Monday, December 31, 2018

Seventh Day within the Octave of the Nativity of the Lord

(I John 2:18-21; John 1:1-18)

Remember the movies where the Anti-Christ was pictured as a super-suave, very evil-intentioned man?  He was revealed by the numbers “666” branded somewhere on his person.  That’s Hollywood.  In today’s first reading we find one of the four times “antichrist” is found in the Bible.  The other three are also in the Letters of John.  None describes a person of great evil.  All refer to people who have left the author’s community.  The situation is similar to what has happened throughout the two millennia of Christianity.  There are examples of it taking place today as well.

Many people are deeply offended by the way the bishops have handled sexual abuse of minors.  They are appalled of the cover-ups and the reassigning of molesters to other parishes. They certainly should expect behavior better than average by men who preach the gospel.  The fact that errant priests were reassigned often with professional assurance that they were not likely to commit the same crimes again should contribute to understanding how such a scandal could have arisen.  Fortunately, it must be said now, the abuse and certainly reassignment are phenomena of the past. A system of checks has been put into place to assure the protection of minors.

Some, whose faith is shaky, may have found in clergy abuse an excuse to leave the Church.  Hopefully, they will see the light and come back.  The light here is not some celestial luminary.  It is Christ himself.  He left the ongoing work of redemption in the hands of imperfect men.  Although by and large the men and women working in the name of the Church have sacrificed themselves for others, some have failed.  As we end one year and begin a new one, we pray that their sins may be repented and forgiven.  We also ask God’s help that such crimes will never blemish the Church again.

Friday, December 28, 2018

The Feast of the Holy Innocents, martyrs

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

The joy of Christmas never goes unmitigated.  On December 26, Catholics celebrate the Feast of St. Stephan, the first Christian martyr.  Stephan was stoned to death as he testified to Jesus’ glorification at God’s right hand.  The undercurrent of sorrow is even more pronounced today -- two days later – when the Church remembers the Holy Innocents.  As the gospel relates, these infants were slaughtered in Herod’s maniacal obsession to eliminate rivals.

The two sobering feasts of Christmastide remind people of the purpose of this great feast.  It hardly celebrates the glory of humanity – its capacity for virtue and autonomy.  Rather Christmas brings rejoicing because God has sent His Son to redeem humans from folly.  The Christ child is born not just to teach humans God’s holy will, but more importantly to die in satisfaction for their sins.  It is like the American missionary doctor in Africa who a few years ago contracted the deadly Ebola virus while working to defeat the disease. 

Yet there is no need for us to spend these days in mourning.  As St. Stephan and the Holy Innocents shared in Christ’s redemptive death, they have also participated in his triumph over death.  We believe that they are nearer to Christ in glory than we can be at the present time.  We now join their hymn of praise to God.  We also hope to stand among them sooner or later in eternal happiness.

Thursday, December 27, 2017

Feast of Saint John, apostle and evangelist

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

Some may be taken aback by the appearance of a resurrection account so near to Christmas.  But the resurrection is as much part of Christ’s story as his death forecasted yesterday on the Feast of St. Stephen.  It could be said “even more so” for Jesus was not born to die like other humans.  Rather from all eternity he was to rise from the dead as the Son of God.

Of course, it is the Beloved Disciple who takes center stage in today’s passage.  More than likely he did not actually write the Gospel according to John.  But he evidently provided many of the traditions on which it is based.  The reading testifies to how he believes without seeing the risen Christ.  In this he differs from the other disciples.  Later in the gospel Jesus will say to Thomas, “You have believed because you have seen me.  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”  The Beloved Disciple is the first person to believe in Christ’s resurrection without seeing him risen.

We follow the Beloved Disciple in due course.  Christmas could not ultimately be joyous with our belief in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.  It accomplished the victory over sin for which Christ was born.  Because of it we live in true freedom.  More wonderfully, Jesus’ resurrection has assured us of eternal life when we follow him.

Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Feast of Saint Stephen, first martyr

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

T.S. Eliot’s play Murder in the Cathedral tells the story of the martyrdom of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1170.  Half-way through the play, the archbishop delivers his Christmas sermon.  He tells the congregation that at Christmas mass not only the birth of Jesus is remembered but also his passion and death.  He adds that this dual remembrance indicates that the Christian life is neither pure joy nor pure sorrow.  Thomas goes on to ask, “Is it an accident … that the day of the first martyr follows immediately the day of the Birth of Christ?” Not at all, the Church deliberately places the martyrdom of Stephen on the day after Christmas to temper our celebration.  We must keep in mind that Jesus became human to sacrifice himself for others.

Unless people think that the dual sentiment is solely the invention of the Medieval Church, we can point to the same juxtaposition of elation and ominous sorrow in both Luke’s and Matthew’s Nativity accounts.  In Luke after Jesus is born his parents take him to the Temple.  There the holy man Simeon makes the foreboding prophecy that Jesus will be a sign to be contradicted.  In other words, Jesus will extend God’s love to people, but his offer will in some cases be brutally rejected.  In Matthew the horror is more evident.  Jesus’ birth occasions the jealousy of King Herod.  To eliminate his rival Herod has all male infants of the area two years or under murdered. 

We must take to heart the cross sentiments of Christian life.  Our happiest celebrations like a dear friend’s birthday should not ignore the fact that fellow humans are suffering often dire circumstances.  Similarly, our most intolerable burdens like the loss of a loved one should not go without faith in Christ’s victory over sin and death.  Christians are neither rosy-eyed optimists nor unrelenting pessimists.  No, we live both the death and the resurrection of the Lord deep in our hearts everyday.

Tuesday, December 25, 2018

The Nativity of the Lord (Mass at Midnight)

(Isaiah 9:1-6; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-14)

Historians do more than record the events of the past.  More importantly, they tell the significance of those events.  They put the events in context by relating them to other occurrences of the time.  They also give the meaning of the events to both the people of their time and the historians’ own times.  Of the four evangelists no one is more self-consciously an historian than Luke.  His historical consciousness is readily seen as he narrates the event of Jesus’ birth.

Luke begins his story by contextualizing Joseph, Mary, and Jesus in their time.  Caesar Augustus was ruling what seemed to be the whole world.  He had brought peace to the empire after almost a hundred years of civil strife. The great poet Virgil considered Augustus the epitome of the virtuous ruler.  Luke hints that Jesus will become an ever more glorious ruler.  He relates how the angels are singing in the heavens when Jesus is born.  "’Glory to God in the highest,’” they proclaim, “’and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.’"

We live in a world of continued conflict and often enough war.  The great powers – Russia, China, and the United States – show off their military might.  Civil wars in smaller nations like Yemen, Sudan, and Syria ravage populations.  Some ask: if Jesus is the great peace-maker, why does the world still experience such turmoil?  Our response will not satisfy every troubled heart, but it does fit our experience.   Jesus has brought a modicum of peace to the world.  He healed the enmity between Jews and Gentiles in antiquity, and his teachings continue to give pause to warring hearts.  He also moves us interiorly to reconcile with our enemies, our neighbors, and God.  His birth, which we celebrate with joy today, represents the beginning of eternal peace.