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
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)
St. Bernard says there are three comings of Jesus Christ, who is our rock, our support, our comfort.
“We know that the coming of the Lord is threefold: the third coming is between the other two and it is not visible in the way they are. At his first coming the Lord was seen on earth and lived among men, who saw him and hated him. At his last coming All flesh shall see the salvation of our God, and They shall look on him whom they have pierced. In the middle, the hidden coming, only the chosen see him, and they see him within themselves; and so their souls are saved. The first coming was in flesh and weakness, the middle coming is in spirit and power, and the final coming will be in glory and majesty.
“This middle coming is like a road that leads from the first coming to the last. At the first, Christ was our redemption; at the last, he will become manifest as our life; but in this middle way he is our rest and our consolation.
“If you think that I am inventing what I am saying about the middle coming, listen to the Lord himself: If anyone loves me, he will keep my words, and the Father will love him, and we shall come to him. Elsewhere I have read: Whoever fears the Lord does good things. – but I think that what was said about whoever loves him was more important: that whoever loves him will keep his words. Where are these words to be kept? In the heart certainly, as the Prophet says I have hidden your sayings in my heart so that I do not sin against you. Keep the word of God in that way: Blessed are those who keep it. Let it penetrate deep into the core of your soul and then flow out again in your feelings and the way you behave; because if you feed your soul well it will grow and rejoice.
“All nations will come to climb the mountain of the Lord,” the Prophet Isaiah says in our Advent readings. Joining Portuguese merchants, Saint Francis Xavier went to far-off Asia, not for its exotic spices and goods, but to call all nations to follow Jesus Christ.
For 10 years, Francis Xavier labored in India, Japan and southeast Asia to bring the gospel to the native peoples of these lands. In a letter to St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, he explains that he’s so busy teaching and baptizing he has hardly a minute to himself. “Send help,” he says.
“Many, many people hereabouts are not becoming Christians for one reason only: there is nobody to make them Christians. Again and again I have thought of going round the universities of Europe, especially Paris, and everywhere crying out like a madman, riveting the attention of those with more learning than charity: ‘What a tragedy: how many souls are being shut out of heaven and falling into hell, thanks to you!’”
He’s driven by missionary zeal. Today, unfortunately, we’re becoming more like those university people in Paris– concerned about ourselves and ready to let the rest of the world go by.
The statue of Saint Francis Xavier above is in the beautiful church of the Sacred Heart in Springfield, MA, where Father Theodore Foley went as a boy. Was it put there after a Novena of Grace preached by some Jesuit missionaries, I wonder? How many people, like Theodore Foley, heard the story of the fiery missionary and saw themselves called to be missionaries ?
The Prophet Isaiah’s call to the nations is not confined to his time. God’s mission to the nations is for our time too.
We celebrated the feast of Christ the King last Sunday. It’s hard to think of Christ as king in a world where kings are few, at least in our western world. Royal families, where they exist, have mainly ceremonial roles.
Yet, Jesus Christ is king, and what’s more we share in his kingly role. (Catholic Catechism 1546) We’re all priests, prophets and kings by our baptism. “We’re a “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a people set apart,” (1 Peter 2,5)
How are we kings? The illustration of Adam, from the Book of Genesis, may tell us. Adam is given kingly powers by God in the garden, the symbol of the created world. He names the animals and is caretaker of God’s creation.
Psalms, like Psalm 8 (Saturday Morning, week 2), remind us that’s our role: When I see the heavens, the work of your hands, The moon and the stars that you arranged, What are we that you keep us in mind,, Mortal as we are that you care for us.
Yet you have made us little less than gods, With glory and honor you crown us, You have give us power over the works of your hand, Put all things under our feet.”
This week’s readings from Daniel and Luke’s Gospel (Friday) seem to predict a world torn apart and discarded when God’s kingdom comes. But that’s not so. Creation itself awaits the promise of resurrection. Jesus Christ is our Savior and we are part of his saving work.
We have been given kingly care over creation. Let’s not forget it. We’re not here just to save ourselves nor is our purpose in life to escape from this world. We’re to care for creation and make it ready for God’s kingdom.
We read Luke’s Gospel this week, the 34th week of the year. Luke follows Mark’s Gospel closely in describing Jesus as he arrives in Jerusalem from Galilee, but he makes some simple, yet significant changes to Mark’s account.
Mark’s account says that Jesus went back and forth to Bethany each day while teaching in the temple in Jerusalem. Luke’s account doesn’t mention Jesus’ stay in Bethany at all. Jesus comes to Jerusalem to enter the temple of God.
The temple has great significance in Luke’s gospel. Earlier in his gospel, Mary and Joseph bring Jesus there after his birth. His identity is validated there. For Jesus the temple is his Father’s house, where he belongs. It’s his home, where he teaches with authority, confronts his enemies and gives hope to those like the poor widow.
In Luke’s extension of his gospel, the Acts of the Apostles, the temple is also significant because the church is born there. For Luke, a disciple of Paul, we are also the temples of God and the Spirit of God dwells in us.
In Luke’s gospel, Jesus teaches about the end times in the temple area about the end ; in Mark’s gospel he teaches about it from the Mount of Olives. Though the temple stones be cast down, Jesus is the cornerstone, and so when “ powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky,” he remains our Rock.
In this week’s readings, Luke adds some important words to Mark’s fearful account of the end time. The end is coming soon. Mark seems to say. The end waits “until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled,” Luke’s account says.(Luke 21:24) The last times are delayed, not imminent. They will come at an indeterminate time, after the gentile world receives the gospel.
Yet, because Mark’s account was held by other followers of Jesus, Luke does not dismiss it.
Perhaps because the trees are shedding their leaves now in this part of the world, I notice another small change Luke makes to Mark’s gospel. “Learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see these things happening, know that he is near, at the gates” Jesus says in Mark. (Mark 13: 28-29)
Luke adds to the fig tree “and all the other trees.” (Luke 21:29-31) Why all the other trees? Was Luke adapting the message of Jesus to those forested regions in Asia Minor unlike Palestine, where creation in its many trees spoke of Word made flesh as well?
The gospel writers struggled with the great mysteries of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and tried to adapt it to their times and place. We struggle with these mysteries too.
Pope Francis, in a letter on the study of history, said we need to read the fundamental texts of Christianity and understand them without “ideological filters or theoretical preconceptions” . “A study of history protects us from ‘ecclesiological monophysitism’, that is, from an overly angelic conception of the Church, a Church without spots and wrinkles… A proper sense of history can help us develop a better sense of proportion and perspective in coming to understand reality as it is and not as we imagine it or would prefer reality to be.”
The Presentation of Mary in the Temple, November 21, is an ecumenical feast originatingin Jerusalem in the 6th century. A new church, honoring Mary, was built for pilgrimsby the Emperor Justinian near the ruins of the Jewish temple. Tradition said Mary was born nearby. Other early traditions place her birthplace inNazareth or the neighboring city of Sepphoris.
Artists like Giotto supported the Jerusalem tradition by their popular portrayals of Mary introduced into the temple by Ann and Joachim, her mother and father. (above)
Luke’s gospel may support the Jerusalem tradition by noting that Mary’scousin Elizabeth was married to Zechariah, a temple priest. Luke also says Mary and Joseph were familiar visitors to the temple. Forty days after the birth of Jesus , they went there “when the days were completed for their purification,” (Luke 2,22) Theybrought Jesus to the temple as a child to celebrate the feasts. For Jesus the temple is“my Father’s house.”There is no direct scriptural support that says Mary was born and raised in Jerusalem, however.
This feast celebrates Mary’s gift for “listening to the word of God and keeping it.” (Luke 11:28) For Mary the temple was always a place of God’s presence. In the temple she learned to see that God was everywhere, in Nazareth, Bethlehem, even on Calvary.(cf. John 4, 22-26) “You are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you,” St. Paul reminds the Corinthians. (1 Corinthians 3, 16)
St. Paul of the Cross, founder of the Passionists, was greatly devoted to this feast because he began his 40 day retreat to discern God’s will on this day. He experienced God’s call to found a community during those holy days. Afterwards, he dedicated the first retreat of his congregation on Monte Argentario to the Presentation of Mary and returned there year after year to renew the grace he received then. St. Vincent Strambi, his biographer, writes:
“Whenever possible, Paul kept the feast in the Retreat of the Presentation. How often, even when old and crippled, he would set out from the Retreat of St.Angelo, traveling over impassible roads in the harsh days of November, to Monte Argentario, where he would celebrate the feast with great recollection. It would be difficult to describe the days he spent there. His heart seemed to melt like wax in a fire because of his love for the Mother of God and his gratitude towards her.As the feast drew near he was so full of joy that the air around Monte Argentario seemed to breathe a sweetness similar to what the prophet Joel describes: “On that day, the mountains will drop down sweetness and the hills flow with milk.” On the day of the feast, he seems totally penetrated with tender devotion.Even on his deathbed, he recalled, “The day of the Presentation was always a holy and solemn day for me.”
Please pray for the Passionists, the community he founded that, like Mary, the Mother of God, we may hear God’s word and kept it.
Today many young people are not baptizing their children or offering them much religious formation. “Let them decide for themselves.” Introduce your children to your religious tradition from their earliest years, this feast says. Get them familiar with their church. That’s what the parents of Mary did. They prepared her for the coming of the Angel and the presence of her Son.
“Where is the temple where you learn to hear God’s word?’ we have to ask ourselves.
This week’s Mass readings from the 1st Book of Maccabees tell the story of the re-dedication of the temple of Jerusalem three years after its profanation by Antiochus Epiphanes. About the year 167 BC, Jews under Judas Maccabeus took up the weapons of their time, re-conquered Jerusalem and restored the temple, the heart of their religion.
The first reading on Friday describes the rededication of the temple to its former glory. The Jews continue to celebrate it in the feast of Hannukah. (1 Maccabees 4,36-61}
The New Testament writers, certainly aware of this historic event, recall Jesus cleansing the temple.(Friday’s gospel) Entering Jerusalem after his journey from Galilee, “ Jesus went into the temple area and proceeded to drive out those who were selling things, saying to them, ‘It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.’” Then, “every day he was teaching in the temple area” until he was arrested and put to death. (Luke 19,45-48)
Cleansing the temple was a symbolic act. By it, Jesus signified he is the presence of God, the Word made flesh, the new temple of God.
Luke says Jesus taught in the temple “every day.” Even from his early days he taught in the temple, Luke writes. As our eternal high priest, he teaches us every day and brings us every day to his Father and our Father.
Jesus is the indestructible temple, the indestructible Presence of God among us. Witnesses at his trial before he died were half right when they said he spoke of destroying the temple. He was speaking of the temple of his own body. Death seemed to destroy him, but he was raised up bodily on the third day.We share in this mystery as “members of his body.”
Still, as sacramental people we need places like temples and churches to come together, to pray and to meet God who “dwells among us.” We need churches and holy places and instinctively revolt seeing them go, or not frequented.
Old stories, like the story of the Maccabees, carry lessons and raise questions. The Maccabees took the military option to restore and pursue the Kingdom. What are our military options today when we have atomic weapons, drones, cryptoweaponry at our disposal? New laws? Persuasion?
November 17th, is the feast of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. At 14 she married Louis, ruler of Thuringia, and lived happily with him for 8 years until he died in 1227. Then, inspired by St. Francis of Assisi, she made the resources of her kingdom serve the poor, especially after floods, famine and plague struck that land in 1226.
Her spiritual director, Conrad of Marbugh, wrote this masterful little biography of her after she died:
“She was a lifelong friend of the poor and gave herself entirely to relieving the hungry. She ordered that one of her castles should be converted into a hospital in which she gathered many of the weak and feeble. She generously gave alms to all who were in need, not only in that place but in all the territories of her husband’s empire. She spent all her own revenue from her husband’s four principalities, and finally she sold her luxurious’ possessions and rich clothes for the sake of the poor.
Twice a day, in the morning and in the evening, Elizabeth went to visit the sick. She personally cared for those who were particularly repulsive; to some she gave food, to others clothing; some she carried on her own shoulders, and performed many other kindly services. Her husband, of happy memory, gladly approved of these charitable works. Finally, when her husband died, she sought the highest perfection; filled with tears, she implored me to let her beg for alms from door to door.
On Good Friday of that year, when the altars had been stripped, she laid her hands on the altar in a chapel in her own town, where she had established the Friars Minor, and before witnesses she voluntarily renounced all worldly display and everything that our Saviour in the gospel advises us to abandon. Even then she saw that she could still be distracted by the cares and worldly glory which had surrounded her while her husband was alive.
Against my will she followed me to Marburg. Here in the town she built a hospice where she gathered together the weak and the feeble. There she attended the most wretched and contemptible at her own table.
Apart from those active good works, I declare before God that I have seldom seen a more contemplative woman. When she was coming from private prayer, some religious men and women often saw her face shining marvellously and light coming from her eyes like the rays of the sun.
Before her death I heard her confession. When I asked what should be done about her goods and possessions, she replied that anything which seemed to be hers belonged to the poor. She asked me to distribute everything except one worn out dress in which she wished to be buried. When all this had been decided, she received the body of our Lord. Afterward, until vespers, she spoke often of the holiest things she had heard in sermons. Then, she devoutly commended to God all who were sitting near her, and as if falling into a gentle sleep, she died.”
Elizabeth was a woman of status and privilege. She had celebrity status, but that did not cause her to live in a bubble of luxury. Influenced by the Franciscan movement she reached out to those who had nothing; she used her wealth, power and influence to serve the poor. For that reason people of her day esteemed her.
She’s an example today for people in power, politicians, those who control the media, “influencers”. She had an eye for the poor. We need powerful people today to keep the poor in mind.
We remember Blessed Eugene Bossilkov in the Passionist calendar November 13. A Bulgarian Passionist and bishop he was executed by the Communist regime November 11,1952 after being sentenced at a mock trial in Sophia, Bulgaria. His body was thrown into a lime pit outside the prison; as far as I know it has never been recovered.
His death was not confirmed to the outside world until 1975, when a Bulgarian minister visiting the Vatican was asked by Pope Paul VI what happened to Bishop Bossilkov. The minister confirmed the date and place of his execution. The Communist regime in Bulgaria was known at the time as perhaps the most brutal and secretive of all the Communist controlled countries of Eastern Europe.
Bishop Bosilkov was declared “Blessed” on March 15,1998 in Rome by Pope St. John Paul II, who said he was“a splendid treasure of the church in his motherland. A brave witness of the cross of Christ; he is one of many victims sacrificed by atheistic Communism, in Bulgaria and elsewhere, as it attempted to annihilate the church. In those days of fierce persecution, many looked up to him and from his courageous example gained the strength to remain faithful to the Gospel to the end. I am happy on this joyful day for the nation of Bulgaria to honor so many, like Bishop Bossilhov, who paid with their lives for holding on to the faith they received at baptism.”
I attended Bishop Bossilkov’s beatification in 1998 and what I recall most was not the impressive ceremonies at the Vatican but the Bulgarians who came for the occasion and stayed at our monastery of Saints John and Paul in Rome. They were relatives of the bishop and men and women from the church where he was bishop. Simple ordinary people who had come through hard times in a country emerging from Communism.
His niece, Sister Gabriella Bossilkov, was one of them. She knew him as a little girl; she was with him when he was arrested, attended his trial and visited him in prison before his execution. She described in great detail how they bullied him and lied about him; she remembered what he said when she told him in prison shortly before his death that they were trying to arrange for a pardon. “No,” he told us, “I know the Lord has given me his grace. I am willing to die.”
She brought a blanket and baskets of food to him in prison a few days before his death, but then the food basket was returned untouched. “He won’t need that any more,” she was told. When the prison guards finally said he had died and she demanded some proof, they gave her his blood stained shirt, which later at his beatification was the only relic that remained of him.
I’m sure his story will be told more fully when his canonization arrives. Politics and historical circumstances often delay the telling of a story like his. But it will be told. God reveals the glory of his saints, and Bishop Eugene Bossilkov is surely one of them,
His niece said “I remember my uncle saying ‘The stains of our blood will guarantee a great future for the new church of Bulgaria.’”
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