15 December 2023 - song selection

Today's Readings

(Audio)

'We played the flute for you, but you did not dance,

we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.'

That generation was, it seemed, impossible to please. The strict religious asceticism of John the Baptist caused them to say he was crazy or possessed. The more relaxed attitude of Jesus, dining with sinners, known to enjoy the occasional wedding celebration, made them conclude he was a glutton and a drunkard who could not possibly come from God. But these complaints were superficial and stemmed from a deeper aversion to the messages of the forerunner and the messiah. Rather than be forced to take stock of their own lives, renounce sin, and turn to Jesus for healing and forgiveness that generation clung to superficial elements that they regarded as faults.

What of us? Are we impossible to please? In ages of moral laxity such as our own the Church is criticized for her supposedly stuffy and outdated moral code. Yet in ages and places of excessive puritanical spirit we see the Church criticized for the exact opposite reasons, for not taking as hard a line a her critics in those ages would prefer. And so we begin to guess that the fault is neither with Jesus nor with the Church he founded, but rather with ourselves.

We seem to be the sort of people who can only vibe with music that we ourselves initiated and control. We're like passengers in a car demanding to be in constant control of the radio because we don't even want to risk hearing anything but our familiar songs. It is as though we are so captive to the habits of our lives that any deviation feels like a risk too great to take. This isn't only true of those who don't know Jesus or those who are on the outside of the Church. Jesus continues to challenge his followers to adapt to the music he is playing in the here and now. But we most assuredly have a strong tendency to prefer the familiar and the comfortable.

But wisdom is vindicated by her works.

The works of wisdom, if we pay attention to them, will make it evident when a bias based on our subjective feelings has unfairly ignored something Jesus is doing on our midst. To ignore the initial invitation is one thing. But if it becomes clear that the invitation is working and bearing good fruit then it is another thing to continue to ignore it.

For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him (see Matthew 21:32).

It may sound trite to suggest that we must learn to respond to the music God is playing here and now but it is just so. In the abstract it sounds appealing but it is bound in reality to challenge us to come out of our comfort zones. But if we do respond, how great are the promises that await us.

If you would hearken to my commandments,

your prosperity would be like a river,

and your vindication like the waves of the sea;

David Ruis - We Will Dance

14 December 2023 - the greatest and the least

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Amen, I say to you,

among those born of women

there has been none greater than John the Baptist;

What made John the Baptist so great? On the surface he seemed less impressive than previous prophets. We have no record of miracles he performed. His preaching seemed simple and straightforward but much of what he said was the fairly standard prophetic call to repentance. What made him great was that he was able to see and directly point out that for which the entire prophetic tradition had longed and waited but only saw, as it were, from a distance, through faith. The importance of being the one to say, "Behold the lamb of God" was so substantial that it more than made up for his lack of miracles. And it was this role that made miracles not only unnecessary but a potential hinderance. He was to reveal the coming messiah and then step aside and let Jesus himself take center stage. Knowing this, he said "He must increase, but I must decrease" (see John 3:30).

yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

If the greatness of John the Baptist consisted in his role as the forerunner it makes sense that those who were able to receive the fulfillment which he showed them had attained something greater still. John was still separate from the Kingdom so that he could testify to it. But those who believed him entered the Kingdom. They received the promise of which he spoke but did not himself attain, the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

From the days of John the Baptist until now,

the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence,

and the violent are taking it by force.

If John's ministry was a lesser thing than the life of a Christian in the Kingdom it seems that his death where he finally had a direct participation that Kingdom. He gave his life in order to stand up for the truth of his convictions. But it seems that he was also absorbing the animosity and hatred of the world for the Kingdom. In being faithful to his prophetic role as forerunner he earned the blessing spoken of by Jesus in the sermon on the mount, "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account" (see Matthew 5:11). Any lapse in integrity would have been a strike against his message of the credibility of the Messiah. And so his fidelity to the truth was also and at once a fidelity to he who is Truth itself. It was in this that he crossed over from being a persecuted prophet to one who bore violence for the sake of the Kingdom.

All the prophets and the law prophesied up to the time of John.

And if you are willing to accept it,

he is Elijah, the one who is to come.

Elijah was known to be the greatest of the prophets. Hence he was to come again to mark the beginning of the age of the messiah. How wonderfully strange, then, to look at both the similarities and the differences with John. Much of the greatness the defined Elijah was not evident in John. But his simplicity, his zeal, his integrity, and his single-minded purpose were on full display. All that would have been a distraction to the mission of pointing to the lamb was left in the past, to ensure there was nothing to compete with the message of the voice crying out in the desert. 

Whoever has ears ought to hear.

When we listen to the voice in the desert we are led to a Kingdom which transforms desert into marshland, and dry ground into springs of water. In the desert we thirst. But we are meant to be led from the desert to Jesus, the source of living water.

That all may see and know,

observe and understand,

That the hand of the LORD has done this,

the Holy One of Israel has created it.

The Choir Of King's College, Cambridge - Hark! A Herald Voice Is Calling

13 December 2023 - I will give you rest

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened

The mention of labor reminds of the verse from Isaiah which asks, "Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?" (see Isaiah 55:2). Those who are burdened bring to mind what Jesus said of the scribes and Pharisees who tied up heavy burdens, hard to bear, but did not lift a finger to help (see Matthew 23:4). Trying to live out the law itself apart from grace was a "a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear" according to the Peter in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 15:10). 

For the yoke of his burden,

and the staff for his shoulder,

the rod of his oppressor,

you have broken as on the day of Midian.

Jesus himself destroyed the yoke that oppressed his people and invited them to come to him to receive instead a different yoke, one that didn't produce discouragement and frustration, but rather rest. The old yoke necessitated on effort and struggled that devolved entirely upon the individual, leading to two possible outcomes. One was a sense of failure and inadequacy to live up to impossible demands. The other was a false sense of pride from imagining oneself to be perfect. Instead of these, Jesus offered a yoke that was easy to bear and a burden that was light. A yoke like this was only possible because it was a shared yoke with Jesus himself, who bore it first and now offered to share it with his followers.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,

for I am meek and humble of heart;

We cannot take this yoke and then run off in any direction we please. In order for us to find the easy yoke to be easy in our own lives we must learn from Jesus, in order to move as he moves. His direction teaches us how to move through life in a posture of rest, in particular by imitating his meekness and humility. Pridefully charging forward and lazily refusing to move are recipes for eventual exhaustion. But the steady progress of a humble heart following the guidance of the Holy Spirit is infinitely sustainable. Those who take the yoke of Jesus upon themselves in this way will discover what Isaiah prophesied on our first reading.

Though young men faint and grow weary,

and youths stagger and fall,

They that hope in the LORD will renew their strength,

they will soar as with eagles' wings;

They will run and not grow weary,

walk and not grow faint.

Chris Tomlin - Everlasting God

12 December 2023 - most blessed among women

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Mary set out

and traveled to the hill country in haste

Mary did not delay or hesitate because of preoccupation with her own situation. Rather she seemed filled with purpose and went in haste. She hurried because she wanted to see Elizabeth, to help and to celebrate what the angel announced God had done for Elizabeth. But Mary herself had been invited by the angel to rejoice and she doubtlessly desired to share this joy with Elizabeth. She had been invited to be the bearer of the presence of God to the world, the ark of the New Covenant. Now she would bring that presence to others so that they could share in her joy.

And how does this happen to me,

that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

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

the infant in my womb leaped for joy.

King David danced for joy before the ark of the Old Covenant. But now John, even while still an infant in his mother's womb, thrilled and leaped for joy at the very sound of the voice of Mary. The glory cloud had overshadowed the mercy seat atop the old ark. That glory cloud had departed, due to the infidelity of the people. But the Holy Spirit came upon Mary and Most High overshadowed her, inaugurating an era of restoration. 

Most blessed are you among women

Just as Judith was considered blessed above all women because of the way her trust in God allowed him to use her to save Israel from the Assyrians so too did Mary's faith allow God to work a great victory through her. But the victory worked through the faith of Mary was not a military conquest, but the defeat of the powers of darkness. The salvation brought about through her child was not from the military powers of Rome but rather from sin and Satan.

We see in salvation history that Mary's role was not merely accidental, nor even simply decorative. God delighted to begin to bring about the salvation of his people through the simply and humble response of a faithful virgin to his invitation. And he continues to use her to bring joy and spiritual victory to his people, especially those neglected, overlooked, and underserved. We celebrate a particularly significant instance of such a victory in our feast today of Our Lady of Guadalupe. And so the questions we are invited to consider are: Do we lack spiritual joy? Do we lack spiritual victory? If so, let us turn to the mother of Jesus and rejoice before the ark of the New Covenant. In doing so we will be led inexorably by way of the mother to the source of the mother's joy: Jesus himself.

Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion! 

See, I am coming to dwell among you, says the LORD.

Seph Schlueter - Hail O Queen

John Michael Talbot - Holy Is His Name

11 December 2023 - inside and out

Today's Readings

(Audio)

When Jesus saw their faith, he said,

"As for you, your sins are forgiven."

Jesus saw their faith demonstrated in their willingness to go to great lengths to bring their friend to Jesus. Clearly they believed that to be in his presence was worth any effort that might undertake. Although they were exercising their faith for the sake of their friend's paralysis Jesus used that faith as a doorway to intervene first at a deeper level. Forgiveness produced an interior freedom that was vastly greater and more significant than that made possible by physical healing. Slavery to sin was a much greater weight of oppression than the inability to freely move one's physical body. 

The friends of the paralyzed man were able to strongly express their faith in Jesus as one who had authority over the physical world. They expected something to happen that was real, and of genuine obvious physical consequence. But in order to do what would most benefit a situation Jesus did not need their ideas and plans as much as he needed that strong faith. What he did in forgiving the sins of the man did have real consequences as that man would have been the first to attest by the complete change within him. But in order to provide an external confirmation for those who lacked the privileged view into that inner world Jesus performed the external physical healing as well.

But that you may know

that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"–

he said to the one who was paralyzed,

"I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home."

Because the claim to be able to forgive sins was a breathtaking claim Jesus did decided to back it up with a claim that would be more difficult to falsify, even if it was ultimately a lesser act. It was true that God alone could forgive sins. As to the power of might of healing he might well give it to others, as he certainly had to prophets in past ages. But here the power of healing was to signify the truth of what Jesus said about forgiveness. He did not address men as purely spiritual creatures and insist we forget about the physical. He used the physical as a visible sacramental sign of what was happening in the heart. He thus encouraged the faith of those who had faith and invited those who did not to come to believe in him. 

Isaiah encouraged his people to strengthen hands that were feeble,  make firm knees that were weak, and encourage fearful hearts. But this was precisely what Jesus himself did for the sake of the paralyzed man. He gave this visible manifestation of his glory so that people could realize that the time had come for what Isaiah went on to prophesy:

Here is your God,

he comes with vindication;

With divine recompense

he comes to save you.

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened,

the ears of the deaf be cleared;

Then will the lame leap like a stag,

then the tongue of the mute will sing.

Newsboys - I Am Free (Who The Son Sets Free)

10 December 2023 - good news

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Both our first reading and our reading from the Mark speak of good news. Isaiah speaks of "glad tidings" and Mark of "the gospel". Isaiah's reason for celebration was that God himself was going to come to his people, to rule and reward and shepherd them. And the content of Mark's gospel was precisely the fulfillment of this promise, the coming of Jesus the anointed one, the true Son of God most high.

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:

Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you;

he will prepare your way.

A voice of one crying out in the desert:

“Prepare the way of the Lord,

make straight his paths.”

In both Isaiah and Mark the good news is proclaimed for the sake of preparation. Without such preparations, which God himself makes possible, we tend to look to merely human sources for good news. When those sources eventually leave us disappointed we resign ourselves to doom scrolling through bad news instead. Without preparation our spiritual sensitivity is too unrefined to take much notice of the good news of the gospel. Thus the call to prepare and make way for the Lord is among other things a call to a new way of thinking where we learn to recognize as care about the good news more and to deprioritize other competing options. The good news is in fact so good that it is easy for jaded and frequently disappointed humans to dismiss. But we are jaded and disappointed because we have been seeking and wrong things or sometimes the right things but in the wrong way or to the wrong degree. We need a sufficient break with the life of the city where such distractions hold sway that we benefit from a spiritual journey into the desert together with John the Baptist. There we can hear the call for the mountains of self-aggrandizement to be made low and the valleys of learned helpless can be raised.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her

that her service is at an end,

her guilt is expiated;

indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD

double for all her sins.

The good news of repentance really is good news because it is fundamentally a break with a lifestyle that was never going to be able to satisfy us to begin with. It was a service that had no natural end point if God hadn't step in to give us a new direction. Given the condition in which God finds us the best thing for us to do is make way for God himself to build a highway in our hearts, demonstrating the priority of his coming and his presence for us.

Things in the world will continue to be imperfect, to go wrong, and sometimes very wrong. But those things are not the final story, and we live amidst them as pilgrims journeying to a homeland. Our baptism points to the future when we will cross the waters into the true promised land of the Kingdom, the new heaven and earth promised in the second letter of Peter. However, the good news is not something that only makes a difference later, in the distant future. It has consequences even here and now that make it worthy of infectious excitement. It is a hope that gives a new character to everything we do and everyone we meet since in all things we are preparing and making way and even "hastening" the coming of our hope. In addition, it does not mean we live with indifference or sloppy laziness. Rather, repenting, embracing that which matters most implies a higher standard of conduct even amidst the temporary and passing things of this life: "Therefore, beloved, since you await these things, be eager to be found without spot or blemish before him, at peace".

Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him,

glory dwelling in our land.

Bob Dufford - Like A Shepherd

John Michael Talbot - Prepare Ye The Way

9 December 2023 - like sheep without a shepherd

Today's Readings

(Audio)

At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them

because they were troubled and abandoned,

like sheep without a shepherd.

The Lord had always desired that the leaders of his people be shepherds who would genuinely care for their sheep. But what often proved to be the case instead was leaders who only looked to their own interests and not those of the sheep. In particular, they ignored the poor and the lowly, the lowest and the least, who had a special place in God's heart.

The Lord God says to you: Woe to the shepherds who feed themselves instead of their flocks. Shouldn’t shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the best food and wear the finest clothes, but you let your flocks starve. You haven’t taken care of the weak, nor tended the sick, nor bound up the broken bones, nor gone looking for those who have wandered away and are lost. Instead, you have ruled them with force and cruelty. So they were scattered, without a shepherd (see Ezekiel 34:3-5).

When Jesus saw the crowds who were like sheep without a shepherd his heart was moved with compassion for them. The one who had promised, "I myself will be the Shepherd of my sheep and cause them to lie down in peace" (see Ezekiel 34:15) now saw sheep, lost, wounded, troubled, and abandoned and he could not help but care for them.

How good the Gospel of the Kingdom must have seemed to these sheep who received the care of the Good Shepherd. Finally there was someone who genuinely took account of their situation, who seemed to completely disregard the fact that they were insignificant in the eyes of the world. Finally the promises of God seemed to be for them too, and not only for others.

Then he said to his disciples,

"The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;

so ask the master of the harvest

to send out laborers for his harvest.

In choosing to shepherd his people by becoming incarnate as one among them Jesus accepted some limitations on whom the number of people to whom he could minister. This is why it was always also his plan to raise up shepherds after his own heart in order that he might share with them both his authority and his own mission. The Church was to be an extension in time and space of the heart of the Good Shepherd.

Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus,

"Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

As you go, make this proclamation: 'The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.'

Unfortunately most in the world and many in the Church herself see her as something quite different. They recognize primarily an institution with rules she desires to enforce regardless of the ramifications for the world. It is not often thought that she exists for the good of the sheep who, without her, are left to wander lost. Part of this image problem is not her fault. Of course she will always have enemies who try to besmirch her reputation in any way they can. Any sort of hierarchy and authority is antithetical to some worldviews. But part of the problem is that the world tends to imbibe how we members of the Church see her. And when we see her as primarily an institution wherein we accomplish a list of obligations it is hard to blame the world for not seeing the value in that.

If we can only come to realize how much we are in fact sheep in need of a shepherd, and how we find that need met in the body of Christ, we can become compelling when we mention the Church to others. In short, if we learn to become thankful we will also become persuasive. We must first realize what we have been freely given as a gift and then set to helping to give it away to others.

It is in the Church that the Lord gives us the "bread you need and the water for which you thirst". It is by her sacraments that we receive the grace of the Holy Spirit that makes the promise contained in the prophecy of Isaiah possible for us as well:

No longer will your Teacher hide himself,

but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher,

While from behind, a voice shall sound in your ears:

"This is the way; walk in it,"

when you would turn to the right or to the left.

This is the care of the shepherd for which everyone longs, even if many are not fully conscious of the desire. Hearts will be restless until they finally experience and learn to rest in his care. We who have found it must not take it for granted. Let's not give the world an excuse to ignore a treasure so great.

Songs In His Presence - Prayer Of Augustine