On this seventh day of Christmas and final day of the year, our first reading can seem a bit strange, but only if you get your theology from the movies.
In the movies the "antichrist" is depicted as some supernatural being. How do they come up with this? They take a bunch of different verses from the bible mix them all together and create an image. The saddest part is that even some Christians have fallen into this trap.
If we just read the words of the fist reading today from John's letter we see that the antichirst is someone much more mundane and unfortunately common.
Children, it is the last hour;
and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. Thus we know this is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of our number; if they had been, they would have remained with us. Their desertion shows that none of them was of our number. But you have the anointing that comes from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you not because you do not know the truth but because you do, and because every lie is alien to the truth.
We like to imagine the early Church as being filled with love peace and harmony. It was in reality filled with people, people like you and me. There were those who joined but when it turned out to not be what they wanted or expected they left. They not only left but they spread lies about the apostles, and the message of the Church. These deserters were referred to by St. John as antichrists.
As the quote often associated with Mark Twain goes,“A lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on.” And now with electronic media it travels literally at the speed of light.
On this last day of the year, we are reminded that a part of being a Christian is the belief that there is such a thing a the truth. The truth is knowable. And most of all we must be people dedicated to searching for the truth, speaking the truth, living the truth.
There is something in us that loves a good rumor, a salacious story, a scandal. The early Christians were accused of eating flesh and drinking blood. After all, that's much more interesting than the actual theology of the Eucharist. St. Patrick was accused of stealing. St. Gerard was accused of having an affair. And the list goes on. The antichrists have been around since the beginning of the church. They thrive on our willingness to believe the worst about others particularly those with whom we disagree. The dark side in us seems to like to see good people fall down.
Perhaps this reading today will encourage us in the new year to rededicate ourselves to the truth, to give others the benefit of the doubt, and be less quick to believe the worst— in short, to love.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Monday, December 30, 2013
On the sixth day of Chrstmas
For those who want to get caught up in issues of gender, the first reading from chapter two of the First Letter of St. John can seem to be patriarchal, because most English translations use children, young men, and fathers as the translation for the three Greek titles that he uses to address his readers. In Greek the terms are less gender specific. And the letter is addressed to everyone.
In fact, St. John is using the words metaphorically to describe three stages of Christian maturity: infancy, youth, and adulthood. (For the Star Wars fans the second word is paidion.) To underscore this point today's gospels ends by telling us that even Jesus:
The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.
On this sixth day of Christmas the Church reminds us that being reborn, or born again in Christ is only the first step. Baptism at whatever age gives us an initial forgiveness of sin and incorporation into the body of Christ, the Church. But the goal is still a long way off. There remains in us the tendency to focus on self, to measure our success or failure by worldly standards, and to allow our hungers, both physical and psychological, to drive us.
As we are preparing to enter 2014, now might be a good time for that spiritual assessment. At what stage of spiritual life are you? More importantly, what concrete steps are you going to take to mature in your faith? We humans are not like fruit, we do not simply mature with the passing of time. As time passes we grow older, but that does not mean we mature. To mature requires effort, intentionality;choices must be made.
In this new year are you going to simply grow older or are you going to actually mature? The choice is yours.
In fact, St. John is using the words metaphorically to describe three stages of Christian maturity: infancy, youth, and adulthood. (For the Star Wars fans the second word is paidion.) To underscore this point today's gospels ends by telling us that even Jesus:
The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.
On this sixth day of Christmas the Church reminds us that being reborn, or born again in Christ is only the first step. Baptism at whatever age gives us an initial forgiveness of sin and incorporation into the body of Christ, the Church. But the goal is still a long way off. There remains in us the tendency to focus on self, to measure our success or failure by worldly standards, and to allow our hungers, both physical and psychological, to drive us.
As we are preparing to enter 2014, now might be a good time for that spiritual assessment. At what stage of spiritual life are you? More importantly, what concrete steps are you going to take to mature in your faith? We humans are not like fruit, we do not simply mature with the passing of time. As time passes we grow older, but that does not mean we mature. To mature requires effort, intentionality;choices must be made.
In this new year are you going to simply grow older or are you going to actually mature? The choice is yours.
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Family
Often the Church reveals her theology in the pairings of readings for a particular mass. Today we see that the Church is using the phrase Holy Family with a double if not triple meaning.
There is of course the most basic, literal reference to the Holy Family: Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. But if we stop and think about it for a minute we known almost nothing about this family, as a family. Matthew tells us Joseph was a "tekton", artisan, understood usually to refer to one who worked with wood. We have them living in Nazareth. And we are told of the flight to Egypt in today's gospel, and the trip to the temple in Jerusalem, but really nothing of their day to day existence.
For this reason it becomes even more important that Church pairs this gospel with the Sirach reading, and the reading from Colossians extending the title Holy Family, not just to individual Christian households but to the Church.
As we bring this year to a close and prepare to begin a new year, the Feast of the Holy Family reminds us that with God as Father and Mary as Mother, we are not only called to be the Holy Family but we have within our hands the ability to do it. Empowered by the grace we receive in the sacraments we can be a sanctuary, that holy place where people can come and, from the moment they walk through the doors, know that they are home.
It would be nice if everyone lived in loving families but that is often not the case. And even many very loving families are still racked with disfunction. It is the human condition.
The word church ekklesia means "called apart." On Sundays we are called apart, we are called to step out of the world and into the church, to gather as brothers and sisters of the same father and mother. For an hour each week, we gather to worship, to praise, and in the Eucharist to have our holiness renewed. We gather as the holy family of God.
Hopefully, we carry that grace home with us, and each of our homes is transformed in a domestic church. Hopefully we strive to live as holy families. But even if you "live alone", God your father, Mary your mother, and Jesus your brother are always there with you. Just as we hang pictures of our earthly family members, we have pictures of our heavenly family.
Today's feast is about so much more than three people 2000 years ago, it is a reminder that we are all adopted children—adopted into the greatest family in the history of the world, the Holy Family of God.
There is of course the most basic, literal reference to the Holy Family: Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. But if we stop and think about it for a minute we known almost nothing about this family, as a family. Matthew tells us Joseph was a "tekton", artisan, understood usually to refer to one who worked with wood. We have them living in Nazareth. And we are told of the flight to Egypt in today's gospel, and the trip to the temple in Jerusalem, but really nothing of their day to day existence.
For this reason it becomes even more important that Church pairs this gospel with the Sirach reading, and the reading from Colossians extending the title Holy Family, not just to individual Christian households but to the Church.
As we bring this year to a close and prepare to begin a new year, the Feast of the Holy Family reminds us that with God as Father and Mary as Mother, we are not only called to be the Holy Family but we have within our hands the ability to do it. Empowered by the grace we receive in the sacraments we can be a sanctuary, that holy place where people can come and, from the moment they walk through the doors, know that they are home.
It would be nice if everyone lived in loving families but that is often not the case. And even many very loving families are still racked with disfunction. It is the human condition.
The word church ekklesia means "called apart." On Sundays we are called apart, we are called to step out of the world and into the church, to gather as brothers and sisters of the same father and mother. For an hour each week, we gather to worship, to praise, and in the Eucharist to have our holiness renewed. We gather as the holy family of God.
Hopefully, we carry that grace home with us, and each of our homes is transformed in a domestic church. Hopefully we strive to live as holy families. But even if you "live alone", God your father, Mary your mother, and Jesus your brother are always there with you. Just as we hang pictures of our earthly family members, we have pictures of our heavenly family.
Today's feast is about so much more than three people 2000 years ago, it is a reminder that we are all adopted children—adopted into the greatest family in the history of the world, the Holy Family of God.
Saturday, December 28, 2013
The third red day
Today we celebrate the fourth day of Christmas and the third day of on which red is the liturgical color of the day. Why today? The children known as the holy innocents.
As St. Matthew tells us,
When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious. He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi.
It is difficult for us to even imagine the terror and pain suffered by the entire community in and around Bethlehem, as parents watched helplessly as their babies were massacred.
We would like to think that this kind of violence is something that has disappeared into the barbaric past, when in fact it still takes in places around our world where ethnic and tribal identity takes precedence over a sense of our common humanity.
Here in the US people love to go on about "my rights", lately there has been a great deal of talk about the right to free speech. What we seem to forget is that every right carries with it, responsibilities, obligations. While our government should not police speech, if we are to be a civilized society, we have the right and obligation to police ourselves.
From the book of Genesis where God "spoke and it came into being" to the Gospel of John where we told that "In the beginning was the word.." we are reminded of the power of speech. Words lift up and tear down. It is via words that we pass on from one generation to the next either the love of God or hatred. Any parent knows that the simplest slip and suddenly a new word is added to their child's vocabulary, often a word they do not want the child to repeat.
Some of this we can laugh about; other times the results are no laughing matter. In how many of our recent mass killings was the perpetrator incited by words, words in books, words on the internet. Simply because we have a legal right to do something doesn't mean we should either do it ourselves, or tacitly encourage it in others, particularly in public venues.
Today we remember the massacred children in Bethlehem, around the world and right here in the U.S.A. We pray for the holy innocents, but most of all we pray for their parents and other family members who will never in this life cease to grieve.
As St. Matthew tells us,
When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious. He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi.
It is difficult for us to even imagine the terror and pain suffered by the entire community in and around Bethlehem, as parents watched helplessly as their babies were massacred.
We would like to think that this kind of violence is something that has disappeared into the barbaric past, when in fact it still takes in places around our world where ethnic and tribal identity takes precedence over a sense of our common humanity.
Here in the US people love to go on about "my rights", lately there has been a great deal of talk about the right to free speech. What we seem to forget is that every right carries with it, responsibilities, obligations. While our government should not police speech, if we are to be a civilized society, we have the right and obligation to police ourselves.
From the book of Genesis where God "spoke and it came into being" to the Gospel of John where we told that "In the beginning was the word.." we are reminded of the power of speech. Words lift up and tear down. It is via words that we pass on from one generation to the next either the love of God or hatred. Any parent knows that the simplest slip and suddenly a new word is added to their child's vocabulary, often a word they do not want the child to repeat.
Some of this we can laugh about; other times the results are no laughing matter. In how many of our recent mass killings was the perpetrator incited by words, words in books, words on the internet. Simply because we have a legal right to do something doesn't mean we should either do it ourselves, or tacitly encourage it in others, particularly in public venues.
Today we remember the massacred children in Bethlehem, around the world and right here in the U.S.A. We pray for the holy innocents, but most of all we pray for their parents and other family members who will never in this life cease to grieve.
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Birth and more birth
At first glance it may seem strange that the day after Christmas the Church celebrates St. Stephen, the first martyr (protomartyr) of Christianity. It may appear an odd juxtaposition, until we remember one thing. According to our faith, neither he nor any other martyr, really died. As we all hope to do, they simply passed from this life to eternal life. They were, in effect, reborn.
On the day after we celebrate the brith of Christ, we celebrate the day on which St. Stephen was born into eternal life.
And it is also worth noting that word martyr is not primarily about dying. It is the Greek word for "witness." Christian martyrs gave witness to their faith by being killed. No Christian martyr committed suicide or homicide. This would be a misuse of the word martyr.
Today as we celebrate the second day of Christmas, and commemorate St. Stephen, let us look for some ways large or small that we can sacrifice ourselves for others.
On the day after we celebrate the brith of Christ, we celebrate the day on which St. Stephen was born into eternal life.
And it is also worth noting that word martyr is not primarily about dying. It is the Greek word for "witness." Christian martyrs gave witness to their faith by being killed. No Christian martyr committed suicide or homicide. This would be a misuse of the word martyr.
Today as we celebrate the second day of Christmas, and commemorate St. Stephen, let us look for some ways large or small that we can sacrifice ourselves for others.
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
The rarely celebrated mass
Here in Richmond dawn was just a few minutes ago. At 6:55 am the first light appeared in the sky. The sun will not rise for another 10 minutes, but the light has come.
Of the four masses traditionally celebrated at Christmas, the Mass at Dawn is probably the least common, but in many ways the one that best symbolizes the true meaning of the day.
It is not celebrated in darkness or in the full sun. After all, the fullness of the light of Christ we will not see until his second coming. But we are not left in the dark either. It is right in the middle.
Is there still darkness? Yes. For many, this Christmas is a difficult time, especially for those whose loved ones have recently passed from this life, or those who have fallen on hard times. But the dawn reminds us that the light is not only coming at some distance time in the future, but is already here.
Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.
That is the faith we proclaim every time we celebrate mass.
The magnificence of those first streaks of light. And for those of us who live on an east coast, is there anything more beautiful than watching the sun come up over the water.
Today the greatest light in the history of the universe has dawned, God born as one like us. May that light of Christ be reborn in each of us this day, and may it shine more brightly every day, until he comes in glory.
Of the four masses traditionally celebrated at Christmas, the Mass at Dawn is probably the least common, but in many ways the one that best symbolizes the true meaning of the day.
It is not celebrated in darkness or in the full sun. After all, the fullness of the light of Christ we will not see until his second coming. But we are not left in the dark either. It is right in the middle.
Is there still darkness? Yes. For many, this Christmas is a difficult time, especially for those whose loved ones have recently passed from this life, or those who have fallen on hard times. But the dawn reminds us that the light is not only coming at some distance time in the future, but is already here.
Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.
That is the faith we proclaim every time we celebrate mass.
The magnificence of those first streaks of light. And for those of us who live on an east coast, is there anything more beautiful than watching the sun come up over the water.
Today the greatest light in the history of the universe has dawned, God born as one like us. May that light of Christ be reborn in each of us this day, and may it shine more brightly every day, until he comes in glory.
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Dream Bigger
In the next 24 hrs the Roman Missal provides for four distinct masses that can be celebrated. Working backwards: Christmas during the Day, Mass at Dawn, Midnight Mass, the Vigil of Christmas and this morning there is one last mass for Advent. It is the first reading for the last mass of Advent, that I would like to reflect upon.
It comes from 2 Samuel chapter 7. The kingdom of David is at peace and David is relaxing comfortably in his palace. One can only imagine what it must have been like.
There was only one problem. The Ark of the Covenant was still in a tent, just as it had been when the Hebrews were living like nomads. If David had built himself a palace surly others had now built homes. But God was relegated to a tent. So David decides that he should build a dwelling place for God, which seem only right.
But that night the LORD spoke to Nathan and said: “Go, tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD: Should you build me a house to dwell in?
Ultimately David's son Solomon will build a temple and after its destruction a Second Temple will be built and in 70 AD it will be destroyed. The sight of these temples is still considered a holy place. But as magnificent as these temples were none can compare to the "house" the Lord promises to build for David. As Nathan reveals to David:
The LORD also reveals to you that he will establish a house for you. And when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his Kingdom firm. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. Your house and your Kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.
From the house of David will come the dwelling place of God, Jesus, God incarnate. And with the outpouring of the Spirit all humanity will have the opportunity to become the dwelling place of God.
In the reading today we hear the beginning of David's plan for the first dwelling place of God, but more importantly we hear God's plan for his ultimate dwelling place on earth, humanity, beginning with the incarnation.
Yes, almost a millennium will separate these two events: David's plan and the Nativity. But such is the working of God in our world. While we measure time in nanoseconds God measures in centuries. While we can plan a building, God plans a universal kingdom. On that night in Bethlehem one baby was born and today there are more than 2 billion Christians on earth. That my brothers and sisters is the power of God.
It comes from 2 Samuel chapter 7. The kingdom of David is at peace and David is relaxing comfortably in his palace. One can only imagine what it must have been like.
There was only one problem. The Ark of the Covenant was still in a tent, just as it had been when the Hebrews were living like nomads. If David had built himself a palace surly others had now built homes. But God was relegated to a tent. So David decides that he should build a dwelling place for God, which seem only right.
But that night the LORD spoke to Nathan and said: “Go, tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD: Should you build me a house to dwell in?
Ultimately David's son Solomon will build a temple and after its destruction a Second Temple will be built and in 70 AD it will be destroyed. The sight of these temples is still considered a holy place. But as magnificent as these temples were none can compare to the "house" the Lord promises to build for David. As Nathan reveals to David:
The LORD also reveals to you that he will establish a house for you. And when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his Kingdom firm. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. Your house and your Kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.
From the house of David will come the dwelling place of God, Jesus, God incarnate. And with the outpouring of the Spirit all humanity will have the opportunity to become the dwelling place of God.
In the reading today we hear the beginning of David's plan for the first dwelling place of God, but more importantly we hear God's plan for his ultimate dwelling place on earth, humanity, beginning with the incarnation.
Yes, almost a millennium will separate these two events: David's plan and the Nativity. But such is the working of God in our world. While we measure time in nanoseconds God measures in centuries. While we can plan a building, God plans a universal kingdom. On that night in Bethlehem one baby was born and today there are more than 2 billion Christians on earth. That my brothers and sisters is the power of God.
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