Sunday, December 29, 2013
Keeping Christ in Christmas
Friday, December 27, 2013
The first five days of Christmas
Many Orthodox Christians fast before Christmas Day. They identify the Nativity Fast as the period of preparing to celebrate Jesus Christ’s birth. It is believed that fasting helps people shift their focus from themselves to others, spending less time worrying about food and using more time in increased prayer and caring for the poor. In return, fasting before the Nativity enables one to fully enjoy, appreciate and celebrate the Nativity of Christ. Does that sound like Lent? Why would anyone want to do that twice a year?
For many Orthodox Christians, Christmas Day is not about presents, eggnog or Christmas characters that have become popular through commercialization. Christmas Day is a time to heal the soul. It is also a time of peace and unity.
White cloth is used on dinner tables in some countries to symbolize purity and the cloth that baby Jesus was wrapped in. Straw may be placed on these tables to symbolize the simplicity of the place where Jesus was born. Candles may be lit to represent the light of Christ and the festive Christmas meal represents the end of fasting.
On December 27 we celebrated the great feast of John the Evangelist. On December 26 we celebrated the great feast of Stephen the first martyr. The first day of Christmas was full of joy over the birth of the child born poor. The second day of Christmas was full of sorrow for the first follower of this child who would be murdered because he accepted the poverty of the child. The third day of Christmas honors the man who stood by the child in his adulthood, the man who loved him so much that he accepted responsibility for his remaining family. December 28 was the fourth day and we remember those who never knew the child, those who suffered and died in anonymity because of the jealousy of those who held power in the secular kingdom in which Jesus was born. This year on the fifth day we celebrate the family of Jesus as an encouragement to each of our own families to identify the diversity of husband, wife, child - man, woman, and young boy or girl - a diversity that joins together to make up the first unit of any society, a building block of hope, faith and charity in a world hell bent on destroying anything that smacks of unity and achievement.
The remaining days of Christmas until January 6 refuse to acknowledge the death of pine needles in our waste centers. There is so much more to glean from the birth of this child than a pretty picture for our photo albums. Jesus is not about egg nog and cheap ornaments. Jesus is about healing the soul. Jesus is about living and dying.
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Four versions of the same story
There are four Gospels in the Bible. That is, there are four accounts of the life of Christ and each of them differs from the other because each of them wants to make a different point about Jesus. One place in which that difference is revealed is in the accounts of the birth of Christ.
The Gospel of Mark does not contain the story of the birth. That Gospel begins with the preaching of John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus. The birth did not interest Mark. Mark was excited by the good news that the kingdom of God broke into human life. Mark's Gospel cries out with one incident in the life of Jesus after another so that we can share that excitement.
The Gospel of John is completely different from those of Mark, Luke, and Matthew. It is more of a reflection on the life of Christ, an example of someone sitting down and answering the question, what do you think Christ was like? So for John, the Word, that is, God’s word, became flesh, became a human being, and made his dwelling among us. This is John's theme. John wants us to consider the larger meaning of Christ's birth. Why did God choose to become human? is one of his questions.
It is only in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke that we have the story known as the Infancy Narrative. Beginning with the Annunciation, the angel asking Mary to become the mother of Jesus, and then the Visitation, the visit Mary made to her compassionate cousin Elizabeth, followed by the birth, the visit of the shepherds and the kings, these two Gospels place different emphases on the same story. Luke is particularly interested that Jesus was born poor. He was not a king born in splendor. Matthew, whose Gospel we hear this cycle, is the one who is most interested in the family of Jesus. This is why we hear that long genealogy. Matthew wants us to understand that Jesus comes to us as part of the family of a long line of believers.
Pope Francis, in a homily this past week, spoke of a third coming of the Lord. Jesus came into history 2,000 years ago. He promises to return for a second coming at the end of time. But the Holy Father spoke of another third coming of the Lord. “The Lord visits His Church every day!,” the Holy Father said, “He visits each of us, and so our souls as well: our soul resembles the Church, our soul resembles Mary. Our soul is waiting for the coming of the Lord.”
He asked, “Are we expectant, or are we indifferent? Are we vigilant, or are we closed up ‘safely’ in an inn along the way, without desire to go forward. Are we are pilgrims, or are we wanderers? For this reason, the Church invites us to pray, ‘Come!’, in order to open our soul and in order that that our soul be, these days, vigilant and expectant. Is there a place for the Lord, or only for parties, for shopping, for revelry? Is our soul open or is our soul rather closed, with a “Do Not Disturb!” sign hung on the door to it?”
At this Christmas feast Pope Francis asks us to repeat this call many times – ‘Come, Lord Jesus!’ and look to see our soul be not one of those souls that say, “Do not disturb!” Let ours be great souls – souls open to receive the Lord in these days and that begin to feel that, which on this feast the Church will speak to us in the antiphon: ‘Know that today the Lord will come, and in the morning you will see his glory!’
Monday, December 23, 2013
Man of justice
Joseph was a just man. That’s what I always heard growing up. Joseph was a just man and though Mary was betrothed to him and pregnant, but not through Joseph, he sought justice for his wife-to-be, not vengeance upon her. He could dismiss her, he could divorce her (which he decided to do quietly), but there was no thought for him to destroy her. Joseph was a just man.
Fear of the Lord is often misappropriated in the Old Testament as it is in the first reading for the Fourth Sunday of Advent this year. Ahaz is the local ruler and the prophet encourages him to turn to the Lord and ask for what hiS people need. Ahaz views the encouragement as a temptation for the Lord to destroy his people. What kind of god does Ahaz know that would destroy the very beings seeking his help?
Ahaz refuses to seek a sign from God but God gives a sign anyway – the young girl, the virgin, who will be with child by the Holy Spirit. Even so, this sign causes confusion and uncertainty among the people of Israel, for it is beyond the boundaries of what people could understand. It was not culturally acceptable for a young girl to be pregnant and unmarried.
What could be more different from our own age? It is so accepted in our own society that the story of Mary and Joseph is almost meaningless to us. So what, some may ask? Because human relationships today are often looked upon as me getting my need satisfied and you are just an object through which I can obtain satisfaction, Mary and Joseph might as well be from another planet. What is at stake here is the intervention of God. God inserts himself into our history. This pregnancy does not occur in the normal human way. It was not caused by a casual relationship between a man and a woman. Mary has become pregnant because the Lord has intervened. The pregnancy of Mary and the birth of Jesus are events that force us to reflect on the place of God in our human history.
In terms of the whole of human history, the birth of Jesus occurs so that the whole human race can start over. Humanity begins again when Mary says yes to the angel and when Joseph says yes to his dream. He is a just man and would not bring shame upon Mary. God alerts Joseph to God’s work. And all this is in the midst of evil. The world in which Mary and Joseph live is evil. There is great injustice in it. Catherine de Hueck Doherty wrote that because we are free to choose good or evil in our lives, the good news of the Gospel is not fulfilled in us. We say no to the Holy Spirit. But Mary said yes. Her life was full of hope. She agreed to a fullness in her own life that meant giving birth to one who would fulfill the hopes of all humankind.
Ahaz lived in fear. In his dream Joseph is told not to fear. God is with him. God is with Mary. Is there such fear in us that we live without the kind of hope that Mary and Joseph displayed? The point of this story is to show us that it is possible to begin again at each moment of our lives. We are not robots that are determined to function in a certain way. We can begin anew whenever we want. We can choose. We can ask God and we too can say yes.
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Silence of Joseph
Confessions are already heard there on a daily basis. But now these high profile Churchmen will be doing same and Pope Francis expects to join them as well. It is one more sign of the Holy Father's efforts to remind all Catholic priests - be they parish priest or administrative cardinal - of their primary duty as pastors. The motivation for the order, according to Catholic Online, is to emphasize for the people the importance of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the greatness of God in forgiving human sin.
On this date the Holy Father also gave his "state of the union" address to members of the Roman Curia. He identified two important qualities these members must have - professionalism and service. He encouraged them not to fall into the weakness of gossip which is an all too familiar habit among bureaucrats in any institution. Pope Francis believes members of the Curia must behave like St. Joseph, who, he claims, "is so necessary at the side of Mary." Joseph's silence is a model for these men to emulate.
Catholic Online concluded its story by saying "This appears to be the dominant theme of Francis' pontificate. That God is great, powerful, and merciful, and that when we act with humility, we truly serve God and one another."