Advent Reflection, Fourth Sunday, 2016

Bishop Robert Barron recently wrote that if we take an honest look at the Biblical texts dealing with Christmas, we will find that they have precious little to do with sentimentality. Bishop Barron writes of the visiting Magi from the East looking for the newborn king. Their search was not met with excitement or enthusiasm. Matthew tells us: “When King Herod heard this, he was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.”  King Herod saw this newborn baby as a threat to his position.  Herod asked the Magi to return to him with news of this newborn king, When the Magi returned home by a different route King Herod became furious. To protect his kingship, Herod ordered that every boy in Bethlehem the age of two and under be killed. Herod does not sound like someone excited about the Christmas season.

Why would a newborn be such a threat to King Herod?  The Gospel reading for this Fourth Sunday reminds us of the mission Jesus is given. The Angel of the Lord tells Joseph during a dream about the child Mary is carrying; "She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” This newborn king could be the messiah who liberates the Israelites from the Romans and thus from King Herod's rule.

We have to remember that the Incarnation was just the first part of God’s plan.  The Advent season allows us the time to look beyond the birth of Jesus and make the connection to his death and resurrection. It is through the death and resurrection of Jesus that we are redeemed.

The Collect for the Fourth Sunday of Advent helps us do this.  In the Collect we pray that God’s grace be put in our heart so that through his Passion (the suffering of Jesus Christ up to his death) we will move to the glory of his resurrection. The Collect reminds us the Incarnation is just the beginning of God’s plan for our redemption.

The birth of Jesus is a challenge to each of us. It is a call to conversion and a call for self examination.  Just as Herod did, some of us may not want to let go of those things that distance us from God. That distance can keep us from the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Use these final days of Advent as a time for reflecting on the life of Jesus.  Have we let go of everything that is keeping us from the saving power of his resurrection?

This Christmas celebrate the infant Jesus in the manger. Join the angels in giving glory to God. Give glory to his birth and give glory to his resurrection.

Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord,
your grace into our hearts,
that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ your Son
was made known by the message of an Angel,
may by his Passion and Cross
be brought to the glory of his Resurrection.

Advent Reflection, Third Sunday, 2016

Today is Gaudete Sunday. We have passed the midpoint of Advent. The normal purple vestments of Advent are not worn. The vestments worn at the Mass today will be a rose color. This is a visual encouragement for us to continue our spiritual preparation for the coming birth of Jesus. This encouragement and joy is shown by the lighting of the pink candle on an Advent wreath and the Entrance Antiphon of today’s Mass.  The antiphon points us to the joy of the coming of our Lord when we sing “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed the Lord is near.”

Why do we rejoice? First, we rejoice because the Word became flesh. We see God in the baby Jesus. We take comfort in the fact that God has not abandoned us. We were created out of love and that love for us has lead to the birth of Christ. Jesus has come so we may know the Father through the Son and by this we may know the way for eternal salvation.

In every baby we see the possibility of great things that can be. We see a child growing and the richness that their life can have. We too are like babies in the eyes of God. We have such great possibilities but we are easily turned away from the richness God has prepared for us.  Jesus is our hope for salvation. He points us to the right path for salvation. We can read of Jesus as an adult.  He fulfilled all that our own human nature can be.  It is by his birth that our hope takes root.

So today we do rejoice! The Lord is near both in the celebration of his birth and through his salvation. His birth leads to his Passion and Death but we know it is not the end of the story. The story of Jesus continues with his Resurrection; our hope for a new life. Our story starts with our birth, continues through death and into what we hope is our eternal salvation, the salvation that Jesus won for us by his Passion, Death and Resurrection.

Today Collect (the opening prayer of the Mass) reminds us of this.  We celebrate the Lord's Nativity for we know of the joy of salvation that it offers.

O God, who see how your people
faithfully await the feast of the Lord’s Nativity,
enable us, we pray,
to attain the joys of so great a salvation
and to celebrate them always
with solemn worship and glad rejoicing.

The Heart of St. John Berchmans

On December 8 the Heart of St. John Berchmans will be at the Cathedral of St. John Berchmans for eleven days. This is a wonderful opportunity for parishioners to venerate a relic of the patron saint of our Cathedral as well for others to participate in this most reverent Catholic tradition.

Veneration has been part of our Catholic faith since almost the beginning of the Church. A letter written by members of the Church in Smyrna in the year 156 AD is about venerating the bones of St. Polycarp after he was burned at a stake. With the legalization of the Church by Rome in 312, the tombs of many saints were opened and the actual relics were venerated by the people.

Relics can include the physical remains of a saint (or of a person who is considered holy but not yet officially canonized) as well as other objects which have been by being touched to his body. Relics are divided into different classes. First class relics are the physical body parts, clothing or instruments connected with a Saint. There is also a third class of relics which are those things which the faithful have touched to the physical body parts (reliquary) or the grave of the saint.

St. Jerome reminds us to keep relics in perspective. In his Letter to Riparius, St. Jerome (d. 420) wrote in defense of relics: "We do not worship, we do not adore, for fear that we should bow down to the creature rather than to the Creator, but we venerate the relics of the martyrs in order the better to adore Him whose martyrs they are."

This means that when we venerate a relic we are paying honor to the saints who, by their intercession and example help us to grow in our Christian virtue. Venerating the saints does not detract from God’s glory since whatever goodness a saint possesses, we know is a gift from God.

St. John Berchmans died at the age of 22 on August 13, 1621. What I find fascinating about St. John Berchmans is that he was a young man still in the seminary when he died. He lived his life in such a way that everyone around him felt a deep holiness in him. They believed St. John Berchmans would one day be a saint. This was one reason his heart was removed at his death. People were already considering this as a relic for future veneration of a saint. His body is buried in Rome and his heart is in a reliquary in Belgium, where he was born. For more information on St. John Berchmans and the Heart visit the website: http://sjbdevotion.org/

Advent Reflection, Second Sunday, 2016

Have you been told that Christmas has become too commercialized? Have you been told to keep Christ in Christmas? You probably have.  Sadly this too has become part of our Christmas tradition just like using an Advent wreath, watching the Charlie Brown Christmas Special or mailing out Christmas cards. You may have been told Christmas is too commercialized or Christ has been lost in Christmas as an attempt by someone to help you get through this time of the year or out of their own feelings of frustration. My thought is that if you do feel this way; it is your own fault! The main focus of businesses, including the television industry, is to make money. They will only sell what people buy and watch.

We make the choices of how we prepare for Christmas. The Advent season is one of the many things I believe the Church got absolutely correct. Advent reminds us we are on a journey. The end of this journey should find us prepared to properly celebrate the birth of Christ. The buying of Christmas presents, the listening to Christmas music and the watching of Christmas specials are not inherently bad. It is how we let these commercialized things affect us that can lead us to the possibility of a bankrupted spirituality at Christmas.

The first week of Advent is over. Take a few minutes to reflect on this first week. Consider what you have done in preparing for Christmas. You may have brought some presents, attended a party or watched a few Christmas shows. Are you humming Christmas songs throughout the day?  You may have also been frustrated by traffic around the stores you shop or the lack of service you received at a busy eatery.  If you keep all these things in the proper perspective none of them should affect your preparations for the coming of Jesus.  The Collect for the Second Sunday of Advent reminds us to let “no earthly undertaking hinder those who set out in haste to meet your Son.” 

We should all know that traffic jams, busy stores, Christmas music and our own frustrations are just part of this time of the year. They will not go away.  So we must do as the Prayer after Communion tells us; we must “judge wisely things on earth”. We are to remain focused on those things that are important as an aid to our spiritual growth and let go of those things that are too distracting. We must seek the “heavenly wisdom” for making the right decisions during Advent.

Enjoy this time of the year but never forget that Christmas does not start until the birth of Jesus. Now it is Advent, the time to prepare. If you feel the distractions of the world are beginning to overwhelm you, sit with God in prayer for a few minutes. Recall the opening prayer of today’s Mass. It reminds us of the real reason for Christmas; the Word became flesh so that we may gain the heavenly kingdom.

Almighty and merciful God,
may no earthly undertaking hinder those
who set out in haste to meet your Son,
but may our learning of heavenly wisdom
gain us admittance to his company.