Hail, Full of Grace!

                                    Fourth Sunday of Advent

                                    

Annunciation Window
Assumption Church
Fairfield CT*

It’s easy to understand how King David felt in today’s first reading. He is settled in his palace and no longer has any reason to fear his enemies all of whom have been overcome. We can picture him sitting back in his lounger, watching the game of the week on TV, and being waited on by his many wives. Then, the thought comes to him: what about the Lord? Maybe I should throw an extra twenty into the collection basket, or maybe even make a contribution to the church renovation fund. Actually, David thinks of building a house for the Lord,

            Here I am living in a house of cedar,

            While the ark of God dwells in a tent!

We can understand David’s desire to give back after receiving so much from the Lord but he doesn’t really understand. The Lord replies bluntly. “Should you build me a house to live in?” It’s not just that the Creator of everything can’t be confined in a house or temple; it’s also David’s incredible chutzpah in thinking that the Lord needed anything from him. The Lord reminds the young King of all that he has received and of all that he will receive.

            I will raise up an heir after you, sprung from your loins,

            And I will make His kingdom firm.

How different is the story in today’s gospel account of the appearance of the angel Gabriel to the virgin whose “name was Mary.” St. Luke is the only evangelist to give an account of the Annunciation.  Obviously, he was not present when the angel appeared to Mary, but Luke was a good historian. Where did he get his information? It’s possible that he was merely relating an account of what the early Church believed, but I like to think that Luke talked to the Blessed Mother herself after the death and resurrection of her Son.

St. Luke is very careful with words and he especially likes to use proper names. Look at the first few lines of today’s gospel. We see Gabriel, Galilee, Nazareth, Joseph, David, and Mary. These names are all very important. In particular, scholars tell us that Mary or the Hebrew Miriam means “the exalted one.” The angel confirms Mary’s elevated status when he calls her “full of grace.” Scholars have pointed out that the angel’s greeting implies in its recipient “the attitude of being so open to God that all of His love can stream unhindered into one’s life.”

Indeed, no one else in the Bible receives such a stream of beautiful salutations as does Mary. “The angel’s praise, in fact, echoed St. John’s words about Christ: ‘full of grace and the abode of God’s glory.’” So we see that the Lord is not going to dwell in a tent or house or a temple. The Church had always regarded Mary as the dwelling place of the Lord, the true Ark of the Covenant. Gabriel says to her,

            Behold you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,

            And you shall name him Jesus.

            He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High,

            And the Lord God will give him the throne of David…

What is the significance of the name, Jesus? We know that throughout their history the Jews have been reluctant to use the name of God. Whether this was due to reverence, awe, or fear is hard to say. Instead of naming God, they chose to refer to His activity in the world. Thus the word, "Jesus" literally means, as Matthew tells us, God saves. Similarly, the name, Emmanuel, means God is with us. The birth of the Child will mean that God has entered our world in a special way. He will become one of us and from that day forward we will be able to call Him by his real Name, and even call Him brother. He can no longer be viewed as distant or unapproachable. We cannot imagine Him as some angry old man in the skies waiting to throw lightning bolts at us when we step out of line. God is Love, and Love comes into the world at Christmas.

Just like the Jews of yesteryear we too need signs. Maybe there is nothing special about them. Maybe we just fail to recognize them. Maybe, we can just point to the signs expressed in Charley Brown's Christmas song.

                        Christmas time is here.

                        happiness and cheer,

                        fun for all that children

                        call their favorite time of year.

                        Snowflakes in the air,

                        carols everywhere,

                        olden times and ancient rhymes

                        and love and dreams to share.

                        Sleigh bells in the air,

                        beauty everywhere,

                        yuletide by the fireside

                        and joyful memories there.

                        Christmas time is here;

                        we'll be drawing near;

                        oh that we could always see

                        such spirit through the year,

                        such spirit through the year.

Merry Christmas.

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Reading 1. 2 Samuel 7: 1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16

Reading II. Romans 16: 25-27

Gospel. Luke 1: 26-38 (Hail, full of grace!).

* Assumption window image by Melissa DeStefano, Click on image to enlarge.

Gaudete Sunday

                                    3rd Sunday of Advent

                                

In earlier times the third Sunday in Advent was known as "Gaudete Sunday" because the entrance prayer or "Introit" began with the Latin words, "gaudete in domino semper." Translated the phrase means "rejoice in the Lord always." Today, as it has always done, the Church injects an element of joy into the penitential season of Advent. In many churches the priest will put aside the purple vestments which signify sorrow and penance, and put on rose colored vestments, a symbol of joy. The Church is asking us to look ahead to the glory of the coming of the Savior on Christmas.

In this liturgical year the first reading for each of the Sundays in Advent is taken from the prophet Isaiah.  It is common for us to think of a prophet as someone who foretells the future but usually the Hebrew prophets just talk about their own time, especially its problems. Today, however, Isaiah sings a different tune for the reading is all about joy.

            I rejoice heartily in the Lord,

            In my God is the joy of my soul;

The reason for the joy is that the Lord has heard the cry of the poor and the brokenhearted, and has sent his anointed one to teach and heal. That someone is clothed in a “robe of salvation” and wrapped in “a mantle of justice.” Just as the earth bears fruit, the Lord will make “justice and praise spring up before all the nations.”

In today’s gospel, John the Baptist, the last of the Hebrew prophets, is trying to convince the people of his time that the Lord’s anointed is coming into their midst. He says,

            I baptize with water,

But there is one among you whom you do not recognize,

The one who is coming after me,

Whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.

One thing that I have always liked about John the Baptist is that he never claimed anything for himself. He insisted that he was not worthy to even untie the sandal strap of the anointed one. He only claims to be a voice preparing the way. But what does John’s call for repentance have to do with rejoicing?

To rejoice means to bring joy back into our lives. To rejoice means to recover or regain the joy that we once knew or had. Maybe it means to find the joy we once dreamed of as children, especially at Christmastime. It is hard to read the papers, watch the TV, or just surf the Web and not see that joy has gone out of so many people’s lives. In some cases it is not our own fault. Bad things happen to even good people.

But in many cases it is our own fault and often we can find ourselves carrying an enormous load of guilt on our shoulders. How do we get rid of it and free ourselves to experience joy again. Repentance is the answer. Like the younger son in the parable of the Prodigal Son, we must come to our senses, take responsibility for our own failings, and seek forgiveness.

Modern science and medicine, for all the good they have accomplished, can never give us forgiveness. St. Augustine believed that the mere recitation of the Lord’s Prayer was sufficient to forgive all small or venial sins. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that the celebration of the Eucharist itself is “a remedy to free us from our daily faults and to preserve us from mortal sins.” For mortal or serious sins, the Church provides the great Sacrament of Penance as the primary means to repentance and rejoicing.

 The crowds ask John what they should do to prepare for his coming. His words could profit all of us this Advent. John’s advice for preparation is not radical or impossible. Jesus himself constantly forgave sins but never made impossible demands on those he healed. We do not have to give up all that we have in order to find joy. We have to realize that many of the things in our lives to not really provide true comfort and joy.

Every Christmas I’m reminded of an article I read by a man who was a well known lecturer, TV personality, and author. He had a beautiful wife and son and was extremely successful. Yet he wrote, "I am almost 60. Time flies and it scares me. I don't want to die. I like being in good health. I don't want to be sick and have wires and tubes and scalpels in me. I like having enough money. I don't want to be old and poor. I sat in my car...shivering in fear. And then it struck me. I spend too darned much of my life in fear. I always have. You can't imagine how much of my life I have thrown away by being a slave to fear."

In today's second reading from St. Paul's letter to the Thessalonians he says, “Rejoice always.”  He gives a simple set of instructions for rejoicing: pray without ceasing, give thanks, do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophetic utterances, retain what is good, and refrain from every kind of evil. He ended with this blessing that is especially appropriate for this season:

May the God of peace make you perfectly holy

And may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body,

Be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Reading 1. Isaiah 61: 1-2a

Reading II. 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-24

Gospel. John 1: 6-8, 19-28 (Rejoice Always)

John the Baptist

+                                     2nd Sunday of Advent

                                  

Today's first reading comes from the prophet Isaiah. In fact, most of the Old Testament readings in Advent come from Isaiah. He along with John the Baptist are the voices of Advent. Today's reading from Isaiah has always been regarded as an introduction to the prophetic mission of John the Baptist.

             A voice cries out:

            In the desert prepare the way of the Lord!

Now we usually think of the prophets as foretelling the future, and it is true that Isaiah presents us with a picture of a new world to come. However, the special talent of the Old Testament prophets was their ability to describe with brutal accuracy the wrongs of their own day and call for a day when things would be set right.

As a critic of his own times, Isaiah gives us an introduction to the great New Testament prophet, John the Baptist. In today's gospel, St. Mark quotes Isaiah's famous lines that refer to John.

Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; He will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the desert, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.

     

In fact Mark’s gospel which we will use throughout this liturgical year begins with the mission of John the Baptist. Unlike Luke and Matthew, Mark omits the story of the nativity and infancy of Jesus and begins with the outset of his public life. In Mark’s gospel John is portrayed as a very popular figure whose proclamation of a baptism of repentance was attracting people from the whole Judean countyside. Nevertheless, he is an unusual public figure in that he minimizes his own importance and deflects attention from himself. He proclaims:

One mightier than I is coming after me.I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.I have baptized you with water;He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

John is, of course, calling attention to Jesus. What he calls a baptism of repentance is a way for all of us to prepare for the coming of Jesus.

Repentance is about looking over our lives and taking stock of who we are and where we are going. Advent is a perfect time for us to do so. It is the beginning of a new year so to speak. For centuries the Church has advised us to  examine our conscience. In particular, such a review might examine a dominant fault and work on ways to correct it, or it might consider a particular strength or virtue and consider ways to increase it.

Even though the phrase, “examination of conscience”, may sound strange to us today, the idea is not outmoded. At the end of each year business people are advised to look back on the past year and consider what worked and what didn't work. They spend hours examining their strengths and weaknesses. For the upcoming year they are urged to prepare a business plan where they will work on developing their strengths and overcoming their weaknesses.

Athletes do the same thing. Every week coaches spend hours examining game films to see what they did right and what they did wrong. Whole practices are devoted to making the necessary corrections and incorporating them into next weeks game plan. Why do we spend so much time preparing for games but so little time preparing for the game of life?

When it comes to the most important things in our own lives we fail to examine our conscience? As the old saying goes, people don't plan to fail, they fail to plan. What did we do wrong last year? How did we hurt ourselves and our loved ones? Can we begin now to rid ourselves of bad or destructive habits?

On the positive side what strengths or virtues do we possess? What can we do to build spiritual muscle memory so that good behavior becomes easy and natural to us? The word virtue merely means a good habit, while a vice is a bad habit. Now is the time to kick the bad habits and concentrate on the good.

In today’s second reading, St. Peter asks, “what sort of persons ought you to be,” and urges us to “be eager to be found without spot or blemish.”

The biggest criticism against Christians today is that we are no different than anyone else. Rather than being a light to the nations, the darkness in our society seems to be overwhelming us. We don't have to go about wearing our religion on our sleeve but in our homes, our schools, and in our businesses we should be producing good fruit. We don't need laws and judges to bring Christ back into Christmas. All we need is for Christians to act like Christians.

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Reading 1. Isaiah 40: 1-5, 9-11

Reading II. 2 Peter 3: 8-14

Gospel. Mark 1: 1-8 (John the Baptist appeared)

Advent Adventure

                                    1st Sunday of Advent

                                   

A few years ago three films based on J.R.R. Tolkien's epic story, "The Lord of the Rings," enjoyed enormous critical and popular success. Issued in three successive years around Christmas time, they were a box office smash. The third in the series, entitled, "The Return of the King," won the Academy award for "Best Picture." Most of us know by now that both the three-volume book and the films tell the story of a great journey or adventure undertaken by a group of men, elves, dwarves, and the now famous hobbits.

The adventure begins however in a smaller book of Tolkien's called "The Hobbit." In that book one particular hobbit is woken out of a quiet peaceful afternoon nap by a violent knocking on his door. To his amazement he is told that he must rouse himself out of his comfort and complacency and embark on a dangerous adventure whose end is far from certain. In the course of the adventure he will find that there is more to life than he ever dreamed, and that there is more to himself than he ever dreamed.

Isn't it odd that the word "advent" is contained in the word, "adventure"? Advent is not just a time of preparation for Christmas; it is a time for all of us to consider how far we have progressed on the great adventure of life. Many of us might feel today like the people in today’s first reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. It is a story of people who have turned their backs on God and have lost their way.

Why do you let us wander, O lord, from your ways,

And harden our hearts so that we fear you not?

The result is loneliness, isolation, and unhappiness.                       

            We have all withered like leaves,

            And our guilt carries us away like the wind.

Despite the apparent joys of the Christmas season, it can be a very depressing time of year. Many of us will feel out of touch not just with God but also with friends and family; maybe even estranged from them. It doesn’t have to be that way. Even though it is a time of penitence the season of Advent is also a time of hope. Advent marks the beginning of a new year for the Church, and it can also mark a new beginning for all of us. Interestingly, today’s gospel reading does not come from the beginning of St. Mark’s account but almost from the end. The Evangelist repeats the words of Jesus right before He enters upon His Passion.

Jesus is talking to his disciples. We must remember that since Holy Scripture is the inspired word of God, whenever Jesus talks to His disciples, he is talking to each one of us. He tells them,

            Be watchful! Be alert!

            You do not know when the time will come.

What is He talking about? The next verse gives the clue. When He refers to the man who goes away, He is talking about Himself right before His death. We are the servants whom He places in charge, each with our own work to do. He is telling us to act as if everyday will be our last and not waste the time we have left.

Advent has always been regarded as a season of preparation. Why is it that we prepare for everything in life but often fail to prepare for the most important thing in life? What football team would go into the weekend's big game without practicing all week? What will they practice? Why, the very same formations and plays that they expect to use when they are put to the test. During the week they will also be in the weight room preparing their bodies for the blows to come. On game day they will put on their protective gear or armor. Only a fool would go into such combat improperly equipped.

In business it's much the same thing. Salesmen practice their presentations before facing their customers. They learn how to anticipate and overcome every objection. In politics look how even the presidential candidates go through rigorous prepping and role-play before debating their opponents.

There is no better way to prepare this season than by increasing our attendance at Mass. Certainly, in this season when we should all be looking forward to the coming of Christ, he comes to us in each and every Mass. Besides Sunday Mass we will celebrate the great feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, a true Holy Day of Opportunity.

Finally, I can think of no better way to counter the stress and anxiety of this mad shopping season than to attend daily Mass during Advent. We will find a half hour of peace and tranquility every day and encounter some of the most beautiful readings in the Missal. We will get an opportunity to reconcile ourselves with God and our neighbor when we recite the Kyrie Eleison, the Confiteor, the Our Father and the Agnus Dei. We can offer the kiss of peace to our friends and family. We can offer thanks to God for all the good things that have been given us, and then we can approach the altar to receive the true gift of Christmas, the gift of God's only Son.

We will not be alone on our adventure. As St. Paul says,

            God is faithful,

            And by Him you were called to fellowship with his Son,

            Jesus Christ our Lord.

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Reading 1. Isaiah 63: 16b-17, 19b; 64: 2b-7

Reading II. 1 Corinthians 1: 3-9

Gospel. Mark 13: 33-37 (Be watchful! Be alert!).