Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

Lectionary: 17

Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved,
heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,
bearing with one another and forgiving one another, 
if one has a grievance against another; 
as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.

The word seminary contains the Latin word for seed, suggesting that seminaries are the seedbeds of the Church; but the true seminary is the family. That is where we learn and practice the faith with its challenges, reassurances, and consolations. 

I occasionally remind parents that their children are custom-designed to try their patience. In fact, that's their mission in life! If the parent had any pretensions to calm, self-confidence, parental know-how, and wisdom, their children should and will disillusion them. Along with the sacraments of Baptism and Reconciliation, Family is a sacrament of Penance. Our shortcomings confront us; our failings are flagrant; the sandy foundations of our security are revealed even as they collapse. If we don't learn to accept God's forgiveness in the family, we may never learn it elsewhere. And through the process, most people acquire a sense of humor about themselves. 

Advent and celebrate the coming of our Savior. We remember with humble gratitude that the Lord has had pity on us and, seeing our helplessness and complete inability to prove ourselves good enough, worthy, or capable of ever getting it right, comes to rescue us. We cannot save ourselves. Only our pathetic condition has any claim on God's compassion. 

We have tried to save ourselves. Worse, we have followed many pretenders who promised to save us even as they exploited us. We came up with plans and schemes; we developed hypotheses, theories, and technologies to save us. We hoped our children would master STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and construct a safe, foolproof world for us; and these ill-conceived contraptions only make fools of us all. 

We need a savior. 

And so we teach our children to pray with us for salvation. When I was a boy, Dad fashioned a small shrine in a corner of the dining room. The platform held a ten-cent vigil candle and a statue of the Immaculate Conception. Wooden pegs held our rosaries in readiness for our evening prayer, which was followed by bath, bed, and beyond. The Church promised that the family that prays together stays together, and the ten of us can testify to that doctrine. 

Another important tradition strengthens, heals, and reassures the extended family; and that's the funeral. If there are grievances between family members, we set them aside when we come together. We realize they don't matter anymore. Jesus urged us, "When you bring your gifts to the altar, and there remember your siblings or niblings have anything against you, go and be reconciled first; and then offer your gifts." 

We forgive the deceased; we hope they forgive us; and we're reconciled with one another. Life is too short and families are too precious to burden them with resentments. That's why we have funerals.  

In the family, we discover that the forgiveness of sins is more than a two-minute rite in the confessional; it is an integral part of our history. We have been saved, and are still being saved, by the graces we share. 

Finally, we come to know the Lord as we grow in love for Mary and Joseph. You cannot know anyone unless you know their family, and so we meet the Holy Family in our churches, and homes, and take all the more delight in the presence of Jesus. 

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.

Sometimes, as we watch TV -- yes, some of us still watch TV -- I hear friars remark about the ads, "That does nothing for me!" 

Well, of course not! They're not interested in you or me; they want young adults with money.

In my seventy-sixth year, it's not hard to understand the alienation from this world that Saint John describes in his letters. The entertainment media often hurl sensual lusts, enticements for the eyes, and pretentious invitations that do nothing for me. Clearly, the big money is not marketing to me. If I were such a fool as to be interested, I can't afford what they're selling anyway. 

Unfortunately, that lack of interest in the allurements of 2023 hasn't meant a deeper spiritual life for me. There remain a gazillion ways to distract my attention, and waste my time and energy. For relaxation, I took up billiards a few years ago; I tell people I am wasting my second childhood in the pool hall! (But, while researching that famous quip, I found a better one by W.C. Fields: "I spent half my money on booze, women, and gambling. The other half I wasted.")

Where was I? Oh yeah....

Our faith teaches us to find delight, amazement, and occasional amusement in the practice of religion. There are many howlers in the scriptures that leave our neighbors cold but tickle the funny bone of those with refreshed eyes. I think of Jonah's complaints and Saint Peter's escapes from prison. I recall Saint Thomas More's remark about his guiltless beard moments before his decapitation, and Saint Lawrence's taunting the emperor with the fabulous wealth of the Church (the poor, homeless, hungry, and needy.) And we laugh with all the saints as Balaam argues with his ass. 

Like Simeon and Anna, we learn to appreciate God's wonderful works, including those we have seen and heard about. We would readily travel with the young Mary to see the elderly Elizabeth pregnant with John the Baptist. We would certainly stop to watch the wreckage of Egypt's chariots, charioteers, and horses in the Red Sea. 

Beyond its useless distractions, the Internet also offers wonderful stories and images to encourage our spiritual life; they are gleaned from thousand years of God's guidance to people of every language, nation, and location. Deserts, mountains, forests, jungles, and oceans have shaped the cultures of many people who give us religious stories to tell and sacred traditions to share

The practice of faith fascinates the heart of God's people as we are drawn into the heart of God. 

Optional Memorial of Saint Thomas Becket, Bishop and Martyr

 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."

Traditionally we call Simeon's canticle the Nunc dimittis. The Latin phrase means, "Now you may dismiss. " And we recite it at the end of the day, during Night Prayer. Clearly, Simeon's day was passing; he could not expect to see the Infant ascending to rule Israel, or expel the Romans, or whatever the Messiah was supposed to do. He was satisfied to see the long-awaited child, whom he calls "salvation."

Everyone in the infancy narratives of Saints Matthew and Luke see something wonderful: Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, two elderly couples in the temple (Zechariah and Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna ), the magi, and the awestruck relatives of John the Baptist. Only Herod is terrified by what he hears but will never see. Simeon's canticle evokes the memory of God's Wonderful Works of ancient times.

Faithful Christians have always followed the example of Zechariah. We look back upon each day with gratitude and wonder. "Lord, thank you for being with me today! I could not have made it without you." Sometimes we might wonder, "Where were you?" And often we must acknowledge with Saint Augustine, "You were with me but I was not with you." And then we thank God that he was with us despite our neglect. 

Zechariah also remembers the mission of the Jewish which the Christ/Messiah will complete. The Anointed must tell the nations what we have seen and heard. We must remind them of God's sovereignty; and if they will not listen our presence, prayers, and exemplary behavior will remind them. We are a holy people and we cannot act otherwise, even among the enemies of the Lord. 

And so we thank God again for shining through us, 

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

Feast of the Holy Innocents, martyrs

Lectionary: 698

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

The history of Christmas is complex. It first appears in the eastern church on January 6. The Roman Church had its own reasons for preferring December 25, and since it was the more aggressive of the two, most of the world -- secular and religious -- keeps the Roman date, with a nod toward the eastern tradition twelve days later. 

At some point, the western church assigned the first part of Saint Matthew's infancy narrative to January 6, and called it Epiphany. (The word means revelation or showing with wonder and surprise.) But, unfortunately, the feast of the Holy Innocents appears apart from Epiphany and several days ahead of it. 

And so our gospel today begins with, "When the magi had departed..." although they haven't arrived yet. The feast of the Innocents is separated from Epiphany; and the story of the children appears as an afterthought. If the devout who attend daily Mass know of it, the secular world which capitalizes on the Christian feast never hears of it.

But when we read Saint Matthew's account, it's obvious he never supposed they could be read separately. The homage of the magi appears in sharp contrast to King Herod's homage; and the gospel challenges its hearers, "Which homage do you offer?" 

The world knew King Herod and what he was capable of. Realizing what Herod would do about "a newborn king of the Jews," the magi returned to the east by another route, and Joseph fled with his wife and son into Egypt. Herod represents the world which does not know God and despises the faith with its traditions, rites, songs, and stories. It makes every effort to smother and destroy our belief in the Friend of Abraham and supplant faith with the regime of the powerful. 

They use compassion to defend their practices of abortion, euthanasia, and "gender transitioning;" even as they force the innocent and defenseless to submit to their standards of conformity. They rail against any opposition, declaiming it as evil. But they sing lovely Christmas songs with all the hypocrisy of a Herod. 

In response, priests and deacons should read Saint Matthew's entire infancy narrative on both occasions, December 28 and January 6. The practice might restore the apocalyptic dimensions of our faith and demonstrate more clearly why God's people must oppose the wholesale exploitation of the unborn, of children, the poor, the defenseless, and the Earth. 

Feast of Saint John, Apostle and evangelist

 Lectionary: 697

What we have seen and heard
we proclaim now to you,
so that you too may have fellowship with us;
for our fellowship is with the Father
and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
We are writing this so that our joy may be complete.

Words cannot express the beauty, majesty, depth, and subtlety of Saint John's Gospel. It's grandeur begins in the mysterious depths of God. But the number of efforts to do so throughout these two millennia attests to its importance. Saint John is a friend in our youth and a companion in our old age, a counselor who knows our world, with its beauty and its danger. His gospel and three letters provide endless delight for those who take the time to read, study, reread, and reflect upon them.  

This morning I have noticed in Saint John's first letter his attention to the fellowship of believers. No one wants to be saved alone. Like the Lord himself, we have deep attachments to family and friends; we have bonds of affection for distant strangers and ancient enemies. We do not wish to be ripped from our society to join a band of strangers, regardless of their holiness. Rather we seek that complete joy which we must share with everyone we've ever known, from the mothers who gave birth to us to the bullies who terrorized the neighborhood. 

I suppose philosophers and historians could tell us how our society became so obnoxiously self-centered. I grew up with heroes of the 1950's like the Lone Ranger and Superman; they reappeared in the sixties and seventies as Maverick and Clint Eastwood's Harry Callahan. But my heroes followed in the footsteps of Raymond Chandler's "Phillip Marlowe." These solitary men, with neither family nor friends, with their infallible sense of what is good and what is evil, fought wickedness in city hall and state capitals. Because they were isolated, no threats could deter them from the fearless pursuit of justice in  a world of endless gray. I suppose today's Spiderman has picked up the tradition. 

The Lord offers us a fellowship of believers who travel with and in him on the road to salvation. If we fight evil, we do it with kindness. 

To be with Jesus is to know salvation despite the threats around and within us. We experience betrayal, of course, within the Church; but that does not dissuade us from clinging to him. No one I have met compares with the treasonous Judas Iscariot. 

The Church provides the guidance each one needs even as we learn to guide others. We enjoy the stories, teachings, prayers, and companionship of many generations of saints, who represent innumerable nationalities. We watch our elders follow the Way even as we invite youths to walk with us. 

Is it easy? It's not supposed to be. In the same way that Jesus embraced his cross, we forget our ideals -- the way things should be -- and embrace reality for the love of God. We're not saved by ideals, and we soon learn that idealistic heroes are little more than pixels. 

Saint John knew the Lord. He is the Horatio who walked with the Lord's Hamlet from the Jordan River, through Cana and Jerusalem, on the way to Calvary and Easter. As a witness, he testifies to the truth, and as we study his writing we learn to trust him, his Church, and his Savior. There can be no finer companion. 

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.

The Catholic translation of the Bible (NABRE) helpfully assigns cross references to the Lord's prophecy about how we should speak and what we might say: 

We read in Exodus of Moses' reluctance to approach the Pharaoh with God's demand,  

Moses said to the LORD, “If you please, my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and tongue.” 

The LORD said to him: Who gives one person speech? Who makes another mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go, I will assist you in speaking and teach you what you are to say.

Secondly, we read that Jeremiah, from within his mother's womb, objected to the Lord's prophetic commission, 

“Ah, Lord GOD!” Jeremiah said,
“I do not know how to speak. I am too young!"
But the LORD answered,
Do not say, “I am too young.”
To whomever I send you, you shall go;
whatever I command you, you shall speak.

And then we have this comical story from the Book of Numbers: 

When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD there, she lay down under Balaam. Balaam’s anger flared up and he beat the donkey with his stick. Then the LORD opened the mouth of the donkey, and she asked Balaam, “What have I done to you that you beat me these three times?" 

“You have acted so willfully against me,” said Balaam to the donkey, “that if I only had a sword at hand, I would kill you here and now.”

But the donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey, on which you have always ridden until now? Have I been in the habit of treating you this way before?” 

“No,” he replied.

Then the LORD opened Balaam’s eyes, so that he saw the angel of the LORD standing on the road with sword drawn; and he knelt and bowed down to the ground.

In the same story, we find Balaam imitating his donkey, 

The LORD put an utterance in Balaam’s mouth, and said: Go back to Balak, and speak accordingly.

On this second day of Christmas, the Church recognizes the Spirit speaking through the prophet Stephen as he faced an angry mob in Jerusalem. Joyful, confident, rambunctious, he could not help but recount the history of Israel in the light of Jesus's resurrection. 

Clearly the Protomartyr did not worry about how he was to speak, or what he might say, but he was given at that moment what he had to say. And only a pile of stones could stop him!

During this confusing era in human history, assailed by unprecedented technologies, social and political confusion, and climate catastrophe, we hardly know what to say to our contemporaries. Our religious tradition seems unprepared to address critical issues. And so we ask God to give us Stephen's spirit, wisdom, courage, and irrepressible joy. And then we speak. 

The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)

Lectionary: 15

When the kindness and generous love 
of God our savior appeared,
not because of any righteous deeds we had done
but because of his mercy,
He saved us through the bath of rebirth
and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
whom he richly poured out on us
through Jesus Christ our savior,
so that we might be justified by his grace
and become heirs in hope of eternal life.

The prophet Hosea once complained about the cynicism of people who take God and their religion for granted. He recorded their knowing remarks as they encouraged one another to perform religious acts: 

“Come, let us return to the LORD,

For it is he who has torn, but he will heal us;
he has struck down, but he will bind our wounds.
He will revive us after two days;
on the third day he will raise us up,
to live in his presence.
Let us know, let us strive to know the LORD;
as certain as the dawn is his coming.
He will come to us like the rain,
like spring rain that waters the earth.”

They seem to have God and his ways figured out: "We sin; he gets upset; we repent; he comes around; we're saved as if nothing happened; and then we get back to business as usual. It's really no big deal."   

But the Prophet heard the Lord's response,  

What can I do with you, Ephraim?

What can I do with you, Judah?
Your loyalty is like morning mist,
like the dew that disappears early.

During this past Advent I was struck by the pity which the Lord shows to his people. We hear the word frequently in the scriptures, but we don't like it. We don't like to be pitiful, or the object of anyone's pity. We occasionally show pity, but we're more often reluctant to do so. Everyone has a story about showing kindness and suffering for it. There's a saying for that: "No good deed will go unpunished." 

As I hear growing anxiety about the climate crisis, the migrations of billions of people, the wars that are even now being generated by those mass movements, and the increasing use of murderous weapons on unarmed people, I also hear highly speculative remedies for the ever-worsening crises. They promise guaranteed solutions "as certain as the dawn is coming." We may have to make sacrifices for two days perhaps, but on the third day, the crisis will be passed! 

These schemes summarized: "Do it my way. Make me the energy czar of the earth. Do whatever I tell you; and I'll save you." 

But eight billion people cannot agree on anything. There is no technological, economic, political, or social solution to the problems we've created. If there is a spiritual one, it belongs to God, who made us from the mud of this dynamic and dangerous planet. 

In 1964, Stanley Kubrick, with Peter Sellers, George C Scott and others, gave us the satiric comedy, "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb." I think of that title today as I stop worrying about Donald Trump, Ukraine, climate change, and mass shootings. Humor and faith are closely related, and Christmas invites the entire world to take a break from worrying to believe in God and laugh at our worries. 

Christmas invites us to welcome our Savior, but that requires three things from us: 

1. We must face the fact that we cannot save ourselves. That should be obvious by now. 
2. And we need God to send a Savior; 
3. And the man born of a virgin, who died on a cross, and was revealed as the Son of God on Easter, is that Savior.  

Will all nations worship the Father of Jesus in the foreseeable future? I doubt it. But some  will be led to do the right thing by a divine, generous, and courageous spirit; others will be stricken like the doomed pharaoh of Exodus. Their selfish, inept policies will fall precisely in line with God's plan of salvation. 

As Saint Paul said, all creation eagerly awaits that day. It cannot come too soon. And we wait with them -- with the orcas and jellyfish and imperiled trees, with the rising seas and the disappearing jungles -- for the revelation of God's Son. 

Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,

with the mountains quaking before you... Is 63:19

Fourth Sunday of Advent

 Lectionary: 11

To him who can strengthen you,
according to my gospel...

Because I am not preaching in a church this Sunday, I can offer my readers a reflection concerning the second of today’s three scripture readings.

First we hear a reading from Second Samuel concerning the promise given to David that “Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.” 

Today's Gospel announces the fulfillment of that promise as the Angel Gabriel tells Mary that her son will be given the throne of David his father. And he adds, “...of this kingdom there will be no end.”

Today’s second reading is a complex sentence from Saint Paul’s important Letter to the Romans. Paul understood the promise to David and its fulfillment in Jesus; and he taught his disciples what it means to live in that kingdom. The sentence concerns “the One who can strengthen you.” It is built around three subordinate clauses, each beginning with according. Just as today’s gospel signals the fulfillment of the first reading, so do these three accordings connect the beginning of the sentence (the One who can strengthen you) to the praise offered to the “only wise God through Jesus Christ.” 

Each of these accordings deserves our attention: 

• “...according to my Gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ.” 

• The Apostle speaks of “my gospel” with the confidence of a preacher, and knowing that there are other Christian missionaries with a different gospel. Some of them he has sarcastically called “super apostles.” They not only claim extraordinary visions and superior knowledge, they also insist that gentile men who would believe in Jesus must be circumcised as Jews and accept all the Pharisaic customs. Paul knows their game; they would have the Lord's newborn disciples serving and enriching them.  

• “My gospel” is more demanding spiritually, though less demanding physically. His disciples will not have an outward proof of their salvation, neither by circumcision nor pious practices. But they will have the assurance of faith; they will know that the Lord has suffered and died for them, and been raised up.

• They will also discover a vitality we call “the Holy Spirit." It comes with a willingness to make sacrifices for God, the Church, and the needy. They will have an eagerness to belong to the saints; i.e., the Church. 

• “...according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret for long ages but now manifested through the prophetic writings;”

• Devout persons of that first century understood the phrase, a “mystery kept secret for long ages.” The Roman world was besieged by Gnostic “mystery religions” which acted something like benevolent societies of our time. Membership in these groups was secretive (although everyone might know it) and members gave each other secret signs in greeting which they learned in clandestine rituals. More importantly, they were taught certain doctrines which outsiders could never know or discover; they were doctrines supposedly unknown from ancient times but revealed to spiritually elite seers. This inside information with its clandestine rites was supposed to guarantee personal salvation, and a passage into eternal life.

• However, and quite conveniently, the mystery might not entail any real sacrifice. "You're saved because you know this secret formula! Wow! What a deal!" (Hello? How does that make sense in the real world?) 

• Unlike the Gnostics, disciples of Jesus proclaim their mysterious secret far and wide; they want everyone to know his name. But it's a secret that no one can know until the Father reveals it. It came first to Mary by a vision, and to Joseph by a dream, and finally to the disciples by the appearances of the crucified and risen Lord. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard; and no one can expect a virgin birth or a risen savior.

• And yes, it does entail real sacrifice. Anyone unwilling to take up their crosses of sacrifices, setbacks, and disappointments, and follow the Lord cannot be his disciple.  

• Finally, “...according to the command of the eternal God made known to all nations to bring about the obedience of faith...

• Paul’s gospel comes with a command to all who hear it. Knowing the secret, they are under the obedience of faith which submits to a life-or-death decision. It is not a choice between Cheerios and Wheaties, a Ford or a Chevy, the city or the suburbs. We cannot take it or leave it; anyone who knows the Lord cannot say, “ Yes, but I prefer my own religion." 

• Paul had already confessed his own obedience before God: 

• If I preach the gospel, this is no reason for me to boast, for an obligation has been imposed on me, and woe to me if I do not preach it! If I do so willingly, I have a recompense, but if unwillingly, then I have been entrusted with a stewardship. (1 Cor 9:16)

• Knowing the sovereignty of the One God and Father of all, the Apostle had to announce this Good News of the Kingdom to all the nations. As the psalms repeatedly insist, “All kings will bow down before him; all nations will serve him.” That's not just them; it's us too.

We could probably say that all the world knows Christmas today, just as every nation will agree that January 1 is the beginning of 2024. They might know about Santa Claus; they might have heard the Little Drummer Boy’s pa rum pum pum pum.

But not all nations know the mystery kept secret for long ages but now manifested in Jesus Christ. It falls to us, the Church, the saints, martyrs, and angels to give praise, honor, and glory forever and ever to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ Amen -- and to share the Good News of God's Kingdom with everyone.

Saturday of the Third Week of Advent

 Lectionary: 199

Yes, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.
But who will endure the day of his coming?
And who can stand when he appears?
For he is like the refiner's fire,
or like the fuller's lye.
He will sit refining and purifying silver,
and he will purify the sons of Levi,
Refining them like gold or like silver
that they may offer due sacrifice to the LORD.

Gold and silver are precious metals; in part because of their astonishing beauty. But their ores need much refinement; they come with a lot of dross that must be removed. Most of the metal-rich dirt taken from the mine will be discarded after it's been filtered, sifted, and burned away. 

The prophet Malachi refers to that intense process when he ponders the ordeal the faithful must undergo as they welcome salvation. Like life and aging, it's not for the faint of heart, high maintenance, or emotionally delicate people. Nor is it for those who regard life as a lark, their bodies as playthings, and their time, money, and energy as infinitely expendable. 

I recently lost a very dear friend. I had known she was dying of Long Covid for some time. Seeing the advent of her death, I thought, "I'll grieve, and I'll get over it. It's a process we must all endure."  

But grief doesn't take lightly to such casual dismissals. The news when it came hit me pretty hard. Grief penetrates many dark, unknown, unfamiliar passage within one's soul; its hurt is unexpected no matter how much we might think we're prepared for it. 

The smelting of the human soul at the coming of the Messiah is also mysterious, prolonged, often painful, and always challenging. No one is exempt from the process, and even to call it a process is too dismissive. 

The prophets teach us to welcome grief, remorse, guilt, and new life as the Lord gives these blessings to us. They are beautiful -- as the Nubian maiden declared -- and we become beautiful also, like gold and silver seven times refined. 

Friday of the Third Week of Advent

 Lectionary: 198

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
for he has looked upon his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed....

Our Gospel today, called the Magnificat, is the song of the Church. In fact, for many centuries we have read, chanted, or sang Mary's exultant prayer daily, during our Evening Prayer. 

Mary speaks for all of us as she enjoys the privilege -- which in her case is deserved -- of knowing God in a most intensely physical and personal way. While her pregnancy is singular -- no one else will ever bear the Son of God in their womb -- she shares the grace of faith with every Christian. In that sense, her privilege is ours; and that is something wonderful. 

Although we read the prayer daily, it's good to hear it announced on this third day before Christmas. Many of us, having been pregnant, or are pregnant, or have shared pregnancy with our wives, mothers, and sisters, know the challenges this young woman will face between Luke 1 and Luke 2. It is often uncomfortable. 

But the promise of new life is wonderful, and it makes Mary beautiful. Her skin glows, her face shines, and her eyes smile as she arrives in Jerusalem and greets Elizabeth. The embrace of this old lady and young woman is ecstatic. No one can imagine how wonderful Mary's child will be. Only the prophetess Elizabeth can begin to appreciate it as she cries, 

"And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?"

But even the prophetess cannot know the child will be the Incarnate Son of God, the second person of the Trinity. That will be revealed only at Easter, and fully comprehended only by martyrs. (First among them: John the Baptist!) 

Pondering this mystery, I often return to John Donne's La Corona, and his expression, 

Ere by the spheres time was created thou

Wast in His mind, who is thy Son, and Brother ;

Whom thou conceivest, conceived ; yea, thou art now

Thy Maker's maker, and thy Father's mother,

Thou hast light in dark, and shutt'st in little room

Immensity, cloister'd in thy dear womb.

Thursday of the Third Week of Advent

 Lectionary: 197

Shout for joy, O daughter Zion!
Sing joyfully, O Israel!
Be glad and exult with all your heart,
O daughter Jerusalem!
The LORD has removed the judgment against you,
he has turned away your enemies....

Of all the Old Testament types of Mary, from Eve to Sarah to Judith and Esther, the City of Jerusalem is the most important. She is the one who suffers the great sorrow of a very long history, and enjoys the promise of forgiveness, vindication, redemption, and exaltation. As the prophets foretold, all nations will call Jerusalem blessed, the Holy City, and the true pole of the earth. 

It is no accident that the setting of today's gospel is Jerusalem. She too rejoices in the coming of the Lord, although the pregnant Mary is greeted only by Elizabeth. The old woman's happiness and the unborn child's dancing welcome the One who will save the City from her sins. 

Our tradition also speaks of the city as the type of the Church, which itself prefigures the New Jerusalem, "coming down from heaven as beautiful as a bride prepared to meet her husband." We see the Church and the New Jerusalem in the young woman as she goes to see the wonderful sign Gabriel has given her. 

She is also the pilgrim Church who leads us on the road of penance, almsgiving, and trusting forgiveness. Whatever stories the Galilean lass has heard of the wicked city, she dismisses. She knows the Lord will protect her as she travels; he will guide her safely to her destination. And so she travels fearlessly. She does not forget Gabriel's command, "Do not be afraid." 

We can go with her to discover our destiny, with the same courage. We shall enjoy an unimaginable worthiness to enter the heavenly Jerusalem. 

Our Church likes to remind us that Christmas doesn't end on Christmas day; it will continue until Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord. But neither does it begin on December 25, for as we hear the Infancy Narratives of the Evangelists Matthew and Luke during this octave, we are filled with Christmas cheer. Indeed, how can I keep from singing the praises of Mary? 

Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent

Lectionary: 196

"How can this be,
since I have no relations with a man?"
And the angel said to her in reply,
"The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born
will be called holy, the Son of God.

Judaism, from the time of Moses until the present, has always recognized some persons as sent by God. Moses anointed Aaron as priest, David was anointed as king; others were anointed as prophets. The English word Messiah comes from the Hebrew language; and Christ from the Greek; both mean anointed. During a ritual, certain individuals are anointed with oil on the head indicating God's particular choice of them as priests, prophets, or kings. No one anoints themself as a messiah or christ; that's the prerogative of God's people. (Some people claim they are anointed by God himself; but if their humility doesn't attest to it, they're dismissed as fools.) 

Isaiah described Cyrus, the Persian empire, as a messiah, because he had the authority to send a delegation of Jews from Babylon back to the ruined city of Jerusalem to rebuild it. We can wonder if Cyrus, perhaps acting with some ceremonies, might have formally pronounced his decision; or did he simply sign a document and send multiple copies to all the appropriate functionaries. 

I heard a rabbi describe Abraham Lincoln as a messiah or christ for the same reason. Only a man of his genius and chosen by God could have led a nation torn by civil war to reunite. 

But, despite all the messianic christs who came, or might have come, from God, only one was born of a virgin. Of only one was it necessary that he should be born of a virgin, for only a virgin-born man could bear the title, "Son of God." 

If nearly anyone could be a messiah, anyone could also be a child of God. When the Angel calls this one a Son of God, we know there is no other like him. As dazzled as we are by the virginity of Mary, we should not let its eclat overshadow the singular importance of her son. Everything about Mary points to Jesus; and she would have it no other way. 

Our scriptures show how she stepped away from Jesus to let us approach him. Saint Luke tells us that when she and Joseph brought the child into the temple, Simeon took the baby in his arms and praised God. We might imagine her astonishment at this old fellow's impetuous grab at the child, but she let him do it. And Joseph too, allowed him to sing and dance with the baby. We can suppose the couple welcomed the rough shepherds to gaze on the child as they described choirs of angels in the sky. The occasion was too wonderful to hide the boy from them. 

The occasion was clearly bigger than the Lord's parents. As Saint Luke tells us, they could only stand back in amazement. 

As believers in the Son of God, we too surrender ownership of him to those who would see and worship him. We have our teachings about him, and we rightly insist on their correctness. We have spent centuries pondering this mystery and are convinced not only of these doctrines, but also of their importance. Misunderstandings mislead and we don't want that to happen to anyone, for they can be fatal. 

But we must also recognize the wonderful ways in which many nations express their faith in the Lord. There are many right ways to love God. Catholics especially appreciate that since we don't have to travel very far to discover the multiculturalism of our Church. If German-Catholic and Irish-Catholic churches no longer face each other from across an urban street, there are still large enclaves of ethnic communities singing their love of the Lord in different languages, while dancing in their distinctive garb. 

All praise God for giving us his only begotten son, even as we thank the Virgin for her beautiful boy. 

Tuesday of the Third Week of Advent

Image of Beartooth Mountain, MT

 Lectionary: 195

"So has the Lord done for me at a time when he has seen fit
to take away my disgrace before others."

Saint Elizabeth, despite her old age, expressed her relief and joy upon discovering that she was pregnant. And then, if she believed her mute husband's explanation of how that came to be, discovered God's guiding hand in the long story of her life.

Where she felt disgraced for her barrenness she found relief; where she had felt overlooked and forgotten by the Lord, she realized his regard had been upon her since childhood. 

In fact, she found herself in very good company with Sarah, the wife of Abraham, and the unnamed mother of Samson. A daughter of Jerusalem, she also remembered the prophets who sometimes described that holy city as a barren woman and deserted wife:

Raise a glad cry, you barren one who never bore a child,

break forth in jubilant song, you who have never been in labor,

For more numerous are the children of the deserted wife

than the children of her who has a husband,

says the LORD.

Enlarge the space for your tent,

spread out your tent cloths unsparingly;

lengthen your ropes and make firm your pegs.

For you shall spread abroad to the right and left;

your descendants shall dispossess the nations

and shall people the deserted cities.

Do not fear, you shall not be put to shame;

do not be discouraged, you shall not be disgraced.

For the shame of your youth you shall forget,

the reproach of your widowhood no longer remember. Isaiah 54:1-4

We can take a valuable lesson from her happiness. We find our history in the scriptures, including God's saving deeds and glorious works. And we discover our sins also, as we read, "We have sinned; we and our fathers have sinned. In doing so, we come to know God's merciful forgiveness. 

Like Elizabeth, we do well to search the scriptures for our personal identity before we turn and ask those around us what they think of us. Teenagers are notorious for looking for themselves among the signals they give one another, despite the fact that their peers may trash them. All of us found ourselves in the mirror of our parents, but some of us must finally refuse the abusive images and turn, like Saint Francis, to our heavenly father. "Who one is before God, is who one is!" said the Saint. "Neither more nor less!!" 

Because we are God's people, each one's story must be anchored in that blessed history; the believer's personal identity belongs within our common identity. We are loved sinners. 

During these closing days of Advent, many Catholics turn to the Sacrament of Penance to rediscover their true self in God's presence. Profoundly aware of our sins, and of the sinful world around us, we learn again that the Lord has known us all along, and more deeply than we knew ourselves. What we might find despicable in ourselves, the Lord understands. He is patient, and forgives. He never regretted for a moment our creation.

With that assurance we can say with Elizabeth, ""So has the Lord done for me; he has seen fit to take away my disgrace."

Monday of the Third Week of Advent

 Lectionary: 194

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.
When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together,
she was found with child through the Holy Spirit. 

Verse 18 of Saint Matthew's first chapter connects the genealogy of Jesus to the story of Mary's mysterious pregnancy. The  Hebrew almah (in English maiden or young woman) of Isaiah's seventh chapter has become the Greek parthenos, meaning a virgin. She will marry the Bethlehemite Joseph so that her son will be born of David's line. With that lineage he can be both Jesus (to save his people from their sins) and a virgin's son Emmanuel, (God with us.)

Today's gospel announces something wonderful. The birth of Jesus by a virgin is more than unexpected, it is unprecedented. It is a marvelous deed akin to the parting of the Red Sea and the fall of Jericho. And yet it also fulfills the divine word which had been solemnly announced to King David, almost a thousand years before. 

By now, the promise to David is an old story kept by poor families who claim the lineage of forgotten kings. If there are biblical scholars in Jerusalem who take the story seriously, we can suppose it was ignored by other families. But now it must be announced to the whole world. God is with us! 

The psalmist had said, "In your eyes a thousand years are but a day!" but a thousand years is nonetheless a very long time by human reckoning. Where was the United States a thousand years ago? Can anyone name an ancestor of a thousand years past? But there were records of God's word, copies of copies of copies, which had been treasured for a millennium. Certain old men in dusty old libraries in Jerusalem studied them; perhaps they quarreled about what they might mean, having nothing better to do with their time. 

And suddenly God's word to David was important even to people who'd never expected, anticipated, or heard of it. Wonderful things are afoot. 

Two thousand years have passed since Joseph had his life-changing dream and the whole world knows about it. Now you'd think that God would convey his historic message in a more spectacular fashion. Shouldn't it be a sign seen by millions and accepted as gospel truth by those who hear their testimony? Can anyone doubt that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941? Or that an American walked on the Moon on July 20, 1969? If you are going to do something really historic, you make sure billions of people see it. 

But the LORD spoke to Joseph in the quietest possible way --  a dream -- and the faithful man "did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.

Such is the power and importance of our faith. We too are entrusted with an important word. We must believe it, trust it, make all the sacrifices it demands, and share it with others.