Claire Smith

Scripture:

1 John 2:-11
Luke 2:22-35

Reflection:

 “. . . for the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.”  ~1 John 2:8

In 1935 the play Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot, was published. The play focuses on the story of the death of Thomas Becket who was the childhood friend of Henry II of England. When Henry II ascended the throne he appointed Thomas as the Primate of England or Chancellor. Today that would be the Prime Minister. Everything was going along fine when Henry II decided that the Church had more power than he did and so wanted an inside man to help him with gaining control. Becket pleads with him not to appoint him Archbishop of Canterbury, which today is the highest ordained position in the Church of England, the Queen is considered the head of the Church of England. And all of that history is another story. Becket is already a deacon in the Church and so he is ordained a priest and the next day elevated to Archbishop. Over the course of several months Becket is changed by his position. He helps the poor and serves as a faithful shepherd of the people. Henry II and Becket disagree several times on matters of the Church and State. One night, in a drunken fury, Henry II makes a comment about being rid of the bothersome Archbishop. Four loyal knights interpret this as a command to assassinate Becket and so in the middle of the night they ride off to Canterbury Cathedral and murder him as he is saying a private mass.

The First Letter of John gives us the message of walking in the way of Christ through the commandments. The two commandments that Christ gave to his Apostles and us; To love God with all our heart, soul and mind and to love our neighbors as ourselves. The message goes on to speak about what it means to walk in the light and what it means to walk in the darkness. Two leaders of England made choices. One walked in the darkness of wanting more power and the other followed the path of Light and was changed by that Light. Even in the time of Jesus there were people who thought that they were following God through the commandments and the multitude of prescribed laws. But instead became blinded by them and were unable to see the true Light when it appeared as promised.

Christmas is a reminder for us that the Light has come into the world and that we can choose to walk in the Light or to choose the path of darkness. Simeon, a man waiting in the Temple for the Messiah is blessed by God to be able to see the true Light before he died. He spent his life waiting patiently for that moment. What a great joy that must have been for him! The words of Simeon, from today’s Gospel offer us food for thought:

“Lord, now let your servant go in peace;
your word has been fulfilled:
my own eyes have seen the salvation
which you have prepared in the sight of every people,
a light to reveal you to the nations
and the glory of your people Israel.”

We don’t need to wait. The Light of the World has come, Emmanuel.

May the coming New Year bring you peace and joy!

Linda Schork is a theology teacher at Saint Xavier High School in Louisville, Kentucky.

Feast of the Holy Innocents

Scripture:

1 John 1:5-2:2
Matthew 2:13-18

Reflection:

From the Collect for the Holy Innocents Episcopal.

We remember today, O God, the slaughter of the holy innocents of Bethlehem by King Herod.  Receive, we pray, in to the arms of your mercy all innocent victims; and by your great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish your rule of justice, love and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

During this Christmas season the memories of innocent children celebrating on Christmas morning, wide-eyed and gleeful as each present is unwrapped, each cookie is eaten and each story is told is a picture of love and goodness!  Alas!  The holy innocents whose lives were cut short by the order of a demonic ruler were never to know the happiness of such joyful days.

A newborn baby, holy and innocent is a reminder of God’s love for all of humanity.  This is what we celebrate with the great feast of the incarnation on Christmas Day.  One wonders what happens to that innocence we all enjoyed as young children.  We live in a world that seems to be totally void of innocence and compassion and mercy.  The Herod’s of the world still spread the message of greed, corruption and control.

How can we regain some of that innocence of childhood?  The Collect prayer above gives us a prescription to follow as we pray;

Receive, we pray, in to the arms of your mercy all innocent victims; and by
Your great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish your rule
Of justice, love and peace.

We don’t have to look far to find the innocent victims.  The homeless who sleep under our viaducts, the crippled woman who tearfully accepted the food basket we delivered to her simple but rundown flat last weekend, the teachers in our commonwealth who have to fight constantly to save their hard-earned pensions.  The evil tyrants consumed with greed and power and selfish ambitions continue to rule the less fortunate without any mercy or compassion.

May justice love and peace become our focus during this Christmastide and into the new year.

May we continue to frustrate the tyrant and raise up the innocent at every opportunity that comes our way!  Blessings upon all in the New Year!  Peace!

Theresa Secord is a Pastoral Associate at St. Agnes Parish, Louisville, Kentucky.

Feast of St. Stephen

Scripture:

Acts 6:8-10; 7:54-59
Matthew 10:17-22

Reflection:

Today is the feast of St. Stephen the Martyr, whose death by stoning is gruesomely retold in the first reading from Acts of the Apostles. This story stands in stark contrast to the readings from yesterday’s liturgies where we hear of angels singing “Gloria” and shepherds making their way to the manger where they find the Christ Child.

Yesterday we were receiving into our broken world Jesus, God made flesh; today we see people from many places rejecting Stephen for “working great wonders and signs among the people.” This juxtaposition is raw. It is a bit of a downer. But it’s the reality if we make a place for Jesus to be born in our hearts.

When the people heard Stephen, who is described as being full of grace and power, they gnashed their teeth and covered their ears. They wanted no part of what he was saying. They were to have none of it, so they ran him out of town and stoned him.

If we are honest with ourselves, there is much we don’t want to hear, either. We don’t want to hear over and again the stories of those abused by priests or how bishops covered it up. We don’t want to see Christ in the faces of immigrants longing for a better life. We avoid looking at families reeling from the scourge of opioids. It would be so much nicer just to hang out at the manger for a while.

But Jesus came into our world to take upon himself all that is broken and sinful and shameful in our lives. His Passion contains all our own passions. So rather than gnash our teeth or cover our ears, let’s take all that weighs us down and go back to the manger and place it there. That is why He has come, born of Mary, Savior of the world.

Robert Hotz is a consultant with American City Bureau, Inc. and was the Director of The Passion of Christ: The Love That Compels Campaign for Holy Cross Province.

The Nativity of the Lord

Scripture:

Isaiah 52:7-10
Hebrews 1:1-6
John 1:1-18

Reflection:

About ten years ago college professor Randy Pausch delivered a one-of-a-kind last lecture at Carnegie Melon University that made the world stop and pay attention. The YouTube video was viewed by millions of people, and his best-selling book has been published in 45 languages. Randy, husband and father of three beautiful little kids, learned he had pancreatic cancer and was given a terminal diagnosis: “3 to 6 months of good health left”, but his lecture, entitled “Fulfilling Your Childhood Dreams” is saturated with inspiration and hope. Randy died on July 25, 2008, at the age of 47, but to this day, people everywhere continue to talk about him, share his message, and try to put his life lessons into action in their own lives.

It got me thinking… in parallel way, what if today’s Christmas dinner were to be the last meal with your family? What would you want to say? Or what if this were the last reflection I ever got to write?

If I had only one homily to preach, I’m pretty sure I’d make it a Christmas homily… and I’d probably talk about darkness and light. You don’t need much imagination this Christmas to be in touch with darkness: the civil war Yemen, our church’s clerical sexual abuse horror and episcopal cover-up, global violence, climate change creating a living nightmare, to say nothing of your own personal crises… perhaps finances, broken relationships, illness and aging.

It wasn’t accidental that the savior of the world was born to a poor peasant woman of an occupied country in an animal stall because they were homeless at the time of his birth. And soon Jesus and his family were made refugees and had to flee their country (to a place where their ancestors were held captive slaves) because the most powerful political ruler around the Christ child felt very threatened by his coming… sort of gives a whole new meaning to the word, asylum, doesn’t it?

We stop this morning to question how the Light of the world penetrates our darkness. God isn’t stingy and miserly like Ebenezer Scrooge; God isn’t angry or grumpy like the Grinch who stole Christmas — with a heart 2 sizes too small! God wants to lavish us with LIGHT and LOVE.  C’mon home for Christmas!

Fr. Jack Conley, C.P. is a member of the Passionist formation community at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.

Scripture:

2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16
Luke 1:67-79

Reflection:

In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us,

In the New Testament Jesus is described as compassionate about 15 times! The Great word for compassion in today’s liturgy is splagchnon. It’s translated as tender mercy, The word comes from one’s innermost organs like the intestines, (the heart, lungs, liver, etc.), It is one of the most emotional words in the Bible.

Our Father feels very deeply about all of us! In the incarnation of His Only Begotten Son the Divinity is now humanly capable of being deeply moved by our infirmities. “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Mt 9:36

When we kneel before the crib this Christmas we ponder the incomparable love that God has for us. The great mystery of His compassion is seen in His taking on our flesh and blood. Now God can feel in a human heart the hurt of His creatures. He can experience rejection, physical pain.and weakness of the human family! If compassion is feeling the pain of another, in Christ the Divine Father experiences our sorrowful human condition!

In this little Baby in our cribs we see the “miracle of miracles” of God’s loving compassion, The world was utterly amazed and surprised at this closeness that God wanted to share with us. It is not strange that in this secular world that we live in today still gets so excited at Christmas. Jesus has by far the greatest birth day party of any one in the world! Modern Society still can not shut out the light and joy caused by the coming of God’s Son in our flesh and blood!

Fr. Bob Weiss, C.P. preaches Parish Missions and is a member of the Passionist Community in Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

1 Samuel 1:24-28
Luke 1:46-56

Reflection:

The Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) is one of my favorite bible verses. It is such an important part of our church and its liturgies that it is prayed daily by priests, deacons and religious and all those that pray the evening prayers of the church, in the liturgy of the hours.

As I pray it each day I think of Mary, yes, but I am challenged in my thanksgiving. I am challenged in the depth of my prayer. Does my soul proclaim the greatness of the Lord? Does my spirit rejoice in God my Savior? If not, why? The Almighty HAS done great things for me after all, so why am I just saying thank you? Why am I not using my whole body and soul to proclaim His greatness?

Mary’s words are powerful and easy to look at as way ‘too holy’ for us. She was rejoicing upon the arrival of Jesus inside of her womb.  Mary is the first tabernacle, the first to hold Jesus inside of her. When we receive Jesus inside of our bodies at each Mass, we too, become tabernacles. That is the perfect opportunity for us to acclaim His greatness. To use our whole body, to sing, to kneel, to listen and to rejoice in His greatness!

So, as we await the coming of our savior as a humble baby, let us rejoice in his coming into ourselves at each mass, so sustain us. Then, let us proclaim with Mary ‘the greatness of the Lord” and let our “spirit’s rejoice in God OUR savior.”

Kate Mims is the Retreat Center Director at Holy Name Passionist Retreat Center in Houston, Texas.

Scripture:

Isaiah 7:10-14
Luke 1: 26-38

Reflection:

In five days we will celebrate the feast of Christmas.  Hovering over the Scripture readings for today is the question, “How prepared are you?”  This question is not raised in some kind of judgmental way, implying that you’re not prepared.  Rather, it is raised as an invitation to open your heart even more to the saving coming of the Son of God.

In the first reading from Isaiah we hear again the prophecy that God will save his people.  The sign that the fulfillment of this prophecy is at hand will be a virgin who conceives and bears a son and names him Emmanuel.

In the Gospel we recall that astounding moment.  The Angel Gabriel invites Mary, a virgin, to be the Mother of the Son of God, and she accepts.  The promise and the fulfillment.  God is faithful.  Are we ready?

The story of the Annunciation illustrates for us the attitude of heart we need to be fully prepared.  Mary is puzzled by the words of the Angel for she can’t imagine how these things could come about.  Though puzzled and questioning, she nonetheless accepts whatever God is asking of her.  In her heart she so totally trusts in God that she is able to say an unequivocal “yes” to whatever God wants.  And, at the moment of her “yes” the Son of God is conceived within her!

So emerges the question for us, “How prepared are we?”  Are we ready to open our hearts to accept whatever God is asking of us?  Can we move beyond our fears and insecurities to unequivocally trust in God’s will for us?  The prayer that emerges from these readings and the feast of Christmas could well be, “Come, Lord Jesus into my heart.  Help me to trust in you and your loving presence in my life.”

Fr. Michael Higgins, C.P. is the director of retreats at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.