The Sixth Day in the Octave of Christmas
1 John 2:12-17  +  Luke 2:36-40
December 30, 2019

   Do not love the world or the things of the world.   

Throughout the weekdays of Christmas, our First Reading is taken from the First Letter of Saint John.  In one sense, it can seem in listening to the letters of John that he treats of a very few number of themes, repeating them over and over.  However, these themes—love, light, and life—are repeated and are simple because God is simple.

As best as history can tell us, St. John wrote his letters in his old age.  Remember that he was the only one of the Apostles (excepting Judas, of course) not to be martyred.  As so many older persons do, with advancing age John realized the simplicity of the Gospel.  Advanced age allows one to see that so many of the things we believe are important when younger are shadows and illusions.

In today’s First Reading addresses children, fathers, young men:  to all of them as something of a patriarch, as the last remaining Apostle of Jesus.  He’s speaking simply and bluntly about priorities, and in the midst of his teaching he warns them about “the world”.  If St. John speaks simply about God, he also speaks simply—if not as often—about “the world” as the alternative to God.  We as children of God can live for God, or for the world, but not for both.  In our modern world where we tell ourselves that it’s possible to “have it all”, we need St. John’s message of simplicity:  we cannot have both God and the world.

 

The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary & Joseph [A]
Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14  +  Colossians 3:12-21  +  Matthew 2:13-15,19-23
December 29, 2019

He rose, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel.

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click HERE to read the homily of Monsignor Charles Pope for this Sunday

click HERE to watch the homily from the Cathedral of Phoenix, Ariz. for this Sunday (9:44)

click HERE to read the homily of John Cardinal O’Connor for this Sunday

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click HERE to read Pope Francis’ 2013 Angelus address for this Sunday

click HERE to read Pope Emeritus Benedict’s 2010 Angelus address for this Sunday

click HERE to read St. John Paul II’s 2001 Angelus address for this Sunday

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On this Sunday after the feast of the Lord’s Birth, the Church celebrates the feast of the Holy Family.  Throughout all of Christmastide, God calls Christians to reflect upon the Gift of the Child Jesus.  Yet today’s feast has a specific focus.  This focus helps us by considering how Mary and Joseph responded to the child Jesus.

When we reflect upon God the Father’s Gift of His only-begotten Son, we realize that it is not an “unrestricted gift”, as a charitable organization might put it.  When God the Father gave the Gift of His Son to mankind, He did so with a special intention.  If we don’t honor God the Father’s intention when we accept the Gift of Jesus, we are rejecting the Gift as given, and being dishonest with God the Father.

Mary and Joseph had certainly not accepted God the Father’s Gift dishonestly.  Nonetheless, it did take time for God the Father’s intention to dawn fully upon them.  From the beginning, they understood that this child was a gift conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.  This child was to be called “Son of the Most High”.  But why had God the Father sent Him to earth?

Every parent wonders and worries about the future of each of their children.  But every child, as a gift from God, comes with an intention that God has for each child.  God has an intention in mind, not just from the moment a child is conceived, but from all eternity.  God’s ultimate intention is for each child to reach Heaven.  Yet that’s much less likely to happen without the cooperation of parents.

Yet parents face a daunting challenge:  in all things to align their human wills with the providential will of God the Father.  In this Sunday’s Gospel Reading, God the Father calls Mary and Joseph to great self-sacrifice.  They leave behind family and homeland, not knowing how long they might dwell in a foreign land.  Only after a second dream may they return to their homeland of Israel, settling in Nazareth.

In this regard, St. Matthew the Evangelist quotes one of the Old Testament prophets.  He quotes only the second half of Hosea 11:1 in order to give context to the Holy Family’s return from Egypt.  But the entire verse offers even more context:  “When Israel was a child I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son.”

This verse is a clear allusion to Israel’s Exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land.  Yet two persons in the Gospel Reading play roles connected to this allusion.  The first is the foster-father of Jesus, whose actions in the Gospel Reading mirror the Old Testament patriarch Joseph, whose journey to Egypt under compulsion led many years later to the Exodus.

The second is Jesus Himself.  In the light of Hosea 11:1, Jesus is a mirror of the Old Testament patriarch Israel, and so also of the people who bore Israel’s name.  It was for Israel that the land that was the goal of the Exodus was named.  But Jesus’ earthly vocation was to involve an Exodus that transcends earth.

Jesus’ words when His mother and foster-father found Him in the Temple echoed in the hearts of Mary and Joseph.  “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s House?”  They echoed because their meaning wasn’t limited to that one occasion when Jesus was twelve years old.  Those words of Jesus echoed in Mary’s heart, mind and soul throughout His public ministry, and especially as she followed her Son up the hill of Calvary.

When Jesus was twelve years old, the words “my Father’s House” specifically meant the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, where Mary and Joseph found Him.  But Mary and Joseph began to see that those words also had a second, deeper meaning.  “My Father’s House” is the Promised Land of Heaven.  That’s why Jesus was born, and that’s what this Christmas Season is about.  Jesus was born in Bethlehem in order to die on Calvary, so to open the gates of Heaven.  The gifts of the human family and the Holy Family help us make our way there.

The Holy Innocents, Martyrs
1 John 1:5—2:2  +  Matthew 2:13-18
December 28, 2019

   Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet….   

As did the feast of St. Stephen the Proto-Martyr, today’s feast on the fourth day in the Christmas Octave points our attention to the way in which birth and death are intertwined.  Birth and death are not just ends of an earthly spectrum.  The link between them is more profound than that.

Of course, today’s feast commemorates not the experience of natural death, or even the death of martyrs who chose to offer themselves in witness to Christ.  The horror at the heart of today’s feast—the slaughter of untold innocent infants by a king—stands as a stark contrast to the joy of the Nativity.

Nonetheless, King Herod in his rage and fear takes seriously the threat that the newborn king poses to his earthly power, even if he doesn’t understand the purpose of this infant’s birth into this world.  Certainly the reign of Christ the King will put an end to the thrones of all earthly powers.  But Christ is the King of Kings.  Unlike Herod, Christ seeks to destroy no one, but to give life to everyone, and to give it to the full.  Even for those who seek the end of His earthly life, Christ reigns to give them unending life in Heaven.

St. John, Apostle & Evangelist
1 John 1:1-4  +  John 20:1,2-8
December 27, 2019

… what we have seen and heard we proclaim now to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us ….

“God is love.”  There’s hardly a less controversial statement in modern Western culture than this one.  But if you were to press people as to the implications of this simple statement, you’d quickly see a divergence from the scriptural profession of belief that God is, in His very Three-Personed nature, self-sacrifical love.

It is St. John the Evangelist, whose feast the Church celebrates on this third day of the Octave of Christmas, who tells us that “God is love” [1 John 4:8].  But St. John—often called “the Beloved Disciple”—also unpacks that simple statement throughout his three epistles and his Gospel account.  We might say that these four books of the New Testament are a primer in the nature of divine love.

My favorite single verse of Sacred Scripture is from St. John’s first letter:  “In this is love:  not that we have loved God, but that He has loved us, and offered His Son as an expiation for our sins” [1 John 4:10].  The life of St. John the Evangelist bears witness to this truth.

The Beloved Disciple was, of course, the only one of the twelve Apostles to remain with Jesus during His Passion and death.  Perhaps owing to this fidelity, he was the only one of the Apostles (excepting Judas Iscariot, of course) who was not martyred.  Perhaps also owing to his fidelity to the Crucifixion of Love in the Flesh, it was to John that Jesus entrusted His Blessed Mother.  All this illustrates why St. John the Evangelist is called “the Beloved Disciple”, and illustrates the model of discipleship he sets for us.

St. Stephen, The First Martyr
Acts 6:8-10;7:54-59  +  Matthew 10:17-22
December 26, 2019

   Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.   

Today’s feast is similar to the feast of the Holy Innocents, whom we’ll honor in the Sacred Liturgy in two days.  To some, the celebration of these martyrs within just days of celebrating the birth of the tiny God-man might seem inapt, if not downright macabre.  In truth, the Sacred Liturgy is focusing our attention on the integrity of our Faith.

After all, today’s First Reading—relating to us the martyrdom of Stephen—is set not long after the birth of the Church at Pentecost.  St. Stephen, we might say, is the “first fruits” of Pentecost.

“Jesus was born into this world only in order to teach us how to die to this world.”  St. Stephen’s faith-filled martyrdom focuses our attention on this truth.  Each of us in our turn must accept death, by means of the spiritual practice of mortification, as a way of life.

The Nativity of the Lord
Scriptures for the Four Masses:
Vigil Mass:  Isaiah 62:1-5  + Acts 13:16-17,22-25  +  Matthew 1:1-25
Mass during the Night:  Isaiah 9:1-6  +  Titus 2:11-14  +  Luke 2:1-14
Mass at Dawn:  Isaiah 62:11-12  +  Titus 3:4-7  +  Luke 2:15-20
Mass during the Day:  Isaiah 52:7-10  +  Hebrews 1:1-6  +  John 1:1-18

And the Word became flesh / and made his dwelling among us, / and we saw his glory ….

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references to the Catechism of the Catholic Church cited for this Sunday by the Vatican’s Homiletic Directory:

CCC 456-460, 466: “Why did the Word become flesh?”
CCC 461-463, 470-478: the Incarnation
CCC 437, 525-526: the Christmas mystery
CCC 439, 496, 559, 2616: Jesus is the Son of David
CCC 65, 102: God has said everything in his Word
CCC 333: the incarnate Christ worshipped by the angels
CCC 1159-1162, 2131, 2502: the Incarnation and images of Christ

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When we live for so many years as Christians, we can become numb to just how strange an idea Christmas is:  two thousand years ago, the God who created the heavens and the earth was born as a human being.  We might appreciate this mystery better if we described Christmas as a celebration of love being born as a human being.

Love is something that all of us want in our lives, and all of us pursue love throughout our lives.  The difficulty with love is that so many people define love in so many different ways.

Often when we try to offer love to others, we find ourselves at cross-purposes.  Love, for many, is an idea that we have in our minds.  Unfortunately, it often doesn’t serve as the anchor of what we say and do.

God, however, is always straightforward in what He says and does.  On this Christmas Day, He proclaims to the world, “A child is born in your midst, and He is My Son.”  To Mary and Joseph, God entrusted Love incarnate in a manner that they could see, hear, and hold in their arms.  It was the vocation of Mary and Joseph to care for this treasure as He grew up in Nazareth.

It was the vocation of Mary and Joseph to care for Jesus as He drew closer to the purpose of His life on this earth:  the revelation upon Calvary of God’s love as Divine Mercy.  This is a love that is given not only to relatives and friends, but a love that is given to sinners.

“Love” is the definition of God.  St. John tells us in his first letter that “love consists in this:  not that we have loved God, but that He has loved us, and has given us His Son as an offering for our sins” [1 Jn 4:10].  The Love who is born in the flesh on Christmas Day is the Love who offers His life for us on Good Friday.

By sending His Only Son to be become one of us, God the Father is proclaiming to us our destiny.  He is revealing to each of us how much He longs for us to live forever as His adopted daughters and sons in Heaven.  The means loving others as God loves us.

While we might not usually think of Christmas this way, at Christmas God the Father is reminding us that we humans are sinners, and that we cannot live on our own.  This is the second mystery revealed by calling Jesus “Emmanuel”.  When we say that Jesus is “God with us”, we believe not only that God became an infant.  We also believe that He came for our sake, to reveal true love to us in His Divine Mercy.

He’s not only God with us:  He is God for us.

December 24 – Late Advent Weekday [Morning Mass]
II Samuel 7:1-5,8-12,14,16  +  Luke 1:67-79
December 24, 2019

   “…the dawn from on high shall break upon us….”    

This morning’s Scriptures are beautiful in their simplicity.  The Gospel passage is a prophecy.  We’re so familiar with the Benedictus from praying Lauds each day that we might forget the words by which St. Luke the Evangelist introduces this hymn:  “Zechariah his father, filled with the Holy Spirit, prophesied, saying….”

Zechariah, remember, was a priest “of the division of Abijah; and he had a wife of the daughters of Aaron” [Luke 1:5].  Zechariah and Elizabeth symbolize the priestly power of the Old Testament, and God’s transformation of it into prophecy within the New Covenant.  Zechariah the priest prophesied.

Also, Zechariah here was “filled with the Holy Spirit”.  St. Luke the Evangelist uses this phrase throughout his infancy narratives purposefully.  When the angel appears in Temple to announce to the priest Zechariah, who was burning incense, the conception of his son, the angel proclaims that “he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” [Lk 1:15].

Six months later at the Visitation, “when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry” [Lk 1:41-42].  Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit and thereby exclaims a prophecy about Mary and her Son.

Likewise, in today’s Gospel passage, the Old Covenant comes to an end.  Zechariah, “filled with the Holy Spirit”, prophesies about his new-born son, John the Baptist.  The canticle concludes with imagery of a morning, which is fitting on this morn that lies on the threshold of Christmastide:  “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.”  That way starts tomorrow morning.

December 23 – Late Advent Weekday
Malachi 3:1-4,23-24  +  Luke 1:57-66
December 23, 2019

   … he spoke blessing God.   

In these last weekdays before Christmastide, our Gospel passages focus not on the Holy Family, but on Elizabeth, Zechariah and John the Baptist.  These passages come from St. Luke’s account of the Gospel.  It’s striking how much attention Luke shows to the events surrounding the birth of John, and how many parallels to and contrasts with the stories of Jesus’ birth that Luke makes.

Today’s Gospel passage contrasts Zechariah with Joseph.  Joseph is never, in any of the four Gospel accounts, recorded as saying a single word.  But he is the “just man” whose actions speak louder than words.  Zechariah, however, is struck mute because he acts unjustly:  he does not trust in God’s Word.  Today, though, we hear Zechariah speak once again after he acts in accord with God’s Will.  He names his child “John”, his mouth is opened, and “he spoke blessing God”.

As far Luke’s Gospel account goes, this is the end of the story for Zechariah.  His vocation as John’s father continued for many years after these events, of course.  But within the narrative of the Gospel, we’ve heard Zechariah move in his life from speaking unjustly, to being struck mute, to acting justly, to blessing God.  If each of us has examined his conscience during Advent and seen in Zechariah an image of our own unjust actions, today’s Gospel portrait of Zechariah offers us hope.

The Fourth Sunday of Advent [A]
Isa 7:10-14  +  Rom 1:1-7  +  Mt 1:18-24
December 22, 2019

… behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream ….

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click HERE to watch Jeff Cavins’ reflection for this Sunday (5:19)

click HERE to read the homily of Monsignor Charles Pope for this Sunday

click HERE to watch the homily of Archbishop Charles Chaput for this Sunday (16:24)

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click HERE to read Pope Francis’ 2016 Angelus address for this Sunday

click HERE to read Pope Emeritus Benedict’s 2010 Angelus address on this Sunday

click HERE to read St. John Paul II’s 2001 Angelus address for this Sunday

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Saint Joseph has a lot to teach us, if we only watch him.  The reason we have to watch him is because in the whole of the Bible, not one word that Saint Joseph ever spoke is recorded.  He’s not just a man of few words:  according to the Gospels, he’s a man of no words.  We are never told anything that he ever said to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to the Christ Child, or even—in the case of today’s Gospel passage—to the angel that appeared to him.

Nonetheless, it is clear that his actions speak for him.  Consider what today’s Gospel passage tells us about Saint Joseph.  We are told that Joseph was a righteous man, meaning that his life was lived in conformity with the Law of the Old Covenant.  He was a man who knew a great deal of the Jewish Scriptures by heart.  It was the Law of the Old Covenant that told Joseph that he ought to divorce Mary, since to all appearances she had been unfaithful to their vows.

According to the dictates of the Old Covenant, and according to the appearances of Mary’s pregnancy, Joseph would have divorced Mary.  But through the message of Good News borne by an angel, we are told that there is far more going on in this situation that what appearances suggest.  In our own lives, each of us has a choice:  we can live in this world according to the appearances of things, or we can accept the role that Christ wants to play in our lives, and therefore live in a way that is different from others.

Consider the message that Joseph receives from the angel of the Lord.  The angel explains to Joseph that this pregnancy is not, in fact, an occasion of shame or guilt, but the work of God Himself.  The angel gives to Joseph a command from God:  Joseph is to name this child Jesus.  The most obvious consequence of this command comes from the fact that under the dictates of Jewish law, a man naming a child implied his acceptance of the child as his own: naming a child was a declaration of paternity.  The “shame” that appearances had put upon Mary now became Joseph’s, as well.

But there is obviously far more at work in this passage than the human consequences of the acceptance of a child into a man’s life.  If this were all that this Gospel passage tells us, it would have little meaning for our own lives as Christians.  Out of fidelity to the Law of God, Joseph was ready to divorce Mary.  Little did he know that it was out of fidelity to man that God had sent the Holy Spirit to Mary.  It was because of God’s faithful love for us that the strange prophecy of Isaiah was beginning to take shape:  “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel.”  Joseph’s just act was a first act in the unfolding of God’s Good News for us.

This season of Advent is a season of penance, because it is a season of asking God forgiveness for our broken promises.  Advent is a season of realizing that Jesus is indeed Emmanuel—that this Jesus is God, who is with us—even when the appearances of our lives obscure God’s presence.  We admit our sins to God—we admit our own infidelity to God—and in the midst of such a situation we realize all the more how faithful God’s love for us is.

It is as the spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary that we honor Saint Joseph.  When Matthew, at the beginning of his gospel account, introduces Joseph, he calls him “the husband of Mary.”  It is the spousal nature of Joseph’s life that mirrors in the sort of fidelity that God asks of us.  The life of Saint Joseph is one of silent fidelity to the Lord.  In him, we see that we are called to be people of faith even when appearances suggest that we should give up on others, ourselves, or even God.

Like his wife Mary, Joseph has an open ear.  He listens for the Lord to speak to him.  As we make our final spiritual preparations for the Christmas season, we should rest in the fact that the Jesus whom God invites us to receive in our lives is indeed Emmanuel:  He is God, who is with us, who is born for our salvation, and who has Good News for us to listen to.