Reflections on the Gospel Reading for the Day

Spend some time with Jesus.

In our gospel readings, over the past few days we have experienced Jesus’ initial encounters with who will become his apostles. Andrew encountered Jesus and was moved by his experience during their time together and then went to tell his brother Peter about Jesus.

Today, Philip is found by Jesus, and Jesus asks Philip to follow him. Apparently, he does, and something happens because in the next scene Philip has found Nathaniel and shared with him: “We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”

Nathanael hesitates as he first hears this news. What pulls him up short, even though Philip has just shared with him that Jesus is the one who is to fulfill the promise of Moses, is where Jesus is from as revealed when he asks, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

The Pharisees also resisted believing in Jesus because of where he was from. Despite Nathanael’s hesitancy, he trusted Philip enough to “come and see.” Unlike many of the Pharisees, when Nathanael heard Jesus say that he had already seen him under the fig tree before they met, Nathanael let go of his prejudgment and believed.

Through the Apostles who came, saw, and believed, Jesus began his Church. As they came to know Jesus, like Nathanael, each had to let go of preconceptions that limited their understandings of Jesus. Also, their limitations as finite human beings held them back. Through their trust and belief, and commitment, they deepened their relationship with Jesus, and they were transformed, made new.

Jesus met them where they were in those first encounters, and slowly but surely, with fits and starts, missteps and misunderstandings, they grew and matured. Jesus has found and calls us as well.

Like his Apostles and those who continued and continue to follow Jesus through each generation since then, we too can come and see. We can see and experience him in his word alive in Sacred Scripture, personally in our time of daily prayer and meditation, as well as proclaimed during the Mass. We can encounter him intimately and are transformed by him in the Eucharist and the sacraments. We encounter him in our serving and love of one another and in our sharing of the experiences we had with him as Andrew and Philip did.

Jesus has come to be with you right now in this moment. He has found you just as he found Philip. I invite you to read today’s gospel passage slowly (John 1:43-51). You can read once or a few times, and then slow and deepen your breath, close your eyes, and allow yourself to enter the scene you just read.

Allow yourself to enter Jesus’ memory, invite him to lead you as you walk up to stand by Philip and Nathanael. Spend some time in silence with Jesus now. See Jesus turn his face from them and look to you. Is there anything or any thoughts that may be causing you to hesitate as did Nathanael? What does Jesus say to you? How do you respond? What happens next? Do you stay with Philip and Nathanael, or does Jesus lead you off to the side to talk? This time is for you and him to spend together, to get to know one another better. These questions are only guides to get you going. You can use some or all, or disregard some or all. Trust in Jesus, he will lead you. Enjoy!

Photo: Last night’s Rosary walk, Egret Landing, Jupiter, FL.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, January 5, 2023

Behold the Lamb of God and follow him.

John was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God” (John 1:29).

John confessed earlier when asked if he was the messiah that he wasn’t. John knew who he was in the plan of God’s salvation. He did not claim to be more than he was but accepted his position as the one who would prepare the way for the messiah. Here he is doing just that with two of his disciples. Not seeking to hold on to them so that they would follow him but pointing to Jesus as the one to follow and give their lives to.

Andrew, one of the two of John’s disciples, would have picked up on the reference regarding the lamb of God right away. This is the lamb that would be sacrificed at the Passover meal each year. How that referred to Jesus, Andrew, Peter’s brother, and who would become one of the Twelve Apostles, would come to understand later as he experienced Jesus’ passion, death, resurrection, and ascension.

Jesus gave his life for us, not just so that we could exist, not to race through life at breakneck speed, but to live a life of meaning, purpose, fulfillment, service, in balance, and abiding in God’s love. This is not to mean that we won’t suffer. It means that as we surrender our lives to Jesus and his timetable, even when challenges arise, we can experience his peace in the midst of what we are going through.

Often, we miss John’s invitation to, “Behold the Lamb of God” because we are not paying attention, we are distracted or diverted, we are “anxious and troubled about many things.” We need to catch our breath and slow down more often than we allow ourselves to.

I have shared a lot in these morning texts about the importance of slowing down – breathing, resting, receiving, abiding in God’s love, and only a few days ago, thinking I was writing that too much. I need the reminder, as I believe we all do. Life goes too fast and so many of us hop on board the train of life that whizzes by and we are barely hanging on with one hand. That is not how God intended or wanted us to live.

One reason we may not to slow down is we aren’t ready, willing, or able to face the pain of our past nor surrender our will to Jesus and invite him to reveal to us what we need to let go of. Slowing down is not easy but with the love of God our Father is possible. We will not be crushed by what we fear to see. We will be loved, forgiven, and healed.

Berating ourselves for not slowing down does not help. We need to give ourselves permission to be kind and patient with ourselves. The thing about slowing down, is we need to slow down to slow down and that takes consistency and time of repeatedly doing so. The good news is that you have already begun the process of doing so.

A good place to ground our efforts, is to set up a sacred space in our homes that we can go to everyday, ideally the same time and same place each day. It doesn’t have to be amazing or perfect, it can and ought to be simple. Some place comfortable to sit and something to focus on like a statue, picture, candle, a view outside… The point is that you have a place to go where you can be still, focus, breath, and pray.

Best to start small and build from there. 5-10 minutes is good. A simple prayer you can start with is, “Jesus, please help me to slow down.” You can also follow John’s invitation, “Behold the lamb of God.” Behold Jesus in your imagination as Andrew did in person and follow his lead. Then just sit with Jesus and breathe. And bring either of these prayers back up when your mind drifts away. You can also start simply and slowly and stay with the sign of the Cross or the Our Father. The point is not to seek a mystical experience, not to grasp at anything. The point is to be still with Jesus. As Mary shared with me, when you show up each day, God will happen! That is true whether you experience something or not!

Creating for ourselves a sacred space and showing up there daily is a good anchor point to start with each day, and from there, we have made an intention to slow down as the first decision and action of our day. We have invited Jesus to help us, and then we can carry that intention and Jesus with us through the rest of the day and return anytime we need with a simple closing of your eyes, slowing down of our breathe, and calling on his name or short passage from Scripture. Jesus will help us to put the pieces of a balanced lifestyle together.

Remember, Jesus loves us as we are right in this moment. Nothing needs to be changed before he helps us other than inviting him to be with us and be still enough to experience him in the moment and then, one breath at a time, allow him to happen in our lives, and he will lead us step by gentle step, as Andrew and the other disciple of John did. They spent an afternoon with Jesus and their lives were transformed. Ours can be too!

Behold, trust, and spend some time with the Lamb of God!

Photo: Quiet Rosary evening walk last Monday night.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, January 4, 2024

Unconditional love is possible when we allow God to bestow his love on us.

“See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are” (I John 3:1).

Sometimes, or too many times, this truth that John is sharing with his community and with us this morning is hard to receive but these words are true. God bestows on us his love as we are right now in the moment. He is not waiting for us to do anything right, to be perfect, and/or to say the perfect prayer. Our Father just wants to love us as we are right now as we are in this moment. He loves us more than we can mess up, he loves us when we sin and even in the act of our committing sin, and he loves us more than we can imagine.

God also loves us uniquely in the way we are in most need. The key is that he loves us on his terms not ours. He knows what we need, the deepest desires of our hearts and souls. He loves us unconditionally and infinitely.

The challenge is, that our concept of what love is, has been distorted by influences of the enemy and the fallen world around us. So as the country singer, Johnny Lee, sang in 1980, we are, “Lookin’ for love in all the wrong places.” We are looking because God made us to be loved and to love in return, that is our deepest yearning and hunger: to be loved, to belong, to be seen, to be heard, and to be understood.

Time and again though, we fall because we grasp like Adam and Eve did. We want to determine love on our terms, on our conditions, believing that if we can be in control, we can be safe and won’t be hurt. The problem is that authentic love is to be received and it is just not about feelings, emotions, sentiments, comfort, or security. All of those come from the reality of love, but the foundation must be grounded in the unconditional love of God.

Authentic love is about being vulnerable to another. It is not about grasping but about receiving. It is not a presenting of ourselves in a false way that we believe another wants us to be but a willingness to be ourselves and risk that we will be rejected or accepted as we are, with our imperfections as well as our positive attributes. Love is also about sacrifice, our willingness to give ourselves to another, to be there for them. As St. Thomas Aquinas taught, “Love is to will the good of the other as other.”

Even if we have a correct understanding of love, we are still finite and have a limited point of view. Unconditional love is a love that we cannot learn on our own. We must experience God’s love to transcend our finite understanding of love. May we make time consistently to be still and allow God to bestow his infinite love upon us. Then we will remember who we are, his beloved children. And as we remember, may we see each other as God sees us, with his infinite love.

Photo: Sanctuary at St Gabriel Catholic Church, Windsor, CT

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, December 3, 2023

Let us abide in the love of God today and all year!

“Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father” (I John 2:24).

John is writing these words to encourage his community who has been wounded by a split in the community with those who walked away from the truth of the faith. The major point at issue appears to have been the identity of Jesus. Those who walked away were those who refused to believe that Jesus was the Christ the Son of the living God. 

Both factions believed in and were followers of Jesus but the ones that opposed the truth were those that could not bring themselves to believe that he was fully human and fully divine. For them how could the divinity of God enter humanity? They could not believe that the Son became human, that he only appeared to be, or his body was just like a glove to be cast off. 

Yet, that is exactly the opposite of what we have been celebrating this past week, which has been the incarnation, the reality that the Son of God was conceived in and born of the Virgin Mary. This is why we also celebrated yesterday that Mary is the Mother of God. Jesus truly is fully divine and fully human. 

John is encouraging those who did not leave to remain in the truth that they have been taught, so that what they “heard from the beginning” would remain with them. What they heard from the beginning was to remain in the love of Jesus. As Jesus taught: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him” (John 14:23). John would echo this teaching just a few verses later: “For this is the message you had heard from the beginning: we should love one another” (I John 3:11).

In I John 2:24 that we read today, the word, remain, appears three times. Remain comes from the Greek word menō. It can also be translated as stay, reside, or abide. I like abide. If we want to know the truth about Jesus, we need to know Jesus and abide in him and his love. The prayers we pray, the words we read in the Bible, the Masses we participate in are not to be just motions we go through like spiritual calisthenics. They are opportunities for growing in our relationship with Jesus and his Father. 

This is just as true with our relationships with one another. If we do not pay attention to one another, listen but do not hear, are not there for each other, a distance grows, doubt creeps in, and trust weakens. When we are actively engaged in each other’s lives, hear as well as listen, communicate, support each other in our ups and downs, we grow closer, confidence grows, and trust strengthens. 

We resist the lies and receive the truth when we slow down enough to receive and abide in the one who loves us more than we can imagine. The one who knows every hair on our head and who has carved us in the palm of his hand: Our loving God and Father. 

To grow as disciples of Jesus in this new year, to grow in our relationships, we are invited again and again to breathe and slow down, to receive and ponder his word, to receive his Body and Blood, to see and serve him in one another, and to rest and abide in his word, his presence, and the love of his Father that he has shared with us. It is very easy to get diverted, distracted, to rev up and get busy, but our primary goal of this day and this year is to breathe, rest, receive, and abide in the love of Jesus who is fully God and fully man, his love that he so much wants to share with us.

When we make time to do that each day, we will abide in the love of the Son, and so abide in the Father, as we experience the love between them, the Holy Spirit. Every thought, decision, action, and word will then flow from the love of our Father who created us. As we are purified and transformed by his love, we will continue to heal and so will our relationships with one another.

Photo: Saturday evening after Mass at St. Peter Catholic Church, Jupiter, FL

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, January 2, 2023

The Holy Family teaches us to counter violence with compassion.

Just seven days ago, on Christmas Eve, a 14-year-old shot and killed his 23-year-old sister, and his 15-year-old brother shot and wounded him in retaliation. This happened because of an escalating argument over Christmas presents.

This happened not in Israel or Ukraine, but just about 200 hundred miles northwest of Jupiter, FL. There are so many more examples I can give. I will not. I have already shared one too many.

Violence in our world is a reality, it has many forms and infiltrates our homes, families, communities, nation, and our world. This reality is not new, nor is this reality the truth of who God created us to be and our readings today bear witness that there is another way as we celebrate the gift of the Holy Family: Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

In another time and place, a baby was born in a cave because no one was willing to allow his parents entry into their homes or even the local inns. This family also fled to Egypt to save the life of their Son. They would return after Herod’s own death, and live in Nazareth in poverty as an occupied people under brutal Roman rule. Despite all of this, and no matter the level of their suffering, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph trusted and were faithful to God. The holy family models for us what God intended for all of humanity from the beginning.

Joseph and Mary were also faithful to the law and brought Jesus to the Temple to dedicate him to God. As we just heard proclaimed Simeon said: “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in sight of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel” (Luke 2:29-32).

“My eyes have seen your salvation.” Simeon is calling this child God’s salvation. This child is to be the instrument to save humanity. Jesus’ name means, one who saves. This baby is to be “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel.” Jesus, whose name means, one who saves, came to show us the difference between the selfishness and fallen nature of men and the truth and love of God. Jesus was born for us, to be one with us, to reveal to us the goodness of our humanity, to forgive and heal us, and invite us to the fulfillment of our humanity which will come to through our participation in his divinity.

“Why then,” you may be thinking, “has nothing seemed to have changed in the almost 2,000 years since his birth. Simeon answers this as well: “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to a sign that will be contradicted (and you yourself a sword will pierce) so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed” (Luke 2:34-35).

This is not just a prediction of the pain Mary will suffer at the cross of her newly born infant when a Roman soldier pierces his heart, but Mary also is standing as a representative of Israel and through Israel, all of humanity. Jesus comes close person to person. He invites, he does not impose his will. The dignity that God has given us is foundationally the freedom to choose to reject or accept his love and his relationship. To choose division and separation or to choose unity and communion.

The brothers did not wake up Christmas Eve with the intent of taking up arms instead of opening presents. There were choices and circumstances surrounding their lives long before that led to each of their choices to pull the trigger. Why did they and so many in our world choose violence instead of the peace and the love of Christ?

So many reject the Prince of Peace. And even many that accept him do so in name only. We are blinded by the temptations, influences, and diversions of the world. We need to realize first and foremost that we need a savior. We can’t change this world or ourselves on our own. We need to acknowledge that this child is indeed our savior, we need to accept the invitation to come to know him, to open our hearts and minds to him, and to allow him in to heal and forgive us. When we do so, and our relationship with him grows, we will be transformed. This happens only in our everyday experiences and the choices we make. Each “Yes” to the will of God, our fallen nature will become less, and Jesus will become more. Hopefully, over time we say yes much more than we say no, such that people no longer see us, but they see Jesus in us, and we see Jesus in them.

I had an interesting experience Friday morning. I flew into Ft. Lauderdale on four hours sleep and then took the Tri-Rail up to Boynton Beach. As I got up to leave the train car, my eyes and the door attendant’s eyes met, and she gave me a wonderful smile which I returned as I left. When I completed all I needed to do at the seminary and drove up to Jupiter, it was already early evening, so I picked up an Impossible burger at Burger King on the way home. As the cashier handed me my bag in a rush to get back to the drive-thru, she turned and also offered me a wonderful smile.

I am not going to make anyone’s top one hundred list for most handsome man and I was old enough to be each of these women’s grandfather. There are those moments when kindness and gentleness are exchanged because we see Jesus in one another. I believe that is what happened in both encounters.

It may sound like a small thing, but when we see Jesus in others and they see Jesus in us, there is no more, us and them, there is a brother and a sister in Christ. Ending our tendency toward violence is not an easy fix, but when we surrender our lives to Jesus and we begin to see him in each other, that is a good first step.

St. Paul’s life was transformed by his encounter with and surrender to Jesus. He turned away from a life of persecuting Christians even to the point of death in at least one incident with St. Stephen. He came to see the truth of who God calls us to be in our humanity and shared it in his letter to the Colossians: “Put on, as God’s chosen one, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do” (Colossians 3:12-13).

This is what Christmas is all about. This is how we are to live our lives. We will do so when we come to know this child, spend time in the school of the holy family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. When we make the time to pray with these readings, meditate and contemplate with them, we enter into Jesus’ memory. He lived them and invites us to enter into these accounts each year and to experience them as our own. When we do so, we remember who we are, God’s chosen, his holy and beloved daughters and sons.

When we allow ourselves to be loved and forgiven, healed, and saved, surrender and follow Jesus, our lives will be changed. We will be more compassionate, humbler, kinder, patient, forgiving, and loving. We will see each other as brothers and sisters as the one Body of Christ.

I invite you to come to receive Jesus who came as an infant almost 2,000 years ago and will be made present again on this altar. The Son of God became one with us in our humanity, will be made present for us in the Eucharist, so we can be one with him in his divinity. As we are loved by Jesus and love him and each other in return we counter the violence of our world one person, one smile at a time. Come receive Jesus and share him with all those you encounter today and through this week.

This will be a peaceful way to begin the new year!

Photo: Statue of the Holy Family on the grounds of St. Peter Catholic Church, Jupiter, FL.

Link to the Mass readings for Sunday, December 31, 2023

Let us continue to choose God, who is the light.

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

May we, like John, “see and believe.”

“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 

Jesus is our hope this Christmas!

“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

Mary’s, “Yes”, gave us the greatest gift, Jesus our Savior whose kingdom stands forever!

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

Has our Advent walk led us in a way that we are becoming less so that Jesus is becoming more?

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