christianity
“Behold the Lamb of God.” He who was born and died for us.
John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29).
The only one who can take away sins is God. The unblemished lamb is the animal that is sacrificed at the Passover meal, commemorating when the angel of death passed over the Hebrews whose doorposts were marked with the blood of the lamb. The next day they were freed from their slavery under pharaoh, and the exodus event began culminating in their passing through the Red Sea to freedom.
The Son of God became human to become the Lamb of God. He experienced laughter, pain, suffering, love, tears, and all of our human condition even temptation, but he did not sin. The Son of God became human so that what he assumed in his human condition, he could redeem. As the Lamb of God, Jesus approached John for baptism, he took upon himself the sin of the world and submitted his divinity to his human condition and was willing to be baptized for repentance not because he sinned, but so that he could take upon the sin of the world upon himself. This act was also a foreshadowing of his crucifixion on the cross.
The Incarnation, the Son becoming fully human while remaining fully divine, was the premiere act of mercy, in that Jesus entered the chaos and woundedness of our lives. His allowing himself to die on the cross the greatest expression of his love. The same love that he shares with his Father, his receiving and returning all that he received to the Father and holding nothing back, we can see him doing so visibly when we look upon a crucifix. He was born and died, he gave everything, including his life for each and every one of us.
Alone we cannot be redeemed, we cannot be fully healed or restored to who we have been created to be. We need a savior. Jesus is, while at the same time, more than a model to follow or a teacher to guide us, he became one with us in our humanity to lead us up out of our brokenness and sin. In saying yes to his invitation, we can say with Paul, “yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20). This is the gift we have received again this Christmas, a reminder that when enter into a relationship with Jesus, he grants us the grace to access and share in the divine power of the Love experienced between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Jesus holds his hand out to each one of us today. May we receive his hand in our own, and as our fingers touch his palm may we feel the wound there, embrace the remembrance of the nail that pierced his flesh, the pain that he endured, so we could have this very moment with him. Even in our brokenness, anxiety, confusion, fear, and sin, may we resist pulling away. May we feel the warmth of his hand grip ours. Let our gaze be drawn up to see his face, his smile, his forgiveness, and experience his infinite love for us.
I am blessed at each Mass as I hold up the consecrated host to be able to say, “Behold, the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world.” May we see, believe, and receive the Body and Blood of Christ. Amen.
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Photo: Christmas Morning Mass, Holy Cross Catholic Church, Vero Beach, FL.
“Who and whose are we?”
“Who are you” (Jn 1:19)? John did not claim or pretend to be something that he was not. He was clear who he was, he was clear of his place in serving God, and he was clear about the mission God gave him. He was preparing the way of the Lord. John shared that “there is one among you whom you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie” (Jn 1:26-27).
The question also arose about who Jesus was. It was not only a question during his lifetime, but this query was also addressed during the early development of the Church’s Christology and still arises today. The readings of the Christmas Season, that we are still celebrating liturgically, in fact, all four Gospels, address the question of who Jesus is. In fact, the entirety of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation answers this question!
The majority of the heresies that arose in the Church surrounded this question as well. From the Annunciation, we recognize that at his conception in the womb of Mary Jesus remained fully God and became fully human. He did not become the Christ at his baptism as the heresy of Adoptionism would propose. Nor was Jesus a powerful created being as the priest Arius would suggest in the third century. We counter the heresy of Arianism every Sunday when we recite in the Nicene Creed: “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him, all things were made.”
Arianism taught that Jesus was a created being, the highest of beings made by God, but created none the less. The Church teaches that Jesus is begotten not made. He was, is, and always will be God, the Second Person of the Trinity. He is God the Son consubstantial, homoousios, which means of one and the same substance with God the Father. The Father and the Son are one in substance, yet distinct in their operation. The Father begets, the Son is begotten.
Adoptionism and Arianism are but two of the various early heresies that arose, of which Arianism gained more of a following. Arianism still rears its head today in practice as it did then because of the unwillingness of those who will not acknowledge that the divine could become human. This goes back to our starting question that was asked about John. “Who are you?”
A good question to answer for us ourselves. We are human beings created in the image and likeness of God, even though our likeness has been dimmed by sin. We are physical beings with a rational soul, we are invited to embrace the reality that we are human and through our participation in the life of Jesus, beginning with our baptism, we are adopted daughters and sons of God. Do we reject our humanity, our created status, trying to determine our own destiny on our own terms, to put ourselves in the place of God, or are we like John the Baptist, and acknowledge the gift of who we are and the mission God invites us to participate in?
As we continue to celebrate this Christmas Season and the new year that has just begun, may we embrace that each and everyone of us is a unique person, never created before nor will we ever be again, with a particular vocation and part to play in building up of the reign of God. We will come to know our purpose and begin to restore our likeness, as we follow the lead of Mary who made time to ponder and align her human will with the divine will of God.
As we collaborate with Jesus in all the decisions we make, the smallest to the biggest, let us pray for a heart, mind, and soul that is open to following the love of the Holy Spirit so that we can know who we are, whose we are, the mission that the Father has given us, and begin to live it each day. We restore our likeness to God by becoming holy and striving to be saints.
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Photo: Spending some quiet time with God is a good way to begin the year, begin and end each day, and to know who we are and that we are loved more than we can imagine.
Link for today’s Mass readings for Thursday, January 2, 2025
With Mary, Theotokos, as our guide, let us ponder more in 2025.
Mary offers us a wonderful gift today as we begin the new year together. “Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart” (Lk 2:19). Gabriel shares with Mary that she will conceive a child through the power of the Holy Spirit. Her relative Elizabeth, who is past childbearing years, is six months pregnant when Mary and Elizabeth meet. In their encounter, John leaps in the womb of Elizabeth. The shepherds convey the message they received from the angels that Mary’s baby is the long-awaited Messiah. Simeon and Anna offer prophetic confirmation that Jesus is the Messiah.
These are the events we have been hearing again during Advent and this Christmas Octave. May we like Mary also ponder, not to just read or listen and move on. The Church at her best has followed the model of Mary’s reflection, pondering, and meditating upon what these words mean and has come to call this day the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. This title says more about Jesus than it does about Mary. This is the teaching that the Church Fathers confirmed during the council of Ephesus in 431 AD:
Mary is the Mother of God, in Greek – Theotokos – the God-bearer.
As Paul intuits, “God sent forth his Son, born of a woman” (Galatians 4:4). Paul did not say, born of man and woman but of woman. The second Person of the Trinity was sent by his Father through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit and was conceived in the womb of Mary. Jesus is the Son of God in his divinity and the son of Mary in his humanity. He remained fully divine as the second Person of the Trinity and the Holy Trinity was not diminished in any way as he developed as a human being in the womb and was born of Mary. This truth and reality is the Mystery of the hypostatic union: Jesus is one divine person subsisting in two natures the human and divine.
Theological insights such as Mary being the Mother of God, the hypostatic union of Jesus, are easily missed or worse dismissed if we conform ourselves to the present age of instant gratification, instant access, surfing, swiping, taking in sound bytes from Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and amassing information overload. All of these technological avenues can be wonderful if we stop, slow down, and as Mary did, ponder what they offer.
If we still read books, do we do so with pencil and highlighter in hand, take notes and go back to those points underlined, highlighted, and or annotated and ponder the insights we have received, and then put them into practice? Or do we just have a moment of pause and say hmm, interesting, and then move on to the next factoid?
Let us begin the first day of the new year by taking a few deep breaths, slowing down, and pondering. We can reflect on a word, a phrase, or a short statement that we write down and return to it often. The phrase could be as simple as a paraphrase from today’s reading: Mary pondered on these things in her heart. Let us reflect on where God has been calling us to stop and take a deeper look at our lives. It could be one word: Theotokos, expressing that Mary is the God-bearer, the Mother of God, and what that means to us. We can meditate on a picture like the one I posted with this reflection.
If we seek to live a life of joy and fulfillment in 2025, we would do well to follow Mary. That would entail pondering more, slowing down, and reflecting on life, on what is important, what has value, where we are putting our time, energy, and effort, and recognizing where we do not God and where we do welcome God in our lives, where we resit and where we follow his will. Otherwise, we may just float along through another year indecisively or stagnantly with indifference or cynicism, merely reacting to situations that arise, or just plodding along in survival mode or merely bored and listless. Being still can be scary because as we do so, our fears, our past hurts, and our loneliness can come to the surface.
Yet in that willful act of slowing down and even coming to a complete stop, the Holy Spirit can embrace us in these very real emotions with his love, so we can begin to heal and transform beyond merely existing and set a healthier course of being more alive and grateful for the gift of our lives. Hand in hand with Jesus and Mary, we can face and embrace our fears, and heal from our wounds. Surrendering and conforming our lives more to the life and love of Jesus, we will realize that we are not alone, and so can build more authentic and intimate relationships. We can act more decisively and with greater clarity, and experience more fully what we are here for, to bring a little more tenderness, mercy, understanding, forgiveness, and love to the many others around us who are also wounded.
May 2025 be a wonderful new year of healing, joy, and fulfillment, as we, like Mary, come to experience God’s presence in the silence of our hearts, his love that embraces us, so that we may become a people of faith, hope, and love in contemplation and action. Mary Mother of God, pray for us.
Happy New Year! Peace and all God’s good. Take good care of yourselves and those around you.
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Photo: My favorite icon of Jesus and Mary, St. Mary’s Chapel, SVDP Regional Seminary, Boynton Beach, where I was blessed to spend many hours pondering and healing.
Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, January 1, 2025
May we become a sanctuary for Jesus to dwell within us.
“And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). The Logos, the Word, the second person of the Holy Trinity, dwelt or another translation, “tabernacled” among us. The Son of God pitched his tent in our midst. This is a reference to the tabernacle or tent of meeting which was erected whenever Moses and those who had escaped slavery in Egypt camped. Within the tent of meeting was placed the Ark of the Covenant. This tent of meeting was made present because God instructed Moses to do so that he would be present with his people. “They shall make a sanctuary for me, that I may dwell in their midst” (Exodus 25:8).
The Ark of the Covenant and the tabernacle housing it was portable and would move with the people, such that God was always present in their midst. The basic structure would later become the foundation for Solomon’s temple, then Herod’s Temple. The Holy of Holies was believed to be the very seat of God in Jerusalem. In the fullness of time, Jesus was born to us, and he became the living temple, Emmanuel, God with us. “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up” (Jn 2:19).
And why did Jesus come? So that the glory of God could be revealed not just to the temple priest, but to all of us, “and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only-begotten Son, full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:14). Jesus came to be one with us in our humanity while remaining fully divine to reveal the glory of his Father to us, the same glory that filled the tabernacle. Jesus came to be present, to come close and accompany us, in our very midst as God did in the tabernacle and then the Temple.
Jesus was born to share the fullness of God’s grace and his truth with us. He came to restore the ancient covenant that God has been making with his people throughout the ages. Jesus invites us to share in the infinite, faithful love that he shares, has shared, and always will share with his Father. This free, generous act of love is a pure gift. Jesus, in becoming human, in living among us, in teaching, healing, and so building a bridge of relationship with God, shines his light. A light that is not overcome by the darkness of pride, hatred, prejudice, and violence, so that we can see the truth, that God is our Father and we are all brothers and sisters.
The Incarnation, the reality that the Son of God became human while remaining fully divine, reveals to us that none of us are junk. God created us very good and was willing to send his Son to become one with us. Each of us by our very existence has human dignity, value, and worth because we are created in his image and likeness.
Each and every human being is a part of God’s family. Because of our fallen nature, we are still made in the image of God, but we have lost our likeness to him, in that we have lost our glory. Ezekiel witnessed the glory of the LORD leaving the temple because of the unwillingness of the people to repent (See Ezekiel 10:1-22). We, if we choose to remain in our sin will remain in darkness, separated from God. We are all members of God’s family, all of us. Jesus came to redeem us and restore us to our glory, so that we can regain our likeness to the Father. That is why John the Baptist, Jesus, and his Apostles all called us to repent.
When we repent, turn back to God, and accept his invitation to spend time with him in prayer, we walk out from the darkness and into the light of the Lord’s love along the path of reconciliation that leads to us building a sanctuary for him within us. Our likeness is then restored to the extent that we develop and spend time cultivating our relationship with and allowing him to transform us. Jesus shows us the way to do so.
This unmeritorious gift of grace, that Jesus became one with us in our humanity so that we can become one with him in his divinity, is what we are celebrating this Christmas Season. Let us open and lift up our hearts and minds to receive, rest, and ponder the significance of this wonderful gift. May we also commit to daily abiding in his love through prayer, meditating upon his word, and sharing the love we receive with all we encounter today and each day in this new year.
Photo: Spending some quiet time in our temporary, hall sanctuary early evening of Christmas Day.
Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, December 31, 2024
When we trust in the will of God and persevere, we will be saved.
“You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved” (Mt 10:22).
Why are we talking about being hated the day after Christmas? One reason could be that Jesus, this baby whose birth we just celebrated is “the light that shines in the darkness” (Jn 1:5). The very reality of Jesus is that he is the light that exposes darkness, he is the very embodiment of Love that exposes evil and hatred.
St. Stephen, whose feast we celebrate today, and whose death we read about in the first reading from Acts, experiences his words personally. For he is killed for the sole purpose of speaking the Gospel. While during his persecution he sees and communicates how even the heavens open for him. The reaction to those who hear his words are infuriation and they then throw him out of the city and “stone him” (cf. Acts 7:54-59).
Stephen radiated the light, love, and wisdom of Jesus and like Jesus he was put to death. His persecutors felt threatened by the light instead of welcomed to let go of the darkness that held them bound. Jesus exposes the truth of those dark places within our own hearts, minds, and the very depth of our being as well. What is our response? Will we also reject the light, not aware that it is an invitation to healing and to wholeness?
We may wince at the luminous brightness of Jesus’ light and resist the intimacy of the love he seeks to share. We may unconsciously do so, because we have so often faced so much of the opposite; hurt, pain, betrayal, and lack of understanding or acceptance, that we assume a defensive crouch is best to protect our false sense of self, when in fact that is just what we are invited to let go of. As time passes and we keep to the shadows, we risk becoming ingrained in our fear and pride and our posture of protecting our ego.
Yet, to be fully alive, we need to embrace the light, not hide from it. When we are open to the healing touch of Jesus and receive the gift of his light in our lives, we begin to die to our false self and the lies that we have believed. Allowing ourselves to breathe and rest in God’s loving presence helps us to heal, indentify, and allow Jesus to transform our vice to virtue. Once we allow ourselves to be loved by Jesus, we begin to recognize that we are turned in upon ourselves, and then we can adjust our posture and begin to open ourselves to him. We also begin to recognize that we are not the center of the universe.
As we follow the model of John the Baptist, St. Stephen, the other saints, we become less so that Jesus becomes more in our lives. We too will face the same rejection that Jesus faced. We will be labeled crazy, out of step, simple-minded, irrational, and worse. Yet we are to resist returning to a defensive posture, to refuse to react in kind, but instead, to be present, call upon and trust in the Holy Spirit to give us the words to speak, and allow God to happen. We are to remain open, accepting of the person where they are and as they are, and share the same transformative mercy, love, and forgiveness of Jesus that we have received from our attacker.
Change, maturation, and growth are not easy. As disciples, we are to be disciplined and persevere, while at the same time remember that our redemption does not come from our own doing or willing it to be so on our efforts alone. Our healing, restoration, and transformation come first and foremost from a willingness to accept the invitation to experience a deepening of our relationship with Jesus. When we accept his invitation to walk with him, and trust him, we will receive the healing salve of his love, mercy, and forgiveness. We will then heal from and let go of our biases, prejudices, hatred, and selfishness.
Transformation is not a one-time event. Christmas is not just a day, it is not just a season. Christmas is a time when we can recommit to allowing Jesus to enter into and to transform our lives each and every day, each and every moment, with each and every decision. When we are tempted in any way, let us call on the name of Jesus, trust in him, take a few deep breaths, and we will better be able to resist that which seeks to divert us.
In becoming human, Jesus lived showing us that this life was not all there is. The fullness of our lives are to be lived in and for God his Father. When we, like, Jesus, Stephen, and the saints, trust and obey God’s will, no matter where that will lead, we will be transformed, whole, and more alive than we can ever imagine, in this life and the next.
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Photo: St Stephen the Protomartyr – icon by Theophili Saint Stephen, pray for us!
Link for today’s Mass readings for Thursday, December 26, 2024
“Blessed are you who believe.”
If you attend Mass daily or pray with the daily Mass readings, you may wonder, “Didn’t I just hear or read this account?” You would be correct, as this was the same Gospel reading as Saturday morning’s daily Mass. The difference comes in with the other readings.
The first reading from Micah may seem a bit obscure and we might be moved to question what does this have to do with getting ready for the coming of Jesus? Bethlehem would be our first clue. Bethlehem is the city of the birth of David. Micah shared that, “from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel; whose origin is from of old, from ancient times” (Micah 5:1). Micah is prophesying that the messiah will be no mere shadow of David, nor a mighty judge like Samson. This one has his origins “from of old”, beyond time. This messiah will be God with us. Both Matthew and Luke pick up on this in their nativity accounts (Matthew 2:1-2 and Luke 2:4-20) that we will read on Christmas.
So what about Ephrathah? Jews from the time of Jacob until those practicing today would pick up the reference to Ephrathah right away as being the burial place of Rachel the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, and beloved wife of Jacob. Though not the birth mother of the twelve sons of Jacob, Rachel was considered the matriarch, the mother of Israel. Jacob’s name, after wrestling with the Lord all night, was changed to Israel.
Echoes of Rachel being the mother of Israel also arose from the prophet Jeremiah when he wrote of her by name as weeping over her the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians. And yet, God sends comforting words through the prophet: “There is hope for your future – oracle of the LORD – your children shall return to your own territory” (Jeremiah 31:15-17).
We can see with the early Church Fathers that David was the premier king of Israel while at the same time he was foreshadowing Jesus the one “from of old” as Micah predicted. Rachel is a foreshadowing of Mary, the mother of Jesus, the mother of the Twelve Apostles, the fulfillment of the gathering in of the lost twelve tribes of Israel and the mother of the Church. She, like Rachel, would also suffer at the death of her children, but also be the intercessor for them through her suffering.
Mary is the new Rachel and also the new Eve because Mary’s obedience unties the knots of Eve’s disobedience. As we learned in the second reading to the Hebrews, God has no pleasure in sacrifice but takes pleasure in those doing his will. God delights not sacrifice but obedience. Mary, before becoming the mother of the Messiah, the mother of God, was obedient with her “yes” at the Annunciation. As Jesus said, the one who does the will of his Father was his mother (cf. Matthew 12:46-50). Who followed the will of the Father better than Mary?
Very soon after her “yes”, and the conception of Jesus in her womb, Mary went in haste to see Elizabeth. Each celebrating the gift of new life in each of their wombs. And how is Mary greeted by her elder cousin? With reverence, which was unheard of. The youth revered the elder family members during Jesus’ time. After hearing the words of Mary’s greeting, experiencing her son leaping in her womb, Elizabeth is moved by the Holy Spirit to proclaim blessing upon Mary: “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb” (Luke 1:42). Elizabeth does so with great joy, “crying out in a loud voice.”
May Elizabeth and Mary’s joy reach into the depths of our souls. May we be open to believe.
May we believe that Jesus is the Son of God who became man. That Jesus came into the world not just to be a great rabbi and teacher, not just to perform miracles and cast out demons, nor just to be the messiah, that Jesus came not just to live, but that he came to die, to give his life for us, and in so doing become our savior. This birth we are about to celebrate was just a foreshadowing of his impending death.
As Bishop Fulton Sheen wrote, “He was laid in a stranger’s stable at the beginning, and a stranger’s grave at the end… He was wrapped in swaddling bands in His birthplace, He was again laid in swaddling clothes in His tomb… It was not so much that His Birth cast a shadow on His life, and thus led to his death; it was rather that the Cross was there from the beginning, and cast its shadow backward to his birth…” (The Life of Christ).
Jesus, as the fulfillment of the law and the prophets, is inviting us in these final days of Advent to do as he, Mary, and Elizabeth did, to follow the will of his Father. What joy we too will experience when we open ourselves up to the reality of the gift that God has given us, his Son, and so rejoice with Elizabeth and Mary that we too have a part to play in salvation history!
Photo: May these words and picture help you to experience some quiet time to pray and ponder about the connection between the birth and death of Jesus and the life he has called us to live.
Source for Bishop Sheen quote and background information from Dr. Brant Pitre, Mass Readings Explained, The Fourth Sunday of Advent Year C, Christmas and the Cross
Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, December 22, 2024
Let us rejoice, as Elizabeth and Mary did, that God is among us.
Mary “traveled to the hill country in haste” (Lk 1:39) and when she and Elizabeth got together they rejoiced in the gift of new life that God had blessed them both with. We are to rejoice too, as we remember the gift of the conception and birth of Jesus. Jesus invites us to experience a new life. What we are about to celebrate in a few days had never happened before in human history. The Son of God, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, fully divine, became a human being, fully human, just like one of us. That affirms that we are not junk, not someone’s trash to be kicked around. Our life has purpose and meaning because we are loved by God more than we can ever imagine!
We are all invited to be recreated, each and every day. Have you ever wanted a fresh start, a do-over? Well, here you go. Don’t believe any negative mind noise or other people who will actually tell you in subtle or overt ways that you are worthless or nothing. Not true! Just by our very being, the reality that we exist, says something. We have been created in the image and likeness of God and we have been created by Love to receive and to share the love we have received. We are a living craving hunger and desire to be in communion with God and one another. This is true for the atheist and the believer alike. We are called to will the good of the other as other and as they are, unconditionally. If we haven’t been all that loving lately, today is a new day to take Jesus’ hand and begin anew.
We are about to celebrate a baby’s birth. Not just any child, but the One who has always been. The Son became so vulnerable as he took on flesh as an embryo, developed as an unborn fetus, and was born as an infant, and wrapped in swaddling clothes. Mary’s Son would continue to grow, mature, and thirty-three years later, return to an even more vulnerable position on the Cross, beaten, scourged, naked, and crucified. He was born and tabernacled, made his dwelling, among us, to be one with us, so that when he mounted the cross he took our sin upon himself. Original Sin did not destroy us. We were wounded, but by his stripes, the scourging that Jesus endured for us, we have been healed. Then he conquered even death, that we could have life and have it to the full, now and into all eternity.
Jesus was born for us and he is still with us that we might not only be shown a better way but to know him, who is the Way. Jesus became vulnerable for us, being authentically who God called him to be, even when that meant rejection, time, and time again. May we too be willing to be vulnerable, to risk, to share with others who we are, free of masks and pretense. May we be present, and also walk and accompany one another.
Being there for our family and friends is important, and if we take our Christianity seriously, we must come to acknowledge, in concrete ways, person to person, that we are all brothers and sisters. Just as the sun shines on the good and the bad alike, Jesus died for us all. After his Resurrection and Ascension into heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit, the Love shared between the Father and the Son, to empower us to live as he did, in communion with his Father, to better actualize our communion with one another.
Mary and Elizabeth celebrated the joy of new life. They rejoiced over the miracles each of them experienced in being able to conceive sons. May we not only share in their joy of the gift of life, but also realize what they realized all too soon, that life goes by too fast. Both sons died a brutal death, and yet God brought about a greater good from their willingness to sacrifice their lives. John and Jesus gave us a new beginning for humanity.
Let us not take the gift of the life that we have been given, any moment, for granted. May we be open like Elizabeth and Mary to be inspired by the Holy Spirit. Let us let the people we care about know that we love them. A simple call, a card, and/or a walk can make a huge difference. Especially when in the moment of connection, we are present to each other as if no one else existed in that moment. For those for whom we may be estranged in any way, may Jesus, the Prince of Peace, help us to face those conflicts and guide us through the challenges that have kept us at a distance. May we not wait until it is too late to seek healing and reconciliation.
Making time to rest in and receive the Father’s love, we will be more open to being respectful, kind, understanding, and caring in our interactions with each person we encounter in these final days of Advent. When we catch the eye of another, offer a smile. In that simple gesture, we say to another that we care enough about them to acknowledge that they exist and that they have worth. Let the joy of Mary and Elizabeth catch like wildfire in us this Advent and let us share with haste the joy of Jesus we have experienced in our lives!
Photo: Stainglassed window of the visitation from Shutterstock.
Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, December 21, 2024
A few moments of stillness can transform our days and lives.
Today’s Gospel account is from Matthew’s record of the genealogy of Jesus. Jesus, the Son of God, is fully divine, while at the same time he is also fully human. Here Matthew presents the lineage of Jesus’ human line from Abraham to his father Joseph (foster father, in that Joseph was not Jesus’ biological dad, but no one would not have made that distinction in Jesus’ time.) and his mother Mary.
Jesus was part of a people and a family, he was born at a particular time and in a particular place. If you go through this genealogy with a fine-tooth comb, there are gaps, but Matthew was more concerned with the line of faith than a strict historical account. Matthew also included women in this listing, which was not common in ancient patriarchal societies. Looking at their stories in Scripture will also show that they were not at all the most morally upright, but more importantly, each played a significant part in God’s plan of salvation.
As Catholics and Christians, this is our heritage as well. We are spiritual Semites. Genealogies have become more popular in recent years as can be seen by the different advertisements for DNA test kits. There is a natural instinct to reach out for these because we want to belong and to be a part of. To understand who we are, we seek to understand where we have come from. To be able to go forward, we need to reach behind. Jesus was to the people of Judah, and is a part of the succession from Abraham and his clan, to the twelve tribes of Jacob, to the unified nation of Israel under David.
Joseph is heir to the thrown in this line of succession that was thought to have been lost when Jerusalem was conquered by the Babylonians. When Joseph died, Jesus was next in line. Jesus will lead like no other before him or that will ever come again. Jesus brought God’s movement of grace beyond the nation of Israel to fulfill the promise that they be a light to the nations, a universal invitation for all.
Through our Baptism, we become part of that lineage of Jesus. No blood test needed. We are not alone, no longer estranged, no longer separate, or on the peripheries. We belong to the Body of Christ. Yet many, even those who profess their belief in Christ, are missing his greatest gift of faith, which is developing a relationship with him now. Let us not be complacent and settle for Christian in name only or walk away from our birthright.
In these final days of Advent, as we draw closer to the celebration of Christmas, may we also set aside a little more time to spend with Jesus. If our schedule is revving up, may we bring Jesus into our busy. The second Person of the Trinity was willing to draw close to us in the incarnation that we are about to celebrate. Even if there is not a lot of time in our days, let us periodically take a few conscious, deep and slow breaths at some key moments so that we may draw close to Jesus who is at hand. This can be as simple as taking three slow, deep breaths – one for each person of the Trinity.
Just those short moments can be a powerful reset because even in that little turning of our hearts and minds to God, we can rest in the loving gaze that Jesus wants to share with us. We can receive his love and invite him to walk with us in all that we do. We can yoke ourselves to Jesus so that we do not travel these days alone, because he is more than willing to share our burdens, and he will give us to strength to carry on.
We are never alone if we remember Jesus is present in our everyday experiences. We just need to remember to turn to him. In so doing, each breath will bring our shoulders out of our ears, we will react less, and experience greater clarity in the choices and decisions we make. Practicing in this way, we will have more joy in our being loved by God, so that we can have more joy in our doing.
Photo: Brief stop during Rosary walk outside our church here at Holy Cross. Praying we will be able to return by Easter!
Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, December 17, 2024
Spiritual Stepping Stones 