Friday, December 20, 2019

Friday of the Third Week of Advent

(Isaiah 7:10-14; Luke 1:26-38)

The infancy accounts in the gospels of Matthew and Luke differ significantly.  In Matthew, Joseph receives the announcement of the angel that the savior is to be born.  In Luke, as seen in today’s gospel, it is Mary who is so addressed.  In Matthew, Joseph and Mary live in Bethlehem and go to Nazareth only after Herod’s attempted genocide.  In Luke, they live in Nazareth and go to Bethlehem to register in a census.  There are quite a few other differences, but the two accounts converge at significant points as well.

Both Matthew and Luke describe Mary as a virgin who conceives by the Holy Spirit.  This article is not something that they made up or that one gave to the other.  No, they both received it from an older tradition. It is of great importance to Christian faith as it underscores that Jesus is the Son of God.  Mary gives him a human nature, but he retains his divine nature given from his eternal generation as Son.

“So what?” Some might ask out of ignorance.  The Son of God becoming human – the Incarnation -- gives history a new beginning.  Human beings are no longer destined to return to the earth forever.  Like Jesus, their forbear, they have an eternal destiny beyond the grave.  The result may be compared to the recreation of aviation with the jet engine. Flights on jets are so fast and go so far that few would consider taking a propeller airplane.   Similarly Jesus promises that those who connect with him will conquer sin and death.  “So what?” So we have the fullness of life!

Thursday, December 19, 2019

Thursday 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 best of people – she, gentle and caring, and he, responsible and understanding.  Raising offspring like themselves would not only fulfill their dreams but would likely provide good neighbors for a nobler society.  Why then does the Church condemn the use of in vitro fertilization as a way of helping barren couples to conceive?  Before trying to answer this question, it will be helpful to examine today’s readings.  They relate how the Lord responds to two barren couples who have desired children for years.

In both readings God grants the barren couples a son to further His special purpose.  Manoah and his wife will give birth to Samson who will defeat the enemies of God’s chosen people.  Zechariah and Elizabeth will give birth to John who will announce that the coming of God’s Son, the savior. 

God’s providence has a similar plan for each of us and for every couple.  The coming days of Christmas are a ripe time to discern that plan.  Providence also wants every human person to know that she or he is not a laboratory product but a creation by God through the natural love of parents.  Compassion, by definition, means to suffer with others.  Showing compassion to barren couples, we recognize their sense of loss with assurance of their goodness.  We also support their efforts to turn their barrenness into opportunities as God has planned.

Wednesday, January 18, 2019

Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent

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

Everyone dreams.  Not only that, but people have different kinds of dreams.  At night a person’s dreams contain the overflow of emotions experienced during the day.  If one was threatened during the day, the person may dream of being pursued by a ruffian.  Dreams during the day envision the culmination of one’s hopes efforts.  Martin Luther King dreamt of a nation which judges persons by their character, not skin color.  Today’s gospel tells of another type of dream, rare but not unheard of in salvation history.

Joseph, the husband of Mary, is not the first dreamer with that name in the Bible.  Joseph, the son of Judah, had dreams of his family submitting to his authority.  These dreams revealed the future of Israel.  The dream of Joseph in today’s gospel reaches even farther into the unknown.  It tells of how Joseph’s wife will conceive a child through the Holy Spirit.  The child will save people from their sins so that they may live holy lives. For this reason God will never leave His people.  Thus the child, named Jesus, may also be called “God with us.”  This dream is neither the overflow of emotion nor the high hopes of a people.  It is God revealing His audacious plan to give humans everlasting life.

We should never separate Christmas from the Easter event.  Jesus was born to suffer and die that sin and death might be overcome.  There is plenty of reason for joy in Christmas.  But there is also motivation to contemplate the ultimate purpose of Jesus’ birth.

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Tuesday of the Third Week in Advent

(Genesis 49:2.8-10; Matthew 1:1-17)

Most people find genealogies “interesting.”  They look for characteristics of earlier generations in later ones.  But this is not Matthew’s purpose in beginning his gospel with Jesus’ genealogy.  Rather he wants to how show God fulfills his promise to Abraham.  Abraham was to be the “father of many nations.”  That plan is realized when Jesus sends apostles to all nations making them one family.

The plan meets high hurdles at various points.  These are marked in the genealogy by the mention of women: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and the wife of Uriah.  These women were either foreigners or the wife of a foreigner.  But God has little difficulty integrating them into Jesus’ lineage.  Mary’s name is also given as the mother of Jesus.  Joseph, her husband, is not Jesus’ father although he provides his Davidic lineage.  It is learned a bit later that Mary conceived Jesus through the Holy Spirit.

We should see in the genealogy a model for how God works.  He has prepared for His Son’s coming into the world through Old Testament figures.  There are anomalies but nothing stops the continuity.  When Jesus is about to be born, something as wonderful as it is new happens.  Jesus is conceived of a virgin.  He is not only human but divine as well.  He is worth our full attention.  In the end we will see that he is worth everything we have.  He is worth our very lives.

Monday, December 16, 2019

Monday of the Third Week of Advent

(Numbers 24:2-17.15-17a; Matthew 21:23-27)

Christians have adopted Balaam’s prophecy in today’s first reading as referring to Jesus.  The king rising “higher” is Christ.  The one who is to come but “but not now” is the same.  Jews interpret the vision differently.  They understand the one who will have an “exalted” royalty as King David.  He is “not near” since he was born several hundred years after the prophecy. 

So why do Christians insist that they have the correct interpretation?  It is because Jesus has shown that he is the great king who has finally arrived.  By all he says and does in his ministry and most of all by his resurrection from the dead, they know that Jesus reigns forever.  As their sovereign, he will protect them from ultimate harm.

Today’s gospel shows the Jewish leaders trying to trap Jesus in his words.  They refuse to accept his kingly authority and try to prevent others from following him.  We also can withhold belief in Jesus by quibbling over the proper referent of Balaam’s prophecy or some such discrepancy in Scripture.  But surely the better alternative is to be like Matthew, the gospel writer, and the Christian community.  Accepting Jesus as Lord, we will put ourselves on a firm foundation of love and justice.  We will know the joy of being saved and of having eternal life as our destiny.