Fourth Sunday of Advent Year B, 2023

             

(2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8-12, 14a, 16; Romans 16:25-27; Luke 1:26-38)

Today, Mother Church puts before us two very significant readings from her sacred Scriptures, and their comparison can show us a fact of fundamental importance concerning our relationship with God, and provide us with sure guidance for the conduct of our spiritual lives.

 Let us look first of all at our Gospel reading:

(The angel Gabriel) said, "Hail, full of grace!  The Lord is with you! ..... Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God.  Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and you shall name Him Jesus.  He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High.” Mary said: “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?”

 While some scholars have imagined that Mary consecrated her virginity to the Lord in her early years, others have disputed  such an idea as being inconceivable for a young girl living devoutly among the Jewish people who held marriage and childbirth in such great honour.  Such respect, even reverence, was indeed the attitude to childlessness in Mary’s own family background where her highly respected cousin Elizabeth considered childlessness to have long been ‘her reproach among men’ which the Lord had finally deigned to take away through the birth of her son John, the future Baptiser.

Moreover, today’s readings show us that the idea of a formal consecration or dedication of her virginity by Mary is not necessary if we rightly follow the teaching available to us in the first reading about King David, and use it to carefully appreciate Our Lady’s answer to the angel Gabriel.

David, you heard, had planned to build a temple for the Lord:

 

When the LORD had given King David rest from his enemies on every side, he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God dwells in a tent!” Nathan answered the king, “Go, do whatever you have in mind, for the LORD is with you.”

 It was God, however, Who would build the temple He wanted, when the time was right.  Therefore, He sent Nathan back to David with this message:

             Go, tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD: Should you build Me a

house to dwell in? I, THE LORD WILL MAKE A HOUSE FOR YOU. When your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm.  I will be a Father to him, and he shall be a son to Me.  Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before Me.’

Dear People of God, whatever we do before, and above all for, God is essentially secondary to the attitude in which we do it; and David was adopting a rather condescending attitude towards God, Who knew David’s heart far better than David understood his own enthusiastically chosen words:

             Should you build Me a house to dwell in?

 David, we are told, was a man after God’s own heart, but here he had spoken from his position of newly-gained security, power, and personal satisfaction, all of which had led him to express ‘generous gratitude’ to God.

 Therefore, the prophet was instructed to make it crystal clear to David, WHO was doing the leading and guiding, WHO would protect and save.  That was something  essential for a man of David’s character and capabilities to know.

 Mary, on the other hand, could never think, like David, of bestowing anything on God. Because of her wondrous humility she had no treasured physical virginity to offer Him; her humility was total, and embraced her whole being. And so, Her  life-long desire to belong entirely to God was her virginity because it was absolute. Momentous HUMILITY and un-imaginable VIRGINITY are ‘part and parcel’ of the wondrous beauty of Mary, and that overwhelming passion was not – like a supposed vow would have been -- alien to Jewish aspirations, as we know from St. Paul  (1 Corinthians 7:25, 34), who had been himself a supremely observant Jew:

 

Brothers and Sisters: In regard to virgins, I have no commandment from the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who, by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy … an unmarried woman, a virgin, is anxious about the things of the Lord so that she may be holy in both body and spirit, (but) she who is married cares about the things of the world.

 So, in her reply to Gabriel, Mary could only speak from that looking-to and longing-for God which was fundamental to her character; and, on hearing the angel addressing her, no marriage-envisioning question such as ‘who has been chosen for me?’ came to her mind, nothing but those simple words:

How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?  Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.

She had always been, and had always longed to “better-be”, ‘the handmaid of the Lord’; and whereas David had spoken to God ‘generously’ out of his present fullness, Mary … with complete humility and total longing … found nothing to offer other than that abiding and absolute commitment to, and longing for, God, which we rightly call her spiritual and physical virginity, the TOTAL VIRGINITY, supreme and spotless, of her Immaculate Being.

And – note this most carefully dear Friends in Jesus -- Mary’s most beautiful virginity, catholic doctrine, and the spiritual ideals they caused to arise in receptive hearts and minds conquered the hearts and minds of women – powerful women, influential women – in vice-ridden Rome.  Yes, the beauty of Gospel Christianity conquered the hearts and minds of all those sick of the pleasures and advantages of pagan practices --- recognized as being pagan by the new, and full-, pure-, blooded, Christians of Apostolic times.  Words of personal condemnation were not used, following Our Lord Jesus’ Own example, but neither were gratuitous blessings or favours bestowed to win worldly favour.

David lived long enough before God in his restored humility and hope, not only to gladly look forward to, but also to prepare for, the beginning of the fulfilment of the Lord’s promise through his son Solomon, who did indeed build an earthly Temple for the Lord in Jerusalem.  However, that first Temple would be destroyed by the Babylonians after some 350 years  and it was not seriously replaced until a most splendid Temple was later built by the wicked King Herod, who did indeed produce a wonderful structure which amazed the world of its time, but was in no way pleasing to God in so far as it had not been built for God’s glory, but for Herod’s own glory, and the renown of his kingdom under the watchful eyes of his imperial overlords in Rome.  And, in the event, it was those very Roman overlords who -- as Jesus foretold -- not only destroyed, but  totally ‘razed to the ground’, that symbol of Herod’s glory before one hundred years had passed. 

 And so, God’s word to David by the prophet had been aimed over and beyond Solomon, for it envisaged and intended Jesus Himself, Whose risen, glorious, Body would become the ultimate Temple of God among men: a Temple not built by human hands, and one where Jews and pagans without distinction would have access to the Father in the one Spirit.

             The Jews said to Him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?”  Jesus                   answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise                it up.”   The Jews said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six               years, and you will raise it up in three days?”  But He was speaking about the               temple of His body.   (John 2:18-21)

 

Consequently, our Gospel story was all about God choosing When (in the fullness of time), by Whom (His own Son), and through whom (the immaculate virgin Mary of Nazareth), salvation would ultimately be offered to humanity:

 

Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God.  Behold, you will 

conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and you shall name Him Jesus.  He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of David His father, and He will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.

  

It is God alone Who gives salvation and works wonders.  However, we are by no means excluded from His purposes, for we are called – in Jesus and by the Holy Spirit -- to share in and contribute to His work.  Although the Lord did not allow David himself to build the Temple in Jerusalem, his desire to do so was most pleasing to Him, and therefore He rewarded David with great blessings, the greatest of which being that He, the Lord, would build David a house, and from that house the Messiah Himself, Israel’s supreme King, would eventually come. 

 With Mary, on the other hand, her desire was so supremely pleasing to God that it would be immediately and most sublimely fulfilled in the way God wanted: Mary would remain a virgin.  Notwithstanding that however, she would give birth to a Child, her Child indeed, but above all, the very Son of God Himself, incarnate, clothed in Mary’s spotless human flesh.

 The Lord has looked upon the lowliness of His handmaid.

 My dear people, it is a fact that God alone does the work of salvation, for to Him alone is glory and power.  Nonetheless, He wills to associate us in the work His own dear Son accomplished in human flesh and blood, to the extent that even the bread and wine we offer Him at daily Mass must be, and must be declared to be, ‘made’ by human hands.  Moreover, God does not use human beings like tools: for, in Jesus, we are called to co-operate with Him as true children trying to please and glorify their heavenly Father; and it is through such work that we are enabled to receive, by the Holy Spirit, the gift of a personal share in God’s own infinite holiness and eternal blessedness.

 Do you want to make something of your life with and for God, to love and serve Him faithfully and supremely?  Do you want, most sincerely, to become a true Child of God in Jesus?  If you can say “Yes” to such questions, and if you can keep on aspiring to serve Him even though, despite your efforts, you see little of real worth in your life … if you will keep on telling God of your desire even though you have not yet been able to hear any reply … then you will indeed be used by Him for His purposes, and you will become a disciple after Jesus’ own most sacred heart, and in Him, a true child of the heavenly Father.

 Of course, that is not easily done, for it is a lifetimes’ work.  But those whose mind and heart are firmly centred on God, though they may -- at times -- be painfully aware of their own nothingness, do not allow themselves to become downcast or disheartened; precisely, because their mind is always occupied with desires for God’s good-pleasure and greater glory, and thus they are always looking forward and hoping in Him rather than despairing of themselves. 

 People of God, following our Mother Mary,  let us, welcome Jesus -- the very Word of God made flesh -- into our lives anew this Christmas with like sentiments of love and longing, of trust, hope and commitment:

             I am the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your Word.

 There is no surer way to find Christmas joy and peace. 

 

Third Sunday of Advent Year B, 2023

  

(Isaiah 61: 1-2, 10-11; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24; John 1: 6-8, 19-28)

The great prophet Isaiah spoke most assuredly about God’s forthcoming work for the glorification of Zion and salvation in Israel, and in today’s reading he portrays one majestic figure yet to come:

I rejoice heartily in the LORD, in my God is the joy of my soul; for, like a bridegroom adorned with diadem,

Who was Isaiah foreshadowing there?  Whom did he have in mind when saying:

He has clothed me with a robe of salvation, and wrapped me in a mantle of justice.

Above all, who could he imagine to be:

            Adorned, with a diadem …

Indeed, with the diadem of the MOST HOLY SPIRIT (cf. 61:1)

Isaiah was not of course ‘imagining’ anyone, he was speaking under divine inspiration of one of whom only God could authoritatively speak, Jesus, the Beloved and Only-Begotten Son of God: incarnate, that is, clothed in, wrapped in, flesh given Him by His immaculate mother, Mary the Flower of Israel, herself adorned with jewels, that is, the privileges of her Immaculate Conception.

And the ultimate reason for all this rejoicing?  It is indeed a most sublime reason, pre-eminently worthy of such rejoicing, because it fulfils and answers both the eternally-loving purpose of Our God and Father, and mankind’s own deepest longing since being cast out of Eden and away from God’s presence:

THE LORD GOD WILL MAKE JUSTICE AND PRAISE SPRING UP BEFORE ALL THE NATIONS.

Notice, dear People of God, that PRAISE is associated with ‘justice’ essentially!!  One fully justified instinctively rejoices in the Lord, such a one cannot not-rejoice in the Lord!

And yet, when that promised Coming One -- Son of the Virgin Mother -- was about to  begin His work of making ‘justice and praise spring up’, the greatest of all the prophets, John the Baptist found himself confirming Isaiah’s prophecy by making use of much more sober language in order to reveal with all clarity a truly disconcerting reality:

I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, make straight the way of the Lord; for there is One among you Whom you do not recognize, the One coming after me, Whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.

That is the setting for our Advent preparations to welcome the Lord coming to His spouse -- Mother Church – this Christmas, to make her more recognizable as ‘a bride bedecked with jewels’.

Dear People of God, look all around you this Advent time at the great majority of Christmas celebrations and you will have no doubt about the truth of the Baptist’s words:

            There is One among you Whom you do not recognize.

Why is Jesus not recognized today by those, so many of them, who were formerly professing Catholics or Christians?  It is, to a certain extent, because many have succumbed to the lure and enticements of popular sin, or have fainted or despaired under the burden of personal and worldly cares.

There is, however, another cause for Jesus being unrecognizable for too many of our fellows, be they merely nominal Catholics or Christians or just present-day unbelievers, and that is because they have long been out of touch with, and have become unaware of and insensitive to, the real Jesus of Mother Church’s authentic teaching and apostolic traditions.

Dear Catholic People of God, as Catholics we are members of the original body established by Jesus as His Church, on the foundations of His Personally chosen and Spirit-endowed Apostles, to whom He uniquely said:

I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told YOU everything I have heard from My Father.    (John 15:15)

Moreover, He promised those original Twelve that:

The Advocate, the Holy Spirit that the Father will send in My name — He will teach you everything and remind you of all that (I) told you.    (John 14:26)

Those original Apostles are thus the source of Mother Church’s doctrinal teaching and traditions,  and it is absolutely necessary that those Apostolic memories of Jesus’ words --- addressed Personally and directly to them as His friends for the good of further friends to come through their ministry -- that those Apostolic traditions learned from Jesus’ very actions and attitudes, and witnessed by their own eyes and heard by their own ears, remain intact and appreciated in Mother Church today.  No one -- not even a Pope -- can sever us from Jesus’ love and guidance handed down through the ages in those Apostolic doctrines and traditions.

There are difficulties today for a faithless generation wanting to justify itself and acquire worldly popularity: it tries to confuse issues by subtly ‘updating’ certain texts of the Gospel, that is, by teaching them in accordance with modern preferences while, on the other hand, simply trying to consign to oblivion other authentic teachings that cannot be thus ‘updated’.

This is due to the fact that (as Jesus Himself said, John 14:17):

This is the Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, because He abides with you, and He will be in you.   

The world cannot receive the Spirit of Truth because it does not, will not, believe in Jesus: 

And when He (the Advocate, the Spirit of Truth) comes, He will convict the world in regard to sin, because they do not believe in Me.   (John 16:8–9)

The Apostles, on the other hand, know the Spirit of Truth, because He already abides with them as leaders of the future Catholic Church of Jesus, and will be in them individually, as faithful disciples of and witnesses to Jesus their Lord and Saviour.

The season of Advent is a time of great expectancy, when devout Catholics and Christians  look forward to the coming of the Lord; and being certain that His coming anew this Christmas will be for our blessing, let us all beseech His most Holy Spirit to prepare us to welcome Him with hearts and minds authentically attuned to Him in the Apostolic purity of Mother Church’s authentic teaching and traditions.

We are also aware that at the appointed time -- we do not know precisely when -- He will come in glory to judge the world, to triumph over all His enemies and cast out Satan; and then, after having ultimately established the Kingdom of God, He will lead all His faithful ones to worship and rejoice in, the supreme Lordship of His Father. This is what St. Paul explained when writing his first letter to his converts in Corinth:

As in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.   But each one in his own order: Christ the first-fruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming.  Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.  For, He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet; the last enemy that will be destroyed is death, for, "He has put all things under His feet."  (1 Corinthians 15:22-26)

This season of Advent is a time of joyful expectancy indeed, but it is a Christian joy, sieved, as it were, through a God-given awareness of his/her human weakness, ignorance, and personal sinfulness; it is a most-truly Christian joy: gladdening-the-heart and also humbling-the-mind of those called to become true children of God, loving Him in all and above all, as Jesus Our Saviour would have us do by the Gift of His own Most Holy Spirit.

And therefore, all true Catholics and Christians can share, take part in, with all confidence and simplicity, humility and sincerity, that blessing enshrined in Isaiah’s great oracle: 

I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my GOD IS THE JOY OF MY SOUL.

Second Sunday of Advent Year B, 2023

 

(Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11; 2^nd. Peter 3:8-14; Mark 1:1-8)

John, a desert-dweller enormously popular with Jews seeking both liturgical purity and greater personal moral integrity, came to the river Jordan to proclaim his God-given message and to ‘baptize’ the crowds flocking  in their thousands to hear him and receive his baptismal ministrations.  John’s God-given message was definitively clear and authoritative proclaiming repentance for the forgiveness of sins to those  who were both religious and humble enough to want to hear and follow his guidance:

One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thong of His sandals. I have baptized you with water; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

John the Baptist -- as he is now known -- the greatest, as Jesus said, of all those born of woman, was chosen by God to immediately precede Jesus and personally introduce Him to God’s Chosen People.   John fulfilled that commission perfectly by proclaiming Jesus as the Bridegroom, the Messiah of Israel’s expectations, the One who alone could and would baptize with the Holy Spirit.

John -- the Bridegroom’s precursor and friend to the end -- would be murdered in a lonely, royal, dungeon cell, for witnessing to God’s truth against the displayed pride, indulged salaciousness, and the hidden weaknesses, of a tyrant, himself subject to Rome’s  ever-more-scrutinizing approval.

John’s proclamation of Jesus was no threnody, however, dear People of God; on the contrary, it was an introduction to the supremely Christian song of glory, gratitude, and joy: for, all who would believe in, and be baptized into, Jesus, would receive life from Him Who was willing to die – even on a Roman cross -- to save them, through His own Spirit of Truth and Love, from sin and death.

And it is in that way that obedient and faithful Catholics today already share in some measure -- even here on earth -- the life of the Most Holy Trinity:  called by the Father to faith in His beloved and only-begotten Son, and ‘gifted’ with the Holy Spirit, they share  eternal sustenance as living members of the One True Church which is the Body of Christ, constantly guided and protected in the Truth of Jesus’ Gospel by the Holy Spirit, to worship the Father as His truly adopted children in Jesus, His Son and our Saviour.  

After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: “This is the time of fulfilment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” (1:14-15):

For the authentic Christian understanding and practice of repentance, we need to look closely, very closely, at our readings today in order to appreciate Mother Church’s teaching in this matter.   What was it that John the Baptist said?  What did Isaiah proclaim? 

John said ‘repent’ first; and then next –  on seeing Jesus passing by -- he said to Andrew and another of his disciples, ‘Behold the Lamb of God’.

That, dear People of God, is the composite nature of conversion: first turn from sin, then turn to the Lord.

Turn from sin, try to correct the ravages it has caused in your life; which is what Isaiah proclaimed in those words:

Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!   Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; the rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley.

Such indeed is the first requirement of repentance, turn away from sin in all sincerity, and then, by walking in the ways of Jesus, allow the Spirit of Jesus to enter our life, and form us anew in the likeness of Jesus, for love of the Father :

Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all mankind shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.   

Notice too that Isaiah’s prophecy provides us with a sure way to test the truth of our repentance: is the glory of the Lord being revealed to you?  Do you, as you grow older, see and admire in Jesus gradually more and more of the glory, that is, of the goodness, the beauty, the truth, and the wisdom, of God?  Do you, as the years pass by, become ever more grateful to the Father for His goodness in calling and guiding you to Jesus?  Do you find yourself gradually more willing to trust Him completely, above all else?  Do you aspire, more and more, to know, love, and serve Him with your whole being?  If you can say “Yes” to questions such as those then, indeed, you are both sincerely repenting, and truly seeking the face of the Lord; and, moreover, I could confidently say that the glory of the Lord is also, indeed, being gradually revealed both to you and in you.

But what if -- as the years go by, when you seriously look at yourself and sincerely question yourself before God -- you recognize that you are thinking less and less of Jesus because you are increasingly absorbed in worldly interests and aspirations; that you are more and more preoccupied by cares about money and people’s opinions or attitudes in your regard, and less and less attentive to God speaking through your conscience or drawing upon your heart-strings?  Do you feel yourself obliged to respond in kind for every little benefit you receive from others, a Christmas card for a Christmas card, an invitation by an invitation, a gift for a gift, and yet never think that you owe a debt of gratitude to God for all the many blessings He has bestowed on you throughout Hyour life?  Are you gradually becoming tolerant of failings you are aware of -- you might like to call them ‘mere peccadillos’ -- in your daily living?  All these things are quite possible where Christian people are found to be no longer looking to God, for God, but looking at others, and looking-after themselves.

People of God, let us now for a short time look at God in our Gospel reading trying  to look after Herod, despite his multitudinous failings.

God speaks to each and every one of us – without exception – in one way or another, for our GOOD, for our eternal salvation; and in today’s Gospel we heard how He kept on trying to straighten out Herod’s hitherto most miserable life: a collaborator with the hated Romans, a most blatant sinner with his own brother’s wife, and add whatever else you like …. a murderer? a rapist? a great hater? a supreme exponent of the art of betrayal? …. All most helpful for one wanting to become a royal figure with a measure of authority in those hectic days and seasons after the death of  Herod ‘the Great’, who had been a superb servant of  Rome, and whose sons – including the Herod-Antipas of our Gospel reading – were doing their very best!! – to win Rome’s favour by whatever means.   

Dear People of God, God was still trying to communicate with Herod Antipas, encouraging him, right to the end, to hear, and in certain measure, to listen to John the Baptist speak of Israel’s faith!   But now, although he in-his-way reverenced John, Herod couldn’t go-back-on his foolish word to the lascivious daughter of his scheming, adulterous, and murderous wife!  He didn’t dare give cause for his nobles and ‘mighty men’ to look down on him and question his authority … so he ignored his God’s spiritual life-line and plunged head and shoulders into yet greater sin and deeper spiritual disgrace.

Dear People of God, no matter what might be the state we find ourselves in at this moment, Mother Church urges us to aspire once again this Advent time to prepare to welcome Jesus anew into our lives that His truth might enlighten us, His love inspire us, and the Gift of His most Holy Spirit might protect, guide, and sustain us along His way to the Father.   Time is irrelevant to God, it of this world, not of His heavenly Kingdom, our future home. 

With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.

What is essential for us, therefore, is that here and now, we have the will to prayerfully aspire to the blessings He has prepared for us, and that we have the humility and fortitude to forget our self-solicitude and, by our daily prayer and Christian living, learn to rejoice as He gradually makes those promised blessings an ever more real experience for us.

As St. Peter’s put it:

Waiting for the coming of (Our Lord and) God, you ought to be (found) conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion; eager to be found at peace, without spot or blemish before Him.