Light in all its many forms is a gift from God. Isaiah offers the people of Israel an image of light pouring over them, blanketing them in God’s splendor: the glory of the Lord shines upon you! The exile of the people had been a time of darkness; now, upon their return to their homeland, they themselves will serve as a beacon of God’s glory for all the world, a revelation of God’s goodness: Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance. And the emotional consequences of God’s gift are powerful: your heart shall throb and overflow, Isaiah tells them, so that the blessings of the Lord will be made manifest to all. Indeed, as Psalm 72 notes, monarchs from the world over will come to pay tribute to the God of Israel: the kings of Tarshish and the Isles, the kings of Arabia and Seba come to bear witness to the justice and profound peace of Israel’s compassionate God.
A like glory is seen by the magi in Matthew’s Gospel when, following the light of the star, they arrive at the place where the child is. Light in this story is not only a physical entity – the light of a celestial body– but also the realization of the child’s significance: they prostrate themselves and do him homage because they realize they have found the ruler who is to shepherd God’s people Israel. In other words, they see the light! And light in the form of revelation is also the subject of St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians: the mystery was made known to me by revelation, he tells them, and it is his responsibility to make this revelation known to the world, namely, that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and copartners in the promise of Christ Jesus. It is no longer just the people of Israel who are blessed with God’s light, but all the world.
Where, since Christmas, have we seen the glory of the Lord revealed? Where have our own epiphanies, our sightings of God’s action in our lives, occurred? How can we be that light, the glory of God, revealed to the nations? How do we participate in the revelation that is God’s love for all people? How can we be stewards of God’s grace, and for whom? For we too are called to live salvation so manifestly that it becomes the universal language spoken by our very existence, and thereby bring God’s love, and God’s light, to bear upon the world. May we be a light to the nations, that God’s may indeed reach to the ends of the earth!
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
We must not seek the child Jesus in the pretty figures of our Christmas cribs. We must seek him among the undernourished children who have gone to bed at night with nothing to eat, among the poor newsboys who will sleep covered with newspapers in doorways.
Let us not tire of preaching love; it is the force that will overcome the world.
--St. Oscar Romero
Image source: Lee Silk Kaercher, Waiting for the Wise Men, https://maryloudriedger2.wordpress.com/2019/12/18/waiting-for-the-wise-men/
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Each time I hear these words [of Simeon], I – as I imagine Mary and Joseph did – grow strangely uncomfortable. Listen to them again: “Lord, now you let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled. My own eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared in the sight of every people, a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel.” Beautiful words, to be sure, but also troubling, for let’s not kid ourselves, when Simeon asks that he be allowed to go, he’s asking to die.
And so, I wonder, why does Luke record this strange scene and song? Why would he move from the beauty and light and joy of the nativity straight to Simeon’s morbid request for death?
Take note: St. Luke is clear that Simeon is able to speak of death so honestly only in the light of the coming of the promised messiah, only, that is, by the confidence that in this helpless child God has come to redeem Israel and save all the world… Simeon perceives that in the Christ-child God has kept God’s promises; that in this babe, set for the rising and fall of many, God has acted once and for all to address the question and specter of death with the promise of life.
And so, Simeon does not ask for death; rather, he accepts it courageously and confidently in the light of God’s promised salvation. And he does so only upon seeing and holding God’s promise in his hands, only after touching and feeling the promise of life which God granted to him through Christ… and which God grants also to us.
And so, we continue singing Simeon’s song simply because it tells of God’s great love for us, a love that even death cannot destroy. For, like Simeon, we also need to hear and see and touch and feel God’s promise, the promise that God will be with us and for us forever, the promise announced in the birth of that innocent babe.
--David Lose
Image source: http://ohclectionary.blogspot.com/2014/02/presentation-of-jesus-in-temple-feb-2.html
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For every believer, and especially for Christian families, the humble dwelling place in Nazareth is an authentic school of the Gospel. Here we admire, put into practice, the divine plan to make the family an intimate community of life and love; here we learn that every Christian family is called to be a small ‘domestic church’ that must shine with Gospel virtues. Recollection and prayer, mutual understanding and respect, personal discipline and community asceticism and a spirit of sacrifice, work and solidarity are typical features that make the family of Nazareth a model for every home.
--St. Pope John Paul II, Angelus, December 30, 2001
Image source: El Greco, The Holy Family (1595), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Family_(El_Greco,_Hospital_de_Tavera)#/media/File:El_Greco_028.jpg
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To hear Kathy Mattea sing this beautiful Christmas song, click on the video below:
Image source: Virginie Demont-Breton, Alma Mater (n.d.), https://eclecticlight.co/2017/12/25/the-nativity-ancient-and-modern/
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--Rev. Dr. Sally Dyck
Image source: http://reigniteuk.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-womb-of-god.html
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Despite her fear and despite the darkness, Mary says, I am the maidservant of the Lord; let it be done to me as you say. At the crucial moment, Mary of Nazareth allows herself to fall in love with God, and in that moment of ecstasy, the Son of God enters the world for its salvation.
The human tragedy began with Adam and Eve’s grasp; the divine comedy commences with Mary’s letting-go. This is why the medieval commentators, with their delicious sense of the co-penetration of all parts of the Bible, observed that the Ave of the angel of the Annunciation reverses Eva, the mother of all the living.
Mary said, Be it done to me as you say. Why is surrender such a critical part of falling in love with God?
--Bishop Robert Barron,
Gospel Reflection,
December 20, 2019
Image source: Hail, Mary, Full of Grace, Kerala, India, https://globalworship.tumblr.com/post/105233311695/the-annunciation-india-song-paintings
God consecrated the female body, not only the womb that would welcome the Incarnation, but the breasts that provided mother’s milk to the Messiah and her poor, postpartum body that rode a donkey into exile, emigrating to Egypt with a newborn, so far from her own mother and the comfort and companionship of her cousin Elizabeth. Consecrated, too, was the physical anxiety that drove the frenzied search for the boy who went missing in Jerusalem after the Passover; the gut-wrenching pain of people turning against her son, calling him crazy, plotting his demise and abandoning him in the hour of his death. Holy was the commitment standing on Calvary, drawing on a physical and emotional strength so intrinsic to who Mary was, that it seems to have been cellular, similar to the courage born in her marrow bone, to borrow an expression from the Irish poet, William Butler Yeats: She that sings a lasting song, Thinks in a marrow-bone. Mary’s yes made her whole, a wholeness for which we all long. She shared so single-heartedly, so fully in the life of Jesus, that God invited Mary to share fully in his resurrection. If we say yes, we can become whole.
--Pat McDonogh
Image source: Paul Woelfel, Annunciation (Nigeria), https://curiouschristian.blog/2018/12/14/the-annunciation-nigerian-style/
God made it clear to the people of Israel from the beginning that their focus should be not on their own actions, but rather on what God promises to do in them and for them. In the Second Book of Samuel, God gives King David hope: I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm. Salvation will not come through David’s efforts, but through God’s – David has but to open to God’s work in him. Christians read this passage as a promise fulfilled in Jesus, the Son of God, a promise extended to all people. Psalm 89 extols this promise: through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness. We are fully aware of the enormity of the covenant sworn to David and, we now know, fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ.
Unlike David, who is concerned about what he himself can do, Mary does not question the activity of God: I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word, she tells the angel Gabriel in Luke's Gospel. Unlike David, Mary is not focused on herself, but rather on what God is doing in her, and she surrenders herself to God’s work in her. We don’t know what Mary’s plan was for that day, but it probably did not involve meeting with an angel; Gabriel is an interruption into the quiet life of Mary. And yet, when all that is left her is to accept or reject the angel’s statement, Mary says Yes, Fiat, let it be done to me according to your word. She never questions whether God will be with her; that is a given. Hers is the obedience of faith of which Paul speaks to the Romans. We cannot manufacture faith, for it is God’s gift, God working in us, God’s strength within us. We can only accept God’s work in us by owning it, participating it, actively choosing to accept the gift, and to accept Jesus Christ, revealed as the perfect love of the Father.
Salvation come from our saying yes to God: let it be done to us according to your word. What if every day were focused on what God was doing in us rather than on ourselves? If we were, every day would be an adventure! Mary surrenders herself to God’s work; for us, such surrender is much more difficult. But when God leads us in a direction different from the one we have foreseen, we need to be open to the interruption, open to God’s will, and present to whatever God brings us in the moment. Then the Lord will be with us as well!
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
The Lord is coming, always coming. When you have ears to hear and eyes to see, you will recognize him at any moment of your life. Life is Advent; life is recognizing the coming of the Lord.
--Henri Nouwen
Image source: Alexey Yegorov, Simeon the Righteous (1830’s-40’s), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simeon_(Gospel_of_Luke)#/media/File:Yegorov-Simeon_the_Righteous.jpg Quotation source
--K. Chirpczuk, John the Baptist
Image source: Nicolas Poussin, St. John Baptizing the People (ca. 1636), https://www.wikiart.org/en/nicolas-poussin/st-john-baptising-the-people
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Jesus tells us to discern the finger of God in our lives by reading the signs of the times. The idea isn’t so much that we look to every kind of social, political, and religious analysis to try to understand what’s going on in the world, but rather that we look at every event in our lives, personal or global, and ask ourselves: What’s God saying to me in this event?
--Fr. Ron Rolheiser OMI
Image source: Michelangelo, Creation of Adam, detail, Sistine Chapel (c.1512), http://www.godgossip.org/article/gods-finger-in-our-lives
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Are you aware that God is at work in you right now?
We tend to take it for granted that God is always at work in us… even if we aren’t even thinking about God or God’s work. But in fact, God’s work in us is central to our existence and to our progress through life. When Isaiah tells the people that God has clothed me with a robe of salvation and wrapped me in a mantle of justice, the prophet is reminding them that his growth and his call are not his own doing: God is at work in him, and the people must likewise put their faith in God, opening to his work in them, that they might bring glad tidings to the poor, heal the brokenhearted, and more.
John the Baptist knows that the priests and Levites do not recognize what God is doing in their midst, though he himself does. John's Gospel tells us that John came to testify to the light, to tell all that God is already at work bringing the Messiah they long for. John may not understand fully who he himself is or what God is doing in him, but he trusts that God is at work and can give witness as the voice of one crying out in the desert because he believes in what God has sent him to do. The intangible work of God is happening in us, always, and we must give thanks because we have faith that this is true; we must find joy in him, as John did in the womb, in the fact that the Lord is present and active in our lives, rejoicing that we can rely on his power, not our own, so long as we open to that power of his love, and to the mercy that is the best expression of that love.
Similarly, Paul will instruct the Thessalonians to rejoice always, so that the God of peace may make you perfectly holy. We are to be aware of God’s work in us in all circumstances, Paul says, never letting anything – and especially not suffering – put a damper on the Spirit, the light of Christ, at work in us. Attention to God’s will will lead us to deeper mercy, deeper love. Mary is aware of this when she sings, in Luke’s Canticle, the Almighty has done great things for me! Mary’s soul rejoices because of all that God has done for her, and for the world, reaching out to all in need of his mercy. By conceiving the child Jesus in her through the action of the Spirit, God has blessed her with his grace and mercy, not just for her sake but for the sake of the world – what better reason to rejoice? May we too be ever aware of the working of God in us, that we may rejoice always before the wonders of God’s loving care and mercy!
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places – and there are so many – where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite series of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.
--Howard Zinn
Image source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/839011/what-would-happen-world-started-spinning-backwards-planets-science
--Elizabeth O’Donnell Gandolfo
Image source: Jean Sylvestre, Annunciation (recycled steel; 2013), from his Infancy of Jesus series, https://artandtheology.org/2017/12/23/infancy-of-christ-metalworks-by-haitian-artist-jean-sylvestre/
Sometimes hope is a radical act, sometimes a quietly merciful response, sometimes a second wind or just an increased awareness of goodness and beauty. Maybe you didn’t get what you prayed for, but what you got instead was waking to the momentousness of life, the power of loving hearts. You hope to wake up in time to see the dawn, the first light, a Technicolor sunrise, but the early morning instead is cloudy with mist. Still, as you linger, the ridge stands majestically black against a milky sky. And if you pay attention, you’ll see the setting of the moon that illumined us all as we slept. And you see a new day dawn.
--Anne Lamott,
Facebook, May 14, 2020
Image source: The comet Neowise above the fog on Mt. Tam, by @glassmello, shared at: https://www.sfchronicle.com/science/article/NEOWISE-hurtles-past-Earth-Everything-you-need-15411272.php
Hope looks at the facts, looks at God’s promise, and then, without denying the facts or turning away from the evening news, lives out a vision of life based upon God’s promise, trusting that a benevolent, all-powerful God is still in charge of this world and that is more important than whether or not the news looks good or bad on a given night.
--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI
Facebook, March 25, 2020
Image source: https://marketrealist.com/2020/07/worried-about-us-stock-market-crash-so-everyone/
--Fr. Greg Boyle
(A note about the images in this post: Hunter Kelly, son of Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly and his wife Jill, lived for over eight years with Krabbe Leukodystrophy (a fatal disease of the nervous system), yet his life was filled with hope and love, determination and grace, bravery and joy. Hunter is remembered by the Hunter’s Hope Foundation, which raises money to provide hope to children suffering throughout the world. For more information: http://www.huntershope.org)
Image source: https://www.huntershope.org/
You will teach them to fly, but they will not fly your flight. You will teach them to dream, but they will not dream your dream. You will teach them to live, but they will not live your life. Nevertheless, in every flight, in every life, in every dream, the print of the way you taught them will remain.
--St. Mother Teresa
Even after so many years at Our Lady of Mount Carmel and so many apparently insurmountable challenges, you continue to teach us so much, Fr. Pat! Your pastoral devotion to this community throughout the pandemic has been extraordinary; your commitment to making Communion – and community – possible both in person and via live stream, has been phenomenal; your preaching on social justice and the gospel of love has inspired us all. On this, the anniversary of your ordination to the priesthood, we pray for you a version of the prayers said over confirmandees:
Renew in your servant Patrick Michaels the covenant you made with him at his baptism; send him forth in the power of that Spirit to perform the service you set before him. Defend, O Lord, your servant Patrick Michaels with your heavenly grace, that he may continue yours for ever, and daily increase in your Holy Spirit more and more until he comes into the fullness of your everlasting kingdom. Strengthen, O Lord, your servant Patrick Michaels with your Holy Spirit, empower him for your service, and sustain him all the days of his life.
Image source: https://www.facebook.com/mountcarmelmv/photos/a.3382414085153323/3382456685149063 (Photo credit: Mike Kuczkowski)
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The Lord does not delay his promise…
Do you hope in the promise of the kingdom to come?
The people of Isaiah’s time have been in a state of despair but, as they near the end of their exile in Babylon, God calls upon them not to lose hope: Jerusalem’s service is at an end, her guilt is expiated. God promises a straight, flat path home for them through the desert – an extraordinary promise in a landscape that usually meanders up and over mountains and through valleys. God as shepherd will carry the lambs in his bosom, a source of salvation to all who hope in him. Psalm 85 develops God’s promise with a focus on salvation – the intangible fulfillment of the promise of a kingdom filled with kindness and truth, justice and peace. Hope is no longer hung solely upon a tangible path to follow home, but upon the intangible elements of true relationship with God.
When, in Mark’s Gospel, John the Baptist appears in the desert, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, his baptism does have a physical, tangible element – but the tangible rite celebrates an intangible reality to which we need to open our very selves. For true repentance to take place, true conversion must happen in our hearts. John can proclaim the people capable of repentance, but only Jesus can transform those hearts, bringing them the hope of salvation. The Second Letter of Peter also focuses upon repentance as a path to new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. If we are focused on our ultimate perfect union with God’s love, then we will live with our whole life is directed toward that intangible kingdom that is our hope for the future.
We live with a daily tension between our temporal, tangible reality and the eternal, intangible kingdom to come. Our hope cannot be found in the tangible, but in the promise God has made to us and our ability to invest in that promise and to allow our hearts to be transformed by it. This is the value we want to fuel our existence, a life conducted in holiness and devotion, that we might be ready for the kingdom when it comes in its fullness.
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
--Fr. John Bartunek
Image source: https://time.com/3708399/blind-art-mona-lisa/
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