The Epiphany 2020

The epiphany (2020)

(Isaiah 60:1-6; Ephesians 3:2-3, 5-6; Matthew 2:1-12)

In the Eastern Church today’s solemnity of the Epiphany of Our Lord has precedence over Christmas, whereas for us in the West, Christmas Day is the greater celebration; and the reason for this diversity is that these two solemn celebrations are complementary

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At Christmas we celebrate God’s inconceivable humility and wondrous goodness whereby His only-begotten Son puts on human flesh, becoming Himself fully and truly human in His divine Sonship, in order to involve Himself with us totally – sin alone excepted -- for a right understanding and resolving of the mess into which we had got ourselves and our world by deliberate and wilful sinning against God.   And that Christmas awareness of such amazing humility and goodness on God’s part is both a constant reminder of the ugliness and folly of our pride, and a persistently loving provocation to recognize and respond to the  beauty of His Son-among-us, and learn from Him to renew something of the original beauty of our creation by humble gratitude and trust as children of God in the Son sent to be our Saviour.

On Christmas Day we recalled the words of Elizabeth to Mary our Mother: 

Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled (Luke 1:45);

and we too, as her true children, at Christmas renewed the sincerity of our belief in Jesus our Lord and Saviour and the simplicity of our trust in God’s promises for our salvation.

At the Epiphany, however, we rejoice in the divine glory manifested in the earthly life and being of Him Who, though coming as Saviour, deigns to be like us:

As an Infant, Who, like some uniquely wondrous lodestone, draws the heavens (planetary movements of those times being apparently confirmed by modern computer simulation) and the Magi (men guided by their learning in science and philosophy and deeply motivated by their sincere religious commitment) from lands afar, to His crib in Bethlehem;

At His baptism, when His humility before John opened the very heavens, calling forth a divine witness as the Spirit descended upon Him like a dove, and the Father proclaimed Him to be His own beloved Son;

At the wedding in Cana, where as a passing guest He changed, at His mother’s instigation (!), water into rich and copious new wine; His power there being manifested and matched by His divine awareness, human generosity, and filial compliance. 

All these resplendent signs of His human majesty, glory, power, and compassion, give us unshakeable confidence that what He has promised, He can and will fulfil in and for His Church throughout the succeeding ages of her public proclamation of, and Spirit-guided witness to, His Good News, and for all His true disciples as they try to live their personal lives according to His teaching and for the praise and glory of His most holy Name. 

For us, therefore, who are disciples of Jesus, there should be a more than worldly, human, joy when we celebrate the birth, the majesty and power, of Jesus, because His Kingdom is not of this world, as He Himself said.   As you all are well aware, though human joy is most desirable, experience does -- at times -- show it to be equally unreliable; again, worldly joy can change some people into louts and hooligans even more easily than it makes others into happy and generous companions; and when circumstances change, such joy can quickly disappear, leaving behind it corrosive complaint rather than grateful and calm peace. 

Jesus the Lord triumphed for us by overcoming death and destroying the rule of sin in our flesh, and His renewed coming this Christmas season is a confirmation of His  promise that He will share His triumph with all who put their faith, and find their joy, in Him, becoming one with Him through baptism and the Eucharist.  His victories are eternally valid; for, in His Resurrection and Ascension human flesh has once again been restored to heaven and is now, indeed, at  the right hand of the Father in glory; and He, the Risen Son of Man, is both willing and able to triumph over the darkness of sin and ignorance, not only in the world around us, as was shown by His bringing to naught the schemes of that cunning and murderous tyrant, Herod:

Arise, shine; for your light has come, the glory of the LORD has dawned upon you. Though darkness covers the earth and thick clouds the peoples, upon you the LORD will dawn and over you His glory will be seen;

but also, in our own very intimate, complicated, and shadowy, minds and hearts.

Just as at Christmas we rejoiced and renewed our humble and grateful trust in the promises made to us in Christ, in accordance with the teaching of St. Paul who most emphatically teaches us (2 Corinthians 1:20) that:

However many are the promises of God, their "Yes" (is) in Him; therefore the Amen from us also goes to God for glory;

even so now, on this feast of the Epiphany – a word which means the shining-forth, manifestation, of the glory of Christ – we should exultantly rejoice, and stir up anew the confidence which heaven alone gives, as the prophet Isaiah proclaimed:

Then you shall see and be radiant, your heart shall throb and overflow.  For the riches of the sea shall be poured out before you, the wealth of nations shall come to you.

Grateful trust and sure confidence, humility and power, patience and vigour, joy and peace, each is so necessary for, and all are so beautifully complementary in, the fulfilment of our Christian vocation and personal calling, just as Christmas and Epiphany are equally essential for the fullness of our appreciation and liturgical celebration of Jesus, perfect God and perfect Man, coming to serve us as our total and unique Saviour.

And so, though the deep darkness of human sin is so evident in the world around, and even though our own souls may know too much of its oppressive shadow at times, nevertheless, His glory will appear for those who firmly believe His promises and confidently commit their lives to His most loving, and supremely powerful, Providence.

Therefore, People of God, I urge you in this holy season to discover deeper peace by confirming your trust in Jesus’ promises, and to renew your confidence by stirring up your joy, as you celebrate His glory and power; for such are the signs given and the blessings offered us in this sublime culmination of the Christmas season which is today’s Epiphany.

The multitude of angels sang:

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those on whom His favour rests! 

And the shepherds, having told their good tidings to all gathered around the Infant Christ, returned to their sheep in the fields:

Glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them.

Let all of us, too, dear friends in Christ, sincerely pray that our celebration of the Epiphany today may give glory to God and further the exaltation of Holy Mother Church, through the comforting and strengthening of all those who are her true children.  Amen.  

The Holy Family Year A 2019

The Holy Family (A)
(Ecclesiasticus 3:2-6, 12-14; Colossians 3:12-21; Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23)

Today’s readings are concerned, as we should expect, with the relationships of family life, in particular the relationship between parents and child.
In our modern society, where parental responsibility is, at times, notably and tragically lacking, there is a marked tendency for the government and society in general to “take over” from parents, and a corresponding tendency to give children rights against their parents.  Such political support of, and encouragement for, children against their parents, has no parallel in the Bible.  There, children have rights indeed, and Jesus Himself tells us to reverence and respect them (Matthew 18:10):

See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you, that their angels in heaven continually behold the face of My Father who is in heaven. 

 St. Paul tells his converts in the Church at Corinth that:

Here for this third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be a burden to you; for I do not seek what is yours, but you; for children are not responsible to  save up for (their) parents, but parents for (their) children. (2 Corinthians 12:14)

The Scriptures are not ignorant of the abusive behaviour of some parents but, notwithstanding those failings of the few, hold firmly to the best teaching and only model for the wholesome upbringing of their children by the majority of parents, as you heard in the first reading:

The Lord honours the father in his children, and upholds the rights of a mother over her sons.  Whoever respects his father is atoning for his sins, he who honours his mother is like someone amassing a fortune.

We read in the Gospel how God Himself dealt with His Son as a human child.  The Father in heaven did not communicate directly to the Infant Jesus, nor even to the young child Jesus.  The heavenly Father spoke to Joseph and to Mary: they were the ones who would tell the Child and the Boy what to do and how to behave; they were the instruments of God for the Child, even though the Child was God’s own Son.  Consequently, we can easily recognize the Christian attitude and teaching as regards parenthood: it is an honour and a privilege to be a Christian parent, it is a position of authority and also a position of responsibility; authority given by God and responsibility before God.  In all that is good, for the spiritual and the human good (both physical and psychological) of the child, the parents have a God-given authority and also a God-given backing: they do not need to have degrees in child psychology, nor certificates in human and social studies; seeking sincerely the good of their child, in favour with God and man (as the Scriptures say of Jesus), they will be guided by God in all the normal situations of life, and even in the extraordinary circumstances where no human help can be found.  No Social Services, no child experts, can supply for God-given parents, and no legislation should be allowed which insinuates otherwise; nor should parents themselves ever begin to doubt the special grace which is available to them  -- through sincere endeavour and personal prayer -- for bringing up their child as a child of God and as a respectful family member and positively helpful member of society.

Parents, being aware of their position of authority and responsibility, should be ever on the watch to help each other in the acceptance and fulfilment of that position.  You will recall how Mary, the mother, spoke to her Child when He had been lost for 3 days:

And when they saw Him, they were astonished; and His mother said to Him, "Son, why have You treated us this way? Behold, your father and I have been anxiously looking for you." (Luke 2:48)

Mary was concerned, first of all, for Joseph’s authority; she wanted first of all to remind her Child of the respect He owed Joseph:

His mother said to Him, "Son, why have You treated us this way? Behold, your father and I have been anxiously looking for you."

“Your father and I”, that was the order of concern for Mary: Joseph’s position first, her own, second.  That is a model for all parents, for the Christian husband should have as his first concern that his child should love its mother; whilst the mother, like Mary, should always first teach and inculcate the child’s obedience to and respect for the father.

Finally, today, Christian parents should recognize that they, together, are the whole basis and foundation for the well-being, spiritual, psychological and physical, of their children; consequently, they should pay close attention to the words of St. Paul in our second reading today.  On no accounts should they allow their child to separate them; for the good of the child they should come first for each other (Colossians 3:12-15):

And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.  And beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.  And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. 
  

Remember also those other words of St. Paul:

Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.  Husbands, love your wives, and do not be embittered against them.

Those are not words of domination but of complementary co-operation for the good of the children, the words mean what I have already explained and what Mary has already shown, that the wife should be concerned that her children respect and obey their father, and she should give them an example in that attitude; and that the father, likewise, must insist that his children follow his example in loving their mother.  It is on that firm and solid foundation that the other words of Paul (Colossians 3:20) will be fulfilled:

Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord.

People of God, we should all recognize that the Scriptures do not offer mere options for our consideration, options that we can ignore or reject as the fancy takes us; nor is the Spirit of the Scriptures subject to the spirit of modern times.  Holy Scripture, with its example of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, gives parents divine and authoritative guidance, together with the promise of sustaining grace and strength in response to obedience and prayer.   They can indeed ignore it, they can reject it because God has made us free; but they cannot do those things without cost, for they will, most certainly, never be able to find better guidance from our modern, pagan, and self-righteous society.

The teaching and tone of this address, dear People of God, are not for anyone and everyone but for those Christians and Catholics who have entered into matrimony with a specific purpose: offering their mutual love to God for His glory, their own personal fulfilment and for the greater well-being of mankind; and they are able to aspire to such purposes on the basis of God’s sacramental grace promised and ever available to them to transfigure their human endeavours so as to serve and further the infinite goodness of God’s loving intentions and saving plans for all men and women of good-will.

Christmas Day Year A 2019

Christmas Day  (A)   2019                                                      

(Isaiah 52:7-10; Hebrews 1:1-6; John 1:1-18)

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When we look at the world around us and consider the overall atmosphere of people’s understanding of and response to the Christian message of Christmas, despite the fact that the majority no longer recognize and accept that message as the root and inspiration of their Christmas celebrations while others distort it horribly, we cannot fail to see that Christmas above all other seasons in the Christian calendar is still thought to be a time for rejoicing, the time for rejoicing, with a joy that is singularly unaffected by any other considerations.

I am emphasizing the joy of Christmas because it is an essential element in our Christian life. Christmas is not just a season which comes around, apparently willy-nilly, once a year; rather, it has been given us to gradually form our Christian and Catholic character. Far too many Catholics today seem to have forgotten the joyous aspect of our Faith, of our relationship with the God and Father of Jesus, Who wants to be a Father for us too.  Many seem to regard the Faith mainly as a duty, an obligation, and God Himself as One demanding obedience under threat of punishment; not so much as a Father, but as One to be feared.   Such attitudes, dear People of God, are most serious distortions and even betrayals of the truth of what our response to, and relationship with, Him Whom Jesus taught us to call ‘Our Father’, should be like.

The Christian year as a whole is a comprehensive, balanced, and gradual presentation of the most emotionally formative aspects of Christian spirituality: first of all, Christmas Joy and Peace; then the strengthening, deepening, and personalising awareness of Gratitude and Love evoked by Easter; and finally the crowning Pentecostal fulfilment of Hope and humble Confidence through Spirit-bestowed strength.

Christmas, therefore, comes around each year to cement holy joy into and in our life, to make joy an essential part of our religious experience and psychology.  Of course, the pagan rejoicing at Christmas, being so often excessive, spiritually un-motivated, and even licentious, is an evil abuse and misrepresentation of Christmas joy; nevertheless, such abuse of Christmas does not, cannot, be allowed to undermine or diminish the abiding and enduring aspect of JOY as intended by God for His children, characterising not only this holy season, but the whole of their lives: this joy is spiritually motivated by a unique Child – one naturally beautiful by reason of its innocence and purity – and One awesomely, even piercingly, beautiful as a heavenly Child -- God’s most sublime gift to mankind -- through a totally Immaculate Virgin; a Child sent to bring, win, offer, salvation for and to mankind.

For many believers Christmas rejoicing has been gradually watered down into a merely human and childish rejoicing; and then, from being thus robbed of its inherent inspiration and spiritual dignity, it has subsequently been disfigured and degraded to such an extent that it has become a season of sensual pleasure-seeking and licentious excess.  At the best that pleasure-seeking is done through gifts, and then the merely human joy of giving and receiving gifts, is regarded as the ‘holiness’ of Christmas.  At the worst, those licentious excesses in our modern culture become totally unchristian, involving human exploitation, drug taking, anti-social behaviour, and even openly criminal activities; in such circles, a hang-over on wakening is commonly regarded as the amusing sign of what is considered to have been a ‘good night out’. 

Among some Catholics the reason for this lack of true Christmas joy in the practice of our religion is partly due to the fact that we also – as practicing Catholics -- have witnessed Easter being gradually de-formed by the sheer physicality of Christ's sufferings being given excessive and unbalanced prominence in popular preaching and devotional  practices  to ‘make up for’, counterbalance so to speak, the weight of human physical sinfulness.   Easter has been gradually deprived of that which is of supreme importance, namely, the example and inspiration of Personal, spiritual, love -- Jesus’ love for His Father and for us -- and the call to hope and confidence in the Risen Lord.

In that way, Christmas joy for too many of the faithful -- starved of deep Easter love, humble Pentecostal confidence and hope -- is no longer deep, pure and spiritually powerful enough to characterise their lives today; at the best, faithfulness and duty, obedience and fear, are the  pretty dismal residue from the original glorious endowment of joy, love, inspiration and hope.

People of God, we should try to open our hearts anew to the joy of Christmas, let us pray most ardently to the Holy Spirit that He may renew refresh and restore our lives according to those parting words of Jesus:

I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete (John 15:11).

Joy in the Lord is part of our Christian and Catholic heritage, and we should not deprive ourselves, or allow ourselves to be deprived, of that which is meant to characterise us in Jesus.  We must not, however, repeat past mistakes, it is a joy that God gives, not one that we procure for ourselves.  Now, don’t think I am wanting you to eschew, reject, human joys, far from it, for I repeat that those human joys which are according to Christ are a gift also from God.  However, the Christmas Gift of Joy is above all a cause for spiritual, supernatural, joy; it is a Gift given to those who, first of all, pray for it, and who then try to delight in the Lord and live for His glory. 

As you heard in the Gospel reading:

Jesus, the true Light, was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him;

and that is still the condition of all present-day pagan revellers who in no way intend to celebrate the Name of Jesus at Christmas.

            He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.

That too is still the present situation in the case of those who are merely nominal Christians and Catholics.

For ourselves, however, and for all who are sincerely seeking the Lord, we are then told that:

As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name;

and that is the source, aspiration and hope, of our Christmas joy.  Because we believe in Jesus, we are told that we have been given a new life, born anew:

Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Therefore, in Jesus, those words we heard in the second reading apply to each of us:

            You are My Son, (My child), today I have begotten You.

And again:

            I will be (to you) a Father, and (You) shall be to Me a Son (My child).

My dear People of God, we have wondrous cause for rejoicing at Christmas, or rather, wondrous cause to re-new and re-fresh our rejoicing, a never-ending, ever-deepening and developing, spirit of rejoicing in our lives as Christians and Catholics.  Make no mistake, though, while God gives the cause of our rejoicing, He expects us, freely and personally, to do the rejoicing.  How, therefore, do we learn to rejoice?

For this we should turn to the other principal character in the drama that is Christmas: turn to Mary, to the one addressed by God’s angel with the command to “Rejoice” (Luke 1:28):

Rejoice, highly favoured one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!

Mary began her rejoicing first of all by trusting wholeheartedly in God: adultery by one betrothed (as seemed to be the situation opening up before Mary) was punishable by stoning to death in literal accordance with the Law; but, far from worrying herself sick about her future possible-predicament, Mary hurried off help her cousin Elizabeth cope with pregnancy in her advanced age.  Mary’s total trust in God’s word enabled her to be totally forgetful of self and totally available for others.

Mary continued, strengthened, and deepened, her rejoicing in the Lord thanks to her great gratitude:

My spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour, for He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed, for He Who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. (Luke 1:47-49).

Those are the two essential ingredients for Christian rejoicing: complete trust in God, and, on the basis of that trust, the ability to look at things from His point of view and learn gratitude.  The Annunciation could have been -- depending on how Mary looked at it -- either a cause for deep anxiety or one of great rejoicing, death and dishonour or blessing and renown.  Mary, however, had no hesitation, no doubt:

He who is mighty has done great things for me; henceforth all generations will call me blessed

Anyone who would become a true disciple of Jesus should learn from Mary to rejoice by steadfastly trusting in the Lord; by consistently refusing to indulge solicitous considerations for personal well-being and advantage; and also by developing a grateful awareness of blessings already received from God: blessings such as good parents and family; loyal and true friends; personal talents; guidance received and help given; health of mind and body; hopes that draw you on and ideals and aspirations that inspire you … few have all these blessings, none, however, are bereft of all of them, every one of us has some cause for gratitude to God; and such causes, once recognised and gratefully acknowledged, readily multiply themselves so as to be seen with increasing clarity, and appreciated with ever deeper gratitude, as time goes on.

For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

The Law was a challenge, a requirement, written down as a legal document.  The Gospel of grace and truth, on the other hand, is a call, an invitation.  In the Gospel message and in the Person of Jesus, God is manifesting Himself, making Himself known so that He might attract and lovingly draw those who, through faith in Jesus and baptism in the Spirit, will become His children.  And surely, it is no hard thing to encourage such children to learn to trust, and show gratitude to, the Father Who so lovingly approaches them as does Our heavenly Father through Jesus, and in the Spirit?

Learn to trust, People of God, grow in gratitude, and joy will fill your heart.  Look at Mary; imitate her attitude to life: shall I worry about possible threats and difficulties or shall I trust God wholeheartedly?  Can one who has been reborn in Jesus by the Spirit, one who has been made a true child of the Father, one to whom the Father promises:

            I will be (to you) a Father, and (You) shall be to Me a Son (My Child),

have any hesitation?  Follow Mary!  After all Jesus has given us to her and her to us as our mother.  Follow Mary, and learn to rejoice anew in your practice of the Faith: it is not just a Law to be obeyed, it is a Father’s loving invitation and call for us to learn to know and love Him more and more.  And because it is your Father’s call, it does not just come from outside and hit your ears; you are His child and His call to you re-echoes in your heart, and in the deepest, perhaps still secret and unknown to you, recesses of your being its reverberation provokes the response of like to like:

Come my beloved (child), (there are) all manner (of blessings), new and old, which I have laid up for you.  Come. (Song of Songs 7:13)

And here dear People of God is the unique aspect of Christmas: Jesus comes as One of us, our Friend, proof and confirmation of our human dignity and perpetual incitement to mutual love and human respect, that He might become the Saviour of each of us in a Personal relationship leading from earth to heaven, even to the Father's presence and embrace.