“Like” is a word that appears in today’s readings, as it does over and over in the scriptures. Jesus said to the crowds: “To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’ Mt 11:16
Is only his generation like children on the street competing with one another, arguing with one another, or is our generation like children as well?
Isaiah, the master poet, can’t speak without the word “like.” If you listen to God, our Teacher, he says in today’s reading:
“ Your prosperity would be like a river, and your vindication like the waves of the sea; Your descendants would be like the sand, and those born of your stock like its grains.”
The prophet cannot speak of the mystery of God and his promises without going to. the dictionary of creation to say what God is like.
Our responsorial psalm today also use that word: “The one who follows you, Lord, will have the light of life. and be like a tree planted near running water, That yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers. “
“Like” is a word that approximates another reality. It’s the closest we can get to some truth beyond us, especially the mystery of God. The call to care for creation today is more than a call to invent better technology. It’s a call to learn from creation again about what God is like.
We’re placing poinsettias and wreathes in our homes and churches, and figures of the Child, Mary and Joseph. We search for words and ways to understand the mystery we celebrate, but in the end they are all “like”. That’s what we have till we see.
In our reading today at Mass Second Isaiah says that God provides trees for the exiles making their way to Jerusalem from Bablyon. The way through the desert and mountains will be watered and a variety of trees will grow to cool them from the sun and sustain them night and day. The cedar, the acacia, the cypress, the plane tree and the pine– nature will serve them as they go on.
The afflicted and the needy seek water in vain, their tongues are parched with thirst. I, the LORD, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open up rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the broad valleys; I will turn the desert into a marshland, and the dry ground into springs of water. I will plant in the desert the cedar, acacia, myrtle, and olive; I will set in the wasteland the cypress, together with the plane tree and the pine, That all may see and know, observe and understand, That the hand of the LORD has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.
We have a wonderful variety of trees in our monastery garden here in Jamaica. I can count almost 40 different kinds. The most recent some apple trees, plum trees, maples, oaks, and evergreens. Trees will help us as climate changes in the years ahead.
“Learn from the fig tree and the other trees,” Jesus said. Like the human race, trees come in many sizes, shapes and colors. They’re all God’s creation, and so are we. We all belong; we all have our place here on God’s earth.
Since1931 there’s been a Christmas Tree in Rockefeller Center in New York City. It started when some workers pooled their money and decorated a tree with simple home decorations. Last year’s tree had 50,000 LED lights.
People line up to see it every year. They say that during the pandemic a few years ago people wanted live trees for the holidays and busily bought them out..They were “seeking comfort in the conifers.” We are busily putting up trees ourselves now, They bring comfort as the days get darker.
When the Laurentine Glacier receded from our land here in Queens, NY, about 12,000 years ago, the first trees to grow were the evergreens. Are the evergreens a sign of hope? Is that why we treasure them? Certainly Christians from northern Europe saw them that way when they gave us the Christmas Tree centuries ago. The tree is a sign of Christ our hope, a sign of life.
I find myself visiting these two evergreens in our garden these days. The other trees are leafless, asleep. These still stand, signs that life can go in the cold.
Bless the tree in your house for the season. Here’s a blessing prayer.
In yesterday’s first reading for Advent, Second Isaiah repeats to the exiles in Babylon words he hears from God: “Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God.” In today’s gospel reading Jesus says:“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you.” A favorite reading for so many of us.
Notice Jesus speaks to the “crowds” in Matthew’s gospel, not just to the disciples who know him, or the Jewish Christian church Matthew wrote for at the end of the first century. God’s love and God’s promises reach far beyond the circle of disciples or the church. Jesus Christ came to refresh the world that labors and is burdened, even if it doesn’t know him.
Second Isaiah in today’s readings appeals to Jewish exiles to remember the eternal God, creator of the ends of the earth. Do not to abandon God for the Babylon’s gods who are too small, he tells them and us all.
“To whom can you liken me as an equal? says the Holy One… Do you not know or have you not heard? The LORD is the eternal God, creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint nor grow weary, and his knowledge is beyond scrutiny.”
God still holds us in his hands, sustains and comforts us, even if we do not know him or seem to care. God’s Spirit does not faint or grow weary
In our readings for Advent today Second Isaiah calls out to exiles in Babylon to come home. “Look, God your shepherd is coming, in his arms “he holding the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, leading the ewes with care.” The gospel tells us Jesus is the shepherd who comes leading the flock and holding in his arms the sheep that have strayed. Our Old Testament readings. especially in its first weeks, are taken from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. The gospel readings these first weeks are chosen particularly to amplify the meaning of Isaiah. We see that in today’s readings.
Our responsorial psalm amplifies that further: God the powerful shepherd is coming, not only leading Jewish exiles, but all nations in exile. God brings about a universal salvation. So “Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice; let the sea and what fills it resound; let the plains be joyful and all that is in them! Then let all the trees of the forest rejoice.”
We’re reading from Second Isaiah all this week. Scholars say that readings from the 40th chapter of Isaiah on come, not from Isaiah the priest who spoke in Jerusalem about the year 587 when Assyrian armies destroyed Jerusalem, but from an unknown prophet speaking in Babylon to Jewish exiles about 60 years later, urging them to return to Jerusalem. Perhaps he uses Isaiah’s name and language to avoid trouble with Babylonian’s leaders for suggesting such a thing .
Historians say that not many Jews returned to Jerusalem at his call. Some did, but others were not interested in the prophet’s invitation. They had become acculturated; Babylon’s now their home. They have families and jobs there; Jerusalem is far away and its future uncertain.
They’re the stray sheep Second Isaiah addresses. Like Jesus he’s searching for the strays.
We need to study Judaism more fully as a template for our own church today, Walter Brueggemann, the Lutheran Old Testament scholar says, especially the mystery of Exile.
“The metaphor of exile may be useful to American Christians as a way of understanding the social context of the church in American culture. The exile of the contemporary American church is that we are bombarded by definitions of reality that are fundamentally alien to the gospel, definitions that come from the military-industrial-scientific empire which may be characterized as ‘consumer capitalism.’” (Hopeful Imagination: Prophetic Voices in Exile, Fortress Press 1987)
At the time of Second Isaiah the Jews were singing the songs of Babylon, not the songs of Zion. What songs are we singing? The Good Shepherd still goes in search of his strays.
We celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary December 8, 9 months before celebrating her birth September 7. Her feast also takes place, appropriately, in the early weeks of Advent, as we prepare for the birth of her Son.
Pope Pius IX proclaimed the Immaculate Conception of Mary a dogma of faith in 1854. The feast became a solemn feast in the church calendar of the Roman Catholic Church 9 years later.
Did Christians before then reflect on and celebrate this mystery? Yes, they did. Mary was the mother of Jesus Christ, and from the beginning Christians asked who she was and what was her role in the mystery of Jesus.
Christians never thought of Mary as someone no different than anyone else.
She brought Jesus Christ into the world and with Joseph of Nazareth raised him as a child. She had an important part in his first miracle in Cana in Galilee. She witnessed his life and kept “all these things in her heart.” She stood by Jesus on his cross and saw him die. After his resurrection she joined his followers making him known to the world. She was “full of grace” and “blessed among women.”
The gospel writers depended on Mary’s words as they wrote of her Son. From earliest times, ordinary Christians honored her. Christians flocking to the Holy Land found her in the places where Jesus was born, where he taught and died and rose again. They took her as their guide, for she knew him best of all.
They prayed to her and asked for her intercession.
Before any doctrinal formula, then, Christians knew that Jesus “was born of the Virgin Mary.” She had a key place in their faith.
What was her role in God’s plan? The readings at Mass for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception tell us. The first reading for her feast from the Book of Genesis invites us to see her in the story of Adam and Eve. Just as her Son became the new Adam, Mary was the new Eve, “mother of all the living.” (Genesis 3: 5-6,20)
God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in heaven, choosing us in Him before the world was even created.” God blessed Mary with special blessings for her unique role in the mystery of our Redemption, the second reading for her feast says. (Ephesian 1:3-6, 11-12)
God created her as a “worthy dwelling for his Son” and “placed her above all others to be for your people an advocate of grace and a model of holiness.” (Preface for the Mass)
An angel presented her with that unique role. “ Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you.” “Be it done to me according to your word,” Mary answered. (Luke 1:26-38) She needed great faith, and God gave her great faith. She followed her Son sharing his Cross. She shared in the glory of his resurrection.
After consulting the faithful, Pope Pius IX solemnly proclaimed the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854: “We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin” (Ineffabilis Deus, 1854)
In the church’s Office of Readings for her feast St. Anselm, exploring Mary’s role as “mother of all the living”, speaks of her relationship to all creation:
Blessed Lady, sky and stars, earth and rivers, day and night – everything that is subject to the power or use of man – rejoice that through you they are in some sense restored to their lost beauty and are endowed with inexpressible new grace. All creatures were dead, as it were, useless for men or for the praise of God, who made them. The world, contrary to its true destiny, was corrupted and tainted by the acts of men who served idols. Now all creation has been restored to life and rejoices that it is controlled and given splendour by men who believe in God.
The universe rejoices with new and indefinable loveliness. Not only does it feel the unseen presence of God himself, its Creator, it sees him openly, working and making it holy. These great blessings spring from the blessed fruit of Mary’s womb.
Through the fullness of the grace that was given you, dead things rejoice in their freedom, and those in heaven are glad to be made new. Through the Son who was the glorious fruit of your virgin womb, just souls who died before his life-giving death rejoice as they are freed from captivity, and the angels are glad at the restoration of their shattered domain.
Lady, full and overflowing with grace, all creation receives new life from your abundance. Virgin, blessed above all creatures, through your blessing all creation is blessed, not only creation from its Creator, but the Creator himself has been blessed by creation.
To Mary God gave his only-begotten Son, whom he loved as himself. Through Mary God made himself a Son, not different but the same, by nature Son of God and Son of Mary. The whole universe was created by God, and God was born of Mary. God created all things, and Mary gave birth to God. The God who made all things gave himself form through Mary, and thus he made his own creation. He who could create all things from nothing would not remake his ruined creation without Mary.
God, then, is the Father of the created world and Mary the mother of the re-created world. God is the Father by whom all things were given life, and Mary the mother through whom all things were given new life. For God begot the Son, through whom all things were made, and Mary gave birth to him as the Saviour of the world. Without God’s Son, nothing could exist; without Mary’s Son, nothing could be redeemed.
Truly the Lord is with you, to whom the Lord granted that all nature should owe as much to you as to himself.
Why does Mary, the Mother of Jesus, have such a big place in our church? The words of the angel in Luke’s gospel, words we often repeat in prayer, are an answer: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you.”
Mary is filled with God’s grace, gifted with unique spiritual gifts from her conception, because she was to be the mother of Jesus Christ, God’s only Son.
She would be the “resting place of the Trinity,” and would give birth to, nourish, guide and accompany Jesus in his life and mission in this world. To fulfill that unique role she needed a unique gift. She would be free from original sin that clouds human understanding and slows the way we believe God and his plan for us.
“How slow you are to believe” Jesus said to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. Jesus made that complaint repeatedly as he preached the coming of God’s kingdom. “How slow you are to believe!” “What little faith you have!” “Do you still not understand!” Human slowness to believe didn’t end in gospel times. We have it too.
Mary was freed from that slowness to believe. “Be it done to me according to your word,” she immediately says to the angel. Yet, her acceptance of God’s will does not mean she understood everything that happened to her. “How can this be?” she asks the angel about the conception of the child. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you.” But the angel’s answer seems so incomplete, so mysterious.
Surely, Mary would have liked to know more, but the angel leaves, never to return. There’s no daily message, no new briefing or renewed assurance by heavenly messengers. The years go by in Nazareth as the Child grows in wisdom and age and grace, but they’re years of silence. Like the rest of us, Mary waits and wonders and keeps these things in her heart.
That’s why we welcome her as a believer walking with us. She is an assuring presence who calls us to believe as she did, without knowing all. She does not pretend to be an expert with all the answers. She has no special secrets she alone knows. “Do whatever he tells you,” is her likely advice as we ponder the mysteries of her Son.
The feast of the Immaculate Conception is celebrated 9 months before the feast of the Birth of Mary (September 8). The feast was extended to the universal Church by Pope Clement XI in 1708.
Pope Pius IX solemnly proclaimed the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854: “We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin” (Ineffabilis Deus, 1854)
Graces will be given you; shepherds will guide you. That’s the message we hear this 2nd week of Advent from Second Isaiah. (Isaiah 40 ff)
The way to God’s holy mountain is not by sea, the easiest way to Jerusalem from Babylon, Second Isaiah tells Jewish exiles in Babylon this week. God will bring you over mountains and through a wilderness, but the valleys will be filled, the mountains made low, the crooked ways straight.
The writer is called Second Isaiah. Why? Because chapters 40-55 of Isaiah are generally attributed to an anonymous poet who prophesied toward the end of the Babylonian exile, possibly 50 years after Jerusalem fell to the Assyrians. Adopting the name and style of the earlier prophet, Second Isaiah urges Jewish exiles to come back to the land where they belong.
Yet, not everyone listened. Many gave up on that land far away and God who calls them there. They’re fitting in. Babylon is their home now. This week’s readings describe how changed the exiles were. No longer singing songs of Zion, they’re singing Babylon’s songs.
This week’s Advent readings, mostly from Second Isaiah, recognize how hard the wilderness journey was for them and now for us. It’s hard for a prophet to win over exiles comfortable in a foreign land. But the desert will bloom and a highway will be there, a holy way. (Monday) God speaks tender, comforting words to his people on the way. (Tuesday) Those who hope in him will renew their strength, soaring on eagle’s wings. (Wednesday) Though we’re as insignificant as a worm, God grasps our hand and says: “Fear not; I am with you.” (Thursday) God, our teacher, shows us the way to go. (Friday) Great prophets like Elijah also accompany us. (Saturday)
Jesus is with exiles like us, the Gospel readings say. We are like the paralyzed man lowered through the roof in Capernaum.. (Monday) Like stray sheep, the Good Shepherd finds us. (Tuesday) “Come to me all who are weary…” he says. (Wednesday) He sends prophets and guides like John the Baptist and Elijah. (Thursday) Rejected like John the Baptist, Jesus still teaches. (Friday) He will save us, unrecognized like John and Elijah. (Saturday)
John the Baptist takes up the cry of Second Isaiah this week. His is the strong voice featured in the gospel readings in the following days of Advent.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, is remembered December 8, the Feast of her Immaculate Conception, and on December 12, feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It was not an easy way Mary was given. She had to go the way of the exiles: over mountains and deserts and wilderness. She gives us an example. Follow her.
Today’s the feast of St. Nicholas, the model for Santa Claus. He’s also patron of Russia and one of the most important saints of the eastern churches.
Nicholas lived in the 5th century in Myria, a seaport in Asia Minor. When Moslems overran that region in the 11th century, sailors from Bari, Italy, took his relics from his shrine in Myria and installed them on May 9,1087 in a shrine in Bari, along the Adriatic coast.
Since then, the Basilica of St. Nicolas has been a pilgrimage destination for eastern and western Christians. Russian pilgrims are especially prominent, but pilgrims from other eastern churches also come. Pope John Paul wanted Nicholas’ shrine to be place for dialogue with the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1966, an Orthodox chapel was built in the basilica for celebrating the Orthodox liturgy. In 2018 Pope Francis met with religious leaders from the Middle East to pray for peace in Syria, Nicholas’ birthplace.
In 2007, Vladimir Putin himself came to Bari as a pilgrim and knelt before St. Nicholas’ tomb. In 2017, Pope Francis lent relics of Nicholas to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow as a gesture to improve relations. Mr. Putin kissed the glass cased relic at its arrival.
I would guess there are pilgrims in Bari today from Russia and its allies and Ukraine and its allies mixing uneasily around the saint’s grave. We pray today leaders of those troubled lands quietly and quickly find the gift of peace.
Some years ago Pope Francis joked that “The communists stole some of our Christian values. Some others, they made a disaster out of them.“ Has St. Nicholas been an inspiration for communism?
A story of Nicholas that stands out is the story of his rescue of three girls who were to be sold off into slavery because they have no money for a dowry. Dropping gold through the window of their house at night, Nicholas disappears. His gift gave the girls the promise of a better life.
Help the poor, the story says, they deserve a better life.
The girls’ father tracked Nicholas down and asked why he did what he did and wants no thanks or recognition. It’s better only God knows, Nicholas answers. He want’s no power over others or credit. He’s an example of “quiet giving,” a high form of love.
We see that kind of love in Jesus Christ; he taught it to his disciples.
The Victor's Place 