Epiphany - Sunday's reading reflection

An "epiphany" is a discovery or an amazing insight. It just makes things clear, all of a sudden. The feast we are celebrating is about the historic evolution of God's relationship with us, at the birth of Jesus. The promise made to the people whom God called his "chosen people" is now given, revealed, shown, made manifest to the rest of the world. The seekers, who studied the stars for an understanding of "mysteries," are led to the mystery of a child born in a stable. They could not have comprehended the full meaning of this discovery, nor could the child's parents have fully explained it to them. However, their presence as part of this story fulfills the promises of the prophets. God's saving presence among us would be a gift for all the nations, for everyone.

For us today, we can ask for the grace that we might have an epiphany - that a light will go on and that we will be filled with a sense of being gifted with the abundance of a deep mystery. The way Paul uses the word, a mystery is something like the "plot" a playwright has in his or her mind. When the curtain opens, the mystery of the story is revealed, for all of us to see it played out.

For us today, the mystery of God's love for us is revealed in the image of the child born for us - born to be one of us, and born in poverty and powerlessness, with us. We could say "God is with us, is one of us, is with me in my darkest moments," over and over and it won't sink in. But, if we contemplate that baby - and all that that simplicity and vulnerability means - we can become deeply moved by a profound appreciation of this gift. We can kneel before him today - in our own way of expressing our reverence and awe for the holy ground on which we find ourselves. We can offer him "gifts" which recognize that we are in the presence of the God who made us and the friend who died to save us from the power of sin and death. Might we offer our simple prayer of gratitude today? Might we rest a while, savoring who we are, when we realize what God has done for us in Jesus? We don't have to stop and apologize for not having fully seen it before. We just need to let is soak in now.

I may have missed the mystery of the baby in the manger last week. If I have time to let it become clear to me today, what a gift that would be. Perhaps, I could pause, and in my imagination, enter that scene. I could pick up the child, receiving him the way I receive the Eucharist. I could say, "Amen." Amen to this gift, this love, this saving redemption, this mysterious way of surprising me into seeing my vulnerable God's love for me. I can imagine how different it will be to say "Amen" when I next receive the Eucharist! Perhaps, I can talk with the child about what I have been unable to say in prayer before.

And, this week, when we read about how this child became the healer, the calmer of storms, the feeder of crowds, and the one who brings good news to the poor, then I can continue to grow in appreciation and gratitude all week. And, the more my heart can be set on fire with this love, the more I can imagine being a light for others, sharing this wondrous light with others.

(Adapted from Andy Alexander, SJ)

Jesus, the Redeemer - Tomorrow's reading reflection

John calls Jesus the Lamb of God and thus signifies Jesus' mission as the One who redeems us from our sins. The blood of the Passover Lamb (Exodus 12) delivered the Israelites in Egypt from slavery and death. The Lord Jesus freely offered up his life for us on the cross as the atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 Corinthians 5:7). The blood which he poured out for us on the cross cleanses, heals, and frees us from our slavery to sin, and from the "wages of sin which is death" (Romans 6:23) and the "destruction of both body and soul in hell" (Matthew 10:28). It is significant that John was the son of Zachariah, a priest of Israel who participated in the daily sacrifice of a lamb in the temple for the sins of the people (Exodus 29). John recognized that Jesus was the perfect unblemished lamb offered by the Father in heaven as the one and only sacrifice that could cancel the debt of sin, and free us from death and the destruction of body and soul in hell.

When John says he did not know Jesus (John 1:31,33) he was referring to the hidden reality of Jesus' divinity. But the Holy Spirit in that hour revealed to John Jesus' true nature, such that John bore witness that this is the Son of God. How can we be certain that Jesus is truly the Christ, the Son of the living God? The Holy Spirit makes the Lord Jesus Christ known to us through the gift of faith. God gives us his Spirit as our helper and guide who opens our hearts and minds to receive and comprehend the great mystery and plan of God - to unite all things in his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:10). Do you want to grow in the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ? Ask the Lord to pour his Holy Spirit upon you to deepen your faith, hope, and love for God and for the plan he has for your life.

"Lord Jesus Christ, fill me with the power of your Holy Spirit and let me grow in the knowledge of your great love and truth. Let your Spirit be aflame in my heart that I may know and love you more fervently and strive to do your will in all things."

(Adapted from Don Schwager)

Discovery - Tomorrow's reading reflection

Today’s psalm sings for me, in more ways than one.  The obvious reason is that it has been recast as Responsorial Psalm music by several authors, perhaps most familiarly by David Haas and Marty Haugen.  We hear its uplifting melody frequently, singing a new song unto the Lord for God has done wondrous deeds.

But even without the melody, the psalm’s words sing to me when I reflect on them.  God HAS done wondrous deeds.  How can one be aware of and respond to these wonders without singing joyfully to the Lord?! 

I think the wondrous deeds of God are known to anyone who takes the time to look for them and to reflect on what they see, or hear, or sense in any way.  During these short days in the northern half of our world (I am writing this with the winter solstice but days away) it is easy to see both a glorious sunrise and sunset only a few short hours apart.  Comets are circling the sun, skeins of geese are still flying south, intricate patterns of frost appear magically on chilly mornings, air is crisp and clean to the nose, and the scent of wood fires adds a pleasant touch to the morning.  The warmth of the house feels good when I come in from the cold, and hot soup beckons with a wonderful aroma.  Other wonders come because people take the time to use the knowledge God instills in them to discover the mysteries of life.  We have man-made devices sending us signals from across the galaxy and intricate explorers roaming about on distant planets.  The papers and other news media are filled with items explaining the wonders of this new procedure or that new drug, engineering advances, scientific discoveries, new inventions and adaptations of not so new knowledge.  The wonder of life itself is manifest through all these other wonders.

This time of year we also are reminded of the wonders of people caring for each other.  While people are homeless and hungry and ill-clothed throughout the year, something about Advent and Christmas reminds us that this is a special time to care for our sisters and brothers.  Toy drives, food collections, fuel subsidies, and other programs unite givers and receivers during this time of year more than any other.  We mirror God’s wondrous generosity with our own.

And yet, it is so easy to take all this for granted, to demand and expect wonders because they have become part of our lives and so mundane.  These wonders become ingrained in our short memory horizons, and so we expect that we will always be comfortable in our needs, that “they” will certainly develop a new something to fix this or that problem.  It is amazing that the marvel of new things has a short life of public interest because something new is coming soon.  If we stop to think we might appreciate the wondrous things about us, but too often we are lulled by complacency.  We forget that what we know today is the culmination of all our prior human understanding of the mysteries that God has created.

I think one of the most wondrous things that God has done is to give us children and grandchildren, for as they grow they remind us by their exuberance to truly appreciate the wonders we encounter.  Since their memories are short, children see with the new eyes of one who is not jaded.  My 3-year-old grandson, Isaac, recently went to his first Creighton basketball game, and was very excited.  But the most “wondrous” thing he saw was not the game, but an escalator – for the first time in his young life he rode on stairs that moved, positioned alongside stairs that did not.  How could this be?  How could something he had always known, non-moving stairs that he had learned to climb with some effort, be somehow changed so drastically – they MOVE!

And so my prayer today as I start this new year, and my wish for you, is for the grace to be like a child, discovering with joy every minute of every day the wonders the Lord has done, and for the freedom to break into songs of praise for the God who loves us.

(Adapted from Tom Purcell)

Mary, Mother of God, pray for us in this new year - Tomorrow's reading reflection

Happy New Year!  As everyone on our calendar celebrates this first day of 2014, the Church marks January 1 as the Octave Day of the Nativity of the Lord and also, especially, the Feast of the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God.   Let’s notice:  this is a great way to start our New Year!   We continue to celebrate the Incarnation, the Word Made Flesh, Jesus, and we honor Jesus’s mother, our Blessed Mother.

We need this woman – throughout the year!   Just think of all the honor and prayers offered to Mary through the two millennia of Christian faith, the images, the titles, the pious practices, the special doctrinal pronouncements in the last two centuries in Roman Catholicism that she is the Immaculate Conception and was Assumed into Heaven.  Sinless (but otherwise entirely human like us) and Queen of Heaven, she hears our prayers; though she does not judge or save or heal herself, she prays for us.  She is Advocate, Mediator, Guide, Role Model, Comforter, and always a real Woman, Mother and even Sister and Friend to us, throughout our lives, and as the “Hail Mary” says, “at the hour of our death.”   Other feast days celebrate her in the liturgical year, but today we begin our year by venerating her as Mother of God.   I notice today that her Motherhood is the heart and reason for all our attention to and claims on Mary through the centuries.

We need this woman!  A few weeks ago, in conversation about TIME’s selection of Pope Francis as “Person of the Year,”  a young woman of feminist leanings joked, “We should have a WOMAN as head of the church ABOVE the Pope,” and two of us immediately tossed back, “We have her! -- Mary, Mother of God, she’s above the Pope in the Church!”   Further, our human nature needs a womanly figure to honor and pray to.  I noticed this, if not for the first time, when learning about the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West in order to teach excerpts from its abridged version in English titled simply Monkey.  The character of the female Bodhisattva Kuan-Yin, who advises and guides Monkey and his companions on their pilgrimage to get sacred Buddhist texts, is wise compassionate, admonishing, supportive – and beautiful.   In short, she is “like” the Virgin Mary – not “same as,” but “like,” revealing a basic human need across time and cultures for a motherly female figure.

As Mary’s child is obviously different from any other hero in history and literature, so she transcends as well as fulfills our need for Mother, Mediator, or Queen – and also for a real woman who is personal, intimate Mother, guide, model, and friend.  Now celebrating the Mother of the Word, I notice the words of our readings for today, and particularly that “Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.”   I want to follow her example, reflecting on the Gospel narrative, St. Paul’s teaching, the blessing that the Lord taught Moses, and the prayer sung in the Psalm.

And I notice, as if new in this New Year, the exact words of the most obvious “Hail Mary” prayer.  I’m noticing that first we “hail” her, then praise her, stating the obvious: that she is “blessed” and so is her child.   Then we ask her to pray for us sinners – and not only in this moment of reciting the prayer, but at the time of our death.   Death -- the usually not noticed part of life!   We need this woman now, each day, and to the certain end of “now.”

“Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pray for us sinners, NOW” – in all of 2014 – “and at the hour of our death.”

(Adapted from Mary Haynes Kuhlman)

The Word did not stay static - Tomorrow's reading reflection

At the closing of the year it is a good thing to look back, even as we continue to move forward. It is good to look in our rear-view mirror to see our experiences of God in our lives during the year we are closing and to reflect on them. Yes, even as we keep on driving and looking to the road ahead.

It is interesting that at the end of the year the gospel reading brings us back to the absolute beginning: In the beginning... As the year’s end invites us to look back on the completed year with gratitude, the prologue of John’s gospel invites us to look back as far as “back” goes: In the beginning... (beginning of creation of course, since God and the Word have no beginning).And, looking at the beginning, the reading gives us a capsule summary of the mystery of Christ, the Word.

The Word was in the beginning, but the Word did not stay there statically. The Word is now. The Word, who became flesh and (literally) pitched his tent among us, as we have just celebrated at Christmas, remains with us: I will be with you to the end of time [Mt. 28:20]

We glance at the past year in our rear-view mirror, but keeping our sight on the present, as we keep moving into our future to be made of an uninterrupted sequence of presents. It is a moment of both gratitude and hope: gratitude even as we recognize experiences we regret and hope even as we  perhaps fear possible experiences that could hurt us. Knowing all along that we are never alone, because the Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us, the Word who gave us his word that I will be with you to the end of time.

(Adapted from Luis Rodriguez, S.J.)