Dec 25 - Christmas Day

Today we celebrate the birth of the impossible, the nativity of the improbable: the coming to our earth of God-as-Man. “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us!” (Jn 1:14)

You know how when we are excited about something, we exclaim our joy by saying: “OH” – i.e. “O My Goodness” “O For Heaven’s Sake” even “O God” or when communicating to a person: “O Mary, O John” that was so nice of you! Well the same thing happened when the Great Drama of our Salvation quickened its pace and its heartbeat in this last week before Christmas:

We have just concluded the O Antiphon Series at the daily Evening Prayer of the Church (Vespers)  for the past seven days announcing the Royal Titles of the coming Messiah: (in joy we cry out): O Sapientia, O Adonai, O Radix Jesse, O Clavis David, O Oriens, O Rex Gentium, O Emmanuel: translated: O Wisdom, O Lord, O Root of Jesse, O Key of David, O Sunrise, O Sovereign of the nations, O our God with us – and now today we extend the “O sentiment” three steps more: O Great Mystery, O Wondrous Exchange, O Come let us adore him, Christ the Lord!

The text: O Great Mystery (Magnum Mysterium) is part of the celebration of the Midnight Hour (Matins) of the Divine Office for Christmas Day: O great mystery, and wondrous sacrament, that animals should see the newborn Lord, lying in their manger! Blessed is the Virgin whose womb was worthy to bear the Lord Christ. Alleluia.

For centuries, composers have been inspired by the beautiful text depicting the birth of the new-born King amongst the lowly animals and shepherds. It is a fitting affirmation of God’s grace to the meek and the adoration of the Blessed Virgin.  We will hear a majestic version sung by the Southwest Seminary Oratorio Chorus as our communion meditation at this Mass – Morten Lauridsen’s rendition soars to the height of the radiant star of Bethlehem. It is a truly stunning piece.

The central “O phrase” for our celebration today, however, and fodder for our spiritual Christmas pondering is this: O Wondrous exchange!

The Creator of human nature deigned to take on a human body and soul, and be born of the Virgin. He became man without having a human father and has bestowed on us His divine nature! O Wondrous exchange!

This, of course, is incomprehensible without faith – God’s own light-giving gift – the inner light of our souls, the warm glow of our hearts! With faith this exchange is beheld as an awesome event: God shares in our humanity, and we begin to share in his divinity! O Wondrous exchange!

God is now capable of suffering, capable of expiating (making up for) our sins by His sufferings, and of healing us by his humiliations!  Blessed be God forever! O Wondrous exchange!

We must participate in this exchange through faith. And the astounding gift the Christ child has for us in this exchange is that those who receive him by believing in Him have the power to become children of God – brothers and sisters of the Lord – and coheirs with him of an everlasting Kingdom. O Wondrous exchange!

And so then, come, O come ye joyful and triumphant ones, come ye poor and displaced ones, come ye homeless and ye starving, come ye jobless and ye overburdened, come ye politically enslaved and ye voiceless, come ye marginalized and downtrodden;  come ye young and ye old, come ye sick and infirm: come to Bethlehem and behold the King of angels; behold your Lord and your Friend, come as shepherds came, leaving their flocks, drawing nigh to gaze, with them to adore him with wonder, to embrace him with love, to reach out to him with hope  – and your life will never be the same again!

May the Spirit of the lowly, tiny and o so loving Child in the Animal’s Manger permeate your heart and soul, both now, this Christmas Day, and forever! Amen.

Dec 22 - Fourth Sunday of Advent

+ It is almost time, it is almost here, the glorious Feast of Christmas this year! We have spent weeks preparing both spiritually and materially! We have prepared special gifts for people we love, or even perhaps people we don’t even know – more, maybe, this year than in others. But the one question remains: what are we going to give Jesus, the center of it all, on his birthday? What could we possibly give to one who is a God – Man – Baby?

I can give you a hint as to what he would really like from us: it cannot be bought, it cannot be wrapped, it cannot be transported from place to place – but it would delight him more than anything in the entire world to receive it from us:

it is a more deeply conscious spiritual understanding of what his whole coming to earth was all about in the first place! If Jesus, where he is now – at the right of the Father - could see into our minds and hearts and find “quantities of the knowledge of the mysteries that he came to share with us” – a deeper grasp of them, a better handle on them – then he would “leap and dance for joy” that “another one FINALLY GOT THE MESSAGE,” finally began to appreciate what his coming to earth was all about, finally began to allow it to make a difference in the way they live their daily lives – in the way they help one another out, from the heart!

A very big birthday present from us, then, would have to be for us to sit in silent and quiet meditation, when he arrives in the mangers of our churches throughout the land on Christmas Eve, and for us to say – especially after receiving him in Holy Communion – I GET IT! I GET IT, JESUS! I BELIEVE IN YOU WHO HAVE COME FROM GOD TO SAVE ME FROM MY SINS AND GIVE ME EVERLASTING LIFE. I TRUST YOU ABSOLUTELY FOR EVERYTHING! AND I LOVE YOU, REALLY LOVE YOU, WHO ARE SO CLOSE TO MY HEART, WITH ALL I’VE GOT!

 And I will prove my love, Jesus, by living a changed life, especially caring for all brothers and sisters of the human family you place in my path who need my help.

There is still time to think and pray and study and gather more information about Jesus the Person – before Tuesday evening – so that we can give him our whole being: mind, heart and soul on that Christmas Eve night – and he can give to us his entire self, for always – just as he delights in doing, always!

The time has come: let Him enter, the Lord; for he is king of glory!

Dec 20 - 3rd Week of Advent - Friday

+ The overriding theme for today’s readings is of the seeming impossibility of the sign of a “virgin with child.” How can this be? A virginal mother?? But it could be. [For nothing will be impossible with God]. And in fact, it was so. In the same way, the seeming impossibility of the removal of Adam’s sin could in fact be a reality, because of the “child of the virgin!”  

In our series of “O Antiphons” recited as the “Alleluia Verse” before the gospel these last days of Advent, today we consider “O Key of David, opening the gates of God’s eternal Kingdom: come and free the prisoners of darkness!” These “O phrases” are ancient titles of the coming Messiah, they indicate some of the activity that he would initiate when once he arrived.

Today, then, we have the seeming impossibility of the release of prisoners condemned to live in darkness; this darkness and captivity was set in place by the free-will choice of our father in the flesh: Adam, and his wife Eve. Their wrong choice thrust them and all their descendants according to the flesh into an infernal place of wailing in the dark – and the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven were closed against them even if they could be freed.

But the glorious Key of David: the Lord and Messiah of David’s Royal House, Savior and Friend, Jesus Christ came to “turn on the lights” and to open the prison doors and the gates of heaven all at the same time – but by the price of his own self-sacrificial death on a cross. Praise be Him!

We thank this precious Key, we worship this Key, we adore this Key who in his infinite wisdom and love did what was required for our salvation! And we pray that we can help others use this wondrous Key, turn the lights on in their own lives, and finally end up with us in a heavenly kingdom with gates thrust open to receive us!

O Key of David, come and free us all: the prisoners of darkness

Dec 15 -3rd Sunday of Advent

+ The disciples of John the Baptist propose a very simple and profound question to Jesus: Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another? It is easy for us who have two-thousand years of Church history with its preaching and teaching to say: of course, yes, he’s the one; he is the long-awaited Messiah; he is the great reconciler and redeemer of mankind. But then again, since so much time has passed since the arrival of that Messiah, reconciler and friend it seems also easy for many to forget the depth of significance of that coming, to forget that Jesus came to change our lives entirely, that he came to be the Way, the Truth and the Life: the only way, truth and life that leads to anywhere of import.

It seems that many compartmentalize Jesus and look to him for certain things only, like a kind of Santa Claus to whom they can make lists of wishes, but look to others and other things: look to government, politics, education, jobs, and self-made projects - for more practical results.

Until we look for Jesus for everything, then we are not really seeing him at all clearly, seeing him in his power, in his glory, in his grace, in his mercy, in his providential care. It is only he ultimately who can make the blind (both physically and spiritually) regain their sight, the lame walk, the lepers be cleansed, the deaf hear and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.

This is what Jesus told the disciples of the Baptist: go and tell John what you see and hear: JESUS, THE MESSIAH IS HERE FOR YOU AND YOUR SALVATION: ALL OF IT!

There is a deep longing in the hearts of men and women and children for healing and strength and wholeness and forgiveness for wrongs done. These same people know that this salvation cannot be produced or manufactured or legislated by human will; it can only be a gift freely received by God who freely gives it to those simply ask for it: and that can be everyone!

God wants all to experience joy and gladness; God wants sorrow and mourning to flee; thanks be to this God and Father, Son and Brother, Spirit Giver of Life and all good things.

Amen.

Dec 12 - Our Lady of Guadalupe

+ Today we celebrate the four apparitions (between December 9 to 12 in 1531) of the Blessed Virgin Mary to an Amerindian, Juan Diego, on Tepeyac hill outside of Mexico City, ten years after the defeat of the Aztec Empire at the hands of the Spanish conquerors. A painted, life-size figure of the Virgin as a young, dark-skinned American Indian woman with the face of a mestizo was imprinted on Juan Diego’s cloak. The image gave Indians the assurance that Christianity was not only the faith of their European conquerors, but a faith for them also; indeed, that Mary, the Mother of God, was loving and compassionate toward them.

In 1754 Pope Benedict XIV authorized a Mass and Office to be celebrated on December 12 in Mexico, under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and he named Mary as patron saint of New Spain. She was designated patron saint of all of Latin America in 1910, and as “Queen of Mexico and Empress of the Americas” in 1945 by Pope Pius XII. Pope Benedict XVI declared this day a Holy Day of Obligation in Mexico, and extended the feast to the universal church.

Today we celebrate the simplicity and the faith of the woman who was clothed with the sun, having the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars: intercessor and friend and mother to all God’s children, including most especially we remember this day, the poor and the lowly of Latin America. Her greatness comes from her faith, her trust, her loving choices and her self-sacrificial life-style: may we imitate her today, and invoke her aid both for ourselves and our loved ones; and may we proclaim her greatness, not because we are forced to, but because we want to, because we love her – who is seated now beside the Great Intercessor Himself.

You are the highest honor of our race – Holy Virgin Mary!

Dec 9 - Immaculate Conception - transferred

+ Today we celebrate the fact that from the first moment of her existence in the womb of her mother, Ann, the Blessed Mother of God was preserved from the effects of original sin by means of a singular privilege and grace from God, granted in view of the merits of Jesus Christ her own future-coming Son. From the first moment of its existence, Mary’s soul was filled with sanctifying grace. She had at least the graces of the first Eve before the Fall and more. This privilege was befitting the one who was to be the mother of the Redeemer.

This doctrine was held in differing degrees by both East and West from the ninth century. The feast was originally known as the Conception of Ann, and celebrated on December 9, but finally the doctrine was defined formally and assigned a permanent feast day by Blessed Pope Pius IX, December 8, 1854, in accordance with the texts of Scripture: “I will put enmities between you (the serpent) and the woman, and your seed and her seed”; and “Hail, full of grace.”

 What is more, this doctrine is established by living tradition, by the writings of the Fathers, by feasts observed in honor of this prerogative, and by the general belief of the faithful. The apparition of Mary to Catherine Laboure in Paris in 1830 and to Bernadette Soubrious in 1834 prompted devotion to Mary as the Immaculate Conception. And at the First Council of Baltimore, held in 1846, the U.S. Catholic bishops chose Mary under her title of the Immaculate Conception as the patron saint of their (our) country.

It is Mary’s complete openness to God’s love, God’s gifts and God’s graces that we celebrate today, as well as her sublime status as “woman of absolute faith”; when we utilize fully what the Church has given us by means of life in the Body of her Son – cooperating in faith with graces freely given us - we experience with her the sublime confidence, joy and peace that she always had.

Hail, Mary, full of grace! Pray for us now and at the hour of our death

…and pray for our nation, dear Mary, please pray for our nation, which is dedicated to your patronage under this very title of Immaculate Conception, and which is in perilous danger now, as well as is the world, if swift and decisive changes for the better are not made in Washington, DC, immediately!

Amen!

Dec 8 - 2nd Sunday of Advent

+ The Baptist’s cry is familiar to us all: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand! His is the voice crying out in the desert of two thousand years of longing: prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths – for he is very near! Very many in John’s time did heed his voice, and come to him for the baptism of repentance, but many did not heed his voice, and did not prepare the way and when the Lord finally came they did not even notice – except to count him an impostor.

For us, two thousand years from the time of John the Baptist and the historical Jesus – we still need to be reminded to prepare the way of the Lord, and to make straight his paths as we take our turn to watch spiritually for his first coming – so that we can enter more deeply into it this year; and as we wait for his future coming when he will come to inaugurate the new heaven and the new earth as he said he would; but we must also prepare ourselves for Jesus to come to us every day as we pray, as we attend Mass, as we study holy things, as we help one another out in his name.

In living from day to day we must judge wisely the things of earth and use and engage in only those things that will advance the coming of the Kingdom of God in its fullness. We must produce the fruits of good works as evidence of our desire to repent and change our lives for the better.

If we live “advent lives” day in and day out, then it matters not what day the Lord does comes again, for we shall be ready! And all those who believe in him and can prove it by works of love will be greatly rewarded!

Prepare the way of the Lord; for all flesh shall see the salvation of God!

Dec 6 - St Nicholas

+ Today we celebrate the feast of a priest, an abbot and a bishop all found in the person we know of as St. Nicholas of Myra, Lycia (modern Turkey). This iconic figure, Nicholas of Myra, enjoyed a reputation for piety and pastoral zeal. He was imprisoned during the Diocletian persecution in 303, and was later present at the Council of Nicea (325), where he joined in the condemnation of Arianism, the heresy that denied the full divinity of Christ. Nicholas was very generous to the poor and special protector of the innocent and wronged. Many stories grew up around him prior to his becoming associated with Santa Claus. For example:

·       Upon hearing that a local man had fallen on such hard times that he was planning to sell his daughters into prostitution, Nicholas went by night to the house and threw three bags of gold in through the window, saving the girls from an evil life. These three bags of gold, generously given in time of trouble, became the three golden balls that indicate a pawn broker’s shop.

·       He raised to life three young boys who had been murdered and pickled in a barrel of brine to hide the crime. These stories led to his patronage of children.

·       During a voyage to the Holy Lands, a fierce storm blew up, threatening the ship. When Nicholas prayed about it, the storm calmed – hence the patronage of sailors and dock workers, and those who work on the sea.

Nicholas died of natural causes in 346 at Myra, but his relics were moved to Bari, where a basilica was built to honor him.

St. Nicholas was one of the willing disciples Jesus mentioned in the gospel today: both Jesus and his disciples were prophesied by Isaiah to bring release to prisoners, comfort to the afflicted and spiritual insight to those who were morally blind; a true disciple goes where he is told and does what he is specially equipped by the Spirit of God to do: Nicholas had his talents and gifts: we have ours: we must use them generously to bring love, and peace and justice to the world we find ourselves living in. May we do so this day, strengthened by this Eucharistic feast we celebrate in honor of the truly generous Nicholas of Myra!

The Lord sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor and to proclaim liberty to captives.

Dec 5 - 1st Week of Advent - Thursday

+ There are two brief motifs in the readings today:  the first is that for those who trust in the Lord – really trust in him – their lives feel as secure as a strong city set up with high walls and ramparts for protection; like a nation – of those who keep faith – who are kept safe in the peace of God.

The gospel passage is a slight variation of that theme: those who hear God’s words and actually keeps them – are like those who build their own houses on rock – on a high mountain – safe from all intruders (rather than on the sand of worldly allure and empty promises).

Not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” to me will end up in the kingdom: that is, not everyone who says “I am a Christian, see, I do all kinds of good deeds and go to church”! As Pope Francis said in his mass this morning: being a Christian means quietly going about the business of loving and serving others in the name of God – and not “strutting our stuff”!

May we not strut today – but be genuine, authentic Christians who trust in the Lord, have faith in him, and demonstrate that faith by good deeds done for love of him – this is the best way to prepare for Christmas.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Dec 4 - 1st Week of Advent - Wednesday

+ Our readings today are about God feeding his people with what they need to live, not necessarily with what they think they might like to have. Unless we invoke the name of God in our designing and planning then we are bound to get it wrong, we will take unnecessary steps, and will expend energy and resources wastefully.

God has already planned the menu, he has already designed the banquet hall and hired the band, he has already invited the guests – all we have to do is to willingly, cheerfully and lovingly cooperate with him – attend his feast, participate – and all will be well. This is no way limits our freedom or creativity – but it gives it a safe arena in which to work and prosper.

The mountain of the Lord of Isaiah’s reading, and the mountain on which Jesus taught the crowds in the gospel passage are virtually the same mountain, the same eternal source of God’s rich, resplendent, plentiful resources to give his people the basic elements of what they need: the bread of life, and the cup to warm their hearts and to bring good cheer upon the earth: the same elements he will change into his own Body and Blood to be the food of our everlasting life!

Thank you Lord, for the love with which you look out for us your children; thank you for the meals you provide, may we go out from them strengthened always to do your will, and your holy will alone – which is none other than to live fully this here, this now in your JOY!

Behold, the Lord comes to save his people (to give them hope); blessed are those prepared to meet him.

Dec 3 - 1st Week in Advent - Tuesday

+ On this second weekday in the Advent season we are asked to behold the Lord who will come in power to enlighten the eyes of his servants. “Enlightening the eyes” refers not to the physical eyes of the body, in this context, but rather the spiritual eyes that must be as functional as possible, so to guide us safely through life.

We must remember at this early point in retelling the Jesus story that Jesus fulfilled all of the prophecies and lived a very exact and profound and self-sacrificial life not for himself but for us, and as a model for us when we are asked to do as he did.

And so in the first reading Isaiah prophesies that the one who has sprung from the root of Jesse will have the Spirit of the Lord rest upon him, and that he will receive seven gifts from the Spirit, noticeably the same seven that disciples and followers of Jesus receive on entering the Church and who are confirmed: the Spirit of wisdom, and of understanding; of counsel and of strength; of knowledge and of fear of the Lord and a holy reverence for all things.

The one who first receives these gifts – Jesus – will inaugurate the new kingdom where there is peace, even among the animals, with the wolf being a guest of the lamb and the leopard lying down with the kid. It will later be up to us, who possess the same gifts to continue that presence of peace and harmony by our own inner and outer attitudes and actions.

St. Luke tells us in the gospel passage that the true realities of the faith-life are comprehensible beginning with the childlike; the learned and the clever often-times get too caught up in the academic nature of things to simply believe in what cannot many times be seen. Especially at this time of the year, children can teach us all a lot about that as the Spirit of Christmas begins to manifest itself through them.

May we spend this day in wonder and awe – using the gifts of the Spirit for the benefit of others and the glory of God; he will be pleased and he will enlighten our eyes to see justice flourishing in our time!

Dec 1 - 1st Sunday of Advent

+ I hope that one movie presentation still lives in the hearts and memories of many generations of men, women and children: And the movie is the Rodgers and Hammerstein blockbuster presentation of THE SOUND OF MUSIC. In the production, Mother Superior encourages soul-searching postulant Maria to search for her life, to “climb every mountain ‘til she finds her dream:” until she finds God’s will and is “intent on doing it with all her heart.” This Maria does and finds a life beyond anything she could have imagined.

Our first reading today invites us to “climb the Lord’s mountain” to the heights of Zion – because from there we will hear instruction, and the word of peace that is to be proclaimed to all the nations – and that peace is none other than the coming Prince of Peace, Jesus the Lord.

Whenever we come into a church or a chapel we climb the mountain of the Lord – to hear his words of peace and encouragement, to be fed by his spiritual energy in sacramental form, so that we can come back down the mountain, go outside to our neighborhoods and live a changed life – for the good of ourselves, yes, but more importantly for the good of our families and every person we run across on any given day!

As we begin, once again,  the Advent season today: let us awake from sleep – let us be attentive to what we do in this place, even moreso this coming liturgical year – for our salvation – the completion of our salvation - is closer than it was last year.

Only God the Father knows when he wants us all to join him – in the meantime – let us never cease giving him glory and praise and thanks – in all that we think, say and do in our ordinary activities, because this is what he wants of us and this is what we will be doing when we get there anyway!

“How you solve a problem like Maria,” is to set her free to be what God intended for her to be all along; may we search for and find what God intends us to be all along – even before we experience the fullness of it in heaven!

Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.