Day 16 St. John of the Cross

We are now on our 16th day of this new year. How are we doing at taking on a new way of being.

Yesterday was Gaudete Sunday. St Paul gave us three commands:

- Rejoice Always

- Pray without ceasing

-Give thanks in every circumstance 

How hard would it be to simply walk through this day maintaining a cheerful disposition, staying mindful and listening to the Holy Sprit, and focusing on the things for which we are thankful?

Today the Church celebrates St. John of the Cross who provides us with a wonderful metaphor, not Christ as shepherd or physician, but Jesus as a mine with many veins of gold. 

We must dig deeply into Christ. And “ however deep we dig we will never find their end or their limit. Indeed, in every pocket new seams of fresh riches are discovered on all sides.”

To be truly happy, we must lose ourselves in the mine, digging more deeply each day. Perhaps, in this sense, the pandemic can be good for us. It forces us to slow down,  It limits the running around we can do.  Sitting, at times feeling trapped in our homes, there is nothing to stop us from journeying down into the mine. Or are we afraid of what we will find? 

If so, remember, Christ is not only the mine, He is the light. 

Today, remember St. John of the Cross, and spend some quiet time mining. 

Opening Our Eyes

 In the Gospel of Matthew today we read, 

he touched their eyes and said, “Let it be done for you according to your faith.”  And their eyes were opened. 

St. Matthew doesn't focus on healing, but on the opening of their eyes which in some ways may be more difficult.

None of us wants to think of ourselves as the one who needs to open their eyes. Often when we talk about someone needing to open their eyes what we really mean is, if their eyes were open, they would see thinks my way.

The gospel states it in passive voice: not "they opened their eyes" but "their eyes were opened' (by someone else). They can't open their own eyes, perhaps because they don't know their eyes are closed. If you were born blind, how would you know what it means to see? Blind is all you know unless someone explains the idea of sight. You wouldn't even realize you had something that needed healing.

The paradox of the 21st century is that the means of communication we have, the more isolated we have become.

As we come to the end of this first week of Advent, this first week of the new year, perhaps now is a good time for us to pray that God and those around us will help us to identify those areas of our lives in which we are "blind". And having the humility to admit that we are blind, then we pray as the men in the Gospel "Son of David, have pity on us!" 

Then through faith our eyes can be opened and we can see clearly how to imitate Christ more fully each day. 

To truly know someone

On this third day of Advent, we have one of the thornier gospels in the Bible,

No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” 

Some Christians have interpreted this to mean that only Christians can know God. This is a misunderstanding of what it means to know.  Of the various languages that I have studied over the years, English is the only one that only has one word for knowing. Many distinguish between knowing in an absolute way, “I know your phone number” and knowing partially  “I know you.” I think we all realize that there are different meanings to the word “know.” I have been blessed to meet and spend time with some very well-known people.  I would not say I know them 

How do we humans know anything? — Through our senses. We see.; we hear; we touch; we taste;  we smell.  We read. We listen. We watch. So how can anyone know God?

By virtue of the fact that we are created in the image and likeness of God, every human has some experience of God. But it would be overstating to say that we therefore know God. What we truly know of God is what God reveals. 

What Jesus says in the gospel today is absolutely true. Only Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, can truly know God in the fullest sense.  Jesus is God incarnate, the fullest revelation of the presence of God. Therefore, any revelation of God, like all creation, is through him.

On this third day of advent, this Gospel challenges each of us to look inside ourselves and ask “how well do I know God?“ As we begin this new year, now is the time for each of us to re-dedicate some part of each day to knowing God better. God has given us the tools. The two most important tools we have are the Bible ( the word of God) and the Eucharist in which Christ gives himself to us. Let us use these tools. 

May each of us know God more fully each day and share that knowledge with others. 

LY 2021 Day 2

This year, more than ever, I am ready to focus on this being the beginning of Liturgical  Year 2021.  And on this second day we celebrate St. Andrew.

When we think of the apostles, we often say “they left everything to follow Jesus,” which is true. But St. Matthew in his gospel describes it differently. 

About Peter and Andrew he says, 

At once they left their nets and followed him.

Regarding James and John, he writes,

Immediate they left their boat and father and followed him. 

Each pair is described as leaving something different.

Perhaps now, on this second day of the new year, each of us needs to ask ourselves, “What do I need to leave so that I can follow Jesus more fully this year?”

The two commands

When I was a child, I could never understand my mother’s ability to doze off while watching TV, even while watching something in which she was really interested. I have now become my mother. 

. In St. Mark’s gospel we are repeatedly given two commands.

Γρηγορείτε and βλέπετε 

The first of these words refers precisely to not letting ourselves doze off, to staying wake. The older we are, the harder this becomes, the more effort required. We sit still and we doze off, not just physically but spiritually. 

When we are younger we are filled with hopes and ambitions that drive us forward. We have a sense of becoming. We are occupied with questions like “who will I become?” and “what will I do with my life?”  

As we turn the corner of middle age those questions fall away and we can, unfortunately, start to settle into who we are. We lose interest in changing. We doze off into spiritual complacency. We stop striving to be better. We drift on the current of our lives. 

Today’s gospel demands that we wake up. Until the last day of our earthly lives, we are called to be active, to choose, to strive toward holiness. 

The second command is “to watch”, “to look at”. It is not simply about having something passively in front of our eyes.  We are called to really look, to examine, to study. What are we looking for? — the signs of the Kingdom of God. 

As we begin this Advent Season, can we open our eyes to see the signs of the presence of God? Can we see them in our brothers and sisters? Can we see them in the beauty and majesty of God’s creation? Can we see the presence of Christ offered to us in the Eucharist?

Wake up and look! And if we look we will see Emmanuel, God with us. 

The Under-appreciated Church

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. John Lateran, Lateran being the name of the hill on which it is located in the city of Rome. It is, and has been for most of two millennia, the Cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope.  (Not St. Peter’s ). 

It’s actual name is Cathedral of the Most Holy Savior and of Saints John the Baptist and the Evangelist in the Lateran. Inside are 12 enormous and magnificent statues of the 12 apostles, who form the foundation on which Christ builds His Church. 

Over the doors is inscribed SACROS LATERAN ECCLES OMNIUM VRBIS ET ORBIS ECCLESIARVM MATER ET CAPUT" ("Most Holy Lateran Church, mother and head of all the churches in the city and the world"). 

We need these magnificent, historic buildings. They soar to the sky and remind us, not of who we are, but who we are called to be. 

Today the Office of Readings gives us chapter 2 of the First Letter of St. Peter,

Strip away everything vicious, everything deceitful; pretenses, jealousies, and disparaging remarks of any kind. 

Could any words be more apt for the moment in which we are living?

Today, as we celebrate this feast, let us focus our hearts on those original 12 called to proclaim the gospel to the world. And should there be a moment when we are tempted to think ill of another, let us recall the command of St. Peter, our first Pope. 

Why we care about 787?

As the Church celebrates The Exaltation of the Holy Cross, once called Triumph of the Cross, it gives us an opportunity to look at a wider subject. What is the proper place of objects in Christian worship. 

From as far back as history can take us humans have held on to objects as a way of remaining connected to the past, particularly people who have past from this earthly life. The simple act of holding something that belonged to the person can reconnect us in a way that memory alone cannot. Portraiture as an art form developed and a next generation could connect to a person they had never met. 

It seems, therefore, not surprising that the early Christians held on their loved ones, the holy ones through keepsakes, relics.  The word relic means literally “to leave behind.” And with time came iconography - communicating with pictures, instead of words. 

To our modern sensibilities, the keeping of bones and other body parts mays seem strange.  It’s not what we would do, but it is how people in an earlier time held onto loved ones. 

In around 327, the Emperor Constantine ordered excavations around Jerusalem to ascertain the location of the place of the crucifixion of Jesus.  Church were then erected at Mt. Calvert and the Holy Sepulchre .   The recovered remains of the cross were divided. Part remained in Jerusalem and part was sent to Rome. 

As with all things, people have a tendency to go to far and so for a time all veneration of sacred relics and icons was outlawed. 

Then in 787 at the Second Council of Nicea, the Church defined clearly the distinction between “respect and veneration” and “true worship.”

Worship belongs only to God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

The most we can give to any created things or persons is “respect and veneration.”

Today the. Church venerates the cross on which Jesus have his life for the salvation of the world. That simple, rough piece of wood was transformed by the blood of Jesus. That place was forever marked by his death. What Christian has visited the sites and not been moved ? 

There and in so many other holy places, we find ourselves speechless. That is the essence of respect and veneration. 

Today let each of us take a moment to look at a crucifix or a cross and mediate upon its meaning.