Tuesday in the Octave of Christmas, December 31, 2024

1 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.

The Sixth Day in the Octave of Christmas, Monday, December 30, 2024

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.

Today’s Gospel Reading picks up after St. Luke had described the aged Simeon finding the Infant Jesus with his parents in the Temple on the occasion of his dedication, as Mary’s first-born.

Anna had probably married in her fourteenth or fifteenth year and was married only seven years, making her a very young widow.  She would have been taken in by other members of her husband’s family but did not marry again.  This could only have been a deliberate choice on her part.  Her behavior indicates a mystery.  St. Luke may show us the reason for it when he tells us that the devout Simeon, “had received an answer from the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord” (Luke 2, 26).  So it seems Anna had remained unmarried after her husband died in order to dedicate herself for the day when she would see the long-promised Savior.  Her lengthy widowhood may also have served as a sign of how Almighty God had ceased to raise up prophets to speak to Israel since the death of Malachi some four hundred years before.

Curiously, for a person who makes so brief an appearance in his Gospel, Luke provides very specific details about her: her father’s name, her tribal membership, and the years of her marriage and widowhood.  Luke, writing for Greek Christians, is assuring them that this event is no myth but solid historical fact.  And that he includes it in his Gospel after he has already described the much more dramatic encounter of Simeon with the Infant, confirms for us that he will omit nothing that he deems of any importance.  His accounts of Simeon and Anna comes from information Luke could have received only from the Blessed Virgin Mary, since no other witnesses would have remained.  Luke may have met Mary in Jerusalem, where she stayed with the Apostle John for a few years, or in Ephesus, where John made his base for preaching in Asia Minor.  We must stand in wonder, imagining St. Luke listening to the Mother of God describing the Annunciation to him, then the Birth of her Son, the visit of the shepherds, and the day she and Joseph brought Jesus to the Temple for the dedication.

“She gave thanks to God and spoke about the Child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.”  The Holy Spirit guided her into the Temple courtyard where the dedications were made.  There would have been a number of them, with families coming from all over Galilee and Judea, each waiting its turn.  From all these, Anna saw the One for whom she had waited.  She did not adore in silence.  She raised her voice in thanksgiving and quoted the old Prophets who had foreseen his coming and the redemption he would wrought. 

Anna and Simeon spent most of their lives waiting for the Lord Jesus and then rejoiced when he came.  How they would have rejoiced to be able to receive him in the Blessed Sacrament every day!

The Orthodox and Byzantine Rite Catholics celebrate Anna’s feast on February 3.

The Feast of the Holy Family, Sunday, December 29, 2024

Luke 2, 41–52

Each year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom. After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances, but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them. He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.

“Each year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom.”  The beauty of the Holy Family is its normalcy, its quiet adherence to duty.  Mary and Joseph raised their Child in much the same way they had been raised and did not attempt to seek special privileges for their family.  Nor did they seek for Jesus to ease their lot in life.  They watched him with greater attention than other parents watched their children for they knew who he was.  But they did not know what to expect from him or when he might begin his mission.  Up until he turned twelve, he had done nothing extraordinary, though certainly absorbed with the Scriptures he heard read in the synagogue each Sabbath.  This was to change on the occasion of the family’s pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover.

“As they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem.”  He deliberately chose to remain behind after his parents departed.  He does this as a sign for his parents as well as to present himself to the teachers who worked in the Temple.  The sign is to show them his thirst for the salvation of the world.  No one would hold him back once he began his labor.  For us, he who teaches that we must forsake parents, siblings, spouses, and friends for the sake of the Gospel, also does this.

“When his parents saw him, they were astonished.”  The Greek text says “They were thunderstruck.”  The teachers were amazed at him and the parents are thunderstruck.  Jesus alone remains calm and is the master of the situation.  Jesus challenged the doctrine of the teachers and at the same time revealed a wisdom far out of keeping with his age.  He looked like a child and yet spoke like a God.  And this was what floored his parents.  For twelve years he had manifested no behavior outside the ordinary, but now, looking at his bearing and listening to his insights, it seemed to them that they did not know him at all.  

“Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”  The Greek translated here as “with great anxiety” is a participle meaning, “tormented”: “Your father and I have been looking for you, tormented.”  This is something greater than anxiety.  They were suffering dreadfully as they searched for him.  We ought to feel this way after we have sinned and returned to our senses.  Mary’s question is a desperate plea.  She needs to know if she has in some way failed him as a mother, or Joseph as a father.  Have they interfered with him throughout the past several years? Is she and Joseph now supposed to step back and allow him to begin his work of redeeming the human race?  So great was Mary’s and Joseph’s love for him that they would cling to him if they could, and yet they knew that he was the Son of God and that he must be free to do what he came to do.  Mary’s question comes down to “What do you want us to do?  In what way do you wish us to serve you?”

“Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”  The Lord is saying to them, “You did not need to look for me.  You knew that I must be in my Father’s house.”  He has spoken to them as a child to this point in his life.  But now he speaks to them as their Lord.  St. Luke is careful to tell us that this event took place when Jesus was twelve: he has become an adult as a Jew.  Later, Luke will tell us that Jesus was thirty when he began to preach: the age when a Jewish man could be recognized as a teacher of religion, a rabbi.  Jesus does all things in their proper time.  “But they did not understand what he said to them.”  The answer Jesus gave them was not the answer of a twelve year old boy.  Nor did he answer Mary’s question in a direct way.  Instead, he speaks as he will later speak, answering not so much the question that is asked as much as the answer the questioner really needs to know.  

“He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them.”  Having provided his parents with this sign, he provides us with another: that love means obedience and sacrifice.  He who made all things with a word makes himself subordinate to his own creatures.  We see the example he sets for us and knowing that he was obedient, we know we can be as well.  “His mother kept all these things in her heart.”  This is the work of the believer: to ponder and to meditate on Jesus Christ.  The Blessed Virgin will assist us in this if we ask her.  “And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.”  He did this according to his human nature.  

As we picture the events in today’s Gospel reading in our minds we ought to marvel at what the Son of God did in order to live with us.

The Feast of the Holy Innocents, Saturday, December 28, 2024

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.

So soon after the glory of Christmas we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Innocents — a time of horror, long ago, that led to glory.  We rightly wonder about why God would allow this atrocity of infanticide.  But while the murder of helpless babies and small children fills us with indignation and sickness of heart, we also recall their life now in heaven.  Without suffering the hardship, disease, and bitterness of a normal life on earth, they have attained the greatest goal any human could hope for — the vision of Almighty God.  In their way, they took the place of Jesus in their dying so that Jesus might take the place of us all in bearing our sins and expiating our guilt on the Cross.  The innocent children die so that the innocent Jesus might lay down his life for us.  Herod’s cruel heart was relieved to hear that the children had been killed, for he assumed the the King of whom the Magi spoke would have been one of them.  He did not send out his butchers beyond Bethlehem because he saw no need to do so, allowing Joseph, Mary, and Jesus to hurry to Egypt, where his claws could not reach.  

The Birth of the Lord, and then the Massacre of the Innocents, and finally the return to Israel is mirrored by the Lord’s Transfiguration and then, a few weeks later, his Passion and Death, followed by his Resurrection and Ascension — the Lord’s return home.  Seeing the Massacre in this context helps us to understand that it was not a pointless, horrible event but a prelude to everlasting joy.  

Although many scholars think that the Holy Family took refuge within the large Jewish community in Alexandria, Egypt, many ancient local traditions tell us that they moved about quite a bit, staying for no more than a few months at any given time over the next three years.  These local traditions speak of miracles performed by Jesus — making fresh water come out of a rock, for instance.  Other traditions involve caves where the Holy Family stayed and spots where Mary washed her little Son or his clothes.  Another tradition speaks of Jesus leaving his palm print on a mountain on the east bank of the Nile River.  Churches and monasteries were eventually built on these sites.

The Feast of St. John the Apostle, Friday, December 27, 2024

John 20, 1–9

On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she 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 don’t 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. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead. 

“They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.”  Mary Magdalene so loved the Lord that even the care of his dead Body was of the greatest concern for her.  First, devastated and broken-hearted by the Lord’s Death, now she finds his tomb empty.  She does not know whether the Jewish leaders have stolen it to prevent its veneration or if those who laid it in the tomb meant it to rest there on temporarily until it could be buried after the Sabbath, since he had not belonged to the family whose tomb it was.  It seems, though, that it was the first possibility that alarmed her.  The “they” who she thinks moved his Body sounds like she was referring to the “they” who killed him.  It was not enough for them that the Lord was dead: they had to hide his Body as well.

She ran directly to Simon Peter and to John to tell them.  She would have known where to find them because John was with her under the Cross on Golgotha and would have learned this from him.  The two Apostles seem to have run off for the tomb without speaking to her, although she must have told them where the Body had been laid to rest, or perhaps John knew from remaining at the Cross until it was taken down by Joseph of Arimathea.

“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.”  It is significant that the cloths were found very neatly set aside, as it demonstrates that the Body had not been stolen or taken away.  Whether thieves or the Jewish leaders, they would not have bothered to unwrap the linen cloth from the Body before taking it, much less roll up the cloth that had covered his head and then put it in a separate place.  It as though the one who had died had gotten up off the stone bench on which he had been laid and calmly folded up the linen cloth and rolled up the cloth that had covered his face and head, and then set it on the floor in a corner.  This is why John can say that he and Peter “saw and believed”.  Previously, “they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead”.  Now they faced a reality that could only be explained by the Lord Jesus rising from the dead.  The last verse of the Gospel Reading should read, “For they had not before understood the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.”  That is, until the Apostles went into the tomb and looked around they had not understood the prophecies, but now they did.  Their eyes were opened.  They walked away from the tomb changed men, and unsure of what would happen next, but very certain that their Master had conquered death.

We see the love St. John — “the other disciple whom Jesus loved” — in his running to the tomb.  He did not know what, if anything, he would find there, but the very possibility that his Master might be alive fired his soul.  Traditional tells us that John lived a long time after the Lord ascended into heaven, dying, it is said, around the year 90.  After living with the other Apostles in Jerusalem for a few years he moved to Ephesus, bringing the Blessed Virgin Mary with him, and preaching there.  From Ephesus he wrote three Letters that are included in the New Testament.  During a period of exile, he wrote down seven visions he received there, later entitled the Book of Revelation.  He was the last of the Apostles to die, and the only one to have died peacefully, the others — including his own brother James — having been martyred.  We ask through his intercession for the gift of a burning love for the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Feast of St. Stephen, Thursday, 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, Wednesday, December 25, 2024

The Mass During the Day

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.

Prayers for everyone at My Masses!

 Tuesday in the Fourth Week of Advent, December 24, 2024

The Gospel Reading from the morning Mass:

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 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.

In the baptismal ritual, the priest touches the mouth and the ears of the Child whom he has baptized and says, “May the Lord open your ears and your lips that you may hear his word and proclaim his praise.”  May we use our own ears and lips for the purpose for which God gave them to us, in listening intently to the word of God and uttering his praise.

Monday in the Fourth Week of Advent, December 23, 2024

Luke 1, 57-66

When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her, and they rejoiced with her. When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child, they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother said in reply, “No. He will be called John.” But they answered her, “There is no one among your relatives who has this name.” So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called. He asked for a tablet and wrote, “John is his name,” and all were amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed, and he spoke blessing God. Then fear came upon all their neighbors, and all these matters were discussed throughout the hill country of Judea. All who heard these things took them to heart, saying, “What, then, will this child be? For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.”

The Blessed Virgin Mary stayed with Elizabeth as long as she could, assisting her in the way that a handmaid could, and then returned to Nazareth for her wedding feast with her husband Joseph.  It must have cost her to not stay to help with the birth, but God willed for her to live with her husband and to prepare for the Birth of her own Son.  

And so Elizabeth gave birth.  The midwife was sent for when the labor pains began.  Certainly the midwife expressed her incredulity when told that the older woman was about to deliver.  Elizabeth, as the wife of a priest, would have had some prominence in the town and her nine months of not appearing in public had caused people to wonder, but no one suspected this.  So she hastened to the house to perform her duty and found it as had been reported to her.  She immediately set aside her thoughts and proceeded to assist the older woman in her labor.  And just as the Angel had declared to her husband, who could now only communicate by writing notes, she gave birth to a boy.  

Many in the town got to know what was happening when some women in the marketplace saw the midwife hurrying into the house of the priest and a small crowd formed outside.  The townspeople must have heard Elizabeth’s cries and a low buzz of excited inquiry and guesses filled the street. It was a time of heated anticipation and people talked about other older and barren women who had given birth: Sarah; Rebecca; Rachel; the mother of Samson; Hannah, the mother of Samuel.  

Eight days afterward, Elizabeth revealed her child to the world.  His circumcision would mark him as a son of Israel, separated from all the other peoples of the world belonging to the Chosen People.  The child was to be named at this event.  Great significance was attached to this naming, for by it the father acknowledged the child as his own, and thereby as a member of the tribe of Levi who would later serve in the Temple.  But since Zechariah could not speak, members of his extended family stepped in.  The choice of naming the child after the father seemed obvious, but Elizabeth, strangely to their eyes, objected and declared that his name was to be John.  This seemed ridiculous to the family and they tried to overrule her.  She persisted and so recourse was had to the father.  After some minutes of trying to show him with signs what they wanted, the father made signs to be given something to write with.  This may have been pieces of papyrus or even a clay tablet.  Zechariah scratched into it with a quill and ink or a stick, a process which have taken some time even for the short message he had for them.  His declaration that the child’s name was John caused an uproar, for he could not have communicated with his wife as he could not speak and she could not read.  The people saw the hand of God in this and they marveled: “What, then, will this child be? For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.”  But the Messiah was to come from the tribe of Judah, not of Levi, so he could not be the Messiah.  The people could only watch him through the years and wonder.

The Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 22, 2024

Luke 1, 39-56

Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” 

And Mary said: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on 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, he 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 has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children for ever.” 

Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.

“Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah.”  The Archangel Gabriel had told the Blessed Virgin Mary of the pregnancy of her relative, Elizabeth, on the occasion of his Annunciation to her that she would conceive the Son of God by the Holy Spirit.  He seems to have had two purposes in mind, here.  First, to encourage Mary in her miraculous and utterly unprecedented conception of Jesus by pointing out that the much older Elizabeth had conceived by the power of God.  Second, to intimate to Mary that she should go to Elizabeth, not only to help her, but to be helped by her and her husband, the priest Zechariah.  Of all the humans then living, this couple could furnish the most assistance to her: Elizabeth through the experience of her conceiving well beyond the age of childbirth; and Zechariah, the priest who received a like vision of the Archangel Gabriel, and who could also counsel Mary.  Elizabeth, for her part, seems to understand that she was to avoid all visitors, especially the merely curious, and only to receive the help God would send her — the Blessed Virgin Mary — for, “Elizabeth his wife conceived and hid herself five months” (Luke 1, 24).  

The Blessed Virgin traveled “in haste” (which can also be translated from the Greek as “with diligence”).  She did not travel in a panic, but without delay.  Her urgency was to serve God completely and in all things, and it would seem that Gabriel had pointed her to go her relatives in Judea, rather than to remain at home.  She was seeking to assist her cousin and to learn whatever she could about what God expected of her.  Zechariah could communicate with her only through his writing tablet or by showing her passages in the Scriptures, which a scribe could have read to her.  Perhaps most importantly, he could have taught Mary, or reinforced for her, the value of silence in the face of incomprehensible mystery.  We ought to keep in mind that Gabriel did not provide much instruction for how the Virgin was to conduct herself during her pregnancy — not even as to whether to tell her betrothed, Joseph.  She may have wondered, after the Angel had left her, whether she was to tell anyone.  After all, the whole people of Israel waited in great expectation for the Messiah’s arrival.  Were they not entitled to know that his Birth was imminent?  She might also have wondered if she should now return to live in the Temple, where she had spent her early years.  In what more appropriate place could she have lived while the Child grew in her virginal womb?  She went without delay to seek counsel from the people whom God had indicated through his messenger.  While Mary did not even tell her parents, she must have confided in her betrothed, for he had a need to know.  And he accepted the truth she told him, for, as St. Jerome tells us, it was easier for him to believe that Mary had conceived by the Holy Spirit than that she had sinned in fornication.  After she departed, though, he did struggle in trying to understand what God expected of him, now.

“She entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.”  The women of a house stayed in the back of the house where they could have the most privacy, and so Elizabeth would have kept there after finding herself pregnant.  Mary went into the house to greet Elizabeth, though Zechariah may have met her outside the house.  The grace that she brought in herself and which her Child brought would have gladdened the hearts of all in the vicinity.  The presence of a saint can do that.  This was the case with Mother Teresa.  A person could feel her enter a room, even if the person was unaware of it at the time.  A lightness of heart and clarity of mind fills all those around.  Certainly this effect would have been much magnified when the Virgin entered the house with her Child in her womb.  Luke tells us how Elizabeth felt it: “At the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.”  The Church teaches us the significance of this moment: that in that instant, John the Baptist was freed from original sin.

“Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.”  As the Rosary teaches us, we ought to meditate frequently on the three months in which the Virgin Mary remained with Zechariah, Elizabeth, and the unborn John the Baptist.  Let us consider the joy of those who were able to see the Blessed Virgin face to face every day, to encounter her in the market, to see her strolling along the road, to accompany her as she went out to the village well for water, to eat food cooked by her hands, to be comforted by her words.  Those who are devoted to her in this life know her care in their daily labors and cares, and this only whets the appetite of the soul to one day join her company in heaven.