The Last Week of Advent - December 23rd

John the Baptist is born, and when Zechariah writes the words the angel instructed, "His name is John" his tongue is freed, and he begins to praise God.  This is the gospel for today.  Everything about this gospel points to the fact that God works outside of the natural order of things, even the fact that the other relatives protest. Elizabeth says the child is to be named John, but there is no one else in the family with that name.  The child's name, like the child's birth, is given by God.  We are part of a world of nature, we function within that world, and so often we are trapped by that world, when we encounter problems and difficulties we seek natural solutions rather than turn to God in prayer.  The person of faith should never have any reason to be discouraged, because that person knows that even though things might be impossible in the natural order, God does not work that way, God's ways are not ours, and God sees the bigger picture.  The person of prayer knows there is never any reason to be discouraged because through constant prayer we begin to see God's hand at work in our midst, outside the natural order of things.  When we are faithful to prayer, it's like turning a tapestry around and seeing how all the threads are woven and joined together, even though we may only see a few threads at a time.  Pray always!

The Peace of Christmas

Recently I have been reading two different books on the subject of 'peace of soul', "Searching for and Maintaining Peace:  A Small Treatise on Peace of Heart" by Fr. Jacques Philippe and "A Treatise on Peace of Soul" by Dom Lorenzo Scupoli (incidentally, both are rather short and definitely worth a read).  The principle of peace of soul finds it origin in the encounter of the prophet Elijah meeting God at Mount Horeb (cf. 1 Kings 19).  There was a great wind, an earthquake, and a fire, but God was not found in any of these, God was found in a sound of sheer silence that followed.  Later spiritual writers came to understand that if we wish God to find a permanent dwelling in our souls, then we must make our souls a place of peace and silence as well.

So much today seems to distract us, pulling us in one direction or another, flustering us, angering us, all disturbing our peace of soul.  We lose our peace of soul ultimately through desire (desire of anything other than God).  We can lose our peace of soul even desiring good things, we can desire to be holy, then lose that peace of soul when we find ourselves not making as much progress towards holiness as we would like.  This total peace is described with the Hebrew word "shalom", this is the peace God wishes us, this is the peace the angel proclaims to the shepherds at the birth of Christ when he says, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests." (Luke 2:14)

It seems today though that Christmas produces the completely opposite effect, as we run from place to place, store to store, party to party.  Normally nice and calm people start to get frustrated and angry, shout expletives at one another, fight over something as ridiculous as a parking space at the mall.  The devil is constantly trying to rob us of our peace of soul, because if he succeeds we push God out, and start to make room for him instead.  The rampant secularization, and commercialization of Christmas seems to have that double effect, not only are we encouraged to forget the real reason for Christmas, but in the madness that ensues we lose that peace of soul in the hustle of the crowds.  From now on, let us all strive to be more aware, let us strive to rise above the Christmas craziness, let us strive to maintain that peace of soul even in the face of the madding crowds, then we will know the true peace of Christmas.

The Last Week of Advent - December 22nd

Today Mary proclaims her Magnificat in the gospel.  After receiving Elizabeth's greeting, Mary, filled with the Holy Spirit burst forth into this hymn, a hymn to humility.  The Incarnation itself is an act of utter humility, the Almighty and All-powerful God hiding his divinity, becoming a human being to dwell with us.  In every celebration of the Holy Mass, God engages in an even greater act of humility, hiding his divinity to come under the appearance of bread and wine.  These acts of humility are ultimately motivated by love, God's love for us.  God calls us to humility as well, as I said in another post, God does not ask much from us, but he does call us to be humble.  Pride seeks the self, pride is self-love in the extreme, humility is always focused on the other, putting the other before self, and it is always an act of love.  I once heard the definition of Joy as Jesus, Others, then You, in that order, true humility motivated out of love leads us to find true and lasting joy.  May we be humble, so that God might raise us up.

The Last Week of Advent - December 21st

Today we find the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth in our gospel for Mass.  Notice the dynamic at work, Mary goes to Elizabeth, the mother of God to the mother of the forerunner, the greater goes to the lesser.  Even Elizabeth herself acknowledges how out of place this all seems when, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, she says, "And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?"  But isn't this the perfect symbol of what God was doing at that moment, the Incarnation had just happened a short while before, in Mary's womb, God had come to us, the great God to the creatures he had made from the dust of the earth.  God still comes to us even now, most especially in the Holy Eucharist, but he comes in other ways too.  Whenever we go to pray, pick up a prayer book, pick up a bible to read and meditate, go to the church to visit Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, it may seem as though we are the initiators, that we are the ones going to God, but not so.  God comes to us first, he tugs on our heart to inspire us to pick up that book, or to make that visit to the church.  In theological language we call that 'prevenient grace'.  Whenever you feel that tug on your heart, that inspiration to pray, it is God coming to you at that moment, don't ignore him, just marvel at how this happens, that the Lord should come to us, his unworthy creatures.

The Last Week of Advent - December 20th

Today in the Diocese of Hamilton we celebrate a feast day for the Dedication of the Cathedral of Christ the King, but like yesterday, this brief reflection will be on the gospel proper to December 20th.

In today's gospel, we Annunciation to Mary, the moment of Christ's Incarnation in her virgin womb.  The angel tells Mary that "nothing is impossible to God."  Quite true, God can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, however he wants, but God always respects our freedom, God will never act unless we let him.  Our gospel also shows us once again, that God's ways are not our ways.  The event of the Incarnation is completely outside the natural order, it is a supernatural event.  When we encounter those times when God seems not to be acting, we might ask whether what we are hoping for, what we want, is part of God's will.  We might also consider though, if God seems not to be acting, are we letting him, or are we getting in the way.  Let me tell you from my own experience that it is harder to get out of God's way than we might think.  If we really want God to act in our lives and in our world, we need to learn how to really get out of God's way, and to let him act.

The Last Week of Advent - December 19th

This posting will be focused on the gospel proper to December 19th, rather than the gospel for the Fourth Sunday of Advent (especially since it is the same gospel we heard yesterday).

Today the gospel presents us with the scene of the Annunciation to Zechariah.  Zechariah, we are told, was praying for a son, but now in his old age he no longer believed it possible.  The angel Gabriel appeared and told him that his prayer would be answered, God was going to give him exactly what he wanted, but Zechariah strangely, still did not believe it could happen, and so was rendered speechless until after his son's birth.  How often do we have to accept those times when God sends us trials, when God answers our prayers but the answer is "no", but in those rare moments, when God does say "yes", when God gives us exactly what we want, why do we still have trouble, why do we still fail to believe?  Is it just our own weak faith?  Is it just part of our human nature to question, to doubt, to wonder why we don't get what we want, and to doubt even more when we get it?  I don't claim to have an answer for this one, but the question is certainly worth pondering.

The Last Week of Advent - December 18th

Today our gospel passage introduces us to St. Joseph.  St. Joseph, it tells us, was a righteous man.  St. Matthew's audience was primarily Jewish, and they would have understood that term in its proper context.  To be righteous meant to carry out the law of Moses fully and faithfully, and that his life was judged to be pleasing to God.  Our gospel though, goes beyond, and tells us that not only was St. Joseph a righteous man, but he was a holy man as well.  If he were perfectly observant of the law, he would have been well within his rights to expose Mary to public humiliation perhaps even to stoning when he found her to be pregnant, and knew that he was not the father.  His concern however was not for his own wounded pride, his concern was for Mary, and so he planned to dismiss her quietly.  This humility, this concern for Mary's well being over his own, shows forth that deeper holiness, a holiness no doubt born from a deep life of prayer, which is probably why St. Joseph not only recognized God's word in the dream, but carried it out without question.  We too are called not just to live out the externals of faith, but to true interior holiness, a holiness that looks to the good of others over ourselves, a holiness born out of a real prayerful relationship with God.  St. Joseph was not a rabbi, not a religious scholar, he was a carpenter, a working man.  Prayer is not just for priests and monastics, it is for all of us, to grow in our relationship with God.