St. John, Apostle and Evangelist
1 John 1:1-4  +  John 20:1,2-8
December 27, 2017

…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 witness to this belief that God is, in His very Three-Personed nature, self-giving love.

It is St. John the Evangelist, whose feast we celebrate on this third day of the Octave of Christmas, who tells us that “God is love.”  But he also unpacks that simple statement throughout his three letters in the New Testament, and his Gospel account.  We might say that these four books of the New Testament are a primer in both the nature of divine love, and its practice.

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.”  The life of St. John the Evangelist bears witness to this truth.  He 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”.

St. Stephen, the First Martyr
Acts 6:8-10; 7:54-59  +  Matthew 10:17-22
December 26, 2017

“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 macabre.  In fact, 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, and the spiritual practice of mortification, as a way of life.

The Nativity of the Lord―Mass during the Day
Isa 52:7-10  +  Heb 1:1-6  +  Jn 1:1-18
December 25, 2017

And the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us….

It’s telling that the Gospel passage on Christmas morning is repeated just six days later, on December 31.  This Gospel passage speaks to the beginning and end of not just our salvation, but of God’s entire work of creation.

The English author G. K. Chesterton wrote in his book The Everlasting Man that:

“Any agnostic or atheist whose childhood has known a real Christmas has ever afterwards, whether he likes it or not, an association in his mind between two ideas that most of mankind must regard as remote from each other; the idea of a baby and the idea of unknown strength that sustains the stars.  His instincts and imagination can still connect them, when his reason can no longer see the need of the connection; for him there will always be some savour of religion about the mere picture of a mother and baby; some hint of mercy and softening about the mere mention of the dreadful name of God.”

Chesterton was a master of paradox, and through paradox he insightfully explained the depth of the Christian mysteries.  Christmas and Easter are intimately related to each other:  Christ was born for us, so that He might be able to die for us.  Christ rose from the dead so that you and I might find the strength to die, so as to live forever.

The great Anglo-American poet T. S. Eliot captured this paradox in his poem titled “The Journey of the Magi”.  Towards the end of this poem one of the Three Wise Men asks, many years after the epiphany they had witnessed:  “were we led all that way for Birth or Death?  There was a birth, certainly, We had evidence and no doubt.  I had seen birth and death, But had thought they were different; this Birth was Hard and bitter Agony for us, like Death, our death.”

May this Christmas Season lead you to the gift of dying to everything in this world.

The Fourth Sunday of Advent [B]
II Sam 7:1-5,8-12,14,16  +  Rom 16:25-27  +  Lk 1:26-38
December 24, 2017

“Hail, full of grace!  The Lord is with you.”

King David seems to be a humble man.  He appears, in our First Reading, to want to set things right.  And both of these virtues—humility and justice—are at the heart of the Advent Season, modeled by John the Baptist and the Blessed Virgin Mary.  So perhaps the Church proclaims our First Reading today, on this final Sunday of Advent, to hold King David up as a model for us.  Or perhaps not.

Perhaps not, given the Lord’s response to King David.  “Settled in his palace [after] the Lord had given him rest from his enemies”, King David cries out in concern about his own dwelling being richer than the Lord’s.  In the fullness of His divinity, God dwells in Heaven, of course, but in some mysterious manner God had dwelt on earth since the time of Moses, within the Ark of the Covenant.  King David is referring to this Ark when he cries out, “Here I am living in a house of cedar, while the Ark of God dwells in a tent!”  The Lord responds with a rhetorical question that unlocks the meaning of the First Reading:  “Should you build me a house to dwell in?”

We realize that this is a rhetorical question because the rest of the Lord’s words reveal King David’s intention to be just too small.  The Lord turns David’s intention upside down.  The Lord reveals all that He is going to accomplish for His servant David:  “I will make you famous like the great ones of the earth.”  “I will give you rest from all your enemies.”  And finally, speaking of Himself in the third person:  “The Lord also reveals to you that He will establish a house for you.”  But the Lord’s ways are not man’s ways, the Lord’s house is not David’s house, and the house the Lord builds is not built according to man’s ways.  The Lord’s house is not built of cedar, brick, marble or stone, but of living stones that are far more precious.

One thousand years after David’s time, the Lord raised up David’s most important heir.  “Gabriel was sent from God… to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David”.  Gabriel hails Mary as being “full of grace”, and says to her, “the Lord is with you.”  Then Gabriel explains to Mary that the Lord God will give Mary’s son the throne of David his father, and that there will be no end to his kingdom.

But Mary responds simply with a sincere question.  She has no noble plans as does King David, but only a question for the Lord:  “How can this be?”  Gabriel answers honestly when he replies that “the Power of the Most High will overshadow you,” and that “therefore the child to be born will be… the Son of God.”  Had Mary been full of ironic skepticism like so many of us, she might well have replied, “Well thanks, Gabriel, that explains everything!”  St. Gabriel had only added mystery to mystery.  He had not, in human fashion, made clear the “How” of the Incarnation.  But he had made clear the divine “Why”:  that in the Incarnation, the Lord is fulfilling His promise to “establish a house for you.”

Mary’s response is simple.  Mary’s response is a model for your own life as a disciple of Jesus.  King David, at least in today’s First Reading, is not a model for your life.  David believes that serving God starts with David’s plans.  But Mary is different.  The two sentences that make up her response are really nothing more than an extended definition of the Hebrew word “Amen”.  Too often as believers, we add the word “Amen” to the end of a prayer mindlessly, no more thoughtfully than when, with pencil in hand, we mark a period at the end of a sentence.  But the word “Amen” is our profession that we personally accept everything that’s been said in the prayer.  The Blessed Virgin Mary, in speaking her words to St. Gabriel, models what she commends at the Wedding at Cana:  “Do whatever He tells you.”  Mary follows this counsel herself in declaring, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.  May it be done to me according to your word.”

Late Advent Weekday
Malachi 3:1-4,23-24  +  Luke 1:57-66
December 23, 2017

…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.

Late Advent Weekday
I Samuel 1:24-28  +  Luke 1:46-56
December 22, 2017

“From this day all generations will call me blessed:  the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name.”

From the day of the Visitation, all generations of Christians have called Mary “blessed”.  Unfortunately, the person of the Blessed Virgin Mary is used by some to divide members of the Body of Christ against each other.  But we cannot fruitfully reflect on the mystery of Christmas without reflecting on the person of Mary, her blessedness, her maternity, and the One who is her Lord and ours.

A 2006 movie titled “The Nativity Story” actually edited the “Magnificat” (Mary’s hymn of praise that we hear in today’s Gospel) at the end of the movie, so that Mary’s blessedness would not be mentioned.  The Word of God was muted out of fear of the Blessed Virgin Mary!  If some Christians are fearful of honoring Mary, we all have work to do as Christians.  We all need both to call Mary blessed, and to proclaim at the same time the right reasons for calling her blessed.  We don’t need to fear Mary as a “stumbling block” in the way of following Him who is the Way, Him to whom Mary was chosen by the Father to bear into our fallen world.

Late Advent Weekday
Song of Songs 2:8-14  +  Luke 1:39-45
December 21, 2017

“Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”

Today our Scriptures present responses to the coming of the Lord.  Both are worthy of our reflection and imitation, although they are very different from each other.

Our First Reading today is from the Old Testament book Song of Songs.  This book is highly poetic in nature, and as such, is open to many interpretations.  The Church sees in the words of today’s passage a loving longing for the Messiah.  It’s the loving nature of this book’s expression of waiting that sets it apart from most of the Old Testament’s waiting for the Messiah.

This book’s insight into the nature of the Messiah and His reason for coming raise it above much of the Old Testament’s desire for earthly security.  This book foreshadows the truth of God being love, proclaimed by St. John in his epistles, from which we will hear during the Christmas Season.

Today’s Gospel passage offers us Elizabeth’s response to the Messiah, borne by His Mother.  The praise that Elizabeth bestows on her cousin is woven amidst her praise of her Lord.  Three times Elizabeth uses the word “blessed” in speaking to Mary:  “‘Most blessed are you among women’”; “‘blessed is the fruit of your womb’”; and “‘Blessed are you who believed’”.  We honor Our Blessed Mother during Advent and Christmas because it was through love that her life became so closely bound up with that of Our Savior.

Late Advent Weekday
Isaiah 7:10-14  +  Luke 1:26-38
December 20, 2017

“May it be done to me according to your word.”

Of all the contrasts between Zechariah and Mary in St. Luke’s infancy narratives, the starkest is found in their responses to the good news announced to each.  What makes Mary’s response to St. Gabriel even more striking is that objectively, the message entrusted to her was much more difficult to understand from an earthly perspective.  After all, what Gabriel announced to Zechariah was news which he and his wife had been longing to hear for many years.  While the facts foretold by Gabriel were unlikely from a human standpoint, they were not impossible even by human standards, and had precedent in biblical history.

Mary, however, is unique.  Her response to the Good News is possible only through faith.  Zechariah did not even have faith in a human possibility.  Yet Mary has faith in a seeming human impossibility.  She trusts that God will accomplish what He wills, and speaks only of what He wills.  How different are you and I:  we speak not only of what we will, but also of what we desire and dream about, what piques our interest even momentarily, and even what would harm us.  Worse yet is what we so often do, which in facts harms us spiritually, bodily, emotionally and in other ways:  in fact, “personally”, in its fullest sense.

Mary is a person as God created human persons to be.  Jesus is a divine person who has both human and divine natures.  But Mary is like you and me in that she’s a human person.  She shows us what it truly means to live as a human person:  that is, to relate fully to others, and to the Other who created and redeemed us in His Son.  Mary accepts God as her Creator and Savior, and lives for Him rather than for herself.

Late Advent Weekday
Judges 13:2-7,24-25  +  Luke 1:5-25
December 19, 2017

He was gesturing to them but remained mute.

During the last eight days of Advent, which are usually called the “Late Advent weekdays”, the Gospel heard at weekday Masses shifts to the infancy narratives.  It might surprise some that not all four Gospel accounts tell us about the infancy of Jesus.  Only Matthew and Luke do.  In his prologue (John 1:1-18), John one-ups those two evangelists by accounting for the life of God the Son from all eternity in brief and brilliant poetry.  Mark begins his Gospel account (the shortest of the four) with Jesus already an adult.

On the first two Late Advent weekdays, the Church proclaims passages from the infancy narratives of Matthew.  On the last six days of this “octave”, the Gospel comes from Luke.  Key to Luke’s infancy narratives is a parallelism between John the Baptist and Jesus.  Their “annunciations” and births are described similarly.  Yet even more significant are the differences between the two sets of narrative.

Today’s Gospel passage recounts St. Gabriel’s announcement to Zechariah of the immanent conception of John.  Two differences from the Annunciation of Jesus stand out.  The first concerns the circumstances of each.  John is conceived through natural means by an elderly, “barren” woman.  Jesus is conceived through “the power of the Holy Spirit” by a young virgin.

Perhaps even more significant are the differences between the persons to whom Gabriel appears, and their responses to heavenly messenger.  Focus today on the response of Zechariah to Gabriel.  Zechariah is struck mute because of his disbelief.  This is ironic given that his son is destined to be “the voice crying out” the advent of the Word made flesh.  Pray today asking God not only that your voice might be His instrument, but also that disbelief may never prevent you from listening to another who is pointing your attention towards God.