31 December 2021 - the beginning without a beginning

Today's Readings

(Audio)

In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.

In Genesis we read about God's Word at work in the beginning of creation. He spoke and the world was made and the light and the darkness were created. His Spirit was there as well, hovering over the waters, manifesting his power. This morning we read about the beginning before that beginning, the beginning that had no beginning. Before all creation, before anything Genesis records, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit lived together in eternal harmonious bliss.

John wrote to draw our attention in a special way to the Word of God. John wanted us to be clear that the Word was not created, that he himself was not a thing that came to be. He was not some first creation or emanation from emerging from God as some early heresies may have described him. Much less was he a limited and finite creature such as ourselves. 

All things came to be through him,

and without him nothing came to be.

Yet John wanted to be equally clear that it was this very eternal and divine Word, this reason or logos of God himself that truly became man and dwelt among us.

And the Word became flesh

and made his dwelling among us

and we saw his glory,

the glory as of the Father’s only-begotten Son,

full of grace and truth.

Setting aside the mystery of how the divine could join to itself a human nature that still leaves a question about why he would do so. The key to that answer comes later in John when we read, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son". Yet we see aspects of an answer already in the first chapter.

But to those who did accept him

he gave power to become children of God, 

to those who believe in his name, 

who were born not by natural generation 

nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision 

but of God.

The true source of all light that always shone in the darkness, uncomprehended and undefeated, wanted to shine in a more tangible and sensible way upon us. We had always had a choice of whether or not to accept the light. Now that choice would be made more concrete and, to sincere humble, more compelling.

because while the law was given through Moses, 

grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

We can see that Jesus came to us to reveal the Father. He did not do this by lengthy philosophical discourse but by making us share in his own divine Sonship. His own Spirit within us would cry out, "Abba" just as it did from within his own heart. This, and not the mere forgiveness of sins, was the fullness of God's plan of salvation. Jesus himself was an icon of the Father's love. Salvation was now to be found in him alone and it was by our response to him coming to us that we would give our consent to that plan, or otherwise to ignore it and prefer the darkness.

No one has ever seen God.

The only-begotten Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, 

has revealed him.

The Father remained distant until Jesus came. At times he may have seemed capricious or unkind. Jesus came to clean the glass through which we gazed upon the Father. He came to remove the sinful pride that had caused us to second guess the goodness of God since the garden. He asked us if we would trust just enough to see a little bit more clearly that the Father's heart was truly and entirely motivated by love. And then, once we saw that a little more clearly, he asked us to trust again, this time a bit more. Each time we embraced that invitation we would come closer to the only sight that could satisfy us forever, closer to the time when we would see him face to face (see First Corinthians 13:12), and seeing him, become like him (see First John 3:2)

Children, it is the last hour; 

and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming,

so now many antichrists have appeared.

What do antichrists have to offer those who trust in the Lord? Hint: nothing. The antichrist spirit of deception is all undeniably around us. Yet this is not such a cause for concern as we would think at first, as it in fact would be if resisting it were entirely up to are mental prowess.

But you have the anointing that comes from the Holy One,

and you all have knowledge. 

We have the Spirit within us that can help us to identify and dismiss deceptions before we are damaged. We simply have to remember that this is true and rely on it. If we live from the fullness of the grace and truth Jesus came to give the antichrists in the world need not make us fear.

I write to you not because you do not know the truth 

but because you do, and because every lie is alien to the truth.

Matt Maher - Run to the Father

30 December 2021 - remember who you are

Today's Readings

(Audio)

I am writing to you, children,

because your sins have been forgiven for his name’s sake.

Our sins were cleansed and we received the Holy Spirit when we were baptized. At that moment we became children of God by adoption. This reality was meant to be profoundly experiential. The Holy Spirit himself would teach us to cry out to God as "Abba, Father!" from the depths of our hearts. 

I am writing to you, fathers,

because you know him who is from the beginning.

We tend to think of God's fatherhood as an analogy to that of fathers here on earth who are the real source of the concept which we then loosely apply to God. But it is just the opposite. Earthly fathers know something about fatherhood by analogy, but they are meant to recognize the true Father "from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named" (see Ephesians 3:15). God is Father perfectly, because his fathering of the Son is from the beginning, and never changes. Parents on earth only gesture toward the complete outpouring of self from the Father, the outpouring that actually is the person of the Son. Our own experience of the positive aspects of family here on earth can help reveal something of the mysterious wonder of the life of the Trinity. And when our own experiences are something less than positive that very privation itself points to God in whom nothing is lacking. When earthly families fall short God desires our participation in his own Triune life console us. 

I am writing to you, young men,

because you have conquered the Evil One.

Yes, brothers and sisters, we have conquered the Evil One. The young men in John's original audience probably also asked, 'Who me?' But that is exactly why John was teaching them and did not take for granted that they already understood. Whether children, fathers, or young men, whatever stage of growth, physical age or level of spiritual development, John wanted to remind his readers what was true about them in Christ.

In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world (see John 16:33).

We can take heart because we are union with Jesus is so deep that we are able share in his own victory.

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith (see First John 5:4).

May we come to see ourselves more as John saw his audience. We are meant to think of ourselves as children, beloved children, not guilty but forgiven, who know the Father who was from the beginning. We are meant to live a victorious Christian life but this isn't entirely automatic. We first have to believe that we have the victory and to learn to think and act accordingly. The criteria for what victory means must no longer be established by the world. Victory cannot consist in "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" any longer, for those things are definitively defeated, already passing away.

But whoever does the will of God remains forever.

We will be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power (see Ephesians 6:10) if we ensure that the word of God remains in us. This means we can't simply hear or read it and then forget. It must come to shape our entire way of thinking, to become a refrain to which we constantly return, that gives order and direction to the rest of our thoughts.

She never left the temple,

but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer. 

Anna's mind was centered on the promises of God's word. Neither age nor widowhood had defeated her, as might well be reasonably understandable for someone in her circumstances. Instead, she ensured that the word of God continued to define her thoughts and her words.

And coming forward at that very time,

she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child

to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.

The world could not see one such as Anna as victorious. In her own day she would have been viewed, perhaps, as an unfortunate charity case. In our day, she would have probably been considered a waste of space. Some nations might have asked if she really needed to keep consuming the world's resources when, to their understanding, her life was as good as over. But Anna had conquered all of that. She experienced the promised victory of God more during that time of her life than ever before.

The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom;

and the favor of God was upon him.

Jesus himself grew in order to teach us how to grow. His life was an example of increasing in strength and wisdom, of always choosing God and the things of God first. He who was the very Word of God always found his greatest strength in the hidden bread of God's word. When difficult circumstances arose, he rose and went engage in a dialog of prayer, words between the Father and the Son by the Spirit. When challenged by the Evil One, he countered by speaking the word of God which he always made the source of his strength. The growth of Jesus can bless us as we try to imitate his passion for Scriptures and his reliance on the word of God. When we are tempted to prefer the things of this world we can ask Jesus to make his own wisdom and grace shine forth in us instead.

Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice!

Hillsong - This Is How We Overcome

29 December 2021 - presentation circumstances

Today's Readings

(Audio)

the parents of Jesus took him up to Jerusalem

to present him to the Lord

All of the firstborn of Israel, of man and beast, belonged in a special way to the Lord. This fact recalled how the firstborn were spared from the angel of death when God delivered Israel from Egypt. Looking back we recognize that this deliverance from Egypt was a foreshadowing of a deeper deliver from idolatry and sin. For our part, to be safe from the angel of death, we would need the blood of the lamb on the lintels of our hearts, just as did the ancient Israelites. All the firstborn before Jesus were offered with this debt to the redeemer in view. And we who have come after must still offer our lives back to the one who paid the debt for us. 

Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord,

and to offer the sacrifice of

a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons,

in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord.

The first and the best of everything we are given must be given back to God. Although Jesus himself did not stand in need of redemption he nevertheless already chose to be identified with his people even in these early years, and would continue to do so throughout his life. He was circumcised, presented to the Lord, baptized, and ultimately even died for us, the sinless one in full solidarity with we sinners. Already in the Presentation we began to see in Jesus the paying of a price that we could never pay. He himself was in no way under the power of sin and death and in need of redemption. Only he was truly free to be fully, totally, and utterly consecrated to the Lord. This offering of the firstborn to the Lord had heretofore been a reminder of a debt unpaid, and a foreshadowing and a hope of the time when it would be paid. But in Jesus a worthy offering had at last been found.

And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts (see Malachi 3:1).

If only we could learn to welcome Jesus into the temples of our hearts in the way that Simeon welcomed him. In his eyes, the coming of the Messiah to the temple was the completion of his whole life and mission, the dawn of salvation which gave meaning to his entire life.

Lord, now let your servant go in peace;

your word has been fulfilled:

my own eyes have seen the salvation

which you prepared in the sight of every people,

a light to reveal you to the nations

and the glory of your people Israel.

This may have been something of a reversal of the situation with Hannah, Samuel, and Eli. For Eli received and trained the offering of Samuel. We seem to see a hint that with the coming of Jesus the time of the priority of the temple was already beginning to come to a conclusion. Instead of taking Jesus to live in the temple to benefit from those institutions and structures of religion Simeon rather witnessed the role of the temple was now superseded by the one who would teach us to worship in Spirit and in truth (see John 4:24). In a sense Simeon represented the whole economy of the temple pointing beyond itself to Jesus. It would now be our relationship with Jesus himself that would define our standing with the God of Israel.

Behold, this child is destined

for the fall and rise of many in Israel,

and to be a sign that will be contradicted

Jesus came to offer what we could not. But in doing so he loved us with a love that empowered us to respond in the way God always intended.

Beloved, I am writing no new commandment to you

but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. 

It was an old commandment in that it had been written so early in the history of salvation. It was a new commandment in that grace and truth had been given through Jesus Christ (see John 1:17) that enabled it to be kept and honored. The difference, as John indicates, was night and day.

And yet I do write a new commandment to you,

which holds true in him and among you,

for the darkness is passing away,

and the true light is already shining. 

We are still frighteningly free to choose to slide back into the darkness. But may we instead embrace the light of which John wrote, the salvation prepared in our sight, the glory that filled the life of Simeon with meaning.

Sing to the LORD a new song;

sing to the LORD, all you lands.

Paul Smith - Nunc Dimittis

28 December 2021 - the martyrs' crown

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.

Pharaoh once ordered that all male Hebrew children who were born would be killed but Moses was protected. So now Jesus, like a new Moses, was spared from Herod's slaughter of male children in Bethlehem under the age of two years old. Moses was protected by being taken into an Egyptian household. Jesus and his family were also able to find refuge in Egypt, far from the rule of Herod.

He stayed there until the death of Herod,

that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled,

Out of Egypt I called my son.

God led Israel, whom he considered a firstborn son, out of Egypt by the hand of Moses in the Exodus. But there was a new and greater Exodus beginning in the person of Jesus himself.

And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah,

who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem (see Luke 9:30-31).

When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi,

he became furious.

He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity

two years old and under,

in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi.

These Holy Innocents were mourned and lamented but not forgotten. Neither were their deaths meaningless. Their lives were given up because of their association with Jesus himself. It was as though they themselves mocked Herod, saying 'Do you really so fear a child so much as to destroy us who are harmless to you?' But Herod was all but powerless against these children. For their witness would echo down through the ages, unforgotten and undimmed. For a brief moment of pain they would share the eternal glory of the martyrs' crown. They were given this as a gift before they could use their own reason to turn away from God, before they would even have to struggle to be faithful. Would fallen, adult humans choose such a fate? Probably not. Perhaps we would rather cling to our castles built on sand. But isn't it likely that these Holy Innocents, now encouraging us from heaven, wouldn't change a thing?

For those of us who are neither particularly holy nor especially innocent, those who prefer the courts of Herod instead of sharing in the fate of Jesus, this need not be the end of our story. Indeed, to the Holy Innocents one grace was given, but to us another of a different kind. Jesus did not prepare his Kingdom only for those few perfect ones he snatched away from Hell, but for any sinners who would be willing to be made pure. We did not begin as Holy Innocents, but that can be our end if we let the Blood of Jesus work in our lives.

But if we walk in the light as he is in the light,

then we have fellowship with one another,

and the Blood of his Son Jesus cleanses us from all sin.

We cannot now say that we have not sinned. All of us have fallen short of the glory of God (see Romans 3:23). And although we are called to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect (see Matthew 5:48) it is understood that this perfection is the result of a gradual purification over the course of our lives, as gold is refined by the fire of God's love. 

My children, I am writing this to you

so that you may not commit sin.

But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, 

Jesus Christ the righteous one.

When we hear voices of condemnation these voices do not come from God. Such inner monologues of self-criticism may originate from ourselves, because of wounds from our past, or be insinuated against us by demonic suggestion. We need not dwell on the origin of such self slander, but should instead turn toward the solution. Our Advocate will speak up for us when even we ourselves are not fully convinced. He will plead our case to his Father if we only allow him to do so. Hearing this even we ourselves will come to believe that what Jesus sees in us is real.

DC Talk - In the Light

27 December 2021 - while it was still dark

Today's Readings

(Audio)

On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb.

Great faith can emerge from deep darkness, provided love perseveres. Mary Magdalene had been traumatized by the death of the one whom she loved dearly because of all he meant and had done for her. To all appearances it still looked as though the plan had failed and the mission of Jesus had been irreparably thwarted by the collusion of the Roman and Jewish authorities. She had at that point no human grounds for hope. She saw signs of something unexpected but didn't simply know or guess the truth of the events that took place. The darkness in which she found herself was too deep for that. But her love was such that she couldn't simply leave things as they were. Her love for her Lord was too great to abandon the body of him to anyone who would not treasure it.

So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.”

She did not yet have a resurrection faith, but she had a passion for Jesus, in spite of all of the suffering and incomprehensible circumstances, a passion to which she continued to hold. She kept holding fast to her love for Jesus in a way that prepared for he himself to reveal that he was risen.

It was from the faith of Magdalene that Peter and John's faith began to be kindled, like a candle lighting other candles during the Easter Vigil mass. Like her, they were clearly not ready to surrender their love for their master. They both ran, like her probably not even suspecting a resurrection as yet, but so moved by love for Jesus that they were drawn irresistibly drawn to investigate. 

John ran faster, for he was younger, and his sense of being the beloved disciple pushed him on. His was the gaze of contemplation that would pierce hidden mysteries by leaning his head upon the shoulder of his beloved. In the absence of that beloved the same love still drove him on. But he yielded to the experience and authority of Peter. His positive self-image did not result in pride, but allowed him the grace to yield to Peter's particular role.

They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter

and arrived at the tomb first;

he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.

The faith of all of the disciples came through this cascade of love that refused to surrender even in the face of apparent failure and hopelessness. It was the love Jesus himself had first shown them, now reciprocated in his disciples, that could simply not accept the finality of his death. 

By process of elimination all of the things that didn't happen were excluded. The burial cloths were folded, which was not something grave robbers would do. What could it mean? Love would press on until it was satisfied. 

Then the other disciple also went in,

the one who had arrived at the tomb first,

and he saw and believed.

It would take the intervention of Jesus himself to bring the disciples from the openness to faith unto full faith in his resurrection. But once this was done it was clear how deep and unshakable was the faith that emerged from the darkness of the morning of the third day.

What was from the beginning,

what we have heard,

what we have seen with our eyes,

what we looked upon

and touched with our hands

Or, as Peter would write, "we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty" (see Second Peter 1:16).

Neither Mary Magdalene, nor John, nor Peter, was so credulous as to admit a resurrection by mere wishful thinking. Yet they all loved too much to give in to despair when any evidence of hope remained. They now have the ability to speak to each of us of the one who mattered too much to each of them personally to be mere myth or fantasy, one whom they knew and even touched. This was the Jesus they knew during his ministry. He was the same Jesus they encountered risen from the dead.

Light dawns for the just;

and gladness, for the upright of heart.

We sometimes find ourselves in confusion and darkness. At such times we should imitate these disciples and refuse to give in to despair. We should allow the love we have already been shown to drive us to run toward hope, not knowing the answers, but knowing for sure that there are answers to be found, and that they are worth finding. It is from testing by darkness like this that our faith can grow to the same solidity we see in John the Evangelist.

we have seen it and testify to it

and proclaim to you the eternal life

that was with the Father and was made visible to us

Matt Maher - Alive Again

26 December 2021 - not wholly familiar

Today's Readings

(Audio)

After they had completed its days, as they were returning, 

the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, 

but his parents did not know it.

It might seem suspect to celebrate the feast of the Holy Family with a Gospel reading that seems to suggest an aberration or anomaly in that overall holiness. If we were meant to interpret this reading as Jesus being inconsiderate and inconveniencing his earthly parents it is not likely the Church would have chosen it to demonstrate what a holy family, indeed what the prototypical holy family, ought to be. Certainly there could be some mundane lessons drawn from such a story. Jesus, we might be told, was too preoccupied to consider the inconvenience he caused to his parents. His parents were too preoccupied to notice him missing. The moral then would be for them all to become more aware of one another's needs, demonstrating in their acceptance of the situation adaptability and forgiveness. That would be a fine moral for normal human families. But it would be insufficient to describe the Gospel situation.

“Son, why have you done this to us?

Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”

And he said to them,

“Why were you looking for me?

Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

What Jesus did was not done out of absentmindedness or course carelessness, but rather with full awareness and intention. The Son was not only teaching those in the temple, but also his own earthly father and mother. In this holy family the normal order of a family would need to be expanded to allow for the fact that Jesus himself was no ordinary child. The obedience he owed to his earthly father was always perfectly offered, but it was subsumed under the authority of his Father in heaven. It was therefore right for him to be in the house of that Father even if it meant that Mary and Joseph had to experience worry and confusion.

But they did not understand what he said to them.

The order of the family was in some sense inverted. Joseph was still the head of the household but he and Mary began to learn that there was a sense in which they would need to order their household so that Jesus would be free to follow the will of his Father in heaven. This is the lesson for all of us with our less than holy families as well. We are called to learn, sometimes through difficulty, to make Jesus the center of our lives together. We can no longer simply do our own thing or we will risk losing track of him, thinking him safe somewhere in our caravan.

After three days they found him in the temple

When Jesus is the center of our families it does not mean that we will only experience Hallmark movie moments forever after. It may mean that we will experience perplexity and difficulty that are a preparation for and participation in the three days of the Paschal mystery. It is not simply an uncaring child neglecting his duty that is the cause of this. He is very intentionally giving to us gradually, as we become able to receive it, a share in his own mission.

He went down with them and came to Nazareth,

and was obedient to them; 

and his mother kept all these things in her heart.

It was still necessary to honor the old structures of authority within the family even as they took on a new shape. Although though Joseph was the only member of the holy family who was not without sin he was still the head of that household. Mary bore with his faults in virtue of her own unflagging holiness. Even she, though full of grace, still recognized that Jesus had more to teach her, that only with he himself at the center of their family would the whole miraculous story make sense. She therefore allowed herself to be malleable and teachable by the ever surprising life of her son.

Only with Jesus at the center of any family, group, or organization can we experience the peace and harmony described by Saint Paul. Putting Jesus at the center will often mean undergoing our own search to find him in the temple. It will then require that we imitate Mary in treasuring and reflecting on  the meaning of that search. It  will mean three days of learning to set aside all else so that God alone may reign within our hearts. But after these three days the promise and possibility of renewal for all of our relationships will be so great as to make all of it worthwhile.

And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, 

the peace into which you were also called in one body.

And be thankful.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, 

as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, 

singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs 

with gratitude in your hearts to God.

When Jesus is at the center of our families we will no longer need to hold anything back for ourselves but will be able to offer the best of what we have to the service of God just as did Hannah. We will be able to live out our own obligations of obedience and honor, no longer as mere duty, but as part of the privilege of returning the love of God who loved us first, love now made particularly and conspicuously manifested within, not just the holy family, but our own families as well.

Blessed are they who dwell in your house, O Lord.

Matt Maher - Better Is One Day

25 December 2021 - light from light

Today's Readings - Mass During the Day

(Audio)

In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.

The first thing God created in the Genesis account was light, before which the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of it. But the Gospel of John looks back before that beginning to an even early point where the Word and the Father dwelt together, coeternal, coequal in power and glory. That Word was true light, in view of which created light was only a dim approximation.

What came to be through him was life,

and this life was the light of the human race;

the light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness has not overcome it.

God had created physical light, yet that physical light already indicated a cyclical world, an impermanence, a not having as yet arrived at the true source of light. The true light was not immediately visible to creatures, for they could not behold it directly, and lest their free will be overwhelmed by it. But they were invited to by analogy with the goodness of created light to seek the spiritual light of wisdom. 

For she is fairer than the sun

and surpasses every constellation of the stars.

Compared to light, she is found more radiant;

though night supplants light,

wickedness does not prevail over Wisdom (see Wisdom 7:29-3).

Just as physical light prevented those who walked by it from stumbling and falling, just as it enabled work and productivity, and just as only by it could true beauty be seen, so too, and even more, did creatures need wisdom to order their lives toward that which matters most. 

Wisdom was for generations obscure and only found by a few. Those who did find it saw more clearly the meaning of theirs lives. They could more clearly discern how desirable a destiny it would be to behold forever the source of that light. But the origin of light did not want to leave us in that state of deprivation. Everything in creation was preparation so that we would desire and welcome the true light from God. Even those who most clearly understood wisdom, who most transparently beheld the uncreated light, still only had the barest glimpse. Even they proved by their lives that they could not keep their eyes on that light for long. There was in fact the temptation to despair that the darkness had won because of just how little light seemed visible, how even the greatest lovers of wisdom seemed to meet the common fate of all men. Wisdom himself refused to leave us in that darkness and came to be for us the true light that shines in the darkness.

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil (see John 3:19).

Even before the Word became flesh it was only in the light of God that we had we ever seen beauty, only by acting in wisdom had we ever known peace or joy. Yet because of our human limitations and the taint of sin from our fallen nature we did not desire to gaze upon that light for long. We saw it, but stumbled. We fell frequently enough as to feel invested in the darkness. The light eventually began to seem unattainable, to heartbreaking to even attempt to pursue. We consigned ourselves to darkness and decided to even hate the light which finally began to seem hurtful to us, as though a cruel joke.

It was to us, dwelling in darkness and the shadow of death, that the preexistent Word, whom the creed calls "light from light", who was in his person the Wisdom of God (see First Corinthians 1:24), became incarnate. It was he who took on flesh so that he would be visible even to the eyes of creatures. By doing so he offered a new opportunity for salvation to all peoples. We could look at the Word made flesh and see that all of the promises of light, beauty, and truth were real, that the darkness had not in fact won, that the thing for which our hearts longed, was real, solid, and within our grasp.

And the Word became flesh

and made his dwelling among us,

and we saw his glory,

the glory as of the Father’s only Son,

full of grace and truth.

The world around us would continue to contain ample darkness, but Jesus himself could now be a lighthouse by which we could steer the course of our lives, a light which would even now reward those who traveled by it with the sight of things eternal, things in which our hearts could finally rest.

From his fullness we have all received,

grace in place of grace

Brothers and sisters, let us embrace the light of the one who is the "refulgence of [the Father's] glory". We need not remain imprisoned by the shadowy nature of creation apart from the light of the creator, nor the darkness of sin. The one who stood behind all things as source and origin, the one who "sustains all things" came among us so that could truly trust that the God was for us and not against us. The darkness would not be permitted to have the last word. There was proof positive that the light was not merely an illusion. The revelation of the birth of the savior made all of this known in instant, by the birth of infant. All worldly presuppositions are prejudices were turned on their heads. But to those who would allow themselves to see the truth that was given flesh in this birth the power of the love on display was both undeniable and unsurpassable.

Hark!  Your sentinels raise a cry,

together they shout for joy,

for they see directly, before their eyes,

the LORD restoring Zion.

Third Day - O Come All Ye Faithful

Rend Collective - My Lighthouse

24 December 2021 - o long awaited, come

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;

for he has come to his people and set them free.

No longer would God rely on the unfaithful stewards and shepherds of the past to look after his flock, for he had promised "I myself will be the Shepherd of my sheep and cause them to lie down in peace" (see Ezekiel 34:16-18). This profundity of the promised presence was also prophesied by Isaiah, who said a child would be born for us, named "be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (see Isaiah 9:6). This was what the angel indicated when said that the promised one would be called Immanuel (see Matthew 1:23), meaning God is with us. God himself, at long last, would truly come. The author would step into his own story, the creator himself appear visibly within his creation. This is indeed exactly how the people experienced the presence of Jesus.

Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” (see Luke 7:16).

It was for this reason that Jesus himself would forever be the one mediator between God and man (see First Timothy 2:5), he who was himself both God and man. It was for this reason too that only Jesus could truly reveal the Father to us, for he and he alone had seen the Father, had dwelled with him together for all eternity (see John 6:46). We had heretofore been without someone who could both stand before the Father and yet truly take our part. Moses stood in the breach for his people (see Psalm 106:23) but even he could not stand directly before the Father. As a consequence, sin was never more than partially ameliorated, and the heart of the Father for his people remained obscure, fearful, and intimidating.

He has raised up for us a mighty Savior,

born of the house of his servant David.

There had been many great heroes in the history of salvation, but none of them were able to address the fundamental need of every human being for salvation. Our truest enemies were not flesh and blood, but principalities and powers (see Ephesians 6:12). Our deepest need was for salvation by the forgiveness of our sins. Only this salvation could clear the way to that which was always meant to be our destiny, our purpose, the hidden desire in the deepest parts of ours hearts: to know and to be known by God.

free to worship him without fear,

holy and righteous in his sight

all the days of our life.

This alone would be true freedom. Only on this basis could we know the deepest kind of joy. It was this for which David longed when he desired to build a dwelling place for God. But in spite of the rightness of that intention the dwelling place of God among men was something God himself would have to build, which he indeed did build in the very incarnation of Jesus himself.

The LORD also reveals to you

that he will establish a house for you. 

What we desperately needed, what we could never accomplish for ourselves, the Lord himself intervened to accomplish for us. After long years during which it seemed that the darkness dominated and the light was little more than a flicker the true dawn finally began to rise at that first Christmas. It was a sun that would never set.

And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts (see Second Peter 1:19).

Let us keep our eyes fixed on this light, the only one that can never be truly overcome by the darkness, until, within that light, all we see is light.

Saint Meinrad Schola - Canticle of Zachary

Matt Maher - Canticle of Zechariah

Brian Doerksen - Resting Place

23 December 2021 - silence to praise

Today's Readings

(Audio)

they were going to call him Zechariah after his father

Our tendency is try to force reality into conformity with patterns that we understand. Elizabeth was miraculously able to give birth to a child. Yet in spite, or perhaps because of the miraculous nature of the birth, her friends, who really did want to rejoice with her, nevertheless tried to name him, to limit him, to conform him to be merely what his father had been. Yet what the world needed was something more than Zechariah, a voice made silent because of unbelief. The world needed a messenger.

“No. He will be called John.” 

The child would not be named on the basis of what the mother or the father contributed naturally to his conception. Rather, his name meant "the grace of God", signifying the most significant aspect of his coming to be, that he was not simply a son, but a gift from God.

But they answered her,

“There is no one among your relatives who has this name.” 

The crowds will always do this. They will limit the possibilities for the future on the basis of past experience. Even though every financial advertisement advises that "past performance does not necessarily predict future results" it is still difficult for us to do otherwise. Without that sense of control we tend to fear the future as utterly unknown and unpredictable, an alien world to which we have no map. 

He asked for a tablet and wrote, “John is his name,”

and all were amazed.

For us, as followers of the Lord, we do not face the future alone. We face it together with the one who holds all things in his hands, who can see clearly from here unto the end of history. When we recognize this fact we become less desperate to predict the future. We are more able to embrace the creative potential before us with good humor.

History is merely a list of surprises,' I said. 'It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again. Please write that down.

- Kurt Vonnegut

Facing the future fearlessly is only possible when our lives our rooted in and centered around the grace of God. Our doubts are a hindrance that can keep us tied to old and unfruitful patterns, silent and unable anything new and vital. We can learn, like Zechariah, to step back from patterns of the past, to inhabit silence when we feel unable to bring our own meaning, and within that silence to find and embrace the offer of grace.

“John is his name,”

Our tongues are not yet as free to speak blessing God as God himself desires them to be. We are still constrained by so many self-limiting beliefs based on our past, beliefs centered on us and our own human limitations. As we approach Christmas we are invited to embrace moments of silence so that God himself can reveal his grace to us. Then we will not be speaking on our own, not merely expressing our own clever ideas, but rather speaking as we were meant to speak, in freedom, blessing God.

We read that grace and truth came truly and definitively in the person of Jesus Christ (see John 1:17). That grace was already reaching back through history in the person of John, transforming the voice of prophecy which had seemingly fallen silent in Israel, into a voice that could now be understood as pointing toward the coming of Jesus himself. Human doubt was met and overcome by the offer of divine grace. What happened in that grand sense is now something Jesus himself desires to do in us. He wants to refine and purify us just as he did Zechariah.

For he is like the refiner’s fire,

or like the fuller’s lye.

He will sit refining and purifying silver,

and he will purify the sons of Levi,

Refining them like gold or like silver

that they may offer due sacrifice to the LORD.

A time of silence is a small price to pay for a life of praise.

Rightly also, from that moment was his tongue loosed, for that which unbelief had bound, faith set free. Let us then also believe, in order that our tongue, which has been bound by the chains of unbelief, may be loosed

- Saint Ambrose

Matt Maher - The Heart of Worship

Saint Meinrad Schola - O Emmanuel

 

22 December 2021 - magnify

Today's Readings

(Audio)

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;

my spirit rejoices in God my savior.

for he has looked upon his lowly servant.

Mary allowed her blessings to overflow into thanksgiving. She was not content that Elizabeth stop at blessing her but led her onward so that they could both together marvel at the cosmic significance of that blessing. Yes, God had done great things for Mary, greater indeed that he had for any other creature. But even those blessings pointed toward his own holiness as their source.

From this day all generations will call me blessed

Mary prophetically understood that all generations would recognize her for her unique role in the story of salvation and would therefore call her blessed. But, ever the humble handmaid of the Lord, she wanted to ensure that he would always be at the center of any acknowledgment she herself received.

the Almighty has done great things for me,

and holy is his Name.

Mary did not argue with Elizabeth when she called her the most blessed among women, agreeing with her when she said that all generations would call her blessed. And yet she did not seek to exult herself or to separate herself from others. Rather, her song went on to say that what she had experienced was in some sense available to everyone.

He has mercy on those who fear him

in every generation.

All those who are humble can experience being lifted up by God. All those who are weak can experience his strong arm protecting them. Those who, by contrast, seek to exult themselves or their own might will eventually find themselves cast down when their strength eventually fails them. Mary experienced exultation in humility more perfectly than any other creature. Yet she was not meant to simply be an outlier, but rather an archetype or exemplar for all of us.

He has filled the hungry with good things,

and the rich he has sent away empty.

What we need to understand about the Magnificat is that the world did not yet look the way Mary described it. It was an entirely sincere prayer of praise that she made from the very depths of her soul and spirit, from her whole being, but one which was possible only because of her faith. It was the grace she had been given, expressed in her fiat, that allowed her to receive and understand reality by faith, on God's terms, and not according to mere worldly appearance. It was this fiat faith that allowed her to remain rooted in the truth of God's promises even while the circumstances were still seemingly slow to catch up.

He has come to the help of his servant Israel

for he remembered his promise of mercy,

the promise he made to our fathers,

to Abraham and his children for ever.

We are meant to learn this art of thankfulness and faith that Hannah and Mary both teach us. We ourselves have already been so lifted up as to be "seated in heavenly places" (see Ephesians 2:6). But we don't always (or perhaps even often) view our circumstances from that perspective. We can do it, however, if we begin with a response of faith. Faith of this kind recognizes the profundity of the gift we have been given and makes us respond with our own songs of praise and thanksgiving. It is by this means that we keep our minds "set on things above" (see Colossians 3:2) and thereby correctly interpret the otherwise misleading circumstances of the things of earth.

When we live lives marked by faith and thanksgiving we will not be afraid to offer our blessings back to the Lord. We will then have such deep trust in God's providence that we will not hesitate to offer even the greatest of his gifts back to him.

Now I, in turn, give him to the LORD;

as long as he lives, he shall be dedicated to the LORD.

How do we do this practically? Let us imitate Mary's fiat and accept God's will for us, and in doing so, decide to see things from his heavenly perspective. Let's allow the truth of that perspective, of the heavenly reality into which we are invited to participate, to overflow into songs of praise.

My heart exults in the LORD,

my horn is exalted in my God.

I have swallowed up my enemies;

I rejoice in my victory.

Matt Maher - Great Things

Saint Meinrad Schola - O Rex Gentium

21 December 2021 - ark sighting

Today's Readings

(Audio)

The Ark of the Covenant had been lost in the time of the Babylonian exile. In that time Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord's presence depart from the temple, since the Ark itself was the focal point of that presence.

Then the glory of the Lord departed from over the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim (see Ezekiel 10:18).

Israel was meant to be the dwelling place of God upon the earth, the place that would bless all the nations by teaching them the knowledge of God. But the legacy of sin prevented Israel from fulfilling this vocation. God was not in her midst in the way he desired to be. So many years passed in that state, with "judgment against" Israel during which her enemies dominated her. There were years of discouragement where the true King of Israel was not in their midst in the way they knew he was meant to be. They had known of the glory cloud and felt its absence acutely. It was indeed as though a winter stretched on without end, or that rains continued leaving no time for growth, harvest, or flowers.

Most blessed are you among women,

and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 

Now a new Ark had been filled with the Holy Spirit and overshadowed by the power of the Most High (see Luke 1:35). It is difficult to overstate how important this would have been. 

What an unexpected shift, from the temple, with its inner divisions available only to those with status, the presence of God would now return, not upon the temple, but upon a humble and unknown virgin. Yet Mary was not merely an accidental element in the divine plan. She herself was untainted by sin and could therefore live the vocation at which Israel had failed, to be a dwelling place of God among his people. She did this with such complete consent of will, with such absence of resistance, that through her his presence was able to be made manifest in an entirely new and superior way.

And how does this happen to me,

that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 

We no longer worship in the temple because we have been called instead by Jesus to worship in Spirit and truth (see John 4:21). Wasn't such worship exactly what Elizabeth experienced by welcoming Mary into her home, in recognizing in her the Ark of God's presence?

For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,

the infant in my womb leaped for joy. 

The Holy Spirit is within us in a way similar to the presence of John in his mother, interceding for us with sighs and groanings too deep for words (see Romans 8:26). If we are attentive to the movements of the Spirit within us we will discover the depths of our need for the Messiah, for God to truly be Emmanuel for us. Discovering this, we too will leap for joy. No wonder Paul describes what is unfolding in ourselves and in creation as "labor pains" (see Romans 8:22).

Even if we understand this to some degree we should be convinced that we have not yet fully compassed just how good is this good news of the coming King. It is even better than lovers being united after a long separation, better than abandoned children finding themselves adopted into a royal household. The winter is nearly over. The flowers are already beginning to blossom. The figs of the Messianic age are appearing. Our truest love, the deepest desire of every heart, is almost here.

Here he stands behind our wall,

gazing through the windows,

peering through the lattices.

Lindell Cooley - I See the Lord

Saint Meinrad Schola - O Oriens

20 December 2021 - responding well

Today's Readings

(Audio)

And coming to her, he said,

“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”

But she was greatly troubled at what was said

and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

Mary can teach us how to respond well to God's plan, how to prepare and preserve a space for the incarnation of Jesus into our own lives and into our world. She began her  own response with fear of the Lord, the beginning of of wisdom, appropriate to one who would be venerated as the seat of wisdom. This fear of the Lord caused her to avoid two extremes. One option which we often choose instead is a casualness whereby we take the gifts of God given to us for granted, without thankfulness, without awe, and without treasuring them. The other option, which, together with casualness, we tend to choose more than genuine fear of the Lord, is a self-centered fear that closes one in on oneself, that flees from the presence of the Lord as Adam and Eve once fled, and refuses to even consider the message. This fear isn't from humility before God, but rather distorted need for self-protection. That Mary did neither of these we can see be her posture of waiting and listening. She didn't rush to speak or rush to run the other way.

But Ahaz answered,

“I will not ask! I will not tempt the LORD!” 

Ahaz attempted to mask his human fear as humility, but God did not find it to be so. God himself wanted to accomplish this work which would eventually take place in Mary. He himself desired to give the sign. It is a fearful thing to be on the receiving end of such a desire. Such fear is only meant to give rise to the appropriate attitude of response: awe, treasuring, thanksgiving. How much better it would have been if Ahaz would have allowed the Lord to work through him than to have to work around him. Nevertheless, there was no stopping this plan of God.

Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign:

the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and shall name him Emmanuel.

One problem we often encounter when God invites us to cooperate with his plans is that of doubt. We often don't really believe that his miraculous power extends so far as to impact us in our relationship with him. To be sure it marked the lives of the saints, might be happening somewhere in Africa, or even to those who knew Saint Solanus Casey, but never, we imagine, to us. Even Zechariah, a priest of God, had trouble with doubt when the things which used to be mere ritual suddenly became intensely real.

Then Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”

The question that Zechariah asked represented doubt. He asked for proof of how he could believe the message. His fear was a human fear that despaired to some degree of the power of God to accomplish his desires. It sounded similar to but was drastically different from the response of Mary to the Annunciation.

But Mary said to the angel,

“How can this be,

since I have no relations with a man?” (see Luke 1:18)

Mary did not ask how she could know it. She trusted in the words of God delivered by the angel. She asked, because without asking she could not understand, how the thing would come to pass. If she was to be involved, a how question asked in faith was more the merely valid, it was necessary.

And the angel said to her in reply,

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,

and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

Therefore the child to be born

will be called holy, the Son of God.

Let us learn to respond to the invitations God gives to each of us as Mary responded to the Annunciation. Let us receive those invitations in holy and not in human fear. Let us not ask for proof, but let us not fail to ask for clarification in faith. We can come to understand as Mary did that, "nothing will be impossible for God". Because of it, we too can say, "May it be done to me according to your word."

Abbé Simon-Joseph Pellegrin - O Come, Divine Messiah

Saint Meinrad Schola - O Clavis David

19 December 2021 - how can it be?

Today's Readings

(Audio)

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting,

the infant leaped in her womb, 

and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, 

cried out in a loud voice

Even before the child was born he was already the cause of profound joy, the joy of the consolation of the Holy Spirit himself. What Elizabeth experienced was a joy at the nearness of the Messiah, even before Christmas day fully unveiled that gift. What the prophet Balaam saw but not near (see Numbers 24:17) had now been brought very near indeed to Elizabeth.

Elizabeth seemed to receive supernatural insight into the mystery of the conception of Jesus, as though John the forerunner was already preparing the way of Jesus even from the womb. It was as though John's leap for joy overflowed into recognition by Elizabeth that this mother and child before her were the fulfillment of the hope of Israel.

Blessed are you among women, 

and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

And how does this happen to me, 

that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

Perhaps Mary had explained to Elizabeth the message that Gabriel proclaimed at the annunciation of the birth of Jesus. Or perhaps the Spirit had simply given her knowledge of what had transpired, since it seemed that this rejoicing and this comprehension began the very moment Mary entered the house and greeted Elizabeth. However it was that she came to know it, it was by the proximity of the presence that she understood it experientially. She could then hear the message of Gabriel...

He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end (see Luke 1:32-33).

...and perceive the fulfillment of God's message to Micah and to all of the prophets..

Therefore the Lord will give them up, until the time

when she who is to give birth has borne,

and the rest of his kindred shall return

to the children of Israel.

Mary was the one on whom the whole people of Israel were waiting, the one who would be the mother to the ruler from Bethlehem. He would be the one would stand firm and shepherd his flock by the strength of the LORD, in the majestic name of the LORD his God. Israel had a history of rulers who fell short in their responsibilities and did not deliver on the seeming promise of their reign, a history of shepherds who did not rely on the strength or the name of the LORD. The child at the center of the Visitation was the one who would finally be different. But just how different would he be, indeed, could he be? Elizabeth came to understand this difference as she was overawed by the Messiah being brought to her by the blessed faith of Mary, just as David was overwhelmed by the presence of the Ark of the covenant.

Whatever Elizabeth might have understood about the Mary's situation before she arrived, based on hearsay about Mary's situation, or based on the prophetic word to Zechariah, it was precisely in the presence of Jesus himself that this concept took on the full density of reality. Until that point all the hints about how the LORD would be present in the promised child necessarily remained somewhat veiled. The LORD had been present to varying degrees in the lives of great figures of the history of Israel. But what Elizabeth experienced was that the way the LORD would be present in this one was a difference of kind and not just degree.

that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

She seemed to come to know by experience, by the movement of the Spirit within her, that Jesus was not simply Lord in the sense of the Messianic king, that Mary, by association was something even more blessed than a Queen Mother. Rather, she seemed to intuit, by the power of his presence, that he was LORD in the fullest sense for which Scripture used the term. She spoke as though the child was equivalent to the presence of God himself within the Ark.

‘The Lord said to my Lord,

“Sit at my right hand,

until I put your enemies under your feet”’?

If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions (see Matthew 22:44-46).

Elizabeth desires to teach us a plan for how we can welcome Jesus this Christmas and receive the same promised joy that she received. If we listen we too can have the same peace promised by Micah in the first reading, and then re-echoed by the angels who say in heaven at his birth. 

Elizabeth was not without her own problems. It's hard enough for young people in modern times to prepare for and deal with a birth. Imagine someone who was already old doing so in times before modern medicine. It would have been easy to become closed in on herself and unable to welcome the assistance of Mary, too distracted to even notice the nearness of the Messiah. But what Elizabeth did instead, what we can choose to do as well, was to welcome the presence of Mary, and therefore experience the nearness of the Messiah. This can charge the promises of the prophets with a kind of electricity when they are no longer something distant for us, but even already the cause of peace and joy. We can go from knowing about the coming king to already experiencing his presence in a way that prepares our hearts in hope for the coming of Christmas.

First he says, “Sacrifices and offerings,

holocausts and sin offerings, 

you neither desired nor delighted in.”

It isn't in the first place about doing more or working harder. The obedience which God asks of us, which he himself makes possible in Jesus Christ, is given so that these promises of joy and peace can be ours. Sin had to be dealt with, not merely to create a neutral situation without guilt, but to remove obstacles within us to just how near Jesus desires to come. We see this as a living reality in Mary's fiat and throughout the life of Jesus himself:

Then he says, :Behold, I come to do your will.”

Elizabeth was able to recognize this not as a burden, but instead as the most blessed of blessings.

Blessed are you who believed

that what was spoken to you by the Lord

would be fulfilled.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will!

Brian Doerksen - Resting Place

Saint Meinrad Schola - O Root of Jesse