December2 in Year B 11

Friday of the Third Week in Advent to Seventh Day in the Octave of Christmastide

Click on any date to go to the Thought for that Day

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 intention for December is: "That the nations of the earth, through knowledge and mutual respect, may grow in harmony and peace."

His mission intention is: "That children and young people may be messengers of the Gospel and that their dignity may always be respected and preserved from all violence and exploitation."

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Entrance Antiphon Behold, the Lord will come descending with splendour to visit his people with peace, and he will bestow on them eternal life.

Collect May your grace, almighty God, always go before us and follow after, so that we, who await with heartfelt desire the coming of your Only Begotten Son, may receive your help both now and in the life to come. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

He was born in Biala Podlaska (Siedlce, Poland) and studied architecture at the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw. When Wenceslaus was almost sixteen, his father died. Suspected of participating in a rebellious conspiracy, the young man was imprisoned from April 1846 until the following March. In 1848 he received the Capuchin habit and a new name. Four years later he was ordained. In 1855 he helped Blessed Mary Angela Truszkowska establish the Felician Sisters. Honoratus served as guardian in a Warsaw friary already in 1860. He dedicated his energies to preaching, to giving spiritual direction and to hearing confessions. He worked tirelessly with the Secular Franciscan Order. The failed 1864 revolt against Czar Alexander III led to the suppression of all religious Orders in Poland. The Capuchins were expelled from Warsaw and forced to live in Zakroczym, where Honoratus continued his ministry and began founding twenty-six male and female religious congregations, whose members took vows but wore no religious habit and did not live in community. They operated much as today’s secular institutes do. Seventeen of these groups still exist as religious congregations. The writings of Father Honoratus are extensive: forty-two volumes of sermons, 21 volumes of letters as well as 52 printed works on ascetical theology, Marian devotion, historical writings, pastoral writings — not counting his many writings for the religious congregations he founded. In 1906, various bishops sought the reorganization of these groups under their authority; Honoratus defended their independence but was removed from their direction in 1908. He promptly urged the members of these congregations to obey the Church’s decisions regarding their future. He “always walked with God,” said a contemporary. In 1895 he was appointed Commissary General of the Capuchins in Poland. Three years before he had come to Nowe Miasto, where he died and was buried. He was beatified in 1988.

The story is told that Francis and Brother Leo, his secretary, were once on a journey and Francis volunteered to tell Leo what perfect joy is. Francis began by saying what it was not: news that the kings of France, England, as well as all the world’s bishops and many university professors had decided to become friars, news that the friars had received the gift of tongues and miracles, or news that the friars had converted all the non-Christians in the world. No, perfect joy for them would be to arrive cold and hungry at St. Mary of the Angels, Francis’ headquarters outside Assisi, and be mistaken by the porter for thieves and beaten by the same porter and driven back into the cold and rain. Francis said that if, for the love of God, he and Leo could endure such treatment without losing their patience and charity, that would be perfect joy (cited in Regis Armstrong, O.F.M. Cap., and Ignatius Brady, O.F.M., Francis and Clare: The Complete Works, pages 165-166). Honoratus worked very zealously to serve the Church, partly by establishing a great variety of religious congregations adapted to the special circumstances of Poland in those years. He could have retreated into bitterness and self-pity when the direction of those congregations was taken away from him; that was certainly a “perfect joy” experience. He urged the members of these groups to obey willingly and gladly, placing their gifts at the service of the Good News of Jesus Christ. When the Church removed Honoratus from the direction of his religious congregations and changed their character, he wrote: “Christ’s Vicar himself has revealed God’s will to us, and I carry out this order with greatest faith.... Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that you are being given the opportunity to show heroic obedience to the holy Church.” (AmericanCatholic.org)

Jesus said to the Jews, 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 works that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testify that the Father has sent me. (John 5: 33-36)

Testimony and works One striking feature about the public career of Jesus Christ was the rapid, almost instant moral authority it attained. Our Lord appeared out of nowhere, we might say. He had no public reputation or achievements to his credit prior to the commencement of his public ministry. He came out of the obscurity of Nazareth and just began on the public scene. With that, his moral fame went ahead of him in leaps and bounds. It is not hard to account for this. Firstly, a great prophet, John, had pointed to him as far greater than himself, and had testified that he, Jesus, was the Object of the expectations and predictions of Revealed Religion. This itself was a novelty in the history of the chosen people. Abraham and the Patriarchs had not designated a living individual as occupying such a pivotal place, nor had Moses, nor had David, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah nor the other prophets. At most they contributed to the general expectation of a coming Messiah. John, whom Christ declared to be the greatest of them, had defined his mission as a Precursor for the One who was imminent and coming — and Jesus was that One. John himself had been assured from heaven of this, and he had seen the heavenly signs of the Spirit of God descending upon Jesus, accompanied by the Voice declaring him to be God’s beloved Son (Matthew 3: 16-17; John 1: 29-34). It is clear from the Gospels that in some sense this had been not only a testimony to John’s own disciples, but a public testimony because our Lord appealed to it before the hostile religious authorities (Matthew 21: 23-27). It was known that John had said of him, he is the One. This testimony was important, and clearly it was intended by heaven to give immediate authority to the public ministry of Jesus Christ. Elijah was expected to come — and Elijah was John the Baptist. The historical Elijah had passed his mantle on to Elisha who received a double portion of his spirit. John passed from the scene in heroic witness. The mantle passed from him to Jesus who quickly far outstripped his holy Precursor, for the Spirit which had led John and the prophets was none other than the very Spirit of Jesus himself. The point is that John’s testimony had its place in Christ’s immediate moral authority.

But then, Christ not only bore his prophetic authentication by John, but immediately surprised the people with his astounding supernatural powers. There had been nothing like it. There was the changing of water into wine. There was the healing of the royal official's son; the healing of the possessed man in Capernaum and of Simon Peter's mother-in-law; the healing of a leper after the Sermon on the Mount, of a centurion's servant, of a paralytic and of the one with the withered hand. There was the raising to life of the widow’s son, the healing of the woman with internal bleeding, the raising to life of the daughter of Jairus. There was the healing of the two blind men, the mute demoniac, and the one with a 38 year-old paralysis. There was the feeding of the five thousand and the feeding of the four thousand, both with a mere handful of food. There was the walking on water, the healing of the girl possessed by a demon, the healing of a deaf man with a speech impediment, the healing of a blind man and of a man born blind. There was the healing of a boy possessed by a demon, the healing of a woman bent double with an 18 year-old infirmity, and the healing of ten lepers. There was the spectacular raising of Lazarus from being dead for four days. There was the healing of blind Bar Timaeus, the restoring of the man’s severed ear at Christ’s arrest in Gethsemane, and the miraculous catch of a great number of fish. No figure in the history of Israel had done works of such supernatural power so frequently and so varied in character. He bore within him the almighty power of God. He also declared that he was going to his death because of his witness to who he was. He foretold this, stating that he would rise again, and that it would be by his own power. He also gave the date: it would be on the third day following his demise. No-body had done this before, and to cap it all off it turned out as he foretold. He did die — he allowed it to happen — and he rose exactly as he had foretold. With good reason Christ declares in our Gospel today, “For the very works that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testify that the Father has sent me” (John 5: 33-36).

For all the so-called might of the likes of, say, Alexander the Great and the earliest of the Caesars, they were as nothing compared to this. For all his brilliance, Alexander was nothing without his troops. He could do nothing so much as to cure a common cold, and when he himself caught fever he died, and that was the end of him. We don’t know where he was buried. There are many things which prove with resounding affirmation that Jesus Christ is all he said he is, but our Gospel today invites us to think of the “testimony” of John, and of his own great “works.” Let us ceaselessly contemplate with loving reverence our adorable Redeemer, God and Brother.

Christ It has been said that a notable feature of certain schools of Protestant spirituality is their 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. We can do it by the daily recitation of the Rosary, when we think of the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful and Glorious events (mysteries) of Our Lord’s life. This means contemplating him in his works, his deeds. The purpose of this is to come to know him in his sacred humanity, and in thus knowing 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.

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Our Lord wants to make us co-redeemers with him. That is why to help us understand this marvel, he moves the evangelists to tell us of so many great wonders. He could have produced bread from anything... but he doesn’t! He looks for human cooperation: he “needs” a child, a boy, a few pieces of bread, and some fish. He needs you and me: and he is God! This should move us to be generous in our corresponding with his grace.

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Is 49: 13 Rejoice, O heavens, and exult, O earth, for our Lord will come to show mercy to his poor.

Collect O God, Creator and Redeemer of human nature, who willed that your Word should take flesh in an ever-virgin womb, look with favour on our prayers, that your Only Begotten Son, having taken to himself our humanity, may be pleased to grant us a share in his divinity. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Lazarus, the friend of Jesus, the brother of Martha and Mary, was the one of whom the Jews said, "See how much he loved him." In their sight Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead. Legends abound about the life of Lazarus after the death and resurrection of Jesus. He is supposed to have left a written account of what he saw in the next world before he was called back to life. Some say he followed Peter into Syria. Another story is that despite being put into a leaking boat by the Jews at Jaffa, he, his sisters and others landed safely in Cyprus. There he died peacefully after serving as bishop for 30 years. A church was built in his honour in Constantinople and some of his reputed relics were transferred there in 890. A Western legend has the oarless boat arriving in Gaul. There he was bishop of Marseilles, was martyred after making a number of converts and was buried in a cave. His relics were transferred to the new cathedral in Autun in 1146.

Whatever of the legends, it is certain there was early devotion to the saint. Around the year 390, the pilgrim lady Etheria talks of the procession that took place on the Saturday before Palm Sunday at the tomb where Lazarus had been raised from the dead. In the West, Passion Sunday was called Dominica de Lazaro, and Augustine tells us that in Africa the Gospel of the raising of Lazarus was read at the office of Palm Sunday. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Genesis 49:2, 8-10; Psalm 72:1-4ab, 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 KingDavid. 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 1:1-17)

The humanity of Christ In giving us a genealogy of Jesus Christ at the outset of his account (and Luke provides us with one traced along a different line), Matthew shows that Christ was thoroughly man. Consider Pilate’s response to Jesus, as described in the Gospel of St John. He asked Jesus, “You are a king, then?” Fr. Ted Tyler

Thereupon our Lord said, yes — but only in a certain sense: “I am a king. This is why I was born, and why I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth” (John 18:37). So at his trial Jesus said to the Procurator that he had “come into the world.” What did Pilate make of this? Did he wonder about who this Jesus might be? Certainly, despite Christ’s declaration of some kind of kingship, he declared to the Jews that “I find no guilt in him.” But when “the Jews” fired back that Jesus “must die, because he has made himself Son of God” (John 19:7), Pilate “feared the more.” He went straight back to Jesus and asked him “Where are you from?” Pilate’s fear may have been the fear of being reported to Rome for insensitivity towards the religious laws of the people he was governing. It could have been, though, a superstitious fear of laying his hand on some supernatural being before him — a son of the gods in the form of a man. It is plain that he had already begun to admire the man who had been brought into his presence. He was good, and in respect to the charges, guiltless — and Pilate said so. Matthew gives us another detail, that Pilate received a message from his wife warning him not to lay a finger “on that just man” — she had had a very anxious dream about him (Matthew 27:19). I mention Pilate simply to highlight a tendency that would emerge in some quarters, which was to think that, despite what was plain and obvious, Christ was not himself human and thoroughly of our flesh. So serious was this, and so contrary to the reality, that John gave it special emphasis at the very outset of his Gospel. “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (1:14). In the first of his Letters, John states that “every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is of God” (1 John 4:2). In the passage of our Gospel today, Matthew is making it plain that Jesus Christ was flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone. He had the DNA of a people, with its blood flowing through his veins.

Jesus Christ the King of kings and the Lord of lords, was the son of David, and the son of Abraham. He was, like all of us, a descendant of Adam and Eve. He is our Brother, and in every way he was human. The one massive difference from our humanity is that in his case it was not wounded and deformed by sin. It was perfect and unsoiled because the Person of Jesus was divine. Christ’s humanity was thus magnificent and most sacred. He was a most magnificent man, but truly man nevertheless. He did come from heaven in his Person. But as man and born of the Virgin Mary, he had the elements of the human race and of the chosen people before him flowing through and making up his humanity. So as we read the account of Christ’s genealogy as presented by Matthew, let us appreciate anew the wonder of the Incarnation. Let us always bear in mind that this Jesus who was and is divine, was thoroughly human, thoroughly man. This meant that in every way he could represent us in the great work of making up for the sins of the world. This brings us to the next point we are reminded of by the genealogy of St Matthew: that the man Jesus is the Christ. He is the One who was coming, the Promised One, the Messiah. He is the Suffering Servant of the Book of Isaiah. He is the Son of Man to whom would be given the kingdom and the glory as prophesied in Daniel. He is the Prophet predicted by Moses in Deuteronomy. St Matthew, by giving us the genealogy of Jesus Christ, gives us a symbol of the whole sweep of the Old Testament and the key to its proper understanding. The key is the One who was coming, and that Person St Matthew delivers for us at the end: “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: 1-17). The key to all of salvation history is Jesus Christ the son of David, son of Abraham, and Redeemer of the world. The further and most decisive point of all is that our Redeemer is divine — and this more than anything is the crux of the matter, the point most commonly denied, and the point for which he, the Messiah, bore witness unto death.

This day is the first of a novena of days preparing us for the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham — and son of Adam, as Luke will point out in his alternate genealogy (Luke 3: 23-38). He is the new Adam, the new beginning of the human race born again into a share in the life of God. By our baptism we are members of this new beginning. Let us resolve to make Jesus Christ our Master in everything, remaining deeply united to him in friendship and obedience, and growing constantly in the life of God which he has come to share with us. Let our celebration of Christmas be a new beginning of this for us.

The Old Testament Time and again during his public ministry Our Lord referred to the Law, the Psalms and the Prophets — in other words, the Scriptures. He referred to them as pointing to him. He was the true meaning of the Scriptures. If one wished to know what the Scriptures taught and what was their Fr. Ted Tyler

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, 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 man’s hopes, and in this he pointed to the Scriptures. Now, this is, of course, 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 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. The Old Testament, represented by Matthew’s genealogy, 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.

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If you help him, even with a trifle, as the Apostles did, he is ready to work miracles; to multiply the bread, to reform wills, to give light to the most benighted minds, to enable those who have never been upright to be so, with an extraordinary grace. All this he will do... and more, if you will help him with what you have.

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Is 45:8 Drop down dew from above, you heavens, and let the clouds rain down the Just One; let the earth be opened and bring forth a Saviour.

Collect Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord, your grace into our hearts, that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ your Son was made known by the message of an Angel, may by his Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of his Resurrection. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Anthony’s father died when his son was only 10 years old, but the young lad inherited his father’s devotion to Our Lady of Loreto. As a schoolboy he frequented the local church of the Oratorian Fathers, joining the religious order when he was 17. Already a fine student, he soon gained a reputation in his religious community as a "walking dictionary" who quickly grasped Scripture and theology. For some time he was tormented by scruples, but they reportedly left him at the very hour he celebrated his first Mass. From that day, serenity penetrated his very being. In 1621, at age 29, Anthony was struck by lightning while praying in the church of the Holy House at Loreto. He was carried paralysed from the church, expecting to die. When he recovered in a few days he realized that he had been cured of acute indigestion. His scorched clothes were donated to the Loreto church as an offering of thanks for his new gift of life. More important, Anthony now felt that his life belonged entirely to God. Each year thereafter he made a pilgrimage to Loreto to express his thanks. He also began hearing confessions, and came to be regarded as an outstanding confessor. Simple and direct, he listened carefully to penitents, said a few words and gave a penance and absolution, frequently drawing on his gift of reading consciences. In 1635 he was elected superior of the Fermo Oratory. He was so well regarded that he was re-elected every three years until his death. He was a quiet person and a gentle superior who did not know how to be severe. At the same time he kept the Oratorian constitutions literally, encouraging the community to do likewise. He refused social or civic commitments and instead would go out day or night to visit the sick or dying or anyone else needing his services. As he grew older, he had a God-given awareness of the future, a gift which he frequently used to warn or to console. But age brought its challenges as well. He suffered the humility of having to give up his physical faculties one by one. First was his preaching, necessitated after he lost his teeth. Then he could no longer hear confessions. Finally, after a fall, he was confined to his room. The archbishop himself came each day to give him holy Communion. One of Anthony’s final acts was to reconcile two fiercely quarrelling brothers.

Nothing provides a better reason for reassessing a life than a brush with death. Anthony’s life already seemed to be on track when he was struck by lightning; he was a brilliant priest blessed, at last, with serenity. But his experience softened him. He became a loving counsellor and a wise mediator. The same might be said of us if we put our hearts to it. We needn’t wait to be struck by lightning. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: 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 for ever; 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 1:26-38)

The Annunciation While it was very unusual in the Old Testament for a person’s birth to be foretold, it was not unknown. It occurred, for instance, at the beginning of the story of the chosen people: God promised Abraham that his wife — whom he was to rename Sarah — would be blessed with a son, and that she would be the mother of nations (Genesis 17:15-16). Fr. Ted Tyler

The son’s name would be Isaac, and God would establish his covenant with him (17:19). This promise flowed from the covenant God established with Abraham, with his promise that he would be the father of many nations (Genesis 17:1-8). Again, when the wife of Isaac conceived, God revealed to her the birth of twins, and that the younger would be the greater (Genesis 25:23). We read in the Book of Judges of the birth of Samson — it too was foretold. The Angel of the Lord appeared to the wife of Manoah and said to her that she would conceive and bear a son. He would begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines (Judges 13: 2-5. And so it turned out: she bore a son and called him Samson. The Lord blessed him and the Spirit of the Lord began to stir in him (13:24-25). So the Annunciation by the Angel Gabriel to Mary (as to Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist) was not without precedent, but it is surpassing in its quality. There is no equal to it in the Scriptures. Uniquely, it is to a Virgin that the heavenly messenger announces God’s plan that she be mother of the Messiah. There is no precedent for this, though it is foretold in a few isolated prophecies. There is the prophecy of Isaiah (Isaiah 7:14), the prophecy in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:15), and perhaps that of Jeremiah 31:22. So it is that the Angel presents himself before the holy maid. He addresses the her with the utmost respect. Mary is full of God’s grace and the Lord is most certainly with her in every respect. She is not to fear at all, for she has God’s favour. That is to say, in her God is well pleased — it is a statement that is not unlike what God would say of Jesus at his Baptism and at the Transfiguration: he is my beloved. In him I am well pleased. The angelic praise accorded her is among the highest in the Scriptures. Mary’s response to the Angel’s announcement crowns the picture of her: I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be to me as God has willed.

But of course, the principal focus of the Annunciation by the Angel is the holy Child whom the Virgin will conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Angel has come to speak of him, and it is of him that we ought think as we contemplate this Gospel scene. The Child will be a son, a boy. He will be “great” — let us note that Christ would speak of John the Baptist as “great.” There was no “greater” (meizōn) than John the Baptist born of woman (Matthew 11:11). There Christ speaks of John as great before men. In the Angel’s words to Zechariah before John’s birth, he stated that he would be great before God (Luke 1:15). That is to say, he would be great, not only in the estimation of men, but in God’s estimation. But notice that the Angel gives no qualification to the greatness of the Messiah who is to be born of the Virgin. He will simply be great (Luke 1: 33). Who is simply great, great without any further qualification? It is surely God — Mary in her Magnificat in the presence of Elizabeth extols the greatness of God. My soul proclaims (megalunei) the greatness of the Lord, she says (Luke 1: 46). So Mary will proclaim that the Lord is great, and in the salutation of the Angel, the unborn Messiah is said to be great. He will be called the Son of the Most High — and this is the first designation of him by the Angel. It is his most unique feature, and the immediate cause of the rising and the falling of many. He will be a sign of contradiction, and the most special cause of this contradiction will be his claim to be Son of the Most High, the One transcending all. It is this which far exceeds all other titles of any other religious leader or teacher in the world. No prophet approaches him, and no religious leader outside revealed religion can compare with him, for he is, as the Angel goes on to term him, the Son of God. John the Baptist would say that he himself was not worthy to stoop down to undo the strap of his sandal. He is simply great precisely because he is the Son of the Most High, Son of God. Before she conceived him in the womb, Mary was given a clear intimation of his divinity. He is also the One prophesied in the Book of Daniel who will inherit the eternal dominion (Daniel 7:14). “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” (Luke 1: 26-38).

Let us contemplate Jesus and Mary in this pivotal passage of Scripture. Jesus Christ is the marvel of our race, above all because he is divine — divine in his Person, while possessing a nature that is divine, and as well, a nature that is entirely human. In him we have access to every heavenly blessing. From him we receive the grace of transformation into his likeness. Mary his mother has been given to us to be our mother too, and she by her prayers and her example leads us to him. She is our great helper, the help of every Christian desirous of being like the Master. Let us cultivate a deep love for Jesus and Mary in our daily life, and let us celebrate Christmas with them both.

Jesus Christ In 2005, reports of riots in Sydney spread throughout the world. At the time I had a niece staying in Brazil, and a couple of days after the riots she sent me a message telling me she had heard about them. There was discussion in the media about what were the causes of this trouble, and one person who Fr. Ted Tyler

was interviewed considered that one factor had been the gradual loss in our society of a culture of respect among people. This loss of respect showed itself in a loss of good manners, taking people for granted, and a harshness towards others. I introduce this observation here because 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 ever-present danger that the Christian citizen can be affected by this and lose his 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 the recognition of the dignity of each person. The basis of this dignity is that each person is God's creature, indeed his child by grace, and made in his image. Parents ought instil this sense of the dignity of each person into their children. If we are respectful to others, we will be more likely to be respectful to God and to recognise just who God is. This will be the basis of an attitude of love and adoration. We will be less likely to take Christ himself 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.

Consider the Angel’s message. 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 the Most High. “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 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.

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Jesus has died. He is a corpse. Those holy women had no expectations. They had seen how he had been abused, and how he had been crucified. How vivid in their minds was the violence of the Passion he had undergone! They knew, too, that the soldiers were keeping watch over the place. They knew that the tomb was sealed shut. “Who will roll away the stone for us from the door?” they asked themselves, for it was a massive slab. But all the same, in spite of everything, they went to be with him. Look: difficulties, large and small, can be seen at once. But if there is love, one pays no heed to those obstacles: one goes ahead with daring, with conviction, with courage. Don’t you have to confess your shame when you contemplate the drive, the daring, and the courage of these women?

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Heb 10:37 He who is to come will come and will not delay, and now there will be no fear within our land, for he is our Saviour.

Collect O God, who through the child-bearing of the holy Virgin graciously revealed the radiance of your glory to the world, grant, we pray, that we may venerate with integrity of faith the mystery of so wondrous an Incarnation and always celebrate it with due reverence. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

In 1362, the man elected pope declined the office. When the cardinals could not find another person among them for that important office, they turned to a relative stranger: the holy person we honour today. The new Pope Urban V proved a wise choice. A Benedictine monk and canon lawyer, he was deeply spiritual and brilliant. He lived simply and modestly, which did not always earn him friends among clergymen who had become used to comfort and privilege. Still, he pressed for reform and saw to the restoration of churches and monasteries. Except for a brief period he spent most of his eight years as pope living away from Rome at Avignon, seat of the papacy from 1309 until shortly after his death. He came close but was not able to achieve one of his biggest goals — reuniting the Eastern and Western churches. As pope, Urban continued to follow the Benedictine Rule. Shortly before his death in 1370 he asked to be moved from the papal palace to the nearby home of his brother so he could say goodbye to the ordinary people he had so often helped. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Judges 13:2-7, 24-25a; Psalm 71:3-4a, 5-6ab, 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 on 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 worshippers 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 on 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 realised 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 1:5-25)

God and the world At the outset of our Gospel passage today we are given the political context of the divine intervention in the life of the “priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah.” It occurred “in the days of Herod the king of Judea.” Let us consider this historical backdrop which Luke chooses to provide, together with, more importantly, its implications. Luke brings before us the figure of Herod the Great — an ogre in Matthew’s Gospel for his devious and ruthless attempt on the life of the infant Messiah. Herod was a remarkably adroit political chess-player and his career was one of great worldly success. He was a son of Antipater the Idumæan. At about 109 BC, the Idumæans (south-east of Judea between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba) were brought under subjection by John Hyrcanus (the son of Simon Maccabaeus and nephew of Judas Maccabaeus), and were obliged to live as Jews. Antipater (died 43 BC), the father of Herod, was Governor of Idumea and had helped both Pompey the Great and then Julius Caesar in the Orient, and the favour of Rome brought his family into prominence and power. In 47 BC Antipater received the much-coveted title of Roman citizen and the appointment to the procuratorship of Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. After the assassination of Caesar, Antipater was forced to side with Gaius Cassius Longinus against Mark Antony. So Herod came from a family that was street-wise in the international politics of the day, and alert to the business of keeping on the winning side. What mattered was retaining power and understanding that might is right. Herod, the son of Antipater, was born 73 B.C., and he is first mentioned as governor of Galilee, by his father’s appointment. Among the rapidly changing scenes of Roman history Herod kept the goodwill of fortune's favourites. In 40 B.C. the young Octavian and Antony obtained for him from the Roman senate the crown of Judea, and between these two powerful friends he, a nominal Jew because Idumean, went up to the temple of Jupiter to thank the gods of Rome. He at first sided with Mark Antony and when he fell, won the acceptance and favour of Octavian. Herod became a horror in his family, a tyrant over his territories, and a great wonder as a builder.

Much could be narrated about Herod the Great, and about his well-known father, and his notorious sons. One may say that he presents a picture of a scheming man of the world who made it his business to get to the top whatever be the cost to anyone, and succeeded. He died a depraved death and was buried with great pomp by his son and appointed heir, Archelaus, who, educated at Rome, went on to his varied career. Such was the backdrop of our Gospel passage today, and Luke reminds us of it in his mention of Herod the Great. Let the thought of Herod remind us of so much of the history of fallen man, all of whom by nature are under — as St Paul reminds us in his Letter to the Romans — the power of sin (Romans 3:9). Human history presents its powerful people, its arena of jostle, success and failure, and its array of those judged to be important. We who are citizens of the world may easily be sucked into thinking that the world’s important ones, those who succeed in the business of the world, are indeed the ones who matter. But look at where God chose to intervene. Herod, of course, was utterly ignored, as were the power-players of the day. Pompey, Caesar, Mark Antony, Octavian, all these were by-passed by the Lord of heaven and earth who by his creative finger sustained them in all their ruthless and blood-stained posturings. Our Gospel passage tells us that “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.” Quietly, under the befuddled and scheming hand of the great Herod, there was a holy and obscure couple. The business of their lives was to observe the Lord’s commandments. In God’s sight they were the important ones in the world, not the likes of Herod and his impossible family. It was to Zechariah, this obscure and holy priest, that God sent his Angel. Zechariah and Elizabeth were privileged to be chosen to toll the bell of the world’s redemption. They were chosen to be the parents of the Precursor, of him who would announce and point to the Messiah who would take away the sin of the world — that sin so spectacularly represented by Herod and his coterie.

Let us understand that there are two great Standards before us. There is the Standard of Jesus Christ, and there is the Standard of Satan. When Christ was tempted in the wilderness by Satan, the demon showed him in an instant of time all the kingdoms of the world. He said that all these belong to him, and that he may give them to whomsoever he please. That was bravado, but it had in it a fair grain of truth. Let us take our stand by the side of Jesus Christ and hold up in our hands his Standard. Our fight is against the other Standard. Let our way be that of Christ, his forever!

Human weakness 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, in the Scriptures, 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.

My mouth is filled with your praise, declaring your splendour all day long. 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 is 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.

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Mary, your Mother, will bring you to the Love of Jesus. There you will be cum gaudio et pace, with joy and peace. And you will be always “brought”, because on your own you would fall and get covered with mud: you will be brought onward, brought to believe, to love, and to suffer.

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Is 11: 1; 40: 5; Lk 3: 6 A branch shall sprout from the root of Jesse, and the glory of the Lord will fill the whole earth, and all flesh will see the salvation of God.

Collect O God, eternal majesty, whose ineffable Word the immaculate Virgin received through the message of an Angel and so became the dwelling-place of divinity, filled with the light of the Holy Spirit, grant, we pray, that by her example we may in humility hold fast to your will. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

It’s not the founder of the Dominicans we honour today, but there’s a poignant story that connects one Dominic with the other. Our saint today, Dominic of Silos was born in Spain around the year 1000 into a peasant family. As a young boy he spent time in the fields, where he welcomed the solitude. He became a Benedictine priest and served in numerous leadership positions. Following a dispute with the king over property, Dominic and two other monks were exiled. They established a new monastery in what at first seemed an unpromising location. Under Dominic’s leadership, however, it became one of the most famous houses in Spain. Many healings were reported there. About 100 years after Dominic’s death, a young woman made a pilgrimage to his tomb. There Dominic of Silos appeared to her and assured her that she would bear another son. The woman was Joan of Aza, and the son she bore grew up to be the "other" Dominic — the one who founded the Dominicans. For many years thereafter, the staff used by St. Dominic of Silos was brought to the royal palace whenever a queen of Spain was in labour. The practice ended in 1931. (AmericanCatholic.org)

God’s work St Luke’s opening sentence in our Gospel passage today is strong and arresting. It begins with the dramatic statement that “God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee”. By contrast, his earlier account of the announcement of the birth of John the Baptist begins with an introduction to his holy parents. Fr. Ted Tyler

After telling the reader of the efforts he has taken to write a careful and orderly account of the facts that “have been accomplished among us,” Luke directs our gaze to “a priest named Zechariah” and his “wife” who was “a descendant of Aaron.” So we begin with them, and the focus continues with Zechariah as he serves as priest in the temple. It is only then, with Zechariah engaged in the hour of incense, that “there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.” It is only at the end of the angel’s announcement of the birth of the Precursor, that we read that the heavenly messenger is Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God (Luke 1: 5-20). But when Luke turns to the next event of the chapter — the announcement of the birth of the Messiah — he immediately begins not with the focus on Mary but with the focus on God and his sending of the angel Gabriel. “In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.” It is as if, in our Gospel today, Luke immediately wishes to show the enormous importance of what is about to take place. The scene begins with the decree of God that the angel Gabriel depart and go to Nazareth in Galilee. The immediate sight is of God and his high envoy. This highlights the greatness of the message to be delivered. It is then that the virgin betrothed to Joseph is introduced. There is a further point. In introducing the parents of John the Baptist, the wife of Zechariah is noted as being of a distinguished line. While Zechariah is a priest of the division of Abijah, his wife Elizabeth was of the line of Aaron — the first high priest of Israel, no less. By contrast, Mary’s lineage is not mentioned — she is a virgin, betrothed to Joseph of the house of David. She is, then, one of low estate, lacking in notable and obvious endowments. She is poor in spirit, the Lord’s lowly handmaid. This is precisely what she will profess in her Magnificat. All we have is her name and that she is a virgin betrothed. She stands there before the Lord in a holy poverty. It is to her that the high angelic messenger comes with his divine tidings.

But we quickly learn of her own spiritual richness and the greatness of her coming mission to be mother of the Messiah and Son of God. The angel addresses her in exalted terms, the like of which is hard to find a parallel in the Scriptures. This lowly virgin, whose lineage remains unmentioned, who has nothing to show for herself, is revealed by the angel to be full of grace, highly favoured by God. This great fact is hidden from the world, but well known where it counts, in heaven. The traditional translation, “full of grace,” is better than the more recent alternative “favoured one” — which is legitimate, but which does not suggest the fullness of its meaning. The grace or “favour” given to Mary is at once permanent and of a unique kind. Kecharitōmenē is a perfect passive participle of charitoō, a verb meaning “to fill or endow with grace.” The “grace” of God is his divine favour having its effects in her life and soul. Since this term is in the perfect tense, it indicates that Mary was graced in her whole past but with continuing effects in the present. The angel describes her without qualification as one who is graced by God, — as if this was the simple and complete description of her person and her life from its beginning to the present. The Latin Vulgate and its successor, the New Latin Vulgate, translate it as “Ave, gratia plena” — “Hail, full of grace”. The Lord is with her. This description is found some seven times in the Old Testament, and it is a salutation of high praise. It indicates that the blessing of the Lord goes with such a person. For instance, the angel of the Lord said it to Gideon before he received his mission (Judges 6:12). Nathan said it to David (2 Samuel 7:3). In all of this the emphasis is on what God has done. It is God who is acting now. His envoy comes to a lowly virgin and his words stress the favour of God with which she has been blessed. The weight that is given to God and his action is also manifest in the virginal status of this lowly servant of God, so favoured by him in ways unknown to others. So it is God alone who is bringing the Messiah to his people. Salvation is coming to mankind as his free and powerful gift, as it has come already to Mary in the grace that has filled her from the first instant of her existence. And what a gift it was! How great the Messiah, far beyond the prophecies!

Christmas is the season when we appreciate anew the grandeur of our Saviour. “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 for ever; his kingdom will never end.” The angel continues, “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” (Luke 1: 26-38). Let us never cease to contemplate Jesus Christ, learning to know, love and serve him here on earth so as to see and enjoy him forever in heaven.

Mary and the Holy Trinity 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. Fr. Ted Tyler

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, resolving to imitate them day by day.

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From St Paul’s teaching we know that we have to renew the world in the spirit of Jesus Christ, that we have to place Our Lord at the summit and at the heart of all things. Do you think you are carrying this out in your work, in your professional task?

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Is 7: 14; 8: 10 The Lord and Ruler will be coming soon, and his name will called be Emmanuel, because he will be called God-with-us.

Collect Hear in kindness, O Lord, the prayers of your people, that those who rejoice at the coming of your Only Begotten Son in our flesh may, when at last he comes in glory, gain the reward of eternal life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The energetic life of Peter Canisius should demolish any stereotypes we may have of the life of a saint as dull or routine. Peter lived his 76 years at a pace which must be considered heroic, even in our time of rapid change. A man blessed with many St Peter Canisius

talents, Peter is an excellent example of the scriptural man who develops his talents for the sake of the Lord’s work. He was one of the most important figures in the Catholic Counter-Reformation in Germany. His was such a key role that he has often been called the “second apostle of Germany” in that his life parallels the earlier work of Boniface. Although Peter once accused himself of idleness in his youth, he could not have been idle too long, for at the age of 19 he received a master’s degree from the university at Cologne. Soon afterwards he met Peter Faber, the first disciple of Ignatius Loyola, who influenced Peter so much that he joined the recently formed Society of Jesus. At this early age Peter had already taken up a practice he continued throughout his life — a process of study, reflection, prayer and writing. After his ordination in 1546, he became widely known for his editions of the writings of St. Cyril of Alexandria and St. Leo the Great. Besides this reflective literary bent, Peter had a zeal for the apostolate. He could often be found visiting the sick or prisoners, even when his assigned duties in other areas were more than enough to keep most people fully occupied. In 1547 Peter attended several sessions of the Council of Trent, whose decrees he was later assigned to implement. After a brief teaching assignment at the Jesuit college at Messina, Peter was entrusted with the mission to Germany — from that point on his life’s work. He taught in several universities and was instrumental in establishing many colleges and seminaries. He wrote a catechism that explained the Catholic faith in a way which common people could understand — a great need of that age. Renowned as a popular preacher, Peter packed churches with those eager to hear his eloquent proclamation of the gospel. He had great diplomatic ability, often serving as a reconciler between disputing factions. In his letters (filling eight volumes) one finds words of wisdom and counsel to people in all walks of life. At times he wrote unprecedented letters of criticism to leaders of the Church — yet always in the context of a loving, sympathetic concern. At 70 Peter suffered a paralytic seizure, but he continued to preach and write with the aid of a secretary until his death in his hometown (Nijmegen, Netherlands) on December 21, 1597.

Peter’s untiring efforts are an apt example for those involved in the renewal of the Church or the growth of moral consciousness in business or government. He is regarded as one of the creators of the Catholic press, and can easily be a model for the Christian author or journalist. Teachers can see in his life a passion for the transmission of truth. Whether we have much to give, as Peter Canisius did, or whether we have only a little to give, as did the poor widow in the Gospel (see Luke 21:1–4), the important thing is to give our all. It is in this way that Peter is so exemplary for Christians in an age of rapid change when we are called to be in the world but not of the world. When asked if he felt overworked, Peter replied, "If you have too much to do, with God's help you will find time to do it all." (AmericanCatholic.org)

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 rose up and went in haste 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 child 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 fruit of your womb! 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 1:39-45)

Mother of the Lord The Prophets of the Old Testament are varied. The ordinary Hebrew for prophet is nabî' which in biblical usage means “interpreter and mouthpiece of God.” In Genesis 20:7, God refers to Abraham as “a prophet.” Following Abraham, the greatest of them was Moses (Deuteronomy 34: 10-12), to whom is traditionally attributed the first five books of the Bible. There were prophets of major importance who did not leave formal books of their prophecies to posterity — such as Samuel, Nathan, Elijah and Elisha. Their teachings are to be found, rather, within the books that narrate their doings. There may also have been prophets of considerable importance of whom we know nothing. Some left us extensive texts of their prophecies, such as Isaiah, Jeremiah with Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel. Some left scrolls of much shorter length, such as Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. The Old Testament gives the name nebî'ah to certain women gifted with prophetic gifts: Miriam, the sister of Moses (Exodus 15:20-21; Debbora (Judges 4 and 5); and Hulda (2 Kings 22:14). Of course, there may well have been other prophetesses in the history of God’s chosen people. Luke, in the infancy narrative of his Gospel, tells us of the intervention of “a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher; she was of a great age ..(and) did not depart from the temple” (Luke 2: 36-37). Clearly, for many years before the birth of Christ she had the firm reputation of being a prophetess, and belongs therefore to the Old Testament era. At the end of her long life she had the joy of gazing on the Messiah, to whom she bore witness (Luke 2: 38). Simeon, who took the Child Jesus into his arms on this occasion, must be counted as, we might say, a minor prophet: he was acting and speaking under divine inspiration (Luke 2: 26-27). He spoke the word of God about the Child to Mary and Joseph. This is the background of today’s Gospel passage. It is to be placed within a long prophetic tradition. People, great and small, known and now unknown were chosen by God to act and speak under divine inspiration for the enlightenment of God’s people, or for the benefit of certain individuals.

In our Gospel passage today we read of a similar happening. Mary, full of grace (Luke 1: 28) and now bearing within her the unborn Messiah, came to her kinswoman. Instantly “the child leaped” in the womb of Elizabeth, and Elizabeth herself “was filled with the Holy Spirit.” We ought surely view Elizabeth as acting in a prophetic manner. Under divine inspiration she exclaims “in a loud voice” what Luke understands is meant not just for Mary to hear, but for the generations to come. This prophecy, though, directly concerns the person of Mary, together with her Child. In this prophecy there is a direct emphasis on Mary herself. Hence a Marian emphasis in the Christian life must be regarded as profoundly scriptural. Consider Elizabeth’s prophecy: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 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 1:39-45). God is moving Elizabeth — a holy woman who had observed the commandments of the Lord blamelessly, and a descendant of the first high priest Aaron, no less (Luke 1: 5-6). He is causing Elizabeth to speak on heaven’s behalf and to praise the virgin Mary. Blessed is she among women, and blessed is the fruit of her womb — even in this praise of Mary’s Child, there is an emphasis on her: the Child is referred to as the fruit of her womb. Elizabeth is profoundly honoured to be visited by the Mother of her Lord. Not only has the coming of the divine Spirit to Elizabeth been occasioned by the arrival of Mary, but the unborn Precursor has also benefited in similar fashion: “As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.” We may presume that it was at this point that the angel’s prediction was fulfilled about John the Baptist: “he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1: 15). It occurred with the arrival of the Virgin. Then the Spirit of God, speaking through the lips of Elizabeth, tells us all the foundation of Mary’s blessedness. She believed in the word of God totally, utterly, without reserve. “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!”

Let us take our cue from holy Scripture, and render due praise to Mary, asking her to come to us every day and always, just as on this occasion she came to Elizabeth her kinswoman. Mary is Mother of the Lord. At the Cross this same Lord gave her to us to be our mother too. Behold your Mother! he said to his beloved disciple. Woman, behold your son, he said to her. She, the Woman or new Eve, the mother of all the living — those who live in Jesus Christ. Let us take her to our home, and dwell with her as she instructs us to do whatever he tells us (John 2: 5).

Mary 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, Mary 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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Why don’t you try converting your whole life into the service of God — your work and your rest, your tears and your smiles? You can ... and you must!

Entrance Antiphon Ps 24 (23):7 O gates, lift high your heads; grow higher, ancient doors. Let him enter, the king of glory!

Collect O God, who, seeing the human race fallen into death, willed to redeem it by the coming of your Only Begotten Son, grant, we pray, that those who confess his Incarnation with humble fervour may merit his company as their Redeemer. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Jacomo, or James, was born a noble member of the Benedetti family in the northern Italian city of Todi. He became a successful lawyer and married a pious, generous lady named Vanna. His young wife took it upon herself to do penance for the worldly excesses of her husband. One day Vanna, at the insistence of Jacomo, attended a public tournament. She was sitting in the stands with the other noble ladies when the stands collapsed. Vanna was killed. Her shaken husband was even more disturbed when he realized that the penitential girdle she wore was for his sinfulness. On the spot, he vowed to radically change his life. He divided his possessions among the poor and entered the Third Order of St. Francis. Often dressed in penitential rags, he was mocked as a fool and called Jacopone, or "Crazy Jim," by his former associates. The name became dear to him. After 10 years of such humiliation, Jacopone asked to be a member of the Franciscan Order. Because of his reputation, his request was initially refused. He composed a beautiful poem on the vanities of the world, an act that eventually led to his admission into the Order in 1278. He continued to lead a life of strict penance, declining to be ordained a priest. Meanwhile he was writing popular hymns in the vernacular. Jacopone suddenly found himself a leader in a disturbing religious movement among the Franciscans. The Spirituals, as they were called, wanted a return to the strict poverty of Francis. They had on their side two cardinals of the Church and Pope Celestine V. These two cardinals, though, opposed Celestine’s successor, Boniface VIII. At the age of 68, Jacopone was excommunicated and imprisoned. Although he acknowledged his mistake, Jacopone was not absolved and released until Benedict XI became pope five years later. He had accepted his imprisonment as penance. He spent the final three years of his life more spiritual than ever, weeping "because Love is not loved." During this time he wrote the famous Latin hymn, Stabat Mater. On Christmas Eve in 1306 Jacopone felt that his end was near. He was in a convent of the Poor Clares with his friend, Blessed John of La Verna. Like Francis, Jacopone welcomed "Sister Death" with one of his favourite songs. It is said that he finished the song and died as the priest intoned the Gloria from the midnight Mass at Christmas. From the time of his death, Brother Jacopone has been venerated as a saint.

“Crazy Jim,” his contemporaries called Jacopone. We might well echo their taunt, for what else can you say about a man who broke into song in the midst of all his troubles? We still sing Jacopone’s saddest song, the Stabat Mater, but we Christians claim another song as our own, even when the daily headlines resound with discordant notes. Jacopone’s whole life rang our song out: “Alleluia!” May he inspire us to keep singing. (AmericanCatholic.org)

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 for ever, even as he said to our fathers. Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home. (Luke 1:46-56)

Magnificat Before any discussion of this inspired text of Mary’s praise of God — usually entitled the Magnificat from the Latin translation of the first Greek word of the prayer (megalunei) — it can be helpful to review the place it has had in the prayer of Christians. It is, of course, from the Gospel of Luke (Luke 1:46-55) and it is uttered by the Virgin Mary upon the occasion of her Visitation to her kinswoman Elizabeth. The Magnificat is most frequently recited within the Church’s Liturgy of the Hours. In the West, the Magnificat is most often sung or recited during the Church’s main Evening Prayer service. It forms a part of the daily office in the Catholic Church’s Evening Prayer of the Breviary, in the Lutheran Vespers service, and in the Anglican services of Evensong. In Eastern Christianity, the Magnificat is usually sung at Sunday Matins. Among certain Protestant groups, the Magnificat may also be sung during worship services. All this shows the eminence of this Scriptural prayer uttered by the Virgin Mary following the inspired praise of her by her cousin Elizabeth. The Magnificat has frequently been set to music. Most such compositions were originally intended for liturgical use, especially for Vesper services and the Church’s celebrations of the Visitation, but some are also performed in concert. Mary's prayer is one of three major prayers of praise which are contained in Luke’s Infancy narrative. The other two follow Mary’s: there is the prayer of praise by Zechariah, uttered when filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1: 67-79), and the third follows this, pronounced by Simeon while moved by the Holy Spirit (Luke 2: 26-32). Let us notice that the first of these three prayers of praise to God (in the Infancy narrative) is uttered by a lowly maid: the next two are by venerable men. Her dignity — a lowly virgin — far surpasses theirs, and her prayer likewise soars above theirs. We think of precedents in the Old Testament of womanly praise of God: Miriam the prophetess, sister of Aaron, in Exodus 15:21. Notably, there is Hannah in 1 Samuel 2:1-10 who prays a prayer similar to that of Mary. There is also the prayer of praise by Deborah in Judges 5.

In the prayer of Mary, God is everything. She praises him and his greatness. Her words echo the language of the Old Testament — she is a profoundly Scriptural daughter of Sion. When we think of the number of times our Lord himself cites the Scriptures, defends them and makes them the reference point in explaining his own Person and his ministry, one cannot but see that he grew up in the love of a mother who was filled with love for the Scriptures. The Old Testament writings pervade the Magnificat with their influence. The psalms are, time and again, prayers of praise, and Mary’s prayer is so like unto them. She is, plainly, a woman influenced by the psalms — we could cite, for instance, Psalm 34:3 and Psalm 69:30. Mary makes great the name of the Lord, recognizing her own humble state as his servant and him as the sovereign Deliverer (for instance, 2 Kings, 14: 26 or Psalm 9: 11-14, or Psalm 25: 16-18). She addresses God as the Mighty One: “he has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts,” as in Deuteronomy 10: 21, Psalm 44: 4-8, Psalm 89: 8-10, and Zephaniah 3: 17. This might of God is at work together with his mercy: “His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.” This point is stressed: “He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” God is powerful and merciful, a wondrous Ruler. She knows that she need not fear his power because he is, above all, her Saviour (as in Psalm 25:5-6, Isaiah 12:2, and Micah 7:7). These great titles of God which Mary uses to refer to him show her profound humility. This humility and the thought of God’s greatness and goodness form the basis of her gratitude. All is based on her awareness that of herself she is nothing, but because of God she is blessed and will be counted as blessed for all generations. “From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name.” All this is an act of God’s grace, of which, due to God, she is full.

Mary’s is a model prayer, and the Church has always seen this to be so, extolling God and remembering his works as they are portrayed in the Inspired Writings. From the Cross, our Lord entrusted his mother to his beloved disciple, and entrusted him to her. With that gift, we became involved. Mary is our mother, and we who are in Christ are her spiritual children. Let us ask her to help us by her prayers and her example to learn to pray as she prayed in such superb fashion. How powerful must be her prayer for us!

Mary’s prayer 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, Fr. Ted Tyler

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. 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 whole season of Christmas 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 in faith and obedience, like Mary, every day.

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Each and every creature, each and every event of this life, without exception, must be steps which take you to God, which move you to know him and love him, to give him thanks, and to strive to make everyone else know and love him.

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Is 9:5; Ps 72 (71):17 A child shall be born for us, and he will be called God, the Almighty; every tribe of the earth shall be blest in him.

Collect Almighty ever-living God, as we see how the Nativity of your Son according to the flesh draws near, we pray that to us, your unworthy servants, mercy may flow from your Word, who chose to become flesh of the Virgin Mary and establish among us his dwelling, Jesus Christ our Lord. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

John was a country lad who made good in the big city and the big university of Kraków, Poland. After brilliant studies he was ordained a priest and became a professor of theology. The inevitable opposition which saints encounter led to his being ousted by rivals and sent to be a parish priest at Olkusz. An extremely humble man, he did his best, but his best was not to the liking of his parishioners. Besides, he was afraid of the responsibilities of his position. But in the end he won his people’s hearts. After some time he returned to Kraków and taught Scripture for the remainder of his life. He was a serious man, and humble, but known to all the poor of Kraków for his kindness. His goods and his money were always at their disposal, and time and again they took advantage of him. He kept only the money and clothes absolutely needed to support himself. He slept little, and then on the floor, ate sparingly, and took no meat. He made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, hoping to be martyred by the Turks. He made four pilgrimages to Rome, carrying his luggage on his back. When he was warned to look after his health, he was quick to point out that, for all their austerity, the fathers of the desert lived remarkably long lives.

John of Kanty is a typical saint: He was kind, humble and generous, he suffered opposition and led an austere, penitential life. Most Christians in an affluent society can understand all the ingredients except the last: Anything more than mild self-discipline seems reserved for athletes and ballet dancers. Christmas is a good time at least to reject self-indulgence. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Malachi 3:1-4, 23-24; Psalm 25:4-5ab, 8-10 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 1:57-66)

His name is John I remember when I was a student I had an acquaintance who studied philosophy and theology. He said to me once that at times he found himself wondering why he was not God. That is to say, if there is a God — and about this he had no doubt — why was it that Another, and not he, was the divine Being? I am sure this was not a train of thought in which he grumbled at having to accept God, let alone one in which he entertained a rejection of him. It was just a facet of his appreciation of the ontological necessity of the divine Being. My friend knew that he himself was not necessary, and by contrast that God and everything about God is necessary. It was an instance of the natural question that arises in the human mind in respect to everything: why is this so? Why is there this world? If this world is due to a Creator, well, why is there a Creator anyway? If there is a Creator, why is he as he is? There are variants of this question. As I recall it, the Australian atheistic and utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer asks, as do many other agnostic philosophers, Who made God? This is certainly not the moment to deal with such a question except to observe that the theist insists that the simple, infinite and necessary God is precisely the answer to the initial question of why this changing, caused, ordered, contingent and qualitatively varied reality world exists. The world takes us to the Absolute, about whom there cannot be the requirement of further explanation. But now, granted the fact of God, how wondrous it is that he is as he is! We know what he is like dimly from his works, but far more do we know of him from what he has revealed of himself in the course of history. The crowning revelation of all is the Person of Jesus Christ. God reveals himself to be Love. This is stupendous! Reality is ultimately loving. Ultimately there is an infinity of love. This ultimate Love is not some abstraction but is the great Being who, transcending all, is the foundation and the end of all. He is limitless love and mercy. Man would not have guessed this. The God who transcends all and sustains all by his loving touch is rich in mercy beyond imagining. Vulnerable and transient man naturally wonders, if there are gods, are they angry, disinterested, unpredictable — like the world itself? No. The one God has said, I am pure mercy.

Mercy! This is what God is. He has revealed himself to be mighty without limit, and his might is revealed not in whims as with the gods of the myths, but in a holy mercy. God hates sin, and this holiness is a great and powerful thread running through the history of divine revelation. But this holiness of God is merciful. He is ever seeking out the lost sheep and striving to reclaim them from their sin to his holy love. The most extraordinary of his steps was to have become man so as to take upon himself the sin of the world — and in doing so he revealed himself to be a trinity of Persons in the one divine Being. The Father sent the Son to take away the sin of the world, and then the Father and the Son sent the Spirit to bring this blessing to all mankind through the ministry of the Church. It is a story of mercy. The divine mercy is at the heart of the world and of all reality, and it is this that God wishes man to base his life on. All of this brings us to a special detail in our Gospel passage today, which is the naming of John the Baptist (Luke 1: 57-66). We read that after his birth “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.” The name came from heaven, and it had been communicated to Zechariah by the angel Gabriel: “your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John” (Luke 1: 13). So it was practically the first thing said by the angel about the boy soon to be born. Why “John”? The name “John” (English) is derived from the Latin Ioannes or Iohannes, which is in turn a form of the Greek Iōannēs. This Greek name is a form of the Hebrew name Yôhanan, also transliterated Yochanan, a short form of the long name Yehochanan, meaning "Yahweh is merciful" or "God is generous." The name of John was a kind of banner setting forth the ways and character of the God of Revelation. The name had some popularity — important rabbis bore the name, such as Yochanan ben Zakai and Yochanan ben Nuri. John Hyrcanus was the first king of the Hasmonean Dynasty. For us, the name is full of meaning.

John the Baptist, the subject of our Gospel passage today, was to be a herald of the divine mercy. The angel said of him before his birth that “he will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God ... to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1: 16-17). After his birth, Zechariah, moved by the Holy Spirit, said that God “has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors and has remembered his holy covenant... By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us” (Luke 2: 72-78). John the Baptist is a grand witness to the mercy of God, to God whose might is revealed in his mercy. Let us trust in the mercy of God!

God’s kindness 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. The world is regarded as going on without him. Now, it may be that part of the way people could come to a sense of God as a living Person and one who is very near, is to discover his kindness. It is this which is referred to in today’s Gospel. 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 let us 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. 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.

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We are under an obligation to work, and to work conscientiously, with a sense of responsibility, with love and perseverance, without any shirking or frivolity. Because work is a command from God, and God is to be obeyed, as the psalmist says, in laetitia, joyfully!

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Gal 4:4 Behold, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son into the world.

Collect Come quickly, we pray, Lord Jesus, and do not delay, that those who trust in your compassion may find solace and relief in your coming. Who live and reign with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

A daughter of King Dagobert II of Germany, St. Adele became a nun upon the death of her husband, making provisions for her son, the future father of St. Gregory of Utrecht. She founded a convent at Palatiolum near Trier and became its first Abbess, ruling with holiness, prudence, and compassion. St. Adele seems to have been among the disciples of St. Boniface, the Apostle of Germany, and a letter in his correspondence is addressed to her. After a devout life filled with good works and communion with God, she passed on to her heavenly reward in 730.

Scripture today: 2 Sam 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16; Ps 89:2-3, 4-5, 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 1:67-79)

Fulfilment Time and again our Lord refers to the Scriptures — meaning, in Christian terms, the Old Testament. This alone ought instil in the Christian a high veneration for the Prophets, the Psalms and the Inspired Writings generally, prior to Jesus Christ. While the Gospels are the most important Books of the Bible, Fr. Ted Tyler

our Lord’s own practice of instructing his disciples and engaging with his opponents by having recourse to the “Scriptures” that pre-date himself ought help us to appreciate the help which the Old Testament affords us. We may say that our Lord himself looked on his mission not only in the light of the will of his heavenly Father which he knew directly as the Son, but in the light of the Scriptures. He encouraged his disciples not only to look on him directly and to observe the witness of his teaching and works, but also to view him in the light of the Scriptures. Moses and the Prophets spoke of him. On his rising from the dead, he appeared to the two disciples on their way to Emmaus. He rebuked them for their being “foolish and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things before entering into his glory? And beginning then with Moses and with all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things referring to himself” (Luke 24:25-27). So there are numerous passages which are to be understood in the light of the Person and mission of the Saviour who was to come. This is apart from the broad and general expectation of the Scriptures, considered as a whole. The correct interpretation of the Scriptures was given by Jesus Christ, and a pivotal point was their reference to him. We could proceed to consider numerous specific passages Christ himself referred to. For example, his references to himself as the Son of Man and to the Kingdom of God and heaven would suggest that the great vision of Daniel 7: 9-18 meant a lot to him. Let this general point about the Scriptures introduce our Gospel passage today, which is part of the Infancy Narrative of St Luke.

A very important prophecy for understanding Luke’s presentation of Christ’s birth and infancy is that of the prophet Nathan (2 Samuel 7) to David, the ancestor of Jesus Christ. It includes the divine promise that David’s kingdom and throne will stand forever (2 Samuel 7:16 and 29). When the Angel Gabriel appeared to the virgin Mary to announce the birth of the Messiah from her, he had recourse to this great prophecy. “The Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he shall be king over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1, 32-33). This is not the only point about Nathan’s prophecy. David had intended to build a house for the Ark of God, but he was forbidden to do so. “The LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house” (2 Samuel 7:11). This God would do through Solomon, the son of David. But the Angel’s general reference to this prophecy when addressing Mary may also suggest that it is Mary who will build (in her womb) the Temple that David did not get to build. Ultimately, of course, it is her Son who is the new and final Temple. These are examples of relevant prophecies. But let us move to our Gospel today, which gives us Zechariah’s prayer of praise of “the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people.” We read in 2 Samuel 7: 1 that “the king sat in his house and the Lord had given him rest on every side from all his enemies.” Rest had come from the Lord to David and through him, from all his enemies (“I have been with you wherever you have walked” 2 Samuel 7:9-11). This is a background to the present: Zechariah exults that God has chosen 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” (Luke 1: 74-75). He praises the God of Israel because “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.” The coming “salvation from our enemies” is surely the fulfilment of the “rest” God had spoken of through Nathan.

Zechariah then prophesies about his son who “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.” While he will be a prophet of the Most High, the Angel had told Mary that her son would be “called the Son of the Most High.” Zechariah prophesies that his son “will go before the Lord to prepare the way for him” — the Angel had said earlier to Zechariah that “he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah” to lead the people to repentance. John is the fulfilment of the prophecy of the return of Elijah, and, as Luke would show a little later (3:4), the fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah. Let us immerse ourselves in the prophecies as we read the Gospels, thus coming to know the Lord who is the King of kings.

God’s mercy 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. 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? Fr. Ted Tyler

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 expected 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.

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Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ex 16:6-7 Today you will know that the Lord will come, and he will save us, and in the morning you will see his glory.

Collect O God, who gladden us year by year as we wait in hope for our redemption, grant that, just as we joyfully welcome your Only Begotten Son as our Redeemer, we may also merit to face him confidently when he comes again as our Judge. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Martyr honoured with a special commemoration in the second Mass celebrated on Christmas Day. She is also included in the Roman canon of the Mass, although she was not venerated in Rome until the end of the fifth century. Probably a native of Sirmium, Pannonia, she was martyred during the persecutions initiated by Emperor Diocletian. Tradition states that she was the daughter of Praetextatus, a noble Roman. She married a pagan named Publius, who died while on a mission to Persia. As a widow, Anastasia cared for the Christians, enduring persecution, and was arrested herself. On a ship with other prisoners, Anastasia was miraculously saved from drowning by St. Theodata. The prisoners, including Anastasia, landed on the island of Palmaria, where they were burned to death. She was made patroness of a basilica in Rome in the sixth century. (www.catholic.org)

Scripture today: Isaiah 62:1-5; Psalm 89:4-5, 16-17, 27, 29; Acts 13:16-17, 22-25; Matthew 1:18-25

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel — which means, God with us. When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her prior to her giving birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. (Matthew 1:18-25)

Entrance Antiphon Ps 2: 7 The Lord said to me: You are my Son. It is I who have begotten you this day.

Let us all rejoice in the Lord, for our Savior has been born in the world. Today true peace has come down to us from heaven.

Collect O God, who have made this most sacred night radiant with the splendour of the true light, grant, we pray, that we, who have known the mysteries of his light on earth, may also delight in his gladness in heaven. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit.

Scripture readings: Isaiah 9: 1-6; Psalm 95; Titus 2: 11-14; Luke 2: 1-14

Shroud of Turin

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, his betrothed, who was expecting her 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 near by, 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: 1-14)

Revealed Religion There are a great variety of religions in the world: varieties of Christianity, and varieties of non-Christian religion such as Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and Zoroastrianism. Some are recently founded, others have a long history. One result of this phenomenon is that a person searching for religious truth may have difficulty because of the many claimants. Faced with such rival voices, many who might be disposed to inquire give up any quest to know the truth. Such a goal is, they think, unlikely to succeed. They might content themselves with being guided by their preferences. Some become indifferent to the question of truth and others develop a dislike for making an issue of it. They can find an emphasis on truth 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 is true, hard as this claim is for the non-Catholic to swallow. The true religion is the Catholic Religion and its teaching is true, while allowing that many religions do have numerous elements of the truth. That is the Catholic claim, and every member of the faithful ought take steps to be personally convinced of it. This position sets its face against relativism in the matter of religious truth. The Catholic Religion is true because it was founded, established, sustained and guided by the living Person of Jesus who is the object of its teaching, its love, its service and its worship. This is to say that the Catholic Religion is the one which is revealed by God in his relentless and loving search for straying and sinful man. The other religions spring from man’s search for God. They carry with them the strengths, the weaknesses, the truths and the falsehoods characteristic of any search by man with all his gifts and his faults. Buddha spent his life searching for the key to happiness, and what he proposed as an answer gave rise to Buddhism. Confucius sought an answer to his questions about a truly ethical and social life. Mahomet had powerful religious experiences and placed himself in the tradition of the prophets to give to his experiences and insights their meaning.

Each of these men discovered some truths in their quest, but in the process were often ensnared in various errors and limitations. Furthermore and most importantly, ultimately the religions springing from man’s search for God do not and cannot save man himself from his sinful condition. It is this sinful condition which separates him from God, his true end. The religions which come from man cannot of themselves save him from the sin into which he is born. Indeed, Islam refuses to recognize the inherited state of Original Sin. The Koran has it that Adam repented of his sin, and that was the end of the matter. This is one of Islam’s many radical differences from Christianity. But divine revelation is clear. As St Paul writes, all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin (Romans 3:9 — and Galatians 3:22). While man is not totally depraved as a result of the Fall, he is sunk in the darkness of sin. God has come to save him with his truth and his grace. The Christian and Catholic Religion is the revelation and the offering of this. It is nothing other than the Person of Christ. In him is the fulness of the godhead bodily, that one and only God who comes searching for sinful and straying man. The birth of Christ at Bethlehem is God’s gift to man, revealing his loving mercy. By the power of the grace conveyed by the religion he revealed and established, Christ our Redeemer places man in union with himself. By doing this, he places man in union with 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 their strengths and limitations. 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 the Redeemer of man to be our way, our truth and our life. It is Jesus and his coming which we celebrate on Christmas Day. But, sadly, we can take Jesus for granted. Indeed, we can live as if he does not exist. On this day we ought consider who it is who was born at Bethlehem! As man, he possesses a human nature and is one of us. He was able to suffer for us. As God, he has a nature that is divine.

In his Person, the Child of Bethlehem is divine. He is God the Son made man. He was the grand Object of the prophecies. Our Lord in his public ministry, and finally in his Resurrection, showed that he was the One sent by the Father to fulfil the divine plan for our salvation. In him we find all the blessings of heaven. He is the bridge between God and man, our High Priest, and no one comes to the Father except through and by him. This Christmas, let us resolve to take our stand by him, and to live lives consistent with this choice. We do this by living as the Church teaches. Let us resolve to live our Catholic Faith fully, generously, and daily, for we are called to sanctity.

Jesus Christ 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: Look at Jesus! There is God! Jesus, the baby Jesus, the boy Jesus, the adolescent Jesus, the man Jesus, the Jesus who was born at Bethlehem and who died and rose for our salvation and our sanctification, is God the Son made man. 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 profound 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 great truth we must bring to as many as possible so that they may come to the light that is life.

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.

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Is 9:5 A child is born for us, and a son is given to us; his sceptre of power rests upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Messenger of great counsel.

Collect O God, who wonderfully created the dignity of human nature and still more wonderfully restored it, grant, we pray, that we may share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Isaiah 52:7-10; Psalm 98:1-6; Hebrews 1:1-6; John 1:1-18 or 1:1-5, 9-14

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When a person really lives charity, there is no, time left for self-seeking. There is no room left for pride. We will not find occasion for anything but service!

Entrance Antiphon The gates of heaven were opened for blessed Stephen, who was found to be first among the number of the Martyrs and therefore is crowned triumphant in heaven.

Collect Grant, Lord, we pray, that we may imitate what we worship, and so learn to love even our enemies, for we celebrate the heavenly birthday of a man who knew how to pray even for his persecutors. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

All we know of Stephen is found in Acts of the Apostles, chapters six and seven. It is enough to tell us what kind of man he was: At that time, as the number of disciples continued to grow, the Hellenist (Greek-speaking) Christians complained about the St Stephen First Martyr.

Hebrew-speaking Christians, saying that their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said, “It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table. Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men, filled with the Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task, whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” The proposal was acceptable to the whole community, so they chose Stephen, a man filled with faith and the Holy Spirit.... (Acts 6:1-5) Acts says that Stephen was a man filled with grace and power, who worked great wonders among the people. Certain Jews, members of the Synagogue of Roman Freedmen, debated with Stephen but proved no match for the wisdom and spirit with which he spoke. They persuaded others to make the charge of blasphemy against him. He was seized and carried before the Sanhedrin. In his speech, Stephen recalled God’s guidance through Israel’s history, as well as Israel’s idolatry and disobedience. He then claimed that his persecutors were showing this same spirit. “You always oppose the holy Spirit; you are just like your ancestors” (Acts 7:51b). His speech brought anger from the crowd. “But [Stephen], filled with the holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God....’ They threw him out of the city, and began to stone him....As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit....Lord, do not hold this sin against them’” (Acts 7:55-56, 58a, 59, 60b).

Stephen died as Jesus did: falsely accused, brought to unjust condemnation because he spoke the truth fearlessly. He died with his eyes trustfully fixed on God, and with a prayer of forgiveness on his lips. A “happy” death is one that finds us in the same spirit, whether our dying is as quiet as Joseph’s or as violent as Stephen’s: dying with courage, total trust and forgiving love. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Acts 6:8-10; 7:54-59; Psalm 31:3cd-4, 6 and 8ab, 16bc and 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 10:17-22)

The way of Christ Islam — now commanding more adherents than the Catholic Church, though still well short of Christianity as a whole — takes some pride in what it believes to be Mahomet’s predictions of military victories. He predicted, of course, that Islam would prevail over all religion: “He it is Who has sent His Messenger Fr. Ted Tyler

with guidance and the religion of truth, that He may cause it to prevail over all religion. God is enough for a witness” (al-Fath, 48.27–8). It is said that once, when Mahomet woke up in the house of Umm Haram, the aunt of Anas ibn Malik, who served him for ten years in Madina, he smilingly said: “I dreamt that my community would be waging war in the sea sitting on thrones like kings.” Umm Haram asked: ‘Pray that I too may be with them’. He said firmly: “You shall be.” (Suyuti, Jami‘ al-Saghir, 6.24). Again, according to one narration, he declared: “Surely, Constantinople (Istanbul) will be conquered (by my community); how blessed the commander who will conquer it, and how blessed his army” (Hakim, 4.422; Bukhari, Tarikh al-Saghir, 139; I. Hanbal, 4.335). This reputed prediction affirms the high spiritual rank of the future conqueror and the virtuousness of his army. Eight centuries later the hope and prediction came true. Mahomet (570-632) himself took to arms, conquered Mecca and Arabia generally, and united the tribes of Arabia into a single Muslim religious polity. Following his death, the Muslim armies in the space of a hundred years were able to establish the largest pre-modern empire until that time. The estimates for the size of the Islamic Caliphate suggest it was more than thirteen million square kilometres, making it larger than all current states except the previous Russian Federation. I think it could be said that the Muslim view of this military phenomenon is that it manifested the divine approval: God had vindicated the Prophet by the success of his own armies and those of his followers and successors. The first century of the Islamic whirlwind constitutes for Islam a kind of historical icon to which succeeding generations refer in their view of the present and the future. That obvious success showed its obvious truth.

But ah! how different was the way and the view of Jesus Christ! I mention the career of Mahomet for no other reason than to set forth the distinctive way of Jesus Christ, and of what he taught must be the way of his followers. Christ commanded no armies, carried no sword, enlisted no horsemen. When Simon Peter drew his weapon in the Garden of Gethsemane and severed the ear of Malchus, Christ ordered him to stop — and he proceeded to restore the ear. Christ promised that his disciples would be hated and hauled before governors and kings. They would be flogged: “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”. That was the prediction, and the prediction came true. Within a hundred years there were no military victories, only persecution — and it had begun in earnest. The Empire had started to notice the Christians, and what it saw it did not like at all. In fact, it hated it. The iconic event to which these early generations of Christians looked — let alone all generations of all times — was what had happened to Jesus Christ himself. Christ did not die in his bed at the end of a “successful” life, but rejected by those who mattered, and by crucifixion. He set the pattern, and warned his disciples that discipleship meant following in his footsteps. It is symbolized in the martyrdom of St Stephen. The path to “glory” and to dominion was through righteous suffering, suffering in obedience to the divine will and in imitation of him. They were to witness to him amid suffering and rejection, relying on the divine aid that would be given them. This divine aid would not be in armies: Christ had said to Pontius Pilate that if his kingdom were of this world, his soldiers would be fighting to save him from the hands of his enemies. His kingdom was not a worldly one. His dominion was aimed at the proclamation of the truth: for this was I born, he told the Roman procurator, to bear witness to the truth. That is the weapon which Christ bid his disciples wield. “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.” With this weapon, the victory would finally come.

Every Christian should understand that in taking his part with Jesus Christ he receives not only the blessing of his transforming and grace-filled friendship, a friendship that will sanctify him, but a share in his mission. That mission is to bear witness to the Person and mission of Jesus Christ to all the nations. The Christian in the world has a mission to the world around him, and that is to make disciples of those who are part and parcel of his life. This he does by bearing witness to the truth of Jesus Christ, aided by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Let us every day engage with this task, then, knowing that it will most assuredly have the victory. Let us make sure we are on the winning side — and that is the side of Jesus Christ, Lord of lords, King of kings.

Stephen 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 Fr. Ted Tyler

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.

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Every activity — be it of great human importance or not — must become for you a means to serve Our Lord and your fellowmen. That is the true measure of its importance.

Entrance Antiphon This is John, who reclined on the Lord's breast at supper, the blessed Apostle, to whom celestial secrets were revealed and who spread the words of life through all the world.

Cf. Sir 15:5 In the midst of the Church he opened his mouth, and the Lord filled him with the spirit of wisdom and understanding and clothed him in a robe of glory.

Collect O God, who through the blessed Apostle John have unlocked for us the secrets of your Word, grant, we pray, that we may grasp with proper understanding what he has so marvellously brought to our ears. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

It is God who calls; human beings answer. The vocation of John and his brother James is stated very simply in the Gospels, along with that of Peter and his brother Andrew: Jesus called them; they followed. The absoluteness of their response is indicated by the account. James and John “were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him” (Matthew 4:21b-22). St John Beloved Disciple

For the three former fishermen—Peter, James and John—that faith was to be rewarded by a special friendship with Jesus. They alone were privileged to be present at the Transfiguration, the raising of the daughter of Jairus and the agony in Gethsemane. But John’s friendship was even more special. Tradition assigns to him the Fourth Gospel, although most modern Scripture scholars think it unlikely that the apostle and the evangelist are the same person. John’s own Gospel refers to him as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (see John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2), the one who reclined next to Jesus at the Last Supper, and the one to whom he gave the exquisite honour, as he stood beneath the cross, of caring for his mother. “Woman, behold your son....Behold, your mother” (John 19:26b, 27b). Because of the depth of his Gospel, John is usually thought of as the eagle of theology, soaring in high regions that other writers did not enter. But the ever-frank Gospels reveal some very human traits. Jesus gave James and John the nickname, “sons of thunder.” While it is difficult to know exactly what this meant, a clue is given in two incidents. In the first, as Matthew tells it, their mother asked that they might sit in the places of honour in Jesus’ kingdom—one on his right hand, one on his left. When Jesus asked them if they could drink the cup he would drink and be baptized with his baptism of pain, they blithely answered, “We can!” Jesus said that they would indeed share his cup, but that sitting at his right hand was not his to give. It was for those to whom it had been reserved by the Father. The other apostles were indignant at the mistaken ambition of the brothers, and Jesus took the occasion to teach them the true nature of authority: “...Whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:27-28). On another occasion the “sons of thunder” asked Jesus if they should not call down fire from heaven upon the inhospitable Samaritans, who would not welcome Jesus because he was on his way to Jerusalem. But Jesus “turned and rebuked them” (see Luke 9:51-55). On the first Easter, Mary Magdalene “ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, ‘They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him’” (John 20:2). John recalls, perhaps with a smile, that he and Peter ran side by side, but then “the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first” (John 20:4b). He did not enter, but waited for Peter and let him go in first. “Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed” (John 20:8). John was with Peter when the first great miracle after the Resurrection took place—the cure of the man crippled from birth—which led to their spending the night in jail together. The mysterious experience of the Resurrection is perhaps best contained in the words of Acts: “Observing the boldness of Peter and John and perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men, they [the questioners] were amazed, and they recognized them as the companions of Jesus” (Acts 4:13).

The evangelist wrote the great Gospel, the letters and the Book of Revelation. His Gospel is a very personal account. He sees the glorious and divine Jesus already in the incidents of his mortal life. At the Last Supper, John’s Jesus speaks as if he were already in heaven. It is the Gospel of Jesus’ glory. It is a long way from being eager to sit on a throne of power or to call down fire from heaven to becoming the man who could write: “The way we came to know love was that he laid down his life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers” (1 John 3:16). (AmericanCatholic.org)

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 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 20:1a and 2-8)

John the Apostle Ephesus is one of the great tourist sites in Turkey, and for the Christian it contains three special pieces: the ruins of the basilica of St John and of the basilica of Mary the Virgin, and the House of Mary. The remains of the basilica of St John indicate a most impressive structure. During the first millennium following the reign of Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I (who restored and rebuilt the early church to magnificence), this basilica was held in high honour. Within the present ruins, pride of place is occupied by the cordoned section displaying the reputed tomb of St John, marked by a large stone slab. There is a sad contrast with the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul. Theirs are the foundations of two of the greatest basilicas and centres of worship in Rome, while St John’s (and St Philip the Apostle’s also, in ancient Hierapolis in Denizli, Turkey) is in the midst of an archaeological ruin. As the pilgrim stands before the stone, he thinks of the great Apostle, author of the Fourth Gospel, the author of the Letters of St John and of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament. John was “the beloved disciple” who leant on the breast of Christ at the Last Supper, without hesitation asked him who his betrayer was, and who features in our Gospel today as running with all his might to the now empty tomb. John will, till the end of the world, be venerated by all the followers of Jesus Christ until he comes again in glory. St Paul refers to him as one of the three “pillars,” and doubtless he was regarded as such by the infant church all his life. Simon was the appointed “Rock” — Cephas, or Peter — and John (with his brother James) was a pillar. But his most powerful influence came from his inspired writings. The three Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) introduce him as among the first four called by Jesus Christ to share in his mission, and this occurred at the commencement of Christ’s ministry. John’s own Gospel provides the further information that this was not, in fact, their first meeting. He had met Christ where John the Baptist was baptizing, and as a result of the testimony of the Baptist. It was there that he became a firm disciple and fully accepted that Jesus was the Messiah.

Consider this John! He came out of nowhere, as it were. Presumably he was born and raised where we find him working at the time of his formal call: by the Sea of Galilee in the vicinity of Capernaum (Matthew 5: 13-18). His father had his business as a fisherman, and John with his brother was raised with that trade, just as Christ was raised with the trade of carpenter-builder. But of course, John was a no-body. Some claim that he and James were related to Jesus (their mothers, Salome and Mary, possibly being sisters), and that they, John and James, were of priestly descent. More to our point, in the wondrous providence of God they were contemporaries of the Messiah and came to know him personally. By the grace of God they quickly perceived his true status and gave their hearts and minds to him. What would they have been were it not for their entry into the friendship and service of Jesus of Nazareth? They would have been utterly unknown to the annals of history — not occupying the smallest footnote. We know of John because of Jesus Christ. More important than our knowing of him, Christ was the making of him. John became a very great saint, one of the twelve foundation stones of the Church, precisely because of Christ. Christ’s friendship defined him, and this friendship was Christ’s gift. He became “the beloved disciple,” beloved of Jesus Christ and the object of his gifts of grace. Emblematic of all this was Christ’s last gift to his beloved disciple, the gift of his own mother during the agony of his dying moments. “When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold your son!’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold your mother!’ And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home” (John 19:26-27). It was Christ’s parting gift from his death-bed on the Cross. John had come out of no-where to be the object of the special love of Jesus Christ, the Lord of lords, through whom all things were made. Each of us can say the same thing. We have come out of no-where to be the object of the special love of Jesus Christ, and this is all that we need for the fullest meaning in life that is possible. All is worthwhile if we have this treasure.

In our Gospel today we see how supreme was the love of Christ in the heart of John. “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” (John 20:1a and 2-8). St Paul would write, “Christ loved me, and gave himself up for me!” These were the sentiments of John the Apostle, too. It is of God’s love that John writes in his First Letter: “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Let us learn from the life, the vocation and the mission of John the Apostle that Christ is our life, and that in him we possess everything.

Divine love 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.

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Work always and in everything with sacrifice, in order to put Christ at the summit of all human activities.

Entrance Antiphon The innocents were slaughtered as infants for Christ; spotless, they follow the Lamb and sing for ever: Glory to you, O Lord.

Collect O God, whom the Holy Innocents confessed and proclaimed on this day, not by speaking but by dying, grant, we pray, that the faith in you which we confess with our lips may also speak through our manner of life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Herod “the Great,” king of Judea, was unpopular with his people because of his connections with the Romans and his religious indifference. Hence he was insecure and fearful of any threat to his throne. He was a master politician and a tyrant capable of Holy Innocents

extreme brutality. He killed his wife, his brother and his sister’s two husbands, to name only a few. Matthew 2:1-18 tells this story: Herod was “greatly troubled” when astrologers from the east came asking the whereabouts of “the newborn king of the Jews,” whose star they had seen. They were told that the Jewish Scriptures named Bethlehem as the place where the Messiah would be born. Herod cunningly told them to report back to him so that he could also “do him homage.” They found Jesus, offered him their gifts and, warned by an angel, avoided Herod on their way home. Jesus escaped to Egypt. Herod became furious and “ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under.” The horror of the massacre and the devastation of the mothers and fathers led Matthew to quote Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah,/sobbing and loud lamentation;/Rachel weeping for her children...” (Matthew 2:18). Rachel was the wife of Jacob/Israel. She is pictured as weeping at the place where the Israelites were herded together by the conquering Assyrians for their march into captivity.

Twenty babies are few, in comparison to the genocide and abortion of our day. But even if there had been only one, we recognize the greatest treasure God put on the earth—a human person, destined for eternity and graced by Jesus’ death and resurrection. “Lord, you give us life even before we understand” (Prayer Over the Gifts, Feast of the Holy Innocents).

Scripture today: 1 John 1:5-2:2; Psalm 124:2-3, 4-5, 7cd-8; Matthew 2: 13-18

When the Wise Men 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 realised 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 2:13-18)

The Child My impression is that it is something of a fashion to deny the historicity of St Matthew’s narration of the slaughter by Herod of the Innocents of Bethlehem. Michael Grant, in his Herod the Great (1971) claims that the story is myth. This is the favoured position of many recent biographers of Herod — although there Fr. Ted Tyler

are others who accept it (such as Perowne, Finigan, Schalit and France). In the December 2008 issue of National Geographic there was an article on the excavations at the Herodian — the final burial place of Herod the Great, a site not all that far from Bethlehem. In the article (“King Herod Revealed” by Tom Mueller) the author writes, “an astute and generous ruler, a brilliant general, and one of the most imaginative and energetic builders of the ancient world, Herod guided his kingdom to new prosperity and power. Yet today he is best known as the sly and murderous monarch of Matthew's Gospel.” In respect to Matthew’s Infancy piece, Mueller immediately has this to say: “Herod is almost certainly innocent of this crime, of which there is no report apart from Matthew's account.” But then in the very next sentence, he observes of Herod that “children he certainly slew, including three of his own sons, along with his wife, his mother-in-law, and numerous other members of his court. Throughout his life, he blended creativity and cruelty, harmony and chaos, in ways that challenge the modern imagination.” Mueller’s dismissal of the Bethlehem slaughter seems to be based solely on the lack of confirmation from other sources, whereas his own portrayal of Herod’s career shows it to have been entirely in character, and very likely. Josephus does not record the slaughter of the Innocents, for he was writing nearly a century later, and may scarcely have heard of the quiet slaying of perhaps as few as half a dozen infants. He does, however, record a number of ruthless murders by Herod in order to keep his throne secure. There is no need here to go into the sordid details — suffice it to say that the slaughter of the Innocents may have been one of the last of a notorious pattern in the “great” Herod’s blood-stained and cunning career.

It seems that the first non-biblical historical reference to the town of Bethlehem appears in the Amarna Letters (c. 1400 BC) from the local governor in Palestine to his overlord, the Pharaoh of Egypt. It is first mentioned in the Bible as the place where Rachel died (an event that would have predated the Amarna Letters) and was buried "by the wayside" (Genesis 48:7). According to the Book of Ruth, it is where Ruth and Naomi settled — and where Ruth married and became the ancestor of King David. Bethlehem is the birthplace of David. So Bethlehem had a long and profound religious aura in the religious culture of God’s chosen people, and it was there that our incident of today’s Gospel occurred (Matthew 2: 13-18). A thousand years earlier, the scene had been visited by Samuel, the prophet and judge. There he was guided by God to anoint David, the ancestor of the Messiah. With that, the Spirit of God came upon David (1 Samuel 16:12-13). It was a pivotal event in the history of God’s people, and it happened in the quiet backwater of Bethlehem. I mention all this as an introduction to the account provided us by the Spirit of God inspiring the Apostle Matthew to tell us the story. A birth of cosmic proportions took place there, and few knew of it: God became man in a quiet corner of Bethlehem. Some were told of it — and by heaven. There were the Bethlehem shepherds. There also arrived some visitors from the East inquiring where the King was to be born. They were following his star. Naively they inquired in the City where Herod happened to be, and word got around, indeed to the anxious and ever-wily Herod himself. He hatched his plan to protect his dynasty and sent the Easterners on their way. But God sees all, and though he does not intervene to prevent the effects of all sin, at times he will so as to achieve his plans for the salvation of the world. Herod woke up to the situation: the Magi from the East were not coming back to him, so he acted. His men arrived, did their dirty work quietly and left, thinking that all was well. But the Messiah had been spirited away in the nick of time due to the intervention of God’s Angel. The holy trio were on their way.

How beautiful the scene! There they move ahead, immersed in God with their outline against the moon. Egypt is ahead of them. All is quiet and in the hands of God. The day will come when the Child, the Son of the Most High, will allow himself to be placed in the hands of his enemies — of which Herod is an emblem and forerunner. God has his plan. Now is not the hour. But the hour, his hour, will indeed come. The days will pass, as will the months and the years, and the mother will be standing before her Son as he dies his terrible death. It will be the holocaust of the Ages, the Sacrifice that will take away the sin of the world. God has his time. Let us entrust ourselves to the care of God our Father, and resolve to live in union with his divine Son our Lord, appealing to Mary and to Joseph for their powerful prayers. Let us place ourselves in the company of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and never allow ourselves to be separated from them!

Martyrdom 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. Fr. Ted Tyler

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 hand of God, and for his part he allowed for this to happen. Mysteriously, their deaths therefore contributed 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.

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Correspondence to grace is to be found also in the ordinary little things of each day, which seem unimportant and yet have the over-riding importance of Love.

Entrance Antiphon Jn 3:16 God so loved the world that he gave his Only Begotten Son, so that all who believe in him may not perish, but may have eternal life.

Collect Almighty and invisible God, who dispersed the darkness of this world by the coming of your light, look, we pray, with serene countenance upon us, that we may acclaim with fitting praise the greatness of the Nativity of your Only Begotten Son. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

A strong man who wavered for a moment, but then learned one St Thomas a Becket Martyrdom

cannot come to terms with evil and so became a strong churchman, a martyr and a saint—that was Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, murdered in his cathedral on December 29, 1170. His career had been a stormy one. While archdeacon of Canterbury, he was made chancellor of England at the age of 36 by his friend King Henry II. When Henry felt it advantageous to make his chancellor the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas gave him fair warning: he might not accept all of Henry’s intrusions into Church affairs. Nevertheless, he was made archbishop (1162), resigned his chancellorship and reformed his whole way of life! Troubles began. Henry insisted upon usurping Church rights. At one time, supposing some conciliatory action possible, Thomas came close to compromise. He momentarily approved the Constitutions of Clarendon, which would have denied the clergy the right of trial by a Church court and prevented them from making direct appeal to Rome. But Thomas rejected the Constitutions, fled to France for safety and remained in exile for seven years. When he returned to England, he suspected it would mean certain death. Because Thomas refused to remit censures he had placed upon bishops favoured by the king, Henry cried out in a rage, “Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest!” Four knights, taking his words as his wish, slew Thomas in the Canterbury cathedral. Thomas Becket remains a hero-saint down to our own times.

No one becomes a saint without struggle, especially with himself. Thomas knew he must stand firm in defence of truth and right, even at the cost of his life. We also must take a stand in the face of pressures — against dishonesty, deceit, destruction of life — at the cost of popularity, convenience, promotion and even greater goods. In T. S. Eliot’s drama, Murder in the Cathedral, Becket faces a final temptation to seek martyrdom for earthly glory and revenge. With real insight into his life situation, Thomas responds: “The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason.”

When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took the child Jesus 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 2:22-35)

Simeon He is an unknown soldier and is part of Bonaparte’s Grande Armée. He has his wife and children back on his tiny farm in the vicinity of Rouen, France. All he really wants is to see them again. It is 1812, and on 23 June the huge army enters Poland, heading for Russia. Within a few days of crossing the Niemen, several soldiers begin to develop high fevers and pink rashes on their bodies. Typhus has broken out in the Grande Armée, and just one month into the campaign, Napoleon has lost thousands of his soldiers to typhus and dysentery. Our unknown soldier longs to see his family. The battle of Borodino follows, and Napoleon enters Moscow with his army very tired — and Moscow, deserted, is set ablaze by guerilla Russians. The retreat begins within a month. Russians harass the desperate French force as they make their way back, trying to escape the winter. Our unknown soldier is among them, longing to see his wife again. The Grande Armée is virtually destroyed by the weather, by disease, and by the pursuing Russians, and Napoleon's reputation of invincibility is shattered. But we are observing the unknown soldier. Miraculously, he survives the terrible ordeal with but minor injuries, and gets home to Rouen to see his wife and children. Think of him and of what has become the focus and goal of his life, which is to see his family once more. Let him be an emblem of the goal of life. He wanted to “see” his wife and children: this meant that he wanted to see and be with them in a life of final, settled communion with them. Is the goal of life to get a lot of money? If so, what then? This cannot be the goal, because manifestly it cannot be a source of true happiness. Is the goal of life to get to the top of power, which is what Napoleon wanted? If so, what then? The goal of life is to attain something like what that unknown soldier wished to attain. He wanted to “see” his family again. That word “see” (which our soldier repeated in his longing heart) meant being with his wife and family, and working for them in circumstances of settled communion. That physical sight was a symbol and means of his heart’s sight of the object of his love. Man’s heart longs to “see” that for which it yearns, and this “seeing” by the heart is its presence with the object of its love. In a sense, it is the goal of life.

In our Gospel today the Messiah is brought into the Temple of the Lord, and with that we are introduced to a figure who may be considered as quintessentially a saint of the Old Testament. Simeon appears on the scene, led by the Holy Spirit. He has grasped the kernel of what we might call Old Testament religion and the pivotal place of the promise of a Messiah. His life has for its focus the hope of seeing him, and in this he may be said to express the ideal of the people of God. “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” (Luke 2: 22-35). This sight of the Messiah was the true hope of Revealed Religion prior to Jesus Christ. Simeon’s whole being longed to “see” Christ, and in this he is a symbol of the true son of Abraham. Our Lord in one of his confrontations with his enemies of the Temple aristocracy said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day; he saw it and was glad” (John 8: 56). Simeon, like Abraham his father in faith, rejoiced to “see” the day of Christ. Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector of Jericho, ran ahead to “see” Jesus (Luke 19:4) — and Christ pronounced him to be “a son of Abraham” (Luke 19:9). Our Lord on one occasion said to his disciples that “blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you hear and did not hear it” (Matthew 13:16-17). The longing of the Scriptures was to “see” and to “hear” the Messiah. It was because so many were found not to have this longing that our Lord chose to speak to them in parables only, and without the explanation he gave to his disciples. As he said to his disciples, “With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which says, ‘You shall indeed hear but never understand, and you shall indeed see but never perceive, for this people’s heart has grown dull ... and their eyes they have closed’” (Matthew 13: 14-15).

To see Christ was the goal of Simeon’s life. Not only is Simeon an image of the spirit of revealed religion prior to Jesus Christ, but he is a model for all of us. Life’s goal is to see the God who became man in the Person of Jesus Christ. Blessed are the pure of heart, our Lord said, for they shall see God (Matthew 5:8). Our heart longs to see God, which is to say, our heart longs to see Jesus Christ our Way, our Truth and our Life, as Simeon longed to see him. This “seeing” of Jesus Christ our God, our Brother and our Redeemer is that “seeing” which is the arrival at full and final communion with him in heaven — a communion which is begun, established and brought to a height and a depth during this life. Seeing Christ, in this sense, is the goal of life.

Christ 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.

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You cannot forget that any worthy, noble and honest work at the human level can — and should! — be raised to the supernatural level, becoming a divine task.

Entrance Antiphon Lk 2:16 The shepherds went in haste, and found Mary and Joseph and the Infant lying in a manger.

Collect O God, who were pleased to give us the shining example of the Holy Family, graciously grant that we may imitate them in practicing the virtues of family life and in the bonds of charity, and so, in the joy of your house, delight one day in eternal rewards. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

You say you’re not familiar with today’s saint? Chances are you aren’t — unless you’re especially informed about Benedictine bishops who established monasteries in medieval England. Born of royal blood in the 7th century, Egwin entered a monastery and was enthusiastically received by royalty, clergy and the people as the bishop of Worcester, England. As a bishop he was known as a protector of orphans and the widowed and a fair judge. Who could argue with that? His popularity didn’t hold up among members of the clergy, however. They saw him as overly strict, while he felt he was simply trying to correct abuses and impose appropriate disciplines. Bitter resentments arose, and Egwin made his way to Rome to present his case to Pope Constantine. The case against Egwin was examined and annulled. Upon his return to England, he founded Evesham Abbey, which became one of the great Benedictine houses of medieval England. It was dedicated to Mary, who had reportedly made it known to Egwin just where a church should be built in her honour. He died at the abbey on December 30, in the year 717. Following his burial many miracles were attributed to him: The blind could see, the deaf could hear, the sick were healed. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14 or Gn 15:1-6; 21:1-3; Ps 128:1-5; Colossians 3:12-21; 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 2:22-40)

The family and suffering Man is a social being — he lives with others and observes their situation. He is able also to reflect on himself and his own situation. He is able to compare one thing with another, including his own situation with that of someone else. He can notice how, on the face of it, someone else is more endowed and blessed by fortune than he. Fr. Ted Tyler

He can even be envious — indeed he can be depressed and angry that someone else seems to be better off. He can be envious of another who has greater intellectual gifts than he, or better social skills, or better health or greater wealth and more material possessions, or far fewer difficulties. Envy can also exist in marriages and families. A spouse can become envious of another who has a much better husband or a much better wife. A parent can be envious of others for the better children they have, and for the better course in life their children are taking. I mention this not to take up the matter of envy, but only as an introduction to the inevitable issue of difficulty in life, and in particular, in married life. While the sin of envy can be the response to difficulty, there can be difficulty, whether or not there is sin accompanying it. The world is vast and complex. The forces making it up can press down on an individual and on a family; they can push, press and shove that individual or family. This need not be due to the sin of the sufferer, nor need it lead to sin on his or her part. Difficulty and suffering — specifically in the family! Let that be our thought, arising from the Gospel scene of today in which the all-holy Mary, wife and mother, hears the words of Simeon, that “a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Luke 2:36-40). It is a harbinger of the future. Let our thoughts pass on to a further incident in the Infancy Narrative, when Mary and Joseph find the boy Jesus in the Temple. There had been three days of a tormented search for him. Mary says to her divine Son: “Son, why have you thus acted towards us? Your father and I have sought you in great torment” (Luke 2:48). There was no sin in Mary, no sin in Joseph, and of course, there could never be any sin in the boy Jesus, Son of God made man. Still, his action — all good and all wise, and according to the Father’s will — caused great torment to his parents. I am sure it was foreseen by the Boy himself, for humanly he was of surpassing intelligence. So it would have caused him distress too — but it was the will of his Father that he act thus. There we have difficulty in family life entirely free from any trace of sin. Difficulty in family life is everywhere.

Let us dwell on the grand vocation of marriage and family life, and with it the inevitable presence of difficulty and suffering. We have in history a family that is a universal model because it was a family of extraordinary, unparalleled and wondrous holiness. At the same time it was a family of entirely ordinary circumstances, including the circumstance of obscurity. It too had its difficulties. The birth of the Redeemer into this family was marked by difficulties. It was shrouded in poverty. There was also the solemn warning of Simeon to Mary that the Child would be persecuted, and that a sword would be driven through her soul. A little while later there was a sudden and life-threatening persecution — the Magi departed, and the henchmen of Herod were on their way. They would have got hold of the Child had it not been for the Angel’s warning. It meant that Mary and Joseph, with the Child, had to be up and on their way by night to a different country, no less. Then there was the incident mentioned above. It involved three days of severe distress for Mary and Joseph, crowned by her plaintive question: “Son, why have you thus acted towards us?” Why had he acted thus? She immediately learnt that he acted thus because it was the will of his heavenly Father. But there was no explanation of why God chose thus to direct his divine Son. This is instructive indeed. So many things happen in the life of an individual and a family which are mysteriously permitted by God without any divine explanation of why it was allowed, why it was necessary, why he had acted thus. A girl is raised in a happy family on a remote farm. She is an excellent young girl, religious, and with all the dispositions needed to become a fine mother and wife, serving God in that vocation all her days. She meets a young man, marries, moves to the metropolis, and then there begins a marriage full of burden and sorrow for her. He is a complete disappointment by anyone else’s reckoning, but she remains faithful to him right to the end. Her friends and relatives pity her bad luck and admire her undaunted spirit. Why did God allow this to happen? Does she envy her sisters and brothers for their families, their spouses? Does she get disappointed or angry with God himself? No, indeed. She does not understand why this happened or was allowed, but she accepts the providence of God. Her life is obscure and glorious, and suffering has been the making of her.

Let us today think of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the model family of all time. This family is, and should be the source of inspiration for every family and the object of every family’s contemplation. Let us contemplate this family in respect to family difficulties. God fulfils his providential plan in the midst of difficulty and suffering — and the life and mission of the Redeemer shows this. Let us, then, remain united to God by remaining united to Jesus, Mary and Joseph all the days of our life, especially in the midst of the inevitable difficulties and sufferings. They will be the making of us, if we submit ourselves to the will of God.

Anna 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. Fr. Ted Tyler

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 the 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 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 to his disciples, had 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 recognized him.

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As Jesus, who is our Lord and Model, grows in and lives as one of us, he reveals to us that human life — your life — and its humdrum, ordinary business, have a meaning which is divine, which belongs to eternity.

Entrance Antiphon Is 9:5 A child is born for us, and a son is given to us; his scepter of power rests upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Messenger of great counsel.

Collect Almighty ever-living God, who in the Nativity of your Son established the beginning and fulfilment of all religion, grant, we pray, that we may be numbered among those who belong to him, in whom is the fullness of human salvation. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

When you think of this pope, you think of the Edict of Milan, the emergence of the Church from the catacombs, the building of the great basilicas, Saint John Lateran, Saint Peter’s and others, the Council of Nicaea and other critical events. But for the most part, these events were planned or brought about by Emperor Constantine. A great store of legends has grown up around the man who was pope at this most important time, but very little can be established historically. We know for sure that his papacy lasted from 314 until his death in 335. Reading between the lines of history, we are assured that only a very strong and wise man could have preserved the essential independence of the Church in the face of the overpowering figure of the Emperor Constantine. The bishops in general remained loyal to the Holy See and at times expressed apologies to Sylvester for undertaking important ecclesiastical projects at the urging of Constantine. It takes deep humility and courage in the face of criticism for a leader to stand aside and let events take their course, when asserting one’s authority would only lead to useless tension and strife. Sylvester teaches a valuable lesson for Church leaders, politicians, parents and others in authority. To emphasize the continuity of Holy Orders, the recent Roman breviary in its biographies of popes ends with important statistics. On the feast of Saint Sylvester it recounts: "He presided at seven December ordinations at which he created 42 priests, 25 deacons and 65 bishops for various sees." The Holy Father is indeed the heart of the Church's sacramental system, an essential element of its unity. (AmericanCatholic.org)

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 recognise 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 power 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 fulness 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 1:1-18)

Mystery revealed In a letter of March 10, 1880 (close to a year after receiving the Cardinalate), Cardinal Newman wrote to a correspondent that “the Jewish Priests did teach, faithfully, truly and successfully, the Divine Law and its prophetic revelations on the whole and in substance up to the time of our Lord’s coming. In fact they had prepared the Jews for Him. They had kept the prospect of his coming before the minds of their people, nay before the heathen nations of the East, so that the Messiah was expected at that very time” (Letters & Diaries of John Henry Newman, Vol XXIX, p.245). That is to say, the great thought of the coming Messiah, the Object of many principal prophecies, was kept vivid in the mind of the nation by its religious leaders. There is even evidence that surrounding nations had picked up the notion that a great King was coming. Herod the Great, an Idumean, was very sensitive to the matter (Matthew 2:3). However, the prophecies had been gradual and vague. Some of them do not seem to have been taken up seriously. For instance, there were the haunting predictions of the Suffering Servant in Deutero-Isaiah. Notably, they had been interpreted in very temporal and material senses. After all, Abraham had been promised a Land. Moses had been shown the Promised Land and Joshua his successor had let the chosen people into it. David was the great King who established the polity, and the Messiah would be his son and successor. The threats of the prophets had been that if the people did not repent, they would have their land taken from them and they would be placed in subjection to others. Daniel 7 predicted the coming Son of Man to whom would be given the dominion, an everlasting dominion that would not be destroyed. All this was fulfilled in the event, but what was new and a great development was the revelation by Jesus of Nazareth of the spiritual nature of God’s kingdom. The Angel had told Joseph in a dream that the Son of Mary his wife “will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). The idea of a crucified Messiah who would have a spiritual mission — to atone for the sin of mankind — and who would be King of a kingdom not of this world, became a cause of stumbling — that is, a “scandal.” On the matter of the Messiah, the Christian religion was new, but in entire accord with the Scriptures.

But there was much more that was new, and which led to a great rupture. Not only was the Messiah’s mission supremely spiritual and concerned with man’s reconciliation with God, but the Messiah turned out — so his followers claimed — to be, yes, God! He was the all-holy One. He was Yahweh himself come among us as man. But there was more to this. Yahweh God was said by the followers of this Way to be not just one divine Person, for Jesus of Nazareth was his own Son by nature. Jesus spoke of God as his own Father, and spoke as One who was equal to him. He, Jesus, was the full revelation of God, the image of the unseen God, the very Word of God made flesh. He who sees me, sees the Father, he told his disciples. He was the only Gate to heaven, the only way to the Father. There was also the matter of the Spirit of God — he was not just the Divine Action or Assistance, but was himself a divine Person. All this was far, far more than what had been preserved by the Priests and the Scribes in the day-to-day religion of the people. Allowing for many exceptions such as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, they fell away and refused the whole business. The Christian claim was that, as John, one of the “pillars” among them, would later write, “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 bedrock position of the Christian religion was that “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1: 1-18). The blessing that the Word made flesh brought to man was the gift of divine filiation: “to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the power to become children of God.” Now, all this was new indeed, and far beyond the grasp of human reason. It was the mystery hidden for ages in God (Ephesians 3:9). I doubt that any religion has appeared with tenets so original and so much beyond the mind of man.

Our Gospel today is what is commonly called the Prologue of St John’s Gospel. It sets forth at the outset the Christian mystery, and mystery it obviously is. There is no religion which can compare with the Christian revelation in profundity and originality and with such grandeur of purpose. Nor can any religion compare with it in strength of life amid adversity. How could this have come from, purportedly, mere fishermen and obscure artisans — their leader being a carpenter from an unknown village in Galilee who had himself executed after a fling at religion? As our Prologue sings to the ages, it was from God that it all came, and it is to God that it takes us.

Sin 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. What, we may 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.

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You should be full of wonder at the goodness of our Father God. Are you not filled with joy to know that your home, your family, your country, which you love so much, are the raw material which you must sanctify?

Liturgical Season	Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
Third Week of Advent B-2						16	17
Fourth Sunday & Weekdays of Advent B-2	18	19	20	21	22	23	24
Christmastide B-2	25 The Nativity of The Lord	26 St Stephen, Martyr	27 St John, Evangelist	28 The Holy Innocents	29	30 Holy Family of Jesus, Mary & Joseph	31