You have heard, O Virgin, that you will conceive and bear a son; you have heard that it will not be by man but by the Holy Spirit. The angel awaits an answer; it is time for him to return to God who sent him. We too are waiting, O Lady, for your word of compassion; the sentence of condemnation weighs heavily upon us.

  The price of our salvation is offered to you. We shall be set free at once if you consent. In the eternal Word of God we all came to be, and behold, we die. In your brief response we are to be remade in order to be recalled to life.

  Tearful Adam with his sorrowing family begs this of you, O loving Virgin, in their exile from Paradise. Abraham begs it, David begs it. All the other holy patriarchs, your ancestors, ask it of you, as they dwell in the country of the shadow of death. This is what the whole earth waits for, prostrate at your feet. It is right in doing so, for on your word depends comfort for the wretched, ransom for the captive, freedom for the condemned, indeed, salvation for all the sons of Adam, the whole of your race.

  Answer quickly, O Virgin. Reply in haste to the angel, or rather through the angel to the Lord. Answer with a word, receive the Word of God. Speak your own word, conceive the divine Word. Breathe a passing word, embrace the eternal Word.

  Why do you delay, why are you afraid? Believe, give praise, and receive. Let humility be bold, let modesty be confident. This is no time for virginal simplicity to forget prudence. In this matter alone, O prudent Virgin, do not fear to be presumptuous. Though modest silence is pleasing, dutiful speech is now more necessary. Open your heart to faith, O blessed Virgin, your lips to praise, your womb to the Creator. See, the desired of all nations is at your door, knocking to enter. If he should pass by because of your delay, in sorrow you would begin to seek him afresh, the One whom your soul loves. Arise, hasten, open. Arise in faith, hasten in devotion, open in praise and thanksgiving. Behold the handmaid of the Lord, she says, be it done to me according to your word. 

St. Bernard

For this week’s homily please watch the video below.

Here’s St. Bernard on the fullness of time:

“When the fulness of time came, there came too the fulness of the Godhead. He came in the flesh, so that at least he might make himself manifest to our earthly minds, so that when this humanity of his appeared, his kindness might also be acknowledged. Where the humanity of God appears, his kindness can no longer be hidden. In what way, indeed, could he have better commended his kindness than by assuming my flesh? My flesh, that is, not Adam’s, as it was before the fall.

“What greater proof could he have given of his mercy than by taking upon himself that very thing which needed mercy? Where is there such perfect loving-kindness as in the fact that for our sake the Word of God became perishable like the grass? Lord, what is man, that you make much of him or pay him any heed?

“Let us infer from this how much God cares for us. Let us know from this what God thinks of us, what he feels about us. Do not ask about your own sufferings; but about what God suffered. Learn from what he was made for you, how much he makes of you, so that his kindness may show itself to you from his humanity.

“The lesser he has made himself in his humanity, the greater has he shown himself in kindness. The more he humbles himself on my account, the more powerfully he engages my love. The kindness and humanity of God our Saviour appeared says St Paul. The humanity of God shows the greatness of his kindness, and he who added humanity to the name of God gave great proof of this kindness.”

Michelangelo’s creation of Adam doesn’t seem to fit the Lord’s words we hear in our first reading today from Isaiah.  

I am the LORD, your God,
    who grasp your right hand;
It is I who say to you, “Fear not,
    I will help you.”
Fear not, O worm Jacob,
    O maggot Israel;
I will help you, says the LORD;
    your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

(Isaiah 41:13-21

Michelangelo’s Adam could be an ad for a modern health spa, hardly someone who fits Isaiah’s description of Jacob and Israel, as a worm or maggot. He represents the Renaissance ideal of human power and beauty. Hardly someone with fears, he might be a picture of today’s confident, flourishing humanity.

So why does God reach out to touch him, since he seems to have everything? Could his nakedness indicate a nakedness within, a spiritual emptiness, a need for meaning that only God, the Creator, can give? Is he humanity today?

Describing Michelangelo’s reimagining of the Genesis story, an early biographer and friend  Ascanio Condivi, said: “with his hand God is seen as giving Adam the precepts for what he should do and not do.”

That seems to be what we ask for this Advent when we celebrate the coming of the Word, Jesus Christ. “Renew our minds and hearts, Lord. Teach us how to live and what to do.”

For this week’s homily please watch the video below.

The readings for the 1st week of Advent end today with Jesus going “to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness.” His heart goes out to them.

And his heart goes out to us.

The towns and villages of Galilee won’t be the last places Jesus goes. We are called to go out with him for the hours we can. ( Matthew 9:35ff)  As God’s harvest goes on, he calls others to join him and he empowers them.

As we end this first week of Advent, I’m grateful to those who so skillfully gave us after the 2nd Vatican Council the lectionary readings and prayers for this season. It just didn’t happen. Prayerful hands, steeped in the scriptures and the liturgy, humbly serving the church, gave them to us. Blessed are they.

I hope the liturgy, its readings and prayers, will be a treasure we appreciate more and more. It forms us in our faith and tells us how to live and it surprises us day by day. A renewed liturgy and a renewed understanding of the scriptures were goals of the 2nd Vatican Council, goals still to be fulfilled, I think.

I found this quote from Pius XI appropriate:

“For people are instructed in the truths of faith, and brought to appreciate the inner joys of religion far more effectually by the annual celebration of our sacred mysteries than by any official pronouncement of the teaching of the Church. Such pronouncements usually reach only a few and the more learned among the faithful; feasts reach them all; the former speak but once, the latter speak every year – in fact, forever. The church’s teaching affects the mind primarily; her feasts affect both mind and heart, and have a salutary effect upon the whole of man’s nature” (Encyclical Quas primas, 11 December 1925).”

Isaiah’s promise of a holy mountain will be fulfilled, our readings today say. The Messianic times arrive with the coming of Jesus Christ. In our first reading today, Isaiah renews the promise of a holy mountain to exiles, like those in the Middle East, Ukraine, Somalia, and like us.  

Isaiah Promises…On this mountain, Yahweh will prepare for you a banquet rich in goodness. On this mountain, Yahweh will remove the veil of darkness covering God’s people. Death will be destroyed, you shall weep no more. You shall rejoice in your God on this mountain.    (Isaiah 25:6-9)

 Here’s a music version of “On that Holy Mountain”

When the Passionists came to New York City in 1924 they looked to Mary, the Mother of Jesus, to guide their new foundation. She’s there at the front door of our monastery. She has a prominent place with us. Her statue stands outside our church.

Mary’s in the great window in the back of our church announcing the mystery of the Immaculate Conception, the title of our monastery and parish. She is flanked by St. Catherine Laboure and St. Bernadette.

Mary appeared to St. Catherine Laboure in Paris in 1850 and to St. Bernadette at Lourdes in 1858. It was a troubled age, battered by the skepticism of the Enlightenment, the anti-religious activity of the French Revolution and the degradation to human dignity brought about by the Industrial Revolution.

Mary, free from original sin, brought the wisdom of God to that world. Her message was that God “scatters the proud and lifts up the lowly.” God’s wisdom is greater than the wisdom of this world.

In the 1950s, as we faced continuing wars and the threat of nuclear war, we saw Mary’s appearance to Catherine Laboure and Bernadette a sign that God is still with us. Retreatants from our monastery retreat house memorialized Mary’s appearance at Lourdes by building a beautiful grotto in her honor in our garden. “All generations will call me blessed,” Mary said.

Today, we have a sign of Mary’s presence to our generation facing the threat of climate change– a Mary Garden, which we blessed on September 23, 2018

Mary Gardens originated in Europe following the Black Death, a pandemic that caused millions to die in Europe in the 14th century. Gardens in monasteries and churches, reminded people that God brings life, not death, from the earth.

The Mary Garden with its flowers, medicinal herbs and edible plants is a sign of the beauty, healing and nourishment God gives us on this earth. Mary presenting her Child stands in the midst of the garden, promising life and hope. “Make us worthy of the promises of Christ,” we pray. We have a small Mary Garden at the entrance of our chapel as we pray for the vision to see the beauty of God’s creation and the wisdom to care for it.

We have also repositioned our retreat house in the light of climate change and renamed it Thomas Berry Place, a non-profit center for spirituality, community empowerment, and ecological stewardship, in New York City. Father Thomas Berry (1914-2009) was a Passionist scholar who lived in our Passionist monastery in the 1960s and taught at Fordham University. Father Berry was an internationally recognized environmentalist who believed in taking steps to preserve the planet.

The current Passionists have embraced that goal. 

“We are dedicated to serving those who are suffering. We also want to expand that to include helping a suffering planet,” said Father Jim O’Shea, C.P., the provincial for the Passionists for the Eastern U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, and parts of the Caribbean. “Thomas said we need a new story.”

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