A mother's heart (Sr. Anne Arabome)

   An African proverb says “a mother’s heart is as deep as a well.” 

   

   Imagine the heart of God, the heart of a mother, like a large and deep pot! That is precisely what today’s Gospel tells us about Mary in so many words: “Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.” Have you ever wondered what things Mary kept in her heart? I think I have an idea: Mary kept the mystery of the incarnation in her heart, pondering and relishing it with reverence and awe. 

   As I reflect on today’s Gospel, the image of a mother’s heart, like God’s heart, as a large and deep pot, or a deep well, strikes me as a profound invitation to meditation and contemplation. This rich symbol reveals a spiritual depth and rootedness; it signals an amazing capacity to birth and to contain God, which is what Mary does. Such a gift of rootedness and depth is precisely the opposite of so much shallowness and superficiality that characterizes our world and our relationships in this day and age. 

--Anne Arabome, SSS 

Image source: https://young-catholics.com/8481/the-immaculate-heart-of-mary/#google_vignette
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, February 2, 2025: My eyes have seen your salvation...

My eyes have seen your salvation…

Do we recognize the Lord in our midst? 

    The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord was once the final feast of the Christmas season, the last in a series of childhood events that reveal Jesus’ identity to all those who witness it. Luke’s Gospel recounts that when the days were completed for their purification, Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to Jerusalem. A series of rituals were necessary, according to the law of Moses, including offering the sacrifice of a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. Mary and Joseph complete these purification rites in the sacred space of the temple. 

   It is this event that Christians would come to understand as having fulfilled the words of God to the prophet Malachi: suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek. In Malachi’s time, the people, having returned to exile, have also returned to their sinful ways, and thus Israel needs to be restored to purity. The Lord, Malachi states, is like the refiner’s fire that brings impurities to the surface of molten metal so that they can be removed. In like manner, God refines us, that he might fashion us according to his will. But who will endure the day of his coming? Only those willing to be purified, those ready to open themselves to God’s will and to God’s mercy. 

   In the Jerusalem temple, two individuals recognize the enormity of the revelation before them: the righteous and devout man Simeon and the prophetess Anna. Both embrace the Christ child, the Lord in their midst, the king of glory of whom Psalm 24 speaks; both welcome the Ark of the Covenant into the temple in keeping with Malachi’s prophecy. Anna and Simeon’s hearts are open and ready to let the king of glory come in! 

   Jesus is dedicated in the temple that he might, as the Letter to the Hebrews says, share in blood and flesh, becoming like his brothers and sisters in every way. In so doing, he conforms his life to the Father’s will, allowing himself to be tested through what he suffered, thereby bringing salvation to all. Moreover, this suffering is the very sword that will pierce Mary, his mother, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. Already, all Mary is holding in her heart will be revealed in her Son and his life and death; Mary has let go of her own will in order to embrace the will of God. Mary will suffer because of all that Jesus must suffer for the sake of all mankind; Simeon’s blessing reminds us that Mary’s experience as mother enduring her Son’s death will break her heart open, revealing her heart to all. 

   Purification is transformative; only through such refinement are we prepared to take Jesus into our arms as Simeon does, and to proclaim the news of his arrival, as Anna does. Our hearts, like Mary’s, must be broken open, so that something new can come forth. Yet if we are open to God’s will and to his love for us, allowing ourselves to live in that love, we – the Body of Christ – can be be a a light to the nations, a light for revelation to all. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

We are his Body now (Lori Stanley / Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

I have heard in Mass,
“Become what you receive –
the Body of Christ.”
God is continually inviting us
to participate in that becoming!

 --Lori Stanley 

    Was the incarnation only a 33-year experiment, a one-shot incursion by God into human history? No! The marvel of the mystery is that God took on human flesh and has never since ceased to have human flesh. 

    In St. Paul’s words, “We are the body of Christ.” We don’t replace Christ’s historical body, we are not like his body, nor are we even his mystical body, we are his body; flesh, blood, tangible, in history, and to the extent that we live in grace, the on-going incarnation, God in flesh in history. 

    We are his body now. When we forgive, Christ is forgiving; when we bind, Christ is binding; when we console, Christ is consoling. When we suffer anguish over a loved one, the lamb of God is bleeding. 

    When people accept our love, they are accepting Christ’s love. When their hearts are warmed and moved because we love them, they are being moved and repentance is taking place through Christ and the Holy Spirit. That is the mystery of the incarnation! It is true! 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI

Image source: https://www.christiancentury.org/article/sundays-coming-premium/body-shaming-tears-apart-body-christ
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There are no spare parts in the Body of Christ (Andrew Petiprin)

   All of our differences, which check every box in the secular book of identities and priorities, become greater assets to Christ as they are sublimated in communion with Christ and his holy fellowship. There are no spare parts in the Body of Christ. No one among the people of God is left out of the circle, no matter what their past deeds and present scars show. But there is no one left unchanged. No brokenness is destined to stay that way. 

 [So,] move forward in these troubled times with the work of Christ. We need him more than we could ever say; but he needs us too. 

--Andrew Petiprin 

 

Image source: Br. Mickey McGrath, OSFS, https://outreach.faith/2022/06/the-many-colors-of-the-body-of-christ-a-meditation-for-corpus-christi/
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The Spirit of the Lord is upon me (Bishop Robert Barron)

    In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus begins his Galilean ministry with a prophetic message in the synagogue at Nazareth: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord." 

    The moment has arrived, the privileged time, the kairos; something that human beings have been longing for and striving after and hoping to see has appeared. In Jesus of Nazareth, the divine and human have come together in a salvific way, and this reconciliation is the long-awaited kingdom of God. 

    One motif in Scripture is persistent: the passionate desire for deliverance, the cry of the heart toward the God from whom the people feel alienated. What Jesus announces in his first sermon, and what he demonstrates throughout his life and ministry, is that this wild desire of his ancestors, this hope against hope, this intimate union of God and humanity, is an accomplished fact, something that can be seen and heard and touched. 

--Bishop Robert Barron

Image source 1: https://abramkj.com/2013/01/26/jesus-makes-a-pun-in-the-synagogue/ 
Image source 2: https://bible-history.com/sketches/jesus-reading-isaiah-scroll
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How does God come to me as I listen to the Word? (Henri Nouwen)

   The Gospels are filled with examples of God's presence in the word. Personally, I am always touched by the story of Jesus in the synagogue of Nazareth. There he read from Isaiah:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
for he has anointed me
to bring good news to the afflicted.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives,
sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
 to proclaim a year of favor from the Lord.
(Luke 4:18-19) 

   After having read these words, Jesus said, "This text is being fulfilled today even while you are listening." Suddenly, it becomes clear that the afflicted, the captives, the blind, and the oppressed are not people somewhere outside of the synagogue who, someday, will be liberated; they are the people who are listening. And it is in the listening that God becomes present and heals. 

    The Word of God is not a word to apply in our daily lives at some later date; it is a word to heal us through, and in, our listening here and now. 

    The questions therefore are: How does God come to me as I listen to the word? Where do I discern the healing hand of God touching me through the word? How are my sadness, my grief, and my mourning being transformed at this very moment? Do I sense the fire of God's love purifying my heart and giving me new life? These questions lead me to the sacrament of the word, the sacred place of God's real presence. 

--Henri Nouwen

Image source: Jonathan Roumie as Jesus in The Chosen, Season 3, Episode 3,  https://www.facebook.com/InsideTheChosen/posts/a-scene-from-episode-3-we-cant-wait-to-show-you-sunday-night-the-world-premiere-/1361887391271143/
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The Word enters our hearts (Pope Francis)

   The Lord does not seek skilled commentators of the Scriptures, as much as he seeks docile hearts that, welcoming his Word, allow themselves to be changed within. This is why it is so important to be familiar with the Gospel, to always have it at hand — even a small-sized Gospel in our pockets, in our purses to read and reread, to be passionate about it. When we do this, Jesus, the Word of the Father, enters into our hearts, he becomes intimate with us and we bear fruit in Him. And thus, each of us can become a living, different and original 'translation' of the one Word of love that God gives us. We see this in the lives of the saints – no one is the same as the other, they are all different, but with the same Word of God. 

--Pope Francis

Image source: https://aleteia.org/2023/01/27/3-pocket-gospels-to-carry-with-you-through-life
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Always pay attention to the Word of God (St. Francis de Sales)

    Always pay attention to the Word of God, whether you hear or read it in private, or listen to it publicly proclaimed. Listen with attention and reverence; seek to profit by it, and do not let the precious words fall unheeded. Receive them into your heart as a costly balsam. Imitate the Blessed Virgin who ‘kept all the sayings’ concerning her Son ‘in her heart,’ and remember that according as we listen to and receive God’s words, so will He listen to and receive our supplications. 

—St. Francis de Sales 

Happy Feast of St. Francis de Sales! 

Image source 1: https://livingbulwark.net/taking-gods-word-in-the-scriptures-to-heart/
Image source 2: https://nutranomy.com/products/balsam-extracts-liquid
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 26, 2025: All the people were weeping as they heard the words of the law...

All the people were weeping
as they heard the words of the law…
How do we respond to the Word of God? 

    The first time the entire Torah is presented to the people of Israel, it is quite a momentous occasion. The Book of Nehemiah recounts that a large crowd gathers – men, women, and those children old enough to understand – and listens as Ezra the priest reads out of the book from daybreak till midday. When Ezra opens the scroll, the people bow down and prostrate themselves before the Lord, for they know that God is revealed in its words. Indeed, hearing their own story causes the people to weep, but Nehemiah calls them to rejoice: Go, eat rich foods and drink sweet drinks, for today is holy to our Lord. Thereafter, when the people of Israel look for truth and wisdom to be revealed, they look to the Torah — the law – because they long to be in right relationship with God. And, as Psalm 19 clearly explains, if you are in synch with God and attentive to his words, that relationship refreshes the soul, gives wisdom, rejoices the heart, and enlightens the eye. The psalmist knows that God’s words are Spirit and life! 

    Where the people of Israel found God’s law in the Torah, we see the Father revealed in Jesus, his Son, the Word of God Incarnate. The evangelist Luke knew how crucial it was to present a comprehensible narrative of the truth of Jesus’ life, death and rising, that his readers might realize the certainty of the teachings they have received. When Jesus goes into the synagogue in Nazareth on the sabbath day, he opts to read Isaiah’s prophecy of the coming hope, a prophecy fulfilled in their hearing: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. In this reading, God is revealed – although, unlike the people of Nehemiah’s time, the people of Nazareth will not hear the Word, will, in fact, fail to recognize Jesus for who he truly is. 

    When we hear – truly hear – the Word of God, it is fulfilled. If we take the Word into our hearts and speak it with our mouths, as the psalmist did, then we can be a source of sight for the blind, a source of freedom for the oppressed, for we are the hands, the feet, the Body of Christ. And all of those parts, as Paul tells the Corinthian community, are necessary: God placed the parts, each one of them, in the body as he intended. To be effective, to effect real change in our world using the gifts of the Spirit, we must first listen attentively, as the people of Israel did, embracing the Word with the whole of our being, heart, body, soul and mind, that we might then be that Body, truly, in our world. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Transformed a thousand times (Mirza Inayat Khan)

   Each day is a holy place where the eucharist of the ordinary happens, transforming our broken fragments into eternity. All weather must be experienced, the sunshine and the rain. Each feeling must arise and do its work. Happiness can become sadness. And sadness can become happiness again. The truth is that things never really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. When we let go of the expectation that life will get easier, we start to value all these experiences that shape us. Every challenge is an opportunity to become stronger and more beautiful, to discover a deeper understanding and experience of life that is capable of holding both our sorrow and joy. 

    And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so? I did. To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth. A glass of water, a ray of sunshine, a leaf, a caterpillar, a flower, laughter, raindrops, millions of Stone Age hunters and prehistoric birds, fish and ferns. The world will continue to grow and change and so will we. Whether we chose to or not, we will be transformed a thousand times. Our only choice is whether to do so with grace. Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. Nearby is the country they call life. Give me your hand. 

--Mirza Inayat Khan,
 March 31, 2024 

Image source 1: https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/museum-blog/mother-of-monarchs-unexpectedly-rearing-22-caterpillars/
Image source 2: https://kneenandco.com/product/bernardaud-kintsugi-large-vase-cobalt-blue/
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The Holy Spirit is transforming us! (Pope Francis)

   The new things of God are not like the novelties of this world, all of which are temporary; they come and go, and we keep looking for more. The new things which God gives to our lives are lasting, not only in the future, when we will be with him, but today as well. God is even now making all things new; the Holy Spirit is truly transforming us, and through us he also wants to transform the world in which we live. Let us open the doors to the Spirit, let ourselves be guided by him, and allow God’s constant help to make us new men and women, inspired by the love of God which the Holy Spirit bestows on us! 

--Pope Francis 

Image source: Phoebe Anna Traquiar, The Progress of a Soul, https://app.smartify.org/en-GB/objects/the-progress-of-a-soul For a fascinating exploration of the meaning of each panel, see https://artsandculture.google.com/story/the-progress-of-a-soul-scottish-national-gallery/LAUBDhi1QBgJ2w?hl=en
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I experienced the presence of the Divine (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.)

In Stride Toward Freedom, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. describes his deep encounter with the Lord in what he came to call his “vision in the kitchen.” Before that night, Dr. King said, he “had never felt an experience with God in the way that you must have it if you’re going to walk the lonely paths of this life.” But on this night, one during which his family had again been threatened with violence and his work was not going as well as he had hoped, everything changed: 

    I was ready to give up. With my cup of coffee sitting untouched before me, I tried to think of a way to move out of the picture without appearing a coward. In this state of exhaustion, when my courage had all but gone, I decided to take my problem to God. With my head in my hands, I bowed over the kitchen table and prayed aloud. The words I spoke to God that midnight are still vivid in my memory. “I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But now I am afraid. The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand before them without strength and courage, they too will falter. I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I’ve come to the point where I can’t face it alone.” 

    At that moment I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never experienced Him before. It seemed as though I could hear the quiet assurance of an inner voice saying: “Stand up for righteousness, stand up for truth; and God will be at your side forever.” Almost at once my fears began to go. My uncertainty disappeared. I was ready to face anything. 

--Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Stride Toward Freedom

Today we remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s
work as a leader of the civil rights movement,
work made possible by Dr. King's acute awareness
of God at work in and through him.
May his legacy of tolerance and a deep faith
in the Lord's love remain strong!

Image source 1: https://www.paintingforhome.com/products/brown-pottery-coffee-cups-cappuccino-coffee-mug-latte-coffee-cup-white-tea-cup-ceramic-coffee-cup-coffee-cup-and-saucer-set 
Image source 2: James Karales, Dr. Martin. Luther King Jr. at Home with His Family, 1962 (in Kitchen), https://high.org/collection/dr-martin-luther-king-jr-at-home-with-his-family-1962-in-kitchen/
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We are asked to do our part (Ann Corkery)

   My attention is drawn to how Jesus chooses to perform this miracle. He could have simply made the wine from nothing, but he involves the servers who fill the jars to the brim with water. He takes the ordinary and transforms it into the extraordinary. It is a foreshadowing of His taking bread and wine which becomes his Body and Blood. The familiar and ordinary becomes the Real Presence. 

   Does Jesus not do this with us? Water, bread, and wine are ordinary, and of this world. We, too, are tied to this world and have our deficits, weaknesses, and blind spots. We have finite knowledge and insight into the Divine. Yet Jesus takes each of us and breathes life into our souls. Through Baptism, we are washed clean of original sin. Through Reconciliation, we are absolved of our sins and renewed. Through the Eucharist, we receive Jesus Himself and His abundant graces. 

   We, like the servers, are asked to do our part in God’s plan. Through God’s Providence, we are each given different gifts to fulfill His plan. As St. Paul notes, “To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.” Our challenge is to recognize these gifts and to be ever mindful that they are given to us from God for a purpose. 

 --Ann Corkery 

Image source: Timothy Schmalz, Wedding at Cana, https://www.sculpturebytps.com/portfolio_page/wedding-at-cana/  

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Open your soul (St. Francis de Sales)

Open your soul to

peace in the morning

and recall it throughout the day. 

--St. Francis de Sales 

Image source 1 & 2:  https://tenor.com/view/the-chosen-jesus-waking-up-smile-happy-gif-21534435
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What is God doing? (Bishop Robert Barron)

   St. Paul tells us that “we walk by faith, not by sight.” We see the world around us. And we can learn to understand it according to conventional categories—political, cultural, economic, etc. Christians don’t turn from the world that reason delivers. 

   But our primary orientation is not given by reason; it’s given by faith. This has nothing to do with irrationality or credulity. It has to do with an appreciation of God and the movement of God—in and through all of the conventional events perceived in the conventional manner. 

   What is God doing? Sometimes it is exceedingly hard to see. But we trust. It might happen slowly and in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence, but God is always acting. From the smallest beginnings can come the accomplishment of God’s purpose. 

   God is working, though we can’t see it with our eyes. That’s why Jesus says, “Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” 

 --Bishop Robert Barron 

Image source: Sadao Watanabe, Wedding at Cana (1971), https://searchcollection.asianart.org/objects/9582/the-wedding-at-cana
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 19, 2025: There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit...

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit…

How often do we see God at work? 

    At the end of the exile of the Israelites in Babylon, the author of Third Isaiah assures the people that, even now, the God whom they had abandoned has not given up on them. In fact, God will transform not only the reputation of the people – Nations shall behold your vindication, and all the kings your glory, the prophet says – God will also transform his God’s relationship with them: you shall be called “my Delight” and your land “Espoused.” God’s mercy is a forgiveness that heals; the entire existence and identity of the people will be transformed by God’s action in their lives. The prophet calls the people to see God at work in their midst, and to follow the recommendation of Psalm 96: Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations with a new song, giving to the Lord glory and praise, the glory due his name.’ 

    In John’s Gospel, the story of the wedding at Cana is the beginning of his signs, signs that will reveal Jesus by showing God at work through him. Those present come to believe in him, with a growing confidence that Jesus is the one God sent, the one in whom all can put their faith. Taking six stone water jars used for Jewish ceremonial washings, Jesus transforms them into something entirely new – the good wine. In so doing, Jesus is transforming not only Jewish practice but also the way the people present understand their faith in God; God at work in Jesus reveals his glory! 

    But God’s work didn’t stop with Jesus. As Paul reminds the Corinthians, There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. The Holy Spirit’s activity in and through the members of the Body of Christ is meant to be a manifestation of Christ himself in the world, through the transformation not only of the members themselves, but also of all those whom we allow God to transform through us. We reveal Christ whenever we allow the Spirit to work through us, thanks to our different gifts, which are manifestations of the Spirit given for some benefit. All that it requires of us that we remain open to allowing God to work, building the faith and hope that make us church, and revealing – what else? – God’s glory! Proclaim it!

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Drenched as we are (Jan Richardson)

As if we could call you
anything other than
beloved
and blessed
drenched as we are
in our love for you
washed as we are
by our delight in you
born anew as we are
by the grace that flows
from the heart of the one
who bore you to us. 

--Jan Richardson,
"Blessing the Baptism" 

Image & poem source:  https://paintedprayerbook.com/2013/01/09/baptism-of-jesus-washed/

Let us welcome God's presence (St. Louis / Pope Francis)

I think more of the place where I was baptized
than of the cathedral where I was crowned.
 For the dignity of a child of God,
which was bestowed on me at baptism,
is greater than that of the ruler of the kingdom.
The latter I shall lose at death;
the other will be my passport to everlasting glory.

–St. Louis IX, King of France 

    And we can ask ourselves: am I aware of the immense gift I carry within me through Baptism? Do I acknowledge, in my life, the light of the presence of God, who sees me as His beloved son, His beloved daughter? And now, in memory of our Baptism, let us welcome God’s presence within us. We can do so with the sign of the cross, which traces in us the memory of the grace of God, who loves us and wishes to stay with us. That sign of the cross reminds us of this. Let us do it together: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 

--Pope Francis 

Image source: Baptism of St. Louis de Montfort, Monfort-sur-Meu, France, https://www.montfortian.info/photogallery/gen--350eme-anniversaire-du-bapteme-de-st-louis-marie-de-montfort.html. (Note that St. Louis, King of France and St. Louis de Montfort are two different French saints of the same name.)
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Jesus' prayerful moment (Shively Smith)

    [In chapter 3,] Luke narrates a four-part baptism sequence in which (1) the people who asked questions were baptized, followed by (2) Jesus’ baptism, and (3) his prayerful moment, accompanied by (4) a visual and auditory revelation. Luke does not describe the form of baptism, only that Jesus and the people were baptized. Similarly, we are not told what Jesus prayed, only that he prayed immediately after baptism. Nonetheless, Jesus’ prayer is a uniquely Lucan detail because neither Matthew nor Mark report it. 

    What is the purpose of prayer in Luke’s baptism story? Perhaps Howard Thurman offers an insight in his meditation called, “Who, or What, is to Blame?” when he says, “Through prayer, meditation, and singleness of mind, the individual’s life may be invaded by strength, insight, and courage sufficient for his needs” (Thurman, Meditations of the Heart). 

--Shively Smith 

Image source:  https://cacina.wordpress.com/2013/01/12/carry-the-gospel-with-you-1487/
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The door to the spiritual life (Bishop Robert Barron)

    One of the earliest descriptions of Baptism is vitae spiritualis ianua, which means “the door to the spiritual life.” To grasp the full meaning of this is to understand something really decisive about Christianity. 

    For Christianity is not primarily about “becoming a good person” or “doing the right thing” or, in Flannery O’Connor’s famous phrase, “having a heart of gold.” Let’s face it: anyone—pagan, Muslim, Jew, nonbeliever—can be any of those things. 

    To be a Christian is to be grafted on to Christ and hence drawn into the very dynamics of the inner life of God. We become a member of his Mystical Body, sharing in his relationship to the Father. 

    It is so important that we are baptized “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” For Baptism draws us into the relationship between the Father and the Son, which is to say in the Holy Spirit. Baptism, therefore, is all about grace—our incorporation, through the power of God’s love, into God’s own life. 

--Bishop Robert Barron,
Gospel Reflection,
January 3, 2022

Image source: Andrea Pisano, Baptism of His Disciples, Baptistery, Florence (1330), https://www.wga.hu/html_m/p/pisano1/andrea/1southdo/panel_09.html
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Do I love them that much? (Madeleine L'Engle)

   In my mind’s ear I can hear God saying to God, “Can I do it? Do I love them that much? Can I leave my galaxies, my solar systems, can I leave the hydrogen clouds and the birthing stars and the journeyings of comets, can I leave all that I have made, give it all up, and become a tiny, unknowing seed in the belly of a young girl? Do I love them that much? Do I have to do that in order to show them what it is to be human?” Yes! The answer on our part is a grateful Alleluia! Amen! God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son…

--Madeleine L’Engle,
Penguins and Golden Calves

Image source: David Bonnell, Baptism of Christ II, https://www.deaconrudysnotes.org/the-baptism-of-the-lord/
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An act of solidarity (Fr. James Martin)

   Jesus somehow came to realize that baptism was what God the Father desired for him—to fulfill “all righteousness.” Perhaps this meant publicly aligning himself with John’s ministry. Perhaps before he began his own ministry, he wanted, in a sense, to pay tribute to that of his cousin, as a way of underlining his solidarity with the Baptist’s message. Jesus may also have wanted to perform a public ritual to inaugurate his own ministry. 

   But there is another possibility, which is that Jesus decided to enter even more deeply into the human condition. Though sinless, Jesus participates in the ritual that others are performing as well. He participates in this movement of repentance and conversion not because he needs it, but because it aligns him with those around him, with those anticipating the reign of God, with the community of believers. It’s an act of solidarity, a human act from the Son of God who casts his lot with the people of the time. It has less to do with his original sin, which he does not carry, than identifying with those who carry that sin, as George and I experienced at the Jordan. The divine is fully immersing himself, literally in this case, in our humanity. 

--Fr. James Martin,
Gospel Reflection (Facebook),
January 12, 2020 

Image source: The Baptism of Christ, icon found at the Monastery of St. Antony at the Red Sea (Monastic Visions, Yale UP), https://copticliterature.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/two-important-books-on-the-beauty-of-coptic-wall-paintings-at-the-monastery-of-saint-antony-and-the-monastery-of-saint-paul-at-the-red-sea-egypt/
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 12, 2025: The grace of God has appeared, saving all...

The grace of God has appeared, saving all…
Do we trust in God’s promises? 

    God’s promise of salvation is ongoing and personal. The prophet Isaiah writes to a community in exile hoping for release of imminent relief from their bondage: speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her service is at an end; her guilt is expiated. The people of Israel can look forward with hope so long as they have confidence and faith in God and in God’s promise. In fact, God’s action in our world surpasses all we might hope for, from the beginning of time. Psalm 104 reminds us to bless the Lord for God’s care of all of his creation: They look to you to give them food in due time; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. Both Isaiah and the psalmist celebrate God’s ongoing care and concern for creation, and God’s constant efforts to renew the face of the earth. 

    Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise to humankind; his coming releases us from our bondage to sin. In Luke’s Gospel, all are baptized, Jesus along with the rest, but the presence of the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus in bodily form like a dove is a revelation of all that Jesus is. All Jesus has done and will do is pleasing to God the Father: You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased, the voice from heaven intones. Like John the Baptist, we are not worthy to loosen the thongs of Jesus’ sandals, and yet he will sacrifice himself on our behalf. The grace of God has appeared, Paul tells Titus, saving all! God, whom we do not and cannot see, has been made manifest, revealed in the Incarnation. Our baptism is our entry into his passion, death and resurrection; we participate that we might be transformed, undergoing the bath of rebirth, that Christ might cleanse for himself a people as his own, eager to do what is good.

    If Isaiah’s prophecy brought comfort to a people who were troubled and living in fear, giving them confidence to persevere, the coming of Jesus should do the same for us. In baptism, we are transformed, that we might conform our lives to his. Grace saves us, training us to live as we ought. We are saved, if only we have faith in him and in the fulfillment of God’s promise to humankind in the person of Jesus Christ.

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Life is so generous a giver (Fra Giovanni Giocondo)

    I am your friend and my love for you goes deep. There is nothing I can give you which you do not have, but there is much, very much, that, while I cannot give it, you can take. 

    No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today. Take heaven! 

    No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant. Take peace! 

    The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach is joy. There is radiance and glory in the darkness could we but see - and to see we have only to look. I beseech you to look! 

    Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its gifts by the covering, cast them away as ugly, or heavy or hard. Remove the covering and you will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love, by wisdom, with power. 

    Welcome it, grasp it, touch the angel's hand that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, a sorrow, or a duty, believe me, that angel's hand is there, the gift is there, and the wonder of an overshadowing presence. Our joys, too, be not content with them as joys. They, too, conceal diviner gifts. 

   Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty - beneath its covering - that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven. 

   Courage, then, to claim it, that is all. But courage you have, and the knowledge that we are all pilgrims together, wending through unknown country, home. 

   And so, at this time, I greet you. Not quite as the world sends greetings, but with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you now and forever, the day breaks, and the shadows flee away. 

--Fra Giovanni Giocondo,
written in 1513 to his friend,
the Countess Allagia Aldobrandeschi

Image source: Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi, Adoration of the Magi (ca. 1440/1460), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adoration_of_the_Magi_%28Fra_Angelico_and_Filippo_Lippi%29
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The magnetism of God's truth (Fr. Billy Swan)

   For generations of the faithful, these wise men represent the whole of humanity whose thirst for truth propels them forward and is at the beginning of every religious quest. They are symbolic of the pull, the fascination being exerted on them by God’s objective truth and unfolding plan. The magi, like us, have felt something of the magnetism of God and his truth, leading us forward to know not just some of the truth, the whole truth. In the words of Pope Benedict XVI, “These figures are forerunners, preparers of the way, seekers after truth, such as we find in every age… They represent the inner aspiration of the human spirit, the dynamism of religions and human reason toward Christ.” 

   The Feast of the Epiphany is a call to conversion. It is a call to stop manipulating reality with perception and to begin conforming perception and ourselves to what is real and what is true. It is about our desire to love the truth, seek the whole truth, and let the light of truth lead us to wherever it takes us. 

--Fr. Billy Swan 

Image source: John August Swanson, Epiphany (1988), https://artandtheology.org/tag/journey-of-the-magi/
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Who is welcome at the Table of the Lord? (Fr. James Martin)

   [The] Magi prefigure all those Gentiles who would later believe in Jesus. What does this mean for us today? Well, all of us would obviously agree that the message of Jesus is for everyone. There’s probably no one in this church today who, if someone asked them sincerely about Jesus, would say, “Well, Jesus is not for you!” 

   By the same token, we are also invited ask ourselves whether we unconsciously believe that Jesus is more for some people than for others. Is Jesus mainly for people like us? Which people are we subtly privileging in our faith community? Who is more welcome at the Table of the Lord? Or who is less welcome at the Table? 

   To put it another way, who is not as readily, or willingly, or joyfully welcomed? The poor? The person on the other side of the political aisle? The person against whom you’ve held a grudge? The divorced and remarried? The LGBT person? The person you feel is not a “good Catholic”? 

   In Luke’s Gospel, the first people who receive the news of Jesus’s birth are the shepherds. They were certainly at the time considered as among the lowest esteemed people. On the literal outskirts of the city. In Matthew’s Gospel, the first to receive the news are the Gentiles, the non-Jews. So from the beginning, the Good News is proclaimed to the most unlikely people. What unlikely people are we barring from our community? 

--Fr. James Martin,

Gospel Reflection,

Facebook, January 4, 2020

Image source: https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/comment/2022/12/20/christmas-reflections-from-the-theos-team-2022
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Hope has arrived (Jordan Feliz)

The night was like no other night
As the world lay fast asleep
The wise men followed heaven's light
Through a desert dark and deep
To a stable that echoed with baby's cries
And they fell to their knees by the manger side, singing 

Holy holy, hallelujah our King
You're the One who sets the world free
Holy holy, earth and heaven will sing
Hallelujah, hallelujah our King 

We're a million miles from Bethlehem
But the story is still the same
And when peace on earth is hard to find
Yeah, we still cry out His name
Lord, we know who You are and who You've been
So we fall on our knees at Your feet again, singing 

Holy holy, hallelujah our King
You're the One who sets the world free
Holy holy, earth and heaven will sing
Hallelujah, hallelujah our King 

(Yeah) Oh, yeah, oh-oo-oo-oh
Hallelujah, hope has arrived
Love took a breath and we came alive
Hallelujah, Jesus has come
We bow before Him
Hallelujah, hope has arrived
Love took a breath and we came alive
Hallelujah, Jesus has come
We bow before Him singing 

Holy holy, hallelujah our King
You're the One who sets the world free
Holy holy, earth and heaven will sing
Hallelujah, hallelujah our King
Holy holy, hallelujah our King 

To hear Jordan Feliz sing Hallelujah Our King (first featured in Chosen Christmas 2021), click on the video below: 

Image source: https://www.shawnthebaptist.org/2016/01/homily-307-lessons-from-the-magi-epiphany/
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Whatever it takes! (Archbishop José H. Gómez / Bishop Robert Barron)

We should renew our desire to look for Christ
with the same determination of the wise men.
 Whatever it takes!

 --Archbishop José H. Gómez 

      The word “epiphany” comes from the Greek words meaning “intense appearance.” It is something that not only gets our attention but also reveals something of enormous significance. For the wise men, of course, it was first the star; but the real epiphany was the baby King. We should be attentive in a similar way to these moments of breakthrough that speak to us of God – and we should respond. 

--Bishop Robert Barron 

Image source: Northern Lights / Aurora borealis above Iceland, https://www.space.com/15139-northern-lights-auroras-earth-facts-sdcmp.html
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Longing for the infinite (Dr. Robert Jeffress / Pope Francis)

Wise men still seek him… 

--Dr. Robert Jeffress  

   The Magi are filled with longing for the infinite, and so they gaze at the stars of the evening sky. They do not pass their lives staring at their feet, self-absorbed, confined by earthly horizons, plodding ahead in resignation or lamentation. They lift their heads high and await the light that can illumine the meaning of their lives, the salvation that dawns from on high. They then see a star, brighter than all others, which fascinates them and makes them set out on a journey. 

    Here we see the key to discovering the real meaning of our lives: if we remain closed in the narrow confines of earthly things, if we waste away, heads bowed, hostages of our failures and our regrets; if we thirst for wealth and worldly comforts – which are here today and are gone tomorrow – rather than becoming seekers of life and love, our life slowly loses its light. The Magi, who are still foreigners and have not yet encountered Jesus, teach us to fix our sight on high, to lift our eyes to the heavens, to the hills, from which our help will come, for our help is from the Lord.

--Pope Francis

Image source: V. Wieringa, O Come Let Us Adore Him, https://farmhouseschoolhouse.com/tag/advent-2/
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 5, 2025: Raise your eyes and look about; they all gather and come to you...

Raise your eyes and look about;
they all gather and come to you…
Who can be saved? 

    When Isaiah prophesies about the return of the people of Israel from exile in Babylon, God promises future prosperity, with Jerusalem as the focal point of the known world: Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance… They all gather and come to you… Indeed, Isaiah says, many will come from all the corners of the known world to pay homage to the God of Israel: Caravans of camels shall fill you, dromedaries from Midian and Ephah; all from Sheba shall come bearing gold and frankincense, and proclaiming the praises of the Lord. God, whose power is over all peoples, is himself is the light that shines upon Jerusalem. A similar theme echoes in Psalm 72, written to foreground the Israelite king, the representative of God on earth: All kings shall pay him homage, all nations shall serve him. All the world is thus called to worship the God of Israel. But can all be saved? 

    Matthew’s Gospel reminds us that Jesus’ coming was for all; salvation is universal. The magi from the east demonstrate that Gentiles are coming to faith without the traditions the Jewish people had. The Jewish people had dealing with God and a history of prophecy predicting the coming of a messiah; the Gentile kings come with pure faith and no doubts in order to offer gifts – treasures, including gold, frankincense and myrrh – to show the depth of their hope. Gentiles are thus to come to understand that there is a place for them in God’s kingdom – salvation is indeed for all – while the Jewish Christians are told that they must make room for all comers, for Jesus died for all humankind. 

    God desires to gather all of his creatures into his kingdom. It is the role of every baptized person, Paul tells the Ephesians, as stewards of God’s grace, to share that grace with all. We too are thus called to be caretakers of the grace we received through baptism, welcoming all into the light that is the Lord! 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com