The Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, Monday, January 1, 2024

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.

 The Feast of the Holy Family, Sunday, December 30, 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.  St. Luke does not include the story of the Holy Family’s Flight into Egypt which occurred between the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple and the return to Nazareth.  He may not have heard of it.  The Holy Family apparently lived in Egypt for three years before the angel again spoke to Joseph in a dream.

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?

 Saturday within the Octave of Christmas, December 30, 2023

Luke 2, 36-40

There was 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.

“There was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.”  The people belonging to the tribe of Asher were exiled by the Assyrians after their conquest of the Kingdom of Israel in 721 B.C.  Unlike the people of Judah who were later exiled by the Babylonians, few of the people of Asher ever came back.  They assimilated into the peoples of their new land and saw no reason to leave it.  Evidently, Anna’s ancestors did return and settled in Judea.  It is interesting that it is the Gentile Christian St. Luke who tells about her and not, say, the very Jewish St. Matthew.  St. Luke did so because he wanted to show his Gentile Christian readers that Jesus was not rejected by all his own people, only by those unfaithful to the promises and laws of God.  The righteous among the Jews, however, accepted him and rejoiced in him.

Anna, like Simeon, is elderly and represents a final connection with the Prophets and holy ones of old.  She and Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, are figures who hearken back to the wives of the Patriarchs, women such as Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and well as the later Ruth, Judith, and Esther.  By giving accounts of both Simeon and Anna, Luke fulfills his responsibility as a historian and he also presents how the whole of the righteous people of God, men and women, looked forward to the coming of the Savior, recognized him when he came, even as an infant, and exalted in him.  Luke also mentions her because she is the first of a certain vocation of Christian women, the widows.  St. Paul speaks of them almost in terms of a religious order, in 1 Timothy 5, 9: “Let a widow be chosen of no less than threescore years of age, who hath been the wife of one husband.”  Such widows were to be supported by the Church, and in turn they were to live blameless lives and to pray for the Church.  “She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer.”  Anna, then, is presented as a model for Christian’s living as valid as the manner of life undertaken by the Apostles and deacons.  Her example is beneficial to all of us who believe in the Lord Jesus.  We can all remain in the Temple, that is, be conscious of God during the day, and pray at various times in the day and the night.  We should also live lives of self-restraint and penance, though we might seem to ourselves sufficiently virtuous that this is unnecessary.

“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.”  That is, the redemption of the people of God.  She may have come forward after Simeon had left, that is, at or after the time the sacrifices for the Infants Jesus were performed.  Her conversation is also a model for us.  She does not talk about herself or complain about the hardness of her life, but she thanks God for sending Jesus to the world and speaks about him to her fellow righteous Jews.

“When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.”  Luke shows Joseph and Mary as conscientious Jews who carry out all the laws pertaining to them and their newborn Child, though surely as he was the Son of God they should have been exempt from them.  Luke also tells us that after the Presentation in the Temple, “they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.”  He does not tell us about the Flight into Egypt or the massacre of the innocent children of Bethlehem.  Either he had not heard of this or he does not include an account of these events in order to move forward with his narrative.  In the writing of books, it is not possible to include everything that belongs to a given subject.

“The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.”  Luke here speaks of Jesus growing into young manhood, for he will next relate the story of how he, as a twelve year old, remained in the Temple area for three days and held the Jewish teachers spellbound.  

Simeon and Anna, as elderly people, show us the necessity of living righteously no matter what our age or condition, and of how, through prayers and good witness, we can all do our part to convert the world to Jesus.

 Friday in the Octave of Christmas, December 29, 2023

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.”

This Reading from the Gospel according to St. Luke recalls the events that took place several days after the Birth of the Lord in Bethlehem, and which the Holy Church commemorates forty days afterwards on February 2.  

Following the Birth of Jesus, it seemed reasonable to Joseph and Mary to remain in Bethlehem until the time to present their first-born Son in the Temple according to the Law.  Jerusalem lay within easy reach of the town.  By this time, Joseph and Mary seem to have gotten a regular place to stay.  St. Matthew mentions a “house” (Matthew 2, 11).  Mary’s purification took place seven days after the Birth of her Son, as according to Leviticus 12, 2, but she was prohibited from touching any sanctified thing or enter the Temple until for a further thirty-three days.  It was at that time that the Holy Family went to Jerusalem.

Before the sacrifice connected with the Infant’s Presentation to his Father could be performed in the Temple, an elderly man who had been watching them approached.  He was Simeon: “This man was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.”  That is, the Holy Spirit prompted him to come to the Temple at this time, acting in the way the star drew the magi to Bethlehem.  We should notice that he is not a priest nor an elder.  Simeon practiced his religion quietly and devoutly.  Luke represents him as a tie to the Prophets of old who proclaimed the coming of a Savior.  Standing in for them, as it were, Simeon recognizes the long awaited One, takes him in his arms, and blesses God: “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.”  As if to say, Lord, the Age of the Prophets is now complete and the images in which they spoke are fulfilled by the reality which has arrived.  The ancient sighs of the Prophets are now turned into songs of thanksgiving.

“The child’s father and Mother were amazed at what was said about him.”  The shepherds, the magi, and now the righteous Simeon act as signs of Almighty God’s presence and approval of what Joseph and Mary had done.  We should very much keep in mind that several months had passed since angels had spoken briefly to them about what God wanted them to do.  Since that time they had had no visions, no dreams, no divine signs to direct them further.  They must have wondered if their care of his Child was pleasing to him so far.  Simeon’s arrival and words “amazed” them because they were unexpected and also confirmed what the Angel Gabriel had said to the Virgin Mary and what Joseph had heard in his dream.  

“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.”  The Virgin Mary receives new  information from God through Simeon.  And she knows that she can trust what he says to her because he had confirmed what Gabriel had said to her.  So what does he tell her?  That when this Child was grown, he would put down the mighty from their thrones and exalt the lowly; he would filled the hungry with good things, and send the rich away empty (cf. Luke 1, 52-53).  He would be a sign that would be contradicted: “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1, 15) who would be harried, harassed, and persecuted by the very people who should have recognized him.  “And you yourself a sword will pierce so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”  Entering into her Son’s sufferings in a way only she could and suffering in him, she knew how much he loved the human race and what he would not do for it. This enabled her to become our great intercessor.  The sword of her suffering which was his suffering is so grievous that to hear of it should move all souls to repentance.  It has already moved very many souls to confess their sins.  To see her unspeakable sorrow is to know what sin did to her Son.

 Thursday in the Octave of Christmas, December 28, 2023

The Feast of the Holy Innocents

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 might have placed this feast after the Feast of the Epiphany to make better chronological sense, for we celebrate the visit of the magi on the Feast of the Epiphany.  But it also is fitting to today’s feast to put it in greater proximity to that of the Nativity of the Lord, for whom they died.  To understand the event this feast commemorates, we should reconstruct the chronology:  the Birth of Jesus Christ on December 25.  His circumcision and naming, presumably in Bethlehem, eight days later on January 1.  Jesus would have been presented in the Temple and Mary purified from her childbirth within forty days of his Birth, according to the Law, and this is celebrated on February 2.  After this, the Holy Family would have returned to Bethlehem, and it is on some night after this that Joseph is warned in a dream to take the Mother and Child and flee to Egypt, out of Herod’s grasp.  Thus, the Holy Family spends over forty days in Bethlehem, beginning in a niche in the rocky hills outside the town and ending up in a house, probably that of a distant relative.  We might wonder at all this time spent there, but since they were near Jerusalem, reasonably they should stay until they had completed the rites necessarily done in the Temple, such as the Presentation.  In other words, why go all the way back to Nazareth a week or two after the Birth when they would have to return within forty days to present Jesus in the Temple, anyway?  Joseph may have planned to return to Nazareth within days after the Presentation and was on the verge of doing so when the angel appeared to him.  We may wonder why Herod waited so long for the magi before realizing they were not returning to him.  But only a month had passed from the day they found Jesus and his Presentation in the Temple and Herod may have thought they were making a long stay.  

At any rate, Herod’s response to a threat from a newborn Child in Bethlehem, when it came, came fiercely.  He sent assassins into the town and the region around it, killing any child of two years or younger, doubtlessly killing others in the process.  It was a horrific, senseless event.  Perhaps a dozen or two baby boys were ripped from their mothers’s arms and ruthlessly slaughtered.  Matthew uses a verse from Jeremiah 32, 15 to describe the horror: “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.”  Jeremiah is speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and the massacre that resulted.  Matthew does not engage in hyperbole in using this verse: the Israelites killed by the Babylonians had defied God and worshipped idols.  Jeremiah had warned them for years about this, but they had rejected, threatened, and finally imprisoned him.  They had brought their doom upon themselves.  But the babies of Bethlehem were innocent, and their slaughter unprovoked.  The grief and heartbreak brought on by innocent suffering far exceeds that brought on by any other kind.  Their deaths prefigures the suffering and Death, years later, of the most innocent of all, the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

Because these innocent babies were killed out of hatred for Jesus, the Church, from ancient times, has commemorated them in a feast.  We pray that they may intercede for all who are suffering likewise.

 Wednesday in the Octave of Christmas, December 27, 2023

John 20, 1; 2-8

On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we do not know where they put him.” So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed.

St. John the Apostle, his older brother James, and his parents seem to have come from Bethany in Galilee but who moved to Capernaum in order to make a living as fishermen.  The two brothers were pious Jews, very strong-willed, and eager for action.  They were also quick to act.  And when they, in Galilee, heard about John the Baptist preaching and baptizing in Judea, they went to see.  John, at least, became a disciple of John and stayed close to him.  He would have been sixteen or so at the time, not yet old enough to marry.  While assisting John the Baptist with his work, Jesus of Nazareth walked not far away.  Jesus had been baptized, then had been driven into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan, and then had come back to the Jordan River, probably living in a niche in the rocky hills.  Directed by John the Baptist, John went with another fisherman from Capernaum, Andrew, and approached Jesus.  At the Lord’s invitation, they spent the day with him.  After this, Andrew, very much impressed by the Lord, went to tell his brother Simon about him.  We are not told but it seems probable that John would have found his brother James and related his impressions.  These brothers and a few others began to follow the Lord and shortly after they joined him, they found themselves at a wedding in Cana.  St. Albert the Great, citing “the holy Fathers” tells us that this was John’s own wedding, and that after he learned of the miracle Jesus performed there, he left his bride to follow him and remained a virgin all his life.  While an attractive idea, John did not come from Cana and so the wedding feast would have taken place in his house in Capernaum, so it seems less likely.

A few months after Cana and a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover, John and James returned to Capernaum and their work as fishermen.  They had not yet become permanently attached to Jesus yet.  This came very early one morning as the dawn broke and they were in the boat with their father.  Jesus summoned them to become “fishers of men”.  What the Lord does here turns discipleship on its head.  All through history, young people  sought out and employ the services of some master, whether a teacher of practical skills, of philosophy, or of religion.  But here, the Master seeks out his students.  He shows in this way that the Master is a servant, and that those who follow him are likewise training to become servants.

James and John became prominent among the Apostles for their impulsiveness and desire to learn.  Jesus called them “the sons of thunder”, and they were known to want to call down the wrath of heaven upon towns that did not welcome their Master.  John, in particular, is beloved by Jesus.  And John, experiencing the love of Jesus, learned to love him very personally.  This experience of the Lord’s personal love informs John’s Gospel and his First Letter: “We love [him], because he first loved us” (1 John 4, 19).

This love caused John to follow the arrested Jesus back to Jerusalem where he waited outside the high priest’s house, where the Jewish leaders interrogated him.  Later, he followed the Lord as he carried his Cross to Golgotha.  And so great was his love for Jesus that it surpassed any shame he might have felt as he stood under the Lord’s Cross.  There was nothing he could do for Jesus, but he did not want to be apart from him.  Love follows the beloved.  And there Jesus gave him the care of the Blessed Mother.  After the Body of Jesus was laid to rest in the tomb, John returned to the house of Mary, the mother of Mark, where he and the other Apostles had eaten the Last Supper with Jesus.  He slept there that night and the next, spending the long days discussing the events of Good Friday with the others.  And then after dawn on Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene, who had also been on Golgotha on that dreadful day of the crucifixion. Came pounding on the door of the house.  She spoke wildly in her excitement and confusion and in response, Peter and John ran to the tomb to see what had happened.  John actually went down into the tomb.  It was a new tomb and no other remains were kept in it.  But neither was the Lord’s Body present.  He did see the wrappings and his shroud very neatly folded and arranged, which no grave robber would have bothered with.  He went away with Peter, wondering.  And then that evening, he saw the Lord.

Although tradition tells us that John wrote his Gospel the last of the four, his exactness in its details as to where and when certain events took place give evidence that he wrote it within ten years of the Ascension.  It certainly could not have been written after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in the year 70 because he would have then no reason to be so exact.  He writes of places and things that the early first century Jewish Christian could have gone and seen.  His Gospel almost certainly was written for Judean Christians as well because of his emphasis on the deeds the Lord performed there, just as Matthew, writing for Galilean Christians, emphasizes what the Lord did in that land.

John and many of the other Apostles stayed and shepherded the early Church in Jerusalem for a few years after Pentecost.  Eventually, according to very firm tradition, he made his way into Syria and Asia Minor, bringing the Blessed Mother with him.  He is said to have settled at a time in Ephesus.  At some point he was sent into exile on the tiny island of Patmos in the western Mediterranean Sea, where he experienced the visions he recorded in The Book of Revelation.  Certain stories, related by the early historian Eusebius, tell us that John retained something of his fiery temperament, responding with vehemence to heretics when they challenged him.  He is said to have died in his old age, the only Apostle not martyred.

We give thanks to Almighty God for the witness of St. John the Apostle  who provides such a vivid portrait of the Lord Jesus and who teaches us steadfast love of him.

 Tuesday in the Octave of Christmas, December 26, 2023

The Feast of St. Stephen, Martyr

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, Monday, December 25, 2023

Luke 2, 15–20

When the angels went away from them to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them.

The Gospel Reading we will consider today is taken for The Mass at Dawn for this solemnity.  The Missal contains four Masses for Christmas: one at the vigil, which takes place after sunset on December 24; one at midnight; one at dawn; and one during the day.  Each has its own readings and prayers.  The text of the Gloria, an important part of these Masses and which was not recited or sung during the season of Advent, was composed very early on the Church’s history by an unknown Christian.  In his commentary on the Mass, Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) states that Pope Telesphorus  (128-139) ordered the Gloria sung at the Masses at Christmas.  An ancient book on the acts of the popes tells us that Pope Symmachus (498-514) ordered it sung on Sundays and on certain feasts.  At first, its singing was restricted only to bishops but this privilege was extended to priests and then to clerics singing in a schola.

“When the angels went away from them to heaven.”  The Gospel Reading follows the singing of “Glory to God in the highest and peace to men of good-will” by the choirs of angels who surrounded the shepherds the night Jesus was born.  In fact, the Lord may have been born during daylight hours.  The interval between his Birth and the angelic announcement to the shepherds at night would have given Mary a chance to rest and the new-born Child to settle.  And while it is common to think that the angels filled the heavens above the shepherds, we should note that the first angel who appeared and told the shepherds of the glorious events that were transpiring “stood by them” (Luke 2, 9).  When the multitudes of angels appeared, Luke says, “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host” (Luke 2, 9), so that it sounds as though they surrounded the shepherds and filled the fields, the hills, and the gullies.  This version of the scene is captured in medieval portrayals showing the angels and shepherds embracing as the reconciliation of heaven and earth by Christ has begun.  This breath-taking scene only lasted for a few minutes, though, and the angels proceeded back to heaven, not vanishing as suddenly as they had appeared but rather visibly ascending.  We might wonder how the angels looked.  Luke does not describe them here or earlier, when Gabriel came to Zechariah and the Virgin Mary.  He does describe angels at the Resurrection, however: “Two men stood by them, in shining apparel”(Luke 24, 4).  Specifically, they do not seem to have wings, but look like “men” dressed in brightly lit linen tunics.  In their appearance to the shepherds, moreover, “the brightness of God shone round about them [the shepherds]” (Luke 2, 9), emanating from the angels.  (And when we do good works, the glory of the Lord emanates from us as well).

“Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.”  Rather than shaking with fear from their experience, the shepherds hasten to learn the truth of the angel’s words.   This shows a disposition to believe, a willingness to learn.  It is a great gift to have this, and relatively few people have accepted it.  “So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger.”  Walking about in the dark, they might have wandered for hours without finding the Holy Family in the rocky niches outside of Bethlehem.  Either the one they sought came within easy reach or they were guided to it by an interior grace.  When a person sets out to perform a good work, he does not accomplish it on his own but only through the grace of God and his cooperation with it.  The shepherds explain their presence to Mary and Joseph: “When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child.”  To this point, Mary and Joseph had made their difficult way from Nazareth to Bethlehem, sleeping by night along the road with the other travelers and eating only what they had brought with them.  No angel conducted them, no chariot conveyed them, no herald cleared the way before them.  When Mary told Joseph that the Child was about to be born, no one ran about looking for shelter for them.  Indeed, the doors in Bethlehem town were closed against them.  They went to a niche in the rocky hills away from the town without anyone helping them, and Mary lay down and gave birth there.  No angels, no glad songs, not even a measure of privacy.  And certainly cleanliness did not feature in this niche where animals were accustomed to be kept.  The shepherds, however, came and brought news of the angelic visitation made to them, and it made them wonder at the Providence of Almighty God: “All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds.”  Luke’s speaking of “all” probably means the people whom they told after they had seen Mary, Joseph, and Jesus.  For Mary and Joseph, their report would have come as a welcome confirmation that God was pleased with them despite their plight.

“And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.”  She added this visit and report by the shepherds to what she had already experienced with Gabriel.  We have to keep in mind that neither Mary nor Joseph spoke openly with God every day and that they knew well all the details of his plan for them.  They did not, and considering the enormous things that were asked for them and the barely sufficient information they received, they did marvelously well and provide examples for us in doing God’s will.

“Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them.”  You and I have even greater reason to glorify and praise Almighty God for all that we have heard and seen, for we have the Gospels and the teachings of the Church to tell us who Jesus is and what he did for us.  We know far more than the shepherds, and even receive the Body of our Savior in Holy Communion.  So let us abound in joy this Christmas Day for all that God has done for us.

The Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 24, 2023

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.”

The last week of Advent this year lasts one day.

The last words Zechariah had said before becoming mute were spoken in the Temple to the Angel Gabriel: “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years” (Luke 1, 18).  His words expressed doubt and even disbelief.  He curled himself into a defensive position before the Angel and prepared himself to make a refusal.  This behavior is remarkable in a priest, a son of Aaron, who meditated on the Law and knew well the stories of miraculous conceptions, and so it was fitting that he be struck deaf and dumb: he had stalled before the word of the Lord and so he should not hear it; and he would not give answer to the message of the Lord and so he should lose his ability to speak.  But Gabriel did not strike him deaf and dumb.  Rather, Zechariah incurred the natural consequences of his actions.

But Zechariah did not go back to his home embittered.  He pondered the last words of the Angel to him: “I am Gabriel, who stand in the presence of God; and I was sent to speak to you, and to bring you this good news. 20 And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things come to pass, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time” (Luke 1, 19-20).  He entered the difficult world of silence in which he struggled to make his slightest needs or thoughts known, and from this experience he realized that he had become a sign.  What had happened to him as a result of his faithlessness had come upon Israel long before.  Since it would not hear the Prophets, it lost its ability to hear.  Since it praised foreign gods, it lost its ability to speak.

Over the months of his silence, he repented.  More than that, he grew eager to fulfill the commandments God had given to him through the Angel.  Over the months he began to understand what his son would mean for Israel.  As he, Zechariah, had become a sign, so his son would be a sign — a sign not of Israel’s lack of faith and of the broken covenant, but a sign of a new dawn, a herald of the new Covenant God would make with man through the Savior he would send.  And after nine months of silence, he was granted the opportunity to act, to repair his disbelief with firm belief in the face of pressure to conform to the old ways.  And after writing, “His name is John” on the wax tablet, and regained his ability to hear and to speak.  And the first words he spoke were the praise of God.  No hesitancy restrains him now, no questions linger.  He speaks of God and his plan for the salvation of his people: “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.”  Before he even speaks of his own son, John, he speaks of the coming Messiah, whom he knew now would be born of the Virgin Mary, his wife’s kinswoman who had departed a few days before.  When he does speak of his son, it is to prophesy of his place in God’s plan: “You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way.”  A proud father, yet he sees all in the context of the Savior, the son of David, and in all of his canticle, he speaks only a line or two of his son, the servant of the Redeemer.

We do not see Zechariah and Elizabeth in the Gospels after this.  They do not lead outwardly extraordinary lives but carry on quietly with the mission God has given them, that of raising their son to be a holy man.  Not many of us are called to live lives as John the Baptist did, attracting crowds, but we are all called to fulfill the will of God in our lives however humble our lives may be.