Wars, mass shootings, oppressive regimes, and violence in all its forms has darkened humanity since Cain killed Abel. Today’s account of the killing of the holy innocents, those boys two years and under at the command of King Herod, is yet another account of the lack of respect for the dignity of humanity.

Instead of coming to adore the Christ child like the Magi, Herod gives in to the darkness of his soul. His fear of losing his leadership even to an infant led to the atrocities he commanded in his rage when the wisemen did not reveal Jesus’ location.

Why would we be reading this account during these days of Christmas? Because it is part of Jesus’ history. As Joseph was led in a dream by an angel to change his mind about divorcing Mary, he was again guided to escape to Egypt before Herod’s terror began.

Also, Jesus, who is the light that came into the world reveals the darkness and fallen nature of our humanity so that we can see the good that God has intended from the beginning. All that God made is good. “God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all” (I John 1:5).

Sin is not a thing, it is a deprivation, a corruption of the good that God has created. The Son, present when all was, is, and continues to be created, entered time and space through his birth. Jesus is the “light of the human race” (John 1:4).

Sin is a rejection of the light that has always been the foundation of humanity and all of creation. This Christmas, as with each Christmas from the first, we are given a choice to say, “No” or to say, “Yes” to the light that has come into the world. This light is no impersonal, energy force but the divine Son, the second Person of the Trinity, who took on flesh and became human like us and dwelt among us.

The way we overcome the darkness in our world is to do the opposite of Herod and surrender ourselves to the Christ child and allow him to shine his light into our darkness. In this way, we may better discern between darkness and light, lies and truth, receive better clarity and strength to resist temptations, and shore up areas of our weaknesses.

When we struggle or feel weighed down from any darkness of the world, personal challenges without, and/or darkness within, we need to remember that the light of Christ who has come into our world is still present in our lives. The enemy: the devil or anything or anyone who seeks to isolate, tempt, keep us in the shadows, and lead us away from God, seeks to tempt us to reject the light.

A truth we need to hold onto is that the enemy is weak, the temptations are not the truth, they are only apparent goods, and the lies have no substance. They only gain strength when we ascent to them. When we choose the light, we will be freed from the darkness, for “the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” The place we want to remain is in God’s love and light. For “God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.”

Jesus invites us to breathe, rest, receive, abide, and remain in God’s love and light, for “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Anytime we notice any slight anxiety or reaction, we just need to breathe and trust in Jesus. The Spirit of the Lord is with us and reminding us that we free from the enemy that seeks to bind us!

Photo: Tabernacle at St. Mary Catholic Church, Windsor Locks, CT.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, December 28, 2023

“Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed” (John 20:8).

Tradition teaches that the other disciple was John, the author of this gospel and whose feast day we celebrate today. We do not know for sure what he saw that led him to believe. He mentioned a couple of times the burial cloths, including the one that covered Jesus’ head “rolled up in a separate place.” 

The cloths were there but Jesus was not. The rolled-up head cloth apart from the other burial clothes may seem an insignificant detail but even something that small could have caused the light bulb to go on in John’s mind. If someone stole Jesus’ body, they would not have taken the time to roll up the head covering, also thieves would most likely not have taken the burial cloths off a dead corpse. It would have been much easier and less revolting to carry the body with the burial clothes still in tact. Could it be that his body was not taken as Mary Magdalene had thought, and if this body then was not taken and the tomb is still empty, then Jesus conquered death and rose from the dead!

What is most important is that John saw something that led him to believe this truth, and this belief came to him before he experienced Jesus coming to them in the upper room. 

God communicates with each of us personally and uniquely as well. There are small and seemingly insignificant happenings in our everyday moments in which God is speaking to us, revealing to us his presence, and confirming that he is close. These are not mere coincidences but God-incidences. They also often happen at opportune times when we are discerning, needing a confirmation, or just an affirmation that we are not alone. 

“[T]he disciple whom Jesus loved”, again we believe to be John, “saw and believed.” A good practice for us today is to make some time to be still and remember times when we have experienced when Jesus has drawn close and communicated in some way at an opportune time. May we trust in his presence and resist the temptation to discount the God-incidences that we have experienced, be open to his reaching out to us in many and varied ways, and so come to believe as John did. Believe that Jesus, whose birth we celebrate this week lived, taught, died for us and  indeed rose from and conquered death, loves us, and is with us right now and will be by our sides in all we do.

Photo: Evening Rosary walk last night.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, December 27, 2023https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122723.cfm 

“And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (Jn 1:14).

Today, Christmas Day, is what we have been preparing and anticipating for all of Advent. We celebrate today that the Word, Logos, in the Greek, who was, who is, and who always will be, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, has become human while remaining fully divine. We are the minutest of minutest speck of specks present in the whole of the cosmos. And yet, we are graced with each breath we take to be intimately known by God our Father. He loves us so much that he sent his Son to us to become a human being for each and every one of us, each individual person, so that we in turn can become one with him. He became human that we might become divine through our participation in his life.

The Mystery we celebrate today is that this Word, did not just appear to be a man for a time and cast off his humanity like a cloak. The Son was conceived in the womb of Mary, developed as you and I did, and when born let out a gasp and a cry indicating that our Savior was born to us in a unique time and place. Joseph and Mary gazed in wonder at the gift of their Son, the gift of the Incarnation for the whole world.

Christmas Day and the season that follows is the celebration of new life. Not just the birth of any baby, but through his coming into the world, a new beginning for humanity and creation. We do not just celebrate the baby who would become a great teacher and moral mentor, but the coming of our Savior and the truth, the reality, and the hope that although we may be wounded and even broken, we have not been undone, not unmade, not destroyed. We are not worthless to be tossed away, but we have been saved from our traumas, fears, doubts, insecurities, and freed from our slavery to sin. God’s grace is greater than our sins, suffering, wounds, our worst mistakes, misjudgments, and most grievous faults. We are loved more than we can ever imagine!

The Word who became flesh, was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be” (John 1:2-3). Jesus, the Son, the Word, knew each of us before we existed. For all – all things came to be through him and everything that he created is good. We as human beings are very good. That means each of us exist as an outpouring of God’s infinite love. We may have trouble believing the truth of who and whose we are because we see on full display that we continue to be a world at war, even in the land of Jesus’ birth. We witness constant acts of inhumanity, injustice, and the fallen nature of our humanity in just a recap of the nightly news.

Yet even while these and so many other challenges both far and away as well up close and personal are happening, these dire episodes of life are not the truth, not the reality that God has intended for us. That is why we began to celebrate last night and continue this morning that “A light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it” (Jn 1:5). This is a day to hope, rejoice, to reconcile. A day to recommit to the Light, to the baby who would later call himself, “the way, and the truth, and the life” (cf. Jn 14:6).

This is a day to embrace the gift of the promise of our humanity, the gift of our diversity and interconnectedness, the gift of our families, biological and in all but blood, as we embrace this baby wrapped in swaddling clothes. We are one body in the Christ child.

Jesus, the One who saves, is our hope. We can trust in him. Change and healing happens by first allowing him to forgive, redeem and transform us. As we surrender to him, trust in and receive his love, we are invited to reach out, not in some abstract way, but to share his love and healing touch person to person as Jesus does with us. In so doing, we reflect and spread the Light we have received.

Jesus shows and imparts to us the truth and realization that: “We cannot save ourselves. We can only open ourselves to the hope that comes to us from without, from others, ultimately from one Other” (Lohfink 2014, p. 255). The One other who was willing and continues to be willing to come close, whose birth we celebrate today. The One who is Jesus: “The Light of the human race” (Jn 1:4).

Photo: From our family to yours from St. Philip Catholic Church, East Windsor, CT – Christmas Vigil Mass.

Lohfink, Gerhard. No Irrelevant Jesus: On Jesus and the Church Today. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2014.

Link for today’s Christmas Day Mass readings from the Mass of the day for Monday, December 25, 2023

We come to the fourth Sunday of Advent which will carry us right into the Vigil of Christmas this evening. Today we hear one more time the proclamation of the promise fulfilled. In our first reading from Samuel, God speaks to David through the prophet Nathan. Nathan tells David that God will build a house and a kingdom and a throne from his line that will “endure” and “stand firm forever” ( see 2 Samuel 7:16). The psalmist echoes God’s promise that he will establish his “throne for all generations” (see Psalm 89). And in today’s Gospel, the proclamation of the Archangel Gabriel rings aloud again to Mary the fulfillment of God’s promise:

“Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:31-33).

As the sun sets this evening, the readings of Advent will come to a close for another year. They have been our guide to relive the promises that God has made to his people through all generations that he has created a people for himself to be loved and to love. This evening and tomorrow we are invited to celebrate again the fulfillment of this promise that God chose a specific time and place to establish his kingdom on earth through the heir of David, and as Gabriel said, he is the one who was called Jesus – the one who saves.

Our loving God and Father has sent his Son to come close, to enter the fullness of our humanity to free us from our sin. Jesus came close to forgive us and lead us back into relationship with his Father through the love of the Holy Spirit. With the celebration of the coming of our savior into the world this evening, we celebrate the coming of the invitation to our redemption and salvation.

Jesus has come to save us, but as we have seen, we like Mary in her encounter with Gabriel, are given the choice. As with Mary all of creation held its breath awaiting her response to collaborate in the incarnation of our savior. This day and this night, creation holds its breath yet again as we are to choose again. Do we trust in Jesus or not? We can dismiss this accounting as a mere happening from the past or embrace the reality that each day Jesus comes to be a light in the darkness and invites us to collaborate with him in establishing his kingdom that “will endure” and “stand firm forever.”

Will we come to Mass today and tonight or tomorrow or not? Will we come in body only, just to fulfill an obligation? Or will we come with our hearts and minds wide open with great anticipation to encounter the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He who is the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, God from God and Light from Light, will come close to us again as he did in that manger so many years ago, but now in an even more humble way. Through our gifts of bread and wine and then through the sacrifice offered by the priest, Jesus will be made present again in his Body and Blood so we can receive him.

We are invited to receive and consume him or receive him through a blessing and allow God to happen through us. Our redemption and salvation, our entrance into the kingdom of heaven, begins and continues each time we say with Mary, “May it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

With our yes, we receive God’s forgiveness, healing, love and mercy. We are made new each day and grow in our relationship with our savior and Lord and will reign with him forever and ever!

Photo: Mary at St. Rose Catholic Church, East Hartford, CT.

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, December 24, 2023

All who heard these things took them to heart, saying, “What, then, will this child be? For surely the hand of the Lord was with him” (Luke 1:66).

All “these things” were about the events surrounding the miraculous birth of John: Zechariah’s encounter with the angel and after their meeting not being able to speak, Elizabeth’s conception after years of being barren, and now the unique name, John, given to the child and the return of Zechariah’s voice.

Each of these events led many to wonder about the future of this child. Both his father and mother came from a long line of priests. This infant we now know as John the Baptist did not become a priest like his father or ancestors. He went into the wilderness to preach and offer a baptism of repentance. A ritual bath was not a practice unknown to the people of his time, the difference was that John’s baptizing was not done in the manner that was prescribed by the priests. 

As more came to him, to hear his words, to be baptized, it would have been easy for John to give in to the temptation of the limelight. He, like Mary and Joseph, could have made a different choice, but like Mary and Joseph, John remained faithful to the will of God. He did not grasp for himself what was not his. He said that he was not the messiah and said instead that he would decrease and the One for whom he was even unworthy to untie his sandals, would increase. 

John reflected the light that was to come as he recognized that he was not the light. He was preparing the way. There was no envy in John. From their first encounter with each other in the womb, John leapt for joy at the presence of his Lord. John pointed the way to Jesus even when two of his disciples were asking about him. One was Andrew who became one of the Twelve Apostles. John is pointing the way to Jesus for us as well this morning. 

What then will we be?

Most of us have not had miraculous births like John or Jesus. Yet, we are beloved children of God. He has called us to be his own. There is a mission he is preparing us for and a path that he his preparing us to walk. Are we willing to surrender our lives to Jesus as Mary, Joseph, and John did? Are we willing to be purified like gold and silver? Just as the impurities are burned out of these precious metals, are we willing to allow the purifying fire of the love of the Holy Spirit to purify the partial, that which is not true in us, so that all which is not of God will pass away? Are we willing to trust?

Each yes, each apparent or false truth, and inordinate attachment we let go of, the more of our fears, insecurities, and lies that we have been believing in that we renounce, will further clear the path for us to receive more of the love of Jesus. 

This is our Advent walk. Faithful by faithful step, let us trust in Jesus more so that our false selves will decrease and the truth of who we are and who God is calling us to be will increase! 

Photo: Evening Rosary walk around Lake Mary at Bethany Retreat Center, Lutz, FL.

Link for the Mass for Saturday, December 23, 2023

“And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me” (Luke 1:43).

Elizabeth speaks these inspired words to Mary when Mary first arrives after coming in haste to share the news that she like Elizabeth is celebrating a miraculous conception. John the Baptist leaped in her womb as Mary approached, just as David danced before the ark of the covenant when it was being brought back into Jerusalem.

As St. Ambrose wrote: “The women speak of the grace they have received while the children are active in secret, unfolding the mystery of love with the help of their mothers, who prophesy by the spirit of their sons.”

We can also share in the great joy of Mary, Elizabeth, and John for Mary, the mother of our Lord, comes to us. Mary has come in miraculous ways such as at Fatima, Lourdes and Tepeyac but she also comes to each one of us as well. 

She comes to lead us to the blessed fruit of her womb, Jesus. He who has been born to save us can now be born in us. “A soul that believes both conceives and brings forth the Word of God and acknowledges his works” (St. Ambrose). 

Then let us believe, conceive, and radiate the joy we receive from our growing relationship with Jesus. 

Photo: Starting to look a lot like Christmas at St. Peter Catholic Church, Jupiter, FL.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, December 21, 2023

The readings this week have been filled with messages from angels and in each account have been sharing the good news of new life. The word good news or gospel comes from the Greek euangelion. Eu means good and angelion means news. Angelos, deriving from the same source as angelion, means messenger. Angels are messengers of the gospel, the good news. They receive and are sent by God to deliver his good news.

In today’s gospel from Luke, the archangel Gabriel has come to bring incredible news and because Mary ascents with her, “Yes.” a savior has been born for us in space and time. The incarnation, the Son of God becoming man, is what we are preparing to remember and celebrate in five days! This good news that we hear each year is not only good news to celebrate but through receiving this truth we are invited to have our lives transformed.

The reality that the Son of God became one with us in our humanity so that we can become one with him in his divinity is an incredible reality that we are invited to participate in. Each day we are invited like Mary was to receive Jesus, to receive his transforming light and infinite love, and like John the Baptist to become less so that Jesus can become more.

Strictly and metaphysically speaking, we are not angels. Angels are spiritual beings and not physical. We as human beings are spiritual and physical beings. Because Jesus became human, lived, suffered, died, conquered death, rose from the dead, and ascended to heaven fully human and fully divine, we then who participate in his life, participate also in his divinity and so are higher than the angels. Good news that Lucifer the archangel did not receive well and so became Satan, the accuser, opposer, or adversary, and why he and those angels who followed him rebelled.

As human beings, we too are given free will as are the angels. We may reject or accept the gospel. When we say, “Yes” that is only our first step. We too then are invited to evangelize like the angels, and like Mary in going in haste to Elizabeth, to share the good news of what Jesus is doing in our lives.

We are invited each day and throughout the day to breathe, receive, rest, and abide in God’s love. Then in our interactions with one another allow God to happen through us. A smile, an attentive ear, a shoulder to lean on, a willingness to be present, to be aware, and to offer to be of help, are simple ways that we can do little things with great love and so with Mary, the saints, and the angels, help to bring to earth what is practiced in heaven – the communion, unity, and love of God.

Painting: The Annunciation by Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1899

Link to the Mass readings for Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Both the wife of Manoah and Elizabeth have the same problem. They are barren. And for Elizabeth, she like Sarah, the wife of Abraham was in “advanced years.” Mary, was the opposite. She was very young, 13-15 years and still a virgin. In each of these cases, God would intercede and bring new life.

Each child to be born would have a special role in God’s plan of salvation history. Isaac would be the beginning of the fulfillment of the promise of God to Abraham that of his offspring he would make a great nation. Sampson, the son of Manoah and his wife would be one of the judges of God’s chosen people. John the Baptist, the son of Zachariah and Elizabeth would be the last in the line of the prophets and according to Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary,: “I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11).

In each situation, God brought new life where it seemed impossible and further implemented his plan to restore and bring humanity back into communion with him.

The Season of Advent is a time of anticipation and hope. We are preparing and waiting, watching and praying, for the coming of Jesus at the end of time, we are preparing to remember again and celebrate his first coming, all the while our day to day lives continue. We seek his presence in the here and now.

Our readings today and all of Scripture invite us to strike a healthy balance in our lives as we seek to encounter Jesus in our lives. When all is going well and we are experiencing times of consolation, we are to be humble and thankful. We are to offer God thanks for our blessings, knowing all that we have comes from him. In our humility, we are also to look ahead while we feel the closeness of God for those times when all will not be going well and life gets bumpy.

We are to prepare as Joseph, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah did. He stored up the surplus of grain for the time of famine that would come and so saved his people from starvation.

When we experience trials and tribulations, when we do not feel God close, when we slip into times of desolation, it is then we are to trust that God has not abandoned us but remains with us. We are also to trust that he also may be allowing these challenges to bring about a greater good, to strengthen us, and our trust in him. He will also provide what we need, empower, and lead us, even when all seems lost.

As we walk together through these final two weeks of Advent, may we open our hearts and minds to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and follow his lead and pursue a healthy balance of humility and thanksgiving when all is going well and trusting in times of challenge. May we continue to recognize that we are blessed and loved by God and his presence in our lives.

Let us be assured and confident that no matter what challenges or trials may lie in wait before us, those on our radar as well as those surprises that may arise, that we will face them with our loving God and Father at our side. Let us also know beyond any and all doubt, that as with those who have gone before us, we also have a part to play in God’s plan of salvation history and with him, all things are possible.

Photo: Sun shining brightly again Sunday! Even when the sun is blocked by the clouds as we experienced this past Thursday to Saturday, it is still there. It is the same with God. Trust he is present even when we may not be experiencing him. 

Link to the Mass readings for Tuesday, December 19, 2023