Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Tuesday of the Third Week of Advent

(Judges 13:2-7.24-25a; Luke 1:5-25)

We feel for couples who want to have children but remain barren.  Often they seem to be the most virtuous of people – she, gentle and caring; he, responsible and understanding.  Raising offspring like themselves would not only fulfill the couple’s desire but would also give hope to their neighbors for a nobler society.  Why, we ask, does God not grant them their continual prayer for a family?

Children, however, are not human property but belong to God.  They are born to serve His design for a more just creation.  In both readings today God grants the barren couples a son to further His purpose of preparing for the coming of Christ.  Manoah and his wife will give birth to Samson who will defeat the enemies of the Israelites among whom Jesus will be born.  Zechariah and Elizabeth will give birth to John who will announce that the Lord is at hand.  Does God take pity on these pious couples because they pray to Him?

Yes, we can be sure of that.  But we should not see their having children as God’s only answer to their prayers.  It is wiser to see Jesus as God’s response to all our prayers whether for children, a new job, or healing of disease.  He is the gift which makes life worthwhile.  He is our personal savior, who will yank us beyond death into eternal life.  He is also the model of justice and prudence which guide all earth’s peoples to peaceful coexistence.  Finally, he is the goal of the evolving universe who will bring heaven and earth together in harmony.

Monday, December 18, 2017

Monday of the Third Week of Advent

(Jeremiah 23:5-8; Matthew 1:18-25)

The elderly person had become wise.  She wanted to confess again the worst sins of her life along with a few current venial ones.  She mentioned the sins specifically and by number.  She knew that her time was limited -- perhaps months, not likely many years.  She was preparing to meet the Lord.  The gospel today tells us that accepting people like her is exactly Jesus’ mission.

In the first reading Jeremiah says that God will establish a righteous king who will call Israel from their exile.  The prophet has Babylon in mind, but the name of that city should be taken as a metaphor for all iniquity and sin.  Jeremiah is saying that the king will bring justification to God’s people for their sins so that they may re-enter the Promised Land.  Matthew in turn describes the son of Mary, whom Joseph shall raise, as that righteous king.  The son will have a royal lineage through Joseph.  His very name Jesus meaning the Lord Saves will reveal his mission of saving his subjects from the deadliness of their sins.

We celebrate Jesus’s birth to remind ourselves that he has come to take away our sins.  This is not a matter of “one size fits all.”  We must recognize the wrong that we have done and ask God’s mercy.  But this is all that we do along with having a firm intention not to sin again.  He will do the rest for us.  As king Jesus has the power to make our eternal glory a reality.

Friday, December 15, 2017

Friday of the Second Week in Advent

(Isaiah 48:17-19; Matthew 11:16-19)

Metanoia is the Greek word for repentance.  It literally means a change of mind.  Of course, metanoia is the great theme of Lent.  Nevertheless, both readings today convey the idea.

The reading from Isaiah promises abundance if the people would only follow the Lord’s commandments.   God will give them plenty, it says, but they have to obey His law.  Jesus sounds exasperated because the people always find a way to avoid the ways of righteousness.  His reference to John the Baptist’s ascetic lifestyle should be heard as a metaphor for John’s preaching “fire and brimstone.”  But the people ignored John anyway.  Jesus has presented the call to repentance in an opposing way.  His “eating and drinking” should be taken as proclaiming God’s goodness to those who turn to Him.  By suggesting God’s graciousness, Jesus echoes Isaiah in the first reading.  The people, however, still do not care.

The Christmas season serves as a testing ground for our repentance.  As everyone knows, it is the most materialistic time of the year.  If we have repented of the world’s ways, we will not desire to either receive or give luxurious gifts.  Our aim will be to welcome the Lord by showing kindness and joy to all.

Thursday, December 14, 2017

Memorial of St. John of the Cross, priest and doctor of the Church

(Isaiah 41:13-20; Matthew 11:11-15)

We want to believe that every bad experience we have will work out for the good.  If we suffer chronic pain, we want to believe that our trial builds up a spiritual depository of grace to help others.  If we have setbacks in our careers, we want to believe that we are being taught patience.  If a loved one dies, we want to believe that the person is better off with God.  But sometimes such tenets of faith seem illusory.  Sometimes it seems that we are just kidding ourselves.  Today’s patron saint, John of the Cross, coined the phrase “dark night of the soul” to describe this dismal condition of soul.

Some of the Jews in Babylon no doubt experienced exile as a “dark night.”  They could no longer live the law without being derided by their native neighbors.  One psalm shows them being bullied to sing happy songs from Israel.  Perhaps John the Baptist had a like disillusionment.  Imprisoned, he may have seen his own days coming to an abrupt end.  So he sent his disciples to Jesus asking if he might possibly be the prophet whom he was supposed to foreshadow.  It was a last ditch effort to make sense of his ascetic and now doomed public life. In today’s gospel Jesus gives part of his answer to John’s query.

He says that it is odd that God’s Kingdom of love suffers so much violence.  Nevertheless, he indicates, the tide has turned with his coming.  Those who know him have already experienced God’s mercy.  John and the rest of us in our lowest moments have to hold on and trust.  This is what Advent hope is all about.  In the year’s darkest days (in the Northern Hemisphere) we do not yield to the cold night but hang on and wait for God’s glory to shine.

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Memorial of Saint Lucy, virgin and martyr

(Isaiah 40:25-31; Matthew 11:28-30)

Most of the people who started Christmas shopping early probably feel fatigued these days.  There are so many people to please and so many options to consider that shoppers are bound to grow weary.  Purchasing gifts on-line has eased the burden.  Of course, buying gifts cards is a simple way out of the hustle.  Jesus in the gospel today proposes another solution.

He tells the people not to worry.  Their concerns about pleasing one another, even about procuring the necessities of life will be taken care of by relying on him.  “Take my yoke upon you,” he says, “and learn from me.”  His yoke is the law of love – to love God above all and to love one’s neighbor as oneself.  Sharing joy with both God and neighbor – and not trying to ingratiate oneself with others by bestowing gifts – results in a peaceful heart.

Christmas shopping has become a mania that jeopardizes the meaning of Christmas.  Black Friday has come to garner more interest than Good Friday.  But Jesus did not come to supplement our wardrobes, much less to jumpstart the economy.  He came to free us from selfishness which inhibits our going out to others in joy.