Knock Knock (2)

Advent is almost over.

Just five more days ‘til Christmas (Vigil).

And on this Last Sunday of Advent,

There’s a very noticeable theme in our liturgy.

The classic advent theme – the coming.

And the preparation for our role in the coming – the receiving.

Our scriptural readings and liturgical prayers speak of coming.

We sang Savior of the Nations Come as our entrance hymn.

We’ll sing O Come O Come Emanuel as our recessional hymn.

We ask Jesus—God—to come to us.

But do we really expect Him to come?

Why should He?

Who are we?  Are we so special, that he should come to us?

That’s the gist of Elizabeth’s thoughts when she sees Mary approaching.

So, how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord

Should come to me?

Her words show that Elizabeth is a humble woman.

And not with just a casual or insincere sense of humility.

She recognizes an undeserved honor when she sees one.

And, from Elizabeth’s perspective, it is surprising.

She’s just an old woman in a remote hill country.

Someone accustomed to being in the background.

Yet Mary came.

Because she sensed the need and because she too was humble.

Not thinking of herself as someone too important to pitch in and help her elder cousin.

No doubt, Mary also wanted to see the sign that the angel had given her.

And indeed, just as Gabriel had said, she found old Elizabeth nearing time to give birth.

Mary had already believed the angel and had already consented to her role.

But she must have felt some added confidence when she saw Elizabeth.

And she must have been pleased that Elizabeth immediately knew about Jesus.

Seeing that knowledge just come to Elizabeth upon her arrival.

And seeing it just come to John upon his somehow sensing that Jesus was near.

More signs from the Spirit assuring Mary that God was still with her.

Some scholars speculate that Joseph accompanied Mary on the journey.

Elizabeth’s condition and her greeting would greatly reinforce his faith too.

But to a great extent this coming, this Visitation, this little advent,

Is about Mary recognizing Elizabeth’s need,

And coming to help her.

And about Jesus coming with her, because he knew our needs.

Advent is all about Jesus’ coming.

Humbly coming to our world, and coming to each of us.

Just as he came to Mary.

And to Elizabeth.

And to John.

So as we celebrate his coming to our world 2000 years ago.

We also ask him to come to us individually.

Come to save us from whatever is causing us great distress.

Come to free us from whatever has a hold on us

Come to help us through the storms of life.

And there are plenty of storms in the world around us today.

Not to mention our personal inner storms.

So we ask, though we may not fully expect him to come.

We’re not sure he’ll listen to us.

But like Elizabeth, we are more special than we realize.

He thinks we’re special

We’re special to him.

And he knows our needs.

And so he did come.

And he does come.

And he will come again.

The question isn’t, Will he come?

It’s, Will we be ready?  Will we hear him when he comes?

We’re all another year older than we were last Advent.

A lot has happened since then.

We’re not exactly the same people as we were a year ago.

So in these final days of Advent we can prepare to receive him anew.

And to give him a better reception than ever before.

Jesus is always ready to come to us again.

He’s always offering to come closer.

To be part of us in new and deeper ways.

But we don’t always receive him.

He’s not always obvious; he’s not pushy.

It’s a lot like the Bethlehem scene here in the mural behind our St Joseph’s altar.

There’s knocking at the door, and Jesus is out there, but no one answers.

In our final preparation, let’s listen for him.

Let’s take to heart those simple but powerful words of Paul.

Not St Paul. 

Sir Paul …  McCartney.

Someone's knockin' at the door
Somebody's ringin' the bell.
Do me a favor,
Open the door, let 'em in.

4th Sunday of Advent

Lk 1:39-45    Read this Scripture @usccb.org

You Turn

Sometimes you give the right answer and it gets you into trouble.

Back in high school we took some standardized national tests.

And I had most of the right answers—I scored really well.

But instead of congratulating me, the principal called my parents in for a meeting.

He wanted to know,

If you can do so well on this test, why aren’t you at the top in your classwork?

The priests and the elders in today’s Gospel didn’t get congratulated either.

Jesus asks them which of two sons does their father’s will.

The one who defiantly says he won’t do it, but later changes his mind and does it.

Or the one who agreeably says he will do it, but doesn’t follow through.

The priests and elders answer correctly.

And their reward?  A scolding.

Jesus tells them, 

Tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the Kingdom of God before you.

It wasn’t a particularly difficult question.

But their correct answer highlighted the fact that

They understood human behavior.

That they knew they had the option to change their minds—change their hearts.

That they knew a change of mind could be the right thing to do, a good thing to do.

Getting the right answer wasn’t difficult for them.

It showed it was easily within their powers of observation and awareness analysis.

And yet, they hadn’t used those powers to make this most critical decision—

Their assessment of John the Baptist and Jesus himself.

They had made up their minds against John and Jesus.

And even when they saw many others embracing John and Jesus, 

They wouldn’t reconsider.

They weren’t open to changing their minds or their hearts.

Like the first son, they defiantly refused.

Even though God was asking them to change their minds.

Quite directly and quite literally—Jesus, God Himself, was calling them.

But they resisted and wouldn’t recognize his voice.

And unlike the first son, they would not change.

If we listen, we can all hear things that God is calling us to do—

Things big and small.

But we resist, through either defiance or inattention.

We question whether that voice is actually God calling.

In effect, we’ve decided not to do it.

This Advent, let’s listen carefully and let’s change our minds wherever necessary.

Or we can just hop in line with the priests and elders.

Way back there behind the tax collectors and prostitutes.

Tuesday, 3rd Week of Advent

Mt 21:28-32     Read this Scripture @usccb.org 

The Most Powerful Woman

It’s been over 40 years now.

But a football play from December 23, 1972 

Is still often ranked as the greatest ever.

It was the NFL playoff game, in Pittsburgh.

The Steelers were trailing the Raiders by one point with only 30 seconds left.

In what could be the last play of the game,

Steeler quarterback Terry Bradshaw was under heavy pressure 
And scrambled around.

He finally fired a desperate pass to a receiver in the middle of the field.

But it struck an oncoming Raider defender and rocketed 

Back toward the line of scrimmage.

A quick handed rookie named Franco Harris grabbed it before it hit the ground.

And he ran it all the way in for a touchdown.

And a Steeler victory.

The crowd went wild, and the TV announcer called it the Christmas Miracle.

Later that evening a Pittsburgh sports reporter 

Coined the now-famous name for that play.

The Immaculate Reception.

His clever pun on the name of Feast we celebrate today

Introduced an indirect Marian reference into our popular culture.

And a few years later Roger Staubach added the Hail Mary pass.

Who knows, maybe there’s a little evangelistic benefit there.

Maybe now and then a fan stops to think about the source of those phrases.

This month Mary picked up a little more attention in our secular culture.

National Geographic Magazine put her on the cover.

With the title, Mary, the Most Powerful Woman in the World.

(And National Geographic will air a show about her on December 13^th.)

The Catholic Church has always held Mary in the highest esteem.

So do Muslims.

Although they don’t recognize her as the Mother of God, as we do.

This Feast we celebrate today, The Immaculate Conception, 

Dates back only to 1854.

When Pope Pius IX officially declared 

What the Church had held from the earliest days.

That, from her very conception, Mary has always been without sin.

That she never sinned in her life, and that she was born free of original sin.

At the instant of her conception in the womb of her mother, St Anne,

God intervened and prevented her from inheriting the stain of Original Sin.

The Bible doesn’t state this explicitly, but it does support it.

And the belief and the teaching go all the way back 

To the early Fathers of the Church.

Over the centuries, different feasts have been celebrated 

In different parts of the world.

All recognizing Mary’s sinless perfection.
Pius IX merely confirmed the belief as dogma, and gave the feast a new name.

God planned to send His perfect Son into the world.

A Son never to be touched by sin.

And God knew that He would send him through Mary.

Mary had a choice, as we heard in our Annunciation Gospel today.

But back when Mary was conceived by Anne, 
God already knew  that she would say Yes.

And so, He exempted her from sin as well.

So that his Son, who would be human in every way except for sin,

Would have that perfect, sinless host to receive him.

The Immaculate Conception prepared Mary for her later reception of Jesus.

And her Yes at the Annunciation completed that reception.

So the football punsters were not far off target in coining their term.

If we were to give a new formal name to that Annunciation Yes,

We might call it the true Immaculate Reception.

Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Lk 1:26-38     Read this Scripture @usccb.org