Glorious Flesh

Seventh Day in the Octave of Christmas – December 31

1 John 2:12-17 / Psalm 96:1-2, 11-12, 13 / John 1:1-18

                                                                             

Glorious Flesh

John the evangelist has a unique way of telling the Christmas story. He tells us about the Word become flesh. Flesh is a big deal for John. In the Chapter 6 of his Gospel Jesus says, “Unless you eat of my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you.” John’s Gospel responds in part to the heresy of Gnosticism, which said what is fleshly is neither real nor good. What is spiritual is real and good.

Gnosticism is a possible trap for anyone who takes spirituality seriously. We have been taught that the road to holiness is to subdue the flesh, to master the body, to control our carnal desires. Spirituality, for some, can seem like liberation from the body with its limitations and pains. Hands and feet get dirty. We sometimes overeat or under-sleep. We need to exercise. The body breaks down as we grow older.

But to reject the body, is to reject the Savior. While some would say our problem is in the body and the solution is in the spirit, John’s message is just the opposite: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”  For John, the flesh is glorious: “and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth.”

There is a temptation in the spiritual life to reject the material world and prefer the spiritual world, a temptation to reject earth and embrace heaven. But that is not the path of the Son of God. He embraced the earth, and embraced the human body with all its limitations.

The early Church Fathers insisted “In caro cardo salus;” “On the flesh hinges salvation.” The solution to our temptation to spiritualize our problems is to meditate on the incarnation, the enfleshment of love — the enduring love that came through Jesus Christ, the Word embodied.

Perhaps if we are going to make a New Year’s resolution related to spirituality, it should be to take the body seriously: to pray not just with the mind and heart and soul, but also with the body; to be more aware of the body, our aches and pains, our exhilaration and energy.

The Word longs to become flesh again in you and me. Come let us adore him - in the flesh!

·        In what practical ways can you become more reverent toward your body? Speak to Jesus as the Word made flesh as you pray with this question.

Woman, Elder, Widow - Prophetess

December 30 – Sixth Day in the Octave of Christmas

1 John 2:12-17 / Psalm 96:7-8a, 8b-9, 10 / Luke 2:36-40

Woman, Elder, Widow – Prophetess

Anna has three things working against her, three things that Christ and his Church turn around to her blessing. First, she was elderly, and presumably coming to the end of her hope to see the promised Messiah. Second, as a widow for most of her life she would have been dependent on family for the basics in life. Third, she was a woman in a man’s world. These three characteristics are turned around and become good news for Anna.

First, as an elderly person Anna represents the long-standing hope of Israel for the promised Messiah. Here her age, representing her long wait, might at first evoke the frustration of waiting, but Luke uses Anna’s age as a symbol of the wisdom of waiting, and so she is an example of the Christian virtues of hope and patience.

Second, as a widow, Anna in her society would likely have been either pitied or exploited but not empowered. The prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures use widowhood to represent desolation and abandonment. In the Church the care of widows was important and they were given a special place in the community. Widows in turn devoted themselves to prayer. Anna embodies this ideal for Christians.

Third, as a woman of her time, Anna did not have a public voice, but women are featured in Luke’s gospel as faithful disciples having a proper place. Here Anna is placed alongside Simeon (whose canticle was featured yesterday). Much like the shepherds Luke tells us about earlier in the second chapter, Anna responds to Jesus by telling everyone about him, and so Luke calls Anna a prophetess. Only two other times in the New Testament are specific people mentioned as prophets – all of these occurrences are in Luke or Acts. In this passage Anna fulfills the two classic functions of a prophet: she speaks to God on behalf of the people to direct his care to them; and she is speaks to the people on behalf of God, to direct their lives to him.

Anna, the elderly widow, the woman, the prophet, spoke about Jesus to everyone she knew. From her humble position in society she was able to recognize and faithfully proclaim the most important message ever: our hope is realized; the Messiah is here!

• Who among your elders has helped you to live your faith more vibrantly and helped you to recognize Christ more clearly? Is there a woman who has been a light of faith to you? Pray to God in thanksgiving for these people.
• In your life what burdens have been turned into blessings?

The Basics

December 29 - Fifth Day in the Octave of Christmas

1 John 2:3-11 / Psalm 96:1-2a, 2b-3, 5b-6 / Luke2:22-35

The Basics

1 John informs us that we must live justly if we are to live with God. John’s message echoes what some scholars call the best summary of the message of the Law and the Prophets: “You have been told, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: Only to do the right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). John’s message is this: if you want to know God, keep his commandments. If you want to know Jesus, live as he lived.

·        What do you find challenging in Micah’s saying?

·        What do you find challenging in the passage from John?

·        How would you summarize what it means to keep the covenant or to follow Jesus?

Rachel at Christmas

December 28 – Fourth Day in the Octave of Christmas – The Holy Innocents

1 John 1:5—2:2 / Psalm 124:2-3, 4-5, 7cd-8 / Matthew 2:13-18

Rachel at Christmas

Watching the news around Christmas time can bring you down. I can’t remember the last Christmas that I didn’t see a tragic story reported. One year a devastating Tsunami hit the coast of India. Another year it was an earthquake in Italy. On the rare occasion that there is no national or international tragedy to report on or around Christmas, there is usually a more local one – the fatal car crash; the family home that burned down, etc.

Closer to home I inevitably hear of someone who has lost a loved one near the holidays. These public or private stories of shattered lives and darkened dreams fall upon the holiday season like a patch of dense fog or a dark curtain, obscuring the light of Christmas.

Today’s feast commemorating the slaughter of the innocent children of Bethlehem reflects the reality that time marches on not worrying so much about the celebrations by which we choose to mark it. The world spins the same as ever and tragedy is no respecter of holidays.

“The weary world rejoices” sings the Christmas Carole, but the nightly news heralds the same old song, chronicling and highlighting every woe, and, even as we recall how Innocence was born – or reborn – tragedy and suffering pay no heed, and respect not our holidays, dampening our cheer.

This feast, honoring Bethlehem’s unwitting martyrs, who had not even reached the age of reason, offers us no explanation for the cruelty of fear-enraged human beings or nature’s unbidden upheavals. These tragedies may cause us to question the validity of the hope we hold to as unwarranted and unworthy of our trust. But in exile Israel learned to hope.

I can think of no satisfying way to resolve the enigma of suffering that seems to mark Christmastime each year. These things happen at other times of the year too, but they feel all the more tragic for the triumphant feast on which they visit us. As we hold triumph and tragedy in tension during this season, perhaps we can gain insight into the way these two experiences intermingle during the rest of our year.

·        Imagine a painting with a left and a right panel – a diptych.

o   On the left side of the diptych imagine the scene of a woman, Rachel, weeping for loss of her children. See the emotion on her face, the tears coming down her cheeks: what is your feeling?

o   On the right side imagine an idyllic manger scene with Joseph looking harmoniously over the shoulder of the peaceful Virgin holding the infant Jesus out to us with his arms open, ready to be swaddled in our arms. What do you feel?

o   Allow Mary, Joseph and Jesus to interact with Rachel. What happens?

What Have We Seen, Heard and Touched?

December 27 – Third Day in the Octave of Christmas – John the Apostle

1 John 1:1-4 / Psalm 97:1-2, 5-6, 11-12 / John 20:1a and 2-8

What Have We Seen, Heard and Touched?

In this seasons as we find ourselves at the beginning of the story of Jesus we also find ourselves at two other beginnings. 

The gospel honoring John the Evangelist on his feast day brings us back to the beginning of the apostolic witness to Jesus. In this beginning John arrives before Peter at the tomb, entering after him and surveying what the Risen Lord has left behind, he sees with eyes of faith and believes. Thus this reading signals the beginning of belief in the Risen Lord.

It is from this “first seeing” that John bears witness, as written in our first reading today. The author testifies to what he has heard, seen and touched. In 1 John, the evangelist witnesses to what “was from the beginning…” but there is a second meaning here to “beginning.” It not only refers to the “beginning of all things,” as in Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1; it even refers to something beyond the new beginning of the Resurrection. It also refers to the beginning of faith that John’s listeners and readers placed in Jesus. It goes back to the birth of faith in John’s community, in John’s fellowship of faith.

When we hear this passage from John’s witness today, we should hear it addressed to yet another beginning: the beginning of our own faith in Christ, incarnate, risen and living among us. 

• If you were baptized as an infant and have no recollection of the event – nor even had a say in it – perhaps you could reflect on that time in your life when you consciously made the faith your own. What was the earliest moment you began to claim Christ and fellowship with his people as your own walk of faith?
• If you became a disciple as an adult, to whose witness do you trace your own awakening to faith? What were the gradual steps you took or the dramatic awakening you experienced? 
• Even those of us who were baptized as infants must credit human words, concrete moments and specific communities with being vessels of our coming to mature faith. What were yours?

Family: Become What You Are

The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph – A

Sirach 3:2-7, 12-14 / Psalm 128:1-2, 3, 4-5 / Colossians 3:12-21 / Matthew 2:13-15,19-23

Family: Become What You Are

Pope John Paul II wrote two rather involved reflections on the Christian family: Familiaris Consortio (The Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World, 1981) and A Letter to Families (in 1994, which the United Nations had declared the Year of the Family). Two of John Paul’s most significant points in these writings are: (1) the family is the school of life for all of us, and (2) if we want to find personal fulfillment, we must make a gift of ourselves to those around us, including those in our families.

John Paul reminds us that Jesus grew in wisdom, age and grace, and discovered the Father’s plan for him by belonging to the family of Mary and Joseph, by serving them, and by relying on them.  So too the Christian family ought to be a place where each member of the family is able to discover the Father’s plan for him or her, and so come to their full stature in the love of God. The Christian family holds such potential as the school of life for each of us, as the place where we are launched toward fulfillment.

Fulfillment does not come as a result of putting ourselves first, however. It is rather by becoming each other’s servants that we become our own masters.  In the give and take of family life we learn what it means to be part of something larger than ourselves. We learn that we do not always get our own way. We learn that we sometimes have to die to self so that others might come more fully to life.

John Paul urged the family: "Become what you are." Become the place of self-fulfillment through self-giving. Become the school of love for children and adults alike. Become the place where human beings grow to their fullest potential and become the very glory of the God in whose image they are created, reflecting all his splendor.

One way to gain a greater appreciation of the virtues that help the family become an effective school of life is to reflect on our passage from Colossians today. All those Pauline imperatives are the basis of self-giving that leads to self-fulfillment in family life:

   bear with one another;

   forgive one another;

   clothe yourselves in heartfelt mercy;

   put on love;

   dedicate yourselves to thankfulness;

   do everything in the name of the Lord, who is the head of every household.

Our families might do well to place this message among the pictures and to-do lists that serve as the collage on our refrigerator door – perhaps each family member could copy a line or two on fancy leaf of paper.

It would be well worth the trouble to write down these verses today and reread it repeatedly, committing it to memory and reminding ourselves what family is about so that we can become what we are!

·         Which of the qualities in Colossians do you most need to meditate on? Memorize two of the verses you most need to work on. Speak to Jesus, Mary and Joseph about them. Then make a plan to practice them with a member of your family this week.

The Lower Right Hand Corner of Our Lives

The Nativity of the Lord – Midnight

Isaiah 9:1-6 / Psalm 89:4-5, 16-17, 27, 29 / Titus 2:11-14 / Luke 2:1-14

The Lower Right Hand Corner of Our Lives

A few years ago, Richard Temple wrote an insightful article for Parabola magazine on a painting by Bruegel the Elder: Census at Bethlehem (1566). The painter offered his contemporaries insight into the events surrounding the birth of Jesus, and their own response to those events. Reflecting on the painting might also help us gauge our own response as we celebrate this feast of Christmas.

Temple points out that when we first look at the painting, we might not think its theme is religious at all. Bruegel’s sixteenth century Holland landscape features villagers going about their daily business. There are many people around an innkeeper anxiously waiting to make arrangements for a room; others in the background cross a frozen lake with heavy loads on their backs while still others play or work at their chores. In their routine they seem oblivious to what's going on in the lower right hand corner of the scene: a pregnant woman has arrived on a donkey led by her husband, but no one seems to notice.  

Bruegel’s message might be even more timely for us today than it was for the people of the sixteenth century. In twenty-first century America he might have painted a mall and a busy highway in the background, and an airport crowded with taxiing airplanes, arriving and departing. 

In the midst of so much hustle and bustle, will we be lulled into a state of unawareness? It's so easy to get caught up in the everyday things of our lives and miss the presence of Christ coming to us in very simple ways. We're bombarded with commercial messages of people who are understandably trying to make a living as merchants; trying to do what is reasonable to them; trying to do what they've always done. And that's the temptation at Christmas — to get drawn into business as usual — even holiday business as usual — the meal, the guests, the decorations, the gifts.

But the good news of Christmas isn't about hustle and bustle. Nor is it about the special fanfare, as Bruegel shows us by omitting the “angels we have heard on high” and the glitter and flash of Christmas trees and decked-out holly. Temple says that Bruegel invites us to ask a simple question: Am I the innkeeper? Am I so busy with the commerce of Christmas that I miss the promised child? Am I so busy playing host to others that I miss the one who wants to host me? Am I so busy with good intentions of gift-giving, that I miss the gift that God offers me in Jesus?

·         Sometime this Christmas Day – maybe this is it – take a quiet moment to step away from the festivities, and divert your attention from the guests and gifts to the “lower right hand corner” of your life, and notice the Virgin with child.  Come, let us adore him.

Family Tree, Tree of Life

The Nativity of the Lord – Vigil

Isaiah 62:1-5 / Psalm 89:4-5, 16-17, 27, 29 / Acts 13:16-17,22-25 / Matthew 1:1-25

Family Tree, Tree of Life

Tonight we hear about Jesus’ family tree, his ancestors from Abraham to David to Joseph, the husband of Mary. If each of us has some branches in our family tree we might like to lop off, no less so with the family tree of the Prince of Peace. They were as dysfunctional as any family could be. Some people in this lineage were kings, but not always the most noble of kings. They could be vain, corrupt and uninspiring souls. The women mentioned in this family tree are either outsiders or immoral.

Knowing this, why speak of this family tree on Christmas? Who would be proud of this corrupt, ill-willed, immoral, and all too real family? Isn’t Christmas supposed to be a time of idealism and polished presence — selfless people inspiring us to faith? This seems more like a tree that is rotting at the roots. How can a Savior arise from this stem to lead us to the Tree of Life?

Maybe the rottenness of this tree, or the brokenness of this family, is just the point Matthew is trying to make. And maybe it’s this brokenness and rottenness that Christmas is all about. Knowing Jesus’ dysfunctional band of ancestors cautions us against idealizing his family background. It can give us hope to think that grace came to us through such a household. If through them, can’t it work through the people in our families? Perhaps Joseph saw this dysfunctional pattern in his family being replayed in his own life: “I’m marrying someone who is unfaithful to me even before we get married. I’m repeating the mistakes of my ancestors.” Then the angel spoke: “Joseph, son of David have no fear about taking Mary as your wife. It is by the Holy Spirit she has conceived this child.”

God is breaking into the dysfunction of our lives to make us whole. There is the reason for hope. Jesus is not God who overrides the human will. Jesus is Emmanuel, God-with-us, God who knows what it’s like to be one of us. 

Perhaps our family trees would give Jesus’ tree a run for its money. No matter. If we follow the one who comes to us this Christmas, if we follow Emmanuel, he can turn our family trees into trees of life. He will make us sons and daughters of God. There is hope. There is the promise of Christmas: Emmanuel, God-with-us, Tree of Life.

·         Are holiday family gatherings a part of your Christmas tradition? Does seeing your family at Christmas make you uncomfortable? Or is it something you look forward to very much? How do you handle the embarrassing aspects of your family tree? Can you talk to Jesus about the family traditions you have, and how you feel about them? Can you imagine the Baby Jesus being held by each person at your family gatherings? Does seeing each person hold the Christ Child change your perspective?

The Vulnerable Word

The Nativity of the Lord - Day

Isaiah 52:7-10 / Psalm  98:1, 2-3, 3-4, 5-6 / Hebrews 1:1-6 / John 1:1-18

The Vulnerable Word

What’s wrong with the picture painted by John’s Prologue? There are no images of shepherds watching over their flocks by night, no stories of Magi visiting the infant Messiah, no holy family in the manger with animals, no choir of angels. Where are all the clues that we are celebrating Christmas?

These familiar images of Christmas over the years have reminded us of what Christmas is about: the babe who lies wrapped in swaddling clothes in the manger even now reveals the glory of God to us. But we find none of these familiar trappings in our Christmas Day readings. Shepherds and mangers and the census in the City of David are for Midnight Mass. For Christmas Day the Church holds before our eyes and ears the Word become flesh. Not a story of Christmas, but a reflection on the incarnation of God as we celebrate the Creator becoming part of creation: “In times past God spoke in fragmentary and varied ways to our ancestors through the prophets; in this final age he has spoken to us through his Son...” (Hebrews 1:1)

Maybe the Word became flesh because talk is cheap and we must put our lives on the line for what we believe. Too many times those who have said “My word is my bond,” have broken their bond, fractured their words. Broken promises lead us to conclude that “talk is cheap.” But the Word of God was not merely spoken through the prophets; in Jesus Christ, born this day, born for us, the Word has become flesh and dwelt among us.

Words are powerful. Fighting words provoke conflict; peaceful words make fences obsolete.  Complementary words have the power to lift our drooping spirits; critical words have the potential to destroy our self-image. Words from the heart express our feelings and make us vulnerable to one another; we let our guard down and let others in. This is the type of Word that became flesh in Jesus Christ, a word of vulnerability.

Today is the feast of the vulnerability of God. In Jesus God spoke to us, hoping for a hearing — hoping for a response. The Word of God echoes down the corridors of human history to our own ears and hearts today. “If today you hear the [Word of God,] harden not your hearts.” (Ps. 95:7) God has spoken to you, become vulnerable to you, taken a chance of being heard or rejected by you. Will you let his Word echo down the corridors of your life? Will you let Jesus echo in your heart this Christmas Day?  Will you let God fill your heart with love and reassure you that the child born for us today has made us all children of God?

·         Think of the last argument or fight you had: What were the words you said? How did they affect you and the person or people you argued with?

·         Think of the last time you said good things to or about someone: What were the words you said? How did they affect you and the person you were talking to? What are the last good words you heard someone say about you? How did they affect you and the person who said them?

·         In the last 24 hours, what words have stayed with you? Why? If you could change something you said in the last 24 hours, how would it be different?

The Gospel of Materialism

The Nativity of the Lord – Dawn

Isaiah 62:11-12 / Psalm 97:1, 6, 11-12 / Titus 3:4-7 / Luke 2::15-20

The Gospel of Materialism

Heresies are the truth distorted. Heresies take what is true the wrong way. Our society has its own versions of heresy at Christmas time: materialism. 

These cultural heresies arise from a very real need. Without the profits of the days between Thanksgiving and Christmas many merchants would be in the red for the year and many of their employees would be without work. So stores promote their goods in hopes of being in the black at the end of the season. Their advertisements assail us constantly inviting us to indulge our desires and see our wants as needs. Most of us indulge to one degree or another.

But the truth is that the spirit of Christmas is in fact about materialism because it is about the Word made flesh. The incarnation is God’s materialism. As Paul’s letter to Titus puts it, it is about the kindness and generous love of God appearing. It is about mercy being made manifest.

The gospel passage from Luke holds the true message of Christmas. Angels promote the message to the shepherds who are drawn close to the savior who has drawn close to us. They in turn promote, proclaim what they have seen and heard and so captivate and amaze their audience. 

Perhaps if we could promote the real materialism of Christmas – the incarnation – the truth could be reclaimed and proclaimed again today.

• Call to mind (or hold in your hands) one of the Christmas gifts you have received. As you think of it, or look at it, remember who gave it to you. Consider what that person means to you and pray for him or her. 
• Consider the true message of Christmas, the glad tidings shared by angels and shepherds. How would you have told the shepherds if you were among the angels appearing to them? If you were one of the shepherds, what would you have said to the people of Bethlehem about the child you saw? What would be your Christmas commercial? How would you promote the birth of Jesus?

The Hearts of Fathers Turned to Their Children

Advent Weekday – December 23

Malachi 3:1-4, 23-24 / Psalm 25:4-5ab, 8-9, 10 and 14 / Luke 1:57-66

The Hearts of Fathers Turned to Their Children

When Zechariah expressed his incredulity at the message the angel delivered to him while on duty in the temple of the Lord, it may have been a matter of considering the message too good to be true. There were obvious odds of age and infertility that had to be overcome. Considering the situation who could fail to understand Zechariah being slow to believe? 

As a consequence of Zechariah’s disbelief he was mute until the birth of his son. In this time of silence, what might he have reflected on? Was he dumbfounded for the whole nine months? Did he alternate between skepticism and belief daily or weekly? Did the first sign of pregnancy turn his heart back to the angel’s message in a nine-month long silent “Amen”? Or did his response to the angel echo in his heart until the first cry of his son, or the quarrel over his name? And did Zechariah feel so embarrassed by his unbelief that he was confused about his feelings regarding coming into fatherhood for the first time when his peers were grandparents or great grandparents?

And what was Zechariah’s disposition toward his son? Was he looking forward to this bouncing baby boy? Was he awed by the responsibilities of fatherhood at an advanced age? Had he begun to hope and dream about the boy’s future? And, if he had, were these dreams shaped my by his long-standing traditional hopes, or by the message of the angel? 

Whatever the interior life of Zechariah was like in those nine months, his heart turned to his son at his circumcision and he gave him the name John, as the angel had told him, despite the protestations of friends and family. Zechariah may have been the first to fulfill the prophecy we hear in Malachi today:

Lo, I will send you

Elijah, the prophet,

Before the day of the Lord comes…

To turn the hearts of the fathers to their children,

and the hearts of the children to their fathers…

·        What will turn our hearts to our children today? Will it be something more than the items on their Christmas lists? Will it be a sense of duty? A sense of love? What do we need to do in order to assure that our children fulfill their mission today? 

It's Not About Me

Advent Weekday – December 22

1 Samuel 1:24-28 / 1 Samuel 2:1, 4-5, 6-7, 8abcd / Luke 1:46-56

                                                                             

It’s Not about Me

Who would not be amazed at Hannah in today’s first reading? She is one of Elkanah’s two wives. Peninnah, Elkanah’s other wife had several sons and daughters, but Hannah remained barren, and so was ridiculed by Penninah. Hannah went to the temple at Shiloh where Eli served as a priest, and prayed that her barrenness would be taken away, that she would conceive a son. She promised the Lord, the child would belong to him all of his life.

In today’s reading Hannah brings the weaned child Samuel to the temple at Shiloh and keeps her promise to the Lord. Hannah is his mother, but she will not raise him. She has left him at the temple to be raised in the presence of Ark of the Covenant, and there Samuel will find his special role in the history of Israel to anoint the first two kings: Saul and David.

We might be amazed at Hannah’s actions, but the author of 1 Samuel does not focus on her, but on what her child will be. We don’t know if Hannah had any other children so that Penninah would not ridicule her further for giving away her one son, but what pride Hannah could take in that son and who he would become even if no one understood what she was doing at the time.

Hannah’s song of praise, used as the responsorial psalm in our liturgy today, is the basis for Mary’s Canticle found in today’s gospel passage. It is a song that looks beyond the great things God did for Hannah, removing her shame as a barren wife, and praises God for his many salvific actions in the history of her people.

Like Hannah’s song, Mary’s canticle, though it begins with, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord… all generations will call me blessed,” it quickly turns to the larger picture of what her child would mean for her people. The reason for her praise is the child she has been given. Mary’s song recognizes that God’s promise reaches far beyond her and will effect so many. She praises God that the effects will be felt for many, many generations.

Whereas Hannah’s child, Samuel, would anoint the first two kings of Israel, Jesus, Mary’s child, would be the promised Messiah (anointed one). The focus is not on the singer of the song, be she Hannah or Mary. The focus is on the action God has taken on behalf of his chosen people. If you asked Hannah and Mary, both of them would say, “It’s not about me.  It’s about my son.”

·        If you were to write a modern day canticle along the lines of Hannah and Mary’s songs, what would you praise God for? What is the greatness of God that your soul would proclaim? As you write, try to remember: it’s not about you.

Reacting to Our Lover's Song

Advent Weekday – December 21

Song of Songs 2:8-14 OR Zephaniah 3:14-18a / Psalm 33:2-3, 11-12, 20-21 / Luke 1:39-45

Reacting to Our Lover’s Song

My first job was at a clothing store. Almost every day as I punched in Mario, one of the salesmen, would see me and break into a few lyrics or whistle the melody of “O Danny Boy.” While Mario had a lovely voice, and the song itself is beautiful, I really hated it. Even when my mother would play her organ at home and get to “O Danny Boy” in her medley of tunes I would go up to my room to get as far away from the song as I could. To this day I find the lilting notes of “O Danny Boy” annoying.

That is not the type of reaction the beloved had in the Song of Songs when she heard the sound of her lover’s voice or the thump of his footsteps. That is not the reaction of the remnant of Israel to the song Lord sang over them with gladness and joy in the alternative reading from Zephaniah.

In the Song of Songs the response is one of a lover’s longing being fulfilled. In Zephaniah the response is of a tired and weary but faithful people finding relief, rescue and redemption. The approaching feast of Christmas is about both of these reactions. As the invisible God is made visible, the longings of our human hearts are realized and all we could hope for in love is fulfilled; as the carol goes, “the hopes and fears of all the years are met” in Christ. 

The gospel speaks of still more leaping and rejoicing as John stirs in the womb of Elizabeth at the sound of Mary’s greeting. As Elizabeth speaks the words that have become part of our Marian devotion, “…blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb…” she is recognizing the fulfillment of Israel’s longing for its lover and savior. Elizabeth concludes with “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled…” Can we too count ourselves as blessed in our faith? Do we imitate the faith of Mary who believed the Lord’s word?

·         When was the last time you were filled with “joyful hope,” even excited anticipation, for a time to pray to God (to meet God)?

·         Imagine visiting Elizabeth and having her describe what it felt like to have her baby stir in her womb at the sound of her cousin Mary’s greeting.

·         Imagine a cousin or friend saying to you what Elizabeth said to Mary, “Blessed are you who believed that what the Lord said to you would be fulfilled?”What feelings and thoughts arise in you?

·         What has God promised to you that you look for? Is your response to God’s word more like the lover in the Song of Songs or like the remnant in Zephaniah?

The Spirit of Advent

Advent Weekday – December 20

Isaiah 7:10-14 / Psalm 24:1-2, 3-4ab, 5-6 / Luke 1:26-38

The Spirit of Advent

I wonder what the “overshadowing” of the Holy Spirit was like for Mary.

In the beginning, as God created the heavens and the earth, a mighty wind swept over the waters (Gen. 1:2). Some translations say the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. I picture this mighty wind doing for the first time what it would later do at the story of the Red Sea, as the waters are driven all night by a strong east wind, creating dry land for the Israelites to pass over, escaping the Egyptians (Ex. 14:20). In the beginning of the Church, the Pentecost event, Luke tells us that the Spirit came like a strong driving wind over the apostles and Mary, and empowered them to gather the nations into God’s kingdom (Acts 2:1-11). 

But what was this overshadowing Mary experienced? Overshadowing seems so much gentler than a mighty, strong, driving wind. It seems more like the breath Jesus breathed to inspirit his disciples on that first Easter morning, when he instilled his peace in them, and gave them the power to forgive sins (John 20:22-23). Perhaps Mary was there in John’s gospel as she was in Luke’s version of the bestowal of the Spirit; after all, she had already experienced this power, this overshadowing in a unique way.

I imagine that this overshadowing was imperceptible to her. After all, as the angle of the sun changes and shadows lengthen and shorten, often we are in the shade for a while before we know it. We only realize we are getting warm again once we have been back in the sun a while. Perhaps this overshadowing wasn’t so noticeable to Mary as a rapidly dried up riverbed, or a headwind that literally takes your breath away. 

“What was it like?” is a question that is open to much speculation on our part, be our focus on Creation, Exodus, Annunciation or Pentecost. But the question we would do well to focus on is, “What is the experience of the Spirit’s power — subtle or unmistakable — like in our life?”

·         What is your experience of the Spirit? 

·         How or when have your experienced

o   the strong driving wind over you, bringing you to life?

o   the freeing wind of the Exodus?

o   the strong driving wind of Pentecost sending you forth?

o   the gentle breath of God giving you peace or forgiveness?

o   the overshadowing of the Spirit recreating the life of Christ in you? 

The Forgotten Character

Fourth Sunday of Advent - A

Isaiah 11:1-6, 10 / Psalm 24:1-2, 3-4, 5-6 / Romans 1:1-7 / Matthew 1:18-24

The Forgotten Character

Joseph is perhaps the most forgotten character in the stories of Christ's conception, birth and childhood. We remember Mary his Mother, and the angel Gabriel who announced Christ's birth. We remember the shepherds and magi who came to offer him homage. But what about this man Joseph? The one who led the mule and the expectant mother to the city of his ancestor, David, and gave the child the name Jesus?

As we look at the story of today's gospel, it might seem that Joseph wouldn't mind being forgotten. Finding that his fiancé was pregnant by someone other than him, Joseph considers quietly, inconspicuously divorcing Mary. Being an upright man, he did not want to bear the shame his culture would heap on him as the husband of an unfaithful wife. Being a compassionate man, he did not want Mary to suffer the shame their culture would heap on her. Perhaps by divorcing her quietly, he figured she could settle somewhere else with relatives far away and people there might think she was an unfortunate widow whose husband had died soon after they married. In that way they would take pity on her rather than chastise her. Of course, in times before alimony and child support, divorce would still leave her and the child among the most disadvantaged of their society.

Yes, looking at the story from Joseph's perspective, it seems he might want to be a forgotten character in this tale. His plans for marriage were not turning out as he had hoped. So he would opt out of these plans and set off in a new direction, or so he thought until that dream.

God revealed to this just and upright man that what was going on with his fiancé was all according to plan. Joseph may have wanted out of this plan, but for God, Joseph was an integral part of it. For Matthew, Joseph taking the Mother and child into his home and treating them as his own was enough to place Jesus in the line of David, the one through whom the Messiah would come.

Joseph is an important example for us. How often have we made plans or gotten into situations that just haven't turned out the way we had hoped? We think to ourselves, what am I doing in this place and how do I get out of it? But do we really listen to God? Are we open to hearing God's angel in a dream or even a passing conversation, assuring us that what we want to abandon is really part of God's plan and we are integral to it? Are we open to praying for God's wisdom in situations that aren't quite what we want them to be? Do we realize that we are part of a larger whole, part of God's overall plan, and if we opt out of it, something will be missing, and we ourselves will be much the worse for it?

We all have times and experiences we would rather forget. There are stories that people tell, and sometimes we wish we weren't a character in those tales. But we must realize that God also has a story to tell and though we might rather be forgotten in that story, God has a special place for us in his plan, and without us something essential will be missing.

·        What is God's plan for you? Are you willing to dream God's dream?

Dreams and 180 Degree Turns

Advent Weekday – December 18

Jeremiah 23:5-8 / Psalm 72:1-2, 12-13, 18-19 / Matt. 1:18-25

Dreams and 180 Degree Turns

Who knows what Joseph’s dreams were like before the angel of the Lord appeared to him in one of them? Had he ever acted on what he had seen or heard in a dream before this?

People of all cultures have long revered dreams as bearers of deep meaning. Today there are many who hold dreams to be meaningless gibberish resulting from random firing of neurons. Some hold that they are affected by what we ate before going to bed. Others research what happens in REM sleep and tell us that dreamless sleep fails to be restorative. There are special dictionaries and websites dedicated to explaining the archetypal symbols we encounter in dreams. 

Every now and again I have a vivid dream which I am able to remember beyond the first few groggy squints of my day. The ones that stay with me most are the ones in which I can’t seem to find something or someone, and the ones in which I can’t seem to get ready or arrive on time. I have made some efforts to reflect on my dreams and what they might be telling me. But I don’t ever recall having changed my plans because of what I have reflected on. 

In Matthew’s Christmas story this dream has a decisive effect on Joseph. The dream brings Joseph’s plans to a screeching halt. He makes a 180 degree turn. Whatever Joseph would have done once Mary and her child were part of his past we do not know. But what he did because of a dream was to become part of a miracle. 

·        Have you ever experienced a 180 degree turn in your plans? If so, what brought you to this turn about? How does it relate to your relationship with Jesus?

·        In what aspect of your life would you like to make a 180 degree change today? What will it take to make that happen?

Family Tree & Cosmic Wedding

Advent Weekday – December 17

Genesis 49:2, 8-10 /Psalm 72:1-2, 3-4ab, 7-8, 17 / Matthew 1:1-17

Family Trees & Cosmic Weddings

My brother keeps a family tree. He has traced the family back both on his wife’s side and on our side. For many people tracing their lines of descent is a hobby, a pastime. For the Israelites and the early Jewish Christians it was much more than a pastime, much more than pedigree. It was a matter of salvation. The Israelites were the chosen people, the people God had selected in order to let his light shine through them so all the world would be drawn to him.

Jesus is more than an heir of all Israel’s hopes; he is more than its long-awaited messiah. Jesus is the very embodiment of what faithful Israel was called to be: the people in whom God’s glory was shown to the world.  

Jesus is more than the promised child for the people of the Promised Land. He is the Word-made-flesh we hear about in John’s Gospel; he is the very embodiment of what all Israel, and indeed all humanity, has always really longed for: the wedding of corruptible human flesh and incorruptible divine love.

·        Look back on your lineage. Who in your family nurtured the faith you have today? What would you tell this person about their hope and about yours?

·        Can you see yourself as an heir of the people mentioned in today’s gospel? If you were to be swept up into another dimension and meet one or two of them, what would you tell them about their hope and about yours?

One semester of MSW Program at Bidgewater State University down. Three to go. Thanks to Profs. Tan, Reulbach, Bailey, Hogan and Holmes for a challenging semester of growth and learning.
Go class of 2012!

What's There to See in the Desert or at Church?

Third Week of Advent - Thursday

Isaiah 54:1-10 / Psalm 30:2 and 4, 5-6, 11-12a and 13b / Luke 7:24-30

What’s There to See in the Desert or at Church?

When they went to the desert to see John, many went to see someone confronting demons – someone telling it like it is. And they found it! They went to have their hearts revealed. And they repented. They went to have their lives renewed. And they were changed.

The Pharisees seem to have gone to the desert to see what everyone else was going for. They went self-assured that they knew what ought to be done by any self-respecting Jew. They were not open to John, but maybe a little curious about him. Jesus was not only open to him, he was schooled by him. Some scholars say that Jesus’ baptism by John implies that at one time he was a student (a disciple) of John’s, that he learned John’s understanding of God and what God was doing now. Jesus bought into it. The Pharisees did not.

Jesus, like John the Baptist, his teacher, expected that God would soon judge the world. Both Jesus and John announced that judgment. And in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection that judgment was executed. That judgment was forgiveness. Perhaps John didn’t fully expect that to be what God’s winnowing fan would do. Or that mercy would be the result of God’s ax being laid to the tree trunk. The austere John may have reacted with surprise to the fullness of God’s plan, but the Pharisees could tolerate neither Groom Jesus nor Best Man John; they could not rejoice in the wedding of the Creator and creation in Jesus. 

• When you go to Church, what do you go to see – what draws you there – what motivates you to go? Are you ever surprised by what you see at Church? Is this surprise part of the Good News that the Pharisees resisted, and that surpassed even John’s expectations for what God was (and is) doing in Jesus? As you reflect on today’s readings, do you identify more closely with John, his listeners, or the Pharisees? Why?

Checking Our Expectations

Third Week of Advent – Wednesday

Isaiah 45:6c-8, 18, 21c-25 / Psalm 85:9ab and 10, 11-12, 13-14 / Luke 7:18-23

Checking Our Expectations

Sometimes we don’t know what to expect. We accept an invitation to a party with people we don’t know too well. We join a new ministry at the parish. We take a job with a new company. We move to a new house or a new community.

Usually there comes a point when things are not going quite the way we had planned or expected in this new house, job, community, or at this strange party. At those times we begin to wonder what we are doing there, and just what we got ourselves into. John the Baptist has reached that point in his Messiah-waiting ways. He took the risk of his vocation and his expectations of the Messiah. He thought it was Jesus. But now he has his doubts. Maybe it’s the pressure of prison life that has caused him to re-evaluate his opinion of Jesus. Maybe he’s wondering if doing hard time for the sake of the kingdom is worth it all. Who knows what is going through John’s mind as he sends his envoys to Jesus?

As a season of preparation, Advent is a natural time to look at what kind of Messiah we expect to come into our lives this Christmas – and every day.

Christ continually disappointed, or perhaps exceeded, people’s expectations of him. Sometimes our hopes and expectations are just not what God has in mind. With these differing expectations we can limit his work in us. But we can periodically check on what we expect from God and Christ to see if these expectations are reasonable, Biblical and authentically Christian.

·         What do you expect of God and Christ?

·         Do your expectations of God limit the Spirit’s work in you, or open you to it?

Who Is Missing?

Third Week of Advent – Tuesday

Zephaniah 3:1-2, 9-13 / Psalm 34:2-3, 6-7, 17-18, 19 and 23 / Matthew 21:28-32

Who Is Missing?

There are some things I read in the Bible that confound me. Pharaoh’s obstinance in the face of the ten plagues is one. The chief priests and leaders of the people failing to recognize the Messiah when he came is another. 

The chief priests assumed that certain people (e.g. tax collectors and prostitutes) were beyond the pail of righteousness. Yet in Jesus and John the Baptist they see these very people responding to God’s word and changing their lives. When the people respond, the chief priest and elders fail to see that God is at work. 

The reading from Zephaniah speaks of the humble and the lowly taking refuge in the name of the Lord, of their being impeccable in word and deed. It was just such people that Jesus and John were gathering in their ministries. It is just such people who were changing their lives in response. It makes me wonder what the chief priests thought their role was. Had they given up on the unrighteous?

It makes me pause and examine my own expectations of who I will see in Church next time I go. Do I expect that God is going to bring in a few people who haven’t been there before? How would he do that? Does he want to use me to draw them in? Who is missing in my parish community? 

·         Are there particular people you have given up on spiritually? In light of today’s readings, are you willing to reconsider?

·         Do you think you know better than God who belongs in Church? Consider who you exclude that God wants to include.

Light and Love

The fourteenth of December is the feast of St. John of the Cross.

   You will not take from me, my God, what you once gave me in your only Son, Jesus Christ, in whom you gave me all I desire. Hence I rejoice that if I wait for you, you will not delay.
   With what procrastinations do you wait, since from this very movement you can love God in your heart?
(Sayings of Light and Love, 26)

By Whose Authority?

Third Week of Advent – Monday

Numbers 24:2-7, 15-17a / Psalms 25:4-5ab, 6 and 7bc, 8-9 / Matthew 21:23-27

By Whose Authority? 

While I suspect the reading from Numbers is included in the Lectionary for Advent because of its reference to the king rising higher, his royalty being exalted and the star advancing from Jacob and the staff rising from Israel, I see a connection between Jesus’ authority being questioned in the gospel and the introduction to each of Balaam’s prophecies.

Balaam speaks as one “whose eye is true… who hears what God hears and knows what the Most High knows… who sees what the Almighty sees… with eyes unveiled.” In other words, Balaam has an intimate knowledge of God’s designs for Israel’s future. Balaam thus has a claim to authority based on his prophetic experience of God and his role to speak to the people on God’s behalf. 

When the chief priests and elders of the people ask Jesus about the source of his authority they are doing so as those who hold positions of authority, as religious and political leaders. But who is Jesus to teach and to cleanse the temple? Jesus’ authority rests on his relationship to his heavenly Father. He speaks as one who not only knows the designs of the Father intimately, but who is himself the plan of God. Whereas things have been revealed to Balaam, Jesus himself is the revelation God is showing the people. It’s not that Jesus brings a message from God; he is the message. What greater authority can there be?

• People in authority and leadership have the responsibility to help people conserve the truth as it is handed down, and integrate new insights as appropriate. This is a difficult task at times. Take time to think about who has helped you to understand Jesus and our traditions about him, and pray for those people.

A Christian Bucket List

Second Week of Advent – Saturday

Sirach 48:1-4, 9-11 / Psalm 80:2ac and 3b, 15-16, 18-19 / Matthew 17:9a, 10-13

An Advent Bucket List

In August of 2008, David Freeman, co-author of the book 101 Things to Do Before You Die, passed away from an accidental fall at his home in California at the age of 47. His book laid out a list of travel destinations and activities he and co-author, Neil Teplica, wanted to visit or do before they died. Freeman managed to accomplish nearly all of them. 

The movie, The Bucket List and a number of other books and websites also offer lists and descriptions of things to do before dying. They include anything from setting foot on all seven continents to skydiving, learning to juggle, getting your novel published and climbing Mount Everest. 

I wonder what a Christian “bucket list” would look like. No doubt, experiencing a deep personal conversion would be on the list. Perhaps some would list reading the entire Bible. Others might include making pilgrimages to the Holy Land, Rome and other sacred places. Maybe you’d include playing a key role in someone’s conversion to Christ and the Church.

But in light of today’s readings about Elijah, the prophet of fire

     – his words a flaming furnace,

        who three times brought down fire from heaven,

        who went up to heaven at the end of his earthly life in a chariot with fiery horses –

we might put at the top of our list, lighting the fire of faith within us. 

A story of a desert father might inspire an item for our list: Abba Joseph was visited by a man who sincerely wanted to grow spiritually but was frustrated with his slow progress. He prayed and fasted, lived in peace with others and kept close watch over his thoughts. He asked Abba Joseph what else he could do. Joseph raised his hand, and flames began to flicker from each finger as if they were candles. Joseph said to his aspirant “If you wish, you can become all fire!”

Elijah and John the Baptist were not people of half-measures, but were full of fiery zeal. Our preparation for Christ during these Advent days must be focused on becoming ready for the light of the world, and preparing a suitable place for the light’s flame to burn. Advent is about lighting the candle within and fanning the flame to full blaze as did Elijah, as did John the Baptist, as did Abba Joseph, so that it shines in all that we say and do.

• Light a candle – perhaps your Advent wreath candles – and focus on the flame for a few moments. Imagine that your soul is like that candle. What do you need to do to light the inner fire of faith in Christ and fan it to full blaze?
• What is on your “bucket list” from a faith perspective?