God's Peace Enabling Us to Walk as Jesus Walked

Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family of Mary, Joseph and Jesus, persons highly favored by God and playing a significant role in our salvation.  The first reading, Sirocco 3: 26, 12-14, speaks to us of the importance of how one relates to one's parents and how parents relate to their children! Paul asks us, in the second reading, Colossians 3: 12-21, to "[p]ut on, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another; if one has a grievance against  another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so much you also do. And over all these put on love, that is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body. And be thankful."

There is no better counsel for the New Year! We do not need to look for any other New Year's Resolutions. If we read this passage from Colossians every evening and examine our behaviors that day in light of this passage, we are well on our way to experiencing the peace that only God can give!  In that peace is the strength we need to begin anew the next day as "God's chosen ones, holy and beloved," putting on "heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another."  It is in peace that we are given the wisdom to forgive others as God has forgiven us. It is the peace of Christ that opens our hearts to God's love within us, "the bond of perfection."

Let us pray for this peace that God wants to give us each day and each night.

God's Beloved Children

In today's first reading, 1 John 2: 3-11, St. John addresses us as the "Beloved".

What a powerful message. John names us for who we really are:  God's "Beloved",   that is "dearly loved," or "a much loved person,"  "one who is loved affectionally and unconditionally". By whom? God, our creator.  Proof? God sent His only begotten Son to earth to become one of us to teach us how to love and how much the Father loves us. He sent His only begotten Son who held nothing back to show us the depth, the breadth, the length and the height of God's love for each one of us--being obedient to the Father to the point of enduring a torturous death at the hands of evil men for our salvation!

In today's Gospel, Luke 2: 22-35, the prophet Simeon gives testimony to who Jesus is and why He was sent to us by saying:  "...my own eyes have seen the salvation which you prepared in the sight of every people, a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel."   Prophetess Anna, also there at the moment that Mary and Joseph brought Jesus into the Temple to meet the requirements of the Law, "began to praise God; and she spoke of the child to all who looked forward to the deliverance of Jerusalem" (Luke 2:38), and, not only the deliverance of Jerusalem, but also the deliverance of all humankind from Satan's determination to keep us out of heaven by luring us into sin and disobedience, into lying, cheating, and other sins that harden our hearts and block us from seeking forgiveness of our sinful behaviors and attitudes..

How does John the Baptist prepare the way of the Lord? By "proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (Luke 3: 4).

May you and I, in humility, admit our sinfulness before the Lord, repent and be saved.  May we recognize our need for our Savior Jesus Christ.

God Watches Over Us

Today we celebrate the Feast of Holy Innocents, who were murdered by Herod.  Furious that the magi did not cooperate with his plan to "worship" the child Jesus, he ordered that all little children two years and under be slaughtered, in hopes that among them would be Jesus. God had other plans and spoke to Joseph in a dream after the magi left:  "Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you.  Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him" (Matthew 2: 13-18).

Joseph did not question God. He simply obeyed, got up in the middle of the night and left Bethlehem for Egypt!  As with Joseph, God also is intimately involved in our lives, directing us to do certain things to protect us from evil, though we may not be away of danger that is about to come upon us.  God watches out for us, as He watched out for His only begotten Son.  As children of God, the Lord cares about the dangers we may be entering and redirects us through the Spirit of God speaking within us. Those hunches we follow have a divine origin.  Are we listening, as Joseph did?  Do we live our lives as children of God? Do we realize that God watches out for us, day in and day out?  He cares!  He bothers. He takes us by the right hand and walks beside us through the valley of darkness. He is, in fact, our light in the darkness, as He was for Mary and Joseph!

Let us pray for this awareness!

St.John, the Beloved Disciple

Today we celebrate the feast of St. John, the Evangelist, the beloved disciple who rested his head on the chest of Jesus at the Last Supper, who was present when Jesus was transfigured and spoke with Elijah and Moses just before His Passion, Death and Resurrection. John was one of the apostles  who accompanied Jesus to the Garden of Gethsemane and the only one to stand beneath the cross with Mary, Jesus' mother. John listened to Jesus' words throughout Jesus' three-year ministry and was the first of the apostles to believe in Jesus' resurrection. "[H]e saw and believed," John tells us in today's Gospel, John 290: 1, 2-8, when Peter and John entered the empty tomb and saw "the cloth that had covered [Jesus] head...."

We can fall in love with Jesus just as John fell in love with Jesus.  How?  By listening to His Living Word in the Scriptures, Words that have power to transform our hearts, enlighten our minds and reconcile us to God.  We can also fall in love with Jesus  by staying close to Mary, Jesus' mother, by being with others in their "Gethsemanes" and "Calvaries", as John was with Jesus. And, yes, we can fall in love with Jesus by receiving the Eucharist as John did at the Last Supper and whenever he broke the bread  with others "in memory"of Jesus, being given the power to do what Jesus did at the Last Supper--change bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus--a divine power given to every ordained priest through the bishop.

What am I, what are you, doing to fall in love with Jesus?

St. Stephen's Witness

It is the day after Christmas and the Church celebrates the martyrdom of St. Stephen described in the first reading, Acts 6: 8-10; 7: 54-59.  In the Gospel itself, Matthew 10: 17-22, Jesus asks us to "[b]eware of men, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans....Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved."  Eight days after his birth, Jesus is brought to the temple and Simeon says to Mary:  "You see this child: he is destined for the fall and for the rising of many in Israel, destined to be a sign that is rejected--and a sword will pierce your own soul too--so that the secret thoughts of many may be laid bare" (Luke 1: 14-15).

Jesus also tells us in the Gospels not to be afraid when  you encounter troubles in the world, as He, too, encountered troubles and conquered them. In the darkest day of our salvation history, when Jesus hung on the cross dying, He, like Stephen, said to God: "Into your hands I commend my spirit." Three days later Jesus conquered suffering and death and rose again. Forty days later, Jesus ascended into heaven. Stephen, as he faced his murderers, was "filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and he said, 'Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of God standing at the right hand of God.'"

May we like Jesus and like Stephen commend our spirits to the Lord when we, in turn, are at death's door waiting to pass through death, by whatever means, and enter eternal life. Like Stephen, when we are dying, may we look to heaven and see Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father waiting for our return to our eternal home.  In preparation for that moment, may we, throughout life's difficulties turn to the Lord for help.  May we always take refuge in the Lord and focus on the Lord when we are facing challenges instead of locking ourselves into our anger, feeding it and thus succumbing to temptations we would otherwise be able to resist because God is always at our side, as He was for St. Stephen.

A Blessed, Faith-filled Glorious Christmas

In today's first reading, Isaiah 52: 7-10, the prophet Isaiah burst forth with "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings glad tidings, announcing peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation and saying to Zion, 'Your God is King!'"  As we take time to ponder the crib, looking at the baby Jesus, may we realize that that tiny baby born in a filthy stable is "Your God and King," Christ the Lord, Creator of the Universe, your Creator and the Creator and of every human being who lives in this universe.  That tiny baby is God the Son, who becomes one like us in all things but sin.  That tiny baby is the only begotten Son of God, who leaves the glory of heaven and does not cling to equality with God but humbly becomes a human being.  That tiny baby is God, His glory and His Power hidden from us!

My mind is baffled by the truth that God also hides Himself from us and for us in the consecrated Host.  Yes, my faith tells me that God is hidden in this Sacred Bread--we do not see God in His glory or power, yet, in the Eucharist, I believe, God does come to us in all of His power and glory to transform us into Himself, purifying our hearts,  renewing our minds, reconciling us to the Father--making us one with the Trinity  and with one another--and, yes, strengthening our wills to follow His Way more faithfully.

I invite each of us, with Mary and Joseph, with all of the angels of God, with those who have preceded us into heaven, to meditate/ponder:

The humility of God in the infant Jesus.

The humility of God in the Sacred, consecrated Host and whom, I believe, we receive every time we receive Holy Communion during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass!  What a privilege and what a grace!

The humility of God dwelling in each human being who is full of grace and continually cooperates with God's graces to do what is right and just, merciful and loving, compassionate and understanding!

Truly God is with until the end of time! With all of the angels in heaven and on earth we sing: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will! Are you and I persons of good will?  If not, what needs to change?

A Human Will Embracing God's Will

In today's Gospel, Luke 1: 57-66, we witness Elizabeth and John rejoicing in the birth of their son.  When the eighth day to circumcise him was upon them, those conducting the ritual wanted to name him Zachariah after his father. Elizabeth says: "No. He will be called John." The presiders objected: "There is no one among your relatives who has this name." Not being able to communicate with Zachariah because of his muteness, the presiders made signs to him.  Zachariah asks for a tablet and writes: "John is his name." Immediately, Zachariah's ability to communicate is restored!

Wow! Talk about God revealing His will and His power, both in the birth of John the Baptist and in restoring Zachariah's ability to speak!  God also wills for His plan to be fulfilled in us and that we, too, become His mouthpiece, conforming our wills to His!  Whatever within ourselves that we have distanced from God, God brings near to Himself. Whatever is  barren, God makes fruitful. And whatever part of our hearts has become hardened, God softens so that the will of God in our lives can be realized, as it was within Elizabeth and Zachariah.