With sunset today (Sunday), the Christmas Season comes to an end. On this feast of the Baptism of the Lord, a couple of questions linger. Firstly, why is the baptism of Jesus, who is somewhere between the age of 30 and 33, placed in the Christmas Season? It doesn’t seem to fit in the storyline of a baby laid in a manger attracting the attention of shepherds, wisemen and angels. The second puzzling thing is: Why is Jesus, the sinless ...
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For well over a thousand years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, prophets—special envoys of God—were sent to remind people that God had not abandoned them. In fact, they were to wait for the Messiah, whose desire it was to be close to people and to bring them salvation. Most of the people, because they did not see the Messiah in their own lifetime, just gave up waiting. But a small group of people didn’t give up at all. They ...
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Once again, the readings the Church asigned us have a common thread between the first reading and the gospel reading. Each is about a man who finds himself in a dilemma. King Ahaz, in that first reading, deals with the dilemna poorly while Joseph, in the gospel, handles his predicament much better. Let’s look at these two contrasting guys and see what God might be saying to us .
Firstly, let’s look at King Ahaz who was the king of Judah. ...
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All three readings, proclaimed worldwide by the Church today, remind me of the saying, “the seed never sees it’s flower.” If we take it literally, the seed is underground, so it naturally can’t see the blossom above ground. But more to the point, the seed (unless it is a bulb) must die long before the plant ever produces a shoot, a stem, or a flower. The metaphor is true for humans as well. Some of our greatest efforts will only ...
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John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness. We are not told how he got there. He just suddenly appears, which automatically moves our minds to mystery. A mystery is about to unfold, and it’s about to unfold in the desert of all places. Cities, like Jerusalem, are where the hustle and bustle of life happens. And just like us, people were going to the desert to escape the rat race that life can often turn into. I think they were ...
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In the secular world, we celebrate New Year’s on January 1st, but from a liturgical point of view, the first Sunday of Advent is the beginning of a new Church year. We say “good-bye” and “thank you” to the gospel writer Luke who has been our guide for the past year, and we buckle ourselves in and allow gospel writer Matthew to be our pilot for this new year.
The new liturgical year begins much in the same way as the ...
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\This solemnity of Christ the King of the Universe was first celebrated 100 years ago. In 1925 the world was rebuilding after the end of World War I, Italy was run by a fascist dictator, and the Church had lost much of its political power. In the background of such chaos and upheaval, Pope Pius X, chose to establish the Feast of Christ the King. He didn’t simply want to write an encyclical that most people wouldn’t read. He wanted ...
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I don’t know if you picked up on it or not, but all three readings–Isaiah, Paul’s letter to Titus, and Luke’s gospel—all spoke of rejoicing and good news. Isaiah says, “The darkness that once covered you is gone, for a light is shining upon you now, so rejoice like farmers rejoice at harvest time. Rejoice like one who once had a heavy burden, a bar across their shoulder, but now that weight is gone.” St. Paul says to Titus, “The ...
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Besides having the privilege of being in three of the four biggest museums in the world, I’ve also enjoyed the gems I’ve found in many smaller, local museums. Apparently, the most replicated image by far, hanging on the walls of the world’s museums, is the image of the Madonna and child, the mother and baby. I’ve also seen a ton of images of today’s gospel passage, what we traditionally call the Visitation, pregnant Mary visiting pregnant Elizabeth. Myself, I can’t ...
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Last weekend, you may recall, we had John the Baptist telling us to prepare the way of the Lord. He told us—in broad, general terms–to make the Lord’s path straight, fill in the valleys, and flatten the mountains. The scriptures are often deliberately left open-ended like that, encouraging us to determine concretely what filling in the valleys and flattening the mountains actually means in our particular lives and in the life of the world. This time, however, John the Baptist, ...
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