December 2005
Pope Benedict XVI's general
prayer intention for the month of December is: "That an
even deeper understanding be spread of the dignity of men and
women according to the Creator's plan."
His mission intention is:
"That, on earth, the search for God and the thirst for truth may lead
every human being to meet the Lord."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The first
Sunday of Advent B
Today let us
think of St. Maximinus
(Saints)
Isaiah 63:
16-17.19; 64: 2-7; Psalm 80: 2-3,
15-16, 18-19; 1
Corinthians 1:
3-9; Mark 13: 33-37.
“He has gone from home, and left his
servants in charge, each with his own task” Mark 13: 33-37
Today we begin a new twelve month liturgical year (Year B), and it
begins with a liturgical reliving of the preparation for the coming of
the Messiah. The Church calls it the special liturgical season of
Advent. The Christian knows that in Christ is given every heavenly
blessing and the Old Testament period was God’s preparation of his
people for his coming. Part and parcel of the mystery of Christ is the
divine preparation for his coming. Therefore the liturgical year’s
celebration of the mystery of Christ includes also a celebration of
this preparation. In reliving the sentiments God instilled in his
people prior to the coming of the Messiah (Isaiah 63:
16-17.19; 64: 2-7) we shall be more disposed to
receive Christ whenever he comes to us again, especially at the end.
The sentiment that the Church places before us today we can take as
that contained in today’s Gospel passage (Mark 13: 33-37). We are to stay awake, Our Lord tells
us, because we never know when the time will come. What does this mean,
in concrete terms? Our Lord provides us with a simile. “It is like a
man travelling abroad: he has gone from home, and left his servants in
charge, each with his own task”. So being ready for the coming of the
Master means working at the task he has given us to do, whatever that
may be - seemingly unimportant perhaps. It means trying to do the best
we can with the task the Master has given us to do however unnoticed it
may be before the gaze of men. Were the Master to arrive suddenly, he
will find us diligent at his work. “He must not find you asleep.”
The greatest task ahead of each person is his own sanctification. As St
Paul writes in one of his letters, “This is the will of God: your
sanctification.” Christ must not find us asleep at the wheel.
So then, now I begin!
(E.J.Tyler)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Christ’s two comings (Mark 13: 33-37)
Comment by St John Chrysostom
(345-407), Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily on Psalm 49)
At his first coming, God came without any brilliance, unknown by most,
prolonging the mystery of his hidden life by many years. When he came
down from the mountain of the Transfiguration, Jesus asked his
disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ. Then he came like
a shepherd to look for his lost sheep, and in order to get hold of the
unruly animal, he had to remain hidden. Like a doctor who is careful
not to frighten his patient right from the start, in the same way, the
Lord avoids making himself known right from the beginning of his
mission: he only does so imperceptibly and little by little. The
prophet announced this event without brilliance with these words: “He
shall be like rain coming down on the meadow, like showers watering the
earth.” (Ps 72:6) He did not tear open the heavens so as to come on the
clouds, but rather, he came in silence into the womb of a virgin and
was carried by her for nine months. He was born in a manger as the son
of a humble craftsman…… He went here and there like an ordinary man;
his clothing was simple, his table even more frugal. He walked without
resting to the point of being tired out. But his second coming will not
be like that. He will come with such brilliance that it won’t be
necessary to announce his coming: “As the lightning from the east
flashes to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.” (Mt
24:27) It will be the time of judgment and of sentencing. And the Lord
will not appear as a doctor, but as a judge. The prophet Daniel saw his
throne, the river flowing at the base of the tribunal, and that device
made entirely of fire, the chariot and the wheels (7:9-10)…… David, the
prophet-king, spoke only of splendour, of brilliance, of fire flaming
on all sides: “Before him is a devouring fire; around him is a raging
storm.” (Ps 50:3) All these comparisons aim at making us understand
God’’s sovereignty, the brilliant light that surrounds him, and his
inaccessible nature.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You insist on trying to walk on your own, doing your own will, guided
solely by your own judgment. And you can see for yourself that the
fruit of this is fruitlessness. My child, if you don’t give up your own
judgment, if you are proud, if you devote yourself to “your”
apostolate, you will work all night - your whole life will be one long
night - and at the end of it all the dawn will find you with your nets
empty.
(The Forge, no.574)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday
of the first week of Advent B
Today let us think of St. James of the Marches
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah 2:
1-5; Psalm 122: 1-9;
Matthew
8: 5-11
“I tell you solemnly, nowhere in
Israel have I found faith like this”. (Matthew 8: 5-11)
There is much that we have been given that we simply take for granted.
Across the pages of the Gospel we see Our Lord looking for faith,
extolling it, and denouncing the lack of faith he encountered. The
implication is that there is every reason why we ought be growing in
our faith, and when we have little of it, God will hold us accountable.
Consider today’s Gospel passage (Matthew 8: 5-11).
The centurion gives utterance to the faith in Our Lord that he has and
Our Lord praises the degree of faith he has. “I tell you solemnly” Our
Lord says to those following him, “nowhere in Israel have I found faith
like this.” Our Lord goes on to intimate that in the life of faith many
from outside will put those of the household of God to shame: “I tell
you that many will come from east and west to take their places with
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom of heaven.”
Turning to ourselves, we of the family of God have been given the great
gift of faith. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit given to us at our
baptism disposing us both to entrust ourselves to the God who reveals
and to accept his revelation where it is to be found (in the Church),
because it comes from him. This great gift that is the foundation of
our Christian life is a great responsibility. We are responsible for
our life of faith and its growth in our souls. It is by means of faith
that we are able to know and cleave to Christ as God, and to make his
teaching the foundation of our daily lives. Let us then never entertain
any thought that could place this gift in danger. Let us be on guard
against dangers to faith, and dangers there are in plenty in a society
and culture which regards “faith” as unworthy of an educated and
thinking person.
Let us be grateful to God that he has chosen to endow us with this
gift, and let us be determined to nourish it unto holiness.
(E.J.Tyler)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“A centurion of the Roman army
approached him” (Matthew 8: 5-11)
Comment by Blessed
Guerric of Igny (1080-1157), Cistercian abbot (3rd
Advent Sermon, 2)
Oh true Israel, be ready to go out to meet the Lord! Do not only be
ready to open the door to him when he is there and knocks at your door,
but even go out to meet him cheerfully and joyfully when he is still
far away. And so to speak with complete trust where the day of judgment
is concerned, pray with all your heart that his reign might come…… May
your mouth be able to sing: “My heart is steadfast, oh God, my heart is
steadfast!”…… And you, Lord, come to meet me who am going out to meet
you! For in spite of all my efforts, I won’t be able to rise up to your
height unless you bend down and stretch out your right hand to the work
of your hands. So come to meet me and see if there is not in me a path
of iniquity; and if you find in me a path of iniquity that I know
nothing about, take it away from me and have mercy on me; lead me by
the eternal way, which is to say Christ, for he is the way on which we
walk and the eternity to which we come, the immaculate way and the
blessed dwelling. [Biblical references: Am 3:12; Lk 12:36; Lk 14:32; 1
Jn 4:17; Ps 57:8; Job 14:15; Ps 139:24]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To think of Christ’s Death means to be invited to face up to our
everyday tasks with complete sincerity, and to take the faith that we
profess seriously. It has to be an opportunity to go deeper into the
depths of God’s Love, so as to be able to show that Love to men with
our words and deeds.
(The Forge, no.575)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday
of the first week of Advent B
Today let us
think of St. Saturninus
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah 11:
1-10; Psalm 72: 1-2,
7-8, 12-13, 17;
Luke 10: 21-24.
“I bless you, Father, ... for hiding
these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere
children.” (Luke 10: 21-24)
Much of the history of civilization can be understood in terms of the
influence of great minds. Consider the extent of influence maintained
by the great religions of the world: Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism,
Confucianism, and so forth. They arose in response to the teachings of
their great founders: Mahomet, Buddha, Confucius, and others besides.
Consider the great philosophical currents that have shaped the culture
of, say, the West, and through the West of other cultures of the world.
These philosophical currents arose because of the work and the teaching
of powerful philosophical minds: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and into
the modern period with the likes of Descartes, Hegel, Marx and so on.
They were great minds and had great influence. But consider this too:
So many of them were so, so wrong, wildly astray from the truth if we
take as our yardstick of the truth (as we must) what God has revealed
in Christ.
Our Lord in today’s Gospel rejoices in the Holy Spirit and praises his
heavenly Father for “hiding these things from the learned and the
clever and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is
what it pleased you to do.” That is to say, a wonderful divine wisdom
and knowledge of the things of God is available to the humblest and
lowliest of persons who receive in faith the revelation of Christ. In
Christ, St Paul tells us, we receive every heavenly blessing,
especially the blessing of light and wisdom, that light that can take
us on to holiness of life, union with God and everlasting happiness in
heaven. It is this light, the light of Christian faith and divine
revelation that the most ordinary of Christ’s faithful has the mission
not only to live out in his everyday life, but to bring to the world
around him so that the world might be filled with the saving light of
Christ. Every member of the Church is called to be apostolic, and being
apostolic means bringing especially (but not exclusively) bringing the
doctrine of Christ to others.
Let us praise our heavenly Father in union with Christ for revealing
these things to us and entrusting us with the light that comes from
above.
(E.J.Tyler)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Many prophets and kings desired to
see what you see” (Luke 10: 21-24)
Comment from Saint Irenaeus
of Lyon (130-208), Bishop, Theologian and Martyr
(Adversus Haereses IV, 14, 2)
Right from the beginning, God formed the human person in view of his
gifts. He chose the patriarchs in view of their salvation. He prepared
for himself a people and taught the ignorant to follow God’s path. Then
he taught the prophets so as to get the human person accustomed to
bearing his Spirit already on this earth and to entering into communion
with God. Certainly, he himself needed no one, but he offered communion
with himself to those who needed him. Like an architect, he made plans
of salvation’s edifice ahead of time through those “on whom his favour
rests” (Lk 2:14). In the darkness of Egypt, he himself became their
guide. In the desert where they were wandering, he gave them a very
appropriate Law; and to those who entered the good land, he offered a
chosen inheritance. Finally, for all who return to the Father, he
killed the fattened calf and he gives them the precious garment (Lk
15:22). Thus, God disposed the human race in many ways for the “music
and dancing” (Lk 15:25). That is why John wrote in the Book of
Revelation: “And his voice sounded like the roar of rushing waters.”
(Rev 1:15) For the waters of God’s Spirit are truly many, because the
Father is rich and great. And going by way of all that, the Word
generously gave his help to those who submitted themselves to him,
giving every creature the appropriate instruction.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Make sure that your lips, the lips of a Christian - for that is what
you are and should be at all times - speak those compelling
supernatural words which will move and encourage, and will show your
committed attitude to life.
(The Forge, no.576)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Feast
of St Andrew the Apostle
(November 30) Born at Bethsaida, Andrew was a
disciple of John the Baptist before he became a follower of Christ, to
whom he also brought his brother, Peter. With Philip he presented the
Greeks to Christ before his Passion. Before the miracle in the desert,
he pointed out to Christ the boy carrying the loaves and fishes. After
Pentecost he preached the Gospel in many lands and is said to have been
put to death by crucifixion at Achaia (Greece).
Let us also think of St. Maura (Saints)
Scripture today:
Romans 10:
9-18; Psalm
18; Matthew 4: 18-22
“And
he said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fishers of men’."
(Matthew
4:18-22)
Andrew was, to all appearances, a
very ordinary person: one of any number of fishermen. He shared this
trade with his brother Simon. They were devout Jews (Andrew was a
disciple of John the Baptist, and his brother Simon in the Acts tells
the Lord that he had never eaten anything unclean or forbidden). They
were devout, but ordinary and in no way stood out. What made all the
difference to their lives was the call of Christ to follow him. They
were called, and they responded unhesitatingly. They left their nets at
once and followed him. The result was that through the Church their
lives assumed a significance reaching to the end of the world.
No matter who we are or how
seemingly ordinary our existence and status, the call of God to live in
Christ makes all the difference. St Paul tells us that before the world
began God chose us, chose us in Christ to be holy and full of love in
Christ. So even if we pass through life making little splash or none at
all, God will do his work provided we remain in Christ and grow in him.
If God does his work in us and through us for others, then all will be
well and our lives too will attain an eternal significance known only
to God, even if out of sight of the world. The one thing that is
important is being in Christ, and this happened in our case at our
baptism. We must live according to this reality and work at the tasks
God gives us during life having as our ambition to serve him and others
in him. Therein will lie the value of our lives, not in the acclaim of
men.
The call of Christ makes all the
difference, as we learn from St Andrew in our Gospel today.
We have received Christ’s call to
follow him. Let us like Andrew respond immediately.
(E.J.Tyler)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The
Lord’s first disciple (Matthew
4:18-22)
Comment by Basil of Seleucia (? ––
around 468), Bishop (Sermon in praise of St. Andrew, 2-3)
Andrew was the first to
acknowledge the Lord as his master…… His eyes perceived the Lord’s
coming and he left the teaching of John the Baptist so as to become
Christ’s pupil…… John the Baptist had said: “There is the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world.” (Jn 1:29) There is the one who
frees from death; there is the one who destroys sin. I have been sent
not as the bridegroom, but as the one who accompanies him (Jn 3:29). I
have come as a servant and not as the master. Urged on by these words,
Andrew left his former master and ran towards the one he announced……
bringing with him John the evangelist. Both of them left the lamp (Jn
5:35) and walked towards the Sun…… Since he recognized the prophet of
whom Moses had said: “To him you shall listen” (Deut 18:15), Andrew led
his brother Peter to him. He showed Peter his treasure: “We have found
the Messiah (Jn 1:41), him for whom we were longing; come now and taste
his presence.” When he was not yet an apostle, he led his brother to
Christ…… That was his first miracle.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is a great love of comfort,
and at times a great irresponsibility, hidden behind the attitude of
those in authority who flee from the sorrow of correcting, making the
excuse that they want to avoid the suffering of others. They may
perhaps save themselves some discomfort in this life. But they are
gambling with eternal happiness - the eternal happiness of others as
well as their own - by these omissions of theirs. These omissions are
real sins.
(The Forge, no.577)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday
of the first week of Advent A
Today let us think of St Edmund
Campion, St Robert
Southwell, and their
companions
Also St.
Florence, St. Eligius, Blessed
Charles of Jesus, priest (1858-1916)
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah 26:
1-6; Psalm 118: 1 and
8-9, 19-21, 25-27a;
Matthew 7: 21.24-27.
“It
is not those who say to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, who will enter the kingdom of
heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven.”
(Matthew 7:
21.24-27)
It is absolutely essential to have
hopes and dreams of serving and loving Our Lord faithfully and
generously if ever we are to make progress in the spiritual life. We
have to want it first, if we are to get there at all, and very many
people simply do not want it. They have no interest in the person of
Christ, except in a vague way that amounts to a pointless curiosity. We
must cultivate great desires, and we do it by prayer, meditation and
real self discipline.
But we must not fool ourselves.
The desire must lead to action. St Thomas Aquinas is said to have been
asked by his sister how one becomes a saint. He is reputed to have
replied, ‘Want it!’
He meant that the saint really
wants it, and the manifestation of his desire is his action. It is
deeds, it is actual work, that defines a person’s real intent. Our Lord
in today’s Gospel (Matthew 7:
21.24-27) tells
us that “It is not those who say to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, who will enter
the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in
heaven.”
So then each day let us
concentrate on getting down to it. We see that we have not really begun
a life of mortification in imitation of Christ. Well, today. let’s get
down to it and actually work on mortification, doing something concrete
about it. We see that when it comes to our daily responsibilities and
work we are somewhat slack. Well today get down to it in a concrete
sense, taking on the unpleasant aspects of daily work promptly and
perseveringly. What God wants above all is action when it comes to the
fulfilling of his will - whatever that may mean in our concrete
situation. It is not enough to want it, to dream about it, to hope for
it. We must get down to it and actually do the will of God, which is
usually a matter of fulfilling a very ordinary range of daily duties
for others (and for ourselves). But we must learn to do them really
well, and for God. In all of this we have a example: the Holy Family
during all those years at Nazareth.
So, now I begin!
(E.J.Tyler)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
“It is not enough to
say to me: ‘‘Lord, Lord’’ …… but you must do the will of my Father”
Comment from Saint Theresia
Benedicta of the Cross [Edith Stein], (1891-1942), Carmelite, Martyr,
Co-patroness of Europe (Das
Weihnachtsgeheimnis, 1/31/1931)
“Thy will be done.” In all its
fullness, this act of abandonment must be the rule of Christian life.
It must rule over the day, from morning to night, over the course of
the year, over all of life. This must be the Christian’s only concern;
all the others are taken care of by the Lord, but this one remains ours
until our last day. That is an objective fact. We are not definitively
assured of always remaining on the Lord’s path…… During our spiritual
childhood, when we have just begun to let ourselves be led by God, we
feel his strong and firm hand guiding us. We see in an obvious way what
we must do and what we must not do. But it will not always be like
that. The person who belongs to Christ must live Christ’s whole life.
That person must ripen to the point of attaining Christ’s adult age,
and one day must start out on the way of the cross…… Thus united with
Christ, the Christian will persevere even in the dark night…… That is
why, even and precisely in the midst of the darkest night, “thy will be
done.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For many people a saint is an
“uncomfortable” person to live with. But this doesn’t mean that he has
to be unbearable. A saint’s zeal should never be bitter. When he
corrects he should never be wounding. His example should never be an
arrogant moral slap in his neighbour’s face.
(The Forge,
no.578)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday
of the first week of Advent A
Today let us
think of St. Bibiana
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah 29:
17-24; Psalm 27: 1, 4,
13-14;
Matthew 9:
27-31
“As Jesus went on his way two blind
men followed him shouting, ‘Take pity on us, Son of David” (Matthew 9: 27-31)
There have been several notable cases in history of members of the
Church who had the light of faith and who passed over to the point of
utterly rejecting it in favour of some heresy or even in favour of
agnosticism or atheism. Within this new position they felt increasingly
self-assured and convinced. One can think of Arius in the early Church,
or Wycliffe, or Luther or Calvin. While among different Christian
communions the status of these personages is always controverted, there
is no controversy about it for the Catholic. They passed from the light
of truth to error. But the point to be noticed here is that they were
utterly convinced of the rightness of their step and of their ultimate
position. They were sincere - so it certainly seems. So what is to be
made of it?
We are to make this of it: they had passed from spiritual sight to
spiritual blindness.
The terrible thing about this situation is that a person within this
blindness does not appeal to God for sight, and generally it is when we
ask that we shall receive. He does not appeal to God for sight because
he thinks he is in the light. In our Gospel today “as Jesus went on his
way two blind men followed him shouting, ‘Take pity on us, Son of
David’.” They pursued Jesus asking him for the gift of sight because
they knew all too well that the lacked it. They were blind and they
fortunately knew it. In their case, at least, if they had not known
this and followed Jesus, asking for this miracle, Our Lord would have
passed them by and they would have been left in their blindness. And
such, we have to say, has probably been the case with various persons
in the past.
This Gospel scene of today has a lesson for us. Small infidelities,
going deliberately against the light and against our conscience in
little ways can lead to a partial loss of spiritual sight - unless we
repent. That is why we ought be careful to repent regularly and daily
of deliberate venial sin. We ought strive to be faithful to the light
we have been given, and more light will be given. Let us then love the
truth of God and live according to it in the little duties of everyday
life. Let us be on guard against he onset of spiritual blindness by
acting against the light. And let us continually be like the blind men,
asking Our Lord that we may see.
(E.J.Tyler)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“At that he touched their eyes”
Matthew 9:
27-31
Comment by Symeon the New Theologian (
949 – 1022), Orthodox monk
Let us seek him who alone can give us back our
liberty. Let us pursue him constantly with our desire, him whose beauty
wounds hearts, him who draws them towards love and who unites them to
him forever. Yes, let us all run towards him by our actions. Let us not
let anyone, whoever it might be, get ahead of us or deceive us and
distract us from our search. Above all… let us not say that
God never manifests his presence to human beings. Let us not say that
it is impossible for people to see God’s light one day – or even to see
it today. Thanks be to God, this was never impossible, on condition
that a person desired it. Let us realize how beautiful our Master is!
Let us not close the eyes of our heart to him by allowing ourselves
become absorbed in the realities of this world. Yes, may our concern
with matters of the earth not make us slaves of human glory to the
point of making us abandon the one who is the light of eternal
life. Thus, let us all go towards him together, with one heart,
one mind, with all our soul. Humbly, let us cry out to him, our good
Master, our merciful Lord, to him who is “man’s only friend” (Wis 1:6).
Let us seek him, for he will reveal himself to us, he will appear, he
will manifest himself, he who is our hope.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There was a young priest who used to address Jesus with the words of
the Apostles: explain the parable to us. He would add: Master, put into
our souls the clarity of your teaching, so that it may never be absent
from our lives and our works. And so that we can give it to others. You
too should say this to Our Lord.
(The Forge, no.579)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday
of the first week of Advent B
(December 3) St Francis Xavier,
Jesuit priest and missionary (1506-1552) Born in Spain he
studied at Paris and there met and joined St Ignatius. He was ordained
a priest at Rome in 1537. He spent himself in works of charity and in
1541 he went to the East where for ten years he preached the Gospel in
India and Japan, and brought great numbers to the Catholic Faith. He
died on the Chinese island of Shangchwan. (Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah 30:
19-21.23-26; Psalm 147: 1-6;
Matthew 9:
35-10:1.6-8.
“Jesus made a tour through all the
towns .. proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom”.
(Matthew 9: 35-10:1.6-8)
In our
first reading today, the prophet Isaiah prophesies in the name of “the
Lord God, the Holy one of Israel” the coming of an absolutely ideal
time. The people “will weep no more.” All will be light and there will
be no more darkness nor any need (Isaiah 30:
19-21.23-26). In these words, the words of the
first reading of today, the prophet is speaking of the coming of God’s
Kingdom. It will most certainly come for this is an inspired and
constant prophecy in the religion revealed by God. Now, just as
this certain expectation of the Kingdom filled the prophet with the
optimism that God intended for his people, so it ought fill us too. But
in our case we know that the fulfilment of this prophecy has come about
in Christ. He has come and he is with us to the end of time. It is in
him that everything God intended and revealed will reach its fulfilment
at the end of time. We are in the last days of its fulfilment, however
long it may take. The ultimate future is bright indeed.
Our Lord intended that it be evident that the Kingdom of God had come
in him, and that it was only a matter of time before its triumph would
be complete. As our Gospel text today tells us, he went everywhere
“proclaiming the Good News of the kingdom and curing all kinds of
diseases and sickness.” (Matthew 9:
35-10:1.6-8) It was the beginning of the fulfilment
of the prophecy of Isaiah that we read in the first reading. The end
time, long foretold, was arriving, and in Jesus our Lord, it had in
essence arrived. Our Lord directs his disciples to go out and “proclaim
that the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.” The signs foretold by the
prophets were to be included: “Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse
the lepers, cast out devils.”
Our daily lives ought be marked by the realization of the light that
ahead. We can see the great light at the end of the tunnel. It comes
from Christ who is with us now and whose light at the end of time will
light up all of creation. We are called every day to work with him who
is in our midst as our head, striving to bring all into his Kingdom.
This Kingdom that in him is with us now will come in its entirely. We
have so much to live and work for. So then, now I begin!
(E.J.Tyler)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Always have the courage - the humility, the desire to serve God - to
put forward the truths of faith as they are, without watering them
down, without ambiguity.
(The Forge, no.580)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Second
Sunday of Advent B
(December 4) St
John Damascene, priest and doctor of the Church (8th century).
John was born in Damascus (hence, John the Damascene, or John
Damascene), Syria. Learned in philosophy and theology, he wrote many
doctrinal works, particularly against iconoclasts who were destroying
sacred images and paintings. He became a monk in the monastery of St
Sabbas, near Jerusalem and is counted as the last of the Eastern
Fathers of the Church.
Let us also think of St.
Barbara (Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah 40:
1-5.9-11; Psalm 85: 9-14; 2
Peter 3:
8-14; Mark 1: 1-8.
“John the Baptist appeared in the
wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance”. Mark 1: 1-8
There is no getting away from it - holiness and union with God in
Christ requires repentance from sin. This means that hand in hand with
the thought of the person of Christ and working on coming to know and
love him more and more, there must be a great attention to sin. Sin is
the enemy to be defeated and it is a long and daily struggle. The sin
within one’s own heart has to be discovered, unmasked, and in various
ways with God’s help gradually overcome. One must grow in the
consciousness of personal sin and its seriousness. The Servant of God
Pope Pius XII taught that the sin of the modern period was the loss of
the sense of sin. Without it, it will be impossible to follow Christ
closely. For this reason, as we read in today’s Gospel (Mark 1: 1-8) St John the Baptist comes in the
wilderness to announce the coming of the Messiah, but he comes
proclaiming a baptism or washing of repentance.
We can accept all this in theory, but it has to come down to practice.
For the one who willingly listens to the words of the Baptist (which
the Church makes her own) In practice this especially means repentance
from venial sin, the deliberate venial sins of everyday life that we
tend to think are not sins at all, or that we think don’t matter much.
The good person with the grace of God can expect to avoid mortal sin if
the normal means are sincerely taken. But it is venial sin which clings
so persistently to our hearts and which blocks our advance in Christian
love and virtue. We simply must come to terms with deliberate venial
sin if we wish to be followers of the Master. The preaching of John the
Baptist which the Church wishes us to take to heart at this stage of
Advent must be applied to venial sin. The grace of Advent is a renewed
readiness to welcome the advent of Christ into our lives, and we must
understand that this means repentance, and repentance means taking
seriously the presence and recurrence of deliberate venial sin.
Let us get down to business and deal with sin, including and especially
deliberate venial sin. We have the means to help us: a daily
examination of conscience concluding with a sincere act of contrition,
and a fervent and regular reception of the Sacrament of Penance.
(E.J.Tyler)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is
no other possible attitude for a Catholic: we have to defend
the authority of the Pope always, and to be ready always to correct our
own views with docility, in line with the teaching authority of the
Church.
(The Forge, no.581)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday
of the second week of Advent B
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah 35:
1-10; Psalm 85: 9-14;
Luke 5: 17-26
"And the power of the Lord was behind
his works of healing.” (Luke 5: 17-26)
Recently at a seminar conducted on the religions of mankind at the
University of Sydney an academic offered his view that the religious
impulse arises from man’s sense of need and his conviction that the
powers above can answer these needs. There have been many proposals as
to the origin of the religious factor, and whether this academic’s view
represents a correct analysis need not be discussed here. But it does
remind us that time and again our needs prompt us to turn to the power
of God as our only ordinary recourse.
It is the power of God which we normally think of when we turn to him,
and perhaps it is his power which first impresses us when we think of
his creative works. The world reminds us of the power of God. Perhaps
too it is God’s power which is especially revealed in the history of
salvation, provided we think of this divine power as having a certain
character. It is merciful and compassionate. His power reveals his
almighty mercy and compassion. There is a further point which is
perhaps quite distinctive to revealed religion: God reveals himself as
having power without limit. All religions appeal to the power or powers
above. But I do not think any except revealed religion lay it down that
the Power above is almighty. Yes, we worship and love a God who is a
loving Father - but he is also a Father who is almighty. But in
practice, do we really believe this, that our Father in heaven is
almighty?
Now all this comes through in Jesus Our Lord himself. He healed the
sick, and "the power of the Lord was behind his works of healing", as
today’s Gospel reminds us (Luke 5: 17-26). Let us think then of Christ’s power,
a power we can rely on especially in the most impossible project ahead
of us, which is the task of our own personal sanctification. If
anything requires the compassionate power of God it is this, and our
Faith teaches us that God’s power is almighty. We ought pray for the
grace to believe in the Father almighty. Let us raise our minds and
hearts in trust and praise, placing ourselves in his almighty care.
(E.J.Tyler)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A long time ago someone asked me, tactlessly, whether those of us whose
career is the priesthood are able to retire when we get old. And since
I gave him no answer, he persisted with his impertinent question. Then
an answer came to me which, I thought, put it in a nutshell. “The
priesthood,” I told him, “is not a career: it is an apostolate.” That’s
how I feel about it. And I wanted to put it down in these notes so that
- with God’s help - none of us may ever forget the difference.
(The Forge, no.582)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday of the second week of Advent B
(December 6) St Nicholas
(4th century). Bishop of Myra (now in Turkey). His relics were brought
to Bari, Italy. Particularly after the tenth century he has been
honoured by the whole Church.
St. Gerald (Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah
40:1-11; Psalm 96: 1-2, 3,
10ac, 11-13;
Matthew
18:12-14
“It is never the will of your Father
in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.”
(Matthew 18:12-14)
There are many famous examples of conversion in the history of the
Church. There is the example of St Paul himself, converted on the way
to Damascus. There is the example of St Augustine, converted from a
life of immorality and heresy to the Catholic Faith and to holiness of
life. There is the example of John Henry Newman, converted to the
Catholic Faith. These are among the most famous - and many others could
be mentioned. Besides them, there are the countless unknown persons who
have undergone a profound conversion from sin and error to holiness and
the Truth. During the last week the media has been full of the last
days of the Australian-Vietnamese drug trafficker who was executed in
Singapore. It is very evident that his final years in prison were
marked by a conversion. He died a good and perhaps holy death.
What are we to make of this? Our Gospel today (Matthew
18:12-14) gives
us the words of Our Lord telling us of the will of our heavenly Father:
“It is never the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little
ones should be lost.” By way of illustration of this Our Lord gives us
the parable of the shepherd seeking out and finding the stray, and
experiencing more joy from this than from the ninety-nine who did not
stray at all. God is seeking us out and constantly with his grace
endeavouring to reclaim us from sin, from all sin, including from all
deliberate venial sin. He wants to draw us to holiness of life and
complete union with him. Conversion is the key, and it is a grace to be
sought and acted upon. We will not be lost if we convert. We will not
be held back in our sins, in our venial sins, if we convert from them.
We will attain holiness of life if we seek constant conversion,
constant repentance. This repentance ought be daily, weekly. It ought
be constant and life-long.
Let us during this period of Advent, when we renew our attitude of
readiness for the coming of Christ, ask for the grace to repent from
sin, and to repent again and again, constantly.
(E.J.Tyler)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“It is no part of your heavenly
Father’s plan that a single one of these little ones shall ever come to
grief.” (Matthew
18:12-14) Commentary from Silouane (1866-1938),
Orthodox monk (Writings)
My soul learned humility from the Lord. The Lord appeared to me in a
way that is beyond all understanding, and he filled my soul with his
love. But then he disappeared, and now my soul longs for him day and
night. As the good and merciful shepherd, he looked for me, his sheep
that was already wounded by the wolves, and he scattered them (cf. Jn
10:12).
My soul knows the Lord’s mercy for the sinful person, and before the
face of God I am writing the truth: all of us sinners will be saved,
and not a single soul will be lost, on condition that we repent. But
there are no words to describe how good the Lord is. Turn your soul
towards the Lord and say: “Lord, forgive me”, and do not imagine that
he will refuse to forgive you. In his goodness, he cannot not forgive,
and he will forgive and sanctify immediately. That is what the Holy
Spirit teaches in the Church.
The Lord is Love. Scripture says: “Taste and see how good the Lord is.”
(Ps 34:9) My soul has tasted that goodness of the Lord, and insatiably,
my spirit rushes to God day and night. I begin to write about God’s
love and cannot get enough, for the memory of the all-powerful God
holds my soul captive.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To have a Catholic spirit means that we should feel on our shoulders
the weight of our concern for the entire Church - not just of this or
that particular part of it. It means that our prayer should spread out
north and south, east and west, in a generous act of petition. If you
do this you will understand the cry - the aspiration - of that friend
of ours, when he considered how unloving so many people are towards our
Holy Mother: “The Church: it hurts me to see her treated so!”
(The
Forge, no.583)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday
of the second week of Advent B
(December 7) St Ambrose, bishop
and doctor of the Church (340-397). While living in Milan,
serving the imperial government, he was elected bishop of the city by
popular acclaim, and then baptised. He distinguished himself by his
apostolic zeal, service to the poor, and effective care of the
faithful. He defended the doctrine of the Church against the Arians
with his actions and his writings. He converted and baptised
Augustine. (Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah 40:
25-31; Psalm: 1-4, 8 and
10;
Matthew 11:28-30.
“Come to me, all you who labour and
are overburdened, and I will give you rest.” Mt. 11:28-30
Difficulties, pain and suffering are unavoidable in this life. This is
the universal experience of mankind and the testimony of the wisest men
of the ages. It can be said to be a basic driving force in the founding
and development of many of the religions of man. One great modern
anthropologist wrote that a key to the understanding of primal
religions is to ask how it dealt with the experience of evil and
suffering. Buddha was led along the path of trying to discover the
answer to suffering. He proposed that it involved the elimination of
desire and the attainment of enlightenment. Whatever about such
answers, suffering is a fundamental issue for man.
The Christian knows that the ultimate answer to suffering and to the
problem of attaining happiness is the person of Jesus. And Jesus
himself tells us this. In today’s Gospel (Matthew
11:28-30) he
invites all those who labour and are overburdened to come to him, and
he will give them rest. So we know the answer to our need and desire
for happiness. It is to go to Jesus. But there is this twist: happiness
will be found in shouldering Christ’s yoke and learning from him. His
yoke is easy, he teaches, and his burden is light. That is to say,
happiness will be found in being his disciple and taking up our cross
after him and following in his footsteps. Ultimate and true happiness
will be found in the cross of Jesus. This seems to be an immense and
mysterious paradox, and it is, for we take it on faith in the word of
Jesus because of our love for him.
Let us pray for the grace to make the programme of our life being with
Jesus in good times and in bad, and in learning from him who is meek
and humble of heart. Therein lies our rest.
(E.J.Tyler)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Take my yoke upon your shoulders……
Your souls will find rest.” Matthew 11:28-30
Comment by St Bede
(673-735), Monk, Priest, Doctor of the Church (Homily 12 for Pentecost
Eve)
The Holy Spirit will give the righteous perfect peace in eternity. But
already now, he gives them very great peace when he enkindles the
heavenly fire of love in their heart. For the apostle Paul said: “This
hope will not leave us disappointed, because the love of God has been
poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to
us.” (Rom 5:5) The true and even the only peace of souls in this world
consists in being filled with divine love and animated by the hope of
heaven to the point of coming to consider the successes and failures of
this world as unimportant, of being completely stripped of the desires
and lusts of this world, and of rejoicing in the offenses and
persecutions suffered for Christ, so that one can say with the apostle
Paul: “We boast of our hope for the glory of God. But not only that ––
we even boast of our afflictions!” (Rom 5:2)
The person who imagines that he will find peace in the enjoyment of the
goods of this world, in riches, is mistaken. The frequent troubles here
below and even the end of this world should convince that person that
he has built the foundations of his peace on sand (Mt 7:26). On the
contrary, all who, touched by the breath of the Holy Spirit, have taken
upon themselves the very good yoke of God’s love and who, following his
example, have learned to be gentle and humble of heart, begin now to
enjoy a peace, which is already the image of eternal rest.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my
anxiety for all the churches”, Saint Paul wrote. This sigh of the
Apostle is a reminder for all Christians - for you, too - of our duty
to place at the feet of the Spouse of Christ, of the Holy Church, all
that we are and all that we can be; loving her faithfully, even at the
cost of livelihood, of honour, of life itself.
(The Forge,
no.584)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The
Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
(December 8) Pope Pius IX
instituted this celebration when he proclaimed the dogma on December 8,
1854. In that definition he expressed the exact meaning of the truth of
Mary’s Immaculate Conception. He affirmed that it is
a dogma of the Catholic Faith and part of divine revelation that Mary
was conceived free from original sin. This feast has been celebrated in
the East since the eighth century and one century later also in many
places in the West. This privilege of Mary is the most beautiful fruit
of her Son’s Redemption. Chosen as Mother of the Saviour Mary received
the benefits of salvation from the first instance of her conception.
Christ came to take away the sin of the world; he did not allow it to
contaminate his earthly mother. (Saints)
Scripture today:
Genesis 3:
9-15.20; Psalm 98: 1-4;
Ephesians 1:
3-6.11-12; Luke 1: 26-38.
"And he came to her and said, 'Hail,
full of grace, the Lord is with you!'" (Luke 1: 26-38)
As the
study of the religions of man shows, different religions have different
emphases. Many scholars have seen in the experience of evil the
starting point of the religious quest in man. One well-known
anthropologist of primal religions has suggested that a key to the
understanding of such religions is the answer they gave to the
experience of evil and suffering. Buddhism could be considered in that
light too: Buddha sought for an answer to the problem of suffering and
found it in the attainment of enlightenment. Whatever of that, one of
the most distinctive features of the Christian religion is the
awareness of sin and the divine command to be holy. Sin is revealed as
the source of evil. Christ came as the Lamb of God who would take away
the sin of the world, and as St Paul states in one of his letters,
“This is the will of God, your sanctification.” The Christian religion
is a religion of the holiness of God and its bestowal on us his
children. It celebrates a God of holiness who hates sin and who
liberates man from it, endowing those who accept and cooperate with it,
the gift of a share in Christ’s holiness.
Let us celebrate the immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
in that light. As the great mediaeval theologian Duns Scotus pointed
out, in view of the redemption that would be won by Christ her Son,
Mary was granted the gift of freedom from original sin from the first
moment of her conception. Her condition at the instant of her
conception illustrates immediately the effect of the Redemption brought
about by her divine Son. The redemption was all about taking away sin
and bestowing holiness. This is what the religion of the Christian is
all about, and Mary’s immaculate conception shows us this. She is the
first and foremost Christian and is the perfect embodiment of all that
the Church aspires to and is called to. God is holiness and calls us
his fallen creatures to holiness. Mary is the type of all that God
calls us to. As the archangel Gabriel acknowledged in her presence (Luke 1: 26-38) , she is the all holy creature of God,
holy from the first moment of her conception and sinless to the end of
her days.
Let us entrust ourselves to the care of Mary our Mother just as the
Father entrusted his Son to her care, and just as Christ from the Cross
entrusted his beloved disciple to her care. Let us pray that she by her
prayers and example will help us attain the goal that God has given us:
freedom from sin and holiness.
(E.J.Tyler)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
“You
let her share beforehand in the salvation Christ would bring by his
death and kept her sinless from the first moment of her conception.”
(Opening prayer for the feast)
Commentary from the Roman Missal
(Preface for the feast)
Father, all-powerful and
ever-living God,
we do well always and everywhere
to give you thanks.
You allowed no stain of Adam’s sin
to touch the Virgin Mary.
Full of grace, she was to be a
worthy mother of your Son,
your sign of favour to the Church
at its beginning,
and the promise of its perfection
as the bride of Christ, radiant in beauty.
Purest of virgins, she was to
bring forth your Son,
the innocent lamb who takes away
our sins.
You chose her from all women to be
our advocate with you
and our pattern of holiness.
In our joy we sing to your glory
with all the choirs of angels:
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of hosts!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don’t be scared by it. In so far as you can you should fight
against
the conspiracy of silence they want to muzzle the Church with. Some
people stop her voice being heard; others will not let the good example
of those who preach with their deeds be seen; others wipe out every
trace of good doctrine ..., and so very many cannot bear to hear her.
Don’t be scared. But don’t get tired, either, of your task of being a
loudspeaker for the teachings of the Magisterium.
(The Forge, no.585)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday
of the second week of Advent B
Today (December 9) let us think of the first apparition of Our
Lady of Guadalupe to St Juan Diego
(website for Our Lady of Guadalupe: http://www.sancta.org).
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah 48:
17-19; Psalm 1: 1-4, 6;
Matthew
11: 16-19
“I, the Lord,
your God, teach you what is good for you, I lead you in the way that
you must go.”
(Isaiah 48: 17-19)
The recent execution of Van Nguyen in
Singapore captured the imagination of very many Australians. Van Nguyen
grew up a child of an obscure Vietnamese family in Melbourne, and went
to the Catholic school in the parish of Richmond. There was nothing to
distinguish him, except that gradually he became involved in drug
trafficking - to help his brother with his debts, so it seems. He spent
the last three years of his life in a Singaporean gaol, on death row
following his conviction. His life had every appearance of being a
complete failure and a great sorrow to his mother. But what happened?
His entire attitude changed due to a wonderful religious conversion. He
embraced the Catholic Faith and faced death with a wonderful trust in
God, repentant of all he had done wrong. It was a beautiful death by
the hangman. He taught very many people throughout the world that
whatever past mistakes and sins one makes, however much the past may
have been a needless failure, one can begin again and turn it around.
Let us put the past behind and
begin again as we prepare to celebrate the coming of the Saviour. One
of the things that can most discourage a person is the thought of past
failures and mistakes. He (or she) looks around and sees others who
seemingly have made a better job of things and feels a sense of failure
at the life he has had the chance of living. This sense of failure
leaves him discouraged. But consider Van Nguyen. He ended beautifully
and with a bright prospect ahead, beyond the grave. His coffin was
carried out of Melbourne’s packed St Patrick’s Cathedral to the
applause of all present. A great clapping of hands accompanied the
departing
coffin. All realized that Van Nguyen had ended his life well and
beautifully. This was because during the final period of his life in
prison, in the words of Isaiah in the first reading today (Isaiah 48: 17-19),
he looked to God to teach him what was good for him, and to lead him in
the way that he must go.
Let us learn from how this obscure
young man ended his life. At every point we can start again, placing
our trust in God and his mercy, being content to do the will of God as
it presents itself to us here and now.
(E.J.Tyler)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
To be converted
by the repeated calls from God who is coming
Commentary from the Latin liturgy
(Advent Hymn: Rorate caeli)
Drop down dew, ye heavens, from
above, and let the clouds rain the Just One.
Be not angry, O Lord, and remember
no longer our iniquity;
behold the city of thy sanctuary
is become a desert, Sion is made a desert.
Jerusalem is desolate, the house o
our holiness and of thy glory,
Where our fathers praised thee.
Drop down dew, ye heavens, from
above, and let the clouds rain the Just One. (cf. Isa 64:8f.; 45:8)
We have sinned, and we are become
as one unclean,
and we have all fallen as a leaf;
and our iniquities, like the wind,
have taken us away.
Thou hast hid thy face from us,
and hast crushed us
by the hand of our iniquity.
Drop down dew, ye heavens, from
above, and let the clouds rain the Just One. (cf. Isa 64:5f.)
See, O Lord, the affliction of thy
people,
and send him whom thou hast
promised to send.
Send forth the Lamb, the ruler of
the earth,
from the rock of the desert to the
mount of the daughter of Sion,
that he himself may take off the
yoke of our captivity.
Drop down dew, ye heavens, from
above, and let the clouds rain the Just One. (cf. Rev 2:12; Ps 78:15;
Isa 9:3)
Be ye comforted, be ye comforted,
O my people,
for most quickly comes thy
salvation.
Why then are ye all consumed with
grief,
so that your sorrowing has
transformed thee?
I come to save, do not be fearful.
Do ye not know that I am thy Lord
and thy God,
the most holy One, Redeemer of
Israel.
Drop down dew, ye heavens, from
above, and let the clouds rain the Just One. (cf. Isa 40:1f.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Become more Roman day by
day. Love
that blessed quality which is the ornament of the children of the one
true Church, for Jesus wanted it to be so.
(The Forge, no.586)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday
of the second week of Advent B
Today let us
think of Our Lady of Loretto
and St. Gregory III
(Saints)
Scripture today: Ecclesiasticus
48: 1-4.9-11; Psalm 80: 2ac and
3b, 15-16, 18-19; Matthew 17:
10-13.
“The Son of Man will suffer similarly
at their hands.” (Matthew 17:
10-13)
We naturally look forward to a better future, and this expectation and
hope sustains us in our daily efforts. Hope is a feature of human life,
and without it there would be nothing to live for. One of the
fundamental features of the Old Testament religion was its expectation
of what was coming. There was a great hope and expectation. All who
accepted the revealed religion of the Old Testament knew that a Messiah
was coming, and with him the Kingdom of God. But of course, just what
this Kingdom would entail in the concrete was where so many went wrong.
It is clear from the prophecies that suffering would be banished in an
ultimate sense, but very many could not imagine that suffering would be
an essential part of the establishment of the Kingdom of God and of
entry into it.
But that is just what our Lord revealed. He had come to suffer, and
those who chose to be one with him in his Kingdom would have to suffer
with him. In our Gospel today (Matthew 17:
10-13) Our
Lord’s disciples refer to the prophecies: “Why do the scribes say that
Elijah has to come first?” Our Lord tells them that St John the Baptist
was the Elijah who was to come, and he suffered at their hands. So too
“the Son of Man will suffer similarly at their hands.” Great suffering
was to be an essential component of his mission. So as we prepare to
celebrate the birth of the Messiah at Christmas, we ought strive to
gain a renewed appreciation of the centrality of the cross in Our
Lord’s life and work, and of how it must be central in the life of any
of his disciples.
Let us pray for the grace to know how to follow Our Lord closely in the
concrete circumstances of the life that God has given us. Let us not
fritter away the years he has given us by following useless paths that
lead nowhere. Let us rather (whatever be the appearances) learn, with
the help of the Holy Spirit, how to live in the way God intends for us,
whatever be the suffering entailed.
(E.J.Tyler)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“How awesome are you, Elijah!…You were
taken aloft in a whirlwind…You are destined…in time to come to put an
end to wrath before the day of the Lord.” (Ecclesiasticus
48: 1-4.9-11)
Comment from St Romanos the
Melodious (? –– 560), Hymn Composer (Hymn on the prophet Elijah)
Confronted with human perversity, Elijah considered making the
punishment even harsher. Upon seeing this, the Merciful One told the
prophet: “I know your zeal for good (1 Kings 19:14), I know your good
will, but I have compassion with sinners when they are punished beyond
measure. You are angry because you are without reproach; can you not be
resigned? I cannot resign myself to even one single person being lost
(Mt 18:14), for I am the only friend of human beings.” (Wis 1:6)
In what followed, the Master, seeing how short-tempered the prophet was
as regards human beings, was concerned about them. He removed Elijah
from the earth where they live saying: “Distance yourself from where
human beings dwell. I in my mercy will go down to them by becoming man.
So leave the earth and come up, since you cannot tolerate people’s
faults. But I who am from heaven, I will dwell among the sinners and I
will save them from their faults, I, the only friend of human beings.
“If you cannot live with guilty human beings, come here, live in the
domain of my friends, where there is no more sin. I will go down, for I
can put the lost sheep on my shoulders and bring it back (Lk 15:5), and
I can cry to those who labour: Come quickly, all you sinners, come to
me and rest (Mt 11:28). For I have not come to punish those whom I
created, but to tear the sinners away from ungodliness, I, the only
friend of human beings.”
Thus, when Elijah was lifted up to the heavens (2 Kings 2:11), he was
perceived as the person for the future. This Tishbite (1 Kings 17:1)
was lifted up in a chariot of fire; Christ was lifted up among the
clouds and the powers (Acts 1:9). The former dropped his cloak to
Elisha from the heights of heaven (2 Kings 2:13); Christ sent his
apostles the Holy Spirit, the Advocate (Jn 15:26), whom we, the
baptized, all received and by whom we are sanctified, as the only
friend of human beings teaches everyone.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Devotion to Our Lady in Christian souls awakens the supernatural
stimulus we need in order to act as members of God’s family.
(The Forge, no.587)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Third
Sunday of Advent B
(December 11) Saint Damasus I, pope.
Born about the year 305, of Spanish descent. He bcame a cleric in Rome,
and in the year 366 duuring very troublesome times he was ordained
bishop of Rome. He called together a number of synods against the
heretics and schismatics, and he did much to promote the veneration of
the martyrs, whose tombs he embellished with sacred verse. He died in
384. (Saints)
Scripture: Isaiah 61:
1-2.10-11; Luke 1: 46-50,
53-54; 1
Thessalonians
5:16-24; John 1:6-8.19-28.
“Be happy at all times; pray
constantly; and for all things give thanks to God”. (1 Th 5:16-24)
It goes without saying that there is so much suffering in the world. It
is said that one of the major health problems in Australia is
depression and general mental ill-health. There is still a considerable
suicide rate among young people, and suicide is present among people of
other ages as well. The point that can be made about this, I suppose,
is that it is not hard to be unhappy. The challenge is to find
happiness - and that is what we desire anyway. But it is a challenge
and the challenge derives fundamentally from the fact that we are born
into a fallen sinful condition and by our sins we tend to sink further
in this condition. And so happiness easily eludes us. We could say that
it is a great achievement to attain a profound happiness in life - and
this was what was especially striking in the life and death of the
Australian drug smuggler, Van Nguyen, who was recently executed. He
apparently attained a profound peace of soul before he died.
Now, in our second reading today from the first letter of St Paul to
the Thessalonians St Paul tells the Christians he was addressing that
he wanted them to be “happy at all times”. The implication is that this
happiness ought be the normal condition of the Christian. Somehow it
must be able to be present in the midst of suffering because while Our
Lord endured unimaginable sufferings it is inconceivable that he at any
point was “unhappy” and had lost his peace. Moreover, St Paul tells us
in the same sentence that his readers were to “pray constantly; and for
all things give thanks to God, because this is what God expects you to
do in Christ Jesus.”(1 Thessalonians
5:16-24)
We will be able to do this, to be
happy and to give thanks to God for everything, if we remain and grow
“in Christ Jesus.” One gets the impression that, for instance, Van
Nguyen was happy, that he prayed constantly, and that he gave thanks to
God. This was because by the time his end was approaching, he had
embraced the Catholic Faith and was “in Christ Jesus.”
That is the secret to constant happiness and gratitude. We must learn
to live “in Christ Jesus” and resolve to put on the virtues of the
heart of Christ. We must come to know him and by our closeness to him
we will be transformed more and more into his image. As St Paul says in
the same second reading: “God has called you and he will not fail you.”
(E.J.Tyler)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Imitate the Blessed Virgin. Only by openly admitting that we are
nothing can we become precious in the eyes of our Creator.
(The Forge, no.588)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday
of the third week of Advent B
(December 12) St Jane Frances de
Chantal, religious. Born in Dijon in France in the year 1572.
She was married to a nobleman named de Chantal, by whom she had six
children whom she brought up religiously. After the death of her
husband she placed herself under the direction of St Francis de Sales
and made great progress along the way of perfection, performing many
works of charity especially among the poor and the sick. She founded
and wisely directed the Visitation Order, and died in the year 1641.
Today is also the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
(celebrated in America) (Saints)
Scripture today:
Numbers
24:2-7.15-17; Psalm 24;
Matthew 21:23-27
“I behold him - but not close at hand:
a star from Jacob takes the leadership” (Numbers 24:17)
One of the distinctive things about the religion of Israel when
compared with other ancient religions was its expectation of a great
king who was to come: the Messiah. Cardinal Newman in his book, A
Grammar of Assent, tells us that this expectation which
distinguished
Israel’s religion spread somewhat to other ancient peoples. We may have
a reflection of this in the coming of the Magi from the East. They had
divined that a great king was to be born. The point to be taken here is
that an essential feature of the person of Jesus is that he was long
awaited, long promised and that his coming was an essential element in
the religion revealed by God. It means that it will enhance our
appreciation and knowledge of Jesus Our Lord if we take into account
the wonderful prophecies about him. Today’s first reading from the book
of Numbers (Numbers 24:17) gives us one such prophecy which can
increase our wonder at the gift from God that was Jesus. Balaam utters
his oracle of what was to come. A leader will spring from Jacob, a
sceptre will spring from Israel. At Christmas we celebrate his arrival.
There were all sorts of expectations as to the precise form the
Messiah’s work would take. In our Gospel today (Matthew
21:23-27) the
chief priests and elders of the people demand to know from Our Lord the
authority by which he did what he was doing. Our Lord in reply referred
to the testimony of John about him, and John had testified that he was
the one who was to come. Let us also note in passing that John himself
seems to have been uncertain as to the exact contours of the Messiah’s
mission and work, for after having testified to Our Lord he sent
disciples to him from prison to ask him if he was in fact the one who
was to come. Now, we who have the benefit of the full Scriptures, of
the Church’s teaching and so much else to guide us, should strive to
appreciate Our Lord for all he actually did for us and for what he
expects of us. The greatest surprise of all was the centrality of the
Cross in the work and mission of the Messiah. It means that following
the Master into glory means following in his footsteps along the way of
the Cross. Of course, this too was predicted in the Suffering Servant
figure of Isaiah, and Our Lord instructed his disciples before and
after his resurrection in how the Scriptures showed that the Messiah
had to suffer.
Let us use the prophecies of the Old Testament to appreciate more
deeply the person and mission of Christ, and let us be clear in our own
minds as to the place of the Cross in his and our life.
(E.J.Tyler)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Then why did you not believe in his
word?” Matthew 21:23-27
Comment by St Cyril of
Jerusalem (313-350), Bishop of Jerusalem, Doctor of the Church
(Baptismal Catechesis 12, 6-8)
The prophets were sent together with Moses to heal Israel; but they
cared for them with tears and did not succeed in overcoming the evil,
as one of them said: “Alas!…… The faithful are gone from the earth.”
(Mic 7:1.2) …… Humankind’s wound was great; from head to foot, there
was no healthy spot, no place to put a bandage or oil or salve (Isa
1:6). The prophets, exhausted from their tears, said: “Who will give
the saving remedy out of Zion?” (Ps 14:7)…… And another prophet begged
in these words: “Incline your heavens, O Lord, and come down.” (Ps
144:5) Humankind’’s wounds are too great for our remedies. They killed
the prophets and ruined your altars (1 Kings 19:10). We cannot heal our
miseries. We need you to lift us up again.
The Lord heard the prophets’ prayer. The Father did not despise our
bruised race. He sent his own Son from heaven to be our doctor. A
prophet said: “The Lord whom you seek is coming, and he will come
suddenly.” Where to? “To his temple,” (Mal 3:1) where you stoned his
prophet (1 Chron 24:21)… God himself also said: “Behold I am coming and
will dwell in your midst, and many peoples will find refuge with the
Lord.” … Now I am coming to gather together all the people from every
language, for “to his own he came, yet his own did not accept him.” (Jn
1:11)
You are coming, and what will you give the nations? “I come to gather
nations of every language…… I will set a sign among them.” (Isa 66:19)
For after my combat on the cross, I will put a royal seal on the
forehead of each of my soldiers (Rev 7:4). Another prophet said: “He
inclined the heavens and came down with dark clouds under his feet.”
(Ps 18:10) But his descent from the heavens remained unknown to human
beings.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I am convinced
that John, the
young Apostle, is at the side of Christ on the Cross because our Mother
draws him there. The Love of Our Lady is so powerful!
(The Forge, no.589)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday
of the third week of Advent B
(December 13) St Lucy, virgin and
martyr (4th century). She died at Syracuse (Sicily) probably
during the persecution of Diocletian. From antiquity her cult spread
throughout the Church. Her name is in the Roman Canon. (Saints)
Scripture today: Zephaniah 3:
1-2.9-13; Psalm 34: 2-3,
6-7, 17-18, 19 and 23; Matthew
21: 28-32.
“Even after seeing that, you refused
to think better of it and believe in him.” (Matthew 21:28-32)
There have been some in history whose religious conversion has
profoundly affected the memory and the imagination of the Church. We
think of St Paul, St Augustine, Newman, and others. Their story helps
us to appreciate the importance Our Lord himself gave to the need to
change, to repent. Our Lord began his public ministry calling on all to
repent, for the Kingdom of God was near at hand, and his great
forerunner preached repentance too. So important is repentance and
conversion in Christianity that some important currents of non-Catholic
thought have hung on their distinctive teaching on the nature of
conversion. For instance, classic evangelicalism has regarded a certain
experience of conversion (involving, for instance, the experience of
“assurance”) as necessary for salvation.
Whatever about that particular error, there is no questioning the
importance of conversion in the Christian life, even though the
experience of conversion can take any number of forms. Our Gospel today
mentions a detail that we can easily overlook. Our Lord was speaking to
the chief priests and the elders of the people who were stubbornly
refusing assent. In this case Our Lord was referring to the difference
between them and many of the ordinary people - many of those regarded
as sinners. They recognised John the Baptist as a pattern of true
righteousness and so believed
him. But the leaders “did not believe him, and yet the tax collectors
and harlots did.” They had the example of faith before them, and yet
“even after seeing that,” they “refused to think better of it and
believe in him.” (Matthew 21:28-32)
This reminds us that a most important area in which we are called upon
by Christ our Lord to change is in respect to faith, to belief.
We can stubbornly refuse to believe certain things. A basic response to
Christ has to be belief, belief in him and in what he reveals. We must
repent, we must change, we must convert from anything that might lead
us to refuse this belief. Let us make our prayer the prayer of that
person in the Gospel who said: “Lord I do believe. Help my unbelief”.
(E.J.Tyler)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
“John testified to the truth…… He was
the lamp, set aflame and burning bright.” (Jn 5:33.35)
Comment by Blessed Guerric of Igny (1080-1157), Cistercian abbot
(Sermon 1 on Saint John the Baptist, §§2)
This lamp, which is destined to give light to the world, brings me a
new joy, for thanks to it, I recognized the true Light which shines in
the darkness, but which the darkness did not accept (Jn 1:5)…… We can
admire you, John, who are the greatest of all the saints; but it is
impossible for us to imitate your sanctity. Since you hasten to prepare
for the Lord a perfect people with publicans and sinners, it is
extremely urgent that you speak to them in a way that is more
accessible to them than your life. Offer them a model of perfection
that is not only your way of living, but that is adapted to the
weakness of human strength.
“Give some evidence that you mean to reform.” (Mt 3:8) But we,
Brothers, we take pride in speaking better than we live. John however,
whose life is more sublime than what human beings can understand, makes
his language available to their understanding. He says: “Give some
evidence that you mean to reform.” “I am speaking to you in a human way
because of the weakness of the flesh. If you cannot yet entirely do
good, may there be in you at least a true desire to reform from what is
bad. If you cannot yet give evidence of perfect righteousness, may your
perfection at present consist in giving evidence of behaviour that
shows that you desire to reform.”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We will never achieve true supernatural and human cheerfulness, real
good humour, if we don’t really imitate Jesus: if we aren’t humble, as
he was.
(The Forge, no.590)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday
of the third week of Advent B
(December 14) St John of the
Cross, Carmelite priest and doctor of the Church (1542-1591).
Born in Spain. After a number of years as a Carmelite, he was persuaded
by St Teresa of Jesus to lead the reform of his Order. He suffered many
tribulations. A renowned mystic, he wrote great works on the spiritual
life and the mystery of the Cross.
Also, let us think of St. Venantius
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah
45: 6-8.18.21-25; Psalm 85ab.10-14;
Luke 7:18-23.
“Happy
is the man who does not lose faith in me.” (Luke 7:18-23)
At times one hears very religious
people say (often in jest) that this or that saint to whom he has been
addressing his requests is not of much use, and that therefore he is
'giving up on him'. He has 'lost faith' in a particular saint. Of
course, each person is quite free to follow his own devotion when it
comes to particular saints, but more serious is a deeper and allied
problem. It is the problem of giving up on Our Lord himself and ceasing
to have much faith in him. It is not as uncommon as we may think. Many
people do not believe very much in the power of prayer. Our Lord’s
seeming inaction disappoints them and they give up and depend instead
on material and human helps to life, rather than on God.
In our Gospel today St John the
Baptist is puzzled because he had expected something very different of
Our Lord from what he was hearing. He sends his disciples to ask if he
is the one who was to come, and Our Lord pointed to what he was doing,
with the appeal: “the Good News is proclaimed to the poor and happy is
the man who does not lose faith in me.” (Luke 7:18-23) No
matter what happens to us, and no matter what might be Our Lord’s
action or seeming inaction in the face of our needs, we must never lose
faith in him. Blessed will we be if we do not lose faith in him. All
too often people turn away from God in anger, or in indifference, or in
any one of several different forms and degrees of unbelief, because
they have not obtained the satisfaction of their wishes. They begin to
lose faith in Our Lord.
As we think of Our Lord’s words to
John the Baptist in today’s Gospel, let us resolve to maintain our
faith in Our Lord no matter what might happen, and whatever be the
appearances. We must live not by appearances, but by faith - faith in
Our Lord whatever be the seeming outcome or course of events. This is
the path to blessedness because it is the path of faith. We remember
what Our Lord said to Thomas after his resurrection: “You believe
because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet
believe.”
(E.J.Tyler)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“The lame walk” Luke 7:18-23
Commentary from Clement of
Alexandria (150 - around 215), Theologian (Protrepticon I, 4-7)
The apostle Paul wrote: “We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient,
and far from true faith; we were the slaves of our passions and of
pleasures of various kinds. We went our way in malice and envy, hateful
ourselves and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God
our saviour appeared, he saved us…… because of his mercy.” (Tit 3:3-5)
See the power of the “new song” (Ps 149:1) of the Word of God: he made
human beings out of stone (Mt 3:9); he transformed those who behaved
like wild beasts into civilized human beings; and when those who were
dead, who had no part in the true and real life, heard this song, they
returned to life.
He put everything in order in a measured way…… in order to make the
entire world a symphony…… The Word of God, the descendant of the
musician David who existed before David, left behind the harp and the
zither, which are instruments without a soul, and through the Holy
Spirit ruled the whole universe and in particular the human being who,
in his body and soul, is the summary of the world. He plays on this
instrument with a thousand voices in order to celebrate God, and he
himself sings in harmony with that human instrument…… The Lord sent his
breath into the beautiful instrument, which is the human being (cf. Gen
2:7), and made him as his own image. But he himself is also a
harmonious, well-tuned and holy instrument of God’s, Wisdom beyond this
world and Word from on high.
So what does this instrument, the Word of God, the Lord, and his new
song want? To open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf, to
lead the cripples or the lost to righteousness, to show God to ignorant
human beings, to stop corruption, to conquer death, to reconcile
disobedient sons with the Father…… Don’t think that this saving song is
new in the way furniture or a house are new, for it was “before the
daystar,” (Ps 110:3) and “in the beginning was the Word; the Word was
in God’s presence, and the Word was God.” (Jn 1:1)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
To give oneself sincerely
to
others is so effective that God rewards it with a humility filled with
cheerfulness.
(The Forge, no.591)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday
of the third week of Advent B
Today let us
think of St. Christiana
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah 54:
1-10; Psalm 30: 2, 4-6,
11-13;
Luke 7: 24-30
“For now your creator will be your
husband, his name, the Lord of hosts”. (Isaiah
54:1-10)
It has been pointed out that the character and shape of a religion
unfolds from the image of God (or the Ultimate) which is at its root.
Not only will a religion be thus affected by its image or conception of
God, but a civilization will similarly be shaped by it. As we consider
the primal religions of mankind and as we consider the world religions,
we can point to a fundamental feature of what Judaism and Christianity
term revealed religion. It is that God, in the words of one of the
letters of St John, is love. And so it is that in the first reading of
today that is from the book of Isaiah (Isaiah 54:1-10), God speaks to his people the Creator.
The marvel is that as Creator he states that he will be Israel’s
husband. What god of any people addresses his people in this fashion?
Repeatedly in the prophets God reveals that he regards himself as the
husband of his people.
We must work on immersing ourselves in these inspired texts so as
gradually to realize their import. For the Christian it comes down to
gaining a realization that God is his Father, and that he is
God’s child, his adopted child. That is what Christ came to do, to make
us children of God by the gift of the Holy Spirit. We ought pray for a
deep sense of this, and for the virtues that enable us to live as
children of God. In every possible circumstance, in every upsetting
situation, in every reversal, in good times and in bad, we ought
interpret the situation in light of the fact that God is our heavenly
Father. We ought pray for the grace to imitate Jesus in this. By the
power of his Holy Spirit he has brought it about that we are in the
Father as his children. A fundamental feature of any conversion is the
embrace of this fundamental truth.
God is love. He is mercy. He is my Father, I am his child. He is our
Father, and we are his children.
(E.J.Tyler)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
“What did you go out to see in the
desert?” Luke 7: 24-30
Comment by Eusebius of Caesarea
(around 265-340), Bishop, Theologian, Historian
(Commentary on Isaiah 40)
“A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the Lord! Make
straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!” (Isa 40:3) This word
shows clearly that the events prophesied will not be accomplished in
Jerusalem, but in the desert. The glory of the Lord will be revealed in
the desert; and that is where “all flesh shall know God’’s salvation.”
(Isa 40:5) And that is what really literally happened when John the
Baptist proclaimed in the desert of the Jordan that God’s salvation was
going to be made manifest. For that is where God’’s salvation appeared.
Because Christ in his glory made himself known to everyone when he was
baptized in the Jordan……
The prophet spoke that way because God had to reside in the desert -
the desert that is inaccessible to the world. All the pagan nations
were deserts as regards the knowledge of God, inaccessible to the
righteous and to the prophets of God. That is why this voice gives the
order to prepare the way for the Word of God, to unify the inaccessible
and rough road so that our God, who is coming to dwell with us, might
be able to walk on it……
“Go up onto a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings; cry out at
the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news!” (Isa 40:9) ……
Who is this Zion…… whom the people of old called Jerusalem?…… Is this
not a way of calling the group of apostles who were chosen among the
people of old? Is she not the one who received God’’s salvation as an
inheritance……, she who is placed on the heights, which is to say,
founded on the Word, the only Son of God? It is to her that he gives
the order …… to announce the Good News of salvation to all people.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our humiliation, our self-effacement, our disappearing and passing
unnoticed, should be complete, entire, total.
(The Forge, no.592)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday
of the third week of Advent B
Today let us
think of St. Adelaide
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah 56:
1-3.6-8; Psalm 67: 2-3, 5,
7-8;
John 5:
33-36
“The works my Father has given me to
carry out, .... testify that the Father has sent me.”
(John 5: 33-36)
It has been said that a notable feature of certain schools of
Protestant spirituality is their great emphasis and dependence on the
writings of St Paul. Well, one of the distinctive characteristics of
Catholic spirituality is the constant contemplation of the person of
Christ as he is portrayed in the Gospels. The great Catholic saints
have ever recommended the devout meditation on the person of Jesus as
he speaks and acts in the passages of the Gospels. This includes the
contemplation of his very deeds - which means that we prayerfully and
lovingly imagine him in his actions, walking, healing, raising from the
dead, suffering, dying, rising. Our Lord refers to this in today’s
Gospel. He says of his works that they testify that he came from the
Father. He is inviting his hearers to consider carefully what he was
doing, his deeds, his works (John 5: 33-36). They help us to come to know and love
Jesus.
During these days as we approach the celebration of Christ’s birth we
ought immerse ourselves more and more deeply in the contemplation of
the person of Jesus, and the thought of his deeds will help us do this.
We can do it by meditating at set times each day on passages of the
Gospels, perhaps the Gospel of the day which you are actually doing
right now. We can do it by the daily recitation of the Rosary, when we
think of the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful and Glorious mysteries of Our
Lord’s life. By and large this means contemplating him in his works,
his deeds. The whole purpose of this is to come to know him in his
sacred humanity, and coming to know him we come to love him and are
more and more inspired to imitate him and to grow in his likeness.
Christmas ought lead to a new appreciation of the centrality in human
life and history of the person of Jesus Christ. He is God-with-us, and
will never leave us. Let us give ourselves to him.
(E.J.Tyler)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“John was the lamp” John 5:
33-36
Commentary by St Augustine (354-430),
Bishop of Hippo and Doctor of the Church (Sermon 293, 4)
By God’s will, the man sent to testify to Christ is himself so great in
grace that he could be mistaken for Christ. For Christ himself said:
“History has not known a man born of woman greater than John the
Baptizer.” (Mt 11:11) If no one among human beings is greater than this
man, the one who overtakes him is more than a human being. How great is
the testimony Christ gives himself! But for sick and disabled eyes, it
is difficult for the day to testify to itself; sick eyes fear it, they
can only bear the light of a lamp. That is why before appearing, the
Day let itself be preceded by a lamp. This light sent into faithful
hearts will confound the unfaithful hearts.
David, the prophet-king, said in a Psalm (132:17): “I will place a lamp
for my anointed.” God is speaking through David: I have placed John to
be the Saviour’s herald, the precursor of the Judge who is to come, the
friend of the awaited bridegroom. “I will place a lamp for my anointed.”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sincere humility. What can
upset a person who delights in being
insulted because he knows he deserves nothing better?
(The Forge, no.593)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17th
of December (Saturday of the third week of Advent B)
Today let us
think of Our Lady of St.
Olympias (Saints)
Scripture today:
Genesis
49:2.8-10; Psalm 72: 1-2,
3-4ab, 7-8, 17;
Matthew 1: 1-17
"A genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of
David, son of Abraham" (Matthew 1: 1-17)
Time and again during his public ministry Our Lord referred to the Law,
the Psalms and the Prophets - in other words, the Scriptures. More than
anything he referred to them as pointing to him. Our Lord taught that
he himself was the true meaning of the Scriptures. If one wished to
know what
the Scriptures taught and what was their real meaning, they were to
look to him and accept him for what he claimed to be. The Scriptures
foretold his coming and they foretold his sufferings and his glory. On
the day Our Lord rose from the dead he met the two disciples on their
way to Emmaus, all downcast. Their hopes had been dashed with his
death. But no! He taught them from the Scriptures that the Messiah had
to suffer and so enter into his glory. His sufferings were the
foundation of all the hopes of the Christian. But in this he pointed to
the Scriptures.
Now, this is especially the teaching of St Matthew whose genealogy we
have before us in today’s Gospel. (Matthew 1: 1-17) What can we say is the meaning of this
genealogy, this tracing of Our Lord’s ancestry back to David and then
to Abraham? It is surely, among other things, to show that the entire
Old Testament, all that God had been revealing and doing for and in the
midst of his chosen people, pointed to the coming Messiah who was
Jesus. Jesus is the promised one who would fulfil all the hopes of the
prophets and all that God had predicted for his people and for mankind.
As we read and listen to the Old Testament especially as it is
presented to us in the Church’s liturgical year we ought have
constantly in mind what it is all pointing to. It throws light on the
Incarnation and the Redemption that was to come and the Redemption
throws light on it.
During these last days of Advent as we prepare to celebrate the coming
of the Redeemer, let us think of the grand preparation that God was
providing for it. Let us enter into that preparation so as to welcome
Christ anew into our hearts with a new appreciation and commitment.
(E.J.Tyler)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
“In times past, God spoke …… in varied
ways to our fathers……; in this, the final age, he has spoken to us
through his Son.” (Heb 1:1-2)
Commentary from Second
Vatican Council (Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum 3-4)
God, who through the Word creates all things (cf. Jn 1:3) and keeps
them in existence, gives men an enduring witness to himself in created
realities (cf. Rm 1:19-20). Planning to make known the way of heavenly
salvation, he went further and from the start manifested himself to our
first parents…… He ceaselessly kept the human race in his care, to give
eternal life to those who perseveringly do good in search of salvation
(cf. Rm 2:6-7). Then, at the time he had appointed, he called Abraham
in order to make of him a great nation (cf. Gn 12:2). Through the
patriarchs and after them through Moses and the prophets, he taught
this people to acknowledge himself the one living and true God,
provident Father and just judge, and to wait for the Saviour promised
by him, and in this manner prepared the way for the Gospel down through
the centuries.
Then, after speaking in many and varied ways through the prophets, "now
at last in these days God has spoken to us in his Son" (Heb 1:1-2). For
he sent his Son, the eternal Word who enlightens all men, so that he
might dwell among men and tell them of the innermost being of God (cf.
Jn 1:1-18). Jesus Christ, therefore, the Word made flesh, was sent as
"a man to men." He "speaks the words of God" (Jn 3:34) and completes
the work of salvation which his Father gave him to do (cf. Jn 5:36;
17:4). To see Jesus is to see his Father (Jn 14:9). For this reason
Jesus perfected revelation by fulfilling it through his whole work of
making himself present and manifesting himself: through his words and
deeds, his signs and wonders, but especially through his death and
glorious resurrection from the dead and final sending of the Spirit of
truth.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The
Pope's Homily at Vespers of
First Sunday of Advent
"The Lord Always Wants to Come Through Us"
VATICAN CITY, Dec. 13, 2005 (ZENIT.org).- Here is a translation of a
homily improvised by Benedict XVI for the first vespers of the First
Sunday of Advent, celebrated in St. Peter's Basilica on Nov. 26.
* * *
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
With the celebration of First Vespers of the First Sunday in Advent we
are beginning a new liturgical year. In singing the psalms together, we
have raised our hearts to God, placing ourselves in the spiritual
attitude that marks this season of grace: "vigilance in prayer" and
"exultation in praise" (cf. Roman Missal, Advent Preface, II/A).
Taking as our model Mary Most Holy, who teaches us to live by devoutly
listening to the Word of God, let us reflect on the short Bible reading
just proclaimed.
It consists of two verses contained in the concluding part of the First
Letter of St. Paul to the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24). The
first expresses the Apostle's greeting to the community: The second
offers, as it were, the guarantee of its fulfillment.
The hope expressed is that each one may be made holy by God and
preserved irreproachable in his entire person -- "spirit, soul and
body" -- for the final coming of the Lord Jesus; the guarantee that
this can happen is offered by the faithfulness of God himself, who will
not fail to bring to completion the work he has begun in believers.
This First Letter to the Thessalonians is the first of all St. Paul's
Letters, written probably in the year 51. In this first letter we can
feel, more than in the others, the Apostle's pulsating heart, his
paternal, indeed we can say maternal, love for this new community. And
we also feel his anxious concern that the faith of this new Church not
die, surrounded as she was by a cultural context in many regards in
opposition to the faith.
Thus, Paul ends his letter with a hope, or we might almost say with a
prayer. The content of the prayer we have heard is that they [the
Thessalonians] should be holy and irreproachable to the moment of the
Lord's coming. The central word of this prayer is "coming." We should
ask ourselves what does "coming of the Lord" mean? In Greek it is
"parousia," in Latin "adventus," "advent," "coming." What is this
"coming"? Does it involve us or not?
To understand the meaning of this word, hence, of the Apostle's prayer
for this community and for communities of all times -- also for us --
we must look at the person through whom the coming of the Lord was
uniquely brought about: the Virgin Mary.
Mary belonged to that part of the people of Israel who in Jesus' time
were waiting with heartfelt expectation for the Savior's coming. And
from the words and acts recounted in the Gospel, we can see how she
truly lived steeped in the prophets' words; she entirely expected the
Lord's coming.
She could not, however, have imagined how this coming would be brought
about. Perhaps she expected a coming in glory. The moment when the
Archangel Gabriel entered her house and told her that the Lord, the
Savior, wanted to take flesh in her, wanted to bring about his coming
through her, must have been all the more surprising to her.
We can imagine the Virgin's apprehension. Mary, with a tremendous act
of faith and obedience, said "yes": "I am the servant of the Lord." And
so it was that she became the "dwelling place" of the Lord, a true
"temple" in the world and a "door" through which the Lord entered upon
the earth.
We have said that this coming was unique: "the" coming of the Lord. Yet
there is not only the final coming at the end of time: In a certain
sense the Lord always wants to come through us. And he knocks at the
door of our hearts: Are you willing to give me your flesh, your time,
your life?
This is the voice of the Lord who also wants to enter our epoch, he
wants to enter human life through us. He also seeks a living dwelling
place in our personal lives. This is the coming of the Lord. Let us
once again learn this in the season of Advent: The Lord can also come
among us.
Therefore we can say that this prayer, this hope, expressed by the
Apostle, contains a fundamental truth that he seeks to inculcate in the
faithful of the community he founded and that we can sum up as follows:
God calls us to communion with him, which will be completely fulfilled
in the return of Christ, and he himself strives to ensure that we will
arrive prepared for this final and decisive encounter. The future is,
so to speak, contained in the present, or better, in the presence of
God himself, who in his unfailing love does not leave us on our own or
abandon us even for an instant, just as a father and mother never stop
caring for their children while they are growing up.
Before Christ who comes, men and women are defined in the whole of
their being, which the Apostle sums up in the words "spirit, soul and
body," thereby indicating the whole of the human person as a unit with
somatic, psychic and spiritual dimensions. Sanctification is God's gift
and his project, but human beings are called to respond with their
entire being without excluding any part of themselves.
It is the Holy Spirit himself who formed in the Virgin's womb Jesus,
the perfect Man, who brings God's marvelous plan to completion in the
human person, first of all by transforming the heart and from this
center, all the rest.
Thus, the entire work of creation and redemption which God, Father and
Son and Holy Spirit, continues to bring about, from the beginning to
the end of the cosmos and of history, is summed up in every individual
person. And since the first coming of Christ is at the center of the
history of humanity and at its end, his glorious return, so every
personal existence is called to be measured against him -- in a
mysterious and multiform way -- during the earthly pilgrimage, in order
to be found "in him" at the moment of his return.
May Mary Most Holy, the faithful Virgin, guide us to make this time of
Advent and of the whole new liturgical year a path of genuine
sanctification, to the praise and glory of God, Father, Son and Holy
Spirit.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My Jesus, what’s mine is yours, because
what’s yours is mine, and
what’s mine I abandon in you.
(The Forge,
no.594)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fourth Sunday of Advent B
Today let us
think of St. Gatian,
and the Expectation of the
Blessed Virgin Mary (Saints)
Scripture: 2 Samuel 7:1-5.
8b-12.14a.16; Psalm 89: 2-5,
27, 29; Romans
16:25-27; Luke 1: 26-38.
“He will be great, and will be called
the Son of the Most High” (Luke 1: 26-38)
Reports of the recent riots in Sydney have spread throughout the
world. For instance, I have a niece in Brazil, and a couple of days ago
she sent me a message telling me she had heard about it. During the
past week there has been some discussion in the media about what were
the causes
of this trouble, and one person who was interviewed thought that one
factor has been the gradual of respect among people in our culture.
This loss of respect shows
itself in a loss of good manners, a taking people for granted, a
harshness towards others.
The reason why I mention this observation here is that a habit of
disrespect
towards others can affect our attitude to God himself. Our culture and
our society can condition us in certain ways if we are not on guard.
For instance, in a society in which there has been a loss of a sense of
sin, there is the danger that we too could be affected by this and lose
our own sense of sin. So too we need to foster within ourselves the
habit of being respectful. The basis of this virtue of respect and
reverence is to recognise the dignity of each person. Each person is
God's child, made in his image. Parents need to instil this into their
children. For
if we are respectful to others, we will be more likely to be respectful
to God and to recognise just who God is, and this will be the basis of
an attitude of love and adoration. We will be less likely to take
Christ for granted.
In our Gospel today (Luke 1: 26-38) the archangel Gabriel appears to a
young
woman in an obscure village of Galilee to announce a momentous message.
Let us notice how respectful the angel was to the virgin Mary herself.
He recognised the greatness of her dignity, and addressed her as the
one who is full of
grace, all holy. He also had a profound respect for the very message
that he was bearing from God. He had come to announce that the
long-awaited Messiah was about to come and that she, the virgin Mary,
was chosen by God to be his mother. He came to tell her this and to ask
her consent. The one to come was to be a divine person, the Son of God
himself. Consider what he said of the one who was coming: “He will be
great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God
will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over
the house of Jacob forever.”
If we aspire to love Christ we must profoundly respect him, and
for this to happen we must bear in mind who he is. God was sending to
mankind and to each human person an extraordinary gift, the gift of his
own divine Son who would have a unique task, to redeem the world and
each person in it. The plan of God was to unite to his Son each person
who accepted the invitation. By being in Jesus one would become a child
of God and share in the life of God. Now, it is very easy to take all
this for granted, and not to have a much real respect for it. It is
very easy to be relatively indifferent to the gift of God.
One of the purposes of birthdays is to celebrate the person whose
birthday it is. It is the time to appreciate again the wonder and the
value of that person. So too with Our Lord’s birthday on Christmas day.
It is the opportunity to appreciate again the wonder of Jesus, the
wonder of the Incarnation, the wonder of God becoming one of us and
remaining with us forever, and giving us a share in his own divine
life. Jesus is with us now, and he will be with us to the end. No
matter what might happen in life, we have Jesus with us always, and in
Jesus we have every heavenly blessing. So let us strive during these
final days of Advent to appreciate anew the person of Jesus our
Redeemer and to make him our great treasure. There is nothing greater
God could give us than his Son. In him we have everything worthwhile,
everything lasting.
Let us then resolve to ask God our Father to help us to know,
appreciate and to love his Son, and to make union with him the
goal of life. Let us be on guard against failing to respect this
gift. It is so easy to take our Faith, the Church and Jesus
himself, for granted.
(E.J.Tyler)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Rejoice, you who are full of
grace” (Luke 1: 26-38)
Commentary from Pope John Paul II (Allocution November 27, 1983)
Joy is a basic component of the sacred time now beginning. Advent is a
time for being watchful, for prayer, for conversion, in addition to
being one of fervent and joyful expectation. The motive is clear: “The
Lord is near.” (Phil 4:5)
The first thing that is said to Mary in the New Testament is a joyful
invitation: “Exult, rejoice!” (Lk 1:28 in Greek) Such a greeting is
linked to the Saviour’s coming. Mary is the first one to receive the
announcement of a joy, which will be proclaimed to the whole people in
what follows. She participates in it in an extraordinary way and
measure. In her, ancient Israel’s joy is concentrated and finds its
fullness; in her, the happiness of messianic times bursts forth
irrevocably. The Virgin Mary’s joy is in particular that of the “small
remnant” of Israel (Isa 10:20f.), of the poor who await God’s salvation
and who experience his fidelity.
So that we also might participate in this feast, it is necessary to
wait in humility and to welcome the Saviour with trust. “In considering
the ineffable love with which the Virgin Mother awaited the Son, all
the faithful who live the spirit of Advent through the liturgy,
‘vigilant in prayer and filled with gladness’, will be led to take her
as their model and to prepare to go out to meet the Lord who is
coming.” (Paul VI, Marialis cultus)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Are you able to undergo those
humiliations which God asks of you, in
matters of no importance, matters where the truth is not obscured? You
are not? Then you don’t love the virtue of humility.
(The
Forge, no.595)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(19th
December) Monday of the fourth week of Advent (B)
Today let us
think of Blessed Urban V
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Judges 13:
2-7.24-25; Psalm 71: 3-6,
16-17;
Luke 1: 5-25.
“Since you have not believed my words,
which will come true at their appointed time, you will be silenced”. (Luke 1: 5-25)
Much of the writing of history is the celebration of the deeds and
achievements of persons of influence. Human greatness is measured by
human achievements. But when we turn to the Scriptures it is God’s
achievements that we especially celebrate, and at least in the history
of salvation there is a notable
feature of these achievements. It is that God’s power
seems to be especially active in the midst of human weakness. Our
Gospel passage today is a case in point.
In our text we are told of the appearance of the angel Gabriel to
Zechariah to tell him of the wonderful news of the coming birth of John
(Luke 1: 5-25). From his mother’s womb he would be
filled with the Holy Spirit. He would be exceptionally holy, and would
have an exceptionally holy mission. Years later he received the highest
praise from Our Lord himself. Zechariah and Elizabeth, the angel
informed him, would be John’s parents, despite their age. Now, what was
Zechariah’s response? He doubted that it could happen. He doubted the
power of God to do such a thing of mercy. For this he was struck dumb,
though it is obvious from what followed that he remained a good and
very holy man.
This incident surely reminds us of the power of God at work in all that
was connected with the Incarnation. In a few days’ time we shall all
celebrate God the Son becoming man by the power of the Holy Spirit. We
think of God’s almighty power which reveals his loving mercy. Whenever
we are conscious of our weakness we ought derive strength from the
thought of God’s power and place our faith in it, knowing that God can
show his power in the midst of our human weakness.
(E.J.Tyler)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"My
mouth shall be filled with your praise, and I will sing your glory!" Psalm 71: 3-6,
16-17
One of the
sentiments that ought fill our hearts during these final days of Advent
is praise and thanks. As Christmas approaches we ought be giving glory
to God more and more for his stupendous plan of salvation. The very
thought of God sending his own divine Son to dwell among us, and of his
divine Son being born into a humble family, and living in obscurity and
relative poverty at Nazareth ought fill us with wonder. There is a
great beauty in all that God does. God was surpassingly rich, and he
became poor that each of us who are poor might become rich, rich in God.
So during these days let us prayerfully think about all that God has
done for our salvation. Let us think about Bethlehem, and how God chose
this for his way of saving mankind. If this was his way, it ought then
be our way - the way of humility, of poverty of spirit, of meekness.
Our way ought be that of generosity towards those who are poor, just as
God in his unending generosity enriched us who are poor. This should be
our way, the way of Christ. He will give us the strength to live
according to the Gospel. He has already given us the strength for this
in giving us his grace, and he will give us even great strength to do
it with more fidelity and generosity. Let us pray for this great grace
during these days of Advent as we approach Christmas.
(E.J.Tyler)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
“You have not trusted my words.”
(Luke 1:20)
“Blest is she who trusted.” (Luke 1:45)
Commentary from St Augustine (354-430), Bishop and Doctor of the Church
(Sermon 293, 1-2)
John the Baptist’s mother was an old and sterile woman; Christ’s mother
was a young girl in the fullness of her youth. John was the fruit of
sterility; Christ that of virginity…… The one was announced through the
message of an angel; the other was conceived upon the angel’s
announcement. John’s father did not believe in the news of his birth
and he became mute; Christ’s mother believed in her son, and through
faith, she conceived him in her womb. The Virgin’s heart first welcomed
faith and then, becoming mother, Mary received a fruit in her womb.
The words spoken to the angel by Mary and Zechariah are, however, more
or less similar. When the angel announced the birth of John to him, the
priest answered: “How am I to know this? I am an old man; my wife too
is advanced in age.” Mary responded to the angel’s announcement: “How
can this be since I do not know man?” Yes, they are almost the same
words…… Yet the former is reprimanded, the latter is enlightened.
Zechariah is told: “Because you have not trusted……” But Mary is told:
“This is the answer you demanded.” However again, the words of the one
and of the other are almost the same…… But the one who heard the words
also saw the hearts; for him, nothing is hidden. Each one’s language
concealed what he thought; but if this thought was hidden from human
beings, it was not hidden from the angel, or rather, it was not
concealed from him who spoke through the angel’s mediation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pride dulls the edge of charity. Ask Our Lord each day for the virtue
of humility, for you and for everyone. Because as the years go by,
pride increases if it is not corrected in time.
(The Forge, no.596)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(December
20) Tuesday of the fourth week of Advent (B)
Today let us
think of Sts. Abraham,
Isaac, & Jacob (Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah 7:
10-14; Psalm 24:
1-6; Luke 1: 26-38.
"In the sixth month the angel Gabriel
was sent by God to a virgin betrothed to to a man whose name was
Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary."
(Luke 1: 26-38)
Today in our reading from the Gospel of St Luke the Church (Luke 1: 26-38) places before us various persons both
divine and human. They are the persons involved in the Annunciation. We
ought live in their company during these last days of Advent when we
are approaching the birth of the Redeemer. There is the angel Gabriel
sent by the Father with his message about the coming birth of his
divine Son. The birth will be brought about by the power of the Holy
Spirit. In his words to the Virgin Mary the angel refers to the
Messiah’s ancestors, David and Jacob. Above all, the angel addresses
himself to Mary, betrothed to Joseph. We are thus in the presence of a
marvellous array of holiness and of holy persons: the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit, together with Mary, Joseph and the angels and
saints. During these days of Advent we ought consciously live in their
company and call upon their intercession.
Thinking of this great company, let us especially think of Mary and her
simple and profound words to the angel. He had come to ask her consent,
and her response describes herself and her decision. “I am the handmaid
of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word.” She teaches
us to love humility and obedience to God. She aspired to no special
position before men, but rather accepted whatever lot God assigned to
her. She was humble, and though God raised her on high in his sight and
in the mission he conferred on her, she remained profoundly
humble. Let us remain in the company of Mary our mother, asking
her to teach us humility and to obtain for us the grace to grow in
humility. Humble disciple of the Lord as she was, she was obedient: “Be
it done unto me according to your word.” Let us ask her to obtain for
us the grace to be obedient to God in little things and in small.
During these days, let us live in the company of the Trinity, of all of
heaven, and especially of Jesus, Mary and Joseph asking them to help us
to be like Mary and Joseph day by day.
(E.J.Tyler)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.”
Luke 1:26-38 Commentary from Joseph Cardinal
Ratzinger [Pope Benedict XVI]
Introduction to Christianity (Einfüührung
in das Christentum)
In all the miraculous births in the old covenant at the decisive
turning points in the history of salvation……, the meaning of the event
is the same every time: the salvation of the world does not come from
man, from his own strength. The human person must allow it to be given
him, he can only receive it as a free gift. The virginal birth of
Christ is first of all a message about the way in which salvation comes
to us –– in the simplicity of welcome, as an absolutely free gift of
the love which redeems the world. “Break forth in jubilant song, you
who were not in labour, for more numerous are the children of the
deserted wife than the children of her who has a husband.” (Isa 54:1)
In Jesus, God began something new in the midst of sterile and desperate
humankind, something which is not the product of our history, but a
gift from on high.
If it is true that every human being already constitutes an ineffable
newness, that each one represents a unique creature of God’s in
history, Jesus is the true newness. He does not proceed from
humankind’s own resources, but from the Spirit of God. That is why he
is the “new Adam” (1 Cor 15:47). A new humanity begins with him……
Christian faith professes that God is not a prisoner of his eternity,
limited to what is purely spiritual. On the contrary, God can act here
and now, in the midst of my universe. He did act there effectively in
Jesus, the new Adam, born of the Virgin Mary through God’s creative
power, whose Spirit hovered over the waters in the beginning (Gen 1:2),
creating being from nothing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is there anything more displeasing than a child acting the grown-up?
How can a poor man - a child - be pleasing to God if he “acts
grown-up”, puffed up by pride, sure that he’s worth something and
trusting only in himself?
(The Forge, no.597)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(21
December) Wednesday of the fourth week of Advent (B)
(December 21) St Peter
Canisius, priest and doctor of the Church (1521-1597) Born in
Holland,
he joined the Society of Jesus. He worked in Germany and Austria
fighting for many years by his writings and teachings to safeguard the
Catholic faith. Of his numerous books the Catechism is most renowned.(Saints)
Song of Songs 2:
8-14; or Zephaniah 3: 14-18; Psalm 33: 2-3,
11-12, 20-21;
Luke 1: 39-45
"Blessed is she who believed that the
promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled."
(Luke
1:39-45)
Authentic Islam honours Mary the mother of Jesus. All of the
Christianity of the first millennium honoured Mary as the mother
of Jesus and most of Christianity (East and West) does so still. One
would think that, on reflection, Judaism would recognise the greatness
of Jesus as a Jew - and hence the greatness of his mother as a Jewess.
All of this recognition we can see in germ in the salutation of
Elizabeth honouring the mother of the Messiah in the words, “Of all
women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”
We ought praise and honour God for providing mankind with such a member
of our race, one so holy and one with such dignity as to be the mother
of God made man. The angel praised her, and here in our passage today
Mary’s holy kinswoman does so too. Let us join in this chorus of praise
as we approach Christmas. The Church gives us words to do this in the
text of the “Hail Mary” prayer.
The heart of Mary’s greatness lies in her faith, as Elizabeth
proclaims: “Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her
by the Lord would be fulfilled.” (Luke 1:39-45) At the annunciation she asked the angel
how could what was proposed to her come about, for she was a virgin.
Having been told that it would come about by the power of the Holy
Spirit, she immediately in full faith gave her consent. That consent
expressed what had been a life of unwavering faith to that point, and
it was followed by a life of unwavering faith to the end. Her faith was
supremely expressed at the foot of the Cross, accepting the salvific
plan of God and never wavering in her belief that the promise made by
the Lord would be fulfilled.
Let us these days take Mary for our mother and our model. She is the
mother and the model for all Christ’s faithful and for all of mankind.
(E.J.Tyler)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Who am I that the mother of my Lord
should come to me?” (Luke
1:39-45)
Commentary by St John of
Damascus (675-749), Monk, Theologian, Doctor of the Church
(1st Sermon on the Dormition)
“Blest are you among women and blest is the fruit of your womb…” For
all generations will call you blest, as you said (Lk 1:48). The
daughters of Jerusalem, that is to say, the Church, saw you and
proclaimed your happiness… For you are the royal throne near which the
angels stood contemplating their Master and Creator, who was seated on
it (Dan 7:9). You have become the spiritual Eden, more sacred and more
divine than the former one. The earthly Adam lived in the former; in
you lives the Lord who came from heaven (1 Cor 15:47). Noah’s ark was a
prefiguration of you; it saved the seed of the second creation, for you
gave birth to Christ, the world’s salvation, who submerged sin and
pacified the floods.
It was you whom the burning bush described ahead of time, whom the
tables depicted, on which God wrote (Ex 31:18), which the ark of the
covenant told about; it is you whom the golden urn, the candelabra… and
Aaron’s staff that blossomed (Num 17:23) obviously prefigured… I almost
left out Jacob’s ladder. Just as Jacob saw heaven united with the earth
by means of the two ends of the ladder, and the angels descending and
ascending on it, and as the one who is really the strong and invincible
one engaged in a symbolic struggle with him, thus you yourself became
the mediator and ladder by which God came down to us and took upon
himself the weakness of our substance, embracing it and closely uniting
it to him.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Certainly you can go to Hell. You are convinced it could happen, for in
your heart you find the seeds of all kinds of evil. But if you become a
child in front of God, that fact will bring you close to your Father
God, and to your Mother, Holy Mary. And Saint Joseph and your Angel
will not leave you unprotected when they see you are a child. Have
faith. Do as much as you can. Be penitent, and be Loving. They will
supply whatever else you need.
(The Forge, no.598)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(December
22) Thursday of the fourth week of Advent (B)
Today let us think of Saints
Chaeremon and Ishyrion (Saints)
Scripture today:
1 Samuel 1:
24-28; 1 Samuel 2: 1,
4-5, 6-7, 8abcd Luke 1: 46-56;
“The Almighty has done great things
for me. Holy is his name” (Luke 1:46-56)
It is a wonderful thing that we have a specimen of Mary’s prayer so
soon after the Annunciation. We could speculate on the origins of
Mary’s prayer - perhaps it is a prayer she prayed often during her life
subsequent to the scene of the Gospel here (Luke 1:46-56). Whatever of that, Luke is clear that
on this occasion Mary prayed this prayer, the Magnificat. The most
obvious feature of it is that her prayer and her thoughts were all on
what God had done. She praised and thanked God for what he had done to
her, lowly as she was, and what he had done and would do to the humble
and the lowly that looked to him. God is great and he is all-merciful.
This is what marks the prayer of Mary.
We should take Mary for our model in our prayer as in everything. The
great danger for any human being including any member of Christ’s
faithful is to think too much of what he himself has done or will do.
Consider Our Lord’s parable of the pharisee and the publican. The
pharisee recounted to God in his prayer all that he had done, and (in
consequence) despised the publican. It has often been observed that
youth is the age of ambitions, while age and maturity is the time of
regrets. We can learn from Mary that rather than looking back on life’s
mistakes and disappointments with constant regret, far better it is to
look back on what God has done, and to be intent on noticing that. Our
memories ought be filled more and more with the deeds and achievements
of God and his great mercy, rather than with our own achievements or -
what is more likely - our great lack of them. Mary teaches us to strive
to praise God and to thank him for his greatness and his mercy.
Christmas has almost arrived. Let us this Christmas season (which
continues for many days beyond Christmas Day) resolve to think far more
of the works of God than our own work. Thinking of his work in our
lives and in the course of history, let us resolve with his grace to
collaborate with it every day.
(E.J.Tyler)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How difficult it
is to live
humility! As the popular wisdom of Christianity says, “Pride dies
twenty-four hours after its owner. So when you think you’re right,
against what you are being told by someone who has been given a special
grace from God to guide your soul, be sure that you are completely
wrong.
(The Forge, no.599)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(23
December) Friday of the fourth week of Advent (B)
(December 23) Saint
John of Kenty, priest. Born in Kenty, in the diocese of
Cracow in 1390. He became a priest and for many years taught in the
University of Cracow and then was parish priest of Olkusz. Besides
being an outstanding professor of the Catholic Faith, he excelled in
personal holiness and in charity to his neighbour, so that he was a
true example to his colleagues and to his students. He died in
1473. (Saints)
Scripture today:
Malachi 3:
1-4.23-24; Psalm 25: 4-5ab,
8-9, 10 and 14;
Luke
1:57-66
“The Lord had shown her so great a
kindness and they shared her joy.” (Luke 1: 57-66)
If we were to describe the typical impression of God prevalent in our
secular Western society today, I suppose we could say that God is
regarded as distant and unconcerned with the details of everyday life
of the average person. Accordingly, God is typically regarded with
indifference. Of course there are countless exceptions to this but I
think it is probably the typical and public impression and attitude
towards the great being we call God. The world is regarded as going on
without him. Now, it may be that part of the way for people to come to
a sense of God as a living person is to discover his kindness. It is
this which is referred to in today’s Gospel (Luke 1: 57-66). The conception of John and
Elizabeth’s giving birth to him was regarded as a due to God’s great
kindness.
St John in one of his letters tells us that God is love. Of course, it
is difficult to see how God our Creator can be described simply as love
and kindness when we see so much in suffering and evil. Where
is he in the midst of all this suffering, we tend to cry out. But to
regard the fact of human suffering as incompatible with the notion that
God is love and kindness is, at the least, to be basing our judgments
very much on our experience of human beings. We must remember that
inasmuch as it is God whom we are thinking of here, there could be
other explanations for the presence of evil. In the final analysis, if
we want to know the
real character of God we must turn to what he has revealed of himself.
Across the sweep of Scripture and in the teaching of the Church, God is
proclaimed as kind, though holy and therefore uncompromising
in respect to sin. Whatever be the problems, if we accept revelation
then God reveals himself as love.
Our passage today from the Gospel (Luke 1: 57-66) presents the birth of John as a proof
of God’s kindness to Elizabeth. The greatest proof of his kindness to
all of us is the gift he has given of his Son, Jesus our Lord. This is
what we celebrate on Christmas Day and in the Christmas season. We
celebrate, among other things, the kindness of God. He is kind, despite
the suffering we see around us. His kindness led him to send his Son to
shoulder that burden of suffering and evil and to take away its root
cause, sin. Let us ask for the grace, then, to appreciate and celebrate
the kindness of God.
(E.J.Tyler)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Serving and forming children, caring lovingly for the sick. To make
ourselves understood by simple souls, we have to humble our intellect;
to understand poor sick people we have to humble our heart. In this
way, on our knees in both body and mind, it is easy to reach Jesus
along that sure way of human wretchedness, of our own wretchedness. It
will lead us to make ‘a nothing’ of ourselves in order to let God build
on our nothingness.
(The Forge, no.600)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(24
December) Saturday of the fourth week of Advent (B)
Today let us think of Adam & Eve, and St. Adele (Saints)
Scripture today:
2 Samuel 7:
1-5.8-12.14.16; Psalm 89: 2-5, 27
and 29;
Luke 1: 67-79
"Blessed be the Lord, the God of
Israel, for he has visited his people, he has come to their rescue."
(Luke 1: 67-79)
Today, on the eve of Christmas, the Church places before us for our
contemplation and our personal use the prayer of praise of God uttered
by Zechariah. He prayed under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and
so it is a prayer coming forth from God himself assisting us to praise
him for what he has done. And what does Zechariah praise God for? In
the first place, he praises him for his saving mercy: God is praised as
the Saviour of his people. He saves his people from their enemies and
from all who hate them. So God reveals himself as the refuge of his
people. It is “thus” that “he shows mercy”, it is “thus” that “he
remembers his holy covenant” (Luke 1: 67-79). He delivers his people from danger in
order “to serve him in holiness and virtue in his presence all our
days.” The object of God’s saving action is the peace and holiness of
life of his people.
That is the general point about God which Zechariah’s prayer proclaims.
But it also contemplates the coming child, John. He will prepare the
way for the coming of the Lord. The rising Sun was coming who will
bring light to those in darkness and guidance into the way of peace.
Let us then as we prepare today for our celebration of the coming of
Christ at Bethlehem praise and thank God for his mercy. It is the mercy
of God which Zechariah especially extols. “Thus he shows mercy to our
ancestors.” The forgiveness of sins would come “by the tender mercy of
our God who from on high will bring the rising Sun to visit us”. The
prayer of Zechariah sums up the spirituality of the Old Testament at
the threshold of the New. It is a spirituality based above all on a
sense of the mercy of a God who saves his chosen people. A new height
in this direction would come with the arrival of the Messiah who would
save his people from their sins. It is this which would reveal the
mercy of God, and demonstrate his power.
Let us pray for a deep appreciation of the kindness and the mercy of
God whose power can save us from any of our enemies, but most of all
from the greatest enemy, sin and all its forms.
(E.J.Tyler)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A resolution: unless I really have to, never to speak of my personal
affairs.
(The Forge, no.601)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Christmas
Day (December
25)
"Today in the town of David a saviour has
been born to you: he is Christ the Lord." (Luke 2: 1-14)
There are now a great variety of religions in Australia.
There are varieties of Christianity, and various non-Christian
religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Zoroastrianism. Some are
recently founded religions, some are religions with a long history. One
result of this phenomenon is that a person searching for religious
truth will have difficulty because so many of the religions of man
claim to be true. Because of this many who might be disposed to inquire
give up any quest to know the
truth and content themselves with being guided simply by their
preferences. They become indifferent to the question of truth and even
develop a dislike for making an issue of it. They can find such
an emphasis boring or irritating, and prefer to stress personal
experience and taste.
Now, the Catholic Church makes an issue of the objective truth
of religion, and there should be no question in our minds
which of the religions of man is true: it is the Catholic Religion.
That is the Catholic claim, and every member of the faithful ought take
steps to be personally convinced of this. The religion of the Catholic
is the true one,
and its teaching is true. It is true in all that it teaches about the
person of Christ and what Christ taught, and the Catholic knows that if
any other religion contradicts its teaching in this matter, to that
extent that other religion is untrue. The Catholic Religion is true
because it was founded and established by, and continues to be
sustained and guided by, the living person of Jesus who is himself the
object of its teaching. He is the object of its love, of its service
and of its worship.
All this is to say that the Catholic Religion is the one
revealed and established by God in God’s own search for man. The other
religions spring from man’s search for God, and carry with them the
strengths, the weaknesses, the truths and the falsehoods characteristic
of any religious search by man. Buddha spent his life searching for the
key to happiness in the midst of suffering, and what he proposed as an
answer gave rise to Buddhism. Confucius sought for an ultimate answer.
Mahomet had powerful religious experiences and chose to place himself
in the tradition of the prophets to give to his experiences their
meaning. Each of these men discovered some truths in their quest, but
in the process were also ensnared in various errors - and some of their
errors were
very great. Furthermore, ultimately the religions of man do not
and cannot save man from his sinful condition which separates him from
God.
But in the case of the Catholic Religion, springing
forth as the fulfilment of what God had revealed to the Jews, it is God
who comes searching for man. We, fallen mankind, were sunk in the
darkness of our sins and God came searching for us to save us with his
truth and his grace. His birth in the stable at Bethlehem marks his
arrival. The birth of Christ at Bethlehem is God’s gift to man,
revealing his loving mercy. Christ established one religion and by the
power of the grace conveyed by that religion he places man in him, and
by doing this places man in God. We are "in Christ" and thus on the way
to salvation. When we think
of other religions, we think of the things man has done, with all their
human limitations. But when we think of the Catholic and Christian
religion we think of the things God has done. He gave us Jesus, and it
is Jesus and his coming which we celebrate today.
But we can take Jesus for granted. Consider who it is who
was born at Bethlehem. There was never any question about the fact that
the child born
at Bethlehem was human. He is one of us. This was obvious to his mother
Mary and to Joseph, it was obvious to the shepherds and to the Magi
from the East. As he grew up in Nazareth it was obvious to his
relations and townspeople. During his public ministry it was obvious
to friend and foe alike that he was a man like us. Indeed it became
obvious that he was a very great man, great as a prophet and as a man
of God. But of course there have been many individuals in the course of
human history who have been great men, great precisely in the realm of
religion. They attained some portion of the truth and led many others
along the road that they travelled in their quest for God. I have
already mentioned some of them.
But now, there are notable things that distinguish Jesus
from all of them. Our Lord enters history at Bethlehem as the one whom
God had promised he would send. His coming was long predicted.
Mahomet’s birth was not predicted: he emerged in history as something
of a surprise. Our Lord as the Messiah was long predicted, and we
Christians know that his birth at Bethlehem was the fulfilment of the
prophecies. Our Lord in his public ministry showed that he was the One
sent by the Father, and sent explicitly by the Father to fulfil a
divine plan for man. Jesus is God’s gift to man, and in him are
to be found all the blessings of God and of heaven. He is the bridge
between God and man, and indeed no one comes to the Father except
through me, he said.
But there is more than this. Our Lord is not only the one whom
God sent to be the bearer of all the divine blessings which God wishes
to give to us his creatures. He is not only the way, indeed the only
true and sure way, to the Father. He is the image of the Father. "He who
sees me, sees the Father", he said. In him dwells the fulness of the
Godhead bodily, St Paul writes. The baby in the manger at Bethlehem is
God himself. And this is the crux of the matter when it comes to Christ
and Christianity. The danger is that we shall mouth those words, that
Jesus is not only man, not only a very great man, not only the
greatest of men, but that he is God, and yet fail to realize what we
are saying. If we grant that this child who was born at a certain point
in history was truly God and the origin and sustainer of all that is,
then there is no greater fact that can be mentioned.
As we look around
at our universe and try to gain some impression of the Creator of it
all, we immediately realize how poor our minds are in rising to such a
task. Who and what is God, our hearts ask. The answer has been
revealed to us: God is Jesus, the baby Jesus, the boy Jesus, the man
Jesus, the Jesus who was born at Bethlehem and who died and rose for
our salvation and our sanctification. God is Jesus, and Jesus is God.
God the Son is the image of the Father, the bearer of the Holy Spirit,
and in him the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily. Let us then beware
of
the tendency unconsciously to think of Jesus as simply a great man or
even the greatest and holiest of men. We
must pray for the realization that he is man and God, and with this
realization we ought strive to love and adore him and to give our lives
over to his service. No one is on the level of Jesus, for he is our
Redeemer and our God, and this we must bring to as many as possible so
that they may come from the darkness to the light.
As we gather in spirit with Mary and Joseph to adore the child
lying in the manger, let us resolve to love Jesus with our whole being
and by his grace to be transformed into his likeness.
(E.J.Tyler)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank Jesus for the
confidence he gives you. It’s not stubbornness, but
God’s light that makes you firm as a rock. Meanwhile, others, good as
they are, present a sorry picture. They seem to be sinking in the sand.
They lack the foundation of the faith. Ask Our Lord to grant that the
demands of the virtue of faith may be met both in your life and in the
lives of others.
(The Forge, no.602)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Feast of St Stephen, deacon and
martyr (December 26)
St Stephen
was the
first Christian martyr. Stoned outside Jerusalem, he died praying for
his executioners. He was one of the seven deacons who helped the
apostles: he was "filled with faith ad with the Holy Spirit", and was
"full of fortitude". The Church draws a comparison between the disciple
and his Master, emphasizing the imitation of Christ up to the complete
gift of self. His name is in the Roman Canon. (Saints)
Scripture today:
Acts 6: 8-10, 7:
54-59; Psalm 31: 3-4, 6
and 8, 16-17; Matthew 10: 17-22.
"It is not you who will be
speaking; the Spirit of your Father will be speaking in you." (Mt.10:20)
With Christmas Day now behind us and a
couple of weeks of Christmastide ahead of us, we celebrate the coming
of the Redeemer. He came among us with a mission to redeem the world.
Can any other mission in human history be compared with it? He
fulfilled his mission by his obedience to his heavenly Father, lived
out during his life and especially during his Passion and Death. During
these days we think of him newly-born and at the beginning of his
earthly mission, and we realize with gratitude that by the power of the
Holy Spirit we are in him, just as he is in the Father and the Father
is in him. Being in him, we are called to participate in his mission.
In celebrating his coming among us as man we also celebrate our union
with him in the mission that was before him.
Just as the Father sent hm, so he
sends us. We are reminded of this by the martyrdom of St Stephen which
we celebrate today (Acts 6: 8-10, 7:
54-59). St Stephen bore witness to Jesus by
his blood, and we are likewise called to bear witness to Jesus in our
daily lives whatever be the cost. We do this by our example, by our
dedication to others in our work, and by our words. We are assured by
Our Lord in today’s Gospel (Matthew 10:
17-22) for the feast of St Stephen that the
Spirit of both Jesus and the Father will give us words when the time
for witness in the midst of difficulty comes. This may be in our
family, in our workplace, in our parish, or whatever. Let us then on
this feast of the first martyr resolve to welcome the coming of Christ
among us as man with a firm resolve to be one with him in his mission
of bearing witness to the truth about him before others, no matter what
may be the cost in our daily lives.
(E.J.Tyler)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If I behaved differently, if I
were more in control of my character, if I were more faithful to you,
Lord, how marvellously you would help us!
(The Forge, no.603)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
St John, Apostle and
Evangelist (December 27).
Born in Bethsaida, Saint John was called from mending the nets to
follow Jesus. He became the beloved disciple of Jesus. He is understood
as being the author of the fourth Gospel, the three letters that bear
his name, and be book of Revelation. His passages on the pre-existence
of the Word, who by his Incarnation became the light of the world and
the life of our souls are among the finest of the New Testament. He is
the evangelist of the divinity of Christ and of fraternal love. With
James his brother and Simon Peter he was one of the witnesses of the
Transfiguration. At the Last Supper, he leans on the Master’s breast.
At the foot of the Cross, Jesus entrusts his Mother to his care. John’s
pure life kept him very close to Jesus and Mary. In later years under
Emperor Domitian he was exiled to the island of Patmos. (Saints)
Scripture today:
1 John 1:
1-4; Psalm 97: 1-2,
5-6, 11-12;
John 20: 1a, and
2-8;
“Mary of Magdala came running to Simon
Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved”.
(John 20: 2-8)
During
the next couple of weeks we ought take advantage of the season of
Christmas to reflect simply and profoundly on what God did to show his
love for us: he became man. He who is all light and all life became one
of us, became visible man. Through his grace and his truth he enables
us to become children of God. To think that this actually
happened as an historical fact is something absolutely stupendous. What
could possibly compare with it in the annals of history? We ought
strive to realize the magnitude of its significance. Its significance
is that we are left in no possible doubt as to the love that God
has for us his sinful children.
The danger is that thoughts such as these can be considered as general
thoughts without an absolute application to the person of the
individual. In one of his letters St Paul writes that “Christ loved me,
and delivered himself up for me.” St Paul applied the entire Christian
revelation to his own life: all this happened for me, he knew. That is
what drove him. God did all this for me, and equally for each other
person. We ought strive to gain a similar realization. Today’s feast of
St John the Evangelist can help us in this because St John is
constantly described in the fourth Gospel as “the disciple Jesus
loved.” Jesus loves each one of us too, with a personal and individual
love. Each of us is called to be a disciple of Jesus, and to each of us
can be applied the words, “the disciple Jesus loves” with all the
particularity stemming from the personal vocation God has given us from
before the foundation of the world.
Today let us reflect on how much Jesus loves not only all mankind, but
me, me in particular. He became man for me. He suffered and died and
rose again for me. Let us think of the love St John had for Jesus
springing from his awareness of how much Jesus loved him. St Paul had
the same realization. It is the realization of the convinced Christian.
Let us pray for the grace of a similar realization, a realization to be
brought to all those around us in our daily life.
(E.J.Tyler)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your Father God puts a longing for atonement in your soul. That longing
will be satisfied if you unite your own poor expiation to the infinite
merits of Jesus. Rectify your intention, and love suffering in him,
with him, and through him.
(The Forge, no.604)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Holy Innocents,
martyrs (December
28). The Church
celebrates the memory of the small children of the neighbourhood of
Bethlehem who were put to death by Herod who was seeking to kill Jesus.
These innocent victims bore witness to Christ in a world which would
not receive him. (Saints)
Scripture today:
1 John
1:5-2:2; Psalm 124: 2-5,
7cd-8;
Matthew 2: 13-18
“In Bethlehem and its surrounding
district he had all the male children killed who were two years old or
under” (Matthew 2: 13-18)
This feast day offers much food for reflection. Here we have an event
in Scripture in which many infants who did not know Christ themselves,
and who did not know the significance of what was happening to them,
were suddenly put to death by an authority who hated Christ. Their
lives constituted a brief flicker in an unnoticed village, put out by a
sinful hand (Matthew 2: 13-18). One might think it was an accident of
history that snuffed them out. Yet their deaths had a place in the plan
of God, and are interpreted and celebrated by the Church as a
martyrdom: unknowingly and innocently they bore witness to God’s will
and to Christ. Being a martyrdom their seemingly inconsequential lives
and deaths, together with the sufferings visited upon their families,
had a place in the salvation of the world.
It clearly implies that by our connection with Christ (whether this
connection is evident or not) our life, our sufferings and our death
gain a heavenly value. The bedrock element in the case of the Holy
Innocents was that from their side their brief lives and their deaths
passed in the hands of God. From God’s side, his will allowed for this
to happen, and their deaths therefore contributed somehow towards the
fulfilment of his saving will and providence. God's will transformed
the significance of their brief lives. An obvious lesson is that it is
the divine will which is all-important in our lives, and if God’s will
is done, all will be well. Even if like the Innocents we are crushed in
the process, our lives will have gained the grandeur and significance
intended by God.
Let us, then, reflect on the significance for our lives of the
saving will of God. If things happen to us that are intended by their
perpetrators to cause us harm and which we have been unable to prevent,
then let us remember that God has permitted it to happen. If he has
permitted it, let us accept it out of love for him and obedience to his
plan. He has his plan, a plan that embraces the salvation of the world.
The sufferings that he permits in our case will have their place in the
world’s salvation because they will mysteriously share in the
sufferings and martyrdom of Christ, as did the Holy Innocents.
How? We do not know, but our feast today teaches us this.
(E.J.Tyler)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You have no idea whether you are making progress, or, if you are, how
much. But what use is such a reckoning to you? What is important is
that you should persevere, that your heart should be on fire, that you
should be more enlightened and descry farther horizons; that you should
strive for our intentions, that you should feel them as your own - even
though you don’t know what they are - and that you should pray for all
of them.
(The Forge, no.605)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
29th
December in the Octave of Christmas
St Thomas a
Becket, bishop and martyr (1118-1170). Born in London. After
studying in Paris he first became chancellor to the king and then in
1162 was chosen Archbishop of Canterbury. He changed from being a
“patron of play-actors and a follower of hounds”, to being “a shepherd
of souls”. He threw himself into the duties of his new office,
defending the rights of the Church against Henry II. This prompted t he
king to exile him to France for six years. After returning to his
homeland, he endured many trials and was murdered by agents of the
king. (Saints)
Scripture today:
1 John 2: 3-11;
Psalm 96: 1-3,
5b-6;
Luke 2: 22-35
“Now in Jerusalem there was a man
named Simeon. He was an upright and devout man”.
(Luke 2: 22-35)
We could
say that today’s Gospel passage has the person and testimony of Simeon
for its special focus. Just as the Messiah appears in a kind of public
sense - being brought to the Temple where the people chosen by God
gathered - Simeon appeared, led by the Holy Spirit. Simeon was a
marvellous embodiment of the Old Testament. He was a holy man, led by
the Spirit of God and filled with the expectation of the Old Testament (Luke 2: 22-35). He longed for the coming of the
Messiah who was everything for him. In the Messiah would come the
salvation of the nations and the glory of Israel. Christ is the object
of the Old Testament, and as with Simeon, he must be the object
of our lives too.
But as we picture the Christ-child in the arms of one who embodied the
Old Testament, we think also of the ones Simeon was addressing. He was
speaking to Mary and to Joseph, both of whom we can take as
representing the New Testament. In Christ, Mary is our mother and
Joseph our father. Christ is there in the midst of this holy group
which embodies both the Old Testament and the New. He is the centre and
the object of all God’s revelation, the gift of the Father to sinful
man and to each of us. Let us then make Simeon’s words and sentiments
our own and be filled with a similar appreciation for Jesus our
treasure. In him we have every heavenly blessing. Let us make him the
treasure of our everyday lives and let us resolve to bring this
treasure to those around us.
(E.J.Tyler)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tell him: Jesus, I cannot see a single perfect flower in my garden, all
are blighted. It seems that all have lost their colour and their
scent. Poor me! Face downwards in the muck, on the ground: that’s my
place. That’s the way, humble yourself. He will conquer in you, and you
will attain the victory.
(The Forge, no.606)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Feast of the
Holy
Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph (December
30)
Scripture today:
Colossians 3:
12-21; Psalm 128:
1-5; Luke 2:
22-40
“She came by just at that moment and
began to praise God; and she spoke
of the child to all”.
(Luke 2: 36-40)
Yesterday
we considered Simeon. Today, the feast of the Holy Family,
our Gospel scene includes the inspiring and inspired
figure of Anna the
prophetess. Together with Simeon she was a magnificent example of the
holiness attainable under the Old Testament. Her life was completely
centred on God and on his presence in the Temple which she never left,
night or day. So here we have a group of people of signal holiness at
the end of the period of the Old Testament and the beginning of the
New: Simeon and Anna on the one hand, and the Holy Family on the other,
Mary and Joseph, with the Christ-child in their midst as the object of
attention of all. Let us in our mind’s eye contemplate Anna giving
utterance
to her
inspired praise and testimony about the Messiah who has come. In this
she gives us a wonderful example.
Our passage tells us that Anna went on to speak of the child to all who
looked forward to the deliverance of Jerusalem (Luke 2: 36-40). Undoubtedly many of
those who looked forward to this deliverance had dim, confused and
possibly mistaken notions of what this deliverance would consist in.
After all, John the Baptist himself was puzzled years later by what he
heard Our Lord was actually doing. But they waited on God and their
lives were oriented towards the salvation they knew was coming, while
not knowing clearly its precise shape and nature. We do know, though.
We have not only the inspired New Testament Scriptures, but the
Tradition and teaching of the Church. We
know, like Anna and Simeon, who the long-awaited Messiah is, and we
also know what the plan of salvation is which he effected.
Let us then with the spirit of Anna and with the help and prayers of
Mary and Joseph embrace Christ and his plan for our
salvation and sanctification. Let us fully cooperate with this plan day
by
day. Many kings and prophets, Our Lord once said, longed to see what
you see and never saw it. Let us surrender ourselves daily to Christ
and his will for us, and speak of him to others just as Anna did when
she saw and came to know him.
(E.J.Tyler)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I understood you very well when you ended up saying: “Quite honestly, I
haven’t even made the grade of being a donkey - the donkey that was the
throne of Jesus when he entered Jerusalem. I’m just part of a
disgusting heap of dirty tatters that the poorest rag-picker would
ignore. But I told you: all the same, God has chosen you and wants you
to be his instrument. So your wretchedness - which is a genuine fact -
should turn into one more reason for you to be thankful to God for
calling you.
(The Forge,
no.607)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seventh
day in the Octave of Christmas (December
31)
Saint Sylvester I,
pope (died about 335) He
ruled the Church during the reign of Constantine when the Arian heresy
and the Donatist schism had provoked great discord. He convoked the
first Ecumenical Council of Nicea. (Saints)
Scripture today:
1 John 2: 18-21;
Psalm 96: 1-2,
11-13; John 1: 1-18
"He
came to his own domain and his own people did not accept him."
(John 1: 1-18)
Our Gospel today is
generally called the prologue of the fourth Gospel (John 1: 1-18), in which St John gives us an overview
of his Gospel. It introduces us to the central issues in God the Son
becoming man. Now what, we musth ask, is especially noteworthy about
God’s sojourn among us and which St John especially highlights? It is
that God came among his own and his own did not accept him. All things
came into being through him. He was life and that life was the light of
men, without which a man is in the darkness. And yet, despite this,
when he became flesh and dwelt among his own, his own would not accept
him. This is the astonishing thing about the world, that man is found
to be alienated and hostile to his Maker.
It is most important that we discover this ingrained, chronic,
insurmountable hostility to God in ourselves if we are ever to overcome
it by the power of God. St John’s prologue brings before us the
enormity of man’s - that is, our - sinfulness. But a distinguishing
feature of our modern culture is that this is not recognised.
Characteristically, we have lost the sense of sin. We tend to have
little sense of it, and the result is that we do not feel much need for
our Lord himself, because his mission was precisely to do away with sin
and to reconcile us completely to God. And this is the other great
point taught by St John in his Prologue, that not only is man caught up
with sin, but Christ offers to all who accept him in faith and love the
power to become children of God.
Let us put at the forefront of our minds at the threshold of the new
year the reality of sin and the offer of redemption. By our baptism we
are in Christ. Therein lies our future, both here and hereafter.
(E.J.Tyler)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mary’s humble song of joy, the Magnificat, recalls to our minds the
infinite generosity of the Lord towards those who become like children,
towards those who abase themselves and are sincerely aware that they
are nothing.
(The Forge, no.608)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------