Are You Busy Friday Night?

The Son of Man is to be handed over … [and killed].

The Son of Man will rise.

What’s with this Son of Man title?

We’re all offspring of humans.

But it’s the title that Jesus chose to use to describe himself.

No one else in the Gospels calls him that.

Only Jesus himself.

It may be a reference back to the Old Testament.

Or a way to delay his being handed over and killed.

But it’s surely a sign of his humility.

While others call him the Messiah, the Christ, the Holy One of God.

Jesus calls himself, simply, the Son of Man.

And, of course, he is.

He’s the son of Mary—he inherited her human nature.

And, as it turns out, that was a critical element of God’s plan of salvation.

A perfect human being to represent the rest of us.

A perfect person, with two natures; one human and one Divine.

God’s own Son.

Not just the Son of Man, but also the Son of God.

That’s what we call him; the Son of God.

We’ll have an opportunity this weekend to enjoy a new perspective on the Son of God.

A new movie, Son of God, is being released Friday.

It’s a high-quality, professional, Hollywood-type production.

Produced and directed by typical big-name movie industry folks.

But with one difference—these Hollywood folks are on a mission of evangelization.

They want to spread the Word to a new audience; people who don’t know the true story.

And to help those of us who do know the story to gain a stronger appreciation.

And a new inspiration.

Evidently, they’ve done a very accurate job presenting the Gospel.

They’ve won the support and endorsement of many well known Christian leaders.

Among them, our own Cardinal Donald Wuerl.

There’s a 20-minute movie trailer on the web.

And it includes Cardinal Wuerl, giving his endorsement.

Last week I was at a meeting with the Cardinal, and he urged us to promote the movie.

He said it’s important that as many of us as possible go to see it during its initial days.

A strong opening box office will keep it in the theaters for an extended run.

Movies that don’t draw crowds that first weekend are quickly replaced.

And we would like this movie to stay a long time and be seen by more and more people.

In the hopes that they’ll be deeply touched by it.

Son of God will open in a dozen or more local theaters this Friday.

Go and see it.
Take a friend.
Spread the Word.

Tuesday, 7th Week of Ordinary Time

Mk 9:30-37           Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Do You Still Not Understand?

Do you still not understand?

The disciples have been following Jesus for some time now.

They’ve been eyewitnesses to many of his miracles.

Healing the sick, driving out demons, even raising the dead.

They’ve heard his teaching; seen his wisdom, virtue and compassion.

They’ve seen his unique knowledge about God, and his special closeness to God.

Twice, they’ve seen him miraculously feed thousands of people.

Starting with nothing but a few loaves of bread and a couple fish.

And somehow ending up with massive quantities left over.

He's an inexhaustible font of abundance.

Now they're in the boat with Jesus.

And they're concerned about not bringing enough bread.

Don't they recognize his absolute power?

Don't they understand who he is?

It's enough to frustrate a Messiah!

Scholars break the Gospel of Mark into sections.

And here, deep into the Gospel, in the middle of Chapter 8, they mark the end of Part I.

And they mark it with Jesus' frustrated exclamation or question.

Do you still not understand?

We hear Jesus’ words.

And we're struck with how dense those disciples were.

That is, until we direct those words as a question to ourselves.

And contemplate on that question—

Looking at the priorities we've set in our own lives.

Calculating how much of our lives we might count as serving God and neighbor.

Poking to find the firmness and depth and strength of our own faith.

Weighing our stores of inner peace, joy, comfort, gratitude and satisfaction.

Our contemplation is likely to confirm that we're still works in progress.

Tomorrow we begin Part II of Mark's Gospel.

And things seem to start getting a little better.

Jesus heals a blind man who slowly begins to see.

And Peter is inspired to answer Jesus saying, You are the Christ.

But today, each of us is left at Jesus' big question.

Do you still not understand?

 Tuesday, 6th Week of Ordinary Time

Mk 8:14-21           Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Tradition Custom Practice Habit?

Once, when I was a kid, my aunt and I made an unplanned stop at church.

She had no hat, so she made-do with a handkerchief with a bobby pin before we went in.

It was unthinkable for a girl or woman to come in without something on her head.

As unthinkable as for a boy or a man to come in with a hat on.

We never questioned the women’s hat rule; at least I never did.

We’d been following it for generations and generations.

It was just accepted as the way things were done in church.

But now, fifty years later, that tradition seems to have vanished.

This women’s hat memory led me to do some research.

It turns out that the tradition dates all the way back to the early Church.

But the requirement wasn’t formalized until 1917 when it was specified in Canon Law.

Then in 1983 it was omitted from a new publication of the Canon Law.

Many people took that omission as an indication that the tradition was officially ended.

Today, it’s followed by only those few who choose to do so.

A year ago, everyone knew that popes held their office until death.

That was the tradition—or at least we assumed it was.

Research would have shown us that a handful of popes did resign in the past 2000 years.

And one just 600 years ago.

But why would we research it?  Our expectations just followed the assumed tradition.

At the moment, the world is loving Pope Francis.

Partly because he’s encouraging us to examine some of our assumptions.

And maybe even some of our traditions.

He wouldn’t even be pope if Benedict hadn’t broken with tradition.

Dogma regarding crucial truths can’t change.

It’s directly drawn from Scripture.

And from traditional teachings that have been formally adopted.

Like recognition of the Immaculate Conception.

But the Church can reexamine its positions on even well-established traditions.

Like not allowing priests to marry, or women to be ordained.

Those traditions are not likely to change soon, but lesser traditions could change.

That gets us down into the realm of those traditions Jesus criticized in today’s Gospel.

Traditions we are following with no understanding, and therefore no real benefit.

Traditions that might have once had a solid basis, but have lost their meaning and value.

Traditions that aren’t Church tradition at all, but merely personal beliefs and habits.

And worst of all, traditions or habits that pervert our priorities.

And distract us from what’s truly important.

We should make it a habit to periodically assess our own personal actions and traditions.

Make sure we’re not wasting our time purifying kettles.

While our mother or father or neighbor is suffering from lack of our attention.

Tuesday, 5th Week of Ordinary Time

Mk 7:1-13           Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Dear Lost Child

It’s abundantly clear that Scripture remains timely and relevant to modern life.

It deals with the big problems that weigh on humanity throughout history.

Like suffering and death.

And it gets down to some very specific problems.

Our Gospel from Mark today speaks of problems with affordable health care.

Two thousand years ago.

We hear that [The woman] had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors

And had spent all that she had.

Yet she was not helped but only grew worse.

I wasn’t aware that the medical industry was already so formally established back then.

We go back a lot further than I realized in our quest for a good Affordable Care Act.

Our Gospel and our reading from Samuel also talk of the timeless sorrow of death.

Suffering and sorrow and pain that’s magnified for all with the death of a child.

And magnified yet again for the parents of that child.

Two thousand years ago Jairus desperately sought to keep his young daughter alive.

Three thousand years ago, King David agonized over the death of his son, Absalom.

David’s torment shows how deeply attached we can be to those we hold dear.

Even to a lost child who has grown to become an adult.

Even to a lost child who has been rebellious.

Even to a lost child who has shown hostility toward us.

Hostility even to the extreme point of trying to kill us.

Dread of suffering and death is a timeless and integral part of our human nature.

That human nature that Jesus chose to share with us.

But, as he showed many times, he had the power to control those dreaded forces.

He sometimes intervened for the sake of others.

And yet, he himself willingly suffered and died.

He cured thousands from disease, and defect, and deformity, and demons.

He even intervened in cases of death.

Raising the daughter of Jairus, the son of the widow of Nain, and Lazarus.

But they were raised only as a temporary measure.

And not for their own sake, but for the sake of those who mourned.

To ease the suffering of Jairus, the widow, Martha and Mary.

Today, doctors and other caring people do a lot to ease suffering.

Physical, mental, emotional and spiritual suffering.

This is a continuation of the healing that Jesus performed so many years ago.

Moved forward by God’s revelations in science, and by dedicated servant-disciples.

By new medicines and procedures and sometimes, still, by miracles.

We now have the power to greatly ease suffering.

But suffering remains forever a part of life.

Sometimes the only end to suffering is death.

Death remains the inevitable, ultimate end of this life.

Fortunately there is a way we can help ourselves and others ease the sufferings of death.

Ease both the fear of death and the pain of mourning.

And that is to build our trust in God.

To remind ourselves, convince ourselves, truly believe, that we are all children of God.

To trust that God, in His great mercy, will somehow draw all of us to Himself.

Us and our lost loved ones.

Because, even more perfectly than Jairus or David or us, God holds-dear every lost child.

 Tuesday, 4th Week of Ordinary Time

Mk 5:21-43           Read this Scripture @usccb.org

More Than a Metaphor

Years ago my family lived in a small town in Massachusetts.

Our neighbors across the lane were an elderly couple.

My teenage brother used to hang out with them, and help them with chores.

The husband, Will, was an artist and poet of some local renown.

And he gave my brother a few paintings.

And an old trunk with some papers and other items he’d laid aside over the years.

Decades later, just a few weeks ago, my brother came across that trunk in his basement.

He found a poem in the papers—written by Will almost a hundred years ago.

It was a poem about St Joseph.

So, since I’m here at St Joseph’s, he sent me a copy.

It was a good poem; well written; thoughtful; showing St Joseph as the hero he was.

It was also heretical.

It spoke of St Joseph finally fathering his own children after Jesus was born.

I told my brother that Will must have been a more modern protestant.

From the earliest times, Church doctrine has held that Mary was ever-virgin.

She bore no children other than in the miraculous virgin-birth of Jesus.

Even the leaders of the Protestant Reformation, held with that doctrine.

Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wesley, Huldrych Zwingli.

But more modern evangelicals and fundamentalists go with their own interpretation.

As do some modern members of those old main-line protestant churches.

When they read the Scripture and see reference to Jesus’ brothers and sisters.

And many see it as a plain statement that Mary bore other children.

They’re unaware of, or dismiss, the interpretation from the days of the early Church.

From Church fathers, scholars, theologians and saints.

Including the saint we honor today, Thomas Aquinas,

Who addressed the question in his Summa Theologica.

Most early Church leaders agreed in their conclusions, but not in their explanations.

Some believed that the brothers and sisters were actually cousins.

The Jewish language and culture often used the same words for those relationships.

And even for broader relationships.

Others believed that Joseph was a widower with children before he married Mary.

So Jesus referred to those family members as brothers and sisters.

The early non-Scriptural work, the Gospel of James, says that this was in fact the case.

It also states one of the reasons why the issue is important.

It says that Mary’s parents offered her, as a child, to serve God in the Temple.

And that she had taken a vow to remain a perpetual virgin.

We can draw two key points from today’s passage from the Gospel according to Mark.

One point is that we need a deep background to fully understand Scripture.

Seemingly plain words, like brother and sister, can have complicated, broader meanings.

The other point, the truly major point, is the Good News message of this Gospel passage.

Jesus himself further extends the broad definition of his brothers and sisters—
He extends it to include us.

 Tuesday, 3rd Week of Ordinary Time

Mk 3:31-35           Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Advance Team

There’s a lot happening this week.

We’ve already begun the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

Monday is Martin Luther King’s birthday.

Wednesday we have the March for Life.

We’re in the middle of Poverty Awareness Month.

Busy times.

And every few years we squeeze an added presidential inauguration into this week.

These programs and events take a lot of preparation.

Ecumenical teams at the World Council of Churches prepare their programs.

Prayers, liturgies, readings, and other events for Christian Unity.

Thousands of organizers tackle the massive preparation effort for the March for Life.

Preparing Masses, rallies, and other events.

Preparing plans to handle all the challenging logistics.

All the work of accommodating hundreds of thousands of marchers.

A lot of effort goes into the preparation for any important event.

In modern political campaigns, that’s the job of the advance man, or woman or team.

Getting everything prepared for the candidate who will come after them.

Someone has to make sure everything’s ready.

The reservations, transportation, media, security, venues—even the crowds.

This advance work to prepare for someone’s coming isn’t really a new idea.

And it’s not limited to politics.

It’s for generals, CEO’s, celebrities, popes and all sorts of important people.

They all have someone to lead the preparation for their coming.

Even to serve as the warm-up act to get the crowd ready for the headliner to take the stage.

Advance teams work to prepare for even more mundane events.

Before an organization installs a new computer system they send someone out to the offices.

To make sure the physical site is ready for the new equipment.

And to make sure the users are trained and prepared for the new system.

Before a builder begins construction, others go out to survey and evaluate and prepare the site.

Advance men have played an important role since the time leaders first began making appearances.

It’s an ancient practice.

As it turned out, all the prophets were advance men—preparing the way for Jesus’ coming.

But John the Baptist was the prophet closest to Jesus.

Closest in time and space—they were contemporaries, they actually met.

Closest in kinship—the Gospels tell us their mothers were cousins.

Closest in spirit—John sensed Jesus’ presence when both were still in the womb.

When they met 30 years later, John knew at a glance that Jesus was the Lamb of God.

John the Baptist is the perfect model of the advance man.

Jesus himself said that there was no man born of woman who was greater than John.

John started with a single-minded dedication to his mission.

Preparing the way for the coming of the Messiah.

When people thought he himself might be the Messiah,

He was quick to correct them and stress his humbler role as merely the one helping to prepare.

And, when the time came, he was quick to point people toward the true Messiah.

He didn’t seek fame and glory for himself.

His greatest satisfaction was serving God and serving well.

Preparing the people, so that they might better recognize and accept Jesus.

John was fully committed to serving the Messiah before he even knew who the Messiah was.

And when the Messiah’s identity was revealed to him, he dedicated himself to Jesus.

It was his great joy to be surpassed by the one he had worked so hard to promote.

We can strive to follow the example given by John.

We already have a lot in common with him.

Our primary mission is the same as his.

To know, love and serve God in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in Heaven.

His more specific mission was to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus.

And we share that more specific mission too.

Jesus is coming again.

We need to prepare ourselves and others for that coming.

He won’t come unrecognized, as he came to Israel.

We’ll next see him when he comes in glory at the end of time.

Or, more likely, when we face him for judgment at our own death.

But either way, the next time we see him there will be no doubt that he is God.

We need to be always prepared for his coming.

We need to prepare ourselves.

And we need to be God’s advance men, helping prepare others.

The preparations John made benefited the people of his day.

But also everyone who came after them—including us.

His words and actions continue to strengthen and guide us today.

We benefit directly from the impact of his words and acts as they’re proclaimed in the Gospels.

We also benefit from the goodness that those acts and words have brought into the world.

Through the impact they had on those who were present there with John.

Witnessing those actions and hearing those words.

And by the response of those new disciples; the goodness their actions and words have brought.

And all that resulting accumulated goodness, growing and flowing down through generations.

Today, we’re the ones God is counting on to continue and increase that flow of goodness.

To spend our efforts preparing for something far greater than an election or a new building.

It’s up to us to make the Gospel known.

To testify, as John testified, through our words and acts and example.

God’s now counting on us to prepare the way for his coming.

Second Sunday of Ordinary Time
Jn 1:29-34           Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Ancient Wisdom

We sometimes have a tendency to think of people from the distant past

As less sophisticated, or more gullible, or less intelligent than we are today.

Maybe we suffer from some scientific and technological snobbery.

We have made enormous advances in those areas.

But it’s clear from history and from reading what they wrote,

That the people who lived thousands of years ago were just as intelligent,

Just as capable of reasoning, and just as discerning as we are today.

That’s certainly the case for the people who lived just 2,000 years ago.

A few hundred years after Socrates and Plato and Aristotle.

Those people of 2,000 years ago weren’t easily fooled or deceived.

They were just as perceptive and just as skeptical about outlandish claims as we are.

They questioned authority the same way we do.

So when Jesus showed up in Palestine, he was scrutinized by intelligent, savvy people.

They were impressed with his speech and his knowledge and his wisdom.

But they were still skeptical of his authority.

Why should they listen when his teaching contradicted the prevailing ideas of the day?

Things like:

You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'

But I say to you, love your enemies…

Or, It’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven.

And why should they keep listening even as his statements grew more and more radical.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

I am the way the truth and the life.

Unless you eat my body and drink my blood you shall not have life.

There’s no doubt that he spoke as one having authority.

And there’s no doubt that many people did question that authority.

But he convinced them; he demonstrated his authority.

He drove out demons.

He cured diseases.

He raised the dead.

The people were amazed.

Thousands of those intelligent, discerning, questioning people came to believe in him.
And when his death shook their faith, he bolstered it---increased it---by rising again.

It’s okay for us too, to question his authority.

It’s more than okay.

It’s good for us from time to time to contemplate the question of Jesus’ authority;

To test his teachings and his claims against our life experiences.

Should we really believe that Jesus was who he said he was?

Our life experience tells us, Yes; or at least Why not?

Our gift of faith tells us, Yes.

The voice of the Spirit dwelling within us tells us, Yes.

The testimony of billions of other Christians, past and present, tells us, Yes.

And—not least of all—the testimony of those intelligent, savvy eye witnesses tells us, Yes.

Tuesday, 1st Week of Ordinary Time
Mk 1:21-28           Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Yes

Not far from Nazareth, the body of a young woman was found.

She had been about four months pregnant.

And evidently, that was her crime.

She had been killed by members of her family or her community.

Because she had brought dishonor upon them.

Barbaric as it may seem to us today, such killings were the accepted practice in ancient times.

And a practice that hasn’t been ended.

This incident near Nazareth took place in April of this year!

The United Nations estimates that there are more than 5,000 of these honor killings each year.

Perhaps many thousands more—many by stoning.

Fathers, uncles, brothers and other community members often join in the killing.

Most are committed in the Middle East.

But last year there were dozens right here in the United States.

In most countries, including Middle Eastern countries, these killing are now illegal.

But in some areas they’re still condoned because of strong cultural and religious traditions.

In First Century Israel such killings were sanctioned—even demanded—by the law.

Remember the woman caught in adultery and dragged to Jesus for judgment.

The law of the land called for her stoning.

With that background, Matthew’s words in today’s Gospel seem quite the understatement.

Joseph was unwilling to expose her to shame.

That could have been the shame of dying by public stoning.

It’s not clear how often the law was actually carried to that full extent.

But Joseph did have the right to demand that the law be enforced.

That punishment be meted out for the broken contract and the disrespect that he had suffered.

And that the community be ridded of the offender.

But Matthew tells us Joseph was a righteous man.

He was humble, he was compassionate, he valued mercy over justice.

His ego didn’t need to see Mary suffer extreme punishment to salve his wounded pride.

So, even while believing that she had done wrong, he decided to divorce her quietly.

To let the matter end there.

But then Gabriel came onto the scene.

Our recent Gospels show that Gabriel had been busy lining everything up.

He visited Zechariah some months earlier to announce the coming birth of John the Baptist.

He visited Mary just weeks earlier to secure her agreement to be the mother of Jesus.

And now he comes to Joseph in a dream.

And assures him that Mary had done no wrong.

That her child was conceived through the Holy Spirit.

We see from Joseph’s quick reaction that he was a man of strong faith.

A man who knew God well enough to hear Him and trust Him in this extraordinary situation.

He accepts the message from his dream and drops the divorce plan.

He continues with his marriage to Mary.

And takes on the responsibility of foster father, supporter, protector and teacher to her child.

This miraculous child who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and who would save his people.

We often hear of the importance of Mary’s Yes to God’s call.

If she had not said yes, where would we be today?

Would God have kept preparing and asking other young women?

Would any have yet said Yes?

Today we also see the importance of Joseph’s Yes.

If he had ignored Gabriel, where would we be?

Would God have quickly found another willing foster father?

Worse yet, what if Joseph had demanded strict enforcement of the law?

Would there have been a stoning?

But Joseph did say Yes.

And assumed his important role in salvation history.

Providing support and protection and care for Mary and Jesus.

Moving them away from the danger of Herod to the safety of Egypt, and back again.

Guiding and teaching Jesus through his early years.

This is St Joseph.

We don’t know much more about him than that.

Some early non-biblical writings tell us more—but they’re not reliable.

One says Joseph was an old man, 90 years old, when he married Mary.

That he’d been previously married and had adult children from that prior marriage.

(Those could explain the Gospel references to Jesus’ brothers and sisters).

But we really don’t know; he could have been a young bachelor when he married Mary.

Joseph most likely died before Jesus began his public ministry.

The Gospels don’t mention his being present for any event past the trip to Jerusalem,

When Jesus was 12 years old and was lost in the temple.

During this Advent and Christmas season we hear about Joseph more often.

This is the season when we celebrate those early years of Jesus’ life.

Those years when Joseph was around.

Soon, after this season, Joseph will step into the background.

We may know little more about him than the few facts mentioned above.

But that’s enough.

Enough to make him patron saint of the Catholic Church, the Americas, parishes like our own,

And many other places, groups, occupations and causes.

Enough for us to know that he was righteous, just, merciful, and humble.

That he listened for God and said Yes to God’s call.

That like Mary, he devoted himself to Jesus, and shows us the way to Jesus.

God is calling all of us to our own particular roles in salvation history.

We may not be visited by Gabriel, or called to so great a mission as Joseph.

But our Yes to God’s call is still of vital importance.

And we’re blessed to have a patron who’s an ideal model of virtue and attitude.

A patron who can help us get to our own Yes.

4th Sunday of Advent
Mt 1:18-24           Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Grab Their Attention

Grab the audience’s attention with your opening words.

It might seem that Matthew is ignoring that literary advice.

He opens his book with the simple words …

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ.

But actually, those are shockingly powerful words for Matthew’s initial audience.

Eight words into the book and he’s already claimed that Jesus is the Christ—the Messiah.

Then he sets up the background for the story he’s about to tell.

His initial audience is the Jewish community.

And ultimately, his story will claim fulfillment of Jewish Scripture as a proof of credibility.

So he starts out by positioning his story within Jewish history and Scripture.

He links Jesus directly to Abraham and David, two of the greatest figures in Jewish history.

And then he provides a detailed genealogy of forty-two generations.

The precision of that genealogy can be questioned.

But Matthew’s goal wasn’t exact precision.

It was to show Jesus as an integral part of Jewish heritage and Scripture.

And Matthew throws a few twists into the genealogy.

There were other genealogies in the Old Testament.

But typically they didn’t include women.

Matthew mentions five women in his genealogy of Jesus Christ.

Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary.

Jews who knew their scripture would already be familiar with those first four.

And recognize that all came to bear their children under unusual circumstances.

Tamar disguised herself to trick her father-in-law, Judah, into fathering a child with her.

Rahab was probably the same Rahab presented in the book of Joshua.

A prostitute of Jericho who helped the Israelites conquer the city.

Ruth was an outsider; like Rahab she was a gentile.

Bathsheba may have been a gentile too, and the wife of the soldier Uriah.

Not a likely candidate to bear one of Israel’s greatest kings—Solomon.

Matthew uses these women in his opening verses as a hint at things to come.

He signals the listener that this will be a story filled with new and unusual things.

A story beginning with Mary and the unusual circumstances of Jesus’ birth.

And continuing through his often surprising teachings and encounters.

His most-uncommon miracles, and his unique death and resurrection.

A story that many would find unbelievable.

A story that has to overcome the Jewish listener’s preconceived image of the Messiah.

A story that has to overcome the Gentile listener’s sense of incredulity.

Throughout this newly begun liturgical year, we’ll read our way through Matthew’s Gospel.

We’ve heard it all before, most of us many times; we know the story.

This year we might try to listen as if we’re those First Century Jews hearing it for the first time.

But however we read or listen,

We’ll be receiving the living Gospel—the Word speaks still.

And indeed, we’ll find that there’s always something new to grab our attention.

Something to strengthen our faith and take us deeper in understanding.

Tuesday, Advent, December 17th
Mt 1:1-17           Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Watchmaker/Watchkeeper

When we take the time to look around us, it’s pretty clear that there is a God.

And that seems to be the conclusion reached by nearly every civilization known to us.

There is a being or a force out there that orders and controls the universe.

Whether we look outward into the vastness of space.

Or inward into the intricacies and complexities of our earthly surroundings and ourselves.

The more we learn about science and how things work,

The clearer it becomes that all this had to be created by some initial mover.

One analogy popularized in the early 19^th Century was that of the watchmaker.

If you look at a watch, you realize that there had to be a watchmaker.

You know it couldn’t have just come into being by itself.

It had to have an intelligent designer.

If you look at nature you realize the same thing.

It too had to have an intelligent designer and creator.

A popular theology during that Age of Enlightenment was Deism.

Some of America’s founding fathers, notably Thomas Jefferson, had Deist leanings.

Deists believed that there was a God who created everything.

The Great Clockmaker who set everything into motion.

But who then had no further involvement with that creation.

He left it to operate on its own.

We might sometimes tend to feel that way ourselves.

Is God really listening to our prayers?

Does God really care what we do?

Why would God listen to us?

And even if he did, would he ever intervene?

Why would he trouble himself with our little personal problems?

As Christians we know that we shouldn’t muddle for long in that kind of doubt and despair.

Of course God gets involved in our little lives.

What greater show of involvement could a creator give,

Than to become physically part of his creation?

Just as God did when he came to us on that Christmas day 2000 years ago.

We’re now in the midst of Advent, our preparation to celebrate the anniversary of that coming.

And today we celebrate one of the preparations that God Himself made for His arrival.

He intervened; He got involved in the personal life of Mary.

At the instant she was conceived in the womb of her mother, Anne.

He exempted Mary from the taint of original sin.

That hereditary defect that all the rest of us bear from the instant we come into existence.

Clearly, God does get directly involved and intervene in our human lives.

Mary’s Immaculate Conception and God’s own Incarnation at Christmas are just two examples.

And he continues today to interact with us in our lives, and to keep watch over us.

We Christians can take comfort in knowing, our God is not only the Great Watchmaker.

He is also the Great Watchkeeper.

Feast of the Immaculate Conception
Lk 1:26-38           Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Crazy

Our Scripture readings today point to this underlying problem.

Isaiah foretells the qualities of the Messiah:

He shall judge the poor with justice

And decide aright for the land’s afflicted.

The Psalmist adds:

Justice shall flower in his days,

And profound peace, till the moon be no more.

He shall rescue the poor when they cry out,

And the afflicted when they have no one to help them.

Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace forever.

Well here we are, two thousands years into “his time”.

Anno Domino—in the Year of Our Lord—2013 AD.

And where is that flourishing justice?

Where is that fullness of peace?

Jesus came and started the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

And called on us to nurture and spread that Kingdom.

By word and act and example.

Working with the rest of his Church, and with the help of his Spirit.

After all these centuries, why aren’t we closer to a world of full justice and peace?

In large part, it may be because of what Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel.

The Father has hidden these things from the wise and learned,

[And] revealed them to the childlike.

Who doesn’t want to be wise and learned?

That’s certainly sounds like something we should all strive to be.

The wisdom of the world tells us to be practical.

Peace and Justice have actually made some progress from our more harsh and brutal times past.

And we’ve been around long enough to know:

We don’t want to bite off more than we can chew.

We can’t solve all the problems of the world.

Our first responsibility is to look out for ourselves and our own.

The wisdom from learning those lessons can help us attain a degree of comfort in this life.

But it doesn’t promote speedy growth of the Kingdom.

It makes us too wise to make the same crazy, impractical mistakes Jesus made.

Tuesday, 1st Week of Advent
Lk 10:21-24           Read this Scripture @usccb.org