Christmas 2020

 

Christmas 2020

 

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

 

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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, in the course of our Advent preparation Mother Church bade us pray: ‘Lord, as we walk amid passing things, teach us by them to love the things of heaven and hold fast to what endures.’

 

In accordance with that prayer, I would like to bring to your mind this Christmas morning a very popular character of great importance to our Christmas celebrations: Father Christmas.  Even though there will be little attention given in the media and public celebrations to the Person of the Child Whose coming is so blatantly exploited in this season, Father Christmas is, on the other hand, to be seen everywhere, feted and surrounded by wondering children, always being questioned about the gifts he is bringing … will his sack be big enough to hold, and his reindeer strong enough to carry, them all?   How the media love to plug Father Christmas and his gifts for the financial advantages such a presentation of Christmas rejoicing brings for their sponsors, and perhaps, in our present times, also for a more charitable purpose of bringing some traditional, easily-appreciated joy, to many suffering under lockdowns from loneliness and tedium!

 

Practicing Catholics and Christians rightly reject such a distortion of Christmas.  And yet, many of them -- while rejecting the commercial Father Christmas -- tend themselves to overlook the real Father-of-Christmas, that is, the heavenly Father of Jesus, and in so doing concoct another distortion of their own, smothering Christmas with excessive sentimentality, centred exclusively on the birth of the child and the joy of his mother.  You might have noticed that I have not emphasized ‘the child or his mother’, because those Catholics and Christians I have in mind relate to Jesus’ birth in much as they would any to other mother and baby scenario, and seem to have no doubt that their emotional extravaganza is a fitting, contemporary, expression of that spirit of devotion which drove the Three Kings across desert wastes; indeed, of that  spirit of holiness which caused the angels from heaven to burst forth into joyful chorus and filled the hearts and minds of Mary and Joseph with wonderment and joy.

 

Now, whilst that extravaganza might possibly be considered acceptable piety for many who are preoccupied with the cares and distractions of the world around them, it is certainly not satisfactory for those disciples of Jesus who have the desire to find a deeper spiritual appreciation of the wonder and the beauty of this joyful season.

 

Father Christmas …. Father Christmas … I repeat the name, the title, the sobriquet, because I am sure the world will not fail to remind you of it no matter how many Christmas seasons may lie before you, and I want to draw some help for you NOW from that very worldly fact, that will, indeed, cause you to love more truly the things of heaven, by impressing upon your Catholic mind and Christian sensitivity the real, indeed the vital, connection between Father and Christmas. 

 

As in the beginning the Spirit of God hovered over the waters of creation, so still today -- for God’s chosen ones -- the Spirit of God can be appreciated hovering over the world to which He originally gave being and which is still recognizable as His creation for us believers, a creation ever ‘eager’ to bear witness to its Creator and Inspiration, despite the fact that a majority of its inhabitants in our modern Western part of the world are no longer willing or able to recognize it as such, and consequently find themselves unable to admire and learn from a wondrous beauty they still feel, somehow, drawn to celebrate this season.

 

What is the essential character of Christmas?

 

Those sentimental Catholics and Christians to whom I earlier referred would say that the beauty of Christmas, its ‘pulling-power’ so to speak, is centred on the beauty and innocence of the Child, which disarms all who are aware of sin in themselves and in the world around.  However, if we know ourselves well enough, we must admit that many other pictures of tranquil beauty and unstained innocence -- be they pastoral scenes, or even perhaps pictures of wide-eyed puppies or playful kittens -- can stir up in us fleeting emotions of a somewhat similar nature.  The essence of Christmas must therefore lie deeper, indeed it must be something other, than such openly emotional, short-lived, worldly, sentiments.

We are told, by the evangelists Matthew and Luke, of some who came in a spirit of joy and wonder to see the new-born Child:

 

The wise men set out, and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the Child was.  When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.  On entering the house, they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they knelt down and paid Him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 

When the angels had left and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.”  So, they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Child lying in the manger.  When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this Child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them.

However, the Wise Men and the shepherds, on leaving that scene of innocent and yet solemn beauty, seem to have returned to their former lives, for they are not to be encountered again in our Gospel story.  They admired, wondered at, the fact of Christ’s advent but did not realize its full significance, were not able to appreciate its depth of meaning and purpose.  We have, therefore, to find somehow a way that will lead us deeper into the beauty and peace of that manger scene, towards the eternal wisdom and divine truth hidden in the silent embrace of the as yet speechless Child and His adoring mother.

I remember when I was training to become a classical singer that those audiences who burst out into immediate applause as soon as a musical item came to an end were not appreciated half so much as others audiences who – at the end of a performance -- were seemingly beauty-bound by a gossamer web of silence, and only reluctantly broke that spell by giving place to applause which was felt, at that moment, to be an almost unworthy sign of appreciation.  On such occasions, the audience were more than listeners, they had become fellow travellers, sharing with the artist in a beautiful musical experience.

 

Now let us turn to St. Luke’s observation of Mary and Joseph at the Birth of the Lord:

Mary treasured all these words (that is, all that had happened) and pondered them in her heart.

 

I suggest, and I have no doubt that you will agree, that Mary’s attitude of awe-inspired reverence and total loving-commitment penetrates most surely and deeply to the essential significance of the Christmas mystery, while it most truly and fully rejoices the heart of the Father in heaven.

 

Moreover, we find that same attitude to the Incarnation of God’s Son in the Gospel of John, who, as you will remember, took Mary to his home in obedience to the dying words of Jesus.  For John, when speaking of the Birth of the Messiah paints no emotionally moving picture, but simply says:

 

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (3:16)

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father. (1:14)

 

On both occasions, however, notice that he brings the Father into prominence; and from that basis goes on to develop his teaching:

 

In this is love … that (God) loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins … (yes, God) sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.   (1 John 4:9-11)

 

Dear People of God, the wonder of Christmas is indeed found in the Child but not if we see the Child merely as a child of disarming beauty and innocence.  Such a child can most certainly stir us emotionally but has neither Personal character nor prospective  teaching to which we can relate or respond.   Christmas is only to be appreciated aright when He, the Child, is seen as the One Who is potentially the fullest possible manifestation, and Who, indeed, is already a sublimely beautiful expression, of the Father’s love for us; He is the absolutely unique One through Whom the Father’s love is preparing to touch, change, and save, all of us.

If we recognize the Child as the Father’s Gift, then we will be ever on the alert for the Good News the Child brings, we will watch Him grow up, desiring to know from Him ever more of the Father’s love, and how we can learn to embrace and respond to that love in and with Him, the only-begotten and well-beloved Son.  All in the spirit of those words spoken with regard to John the Baptist:

 

“What then will this child become?” For, indeed, the hand of the Lord was with Him.

 

Looking exclusively and emotionally on the child makes Christmas into an occasion when we can pour out our feelings and affections upon Him and for His mother.  However, when -- like all children He grows up -- then, in adult situations, and needing at times to speak hard words and warn of dire punishment, He will, of necessity, lose much of that which so charmed us in His Nativity, with the result that the Gospel’s most treasured message will be for us but the recollection of His past Infancy, and the Christmas season a time for us to re-savour it as much and for as long as we possibly can  before the memory inevitably fades as we have to face up to the more bleak reality of His subsequent life and death.

 

On the other hand, seeing the Child as the expression of the Father’s supreme and astounding love leads us to forget ourselves in immediate and heartfelt gratitude to the Father; whereupon, turning to the Child with gratitude and joy, we then experience a deep longing for and anticipation of His future manhood that will reveal to us more of the deep, mysterious depths of the Father’s ‘incredible’ love for us, the hidden wonders of the Child’s Personality and Being, and the unimaginable destiny God has in store for us.

The greatest moments of the Christian life are not times in which we do something for God or get something for ourselves, rather are they moments when, first and foremost, we humbly receive, before subsequently trying gratefully and patiently to appreciate, God’s marvellous gifts and inconceivable goodness.  Ultimately, no human being could ever have found God; we have only come to truly know and experience Him because He has graciously revealed Himself to us, and when we, with spiritual peace of mind and humility of heart, have been able to welcome and embrace Him.   Consequently, since a supremely significant step in God’s self-revelation to mankind is made here in the Incarnation, this Christmas is a time, an occasion, to be lived in company with, and in imitation of, Mary.

God originally created us out of love; in Adam we sinned, becoming subject to Satan, sin and death, and allowing chaos and disruption to enter the beautiful garden that had been entrusted to our care: thereby we involved the whole of God’s ‘good’ creation in the consequences of our own fall and failing. Now the great mystery of Christmas is that God -- having originally loved us enough to create us -- showed us, even after such a betrayal in the Garden, yet greater love by sending His only-begotten and most-beloved Son as One-like-us-with-us to redeem us.

And that, that wondrous and mysteriously overflowing love, is the ‘pulling-power’ of Christmas today, for, it is still being offered us anew, still at work, in this Christian year of celebration 2020!   For those who are mature enough to appreciate Mother Church’s yearly celebration of the Child’s coming, Christmas recalls the Father’s love to our minds and offers us grace to open up our hearts to it and Him anew; the liturgical year in its subsequent progress will invite and enable us to grow with the Son-made-flesh in that reverence and love, and to respond to it by the power of His Spirit to be poured out upon us!

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Christmas is, supremely, a time for gratitude to the Father of Jesus -- the real Father Christmas -- and of hope in the Child … what indeed will this Child of such Love become, what will He show us, what will He teach us, where will He lead us???

Father Christmas … Heavenly Father of Christmas, thank You for the Infant Jesus! Help me to follow every stage of His life and teaching that I might learn from Him how to know and love You, because Jesus said that that was the purpose of His coming: He had come to make Your name known!   Father, You give us Jesus, You offer Him anew to us this Christmas … give us, likewise, to Jesus, for He Himself again said that none can draw near to Him unless You, Father, send them, give them, to Him.  Father, give me to Jesus this Christmas, that in Jesus, by the Spirit of Jesus, I might become like Him a true child of Yours!

4th Sunday of Advent Year B 2020

 

 4^th. Sunday of Advent (B)

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

 

 

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, all our readings this week-end speak about what God is going to do.

David, you heard, 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.”

However, it was God 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?  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 kingdom and your house shall endure forever before Me.’

In those words there is a most important point for us to recognize and appreciate:  whatever good work we do for God is essentially dependent upon the intention we have in mind when doing it; but, even when our work and our intention are both good, the attitude in which we do it can be of great importance.  David was adopting a somewhat condescending attitude to God, therefore the Lord answered him:

            Should you build Me a house to dwell in?

God sensed a trace of that original pride which had led to Adam and Eve’s disregarding of God’s authority and providence, in David’s attitude, and any trace whatsoever of that original catastrophic evil left uncorrected would quickly sour David’s present zeal for the glory of Israel’s God and gratitude for His goodness; therefore, the prophet was instructed to make it clear to David just Who was leading and guiding, protecting and saving.

David subsequently lived long enough before God to gladly look forward, in his restored humility and hope, to prepare for the fulfilment of the Lord’s promise through his son Solomon, who did, indeed, eventually build an earthly Temple for the Lord in Jerusalem.  However, that first Temple would be destroyed by the Babylonians after some 350 years  and was not replaced until a second and truly splendid Temple was later built by the wicked King Herod, who produced a wonderful structure which amazed the world of that time but was in no way pleasing to God in so far as it had been built with the wrong intention, not indeed for God’s glory -- as with David and Solomon before -- but for the personal glory of Herod and the renown of his kingdom under the watchful eyes of his imperial overlords in Rome.  And fittingly enough, it was the Romans who -- as Jesus foretold -- not only destroyed, but indeed totally obliterated, that symbol of Herod’s glory before one hundred years had passed. 

And so, we can see that God’s word to David by the prophet Nathan was looking over and beyond Solomon, for it envisaged Jesus Himself Whose risen, glorious, Body would become the ultimate Temple of God among men: a temple not built by human hands, a Temple wherein Jews and Gentiles without distinction would have access to the Father by the one Most Holy 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 was all about God choosing when (in the fullness of time), by Whom (His own Son), and through whom (the virgin Mary of Nazareth), salvation would ultimately be offered to the human race:

The angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary.  And coming to her, he said, ‘Hail, full of grace!  The Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!’ But she was greatly troubled at what was said, and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.  Then the angel said to her, ‘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 His father David.  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 not excluded from His purposes, indeed, we are graciously called – in Jesus -- 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 allowed him to help his son’s preparations, and rewarded David himself 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. 

Now Mary had always wanted to give her utmost for the God of Israel, and therefore she had longed to devote herself completely by offering her virginity to Him.  However, such a gesture was almost inconceivable among the Jewish people who held marriage and childbirth in such great honour, but it was the only way Mary could think of that would give full expression to her consuming desire to belong entirely to, and to glorify totally, Israel’s God.  Therefore, she said in response to the angel Gabriel’s good news:

How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?

Here, as in the case of David, her desire itself was most pleasing to God, and it would be most sublimely fulfilled in the way God wanted: Mary could, indeed, remain a virgin; notwithstanding that, she would bear a child, God’s Child, the very Son of God.

We find this pattern so often among the great saints, People of God:  Francis of Assisi longed to be a martyr for Christ, he even went to preach Christ among the Muslims.  Though God had His own plans for Francis, He did make him great and He even gave him the signs of Jesus’ own martyrdom: the stigmata!  Again, St. Therese of Lisieux most ardently desired to become a martyr, or else a missionary; indeed, she did not know how to satisfy her manifold and ardent desires for God’s glory.  God, however, wanted her in the solitude of an enclosed convent where she was to serve Him with whole-hearted love in each and every one of the minutely regulated, and very ordinary, details of her life as a nun.   For all that, He did love and respect her ardent desires, as is shown by the fact that He had her proclaimed as the heavenly patroness of all those living, working, and dying in the mission fields of Mother Church today.

My dear people, it is a fact that God alone does the work of salvation, for to Him alone is the glory and power.  Nonetheless, as I have just said, He actually wills us to be associated in the work His own dear Son accomplished in His 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.  And God does not use human beings like tools; for, in Jesus, we are called to co-operate with Him as true children trying to glorify their Father, and that is the attitude we should always have as we work to do His will for His glory; and it is through such work that we are enabled to receive, by the Holy Spirit, a personal share -- in Jesus -- of God’s infinite holiness and eternal blessedness.

Since, in the work of God, there is absolutely nothing any of us can do of ourselves, therefore, none of us can excuse ourselves by complaining that we are less talented than others.  Whereas our natural physical powers and mental abilities are individual and strictly limited, our spirit, on the other hand, is capable of being tuned into the infinity of God Himself, but this can only come about, if we diligently and perseveringly exercise our freedom -- won for us by Jesus -- to love good and reject evil.

The true criterion for a faithful servant of God is, therefore, the nature and the depth of that person’s desires and intentions. What do you desire most sincerely and, ultimately, above all else?   Do you, in all truth, want to make something of your life with and for God, to serve Him faithfully and supremely?  Do you want with most sincere desire 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 you may think you see little of worth in your life … if you will keep on telling God of your desire even though He never seems to hear you, then you will indeed be used by Him for His purposes -- be they secret or manifest -- 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 nor can it done quickly, it is a life-time’s work.  Today people expect to see results come post-haste: that is part of the character of modern Western society; and when, in the spiritual life, things do not seem, are not seen, to come quickly, the temptation for many is to give up the attempt to live a truly religious life.  The advantages resulting from sin in the world are more easily, quickly, and intensely, experienced than the blessings accruing to us through devotion to God and constancy in the Faith; and consequently, though the wages of sin are ultimately pernicious, their passing pleasures can cloud over God’s eternal and sublime blessings for those who prefer the present delights of earthly solicitation to God’s promise of eternal fulfilment in Jesus, as beloved children of His in heaven.

There are other ways of succumbing to sin and the world, however, than by openly falling away from the practice of the Faith.  Some, yielding to pride, try, by subtle or by blatant means, to make themselves appear holy, to put on for themselves what they cannot wait to receive from God, seeking to establish a reputation in the sight of men rather than humbly persevering before God Who might seem to be ignoring them. Those, however, whose mind is centred on God, though they may, at times, be made painfully aware of their own nothingness, do not become thereby downcast or disheartened, precisely because their mind is always occupied with desires, intentions, for His good-pleasure and glory, and they are, consequently, always looking forward and hoping in Him rather than despairing of themselves. 

People of God, our readings today reveal to us something of the secret of Christmas joy and peace.  Let us welcome Jesus anew into our lives this Christmas; let us seek to serve Him, not condescendingly, but humbly as King David needed to be taught: allowing Him to guide and rule not only our intentions but also our attitude in life.  Mary, our Mother, urges and encourages us to follow her own most perfect example in our Gospel reading: by giving herself wholeheartedly to God’s intentions for her, abandoning worries about herself and her standing before men, and in her attitude before God, as she explained in her response to the angel He had sent her:

Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord! May it be done to me according to your word.

Than that, there is no surer way to experience the unique quality of Christian, Christmas, joy, which derives from a divine fulfilment of our human potential: a joy that bathes us in a uniquely peaceful and soul-satisfying truth, through our Spirit-blessed human fellowship with Jesus our Brother, and in Him as faith-committed disciples of the heavenly Father’s only-begotten Son, sent to an alienated world for the salvation of all those of good will, destined and called to become, in Him, members of God the Father’s family in heaven.

 

 

 

 

 

3rd Sunday of Advent Year B 2020

 

 3^rd. Sunday of Advent (B)

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

 

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The great prophet Isaiah spoke most assuredly about God’s coming work of salvation in Israel, and in today’s reading he tells of figures yet to come:

I rejoice heartily in the LORD, in my God is the joy of my soul; for He has clothed me with a robe of salvation, and wrapped me in a mantle of justice.

Who was Isaiah foreshadowing there?  Who would be able to speak like that?  Surely, only Our Lord Jesus Christ, speaking of His humanity.

Isaiah then went on:

            Like a bride bedecked with her jewels.

He speaks there of Mary of Nazareth, bedecked with the blessings 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 loving purpose of Our God, and mankind’s 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.

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 who was uniquely close to our Blessed Lord Jesus on the very cusp of Israel’s fulfilment, 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 like ‘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 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 Jesus of Mother Church’s teaching and tradition.

Dear Catholic People of God, as Catholics we are the original Christians, members of the original body established by Jesus as His Church on the foundations of His Personally chosen and 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:

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 witnessed by their own eyes and heard by their own ears, remain intact and appreciated in Mother Church today.  No one -- not even 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 confirm its worldly popularity: it tries to confuse issues by subtly ‘updating’ texts, by teaching in accordance with modern preferences while, on the other hand, simply trying to consign to oblivion what 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 the future Catholic (universal) Church of Jesus, and will be in them individually, as faithful disciples of and witnesses to Jesus their Lord, their Master, and their Saviour.

The season of Advent is a time of great expectancy, because we are looking forward to the coming of Our Lord and Saviour; and, being certain that His coming anew this Christmas will be for our blessing, we 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 teaching and traditions.

We are also aware that at the appointed time -- we do not know 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 the great Greek seaport of 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, consequently, a time of joyful expectancy, because the true disciple of Jesus, although being fully aware of his human weakness, ignorance, and personal sinfulness, nevertheless, most assuredly hopes and trusts that he will ultimately be purified of that sinfulness and called to share in His Lord’s heavenly glory and experience with Him eternal blessedness in His Father’s Kingdom, for Isaiah (40:10) rightly spoke of the Lord God coming to His People with an abundance of blessings:

Behold, the Lord God will come with might; behold, His reward is with Him and His recompense before Him.

And therefore, even now this very day, all true disciples of Jesus 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.

 

3rd Sunday of Advent Year B 2020

 

2^nd. Sunday of Advent (B)                  

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

 

 

John came baptizing in the Jordan and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins to those members of God’s Chosen People who were sufficiently religious and humble to want to hear him.   This was his message:

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

John the Baptist, the greatest of the prophets of Israel -- indeed, as Jesus said, the greatest of all those born of woman -- was sent to immediately precede Jesus and personally introduce Him to His People, and John fulfilled that commission by proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah, Saviour, and the One who would baptize with the Holy Spirit.  And that, People of God, is what makes us Christians and Catholics: the fact that, having believed in and been baptized into Jesus, we have received from Him the gift of His Holy Spirit.  It is the Holy Spirit within us Who subsequently enables us to cry out to God, “Abba”, “Father”.  The true Christian is one who already shares, in some measure even here on earth, the life of the Most Holy Trinity; because the true Catholic is, through faith and baptism, a living member of the Body of Christ, the Son of God; and, being in Jesus, the faithful soul is moved by the Holy Spirit of Jesus to recognize and cry out as a child to God the Father.

John the Baptist was brief and to the point, in a few words giving us the essential characteristic of the coming Messiah Whom he, John, would point out:

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

The person of John the Baptist is no longer with us, but his call still resounds.  He was given the privilege of preparing God’s People for the coming of the Saviour by the God Who never repents of His gifts; so, though John no longer pours water from the Jordan over those coming to hear him, nevertheless his words remain valid for all time as the only preparation whereby we can fittingly receive the Lord into our lives, “Repent”:

John (the) Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

And Jesus Himself, on beginning His public ministry, took up John’s call for repentance in His very first words, as St. Mark tells us (1:14-15):

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.”

Now, there are many who regard that call to repentance proclaimed in Mother Church today as over the top and excessive: there is, they say, a danger of making ourselves paranoid by constantly looking for sin, for fault, for guilt, in all aspects of our lives?  Should not our lives as Catholics and Christians rather be a manifestation of joy in the Lord?

Yes, there can be a danger of becoming paranoid in an ill-advised and ‘over-the-top’ search for sin in ones’ life, and we have heard of some such cases from the past.  Nevertheless, paranoia is no true fruit of authentic Catholic teaching or practice, nor does the possible danger of ill-advised and excessive attempts at spiritual purification in any way condone, let alone require us, to tolerate sin in our lives, for sin is the most certain evil, and the most harmful influence, in our lives.  Again, it is true, that our lives should bespeak our joy in the Lord, but such witness is not one that can be ‘put on’ in a clap-happy, pumped-up, display of emotionalism.

For the authentic Christian understanding and practice of repentance, we need to look closely, very closely, to 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, to Andrew and another of his disciples, ‘Behold the Lamb of God’ just as Jesus was passing by.

That 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:

A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the LORD!  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 in our lives, turn away from sin in all sincerity; and do that in order to turn to the Lord:

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

Were would-be-Catholics to simply apply themselves to turning from sin without turning to the Lord, then, that could lead to paranoia.  Were they, on the other hand, to simply proclaim the glory of the Lord without any serious endeavour to reject and avoid sin, such praise would be hypocritical, not what ‘the mouth of the Lord has spoken’.  The prophecy of Isaiah is one, entire, and whole:

In the desert prepare the way of the Lord … make it straight, level, and plain … then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Notice too, People of God, that Isaiah’s prophecy provides us with a sure way to test the quality of our repentance: is the glory of the Lord being revealed to you?  Do you, as you grow older, see and admire in Jesus more and more of the glory, that is, of the beauty, the goodness, 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, to trust Him alone?  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, indeed, being gradually revealed 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 no longer looking to God, for God, but looking at others, and looking after themselves.

People of God, let us briefly recall all three of our Scripture readings today: first of all we heard the prophecy of Isaiah made over 2500 years ago; then, in the Gospel, John the Baptist more than fulfilled that prophetic desire by preparing the way for the coming of the Lord  Who would baptize in the Holy Spirit; and we also heard  St. Peter telling us that that Holy Spirit of Jesus is at work in us today preparing us for the ultimate and glorious manifestation of Our Lord; and assuring us most emphatically that many intervening years should in no way dishearten us, for:

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

Therefore, no matter what might be the state we find ourselves in at this moment, advent is the season when we are urged by Mother Church to aspire once again to welcome Jesus into our lives to renew them: 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.  What is essential for us, therefore, is that here and now, we have the will to prayerfully aspire to the blessings He prepares for us, and the humility and fortitude to forget our self-solicitude, and by our daily prayer and Christian experience, learn to rejoice as He gradually makes them real for us.

Dear People of God, may your Advent preparations and Christmas celebration thus lead you to fulfil, in all things and at all times, St. Peter’s injunction:

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.

                       

 

 

 

 

 

1st Sunday of Advent Year B 2020

 

1^st. Sunday of Advent (B) 2020

(Isaiah 63:16-17, 19b, 64:2-7; 1^st. Corinthians 1:3-9; Mark 13:33-37)

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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I give thanks to my God that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus said to his disciples: “Be watchful, be alert, you do not know when the lord of the house is coming”.

Those two snippets are the essential of our readings from St. Paul and then Our Blessed Lord’s Gospel message.   And our last four Sunday Gospel readings have been warnings and/or exhortations of a very similar sort.

Now that is no criticism of Our Lord’s words, for His proclamation of divine wisdom for our salvation was done over a period of time, relatively short of course, but to many different individuals, in a Jewish society ‘stratified’ between radicals and traditionals, between the vociferous with plenty of time for trouble and the disinterested with no time for anything but just living, between the humble – the unique fruit of generations of right living in covenant with the God of Israel -- and the self-seeking career servers,  all of them with differing hopes and expectations, fears and agendas, and in circumstances of constant flux.

No, dear People I am rather wondering what was in Mother Church’s mind – so to speak – when choosing today’s readings for our Sunday celebration. One might possibly say that I am wondering what individual ‘bright spark’ decided on today’s readings after the series of readings we have been having from St. Matthew’s Gospel for the last four Sundays.  Any such thoughts, however, would have been nothing more than the somewhat irreverent expression of a preacher’s frustration at being faced with several basically similar texts and wanting to make his sermon in some measure both spiritually instructive and interesting. 

However, Mother Church is usually able to find and call upon God-guided disciples of her Lord and Saviour, individually unknown and unpraised, to save her rightful reputation of wisdom in her choice of liturgical texts: texts manifesting both divine (the Scriptures) and human (her Latin hymns and saintly commentaries) wisdom and beauty.  And we can see that today with the reading given us from the prophet Isaiah which serves to most providentially to guide us into an appropriate appreciation of both today’s Gospel passage and second reading:

             You, LORD, are our father, our redeemer You are named forever.

Why do You let us wander, O LORD, from Your ways

and harden our hearts so that we fear You not?

Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down.

Would that we were mindful of You in our ways!

Behold, You are angry, and we are sinful;

all our good deeds are like polluted rags;

There is none who calls upon Your name, who rouses himself to cling to You, for You have hidden Your face from us and delivered us up to our guilt.

Yet, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay and You the potter:

we are all the work of Your hands.

There we have our Christmas longing contained in Isaiah’s words, ‘Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down’: but isn’t the context changed?

‘We are sinful; all our good deeds are like polluted rags‘: could all our rightly praised workers and carers say that of themselves?  Can we say that of ourselves?  And yet that is infallibly true in so far as Isaiah’s subsequent words are also true:

There is none who calls upon Your name, who rouses himself to cling to You.

Do you demur?  But didn’t Jesus Himself most solemnly declare (John 16:8):

When He (the Holy Spirit) comes He will convict the world in regard to sin, because they do not believe in Me.

Oh yes, Dear People of God, those words of Isaiah are so pertinent for our appropriate longing, praying, for Jesus’ coming to us this Christmas; and how they have confirmed in my eyes the divine wisdom of Mother Church in her liturgy.  Our liturgical inheritance is a gift transcending time, a gift not ‘coffined-in’ to present events and current attitudes-and-expectations.  Isaiah was a prophet for his times and ours: he interpreted for Israel the ‘signs of the times’.  Today we do not have much guidance, help, for God’s People about ‘panvirussing-sin’ and our world’s -- and Mother Church’s -- present sufferings and distress. Is there any connection?  Mother Church does, at times, tell governments how better to govern and mostly they reject or ignore what they consider to be her ‘interference’; but she is presently saying very little about what is her own unique ‘business’: our Christian and Catholic understanding of the supremely significant event of our times.

This Advent we centre our hearts and minds on Jesus’ coming among us at Christmas .... not just the original one in Bethlehem .... but on the 25th. December 2020!  What is our attitude to be?

Preparing, with the world, to have as good a meaning-less-celebration as possible?  Or, in refreshed awareness of our spiritual state, to long whole-heartedly for Jesus to come as our whole LIFE, our only HOPE, and our eternal SALVATION.

Come, Lord Jesus, we need You, come, Lord Jesus, our unbelieving world needs You!  And in such need, may St. Paul’s words provide us with a modicum of present consolation and hope that only You Yourself can fulfil in Your Coming:

As you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, He (God the Father) will keep you firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus (Christ).

God is faithful, and by Him you were called to fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

 

Christ the King Year A 2020

                                     Christ the King (Year A)                                                                                     (Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17; 1^st. Corinthians 15:20-26, 28; Matthew 25:31-46)

 

Following the Gospel of Matthew we have recently heard Jesus warning us in parables, first of all, to be faithful and responsible, after the example of the wise and faithful servant set over the household whilst his master was away; then -- in the parable of the 5 wise and the 5 foolish virgins -- to be prepared and alert at all times; and finally, last week, He admonished us -- in the parable of the talents – to put to good use the gifts we have received by bringing forth fruit for eternal life.

And now, just before the chief priests and elders of the people meet to plot Jesus’ death, Matthew puts before us this awesome scene of the Last Judgement pictured for us by the Lord Himself:

When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit upon His glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before Him. And He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

Jesus goes on to make clear the grounds on which the sheep are to be separated from the goats, and in doing so He fills in with greater detail the advice given us previously in His parables by showing us how to remain faithful and responsible, ever alert and prepared, and how to invest for the future by bringing forth fruit for eternal life:

For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, a stranger and you welcomed Me, naked and you clothed Me, ill and you cared for Me, in prison and you visited Me

Those, on the left hand, who do not remain faithful, alert and prepared, who make little or no effort to gain profit for heaven, will be most severely judged and condemned, and the immediate continuation of our first reading from the prophet Ezekiel tells us why:

Then the King will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

“As for you, O My flock,” thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I shall judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats.  Is it too little for you to have eaten up the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture -- and to have drunk of the clear waters, that you must foul the residue with your feet?"   Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I Myself will judge between the fat and the lean sheep. Because you have pushed with side and shoulder, butted all the weak ones with your horns, and scattered them abroad, therefore I will save My flock, and they shall no longer be a prey; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.”

St. John Chrysostom, a Greek Doctor of the Church, when commenting on today’s parable of the Final Judgement, told his congregation at the imperial court in the city of Constantinople some 1600 years ago that God does not demand great things of us, for He is gracious enough to reward even little things:

And in return for what, do they receive such a great reward as a share in heavenly glory?  For offering the covering of a roof, for giving a garment, some bread to eat and cold water to drink, for visiting one languishing in the prison.   In every case it is for what is needed; and sometimes not even for that, for surely, as I have said, the sick and he that is in bonds seeks not only a visit, but the one to be loosed (from his chains), the other to be delivered from his infirmity. But the Lord, being gracious, requires only what is within our power.

Consequently, we can be sure the supreme Judge in today’s parable is seeking only what is absolutely essential:

I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, a stranger and you welcomed Me, naked and you clothed Me, ill and you cared for Me, in prison and you visited Me.

All, expressions of human compassion and signs of the beginnings of divine charity.

At times this parable of the Last Judgment has been wrongly interpreted as though it  asserts that our salvation will ultimately depend exclusively on works of fraternal charity done or omitted by us.  However, when looked at in the whole context of St. Matthew’s presentation of the teaching of Jesus, works of fraternal charity are valid and valuable only in so far as they are true expressions of love for God.

A lawyer, asked Jesus a question, testing Him, and saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"  Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself.'  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." (22:35-40)

Love God with all your heart, soul and mind;  love your neighbour, as yourself.

St. Matthew elsewhere (19:16-21) quotes Jesus showing love of neighbour to be a necessary preparation for love of God when he tells how a rich young man, though having long kept the commandments and shown love toward his neighbour, came to Jesus because he still felt himself to be far from perfect:

"Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?" Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments."  He said to Him, "Which ones?" Jesus said, " 'You shall not murder,' 'You shall not commit adultery,' 'You shall not steal,' 'You shall not bear false witness,' 'Honour your father and your mother,' and, 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself.'"  The young man said to Him, "All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?"  Jesus said, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."

There Jesus obviously wanted to lead this promising young man on to the fulfilment of charity in personal love of God.

In our parable today also, notice that those called to His right hand by Jesus had indeed shown love of neighbour, but they had not sufficiently recognized God, Jesus, in their neighbour:

Then the righteous will answer Him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink?  When did we see You a stranger and welcome You, or naked and clothe You?   When did we see You ill or in prison, and visit You?’

They still needed to learn much from Jesus in order to recognize and truly appreciate the pearl of great price.

The rich young man, however, by his life-long endeavours to find God, merited Jesus’ Personal invitation to “Come, follow Me”: only three short words but of surpassing significance. “Come and learn from Me to love both God and neighbour; come, learn to love My Father and your Father so much as to be able to embrace the Cross with Me for His glory and for the salvation of mankind”.  He speaks those same words to us this very day, for we should recognize that there is much for us to learn concerning which none but Jesus can teach us.  Our world’s greatest need is for divine wisdom to understand God’s will in the signs of the times, and divine charity to love His will and our fellows aright, and such gifts are only in the purview of the Holy Spirit of Jesus.  Once Jesus’ coming into our lives has freed us from the slavery of sin then, by the gift of His Spirit, those God-given gifts of understanding and love can begin to reform and renew our darkened minds and stony hearts for God’s glory and the blessing of all around us.

If, therefore, we aspire to be counted among the sheep at God’s right hand we must make a beginning by fulfilling, as St. John Chrysostom explained, the first and easiest demands of Him Who will, ultimately, be our Judge.  Only little words and actions capable of expressing both sincere love for God and neighbour are asked of us: such as turning aside from evil, and witnessing to Jesus by speaking the truth in love; such as showing human understanding and compassion by admitting in others those human limitations and weaknesses which we consider so understandable and excusable in ourselves; such as setting aside our personal antipathies, and learning to forgive; such as refraining from snide remarks or whispered words of detraction, and being sincere and trustworthy in our relationships.  All these common, every-day, matters -- for the most part unseen by others and of no great difficulty to ourselves -- are, nevertheless, of the utmost significance in our endeavours to walk with Jesus for God’s glory and our neighbour’s good.  There is no need for us to look around for opportunities to make great sacrifices or adopt striking attitudes, for those who behave in such a way easily fall into the trap of seeking human praise rather than divine approbation.  

For it is only as the ordinary, everyday, attitudes of individual men and women become spiritually healthy and strong through Christ living in them, that the Holy Spirit of Jesus will be able to gradually correct and efface the social and political evils which afflict our country and our world, until that time comes when Christ -- reigning supreme in hearts and minds of His disciples—will be publicly manifested as King of Glory ushering in the Kingdom of God.  Towards that end every disciple of Jesus is able and called to contribute since all of us have a personal role to play in the development of that Kingdom and a necessary function for its fulfilment.

Dear People of God, be sure of this: in all that we do, each and every one of us is responsible to Jesus because each and every one of us counts for Him, each and every one of us is of unique worth before Him.