Pondering

Yesterday's ice disappearing.
Instead of just wishing for a happy new year, we can make it a happy new year.  Mary shows us how.  After the shepherds leave, Luke tells us, "Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart."  We can take five or twenty minutes away from the news, that upsets us anyway, and join Mary in treasuring and pondering.

Merry 6th Day of Christmas

For several weeks much of our cove has had a thin layer of ice.  This morning the wind blew water from the rest of the Lake against it and pushed it all the way into the cove where it melted.  Looked like the spring thaw.
In the beautiful poem that begins John's Gospel the author is not content to talk about a child in Bethlehem, he pushes back further for the origins of Jesus (1:1.)
 "In the beginning was the Word;
  and the Word was with God;
  and the Word was God."
Jews would recognize the first three words as  the first three words in their Bible, and the wider Greek-speaking world would also understand them to mean that the Word existed before and beyond human time and history.  In the second line "with" has the sense of being turned toward God in a dynamic relationship, a personal relationship.  The third line means something like "What God was, the Word also was."
Such words take us in awe into eternity

Let It Be

Roots of two big trees that were brought down across a road in our neighborhood by the ice storm we had December 15-6.
When angel Gabriel told Mary that she was to have a child by the Holy Spirit, she replied, "Let it be done to me as you say (Luke 1:38.)  Mary taught her son to accept God's will and say, "Let it be."  She taught it so well that in the Garden of Olives the night before he was crucified Jesus was finally able to say, "Father, let it be."  I pray to Mary to teach me as well.  "In my hour of darkness, she is standing right in front of me, whispering words of wisdom, 'Let it be.'" (the Beatles)

Peace

The reality of God-With-Us is the source of our Christmas peace.  Our faith in Christ's constant presence and power in us and among us fills us with a deep peace that remains even in the midst of grief and pain, loneliness and worry.  The angels long ago sang to the shepherds, "Peace to God's people on earth."

Joyful Christmas

LOVE became human so that we might become LOVE.

God-With-Us

Many places in our area lost power for 4,5,6 days last week.  You might be able to see in the rising sun on the solstice the ice frozen on the tree limbs and the the trees that are broken.  On Tuesday I gave up and moved into the parish house.
In his Gospel (2:23) Matthew tells us that Mary's son will be called Emmanuel, which means God-With-Us.  At the very end of his Gospel Jesus promises, "I will be with you always. (28:20)"  Matthew bookends his Gospel with this name.  That can help us understand that we are saved, not only by the dying and rising of Jesus, but by his entire life, beginning with his Incarnation and Birth.

Rejoice and Sing for Joy

This weekend we are celebrating Pope Francis' fiftieth anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. How appropriate that on a weekend when the liturgy is full of joy we should be celebrating a man who is the epitome of joy.  The best way to honor him is to imitate his joyful way of drawing others to Jesus.

Contrast

Full  moon in the morning.

John the Baptist's message was dark and heavy.  He expected the Messiah to be the instrument of God's wrath and vengeance.  Jesus is mercy and forgiveness.  It makes John wonder.  He sends some followers to ask Jesus, "Are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another?"  

Jesus says, "Go back and tell John what I am doing; the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised to life, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor."  These are the signs of the one predicted by Isaiah the prophet.

By these same signs the people of our time will recognize us as followers of Jesus.

Change Your Mind

December Dawn

"Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is close at hand," shouts John the Baptist as he appears on the scene in Matthew's Gospel this weekend (3:2.)  Our English word "repent" translates Matthew's Greek word which is literally translated "Change your mind."  With both church and nation so seriously divided we might try letting go of our own stubborn opinions and opening our minds to understand better where others are coming from.

Happy St. Nicholas Day

St. Nicholas was bishop of Myra (present day Turkey) in the 4th century.  Considering that we know nothing else historically about him, his popularity is amazing.  Patron of children, bankers, pawnbrokers, sailors, perfumers, brides, prostitutes, travelers, fishermen, dock workers, brewers, poets, and prisoners.  Also of Russia, Greece, and Sicily.  Also of hundreds of churches and thousands of men named Nick.  St. Nicholas, pray that we may imitate your generosity.

Harmony of Paradise

"We've got to get ourselves back to the garden."  The description of wild and domestic animals and human beings living together in harmony (Isaiah 11:6-9) is the prophet's dream of returning to Paradise, in its origins a Persian word meaning garden.  We cannot get ourselves back to the garden, but with God's help we can work for harmony with friends and family and the whole human race.

Non-Essentials

In one of the commentaries on Romans 15:4-9, which is the 2nd reading for Second Sunday of Advent, the author mentions that he was shocked when he went to St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and found no kneelers there.  He thought thought that they were required in Catholic churches.  On a day of abstinence he ate in a monastery in Germany and was pleased that the pea soup had ham in it.  He suggested reading Romans 14 and 15 with  those examples in mind. Good advice for us divided Catholics today.

Pharisee?

Even before the adult Jesus shows up, Matthew introduces us to a group that throughout his Gospel  will be opposed to Jesus.  The Pharisees were a Jewish group active in Palestine 200 years before Christ to 100 years after him.  They put the observance of religious laws and rules over all other moral obligations.  They were like serious religious people who have gotten their priorities confused.  As we meet them throughout Matthew's Gospel this year, instead of condemning their way of being religious, we might make sure that we don't mirror the Pharisees. 

Advent Right Now

"I'll wager at the very end a body realizes the Lord has already shown Himself.  That things as they are, just what they've always seen, was seeing Him.  As for me, I could leave the world with today in my eyes."
(A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote)