Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)

Nativitas D.N.I.C.
25 December 2021
Midnight Mass Readings

 In the Gospel for this solemnity the whole world was in motion.  The phrase that “the whole world should be enrolled” is a reference to the entire Roman Empire.  The Emperor Caesar Augustus had decreed that a census should take place and so the whole world was in motion as people returned to their ancestral homes for the census.  This is how Joseph ends up in the city of David, Bethlehem, because he is a descendant in the royal line of David.  He went to register where his ancestral line and territory originate from.  Recall that it was in Bethlehem that the youngest of Jesse’s sons, David, was anointed as king (cf. 1 Sam 16).  There was motion and commotion as the various processes of the world unfolded on that first Christmas night.  The powerful and the elite initiated this movement.  But most everyone was unaware that a divine motion was taking place in the midst of it all.  That divine motion took flesh by Mary’s cooperation and the power of the Holy Spirit and began nine months prior.  That divine motion remained hidden in the sanctuary of her womb.  And on this solemnity we celebrate that the movement of God coming to man was made visible by the birth of Jesus from Mary.  As the beginning of that movement of God, the conception of the Lord, took place in obscurity and simplicity and privacy.  So, with his birth.  And it was not to the powerful nor to the elite that the angel shared the message of God moving near and becoming one with us.

Celebrating the birth of our Savior and considering to whom angels announced this movement of God offers us three lessons for living our faith, three lessons for how we ought to be so that we are more open to the Good News of great joy that God is with us, so that we don’t miss the movement of God toward us like so many at that first Christmas.  And so, the humility and simplicity taught to us by those to whom the angels of the Lord did announce God’s coming near is a lesson for us.  It is a lesson for our present spiritual life so that we live in a way that makes us open and receptive to receive God’s desire to come near to us, open and receptive to receive God Himself.  So, let’s look at three examples of those to whom angels appeared.

 It was the Archangel Gabriel who first announced to Mary that God desired to come near to mankind and that she had been chosen to be part of this divine movement.  The humility and the simplicity of a living faith, of which Mary is an excellent model, is a lesson for us to emulate.  That living faith is one that is both active and contemplative.  It is one whose prayer is both vocal and silent.  Above all, a living faith is one that is not only on the lips but rather seeks to embrace what God speaks and to conform and change one’s life in trust.  Mary’s living faith is a model for us to permit God and His ways to have a claim on our lives so that we change ourselves to be conformed to Him.

The Gospel of St. Matthew tells us that an angel of the Lord came to Joseph in a dream to communicate God’s plan that involved Mary and to call upon him to change his mind so that he would not be afraid to take Mary into his home and to be both husband to her and father to her child.  The courageous obedience of St. Joseph is a model and a lesson for us to emulate.  The silence from Scripture on St. Joseph does not permit us to know much about him.  However, what we do know provides for us this lesson of courageous obedience.  Listening to the message of the angel and following what God revealed to him was not some passive thing.  His cooperation with God’s plan required a type of courage to steel his nerves, to change his plans, to submit to God in trust and to endure whatever would come.

Finally, in the Gospel of this Holy Mass we hear that soon after the birth of the Savior an angel of the Lord appeared to shepherds keeping the night watch in the fields near his birth.  The lesson we can learn from the angel’s appearance to the shepherds requires a bit more analysis.  It is perhaps not as obvious as the need for an angel to appear to Mary and to Joseph in order to gain their free cooperation with God’s movement to mankind.  Bethlehem is in the region of Jerusalem, only about 6 miles or so to the south of Jerusalem.  It might be hard for us to imagine but the service at the Jerusalem Temple and the sacrifices that took place there were a major driving part of the economy of the entire local area.  In particular, for the sacrifice of lambs thousands of sheep would be needed.  Perhaps most unimaginable to us, hundreds of thousands would be needed at particularly high holy days when pilgrims from far and wide made the journey to Jerusalem.  It is thus entirely likely that the flocks in the region surrounding Bethlehem, only about six miles from the holy city, were flocks that provided, at least in part, for the massive sacrificial system of the Jerusalem Temple.  Following the birth of Jesus, the angel’s appearance next to the lowly shepherds – to these shepherds in particular – highlights a lesson for us about sacrifice and worship.  Already at his birth, the specter of sacrifice is present.  The Bethlehem shepherds, guardians of the flocks destined for sacrifices at the Temple, come with haste to see what the angel proclaims, the sign for them of an Infant wrapped in swaddling clothes.  We don’t get any details later in the Gospel about just what is was like for several shepherds to move their entire flocks and to arrive at the nativity.  But whatever motion and commotion there must have been, these guardians of the sacrifices for the Temple, come to see the newborn Lamb of God, the one whose very self is the perfect Temple, the one who will be sacrificed for the salvation of mankind.  And thus, a lesson for us is the primacy of sacrifice in our embrace of God’s movement to be with us.  Most especially, our embrace of the sacrifice that is made present to us here at the Holy Mass, the sacrifice of the Cross that saves us.  But not only that.  The lesson for us is that to respond to God’s movement to us we must be a people of sacrifice.  Our sacrifices to change sinful habits and to rid them from our lives helps us welcome and adore Christ.  We make sacrifice to put God first in all things, requiring that we keep proper priorities and refuse to make others things our gods.  Living in such a way that proclaims that I actually do believe that God is near and with me requires sacrifice.  To see the events of life, especially those that challenge me or disturb my faith, as participating in God’s life and His work of salvation requires that I sacrifice the voices of doubt and beg an increase of trust.  And of course, to be like those guardian shepherds of the sacrifice, to gather here in accord with the Lord’s own command that we do this in his memory, to be present to worship God at Holy Mass… this requires that we sacrifice other pursuits to embrace God’s saving presence and action among us.  It is in keeping our eyes fixed, like the shepherds, on the Lamb of God, that our individual sacrifices make sense and are placed together with the one perfect pleasing offering made to God the Father by the Son Jesus Christ.

Developing a living faith, a courageous obedience, and a focus on the primacy of sacrifice helps us receive the Good News of great joy that our God and Savior has come near.  These lessons help us embrace the movement of God to us so that we might move to deeper life with Him.  May the observance of this solemnity help us, through the darkness of our stumbling faith, to see with renewed vision the glory of the Lord shining around us.  May this solemnity help us to embrace the movement of God to us so that we join the multitude of the heavenly host in proclaiming: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests!”

Third Sunday of Advent

Dominica III Adventus C
12 December 2021

The change of vestment color for this weekend and the permission to decorate the sanctuary with flowers serve as a visual reminder that half of Advent is in the past.  The color rose – rose being traditionally associated with joy – and the repeated message of the Scriptures call us to rejoice.  And so, this day has been called in Latin “Gaudete Sunday” or “Rejoice Sunday.”  That thematic title for this Sunday comes from the words of the entrance antiphon, which we chanted at the beginning of this Holy Mass: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice.”  This weekend the Church calls us to step up our joy because we have completed half of this holy season and are drawing near to the celebration of the source of our joy, the birth of Christ Jesus.

The brief book of the Prophet Zephaniah, our first reading, demonstrates the hope of God’s people that there would be fulfillment of God’s promise that “the King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst.”  This promise that the Lord will come among his people and be in their midst has always held for the Church a Marian significance.  When we celebrate Mary’s role in salvation history it is common that this first reading is chosen since, through Mary and her cooperation in faith, God’s Son literally comes into our midst.  The mere hope of the fulfilment of this promise was already a source of joy for God’s people in the Old Covenant.  We who live in the time of the New Covenant can embrace an even more confident joy in that this promise has been fulfilled and God, our Savior, has come to us.  One of our focuses in Advent is that very reality, the first coming of our Savior, whose birth we are preparing to observe with renewed faith.

 Yet, for us too, like God’s people in the time of the Prophet Zephaniah, we await a promise to be fulfilled.  Zephaniah also prophesied about a coming day of the Lord, a day of wrath and judgment.  In fact, Zephaniah’s description of this day of wrath has inspired in large part the liturgical texts and poetry that we use for requiem or funeral Masses, especially the composition of the hymn Dies Irae, the Day of Wrath.  That coming day of the Lord, the day of judgment, is our second focus in the season of Advent.  We who exist in the New Covenant, seek to renew our faith in celebrating the first arrival of God’s presence in the midst of His people, that is His coming in our flesh and His birth in time.  But we also must prepare and look ahead – even looking ahead with joy – for the fulfillment of a promise still awaited, that is the Lord’s return in glory when he will usher in the fullness of his Kingdom.

 It may seem odd to look forward with joy to the coming day of glory and judgment.  Yet, that is our task in faith.  Our joy for the return of the Lord in glory can find its place in God’s tender care and love for His people.  We see that tender care in the terms commonly used to refer collectively to God’s people.  Borrowing the name of the location of the original citadel of David, named Zion, and later called Jerusalem, a poetic personification comes to be used to refer to God’s people as a beloved daughter.  The Prophet Zephaniah uses those terms – “daughter Zion” and “daughter Jerusalem” – calling God’s people to shout for joy even as they await both the coming of the Lord into their midst and the coming day of wrath.

 Those incorporated into the Church by faith and baptism, and who maintain that life of grace, are the fulfillment of daughter Zion and daughter Jerusalem.  The Church is thus viewed and referred to as the new heavenly city, the dwelling place of God with His people.  We have joy as we prepare to celebrate God’s birth among us at Christmas.  And we have joy as we still await and must prepare for God’s return in glory as our Judge.  Why or how do we have joy as we prepare for His return?  We have joy because we are called to view the Lord’s return as an opportunity for the fulfillment of our eternal dwelling and communion with God in His Kingdom.  To be able to look ahead with joy to the Lord’s return should fill us with the same expectation that prompted those listening to St. John the Baptist’s preaching to ask, “What should we do?”

 St. John the Baptist’s response highlights the moral response that must be part of our preparation for the Lord’s return.  And if we will seek to make a moral response by the choices we make in our living as disciples, then we can have joy as we await the Lord’s return.  Too often we can be lulled into a false notion that approaches our life as disciples and our preparation for the Lord’s return in a far too static way.  A brute way to say this is that we don’t have an authentic and lasting joy in waiting for the Lord’s judgment if we live as if having once been baptized and showing up for Mass means we have accomplished the heights of sanctity.  No, we have joy in our looking forward to the Lord’s return by living a dynamic moral life, by reforming our sinful ways, and by living for others.  That fulfillment and satisfaction you experience in serving the less fortunate and providing for someone who has less material means (which we do so easily at this time of year), that can serve as an indication and a reminder that we can live in joy by serving others and putting away sin from our lives.  All manner of people asked St. John the Baptist, “What should we do?”  All people from the Gospel reading, even those known as notorious sinners, such as tax collectors, and those known to exercise power and manipulation, such as soldiers, all have a place in the joy of awaiting the Lord if they will turn from sin and live a more dynamic moral life.  And that’s the lesson for us too.

 Our Advent focus is not only the joy of celebrating the Lord’s birth at Christmas but it is also a call to have joy in living our life and communion with the Lord now, even as we await that mysterious day of glory and judgment that will come.  We can prepare for that day with joy by seeking to be better grain (to borrow a gospel image), better wheat for the Lord, while separating the chaff from our lives through repentance and better moral living.  And then, as beloved sons and daughters of the Church, the new Jerusalem, and free from anxiety we can respond to the charge of St. Paul in the second reading, which forms the theme for this Sunday: “Rejoice in the Lord always, I shall say it again: rejoice!”

Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Immaculate Conception of the BVM
8 December 2021

 Observing the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary we contemplate the threshold of our salvation, because we celebrate the gift of God to Mary, the one He chose to be the mother of our Savior.  As we celebrate today how she was conceived free from all stain of sin in her mother’s womb, the womb of St. Ann, we celebrate that God was making good on His promise to save mankind.  With this in mind it is appropriate that we hear in this Holy Mass from the Book of Genesis.  We hear God’s words after the fall of Adam and Eve, in that sin we call “original.”  We hear of God’s plan to save mankind after sin had entered the garden of goodness God had made for His creation.

 In the selection from Genesis we hear what theologians like to call the “protoevangelion.”  That term comes from Greek and refers to the first proclamation of the Good News, the first proclamation of the gospel, that God has a plan to save us.  That first proclamation is verse 15 which has God speaking to Satan, the serpent, and saying: “I will put enmity [division, hatred, adversarial relationship] between you [the serpent] and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he [the offspring of the woman] will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel” (Gen. 3:15).  God speaks His plan to undo the sin and disorder that Satan proposed and introduced to Adam and Eve.  God proclaims that the offspring of the woman will strike a head blow, that is a mortal blow, to the serpent.  The fulfillment of this good news for salvation is finally found in the Cross of Jesus, in his sacrifice of his life for our salvation.  Why is the Cross of Jesus that mortal, head blow to the serpent and his cunning?  It’s because disobedience is at the heart of Satan’s relationship with God and Satan’s plan to bring ruin to God’s goodness.  Satan is that angel who fell because he would not serve God in obedience.  Disobedience is at the center of what Satan introduced in the garden and disobedience remains at the heart of our sins, for which we are personally responsible.  That’s why the Cross of Jesus is the fulfillment of this first announcement of the gospel: because the Cross is fundamentally about obedience.  God the Son, takes on our flesh, and he comes to do the Father’s will.  In obedience Jesus accepts the Cross and the punishment for our sins.  The obedience of the Cross undoes the disobedience inspired by Satan.  And thus, for you and for me, obedience to God is key to our salvation, an obedience that is demonstrated in our growth in holiness and our saying an increasingly committed “no” to sin.

 I’d like you to think about the value of the Cross in order to understand our faith in Mary’s preservation from sin in her immaculate conception.  The sacrificial event of Jesus’ death on the Cross is what saves us.  It is re-presented here at the Holy Mass and that’s why the Mass is so important to our faith and our entrance into Heaven because it places us in contact with the sacrificial value of the Cross.  I’m willing to bet that most everyone here believes the Cross is what saves us, even though it happened a few thousand years before any of us was ever thought of, or ever lived and walked the earth.  In other words, I bet most everyone here believes that God the Father saw the value of Jesus’ obedience and sacrifice on the Cross and applied the merit, the value, of that sacrifice, to people who did not live at the time and in the place where it happened.  God applies the value of the sacrifice of the Cross to those who will accept it in faith, and who will embrace it and conform their life to it.  God sees the value and the merit of the Cross and I bet you believe that its value is applied to you and to me a few thousand years later.  Here is what I’d like you to consider: If you believe the value of Jesus’ sacrifice can apply to you thousands of year later, can you believe and accept that God could see the value of the Cross and apply its value before it happened?  If its value could move forward in time to us, can God permit its value to go backward in time?  That is basically what we are saying in faith about Mary’s immaculate conception.  We are saying that God Who exists outside of time and Who sees and knows all things, could see the value of what His Son would accomplish on the Cross and He applied that value to Mary from the first moment of her conception in her mother’s womb.  Thus, God gave Mary the gift of saving her from the first moment of her life.  It’s not that she did not need salvation, no!  God saved her from the first moment of her life by the value of the sacrifice of Jesus which the Father could foresee.

 Why would it be important for God to have a plan to do this for Mary, the mother of our Savior?  If God’s plan was to send His Son in the flesh to be born among us, in time, in the normal course of human birth, then a human being, having inherited a fallen nature due to original sin, could not do anything but pass on fallen, sinful human flesh to Jesus.  But the Book of Revelation tells us that nothing unholy can be in God’s presence.  Much less together with Him.  God, the all-holy One, cannot coexist with sin.  It’s like oil and water; they don’t go together.  So, God’s preserving Mary from sin from the first moment of her life means she was being prepared for the role He chose for her in salvation: to give human flesh to the Son.  And by preserving her from sin, God the Father was making it possible to pass on to Jesus the pure flesh that could coexist with Him.  Mary’s being preserved from sin means she could provide for Jesus sinless human flesh in which to take up dwelling, in order to come to save us.

 Thus, the collect of this Holy Mass speaks well of what we believe in this aspect of our faith.  Listen to it again carefully: “O God, who…prepared a worthy dwelling for your Son, grant, we pray, that, as you preserved her from every stain by virtue of the Death of your Son, which you foresaw, so through her intercession, we, too, may be cleansed and admitted to your presence.”

 We celebrate in this solemnity the special gift of God to Mary.  A gift that was part of His plan, first announced in Genesis, to deal a mortal blow to Satan and the harm he had done to God’s desire for us to have Heaven.  Since obedience was the undoing of Satan’s disobedience, then obedience to God must be fostered in our Christian living.  And this is why Mary is for us such a great example and intercessor.  She is the one who said “yes” to God’s plan.  We heard of that obedience in the gospel: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.  May it be done to me according to your word.”  God has a desire for us to live in communion with Him now and forever in Heaven.  He has fulfilled His plan in Jesus’s sacrifice.  Today we celebrate the role He prepared Mary to occupy to bring us that Savior.  Looking to Mary and counting on her prayers for us we can walk confidently toward God trusting that by sincerely doing away with sin, by confessing it, and seeking to observe greater obedience to God now, we will be prepared one day to enjoy the fullness of obedience’s reward in eternal life in Heaven.