The Seventh Day in the Octave of Christmas
(I John 2:18-21; John 1:1-18)
Some people may find it curious that the Church ends the calendar year with a reading from the beginning of one of the gospels. However, those who remember the so-called Tridentine Mass will recognize the passage as the “Last Gospel.” It is still read at the closing of every mass celebrated according to the Tridentine rubrics.
The passage itself summarizes the story the whole gospel is about to tell. The Word of God, Jesus the Christ, existed before creation began and is the source of all creation. Although he is one with God, he came to live with humans so that we might share in the life of God. But like coyotes returning to their dens at sunrise, humans often reject the light of Christ. To those who brave the shame of having their sins exposed, however, Christ confers the grace of forgiveness.
Today is a choice day for going to confession. We want to end the old year reconciled for the mistakes we have made. And we want to begin the new year with a resolve to live in accordance with the light of Christ.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
The Sixth Day of the Octave of Christmas
(I John 2:12-17; Luke 2:36-40)
Two notes about the gospel passage today may serve as guidelines for the coming year. First, the evangelist Luke is typically gender-inclusive here. He has just finished telling how the holy man Simeon recognized Jesus as the light to the nations. Now he similarly relates how the prophetess Ana sees Jesus as the redeemer of Israel. Later in his gospel when Luke tells of God’s concern for the sinner, he compares God first to a shepherd searching for a lost sheep and then to a woman sweeping her house clean to find a missing coin. Likewise, when Luke describes Jesus describing how the Kingdom of God bountifully grows, he includes the story of a woman mixing yeast with flower in making bread along with that of a man planting a mustard seed in his field. We should similarly strive for inclusivity in our speech. God has made women and men as complements. The Church could not exist without the good-will efforts of both genders. It is a sin to deliberately disregard either.
Second, the prophetess Ana is said to live praying and fasting. She is obviously meant to be considered an ascetic, but this does not mean that we cannot imitate her. Indeed, regular fasting as well as praying will make us, like Ana, keen to the presence of God in our midst.
(I John 2:12-17; Luke 2:36-40)
Two notes about the gospel passage today may serve as guidelines for the coming year. First, the evangelist Luke is typically gender-inclusive here. He has just finished telling how the holy man Simeon recognized Jesus as the light to the nations. Now he similarly relates how the prophetess Ana sees Jesus as the redeemer of Israel. Later in his gospel when Luke tells of God’s concern for the sinner, he compares God first to a shepherd searching for a lost sheep and then to a woman sweeping her house clean to find a missing coin. Likewise, when Luke describes Jesus describing how the Kingdom of God bountifully grows, he includes the story of a woman mixing yeast with flower in making bread along with that of a man planting a mustard seed in his field. We should similarly strive for inclusivity in our speech. God has made women and men as complements. The Church could not exist without the good-will efforts of both genders. It is a sin to deliberately disregard either.
Second, the prophetess Ana is said to live praying and fasting. She is obviously meant to be considered an ascetic, but this does not mean that we cannot imitate her. Indeed, regular fasting as well as praying will make us, like Ana, keen to the presence of God in our midst.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
The Fifth Day in the Octave of Christmas
(I John 2:3-11; Luke 2:22-35)
A well-published scholar once ignited a holy man’s ire by calling John’s letters, “New Testament baby-talk.” The scholar only meant to say 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 Christians to love those who hate them. Nor does he mean exactly that Christians have to love 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 when humans associate. Disputes have originated in the Altar and Rosary Society and in the Holy Name Society as if these associations were different bands of pirates in search of the same treasure. Everyone feels frustration, envy, and even enmity with his or her associates at times. John is saying that we must overcome these troublesome sentiments.
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, respect, and compassion so that we in turn may love even those who hate us.
(I John 2:3-11; Luke 2:22-35)
A well-published scholar once ignited a holy man’s ire by calling John’s letters, “New Testament baby-talk.” The scholar only meant to say 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 Christians to love those who hate them. Nor does he mean exactly that Christians have to love 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 when humans associate. Disputes have originated in the Altar and Rosary Society and in the Holy Name Society as if these associations were different bands of pirates in search of the same treasure. Everyone feels frustration, envy, and even enmity with his or her associates at times. John is saying that we must overcome these troublesome sentiments.
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, respect, and compassion so that we in turn may love even those who hate us.
Monday, December 28, 2009
The 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 flat today. Or perhaps there will be three unordered pizzas delivered to your door. The Feast of the Holy Innocents is Europe’s equivalent to America’s “April Fools Day.” It is prime time to play practical jokes on good-natured people.
We may be shocked by the European frivolity on a day that remembers the slaughter of children. But 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 for many of us. It does not recoil at the grotesque injustice of the blood of children. It also begs the question: why live at all?
We all may be able to recite the answer to that question. We live to know, love, and serve God in this world and to be happy with him in the next. If this is so, the tragedy of children dying is, in part, the irreversible condition of their minds being wasted. Dead children cannot come to know God very well. Yes, they should receive the beatific vision in heaven. Now 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 then if we accordingly grow in wisdom. Conversely, it is a tragedy when one dies young.
(I John 1:5-2:2; Matthew 2:13-18)
In Europe you might find your car’s tires flat today. Or perhaps there will be three unordered pizzas delivered to your door. The Feast of the Holy Innocents is Europe’s equivalent to America’s “April Fools Day.” It is prime time to play practical jokes on good-natured people.
We may be shocked by the European frivolity on a day that remembers the slaughter of children. But 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 for many of us. It does not recoil at the grotesque injustice of the blood of children. It also begs the question: why live at all?
We all may be able to recite the answer to that question. We live to know, love, and serve God in this world and to be happy with him in the next. If this is so, the tragedy of children dying is, in part, the irreversible condition of their minds being wasted. Dead children cannot come to know God very well. Yes, they should receive the beatific vision in heaven. Now 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 then if we accordingly grow in wisdom. Conversely, it is a tragedy when one dies young.
Friday, December 25, 2009
The Nativity of the Lord
(Isaiah 9:1-6; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-14)
Costa Rica is a tourist hot spot. Now would be a good time to visit. The rains have ended, and fresh breezes sweep across the country. Beach water is always warm, and now there is a decent chance of seeing a night-time show of volcano-streaming lava. A distinct attraction of December, which you will not find in tourist guides, is the kiosks found in many commercial areas. The vendors sell locally made crèches with a variety of animals that go well beyond the traditional ox, ass, camel, and sheep. You will find ducks and geese, dogs and others. Animals take prominent place in our imagination of the first Christmas although not one is mentioned in the gospel other than the sheep which the shepherds tend in the fields.
We might ask ourselves then what put these animals in our heads. The answer goes beyond the idea of all creation worshipping its Lord. What conjures the presence of animals at that first Christmas is the insistence of the gospel writer that Jesus was laid in a manger, the farm animals’ feeding trough. The evangelist Luke is certainly sparse with details about Jesus’ birth. He does not give the hour or the weather. Nor does he say that the place of birth was a barn, a stable, or a cave. But he tells us three times within ten verses that Jesus was laid in a manger to remind us of something the prophet Isaiah writes at the beginning of his book.
Appalled by crying orphans and exploited workers, the prophet says, “An ox knows its owner, and an ass, its master’s manger, but Israel does not know (the Lord).” Isaiah, of course, lived twenty-seven centuries ago, seven hundred years before Jesus was born. Times then, like times now, were both good and bad. There was wealth, but it was unevenly enjoyed. There were armies, but Israel was being menaced by a powerful enemy to the northeast. The people brought offerings to the temple, but God was not impressed because of the lack of righteous living at home. By showing Jesus in a manger at which the shepherds of Israel arrive, Luke suggests that finally the situation has changed. The people now recognize their God just as the ox knows its owner and the ass, its master’s manger.
We also might ask ourselves if things now have reverted to the conditions of the prophet Isaiah’s time. Let’s not try to speak for the whole world or even for the United States. After all, neither claims to be the People of God. But as a church, do we take care of the poor, give God His due, and live righteously? Certainly not one hundred percent, but most of us try to live our faith. Catholics maintain soup kitchens and food pantries. One Catholic organization connects children in the third world to families in American parishes in a quasi-adoption relationship. This year in our diocese, as happens in many others, seven thousand Catholics are taking part in faith-sharing groups in order to know God better.
Yet we grumble. In one parish the people are upset with the pastor because their names acknowledging contributions for a new organ were posted too high on a wall for others to notice. Many of us seem unable to leave a conversation until we have added a critical remark. And some of us are even prone to curse the elderly driver moving cautiously in front of us. Jesus has come again to prune away these faults. He does it today just by showing himself to us as a baby whose image we might kiss and whisper words of affection to. These intimacies pledge our adherence to the demanding road of holiness he sets for us as an adult.
Put all the animals you find in Costa Rican kiosks at the Nativity scene. Add others – wolves, lions, and cobras -- to create another chapter of the same prophet Isaiah. When Immanuel – God-with-us – has come, “...the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid.” He’s here now to accompany us beyond the critical remarks of enemies. He’s here now to enable us to assist crying orphans and exploited workers. He’s here now so that we might know God better.
(Isaiah 9:1-6; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-14)
Costa Rica is a tourist hot spot. Now would be a good time to visit. The rains have ended, and fresh breezes sweep across the country. Beach water is always warm, and now there is a decent chance of seeing a night-time show of volcano-streaming lava. A distinct attraction of December, which you will not find in tourist guides, is the kiosks found in many commercial areas. The vendors sell locally made crèches with a variety of animals that go well beyond the traditional ox, ass, camel, and sheep. You will find ducks and geese, dogs and others. Animals take prominent place in our imagination of the first Christmas although not one is mentioned in the gospel other than the sheep which the shepherds tend in the fields.
We might ask ourselves then what put these animals in our heads. The answer goes beyond the idea of all creation worshipping its Lord. What conjures the presence of animals at that first Christmas is the insistence of the gospel writer that Jesus was laid in a manger, the farm animals’ feeding trough. The evangelist Luke is certainly sparse with details about Jesus’ birth. He does not give the hour or the weather. Nor does he say that the place of birth was a barn, a stable, or a cave. But he tells us three times within ten verses that Jesus was laid in a manger to remind us of something the prophet Isaiah writes at the beginning of his book.
Appalled by crying orphans and exploited workers, the prophet says, “An ox knows its owner, and an ass, its master’s manger, but Israel does not know (the Lord).” Isaiah, of course, lived twenty-seven centuries ago, seven hundred years before Jesus was born. Times then, like times now, were both good and bad. There was wealth, but it was unevenly enjoyed. There were armies, but Israel was being menaced by a powerful enemy to the northeast. The people brought offerings to the temple, but God was not impressed because of the lack of righteous living at home. By showing Jesus in a manger at which the shepherds of Israel arrive, Luke suggests that finally the situation has changed. The people now recognize their God just as the ox knows its owner and the ass, its master’s manger.
We also might ask ourselves if things now have reverted to the conditions of the prophet Isaiah’s time. Let’s not try to speak for the whole world or even for the United States. After all, neither claims to be the People of God. But as a church, do we take care of the poor, give God His due, and live righteously? Certainly not one hundred percent, but most of us try to live our faith. Catholics maintain soup kitchens and food pantries. One Catholic organization connects children in the third world to families in American parishes in a quasi-adoption relationship. This year in our diocese, as happens in many others, seven thousand Catholics are taking part in faith-sharing groups in order to know God better.
Yet we grumble. In one parish the people are upset with the pastor because their names acknowledging contributions for a new organ were posted too high on a wall for others to notice. Many of us seem unable to leave a conversation until we have added a critical remark. And some of us are even prone to curse the elderly driver moving cautiously in front of us. Jesus has come again to prune away these faults. He does it today just by showing himself to us as a baby whose image we might kiss and whisper words of affection to. These intimacies pledge our adherence to the demanding road of holiness he sets for us as an adult.
Put all the animals you find in Costa Rican kiosks at the Nativity scene. Add others – wolves, lions, and cobras -- to create another chapter of the same prophet Isaiah. When Immanuel – God-with-us – has come, “...the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid.” He’s here now to accompany us beyond the critical remarks of enemies. He’s here now to enable us to assist crying orphans and exploited workers. He’s here now so that we might know God better.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)