The Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, Saturday, January 1, 2021

Luke 2:16–21

The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them. When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

The Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary began to be celebrated locally as a feast in scattered places in Europe beginning in the 1700’s.  This feast was only extended to the Church throughout the world in 1931 by Pope Pius XI.  At this time it was set on October 11.  With the reform of the Church calendar in 1969, it was set on January 1, replacing the Feast of the Circumcision of the Lord.

The Gospel reading for this Mass, from St. Luke, recounts the visit of the shepherds to the stable in or just outside of Bethlehem after their vision of the angels singing the praise of the new-born King.  Luke tells us that this occurred at night.  He does not tell us how many shepherds came to the stable, but it could not have been very many.  Scattered groups of shepherds with their flocks would have come together as the sun began to set so that the sheep could be gathered in one central place and a number of shepherds could have taken turns watching over them and sleeping.  The fact that at least some of these shepherds went off to Bethlehem in the middle of the night, across the countryside, speaks to the power of the vision they had received.  The land was rough and rocky, and predators prowled about freely at night, as well as robbers.  Walking at night, unless the moon was full, would have worsened these dangers.  Nor had the Angel who spoke to them given them much direction for the stable.  It could have been located on the other side of the town miles away.  The stable itself was likely one of the small caves or clefts in the rocky hills outside the town, which would have proven difficult to identify even in the daylight.

And yet the shepherds found them.  What was the object of their search?  What did they go to so much trouble to see? “A Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger” (Luke 2, 11-12).  In fact, they did not know who this Child was, except that he was wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.  The words “savior” and “the anointed one” — “Christ” — would not have meant much to these outsiders.  It was the appearance of the angels that convinced them to make this journey.  And the only significance for them of the swaddling clothes and the manger was that the Angel had foretold these to them.  Their simple faith in the word of the angel, which echoes the faith of Mary in the words of Gabriel and stands in contrast to the lack of faith in Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, brought them to the crude cradle of the One who would open the gates of heaven for them.

“They made known the message that had been told them about this child.”  Certainly Mary and Joseph would have been surprised, if not alarmed, by the approach of the shepherds.  The shepherds, however, had come in wonder and they recounted, probably more than one of them speaking at a time, their encounter with the Angel.  Perhaps Mary and Joseph wondered if this was the same angel who had visited them.  We do not know how long the shepherds stayed.  They brought no gifts, and Joseph could not have had much to offer them by way of hospitality.  After telling those who were there what they had seen and heard while tending their flocks, they may have lingered for a bit but then returned.  They still had their flocks to watch over.  But their account had its effect: “All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds.”  Now, it is not clear what Luke meant by “all who heard it”.  Luke only tells us that Mary and Joseph were in the stable with the Baby.  The apocryphal Proto-Gospel of James says that as soon as Joseph and Mary had taken refuge in the stable, Joseph went off in search of a midwife, and he met a woman on the road who agreed to help.  They arrived in time to see a bright light glow in the stable and the Infant Jesus appear in the Virgin’s arms.  The midwife went away, convinced that she had seen a miraculous birth, and told her friend Salome about it when she met her on the road.  They both then returned there.  According to this account, then, there were at least a few people present besides the Holy Family when the shepherds arrived.  The main point for us, though, is that “all” who heard it, primarily meaning Mary and Joseph, were “amazed”.  That is, they “wondered” at their words.  This, coupled with the next verse, “And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart”, reminds us that though Mary and Joseph had received divine revelation concerning this Child, they did not have a Gospel before them so that they could know all there was to know about God’s plan.  They could not have known, for instance, that the Son of God would be born in such abject surroundings.  But what they did know, and that which was confirmed for them by the shepherds, by Simeon and Anna, and by the Magi, must have given them much to ponder.  Chief among what they must have wondered was how they were to act in accordance with these miraculous events.  Their minds must have been dazzled by the brilliance of what God was doing with and through them.  But what they certainly did was to fulfill all that they were told to do.  Thus: “When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.”  Joseph obeyed the injunction of the angel who had spoken to him and declared his paternity of the Child by naming him at the time of his circumcision, even as both Joseph and Mary knew that she was their Son’s only natural Parent.

We give thanks to God for the great gift he made to humanity in the conception of his Son in the womb of a woman, and of the woman in whom this was done.  May her answer to God through the Angel Gabriel, “Let it be done to me according to your word”, be our answer to him as well.

Thursday in the Octave of Christmas, December 31, 2020

John 2:18-21

Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. Thus we know this is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of our number; if they had been, they would have remained with us. Their desertion shows that none of them was of our number. But you have the anointing that comes from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you not because you do not know the truth but because you do, and because every lie is alien to the truth.

The Lord Jesus warned his followers that in the future, especially near the end of the world, “false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect” (Matthew 24, 24).  St. Paul elaborated on this teaching for Gentile Christians, telling them of “the man of lawlessness . . . the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God” (2 Thessalonians 2, 3-4).  This man will savagely persecute the Church at that time but “the Lord Jesus will slay him with the Spirit of his mouth and destroy him by his appearing and his coming” (2 Thessalonians 2, 8).  In his Book of Revelation, St. John calls this man “the beast” who will appear as holy to the unbelievers and the wicked, but will be seen in his true horrifying form by those who believe in Christ.  By the time of St. Jerome, the Fathers had concluded that this man would be born a Jew from the tribe of Dan, that he would rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem and in it proclaim himself to be God, although St. Thomas Aquinas pointed out that “Certain others say that the temple in Jerusalem will never be rebuilt, but will be kept as a ruin until the consummation and end of the world.  Even some Jews believe this.  Therefore, [that he would reign in] ‘the temple of God’ is explained as ‘in the Church’, for many in the Church will receive him.”  In addition, it was believed that he would appear to raise the dead (with the help of demons) and that he would be slain at the end of the world “with the Spirit of [the Lord’s] mouth”, which, as St. Thomas explains: “that is, by his command; for [the Archangel] Michael shall kill him on the Mount of Olives, from which Christ ascended; just as [Emperor] Julian [the Apostate] was destroyed by the divine hand.”

St. John is already writing of certain “antichrists” even in his own day.  These made themselves out to be believers but “they were not really of our number.”  Indeed, they opposed Christ and his Church, either by attempting to introduce pagan or gnostic teachings or customs or by falsely interpreting the Gospel, as in the case of a man named Nicolaus (cf. Revelation 2, 15), who taught his followers that belief in the Lord meant holding everything in common, which led to the practice of free love.  The people John called “antichrists” posed a real threat to the early Church because they attempted to use the words of the Lord to support their perverse teachings, and they succeeded in luring some believers away — to their damnation.  They were not the Antichrist, but they were antichrists in the Antichrist, members of the devil’s body to parody how Christians are truly members of the Body of the Lord.  And as they plagued the Church even in the times of the Apostles, so they continue to do so today: pretended Catholics who sow dissension and teach what is false, sometimes very persuasively, “so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect” (Matthew 24, 24).  

Eventually, though, they publicly apostatize and join other religious groups or form their own, and “their desertion shows that none of them was of our number.”  That is, they admit the wickedness of their teachings by leaving the Church altogether.  “But you have the anointing that comes from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.”  That is, the true believer in Christ has been baptized and filled with grace (“anointed”) by God and so this believer has “knowledge” — is able to discern the falseness in perverse teaching, and to resist it.  John then states that, “I write to you not because you do not know the truth but because you do, and because every lie is alien to the truth.”  That is to say, he, the Apostle, in whom the true teaching of the Lord is invested, is writing to the faithful in order to encourage them and confirm them in their fidelity.  In our own day, we know that the Lord has committed the Deposit of the Faith — all that we need to know for faith and practice in order to be saved — and that we need only look to these teachings to judge whether something a person says is of the Faith or not.  This preserves us from following false leaders — even bishops and priests who spout error — into damnation.

So much does God desire his faithful to surround him in heaven, that he gives us his Gospel to follow, the means (grace) with which to follow it, and his own protection (the Church), against which the gates of hell shall not prevail.

 

 Wednesday in the Octave of Christmas, December 30, 2020

John 2:12-17

I am writing to you, children, because your sins have been forgiven for his name’s sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have conquered the Evil One. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong and the word of God remains in you, and you have conquered the Evil One. Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, sensual lust, enticement for the eyes, and a pretentious life, is not from the Father but is from the world. Yet the world and its enticement are passing away. But whoever does the will of God remains forever.

The Apostle John wrote three letters that we possess now and which are included in the New Testament.  Since he mostly lived and worked in Asia Minor after the persecution in Jerusalem broke out, these letter were probably directed to the churches established there while he was preaching in other places.  The Church faced many difficulties in Asia Minor in the First Century.  There were relatively few Jews in the land, and these were not receptive to the Gospel, generally speaking.  Most of the converts to the Faith were accustomed to pagan ways and beliefs.  Slow, patient work was required to form them into Christians.  The Faith also came into conflict with the Gnostics, who attempted to subvert belief in Christ and to absorb it into their belief system.  Key among their beliefs was that the physical was the enemy of the spiritual, and so God could not have been made man, but could only have appeared as a man.  This meant that there could not have redemption on the Cross, and that Christ did not truly die.  Combatting this, John opens his First Letter by insisting on the physical reality of Christ the Lord: “that which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of life” (1 John 1).  John says that he himself saw, heard, and touched the Word made flesh. 

In the second chapter of this Letter, John encourages these Gentile Christians to live holy lives.  He calls them “fathers”, “young men”, and “children”, not necessarily according to their physical ages, but rather according to their level of faith and spiritual growth: “I am writing to you, children, because your sins have been forgiven for his name’s sake.”  That is, to the newly catechized and baptized.  They are “children” because they must now grow and become spiritually mature.  “I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.”  John calls some of the Gentile Christians “fathers” for they “knew” the Lord, “who is from the beginning”.  The Greek word for “to know” used here particularly carries the sense of knowing through personal experience, as distinct from theoretical knowledge.  These Christians “knew” the Lord in his preaching, which John had relayed to them, and in the Holy Eucharist, which they received.  They had experience of the Lord in their hearts.  “I am writing to you, young men, because you have conquered the Evil One.”  That is, these have received forgiveness and grace in baptism, and are now persevering in virtuous lives.  John elaborates: “I write to you, children, because you know the Father.”  That is, they are at the beginning of their knowledge of the Faith.  “I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.”  To know Christ is to have life: “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17, 3).  “I write to you, young men, because you are strong and the word of God remains in you, and you have conquered the Evil One.”  John adds “the word of God remains in you” to what he has already said.  This “word” is no abstract concept or collection of sayings, for “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword . . . and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4, 12).  It is grace — the life of God — abiding in the soul.

To these, the beginners, the proficient, and the perfect, John writes, urging them, “Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”  The “things of the world” are anything that prevents a person from living for God and which causes that person to live for himself: “sensual lust, enticement for the eyes, and a pretentious life”, including fame, riches, possessions, ambition, and power.  John is saying that one who devotes himself to gaining power, or to satisfying his lust, or to climbing “the corporate ladder” does not have the love of God within him.  We live in a crumbling world: “the world and its enticement are passing away.”  One who scrambles after the crumbles looks ridiculous but also fails to gain anything lasting, and loses his soul.  When we leave this world, we must have no remaining attachments to it or to even venial sin, or we will be delayed in our entry into life to be purged of them.  

“But whoever does the will of God remains forever.”  Not our own will, but the will of God.  No matter what level of spiritual growth we have obtained, the fight against our own willfulness goes on until the end of our lives.  It is prayer, grace, and perseverance that carry us to the finish line.

 Tuesday in the Octave of Christmas, December 29, 2020

I am going to try posting these Scripture reflections in the late afternoon or early evening for the benefit of those who want to meditate on the readings the evening before they are read at Mass.  Please let me know if this is helpful.

Luke 2:22-35

When the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses, the parents of Jesus took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord”, and to offer the sacrifice of a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons, in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord.  Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. He came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform the custom of the law in regard to him, he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying: “Lord, now let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled: my own eyes have seen the salvation which you prepared in the sight of every people, a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel.”  The child’s father and mother were amazed at what was said about him; and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted (and you yourself a sword will pierce) so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”

St. Luke makes it quite clear in his prologue that he is writing his Gospel for the Gentile Christians.  We would expect, then, that he would emphasize those parts of the life and teaching of the Lord Jesus that would interest and appeal to this audience.  And he does so, recording some of the longer parables that Jesus told, such as that of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan — for the Greeks loved fables, puzzles, and stories that contained wisdom.  He does this in other ways, too, as in showing the Lord to be a heroic figure — one who fulfills his duty though suffering greatly.  

But St. Luke also carefully showed Jesus and those associated with him as law-abiding Jews, even going beyond the prescripts of the Jewish Law in order to serve God.  Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth “were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless” (Luke 1, 6).  The Virgin Mary is “full of grace” (Luke 1, 28).  John the Baptist is put in prison by Herod for holding him accountable to the Law.  Jesus himself calls on the tax collectors and prostitutes to repent, and eats with them in order to spend time with them and to urge them to live righteously, though the Jewish authorities despise him for this.  The list of examples could be extended for pages.

Here, in the Gospel reading for today’s Mass, Luke tells us, “The parents of Jesus took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord.”  Certainly this fact could offer little of interest to his Greek readers, and much less the quotations Luke takes from the Jewish Torah.  Yet Luke does this in order to answer a big question that First Century Gentiles asked when the Gospel was preached to them: Why should we Greeks believe in the teachings of someone who was rejected even by his own people?  Luke responds to this question by showing that it was not Christ who was a renegade from his religion, for he followed it perfectly: it was the leaders of the religion who were the renegades.  Besides this being historically true, it would also have appealed to the Greeks, who had a high regard for irony.  

Also on display here is Luke’s appreciation for the interest the Greeks had in oracles and prophetic sayings.  Since before David was king in Israel, thousands of ancient Greeks had made the pilgrimage to Delphi to hear the priestess there mutter oracles supposedly inspired by Apollo.  Kings even went there to find out whether to go to war or not.  Luke tells his audience of the appearances of the Angel Gabriel and the clear messages he has for Zechariah and Mary — in sharp contrast to the ambiguous messages of the pagan prophets.  In today’s Gospel, Simeon and Anna, two holy people, prophesy about the newborn Jesus.  Luke tells us that they were inspired, but by the Holy Spirit.

We learn from considerations of this kind that we should also adapt the way we talk about the Lord or the Faith according to the background of the folks with whom we talk, while speaking the truth accurately.  We should not give people more than they can handle, or use unfamiliar words or expressions with them that we do not explain.  We begin with what is easiest to learn first, then, when folks are ready, some deeper matters.  Most of all. We must love our God.  The more we love him, the more our love for him will show itself in natural ways of which we will be unaware but which our hearers will notice.  Luke wrote his Gospel very carefully for his audience, but what captured their hearts for Jesus was the passionate love Luke had for him and the joy that filled him because of him.

 The Feast of the Holy Innocents, Monday, December 28, 2020

Matthew 2:13-18

When the magi had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.” Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, Out of Egypt I called my son. When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious. He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi. Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet: “A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more.”

The Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Innocents a few days after Christmas and before the Feast of the Epiphany, but the events celebrated would have occurred in a different order, historically.  First, Jesus would have been born in a stable in or near Bethlehem on December 25.  Eight days later, on January 1, he would have been circumcised.  This was formerly commemorated in the Roman Church by the Feast of the Circumcision of the Lord.  Following this, on January 6, the Magi brought their gifts to the newborn Child, still at Bethlehem, but at this point the Holy Family is living in a house, as per Matthew 2, 11.  This is celebrated in the Feast of the Epiphany.  Then, on February 2, forty days after his Birth, the Lord would have been presented in the Temple in fulfillment of the Jewish Law.  It is after the Holy Family returned to Bethlehem from Jerusalem that Joseph was sent the dream in which an angel warned him to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt to escape Herod.  Some time after this Herod unleashed his killers on the boy children of Bethlehem.

How many children were killed?  Archaeologists think that Bethlehem held a population of about three hundred at the time of our Lord’s Birth.  Based on this, perhaps a dozen baby boys of two years and younger would have been alive then.  The killers would have descended upon the tiny town without warning and they would have gone from house to house in violent search of their victims.  Every family in the town would have lost at least one baby.  The raid would have lasted an hour or less, and then the killers would have ridden away, leaving the town devastated.  Truly, “sobbing and loud lamentations” would have filled the air then and for days afterwards.

St. Matthew quotes Jeremiah 31, 15 to describe the horror of this slaughter: “A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more.”  The Prophet Jeremiah is warning the people of Judah of the destruction that Babylon will wreak upon them if they do not repent.  He speaks of Rachel, the wife of Jacob, the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, and so the ancestress of the tribes formed from the children of Benjamin and from the sons of Joseph: Manasseh and Ephraim.  These tribes settled in central and southern Israel after the Exodus from Egypt. Rachel, then, weeps over the massacre of her descendants by a foreign army.  Likewise, the Jews regarded Herod as a foreigner and a usurper, as Matthew’s quote of Jeremiah makes clear.  Here, we understand Herod, spiritually, as the devil seeking to kill the Son of God before he can call the people to repentance, and also as how sin destroys souls.

The Church calls the children killed at Bethlehem “the Holy Innocents” because of their innocence and has always regarded them as martyrs.  We might wonder about this because they were not of an age to bear conscious witness to Christ, but a martyr is one who is killed out of hatred for Christ or the Faith, and clearly this entitles them to the rank of the martyrs in heaven.

We pray to the Holy Innocents and ask them to intercede for the safety and good health of all children, born and unborn.

 The Feast of the Holy Family, Sunday, December 27, 2020

Luke 2:22–40

When the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses, they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord, and to offer the sacrifice of a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons, in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord.  Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. He came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform the custom of the law in regard to him, he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying: “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in sight of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel.” The child’s father and mother were amazed at what was said about him; and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted —and you yourself a sword will pierce— so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived seven years with her husband after her marriage, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer. And coming forward at that very time, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.  When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him. 

We sometimes discover a great talent in a friend or family member that we had no inkling of in our previous experience of that person.  The talent may be musical, artistic, scientific, or athletic in nature.  We wonder that we had known this person for so long a time and only now are we finding out about it.  This person may be a child or an adult.  Where did it come from?  And the child or adult seems so ordinary, just like ourselves.

The mystery of the Holy Family is in the ordinary way its members lived together.  They seemed to their neighbors quite unexceptional.  We remember how when Jesus visited Nazareth at a time of his growing fame as a performer of miracles, and his neighbors gawked at him and asked, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?  Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary?” (Matthew 13, 54-55).  For thirty years, the Holy Family dwelt side by side with their neighbors, and their neighbors did not know them.  Holy persons do not draw attention to themselves.  When they perform charitable acts, it really is a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.  In a world full of people screaming for attention, the holy person goes unnoticed, and prefers it that way.  (The working of public miracles by a holy person calls attention only to God.)

It is the urging of the Holy Spirit that enables a person to recognize holiness.  In the Gospel reading for today’s Mass, we see that Joseph and Mary have brought their newborn Son to the Temple in order to present him to God, in accordance with the ancient Law.  They join a large crowd of other parents with their newborn sons.  Nothing exterior distinguishes them from anyone around them.  The crowd moves along at a regular pace as each family is received into the Temple and each sacrifice made.  And then comes the turn of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus.  There is commotion, and the holy man Simeon bursts in among the family, priests, and attendants.  He takes the Child in his arms and speaks prophetic words in an ecstasy.  He addresses God, the Virgin Mary, and all within range of his voice.  Then he returns the Child to its Mother.  The holy woman Anna, who has made the Temple her home for many years, also appears to praise God and to speak of the Child and what he will do one day.  And then, when she has finished speaking, Joseph and Mary “fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord” and “they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.”  They slipped away into the crowd of those departing.  It was as if the ocean had swallowed up a large ship and the water covered it so that you would never have known it had been there.

The Holy Family returned to their own town of Nazareth, back to their home, back to the carpentry shop.  They introduced their Son to their neighbors and learned how to feed and care for him.  They adapted to his schedule of sleeping and eating.  It seemed quite ordinary to the people of their hamlet.  But how Joseph and Mary must have looked at their Son, into his eyes, knowing that he was their God!  And how they must have looked at each other in wonder, that they had been chosen by the Father to care for him!

We can wonder at this, too.  And at Mass we can look upon the ordinariness of the Host in the priest’s hands.  Do we suspect the richness, the Glory, that lies beneath its outward appearance?

 The Feast of St. Stephen, Saturday, December 26, 2020

Matthew 10:17-22

Jesus said to his disciples: “Beware of men, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved.”

Even as the churches still echo with hymns to the Baby in the manger, the Feast of St. Stephen rushes upon us.  Though the reason for the date of Stephen’s Feast has to do with the procession of his relics from Palestine to Constantinople in the 5th century, we learn that faith in the One born in Bethlehem carries a price.  

For perhaps ten years after the Resurrection of the Lord, the Jewish Christians and the Jews co-existed in an uneasy peace.  The Christians insisted that they were the true Jews who believed that the Law had been fulfilled by Jesus Christ, and so they continued to meet in synagogues and to worship in the Temple in Jerusalem.  It was not long however before the increase in the number of the Christians and in their confidence led to theological clashes with the Jewish leaders.  This resulted in the stoning of St. Stephen, the most outspoken among the Christian leaders, and following this, persecution of the members of the Church throughout Judea and Galilee.  The words of Jesus in today’s Gospel reading provide us with a glimpse of what that first persecution looked like: “They will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues . . . Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name.”  The Lord did not hide the future from anyone who cared to listen.  He told his disciples on more than one occasion that believing in him would likely cost them their lives.  It is revealing to us of the hold he had on the people of the time that they continued to believe and to follow him and, indeed to die for him.  It is in prayer that we can experience his hold on us today.

The Lord tells us that persecution and loss comes upon believers as a matter of course.  We must expect it and fortify ourselves for it by prayer, fasting, and alms-giving. We do this for him.  As long as he is before our eyes, we will be safe, no matter what happens.  We may be “hated by all” because of his name, but if we “endure to the end”, we will be saved.

 The Solemnity of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, December 25, 2020

John 1:1–18

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. A man named John was sent from God. He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him.  But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God.  And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth. John testified to him and cried out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.’” From his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace, because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, has revealed him.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  This is the Gospel reading for the Mass during Christmas Day.  It explains what happened when Mary conceived the Son of God in her womb and what his Birth means.  The reading rings with an immediacy not found in the Christmas Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke.  The latter two lay open the scene of the Birth of the Lord and show its effects on the world through the shepherds and the wise men with significant detail, in narrative form.  They are like plays in which we watch the characters speak to each other and move about irrespective of the audience.  But John, in this reading, is speaking directly to us.  It is as though he were present before us and looking into our eyes, speaking as a witness to what he has seen and heard and touched.  And indeed, he has seen and heard and touched the Word who was in the beginning, who was with God, and who was God.  He says so much in these few words that only God could have inspired them.  He speaks of the co-eternity of the uncreated Son with the Father, of the intimate unity of the Father and the Son, and of the Son’s divinity.  All of this we could surmise from the other Gospels, but John reveals it to us directly, or, rather, Almighty God directly reveals this to us through John.  

This reading, the prologue to St. John’s Gospel, has always been understood as a hymn because of its form, but it is also the testimony of an eyewitness who strives to speak calmly, but can barely contain himself.  He clings to certain words as though they were the only words he can trust to tell us what he has seen and heard, words like “the word”, “the light”, and “the life”.  In his testimony he repeats himself, or reiterates what he has just said; he jumps ahead to tell how the Word was received or not by the people among whom he lived, and then jumps back to what he was saying before; and he anticipates questions and objections as though he had these once himself and knows that the people hearing him have them too.  In this way, he seems to read his readers, to look into their eyes, and to explain what he is saying in ways they can understand without diluting the truth he has come to proclaim.  Just as “the Word became flesh” in order to dwell among us, John takes the stunning truth that he knows and makes it knowable to us so that we too can “become children of God”.

Two notes on the Greek text.  One on the phrase translated here as “and made his dwelling among us”.  The Greek is actually very concrete here and literally means, “he pitched his tent among us”, quite an appropriate thing to say to the Jewish Christians whose ancestors, beginning with Abraham, dwelt in tents and moved about the country with their flocks and herds.  And this is a very fitting way to describe the One who would be the Good Shepherd.

Also, “grace in place of grace.”  This phrase occurs just before John says, “because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”  John is telling us that the “grace” of the Jewish law, which could not forgive sins and save souls, is succeeded by the true grace that is the divine power of Christ, just as the sign precedes the reality, or the shadow goes before its object.  John is fascinated by this, that the Old was a sign for the New.  He points this out throughout his Gospel, as when he shows that the prophet (John the Baptist) is a sign of the Savior, or when the Lord explains to the crowd that the manna that came down from heaven and that saved their ancestors from starvation in the wilderness was a sign of his Body, which they must eat to have eternal life.

I wish all those reading this reflections on the Scriptures a joyous and holy Christmas!  I will remember you in my Masses!

 Thursday in the Fourth Week of Advent, December 24, 2020

I was not able to write an article for December 23 due to illness.  It was a recurrence of problems I have with my tumor, but I am better now.

Luke 1:67-79

Zechariah his father, filled with the Holy Spirit, prophesied, saying: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; for he has come to his people and set them free. He has raised up for us a mighty Savior, born of the house of his servant David. Through his prophets he promised of old that he would save us from our enemies, from the hands of all who hate us. He promised to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to set us free from the hand of our enemies, free to worship him without fear, holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life. You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins. In the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

This is the Gospel for the daily Mass of December 24, not for the Christmas Vigil Mass.  It consists largely of the Canticle of Zechariah the priest, who uttered it on the occasion of the circumcision and naming of his son, who would be known as John the Baptist.  Zechariah had been deaf and mute for the entire time of his wife’s pregnancy as a result of his lack of trust in God’s power.  All these months he meditated in silence upon the mystery revealed to him by God through the vision of an angel.  Now able to speak, he pours forth a hymn that is part praise of God and part prophecy.  Reading it, we catch some of the wonder that filled him at this time.

Sometimes people will say, at this time of year, that it just does not “feel like Christmas”.  Adults say this.  They may attribute this lack of feeling “like Christmas” to the weather, to growing older, and to rampant consumerism, and these contribute to this lack of feeling.  The main problem is that over time the events of Christmas are no longer fresh to us, and we look elsewhere to recapture the wonder we felt for them when we were children and we began to learn about them.  Certainly, we are not helped by the world, which has reduced the meaning of Christmas simply to another paid day off (for some people) as has happened to Memorial Day or Veterans Day.  For all that, dedicating ourselves to prayer, fasting, and alms-giving and making daily meditations on the long ago and long-awaited coming of our Savior helps us.  Also, reading about present day miracles helps us too. 

My sister and I spent time there in the mid to late 1980’s as live-in volunteers at the Gift of Peace in D.C., at the time a hospice for AIDS patients run by Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity.  We washed, cleaned, fed, and kept company with the patients, and spent many hours with them when death was near.  

As we know, D.C. summers are hot and humid.  One year while we were working at the Gift of Peace, the month of July broke records.  The heat was especially bad in the hospice because the patients were terrified of air conditioning — which they thought would bring on pneumonia, leading to death.  Consequently, we did not use air conditioning and we kept the windows shut.  On a particularly bad night, one of the men who was alone in his room was unable to bear the heat anymore and called for the night volunteer, who hustled into his room.  This volunteer was Mike, a young, strong-looking guy, a devout Catholic, who was finishing college and had volunteered since he had come to D.C. for school.  The patient, Jerry, had become very frail due to the ravages of the disease, but had worked as a truck driver before getting sick.  Jerry begged Mike to find a fan for him.  Mike told him he would look around, but he did not remember every seeing a fan in the building.  He looked all over, even knocking on my door to see if I had a fan.  Finally he gave up.  All he had been able to find was an old wreck of a fan we kept in the room one of the auxiliary bishops used when he came to visit.  We really should have thrown it out long before.  It was probably a fire hazard.  So Mike went back to Jerry and sadly explained that he had not found a fan anywhere.  Jerry was really suffering and Mike felt badly for him.  The sweat was pouring down his face and arms and his pajamas were stuck to his skin.  

While Mike was fanning Jerry with a magazine, the young woman, Melany, who was watching the women downstairs that night appeared in the doorway.  As in the case of Mike, she had also volunteered for the past few years.  Mike jumped when he saw her, and asked her why she had come up, as it was against the rules for the volunteer on duty to leave their charges alone.  She ignored the question and told him that if Jerry was hot, he should bring the fan in the bishop’s room for him.  Mike gave her a look.  “You know that thing has never worked,” he reminded her.  “Don’t you remember we tried to get it going a few weeks ago?  It doesn’t work.”  Melany insisted that he go fetch the fan, and then Jerry began to plead with him too.  After a bit, Mike shrugged his shoulders and went down the long, dark hallway to where our rooms were and he returned a few minutes later with the fan.  This was a small fan that could be set to oscillate.  You could see parts of the motor from little windows in its casing.  Not only was it plainly broken — some of the wires inside were cut — but you could see rust on it, too.  So Jerry came back and stood in front of Melany, as though daring her to tell him to plug it in.  When she did, he plugged it into the wall and stood next to it.  The fan did not even twitch,  Mike said, “See, I told you — ”  And then, in that moment, he absently turned on the fan’s switch, and the blade began to turn.  In another moment, it was blowing full blast.  Mike could not believe it.  He looked at the fan all over and tried the three different speeds.  There was no reason for it to work.  Mike looked up to ask Melany what made her think of the fan, but she had already gone.  Jerry was feeling relief and a broad smile broke out on his face.  The air was still very hot, but at least it was moving.  Within half an hour, Jerry was asleep.  

That morning, my sister and I met with Mike and Melany down in the vast kitchen for breakfast before we took over for the day.  Melany was a little late coming in.  Before she did, Mike was regaling us with the story about the fan and making himself out as a meathead for not trying the fan earlier.  And then Melany came into eat.  She sat down at the table with us and poured some cereal into a bowl.  She looked tired.  Mike was grinning at her, though.  “You really should not have come upstairs like you did last night, but I’m glad you did.  Jerry slept all night.”  Melany sat in front of her bowl of cereal with her long dark hair hanging down over it.  “What are you talking about?” she asked.  Then she lifted up her head a bit and started to eat.  “Last night.” said Mike, “You broke the rule and came up and saw that Jerry was too hot to sleep, and you made me get that broken down fan from the bishop’s room for him.”  She shook her head.  “No I didn’t.  I was downstairs all night.  One of the women was throwing up all night and I had to stay with her.  What are you talking about?”  Mike sat back in his chair for a moment and then told the whole story from beginning to end.  When he had finished, we all sat silently for a few minutes until Melany suggested, “Maybe it was an angel.”  

Let us remember to wonder and marvel this.Christmas at all God has done to show us his love.  Oh, Mike and Melany married about a year after the incident with the fan.

 Tuesday in the Fourth Week of Advent, December 22, 2020

Luke 1:46-56

Mary said: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior. for he has looked upon his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, and has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children for ever.”  Mary remained with Elizabeth about three months and then returned to her home.

St. Luke relates the stories of the conceptions and births of the Lord Jesus and St. John the Baptist in such a way as to invite the reader to compare them.  They are, in fact, marked by striking similarities: childlessness (involuntary on the part of John’s parents; voluntary in the case of the Virgin Mary); visits by the Angel Gabriel; signs given by Gabriel (deafness in the case of Zechariah; the pregnancy of the barren Elizabeth, for Mary); and songs of thanksgiving on the parts of Zechariah and the Blessed Virgin.  

The song, or canticle, uttered by Zechariah, the Temple priest, begins, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel” (Luke 1, 68).  Because it begins with a blessing, it is referred to as the Benedictus.  This is chanted or recited as part of Lauds, or Morning Prayer, in the Breviary.  The words that follow the blessing show the reason for the blessing: “because he has visited and wrought the redemption of his people”, and then,  “he has raised up a horn of salvation to us, in the house of David his servant.”  These reasons for why God is blessed culminate with, “And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Highest: for you shall go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways.”  In the remainder of the canticle, Zechariah foretells how his son, John, will do this.  Zechariah does not speak of himself at all, regarding himself as a mere witness to what was happening.

Mary begins her canticle with the words, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.”  Thus, it is called the Magnificat [her soul proclaims, or “magnifies”].  This is chanted or recited at Vespers, or Evening Prayer, in the Breviary, as a sort of bookend with the Benedictus.  The canticles are about the same length and both contain praise and thanksgiving to God, but looking at just the first words of Mary’s canticle, we can see a difference: Mary does not see herself as a mere witness in God’s work, but as one called to participate actively in it, and as one provided the grace with which to do her part.  Her role as the Mother of Jesus is very different from that to be played by Zechariah in the life of his son, and not merely because she is a Mother and he is a father.  In her canticle, Mary declares that God has marvelously created his Handmaid for this purpose and made her distinct from all members of the human race.  Yet, glory is not to be attributed to her: she directs it all to God.

She continues, “my spirit rejoices in God my savior.”  We note here the use of the possessive pronoun “my”: she is not speaking here in a general way of the God of Israel, but of the God she knows personally, who has perfected her in grace, and who has touched her intimately in the conception of her Son.  Her relationship with God is unique and unrepeatable.  It reminds us of how the Lord Jesus will tell the women, after his Resurrection, that he is going to “my Father and their Father; my God and their God” (John 20, 17), distinguishing between the relationship humans have with God and his own.  “He has looked upon his lowly servant.”  This was always how she saw herself: the Handmaid, the guest who mingled with the servants at the wedding at Cana, and the woman who assisted our Lord in his Passion, standing beneath his Cross.  And she is not only a “servant”, a douleh — a slave — but she is a “lowly” one.  Even so, “From this day all generations will call me blessed”.  The slave is called forever blessed because “the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name.”  That is, all that she has comes as a gift from God, whose name is “holy”:  she is holy only because he who is holy has made her so.  

“He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.”  While this might sound like a turn in her speaking from herself to others, it is also about herself and what God has done for her.  She who has hungered for God is now filled with him in a miraculous way, and the proud — the devil, filled with pride — has been driven far from her.  “He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he remembered his promise of mercy.”  Here, Mary meditates on how God’s actions for and in her will lead to the salvation of Israel, that is, the body of those who believe in him.  “For he remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children for ever.”  That is, God shows himself faithful in his promises which were related to the people by the Prophets.  The Virgin shows her awareness that this salvation is not only for her contemporaries, but for all those who would be reborn in grace unto the end of the world.  

In her canticle, Mary expresses her wonder at what God has done and is doing for Israel through her, that she is the one of whom Isaiah spoke hundreds of years before, the Virgin who would bear a Son; the woman whose virginity and maternity would be a sign of the divine nature of this Son (cf. Isaiah 7, 14); the Son who would be “the wonderful one, the Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9, 6).

We express this wonder too as we pray her canticle, and see more and more each day the wonders of the love of the God who has done great things for us.

 Monday in the Fourth Week of Advent, December 22, 2020

Songs 2:8-14

Hark! my lover–here he comes springing across the mountains, leaping across the hills. My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag. Here he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattices. My lover speaks; he says to me, “Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one, and come! For see, the winter is past, the rains are over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of pruning the vines has come, and the song of the dove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance. Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one, and come! O my dove in the clefts of the rock, in the secret recesses of the cliff, let me see you, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and you are lovely.” 

The Jews considered the Song of Songs as a song between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba when she came to visit him in Jerusalem (cf. 1 Kings 10, 2).  This is due to the legend handed down that Solomon and the Queen became lovers for a time.  The Fathers saw the Song of Songs as a duet sung between Christ and his Bride, the Church. Beginning with St. Ambrose, the verses pertaining to the Bride in the book were seen to apply to the Blessed Virgin Mary.  The book is also to be interpreted as a dialogue between God and the human soul.

“Hark! my lover–here he comes springing across the mountains, leaping across the hills.”  The Bride is singing here.  The “lover” is the Son of God, coming down from heaven, who “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2, 7).  We can understand this welcoming shout as coming from the Church, who receives her Divine Lover in the Blessed Sacrament; or as from the Virgin Mary in her joy at conceiving the Son of God; or as the human soul enjoying the company of Christ in her prayer.

“My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag.”  The Bride describes her Lord as powerful and able to go freely wherever he desires, whether to the Church hidden during persecution, to the Blessed Virgin in tiny, out-of-the-way Nazareth, or to the religious sister in her cloister.  “Here he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattices.”  The Lord comes to his Beloved and presents himself to her, but he does not force himself on her attentions.  It is up to the Bride to receive him or not.  Standing outside, the Holy Groom coaxes her with an ecstatic cry: “Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one, and come!  For see, the winter is past, the rains are over and gone.”  The “winter” of waiting for the redemption of the human race is over. The Virgin Mary sings of this in her canticle: “He has come to the help of his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he promised to our fathers, to Abraham and to his posterity for ever” (Luke 54-55).  Or, the “winter” endured in preparing for contemplation has departed.  “The rains are over and gone”.  That is, the time of tears is ended.  “The flowers appear on the earth, the time of pruning the vines has come.”  The soil of our souls, watered by our tears of compunction, is now prepared for the season of grace.  Otherwise, the long years of the persecution of the Church have given way to her prosperity and growth, or the time of the Virgin Mary’s quiet childhood has passed and she is made fruitful in the conception of her Son.  “The song of the dove is heard in our land”: the Holy Spirit brings peace to the Church and to the soul.  “The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance.”  All things happen at their allotted time, signifying that the old prophecies are being fulfilled.

“Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one, and come!”  Again, this is the Groom’s voice, urging his Bride to leave all behind to come to him.  We can think of these words as called to the Blessed Virgin in the instant before her Assumption.  They are also the words of the Lord to his Holy Church on the day of judgment: “Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25, 34).  They are also the words of God to the soul who desires to pray to him.

“O my dove in the clefts of the rock, in the secret recesses of the cliff.”  The Lord’s Beloved still dwells on this earth, but he sees her and watches over her.  “Let me see you, let me hear your voice.”  The Lord desires his Church, the Blessed Virgin, and the human soul more than any of us can fathom, and more than any of us can desire him.  He represents himself as desperate to see us before the tabernacle where he awaits us, and to hear us in our prayers to him.  “For your voice is sweet, and you are lovely.”  Our voices and appearances may not seem so sweet and lovely to ourselves, but they are to the Lord, so in love with us is he.  His love puts him beside himself.  It makes him lay in a manger in the dirty straw and look up at us.

 The Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 20, 2020

Luke 1:26–38

The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.” Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

This reading from the Gospel of St. Luke is one we have all heard many times, and yet it contains so much richness that each time we come to it we may receive an abundance of new jewels and pearls.  For instance, the name “Galilee” comes from a Hebrew word that means “district”.  During the time after the Assyrian conquest of Israel in 720 B.C., the Jewish inhabitants were driven into exile never to return and it was forcibly resettled by other conquered people.  Thus, the term “the Galilee of the nations” arose.  This remained the condition of the land for over five hundred years until the Maccabees rose up against the Greek occupiers of the time and began to reclaim what had simply become known as “Galilee” (as the District of Columbia is sometimes merely called “the District”).  Many of the gentile people who lived there at that time were compelled to convert to Judaism and accept circumcision, but also Jews coming from Judea resettled the country.  The Virgin Mary’s ancestors and those of St. Joseph would have been among these settlers from Judea, as we see from Luke 2, 4.   

In Isaiah 9, 1-2, Isaiah speaks of how God allowed the unfaithful northern kingdom to be destroyed, and then prophesies of a great age to come, which could not possibly have been foreseen at the time without divine inspiration: “In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.”  While this could be understood as fulfilled by the return of Judaism to the land, it is better fulfilled by the Incarnation of the Son of God in the womb of the Virgin Mary in Nazareth and his subsequent public life, which was spent primarily in that region.  The prophecy will be perfectly fulfilled with the Second Coming, for “the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali” can be understood as our world in which so many have “dwelt in a land of deep darkness” of ignorance and faithlessness, upon which the great Light of Christ will dawn in his coming for judgment.

The origin of the name “Nazareth” puzzled the Fathers, and the question remains unsettled to this day.  It is possible that it comes from the Hebrew word for “shoot”.  Jerome points to the Hebrew text of Isaiah 11, 1 for this: “A rod shall go forth from the stock of Jesse and a nazer shall spring from its roots.”  The Hebrew nazer can be translated as “shoot”, “sprout”, or “branch”.  The human nature of the Son of God, of course, arises from the House of David, whose father was Jesse.  And the Son of God received this human nature in Nazareth.  It is also possible that this is the source for St. Matthew’s referencing a prophecy that “He shall be called a Nazarene” (Matthew 2, 23), which is otherwise not found in the scriptures, as the Fathers confirm.  

An interesting question that arises for many in this reading is: Where was the Virgin Mary at the time she was visited by Gabriel?  Fathers such as Augustine hand on that she was in her room in her father’s house.  This seems a distinct possibility because it is thought that she would have been at prayer at that moment, and she would have known her room as the best place for prayer.  On the other hand, the oldest tradition on this has her at a well at this time.  The so-called Proto-Gospel of James tells us, “And she took a pitcher, and went out to fill it with water. And, behold, a voice saying: ‘Hail, you who have received grace: the Lord is with you!  Blessed are you among women!’  And she looked round, on the right hand and on the left, to see whence this voice came. And she went away, trembling, to her house, and put down the pitcher.”  Once she is in the house, the angel speaks to her again, announcing that she will conceive according to God’s word.  Now, while this document is not divinely inspired, it may preserve elements of actual history.

The detail that the author of the Proto-Gospel adds, that Mary was “trembling” at the sound of the voice of the invisible angel, may come as an attempted explanation for the Gospel record of Gabriel’s words: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.”  This “Do not be afraid” does not seem to correspond with Mary’s reaction to the angel’s greeting.  If we look at the Greek word translated as “do not fear”, however, we find that it has a wide variety of meanings.  Those which best fit this context are “to be startled by an unusual sight or event” and “to be struck with wonder”.  Other meanings include “to hesitate”, as in “Do not hesitate, Mary”.  And so instead of picturing Mary as fearful, we should see her as startled by the sudden appearance of the angel, or as marveling at the angel’s beauty.

Finally, the last part of the above verse, “You have found favor with God” should be translated differently so that it is consistent with its antecedent, translated here as “Full of grace”.  That is, it should read, “You have received grace from God” — not the insufficient “favor”.  This confirms for Mary that she has sufficient grace to carry out what God desires her to do.  The verse, then, should read: “Do not be amazed, Mary.  You have received grace from God and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son.”  (The case for translating “Do not fear” as “Do not hesitate” is made by an ancient homily in which all creation is represented as imploring the Virgin Mary, standing before the Angel Gabriel, to give her answer to him, as though she had paused to consider what was being asked of her).

These are a very few, a spoonful, of the riches contained in this reading from the Gospel of St. Luke.

 Saturday in the Third Week of Advent, December 19, 2020

Luke 1:5-25

In the days of Herod, King of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah of the priestly division of Abijah; his wife was from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. Both were righteous in the eyes of God, observing all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren and both were advanced in years. Once when he was serving as priest in his division’s turn before God, according to the practice of the priestly service, he was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord to burn incense. Then, when the whole assembly of the people was praying outside at the hour of the incense offering, the angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right of the altar of incense. Zechariah was troubled by what he saw, and fear came upon him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall name him John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He will drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb, and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers toward children and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to prepare a people fit for the Lord.”  Then Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” And the angel said to him in reply, “I am Gabriel, who stand before God. I was sent to speak to you and to announce to you this good news. But now you will be speechless and unable to talk until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled at their proper time.” Meanwhile the people were waiting for Zechariah and were amazed that he stayed so long in the sanctuary. But when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He was gesturing to them but remained mute. Then, when his days of ministry were completed, he went home. After this time his wife Elizabeth conceived, and she went into seclusion for five months, saying, “So has the Lord done for me at a time when he has seen fit to take away my disgrace before others.”

As we enter the week before Christmas, the Church speaks to us of the Lord’s Precursor, John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Jesus through his preaching and his severe and distinctive manner of life.  Preaching penance, he practiced it as well, though he was certainly in less need of this than the people who came to him to be plunged into the Jordan as a sign of their own contrition for sin.  We might wonder, as we consider this: how should we live penitential lives with our load of sins when this holy man lived as he did?  

Luke tells us of John’s parents, the priest Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth: “Both were righteous in the eyes of God, observing all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly. But they had no child.”  This verse sums up the situation for the Jews under the old law.  Obeying the law did not obtain a child, that is, grace, for them — grace, the life of God which sanctifies us and unites us to him.  They did all they were commanded to do, and yet they lay under the curse of childlessness, signifying original sin.  This afflicted them particularly because Zechariah and Elizabeth were descended from Aaron, the first priest.  If anyone should have been blessed with children, it was this couple.  “Both were advanced in years”: the Chosen People had long awaited a Redeemer.  Kings had reigned and died, prophets had been raised up and died, and the people could still lament, “Nothing under the sun is new, neither is any man able to say: Behold this is new: for it has already gone before in the ages that were before us” (Ecclesiastes 1, 10).  

But then one day, Zechariah was chosen to offer incense within the Temple, and “the angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right of the altar of incense”.  The altar of incense was located in an inner chamber of the Temple, adjacent to, but separate from, the holy of holies, where only the high priest could go, and that only once a year, on the Day of Atonement, when coals and incense from the altar of incense were brought there.  The chamber of the altar of incense signifies John the Baptist because it leads to the holy of holies, which signifies the Lord Jesus because it is the place where the high priest would pray for mercy for the people in the presence of God.  The angel Gabriel is said to appear at the right of this altar.  St. Ambrose points out that Luke does not say that God sent Gabriel from heaven to Zechariah, but that Gabriel simply “appeared” to him, as though he had been there all along, but was invisible.  The angel appears at the “right” side of the altar: if the altar represents God, then the angel shows himself as acting and speaking for God with power.

“Zechariah was troubled by what he saw, and fear came upon him.”  The Virgin Mary was confused by what the angel called her (“perfected with grace”), but Zechariah is troubled by the very sight of him.  Of the two, the old priest and the young virgin, we would expect the first to be most prepared to see an angel.  The fact that it was Mary who was more prepared and composed tells us much about her.  The Fathers agree that the angel must have appeared in human form in order to communicate with Zechariah, but Gabriel must also have shown his angelic nature in some way.  Gabriel tells the priest, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard.”  This leads us to think that at the time Zechariah was ministering in the chamber, he was, even in his old age, praying for a child.  This signifies the perseverance of the Jews in the Old Law despite its inability to bestow grace on them.  Gabriel says of the child God will give Zechariah and his wife: “He will be great in the sight of the Lord. He will drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb.”  The injunction against the drinking of wine or strong drink sets their son apart from the rest of the people as a visible sign of their need to set themselves apart from the world by doing penance.  The prophesy that the child would be filled with the Holy Spirit even in his mother’s womb is made in view of what will happen to him when Mary, pregnant with the Son of God, comes to him and his mother.  “He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah.”  The fact that Luke quotes Gabriel as speaking of Elijah is notable because Luke is writing for Gentile Christians for whom the fulfillment of Malachi 4, 5-6 was not important.  It is a sign of the veracity of Luke’s account.  “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”  In understanding what Zechariah means when he asks how he is to “know” this, we ought to understand that the Virgin Mary uses this word when she says to Gabriel, “How will this be, since I do not know man” (Luke 1, 34).  That is, Zechariah is not asking how he will know that this will happen, but how he is to conceive a child with his wife “in her old age” (Luke 1, 36).  This reveals that he has doubts not simply as to their physical ability to do this but even that God could render them capable of it.  This is the reason for Gabriel’s stern reply: “You will be speechless and unable to talk until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled at their proper time.”  Here, we see the sign of the faltering in faith of Israel’s priesthood which will cause the son of Zechariah and our Lord so much hardship.  In some Greek texts Gabriel says that Zechariah would be deaf as well as dumb, conditions which often go together.  That would seem to be the case here, since it is later regarded as miraculous that he understood the question surrounding his son’s name and wrote it on a tablet.

“He was unable to speak to them . . . he was gesturing to them but remained mute.”  The priest came out of the sanctuary unable to tell the people the message from God that he had received.  The priesthood of the old law becomes silent so that the “voice of one crying out in the wilderness” might be heard.

“His wife Elizabeth conceived, and she went into seclusion for five months.”  Elizabeth withdrew from the world just as it had seemed that God had withdrawn from her life from the time she was married.  Her seclusion was broken only by the arrival of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  The reason Elizabeth gives for secluding herself might be put into smoother English: “Thus did the Lord do for me before he removed my reproach from before others.”

As the Lord prepared the world by the actions indicated in the signs in this reading, so he prepares us for his Second Coming.  He reveals to us that the ever-shifting laws and beliefs of this world cannot give us happiness.  He gives us signs that the priests of this world — the advertisers, politicians, movie stars, and proponents of bad science — cannot save us.  We Christians must run from these into a place of seclusion, into the wilderness, where we can repent, do penance, and await our God.