December 22 through December 28, 2024
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(December 22, 2024: Fourth Sunday of Advent)
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“Mary set out and traveled in haste.”
The angel Gabriel's greeting to Mary contained 2 discrete, yet related, messages: (1) Mary would be the mother of the long-expected Messiah, & (2) her cousin Elizabeth had conceived a child. No sooner has Mary said ‘yes’ to the invitation to be the mother of the Messiah than she is off "in haste" to visit her cousin.
In a very real sense, long before she actually delivered the child, who would redeem the world from the hopelessness and despair of sin, Mary was already giving birth to the Messiah through her own willingness and eagerness to serve the needs of another. In this case, a relative who, because of her age, might have been considered a woman with a "high risk" pregnancy.
On the face of it, there is nothing noteworthy about Mary's action. After all, wouldn't any decent human being do the same for a relative in need? What makes Mary's service remarkable is the urgency with which she did it. She truly is a model of virtue, one who clearly demonstrates in her own life that the best way of saying "thank you" for God's goodness to her is to be a source of that goodness to others.
St. Francis de Sales observed: “Mary does not consider that she is wasting time when she goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth. No, it is an act of loving courtesy.” (Stopp, Selected Letters, p. 159) In her ‘haste’ to serve Elizabeth, Mary shows us the path of true devotion. Francis de Sales continues: “God rewards us according to the dignity of the office we exercise. I do not say that we may not aspire to the outstanding virtues, but I do say that we must train ourselves in the little virtues first without which the great ones are often false and deceptive.”
Advent reminds us that the great hope for which we all long is built upon the foundation of little, simple, ordinary things: kindness, graciousness, welcome, patience, honesty, hospitality and compassion. Mary shows us that even the most singular demonstrations of God's love for us, first and foremost, challenge us to recognize the opportunities already present in our ordinary lives to devote our energies in promoting the welfare of one another.
Like Mary, may we come to see that our willingness to do little things for one another with great love and enthusiasm - to display “loving courtesy” - is the first step in our ultimate vocation: to give birth to the Great Promise of God's love for all people - Jesus Christ.
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(December 23, 2024: Monday, Fourth Week of Advent)
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“Lift up your heads and see: your redemption is near at hand…”
In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:
“God displays in a marvelous manner the incomprehensible riches of his power in the vast array of things that we see in nature, but he causes the infinite treasures of his goodness to show forth in an even more magnificent way in the unparalleled variety that we see in grace. In a holy excess of mercy, God is not content in solely with granting to his people, that is, to the human race, a general or universal redemption whereby everyone can be saved. God has diversified redemption in many ways, so that while God’s generosity shines forth in all this variety, the variety itself, in turn, adds beauty to his generosity…” TLG, II, Chapter 6, p. 116)
What a powerful statement: God’s redemption is not generic; it is not one-size-fits-all. God redeems us personally; God redeems us individually; God redeems us by name. In the next-to-last chapter of his Treatise, Francis remarked:
“Consider how Jesus took on the task of redeeming us by his death, ‘even to death upon a cross’. The Savior’s soul knew each of us by name and surname…” (XII, Ch. 121, p. 280)
So, when we pray the words of the psalmist, your redemption, those words really mean your redemption. They do not mean someone else’s redemption - not the redemption of the person to your right or left, not the salvation of folks before or behind you.
Yours!
So, lift up your head; lift up your heart! See your redemption near at hand…a redemption – a gift – that is crafted specifically for you and out of love for you by the same God who created and redeems you by name.
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(December 24, 2024: Tuesday, Fourth Sunday of Advent)
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“He promised of old that he would save us from our enemies…”
Advent is a season of promise: a promise that God will “save us from our enemies.” These words beg the question: who are our enemies? How about:
· Unresolved angers
· Unadjusted attitudes
· Unbridled anxieties
· Unaddressed actions
· Unrelenting fears
· Unaddressed hurts
· Unhelpful memories
· Unhealed injuries
· Unhealthy attributes
· Unpursued hopes
· Unfulfilled dreams
What are the enemies – the thoughts, the feelings, the attitudes and actions that prevent us from being the people that God wants us to be and from which we need our God to save us?
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(December 24, 2024: Vigil of the Nativity of the Lord)
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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, this chapter of Matthew 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 25, 2024: Nativity of the Lord)
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With regard to the great Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, Blessed Louis Brisson wrote:
“We honor the three births of Our Lord. In the case of the first we recall the eternal birth of the Son of God in th3 bosom of His Father; in the second, we recall His temporal birth in the stable of Bethlehem; and in the thirds, we recall His mystical both in our hearts by means of Holy Communion and His grace. The consideration of the first birth should lead us to adore the Son of God on the throne of His glory, in the endless reaches of eternity, where equal to His Father He receives the adoration of the angels and seraphim. By contrast, in Bethlehem we adore him on the throne of poverty, which is a throne of love. He hides his grandeur because he wants us to draw near him without fear.”
“Having adored Him in Heaven – having adored Him in the crib – adore Him present within you. I ask you, cross your arms across your chest where the Savior dwells after Holy Communion and say to Him, ‘I adore You in my heart. I adore You within me. You are as truly in me as You are in Heaven; You are as truly in me as You are truly in the crib where You received the adoration of the poor shepherds. You are truly within me.’” (Cor ad Cor, Part III, Chapter 36, p. 217)
We recognize Jesus at the right hand of the father. We recognize Jesus lying in a manger. Do we recognize that same Jesus within ourselves? Do we recognize that same Jesus in others?
Merry Christmas!
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(December 26, 2024: Saint Stephen, First Martyr)
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“Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.”
In his book This Saint’s for You, Thomas Craughwell writes:
“One of the Church’s first seven deacons, Stephen was chosen and ordained by the apostles themselves to serve needy Christians and teach the faith. The Acts of the Apostles tells us that he was striking in appearance, with ‘the face of an angel…full of grace and fortitude.’ He came from a family of Jewish Greeks, and after his ordination he debated members of four of Jerusalem’s Greek synagogues. When they could not out-argue or silence this zealous young deacon, the Greek Jews hauled Stephen before the Sanhedrin (the Jews’ supreme tribunal), accusing him of blasphemy for ridiculing the Temple and the Law of Moses.”
“Asked to defend himself, Stephen launched into a long speech. He highlighted moments in Jewish history when the people of Israel had turned away from God, implying that – by not recognizing Jesus as the Messiah – they had been stubborn, proud and faithless once again. Then he exclaimed, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’ It proved to be the last straw. With a roar of indignation, the men in the court rushed at Stephen, dragged him outside the city walls and stoned him to death.” (This Saint’s for You, p. 131)
Stephen had the “grace and fortitude” he needed to commend his spirit to God in a single, once-in-a-lifetime act of courage by giving his life. How can we make good use of the same “grace and fortitude” we need to commend our spirits to God in a series of ordinary, everyday acts of courage?
With one another!
~OR~
“You will be hated because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved…”
The day after we celebrate the birth of the Messiah, the day after we celebrate the gift of the Incarnation, the day after we celebrate the coming of Emmanuel, God-who-is-with-us, the day after we ponder the miracle of the Word-made-Flesh, we remember the ultimate sacrifice of the first martyr, Stephen. A stark contrast, indeed, to the idyllic images of a newborn babe, of a manger, of barn animals, of shepherds and of choirs of angels.
In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales wrote:
“Look at the example given by the saints in every walk of life. There is nothing that they have not done in order to love God and be God’s devoted followers. See the martyrs, unconquerable in determination. What torments they suffered to keep their resolutions…” (IDL, V, Chapter 12, p. 284)
The deacon Stephen was “working great wonders and signs among the people”. He was simply being faithful to God’s will for him. He wasn’t looking for a fight. But when others decided to bring the fight to Stephen, he didn’t duck it. No, he stood his ground in giving witness to the power and promise of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He endured to the end, an end that came almost immediately.
We share two things with Stephen: (1) we are called to give witness to the power and promise of the Lord Jesus in our own lives, and (2) we are challenged to endure to the end. As Francis de Sales tells us in so many places throughout his writings, ‘martyrdom’ will not come for most of us in the form of “enduring to the end” of an unexpectedly-shortened life; rather, we are called to bear witness by “enduring to the end” a long, perhaps unexpectedly-exhausting life.
Either way, may God give us the strength to hold our ground in bearing witness to God whenever, wherever and however God may choose!
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(December 27, 2024: St. John, Apostle and Evangelist)
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“The life was made visible...”
In his book This Saint’s for You, Thomas Craughwell writes:
“Among the twelve apostles, Christ’s three closest friends were Peter, James the Greater and John. Within this inner circle, John was the Lord’s favorite, the one referred to as ‘the beloved disciple’ in St. John’s Gospel. By tradition, John is also believed to have been the youngest of the apostles, perhaps barely out of his teens when he followed Christ. After Jesus was arrested, John was the only one of the apostles who remained with him. He witnessed Christ’s trial before Pontius Pilate, followed him as he carried the cross through the streets of Jerusalem, stood at the foot of the cross with the Blessed Virgin Mary, and helped take Christ’s body off the cross and lay it in the tomb. Before dying, Christ rewarded his most loyal friend by placing Mary in John’s care.”
“Initially John preached in Jerusalem but then moved to Ephesus, the greatest city in the eastern Roman Empire. A tradition that dates to at least the second century says that John took Mary with him. Amid the ruins of Ephesus stands a little stone house believed to have been Mary’s home. St. John died peacefully at age ninety-four, the only one of the apostles who was not martyred. Sparing him a violent death may have been Christ’s last gift to his best friend.” (This Saint’s for You, p. 193)
John knew it. Peter and James knew it. Countless of the people who encountered Jesus during his life on this earth knew it. We, too, can know it.
What a friend we have in Jesus!
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(December 28, 2024: Holy Innocents, Martyrs)
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“A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation…”
In his book This Saint’s for You, Thomas Craughwell writes:
“Even in the Christmas story, there is a touch of tragedy: the massacre of the infant boys in Bethlehem. St. Matthew’s Gospel records that when the Magi stopped in Jerusalem to ask the whereabouts of the King of the Jews, Herod, the king of Judea, sent them to Bethlehem with instructions to return once they had found the Christ Child so that he, too, could pay homage. Warned by an angel that Herod was up to no good, the Magi returned home via a route that bypassed the city and its conniving king.”
“Once Herod realized the Magi were on to him, he sent troops to Bethlehem with orders to kill every boy aged two and younger. But the same angel warned Joseph to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt for safety. By the time Herod’s troops charged into the village, the Holy Family was long gone. No one knows how many babies were massacred that day.” (This Saint’s for You, pp. 134-135)
It is sometimes said that there is no such thing as a ‘secret’ sin. By its very nature sin is a social animal. Every sin – however public or private – impacts not only the person who commits it but also other people – often times, innocent people – as well. The Holy Innocents suffered because of one man’s sin. These children - collateral damage - died because of Herod’s personal envy, professional greed and narcissistic paranoia. As the poet Prudentius wrote:
All hail, ye infant martyr flowers
Cut off in life’s first dawning hours:
As rosebuds snapped in tempest strife,
When Herod sought your Savior’s life.
Today what about us? Who are the “innocents” in our lives who are impacted by the personal or ‘private’ sins we commit?
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