December 2005
Pope Benedict XVI's general
prayer intention for the month of December is: "That an
even deeper understanding be spread of the dignity of men and
women according to the Creator's plan."
His mission intention is:
"That, on earth, the search for God and the thirst for truth may lead
every human being to meet the Lord."
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The first Sunday of
Advent B
(Nov 27) Today let us think of
St. Maximinus
(Saints)
Scripture Today:
Isaiah 63: 16-17.19; 64:
2-7;
Psalm 80: 2-3, 15-16,
18-19; 1 Corinthians 1:
3-9; Mark 13: 33-37.
Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will
come. It's like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in
charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep
watch. “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house
will come back — whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster
crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What
I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”
(Mark 13:
33-37NIV)
Today we begin a new twelve month liturgical
year (Year B), and it begins with the liturgical reliving of the preparation for
the coming of the Messiah. The Church calls it the special liturgical season of
Advent. The Christian knows that in Christ is given every heavenly blessing and
that the Old Testament period was God’s preparation of his people for his
coming. Part and parcel of the mystery of Christ is the divine preparation for
his coming. Therefore the liturgical year’s celebration of the mystery of Christ
includes also a liturgical celebration of this preparation. By reliving the
sentiments God instilled in his people prior to the coming of the Messiah
(Isaiah 63: 16-17.19; 64: 2-7) we shall be
more disposed to receive Christ when he comes to us again, now in our everyday
life and especially at the end.
The attitude and posture which the Church
invites us to make our own today is that contained in today’s Gospel passage
(Mark 13: 33-37). We are to stay awake, Our
Lord tells us, because we never know when the time will come. What does this
mean, in concrete terms? Our Lord provides us with a simile. “It is like a man
travelling abroad: he has gone from home, and left his servants in charge, each
with his own task.” So being ready for the coming of the Master means working at
the task he has given us to do, whatever that may be ─ seemingly unimportant
perhaps. It means trying to do the best we can with the task the Master has
given us to do, however unnoticed it may be before the gaze of men. Were the
Master to arrive suddenly, he will find us diligent at his work. “He must not
find you asleep.”
The greatest task ahead of each person is his
own sanctification. As St Paul writes in one of his letters, “This is the will
of God: your sanctification.” Christ must not find us asleep at the wheel.
So then, now I begin!
(E.J.Tyler)
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Christ’s two comings (Mark 13: 33-37)
Comment by St John Chrysostom
(345-407), Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily on Psalm 49)
At his first coming, God came without any brilliance, unknown by most,
prolonging the mystery of his hidden life by many years. When he came down from
the mountain of the Transfiguration, Jesus asked his disciples not to tell
anyone that he was the Christ. Then he came like a shepherd to look for his lost
sheep, and in order to get hold of the unruly animal, he had to remain hidden.
Like a doctor who is careful not to frighten his patient right from the start,
in the same way, the Lord avoids making himself known right from the beginning
of his mission: he only does so imperceptibly and little by little. The prophet
announced this event without brilliance with these words: “He shall be like rain
coming down on the meadow, like showers watering the earth.” (Ps 72:6) He did
not tear open the heavens so as to come on the clouds, but rather, he came in
silence into the womb of a virgin and was carried by her for nine months. He was
born in a manger as the son of a humble craftsman…… He went here and there like
an ordinary man; his clothing was simple, his table even more frugal. He walked
without resting to the point of being tired out. But his second coming will not
be like that. He will come with such brilliance that it won’t be necessary to
announce his coming: “As the lightning from the east flashes to the west, so
will the coming of the Son of Man be.” (Mt 24:27) It will be the time of
judgment and of sentencing. And the Lord will not appear as a doctor, but as a
judge. The prophet Daniel saw his throne, the river flowing at the base of the
tribunal, and that device made entirely of fire, the chariot and the wheels
(7:9-10)…… David, the prophet-king, spoke only of splendour, of brilliance, of
fire flaming on all sides: “Before him is a devouring fire; around him is a
raging storm.” (Ps 50:3) All these comparisons aim at making us understand
God’s sovereignty, the brilliant light that surrounds him, and his inaccessible
nature.
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You insist on trying to walk on your own, doing your own will, guided solely by
your own judgment. And you can see for yourself that the fruit of this is
fruitlessness. My child, if you don’t give up your own judgment, if you are
proud, if you devote yourself to “your” apostolate, you will work all night -
your whole life will be one long night - and at the end of it all the dawn will
find you with your nets empty.
(The Forge, no.574)
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Monday of the first week of Advent II
(Nov 28) Today let us think of St. James of the Marches
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah 2: 1-5;
Psalm 122: 1-9; Matthew 8: 5-11
When
Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,”
he said, “my servant lies at home paralysed and in terrible suffering.” Jesus
said to him, “I will go and heal him.” The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not
deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant
will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I
tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to
my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he was astonished
and said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone
in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east
and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.”
(Matthew 8: 5-11NIV)
There
is much that we have been given that we simply take for granted. Across the
pages
of the Gospel we see Our Lord looking for faith, extolling it, and condemning
the lack of faith he encountered. The implication is that there is every reason
why we ought be growing in our faith, and when we have little of it, God will
hold us accountable. Consider today’s Gospel passage
(Matthew 8: 5-11). The centurion gives utterance to the faith in our
Lord that he has, and our Lord praises the degree of faith he has. “I tell you
solemnly,” our Lord says to those following him, “nowhere in Israel have I found
faith like this.” Our Lord goes on to intimate that in the life of faith, many
from outside will put those of the household of God to shame: “I tell you that
many will come from east and west to take their places with Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom of heaven.”
Turning to ourselves, we of the family of God have been given the great gift of
faith. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit given to us at our baptism, disposing us
to entrust ourselves to the God who reveals and to accept his revelation where
it is to be found (in the Church), because it comes from him. This great gift
that is the foundation of our Christian life is a great responsibility. We are
responsible for our life of faith and its growth in our souls. It is by means of
faith that we are able to know and cleave to Christ as God, and to make his
teaching the foundation of our daily lives. Let us then never entertain any
thought that could place this gift in danger. Let us be on guard against dangers
to faith, and dangers there are aplenty in a society and culture which regards
“faith” as unworthy of an educated and thinking person.
Let us be grateful to God that he has chosen to endow us with this gift, and let
us be determined to nourish it unto holiness.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“A centurion of the Roman army approached him” (Matthew 8: 5-11)
Comment by Blessed Guerric of
Igny (1080-1157), Cistercian abbot (3rd Advent Sermon, 2)
Oh true Israel, be ready to go out to meet the Lord! Do not only be ready to
open the door to him when he is there and knocks at your door, but even go out
to meet him cheerfully and joyfully when he is still far away. And so to speak
with complete trust where the day of judgment is concerned, pray with all your
heart that his reign might come…… May your mouth be able to sing: “My heart is
steadfast, oh God, my heart is steadfast!”…… And you, Lord, come to meet me who
am going out to meet you! For in spite of all my efforts, I won’t be able to
rise up to your height unless you bend down and stretch out your right hand to
the work of your hands. So come to meet me and see if there is not in me a path
of iniquity; and if you find in me a path of iniquity that I know nothing about,
take it away from me and have mercy on me; lead me by the eternal way, which is
to say Christ, for he is the way on which we walk and the eternity to which we
come, the immaculate way and the blessed dwelling. [Biblical references: Am
3:12; Lk 12:36; Lk 14:32; 1 Jn 4:17; Ps 57:8; Job 14:15; Ps 139:24]
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To think of Christ’s Death means to be invited to face up to our everyday tasks
with complete sincerity, and to take the faith that we profess seriously. It has
to be an opportunity to go deeper into the depths of God’s Love, so as to be
able to show that Love to men with our words and deeds.
(The Forge, no.575)
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Tuesday of the first week of Advent II
(Nov 29) Today let us think of
St. Saturninus
(Saints)
Scripture today: Isaiah 11: 1-10; Psalm 72: 1-2, 7-8, 12-13,
17;
Luke 10: 21-24.
At
that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you,
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the
wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this
was your good pleasure. “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No
one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is
except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Then he turned
to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you
see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but
did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”
(Luke 10: 21-24NIV)
Much
of the history of civilization can be understood in terms of the influence of
great
minds.
Consider the extent of influence maintained by the great religions of the world:
Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, and others.
They arose in response to the teachings of their great founders: Mahomet,
Buddha, Confucius, and others besides. Consider the great philosophical currents
that have shaped the culture of the West, and through the West other cultures of
the world. These philosophical currents arose because of the work and the
teaching of powerful philosophical minds: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and into
the modern period the likes of Descartes, Hegel, Marx and so on. They were great
minds and had great influence. But consider this too: So many of them were so
very wrong and wildly astray of the truth if we take as our yardstick of the
truth (as we must) what God has revealed in Christ.
Our Lord in today’s Gospel (Luke 10: 21-24) rejoices in the Holy Spirit and
praises his heavenly Father for “hiding these things from the learned and the
clever and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it
pleased you to do.” That is to say, a wonderful divine wisdom and knowledge of
the things of God is available to the humblest and lowliest of persons who
receive in faith the revelation of Christ. In Christ, St Paul tells us, we
receive every heavenly blessing, especially the blessing of light and wisdom,
that light that can take us on to holiness of life, union with God and
everlasting happiness in heaven. It is this light, the light of Christian faith
and divine revelation, which the most ordinary of Christ’s faithful has the
mission not only to live out in his everyday life, but to bring to the world
around in order that the world might be filled with the saving light of Christ.
Every member of the Church is called to be apostolic, and being apostolic means
bringing the doctrine of Christ to others.
Let us praise our heavenly Father in union with Christ for revealing these
things to us and entrusting us with the light that comes from above.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“Many prophets and kings desired to see what
you see”
(Luke 10: 21-24)
Comment from Saint Irenaeus of Lyon
(130-208), Bishop, Theologian and Martyr
(Adversus Haereses IV, 14, 2)
Right from the beginning, God formed the human person in view of his gifts. He
chose the patriarchs in view of their salvation. He prepared for himself a
people and taught the ignorant to follow God’s path. Then he taught the prophets
so as to get the human person accustomed to bearing his Spirit already on this
earth and to entering into communion with God. Certainly, he himself needed no
one, but he offered communion with himself to those who needed him. Like an
architect, he made plans of salvation’s edifice ahead of time through those “on
whom his favour rests” (Lk 2:14). In the darkness of Egypt, he himself became
their guide. In the desert where they were wandering, he gave them a very
appropriate Law; and to those who entered the good land, he offered a chosen
inheritance. Finally, for all who return to the Father, he killed the fattened
calf and he gives them the precious garment (Lk 15:22). Thus, God disposed the
human race in many ways for the “music and dancing” (Lk 15:25). That is why John
wrote in the Book of Revelation: “And his voice sounded like the roar of rushing
waters.” (Rev 1:15) For the waters of God’s Spirit are truly many, because the
Father is rich and great. And going by way of all that, the Word generously gave
his help to those who submitted themselves to him, giving every creature the
appropriate instruction.
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Make sure that your lips, the lips of a Christian
— for that is what you are and
should be at all times
— speak those compelling supernatural words which will
move and encourage, and will show your committed attitude to life.
(The Forge, no.576)
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Feast of St Andrew the Apostle
(November 30) Born at Bethsaida, Andrew was a disciple
of John the Baptist before he became a follower of Christ, to whom he also
brought his brother, Peter. With Philip he presented the Greeks to Christ before
his Passion. Before the miracle in the desert, he pointed out to Christ the boy
carrying the loaves and fishes. After Pentecost he preached the Gospel in many
lands and is said to have been put to death by crucifixion at Achaia (Greece).
Let us also think of St. Maura (Saints)
Scripture today:
Romans 10: 9-18;
Psalm 18; Matthew 4: 18-22
As
Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called
Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they
were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of
men.” At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw
two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a
boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and
immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
(Matthew 4:18-22NIV)
Andrew
was, to all appearances, a very ordinary person: one of any number of fishermen.
He shared this trade with his brother Simon. They were devout Jews (Andrew was a
disciple of John the Baptist, and his brother Simon in one passage of the Acts
of the Apostles tells the Lord that he had never eaten anything unclean or
forbidden). They were devout but ordinary. They did not stand out. What made all
the difference to their lives was the call of Christ to follow him. They were
called, and they responded unhesitatingly. They left their nets at once and
followed him. The result was that through Christ and the Church their lives
assumed a significance reaching to the end of the world.
No matter who
we are or how seemingly ordinary our existence and status, the call of God to
live in Christ makes all the difference. St Paul tells us that before the world
began God chose us, chose us in Christ to be holy and full of love in Christ. So
even if we pass through life making little impression or none at all, God will
do his work, provided we remain in Christ and grow in him. If God does his work
in us and through us for others, then all will be well and our lives too will
attain an eternal significance known only to God, even if out of sight of the
world. The one thing that is important is being in Christ, and this happened in
our case at our baptism. We must live according to this reality and work at the
tasks God gives us during life, having as our ambition the service of him and
others in him. Therein will lie the value of our lives, not in the acclaim of
men.
The call of
Christ makes all the difference, as we learn from St Andrew in our Gospel today.
We have received Christ’s call to follow him. Let us like Andrew respond
immediately.
(E.J.Tyler)
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The Lord’s
first disciple (Matthew 4:18-22)
Comment by Basil of Seleucia (? –– around 468),
Bishop (Sermon in praise of St. Andrew, 2-3)
Andrew was the first to acknowledge the
Lord as his master…… His eyes perceived the Lord’s coming and he left the
teaching of John the Baptist so as to become Christ’s pupil…… John the Baptist
had said: “There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (Jn
1:29) There is the one who frees from death; there is the one who destroys sin.
I have been sent not as the bridegroom, but as the one who accompanies him (Jn
3:29). I have come as a servant and not as the master. Urged on by these words,
Andrew left his former master and ran towards the one he announced…… bringing
with him John the evangelist. Both of them left the lamp (Jn 5:35) and walked
towards the Sun…… Since he recognized the prophet of whom Moses had said: “To
him you shall listen” (Deut 18:15), Andrew led his brother Peter to him. He
showed Peter his treasure: “We have found the Messiah (Jn 1:41), him for whom we
were longing; come now and taste his presence.” When he was not yet an apostle,
he led his brother to Christ…… That was his first miracle.
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There is a great love of comfort, and at
times a great irresponsibility, hidden behind the attitude of those in authority
who flee from the sorrow of correcting, making the excuse that they want to
avoid the suffering of others. They may perhaps save themselves some discomfort
in this life. But they are gambling with eternal happiness - the eternal
happiness of others as well as their own - by these omissions of theirs. These
omissions are real sins.
(The Forge, no.577)
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Thursday
of the first week of Advent II
(December 1) Today let us think of St Edmund
Campion, St Robert
Southwell, and their
companions
Also St.
Florence, St. Eligius, Blessed
Charles of Jesus, priest (1858-1916)
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah 26:
1-6;
Psalm 118: 1 and
8-9, 19-21, 25-27a;
Matthew 7: 21.24-27.
“Not
everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but
only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” ……. “Therefore
everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a
wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose,
and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it
had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and
does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on
sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against
that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
(Matthew 7: 21,24-27NIV)
It
is absolutely essential to have hopes and dreams of serving and loving Our Lord
faithfully and generously if ever we are to make progress in the spiritual life.
We have to want it first, if we are to get there at all, and very many people
simply do not want it. Many have no interest in the person of Christ, except in
a vague way that amounts to a
pointless curiosity. We must cultivate great desires, and we do it by prayer,
meditation and real self discipline. But we must not fool ourselves. The desire
must lead to action. St Thomas Aquinas is said to have been asked by his sister
how one becomes a saint. He is reputed to have replied, ‘Want it!’ He meant that
the saint really wants it, and the manifestation of his desire is his action. It
is deeds, it is actual work, that defines a person’s real intent. Our Lord in
today’s Gospel (Matthew 7: 21.24-27) tells
us that “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of
heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
So then each
day let us concentrate on getting down to it. We see that we have not really
begun a life of mortification in imitation of Christ. Well, today let’s get down
to it and actually work on mortification, doing something concrete about it. We
see that when it comes to our daily responsibilities and work we are somewhat
remiss. Well, begin now, taking on the unpleasant aspects of daily work promptly
and perseveringly. What God wants above all is action when it comes to the
fulfilling of his will — whatever that may mean in our particular situation. It
is not enough to want it, to dream about it, to hope for it. We must get down to
it and actually do the will of God, which is usually a matter of fulfilling a
very ordinary range of daily duties for others (and for ourselves). But we must
learn to do them really well, and for God.
In all of this
we have a great example: the Holy Family during all those years at Nazareth.
So, now I
begin!
(E.J.Tyler)
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“It is not enough to
say to me: ‘‘Lord, Lord’’ …… but you must do the will of my Father”
Comment from Saint Theresia
Benedicta of the Cross [Edith Stein], (1891-1942), Carmelite, Martyr,
Co-patroness of Europe (Das
Weihnachtsgeheimnis, 1/31/1931)
“Thy will be done.” In all its
fullness, this act of abandonment must be the rule of Christian life.
It must rule over the day, from morning to night, over the course of
the year, over all of life. This must be the Christian’s only concern;
all the others are taken care of by the Lord, but this one remains ours
until our last day. That is an objective fact. We are not definitively
assured of always remaining on the Lord’s path…… During our spiritual
childhood, when we have just begun to let ourselves be led by God, we
feel his strong and firm hand guiding us. We see in an obvious way what
we must do and what we must not do. But it will not always be like
that. The person who belongs to Christ must live Christ’s whole life.
That person must ripen to the point of attaining Christ’s adult age,
and one day must start out on the way of the cross…… Thus united with
Christ, the Christian will persevere even in the dark night…… That is
why, even and precisely in the midst of the darkest night, “thy will be
done.”
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For many people a saint is an
“uncomfortable” person to live with. But this doesn’t mean that he has
to be unbearable. A saint’s zeal should never be bitter. When he
corrects he should never be wounding. His example should never be an
arrogant moral slap in his neighbour’s face.
(The Forge,
no.578)
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Friday
of the first week of Advent II
(December 2)
Today let us
think of St. Bibiana
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah 29:
17-24; Psalm 27: 1, 4,
13-14;
Matthew 9:
27-31
As
Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy
on us, Son of David!” When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and
he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they
replied. Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith will it
be done to you”; and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, “See
that no one knows about this.” But they went out and spread the news about him
all over that region.
(Matthew 9: 27-31NIV)
There have
been several notable cases in history of members of the Church who had the light
of Catholic faith
and who went on to utterly reject in favour of some heresy or even in favour of
agnosticism or atheism. Within this new position they felt increasingly
self-assured and convinced. One can think of Arius in the early Church, or
Wycliffe, or Luther or Calvin. While among the different Christian communions
the status of these personages is of course controverted, there is no
controversy about it for the Catholic. These persons passed from the light of
truth to error. But the point to be noticed here is that they were utterly
convinced of the rightness of their step and of their ultimate position. They
were sincere — so it certainly seems. So what is to be made of it? This is
what is to be made of it: in this or that respect they had passed from spiritual
sight to spiritual blindness.
The sad thing
about this situation is that a person suffering from this blindness does not
appeal to God for sight. He does not appeal to God for sight because he thinks
he sees. He thinks he is in the light. Moreover, generally it is when we ask
that we shall receive. In our Gospel “as Jesus went on his way two blind men
followed him shouting, ‘Take pity on us, Son of David!’” They pursued Jesus
asking him for the gift of sight because they knew all too well that the lacked
it. They were blind and they fortunately knew it. If they had not been aware of
this and followed Jesus asking for the gift of sight, Our Lord would have passed
them by and they would have been left in their blindness. And such, we have to
say, has probably been the case with various persons in the past: they have been
left in their blindness.
This Gospel
scene of today has a lesson for us. Small infidelities, going deliberately
against the light and against our conscience in little ways can lead to a
partial loss of spiritual sight — unless we repent. That is why we ought be
careful to repent regularly and daily of deliberate venial sin. We ought strive
to be faithful to the light we have been given, and more light will be given.
Let us then love the truth of God and live according to it in the little duties
of everyday life. Let us be on guard against the onset of spiritual blindness by
acting against the light. And let us continually be like the blind men, asking
Our Lord that we may see.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“At that he touched their eyes”
Matthew 9:
27-31
Comment by Symeon the New Theologian (
949 – 1022), Orthodox monk
Let us seek him who alone can give us back our
liberty. Let us pursue him constantly with our desire, him whose beauty
wounds hearts, him who draws them towards love and who unites them to
him forever. Yes, let us all run towards him by our actions. Let us not
let anyone, whoever it might be, get ahead of us or deceive us and
distract us from our search. Above all… let us not say that
God never manifests his presence to human beings. Let us not say that
it is impossible for people to see God’s light one day – or even to see
it today. Thanks be to God, this was never impossible, on condition
that a person desired it. Let us realize how beautiful our Master is!
Let us not close the eyes of our heart to him by allowing ourselves
become absorbed in the realities of this world. Yes, may our concern
with matters of the earth not make us slaves of human glory to the
point of making us abandon the one who is the light of eternal
life. Thus, let us all go towards him together, with one heart,
one mind, with all our soul. Humbly, let us cry out to him, our good
Master, our merciful Lord, to him who is “man’s only friend” (Wis 1:6).
Let us seek him, for he will reveal himself to us, he will appear, he
will manifest himself, he who is our hope.
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There was a young priest who used to address Jesus with the words of
the Apostles: explain the parable to us. He would add: Master, put into
our souls the clarity of your teaching, so that it may never be absent
from our lives and our works. And so that we can give it to others. You
too should say this to Our Lord.
(The Forge, no.579)
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Saturday
of the first week of Advent II
(December 3) St Francis Xavier,
Jesuit priest and missionary (1506-1552) Born in Spain he
studied at Paris and there met and joined St Ignatius. He was ordained
a priest at Rome in 1537. He spent himself in works of charity and in
1541 he went to the East where for ten years he preached the Gospel in
India and Japan, and brought great numbers to the Catholic Faith. He
died on the Chinese island of Shangchwan. (Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah 30:
19-21.23-26; Psalm 147: 1-6;
Matthew 9:
35-10:1.6-8.
Jesus
went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching
the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. He
called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil
spirits and to heal every disease and sickness….Go rather to the lost sheep of
Israel. As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Heal
the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.
Freely you have received, freely give.
(Matthew 9:
35-10:1.6-8NIV)
In
our first reading today, Isaiah prophesies in the name of “the Lord God, the
Holy one of Israel” the coming of an absolutely ideal time. The people “will
weep no more.” All will be light and there will be no more darkness nor any need
(Isaiah 30: 19-21.23-26). In these words, the words of the first reading of
today, the prophet is speaking of the coming of God’s Kingdom. It will most
certainly come, for this is an inspired and constant prophecy in the religion
revealed by God. Now, just as this certain expectation of the Kingdom filled the
prophet with the optimism that God intended for his people, so it ought fill us
too. But in our case we know that the fulfilment of this prophecy has come about
in Christ. He has come and he is with us to the end of time. It is in him that
everything God intended and revealed will reach its fulfilment at the end of
time. We are in the last days of its fulfilment, however long it may take. The
ultimate future is bright indeed.
Our Lord
intended that it be evident that the Kingdom of God had come in him, and that it
was only a matter of time before its triumph would be complete. As our Gospel
text today tells us, he went everywhere “preaching the Good News of the kingdom
and healing every disease and sickness” (Matthew 9: 35
– 10: 1.6-8). It was the beginning of the fulfilment of the prophecy
of Isaiah which is presented to us in the first reading. The end time, long
foretold, was arriving, and in Jesus our Lord, in essence it had arrived. Our
Lord directs his disciples to go out and “proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is
close at hand.” The signs foretold by the prophets were to be included: “Heal
the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.”
Our daily
lives ought be marked by the realization of the light that is ahead. We can see
the great light at the end of the tunnel. It comes from Christ who is with us
now and whose light at the end of time will light up all of creation. We are
called every day to work with him who is in our midst as our head, striving to
bring all into his Kingdom. This Kingdom that in him is with us now, will come
in its entirely. We have so much to live and work for. So then, now I begin!
(E.J.Tyler)
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Always have the courage — the humility, the desire to serve God
—
to
put forward the truths of faith as they are, without watering them
down, without ambiguity.
(The Forge, no.580)
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Second
Sunday of Advent B
(December 4) St
John Damascene, priest and doctor of the Church (8th century).
John was born in Damascus (hence, John the Damascene, or John
Damascene), Syria. Learned in philosophy and theology, he wrote many
doctrinal works, particularly against iconoclasts who were destroying
sacred images and paintings. He became a monk in the monastery of St
Sabbas, near Jerusalem and is counted as the last of the Eastern
Fathers of the Church.
Let us also think of St.
Barbara (Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah 40:
1-5.9-11; Psalm 85: 9-14; 2
Peter 3:
8-14; Mark 1: 1-8.
The
beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is written in
Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare
your way” — “a voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the
Lord, make straight paths for him.’” And so John came, baptizing in the desert
region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The
whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him.
Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore
clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate
locusts and wild honey. And this was his message: “After me will come one more
powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and
untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
(Mark 1:
1-8NIV)
There
is no getting away from it — holiness and union with God in Christ requires
repentance from sin.
This
means that, hand in hand with the thought of the person of Christ and striving
to know and love him more and more, there must be a great attention to sin. Sin
is the enemy to be defeated and it is a long and daily struggle. The sin within
one’s own heart has to be discovered, unmasked, and in various ways with God’s
help, gradually overcome. One must grow in the consciousness of personal sin and
its seriousness. The Servant of God, Pope Pius XII, taught that the sin of the
modern period was the loss of the sense of sin. Without it, it will be
impossible to follow Christ closely. For this reason, as we read in today’s
Gospel (Mark 1: 1-8), St John the Baptist
comes in the wilderness to announce the coming of the Messiah, but he comes
proclaiming a baptism or washing of repentance.
We can accept
all this in theory, but it has to come down to practice. The one who willingly
listens to the words of the Baptist (which the Church makes her own), must
repent from the deliberate venial sins of everyday life that we tend to think
are not sins at all, or that we think don’t matter much. The good person with
the grace of God can expect to avoid mortal sin if the normal means are
sincerely taken. But it is venial sin which clings so persistently to our hearts
and which blocks our advance in Christian love and virtue. We simply must come
to terms with deliberate venial sin if we wish to be followers of the Master.
The preaching of John the Baptist which the Church wishes us to take to heart at
this stage of Advent must be applied to venial sin. The grace of Advent is a
renewed readiness to welcome the advent of Christ into our lives, and we must
understand that this means repentance, and repentance means taking seriously the
presence and recurrence of deliberate venial sin.
Let us get
down to business and deal with sin, including and especially deliberate venial
sin. We have the means to help us: a daily examination of conscience concluding
with a sincere act of contrition, and a fervent and regular reception of the
Sacrament of Penance.
(E.J.Tyler)
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There is
no other possible attitude for a Catholic: we have to defend
the authority of the Pope always, and to be ready always to correct our
own views with docility, in line with the teaching authority of the
Church.
(The Forge, no.581)
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Monday
of the second week of Advent II
(December 5)
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah 35:
1-10; Psalm 85: 9-14;
Luke 5: 17-26
One
day as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from
every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there. And
the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick. Some men came
carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him
before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd,
they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the
middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he
said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” The Pharisees and the teachers of the
law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who
can forgive sins but God alone?” Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked,
“Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier: to say,
‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But that you may know
that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” He said to the
paralysed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” Immediately he
stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising
God. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and
said, “We have seen remarkable things today.”
(Luke 5:
17-26NIV)
Recently at a
seminar conducted on the religions of mankind at the University of Sydney, an
academic offered his view that the religious impulse arises from man’s sense of
need and his conviction that the powers above can answer these needs. There have
been many proposals as to the origin of the religious factor, and whether this
academic’s view represents a correct analysis need not be discussed here. But it
does remind us that time and again our needs prompt us to turn to the power of
God as our only ordinary recourse.
It is the
power of God which we normally think of when we turn to him, and perhaps it is
his
power which first impresses us when we think of his creative works. The world
reminds us of the power of God. Perhaps too, it is God’s
power which is especially revealed in the history of salvation, provided we
think of this divine power as having a certain character. It is merciful and
compassionate. His power reveals his almighty mercy and compassion. There is a
further point which is perhaps quite distinctive to revealed religion: God
reveals himself as having power without limit. All religions appeal to the power
or powers above. But I think it is only Revealed Religion that teaches that the
Power above is almighty. There is no limit to his power. Yes, we worship and
love a God who is a loving Father — but he is a Father who is also almighty. But
in practice, do we really believe this, that our Father in heaven is almighty?
Now this
doctrine of the almighty power of God is manifested in Jesus Our Lord himself.
He healed the sick, and “the power of the Lord was present in his healing of the
sick,” as today’s Gospel reminds us (Luke 5: 17-26).
Let us think then of Christ’s power, a power we can rely on, especially in the
most impossible project ahead of us, which is the task of our own personal
sanctification. If anything requires the compassionate power of God it is this,
and our Faith teaches us that God’s power is almighty. We ought pray for the
grace to believe in the Father almighty. Let us raise our minds and hearts in
trust and praise, placing ourselves in his almighty care.
(E.J.Tyler)
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A long time ago someone asked me, tactlessly, whether those of us whose
career is the priesthood are able to retire when we get old. And since
I gave him no answer, he persisted with his impertinent question. Then
an answer came to me which, I thought, put it in a nutshell. “The
priesthood,” I told him, “is not a career: it is an apostolate.” That’s
how I feel about it. And I wanted to put it down in these notes so that
— with God’s help
— none of us may ever forget the difference.
(The Forge, no.582)
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Tuesday of the second week of Advent II
(December 6) St Nicholas
(4th century). Bishop of Myra (now in Turkey). His relics were brought
to Bari, Italy. Particularly after the tenth century he has been
honoured by the whole Church.
St. Gerald
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah
40:1-11; Psalm 96: 1-2, 3,
10ac, 11-13;
Matthew
18:12-14
“What
do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will
he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that
wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that
one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way
your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be
lost.”
(Matthew
18:12-14NIV)
There are many
famous examples of conversion in the history of the Church. There is
the
example of St Paul himself, converted on the way to Damascus. There is the
example of St Augustine, converted from a life of immorality and heresy to the
Catholic Faith and to holiness of life. There is the example of John Henry
Newman, converted to the Catholic Faith from being an intellectual leader of
Anglicanism. These are among the most famous — and many others could be
mentioned. Besides them, there are the countless unknown persons who have
undergone a profound conversion from sin and error to holiness and the Truth.
During December 2005 I remember how the media was full of the last days of an
Australian-Vietnamese drug trafficker who was executed in Singapore. It was very
evident that his final years in prison were marked by a religious conversion. He
died a good and perhaps holy death.
What are we to
make of such a conversion? Our Gospel today (Matthew
18:12-14) gives us the words of Our Lord telling us of the will of
our heavenly Father: “Your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these
little ones should be lost.” To illustrate this Our Lord gives us the parable of
the shepherd seeking out and finding the stray, and experiencing more joy from
this than from the ninety-nine who did not stray at all. God is seeking us out,
constantly endeavouring with his grace to reclaim us from sin — from all sin,
including from all deliberate venial sin. He wants to draw us to holiness of
life and complete union with him. Conversion is the key, and it is a grace to be
sought and acted upon. We will not be lost if we convert. We will not be held
back in our sins, in our venial sins, if we convert from them. We will attain
holiness of life if we seek constant conversion, constant repentance. This
repentance ought be daily, weekly. It ought be constant and life-long.
Let us during
this period of Advent, when we renew our attitude of readiness for the coming of
Christ, ask for the grace to repent from sin, and to repent again and again,
constantly.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“It is no part of your heavenly
Father’s plan that a single one of these little ones shall ever come to
grief.”
(Matthew
18:12-14) Commentary from Silouane (1866-1938),
Orthodox monk (Writings)
My soul learned humility from the Lord. The Lord appeared to me in a
way that is beyond all understanding, and he filled my soul with his
love. But then he disappeared, and now my soul longs for him day and
night. As the good and merciful shepherd, he looked for me, his sheep
that was already wounded by the wolves, and he scattered them (cf. Jn
10:12).
My soul knows the Lord’s mercy for the sinful person, and before the
face of God I am writing the truth: all of us sinners will be saved,
and not a single soul will be lost, on condition that we repent. But
there are no words to describe how good the Lord is. Turn your soul
towards the Lord and say: “Lord, forgive me”, and do not imagine that
he will refuse to forgive you. In his goodness, he cannot not forgive,
and he will forgive and sanctify immediately. That is what the Holy
Spirit teaches in the Church.
The Lord is Love. Scripture says: “Taste and see how good the Lord is.”
(Ps 34:9) My soul has tasted that goodness of the Lord, and insatiably,
my spirit rushes to God day and night. I begin to write about God’s
love and cannot get enough, for the memory of the all-powerful God
holds my soul captive.
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To have a Catholic spirit means that we should feel on our shoulders
the weight of our concern for the entire Church — not just of this or
that particular part of it. It means that our prayer should spread out
north and south, east and west, in a generous act of petition. If you
do this you will understand the cry — the aspiration
— of that friend
of ours, when he considered how unloving so many people are towards our
Holy Mother: “The Church: it hurts me to see her treated so!”
(The
Forge, no.583)
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Wednesday of the second week of Advent II
(December 7) St Ambrose, bishop
and doctor of the Church (340-397). While living in Milan,
serving the imperial government, he was elected bishop of the city by
popular acclaim, and then baptised. He distinguished himself by his
apostolic zeal, service to the poor, and effective care of the
faithful. He defended the doctrine of the Church against the Arians
with his actions and his writings. He converted and baptised
Augustine. (Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah 40:
25-31; Psalm: 1-4, 8 and
10;
Matthew 11:28-30.
“Come to
me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke
upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will
find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
(Matthew
11:28-30NIV)
Difficulties,
pain and suffering are unavoidable in this life. This is the universal
experience of mankind and the testimony of the wisest men of the ages. It can be
said to be a basic driving force in the founding and development of many of the
religions of man. One great modern anthropologist wrote that a key to the
understanding of primal religions is to ask how they deal with the experience of
evil and suffering. Buddha was led along the path of trying to discover the
answer to suffering. He proposed that it involved the elimination of desire and
the attainment of enlightenment. Whatever might be said of such answers,
suffering is a fundamental issue for man.
The Christian
knows that the ultimate answer to suffering and to the problem of attaining
happiness is the person of Jesus. And Jesus himself tells us this. In today’s
Gospel (Matthew 11: 28-30), he invites all
those who labour and are overburdened to come to him, and he will give them
rest. So we know the answer to our need and desire for happiness. It is to go to
Jesus. But there is this twist: happiness will be found in shouldering Christ’s
yoke and learning from him. His yoke is easy, he teaches, and his burden is
light. That is to say, happiness will be found in being his disciple and taking
up our cross after him and following in his footsteps. Ultimate and true
happiness will be found in the cross of Jesus. This seems an immense and
mysterious paradox - and it is, for we take it on faith in the word of Jesus
because of our love for him.
Let us pray
for the grace to live our life united with Jesus in good times and in bad, and
in learning from him who is meek and humble of heart. Therein lies our true
rest.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“Take my yoke upon your shoulders……
Your souls will find rest.” Matthew 11:28-30
Comment by St Bede
(673-735), Monk, Priest, Doctor of the Church (Homily 12 for Pentecost
Eve)
The Holy Spirit will give the righteous perfect peace in eternity. But
already now, he gives them very great peace when he enkindles the
heavenly fire of love in their heart. For the apostle Paul said: “This
hope will not leave us disappointed, because the love of God has been
poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to
us.” (Rom 5:5) The true and even the only peace of souls in this world
consists in being filled with divine love and animated by the hope of
heaven to the point of coming to consider the successes and failures of
this world as unimportant, of being completely stripped of the desires
and lusts of this world, and of rejoicing in the offenses and
persecutions suffered for Christ, so that one can say with the apostle
Paul: “We boast of our hope for the glory of God. But not only that ––
we even boast of our afflictions!” (Rom 5:2)
The person who imagines that he will find peace in the enjoyment of the
goods of this world, in riches, is mistaken. The frequent troubles here
below and even the end of this world should convince that person that
he has built the foundations of his peace on sand (Mt 7:26). On the
contrary, all who, touched by the breath of the Holy Spirit, have taken
upon themselves the very good yoke of God’s love and who, following his
example, have learned to be gentle and humble of heart, begin now to
enjoy a peace, which is already the image of eternal rest.
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“And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my
anxiety for all the churches”, Saint Paul wrote. This sigh of the
Apostle is a reminder for all Christians — for you, too - of our duty
to place at the feet of the Spouse of Christ, of the Holy Church, all
that we are and all that we can be; loving her faithfully, even at the
cost of livelihood, of honour, of life itself.
(The Forge,
no.584)
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The
Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
(December 8) Pope Pius IX
instituted this celebration when he proclaimed the dogma on December 8,
1854. In that definition he expressed the exact meaning of the truth of
Mary’s Immaculate Conception. He affirmed that it is
a dogma of the Catholic Faith and part of divine revelation that Mary
was conceived free from original sin. This feast has been celebrated in
the East since the eighth century and one century later also in many
places in the West. This privilege of Mary is the most beautiful fruit
of her Son’s Redemption. Chosen as Mother of the Saviour Mary received
the benefits of salvation from the first instance of her conception.
Christ came to take away the sin of the world; he did not allow it to
contaminate his earthly mother. (Saints)
Scripture today:
Genesis 3:
9-15.20; Psalm 98: 1-4;
Ephesians 1:
3-6.11-12; Luke 1: 26-38.
In
the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a
virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The
virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are
highly favoured! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words
and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do
not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. You will be with child and
give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great
and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the
throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever;
his kingdom will never end.” “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I
am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the
power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be
called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in
her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For
nothing is impossible with God.” “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May
it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.
(Luke 1: 26-38NIV)
As the study
of the religions of man shows, different religions have different emphases. One
of the most distinctive features of the Christian religion is the awareness of
sin and the divine command to be holy. Sin is revealed as the source of evil.
Christ came as the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world, and as
St Paul states in one of his letters, “This is the will of God, your
sanctification.” The Christian religion is a religion of the holiness of God and
its bestowal on us his children. It celebrates a God of holiness who hates sin
and who liberates man from it, enabling those who accept and cooperate with it
to share in the holiness of Christ.
Let us
celebrate the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in that light. As
the great mediaeval theologian Duns Scotus pointed out, in view of the
Redemption that would be won by
Christ her Son, Mary was granted the gift of freedom from original sin from the
first moment of her conception. Her condition at the instant of her conception
illustrates immediately the effect of the Redemption brought about by her divine
Son. The Redemption was all about taking away sin and bestowing holiness. This
is what the religion of the Christian is all about, and Mary’s Immaculate
Conception shows us this. She is the first and foremost Christian and is the
perfect embodiment of all that the Church aspires to and is called to. God is
holiness and calls us his fallen creatures to holiness. Mary is the type of all
that God calls us to. As the archangel Gabriel acknowledged in her presence
(Luke 1: 26-38), she is the all holy creature
of God, holy from the first moment of her conception and sinless to the end of
her days.
Let us entrust
ourselves to the care of Mary our Mother just as the Father entrusted his Son to
her care, and just as Christ from the Cross entrusted his beloved disciple to
her care. Let us pray that she, by her prayers and example, will help us attain
the goal that God has given us: freedom from sin and holiness.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“You
let her share beforehand in the salvation Christ would bring by his
death and kept her sinless from the first moment of her conception.”
(Opening prayer for the feast)
Commentary from the Roman Missal
(Preface for the feast)
Father, all-powerful and
ever-living God,
we do well always and everywhere
to give you thanks.
You allowed no stain of Adam’s sin
to touch the Virgin Mary.
Full of grace, she was to be a
worthy mother of your Son,
your sign of favour to the Church
at its beginning,
and the promise of its perfection
as the bride of Christ, radiant in beauty.
Purest of virgins, she was to
bring forth your Son,
the innocent lamb who takes away
our sins.
You chose her from all women to be
our advocate with you
and our pattern of holiness.
In our joy we sing to your glory
with all the choirs of angels:
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of hosts!
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Don’t be scared by it. In so far as you can you should fight
against
the conspiracy of silence they want to muzzle the Church with. Some
people stop her voice being heard; others will not let the good example
of those who preach with their deeds be seen; others wipe out every
trace of good doctrine ..., and so very many cannot bear to hear her.
Don’t be scared. But don’t get tired, either, of your task of being a
loudspeaker for the teachings of the Magisterium.
(The Forge, no.585)
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Friday
of the second week of Advent II
Today (December 9) let us think of the first apparition of Our
Lady of Guadalupe to St Juan Diego
(website for Our Lady of Guadalupe: http://www.sancta.org).
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah 48:
17-19; Psalm 1: 1-4, 6;
Matthew
11: 16-19
This
is what the LORD says — your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD
your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you
should go. If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have
been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea. Your
descendants would have been like the sand, your children like its numberless
grains; their name would never be cut off nor destroyed from before me.”
(Isaiah 48:
17-19NIV)
I remember how
the execution of Van Nguyen in Singapore in December 2005 captured the
imagination of very many Australians. Van Nguyen grew up a child of an obscure
Vietnamese family in Melbourne, and went to
the
Catholic school in the parish of Richmond. There was special nothing to
distinguish him, except that gradually he
became involved in drug trafficking — to help his brother with his debts, so it
seems. He spent the last three years of his life in a Singaporean gaol, on death
row following his conviction. His life had every appearance of being a complete
failure and a great sorrow to his mother. But what happened? His entire attitude
changed due to a wonderful religious conversion. He embraced the Catholic Faith
and faced death with a singular trust in God and repenting of all his
wrongdoing. It was a beautiful death — by hanging. He taught very many people
throughout the world that whatever past mistakes and sins one makes, however
much the past may have been a needless failure, one can begin again and turn it
all around.
Let us put the
past behind and begin again as we prepare to celebrate the coming of the
Saviour. One of the things that can most discourage a person is the thought of
past failures and mistakes. He (or she) looks around and sees others who
seemingly have made a better job of things and feels a sense of failure at the
life he has been living. This sense of failure leaves him discouraged. But
consider Van Nguyen. He ended grandly and with a bright prospect ahead beyond
the grave. His coffin was carried out of Melbourne’s packed St Patrick’s
Cathedral to the applause of all present. A great clapping of hands accompanied
the departing coffin. All realized that Van Nguyen had ended his life well and
beautifully. This was because during the final period of his life in prison, in
the words of Isaiah in the first reading today (Isaiah
48: 17-19), he looked to God to teach him what was good for him, and
to lead him in the way that he must go.
Let us learn
from how this obscure young man ended his life years ago. At every point we can
start again, placing our trust in God and his mercy, being content to do the
will of God as it presents itself to us here and now.
(E.J.Tyler)
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To be converted
by the repeated calls from God who is coming
Commentary from the Latin liturgy
(Advent Hymn: Rorate caeli)
Drop down dew, ye heavens, from
above, and let the clouds rain the Just One.
Be not angry, O Lord, and remember
no longer our iniquity;
behold the city of thy sanctuary
is become a desert, Sion is made a desert.
Jerusalem is desolate, the house o
our holiness and of thy glory,
Where our fathers praised thee.
Drop down dew, ye heavens, from
above, and let the clouds rain the Just One. (cf. Isa 64:8f.; 45:8)
We have sinned, and we are become
as one unclean,
and we have all fallen as a leaf;
and our iniquities, like the wind,
have taken us away.
Thou hast hid thy face from us,
and hast crushed us
by the hand of our iniquity.
Drop down dew, ye heavens, from
above, and let the clouds rain the Just One. (cf. Isa 64:5f.)
See, O Lord, the affliction of thy
people,
and send him whom thou hast
promised to send.
Send forth the Lamb, the ruler of
the earth,
from the rock of the desert to the
mount of the daughter of Sion,
that he himself may take off the
yoke of our captivity.
Drop down dew, ye heavens, from
above, and let the clouds rain the Just One. (cf. Rev 2:12; Ps 78:15;
Isa 9:3)
Be ye comforted, be ye comforted,
O my people,
for most quickly comes thy
salvation.
Why then are ye all consumed with
grief,
so that your sorrowing has
transformed thee?
I come to save, do not be fearful.
Do ye not know that I am thy Lord
and thy God,
the most holy One, Redeemer of
Israel.
Drop down dew, ye heavens, from
above, and let the clouds rain the Just One. (cf. Isa 40:1f.)
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Become more Roman day by
day. Love
that blessed quality which is the ornament of the children of the one
true Church, for Jesus wanted it to be so.
(The Forge, no.586)
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Saturday
of the second week of Advent II
(December 10)Today let us
think of Our Lady of Loretto
and St. Gregory III
(Saints)
Scripture today: Ecclesiasticus
48: 1-4.9-11; Psalm 80: 2ac and
3b, 15-16, 18-19; Matthew 17:
10-13.
The
disciples asked him, “Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must
come first?” Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all
things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him,
but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is
going to suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that he was
talking to them about John the Baptist.
(Matthew
17: 10-13NIV)
We naturally
look forward to a better future, and this expectation and
hope
sustains us in our daily efforts. Hope is a feature of human life, and without
it there would be nothing to live for. One of the fundamental features of the
Old Testament religion was its expectation of what was coming. A great hope and
expectation distinguished the religion. All who accepted the revealed religion
of the Old Testament knew that a Messiah was coming, and with him the Kingdom of
God. But of course, just what this Kingdom would entail in the concrete was
where so many went wrong. It is clear from the prophecies that suffering would
be banished in an ultimate sense, but very many could not imagine that suffering
would actually be an essential part of the establishment of the Kingdom of God
and of entry into it.
But that is
just what our Lord revealed. He had come to suffer, and those who chose to be
one with him in his Kingdom would have to suffer with him. In our Gospel today
(Matthew 17: 10-13) Our Lord’s disciples
refer to the prophecies: “Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must
come first?” Our Lord tells them that St John the Baptist was the Elijah who was
to come, and he suffered at their hands. So too “the Son of Man is going to
suffer at their hands.” Great suffering was to be an essential component of his
mission. So as we prepare to celebrate the birth of the Messiah at Christmas, we
ought strive to gain a renewed appreciation of the centrality of the cross in
Our Lord’s life and work, and of how it must be central in the life of any of
his disciples.
Let us pray
for the grace to know how to follow Our Lord closely in the concrete
circumstances of the life that God has given us. Let us not fritter away the
years he has given us by following useless paths that lead nowhere. Let us
rather learn, with the help of the Holy Spirit, how to live in the way God
intends for us, whatever be the suffering entailed.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“How awesome are you, Elijah!…You were
taken aloft in a whirlwind…You are destined…in time to come to put an
end to wrath before the day of the Lord.” (Ecclesiasticus
48: 1-4.9-11)
Comment from St Romanos the
Melodious (? –– 560), Hymn Composer (Hymn on the prophet Elijah)
Confronted with human perversity, Elijah considered making the
punishment even harsher. Upon seeing this, the Merciful One told the
prophet: “I know your zeal for good (1 Kings 19:14), I know your good
will, but I have compassion with sinners when they are punished beyond
measure. You are angry because you are without reproach; can you not be
resigned? I cannot resign myself to even one single person being lost
(Mt 18:14), for I am the only friend of human beings.” (Wis 1:6)
In what followed, the Master, seeing how short-tempered the prophet was
as regards human beings, was concerned about them. He removed Elijah
from the earth where they live saying: “Distance yourself from where
human beings dwell. I in my mercy will go down to them by becoming man.
So leave the earth and come up, since you cannot tolerate people’s
faults. But I who am from heaven, I will dwell among the sinners and I
will save them from their faults, I, the only friend of human beings.
“If you cannot live with guilty human beings, come here, live in the
domain of my friends, where there is no more sin. I will go down, for I
can put the lost sheep on my shoulders and bring it back (Lk 15:5), and
I can cry to those who labour: Come quickly, all you sinners, come to
me and rest (Mt 11:28). For I have not come to punish those whom I
created, but to tear the sinners away from ungodliness, I, the only
friend of human beings.”
Thus, when Elijah was lifted up to the heavens (2 Kings 2:11), he was
perceived as the person for the future. This Tishbite (1 Kings 17:1)
was lifted up in a chariot of fire; Christ was lifted up among the
clouds and the powers (Acts 1:9). The former dropped his cloak to
Elisha from the heights of heaven (2 Kings 2:13); Christ sent his
apostles the Holy Spirit, the Advocate (Jn 15:26), whom we, the
baptized, all received and by whom we are sanctified, as the only
friend of human beings teaches everyone.
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Devotion to Our Lady in Christian souls awakens the supernatural
stimulus we need in order to act as members of God’s family.
(The Forge, no.587)
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Third
Sunday of Advent B
(December 11) Saint Damasus I, pope.
Born about the year 305, of Spanish descent. He became a cleric in Rome,
and in the year 366 during very troublesome times he was ordained
bishop of Rome. He called together a number of synods against the
heretics and schismatics, and he did much to promote the veneration of
the martyrs, whose tombs he embellished with sacred verse. He died in
384. (Saints)
Scripture: Isaiah 61:
1-2.10-11; Luke 1: 46-50,
53-54; 1
Thessalonians
5:16-24; John 1:6-8.19-28.
Be
joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is
God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit's fire; do not
treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid
every kind of evil. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and
through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.
(1 Thes 5:16-24NIV)
It scarcely
needs to be observed that there is so much suffering in the world. It is said
that one of the major health problems in Australia is depression and general
mental ill-health. There is still a considerable suicide
rate among young people, and suicide is present among people of other ages as
well. The point that can be made about this, I
suppose, is that it is not hard to be unhappy. The challenge is to find
happiness — and that is what we desire anyway. But it is a challenge and the
challenge derives fundamentally from the fact that we are born into a fallen
sinful condition and by our sins we tend to sink further in this condition. And
so happiness easily eludes us. We could say that it is a great achievement to
attain a profound happiness in life — and this was what was especially striking
in the life and death of one to whom I have drawn attention before, the
Australian drug smuggler, Van Nguyen, executed in December 2005. He apparently
attained a profound peace of soul before he died.
Now, in our
second reading today from the first letter of St Paul to the Thessalonians St
Paul tells the Christians he was addressing that he wanted them to be “joyful
always”. The implication is that this happiness ought be the normal condition of
the Christian. Somehow it must be able to be present in the midst of suffering
because while Our Lord endured unimaginable sufferings, it is inconceivable that
he at any point was “unhappy” and had lost his peace. Moreover, St Paul tells us
in the same sentence that his readers were to “pray continually; give thanks in
all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus”
(1 Thessalonians 5:16-24). We will be able
to do this, to be happy and to give thanks to God for everything, if we remain
and grow “in Christ Jesus.” One gets the impression that, for instance, Van
Nguyen was happy, that he prayed constantly, and that he gave thanks to God.
This was because by the time his end was approaching, he had embraced the
Catholic Faith and was “in Christ Jesus.”
That is the
secret to constant happiness and gratitude. We must learn to live “in Christ
Jesus” and resolve to put on the virtues of the heart of Christ. We must come to
know him, and by our closeness to him we will be transformed more and more into
his image. As St Paul says in the same second reading: “God has called you and
he will not fail you.”
(E.J.Tyler)
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Imitate the Blessed Virgin. Only by openly admitting that we are
nothing can we become precious in the eyes of our Creator.
(The Forge, no.588)
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Monday of the third week of Advent II
(December 12) St Jane Frances de
Chantal, religious. Born in Dijon in France in the year 1572.
She was married to a nobleman named de Chantal, by whom she had six
children whom she brought up religiously. After the death of her
husband she placed herself under the direction of St Francis de Sales
and made great progress along the way of perfection, performing many
works of charity especially among the poor and the sick. She founded
and wisely directed the Visitation Order, and died in the year 1641.
Today is also the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
(celebrated in America) (Saints)
Scripture today:
Numbers
24:2-7.15-17; Psalm 24;
Matthew 21:23-27
“I see
him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a
scepter will rise out of Israel. He will crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls
of all the sons of Sheth”
(Numbers 24:17)
Jesus
entered the temple courts, and, while he was teaching, the chief priests and the
elders of the people
came
to him. “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who
gave you this authority?” Jesus replied, “I will also ask you one question. If
you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. John’s
baptism — where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or from men?” They
discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask,
‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men’ — we are afraid of
the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” So they answered Jesus,
“We don’t know.” Then he said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am
doing these things.
(Matthew
21:23-27NIV)
One of the
distinctive things about the religion of Israel when compared with other ancient
religions was its expectation of a great king who was to come: the Messiah.
Cardinal Newman in his book,
A
Grammar of Assent, reminds us that this expectation which distinguished
Israel’s religion spread somewhat to other ancient peoples. We may have a
reflection of this spread in the coming of the Magi from the East. They had
divined that a great king was to be born. The point here is that an essential
feature of the person of Jesus is that he was long awaited, long promised, and
that his coming was an essential element in the religion revealed by God. This
means that it will enhance our appreciation and knowledge of Jesus our Lord if
we take into account the wonderful prophecies about him. Today’s first reading
from the book of Numbers (Numbers 24:17) gives us one such prophecy which can
increase our wonder at the gift from God that was Jesus. Balaam utters his
oracle of what was to come. A leader will spring from Jacob, a sceptre will
spring from Israel. At Christmas we celebrate his arrival.
There were all
sorts of expectations as to the precise form the Messiah’s work would take. In
our Gospel today (Matthew 21:23-27), the
chief priests and elders of the people demand to know from Our Lord the
authority by which he did what he was doing. Our Lord in reply referred to the
testimony of John about him, and John had testified that he was the one who was
to come. Let us also note in passing that John himself seems to have been
uncertain as to the exact contours of the Messiah’s mission and work, for after
having testified to Our Lord he sent disciples to him from prison to ask him if
he was in fact the one who was to come. Now, we who have the benefit of the full
Scriptures, of the Church’s teaching and so much else to guide us, should strive
to appreciate Our Lord for all he actually did for us and for what he expects of
us. The greatest surprise of all was the centrality of the Cross in the work and
mission of the Messiah. It means that following the Master into glory means
following in his footsteps along the way of the Cross. Of course, this too was
predicted in the Suffering Servant figure of Isaiah, and Our Lord instructed his
disciples before and after his resurrection in how the Scriptures showed that
the Messiah had to suffer.
Let us use the
prophecies of the Old Testament to appreciate more deeply the person and mission
of Christ, and let us be clear in our own minds as to the place of the Cross in
his and our life.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“Then why did you not believe in his
word?” Matthew 21:23-27
Comment by St Cyril of
Jerusalem (313-350), Bishop of Jerusalem, Doctor of the Church
(Baptismal Catechesis 12, 6-8)
The prophets were sent together with Moses to heal Israel; but they
cared for them with tears and did not succeed in overcoming the evil,
as one of them said: “Alas!…… The faithful are gone from the earth.”
(Mic 7:1.2) …… Humankind’s wound was great; from head to foot, there
was no healthy spot, no place to put a bandage or oil or salve (Isa
1:6). The prophets, exhausted from their tears, said: “Who will give
the saving remedy out of Zion?” (Ps 14:7)…… And another prophet begged
in these words: “Incline your heavens, O Lord, and come down.” (Ps
144:5) Humankind’’s wounds are too great for our remedies. They killed
the prophets and ruined your altars (1 Kings 19:10). We cannot heal our
miseries. We need you to lift us up again.
The Lord heard the prophets’ prayer. The Father did not despise our
bruised race. He sent his own Son from heaven to be our doctor. A
prophet said: “The Lord whom you seek is coming, and he will come
suddenly.” Where to? “To his temple,” (Mal 3:1) where you stoned his
prophet (1 Chron 24:21)… God himself also said: “Behold I am coming and
will dwell in your midst, and many peoples will find refuge with the
Lord.” … Now I am coming to gather together all the people from every
language, for “to his own he came, yet his own did not accept him.” (Jn
1:11)
You are coming, and what will you give the nations? “I come to gather
nations of every language…… I will set a sign among them.” (Isa 66:19)
For after my combat on the cross, I will put a royal seal on the
forehead of each of my soldiers (Rev 7:4). Another prophet said: “He
inclined the heavens and came down with dark clouds under his feet.”
(Ps 18:10) But his descent from the heavens remained unknown to human
beings.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I am convinced
that John, the
young Apostle, is at the side of Christ on the Cross because our Mother
draws him there. The Love of Our Lady is so powerful!
(The Forge, no.589)
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Tuesday of the third week of Advent II
(December 13) St Lucy, virgin and
martyr (4th century). She died at Syracuse (Sicily) probably
during the persecution of Diocletian. From antiquity her cult spread
throughout the Church. Her name is in the Roman Canon. (Saints)
Scripture today: Zephaniah 3:
1-2.9-13; Psalm 34: 2-3,
6-7, 17-18, 19 and 23; Matthew
21: 28-32.
“What
do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said,
‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’“ ‘I will not,’ he answered, but later
he changed his mind and went. “Then the father went to the other son and said
the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. “Which of the two
did what his father wanted?” “The first,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “I
tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the
kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of
righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the
prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe
him.”
(Matthew
21:28-32NIV)
There
have been some in history whose religious conversion has profoundly affected the
memory and the imagination of the Church. We think of St Paul, St Augustine,
Newman, and others. Their story helps us to appreciate the importance Our Lord
himself gave to the need to change, to repent. Our Lord began his
public ministry calling on all to repent, for the Kingdom of God was near at
hand, and his great forerunner preached repentance too. So important is
repentance and conversion in Christianity, that some important currents of
non-Catholic thought have based their distinctive teaching on their view of the
nature of conversion. For instance, some currents of classic evangelicalism have
regarded a kind of conversion (involving, for instance, an experience of
“assurance”) as necessary for salvation.
Whatever about
that particular error, there is no questioning the importance of conversion in
the Christian life, even though the experience of conversion can take any number
of forms. Our Gospel today mentions a detail that we can easily overlook. Our
Lord was speaking to the chief priests and the elders of the people who were
stubbornly refusing assent. In this case Our Lord was referring to the
difference between them and many of the ordinary people — many of those regarded
as sinners. They recognised John the Baptist as a pattern of true righteousness
and so believed him. But the leaders “did not believe him, and yet the tax
collectors and harlots did.” They had the example of faith before them, and yet
“even after you saw this,” they “did not repent and believe him” (Matthew
21:28-32).
This reminds
us that a most important area of our life in which we are called upon by Christ
our Lord to change is faith, belief. We can stubbornly refuse to believe
certain things. A basic response to Christ has to be belief, belief in him and
in what he reveals. We must repent, we must change, we must convert from
anything that might lead us to refuse this belief. Let us make our prayer the
prayer of that person in the Gospel who said: “Lord I do believe. Help my
unbelief.”
(E.J.Tyler)
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“John testified to the truth…… He was
the lamp, set aflame and burning bright.” (Jn 5:33.35)
Comment by Blessed Guerric of Igny (1080-1157), Cistercian abbot
(Sermon 1 on Saint John the Baptist, §§2)
This lamp, which is destined to give light to the world, brings me a
new joy, for thanks to it, I recognized the true Light which shines in
the darkness, but which the darkness did not accept (Jn 1:5)…… We can
admire you, John, who are the greatest of all the saints; but it is
impossible for us to imitate your sanctity. Since you hasten to prepare
for the Lord a perfect people with publicans and sinners, it is
extremely urgent that you speak to them in a way that is more
accessible to them than your life. Offer them a model of perfection
that is not only your way of living, but that is adapted to the
weakness of human strength.
“Give some evidence that you mean to reform.” (Mt 3:8) But we,
Brothers, we take pride in speaking better than we live. John however,
whose life is more sublime than what human beings can understand, makes
his language available to their understanding. He says: “Give some
evidence that you mean to reform.” “I am speaking to you in a human way
because of the weakness of the flesh. If you cannot yet entirely do
good, may there be in you at least a true desire to reform from what is
bad. If you cannot yet give evidence of perfect righteousness, may your
perfection at present consist in giving evidence of behaviour that
shows that you desire to reform.”
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We will never achieve true supernatural and human cheerfulness, real
good humour, if we don’t really imitate Jesus: if we aren’t humble, as
he was.
(The Forge, no.590)
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Wednesday
of the third week of Advent II
(December 14) St John of the
Cross, Carmelite priest and doctor of the Church (1542-1591).
Born in Spain. After a number of years as a Carmelite, he was persuaded
by St Teresa of Jesus to lead the reform of his Order. He suffered many
tribulations. A renowned mystic, he wrote great works on the spiritual
life and the mystery of the Cross.
Also, let us think of St. Venantius
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah
45: 6-8.18.21-25; Psalm 85ab.10-14;
Luke 7:18-23.
John’s
disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them, he sent them to
the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone
else?” When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you
to ask, ‘Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?’“ At
that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits,
and gave sight to many who were blind. So he replied to the messengers, “Go back
and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the
lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised,
and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall
away on account of me.”
(Luke
7:18-23NIV)
At times one
hears very religious people say (often in jest) that this or that saint to whom
he has been addressing his requests is not of much use, and that therefore he is
‘giving up on him’. He has ‘lost faith’ in a particular saint. Of course, each
person is quite free to follow his own devotion when it comes to particular
saints, but more serious is a deeper and allied problem. It is the problem of
giving up on our Lord himself and ceasing to have much faith in him. It is not
as uncommon as we may think. Many people do not believe very much in the power
of prayer. Our Lord’s seeming inaction disappoints them and they give up and
depend simply and instead on material and human helps to life, rather than on
God.
In our Gospel
today St John the Baptist is puzzled because he had expected something very
different of our Lord
from
what he was hearing. He sends his disciples to ask if he is the one who was to
come, and our Lord pointed to what he was doing, with the appeal: “the Good News
is proclaimed to the poor and blessed is the man who does not fall away on
account of me” (Luke 7:18-23). No matter what happens to us, and no matter what
might be Our Lord’s action or seeming inaction in the face of our needs, we must
never lose faith in him. Blessed will we be if we do not lose faith in him. All
too often people turn away from God in anger, or in indifference, or in any one
of several different forms and degrees of unbelief, because they have not
obtained the satisfaction of their wishes. They begin to lose faith in Our Lord.
As we think of
Our Lord’s words to John the Baptist in today’s Gospel, let us resolve to
maintain our faith in Our Lord no matter what might happen, and whatever be the
appearances. We must live not by mere appearances, but by faith — faith in Our
Lord whatever be the seeming outcome or course of events. This is the path to
blessedness because it is the path of faith. We remember what Our Lord said to
Thomas after his resurrection: “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed
are those who have not seen and yet believe.”
(E.J.Tyler)
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“The lame walk” Luke 7:18-23
Commentary from Clement of
Alexandria (150 - around 215), Theologian (Protrepticon I, 4-7)
The apostle Paul wrote: “We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient,
and far from true faith; we were the slaves of our passions and of
pleasures of various kinds. We went our way in malice and envy, hateful
ourselves and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God
our saviour appeared, he saved us…… because of his mercy.” (Tit 3:3-5)
See the power of the “new song” (Ps 149:1) of the Word of God: he made
human beings out of stone (Mt 3:9); he transformed those who behaved
like wild beasts into civilized human beings; and when those who were
dead, who had no part in the true and real life, heard this song, they
returned to life.
He put everything in order in a measured way…… in order to make the
entire world a symphony…… The Word of God, the descendant of the
musician David who existed before David, left behind the harp and the
zither, which are instruments without a soul, and through the Holy
Spirit ruled the whole universe and in particular the human being who,
in his body and soul, is the summary of the world. He plays on this
instrument with a thousand voices in order to celebrate God, and he
himself sings in harmony with that human instrument…… The Lord sent his
breath into the beautiful instrument, which is the human being (cf. Gen
2:7), and made him as his own image. But he himself is also a
harmonious, well-tuned and holy instrument of God’s, Wisdom beyond this
world and Word from on high.
So what does this instrument, the Word of God, the Lord, and his new
song want? To open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf, to
lead the cripples or the lost to righteousness, to show God to ignorant
human beings, to stop corruption, to conquer death, to reconcile
disobedient sons with the Father…… Don’t think that this saving song is
new in the way furniture or a house are new, for it was “before the
daystar,” (Ps 110:3) and “in the beginning was the Word; the Word was
in God’s presence, and the Word was God.” (Jn 1:1)
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To give oneself sincerely
to
others is so effective that God rewards it with a humility filled with
cheerfulness.
(The Forge, no.591)
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Thursday
of the third week of Advent II
(December 15)
Today let us
think of St. Christiana
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah 54:
1-10; Psalm 30: 2, 4-6,
11-13;
Luke 7: 24-30
“Sing, O
barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you
who were never in labour; because more are the children of the desolate woman
than of her who has a husband,” says the LORD. “Enlarge the place of your tent,
stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords,
strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left;
your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.
“Do not be afraid; you will not suffer shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not
be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the
reproach of your widowhood. For your Maker is your husband — the LORD Almighty
is his name — the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of
all the earth. The LORD will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and
distressed in spirit — a wife who married young, only to be rejected,” says your
God. “For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring
you back. In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with
everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,” says the LORD your
Redeemer. “To me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of
Noah would never again cover the earth. So now I have sworn not to be angry with
you, never to rebuke you again. Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be
removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of
peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you.
(Isaiah
54:1-10NIV)
It has been
pointed out that the character and shape of a religion unfolds from the image of
God
(or
the Absolute) which is at its root. Not only will a religion be thus affected by
its image or conception of God, but a civilization will
similarly be shaped by it. As we consider the primal religions and world
religions of mankind, we can point to a fundamental feature of what Judaism and
Christianity term revealed religion. It is that God, in the words of one of the
letters of St John, is love. And so it is that in the first reading of today
that is from the book of Isaiah (Isaiah 54:1-10),
God speaks to his people as the Creator. The marvel is that as Creator he states
that he will be Israel’s husband. What god of any people addresses his people in
this fashion? Repeatedly in the prophets God reveals that he regards himself as
the husband of his people.
We must work
on immersing ourselves in these inspired texts so as gradually to realize their
import. For the Christian it comes down to gaining a realization that God is his
Father, and that he is God’s child, his adopted child. That is what Christ came
to do, to make us children of God by the gift of the Holy Spirit. We ought pray
for a deep sense of this, and for the virtues that enable us to live as children
of God. In every possible circumstance, in every upsetting situation, in every
reversal, in good times and in bad, we ought interpret the situation in light of
the fact that God is our heavenly Father. We ought pray for the grace to imitate
Jesus in this. By the power of his Holy Spirit he has brought it about that we
are in the Father as his children. A central feature of any conversion is the
embrace of this fundamental truth.
God is love.
He is mercy. He is my Father, I am his child. He is our Father, and we are his
children.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“What did you go out to see in the
desert?” Luke 7: 24-30
Comment by Eusebius of Caesarea
(around 265-340), Bishop, Theologian, Historian
(Commentary on Isaiah 40)
“A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the Lord! Make
straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!” (Isa 40:3) This word
shows clearly that the events prophesied will not be accomplished in
Jerusalem, but in the desert. The glory of the Lord will be revealed in
the desert; and that is where “all flesh shall know God’s salvation.”
(Isa 40:5) And that is what really literally happened when John the
Baptist proclaimed in the desert of the Jordan that God’s salvation was
going to be made manifest. For that is where God’s salvation appeared.
Because Christ in his glory made himself known to everyone when he was
baptized in the Jordan……
The prophet spoke that way because God had to reside in the desert -
the desert that is inaccessible to the world. All the pagan nations
were deserts as regards the knowledge of God, inaccessible to the
righteous and to the prophets of God. That is why this voice gives the
order to prepare the way for the Word of God, to unify the inaccessible
and rough road so that our God, who is coming to dwell with us, might
be able to walk on it……
“Go up onto a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings; cry out at
the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news!” (Isa 40:9) ……
Who is this Zion…… whom the people of old called Jerusalem?…… Is this
not a way of calling the group of apostles who were chosen among the
people of old? Is she not the one who received God’s salvation as an
inheritance……, she who is placed on the heights, which is to say,
founded on the Word, the only Son of God? It is to her that he gives
the order …… to announce the Good News of salvation to all people.
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Our humiliation, our self-effacement, our disappearing and passing
unnoticed, should be complete, entire, total.
(The Forge, no.592)
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Friday of the third week of Advent II
(December 16) Today let us
think of St. Adelaide
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah 56:
1-3.6-8; Psalm 67: 2-3, 5,
7-8;
John 5:
33-36
"You
have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. Not that I accept human
testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. John was a lamp that burned
and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light. "I have testimony
weightier than that of John. For the very work that the Father has given me to
finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me.
(John 5:
33-36NIV)
It has been
said that a notable feature of certain schools of Protestant spirituality is
their
great
emphasis and dependence on the writings of St Paul. Well, one of the distinctive
characteristics of Catholic spirituality is the constant contemplation of the
person of Christ as he is portrayed in the Gospels. The great Catholic saints
have ever recommended the devout meditation on the person of Jesus as he speaks
and acts in the passages of the Gospels. This includes the contemplation of his
very deeds — which means that we prayerfully and lovingly imagine him in his
actions, walking, healing, raising from the dead, suffering, dying, rising. Our
Lord refers to this in today’s Gospel. He says of his works that they testify
that he came from the Father. He is inviting his hearers to consider carefully
what he was doing, his deeds, his works (John 5: 33-36).
They help us to come to know and love Jesus.
During these
days as we approach the celebration of Christ’s birth we ought immerse ourselves
more and more deeply in the contemplation of the person of Jesus, and the
thought of his deeds will help us do this. We can do it by meditating at set
times each day on passages of the Gospels, including the Gospel of the day which
you are actually reading right now. We can do it by the daily recitation of the
Rosary, when we think of the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful and Glorious mysteries
of Our Lord’s life. By and large this means contemplating him in his works, his
deeds. The whole purpose of this is to come to know him in his sacred humanity.
In coming to know him, we come to love him and are more and more inspired to
imitate him and to grow in his likeness.
Christmas
ought lead to a new appreciation of the centrality in human life and history of
the person of Jesus Christ. He is God-with-us, and will never leave us. Let us
resolve to give ourselves to him.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“John was the lamp” John 5:
33-36
Commentary by St Augustine (354-430),
Bishop of Hippo and Doctor of the Church (Sermon 293, 4)
By God’s will, the man sent to testify to Christ is himself so great in
grace that he could be mistaken for Christ. For Christ himself said:
“History has not known a man born of woman greater than John the
Baptizer.” (Mt 11:11) If no one among human beings is greater than this
man, the one who overtakes him is more than a human being. How great is
the testimony Christ gives himself! But for sick and disabled eyes, it
is difficult for the day to testify to itself; sick eyes fear it, they
can only bear the light of a lamp. That is why before appearing, the
Day let itself be preceded by a lamp. This light sent into faithful
hearts will confound the unfaithful hearts.
David, the prophet-king, said in a Psalm (132:17): “I will place a lamp
for my anointed.” God is speaking through David: I have placed John to
be the Saviour’s herald, the precursor of the Judge who is to come, the
friend of the awaited bridegroom. “I will place a lamp for my anointed.”
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Sincere humility. What can
upset a person who delights in being
insulted because he knows he deserves nothing better?
(The Forge, no.593)
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December 17 (Saturday of the third week of Advent II)
Today let us
think of Our Lady of St.
Olympias (Saints)
Scripture today:
Genesis
49:2.8-10; Psalm 72: 1-2,
3-4ab, 7-8, 17;
Matthew 1: 1-17
A
record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham:
Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of
Judah and his brothers, Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was
Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of
Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon
the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose
mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.
David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife, Solomon the
father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, Asa
the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram, Jehoram the father
of Uzziah, Uzziah the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the
father of Hezekiah, Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon,
Amon the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at
the time of the exile to Babylon. After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the
father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel the father
of Abiud, Abiud the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, Azor the
father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, Akim the father of Eliud, Eliud the
father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob,
and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who
is called Christ. Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to
David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile
to the Christ.
(Matthew 1:
1-17NIV)
Time
and again during his public ministry Our Lord referred to the Law, the Psalms
and the Prophets — in other words, the Scriptures. More than anything he
referred to them as pointing to him. Our Lord taught that he himself was the
true meaning of the Scriptures. If one wished to know what the Scriptures taught
and what was their real meaning, they were to look to him and accept him for who
he claimed to be. The Scriptures foretold his coming and they foretold his
sufferings and his glory. On the day Our Lord rose from the dead he met the two
disciples on their way to Emmaus, all downcast. Their hopes had been dashed with
his death. But no! He taught them from the Scriptures that the Messiah had to
suffer and so enter into his glory. His sufferings were the foundation of all
the hopes of the Christian, and in this he pointed to the Scriptures.
Now, this is
especially the teaching of St Matthew whose genealogy we have before us in
today’s Gospel (Matthew 1: 1-17). What can
we say is the meaning of this genealogy, this tracing of Our Lord’s ancestry
back to David and then to Abraham? It surely intends, among other things, to
show that the entire Old Testament, all that God had been revealing and doing,
for and in the midst of his chosen people, pointed to the coming Messiah who was
Jesus. Jesus is the promised one who would fulfil all the hopes of the prophets
and all that God had predicted for his people and for mankind. As we read and
listen to the Old Testament especially as it is presented to us in the Church’s
liturgical year we ought have constantly in mind what and who it is all pointing
to. It throws light on the Incarnation and the Redemption that was to come, and
the Redemption throws light on it.
During these
last days of Advent as we prepare to celebrate the coming of the Redeemer, let
us think of the grand preparation that God was providing for it. Let us enter
into that preparation so as to welcome Christ anew into our hearts with a new
appreciation and commitment.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“In times past, God spoke …… in varied
ways to our fathers……; in this, the final age, he has spoken to us
through his Son.” (Heb 1:1-2)
Commentary from Second
Vatican Council (Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum 3-4)
God, who through the Word creates all things (cf. Jn 1:3) and keeps
them in existence, gives men an enduring witness to himself in created
realities (cf. Rm 1:19-20). Planning to make known the way of heavenly
salvation, he went further and from the start manifested himself to our
first parents…… He ceaselessly kept the human race in his care, to give
eternal life to those who perseveringly do good in search of salvation
(cf. Rm 2:6-7). Then, at the time he had appointed, he called Abraham
in order to make of him a great nation (cf. Gn 12:2). Through the
patriarchs and after them through Moses and the prophets, he taught
this people to acknowledge himself the one living and true God,
provident Father and just judge, and to wait for the Saviour promised
by him, and in this manner prepared the way for the Gospel down through
the centuries.
Then, after speaking in many and varied ways through the prophets, "now
at last in these days God has spoken to us in his Son" (Heb 1:1-2). For
he sent his Son, the eternal Word who enlightens all men, so that he
might dwell among men and tell them of the innermost being of God (cf.
Jn 1:1-18). Jesus Christ, therefore, the Word made flesh, was sent as
"a man to men." He "speaks the words of God" (Jn 3:34) and completes
the work of salvation which his Father gave him to do (cf. Jn 5:36;
17:4). To see Jesus is to see his Father (Jn 14:9). For this reason
Jesus perfected revelation by fulfilling it through his whole work of
making himself present and manifesting himself: through his words and
deeds, his signs and wonders, but especially through his death and
glorious resurrection from the dead and final sending of the Spirit of
truth.
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The
Pope's Homily at Vespers of
First Sunday of Advent
"The Lord Always Wants to Come Through Us"
VATICAN CITY, Dec. 13, 2005 (ZENIT.org).- Here is a translation of a
homily improvised by Benedict XVI for the first vespers of the First
Sunday of Advent, celebrated in St. Peter's Basilica on Nov. 26.
* * *
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
With the celebration of First Vespers of the First Sunday in Advent we
are beginning a new liturgical year. In singing the psalms together, we
have raised our hearts to God, placing ourselves in the spiritual
attitude that marks this season of grace: "vigilance in prayer" and
"exultation in praise" (cf. Roman Missal, Advent Preface, II/A).
Taking as our model Mary Most Holy, who teaches us to live by devoutly
listening to the Word of God, let us reflect on the short Bible reading
just proclaimed.
It consists of two verses contained in the concluding part of the First
Letter of St. Paul to the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24). The
first expresses the Apostle's greeting to the community: The second
offers, as it were, the guarantee of its fulfilment.
The hope expressed is that each one may be made holy by God and
preserved irreproachable in his entire person -- "spirit, soul and
body" -- for the final coming of the Lord Jesus; the guarantee that
this can happen is offered by the faithfulness of God himself, who will
not fail to bring to completion the work he has begun in believers.
This First Letter to the Thessalonians is the first of all St. Paul's
Letters, written probably in the year 51. In this first letter we can
feel, more than in the others, the Apostle's pulsating heart, his
paternal, indeed we can say maternal, love for this new community. And
we also feel his anxious concern that the faith of this new Church not
die, surrounded as she was by a cultural context in many regards in
opposition to the faith.
Thus, Paul ends his letter with a hope, or we might almost say with a
prayer. The content of the prayer we have heard is that they [the
Thessalonians] should be holy and irreproachable to the moment of the
Lord's coming. The central word of this prayer is "coming." We should
ask ourselves what does "coming of the Lord" mean? In Greek it is
"parousia," in Latin "adventus," "advent," "coming." What is this
"coming"? Does it involve us or not?
To understand the meaning of this word, hence, of the Apostle's prayer
for this community and for communities of all times -- also for us --
we must look at the person through whom the coming of the Lord was
uniquely brought about: the Virgin Mary.
Mary belonged to that part of the people of Israel who in Jesus' time
were waiting with heartfelt expectation for the Saviour's coming. And
from the words and acts recounted in the Gospel, we can see how she
truly lived steeped in the prophets' words; she entirely expected the
Lord's coming.
She could not, however, have imagined how this coming would be brought
about. Perhaps she expected a coming in glory. The moment when the
Archangel Gabriel entered her house and told her that the Lord, the
Saviour, wanted to take flesh in her, wanted to bring about his coming
through her, must have been all the more surprising to her.
We can imagine the Virgin's apprehension. Mary, with a tremendous act
of faith and obedience, said "yes": "I am the servant of the Lord." And
so it was that she became the "dwelling place" of the Lord, a true
"temple" in the world and a "door" through which the Lord entered upon
the earth.
We have said that this coming was unique: "the" coming of the Lord. Yet
there is not only the final coming at the end of time: In a certain
sense the Lord always wants to come through us. And he knocks at the
door of our hearts: Are you willing to give me your flesh, your time,
your life?
This is the voice of the Lord who also wants to enter our epoch, he
wants to enter human life through us. He also seeks a living dwelling
place in our personal lives. This is the coming of the Lord. Let us
once again learn this in the season of Advent: The Lord can also come
among us.
Therefore we can say that this prayer, this hope, expressed by the
Apostle, contains a fundamental truth that he seeks to inculcate in the
faithful of the community he founded and that we can sum up as follows:
God calls us to communion with him, which will be completely fulfilled
in the return of Christ, and he himself strives to ensure that we will
arrive prepared for this final and decisive encounter. The future is,
so to speak, contained in the present, or better, in the presence of
God himself, who in his unfailing love does not leave us on our own or
abandon us even for an instant, just as a father and mother never stop
caring for their children while they are growing up.
Before Christ who comes, men and women are defined in the whole of
their being, which the Apostle sums up in the words "spirit, soul and
body," thereby indicating the whole of the human person as a unit with
somatic, psychic and spiritual dimensions. Sanctification is God's gift
and his project, but human beings are called to respond with their
entire being without excluding any part of themselves.
It is the Holy Spirit himself who formed in the Virgin's womb Jesus,
the perfect Man, who brings God's marvelous plan to completion in the
human person, first of all by transforming the heart and from this
center, all the rest.
Thus, the entire work of creation and redemption which God, Father and
Son and Holy Spirit, continues to bring about, from the beginning to
the end of the cosmos and of history, is summed up in every individual
person. And since the first coming of Christ is at the centre of the
history of humanity and at its end, his glorious return, so every
personal existence is called to be measured against him -- in a
mysterious and multiform way -- during the earthly pilgrimage, in order
to be found "in him" at the moment of his return.
May Mary Most Holy, the faithful Virgin, guide us to make this time of
Advent and of the whole new liturgical year a path of genuine
sanctification, to the praise and glory of God, Father, Son and Holy
Spirit.
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My Jesus, what’s mine is yours, because
what’s yours is mine, and
what’s mine I abandon in you.
(The Forge,
no.594)
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Fourth Sunday of Advent B
Today let us
think of St. Gatian,
and the Expectation of the
Blessed Virgin Mary (Saints)
Scripture: 2 Samuel 7:1-5.
8b-12.14a.16; Psalm 89: 2-5,
27, 29; Romans
16:25-27; Luke 1: 26-38.
In
the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a
virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The
virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are
highly favoured! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words
and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do
not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. You will be with child and
give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great
and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the
throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever;
his kingdom will never end.” “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I
am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the
power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be
called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in
her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For
nothing is impossible with God.” “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May
it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.
(Luke 1:
26-38NIV)
In 2005,
reports of riots in Sydney spread throughout the world. For instance, I have a
niece in Brazil, and a couple of days after the riots she sent me a message
telling me she had heard about them. There was some discussion in the media
about what were the causes of this trouble, and one person who was interviewed
thought that one factor
has
been the gradual loss of respect among people in our culture. This loss of
respect shows itself in a loss of good manners, a taking people for granted, a
harshness towards others. The reason why I introduce this observation here is
that a habit of disrespect towards others can affect our attitude to God
himself. Our culture and our society can condition us in certain ways if we are
not on guard. For instance, in a society in which there has been a loss of a
sense of sin, there is the danger that we too could be affected by this and lose
our own sense of sin. So too we need to foster within ourselves the habit of
being respectful. The basis of this virtue of respect and reverence is to
recognise the dignity of each person. Each person is God's child, made in his
image. Parents need to instil this into their children. For if we are respectful
to others, we will be more likely to be respectful to God and to recognise just
who God is, and this will be the basis of an attitude of love and adoration. We
will be less likely to take Christ for granted.
In our Gospel
today (Luke 1: 26-38) the archangel Gabriel
appears to a young woman in an obscure village of Galilee to announce a
momentous message. Let us notice how respectful the angel was to the virgin Mary
herself. He recognised the greatness of her dignity, and addressed her as the
one who is full of grace, all holy. He also had a profound respect for the very
message that he was bearing from God. He had come to announce that the
long-awaited Messiah was about to come and that she, the virgin Mary, was chosen
by God to be his mother. He came to tell her this and to ask her consent. The
one to come was a divine person, the Son of God himself. Consider what he said
of the one who was coming: “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the
Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and
he will reign over the house of Jacob forever.” If we aspire to love Christ we
must profoundly respect him, and for this to happen we must bear in mind who he
is. God was sending to mankind and to each human person an extraordinary gift,
the gift of his own divine Son who would have a unique task, to redeem the world
and each person in it. The plan of God was to unite to his Son each person who
accepted the invitation. By being in Jesus one would become a child of God and
share in the life of God. Now, it is very easy to take all this for granted, and
not to have a much real respect for it. It is very easy to be relatively
indifferent to the gift of God.
One of the
purposes of birthdays is to celebrate the person whose birthday it is. It is the
time to appreciate again the wonder and the value of that person. So too with
Our Lord’s birthday on Christmas day. It is the opportunity to appreciate again
the wonder of Jesus, the wonder of the Incarnation, the wonder of God becoming
one of us and remaining with us forever, and giving us a share in his own divine
life. Jesus is with us now, and he will be with us to the end. No matter what
might happen in life, we have Jesus with us always, and in Jesus we have every
heavenly blessing. So let us strive during these final days of Advent to
appreciate anew the person of Jesus our Redeemer and to make him our great
treasure. There is nothing greater God could give us than his Son. In him we
have everything worthwhile, everything lasting. Let us then resolve to ask God
our Father to help us to know, appreciate and to love his Son, and to make
union with him the goal of life. Let us be on guard against failing to respect
this gift. It is so easy to take our Faith, the Church and Jesus himself, for
granted.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“Rejoice, you who are full of
grace” (Luke 1: 26-38)
Commentary from Pope John Paul II (Allocution November 27, 1983)
Joy is a basic component of the sacred time now beginning. Advent is a
time for being watchful, for prayer, for conversion, in addition to
being one of fervent and joyful expectation. The motive is clear: “The
Lord is near.” (Phil 4:5)
The first thing that is said to Mary in the New Testament is a joyful
invitation: “Exult, rejoice!” (Lk 1:28 in Greek) Such a greeting is
linked to the Saviour’s coming. Mary is the first one to receive the
announcement of a joy, which will be proclaimed to the whole people in
what follows. She participates in it in an extraordinary way and
measure. In her, ancient Israel’s joy is concentrated and finds its
fullness; in her, the happiness of messianic times bursts forth
irrevocably. The Virgin Mary’s joy is in particular that of the “small
remnant” of Israel (Isa 10:20f.), of the poor who await God’s salvation
and who experience his fidelity.
So that we also might participate in this feast, it is necessary to
wait in humility and to welcome the Saviour with trust. “In considering
the ineffable love with which the Virgin Mother awaited the Son, all
the faithful who live the spirit of Advent through the liturgy,
‘vigilant in prayer and filled with gladness’, will be led to take her
as their model and to prepare to go out to meet the Lord who is
coming.” (Paul VI, Marialis cultus)
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Are you able to undergo those
humiliations which God asks of you, in
matters of no importance, matters where the truth is not obscured? You
are not? Then you don’t love the virtue of humility.
(The
Forge, no.595)
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December 19 (Monday of the fourth week of Advent II)
Today let us
think of Blessed Urban V
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Judges 13:
2-7.24-25; Psalm 71: 3-6,
16-17;
Luke 1: 5-25.
In
the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged
to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of
Aaron. Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s
commandments and regulations blamelessly. But they had no children, because
Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years. Once when
Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was
chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple
of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of incense came,
all the assembled worshipers were praying outside. Then an angel of the Lord
appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When
Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said
to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife
Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. He will be
a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he
will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other
fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth.
Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. And he
will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the
hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the
righteous — to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Zechariah asked the
angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in
years.” The angel answered, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I
have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will
be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not
believe my words, which will come true at their proper time.” Meanwhile, the
people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the
temple. When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen
a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to
speak. When his time of service was completed, he returned home. After this his
wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. “The
Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favour and
taken away my disgrace among the people.”
(Luke 1:
5-25NIV)
Much
of the writing of history amounts to the celebration of the deeds and
achievements of persons of influence. Human greatness is measured by human
achievements. But when we turn to the Scriptures it is God’s achievements that
we especially celebrate, and at least in the history of salvation there is a
notable feature of these achievements. It is that God’s power seems to be
especially active in the midst of human weakness. Human greatness is not
dependent on human achievements. Our Gospel passage today is a case in point.
In our text we
are told of the appearance of the angel Gabriel to Zechariah to tell him of the
wonderful news of the coming birth of John (Luke 1: 5-25). From his mother’s
womb he would be filled with the Holy Spirit. He would be exceptionally holy,
and would have an exceptionally holy mission. Years later he received the
highest praise from Our Lord himself. Zechariah and Elizabeth, the angel
informed him, would be John’s parents, despite their age. Now, what was
Zechariah’s response? He doubted that it could happen. He doubted the power of
God to do such a thing of greatness and mercy. For this he was struck dumb,
though it is obvious from what followed that he remained a good and very holy
man.
This incident
surely reminds us of the power of God at work in all that was connected with the
Incarnation. At Christmas we shall celebrate God the Son becoming man by the
power of the Holy Spirit. We think of God’s almighty power which reveals his
loving mercy. Whenever we are conscious of our weakness we ought derive strength
from the thought of God’s power and place our faith in it, knowing that God can
show his power in the midst of our human weakness.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Psalm:
My mouth
is filled with your praise, declaring your splendour all day long.
(Psalm
71:8NIV)
The psalmist
praises God and his glory, and this is a sentiment that ought fill our hearts
during the final days of Advent. As Christmas approaches we ought be giving
glory to God more and more for his stupendous plan of salvation. The very
thought of God sending his own divine Son to dwell among us, and of his divine
Son being born into a humble family, and living in obscurity and relative
poverty at Nazareth ought fill us with wonder. There is a great beauty in all
that God does. God was surpassingly rich, and he became poor that each of us who
are poor might become rich, rich in God.
During these
days let us prayerfully think about all that God has done for our salvation. Let
us think about Bethlehem, and how God chose this humble path as his way of
saving mankind. If this was his way, it ought then be our way, which is to say
the way of humility, of poverty of spirit and of meekness. Our way ought be that
of generosity towards those who are poor, just as God in his unending generosity
enriched us who are poor. This should be our way, the way of Christ. He will
give us the strength to live according to the Gospel. He has already given us
the strength for this in giving us his grace, and he can give us great strength
to follow his way with much more fidelity and generosity. Let us pray for this
great grace during these days of Advent as we approach Christmas.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“You have not trusted my words.”
(Luke 1:20)
“Blest is she who trusted.” (Luke 1:45)
Commentary from St Augustine (354-430), Bishop and Doctor of the Church
(Sermon 293, 1-2)
John the Baptist’s mother was an old and sterile woman; Christ’s mother
was a young girl in the fullness of her youth. John was the fruit of
sterility; Christ that of virginity…… The one was announced through the
message of an angel; the other was conceived upon the angel’s
announcement. John’s father did not believe in the news of his birth
and he became mute; Christ’s mother believed in her son, and through
faith, she conceived him in her womb. The Virgin’s heart first welcomed
faith and then, becoming mother, Mary received a fruit in her womb.
The words spoken to the angel by Mary and Zechariah are, however, more
or less similar. When the angel announced the birth of John to him, the
priest answered: “How am I to know this? I am an old man; my wife too
is advanced in age.” Mary responded to the angel’s announcement: “How
can this be since I do not know man?” Yes, they are almost the same
words…… Yet the former is reprimanded, the latter is enlightened.
Zechariah is told: “Because you have not trusted……” But Mary is told:
“This is the answer you demanded.” However again, the words of the one
and of the other are almost the same…… But the one who heard the words
also saw the hearts; for him, nothing is hidden. Each one’s language
concealed what he thought; but if this thought was hidden from human
beings, it was not hidden from the angel, or rather, it was not
concealed from him who spoke through the angel’s mediation.
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Pride dulls the edge of charity. Ask Our Lord each day for the virtue
of humility, for you and for everyone. Because as the years go by,
pride increases if it is not corrected in time.
(The Forge, no.596)
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December 20 (Tuesday of the fourth week of Advent II)
Today let us
think of Sts. Abraham,
Isaac, & Jacob (Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah 7:
10-14; Psalm 24:
1-6; Luke 1: 26-38.
In
the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a
virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The
virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are
highly favoured! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words
and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30But the angel said to her,
“Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. You will be with child
and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be
great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him
the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob
forever; his kingdom will never end.” “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel,
“since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born
will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a
child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month.
For nothing is impossible with God.” “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered.
“May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.
(Luke 1:
26-38NIV)
Today in the
reading from the Gospel of St Luke (Luke 1: 26-38),
the Church places
before
us various persons both divine and human. They are the persons involved in the
Annunciation by the Angel of the coming of the Messiah. Let us live in their
company during these last days of Advent when we are approaching the birth of
the Redeemer. There is the angel Gabriel sent by the Father with his message
about the coming birth of his divine Son. His birth will be brought about by the
power of the Holy Spirit. In his words to the Virgin Mary, the angel refers to
the Messiah’s ancestors, David and Jacob. Above all, the angel addresses himself
to Mary, betrothed to Joseph. We are thus in the presence of a marvellous array
of holiness and of holy persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
together with Mary, Joseph and the Angel and the Old Testament saints. During
these days of Advent we ought consciously live in their company and call upon
their intercession.
Thinking of
this great company, let us especially think of Mary and her simple and profound
words to the Angel. He had come to ask her consent, and her response describes
herself and her decision. “I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me
according to your word.” She teaches us to love humility and obedience to God.
She aspired to no special position before men, but rather accepted whatever lot
God assigned to her. She was humble, and though God raised her on high in his
sight and in the mission he conferred on her, she remained profoundly humble.
Let us remain in the company of Mary our mother, asking her to teach us humility
and to obtain for us the grace to grow in humility. In effect this means the
grace to accept humiliations humbly. Humble disciple of the Lord as she was, she
was obedient: “Be it done unto me according to your word.” Let us ask her to
obtain for us the grace to be obedient to God as she was, in little things and
in small in our ordinary everyday life.
During these
days, let us live in the company of the Trinity and of all of heaven, and
especially of Jesus, Mary and Joseph and resolving to imitate them day by day.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“The Holy Spirit will come upon you
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.”
Luke 1:26-38 Commentary from Joseph Cardinal
Ratzinger [Pope Benedict XVI]
Introduction to Christianity (Einfüührung
in das Christentum)
In all the miraculous births in the old covenant at the decisive
turning points in the history of salvation……, the meaning of the event
is the same every time: the salvation of the world does not come from
man, from his own strength. The human person must allow it to be given
him, he can only receive it as a free gift. The virginal birth of
Christ is first of all a message about the way in which salvation comes
to us –– in the simplicity of welcome, as an absolutely free gift of
the love which redeems the world. “Break forth in jubilant song, you
who were not in labour, for more numerous are the children of the
deserted wife than the children of her who has a husband.” (Isa 54:1)
In Jesus, God began something new in the midst of sterile and desperate
humankind, something which is not the product of our history, but a
gift from on high.
If it is true that every human being already constitutes an ineffable
newness, that each one represents a unique creature of God’s in
history, Jesus is the true newness. He does not proceed from
humankind’s own resources, but from the Spirit of God. That is why he
is the “new Adam” (1 Cor 15:47). A new humanity begins with him……
Christian faith professes that God is not a prisoner of his eternity,
limited to what is purely spiritual. On the contrary, God can act here
and now, in the midst of my universe. He did act there effectively in
Jesus, the new Adam, born of the Virgin Mary through God’s creative
power, whose Spirit hovered over the waters in the beginning (Gen 1:2),
creating being from nothing.
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Is there anything more displeasing than a child acting the grown-up?
How can a poor man — a child
— be pleasing to God if he “acts
grown-up”, puffed up by pride, sure that he’s worth something and
trusting only in himself?
(The Forge, no.597)
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December 21 (Wednesday of the fourth week of Advent II)
(December 21) St Peter
Canisius, priest and doctor of the Church (1521-1597) Born in
Holland,
he joined the Society of Jesus. He worked in Germany and Austria
fighting for many years by his writings and teachings to safeguard the
Catholic faith. Of his numerous books the Catechism is most renowned. (Saints)
Scripture today: Song of Songs 2:
8-14; or Zephaniah 3: 14-18; Psalm 33: 2-3,
11-12, 20-21;
Luke 1: 39-45
At that
time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where
she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's
greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy
Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed
is the child you will bear! But why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord
should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the
baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that what the
Lord has said to her will be accomplished!"
(Luke 1:39-45NIV)
Authentic
Islam honours Mary the mother of Jesus. All of Christianity of the first
millennium honoured Mary as the mother of Jesus and most of Christianity (East
and West) does so still. One would think that, on reflection, Judaism would
recognise the greatness of Jesus as a Jew — and hence the greatness of his
mother as a Jewess. All of this recognition we can see in germ in the salutation
of Elizabeth honouring the mother of the Messiah in the words, “Of all women you
are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” Let us praise and
honour God for providing mankind with such a member of our race, one so holy and
one with such dignity as to be the mother of God made man. The angel praised
her, and here in our passage today Mary’s holy kinswoman does so too. Let us
join in this chorus of praise as we approach Christmas. The Church gives us
words to do this in the text of the “Hail Mary” prayer, composed as it is from
the Scriptural passages we savour during these days.
The heart of
Mary’s greatness lies in her faith, as Elizabeth proclaims: “Yes, blessed is she
who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled”
(Luke 1:39-45). At the Annunciation she asked
the Angel how could what was proposed to her come about, for she was a virgin.
Having been told that it would come about by the power of the Holy Spirit, she
immediately in full faith gave her consent. That consent expressed what had been
a life of unwavering faith to that point, and it was followed by a life of
unwavering faith to the end. Her faith was supremely expressed at the foot of
the Cross, accepting the salvific plan of God and never wavering in her belief
that the promise made by the Lord would be fulfilled. Her perfect faith
manifested itself in perfect obedience.
Let us these
days take Mary for our mother and our model. She is the mother and the model for
all Christ’s faithful and for all of mankind.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“Who am I that the mother of my Lord
should come to me?” (Luke
1:39-45)
Commentary by St John of
Damascus (675-749), Monk, Theologian, Doctor of the Church
(1st Sermon on the Dormition)
“Blest are you among women and blest is the fruit of your womb…” For
all generations will call you blest, as you said (Lk 1:48). The
daughters of Jerusalem, that is to say, the Church, saw you and
proclaimed your happiness… For you are the royal throne near which the
angels stood contemplating their Master and Creator, who was seated on
it (Dan 7:9). You have become the spiritual Eden, more sacred and more
divine than the former one. The earthly Adam lived in the former; in
you lives the Lord who came from heaven (1 Cor 15:47). Noah’s ark was a
prefiguration of you; it saved the seed of the second creation, for you
gave birth to Christ, the world’s salvation, who submerged sin and
pacified the floods.
It was you whom the burning bush described ahead of time, whom the
tables depicted, on which God wrote (Ex 31:18), which the ark of the
covenant told about; it is you whom the golden urn, the candelabra… and
Aaron’s staff that blossomed (Num 17:23) obviously prefigured… I almost
left out Jacob’s ladder. Just as Jacob saw heaven united with the earth
by means of the two ends of the ladder, and the angels descending and
ascending on it, and as the one who is really the strong and invincible
one engaged in a symbolic struggle with him, thus you yourself became
the mediator and ladder by which God came down to us and took upon
himself the weakness of our substance, embracing it and closely uniting
it to him.
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Certainly you can go to Hell. You are convinced it could happen, for in
your heart you find the seeds of all kinds of evil. But if you become a
child in front of God, that fact will bring you close to your Father
God, and to your Mother, Holy Mary. And Saint Joseph and your Angel
will not leave you unprotected when they see you are a child. Have
faith. Do as much as you can. Be penitent, and be Loving. They will
supply whatever else you need.
(The Forge, no.598)
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December
22 (Thursday of the fourth week of Advent II)
Today let us think of Saints
Chaeremon and Ishyrion (Saints)
Scripture today:
1 Samuel 1:
24-28; 1 Samuel 2: 1,
4-5, 6-7, 8abcd Luke 1: 46-56;
And
Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all
generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for
me — holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation
to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered
those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from
their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good
things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he
said to our fathers.” Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then
returned home.
(Luke
1:46-56NIV)
It is a
wonderful thing that we have a specimen of Mary’s prayer so soon after the
Annunciation. We could speculate on the origins of Mary’s prayer — perhaps it is
a prayer she prayed often during her life subsequent to the scene of the Gospel
here (Luke 1:46-56). Be that as it may, Luke is clear that on this occasion Mary
prayed this prayer, the Magnificat. The most obvious feature of it is that her
prayer and her thoughts were all on what God had done. She praised and thanked
God for what he had done to her, lowly as she was, and what he had done and
would do to the humble and the lowly who looked to him. God is great and he is
all-merciful. This is what marks the prayer of Mary.
We should take
Mary for our model in our prayer as in everything. The great danger for any
human being, including any member of Christ’s faithful, is to think too much of
what he himself has done or will do. Consider Our Lord’s
parable
of the pharisee and the publican. The pharisee recounted to God in his prayer
all that he had done, and (in consequence) despised the publican. It has often
been observed that youth is the age of ambitions, while age and maturity is the
time of regrets. We can learn from Mary that rather than looking back on life’s
mistakes and disappointments with constant regret, far better it is to look back
on what God has done, and to be intent on noticing that. Our memories ought be
filled more and more with the deeds and achievements of God and his great mercy,
rather than with our own achievements or — what is more likely — our great lack
of them. Mary teaches us to strive to praise God and to thank him for his
greatness and his mercy.
Christmas is
nigh. During the season of Christmas (which continues for many days beyond
Christmas Day) let us resolve to think far more of the works of God than our own
work. Thinking of his work in our lives and in the course of history, let us
resolve with his grace to collaborate with him every day.
(E.J.Tyler)
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How difficult it
is to live
humility! As the popular wisdom of Christianity says, “Pride dies
twenty-four hours after its owner. So when you think you’re right,
against what you are being told by someone who has been given a special
grace from God to guide your soul, be sure that you are completely
wrong.
(The Forge, no.599)
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December
23 (Friday of the fourth week of Advent II)
(December 23) Saint
John of Kenty, priest. Born in Kenty, in the diocese of
Cracow in 1390. He became a priest and for many years taught in the
University of Cracow and then was parish priest of Olkusz. Besides
being an outstanding professor of the Catholic Faith, he excelled in
personal holiness and in charity to his neighbour, so that he was a
true example to his colleagues and to his students. He died in
1473.
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Malachi 3:
1-4.23-24;
Psalm 25: 4-5ab,
8-9, 10 and 14;
Luke
1:57-66
When
it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her
neighbours and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they
shared her joy. On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they
were going to name him after his father Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and
said, “No! He is to be called John.” They said to her, “There is no one among
your relatives who has that name.” Then they made signs to his father, to find
out what he would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet, and to
everyone’s astonishment he wrote, “His name is John.” Immediately his mouth was
opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God. The
neighbours were all filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea
people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered
about it, asking, “What then is this child going to be?” For the Lord’s hand was
with him.
(Luke 1:
57-66NIV)
If we were to
describe the typical impression of God prevalent in our secular Western society
today, I suppose we could say that God is regarded as distant and unconcerned
with the details of the everyday life of the average person. Accordingly, God
himself is typically regarded with indifference. Of course there are countless
exceptions to this, but I think it is the typical and public impression of and
attitude towards the great being we call God. The world is regarded as going on
without him. Now, it may be that part of the way people can come to a sense of
God as a living Person, is to discover his kindness. It is this which is
referred to in today’s Gospel (Luke 1: 57-66).
John’s conception and birth was regarded as a great kindness: a kindness to
Elizabeth.
St John in one
of his letters tells us that God is love. Of course, it is difficult especially
for secular man to see how God our Creator can be described simply as love and
kindness,
when
we see so much of suffering and evil. Where is he in the midst of all this
suffering, we tend to cry out. But to regard the fact of human suffering as
incompatible with the notion that God is love and kindness is, to say the very
least, to be basing our judgments very much on our experience of human beings.
We must remember that inasmuch as it is God of whom we are thinking here, there
could be other explanations for the presence of evil. In the final analysis, if
we want to know the real character of God, we must turn to what he has revealed
of himself. Across the sweep of Scripture and in the teaching of the Church, God
is proclaimed as kind, though holy and therefore uncompromising in respect to
sin. Whatever be the problems posed by the course of life’s events, if we accept
revelation, then God reveals himself as love.
Our passage
today from the Gospel (Luke 1: 57-66)
presents the birth of John as a proof of God’s kindness to Elizabeth. That is
its interpretation. The greatest proof of his kindness to all of us is the gift
he has given of his Son, Jesus our Lord. This is what we celebrate on Christmas
Day and in the Christmas season. We celebrate, among other things, the kindness
of God. He is kind, despite the suffering we see around us. His kindness led him
to send his Son to shoulder that burden of suffering and evil, and to take away
its root cause which is sin.
Let us ask for
the grace, then, to appreciate and celebrate the kindness of God.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Serving and forming children, caring lovingly for the sick. To make
ourselves understood by simple souls, we have to humble our intellect;
to understand poor sick people we have to humble our heart. In this
way, on our knees in both body and mind, it is easy to reach Jesus
along that sure way of human wretchedness, of our own wretchedness. It
will lead us to make ‘a nothing’ of ourselves in order to let God build
on our nothingness.
(The Forge, no.600)
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December
24
(Saturday of the fourth week of Advent II)
Today let us think of Adam & Eve, and St. Adele (Saints)
Scripture today:
2 Samuel 7:
1-5.8-12.14.16; Psalm 89: 2-5, 27
and 29;
Luke 1: 67-79
His
father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: “Praise be to
the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people. He
has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (as
he said through his holy prophets of long ago), salvation from our enemies and
from the hand of all who hate us — to show mercy to our fathers and to remember
his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to rescue us from
the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness
and righteousness before him all our days. And you, my child, will be called a
prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way
for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness
of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun
will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the
shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
(Luke 1:
67-79NIV)
Today, on the
eve of Christmas, the Church places before us for
our
contemplation and our personal use the prayer of praise of God uttered by
Zechariah. He prayed under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and so it is a
prayer coming forth from God himself, assisting us to praise him for what he has
done. And what does Zechariah praise God for? In the first place, he praises him
for his saving mercy: God is praised as the Saviour of his people. He saves his
people from their enemies and from all who hate them. So God reveals himself in
this inspired prayer as the refuge of his people. It is “thus” that “he shows
mercy”, it is “thus” that “he remembers his holy covenant”
(Luke 1: 67-79). He delivers his people from
danger in order “to serve him in holiness and virtue in his presence all our
days.” The object of God’s saving action is the peace and holiness of life of
his people.
That is the
general point about God which Zechariah’s prayer proclaims. But it also
contemplates the coming child, John. He will prepare the way for the coming of
the Lord. The rising Sun was coming Who will bring light to those in darkness
and guidance into the way of peace. Let us then, as we prepare for our
celebration of the coming of Christ at Bethlehem, praise and thank God for his
mercy. It is the mercy of God which Zechariah especially extols. “Thus he shows
mercy to our ancestors.” The forgiveness of sins would come “by the tender mercy
of our God who from on high will bring the rising Sun to visit us”. The prayer
of Zechariah sums up the spirituality of the Old Testament at the threshold of
the New. It is a spirituality based above all on a sense of the mercy of a God
who saves his chosen people. A new height in this direction would come with the
arrival of the Messiah who would save his people from their sins. It is this
which would reveal the mercy of God, and demonstrate his power.
Let us pray
for a deep appreciation of the kindness and the mercy of God whose power can
save us from any of our enemies, but most of all from the greatest enemy, sin
and all its forms.
(E.J.Tyler)
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A resolution: unless I really have to, never to speak of my personal
affairs.
(The Forge, no.601)
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Christmas
Day
(December
25)
Scripture today:
Isaiah
9:1-6 Ps 96:1-2, 2-3, 11-12, 13 Titus 2: 11-14 Luke 2:1-14
In
those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the
entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius
was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph
also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the
town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there
to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a
child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she
gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in
a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were
shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at
night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone
around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be
afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the
Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and
lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with
the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace to men on whom his favour rests.”
(Luke 2:
1-14NIV)
There are now
a great variety of religions in Australia. There are varieties of Christianity,
and various non-Christian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and
Zoroastrianism. Some are recently founded religions, some are religions with a
long history. One result of this phenomenon is that a person searching for
religious truth will have difficulty because all of the religions of man claim,
presumably, to be true. Because of this many who might be disposed to inquire
give up any quest to know the truth and content themselves with being guided
simply by their preferences. They become indifferent to the question of truth
and even develop a dislike for making an issue of it. They can find such an
emphasis boring or irritating, and prefer to stress personal experience and
taste. Now, the Catholic Church makes an issue of the objective truth of
religion, and for the Catholic there is no question as to which of the
religions of man is true: it is the Catholic Religion. That is the Catholic
claim, and every member of the faithful ought take steps to be personally
convinced of this. The religion of the Catholic is the true one, and its
teaching is true. It is true in all that it teaches about the person of Christ
and what Christ taught, and the Catholic knows that if any other religion
contradicts its teaching in this matter, to that extent that other religion is
untrue. The Catholic Religion is true because it was founded and established by,
and continues to be sustained and guided by, the living person of Jesus who is
himself the object of its teaching. He is the object of its love, of its service
and of its worship.
All this is to
say that the Catholic Religion is the one revealed and established by God in
God’s own search for man. The other religions spring from man’s search for God,
and carry with them the strengths, the weaknesses, the truths and the falsehoods
characteristic of any religious search by man. Buddha spent his life searching
for the key to happiness in the midst of suffering, and what he proposed as an
answer gave rise to Buddhism. Confucius sought for an ultimate answer. Mahomet
had powerful religious experiences and chose to place himself in the tradition
of the prophets to give to his experiences their meaning. Each of these men
discovered some truths in their quest, but in the process were also ensnared in
various errors — and some of their errors were very great. Furthermore and most
importantly, ultimately the religions springing from man’s search for God do not
and cannot save man from his sinful condition which is what separates him from
God. But in the case of the Christian and Catholic Religion, issuing forth as
the fulfilment of what God had revealed to the Jews, it is God who comes
searching for man. We, fallen mankind, were sunk in the darkness of our sins and
God came searching for us to save us with his truth and his grace. The birth of
Christ at Bethlehem is God’s gift to man, revealing his loving mercy. Christ
established one religion and by the power of the grace conveyed by that religion
he places man in him, and by doing this places man in God. By our baptism we are
"in Christ" and thus on the way to salvation. When we think of other religions,
we think of the things man has done, with all their human limitations. But when
we think of the Christian and Catholic religion we think of the things God has
done. What did he do? He gave us Jesus, and it is Jesus and his coming which we
celebrate on Christmas Day.
But we can
take Jesus for granted. Consider who it is who was born at Bethlehem. There was
never any question about the fact that the child born at Bethlehem was human. He
is one of us. This was obvious to his mother Mary and to Joseph, it was obvious
to the shepherds and to the Magi from the East. As he grew up in Nazareth it was
obvious to his relations and townspeople. During his public ministry it was
obvious to friend and foe alike that he was a man like us. Indeed it became
obvious that he was a very great man, great as a prophet and as a man of God.
But of course there have been many individuals in the course of human history
who have been great men, great precisely in the realm of religion. They attained
some portion of the truth and led many others along the road that they travelled
in their quest for God. I have already mentioned some of them. But now, there
are notable things that distinguish Jesus from all of them. Our Lord enters
history at Bethlehem as the one whom God had promised he would send. His coming
was long predicted. Mahomet’s birth was not predicted: he emerged in history as
something of a surprise. Our Lord as the Messiah was long predicted, and we
Christians know that his birth at Bethlehem was the fulfilment of the
prophecies. Our Lord in his public ministry showed that he was the One sent by
the Father, and sent by the Father precisely to fulfil a divine plan for man.
Jesus is God’s gift to man, and in him are to be found all the blessings of God
and of heaven. He is the bridge between God and man, and indeed no one comes to
the Father except through me, he said.
But there is
more than this. Our Lord is not only the one whom God sent to be the bearer of
all the divine blessings which God wishes to give to us his creatures. He is not
only the way - indeed the only true and sure way - to the Father. He is the
image of the Father. “He who sees me, sees the Father,” he said. In him dwells
the fullness of the Godhead bodily, St Paul writes. The baby in the manger at
Bethlehem is God himself. And this is the crux of the matter when it comes to
Christ and Christianity. The danger is that we shall mouth those words, that
Jesus is not only man, not only a very great man, not only the greatest of men,
but that he is God, and yet fail to realize what we are saying. If we grant that
this Child who was born at a certain point in history was truly God and the
origin and sustainer of all that is, then there is no greater fact that can be
mentioned. As we look around at our universe and try to gain some impression of
the Creator of it all, we immediately realize how poor our minds are in rising
to such a task. Who and what is God, our hearts ask. The answer has been
revealed to us: God is Jesus, the baby Jesus, the boy Jesus, the man Jesus, the
Jesus who was born at Bethlehem and who died and rose for our salvation and our
sanctification. God is Jesus, and Jesus is God. God the Son is the image of the
Father, the bearer of the Holy Spirit, and in him the fullness of the Godhead
dwells bodily. Let us then beware of the tendency unconsciously to think of
Jesus as simply a great man or even the greatest and holiest of men. We must
pray for the realization that he is man and God, and with this realization we
ought strive to love and adore him and to give our lives over to his service. No
one is on the level of Jesus, for he is our Redeemer and our God, and this we
must bring to as many as possible so that they may come from the darkness to the
light.
As we gather
in spirit with Mary and Joseph to adore the child lying in the manger, let us
resolve to love Jesus with our whole being and by his grace to be transformed
into his likeness.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Thank Jesus for the
confidence he gives you. It’s not stubbornness, but
God’s light that makes you firm as a rock. Meanwhile, others, good as
they are, present a sorry picture. They seem to be sinking in the sand.
They lack the foundation of the faith. Ask Our Lord to grant that the
demands of the virtue of faith may be met both in your life and in the
lives of others.
(The Forge, no.602)
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Feast of St Stephen, deacon and
martyr (December 26)
St Stephen
was the
first Christian martyr. Stoned outside Jerusalem, he died praying for
his executioners. He was one of the seven deacons who helped the
apostles: he was "filled with faith ad with the Holy Spirit", and was
"full of fortitude". The Church draws a comparison between the disciple
and his Master, emphasizing the imitation of Christ up to the complete
gift of self. His name is in the Roman Canon. (Saints)
Scripture today:
Acts 6: 8-10, 7:
54-59; Psalm 31: 3-4, 6
and 8, 16-17; Matthew 10: 17-22.
“Be
on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and
flog you in their synagogues. On my account you will be brought before governors
and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. But when they arrest you, do
not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given
what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father
speaking through you. “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his
child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. All
men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be
saved.”
(Matthew
10: 17-22NIV)
With
Christmas Day now behind us and a couple of weeks of Christmastide ahead of us,
we celebrate the coming of the Redeemer. He came to us with a mission to redeem
the world. Can any other mission in human history be compared with it? He
fulfilled his mission by his obedience to his heavenly Father, lived out during
his life and especially during his Passion and Death. During these days we think
of him newly-born and at the beginning of his earthly mission, and we realize
with gratitude that by the power of the Holy Spirit we are in him, just as he is
in the Father and the Father is in him. Being in him, we are called to
participate in his mission. In celebrating his coming among us as man we also
celebrate our union with him in the mission that was before him.
Just as the
Father sent him, so he sends us. We are reminded of this by the martyrdom of St
Stephen which we celebrate today (Acts 6: 8-10, 7:
54-59). St Stephen bore witness to Jesus by his blood, and we are
likewise called to bear witness to Jesus in our daily lives whatever be the
cost. We do this by our example, by our dedication to others in our work, and by
our words. We are assured by Our Lord in today’s Gospel
(Matthew 10: 17-22) for the feast of St Stephen
that the Spirit of both Jesus and the Father will give us words when the time
comes for witness in the midst of difficulty. This may be in our family, in our
workplace, in our parish, or whatever. Let us then, on this feast of the first
martyr, resolve to welcome the coming of Christ among us as man with a firm
resolve to be one with him in his mission. That mission is one of bearing
witness to the truth about him before others, no matter what may be the cost in
our daily lives.
(E.J.Tyler)
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If I behaved differently, if I
were more in control of my character, if I were more faithful to you,
Lord, how marvellously you would help us!
(The Forge, no.603)
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St John, Apostle and
Evangelist
(December 27).
Born in Bethsaida, Saint John was called from mending the nets to
follow Jesus. He became the beloved disciple of Jesus. He is understood
as being the author of the fourth Gospel, the three letters that bear
his name, and be book of Revelation. His passages on the pre-existence
of the Word, who by his Incarnation became the light of the world and
the life of our souls are among the finest of the New Testament. He is
the evangelist of the divinity of Christ and of fraternal love. With
James his brother and Simon Peter he was one of the witnesses of the
Transfiguration. At the Last Supper, he leans on the Master’s breast.
At the foot of the Cross, Jesus entrusts his Mother to his care. John’s
pure life kept him very close to Jesus and Mary. In later years under
Emperor Domitian he was exiled to the island of Patmos. (Saints)
Scripture today:
1 John 1:
1-4; Psalm 97: 1-2,
5-6, 11-12;
John 20: 1a, and
2-8;
Early
on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to
the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came
running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said,
"They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put
him!" So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running,
but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and
looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon
Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of
linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head.
The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other
disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.
(John 20:
1-8NIV)
During the
couple of weeks of the season of Christmas let us reflect simply and profoundly
on what God did to show his love for us: he became man. He who is all light and
all life became one of us. God made himself visible, becoming man. Through his
grace and his truth he enables us to become children of God. To think that this
actually happened as an historical fact is something absolutely stupendous. What
could possibly compare with it in the annals of history? We ought strive to
realize the magnitude of its significance. Its significance is that we are left
in no possible doubt as to the love that God has for us his sinful children.
The danger is
that thoughts such as these can be considered as merely general
thoughts without a personal and individual application. In one of his letters St
Paul writes that “Christ loved me, and delivered himself up for me.” St Paul
applied the entire Christian revelation to his own life: all this happened for
me, he knew. That is what drove him. God did all this for me, and equally for
every other person. We ought strive to gain a similar realization. Today’s feast
of St John the Evangelist can help us in this because St John is constantly
described in the fourth Gospel as “the disciple Jesus loved.” Jesus loves each
one of us too, with a personal and individual love. Each of us is called to be a
disciple of Jesus, and to each of us can be applied the words, “the disciple
Jesus loves” with all the particularity that stems from the personal vocation
God has given us from before the foundation of the world.
Today let us
reflect on how much Jesus loves not only all mankind, but me, me in particular.
He became man for me. He suffered and died and rose again for me. Let us think
of the love St John had for Jesus springing from his awareness of how much Jesus
loved him. He was conscious of being “the disciple Jesus loved.” St Paul had the
same realization: Christ loved him and died for him. It is the realization of
every convinced Christian. Let us pray for the grace of a similar realization, a
realization to be brought to all those around us in our daily life.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Your Father God puts a longing for atonement in your soul. That longing
will be satisfied if you unite your own poor expiation to the infinite
merits of Jesus. Rectify your intention, and love suffering in him,
with him, and through him.
(The Forge, no.604)
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The Holy Innocents,
martyrs (December
28). The Church
celebrates the memory of the small children of the neighbourhood of
Bethlehem who were put to death by Herod who was seeking to kill Jesus.
These innocent victims bore witness to Christ in a world which would
not receive him. (Saints)
Scripture today:
1 John
1:5-2:2; Psalm 124: 2-5,
7cd-8;
Matthew 2: 13-18
When
they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he
said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I
tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” So he got up,
took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he
stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said
through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” When Herod realized that he
had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all
the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in
accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said
through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping
and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be
comforted, because they are no more.”
(Matthew 2:
13-18NIV)
This feast day
offers much food for reflection. Here we have an event in Scripture in which
many
infants
who did not know Christ themselves, and who did not know the significance of
what was happening to them, were suddenly put to death by an authority who hated
Christ. Their lives constituted a brief flicker in an unnoticed village,
extinguished by a sinful hand (Matthew 2: 13-18).
One might think it was an accident of history that snuffed them out. Yet their
deaths had a place in the plan of God, and are interpreted and celebrated by the
Church as a martyrdom: unknowingly and innocently they bore witness to God’s
will and to Christ. Because of their connection with Christ, their seemingly
inconsequential lives and deaths as well as the sufferings visited upon their
families had a place in the salvation of the world.
This clearly
implies that, by our connection with Christ (whether this connection is evident
or not), our life, our sufferings and our death gain a heavenly value. The
bedrock elements in the case of the Holy Innocents were the following. Their
brief lives and their deaths passed in the hands of God and for his part he
allowed for this to happen. Mysteriously, their deaths therefore contributed
somehow towards the fulfilment of his saving will and providence. God's will
transformed the significance of their brief lives and gave to them the grandeur
of bearing witness to the one because of whom they died. An obvious lesson is
that it is the divine will which is all-important in our lives, and if God’s
will is done, all will be well. Even if, like the Innocents, we are crushed in
the process, our lives will have gained the grandeur and significance intended
by God.
Let us, then,
reflect on the significance for our lives of the saving will of God. If things
happen to us that are intended by their perpetrators to cause us harm, and which
we have been unable to prevent, then let us remember that God has permitted it
to happen. If he has permitted it, let us accept it out of love for him and
obedience to his plan. He has his plan, a plan that embraces the salvation of
the world. The sufferings that he permits in our case will have their place in
the world’s salvation, because by those sufferings we will mysteriously share in
the sufferings and martyrdom of Christ, as did the Holy
Innocents. How? We do not know, but our feast today teaches us the fact
of it.
(E.J.Tyler)
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You have no idea whether you are making progress, or, if you are, how
much. But what use is such a reckoning to you? What is important is
that you should persevere, that your heart should be on fire, that you
should be more enlightened and descry farther horizons; that you should
strive for our intentions, that you should feel them as your own - even
though you don’t know what they are - and that you should pray for all
of them.
(The Forge, no.605)
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Fifth day in the Octave of Christmas
(29th
December)
St Thomas a
Becket, bishop and martyr (1118-1170). Born in London. After
studying in Paris he first became chancellor to the king and then in
1162 was chosen Archbishop of Canterbury. He changed from being a
“patron of play-actors and a follower of hounds”, to being “a shepherd
of souls”. He threw himself into the duties of his new office,
defending the rights of the Church against Henry II. This prompted t he
king to exile him to France for six years. After returning to his
homeland, he endured many trials and was murdered by agents of the
king. (Saints)
Scripture today:
1 John 2: 3-11;
Psalm 96: 1-3,
5b-6;
Luke 2: 22-35
When
the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed,
Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is
written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to
the Lord”), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of
the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.” Now there was a man in
Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the
consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to
him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s
Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents
brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required,
Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: “Sovereign Lord, as you
have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your
salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for
revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” The child’s
father and mother marvelled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them
and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and
rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that
the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own
soul too.”
(Luke 2:
22-35NIV)
We
could say that today’s Gospel passage has the person and testimony of Simeon for
its special focus. Just when the Messiah appears in a public setting — being
brought to the Temple where the chosen people of God gathered — Simeon also
appears, led by the Holy Spirit. Simeon was a marvellous embodiment of the Old
Testament. He was a holy man, led by the Spirit of God and filled with the
expectation of the Old Testament (Luke 2: 22-35).
He longed for the coming of the Messiah who was everything for him. In the
Messiah would come the salvation of the nations and the glory of Israel. Christ
is the object of the Old Testament, and as with Simeon, he must be the object of
our lives too.
But as we
picture the Christ-child in the arms of one who embodied the Old Testament, we
think also of the ones Simeon was addressing. He was speaking to Mary and to
Joseph, both of whom we can take as representing the New Testament. In Christ,
Mary is our mother and Joseph our foster-father. Christ is there in the midst of
this holy group which embodies both the Old Testament and the New. He is the
centre and the object of all God’s revelation, the gift of the Father to sinful
man and to each of us. Let us then make Simeon’s words and sentiments our own
and be filled with a similar appreciation for Jesus our treasure. In him we have
every heavenly blessing. Let us make him the treasure of our everyday lives and
let us resolve to bring this treasure to those around us.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Tell him: Jesus, I cannot see a single perfect flower in my garden, all
are blighted. It seems that all have lost their colour and their
scent. Poor me! Face downwards in the muck, on the ground: that’s my
place. That’s the way, humble yourself. He will conquer in you, and you
will attain the victory.
(The Forge, no.606)
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Feast of the
Holy
Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph (December
30)
Scripture today:
Colossians 3:
12-21; Psalm 128:
1-5; Luke 2:
22-40
When the
time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed,
Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is
written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to
the Lord”), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of
the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.” Now there was a man in
Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the
consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to
him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s
Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents
brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required,
Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: “Sovereign Lord, as you
have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your
salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for
revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” The child’s
father and mother marvelled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them
and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and
rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that
the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own
soul too.” There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the
tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years
after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never
left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to
them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to
all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. When Joseph and
Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to
Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong; he
was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.
(Luke 2:
36-40NIV)
In the
previous Gospel passage we consider Simeon. Today, the feast of the Holy Family,
our Gospel scene includes the inspiring and inspired figure of Anna the
prophetess. Together with Simeon she was a magnificent example of the holiness
attainable under the Old Testament. Her life was completely centred on God and
on his presence in the Temple which she never left, night or day. So here we
have a group of people of signal holiness at the end of the period of the Old
Testament and the beginning of the New: Simeon and Anna on the one hand, and the
Holy Family on the other, Mary and Joseph, with the Christ-child in their midst
as the object of attention of all. Let us in our mind’s eye contemplate Anna
giving utterance to her inspired praise and testimony about the Messiah who has
come. In this she gives us a wonderful example.
Our passage
tells us that Anna went on to speak of the child to all who looked forward to
the deliverance of Jerusalem (Luke 2: 36-40). Undoubtedly many of those who
looked forward to this deliverance had dim, confused and possibly mistaken
notions of what this deliverance would comprise. After all, John the Baptist
himself was puzzled years later by what he heard Our Lord was actually doing.
But these holy people waited on God and their lives were oriented towards the
salvation they knew was coming, while not knowing clearly its precise shape and
nature. We do know, though. We have not only the inspired New Testament
Scriptures, but the Tradition and teaching of the Church. We know, like Anna and
Simeon, who the long-awaited Messiah is, and we also know what the plan of
salvation is which he effected.
Let us then,
with the spirit of Anna and with the help and prayers of Mary and Joseph,
embrace Christ and his plan for our salvation and sanctification. Let us fully
cooperate with this plan day by day. Many kings and prophets, Our Lord once
said, longed to see what you see and never saw it. Let us surrender ourselves
daily to Christ and his will for us, and speak of him to others just as Anna did
when she saw and came to know him.
(E.J.Tyler)
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I understood you very well when you ended up saying: “Quite honestly, I
haven’t even made the grade of being a donkey
— the donkey that was the
throne of Jesus when he entered Jerusalem. I’m just part of a
disgusting heap of dirty tatters that the poorest rag-picker would
ignore. But I told you: all the same, God has chosen you and wants you
to be his instrument. So your wretchedness — which is a genuine fact
—
should turn into one more reason for you to be thankful to God for
calling you.
(The Forge,
no.607)
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Seventh
day in the Octave of Christmas (December
31)
Saint Sylvester I,
pope (died about 335) He
ruled the Church during the reign of Constantine when the Arian heresy
and the Donatist schism had provoked great discord. He convoked the
first Ecumenical Council of Nicea. (Saints)
Scripture today:
1 John 2: 18-21;
Psalm 96: 1-2,
11-13; John 1: 1-18
In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He
was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him
nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the
light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not
understood it. There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He
came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men
might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the
light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did
not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not
receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he
gave the right to become children of God — children born not of natural descent,
nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became
flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the
One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testifies
concerning him. He cries out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes
after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’” From the fullness of his
grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given
through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen
God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.
(John 1:
1-18NIV)
Our Gospel
today is generally called the prologue of the fourth Gospel
(John 1: 1-18), in which St John gives us an
overview of his Gospel. It introduces us to the central issues entailed in God
the Son becoming man. Now what, we must ask, is especially noteworthy about
God’s sojourn among us and which St John especially highlights? It is that God
came among his own and his own did not accept him. All things came into being
through him. He was life and that life was the light of men, without which a man
is in the darkness. And yet, despite this, when he became flesh and dwelt among
his own, his own would not accept him. This is the astonishing thing about the
world, that man is found to be alienated and hostile to his Maker.
It is most
important that we discover this ingrained, chronic, insurmountable hostility to
God in ourselves if we are ever to overcome it by the power of God. St John’s
prologue brings before us the enormity of man’s — that is, our — sinfulness.
But a distinguishing feature of our modern culture is that this is not
recognised. Characteristically, we have lost the sense of sin. We tend to have
little sense of it, and the result is that we do not feel much need for our Lord
himself, because his mission was precisely to eradicate sin and to reconcile us
completely to God. And this is the other great point taught by St John in his
Prologue, that not only is man caught up with sin, but that Christ offers to all
who accept him in faith and love, the power to become children of God.
So, at the
threshold of the new year, let us place at the forefront of our minds the
reality of sin and the offer of redemption. By our baptism we are in Christ.
Therein lies our future, both here and hereafter.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Mary’s humble song of joy, the Magnificat, recalls to our minds the
infinite generosity of the Lord towards those who become like children,
towards those who abase themselves and are sincerely aware that they
are nothing.
(The Forge, no.608)
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