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For example Year C 2010 is being replaced week by week with Year C 2013, and so on.

Tuesday 30 December 2014

Mary, the Mother of God 2015

Mary, the Mother of God  
(Numbers 6:22-27; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21)


St. Paul who, being totally fascinated by the Risen Christ Who called and commissioned him, hardly even mentions Our Lady, nevertheless gives us a few words in her regard that reveal to us something of the innermost ‘secret’ of Mary:
God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to ransom those under the Law.
‘God sent His Son to ransom those under the Law’.  However, His Son was born of a woman under the Law St. Paul tells us … could she, then, have been a woman yet ‘to be ransomed’?  Obviously not!  Therefore, Paul is assuming as known the forestalling ransom of Mary, that is the prevenient grace of her Immaculate Conception, enabling her to fittingly bear and give birth to the Son of God come ‘to ransom those under the Law’.
God did ‘great things’ for Mary as she would not just humbly acknowledge but exultantly proclaim to her cousin Elisabeth; but He dld not -- could not because He would not – do them without her co-operation: implicit, as regards her intellectual appreciation of what was happening to her and planned for her -- such as her Immaculate Conception and the strict Personal Divinity of the Son to be born of her, but totally explicit in her absolute moral self-commitment to the supremely holy and incomprehensibly majestic (above and beyond human comprehension) God of Israel, necessarily involving her relinquishing control of, indeed, embracing total abnegation of, self.  God, I say, would not do such great things for her without her most radical and utterly simple self-commitment in love.  Now, such self-emptiness before Him, such total openness, such absolute selflessness for Him, His purposes and His glory; that indeed, is the secret of Mary:
Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to Your Will.
So absolute -- so complete and unreserved -- was the response of Mary to God’s initial words delivered to her by the angel Gabriel, that Jesus openly praised her for that above all else (Luke 11:27-28):
A certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, "Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!"  But He said, "More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"
Blessed are those who hear the word of God, who like Mary let that word freely -- like a threaded needle -- introduce the Spirit of God into their lives, enabling Him to  commence His work in them.  Blessed indeed are those who then, turning neither heart nor head to right or to left, but always, simply and solely, walking in the way of God’s (W)ord and allowing God’s Spirit to lead them where He will.
We can recall here another Mary of whom the New Testament speaks most clearly in this same vein, for she is able to help us learn something more about Our Lady’s ‘secret’:
Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed Him.  She had a sister named Mary, who sat beside the Lord at His feet listening to Him speak.  Martha, burdened with much serving came to Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me by myself to do all the serving?  The Lord said to her in reply, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.  There is need of only one thing, Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her. (Luke 10:38-42)
Clearly, important choices have to be made, perhaps friends offended and opposition provoked; at times, even good, very good things left aside and behind, for what is better and best in the way of God:  ‘Secretum meum, mihi.’
For further guidance we can also recall the experience of Elijah of old:
At the mountain of God, Horeb, Elijah came to a cave where he took shelter.   The word of the Lord came to him, ‘Go outside and stand on the mountain before the Lord, the Lord will be passing by.’  A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.  After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  After the earthquake there was fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.  After the fire, there was a tiny whispering sound.  When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave.  A voice said to him, ‘Elijah, why are you here? ... ‘Go take the road back to the desert near Damascus.  When you arrive you shall anoint Hazael as king of Aram... Then Jehu, as king of Israel, and Elisha, son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah, as prophet to succeed you.’  (1 Kings 9, 11-16)
The voice of God had been ardently desired, long awaited, and carefully listened for, by the prophet in his great need.  Ultimately he recognized it by its unearthly calm and peace-enshrining quiet which bespoke of holiness and led him to hide his face in his cloak before it, that thus he might listen more closely and understand most clearly what the Lord would have him do to achieve his destiny: Peace to those who are loved of God.
In our Gospel reading we learnt that those who searched for the Child found:
            Mary and Joseph, and the Infant lying in a manger.
So it is for all those disciples whom Jesus has told to take Mary to their hearts as their own Mother: in our search for Jesus, we will find Him, most easily and most surely, with the help and comfort of Mary’s prayerful presence in our lives.  Mary is no mere addition, certainly no complication, for Catholic spirituality.  Indeed, we can readily appreciate the privilege of Mary that enables her to lead each and every one of us to Jesus when we recall that she is not simply the model of the Church, but that, during her pregnancy she was, in all literal truth, the original Church itself, the unique dwelling place on earth of Jesus, God’s Son made flesh, the New Testament Ark of God’s presence among His People; and that she still is the purest essence of the Church, without spot or wrinkle of any sort.  Only in Mother Church can each and every one of us find Jesus truly and love Him fully, and that we will do most surely with Mary’s inestimable help.
St. Paul is quite explicit: it is the Spirit within us Who cries out Abba, Father!
As proof that you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into you hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”
It is not that, initially, He authorises us, permits us, or even, enables us to cry ‘Abba, Father!’  It is the Spirit Himself, first coming to us as God’s gracious and most gloriously mysterious GIFT -- the sublimely precious fruit of Christ’s sacrifice -- Who thus speaks in us and for us to the Father.  Thus is Jesus, Mary’s Son, born anew in each of us for the Father.   After that, everything depends on just how much ‘room’ – so to speak -- we give the Spirit of Jesus to work freely and fruitfully in us; and that means that we must appreciate, learn from, and develop in our own lives, something of the ‘secret’ of Mary our mother: for that will ultimately determine our human and Christian development as children of God.
We should recognise that Mary is our model and inspiration for our deepest and most personal relationship with Jesus, and in Jesus, with the Father, in so far as she was always most sublimely one with her Son:
Mary kept all these things (that she had experienced and heard concerning Jesus) and pondered them in her heart.
She is the supreme example and the surest guide for anyone seeking salvation, for anyone hoping and longing to find God as our true Father, in and with Jesus.
First and foremost, we should Imitate Mary in her total commitment of trust, and confidence in God the incomprehensible and supremely loving Father:
            Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to Your Will.
And then, by pondering in our heart -- in the power of the Spirit -- the Good News of Jesus handed down to us by Mother Church in her Scriptures and teaching which form us as His disciples, and which, indeed, together with her sacraments, mediate His very presence in our midst as members of His Church, and in our individual hearts, as His true disciples today.
Dear People of God, let us close our considerations with heartfelt words of gratitude and praise for Mary, the Immaculate Mother of Our Lord and Saviour and – ‘thanks be to God’ -- our most beautiful and gracious Queen:
You are the glory of Jerusalem, the surpassing joy (and) splendid boast of (all reborn in Christ). You have done good and God is pleased with what you have wrought.  May you be blessed by the Lord Almighty forever and ever!  And all the people answered, “Amen!”  (Judith 15:9-10)
So be it today: Amen, amen!  Deo gratias!



                                         

Friday 26 December 2014

The Holy Family Year B 2014

 The Holy Family (B)      
           
(Ecclesiasticus 3:2-6, 12-14; Colossians 3:12-21; Luke 2:22-40)


Today’s feast and the readings chosen for it by Mother Church invite us to think on the characteristics of family life from the Christian point of view: the family life of a man and woman who have dedicated their union to Christ for God’s glory, for their own fulfilment and salvation, and also that of any children the Lord may give them.  It is a community of faith, hope, and charity; a domestic church.
Notice, first of all, the absolute importance of family for us Christians: the very Son of God could not enter into this world other than by being born into a family.  One parent homes are not of God’s choosing, and, apart from special circumstances which cry to God for special grace, they are not able to provide what God wants for each and every child. Joseph and Mary were never to have sex our faith teaches, but Joseph was essential for the birth of Jesus: the family of God had to be made up of a man and a woman.  Homes of the same sex are not Christian families; they can be state-approved homes, but not acceptable Christian families. Notice here that God the Father, when requiring that His Son be born as man into a family made up of one man and one woman, was not just following an arbitrary rule or law of His own making, He was doing it for the true and essential human good of the Child to be born.   Moreover, because this Child was to be a blessing for the whole world, not just for the Jewish people, God wanted His Son to be born into the family of Mary and Joseph for the guidance of the whole world.  This fact of the supreme importance of the family for the good of children is not disputed among the great Abrahamic religions of the world; nor, on the other hand, do governments of the free world dispute the families’ role and function for the good of society in general.  Nevertheless, governments yield easily to popularity pressures: they seek to promote not only what is good for the people but also, and at times, primarily, what is likely to be for their own good at the next election, as we see today when they pretend that same-sex unions can be accepted as a home suitable for children alongside the Christian family of man and woman.  Consequently we base our appreciation of the nature and role of the family not on any politically correct or humanistic view but on the inspired teaching of the Scriptures, the infallible teaching of Mother Church, and the example of Our Blessed Lord’s divinely human childhood.
In every body made up of several parts, the overriding requirement is that of unity.  Without unity, such a body cannot function aright and will fragment.  That is why, St. Paul in his letter to the Colossians, when telling them how to give glory to God and how -- in modern terms -- to give good press to the Faith, spoke of that one basic and supremely important need for unity in family life.  There was, of course, much else that he could have said about family life, but at this point in his letter there was no opportunity for anything more than what was absolutely necessary, and so he wrote (3:18-21):
Wives, be subordinate to your husbands, as is proper in the Lord.   Husbands, love your wives, and avoid any bitterness toward them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is pleasing to the Lord.   Fathers, do not provoke your children, so they may not become discouraged.
Let us just look at that.   I think that everyone will agree that for men in general, their weakness -- their Achilles’ heel so to speak -- in relations with women and in family life, is a tendency towards violence, together with an excessive love of, and absorption in, work at the expense of personal relationships.  We hear and see the truth of this proved time and time again in the paper, on the TV, and in our local and personal experience.  It would be strange then, wouldn’t it, if Paul, writing in order to preserve and build up unity in the family, gave guidance to married men that is so pertinent and precise -- love your wives and do not be harsh with them -- and then was to be very far out in his prescription for women?  His words to them are just as clear and incisive as those words of advice he gave for men; in the name of Jesus, he told women then, and the Scriptures still proclaim his teaching to women of today: “Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.”  Submit, that is, when it is necessary, so long as it is “in the Lord” and for the Lord: submit for co-operation, that is, not for servitude.
Now, our everyday experience confirms Paul’s teaching also in this respect.  Modern day feminists cannot abide the thought of ‘submitting’ to men because they look at it from their own individual and personal point of view and interpret it as servitude, refusing to see it  from the viewpoint of the universal Church and of the individual family in which it is intended as co-operation for the overriding-good of unity.   Such women see themselves as rivals to men, not as complimentary to them; and even if the man were their husband, their love for him as a person would not be able to overcome their confrontational attitude to men in general.  Moreover, because they set themselves up as rivals to, and independent of, men, they frequently feel bound to try to prove that they can do manly work every bit as good as men, claiming the right to be boxers, footballers, business tycoons, lorry drivers, front-line soldiers, etc.  There is no doubt that they can, indeed, do many manly things; but -- not actually being men -- it is not surprising that they do not always succeed in doing those things as well as men.  There are other situations where they are able to do traditionally manly work as well as men do, but only at the cost of a certain loss of their own femininity.  A woman can drive a lorry, dig coal, fight in battles, but what sort of a woman will result from such choices?  The assertion of women’s rights is all to the good, for it is the teaching both of Mother Church and the Scriptures that man and woman are of equal dignity and worth in God’s eyes; but the demand for equal rights carried to that extreme which would claim total equality in every respect, will only result in a society where there are fewer and fewer authentic men and women, and more and more human beings of no particular character: men without spirit, unwilling to accept, take on, responsibility, or again without strength of character; and women of no particular grace or beauty other than that of their body endowed with a power which is not quite able to match up to their ego.
Paul’s last bit of teaching on family life concerns the young:
Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is pleasing to the Lord.
Christian parents should never be embarrassed by this their right to obedience from their children.  Children who obey their parents gain a blessing from the Lord, because, Paul tells us, such obedience is pleasing to the Lord, and that is because it is for the good of the children.  You cannot be a good parent if you try to abdicate your God-given right to obedience from your children.  Children, -- young people especially -- should note that they have to show obedience to their parents out of love for the Lord, “It is pleasing to the Lord”; and so there can never be any question of children obeying in what is sinful.  No Christian version of little Oliver Twist would ever go out stealing for his parents, for such obedience would not, could not,  be pleasing to the Lord.
The last admonition is addressed by Paul to fathers because of their tendency towards violence in general, but today we know that it applies equally to possessive and domineering mothers:
Do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. 
Every aspect of Christian family life is ordained towards the good of the children: parents in their attitude towards their children are neither to spoil them by releasing them from their duty of obedience nor are they to embitter them by harshness.  And their own personal, mutual, relationship as husband and wife is likewise, in the first instance, for the good of the children, and has to be regulated with that end in view.  Family unity is absolutely essential, therefore the husband must love his wife and renounce all forms of violence, and the wife must respect her husband and be subordinate to him “in the Lord” when and where family unity, peace, and cohesion, requires it.  Their personal fulfilment and sanctification as disciples of Christ and children of God go hand in hand, and are to be attained through that mutual fulfilment of, and submission to, God’s will; the nostrums of modern psychological or social theoreticians can in no way sound the depths of human nature or the splendour of mankind’s destiny.  It is strange that whereas modern society in the West recognizes, with St. Paul, man’s tendency to downgrade love, it is unable and unwilling, frequently indeed afraid to accept the equally noticeable tendency for women to downgrade respect.
Finally, let us have a look at the behaviour of Mary and Joseph in the Gospel.  I will just bring out one or two points for you to note.  First of all, Mary and Joseph both teach the Child obedience by themselves being obedient to the Lord and the Law:
When the days were completed for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they took Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord. When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.  
Notice that Simeon blessed both Joseph and Mary, but in the matter of the Child’s Personal destiny it was Mary alone he addressed: Mary’s dignity was not in any way lessened or compromised by her subordination to Joseph in family matters.
Finally, try to imagine the joy of both Mary and Joseph when they began to see the fruit of their personal sacrifices:
The Child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon Him.
The development of the Christ Child is meant to serve as a model for the nurturing of all Christian children: they are to be gradually filled with wisdom and endowed with grace as their spiritual development goes hand in hand with physical growth.
People of God, bring up your children in a truly loving Christian family atmosphere in accordance with the teaching of Jesus.  A true home, both earthly and heavenly, can only be attained by walking in the power and holiness of the Spirit, along the path prescribed for our well-being by the God and Father Who made us, and trodden -- for our example and encouragement -- by His Son Who loved, died, and rose again, for us.

Tuesday 23 December 2014

Christmas Mass during the Day 2014

CHRISTMAS: Mass during the Day

(Isaiah 52:7-10; Hebrews 1:1-6; John 1:1-18)


What a wonderful evocation of appreciation, joy, and gratitude Isaiah offers us in the words:

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace!
The holy city had been under long siege; all around friendly and dependant cities and towns had been overrun.  Hope was as much in evidence as the almost non-existent food, as low as the few pictures-full of water available from what had once been deep, brim-top-lapping, cisterns.  The army had gone out to fight indeed, but they left more in desperation than in expectation; some of the people had cheered them on their way, but without conviction; prayers also had been offered, but with lips that trembled; and now those left inside the city walls wait in anxious silence, with hearts unable to shake off a dark foreboding of what might soon befall them.
Eventually a runner is noticed in the distance by those watching from the walls.  He had been expected of course.  But, as they watch him, they begin to look at one another in disbelief: this runner is running strongly, running confidently; he is not pumping his arms in agonizing effort, he is raising them, waving them exultantly!   He is, surely:
          Bearing glad tidings, announcing peace!
At such a sight, first of all the watchmen on the towers, then, gradually, all the citizens within the walls begin, in unconscious obedience to those prophetic words of exhortation:
Break out together in song, O ruins of Jerusalem!
to join in a public delirium of thanksgiving and praise, while the priests solemnly intone:
          The LORD has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem!
Now, Jesus comes to us each year at Christmas like that runner, bringing -- indeed, He Himself being – the supreme cause for our total joy.  Whatever the past year may have brought along with it, and no matter how miserable our own record might have been over that period, He comes once again, to re-assure us that our God reigns, despite the disaffection of many who no longer call themselves His disciples, despite the increasing mockery of those who have always denied or gainsaid Him, despite the faint-heartedness of those who look to the Church and doubt … not His presence there because her dogma still protects them … but the featurelessness of His presence which their faith does not allow them to discern.
He comes to His Church, as we heard in the second reading from the letter to the Hebrews, as One:
          Who (is) the refulgence of (God’s) glory and the very imprint of His Being.
And therefore, seeing Him, we can be absolutely confident and sure that God is both able and willing to reign for us and in us through her, if we, for our part, are both humble enough to turn away from ourselves, and faithful enough to turn to Him in all confidence and sincerity.
Now, this rejoicing unique to the Christian celebration of Christmas, is much more than mere joy for our heart; for, as our reading from the letter to the Hebrews told us, Jesus is:
God’s Son, heir of all things, through Whom He created the universe; Who sustains all things by His mighty word;
to which, St. John in our Gospel reading, adds that:
In Him (is) life, and the life (is) the light of men.
Therefore, Jesus’ coming means not merely present joy for our heart, but also fulfilment for our whole  being, since He is the life and strength of our being, the light and pattern for our living.
Moreover, when He comes, He manifests to us and indeed invites us a share in:
          His glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.
By sharing that glory with us, He wills to transform all who believe in Him from mere human beings into children of God, as St. John tells us:
To those who did accept Him He gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.
Children reborn, that is, no longer arising from merely human stock through the will of our parents before us, but born anew -- of water and the Holy Spirit -- by God’s free gift and our own free will expressing itself through the obedience of faith. 
And it is as such children, reborn of water and the Spirit, that we too can say with St. John:
The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as of the Father’ only Son, full of grace and truth.
Our right beholding of the glory of the Word-become-flesh proves that we do indeed share that glory which is His as the only-Begotten Son of the Father, in Whom we, as the letter to the Hebrews puts it, are:
As far superior to the angels as the name He has inherited -- and we have, by adoption in Him, been given -- is more excellent than theirs.
And so, reborn and renewed in Jesus, sharing His glory which enables us to live through faith and by His Spirit, our Christmas joy and hope is crowned and completed by the Father Himself Who now says (2 Corinthians 6:18):
I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters.          
Once reborn in Jesus, and bequeathed the right to become children of God for all eternity, we have an endowment that we must bring to maturity by a life of faithful love and grateful obedience.  Each year Jesus comes to refresh our hope, bolster our confidence, and encourage our progress, which is why, during Advent time Mother Church cries out to us repeatedly:
          Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him! (Matthew 25:6)
Every Christmas morning we do just that, we come to Church to meet the Lord with lighted lamps that shine with admiration and love, gratitude and praise,.  Ultimately, the time will arrive – and, at the deepest level, we are preparing for that time – when the Lord will come to each and every one of us and call us -- as He did Lazarus in the tomb -- to go forth from this world to meet Him.  Let us, therefore, welcome Him this day as we wish to embrace Him on that our final day, when earth’s fading and fitful light is seen to be transforming into the dawn of eternal glory.