Saturday, January 13, 2024

 OT II [B] I Sam 3:3b-10, 19; I Cor 6:13c-15a, 17-20; Jn 1:35-42

A stranger once asked a teacher, “What’s your profession?” The teacher replied, “Christian,” The stranger continued, “No, that’s not what I mean. What’s your job?” The teacher asserted, once again, “I’m a Christian!” Puzzled, the stranger clarified, “Perhaps I should ask, what do you do for a living?” The teacher replied, “Well, I’ve a full-time job as a Christian. But, to support my sick husband and children, I teach in a school.” — That teacher had certainly understood the meaning of discipleship summarised by today’s Responsorial Psalm (40): “Here I am, Lord, I come to do Your will.”  What is that God wants us to do? The characters in the Scripture reading will help us to find out.

John the Baptist recognized himself as someone called to prepare the way for the Greater one coming after him. He saw the Spirit coming down on Jesus and revealed to him that Jesus was the chosen Son of God. Far from keeping that discovery to himself, he shared it with his own disciples, even though he knew that in doing so, he was going to lose them to Jesus. He pointed two of his disciples in the direction of Jesus. A short while later, one of those two disciples, Andrew, did for his brother, Peter, what John the Baptist had done for him. He led his brother to Jesus. In the first reading, Eli did something similar for Samuel, helping him to hear God’s call. The readings this Sunday put before us three people, John the Baptist, Andrew and Eli, each of whom, in different ways, led others to the one who is the source of life. They all lived to do God’s will.

We could probably all identify a John the Baptist or an Andrew or an Eli in our own lives, people who, in some way or another, brought us to the Lord, or helped us to recognize and receive the Lord who was present to us. We might think first of our own parents who brought us to the baptismal font. As early as possible into our lives they wanted to say to us what John the Baptist said to his disciples, ‘Look, there is the lamb of God’. Then, as we began to grow, they helped us to know the Lord whose followers we had become in baptism, bringing us to the church, praying with us, reading stories from the gospels to us, taking us to see the crib at Christmas, placing an image of the Lord or of one of the saints in our room, helping us to prepare for the sacraments of the Eucharist and Confirmation. If we were fortunate, we might have had a good religion teacher at school who took us a step further in our relationship with the Lord, who enabled us to ‘come and see’, in the words of the gospel reading today.

Samuel, who was led to the Lord by Eli, is described in the first reading as a boy. However, the two disciples who were led to the Lord by John the Baptist and Peter, who was led there by Andrew, were all adults. It was as adults that they allowed themselves to be directed towards the person of Jesus. In our adult years, we too may have met people who helped us to grow in our relationship with the Lord.

At any time in our adult life we can meet a John the Baptist who says to us, ‘Look, there is the Lamb of God’, and that can happen to us over and over again, right up to the very end of our lives. The Lord never ceases to call us through others. At no point does he say, this person no longer needs a John the Baptist. There may indeed come a time when the Lord asks any one of us to be a John the Baptist or an Andrew or an Eli for somebody else. We hear the call to share our faith in some way, to open a door to the Lord for others. Our response to such a call can take many different forms. For Eli it took the very simple form of saying the right word to Samuel when it was needed.

Today is a day to give thanks for all those who introduced us to the Lord, who played the role in our lives that Eli played in the life of Samuel, that Andrew played in the life of Peter, that Peter played in the life of many others, and that, later on in John’s gospel, the Samaritan woman played in the life of her townspeople, and that Mary Magdalene played in the life of the other disciples on East Sunday morning. Both these women played a significant role in bringing others to the Lord. Each of us is called to bring others to the Lord, perhaps just one person. We don’t have to be great missionaries to introduce someone to the Lord. Very often, our own quiet and faithful witness to the Lord and his way of life will, in time, bear that rich fruit for others.

But let’s realize the fact that before bearing witness, we should know the one we are going to bear witness, to know Christ, the lamb of God. Knowing Jesus is a matter of personal and first-hand experience of Jesus, which is obtained through the meditative reading and study of the Bible, through personal and family prayers, and through the Sacraments, especially by participation in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and primarily in the Eucharistic celebration.

Once we have experienced the personal presence of Jesus in our daily lives, we will start sharing with others the Good News of the love, peace, justice, tolerance, mercy, and forgiveness that Jesus preached. May the Lord help us to have a dynamic and living experience of Jesus, which will enable us to invite and encourage people to come and participate in our Church activities.

Friday, January 5, 2024

 EPIPHANY OF THE LORD: Is 60:1-6; Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6; Mt 2:1-12 

 

The feast of the Epiphany is the celebration of the Lord’s manifestation to all peoples, represented by the Magi, who came from the East to adore the King of the Jews.  The adoration of the Magi fulfils the oracle of Isaiah in the first reading, prophesying that the nations of the world would travel to the Holy City following a brilliant light and would bring gold and incense to contribute to the worship of God.

 

In the ancient world, the appearance of a new star or a comet was often associated with the birth or death of a great ruler. According to our gospel reading, when these magi from the east noticed a new star rising, they associated it with the birth of the long-awaited King of the Jews, and so they set out in search of this child. Their fascination with the wonders of creation launched them on a spiritual journey, a pilgrimage. They left their home and set out on a long journey, guided by the new star they had seen rising. There is something of the searcher, the seeker, in each one of us. There is always some restlessness within us, a restlessness of the spirit and of the heart. Saint Augustine said that our hearts are restless until they rest in God. That spiritual restlessness often sends us forth on pilgrimages to places that have been touched by God in some special way. We leave home, if only for a few days or weeks, and we set out to a holy place where we sense we will meet the Lord or the Lord will meet us. Even if we never set out on a physical pilgrimage, like the magi, we will always be giving expression to this spiritual restlessness within us, this deep-rooted desire to come closer to God. It is this restlessness which inspires us to pray, brings us to Mass and to the sacraments.

 

As well as being aware of our searching spirit, we can also be aware of being drawn by the one for whom we search. Jesus says of himself that he came to seek out the lost. His search for us is prior to our search for him, and our search for him is ultimately in response to his search of us, his searching love. The Lord drew the magi to himself through a star. The Lord drew them to himself from within the world with which they were familiar, astrology, the world of the night sky. The Lord often draws us to himself from within the world that is familiar to us.

 

The magi came to a point on their journey when they needed more than the signs of nature to find the child whom they were seeking. When they came to Jerusalem, they had to ask, ‘Where is the infant king of the Jews?’ To make the last short step on their long journey, they needed more than the light of a star. They needed the light of the Scriptures. The chief priests and the scribes who knew the Scriptures were able to point them in the direction of Bethlehem. On our own journey towards the Lord, we too need the light of the Scriptures as well as the light of nature. The Scriptures are a fuller revelation of God than the natural world. It is in and through the Scriptures that we meet God and his Son in a special way. Through the Scriptures, God speaks to us in a privileged way. God asks us to listen to his word and to allow our lives to be shaped by what we hear. The wise men allowed themselves to be guided by the Scriptures, as well as by the star. They displayed the kind of responsiveness to God’s word to which we are all called.

 

Having been moved by the presence of God in nature and in the Scriptures, the wise men came face to face with God in the form of a child newly born to a young couple. The wise men did not worship the star; they did not even worship the Scriptures. But they did worship the child, because they recognized that here in these simple surroundings was Emmanuel, God-with-us. We too worship Emmanuel, and we do so in a special way every time we celebrate the Eucharist. The wise men expressed their worship by offering the child their precious gifts. They gave generously. We too express our own worship of the Lord in the Eucharist by offering him gifts, and the most precious gift we can offer is the gift of ourselves. In the Eucharist we are invited to give ourselves to the Lord, in response to the Lord’s giving of himself to us as bread of life. We say, ‘Here I am. I want to do your will’, in response to his saying to us, ‘This is my body. Take and eat’.

 

After worshipping the child, the wise men returned home by a different way. Their meeting with the infant king of the Jews somehow changed them. Their journey away from Bethlehem was different to their journey to Bethlehem. Our own worship of the Lord in the Eucharist will often prompt us to take a different path too. We come to the Eucharist open to being changed in some way by our meeting with the Lord. We are sent out from the Eucharist to follow the way of the Lord more closely.

The magi only came to Bethlehem once. We come to the Eucharist often. We do so because, like the magi, we are seekers. We come to the Eucharist to seek the Lord. In the words of a modern hymn, we want to know him more clearly, to love him more dearly and to follow him more nearly. Our seeking of the Lord is a response to his seeking of us, his calling out to us. We pray on this feast of the Epiphany that we would be as responsive to the Lord’s call as the wise men from the East were.

 

 


 

 

Sunday, December 31, 2023

 Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God:  Lk 2:16-21.

 

New Year’s Day will always have special resonances for all of us. It is a day when we may look back over the year that has just passed. When we reflect on that year, we will all have memories. Some of them may be happy memories and others sad memories. New Year’s Day is also a day when we look ahead to the year that is before us. We may be conscious of certain things that we would like to do differently from how we did them last year. We may find ourselves setting some goals that we would like to follow through. In all kinds of ways, New Year’s Day can be a reflective time. It can be a time to take stock, to look back on where we have been, and to look forward to where we would like to be.

New Year’s Day also encourages us to reflect on our faith, the Lord and his place in our lives. It is a day to ask, ‘How can I grow in my relationship with the Lord?’ ‘How can I respond more generously to his call?’ ‘How might I find ways to nurture my faith or to live it more fully, more courageously?’ Every so often, we need to become more reflective about our faith, our relationship with the Lord, and how it is impacting our day-to-day lives. New Year’s Day is a good time for such reflection.

The gospel reading this morning presents Mary as a very reflective woman. We are told there that the shepherds went to Bethlehem and announced to all, including Mary, the message the angels had given them, which was, ‘Do not be afraid… I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour who is Christ, the Lord’. The shepherds proclaimed the gospel to Mary and all who were with her. According to the gospel reading, Mary’s response to what the shepherd’s said was a contemplative response. ‘She treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart’. It was as if there was too much in what the shepherds said to take in at once. The shepherds were conveying to Mary that her child was none other than the long-awaited Jewish Messiah, whose other titles were Saviour and Lord. Here was good news of great joy, not just for Mary but for all the people. There was much to ponder there, a great deal to treasure. At the very beginning of his gospel, Luke is presenting Mary as a reflective, thoughtful, contemplative woman. Indeed, a little further on in that same chapter, Luke describes her in a very similar way. When the boy Jesus went missing in Jerusalem and his parents, after much searching, eventually found him, he said to them, ‘Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ In response to those questions of Jesus, Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph ‘did not understand what he said to them’ and that ‘his mother treasured all these things in her heart’. Once again, there was much to ponder upon in what Jesus said. The meaning of his words was not immediately clear. Just as in the case of the words of the angels to the shepherds, the words of Jesus to his parents needed to be mulled over and reflected upon.

When it comes to the Lord and his relationship with us and ours with him, there is always a great deal to ponder, to reflect upon, and to treasure in our hearts. Reading the gospels, for example, is not just like reading any other book. Because the gospels are God’s words in human words, there is a depth to them that cries out to be explored. The word of God can speak to us in all kinds of different ways. The same passage of Scripture may speak to us in one way at one time and in another way at another time. It is the Lord who speaks to us through the Scriptures and the Lord has different things to say to us at different times. The portrayal of Mary in today’s gospel reading encourages us to keep pondering the word and to keep treasuring it in our hearts. In that sense, we are all called to be contemplatives. Like Mary, we try to dispose ourselves to hearing what the Lord is saying to us as we go through life.

 

May this new year help us to be pure and holy like our Heavenly Mother by remaining faithful to our family prayers and Bible reading and finding time every day to ponder on God’s word as to how that can transform us and let the word become flesh in us as it did in Mary.

Friday, December 29, 2023

 HOLY FAMILY-2023

One of the most iconic Catholic traditions of Christmas is the Christmas crèche, or the nativity scene. This year marks the 800th anniversary of the first crèche, erected in 1223 by none other than St Francis of Assisi. St Francis’ pioneering crèche featured real animals and a real family, not resin or plastic figurines. The crèche was St Francis’ attempt at bringing Bethlehem to our doorsteps as it was no longer safe for pilgrims to make a journey to the Holy Land, because of the Muslim attacks to visit the holy shrines.

The Christmas crèche is not like any other Christmas decoration. In fact, it’s not meant to be a decoration. It is a prayer corner. Here, we are invited to prayerfully contemplate the various figurines contained within the scene, the members of the Holy Family at its very heart and centre. And so, we see the humble figures of Mary and Joseph kneeling before the manger, gazing lovingly upon their newborn son. One could say that this must be one of the most ancient family portraits. The whole scene reaffirms two wonderful truths. The first reminds us of God’s immense trust for this couple, that He would deign it fitting to entrust His only Son to two human beings, a woman and a man, wife and husband. The second is that if a family was the cause of humanity’s downfall, another family would be at the heart of humanity’s redemption.

Joseph and Mary’s family life was far from ordinary or even ideal by modern standards. The beginnings of their married and family life were already marked by disastrous omens – a suggestion of conception out of wedlock, the threat of divorce, dislocation and homelessness, economic poverty, and, to top it all - a hostile environment that posed the greatest threat to both the safety and welfare of the couple and their newborn child. In today’s world, all these would be interpreted as unfavourable factors that would warrant either delaying the marriage, postponing the start of a family, calling it quits or even justifying the abortion of the foetus within the womb. In fact, it would take much less these days to justify any of the above actions. But something amazing took place. Instead of turning their backs on each other and on the child, Mary’s fiat and Joseph’s acceptance of the Incarnation – indeed the man and woman’s loving obedience to God’s will, triumphed at the end.

The necessity of celebrating such a feast where the family is the focus is more apparent today when we consider how counter-cultural marriage and family life have become. Contemporary culture is challenging the most vital aspects of the existence of the human being, in ways that go so far as to overturn our understanding of human nature, and particularly of human sexual identity and relations between the sexes. Contemporary culture is proposing and imposing models for sexual identity and relations between the sexes that would ultimately mean redefining marriage and the family, to the extent of destroying both. Contemporary culture cannot accept that man is made in the image and likeness of God. (God did not take a rib from Adam to create another man like Adam).

There has been some confusion since last week when Rome allowed the blessing of same-sex couples. As far as I understand, it is not a blessing for couples who want to live in same-sex relations. Blessing the same sex couples would be approving that relationship, which would be disastrous for them in the same way Judas received holy communion at the Last Supper. When Judas received holy communion, his resolve even got stronger to betray, and he immediately went out to betray Jesus. When one has no intention of turning away from sin, from the evil one is in, then receiving God’s grace via communion or other means is going to harm them rather than do any good for them. So, I presume, and hope and pray too that it is not a blessing of couples who live in sin.

Going back to the gospel reading, we find a young couple bringing their child to the Temple in Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as parents today bring their children to the church for baptism to present them to the Lord. Guess who comes for baptisms besides parents and godparents?, the grandparents. As the grandparents brought way back their children to the Lord for baptism, those children, now adults, are bringing their children to the Lord, and the grandparents want to be part of this important religious moment. There is no reference to Jesus’ grandparents in today’s gospel reading, but there is mention of a man and a woman, Simeon and Anna. Anna, we are told, is eighty-four years of age, having been a widow for much of her adult life. We are not given Simeon’s age, but the sense is that he too had lived a long life. He had probably been looking forward to Israel’s comforting, for many years. We are told that the Holy Spirit rested on Simeon and that Anna never left the Temple, serving God night and day with fasting and prayer. It is often the way that in a family, the lives of children and their parents are blessed by the strong faith of grandparents. Simeon and Anna represent all that is best in the religious tradition of Israel and, likewise, grandparents often represent all that is best in the church’s tradition. As people of prayer, grandparents often keep the light of faith burning brightly within them and offer it to the generations below them. These days, church is mostly attended and supported by grandparents rather than children and their parents. As we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family, besides appreciating the sacrifices the parents take for their children as Mary and Joseph did for Jesus, let’s also appreciate the good role models our grandparents are to our families and younger generations in the Church.

The only way to heal and restore the family’s dignity is by emulating the Holy Family of Nazareth as our role model. So, let us pray: Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, make our families like yours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, December 24, 2023

 CHRISTMAS DAY MASS: Is 52:7-10; Heb 1:1-6; Jn 1:1-18 or 1:1-5, 9-14  

It was a Christmas pageant presented by a class of four-year-olds, and it was an evening to remember. It began with the three Virgin Marys marching out onto the stage. It's not every Christmas pageant that has three virgin Marys, but over the years, the school had acquired three Mary costumes, and so, quite naturally, the script was revised. This gave a chance for more children to be involved and kept down the squabbling over who got the starring roles. The two Josephs walked up behind the Marys. Then, twenty little angels came out. They were dressed in white robes and huge gauze wings. They were followed by twenty little shepherd boys dressed in burlap sacks. They carried an array of objects that were supposed to be crooks. 

"It was at this point that the problem occurred. During the dress rehearsal, the teacher used chalk to draw circles on the floor to mark where the angels were supposed to stand and crosses to mark the spots of the shepherds. But the children had practised with their regular clothes on. So, on the night of the pageant, the angels came walking out with their beautiful gauze wings and stood in their circles. However, their huge wings covered the crosses of the shepherds as well. So when the time came for the shepherds to find their places, they did not know where to go because the angels took up all their space.

"There was one little boy who became extremely frustrated and angry over the whole experience. He finally spied his teacher behind the curtains and shocked everyone when he said in a loud stage whisper heard by everyone, 'Because of these blankety-blank angels, I can't find the cross!'" (1)

He didn't say, "blankety-blank," but we are in church, after all. 

 

The romantic elements of Christmas...the shepherds, the wise men, the angels, the star in the East, not to mention the commercialism of Christmas...have a tendency to obscure the important meaning of it all, particularly the message of the cross. 

That is why it might be healthy for us on this Christmas Day to turn to the prologue to John's Gospel for our scripture lesson. There are no angels, no shepherds, no stars, not even Mary and Joseph. Instead, there is some of the most beautiful and important theological language ever written: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him, nothing was made that has been made."

 

The tradition of reading the prologue on Christmas Day serves the purpose of climaxing every celebration with the compelling and beautiful truth of the Incarnation, the dogma that speaks of the act and decision of the Second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God, becoming man – the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The prologue situates the Christmas story outside the confines of human history. In fact, it provides for the words and works of the Incarnate Word an eternal background or origin and proceeds to proclaim His divinity and eternity. He who "became flesh" in time, is the Word Himself from all eternity. He is the only begotten Son of God "who is in the bosom of the Father." He is the Son "consubstantial with the Father," He is "God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God." He is the Word "through whom everything was made”… “and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.”

This focus on the Incarnation and the Divinity of Christ reminds us that we are not celebrating the birthday of a celebrity, a great hero, a sage guru, or an illustrious prophet. We are celebrating the birth into human history of the Divine and Eternal Word, the Son of God, the One from whom and in whom all things were made. "The Son of God became man", St Athanasius explains, "in order that the sons of men, the sons of Adam, might become sons of God.” With all the gift-giving, merry-making, and commercialisation of our feast, it is quite easy to forget this very central truth.

The doctrine of the Incarnation is central to a Christian celebration of Christmas, a truth that is currently under attack. The doctrine of the Incarnation is one which is vital to the Christian faith because other doctrines will stand or fall with it. We cease to be Christians the moment we deny that Jesus is God. Our belief that He is God sets us apart from other religions.

Can we truly celebrate Christmas and, at the same time, deny both the humanity and the divinity of Christ? The answer to that question must be a decisive ‘No’. Those who reject these truths empty our celebration of its essential content – Christmas is not just a celebration of the birthday of our founder, a sentimental reason for gathering as a family, an occasion for gift-giving and carolling, a cultic act to proclaim the legendary charity of St Nicholas. For us Christians, Christmas must always be a celebration affirming our belief in both the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ. He is fully God and fully Man. The Incarnation does not stand alone as a doctrine that can be severed from the rest. On the contrary, it is an irreducible part of the revelation about the person and work of Jesus Christ. With it, the Gospel stands or falls.

It is often the case that we are invited to admire the humility of our Lord Jesus Christ as He chose to be born in the spartan conditions of a cave or stable in Bethlehem. But this morning’s liturgy also invites us to humbly kneel in adoration before the One who chose to kneel before His disciples to wash their feet. It’s time to rescue this Feast of Christmas from all that sentimental sugar coating. It is the Feast by which we affirm once again our belief in His divinity. Together with Pope Benedict, we affirm that our “Faith is simple and rich: we believe that God exists, that God counts; but which God? A God with a face, a human face, a God who reconciles, who overcomes hatred and gives us the power of peace that no one else can give us.” May the Incarnate Word shower His peace on all those who are seeking his will. Glory to God in the highest and peace to people of Goodwill.

Friday, December 22, 2023

 CHRISTMAS-2023

Our Christmas liturgies most often begin with this beautiful hymn or most likely would include this song. “O Come All Ye Faithful, Joyful and Triumphant, Come Ye O Come Ye to Bethlehem.” We are called to be faithful, joyful and triumphant. We are called to celebrate the central event of humankind, the Christ Event. God has entered human history as one of us. He has come to destroy the grip of sin. He has come to restore spiritual life. So, we return to Bethlehem to find Mary and Joseph with their newborn son, our newborn Savior. Some people say that they were homeless, but most probably they weren’t. They just didn’t have a place to stay because the whole town was overcrowded because of the census mandate from Ceasar Agustus. That’s why they did not get a room. Joseph was a carpenter. He could afford a room, but no room was available in the Inn, so the stable had to do. I’m sure he was devastated that he couldn’t provide better for Mary and Jesus. But they had all they needed. They had each other. They had love. They had God in the center of their love.

The birth of a child should be celebrated. But Joseph and Mary were far away from their relatives. Who would celebrate their child? Then the shepherds came telling their story of angels singing “Glory to God on High,” The Angels told the shepherds: "Behold, I bring you good news of a great joy... ; for to you is born this day... a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord" (Lk 2:10-11).

To you is born a saviour. The angel told Joseph that Mary would bear a son, and he was to name him Jesus because he would save his people from their sins.” So the child of Joseph and Mary was not just for their family. He was meant for the world. He is meant for you and for me. He is the saviour of the world who will save them from their sins.

A family celebrated Christmas every year with a birthday party for Jesus. An extra chair of honor at the table reminded the family of Jesus’ presence. A cake with candles and the singing of “Happy Birthday” expressed the family’s joy in Jesus’s presence. One year, on Christmas afternoon, a visitor to the home asked the five-year-old girl, “Did you get everything you wanted for Christmas?” After a moment’s hesitation, she answered, “No, but it’s not my birthday, It’s Jesus’ birthday!”

The magi brought gifts to the baby Jesus. We give gifts to each other as a way of saying that I find Christ in you. It also demands on the recipient a moral force to form Christ in them.

The angel’s message to the shepherd was, “For today in the city of David a saviour has been born for you who is Christ and Lord. Today! This "today" which resounds in the liturgy does not refer only to the event which took place two thousand years ago and which changed the history of the world. It also refers to this Holy Night/day in which we are gathered here, in Saints Peter and Paul, in spiritual communion with all those worldwide who are celebrating Christmas's Solemnity. Even in the farthest reaches of the five Continents, there resound tonight/today the angelic words heard by the shepherds of Bethlehem: "Behold, I bring you good news of a great joy... ; for to you is born this day... a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord" (Lk 2:10-11).

 

The Saviour brought hope to a world that exists in a hopeless situation.  He has entered the world; the creator has become a creature to give the world a new dignity.  God has emptied himself to fill us with hope.  It is a day of peace to the world that is struggling with conflicts and disturbance. The angels proclaimed this message of peace at the birth of Jesus:  peace to those of goodwill.

A student asked a Christian professor how Confucius and Buddha would differ from Christ. He responded with a parable. A woman fell into a deep hole. Try as she might, she could not climb out. Confucius looked in. He told her, “Poor woman, if you had paid attention to me, you would not have fallen in there in the first place.” Then he disappeared. Buddha approached. He, too, spotted the woman. He said to himself, “If she can just manage to get out of that hole, I can give her genuine aid.” He continued his journey. Along came Jesus. He spotted the woman. He was moved with pity. He jumped into the hole immediately to assist her out. — This story illustrates the Incarnation. We gather here to celebrate the concern of God for each of us. His willingness to parachute into enemy-occupied territory in human form for our sake is illustrated by the birth of His Son today.

The Hebrew meaning of the name Jesus is: the Lord is our salvation. His other name is Emmanuel. God with us – God coming down to us; God seeking us out; God coming alongside us; God revealing Himself to us; God bringing us forgiveness, healing, comfort, moral strength, and guidance — God dwelling within us. Each one of us has, deep down in our soul, an incredible hunger: a hunger for purpose and meaning; a hunger to feel and celebrate the redeeming, forgiving, sustaining love of God; a hunger to be in the presence of God. Christmas is special because it reminds us concretely that God is, indeed, with us. In every circumstance of life, even when we are frightened or lonely or in sorrow, God is with us. So, let’s go home to the heart of Christmas and embrace Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

God is alongside His people. One of the names for the Holy Spirit is Paraclete, which means one who is called alongside another. Jesus told His disciples that when He went away, He would send them another Comforter, who would be alongside them, never to leave them nor forsake them.

God is near to His people. He is so near that He knows what we think, how we think, when we hurt, and when we experience joy and gladness. He knows us completely, what is happening to us moment by moment. Indeed, He is Immanuel, which means God [is near to] us.

God is in the company of His people. When God made Adam and Eve, He came every day and walked and talked with them in the Garden. He was in the company of His first man and woman. God longs to be in the company of His people when they assemble to worship Him.

When the true meaning of Immanuel, God with us, strikes home to us, our hearts will burn within us as it did for the disciples Caepos and his companion going to Emaus.

May this Christmas celebration make our hearts burn within us with the presence of Emmanuel, God with us.

 

 

 ADVENT IV (II Sm 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a,16; Rom 16:25-27; Lk 1:26-38)

On this last Sunday of Advent, and in fact for this year, the last day of Advent, before we transition into the Christmas cycle this evening, the Church’s lectionary provides us with this beautiful gospel passage which narrates the Annunciation of the Archangel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ. The connection between these two events - the moment of conception and the moment of birth - could not be made any clearer with the juxtaposition of these two events. The Feast of the Annunciation which the Church celebrates on the 25th of March is as much the Feast of the Incarnation as it could be said of Christmas.

A cursory reading of both the first reading and the gospel will let you see how the prophecy of Nathan to King David in the Old Testament that his house and sovereignty will always stand secure and his throne be established forever, is being fulfilled in the story of the Annunciation, as explained by the Archangel Gabriel: “The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob forever and his reign will have no end.”

In the first reading, we see that God promises to establish a house for David even as David promises to build a house for God, an offer which God declines. Ashamed that he was now living in an opulent “house,” David would not allow God to suffer the humiliation of occupying a nomad’s tent. He thought to honour God by building God a house fitting for His glory and dignity. But God reminds David that since God has provided the latter with all the essentials of accommodation, God Himself is in no need of a human dwelling. No human hands can build a house that is ultimately suitable for God, save for one that God Himself builds. Even King David acknowledges this in Psalm 127: “unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labour in vain.”

Mary is indeed the house of God, not built by human hands but shaped and created by God Himself. Our Eastern brethren pays her the greatest honour by describing her as the one “made more spacious than the heavens”. The Universe we know about is mind-bogglingly big. Yet, we recognise that God is far greater than that. The universe, for all its vastness, remains finite. God, on the other hand, is infinite! But here is the great mystery we celebrate today – God who could not be contained in His created universe chose to be contained in the tiny womb of this human being. Thus, we call Our Lady “more Spacious than the Heavens” because she held in her womb Him who holds the whole universe. She succeeds where the whole universe fails.

The veil separating the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Temple Complex was embroidered with symbols of the cosmos, indicating that the temple was a microcosm of the universe, the house of God. When the veil was torn in two on Good Friday at our Lord’s death, it was symbolically the end of the cosmos as we know it. During the time of our Lord’s birth, the temple was already an empty husk, the ark of the covenant, the throne of God, had already been lost during the Babylonian invasion and the first destruction of the Temple. Furthermore, in the mystical vision of the prophet Ezekiel, the shekinah, or God’s visible glory, had already departed. But here, we see the glory of God, the Holy Spirit and the power of the Most High will once again overshadow the “house” of God, not the Temple but Mary - she who is the ark of the new covenant, she who is more spacious than the universe.

So, on the eve of the day we commemorate how the Author and Creator of the Universe entered into our created universe as a child, it is fitting that the Church reminds us of how this happened. Without Mary’s fiat to the Archangel Gabriel, we would not be celebrating Christmas. There is no Christmas without Mary. Because of the anti-sentiments towards Mary, some protestant brothers make cribs without Mary. What an idiotic thought.

Mary is indispensable to the story of salvation and the story of Christmas because without her, Christ’s birth could not have taken place. The pre-existent Word could not have become flesh if not for her fiat. Christ could not have been born without her free consent. The Mother of God, she who is “made more spacious than the heavens,” stands between the heavens and the earth and serves as a bridge between. Through her co-mediation, she has allowed us to approach what was previously unapproachable and to comprehend what was previously incomprehensible. Let us take her hand as she leads us to the manger and beyond to the cross.

 

On this last Sunday before Christmas and the readings speak about the preparations that God made for Jesus to be born among us.  We wait for his coming into the world and into our lives. As we continue to celebrate the Holy Mass, let us remember that Jesus is with us, here and now, having established His spiritual Kingdom at Bethlehem as he did on the Day of Pentecost.