Lift high the Cross!

LAETARE – The Fourth Sunday of Lent

Having the bronze serpent in my coat-of-arms is as good as any reason for not letting pass by, without comment or reflection albeit a short one, this beautiful Sunday (Cycle B) with the Gospel of St. John (3:14-21).

The Second Reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians (2:4-10) offers us the key for this Sunday’s message, as joyful a message as can be imagined:

“This was to show for all ages to come, through his goodness towards us in Christ Jesus, how infinitely rich he is in grace. Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit. We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning he had meant us to live it.”

Would it be dumbfounding to say it once and for all and let it take hold of us to the very depths of our being, that the initiative of restoring us to lost innocence was and always has been God’s in Christ? If I had to build my Lenten observance or reflection around something would it be too little to recognize myself as “God’s work of art”? I think the expression is “cooperating with God’s grace” as opposed to concentrating on hygiene or searching for the ultimate wellness seminar or success guru (if anyone still believes in such these days).

I remember the one and only time I baptized a four year old boy in the only language he really understood: German. I celebrated the baptism at a time when I was still pretty well tongue-tied in German. For him, I repeated over and over again during the liturgy the truth that through his baptism into Jesus he was now a child of God. Some weeks later his mother, not yet baptized at that point came and told me that since that Sunday she had often caught her little son at play singing to himself: “I am a child of God”. She said to me, “Father, I want to become a child of God, too”. She had experienced the gentle persuasion of joy, Laetare!, her four year old and Jesus had wrapped her in their freeing embrace! Such beautiful experiences come too seldom or maybe we just miss them for the gentleness with which they can pass us by.

Even after so many centuries, after two millennia of Gospel presence, Jesus’ words still cut to the quick: “…that though the light has come into the world men have shown they prefer darkness to the light…” Second Chronicles explains the seventy years of the Captivity of God’s People in Babylon as the required period of restitution for infidelity upon infidelity: for all those Sabbath rests which the people had stolen from God, all those Lord’s Days not observed or not returned to Him in thanksgiving for His many blessings upon the people He had chosen as His own, Exile from the Land for as long as was needed to reclaim those Sabbaths. Chronicles quotes the prophet Jeremiah to explain this suffering decreed such that the once scorned prophets might have their day before the Persian Cyrus could decree at God’s behest that the Temple was to be rebuilt and saving history could resume its course in the Land.

The “how come”, the “why” of Laetare, of our rejoicing this Sunday is all too clear: “Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.” “The Son must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert…” The challenge is the same as that facing the people in the desert doomed to death by the serpents’ venom, by their deadly bites. We must lift our gaze to the Son lifted up on the Cross for our salvation. No amount of dietary restrictions, pills, latex, Himalayan berries or Egyptian cotton, deep breathing or positive thinking is to satisfy us if we would indeed leave the darkness which covers the people, who continue to sit in the shadow of death. Upon the Cross with Christ we are caught up to eternal life. Just as was the case with the bronze serpent, what may seem to human perception to be futile or even death dealing is rather what gives life. By His Wounds we are healed.

A lot of journalists, commentators, self-assured political figures and supposedly successful or self-made types have been hurling abuse at our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI especially over the last coupe of months. Other people have been verbally carving up his curia into small pieces. These people all have advice to give on how the Pope could “do it better”. Personally, I think he and Jesus are doing a great job at world-class level of what my little four year old German boy with Jesus did for his mother in freedom. How else do you give the hope that there is such a thing as joy, lasting joy? Laetare!

“Redemption is offered to us in the sense that we have been given hope, trustworthy hope, by virtue of which we can face our present: the present, even if it is arduous, can be lived and accepted if it leads towards a goal, if we can be sure of this goal, and if this goal is great enough to justify the effort of the journey.” (Spe salvi, 1.).

O let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not!

Give us Your Son!

Second Sunday of Lent – 8 March 2009

Whenever we focus on the Transfiguration of Our Lord we mention Jesus’ will, which is one with God the Father’s Will, to prepare His closest followers for the scandal of the Cross. These days as I travel or have occasion to look at celebrity news and notice the number of people sporting big lovely crosses or crucifixes around their necks or even wearing rosaries around their necks (shirt or no shirt?), I worry that the Cross of Christ has not only been deprived of its scandal but perhaps of its meaning as well. What’s that pop artist doing with a rosary around his neck? Why is that pretty little lady on the airplane wearing such an elegant gold necklace which resembles a rosary even though from the shape of the “beads” it wouldn’t be much good for running through your fingers? Maybe their mothers put them around their necks with a fervent prayer to keep them safe for God… I cannot and will not judge.

This Sunday’s readings, which include an abbreviated account of the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham, our father in faith, brought home to me that even yet today, familiarity or no with the Crucifix, the challenge is one of gaining a real appreciation of the scandal involved, yes, in the Cross of Christ and thereby in the notion that God did not spare His Only Son but delivered Him up for the sake of all of us. “Sacrifice” as in the case of Abraham prepared to offer that of his son, Isaac, which serves for us in the Church as the prophecy of the sacrifice of Jesus, the notion of “sacrifice” itself is really that which leaves us dumbfounded. Either we don’t understand sacrifice and therefore it doesn’t even come across our monitor or we don’t understand it and are repulsed by the very thought of this something we don’t understand but which seems to weigh as heavy as a big wooden cross upon our shoulders, threatening to sap our lifeblood and all we would classify as quality of life.

In a sense, I guess you could say that we still haven’t claimed for our own one of the most important lessons which Pope John Paul II of blessed memory had to teach us. We marveled at how he very simply, directly and confidently invited young people to embrace the Cross of Christ. We marveled because it worked, in the sense that young people responded positively to his invitation. Despite evidence of a method tried and true, we seem to shy away from doing the same, or at least a goodly portion of this world’s preachers shy away from singing the “Ecce Lignum Crucis”. We seem to flee the glance of a frivolous young world as quick to hang a rosary around its neck as it is to tie different pieces of colored yarn to its wrist or around its ankle. Even without the jewelry, one wonders how we (the “saved”?) deal with the great mystery of Christ’s sacrifice.

“With God on our side who can be against us? Since God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up to benefit us all, we may be certain, after such a gift, that he will not refuse anything he can give. Could anyone accuse those that God has chosen? When God acquits, could anyone condemn? Could Christ Jesus? No! He not only died for us – he rose from the dead, and there at God’s right hand he stands and pleads for us.” (Romans 8:31-34)

St. Paul evidently had to spend some time explaining the notion of Christ’s sacrifice as well. Faithful and faith-filled though he was, Abraham learned much on Mount Moriah, knife almost to his only son’s throat, learned much about God whose love went beyond all he could have asked or imagined. Even Mount Tabor and witnessing the glory of God on the face of His Beloved Son did not thoroughly inoculate Peter, James and John from the terror which seized them in the Garden of Olives and held them tight about the throat all the way to Calvary and the Grave. “With God on our side… could anyone condemn?” Just try and fathom this wondrous gift without a stumble or two!

A Lenten wish or prayer for Sunday II of this beautiful time of grace? If it had to be just one, it’d be that many more of us, young and old, might be grasped by the hand and led to the top of Mount Moriah, to the top of Mount Tabor. I’d wish us all that terrible experience of God the Father’s boundless love for us, manifest in Christ, and freeing us to place ourselves upon the Altar holding nothing back, upon the Altar with the Son offered up once and for all. Wouldn’t it be absolutely great if “Peter Pan” or “Miss Tinkerbelle” touched that rosary resting there on his or her heart and saw the Law and the Prophets fulfilled for our salvation. Wouldn’t it be unspeakably powerful if “nature’s child” discovered himself or herself as “God’s child”, eternally and absolutely loved? And wouldn’t it be even more clamorously and thunderously profound if pocketed and pursed rosaries became a font of meditation and that Crucifix on our wall or dashboard might encounter our glance and fill our hearts with wonder and praise yet before Week II becomes Week III?

Sacramentals: The Catechism of the Catholic Church (n. 1667) says: “These are sacred signs… By them men are disposed to receive the chief effect of the sacraments, and various occasions in life are rendered holy.”

Lord, let the notion of “sacrifice” become accessible to your people. Help us to open wide our hearts and give us back Your Son as grace and gift, just as You gave Isaac back to Abraham as beloved son and so much more.

Lenten Program

Wednesday of the First Week of Lent
Stella Maris Parish, 4 March 2009, Kingston, Jamaica

The preaching of Jonah and the wisdom of Solomon: today’s Lenten readings challenge us to follow the example of the people of Nineveh from the least to the greatest and repent; to follow the example of the Queen of the South, who took on an arduous pilgrimage to be able to hear King Solomon. Today’s liturgy clearly invites us to do like them and allow those words/that preaching to bear fruits of repentance in our hearts and in our daily lives. Lent is about change of heart; it’s about hearing God’s Word and keeping it faithfully.

Now some of the more perceptive among you may have noticed that I said “those words/that preaching”. In expressing myself this way, it was not my intention to withdraw myself from my responsibility as a preacher here today. I said “those words/that preaching” simply to underline that I’m not preaching myself; I’m preaching Jesus; I’m preaching God’s Word. Although I am not worthy and I dare not say of myself, as Jesus did of Himself in today’s Gospel, “there is something greater than Jonah here”, I cannot excuse myself from going right to the heart of the matter and giving you Jesus in the splendor of the fullness of His Gospel. To my brother bishops, priests and deacons, I say: Sweat it out, preachers! Give the people only the best! The salvation of your listeners depends upon you preaching the Gospel of Repentance.

Today’s liturgy presents us, one and all, with a double challenge. The primary one is that we be attentive, that we listen, and that we allow God’s Word to find a home in our hearts. It is not that we hear and keep the Word as if buried or smothered within us, but that we respond to that word in us by really changing and thereby letting God’s Word shine forth for others to see and appreciate. The classic example of what we are called to do will always be provided by St. Anthony the Great, St. Anthony the Hermit, who as a young man on hearing the words of the Gospel on a Sunday, “go and sell all you have and give to the poor” did just that. He took God’s Word at face value and changed. So must we! So must we!

The other side of the coin is this: each and every one of us, not just the priest or the deacon from the pulpit, must preach; we must be prophets like Jonah. This is not to say we must be preachy preachers or pretentious prophets. Let me understate the case a bit and say our duty is simply not to withhold the Word. We cannot remain dumb or silent about sharing the reason for our hope. The wisdom from on high which is ours, we dare not withhold first and foremost from our loved ones, family and friends. Although we may freely leave the high-profile preaching to the professionals, we dare not keep Jesus to ourselves.

You would think I was saying the obvious, wouldn’t you? Why then are there so many lost souls around today chasing after New Age or motivational speakers? Even more worrisome for me, I cannot figure out why children today grow up so ignorant of the faith. Don’t people have a crucifix and a picture of the Blessed Mother in their homes? Don’t mommies today, walking a crying baby or trying to settle an infant in arms, ever take them up close to look at Jesus on the Cross? When they go to church during the Christmas season don’t they have that small child visit Baby Jesus in the Crib? I have fond memories of my Dad holding younger brothers and sisters still babies and taking them by the right hand, helping them make a Sign of the Cross which always ended with a tickle. Is Jesus, the One greater than Jonah born for us and for us given, present as a loving member of our families today, or is the Word being withheld?
Jonah tried to escape his responsibilities as a prophet and God went to extraordinary lengths to bring him back and put him to work for love of Nineveh and for love of Jonah. You might say that Jonah was drug kicking and screaming to his prophetic mission. And just as Jonah was a sign for the Ninevites so he should teach us the way to go out of ourselves for others, out of love for others.

Back to our first point ever so briefly! Open wide your hearts, St. Paul says! There is indeed something greater than Jonah here. On Judgment Day we want you on the same side of the great divide as the Queen of the South and the Ninevites. Don’t risk condemnation through dullness or distraction, as if someone owed you more of a sign than the Word itself which gives life. Change! Change! Which of your many faults are you working on this Lent?

One of the private jokes I shared with the Nuncio I served the longest in Germany had to do with an evening with priests where we as guests were offered a choice between a local white wine and a classic French red wine. As guests in a strange place we accepted the local white, all the local priests around the table took the French wine except for two who seemed to feel obliged to keep us company. After a very solemn toast the two tasted the local white, nodded profoundly and announced together that it had character. It was horrible. Thereafter the Nuncio and I could always joke about things with character as being horrible or worthless. Some people kid themselves into believing that their unruliness or stubbornness is a sign of character. Such signs of character would have led Nineveh to ruin and a headstrong or stubborn Queen of the South would have stayed home in her ignorance and be lost as well.

There is something greater than Jonah here. Change! Let everyone know the reason for your hope!

Turn and be Saved!

1^st Sunday in Lent – 1 March 2009

“The Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness and he remained there for forty days, and was tempted by Satan. He was with the wild beasts, and the angels looked after him.

After John had been arrested, Jesus went into Galilee. There he proclaimed the Good News from God. ‘The time has come’ he said ‘and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News’.” (Mark 1: 12-15)

I’ve been trying to sort out for me the impact on this brief passage from Mark’s Gospel assigned for this Sunday, referring to Jesus’ temptation in the desert and His call to repentance announced from Galilee, of the discussion of God’s Covenant with Noah in the sign of the rainbow, from the first and second readings of this First Sunday in Lent - Cycle B. Normally in the liturgy of the First Sunday in Lent the account of the Temptation of Christ in the desert dominates, but when Mark’s Gospel is read it would seem the stress must lie elsewhere. St. Peter draws the two (rainbow covenant and Christ’s redemptive act) together and emphasizes that the real tragedy of the flood in Noah’s time was what people lost through their refusal of God. He binds this tragedy to the general loss of the life of grace of every day and time through refusal to repent. Physical death is not so much the tragedy; spiritual death through sin is.

Through divine revelation the rainbow, thanks be to God, reaches beyond Noah and into every day and time and teaches us about God’s will for humanity. Reassured by this beautiful sign in the sky, our primordial fear of storms subsides and God’s love for His people is affirmed. A watery death and the wood of the Cross are our passage in the sacrament of Baptism to everlasting life with God in Christ, who “innocent though he was, died once for sins, died for the guilty, to lead us to God.”

The proper preface for the First Sunday focuses on Christ’s Temptation and Fast: “His fast of forty days makes this a holy season of self-denial. By rejecting the devil’s temptations he has taught us to rid ourselves of the hidden corruption of evil, and so to share his paschal meal in purity of heart, until we come to its fulfillment in the promised land of heaven.” The message is clear and loses nothing when confronted with Mark’s Gospel, but the accent does change. In Cycle B you might say that the Church’s liturgy leaves no doubt that this is God’s wonderful work in Christ and it is our choice to hear Him and respond.

Repentance, what is it? Lent teaches that it is that effort on the part of the baptized, through fasting and penance after the example of Christ’s forty days, to rid ourselves of the hidden corruption of evil. We wish to share His paschal meal in purity of heart and thereby enter the forecourt of heaven to enjoy the foretaste and promise of the world to come.

I remember the lovely old wood-carved confessionals of my childhood with Christ seated on the rainbow in judgment above the priest’s door to the confessional. Obviously Father sat there in the place of Christ: he sat and continues to sit today in the sacrament of Penance in the place of Christ the Judge. For some reason or other, on this First Sunday in Lent, I cannot put out of my mind the rainbow upon which the Judge is seated: the sign of God’s Covenant with Noah. God’s will is not that the sinner be lost, but that he turn and be saved. Christ’s Judgment is unto life everlasting and our plea for forgiveness is to the One who will save us from the abyss.

The hustle and bustle of life far from the land and from the rhythms of nature makes the appearance of a rainbow a rarity. In our man-made fortresses we probably don’t fear storms or floods much anymore either. Nonetheless, the signs have been interpreted for us and the next time we catch a glimpse of a rainbow let us recall the promise not do destroy and the invitation to choose life in Christ. Let it be just one more invitation to the Sacrament of Penance as well: the avenue par excellence open to us to turn to the Lord and find life and light in Him.

Quo vadis, Domine?

A layman’s commentary on the Holy Father’s instruction to the bishops of Nigeria at the completion of their ad Limina visits the other day really caught my attention. Although everything Pope Benedict XVI said to the assembled bishops had its weight and certain importance, my man couldn’t have been more incisive in his choice of extracts from the Pope’s message. This is the section he quoted:

“From your reports I see that you are well aware of the basic steps involved (…in order to facilitate the necessary deepening of the faith of your people): teaching the art of prayer, encouraging participation in the liturgy and the sacraments, wise and relevant preaching, catechetical instruction, and spiritual and moral guidance. From this foundation faith flourishes in Christian virtue, and gives rise to vibrant parishes and generous service to the wider community. You yourselves, together with your priests must lead by humility, detachment from worldly ambitions, prayer, obedience to the will of God, and transparency in governance. In this way you become a sign of Christ the Good Shepherd.”

What the Holy Father says is basic and it’s all out there (this information); you know this (it’s not something you do not already know). To say, well there it is again, however, is to say much too little. If it were all that obvious and automatic, the faith would be flourishing everywhere wouldn’t it? Maybe each of us, in a manner proper to our station in life, especially those of us whose lives are intimately bound up with youth (bishops, priests, and parents), need to do an examination of conscience:

1. Have I, do I know how to teach my children the art of prayer? What have I done especially to help young parents, who may not be all that great yet at praying themselves, to teach their children the art of prayer?

2. Have I, by my good example, given my children all the evidence they need of the centrality of Sunday Mass in my life and my profound wish that they too discover the “pearl of great price”? Regular celebration of the Sacrament of Penance is more than Christmas and Easter: is my witness clear to my children? As a priest, do I celebrate Holy Mass and the Sacraments with true devotion such that they can recognize Christ in me? Is our parish church sacred space? When was the last time and with what regularity do I invite my people to come and confess their sins? Do I make myself conveniently available for confession in church?

3. “Wise and relevant preaching” involves my person, my pondering, and my reflection on the Word for me and for them: do I speak from the heart and with wisdom (Deo volente ex animo)?

4. How many older people today are still living and living well from what they absorbed like little sponges from the catechism of their childhood and youth? Can we offer our children anything less than the same true nourishment for their path through life?

5. Scripture and the Fathers of the Church are filled with scathing condemnations for the watch dogs who do not bark: have I done all I can like St. John Maria Vianney to keep my people on the straight and narrow? Without harping and ranting do I tell my children what is right and wrong?

Granted, the “good old days” were spared many of the electronic stimuli which actually serve more to dumb us down and deprive us of interpersonal relationships and the clarity of silence unpolluted by background noise, but even when confronted by another’s ear buds virtue and ideals still have their attraction. If you have something other than chatter to offer, you might see first one ear free and then the other. The challenge of leading others to Christ to day, just as in the past, depends upon my embracing Christ. If I live the faith to the full, the word will get out and others will benefit.

What is the hope? “Vibrant parishes” would certainly be a great start, but praying people, like Juan Diego, Bernadette, and the three little children of Fatima, like Pier Giorgio Frassati and countless others have done more. They have confounded our world and opened windows to God for people who have only heard tell of their prayer, their love for Jesus in the Eucharist, their hunger for His Word, the personal sacrifices they took on out of love for Our Lord and in intimacy with His Blessed Mother. Praying people, attentive to God’s presence in our midst, are what we hope for: they can offer something of lasting value to their neighbor. They pass too like the flower of the field you might retort. No matter! Let me choose that sort of flower for my joy and edification rather than those born of false pride. Vanity’s beauty is flawed at best; it is no beauty at all when compared with that of the children of God’s Reign. Give me thought; give me informed faith; give me the fullness of the Creed as lived out within the community of the Catholic Church.

The hectic must give place to the true, the good and the beautiful. There’s nothing here today and gone tomorrow about plumbing the depths of the love which is ours in Christ. Our children deserve only the best, you say? That they do!

With Mary, Looking on the Face of Christ

Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God

Vigil Mass, 31 December 2008

Numbers 6:22-27

Galatians 4:4-7

Luke 2:16-21

 

            The Octave Day of Christmas, this special feast in honor of Mary, Jesus’ Mother, celebrated eight days after His birth, on the day He received His Name and was bound to the Covenant through circumcision, this day which in modern times has been celebrated by the Catholic Church as the World Day of Prayer for Peace, finds us once again teeter-tottering on the brink of a New Year, 2009. As believing people we gather tonight to sing “Thank you, God!” for all that has been in 2008 and “Please, God!” make 2009 even better! Our lives and our world are indeed in His Hands.

            The Holy Father closes his message for tomorrow’s World Day of Prayer for Peace with these beautiful words addressed to people everywhere, Catholic and non alike: “At the start of the New Year, then, I extend to every disciple of Christ and to every person of good will a warm invitation to expand their hearts to meet the needs of the poor and to take whatever practical steps are possible in order to help them. The truth of the axiom cannot be refuted: ‘to fight poverty is to build peace.’”

            Earlier in his message, Pope Benedict mentions a series of points that have to be addressed in fighting poverty. Among them is child poverty, which is, I think, an appropriate topic to address on the Octave of Jesus’ birth. The Holy Father writes: “When the family is weakened, it is inevitably children who suffer. If the dignity of women and mothers is not protected, it is the children who are affected most.” What to do? Besides finding ways to serve the most vulnerable in our midst, maybe we need to remind ourselves once again of who we are, where we come from, and what is most important in our lives as Catholics.

Poor Mary and Joseph, Joseph especially, must have been aghast, almost desperate, at having to bring Jesus into this world in a stable. Jesus came to us as the poorest of the poor. Lots of Nativity art work shows poor Joseph sitting there, holding his head, struggling to figure this all out: the mystery of God come to birth as a man and here in this humble stable. And yet… the stable at Bethlehem was a point of light which drew the visit that night of the shepherds alerted to this blessed event by the angel of the Lord. We heard about it this evening in Luke’s Gospel: “As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen; it was exactly as they had been told.”

            Why did God, in the fullness of time – at the high point in His work of salvation, why did He expose His Only Begotten Son to dire poverty? How do we make sense of the challenge all of this must have represented to the Mother of our Lord? Why was Jesus born in a stable? Well, simply explained, knowing us as He does God could settle for no less than this high price. God’s sacrifice to restore mankind to Himself and God to mankind was total: the Father did not spare His only Son, but delivered Him up for the sake of all of us. It was a true sacrifice – from end to end: from the cradle to the grave, as they say, and of course in victory beyond the grave for Jesus and for us in the glory of the Resurrection.

            I saw an advertisement on TV for a new reality show, which is supposed to be starting in the New Year (no doubt to replace some show which flopped in the first part of the television season). My bet is that this new one will flop too; at least you’ll never find me watching it. At any rate, it’s another one of those TV programs where the contestants compete for weeks on end to become somebody’s best friend and thereby share his life of liming and carefree partying. I’m sorry, but why would anyone want to do that? It’s just too little to get excited about! Moreover, it all seems terribly unreal and leads me to believe that my dictionary must be out of date, because in mine I can’t find a definition for this grand old word “reality” to fit this sort of folly. Even if I bought a new dictionary that provided a new definition of “reality”, I’m sorry, I wouldn’t accept what the movie and television industry is trying to sell me. It’s simply wrong and way too shallow to waste one’s time on. Ultimately, if that were the only tradeoff for poverty, I would think you would be better off poor and in a stable.

Channel-surf all you want and Google-search until you drop, my bet is that you will never find anything bigger or better than what “Mary… treasured … and pondered … in her heart”: life with Jesus, True God and True Man. Not only was her life reality, but the Blessed Mother looked God in the face at Bethlehem, held Him in her arms, fed Him, kissed Him and tucked Him in to sleep when His tiny eyelids got heavy; she watched Him grow; she pondered the mystery of her Son for thirty years and more.

            Recently, I read one of those silly little filler stories newspapers buy to make copy. It was about some movie star who insisted on doing himself a bungee-jump in an upcoming film, instead of leaving it to the stuntman. He classified the experience as “one-time” and “life-changing”. The only drawback, he said, was that now he’s having recurring nightmares about dying. Bungee-jumping the ultimate? Guess again! No matter how intense and exciting the here and now may be, to set your heart on this side of the grave (eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die) is too little for a full life. “In death”, as the preface for the funeral Mass goes, “life is changed, not ended”.

On her feast, let us look to Mary and the love with which she bore and brought to birth the Promised One. In the course of Jesus’ relatively short but intense lifetime, Mary shared first His little joys, and later His great sufferings and His victory. We need only look to Mary and understand that in her the Church is prefigured in all its glory, as are we the various parts of that great body. Mary participates in God’s work of reconciling the world to Himself through His Son and we can too, born again through water and the Holy Spirit, if we so choose and as Saint Paul says, make up in our lives through personal sacrifice for what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the salvation of the world. It does not get any better. That is reality, far more than an unforgettable bungee-jump or an everlasting lime. Would that we were eager above all else to live as Mary did! Poor, yes, but not spiritually impoverished!

            The newspapers and the yearend reports of radio and TV ask despairingly again and again about the whereabouts of peace: too many killings, too much violence! … Why despair? Granted, the battle for peace will not be absolutely won until the end of time. Meantime, if we make life easier for mothers and their babies, if we give children a chance to grow healthy, strong and loved, if we give a joyful answer to all who ask about our concern for the needs of the less fortunate and thereby better illustrate the reason for our hope in everlasting life, we might be able to help others to wonder at those things which Mary pondered with such profit in her heart.

            Strive in 2009 not only to be worthy of your inheritance, as St. Paul would say, heirs in God and heirs with Christ, but strive to be eager to receive the blessing, the only blessing which is really real (far beyond a constant search for entertainment, beyond health, good looks and money), receive the blessing which God instructed Moses to teach to his brother Aaron, the high priest, and which Mary in her life knew in its fullness: “May the Lord uncover his face to you and bring you peace”. Strive in 2009, as Mary did in her day, to ponder the mystery of the Incarnation (God become Man) and through your understanding and faith help to bring Christ to a waiting world.

            The Blessed Virgin Mary had a life in this world worth more than many a Magnificat and now she sits with her Son on His Throne in glory. Material poverty and disadvantage in this world must be fought, fought with a loving and expanded heart.

Who is poor, really? Poor indeed is the child who does not know the stable at Bethlehem and its Light. Poor indeed is the person of any age who thinks reality lies elsewhere but in the manger.

 

A Humble Heart You Will Not Spurn

Christmas Night - 2008 - Rosary Monastery

 

            The first verses in one of the Advent responsorials (taken from Psalm 25 and Zechariah 7:9) goes to the heart of that essential exchange between us and God. It goes like this:

            “The Lord leads the humble to justice; he teaches the meek his ways.

-Mercy and truth are the Lord’s ways, his witness to all who seek him.”

When we speak about Christ’s birth in a stable at Bethlehem, we’re used to speaking about His (namely Jesus’) humility, that the Almighty and Eternal God emptied Himself to come among us as a man, and a poor man at that. This notion is key, but it is no less essential for us to recognize that the other side of that coin is the importance of our own humility as we go to meet the Lord Who comes, as we make our way to the stable in Bethlehem. If we want to know the Lord’s ways, if we want to be His children above all else, then we have to be humble.

            “The Lord leads the humble to justice; he teaches the meek his ways.

-Mercy and truth are the Lord’s ways, his witness to all who seek him.”

The author of the spiritual classic, The Imitation of Christ, offers us a powerful insight into this virtue (humility) not only in terms of how it can help us to appreciate the great mystery of Christmas but for how essential being humble is to living in God’s love the whole year through:

            “God protects and frees a humble man; he loves and consoles a humble man; he favors a humble man; he showers him with graces; then, after his suffering, God raises him up to glory. He reveals his secrets to a humble man and in his kindness invitingly draws that man to himself. When a humble man is brought to confusion, he experiences peace, because he stands firm in God and not in this world. Do not think that you have made any progress unless you feel that you are the lowest of all men.”

            “He reveals his secrets to a humble man…” The shepherds outside of Bethlehem on this holy night were certainly humble from a social standpoint. If they hadn’t been, the angel might not have spoken to them or if he had, they might not have heard his voice. It’s not that the shepherds had cultivated a life of prayer which opened them up to this experience, but rather that they were men without pretense, men who had no demands or expectations they could put on anyone else. That is what made them the most eligible to receive a visit from the angel of the Lord later to be joined by the heavenly host. On this night the shepherds really got a shock; you might say they must have had the original or the biggest “Hey, you! Who? Me?” experience of all time as the angel of the Lord spoke to them and they recognized who it was who was speaking to them.

            “In the countryside close by there were shepherds who lived in the fields and took it in turns to watch their flocks during the night. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them. They were terrified…”

            Singled out they were, those shepherds, to receive a one time and for all times message: “Do not be afraid. Listen, I bring you news of great joy, a joy to be shared by the whole people. Today in the town of David a savior has been born to you, he is Christ the Lord.”

            Many times it seems as though the world has changed so much that I’d be afraid to presume a child of today has the same perception of things around him as I did as a child. Most of us as children would have been innocent to the plight of those shepherds and most pleased to receive a visit from the angel of the Lord. We were affirmed and loved enough perhaps that the angel’s appearing would have been awe-inspiring, yes, but no great shock should we have been singled out by God to hear first the glad tidings of great joy. Our home environment may not have been perfect, but thanks to our Baptism and life within the community of the Church, we certainly lived in God’s Universe and had every reason to believe that an angel might just come calling with some renewed expression of God’s love for us, His dear children.

            I’d like to believe that’s how children today as well perceive the account from Luke’s Gospel of the birth of the savior and the announcement in the night to the shepherds of this most blessed of all events in history. It came, however, as a real shock for the shepherds and a real fright: they were on the fringe of society, nobodies so to speak, who were not accustomed to being spoken to by the better half of society let alone by heavenly emissaries. These coarse, most likely totally unschooled men and boys, disregarded by everyone but perhaps the dogs who helped them watch the sheep, were on this night caught up in something cosmic: “And suddenly with the angel there was a great throng of the heavenly host, praising God and singing: ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace to men who enjoy his favor’.”

            St. Paul tells Titus and us in tonight’s Second Reading: “God’s grace has been revealed, and it has made salvation possible for the whole human race… our great God and savior Christ Jesus… He sacrificed himself for us in order to set us free from all wickedness and to purify a people so that it could be his very own and would have no ambition except to do good.” We can always speculate on why the angel of the Lord was sent to the shepherds and why they were singled out for the shock of being the first outside of the Holy Family to know of God’s love for his people expressed in such an extraordinary way. The point is that they the shepherds were chosen; no doubt God chose them as the humblest of all the people in that area; they the least of God’s people were singled out to hear the message of an angel. “No ambition except to do good” St. Paul says: maybe you have to be down and out like a shepherd to be able to set your hopes on God in that radical kind of way: “No ambition except to do good”.

What about the better half of society? Why exclude the wealthy, the powerful, and the successful from this type of exchange? In point of fact, we do not want to exclude anyone, but we do want to look reality straight in the face. By way of illustration, let us look for a moment at the present world economic crisis, which has saddened Christmas for so many this year and has uncovered numerous crimes of greed and deception such as the case of fraud attributed recently to a once very wealthy and successful businessman who seems to have cheated investors out of (some say) as much as US$ 50 billion – that’s more money than all of us together if we worked hard for weeks could ever throw away or burn. I don’t know, let us just say that perhaps wealth and glamour distract too much. Maybe only the lowest on the totem pole can hear angels sing!

            We do not want to exclude the possibility of a “Hey, you! Who? Me?” experience for anyone. The prophet Isaiah in the First Reading speaks about “the jealous love of the Lord of hosts”. How do you get your mind around the depth of God’s love for us, each and every one of us regardless of who we are, Love shining forth from the cave at Bethlehem unless you label His love “jealous”? There is nonetheless the question of whether I, to the extent that I am comfortable in this world, I even really care about God’s love for me. It seems to be true that people’s heads are turned by “baubles, bangles, and beads” (sportscars, Blackberries, and bling – you fill in the blanks). Being terribly vain or really comfortable in this world would seem to put a damper on one’s yearning for heaven. Being of this world, being worldly, seems to be an inoculation or immunization against the things of the world to come, heaven.

But we cannot lose hope! As vain as a child or youth can be, vanity (no matter how old we might be) does not totally exclude the possibility of our loving God taking that heart of ours by surprise with a “Hey, you! Who? Me?” Hence the logic of speaking about: “the jealous love of the Lord of hosts”! I suppose God can touch a person’s heart, speak to a person anywhere, maybe even in a nightclub or at Uncle Scrooge’s accounting desk. When you think about it, more often than not God has sent his angel to people who are to be found most anywhere but between the altar and the sanctuary. Just look at our shepherds! They were almost too humble for religion, you might say. They may not even have been presented in the Temple as children, let alone brought back there for the feast of Passover each year. No, “the jealous love of the Lord of hosts” can take us by surprise, rich and poor alike, most anywhere. Nonetheless, if you live without pretense the odds are better in your favor.

By the same token, I assure you that if you are a regular practicing Catholic, a man, woman or child, who not only goes to Mass every Sunday, but confesses his or her sins regularly, says his or her morning offering, bedtime prayers and grace before meals, that is, if you, as we said before, live in God’s Universe, then your chances are even better. Moreover, I want to share with you an ever stronger longing on my part not only for beautiful liturgy, for sacred worship, but also for maintaining our churches as sacred spaces, as quiet beautiful places of prayer, as room consecrated to God and open for people to come in and visit Him. St. Edith Stein said that what moved her to want to be Catholic was stopping in to look at a Catholic Church (I think it was in downtown Speyer, Germany) on a work day just as a lady coming from the market stopped in to make a visit to the Blessed Sacrament. All the objections of this young woman agnostic and all her sophistication melted away in a moment as she watched this woman set down her groceries and kneel for a moment of quiet prayer. Edith had her sign, all of a sudden, just like the shepherds had in the baby they found in the manger.

            Although they are only excuses, how is it possible for people to withdraw themselves from worshipping at Mass every Sunday except by ignoring or denying that in the Catholic Church they have been granted entrance to the forecourt of heaven? I’m not talking fireworks and pageantry, but an experience tailored to the likes of those humble shepherds: “And here is a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger”. The Mass is not a gilded or otherwise jewel-encrusted affair, it is not a show or a major production, but as the old farmer told his pastor when the priest asked him what he prayed about in church he said: it’s simply that “I look at him and he looks at me”; it is about presence. Israel had a sense of God’s presence as it wandered through the desert for 40 years; Judah had a sense of God’s presence in His holy Temple in Jerusalem. We’ve got the baby! We’ve got the child, the youth, the man: God, Jesus, one like us in all things but sin, present in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar!

            Rejoice, rejoice, and rejoice at Christmas! Be an angel, if you can, to someone else this Christmas and give to him or to her the only sign they need to understand “the jealous love of the Lord of hosts”. Were those shepherds pious souls? Did they pray? I doubt it. Their world certainly would never have had room for something as stiff-necked as atheism, but by the same token, as I mentioned before, I doubt if they could have imagined a visit from the angel of the Lord. I hope and pray this Christmas that everyone in your family circle, your circle of friends, would be open to the angel’s message and open to an encounter with God in the Person of Jesus, born of Mary the Virgin, born for us at Bethlehem and for us given. We pray that people will get back to basics; we pray that a baby can be a sign for somebody today; we pray for the best of all gifts at Christmas for one and all: a humble heart.