January in Year C 10

Christmastide (from Jan 1) to the third week of Ordinary Time

Morning Offering:  O Jesus, through the most pure heart of Mary, I offer you all the prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of your divine heart, in union with the holy sacrifice of the Mass. I offer them especially for the Holy Father's intentions:

 Pope Benedict's general prayer intention is: "That young people may learn to use modern means of social communication for their personal growth and to better prepare themselves to serve society".

His mission intention is: "That every believer in Christ may be conscious that unity among all Christians is a condition for more effective proclamation of the Gospel". 

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Mary the Mother of God

Prayers for today:  Hail, Holy Mother!  The child to whom you gave birth is the King of heaven and earth for ever.
 

or A light will shine on us this day, the Lord is born for us: he shall be called Wonderful, God, Prince of peace, Father of the world to come; and his kingship will never end.
 

God our Father, may we always profit by the prayers of the Virgin Mother Mary, for you bring us life and salvation through Jesus Christ her Son who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

or

Father, source of light in every age, the virgin conceived and bore your Son who is called Wonderful God, Prince of Peace.  May her prayer, the gift of a mother’s love, be your people’s joy through all ages.  May her response, born of a humble heart, draw your Spirit to rest on your people.  Grant this through Christ our Lord.

(January 1)  Mary, The Mother of God
      Mary’s divine motherhood broadens the Christmas spotlight.  Mary has an important role to play in the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.  She consents to God’s invitation conveyed by the angel (Luke 1:26-38).  Elizabeth proclaims: “Most blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.  And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:42-43, emphasis added).  Mary’s role as mother of God places her in a unique position in God’s redemptive plan.  Without naming Mary, Paul asserts that “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4).  Paul’s further statement that “God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out ‘Abba, Father!’“ helps us realize that Mary is mother to all the brothers and sisters of Jesus.  Some theologians also insist that Mary’s motherhood of Jesus is an important element in God’s creative plan.  God’s “first” thought in creating was Jesus.  Jesus, the incarnate Word, is the one who could give God perfect love and worship on behalf of all creation.  As Jesus was “first” in God’s mind, Mary was “second” insofar as she was chosen from all eternity to be his mother.  The precise title “Mother of God” goes back at least to the third or fourth century.  In the Greek form Theotokos (God-bearer), it became the touchstone of the Church’s teaching about the Incarnation.  The Council of Ephesus in 431 insisted that the holy Fathers were right in calling the holy virgin Theotokos.  At the end of this particular session, crowds of people marched through the street shouting: “Praised be the Theotokos!” The tradition reaches to our own day.  In its chapter on Mary’s role in the Church, Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church calls Mary “Mother of God” 12 times. (AmericanCatholic.org)

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Scripture today: Numbers 6: 22-27;     Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8;      Galatians 4: 4-7;     Luke 2:16-21

So the shepherds hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.  When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.  But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.  The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.  On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived.  (Luke 2: 16-21)

Mother of God  One of the features of the ancient world — the world of the time of Jesus — was that it was brimful of religions.  From Egypt to Mesopotamia to Greece and to Rome itself, life swarmed with the tenets of religion.  The imagination of the ancient world was deeply imprinted by religious myth.   But out of Palestine suddenly came a religion that was being announced with urgency, with persistence and assurance.  It insisted that it contained the full truth about God.  Its claim was that a man who had lived and had been executed there when Pilate was Procurator, was now alive.  He was the long-expected Messiah.  Many had heard of this Jewish expectation of a great Messiah.  Now many had identified him, and were spreading the word across the Empire.  There was no disputing that he was an historical man: all knew this.  He had actually been put to death by the civil authority.  But what was being claimed was that he had come forth from the tomb alive, and that he is the only God.  So was his heavenly Father!  So was a mysterious third Person.  These were  not three more gods for the pantheon of the Roman world, but one only God.  It was an exclusive truth and was judged to be profoundly subversive of the religious fabric of the Empire, throbbing and heaving as it was in a cauldron of religions.  The core of it all was that this man Jesus, this Messiah, was the one and only God.  That, in essence, is precisely what the Christian celebrates during the season of Christmas.   In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  At Christmas we celebrate that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and some saw his glory, the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.  There have been numerous high gods in the religions of man, and there were high gods in the ancient world.  Jupiter was the king of the gods for the Roman state.   His counterpart in Greek religion was Zeus, in Etruscan religion, Tinia, and in Hindu mythology, Indra.  But none of these high gods compared in height and power with Yahweh, the God of Jewish revelation.  The Christians now had it that this one God became a man, and that he had sent his followers to convert the world.

One of the reasons why both Matthew and Luke stress the events of the conception, birth and infancy of Jesus Christ is to emphasize that the great God did truly become man.  He did not just suddenly appear among men and walk with them as one does with friends.  No, he was truly conceived, but miraculously of a Virgin.  Emphatically he was truly conceived.  God began his human course as a child in the womb.  His mother had a name, lived in a certain location and at a very particular time.  How came she to be his mother, while being a virgin nevertheless?  The explanation is provided.  It was by a miraculous intervention of God that this Virgin, by the power of the Holy Spirit, truly conceived this divine Child.  From her he derived his humanity while remaining the God he had been for all eternity.  A divine Person, he now assumed a human nature as well.  By the power of the Holy Spirit, the Virgin gave to the Word, as would a mother to her offspring — but without any human father — the human nature he assumed to his divine Person.  In one miraculous moment she gave and he received.  Thus there began in the womb of the virgin the earthly course of God made man.  Mary was not the mere receptacle of the second divine Person become man, the eternal Word become flesh.  The incarnate Son of God now had a human mother.  By the power of God he drew from her his manhood and her DNA passed to him.  He was conceived, nourished in the womb, born in a stable at Bethlehem, cared for as an infant, grew in nature and grace as a youth, fulfilled all that was good and due as a young man, and was manifested to the world.  The world had a brother and a Saviour beyond all possible expectation.  He began his course with a mother and he ended his course with a mother.  While on the cross he granted this mother to all his beloved disciples, and this same mother will be his and ours for all eternity.  Thus it is that at the beginning of the year we think of Mary the mother of God, God the Son made man.  The Incarnation is no myth, but a cold, hard and sober fact.  It is part of real history, and the divine motherhood of the Virgin Mary attests to the historical truth of the Incarnation.

                                                                                                                                 (E.J.Tyler)
 

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Saturday before the Epiphany

Prayers for today:  God sent his own Son, born of a woman, so that we could be adopted as his sons. (Galatians 4: 4-5)

All-powerful and ever-living God, you give us a new vision of your glory in the coming of Christ your Son.  He was born of the Virgin Mary and came to share our life.  May we come to share his eternal life in the glory of your kingdom, where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

(January 2)  Saint Basil the Great and Saint Gregory of Nazianzen
     St. Basil the Great (329-379)     Basil was on his way to becoming a famous teacher when he decided to begin a religious life of gospel poverty. After studying various modes of religious life, he founded what was probably the first monastery in Asia Minor. He is to monks of the East what St. Benedict is to the West, and his principles influence Eastern monasticism today. He was ordained a priest, assisted the archbishop of Caesarea (now south-eastern Turkey), and ultimately became archbishop himself, in spite of opposition from some of his suffragan bishops, probably because they foresaw coming reforms. One of the most damaging heresies in the history of the Church, Arianism, which denied the divinity of Christ, was at its height. Emperor Valens persecuted orthodox believers, and put great pressure on Basil to remain silent and admit the heretics to communion. Basil remained firm, and Valens backed down. But trouble remained. When the great St. Athanasius died, the mantle of defender of the faith against Arianism fell upon Basil. He strove mightily to unite and rally his fellow Catholics who were crushed by tyranny and torn by internal dissension. He was misunderstood, misrepresented, accused of heresy and ambition. Even appeals to the pope brought no response. “For my sins I seem to be unsuccessful in everything.” He was tireless in pastoral care. He preached twice a day to huge crowds, built a hospital that was called a wonder of the world (as a youth he had organized famine relief and worked in a soup kitchen himself) and fought the prostitution business. Basil was best known as an orator. His writings, though not recognized greatly in his lifetime, rightly place him among the great teachers of the Church. Seventy-two years after his death, the Council of Chalcedon described him as “the great Basil, minister of grace who has expounded the truth to the whole earth.”
        St. Basil said: “The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry; the garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of him who is naked; the shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot; the money that you keep locked away is the money of the poor; the acts of charity that you do not perform are so many injustices that you commit.” (AmericanCatholic.org)

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Scripture today:  1 John 2: 22-28;  Psalm 98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4;  John 1: 19-28

Now this was John’s testimony when the Jews of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was.  He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, I am not the Christ.  They asked him, Then who are you?  Are you Elijah?  He said, I am not.  Are you the Prophet?  He answered, No.  Finally they said, Who are you?  Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us.  What do you say about yourself?  John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, I am the voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’ Now some Pharisees who had been sent questioned him, Why then do you baptise if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?  I baptise with water, John replied, but among you stands one you do not know.  He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.  This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptising.  (John 1: 10-28)

The manifestation of Christ  The dialogue between the priests and Levites from Jerusalem and John the Baptist shows some of the elements of the expectation which characterized the religion of the chosen people.  The religions of the peoples of the ancient world had their myths and ritual that accounted for the beginnings and helped them cope with life, both its blessings and its threats.  One of the several distinguishing features of the Hebrew religion was its expectation.  There was a great Coming which the good Hebrew expected.  Not only did he look back to the past when Yahweh saved his people, but he looked to the future when through his Messiah, God would come and both save and judge.  With this in mind he prepared accordingly.  We remember the elderly Simeon who had been assured by God that he would not see death until he had laid eyes on the Messiah.  We remember our Lord telling his disciples that prophets and kings had longed to see what they, his disciples, were now seeing.  A distinguishing trait of the revealed religion of the Hebrews was its expectation.  They expected that God would come to save.  They looked to the future.  But we also see that there was great haziness as to the details.  Scripture gave pointers here and pointers there, and much of it was left without its synthesis.  Moses had told the people that the Lord said to him, “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kinsmen, and will put my words into his mouth; he shall tell them all that I command him.  If any man will not listen to my words which he speaks in my name, I myself will make him answer for it” (Deuteronomy 18:18).  So another Moses was coming, but who would he be?  Most especially, a great Messiah was expected, the Anointed one, the son of David who would sit upon his throne and set his people free.  But who would he be?  Elijah too must return (Malachi 4:1-5) to anoint and manifest the Messiah.  So the visitors asked John, was he the Prophet?  Was he the Messiah?  Was he Elijah?

These questions posed by the representatives of the highest religious authority manifest the uncertainty and confusion which was present in the chosen people of God.  They had much light, but much light was still needed.  John denied he was the Prophet.  He denied that he was the Christ.  He refused the title of Elijah.  As a matter of fact, he was the Elijah who was to come, as our Lord made clear to his disciples after his transfiguration.  In him the spirit of Elijah had returned, and in him Elijah anointed and manifested the Messiah.  As it turned out, all the uncertainty in discerning the true meaning of the Scriptures, all the confusion in interpreting the various figures of the prophecies — the coming Prophet, the coming Elijah, the coming Son of Man, the coming Suffering Servant, the coming son of David — all these figures were to find their synthesis in the person of Jesus Christ.  His appearance in the world resolved the prophecies for those enlightened to grasp this.  The whole of the Old Testament now had its unity, a unity found in the person of Christ.  The word “Epiphany” means manifestation or appearance.  The Epiphany of Jesus Christ — his appearance among men — gives to the world and all of God’s dealings with men their common meaning.  We may regard John the Baptist of our Gospel passage today as representing the yearning of the Old Testament as it points to the one who is coming.  We may regard him too as representing the human race as it hopes for a Solution from God.  “ I baptise with water, John replied, but among you stands one you do not know.  He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie” (John 1: 10-28).  In one single Person we have everything.  As St Paul writes, in Christ is found every heavenly blessing.  As our Lord himself said, All that the Father has is mine.  He who sees me sees the Father.  This incomparable Jewel has been manifested to all, and it is God’s free gift to any who approach him for it.  As we prepare to celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord, let us look on Christ as the Treasure manifested to all.

                                                                                                                                 (E.J.Tyler)
 

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The Epiphany of the Lord
 

Prayers for today:  The Lord and ruler is coming; kingship is his, and government and power.  (Malachi 3: 1;  1 Chron 19: 12)
 

Father, you revealed your Son to the nations by the guidance of a star.  Lead us to your glory in heaven by the light of faith.  We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,...

or

Father of light, unchanging God, today you reveal to men of faith the resplendent fact of the Word made flesh.  Your light is strong, your love is near; draw us beyond the limits which this world imposes, to the life where your Spirit makes all life complete.  We ask this through Christ our Lord.

(January 3)  St. Genevieve (422-512)
     St. Genevieve was born about the year 422, at Nanterre near Paris. She was seven years old when St. Germain of Auxerre came to her native village on his way to great Britain to combat the heresy of Pelagius. The child stood in the midst of a crowd gathered around the man of God, who singled her out and foretold her future sanctity. At her desire the holy Bishop led her to a church, accompanied by all the faithful, and consecrated her to God as a virgin. When Attila was reported to be marching on Paris, the inhabitants of the city prepared to evacuate, but St. Genevieve persuaded them to avert the scourge by fasting and prayer, assuring them of the protection of Heaven. The event verified the prediction, for the barbarian suddenly changed the course of his march.
    The life of St. Genevieve was one of great austerity, constant prayer, and works of charity. She died in the year 512. She dressed in a long flowing gown with a mantle covering her shoulders, similar to the type of garments the Blessed Mother wore. One of the symbols of this saint is a loaf of bread because she was so generous to those in need. (www.catholic.org)

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Scripture today: Isaiah 60:1-6;  Psalm 72:1-2, 7-8.  10-11, 12-13;  Ephesians 3:2-3.5-6;  Matthew 2:1-12

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?  We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.  When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.  When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.  In Bethlehem in Judea, they replied, for this is what the prophet has written: ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’ Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.  He sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and make a careful search for the child.  As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.  After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.  When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.  On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.  Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.  And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.  (Matthew 2: 1-12)

The Christian mission  We are now in the special liturgical time of Christmas when we think of the gift to the world of our Redeemer.  A Redeemer has come and is now always to be with us.  As we put ourselves back in those first days at Bethlehem, we think of how the promise of God was now fulfilled.  God had promised his chosen people that he would send to them a Messiah who would shepherd his people.  He would be the good shepherd long predicted.  And now the Messiah had come.  But there was something more.  This promised Messiah was not only for God’s own chosen people.  He was for all the nations.  He was for the world.  And this is powerfully suggested in the events recorded in the Gospel.  When our Lord was born, it was to Jewish shepherds that the angels announced the news.  But the Gospel records that soon after, pagan wise men from the East were led by a star to the promised king.  Both groups represented the two worlds, the Jewish and the non-Jewish.  Both were to be offered the salvation Christ would bring.  It is the whole non-Jewish world, of which all of us are members, that we think of today.  When the angels appeared to the shepherds, the whole night sky was filled with light.  When the star appeared to the wise men from the east there was less light, but light there was.  Both together symbolise the light of the Gospel shining upon all nations, Jewish and Gentile.  The star leading the wise men to the infant Jesus was only an external sign leading to him.  Faith is the light that enlightens our hearts with the truth of Christ the Redeemer.  This light of faith is a wonderful gift from God which we take for granted all too easily.  It is this light of faith which has gone out to all the nations, and in many Sunday Mass congregations across the world, numerous nations are represented.  They have received the light of faith which we celebrate today, the feast of the Epiphany. 

  In the second reading, St. Paul, full of joy, is speaking of the secret, long hidden, that through Christ, the Chosen People were now to be given many brothers from among the Gentiles.  Through the Gospel, we too share in the blessings of the prophets and the promises and the Messiah.  We are all part of God’s Chosen People on the way to salvation.  The proclamation of the Gospel is the new star shining in the life of the Church.  It is by our faith that we are able to accept it, and it is able to lead all peoples to Christ and the glory of heaven.  This is particularly relevant for today.  We are called to send the light of the Gospel to the whole world, calling all men and women to follow Christ.  We have inherited the role of the wise men who gave a shining example of fidelity in following the star of faith.  In the Gospel account, the wise men from the East revealed the coming of Christ even to the Jewish people, whose faith had dimmed.  Our life should be like a star leading others to Christ.  The faith has been carried through the world and through the centuries not just by missionaries, but by the movement and migration of many peoples.  Australia has been greatly enriched by deeply committed Christians from other countries who have made their home among us.  We must make sure that our star shines brightly in our families and in society.  Let us examine ourselves.  Does the light of my faith shine brightly with good deeds, love and charity?  Let us call on our noblest impulses to raise high the light of our faith to all.  We have a duty to Christ our eternal King.  Let us this year make Christian family life shine forth like a star of faith, like the star shining for the wise men.

Let us think of what the Christ Child would say to his disciples years later, just before he ascended into heaven.  “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore to the whole world and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them and teaching them to observe all I have commanded you.  Behold, I am with you till the end of the world.”
                                                                                                                                          (E.J.Tyler)
 

A second reflection for the feast of the Epiphany

The star of faith  The word ‘Epiphany’ means manifestation.  We celebrate today the manifestation of our Lord to the first non-Jews who sought out Christ so as to do him homage.  This is our feastday, for those wise men represented us.   The star the wise astrologers from the east followed was an external sign which supported their faith and led them on to Christ.  In our following of Christ we, of course, do not follow an external star.  But there is a star within, the star of our faith leading us to Christ.   This light of our faith is a most privileged gift of God, of far more value and importance than any signs and wonders of an external kind.  Recall how Jesus used to censure his fellow Jews when they kept pressing him for signs.  Jesus declared that they would be given only the sign of Jonah, and that was an allusion to his death and resurrection.  Our Lord was continually looking for faith and praising it.  Faith is a light from God himself.  We remember how, when Simon declared to our Lord that he was the Christ the Son of God, our Lord said that flesh and blood had not revealed this to him but the Father in heaven.  His faith was a light from God.  As we hear the word of God read and preached each time we go to Mass, we must listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit if we are to grow in faith.  Faith is the true light of life, and it comes from God and only from God.  It is this light that leads to God, as we see in the case of the three wise men who clearly had a form of faith (Matthew 2:1-12).  We travel through life following the light of faith in our minds and the light of love in our hearts.  What the three wise men did is repeated over and over again in those seeking Christ or seeking to do his will.

But there is a most important implication in this.  Today we are not just thinking of the fact that Christ has been given to all humanity, and not just to the Jews.  We have a part to play in this.  We are called to bring the light of faith to all men and women, a light which calls them to follow Christ.  We have inherited the role of the wise men who gave a shining example of fidelity in following this star.  Let us notice that the faith of the wise men, lit by their own holy yearning, revealed the coming of Christ even to some of the Jewish people, whose faith had dimmed.  Some responded wickedly.  Others responded with joy, as did the shepherds, and as did Simeon and Anna following the birth of the Child.  Let each of us be aware that our life ought be a star of faith leading others to Christ.  The faith has been carried throughout the world, not just by missionaries, but by the movement and the migration of many believers, ordinary lay men and women.  Now, hundreds of millions of these stars of faith shine around the world, offering the opportunity to many others to come to know the Redeemer.  Let us examine ourselves on this day, the feast of the Epiphany which brings us near the end of Christmastide, and ask, does the light of my faith shine brightly?  The light of our faith will not be bright if it does not shine with love and good deeds, especially those good deeds which lead others to Christ.  There are so many ways whereby Christ’s faithful may bring the light of faith to others.  This faith is above all faith in the Eucharistic Jesus, the Jesus of the sacraments and the Jesus who is the head of the Church his body.  Our treasure is the person of Jesus and our faith in him.  Let our life’s work be to bring this treasure to the world.

Each of us has a star to lead us to Jesus, and it is above all the star of our faith which is our share in  the faith of the Church.  It takes us to Jesus who is head of his body the Church.  Not only do we have this star as God’s gift, we have the calling to be a star for others, leading them to faith in Christ the Saviour.  Let us take up our grand vocation which is to be a light leading to the Light. 
                                                                                                                                                   (E.J.Tyler)

                                                                                                                             

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Monday after the Epiphany

Prayers for today:  A holy day has dawned upon us. Come, you nations, and adore the Lord. Today a great light has come upon the earth.

Lord, let the light of your glory shine within us, and lead us through the darkness of this world to the radiant joy of our eternal home.  We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, .

(January 4)  St. John Damascene (676?-749)
    John spent most of his life in the monastery of St. Sabas, near Jerusalem, and all of his life under Muslim rule, indeed, protected by it. He was born in Damascus, received a classical and theological education, and followed his father in a government position under the Arabs. After a few years he resigned and went to the monastery of St. Sabas. He is famous in three areas. First, he is known for his writings against the iconoclasts, who opposed the veneration of images. Paradoxically, it was the Eastern Christian emperor Leo who forbade the practice, and it was because John lived in Muslim territory that his enemies could not silence him. Second, he is famous for his treatise, Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, a summary of the Greek Fathers (of which he became the last). It is said that this book is to Eastern schools what the Summa of Aquinas became to the West. Thirdly, he is known as a poet, one of the two greatest of the Eastern Church, the other being Romanus the Melodist. His devotion to the Blessed Mother and his sermons on her feasts are well known.
    John defended the Church’s understanding of the veneration of images and explained the faith of the Church in several other controversies. For over 30 years he combined a life of prayer with these defenses and his other writings. His holiness expressed itself in putting his literary and preaching talents at the service of the Lord. “The saints must be honored as friends of Christ and children and heirs of God, as John the theologian and evangelist says: ‘But as many as received him, he gave them the power to be made the sons of God....’ Let us carefully observe the manner of life of all the apostles, martyrs, ascetics and just men who announced the coming of the Lord. And let us emulate their faith, charity, hope, zeal, life, patience under suffering, and perseverance unto death, so that we may also share their crowns of glory” (Exposition of the Orthodox Faith). (AmericanCatholic.org)

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Scripture today:  1 John 3:22-4:6;  Psalm 2:7bc-8, 10-12a;  Matthew 4:12-17.23-25

When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he returned to Galilee.  Leaving Nazareth, Jesus went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali — to fulfil what was said through the prophet Isaiah: Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, along the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles — the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.  From that time on Jesus began to preach, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.  Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.  News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralysed, and he healed them.  Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him. (Matthew 4:12-17.23-25)

The Light in the darkness  During these weekdays immediately following the Epiphany, or manifestation of Christ at his infancy, we are given flashes of the later public manifestation of Christ that will come.  This public epiphany began with the sudden eclipse of John’s ministry when he was imprisoned by Herod.  John had announced to the nation that the kingdom of heaven was at hand.  All were to prepare the way for the Lord by repentance, for the Messiah himself was nigh.  John identified Jesus as being he, and made it known.  Soon after, he denounced Herod to his face for his marital situation, and was gaoled.  With that, John’s public ministry ceased, but the mantle had been handed on to the Prophet who would far surpass him.  Jesus forthwith returns to his native Galilee and begins.  He is shown to be a great light.  Matthew makes his point by recalling the words of the prophet Isaiah.  In Isaiah we read that “at first he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honour Galilee by the way of the sea, along the Jordan” (8:23).  The fulfilment of this came with Jesus.  As the prophet had said, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has dawned” (9:1).  Jesus is the expected Light, and our Lord himself would use this metaphor.  I am the Light of the world, he said.  He who follows me walks in the light, and he who refuses walks in the darkness.  St John in his Prologue writes that in him was life and that life was the light of men, a light that shines in the darkness, a darkness that cannot master it.  So the Epiphany or manifestation of Christ to the world that occurred in principle at the arrival of the Wise Men from the East pointed to the great manifestation of Christ later.  This would be firstly to the chosen people in our Gospel passage today and secondly to the world in the missionary work of the Church.  John stayed in Judea and in certain confined locations.  The people came to him.  But Jesus “went throughout Galilee” and “news about him spread all over Syria” and “large crowds” came to him from all over.

What is striking is that the end of John’s ministry is like a trumpet sound for the immediate beginning of another.  Christ shows no gradual preparation for his all-consuming mission.  He immediately starts with tremendous intensity and the light of his person and teaching bursts out with absolute confidence.  It is an immediate manifestation, a great Epiphany.  He went “teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.” That is to say, the manifestation of Christ to the chosen people and to the world was the divine plan from the very beginning.  Christ did not just begin a religious movement and leave the rest to the unfolding circumstances of history.  Christianity is not a world religion by historical accident.  While not tampering with human freedom, God means Christ and his revelation to be not merely one world religion, but the religion of the world.  From the very beginning, from Christ’s very entry into life, he was meant to be manifested to every man and woman coming into the world.  This is a pattern we see from the beginning of our Lord’s public life.  We see in his ministry and in the people coming to him an indicator of what is to come — his relationship with the entire world, just as the visit of the pagan Magi was symbolic of this too.  So, “people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralysed, and he healed them.  Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him” (Matthew 4:12-17, 23-25).  We have here a pattern of epiphanies — manifestations.  In his first Epiphany, Christ was manifested to the pagan Magi.  He was manifested in his public ministry to the chosen people.  It is the divine intention that he be manifested as the Saviour to all the nations, to each one of us and to every man and woman in the world.  Such is the divine plan.

                                                                                                                                 (E.J.Tyler)
 

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Tuesday after the Epiphany

Prayers for today:  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; the Lord God shines upon us. (Psalm 117: 26-27)

Father, your Son became like us when he revealed himself in our nature: help us to become more like him, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

(January 5) St. John Neumann (1811-1860) 
    Perhaps because the United States got a later start in the history of the world, it has relatively few canonized saints, but their number is increasing. John Neumann was born in what is now the Czech Republic. After studying in Prague, he came to New York at 25 and was ordained a priest. He did missionary work in New York until he was 29, when he joined the Redemptorists and became its first member to profess vows in the United States. He continued missionary work in Maryland, Virginia and Ohio, where he became popular with the Germans. At 41, as bishop of Philadelphia, he organized the parochial school system into a diocesan one, increasing the number of pupils almost twenty fold within a short time. Gifted with outstanding organizing ability, he drew into the city many teaching communities of sisters and the Christian Brothers. During his brief assignment as vice provincial for the Redemptorists, he placed them in the forefront of the parochial movement. Well-known for his holiness and learning, spiritual writing and preaching, on October 13, 1963, he became the first American bishop to be beatified. Canonized in 1977, he is buried in St. Peter the Apostle Church in Philadelphia.
    Neumann took seriously our Lord’s words, “Go and teach all nations.” From Christ he received his instructions and the power to carry them out. For Christ does not give a mission without supplying the means to accomplish it. The Father’s gift in Christ to John Neumann was his exceptional organizing ability, which he used to spread the Good News.
    Today the Church is in dire need of men and women to continue in our times the teaching of the Good News. The obstacles and inconveniences are real and costly. Yet when Christians approach Christ, he supplies the necessary talents to answer today’s needs. The Spirit of Christ continues his work through the instrumentality of generous Christians. (AmericanCatholic.org)

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Scripture today:  1 John 4: 7-10;  Psalm 72:1-2, 3-4, 7-8;  Mark 6: 34-44

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.  So he began teaching them many things.  By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him.  This is a remote place, they said, and it’s already very late.  Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.  But he answered, You give them something to eat.  They said to him, That would take eight months of a man’s wages!  Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?  How many loaves do you have?  he asked.  Go and see.  When they found out, they said, Five— and two fish.  Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass.  So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties.  Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves.  Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people.  He also divided the two fish among them all.  They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish.  The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.  (Mark 6: 34-44)

Happiness  As we think of the surging sea of humanity as it ebbs and flows from generation to generation, the great issue of happiness rises before our minds.  All living things aspire to happiness in some sense and according to their measure, understood as the fulfilment of their nature.  The plant “aspires” — if we may speak in metaphor — to fullness of growth and to produce its fruit and its flower.  The animal unreflectively seeks its happiness in the fulfilment of its various impulses.  Above all, man — the crown of visible creation — seeks to be happy.  This too involves his fulfilment — the fulfilment of the various needs and aspirations of his rational and physical nature.  He instinctively aspires to be happy, and yet the course of life never brings all the happiness for which he mysteriously longs.  It brings a certain fulfilment but never its completion, and often — with this or that individual — life is profoundly frustrating.  So constant is this issue in the life of man, that many thinkers have considered that the attainment of what is deemed to make one happy is the entire purpose of life.  It is insisted that man must be free to choose what will be most conducive to his happiness.  Certain philosophers have reduced morality to that which is most useful in bringing the most happiness.  Such a position is philosophically very questionable, and there are difficulties with it even from the merely practical point of view.  How difficult it is to calculate what will bring him the most happiness!  So many factors are constantly at work favouring or undermining, as the case may be, the shifting sands of happiness.  A young royal marries a fine girl and the nation is filled with joy at the prospects ahead.  Then gradually, one tragedy follows upon another and the marriage becomes not bliss but an ongoing test of heroic fidelity.  It was impossible to have foreseen or even avoided this.  Simply aiming to be happy cannot be the formal goal of life, nor can it be the foundation of duty. 

In our Gospel today, “when Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” Is not the crowd a picture in minuscule of mankind searching for happiness?  The crowd hurries to Jesus with its sick, its burdens and its worries.  There is so much that tears at its heart and weighs it down.  Jesus, they think, will give us relief.  At the sight of this crowd our Lord is filled with compassion, and this is the attitude of the Son of God made man to each and every man and woman in human history, including you and me.  But notice, he does not answer all their needs.  How great and varied must have been the needs of such a concourse of people!   Instead, he set himself to teach them many things and at some length.  He was teaching them what God above all wanted them to have — a share in his kingdom, which was none other than union with his Son Jesus Christ.  At the end of his discourse, and the implication is that our Lord’s teaching was lengthy, he did proceed to work a spectacular miracle.  He fed the crowds as much as they wanted with a mere handful of food.  Their physical needs were satisfied to the extent that was necessary.  But he did not answer all their needs.  Filled with compassion for them as he was, Christ knew that their true happiness would come from a different source.  It would come from receiving into their hearts with faith and obedience that about which he was teaching in his discourse.  All this is to say that the Gospel scene of today (Mark 6: 34-44) is yet another reminder of what is the true source of happiness for man.  Man’s happiness comes not from loaves but from the Word, the Word of God made flesh for our salvation.  We can make loaves the goal of our life, or we can accept Christ as our life.  God can give us loaves if he judges it to be in our best interest, but loaves cannot of themselves be our happiness.  The ever-present danger for man is that he will seek his happiness in loaves and fishes.  But no.  His true happiness is to be found in fulfilling his duty of union with God, and this is found in union with and obedience to Christ.  

                                                                                                                                 (E.J.Tyler)
 

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Wednesday after the Epiphany

Prayers for today:  The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; on those who lived in the shadow of death, light has shone.

God, light of all nations, give us the joy of lasting peace, and fill us with your radiance as you filled the hearts of our fathers.  We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son.

(January 6)  St. Gregory Nazianzen (329-390)
      After his baptism at 30, Gregory gladly accepted his friend Basil’s invitation to join him in a newly founded monastery. The solitude was broken when Gregory’s father, a bishop, needed help in his diocese and estate. It seems that Gregory was ordained a priest practically by force, and only reluctantly accepted the responsibility. He skilfully avoided a schism that threatened when his own father made compromises with Arianism. At 41, Gregory was chosen suffragan bishop of Caesarea and at once came into conflict with Valens, the emperor, who supported the Arians. An unfortunate by-product of the battle was the cooling of the friendship of two saints. Basil, his archbishop, sent him to a miserable and unhealthy town on the border of unjustly created divisions in his diocese. Basil reproached Gregory for not going to his see. When protection for Arianism ended with the death of Valens, Gregory was called to rebuild the faith in the great see of Constantinople, which had been under Arian teachers for three decades. Retiring and sensitive, he dreaded being drawn into the whirlpool of corruption and violence. He first stayed at a friend’s home, which became the only orthodox church in the city. In such surroundings, he began giving the great sermons on the Trinity for which he is famous. In time, Gregory did rebuild the faith in the city, but at the cost of great suffering, slander, insults and even personal violence. An interloper even tried to take over his bishopric. His last days were spent in solitude and austerity. He wrote religious poetry, some of it autobiographical, of great depth and beauty. He was acclaimed simply as “the Theologian.”
     It may be small comfort, but post-Vatican II turmoil in the Church is a mild storm compared to the devastation caused by the Arian heresy, a trauma the Church has never forgotten. Christ did not promise the kind of peace we would love to have—no problems, no opposition, no pain. In one way or another, holiness is always the way of the cross. “God accepts our desires as though they were a great value. He longs ardently for us to desire and love him. He accepts our petitions for benefits as though we were doing him a favour. His joy in giving is greater than ours in receiving. So let us not be apathetic in our asking, nor set too narrow bounds to our requests; nor ask for frivolous things unworthy of God’s greatness.” (AmericanCatholic.org)

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Scripture today:  1 John 4: 11-18;  Psalm 72:1-2, 10, 12-13;  Mark 6: 45-52

Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd.  After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.  When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land.  He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them.  About the fourth watch of the night he went out to them, walking on the lake.  He was about to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost.  They cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified.  Immediately he spoke to them and said, Take courage!  It is I.  Don’t be afraid.  Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down.  They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.  (Mark 6: 45-52)

Signs of his glory  One of the many notable characteristics of the modern secular era is its many-sided scepticism in respect to miracles.  It is one aspect of the modern scientific interest in the laws of the material world.  There is a good side to this inasmuch as it is unlikely that, at least in the public and civil domain, spurious religious claims of miraculous events will be accepted.  There is a sense in which scepticism is healthy.  What the scepticism characteristic of modern secularism amounts to, though, is a deep reluctance to admit any claim to miracles.  It can spring from a presumption that the visible world is all there is.  Alternatively, those who admit a supernatural realm and who allow for a Supreme Being, may still be resistant to anything miraculous because of an assumption that this great Being only acts in and through the natural laws of his creation.  Again, they tend to regard miracles as being, in any case, trivial in significance.  Miracles are somewhat like tricks and in a certain sense lack substance.  They are not given weight — and the public attitude to the requirement of miracles by the Church to complete the process of beatification and canonization is an instance of this.  What I am saying is that a culture that is strongly predisposed in this direction  needs to be aware of its prejudice so as to take proper account of the action of God in, say, Scripture and in particular in the Gospels.  Christ worked many miracles, and the secular denomination of him as a “miracle-worker” often has a dismissive character.  By contrast, the period prior to the age of modern science and technology expected that God would act miraculously — which is to say, outside the normal laws of nature.  Each age has its tendency, and each age must take account of its prejudices in considering the objective facts and their significance for life.  We of the modern period will tend to disregard miracles as being, with some probability, spurious or trivial.  In respect to Scripture, and in particular the Gospels, we will tend not to contemplate their significance enough.

That having been said, let us turn to our Gospel passage today (Mark 6: 45-52).  Let us place ourselves not in the position of modern secular man, skeptical as he tends to be in respect to the reality and value of miracles, but in the position of the Apostles in the boat out in the midst of the storm.  It has been a long and busy day, with large crowds, Jesus teaching them at some length, and finally a striking miracle of Christ feeding them all with a handful of food.  The Apostles were doubtlessly weary and — at our Lord’s direction — immediately at the end of it they had set out across the Sea of Tiberius.  But it was not to be the end of the long day, for all night they had to row with the wind against them.  The Greek reads that they were in distress.  But lo!  Jesus, seeing them in their plight, took to the water himself.  He strode steadily on its surface, amid the contrary wind and the heaving waves.  Calmly he moved on, rising and falling with the surface, sprays of water beating against him, his garments and hair responding to the gusts that swirled about him.  Strength and tranquillity glowed in his features, and his stride was steady.  Power and kindness rippled across his figure.  Perhaps the moon lit up the vast and powerful Lake and the disciples saw coming towards them a living figure on its surface.  It was a phantom, a spirit of the underworld, a menacing spectre coming to do them harm!  The busy day had become a nightmare and the Master was not with them.  They were alone before the terrible elements and now a dark ogre of the sea was coming at them.  They yelled in terror, and with that they heard the figure speak.  Unbelievable — it was the Lord.  “Be of good cheer.  It is I.  Be not afraid.” A deep astonishment descended upon them all.  Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down.  The Master had come to them in the midst of their difficulty and had resolved it.  Notice the words our Lord had used: It is I.  Ego emi!   They are directly reminiscent of the words Yahweh had used when Moses asked for his name: I am who am (Septuagint, Exodus 3:14, ego emi ho On).  Our Lord used them deliberately, perhaps with that long past event in mind of which he, as God, had been the saving Protagonist.  It is I, Yahweh, who am with you to save you.  I shall be with you. 

                                                                                                                                 (E.J.Tyler)
 

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Thursday after the Epiphany

Prayers today:  In the beginning, before all ages, the Word was God; that Word was born a man to save the world.  (John 1: 1)

God our Father, through Christ your Son the hope of eternal life dawned on our world. Give to us the light of faith that we may always acknowledge him as our Redeemer and come to the glory of his kingdom, where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

(January 7)  St Raymond of Penyafort (1175-1275)
(Picture to right: tomb of St Raymond, Barcelona)
    Since Raymond lived into his hundredth year, he had a chance to do many things. As a member of the Spanish nobility, he had the resources and the education to get a good start in life. By the time he was 20, he was teaching philosophy. In his early 30s he earned a doctorate in both canon and civil law. At 41 he became a Dominican. Pope Gregory IX called him to Rome to work for him and to be his confessor. One of the things the pope asked him to do was to gather together all the decrees of popes and councils that had been made in 80 years since a similar collection by Gratian. Raymond compiled five books called the Decretals. They were looked upon as one of the best organized collections of Church law until the 1917 codification of canon law. Earlier, Raymond had written for confessors a book of cases. It was called Summa de casibus poenitentiae. More than just a list of sins and penances, it discussed pertinent doctrines and laws of the Church that pertained to the problem or case brought to the confessor. At the age of 60, Raymond was appointed archbishop of Tarragona, the capital of Aragon. He didn’t like the honour at all and ended up getting sick and resigning in two years. He didn’t get to enjoy his peace long, however, because when he was 63 he was elected by his fellow Dominicans to be the head of the whole Order, the successor of St. Dominic. Raymond worked hard, visited on foot all the Dominicans, reorganized their constitutions and managed to put through a provision that a master general be allowed to resign. When the new constitutions were accepted, Raymond, then 65, resigned. He still had 35 years to oppose heresy and work for the conversion of the Moors in Spain. He convinced St. Thomas Aquinas to write his work Against the Gentiles. In his100th year the Lord let Raymond retire.
    Raymond was a lawyer, a canonist. Legalism is one of the things that the Church tried to rid herself of at Vatican II. It is too great a preoccupation with the letter of the law to the neglect of the spirit and purpose of the law. The law can become an end in itself, so that the value the law was intended to promote is overlooked. But we must guard against going to the opposite extreme and seeing law as useless or something to be lightly regarded. Laws ideally state those things that are for the best interests of everyone and make sure the rights of all are safeguarded. From Raymond, we can learn a respect for law as a means of serving the common good.  (AmericanCatholic.org)

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Scripture today:  1 John 4:19-5:4;  Psalm 72:1-2, 14 and 15bc, 17;  Luke 4: 14-22

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.  He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.  He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.  And he stood up to read.  The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.  Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.  Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down.  The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.  All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.  Isn’t this Joseph’s son? they asked.  (Luke 4: 14-22)

Jesus Christ  In the Imitation of Christ (Book 1, chapter 1) we read that our chief effort ought be to study the life of Jesus Christ.  The author, though, writes that “there are many who hear the Gospel often but care little for it because they have not the spirit of Christ.” If we wish “to understand fully the words of Christ,” we must try to model our whole lives on his.  So the Gospels will reveal the figure of Christ to those who wish to follow him.  The Gospels were written for the spiritual benefit of those who have faith in Jesus and who love him.  In our Gospel today we read of our Lord’s return to his hometown where he spoke in the Synagogue.  I have always found this passage of the Gospel to be especially intriguing and winning because of its vivid description of the person of Jesus speaking in the Synagogue.  He went to Nazareth and undoubtedly stayed in his former dwelling, back now with his widowed and most holy mother.  Think of the conversation between them over those few days and of Christ sharing with her his account of his public ministry now begun.  He mixes with relatives and past acquaintances, and the Sabbath arrives.  He enters “the Synagogue as was his custom.” This time he stood up to read.  Imagine Christ rising from his chair, his mother in the Synagogue as well — perhaps knowing that he would be announcing to the congregation that in him the prophecies were being fulfilled.  He stood, showing his desire to read and the Synagogue official, seeing him ready, signals to him to come forward.  He reached the official and received from him the scroll which he unrolled to the prophet Isaiah.  He read the passage he had sought, rolled up the scroll, returned it to the attendant, and sat down.  It is all quite detailed in its description.  Jesus then began to speak and he proceeded to deliver a profoundly impressive and moving address, the gist of which was that his hearers were, at that very moment, seeing and hearing exactly what Isaiah had been referring to in his prophecy.  The townspeople of Nazareth were amazed.  Never had they expected such beautiful rhetoric from this one who was of their own. 

It is a Gospel scene (Luke 4: 14-22) in which the real Jesus of Nazareth is vividly brought before the reader.  But consider the wonder of what is being described.  The people gaze on one of their own.  Impressive as is his discourse — presumably the most impressive ever given in the long and fitful history of the tiny settlement of Nazareth — still, all they had before them was the Jesus they had known since his infancy.  This was the young man who all along blended with his townsmen and clan.  He was indeed so good a person, and yet he was one of themselves.  They had no inkling of the fact that this very person they had known all along, this young man whose very infancy many would remember, was — yes!  — God himself.  This man, limited as was his humanity, was the unlimited God.  Pure Being was present before them in a limited human nature.  He stood with a certain posture and moved with a certain gait.  He was of a certain height and a certain weight.  He had certain features, certain lines of countenance, a certain way of looking and speaking, his voice had a certain timbre and modulation.  His person was manifested within definite limitations.  Now this person, defined in his human characteristics, was the great God himself.  A divine person with his divine nature, he had taken to himself a truly human nature, such that in gazing on this man they were gazing on God — God the Son become this man.  It can only be described as an unending wonder that God had become man, and those who saw him and spoke to him were in familiar relations with the infinite God.  God utterly and absolutely transcends his creation.  How could it be otherwise with a Being that sustains out of nothing all that is?  He transcends all, while being unimaginably close to all that he sustains.  But by his power he has become, not a creature, but one with a created, finite and limited nature, while retaining his eternal and infinite divine nature.  God made man now had a mother, he lived as brother to men, and he suffered and died just as does each of us.  Those in the Synagogue that Sabbath morning were gazing on a townsman who was and is God himself. 

Let us stand there astonished at the marvel of the Incarnation.  As we raise our eyes and gaze at the heavens, at the clouds, the moon and the stars, as we think of the unspeakable vastness of visible creation and the lofty grandeur of its Creator and Sustainer, let us think of the greatest of all displays of divine power.  The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  There were those of us who saw his glory, glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.  From him has come grace upon grace, and the power to become children of God.  He, Jesus Christ, is the treasure beyond treasures, the pearl of great price.  Let us, as it were, sell all we own to gain that pearl.
                                                                                                        (E.J.Tyler)

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Friday after the Epiphany

Prayers for today:  The Lord is a light in darkness to the upright; he is gracious, merciful, and just. (Psalm 3: 4)

All-powerful Father, you have made known the birth of the Saviour by the light of a star.  May he continue to guide us with his light, for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

(January 8)  Blessed Angela of Foligno (1248-1309)
    Some saints show marks of holiness very early. Not Angela! Born of a leading family in Foligno, she became immersed in the quest for wealth and social position. As a wife and mother, she continued this life of distraction. Around the age of 40 she recognized the emptiness of her life and sought God’s help in the Sacrament of Penance. Her Franciscan confessor helped Angela to seek God’s pardon for her previous life and to dedicate herself to prayer and the works of charity. Shortly after her conversion, her husband and children died. Selling most of her possessions, she entered the Secular Franciscan Order. She was alternately absorbed by meditating on the crucified Christ and by serving the poor of Foligno as a nurse and beggar for their needs. Other women joined her in a religious community. At her confessor’s advice, Angela wrote her Book of Visions and Instructions. In it she recalls some of the temptations she suffered after her conversion; she also expresses her thanks to God for the Incarnation of Jesus. This book and her life earned for Angela the title "Teacher of Theologians." She was beatified in 1693.
    People who live in the United States today can understand Blessed Angela’s temptation to increase her sense of self-worth by accumulating money, fame or power. Striving to possess more and more, she became more and more self-centred. When she realized she was priceless because she was created and loved by God, she became very penitential and very charitable to the poor. What had seemed foolish early in her life now became very important. The path of self-emptying she followed is the path all holy men and women must follow. (AmericanCatholic.org)

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Scripture today:  1 John 5:5-13;  Psalm 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20;  Luke 5:12-16

While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy.  When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.  Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man.  I am willing, he said.  Be clean!  And immediately the leprosy left him.  Then Jesus ordered him, Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.  Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses.  But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.  (Luke 5: 12-16)

The true way  Consider the extraordinary power displayed by Christ in our Gospel scene today.  From ancient times the mysterious disease known as leprosy was a horror to society and a terrible affliction to the sufferer.  Little could be done except to impose a strict separation of the leper from contact with society.  In the book of the Leviticus we read that lepers will wear torn clothes, dishevelled hair and covered mouth, and will shout: “Impure, impure!”, adding that while the leprosy lasts they will be impure.  They will live isolated and will live outside the camp.  It seems that in the Middle Ages all those who suffered the disease had to express their condition through sign language.  What could life have amounted to for the leper!  Engulfed in his debility and decay he was cut off from human contacts except for his fellow sufferers.  It is not hard to imagine the anguish of spirit with which the poor leper of our Gospel today approached Jesus.  We read that “he fell with his face to the ground and begged him.  Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus was his only hope, and Jesus was hope enough.  He and he alone could deliver him from this immense and intractable malady which, like a sea-monster holding its unfortunate prey in its vice-like teeth, was dragging him down into the depths.  Undoubtedly the demonic world added its due strength to the hold of the leprosy.  But Christ, full of compassion, at a single word felled the power that held the man.  What power and what love!  I ask you — can you think of any one in history who at a single word and by his own power drove out the leprosy “immediately” from a man who was “covered” with it?  In a word, Christ was all-loving and almighty.  Now, consider this.  Is it not to be wondered at that this man who had such extraordinary powers and who lived in God his Father continually, did not himself step forth beyond the chosen people to conquer the world?  It is clear that his plan was to make disciples of all the nations, but this he left to his disciples.  What did he do?  Instead of choosing himself to conquer the world for God with his great powers, he chose to die.

Christ repeatedly showed that he could resist and extricate himself from danger at will.  In his home town he was hustled out of town and brought to an edge from which the people intended to throw him.  But he passed through the crowd and went on his way.  Repeatedly he eluded the Pharisees and religious leaders when they attempted to apprehend him, including when they attempted to stone him.  His hour had not yet come.  At the very commencement of his Passion when, led by Judas, the temple guard came upon him in the Garden of Gethsemane, at his word they fell back to the ground (John 18:6).  He told his disciples that at a word he could summon from his heavenly Father twelve legions of angels.  But he chose not to exercise this power, a power the demons themselves had no means of resisting.  Rather, he chose to submit himself to the power of his enemies and be put to death.  This is incomprehensible to the world.  The Cross is madness and folly.  Islam, for instance, denies the crucifixion and (therefore the) resurrection of Jesus.  Muslims think that God rescued Jesus from the schemes of the unbelievers and raised him to heaven.  Apart from the gratuitousness of this denial of the plain facts of history, it also shows how contrary are the ways of God to human expectations.  The fact is that the path of obedient suffering and death is revealed by Christ’s own course to be the most fruitful source of good.  That is the path God intended his Messiah to take.  That is the path Jesus Christ, for all his power and winning goodness, chose as the means to redeem the world.  Obedience to the will of God amid suffering has the power of hosts, hosts upon hosts.   Christ could have called to his aid legions upon legions of angels.  He could have resisted kings and armies.  He could have ruled empires — could he not?  After all, what is there that he could not have done?  Recognizing his prowess, Satan offered him the empires of the world if he would but worship him.  But no.  Christ, the new Adam, chose the path of obedience unto death.  It is this that led to the world’s salvation.  It was by his cross and resurrection that he redeemed the world. 

                                                                                                                                 (E.J.Tyler)
 

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Saturday after the Epiphany

Prayers today:  God sent his own Son, born of a woman, so that we could be adopted as his sons (Galatians 4: 4-5).

God our Father, through your Son you made us a new creation.  He shared our nature and became one of us; with his help, may we become more like him, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

(January 9)  St. Adrian of Canterbury (d. 710)
    Though St. Adrian turned down a papal request to become Archbishop of Canterbury, England, Pope St. Vitalian accepted the rejection on the condition that Adrian serve as the Holy Father’s assistant and adviser. Adrian accepted, but ended up spending most of his life and doing most of his work in Canterbury. Born in Africa, Adrian was serving as an abbot in Italy when the new Archbishop of Canterbury appointed him abbot of the monastery of Sts. Peter and Paul in Canterbury. Thanks to his leadership skills, the facility became one of the most important centres of learning. The school attracted many outstanding scholars from far and wide and produced numerous future bishops and archbishops. Students reportedly learned Greek and Latin and spoke Latin as well as their own native languages. Adrian taught at the school for 40 years. He died there, probably in the year 710, and was buried in the monastery. Several hundred years later, when reconstruction was being done, Adrian’s body was discovered in an incorrupt state. As word spread, people flocked to his tomb, which became famous for miracles. Rumour had it that young schoolboys in trouble with their masters made regular visits there. (AmericanCatholic.org)

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Scripture today:  1 John 5: 14-21;  Psalm 149:1-2, 3-4, 5-6a and 9b;  John 3:22-30

After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptised.  Now John also was baptising at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were constantly coming to be baptised.  (This was before John was put in prison.) An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing.  They came to John and said to him, Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan— the one you testified about— well, he is baptising, and everyone is going to him.  To this John replied, A man can receive only what is given him from heaven.  You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.’ The bride belongs to the bridegroom.  The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice.  That joy is mine, and it is now complete.  He must become greater; I must become less.  (John 3: 22-30)

The Bridegroom  There are certain details about the early stage of our Lord’s public ministry that are mentioned in John’s Gospel, and not in the others.  John tells us, as do the others, that after his baptism he returned to Galilee where he began his public ministry (2:11).  According to the text of John — although John may not mean to insist on a strict chronological order of events — having begun in Galilee, Jesus returned to Judaea for the Passover (2:13).  Having cleansed the Temple and encountered the religious leaders, he “spent some time” with his disciples “baptizing there (3:22).  John too was baptizing near Aenon near Salim where water was plentiful, and people kept coming to be baptized” (3:23).  This was before John’s arrest.  So John was still engaged in his prophetic and baptizing ministry during the early stages of our Lord’s public ministry.  Our Lord — at least when in Judaea where John was still active — had his disciples also baptizing.  This may have been to build on John’s ministry and to show the profound continuity between his own mission and that of John.  We also see how effortlessly our Lord was eclipsing John.  We read that John’s disciples came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan — the one you testified about — well, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him” (3:26).  Our Lord did not put himself at the forefront in his ministry of baptism.  John the Evangelist tells us that it was our Lord’s disciples who did the baptizing, not he (4:2).  Still, the people were flocking to him — “everyone is going to him,” John’s disciples said.  This was becoming known, for as St John tells us “the Pharisees had heard that he (Jesus) was winning over and baptizing more disciples than John” (4:1).  A greater star had suddenly risen, and he was the very one John had pointed to.  There is not an exact parallel of this in the Scriptures before Christ.  Elijah had passed his mantle on to Elisha, but Elisha’s star rose only after Elijah had gone.  Here, the new prophet had been indicated by the older, and the new was outshining all others, including his immediate predecessor. 

Let us recognize the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.  The course of our Lord’s ministry quickly manifested his uniqueness, and John the Baptist was the first to recognize it.  When the facts of the case were brought to his attention — that all were now going to Jesus — John rejoiced.  He told his disciples that his joy was now complete.  “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven.  You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.’ The bride belongs to the bridegroom.  The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice.  That joy is mine, and it is now complete.  He must become greater; I must become less” (John 3: 22-30).  John’s words show the immense respect he had for his kinsman Jesus, whom God had revealed to him as the long awaited Messiah.  But John also mysteriously refers to him as the bridegroom.  Jesus of Nazareth is the bridegroom of the chosen people of God.  It is a cause of great joy that “everyone is going to him.” The holy and ascetic John applies the metaphor of a bridegroom, a metaphor which was profoundly rooted in Scripture.  It is one which God himself had used to describe himself and his relationship with his people.  Yahweh God was the Bridegroom of his people.  The prophets had spoken of the people as the spouse — an all-too often unfaithful spouse — of a Husband who was always faithful.  This denoting of Jesus as the bridegroom of God’s chosen people bespeaks a unique relationship between Yahweh and Jesus, suggesting an identification.  According to the better Greek manuscripts, John had earlier testified to his disciples that Jesus is “God’s Son” (1:34), or alternatively  “God’s Chosen One” — probably a reference to the Servant of Yahweh in Isaiah (42:1).  All this is to point to the transcendent uniqueness of Jesus Christ, far outstripping John in personal holiness and power of ministry.  John rejoices that such a One has now come, and he now must become less. 

                                                                                                                                 (E.J.Tyler)
 

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The Baptism of our Lord C

Prayers today:  When the Lord had been baptized, the heavens opened, and the Spirit came down like a dove to rest on him. Then the voice of the Father thundered: This is my beloved Son, with him I am well pleased. (Matthew 3: 16-17)

Almighty, eternal God, when the Spirit descended upon Jesus at his baptism in the Jordan, you revealed him as your own beloved Son.  Keep us, your children born of water and the Spirit, faithful to our calling.  We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,...

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Father in heaven you revealed Christ as your Son by the voice that spoke over the waters of the Jordan.  May all who share in the sonship of Christ follow in his path of service to man, and reflect the glory of his kingdom even to the ends of the earth, for he is Lord for ever and ever.

(January 10)   St. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 330-395)
    The son of two saints, Basil and Emmilia, young Gregory was raised by his older brother, St. Basil the Great, and his sister, Macrina, in modern-day Turkey. Gregory's success in his studies suggested great things were ahead for him. After becoming a professor of rhetoric, he was persuaded to devote his learning and efforts to the Church. By then married, Gregory went on to study for the priesthood and become ordained (this at a time when celibacy was not a matter of law for priests). He was elected Bishop of Nyssa (in Lower Armenia) in 372, a period of great tension over the Arian heresy, which denied the divinity of Christ. Briefly arrested after being falsely accused of embezzling Church funds, Gregory was restored to his see in 378, an act met with great joy by his people. It was after the death of his beloved brother, Basil, that Gregory really came into his own. He wrote with great effectiveness against Arianism and other questionable doctrines, gaining a reputation as a defender of orthodoxy. He was sent on missions to counter other heresies and held a position of prominence at the Council of Constantinople. His fine reputation stayed with him for the remainder of his life, but over the centuries it gradually declined as the authorship of his writings became less and less certain. But, thanks to the work of scholars in the 20th century, his stature is once again appreciated. Indeed, St. Gregory of Nyssa is seen not simply as a pillar of orthodoxy but as one of the great contributors to the mystical tradition in Christian spirituality and to monasticism itself.
    Orthodoxy is a word that raises red flags in our minds. It connotes rigid attitudes that make no room for honest differences of opinion. But it might just as well suggest something else: faith that has settled deep in one’s bones. Gregory’s faith was like that. So deeply imbedded was his faith in Jesus that he knew the divinity that Arianism denied. When we resist something offered as truth without knowing exactly why, it may be because our faith has settled in our bones. (AmericanCatholic.org)

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Scripture today:  Isaiah 42:1-4.6-7;  Psalm 29:1-2, 3-4, 3, 9-10;  Acts 10:34-38;  Luke 3:15-16.21-22

The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ.  John answered them all, I baptise you with water.  But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.  He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  When all the people were being baptised, Jesus was baptised too.  And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove.  And a voice came from heaven: You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.  (Luke 3:15-16.21-22)

Christ’s Baptism    The liturgical season of Christmas ends with the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord. It also begins the Ordinary Time of the Liturgical Year during which we contemplate our Lord’s public ministry and teaching. We can tend, though, to celebrate our Lord’s Baptism in a fairly routine way, and fail to see the biblical richness of this event. Let us remember what the baptism proclaimed and administered by John signified. John had been accepted as a prophet and his prophetic message was, repent, for the Lord is coming. Prepare to receive the Messiah God is sending! The baptism was a ceremony in which the repentant sinner acknowledged before God and his appointed prophet that he was a sinner, and asked his pardon. The pouring of the water symbolized the forgiveness which the sinner trusted he was being granted. People from various classes — tax collectors, soldiers, prostitutes and numerous others — came to hear the word of God, repent of their sins and receive John’s baptism of water. But then, quietly and without any fanfare, from the midst of this throng of sinners stepped forward another to be baptized — one so astonishingly holy that the demonic world had already marked him out with the utmost seriousness. Soon after, Satan would approach him formally to negotiate and to tempt. But here at the baptism, Jesus acts as would any one of the great crowd of sinners. Perhaps something of a parallel might be one of great crusading evangelical sessions of Billy Graham. His rousing address culminates in an invitation to repent, to convert, to make a new beginning. Those who wish to do this are asked step forward, to come to the front and by this very action to declare publicly their intent to take the path of goodness of life and obedience to God’s commands. There is a pause. Silence ensues, and one by one from various parts of the great theatre people rise and step forward. In doing this, they are acknowledging their sinfulness and their intention to begin a new path. Many come forward, and the numbers grow. They are all sinners, and they wish to do better. So too at John’s baptism the crowds come — but here one comes forward who is the all-holy Son of God.

What is Jesus doing and saying? He is not saying that he is a sinner, for he is all-holy. He is not presenting himself as one asking God for pardon. We read in the Gospel that John himself was profoundly nonplussed at having Jesus before him for baptism. He hesitates in a way he never hesitated with anyone else. He himself, he said to Jesus, was the sinner, and if anything it is Jesus who ought be baptizing him. Our Lord did not deny it — but he insisted, saying that it was fitting before God that his baptism proceed. Our Lord was taking part with sinful humanity. He was identifying with every man and woman, even the least. It was a symbolic step that in effect linked the beginning of our Lord’s work to its culmination both on the cross, and at the end of time at the Judgment. In the Gospel of St Matthew, our Lord tells his hearers that at the Judgment he will say to each: whatever you did to the least of these brothers of mine you did to me. Our Lord at the end will proclaim his union with each and all of his brothers, including the least, and here at his baptism we have the first step in this public proclamation. At his baptism our Lord was acting as one with all his sinful brothers, including the least. As their brother, their leader and their representative, he stepped forward for the baptism of John. Moreover, in going down into the water, he was prefiguring his descent into the waters of death at Calvary. Our Lord knew that his work, as the Suffering Servant of Yahweh, would be to bear the sins of his brothers and to expiate for them. As he would express it to his own disciples, it would be the great baptism of his life. Can you be baptized with the baptism with which I must be baptized? he asked James and John, when they petitioned for first places in his kingdom. I have a baptism, he said to them on another occasion, and how wrought I am till it is over! The baptism of Jesus Christ is an event in the Scriptures which is full of meaning, and we ought not let the few verses in which it is described be passed over without our relishing that meaning in our hearts.

And so it is that “as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:15-16.21-22). These words of God are plainly unique in the Scriptures and they reveal the uniqueness of the One to whom they refer. The holy Trinity bursts upon the scene of our redemption and Christ commences his redemptive ministry. He will bear on his shoulders the sins of mankind, expiate for them, and baptize his brothers with the Holy Spirit. The gates of heaven will be opened for all of us, and holiness will be gift of God.
                                                                                     (E.J.Tyler)

Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.535-537 (The baptism of Jesus)

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A second reflection on the Gospel of today

The coming of the Spirit  Our Lord  spent the first thirty years of his life in the obscurity of Nazareth.  Almost 90% of his life was lived in Nazareth as an unknown carpenter with his foster father, and Mary his mother.   In the plan of God that stage would pass, for our Lord had a great and public ministry ahead of him, crowned with redemptive suffering, rejection and death.  What a difference there was between life at Nazareth, and his life thereafter!  The turning point was his baptism in the river Jordan, which we contemplate today.  He came quietly to John, asking to be baptised as if he were just another sinner, though being without sin.  Baptised with water, as if repenting and being cleansed from sin, he was then baptised by his heavenly Father with a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit came down upon Him (Luke 3:15-16, 21-22) to launch him on his public mission.  Henceforth the Holy Spirit was working in him with a new power and effect.  By the power of the Holy Spirit he cast out devils, cured the sick, forgave sinners, proclaimed and explained God’s kingdom, instituted the Eucharist.  By the power of the Holy Spirit he offered himself as a perfect victim on the cross.  By the power of the Spirit he rose from the dead, ascended into heaven to rejoin his Father. 

The Holy Spirit had been  at work in various great figures and prophets of the Old Testament, but in the case of our Lord, his action was without parallel in its saving  effectiveness.  All this began in earnest at our Lord’s baptism.  No other person had been or would be such a saving instrument of the Holy Spirit as our Lord was from the moment of his baptism.  His baptism signalled a new and unique entry of the Holy Spirit as a protagonist in the world.  Then when this same Holy Spirit was sent by the Father and the Son at Pentecost, this marked the sharing by the Church — the mystical body of Christ — in the evangelizing and sanctifying ministry of Christ.  The Holy Spirit then became the Church’s sanctifier and inspiration.  Christ, the head, was now at work in his body, reaching out to all nations.  And again, this was by the power of the Holy Spirit.  At our Baptism, and again at our Confirmation, this same Holy Spirit enters into our own individual lives.  He works with effect on our minds and hearts, and through our daily work and life he works on the lives of others.  He enables each of us to become another Christ, and to be truly apostolic, drawing others to him.

                                                                                                                                 (E.J.Tyler)

Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.535-537

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