Thursday, December 29, 2016

The Fifth Day within the Octave of the Nativity of the Lord

(I John 2:3-11; Luke 2:22-35)

A biblical scholar once ignited a holy man’s ire by calling John’s letters, “New Testament baby-talk.”  The scholar meant that John’s letters possess simplicity and directness as if they were written for children.  We see this in today’s first reading.  “Whoever loves his brother remains in the light...,” John writes, “Whoever hates his brother remains in darkness...”

John does not have enemy-love in mind here as if he were challenging Arab Christians to love soldiers.  Nor does he mean exactly that Christians have affection for blood brothers and sisters.  He is simply reiterating Jesus’ commandment to his community of disciples that they love one another.  It may sound easy, but hard feelings can sprout like weeds in a cow pasture when humans get together.  Disputes have originated among Guadalupanas and among Knights of Columbus as if these associations were different bands of pirates searching for the same treasure.  Most everyone feels frustration, envy, and even enmity with his or her associates at times.  John is saying that we must let go of these troublesome sentiments and treat one another with respect.

John would be oversimplifying if he meant that we may limit our love to those with whom we go to church.  Certainly such love for brothers and sisters in the religious or parish community teaches toleration, care, and compassion so that we in turn may love even those who hate us. 

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Feast of the Holy Innocents, martyrs

(I John 1:5-2:2; Matthew 2:13-18)

In Europe you might find your car’s tires without any air today.  Or perhaps there will be three pizzas which you didn’t order, delivered to your door.  The Feast of the Holy Innocents is Europe’s equivalent to the American April Fools Day.  It is a time to play practical jokes on good-natured people.

Some may be shocked by the European frivolity on a day that memorializes the slaughter of children.  Perhaps Holy Innocents Day jokesters just take to heart the belief that the infants have gone to God.  “So why not rejoice?” they might ask.  Somehow, however, that is just too casual an attitude.  It fails to consider the grotesque injustice of the blood of children.  It mocks, for example, the outrage at a public policy which permits abortion on demand.  It begs the question, “Why be born at all?”

Catholics educated before Vatican II easily recite the answer to this last question.  We live “to know, love, and serve God in this world and to be happy with him in the next.”  The tragedy of children dying, then, is the irreversible equivalent of their minds being wasted.  Dead children cannot come to know God very well.  Yes, they should receive the beatific vision. And there might be something marvelous about seeing God through children’s eyes.  But just as the art connoisseur will appreciate aspects of a Rubens painting that completely escape the uncultured so growing in wisdom should make us more enthralled at God’s glory.  It is good to grow old if we accordingly grow in wisdom.  Reciprocally, it is a tragedy when we die young.

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Feast of Saint John, apostle and evangelist

(I John 1:1-4; John 20:1a.2-8)

Once a disillusioned pilgrim returned from the Holy Land lamenting the conditions he encountered.  Not only was there strife between Jews and Arabs, but hawkers constantly besieged him with souvenir trinkets.  Even in Bethlehem, where Jesus was born on a serene night, he found conflict.  The man marveled at how times had changed since the serene night when the animals crowded around the infant Jesus to give him warmth.  However, he only had to read the Scriptures closely to realize that trouble is nothing new to the area.

Although the Gospel of Luke depicts a tranquil setting for Jesus’ birth, there is much evidence of conflict in New Testament times.  In John’s gospel Jesus conducts a running debate with the Jews who try to kill him.  The Letters of John report a feud between the community of the beloved disciple and a secessionist group who apparently believed that morals do not matter.  Of course, there is the acrimonious debate between Jesus and the Pharisees which is believed to reflect trouble between the first Christians and their Jewish countrymen.

In spite of all this conflict, the writer of the First Letter of John offers a testimony of hope.  Much more than a dream or vision, his testimony involves a living human being whose countenance he saw, whose voice he heard, and whose body he touched.  We do not look to this one so much for deliverance from the pressures of life.  Rather we count on him for the courage to address our problems with justice and justice.  

Monday, December 26, 2016

Feast of St. Stephen, proto-martyr

(Acts 6:8-10.7:54-59; Matthew 10:17-22)

“Is it an accident…,” St. Thomas Becket asks in his Christmas sermon according to playwright T.S. Eliot, “that the day of the first martyr follows immediately the day of the Birth of Christ?”  Not at all, he goes on to say.  Martyrdom is the design of God to draw humans back to the love which the birth of Christ reveals.  In other words, the Church proposes today’s Feast of St. Stephen as a reminder that Christ was born to die out of love for the world.

Although many households take down their Christmas lights today and stores haul out Valentine decorations, the Church does not intend that her members go back to life as usual.  Rather, she wants them to realize that they are being called deeper into the mystery of holiness which does not shun the world but seeks to sanctify it. 

Celebrating what is good and expressing sorrow when the good is thwarted by evil, we Christians show others of God’s care for all.  Christmas festivities will continue until the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, but we should temper them by understanding how material substances are readily corruptible while virtue lasts forever. 

Friday, December 23, 2016

Friday of the Fourth Week of Advent

(Malachi 3:1-4.23-24; Luke 1:57-66)

In Luke’s gospel John the Baptist clearly takes the place of Elijah, the prophet of fire. At one point, John warns the people that unless they reform, they will be cut down like trees and burned.  In this way John goes before the Lord, as his father Zechariah proclaims in his song of jubilation at his naming, “to prepare his ways.”

Jesus will not take up John’s message of the primacy of divine wrath.  Rather, his preaching will center on God as the human’s benefactor.  Although Jesus will not shrink from mentioning God’s power to cast sinners into hell, he will stress God’s tender mercy.  God, he will say, has counted the number of hairs on each faithful person’s head to insure her or his total salvation.  

Since love can be looked upon as a kind of fire, we might contrast John’s theme with Jesus’ using the same image.  Fire can destroy dispassionately as well as purify with all compassion.  John, following Elijah, will use the threat if not the force of a blazing fire to warn us of the danger that dissolute living incurs.  In contrast God’s love, incarnate in Jesus, burns like a surgeon’s laser beam not harming but healing us.