Epiphany - 2019

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Mary Mother of God

Today is the oldest feast honoring Mary. The gospel passage for this feast is same as the Christmas Mass at Dawn, which tells of the visit of the shepherds to Mary's new born son, Jesus. For this feast, the verses telling of Jesus being brought to the temple on the eighth day to be circumcised and given the name Jesus is added. Until recently, this day was called the feast of the Circumcision of Jesus. Today the focus for this feast is on Mary as Mother of God and has the importance of a solemnity. In the first centuries, the Church struggled with the question of the true nature of Jesus. Was he merely a man, albeit, the greatest of all the prophets that God had raised up. Or was he much more, indeed, did he share in the very divinity of God? The First Council of Nicaea in 325, declared that the Son was true God, co-eternal with the Father and begotten from His same substance, arguing that such a doctrine best codified the Scriptural presentation of the Son as well as traditional Christian belief about him handed down from the Apostles. This belief was expressed by the bishops in the Creed of Nicaea, which would form the basis of what has since been known as the Nicene Creed. The Church quickly realized that since Jesus is both man and God, and since Mary in her womb and gave birth to Jesus, it is right to call her, Mother of God - Theotokos - the womb that held within it the one who is both human and divine. This is a great mystery of faith. In the 2nd Reading, Paul sees in this mystery God's wonderful plan for our humanity. Jesus came from the divine to enter into our lowly humanity. He leads us back through our communion in his humanity to share in his divinity. So in baptism, we mere humans are born again and now we share in the divinity of Jesus. By our rebirth in Jesus, it is right to speak of Mary, mother of Jesus, as our mother as well. As we begin a new calendar year - which reminds us that we are moving ever closer to our ultimate destiny, let us keep these things foremost in our thoughts: Jesus the son of God is our brother, dear to us as we are to him. That Mary is our heavenly mother, caring for us with the love and protection of a devoted and loving Mother. Think of ourselves, not as some weak and failing piece of humanity, headed for the grave, but as a royal child of God the FATHER, beloved as Jesus is loved, protected in the arms of Mary our mother, destined to live in this family for all eternity.

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Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph - 2018

Some remember this feast as being celebrated during the Octave of the Epiphany – then in 60’s, when the liturgical calendar was revised, it was moved to the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas as we have it today. So, what exactly is a family? By definition: A family is most commonly understood as a group of people who are related to each other, especially parents and their children. Sometimes when people talk about a family, they mean children. They decided to start a family.  Or sometimes when people talk about their family, they mean their relatives and ancestors.  Then there is that general group meanings, when we say a family of animals or plants is a group of related species and so on. Today we are celebrating the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. At first glance this is a familiar family image – husband, wife and a son – but the reality of this family is profoundly more than what it appears to be. What then is the significant difference about this family? – We have a husband, a mother, and a son living together as a family – what is different, what makes this family Holy is who they are and the way they are brought together – they come together as a family by God’s divine intervention; It is God who brings Joseph together with Mary as husband and wife when the Law would forbid their marriage after Mary is found to be pregnant.  Mary conceives Jesus in her womb and becomes Jesus real mother, but not by Joseph’s seed.  Jesus’ Father is God, Jesus is God’s Son, sharing the very life and divinity of God the Father.  Joseph will be a father-gardian to Jesus, caring for all his needs to grow healthy and strong. These are profound mysteries that make this the Holy Family – and herein is to be found a new plan, a new dimension to the natural family as we know it. God wants to make every family a holy family – by uniting them to His Holy Family. Not only is the family to be God’s plan for the continuation of the whole human race – but that the human race is to be formed into one single heavenly family. Now it is here that we must bring into focus the realization that there is an enemy against God’s plans for the family; attacking the family is priority number one for this enemy. We see the beginning of war on the family already in the Christmas story with the murderous undertaking of king Herod to murder Jesus by murdering the holy Innocence children – the feast just celebrated this past Friday. The shield the family is given to employ in its defense is love – husband and wife – parents and children – first revealed in the commandments, then St. Paul lays out God's plan for the Christian family in Ephesians 5&6. The family is the womb of love and the school of love wherein we learn that life itself is dependent on mutual caring, one for another. This priority of mutual caring carries over into the whole of society, making it healthy and strong. Our generation is experiencing a toxic atmosphere for true family life, a climate of selfish, self interest. “Me first and only as long as I like it”. This mentality is proving to be lethal to the family. That makes today’s feast all the more important for us to commemorate. Here are three way we may do this: To gather as families of faith in worship and prayer, thanking God for the gift of his Spirit who fills our hearts with divine love and teaches us how to love one another.  Filled with that love flowing from the Holy Family, let us be instruments of compassion and healing, in our families and others, where the absence of love has wounded and divided.  To be both sign and advocate in our society for all that strengthens and advances authentic family life as modeled in the Holy Family.

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Christmas - 2018

The birth of Jesus took place during a period of history known as the Pax Romana (Latin for "Roman Peace") It was a long period of relative peace and stability experienced by the Roman Empire between the accession of Caesar Augustus, founder of the Roman principate, and the death of Marcus Aurelius, last of the "good emperors". During this period of approximately 206 years (27 BC to AD 180), the Roman empire achieved its greatest territorial extent and its population reached a maximum of up to 70 million people – a third of the world’s population. Keeping track of population numbers was a preoccupation of the Romans at this time, as we see in today’s gospel. So, it is with Joseph and Mary, they must participate in the census the Romans are now conducting. The Son of the God, creator of this vast universe, is now confined to this obscure planet earth, and who’s life is now under the influence of a mere human dictator. The idea that the Lord and creator of all these vast worlds could now be dwelling in the human body of a baby boy is a challenge quite beyond any mind to fully grasp. To get us started, God employs his heavenly messengers. They announce it – to Joseph, to Mary, to Zachariah & Elizabeth, to lowly hillside shepherds, and finally to the Magi, representing all the nations. But the plan to reveal this mystery of God-made-man to future generations will go beyond the messenger-voices of angels. A voice in the desert begins to cry out, “… prepare, the Lord is coming.” Then the Lord’s own voice, “I am He, come from the Father – believe?” From here the messenger-voices began to grow in numbers, down through the ages. And the messenger-voices continue today. They are many and diverse, telling this same mystery of God-made-man, still with us in our world today. A mystery is a reality that can be known but not fully known, able to be seen but only partially, able to be encountered yet leaving us in wonder and awe, desiring to see more. This is faith. Speaking of the people of his own time, St. Paul remarks, “For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom.” 1 Cor. 1:22 In our time it is "scientism" that makes the demand: “. . . show us the scientific proof of what your religion calms to be true if it is to be believed”. So who are the messenger-voices that God is sending into our world today. It is us, we who believe, we are the messenger-voices now who must continue to announce the Message to our world. And we do so not simply with words, but with lives lived for all to see. Our lives of holiness, manifesting spiritual and corporal works of mercy are the action-voices that will convict and convince the mind of scientism. Are you ready to be a messenger-voice in this age? Let us go forth now, the world is waiting to hear truth which is the Good News.

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