December 15 through December 21, 2024
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(December 15, 2024: Third Sunday of Advent)
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“Your kindness should be known to all...”
In his letter to the Philippians St. Paul identifies one of the qualities associated with ‘rejoicing in the Lord’ – kindness. And not just any old kindness but a kindness that “should be known by all.”
Today’s Gospel sheds some light on what this kindness - that “should be known by all” – may be. If it has two cloaks, it shares with the person who has no cloak; it does the same with foods and drink. If it collects taxes, it takes only what it is owed. If it wields authority, it should avoid abusing its power. It should be truthful, and it should be happy with fair compensation. In sum, Gospel kindness is about being reasonable, being fair; being and just.
Francis de Sales once observed:
“‘Share your bread with the hungry and bring the needy and the homeless into your house’ with a joyful and eager heart. ‘He who performs acts of mercy should do so with cheerfulness.’ The grace of a good deed is doubled when it is done with promptness and speed.” (Living Jesus, pp. 190 – 191)
Do you want to “rejoice in the Lord, always?” Always do your level best to be kind.
And in the process help others to “rejoice in the Lord” as well.
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(December 16, 2024: Monday, Third Week of Advent
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“Your ways, O LORD, make known to me; teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me…”
In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis wrote:
“When commanded to go to Rages, young Tobias said to his father, ‘I do not know the way,’ to which his father replied, ‘Go, then, and find some man to lead you.’ I say the same thing to you. Do you seriously wish to travel the road to devotion? If so, look for a good person to guide and lead you. This is the most important of all words of advice. As the devout Teresa of Avila says, ‘Although you seek God’s will, you will never find it with as much certainty as on the path of that humble obedience so highly praised and practiced by all devout writers.’ The advice of the great St. Louis gave to his son was this: ‘Choose as your guide an able and experienced person who can safely teach you the things that you must do.’”
Francis de Sales strongly believed that we should not attempt to “go it alone” in our efforts to imitate Christ, to practice devotion or to “Live Jesus.” Whether in the form of a confessor, a spiritual director, a personal coach, a friend or a combination of these, we should seek out companions to accompany us along the road of life and avoid the temptation to be lone wolves. He continued:
“‘A faithful friend,’ Holy Scripture says, ‘is a strong defense, and those who find friends have found treasure. A faithful friend is the medicine of life and immortality, and those who fear the Lord find one.’ For this reason, we must more than anything else have a faithful friend who by advice and counsel guides our actions and thus protects us from the snares and deceits of the wicked one. For us, such a person will be a treasure of wisdom in affliction, sorrow and failure. Such a person will serve as medicine to ease and comfort our hearts when afflicted by spiritual sickness. Such a person will guard us from evil and make our good even better.” (IDL, Part I, Chapter 4, pp. 45 – 46)
God provides us with many means of support in our attempts to walk in God’s path.
· How often do we pause and thank our friends for helping us to be the people that God calls us be?
· How often to we thank our friends for keeping us on the straight and narrow?
· How often do we thank our friends for picking us up when we fall or for finding us when we stray?
Today, how grateful are we for having companions on the journey?
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(December 17, 2024: Tuesday, Advent Weekday)
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“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ…”
“Genealogy (from Greek: γενεά, genea, “generation”; and λόγος, logos, “knowledge”) is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members. The results are often displayed in charts or written as narratives. The pursuit of family history tends to be shaped by several motivations, including the desire to carve out a place for one’s family in the larger historical picture, a sense of responsibility to preserve the past for future generations, and a sense of self-satisfaction in accurate storytelling.” (Wikipedia)
Today’s opening chapter from the Gospel of Matthew is Scripture’s version of Ancestry.com. Bridging the Old and New Testaments, it outlines the “genealogy of Jesus Christ.” As such, it carves out a place for Jesus within the larger picture of salvation history. As such, it strives to preserve names from past generations for future generations. As such, it tries to tell the story of Jesus’ predecessors as accurately as possible. As such, it attempts to provide as much information it can about the kinship and pedigree of those who came before Jesus.
Many of us assume that the “genealogy of Jesus Christ” ends with Jesus Christ. We assume that the story ends with the third set of fourteen generations. Nothing could be further from the truth! The “genealogy of Jesus Christ” isn’t limited to the names of his predecessors; it continues to this very day in the names of his followers; it continues in the present generation – in the lives of people like you and me.
How can we live up to our God-given pedigree today? How can we give convincing witness of our divine kinship today? How can we demonstrate that we are sons and daughters of God – brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ – today?
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(December 18, 2024: Wednesday, Third Week of Advent)
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“He shall reign and govern wisely; he shall do what is just and right in the land…the Lord our justice.”
In his Introduction to the Devout Life, St. Francis de Sales wrote:
“Be just and equitable in all your actions. Always put yourself in your neighbor’s place and your neighbor in yours, and then you will judge rightly. Imagine yourself the seller when you buy and the buyer when you sell and you will sell and buy justly…A man loses nothing by living generously, nobly and courteously with a royal, just and reasonable heart. Resolve to examine your heart often to see if it acts toward your neighbor as you would like your neighbor to act toward you were you in your neighbor’s place. This is the touchstone of true reason.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 36, p. 217)
How can we imitate “the Lord our justice”? Let us start by examining our hearts. How well are we doing “what is just and right in the land”? Are we doing what is right, just and reasonable in our relationships with others?
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(December 19, 2024: Thursday, Third Week of Advent)
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“Consecrated to God from the womb…filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb.”
Perhaps it is easy to believe that God loved Samson from the time he first appeared in his mother’s womb. Likewise, it is even easier to believe that God also loved John the Baptizer when he first appeared in his mother’s womb, given the fact that John would announce the coming of the Messiah. After all, Samson – and John – played significant roles in God’s plan of salvation.
God’s love for us from the first moment when we appeared in our mother’s womb – actually, long before each of us appeared anywhere. Ii is not a function of how great or how small our respective roles in God’s plan of salvation may be. Regardless of how famous or anonymous we might be, one thing is certain: each of us is consecrated from our mother’s womb. Each of us is filled with the Holy Spirit from our mother’s womb. God uniquely – and eternally – loves each of us. Forever!
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(December 20, 2024: Friday, Third Week of Advent)
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“May it be done to me according to your word...”
These words spoken by Mary in today’s selection from the Gospel of Luke gets to the heart of the virtue of obedience. In his Conference “On Obedience,” Francis de Sales remarked:
“There are three sorts of pious obedience. The first is that to which is common to all Christians – the obedience due to God in the observance of the commandments. The second is righteous obedience, which is of a far higher value that the first because it concerns itself not only with the commandments of God but also with the observance of His counsels. There is a third kind of obedience of which I wish to speak as being the most perfect: this is called a loving obedience. It follows that those who practice loving obedience love the command given, and so as soon as they are aware of it – whether it be to their taste or not – they embrace it, caress it and cherish it tenderly. It is of this obedience that Our Lord gave us as an example throughout the entire course of His life on earth.” (Living Jesus, p. 257)
Have you ever considered how Jesus – in the fullness of his humanity – may have acquired something of this loving obedience from Mary, his mother? Have you ever considered how Mary – in the fullness of her humanity – may have modeled something of this loving obedience for her son?
Today how can we imitate this same loving obedience to God in our relationships with one another?
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(December 21, 2024: Peter Canisius, Priest and Doctor of the Church)
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“He has looked upon his lowly servant…and has done great things for me: holy is his name.”
Mary’s great hymn – the Magnificat – is a testimony to her profound sense of humility. But her humility – her sense of being a “lowly servant” – should not be confused with self-deprecation. In truth, Mary’s humility has a lot less to do with her nothingness and a lot more to do with God’s ‘everything-ness!’ Mary’s humility – her being overwhelmed by the generosity of God – empowers her to generously say “yes” to God’s invitation to her to become the Mother of the Messiah.
In his Conference “On Generosity,” St. Francis de Sales wrote:
“Humility which does not produce generosity is undoubtedly false, for after it has said, ‘I can do nothing, I am only absolute nothingness,’ it almost immediately gives way to generosity of spirit which says, ‘There is nothing - and there can be nothing - that I am unable to do, so long as I put all my confidence in God who can do all things.’ Buoyed up by this confidence, it courageously undertakes to do all that is commanded.” (Living Jesus, pp. 152-153)
This humility – and its corresponding spirit of generosity – describes Mary to a tee.
Can the same be said of us?
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