the faith for which the martyrs died. If we ever forget this obligation, God's enemies do not. They know what we stand for even when we don't. 

As children, we learned the song of Simeon; and we wait with eager expectation for the Day when the new wine of fidelity will be extracted from the grapes of wrath: 

Mine eyes have seen the glory
Of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage
Where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning
Of His terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.
Chorus
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.