7 January 2018 - your light has come

Today's Readings (Audio)

Our light has come! A star shines in testimony to the newborn king of the Jews. A sign in the very heavens themselves is fitting because it calls not just one nation but all nations to come and walk in the light of the LORD.

It was not made known to people in other generations 
as it has now been revealed
to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: 
that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body,
and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

The magi are the first to offer worship on behalf of all of the Gentile nations now called to walk in the light of the LORD. They bring gifts to honor the king of kings. What can we learn from these magi? They are attentive, waiting for the signs of the coming of Jesus. They are waiting for him. They are willing to journey to find him when at last he comes. We should understand even better than them how great an event is the coming of our LORD. We should be able to wait with even more rapt attention. We ought to be willing to seek him out with gifts of worship.

The kings of Tarshish and the Isles shall offer gifts;
the kings of Arabia and Seba shall bring tribute.
All kings shall pay him homage,
all nations shall serve him.

It's true that many rulers of the earth see Jesus as a competitor. They try to silence him. They aren't wrong to sense that he is a threat to their power.  All kings will serve him. He is the name above every name. Herod is nevertheless unable to cling to his power forever whereas Jesus still reigns from heaven. It is better for us to lay our crowns at the feet of the newborn king than to try to cling to what power we may have. He is the light of the world even more than the sun and the moon and the stars. His presence is worth more than all we have and all we are. Herod does not realize this but the magi do. They want to show us the way.

They were overjoyed at seeing the star, 
and on entering the house
they saw the child with Mary his mother.
They prostrated themselves and did him homage.
Then they opened their treasures 
and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Let us follow the star. Let us lay all that we are down before the feet of the newborn king.

6 January 2018 - how we overcome

Today's Readings (Audio)

Who indeed is the victor over the world
but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

We believe that Jesus is the Son of God. He is descended from Adam according to the flesh, but he is conceived in Mary by the Holy Spirit. He is the one beloved Son of the Father with whom he is well pleased. We believe this. But do we experience the victory that this belief entails? Or are we still subject to the world? Does it still boss us around and tell us what will make us happy, what will make us sad, what we must do, and what we must not do?

God gave us eternal life,
and this life is in his Son. 
Whoever possesses the Son has life;
whoever does not possess the Son of God does not have life.

In order to experience victory over the world we must receive the life of the Son who has overcome the world. Only by participating in his life can we have the freedom from sin and death which only he can offer. We participate in this life through faith in him. 

Now the testimony of God is this,
that he has testified on behalf of his Son. 
Whoever believes in the Son of God
has this testimony within himself.

We believe the testimony of the Spirit, the water, and the Blood. We believe the Father's testimony about his Son in baptism. We believe him again when he raises Christ from death to life. When we learn to believe the Father's truth about the way things are rather than how we feel or what we think we begin to experience victory in our own lives.

He has proclaimed his word to Jacob,
his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.

5 January 2018 - the heavenly connection

Today's Readings (Audio)

Now this is how we shall know that we belong to the truth
and reassure our hearts before him
in whatever our hearts condemn,
for God is greater than our hearts and knows everything. 

Rather than what we feel or what we think we must learn to trust in God's word. Rather than our preconceptions or past experiences we must see what the living word says to us now.

But Nathanael said to him,
"Can anything good come from Nazareth?" 
Philip said to him, "Come and see." 

Our hearts condemn and our pasts don't provide a clear path to freedom. But when we encounter Jesus we encounter something new, which we've never experienced before. This word is able to surprise us, even about things we think we know, even about ourselves.

Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?" 
Jesus answered and said to him,
"Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree." 

Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves. God is greater than our hearts and knows everything. Rather than trying to figure things out on our own, let us heed Philip's invitation to "Come and see". Jesus may see more in us than we even see in ourselves. He may say of us, "There is no duplicity in him" when this would surprise us to hear. But if we believe Jesus on the point we will find that it becomes true for us. We are more than our fears. We are even more than our aspirations. And this is only the beginning.

"You will see greater things than this." 
And he said to him, "Amen, amen, I say to you, 
you will see the sky opened and the angels of God 
ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

Without Jesus, the self is trapped, confined by its own limits. But Jesus bridges heaven and earth. He unites us to limitless potential, to love, and to eternal life.

We know that we have passed from death to life
because we love our brothers.
Whoever does not love remains in death. 

Let us embrace the heavenly connection offered to us by Jesus. Let us come and see and hear the living word speaking to us.

Know that the LORD is God;
he made us, his we are;

his people, the flock he tends.

4 January 2018 - come and see

Today's Readings (Audio)

Whoever sins belongs to the Devil,
because the Devil has sinned from the beginning. 

When we sin we relinquish a little control of ourselves to our enemy. We are less able to act in righteousness, having allowed ourselves to be compromised in this way. Rather than remaining open to the righteousness that God gives to us and makes possible in our lives we fall back upon ourselves. Isolated from God, we become subject the the world, the flesh, and the Devil.

We all sin at times. But this is why it is so important to turn to Jesus, the Lamb of God John points out to us, who came to take away sin. He offers us his forgiveness, especially in Confession. The grace of Confession not only makes us right with God but it helps undo any stronghold we've given the enemy by our actions.

"What are you looking for?"
They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher),
"where are you staying?"
He said to them, "Come, and you will see."

Let's follow Jesus away from our sinful past, from all that holds us back from living in righteousness. If we do choose to follow him we will find that we ourselves gradually become more rock solid just as Peter eventually does.

Jesus looked at him and said,
"You are Simon the son of John;
you will be called Cephas," which is translated Peter.

At first Peter is no rock. Jesus calls him Satan and tells him to get behind him. He denies Jesus during the Passion. It's true that Peter does give some of himself over to the Devil. But, unlike Judas, he continues to follow Jesus. This is what truly matters. He sins, but this sin can't keep him from the forgiveness of Jesus. And the forgiveness Jesus offers gradually transforms him into someone who denies Jesus to preserve his own life to someone who will even give his life for the sake of Jesus and the Gospel. This is the saving power that the LORD wants to reveal to us today. It isn't about feeling bad about where we have given the Devil strongholds. It's about following Jesus away from those things and into new life.

All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.

3 January 2018 - revealed to us

Today's Readings (Audio)

The one who existed before all things is revealed to us.

He is the one of whom I said,
'A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me
because he existed before me.'

Jesus is made known to us when he is baptized by John. The Spirit descends like a dove and the Father tells the world that Jesus is his only begotten Son. We see the man who was born of the virgin Mary, who became visible in a stable in Bethlehem, revealed to be the one who was with God in the beginning before all things. We see him revealed as the co-eternal Son of the Father. This Sonship is no mere metaphor. From eternity he receives all that he is from the Father. It isn't as though his relationship is similar to that of human fathers and sons. It is rather that those relationships are similar to the eternal love that unites the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named (see Ephesians 3:14-15)

It is for this reason that we need to hold the term father in such high esteem, whether we're referring to priests or biological fathers.

And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven (see Matthew 23:9).

Of course this doesn't mean literally no one. Paul says he has become the father of Onesimus, for example. But it means we need to recognize the intense meaning and sacredness which the role of father conveys. Whether we are children, in obedience, or fathers, in setting the best example, we must remember that this relationship has its origin in God.

It is amazing to think that Jesus invites us to share his own relationship to the Father. Especially when we experience the goodness of the earthly relationships with father figures it is amazing to think of how far above and beyond this Fatherhood of God truly is. If we have not experienced such good relationships on earth, that's OK. God wants to Father us and to heal those wounds.

See what love the Father has bestowed on us
that we may be called the children of God. 
Yet so we are.

Our union with the Father and the Son is such that it cannot exist in the face of serious sin. Serious sin is choosing to not receive our life from the Father, but looking elsewhere to find it. There is no other place to find life, so this is doomed to failure.

No one who remains in him sins;
no one who sins has seen him or known him.

Sin was in fact the barrier preventing God from uniting himself to man as he always desired. Jesus was revealed to take away sins so that we could experience union with God. This is now possible. Yet transformation remains for us. There is more to be done. What we will eventually become is even better than we can imagine.

The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Beloved, we are God's children now;
what we shall be has not yet been revealed. 
We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is.

For this great gift of the Fatherhood of God, for Jesus calling us brothers and sisters, let us rejoice.

Sing praise to the LORD with the harp,
with the harp and melodious song.
With trumpets and the sound of the horn
sing joyfully before the King, the LORD.

2 January 2018 - anointed

Today's Readings

As for you,

the anointing that you received from him remains in you,

so that you do not need anyone to teach you. 

Jesus gives us his Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth. He reminds us of everything Jesus teaches. This means we need not worry about searching for arcane knowledge of secret wisdom. We have the revelation given us in Scriptures and authentically interpreted to us by the Magisterium of the Church. This is all the Holy Spirit needs to work with. 

Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you. 

If what you heard from the beginning remains in you,

then you will remain in the Son and in the Father. 

We do benefit from hearing reminders of the truth we known. We benefit from teaching and clarification of the good news. The anointing of the Holy Spirit speaks through these words given to us by Jesus through his Church. Saints give examples of lives lived under this anointing. Yet beyond this there is nothing to seek. There is no novelty or strange  doctrine worth pursuing. 

I baptize with water;

but there is one among you whom you do not recognize,

the one who is coming after me,

whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.

All previous teaching has pointed toward this word. It has now been spoken in fullness. 

From now on when we are unsure about anything let us remember what matters most. Let us recognize the anointing we already have been given and be at peace. And for so great a gift let us give thanks.

The LORD has made his salvation known:

in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.

1 January 2018 - a human face

Today's Readings 

The LORD let his face shine upon

you, and be gracious to you!

This blessing is most fully given in Jesus Christ. From the manger and from the arms of his mother the face of the LORD truly shines upon us.  

The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph,

and the infant lying in the manger.

Mary gives birth. Her child is at once fully human and fully divine. Because she is the mother of God the face of God can shine upon us. The face is the human face he receives from Mary. The light that shines is his as God.

Then the shepherds returned,

glorifying and praising God

for all they had heard and seen, 

just as it had been told to them.

It is because he accepts the humanity of Mary as his own that we can now accept the invitation to participate in his divinity. 

When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son,

born of a woman, born under the law, 

to ransom those under the law, 

so that we might receive adoption as sons.

As proof that you are sons, 

God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, 

crying out, "Abba, Father!"

We see the baby Jesus teaching us this cry just as he teaches us to call Mary our mother. We are blessed beyond all we could ask or imagine by these gifts. Let us rejoice in thanksgiving.

May the peoples praise you, O God;

may all the peoples praise you!