The Sundays of Advent C and Christmastide C
First
Sunday Advent C
Scripture today: Jeremiah
33:14-16; Psalm 24; 1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2;
Luke 21:25-28.34-36
“And then they will see the Son
of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”
(Luke
21:25-28.34-36)
Today we celebrate the first Sunday of Advent in a new twelve month
cycle of liturgical celebrations. Advent is a time of actively awaiting
the coming of Christ in our own life, and of assisting his coming in
the lives of others.
We could say that there are two ways we can wait for anything.
We can wait for it passively, or actively. For instance, while we stand
at the bus stop we await the bus we have to catch. In this case it is
just a matter of standing there waiting for it - we do nothing but
passively wait. But there are some things we wait for in a very active
way. For instance, if we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of some
very special friend, we busily prepare for his arrival, making sure
that all is truly ready and prepared. If we are a student and waiting
for the arrival of exam time, we actively prepare for it, and not just
passively. This this active waiting is the kind of waiting which Advent
involves.
The coming which Advent asks us to prepare for is the coming of
Jesus. He came the first time by his birth on the first Christmas, and
we celebrate that coming in a few weeks’ time. As an extension of that
first coming at Christmas, he continues to come into our lives daily,
and we should be constantly preparing for this daily coming by a deep
and earnest spiritual life. And then there is his final coming when he
will take the faithful Christian with him into eternity. For those of
us who do not survive till his final coming at the end, there is his
coming to each of us individually at our death. These are the comings
of Jesus for which we should be actively preparing. Life could be
described as an active preparation for the coming of Jesus.
Advent is the liturgical time of waiting for Jesus our most
loved of friends. It is a time to prepare for Jesus the most fitting
welcome into our hearts. This we do by removing the obstacles to him
and by loving and serving him daily. For our Lord said that ‘whoever
loves me will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come
to him and make our home with him.’ This kind of coming occurs in our
life of prayer, in our service of others, and in the worthy reception
of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist. Let us remember too that
welcoming the coming of Jesus into our lives is not just a matter
between him and me, and no one else. Jesus wants us to help others
prepare actively to welcome Jesus into their hearts too. That is to
say, we must be apostolic.
Recently I read in the bulletin of one parish in Sydney
how forty five years ago the Catholic children in the public school of
that parish had no religion classes. A lady of that parish approached
the parish priest and the public school principal, and even though she
had no training started lessons with only the little penny catechism as
her teaching aid. She was given a shed in which to conduct her classes.
Although conditions were difficult, she did not give up. She was
preparing her children to welcome the coming of Christ into their
hearts. As numbers grew she encouraged other parishioners to help. She
ended up motivating not only the children but the parents and other
parishioners as well. This led to training courses. And after many
years she received a special blessing from the Pope. Subsequently she
went to a school for handicapped children and ran classes there as
well.
That is the true spirit of Catholicism. Each parish should as a
community be apostolic, and there are numerous ways in any parish in
which any parishioner can engage in the apostolic work of the Church.
The apostolate consists of helping people to prepare for the coming of
Jesus into their hearts now, at the end of their lives, and at the end
of time. During Advent let us revive in our hearts the sense and the
desire constantly to prepare for the coming of Jesus in our own lives
and in the lives of others.
(E.J.Tyler)
A second
reflection for the first Sunday of Advent, Year C.
Scripture today:
Jeremiah
33:14-16; Psalm 24; 1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2;
Luke 21:25-28.34-36
“Watch yourselves, or your hearts will
be coarsened.” (Luke
21:25-28.34-36)
Today is the beginning of a new twelve month period during which we
take to our hearts once again the life, the teaching, and the person of
Jesus. As the Church expresses it, it is the beginning of a new
liturgical year. So today we make a new start at working on our
relationship with Christ. It is a work which, inspired by the various
stages of the Church’s year, is to last for the next twelve months. The
whole of life should consist of new starts. Every day can be a new
start, as can every week and every year. So today the Church invites us
to make a fresh start in life’s great work of knowing, loving, and
serving Jesus.
The time of Advent which begins today is what the Church calls a
special liturgical season. It is meant to be a renewal of a special
element in our Christian life which is the sense of actively awaiting
the coming of Jesus. This should characterise our whole lives for that
is what life is all about: actively preparing for the coming of the
Lord. Our religion is based on what God has revealed, and central to
what he revealed was the promise that the Redeemer would come. Those
who genuinely accept this revelation are led to await his coming and to
prepare themselves for it.Nearly three thousand years ago this sense of
waiting began when God promised Abraham that through him all the
nations of the earth would be blessed. A great blessing began to be
expected. It was later revealed that this blessing would come from the
tribe of Judah, and indeed from a great king, a Messiah. For many
centuries, it was known that he was coming.
But many of the chosen people who had the benefit of this foreknowledge
did not really prepare themselves for his coming for there was repeated
religious infidelity throughout the history of God’s people. Indeed
when he did come with the special benefit of a great prophet to
announce it, many of his own people would not accept him. That whole
story is a paradigm of what will happen if the time of waiting is not
actively used to prepare oneself for the great coming of the Redeemer.
In a month’s time at Christmas we celebrate the occasion when the Word
became flesh and dwelt among us. St John in the prologue of his Gospel
writes that he came unto his own and his own did not accept him. This
was because they had not awaited his coming in that active sense of
preparing themselves so as to be ready to receive him.
And that is the lesson we ought think of today as we prepare for
Christ’s final coming, which we heard described in the Gospel. He has
come, and He is now with us constantly in the life of the Church. But
he is to come again, and when he comes it will be to judge us. When we
hear it said that our lives are to be spent awaiting the coming of
Christ, we ought not think of this as a passive waiting. For instance,
if we are waiting for a bus or a train, we might just sit there waiting
for its arrival. We are just passively waiting, and doing nothing while
we wait. That is not the way we should be waiting for the coming of
Jesus every day of our lives. Rather we should be actively awaiting his
coming, and preparing ourselves to be ready for it. It is like, say, a
student waiting for the coming of the final examinations. A student
does not just sit around the whole year waiting. She gets to work. She
prepares herself by a constant stream of hard work, never wasting a
day, so that when the HSC exams arrive, she is ready. The whole year is
spent preparing herself for the event that she knows will certainly
arrive. Or again, it could be likened to the way someone waits for a
job vacancy. He does not just sit at home doing nothing except looking
at the employment section each Saturday. No, he uses his time
carefully. He gets advice on how to prepare a very impressive
curriculum vitae and job application. He lines up good and reliable
referees. He gets some training on how to handle interviews. If times
are lean, he keeps his hand in by getting some ordinary, even menial
work, and perhaps tries to improve his qualifications. And all the
while he never allows himself to give up hope. He keeps alive his
ambition to be ready for the break when it comes. And then when the
vacancy finally comes, he is ready. This is a different kind of
waiting. It is a very active awaiting of a future event, and it
involves work on oneself so as to be well prepared for the occasion
whenever it might be. There is the conviction that the day will most
certainly come, and the determination to be ready when it does come.
Advent is the special time at the start of the new liturgical year when
we renew this spirit of actively awaiting the coming of the Redeemer.
It should characterise our whole Christian life, for come he certainly
will, and today’s Gospel reminds us of the fact. Pity help us if we are
not ready for it. The Gospel reminds us that every one of us will see
the end of the world. The troubles we experience in our own lives and
in the world at large give us a picture in advance of the troubles
which will mark the end. And then we shall all see the Son of Man
coming in a cloud with his full power and majesty. He will be coming to
judge the living and the dead.
To prepare for this, our Lord tells us in today's Gospel, “look well to
yourselves, not letting your hearts grow dull.” (Luke
21:25-28.34-36) That is to say, we must be
continually working at our spiritual life, our life of union with
Jesus. For the day of the Lord will come suddenly, our Lord says, like
the spring of a trap. So, our Lord says, keep watch, praying at all
times so as to be found worthy to come through safe. Let us then rouse
ourselves to begin again this active awaiting for the coming of Jesus.
He has come, and in a few weeks we shall celebrate this first coming.
But his first coming was to empower us with his grace to prepare
actively for his second and final coming. When that day occurs, it will
be all over, and our opportunities will be finished. So then, let us
resolve to make use of this next liturgical year to prepare for the
coming of the Redeemer.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Second
Sunday of Advent C
Scripture today:
Baruch
5:1-9; Psalm 125; Philippians
1:4-6.8-11; Luke 3:1-6
"A voice cries in the wilderness:
Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight."(Lk 3:1-6)
Recently a bishop made an appeal to all members of his diocese that in
the season of Advent they take a lead from the Holy Father and extend
an invitation to as many people as possible who are at present inactive
in the Church, for whatever reason, to return - family members,
acquaintances, colleagues and friends. He invited all to assure those
to whom they extended this invitation that God’s love and mercy was
theirs. The bishop stated that all ought make this invitation their
responsibility and privilege and to see it as an inspiration from the
Holy Spirit. It could be the day of salvation for a person who is
encouraged to be reconciled to God. This apostolic spirit of invitation
and welcome ought be part and parcel of Advent, the liturgical time
when we prepare to welcome the Saviour.
We could ask ourselves whether we are truly aware and concerned
that thousands drift from the practice of the Faith, that many abandon
the Church and join fundamentalist Christian or non-Christian groups.
If these wayward members of the Church were to challenge the average
Catholic to tell them why they should remain, how many Catholics could
give a compelling answer? Advent is a time of joyful homecoming, a time
for the return of prodigal sons and lost sheep, a time to look for
Christ and prepare the way, and a time to look homeward to our eternal
Father. It is a time to reflect on whether we who are not lost are
giving the wayward and the lost a true witness to our faith in Christ
and his Church. In the second reading today St Paul rejoices
remembering how the Philippians to whom he is writing “helped to spread
the Good News from the day you first heard it right up to the present” (Philippians
1:4-6.8-11). In the Gospel (Luke 3:1-6) St
John the Baptist witness before many to the coming of Jesus, inviting
all to prepare for the salvation of God. What it means is that Advent
is a time for bearing witness to the faith.
In respect to bearing witness to the faith, what are some of the
truths we are called to bear witness to before others?
One fundamental truth revealed by God - and a particularly
difficult truth for our relativistic culture to which we are called to
bear witness - is that there is only one true Church. Some Catholics
who consider themselves so-called broadminded have as their only advice
to those who are drifting away from the Church is that they follow
their own conscience and do what they think best, instead of helping
them to think and do what is objectively right. All too often being
broadminded really amounts to being indifferent to the truth about
Christ and his Church. This is not being broadminded but faithless. Our
Lord said to Peter, ‘You are Rock and on this rock I will build my
Church.’ And at the last Supper our Lord prayed that his flock would be
one as he and the Father are one. It is the Church’s teaching that
there is only one universal Church of the faithful which has been
founded by Christ. St Paul taught that all who believe in God as a just
Judge and who live by their lights and their conscience can be saved.
But he worked hard to help them know Christ, because if they are saved
it has been due to the grace of Christ that they were able to live by
their lights. Vatican II taught that it is through Christ’s Catholic
Church alone that the fullness of the means of salvation can be
obtained.
We are called to witness to the truth about the Church. By our lives
the Church will be judged. Indeed, by our lives, Christ will be judged.
If our light hides under a bushel basket for lack of courage, or grows
dim because the oil of faith has run low, Advent is the time to pluck
up our courage and get moving spiritually. During Advent meditate on
the profound connection between Christ and his Church. Christ is the
way to the Father, the way to heaven, and the Church is the way to
Christ. All men are called to salvation, to an eternity of happiness in
heaven. Christ and his Church, not any Church, but the Catholic Church
he founded, is the way. We who know the truth about this are called to
live it and to bear witness to it before others. Let us resolve to do
this in Advent.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Third Sunday
Advent C
Scripture today:
Zephaniah
3:14-18; Isaiah 12;
Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:10-18
“I want you to be happy, always happy
in the Lord; I repeat, what I want is your happiness."
(Philippians
4:4-7)
St Paul begins the second reading today by telling us
that we should rejoice, and that we should rejoice in the Lord always (Philippians
4:4-7). He says that what he wants is our happiness, and
that that is what God wants. This is a great thought.
Everyone desires joy. All would agree that we
naturally want joy. So it is no surprise to be told that God wants it
for us. But God wants not just any joy, but his own peace and joy to
fill our hearts. We have all known many joys in life, but so often they
just slip away. So what is joy, so that we can cultivate it as the Lord
exhorts us? And what brings about Christian joy? What are its sources?
Of course, we can’t just decide to be joyful and expect that we
shall be joyful because we want it. No, joy comes above all from love.
Joy and happiness are found when we love and are loved, and we find the
greatest joy when we give ourselves to the greatest lover, and that is
God himself. Here then in the secret of possessing joy. Just as we
cannot grow oranges directly, but rather we grow orange trees from
which come the oranges, so we cannot produce joy without first
producing its source, which is love. Love is the tree from which joy
flows. Joy is the fruit of love, that is, true love.
One of the most obviously joyful of the saints was St Francis of
Assisi. That is very much the reason for his universal appeal. He
renounced all his material possessions and embraced poverty in
imitation of Christ, but in his poverty he was supremely joyful. This
was because he no longer clung to creatures, he was no longer attached
to them. He saw beyond them to the God he loved so deeply. His joy came
from his union with God and his love for him.
So the main source of Christian joy is the knowledge that
God loves me. With great joy St Paul exclaimed that Christ loved me and
gave himself up for me. And our Lord’s own joy came from the awareness
he had of the Father’s infinite love for him, the Son. So too the
Father’s joy comes from his awareness of being loved by the Son. And
that love which is the source of God’s own joy is the Holy Spirit, and
that same Holy Spirit is poured into our hearts at our baptism enabling
us to know in faith the love God has for us and to grow in love for him
in return. This is the source of Christian joy, to share in the love of
God, to know he loves us and to give our live over to loving God
totally in return.
In the first reading the prophet Zephaniah imagines God like a
joyous young lover singing with all his might in the presence of his
beloved, and that beloved is his own chosen people. “The Lord your God
is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult with joy over
you, he will renew you by his love; he will dance with shouts of joy
for you as on a day of festival.” What a daring and wonderful image!
And in the psalm, God tells us that we will draw water at the fountain
of salvation. That fountain is the heart of Christ, pouring out his
love. St John the Baptist speaks in today’s Gospel of God’s law which
his hearers were obliged to follow. But God did not merely give us his
law. He gave us his Son, and with his Son the Holy Spirit who is God’s
love. That is our joy. We are loved. Our religion is not just a matter
of a law, even though to remain in God’s love we must observe his law.
Our religion centres on Jesus, and salvation comes from cleaving to
him.
Christmas is the joy of God coming to us and the promise of one day
going to him. Then our joy will be greater than our wildest dreams. We
must prepare for that day of joy by struggling to increase and purify
our love. In writing on joy, Pope Paul VI once said that “the combat
for the kingdom includes passing through a passion of love.” We must
aim for the perfection of love. There are two obstacles to Christian
joy. The first is knowingly to refuse God what he wants of us.
The second is the failure to believe how much God loves us. So let’s
make Advent the time when we renew our love for Jesus. Joy will then be
ours.
(E.J.Tyler)
A second
reflection on the third Sunday of Advent.
Scripture today:
Zephaniah
3:14-18; Isaiah 12;
Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:10-18
“I want you to be happy, always happy
in the Lord; I repeat, what I want is your happiness."
(Philippians
4:4-7)
Today St Paul tells us to rejoice. In fact, he says we are to rejoice
always. Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice, he says. And
yet it is possible to go right through life missing out on the joy that
our Lord means us to have even if we are in the midst of many
sufferings. Elsewhere the Gospel tells us that our Lord rejoiced in the
Holy Spirit, and that he gave a share of his own peace to the Apostles:
Peace I leave for you, not the peace of the world, but my peace do I
leave you, he told them. Our Lord means us to live lives of inner joy
and inner peace, while carrying our daily cross after him.
And this is what we are made for. Everyone desires joy. Every Christian
is called to a life of joy, and today’s readings from the Word of God
remind us of this invitation. If we hear that a person is joyful, and
habitually joyful, we instinctively think that he has something which
is very important, perhaps more important than anything else. The
problem is that at times people have the wrong kind of joy, a joy based
on things that don’t matter, or on things that are even harmful. We
have all known many joys: such as the prospect of exciting and
satisfying work, a new area to live in, success in exams, but this kind
of joy tends to slip away from us. So let us ask a few questions: What
is joy? What causes joy? And what is the deepest joy?
We can’t just decide to be continually joyful without any regard
for the things that will cause joy in our hearts. We can’t just decide
to be joyful and hope it will come just by making this decision.
Whereas we can resolve to be more patient and kind, and with
persistence these virtues will grow in us. Joy is not a virtue like
these other virtues. Rather, joy is the fruit of virtues. It will come
if we cultivate certain very important virtues. We notice that people
find joy at the wedding of lovers, at the birth of a child, at the
ordination of a priest. The reason is that love is the source of the
truest joy. Joy and happiness are found when we are loved and when we
love. And so it is that we find the greatest joy when we give ourselves
to the one who loves us most, God. Just as you need an orange tree if
you are to have oranges, so you cannot have joy unless there is love.
Love is the tree from which joy sprouts. If we know we are loved, and
if we love in return, there will be joy in our lives.
So then, what is the source and the cause of the truest joy? It is the
knowledge that God loves us. In the Gospel, through the words of John
the Baptist God expresses the greatness of his love for us by saying
that everyone must treat us right. If we are poor, others should share
with us. If we are under obedience, they should not bully or cheat us.
In the psalm, God tells us that with joy we will draw water at the
fountain of salvation. But above all, to show how great was his love
for us, he sent his Son. As the Gospel of St John tells us in the
prologue, God so loved the world that he sent his only Son. We are
loved by the Father as his children, and his Son Jesus reveals the
Father’s love. He who sees me, our Lord said, sees the Father. Our
religion is not primarily something, but Someone. Our salvation comes
from holding on to Him. He is the cause of our truest joy.
Our deepest joy is in God, and in the thought that God is near
and coming soon. If we live for him, we can look forward joyfully to
his coming. And that is the theme of Advent. Today, we rejoice because
Christmas is near. Christmas is the celebration of God’s coming among
us, a thought that should fill us with joy. It contains the great
promise that he will come one day to take us to him to be with him
forever. The thought of this second coming should fill us with joy. But
it presumes that we are living in a way that will please Christ when he
does come to take us. If we are living in a way that pleases him, his
coming will be the cause of unbounded joy. Living a life that is
pleasing to God involves love. Love for God, which is the source of our
joy. This love for God, planted in our hearts as a gift at our Baptism
has to be lived by and purified. Our love has to be cultivated, made
strong, and developed into a divine passion for God. Our Lord’s
passionate love for his Father is the example of this, his passionate
love for the Father. So are the saints examples of it for us.
Finally, let us consider two obstacles to joy. The first obstacle to
the joy God means us to have is knowingly to refuse God what he wants
of us. Love involves a union of wills and desires. How can one love God
and not be one with him in what he wants? We will not be happy as long
as we disregard or refuse what God wants of us, because we will not be
loving him. The second obstacle to joy is to fail to believe how much
God loves us. St Paul once said that nothing, neither death, nor life,
nothing seen or unseen can separate us from the loving concern of God
as revealed in Christ. No matter what our circumstances, we must always
believe that God loves and cares for us. This faith in God’s love will
be a great source of joy, but it requires much work on our part. We
must not give in to discouragement. The love of God which is the
source of true joy is God’s gift. It is to be asked for, and to be
nourished by the channels of grace. The means of grace are assiduous
prayer, the devout reception of the sacraments, especially Mass, Holy
Communion, and Confession, and the careful attempt to fulfil our duties
and responsibilities.
So let us take to heart the call to joy by living a life of love for
God. That is the grace of today.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Fourth Sunday Advent C
Scripture today:
Micah
5:1-4a; Psalm 80:2-3, 15-16,
18-19; Hebrews
10:5-10; Luke 1:39-45
During those days
Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of
Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice
and said, "Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit
of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my
Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting
reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you
who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be
fulfilled." (Luke 1:39-45)
"Mary set out at that time and went as
quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of
Judah." (Luke 1:39-45)
Today being the last Sunday of Advent before Christmas Day we think of
Christmas. So let us enter into this day living the spirit of the
season in a way that would please God. And how can we do that? Most of
all by preparing together with Jesus and Mary. Let us look at how Mary
prepares for Christmas, how Jesus prepares, and so how we should
prepare.
Let us contemplate Mary in the Gospel (Luke 1:39-45).
As soon as the angel was gone, Mary hurries away to visit her relative
Elizabeth, who was, Mary had been informed by the angel, already six
months pregnant. Mary sped off on a three day journey to help. And when
she comes, she comes to serve, and what happens? She brings Jesus and
the Holy Spirit and with them the Father. The child in Elizabeth’s womb
leaps for joy, and Elizabeth herself is inspired and enlightened by the
Holy Spirit. She utters the words that have become part of the Hail
Mary: Blessed is the fruit of your womb. Let us then be with Mary over
the whole of the Christmas period. Invite her into your life as she
comes to you as your mother and your model. She will bring the gift of
the Holy Spirit and a deeper relationship with her divine Son.
Let us contemplate Jesus. In the first reading we hear
from Micah (Micah 5:1-4),
a prophet who lived hundreds of years before Christ. He tells us that a
Ruler will be born in David’s town. He will be of ancient origin. In
the light of the Gospel we see here a clear prophecy of the coming
birth in David’s town of the eternal Son of God. Imagine the eternal
eagerness of God that his work finally begin! And when God becomes man,
St Paul tells us in the second reading, he offers the Father his will:
“God, here I am! I am coming to obey your will.” And so eager is Jesus
to begin his work, that he inspires Mary his mother to bring him to be
revealed to John and Elizabeth. As we think of Jesus let us think of
the great work of redemption which he came to do for us, and let us
welcome that work and above all Jesus himself eagerly. Let us unite
with him in his eagerness to do his work.
And so thinking of Jesus and Mary as they prepared for Christmas
let us think of how we should prepare for Christmas. The second reading
tells us that Jesus came into the world to do the will of the Father
who loves us and wants our salvation. Jesus surrenders himself and his
body to the will and the work of the Father. He was born in Bethlehem
to pour out his blood on Calvary and to be our offering to God in the
Mass now and throughout the ages. That is to say, already the Cross is
appearing on the horizon. It is always present. Let us remember this as
we celebrate with joy the coming of the redeemer. He came to shed his
blood, to die on the cross for each of us and so to win for us the
victory. Christ loved me, St Paul once wrote, and gave himself up for
me. His coming at Bethlehem showed the love of God for us, but it is
especially on the Cross that this love is revealed.
Let us ask the Father to fill our hearts with love to follow
Jesus through suffering and death to share in his resurrection and
glory. Jesus became human, and we follow him as his brothers through
sorrows as well as through joys. I invite you to celebrate each
Christmas in company with Jesus, Mary and Joseph, thinking of how they
looked forward to the event of the birth of Jesus. Let us make it a new
moment in our friendship with Jesus, and together with that
companionship with him a more fervent association with him in his
redemptive work. Let us make this Christmas a Christmas with real
substance, a Christmas of grace.
(E.J.Tyler)
A second
reflection for the fourth Sunday Advent C (Luke 1:39-45)
"She went into Zechariah's house and greeted Elizabeth." (Luke 1:39-45)
Different epochs of history suffer from different defects.
Pope Pius XII wrote that the a major defect of the present age is the
lack of a sense of sin. Another defect of our age is its lack of
a sense of meaning or purpose. How many people feel they have little
that is worthwhile to live for. This is so for many young people, many
in early, middle or late adulthood. Is my life just a round of unending
and pointless trivialities? Well, life might appear to be full of
trivialities. But they need not be pointless, and really they are not
trivialities. The little humdrum things of everyday life are the
building blocks of something immensely noble, something with eternal
consequences. That thing of grandeur is God’s kingdom, his reign in the
hearts of those who welcome Christ his Son. We can contribute greatly
to the extension of God’s kingdom in our own daily sphere of life, made
up as it is of so many seeming trivialities.
Consider today’s Gospel - it is the simple account of Mary visiting her
kinswoman Elizabeth in response to what the angel had told her. She
went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-45).
A simple story but how typical of so much of life. But what gives it
real grandeur? It is the presence of Jesus and the fact of serving him
and his work in that seemingly ordinary setting. Our Lady went to
Elizabeth carrying the unborn Jesus, and it is this presence of Jesus
which Elizabeth rejoiced in. He was the object of their lives. So it is
with us. In our everyday life it is Jesus who is with us as the object
of our life, the one we are called to serve, the one whose mission
offers so much meaning and hope for mankind. Each of us lives in the
presence of one who is great beyond compare, and our life of service
can involve, if we so choose, the direct service of him. He in turn
brings us holiness, making our daily service something holy and
pleasing to God, and bringing holiness to others. In this way our
ordinary life is changed into something grand. Today's Gospel narrating
the visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary teaches us the grandeur of
the ordinary life.
(E.J.Tyler)
A third
reflection for the fourth Sunday of Advent C
Scripture
today:
Micah 5:1-4;
Psalm 79; Hebrews
10:5-10; Luke 1:39-45
"Mary set out at
that time and went as
quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of
Judah." (Luke 1:39-45)
As Christmas approaches we see that many are out buying Christmas
presents. You may have heard the story about the father of many
children who returned from his Christmas shopping, pulled his last five
dollars from his pocket, and said, “I’m going to give this $5.00 as a
present to the man who needs it most.” Then he put it straight back
into his own pocket.
Today’s readings are all about our preparation for Christmas. Christmas
is a celebration of God’s gift-giving, of the great gift He gave us, of
how God gave us everything important in giving us his own Son. St Paul
says that in Christ God gives us every heavenly blessing. Christians
imitate God our Father by giving Christmas presents in celebration of
the gifts He has given us. What Christmas should celebrate is God's
gift: Jesus. The trouble is that so much of society has forgotten what
Christmas is really about.
The Gospel (Luke 1:39-45) presents
us with the figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary, our Lady, our mother. So
let’s consider how she prepared for Christmas.
As soon as the angel had left her, Mary hurried away to visit and help
her relative Elizabeth, who was expecting John the Baptist. Mary had
just experienced the greatest event in human history, the Annunciation.
The Messiah was coming, and she was his mother. She would have had
every reason to withdraw into seclusion and to guard in safety the
Child conceived within her. But what did she do? She sped off to serve
her cousin who needed help, a three-day journey to a town in Judea, and
she was not just bringing her own human service. She bore within her
the Saviour, and the child in Elizabeth’s womb leaped for joy, and
Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Elizabeth’s words have
become part of the Hail Mary: Blessed is the fruit of your womb. With
Mary came Christ her Son.
As we contemplate this scene we are reminded that wherever we are,
wherever we go, whatever we do, whatever way we serve others in our
family or work or whatever, we should be bringing Christ with us. In
this Mary is our model. This we do by our love and service of Christ
who abides within us by grace, and who identifies with the least of our
neighbours. In serving others we serve Christ. Let us prepare for
Christmas in the way our Lady did, by renewing in ourselves a
Christ-like concern for people, and by our own union with Christ as we
bring him to those whom we are serving.
While we look to Mary who can teach us so much, even more do we look to
the person of Christ himself, the one who is the heart and soul of
Christmas. In the second reading (Hebrews
10:5-10) we are told why Jesus came into the world.
It was to do the will of the Father who loves us and intends our
salvation. So Jesus gives the Father the gift of his will, and
surrenders his body to God for the work of our redemption. He was born
at Bethlehem for one great purpose, to pour out his blood for us on
Calvary. This great sacrifice for our sakes is made present for our
benefit every time Mass is celebrated. In fact, our Lord was born in
order that Mass and Holy Communion, which is Calvary made present to
us, might be possible. So the second reading reminds us of what
Christ’s birth, the first Christmas, pointed to. It pointed to his
great sacrifice of himself on Calvary, and beyond Calvary to the
celebration of Mass. Mass is the greatest means God has provided us of
uniting with Jesus in his Sacrifice at Calvary, which redeemed the
world. So we are led to think of the invitation we all have of being
united to Jesus not only in his joys, but in his sufferings. In fact,
this is the test of a Christian. The truest test of our Christian life
is whether we choose to take up our cross and follow in the footsteps
of Jesus. This too we are reminded of today as we read the second
reading. Let us prepare for Christmas in the way our Lord did, by
offering to do God’s will and carry our cross with Jesus.
So then, Let Christmas be a truly religious feast. It is so easy for it
to degenerate into something rather secular, something even an atheist
or agnostic would happily join in with. Its celebration ought be the
occasion of grace, a renewal in our Christ-like service of others, a
service bringing Christ to them. It should also be a renewal of our
intention to follow Christ closely, which is to say our intention to do
God’s will generously, carrying our cross after Jesus our Lord. The
shadow of the cross hung over the Child of Bethlehem. If we have right
now a great cross, some anxiety, then we ought use Christmas to entrust
it to Jesus, asking him to use it as he used his own cross for the
salvation of the world. This is the joy of Christmas, that a Saviour
has been born to us, Christ the Lord. He, our Saviour, redeemed us by
his blood. The sorrows of this world now have a new meaning and value
because of Christ our Lord. Christ is the gift of the Father to the
world. Let us make this gift the object of our celebration at
Christmas.
(E.J.Tyler)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Christmas Day
Scripture today:
Isaiah 52:7-10; Psalm
97; Hebrews
1:1-6; John 1:1-18 (Readings for Mass during the day)
“The Word was made flesh, he lived
among us, and we saw his glory” (John
1:1-18)
Today we think of the child who is born for us, Christ the Lord.
God has given a stupendous gift to the human race: his own divine Son.
In him the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. In him is to be found
every heavenly blessing. God so loved the world that he sent his only
Son. God has become one of us, a member of our human race. Jesus is the
gift of God, a gift which is the fruit of his love for us. Poets and
songwriters sing of the marvels of love. Here in the new-born child of
Bethlehem there is revealed a love that is out of this world. Love
stories tell of tremendous feats of love. Well, here we have an
unheard-of feat, the Creator entering into and becoming part of his own
creation. Who could have thought that the great God could become one of
us! He did so, and out of love.
Let us join the shepherds as the angels depart, and hasten
with them to the manger. They saw before them a strong and saintly
husband Joseph with his all-holy wife, and above all, her tiny child.
He was wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Christ the
Lord. Let us imagine ourselves there as one of the shepherds, standing
near Mary and Joseph. This child changes life for all who accept him,
for all who like Mary and Joseph love him. The greatest day in the life
of any person is the day they come to know and love and follow this
child. It is a day that has come to millions throughout the ages. The
day a person meets Jesus in their life is the day they set out with him
to their homeland in heaven. Jesus is the treasure of every man and
woman.
Mary is our model. Jesus in her arms is her treasure, as he is
the treasure of St Joseph. God had manifested himself to Moses long
before on Mount Sinai amid thunder and lightning and glory. But here
was that same God being held in the arms of a gentle woman beside her
humble husband. God showed himself in this babe to be all-merciful, to
be meek and humble of heart, to be approachable, to be one who would
say to all, come to me all you who labour and are heavily burdened, and
I will give you rest. This child is the living God, the rest of
our souls. As we think of all the possible things we could hold in our
arms, all the treasures which could be ours, the millions of dollars
many lotteries and raffles offer, what would we prefer to hold in our
arms, to have before us as our possession? Many would prefer the money.
But today we are reminded of what our real treasure is as far as God is
concerned. We are reminded of what we were made for. We were made to
receive this gift which the Father sent each one of us, and that gift
is none other than the person of Jesus.
Today we celebrate our Christmas gift, the gift of the Father,
Christ the Lord. We join with Mary our mother and Joseph our father and
protector, in receiving in our arms the priceless treasure of our
souls, the one treasure we should be prepared to forego everything else
for because this is the treasure which our true happiness. Our treasure
is the living Jesus. And this same Jesus we each of us receive every
time we go to Mass and receive Holy Communion. Jesus was born at
Bethlehem to give himself to each of us at Holy Communion. Let us
resolve this coming year to make our lives Eucharistic, loving the
constant presence of Jesus in the tabernacle of our Church,
preparing to receive him worthily by frequent Confession, devoutly
making our Sunday Mass and Mass even during the week the centre and
source of our Christian life.
(E.J.Tyler)
A second
reflection for Christmas Day C
Scripture today: Isaiah
62:11-12; Psalm 97:1, 6, 11-12; Titus
3:4-7; Luke 2:15-20 (Dawn Mass
readings)
When the angels
went away from them to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let
us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which
the Lord has made known to us.” So they went in haste and found Mary
and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this,
they made known the message that had been told them about this child.
All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the
shepherds. And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her
heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all
they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them. (Luke
2:15-20) (Gospel for Dawn Mass)
"Today in the town of David a saviour
has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord."(Lk 2:1-14)
It is a beautiful thing to wish one another a very happy
Christmas
and to mean by this to wish another the joy of having a Saviour born
for us. But this meaning in Christmas has surely been largely lost from
view. For instance, Christmas is the time when political leaders offer
Christmas wishes, but consider the meaning given by them to Christmas.
I invite you to try to discover in the Christmas messages of our
political leaders any reference at all to the person of Christ, and any
acknowledgment of who he really is. Again, for the world of
business,
Christmas is an important time indeed, but it is important because of
its commercial value. Christmas is successful if a lot of money
has
been spent. Our culture and our society is rightly described as
secular, and with this secularism there is present in our culture a
subtle and all-pervasive pressure to separate man from God, and to
treat God as a purely personal and indeed subjective notion. God is
excluded from social and public life. It is in this sense that life in
our Western society has become very secular. Christmas has become a
secular celebration, a good time in a material and social sense. I was
reading recently that in China the government is allowing in Changhai
the commercial celebration of Christmas (with figures of Santa Claus
and Christmas trees) to boost buying and selling, while of course
repressing all independent worship of Christ. Christ is being used for
secular purposes. He is pushed into the shade in order to celebrate a
world without God.
The Christian, the convinced Christian, welcomes Christ as
the Lord
of everything. “I bring you news of great joy,” the angel said to the
shepherds, “a saviour has been born to you, Christ the Lord.”(Lk
2:1-14) He is
mankind’s Messiah and Lord. We remember how Thomas bowed before the
risen Jesus and said, My Lord and my God. And our Lord himself said
that all authority in heaven and on earth had been given to him by his
heavenly Father. So then, as we celebrate Christmas, let us intend to
celebrate Jesus our Lord, and his coming, and not just secular values.
We ought not allow ourselves to be drawn unconsciously into a
celebration of the good things of life with no real reference to
Christ. On Christmas day let us welcome Christ, not just a merry time.
Let us acknowledge him as the gift of God to the whole of humanity. He
is the one who makes all the difference to everything.
(E.J.Tyler)
A third reflection for
Christmas Day C
Scripture today:
Isaiah 52:7-10; Psalm
97; Hebrews
1:1-6; John 1:1-18 (Readings for Mass during the day)
“The Word was made flesh, he lived
among us, and we saw his glory” (John
1:1-18)
Throughout the world, Christmas is celebrated as a day of joy.
Joy to the world, the Lord is come. It is a time of excitement,
happiness, and family. One little child was so happy on Christmas night
he said, “I wish every day was Christmas!” The marvel is that in a
sense every day can be a kind of Christmas. Today we celebrate God
becoming man, one of us. Having become man, he never leaves us, for he
is always present with us in the life of the Church, and in a most real
and intense way in the Eucharist.
At the vigil or Midnight mass, the Gospel tells us how
Jesus, the Saviour, Messiah and Lord was born in a stable and laid in a
manger. The angels appeared to the shepherds, gave them the good news,
and sang about what God had done. At the first morning Mass the
Gospel describes the shepherds rushing up to the hill-town of Bethlehem
to find the Child, and worship him, their Messiah and Lord, who had
been promised for so long. The readings and prayers of the third
Christmas morning Mass review the whole mystery of Christmas and what
it means. What then does Christmas mean?
Christmas means that the prophecies and promises have been fulfilled.
Only God knows the future, and Isaiah had foretold what would happen.
The Lord himself would come to redeem us. The New Testament tells us
that the Son of God and of Mary came to save every one of us and to
bring his salvation to the ends of the earth. He became man for each of
us as if there were no one else. He was born to give us rebirth as
children of God, he suffered our troubles to give us peace, and shared
our weakness to give us a share in his glory and kingdom.
God wants us to know him and become like him. In a certain sense
it would not be as challenging for us if St John had said “In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and he stayed being
God.” But no, he said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
God," and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, while remaining
God. God became one of us so that we might share his life and become
more and more like him. We must never imagine that this was easy for
the Son of God. He suffered far more than any other human being has
ever suffered, while being filled with far more joy.
Setting aside the long presence in the Sacred Scriptures of the word
that God uttered in creation and the word that he uttered to his
priests, prophets and kings, let us ask what is a "word" in ordinary
usage. A word is something we sound with our voice and lips or write
down with a set of letters in order to convey a thought or feeling we
wish to express or communicate in some way to others. Smetimes we have
a thought or feeling which we want to express, and we find we find it
difficult to put it into words. A word stands for an understanding, a
conception of something, an experience. We even speak of “conceiving” a
thought, or “generating” ideas, as if the word were a spiritual child.
The Word of God is God's image or understanding of himself, the perfect
expression of all he is, generated by him from all eternity.
As St Paul tells us in one of his Letters, Christ is the image
of the unseen God. Our Lord told his disciples that "he who sees me
sees the Father." Jesus, whose being and nature is that of the Father
while being distinct in person from the person of the Father, assumed
everything that we are in our nature (except for sin), while remaining
divine in his person. In sharing our human nature (while retaining his
own) the only element that did not touch him was sin, and it is
precisely sin which makes us less human. Jesus, in this sense, was more
human than we are because he was utterly sinless and incapable of sin.
The Word of God became flesh in order to empower us to become children
of God and live a life pleasing to God. He achieved this by taking on
himself the sins of the world and freely expiating for them. Each of us
can say, Christ Jesus loved me and delivered himself for me. Christmas
is the celebration of the Word of God becoming flesh in order to suffer
and die for each of us. It reveals God’s love for each of us. It is the
joy of the world that God sent mankind a redeemer. Let us celebrate
Christmas joyfully, full of the thought of God’s love for us while
resolving to love one another as he has loved us.
(E.J.Tyler)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Holy Family
C
Scripture today:
Ecclesiasticus
3:3-7.14-17; Psalm 127; Colossians
3:12-21; Luke 2:41-52
“He then went down with them and came
to Nazareth and lived under their authority.”
(Luke 2:41-52)
There is one thing which is the cause of so much joy and sorrow
in the world, and that is family life. We are born into a family, we
grow in a family, we are meant to be members of a family and to find
our happiness in a family. Today is the feast of the Holy Family, when
we are presented with the most perfect family possible, consisting of
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, each of them being the highest model we could
hope for, and their family life being all that would be described as
perfect. Today’s readings invite us to make a serious reflection on
family life, in the light of the Holy Family.
The first thing we notice in the Gospel reading of today (Luke 2:41-52) is
the long period of obedience which our Lord himself lived in the Holy
Family. This shows two things: firstly how important obedience in its
various forms is to family life, and also how to obey is just as
honourable as to command. Any mature person knows that we are called to
live in an ordered society that requires obedience to God and to human
authority. But many parents dislike disciplining their children and
fail to train them in obedience. Indeed, many parents themselves are
poorly formed in obedience. But if we consider our Lord’s thirty
years at Nazareth, we realise how honourable a thing it is to obey
legitimate authority. And as we think also of Mary and Joseph
exercising legitimate authority within the home, we realise how worthy
and important a thing it is to exercise authority for the right reason
and in the right way. Mary and Joseph are the supreme models for all
parents in how not to misuse their authority.
And as we think of the Holy Family we think of a Family which
placed God before all else. One sometimes gets the impression that some
families see God at their beck and call. Rather, families are created
for the honour and the glory of God. That is to say, God and his holy
will must be the first thing in our families in everything. Is not that
how it was with the Holy Family? The family that thinks worldly
happiness more important than eternal life with God is heading for
tragedy and disaster. God is not there to serve us. We are to serve
God. And indeed, we shall find that if a family desires to serve God,
he will serve them. Do you want a happy family life? Then work to the
point where all in the family see family life as being for God’s glory.
The Church teaches that a Christian family is meant by God to be
a domestic church. And out of our families should come vocations to the
priesthood and religious life. Families should learn to respect one
another’s calls from God. Even Mary and Joseph had to learn this when
they found our Lord in the Temple. Some parents resist the will of God
for their children. A young boy once wrote letters to a priest about
his desire to be a priest. Later he wrote in one letter: ‘I told my
father, and you’d think I had committed murder.’ Soon he wrote no more.
The lack of support and even opposition coming from within one’s family
can destroy a vocation. St John the Apostle was young when he left all
and followed our Lord. Think what he would have been cheated of if hs
parents had forbidden him to follow our Lord. God claims first place in
every family, and family happiness includes respecting that claim. St
Thomas More knew that and put God first. He considered a religious
vocation, but discovered he had no call to it, so he married. He became
a loving husband and father, and chancellor of England, and martyr for
the Catholic faith. He lived a model family life.
(E.J.Tyler)
A second
reflection for the feast of the Holy Family C
“He then went down with
them and came
to Nazareth and lived under their authority.”
(Luke 2:41-52)
It is very possible to look back on the past year, and then
ahead to the year that is coming, and to think that an ordinary life
such as the one we live is a life of little value. It is also very easy
to settle for mediocrity in an ordinary life, thinking that nothing
much in an ordinary life is possible. But in fact an ordinary
life is meant by God to be something grand, noble, because truly holy.
Consider the Holy Family. God became man with a great work to
do. What did he do for most of the time? He lived as a member of a
seemingly ordinary family for 90%, 90%, of his life. Thirty of
the thirty three years of his life he spent in obscurity, in the
ordinary round of a hidden family life, with its simple but demanding
duties. This shows how important such a life is, and its great
potential in God’s plan. What was the distinctive character of that
life lived by our Lord, together with his mother and foster father? It
was its holiness. That is what made it so special, so unique, so filled
with value and grandeur.
God in his providence gives each person certain
responsibilities. There are responsibilities to one’s own self,
especially the responsibility of taking up the call to grow in the love
of God. There are one’s responsibilities to one’s family, and to one’s
own Christian community, such as to one’s parish. There are
responsibilities to one’s daily or professional work, the work
which God in his providence has placed in one’s hands. All these
responsibilities are usually out of the sight of the world and of the
acclaim of others. They are mostly fairly hidden, and consist of a
daily round of little duties which when faithfully and well done day by
day result in good work being done. God wants us to do good work, good
work on ourselves, good work in our families, good work in our parish,
good work in our workplace, whatever that work may be.
We may not succeed in lots of respects, but he wants us to
work at it perseveringly every day, and to do so as one living in his
presence. He sees our inmost thoughts, and He knows what our
efforts have been. Our aim should be to do our work in life such that
it will be something good and holy, a worthy offering to him. It should
be done such that we will be holier as a result, and others will be
holier too. Thus will God be glorified. Personal holiness should
characterise our daily life, and our God-given work is a means to it.
So let us gaze on the Holy Family, hidden in obscurity all those years.
What a lesson it is of the grandeur and possibilities of the ordinary
life, the life God has given us to live.
(E.J.Tyler)
A third
reflection for the feast of the Holy Family
“He then went down with
them and came
to Nazareth and lived under their authority.”
(Luke 2:41-52)
Today we think of the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. The
long awaited Messiah chose to begin his redemptive work in the midst of
a simple and normal family. So the first reality which our Lord
sanctified by his presence was a home and family. Nothing extraordinary
occurred
during these years at Nazareth where our Lord spent the greatest part
of his life. Joseph was the head of the family; as such he sustained
Jesus and Mary with his work. He it was who received the message to
give the child the name Jesus. From him our Lord learnt his trade, his
means of making a living. To him Christ would often have shown his
admiration and affection. From Mary, Jesus learned manners of speech,
perhaps popular sayings full of wisdom which later he would use in his
preaching. He watched how she used a little yeast in the dough so as to
make it rise. If an item of clothing tore, he watched how she patched
it. Years later our Lord would draw from this common everyday knowledge
the material for his parables.
How pleased must the Father and the entire realm of heaven been at the
sight of the Holy Family at Nazareth. It was all that God had planned
for home and family. One thing this tells us is that every little thing
of our
ordinary everyday lives can be used for a great and holy purpose.
Everything we do should be made holy. Everything we do should be done
in such a way that we will be holier as a result. And everything we do
should be done in a way that will sanctify others as well. All of this
can be done in a perfectly normal household and life. The seemingly
ordinary home of Nazareth was very holy. Between Mary and Joseph there
was a holy love, a spirit of service, an understanding and desire to
provide one another with a happy life. Thus was the family of Jesus
made sacred, holy, exemplary, a model of the human virtues, and
disposed to
fulfill exactly the will of God. The Christian home ought be an
imitation of the holy home of Nazareth, a home where God reigns and is
at the heart of family love.
Is our home like that? Do we dedicate the time and attention to
the home and to modelling it on that of Jesus? Is Jesus
the very centre of our home? In the family, the parents are the first
educators of the faith to their children, by means of their word and by
example. This was fulfilled in a most singular manner in the case of
the Holy Family. The Holy Family recited with devotion the traditional
prayers prayed in every devout Hebrew home. One can imagine the fervour
with which the Holy Family recited the psalms, and with what devotion
they read the Scriptures. We could ask ourselves, Do I teach my
children their prayers, and do I teach them to pray with great
devotion? Do my children see a spirit of prayer in the family? Do we
pray the Rosary which is the prayerful contemplation of the Gospel and
the mystery of Christ?
A family untited to Christ is a member of his mystical body, and
has been often called a ‘domestic church’. The Christian family ought
be a reflection of the Church itself in being a living testimony to
Christ. In the Holy Family every Christian family has a high example.
The family is the basic and most simple form of society. It is the
principal school of all the social virtues and social life, for in the
family a person exercises obedience, concern for
others, a sense of responsibility, understanding and help, loving
cooperation among different ways of being. The health of society
depends on the health of families. How important then is it that every
family have a correct model of family life: this model is the Holy
Family. Families were created for the honour and service of God and so
God must be first in our families in everything. The family that thinks
that worldly happiness more important than eternal life with God is
headed for tragedy and disappointment.
In today’s readings, God’s wisdom gives us norms for family life. Each
family makes its choice of following his wisdom or that of the world,
and families broken by following the wrong choice are legion. Families
ought reflect on today’s scriptural passages, and pray and discuss
and come to a common understanding of family life in
Christ. Families should also learn to respect one another’s consciences
and calls from God. To our surprise, even Mary and Joseph had to learn
to do this when they sought and found the boy Jesus in the Temple. We
all have to learn it, particularly when God calls a son or daughter to
a religious vocation. In this respect, some parents stand against God.
God claims first place in every family, and family happiness consists
in respecting that claim. The widely-loved St Thomas More knew that and
always put God first. He considered a religious vocation, but discerned
no such call, and so he married, became a loving husband and father,
the Chancellor of England, and a martyr for the faith. He too followed
Christ in sanctifying family life.
Let’s make the resolution to make our model of family life the Holy
Family.
(E.J.Tyler)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The
Epiphany of the Lord C
Scripture today:
Isaiah
60:1-6; Psalm
71; Ephesians
3:2-3.5-6; Matthew 2:1-12
“We saw his star as it rose and have
come to do him homage.” (Matthew
2:1-12)
The word ‘Epiphany’ means the manifestation. We celebrate today the
manifestation of our Lord to the first non-Jews who sought out Christ
so as to do him homage. This is our feastday, for those wise men
represented us. The star the wise astrologers from the east
followed was an external sign which supported their faith and led them
on to Christ. In our following of Christ we of course do not follow an
external star. But there is a star within, the star of our faith
leading us to Christ.
This light of our faith is a most privileged gift of God,
of far more value and importance than any signs and wonders of an
external kind. Recall how Jesus used to censure his fellow Jews when
they kept pressing him for signs. Jesus declared that they would be
given only the sign of Jonah, and that was an allusion to his death and
resurrection. Our Lord was continually looking for faith and praising
it. Faith is a light from God himself. We remember how when Simon
declared to our Lord that he was the Christ the Son of God, our Lord
said that flesh and blood had not revealed this to him but the Father
in heaven. His faith was a light from God. As we hear the word of God
read and preached each time we go to Mass, we must listen to the
promptings of the Holy Spirit if we are to grow in faith.
Faith is the true light of life, and it comes from God and only from
God. It is this light that leads to God, as we see in the case of the
three wise men who clearly had a form of faith (Matthew 2:1-12).
The star they followed is a symbol of the light of faith. We travel
through life following the light of faith in our minds and the light of
love in our hearts. What the three wise men did is repeated over and
over again in those seeking Christ or seeking to do his will. Even the
wise men followed the star in the sky only because of the faith in
their hearts.
But there is a most important implication in this. Today we are
not just thinking of the fact that Christ has been given to all
humanity, and not just to the Jews. We have a part to play in this. We
are called to bring the light of faith to all men and women, a light
which calls them to follow Christ. We have inherited the role of the
wise men who gave a shining example of fidelity in following this star.
Let us notice that the faith of the wise men, lit by their own holy
yearning, revealed the coming of Christ even to some of the Jewish
people, whose faith had dimmed. Some responded wickedly. We can be sure
that others responded with joy, as did the shepherds, and as did Simeon
and Anna a little later.
Let each of us be aware that our life ought be a star of
faith leading others to Christ. The faith has been carried throughout
the world, not just by missionaries, but by the movement and the
migration of many believers, ordinary lay men and women. Now, hundreds
of millions of these stars of faith shine around the world offering the
opportunity to many others to come to know the Redeemer. Let us examine
ourselves on this day, the feast of the Epiphany which brings us near
the end of Christmastide, and ask, does the light of our faith shine
brightly? The light of our faith will not be bright if it does not
shine with love and good deeds, especially those good deeds which lead
others to Christ. There are so many ways whereby Christ’s faithful may
bring the light of faith to others. This faith is faith in the
eucharistic Jesus, the Jesus of the sacraments and the Jesus who is the
head of the Church his body. Our treasure is the person of Jesus and
our faith in him. Let our life’s work be to bring this treasure to the
world.
(E.J.Tyler)
A second
reflection for the feast of the Epiphany
Scripture
today:
Isaiah
60:1-6; Psalm
71; Ephesians
3:2-3.5-6; Matthew 2:1-12
“We saw his star as it rose and have
come to do him homage.” (Matthew
2:1-12)
We are now in the special liturgical time of Christmas
when we think of the gift to the world of our Redeemer. A Redeemer has
come and is now always to be with us. As we put ourselves back in those
first days at Bethlehem we think of how the promise of God was now
fulfilled. God had promised his chosen people that he would send to
them a Messiah who would shepherd his people. He would be the good
shepherd to his own people. And now the Messiah had come. But there was
something more. This promised Messiah was not only for God’s own chosen
people. He was for all the nations. He was for the world. And this is
reflected in the events recorded in the Gospel. When our Lord was born
it was to Jewish shepherds that the angels announced the news. But the
Gospel records that soon after pagan wise men from the East were led by
a star to the promised king.
Both groups represented the two worlds, the Jewish and the
non-Jewish. Both were to be offered the salvation Christ would bring.
It is the whole non-Jewish world, of which all of us are members, that
we think of today. When the angels appeared to the shepherds the whole
night sky was filled with light. When the star appeared to the wise men
from the east there was less light, but light there was. Both together
symbolise the light of the Gospel shining upon all nations, Jewish and
Gentile. The star leading the wise men to the infant Jesus was only an
external sign leading to him. The true light is the faith within us
granted by God. Faith is the light that enlightens our hearts with the
truth of Christ the Redeemer.
This light of faith is a wonderful gift from God which we take for
granted all too easily. It is this light of faith which has gone out to
all the nations, and we see in most Mass congregations each Sunday in
Australia numerous nations represented. They have received the light of
faith which we celebrate today, the feast of the Epiphany.
In our own journeys through life follow the light of faith in
our own minds and the light of love in our hearts. What what we follow
is the interior star of faith. Even the wise men followed the star in
the sky only because they had something of faith in their hearts. By
this faith they followed the star.
In the second reading, St. Paul, full of excitement, is
revealing the secret, long hidden, that through Christ the Chosen
People were suddenly given many brothers among the Gentiles. Through
the Gospel we share in the prophets and the promises and the Messiah.
We are all now part of God’s true Chosen People and share the way to
salvation. The Gospel is the new star embedded in the life of the
Church, and by our faith we are able to accept it, and it is able to
lead all peoples to Christ and the glory of heaven.
And this last point is particularly relevant for today. We are
called to send the light of the star of our faith out to the whole
world, calling all men and women to follow Christ. We, in a sense, have
inherited the role of the wise men who gave a shining example of
fidelity in following the star of faith. In the Gospel account the wise
men from the East revealed the coming of Christ even to the Jewish
people, whose faith had dimmed. Some responded wickedly. We can be sure
that others responded joyfully, as did the Jewish shepherds on
Christmas night, and as did Simeon and Anna soon after.
Our life should be like a star leading others to Christ. The
faith has been carried through the world and through the centuries not
just by missionaries, but by the movement and migration of many
peoples. Australia has been greatly enriched by deeply committed
Christians from other countries who have made their home among us. We
must make sure that our star shines brightly in our families and in
society. Let us examine ourselves. Does the light of my faith shine
brightly with good deeds, love and charity? Let us call on our noblest
impulses to raise high the light of our faith to all. We have a duty to
Christ our eternal King. Let us this year make Christian family life
shine forth like a star of faith, like the star shining for the wise
men.
(E.J.Tyler)
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