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THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD

THE THREE WISE MEN
JOURNEYING TO JERUSALEM

By long standing sacred tradition Christians celebrate Christmas as a season, with the twelve days between Christmas and the Epiphany as one long “Christmas day.” The season ends with the Baptism of the Lord which is also the first Sunday of ordinary time and that takes place next Sunday. Christmas celebrations with friends and family, decorations, and all of the other means of rejoicing, should continue throughout the season. We can never rejoice in the Lord’s birth too much. As Christians, we will very often find ourselves living in contradiction to the styles and preferences of the present age. We should get very much used to the fact that we will face conflict among friends, and even at times within families, as we seek, more generously and more regularly, to live out and celebrate the mysteries of our redemption in Christ Jesus.

“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.”(Is 60:1) Isaiah the prophet describes the glory of Jesus Christ, who is “full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father”(Jn 1:14), our Messiah. The prophet also foretells the reality of those first three wise men, who represent the kings and the peoples of the whole earth, all of whom are called to realize their full dignity as sons and daughters of God in worship and praise of him for his glory and goodness. “Above you (US) the Lord now rises and above you his glory appears. The nations come to your light and kings to your dawning brightness.” (Is 60:2-3)

The story of the magi  or the three wise men carries with it an extraordinary richness. In it the evangelist teaches us about the mission of the Son of God. Jesus is ‘made manifest’ (epiphany = manifestation) as Messiah not only for his own people, but for those who come ‘from the east’, for all the peoples of the earth. At the same time this is the Messiah heralded by the prophets. The Scriptures are fulfilled.

This Messiah is born into danger, as the cruel tyrant, known to history as ‘Herod the Great’, is the first to threaten his life. The gift of myrrh alludes to the death he is to suffer. The presentation of gifts from the peoples of the world completes the Christmas scene. The magi represent the nations, but also the age-old quest among the peoples of the earth for true wisdom. This wisdom is found in Christ. May we not be afraid in the year that has just begun to seek the wisdom that God wants for us, that is the wisdom and the light of faith

The Feast of the Holy Family

THE HOLY FAMILY

Every year, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph on the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas. And that means a celebration of family life — births, weddings, funerals, anniversaries. In the first reading, we hear about a joyful birth — that of Samuel. After years of prayer, Hannah and Elkanah are granted a son. As soon as Samuel is weaned, his mother fulfils her promise and gives him up to the Lord’s service at the shrine at Shiloh. We in our parish have a particular reason to celebrate as we are the Parish of the Holy Family. As an example for us to follow, the Holy Family can seem a little too perfect: when we consider the more “dramatic” events of the Christmas and Easter stories, it can seem so far removed from us. And yet, as today’s Gospel reminds us there were also the so-called “hidden years” – the many years of family life in Nazareth, spent in doing ordinary family things. During that time, we hear how Jesus grew and matured, and in the glimpse of that family life we see our example. Our celebration of this feast announces that there is a lasting value in the ideals of family life especially when so many are denigrating what it means to be a family as well as the relationship between husband, wife, parents and children. Whatever the changing details of each age, honour, understanding and love always remain the recipe for the perfect, and holy, human family.

Today we remember the care that Mary and Joseph gave to Jesus. We recognize the sacrifice they made for Jesus, in the same way as we recognise the sacrifices our own parents made for us  and many more  are making for their children today in our I want I get world.   

Our families would find the disagreements, stressful relationships, and resentments that spoil the joy of family harmony so much easier to solve by imitating the faith and loving trust of the Holy Family. “Lord Jesus, you came to restore us to unity with the Father in heaven. Where there is division, bring healing and pardon. May all peoples and families find peace, wholeness, and unity in you, the Prince of Peace and Saviour of the world.”

CHRISTMAS DAY 2012

Well  we are nearly at the great day itself CHRISTMAS DAY so happy Christmas wherever you are. For the last four weeks of advent we have been looking forward to the coming of Christ into our world with all its ups and downs and lumps and bumps along the road of life. We have completed our advent observance with all its preparation and now we celebrate with gifts and happiness all around So now  then let us rejoice in the Lord, not in the world; that is, rejoice in faithfulness and not in iniquity; rejoice in the hope of eternity and not the brief flower of vanity that is part of our  daily lives.  During these days of Christmas celebration we will often have occasion to sing as the angels did long ago, “Glory to God in the highest!” At this time when we celebrate the birth of “a saviour who has been born for” us, the One who is “Wonder- Counsellor and  Prince of Peace,” the One who is “a great light” in the darkness of war and strife around us, we welcome an opportunity to put aside our cares and worries, bask in the joy and generosity of the season, and sing out our “Glory to God in the highest as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.  None of us will travel to Bethlehem to behold the  newborn infant lying in the manger in the way the shepherds and the wise men did in their time. But all of us travel the road of daily life, and we are called to see Jesus the newborn Infant in the youngster who needs companionship, the teenager who needs a listening ear, the parent who needs a helping hand, the older person who needs someone to care to name but a few there are so many others. We remember in a special way all those who have died since last Christmas and we keep their families in our thoughts and prayers. Some of our Christmas customs seem to turn away from Christ. Or do they? The giving of gifts expresses love of the other person. Festive decorations set this season apart from all others. Santa Claus was originally St. Nicholas, a bishop remembered for his generosity. Every letter sent and received bears the stamp of this special season, tidings of good will, and a reminder that those who are far away are close to us in mind and heart. The customs of this season are veiled announcements of one message: Christ is born for us. To remove the veil, to hear the good news, we gather together in our churches =. There the message of Christmas speaks loud and clear. The Letter to the Hebrews says, “In times past, God spoke in  various ways to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days, he has spoken to us through his Son.”

The customs of Christmas speak the message in partial ways, but God speaks the message clearly through his Son, who is born in our midst this day. on this day the whole community of heaven joins with all believers of good will on earth in a jubilant song of praise for the good news proclaimed by the angels: Behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people, for to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:10-11). So with Mary and Joseph with the shepherds and Angels and the Arch Angels and the whole company of heaven    Come let us adore him Christ the Lord.

This weekend we come to the last Sunday of the Advent season. In our churches we light the last purple candle as well as the other three leaving the last candle the white one for the first Mass of Christmas Day. It’s only in this last week before Christmas that we begin to hear about the “Christmas story” itself. For the past weeks we have been preparing ourselves to greet the Lord, when he comes. Now we prepare to remember how he first came, by listening to the prophecies of his coming, and by hearing of the events before his birth. We meet Mary, who herself had been prepared for the coming of the Messiah. She has received the angel’s greeting, and his strange news, and has accepted her role in God’s plan. Now she hurries to her kinswoman, Elizabeth, who herself bears John the Baptist in her womb. John,  alerts us to the presence of the Lord, as he leaps for joy in his mother’s womb. His joy is that God has kept his promise, and is with his people.

On the days before the feast of Christmas, and on this final Sunday, the gospel read at Mass is taken from the first chapter of Matthew’s gospel or the first chapter of Luke’s. Today’s gospel passage is unique because it presents a meeting between the mothers of the two men. The story, known as the ‘Visitation’, follows the account of the Annunciation to Mary of the coming birth of the Saviour, which ended with Mary’s ‘Yes’ to God and her words, ‘let what you have said be done to me’. (Luke 1:38) As Mary welcomed the coming of the Lord into her body, now John, as yet unborn, welcomes his arrival too. If we continue to read the gospel beyond today’s passage we hear the words of Mary’s hymn of thanksgiving, the Magnificat, prayed daily by the Church at Evening Prayer.This last Sunday of Advent gives us a brief time to reflect upon and kindle within ourselves the light of the incarnate Lord. The foundation is laid for what we will find at the manger.

Now as  having made our final preparation to join the shepherds and the angels in their Joy, great joy in what God has done for us we go forth in peace to greet the Lord remembering that Jesus Christ the Son of God the light in the darkness is the reason for the season.

THE SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Advent, the Church’s world-wide retreat in preparation for Christmas, now begins its second week. Whilst advent continues for the next number of weeks we have to remember that we are also in the year of Faith and in faith and because of faith we continue our advent journey. Advent is a quiet time, it is the great contrast with our culture’s consumer-bonanza. Consumerism-as a-way-of-life is a blessing in many ways for so many people, but it also shields our eyes against what needs to be prayed for rather than what we might want. This week we hear about the coming “Day of Christ”, and meet the character of John the Baptist. Just as once before he “prepared the way” for the coming of Christ, so today he does the same for us in our time and place. Our hearts should be open to his voice, as he calls us to repentance, and asks us to make the way straight for the coming of our Lord. The imagery of this Sunday is particularly rich: the dominant image is of a vast population moving together – the return from exile in the first reading, the going and coming of the sowers in the psalm, the community of the Church preparing together in Paul’s letter. We prepare for the coming of the Lord as His people – a community who cooperate to make the “processional way” of the Holy One – flattening the hills of opposition and ridicule, filling in the valleys of doubt and despair, so that “all mankind shall see the salvation of God.”

Advent then  is a time of joyful anticipation for all of us young and old  and all the in-betweens . The prophet Baruch tells us, “It is time, to take off your robe of mourning and misery,” for God is leading his people “with his mercy and justice for company.” God’s people “that is you and i are wrapped in the cloak of justice from God. As Christians, our lifestyle is meant to be different from those around us who are not Christian. If John the Baptist worked alongside us, would he, for example, hear us swearing or see us being uncharitable? And if he did, would he turn a deaf ear or a blind eye I don’t for a moment think his eye would be blind or his ears deaf to our shortcomings.  Many of us are reluctant to speak about our faith and share it with others. The challenge of the Good News is to become humble disciples, always permitting the name and power of Jesus Christ to take precedence over our own name and fame.  We are looking forward to Christmas: the Christ we seek to welcome calls us to look forward in the way we live and move  and have our being and he calls us to look forward to his own coming in glory. Let us look forward in faith and hope to Christmas so when Christmas comes we will be able to get the greatest possible spiritual benefits of this particular season of the year.

THE FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING

CHRIST THE KING

Every time we complete the cycle of the liturgical year, there is a seamless blending from the old year into the new year: so, just as this week we hear of the King who is to come, next week, we begin a New Year and the Season of Advent by more medita­tion on the end of time, and the One who is to come again, as he once came among us. This feast affirms that Christ is King, that he is Judge, that he is Ruler of the kings of the earth. By his own words we know that this is true, as he stands before Pilate and says, “Yes, I am a king.” But his kingship is different: it is not of the same kind as earthly kings, whose empires fade and pass away. His kingship is eternal, and holy lasting until the end of time. Through his love for us, we share in this sovereignty – this holiness – as priests and kings who “serve his God and Father”. We end our year in simple, awe filled praise of the One who is, who was, and who is to come ‑ the Almighty.

The theme of the kingship of Christ should not be misunderstood. Jesus is not king in an earthly sense. The acclamations of the crowds on Palm Sunday and the enthusiastic endorsement of the disciples that Jesus is the Messiah might mislead us. Jesus is king; Jesus is Messiah, because he is the anointed one of God, who comes to do the will of God.

 For the evangelist John, Christ’s kingship is revealed above all on the cross. In the dialogue with Pilate in the Fourth Gospel Jesus points Pilate in the right direction: his kingdom is not an earthly one. He came ‘to bear witness to the truth’. Those who seek the truth are members of his kingdom, which our liturgy today describes in the Preface as ‘a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness. We remember that The Kingdom of God exists in every home where parents and children love each other. It exists in every region and country that cares for its weak and vulnerable. It exists in every parish that reaches out to the needy. The Kingdom of God   happens whenever someone feeds a hungry person, or shelters a homeless person, or shows care to a neglected person. It happens whenever we overturn an unjust law, or correct an injustice, or avert a war.

It happens whenever people join in the struggle to overcome poverty, to erase ignorance, to pass on the faith. The Kingdom of God is in the past (in the life and work of Jesus of Nazareth); it is in the present (in the work of the Church and in the efforts of many others to create a world of goodness and justice); it is in the future (reaching its completion in the age to come). May we build the kingdom of God where we are called to be in the here and now of our lives and living. We don’t know how many people witnessed the death of Jesus in Jerusalem. We know that some of those who did were delighted to have him out of the way at last. Others were heartbroken at the death of a truly good man and the shattering into pieces of a dream for something better, a new world order in which love and service would triumph over oppression and hatred. The majority probably just went about their business and reflected that really it is wiser just to keep your head down and say nothing. We can be sure that nobody there on Good Friday  thought they were witnessing the death of Christ the Universal King. His kind of kingship has to be learned and not in palaces nor in schools of diplomacy but among the poor and needy and those whom the world has forgotten. For our king is the servant of the poor and we only belong to his court when we do likewise become servants of the poor.