Rejoice! The End is Near!

We've seen the cartoon: an wild-eyed man, bedraggled, carrying a sign that says, "Repent! The end is near!" He probably looks like John the Baptist did to those around him!

This 3^rd Sunday of Advent finds John the Baptist still preparing the way. From his preaching and baptizing many thought he might be the Messiah. But to every question they ask him about his identity, he answers “I am not.” He tells the Pharisees, who demand an answer to give to those who sent then, “I am a voice of one crying out in the desert…but there is someone coming after me.” Often we lack the humility to answer “I am not, but Jesus is.”

 But how would the Messiah answer the question of his identity? “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me…” His answer would be his actions. When we are asked about who we think we are as Christians, we should be able to point to the things we have done after listening to the Holy Spirit. And we should rejoice in the Lord that he has done these things in us and for our salvation.

Rejoice! and sing along:

Hail

Hail, highly favored one

Full of grace, Jesus’ face.

The Lord is with you

The Lord is within you

Christ is within you

Jesus is within you

You are blessed above all women

Give your blessing to us all

Give your blessing to women

Give your blessing to children

Give your blessing to the homeless

Give your blessing to the helpless

Give us your grace

Give us Jesus’ face

Give us the Tree of Life

Whose leaves will heal

Whose fruit won’t fail

Holy Mother Mary

Set apart, God’s sanctuary

Remember us in prayer

As we sin, bring us to Jesus within

Bring us now

Bring us always

Bring us now

Bring us always now

As we pass from death to life

And from life to eternal life

Now and at the hour

Now and at the hour

Amen.

God is His Own Genesis

 

Advent Reflection

Second Sunday of Advent Year B

December 6, 2020

 

It has been said that the New Testament is hidden in the Old and that the Old Testament is revealed in the New. Isaiah speaks of a voice crying out in the wilderness. Creation will be transformed in preparation for the coming of Lord. Valleys shall be filled in, perhaps with the rocks and earth from the mountains and hills being made low!

St. Mark tells us that John the Baptist is that voice. John tells the people coming out to him in the desert to be baptized that he is the beginning of the transformation. His voice tells them that another is coming that will baptize not with water, but with the Holy Spirit!

The Lord, the God of the covenant, is coming in transforming power. Peter proclaims that the heavens will pass away with a mighty roar and the elements will be dissolved by fire, but there will be a new heavens and a new earth. The image I see is that of the Genesis device in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn. In a presentation, we see the device impact a lifeless moon. The energy released encircles the planetoid. Ahead of the wave is barren rock; behind is water and plant life—the transforming power of the Genesis wave.

 Genesis Device Demo

God is his own Genesis! Christ comes to lead us to transforming life. But even in his power, he will be as firm and gentle as a shepherd, gathering, leading, and carrying us next to his heart.

 

I Hope You're Ready

 

Advent Reflection

First Sunday of Advent 2020 Year B

 

If you have ever had to wait for someone at the airport when weather has caused numerous delays and gate changes, then you know that you have keep an eye on the arrival board and listen to the announcements. If you don’t you won’t know when or where to meet the person you are waiting for.

 

Advent is a time to watch and wait. Just as we didn’t know when Jesus would come that first Christmas, even though there were signs and prophecies, we don’t know when he will return. In the verses before today’s Gospel reading, Jesus gives his disciples some signs of what will happen before his second coming. He has given us work to do in the meantime, but He sums up his dire warnings with the reminder to “Be watchful! Be alert!”

 

The people of Isaiah’s time were also waiting. But instead of being watchful, they were wandering. Instead of taking heed of what God was doing, they became hard-hearted. This is what happens when we lose focus, we fall into sin. Isaiah says that our good deeds have become like dirty rags. But they didn’t start that way; they were clean and whole. But a spot here, a smudge there and they become filthy. We launder them, and they fade and become threadbare. How do we become clean and whole again?

 

Grace restores us. By returning to God our Father we can receive the grace we need to be made whole again. Isaiah likens us to being clay that the Lord can reshape with his hands. He forms and reforms us into the image of Jesus. St. Paul says that in Christ we are enriched in every way. We will not lack any spiritual gift we need as we wait for Christ’s return. It is though our Father’s loving care that we can be ready.

 

Because Christ Has A Body--Why I Stay Catholic

My mom's prayers were the real reason I returned to the Catholic Church, but now the question The Anchoress is asking is why do I stay Catholic? Because Christ has a body.

Don't you mean had? True, at the Annunciation Mary's humble willingness to accept what the angel Gabriel told her of God's plan for her was fulfilled in the incarnation of Jesus in her womb. He grew up with Mary and Joseph and, even in that mysterious time he stayed behind in the Temple when he was 12 to be in his Father's house, was obedient to them. He would go on to teach about the Kingdom of God, to suffer, to die, to be buried, and to rise from the dead. All this could do because he had a body.  Even now, risen and ascended, he still has a body, one made fit to live eternal life.

And he has another body, the Church. He established the Church during his mission among us. He gave it his own authority to continue that mission, to build the kingdom of God. Everything that the Church is flows from the Incarnation. She, for the Church is also his bride as well as his body, she continues Jesus' Incarnation in time while he continues in eternity. The Church lives out Jesus' life, especially as she suffers and dies with him (Col 1:24). Christ and his Church will be united in what St. John in Revelation calls "the wedding feast of the lamb" (Rev 19:9).

The Catholic Church has sacraments because God uses matter to bring grace into the world, just like he bought his divine Son into the world in a human body conceived  and carried in Mary. We have the Bible because the Word became flesh and gave us some of his words to be remembered. Catholic theology flows from the Church's understanding of the Incarnation--God in a Body.

What People Really Mean When They Say They Are Leaving Facebook

From time to time people will declare that they are taking a break or leaving Facebook, Twitter, etc. Yeah, sure.

Keeping Family Together

I was reading Denise Bossert's article on Catholic Exchange "The Challenge of the Assumption of Mary."  She raised this question:

Why is it so easy for people to believe that Jesus Christ will return and “rapture” those who love Him, leaving behind the rest of the world, but those same people find it impossible to believe that Jesus Christ came for His mother and assumed her, body and soul, into heaven?

Some Christians will believe in the Rapture, but not the Assumption of Mary. Both are about human bodies being taken up into Heaven. I think people forget the the Assumption of Mary is not the Ascension of Mary. Even Elijah was taken up into Heaven! The Church does not teach that Mary went up by her own power; rather, her son took her to be with him. It is by Jesus' power that the Blessed Mother is assumed into Heaven.

The Assumption of Mary also anticipates the bodily resurrection of the faithful.  St. Paul teaches that:

⁵¹ Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, ⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³ For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality.  1Corinthians 15:51-53

At the resurrection of the dead, we shall be changed: raised with an imperishable, immortal body. Mary has already been given that grace.


 The Catholic Church teaches that:

966 "Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death." The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son's Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians.--Catechism of the Catholic Church

Now there's a lot of theology in that paragraph. Today, let's keep it simple. The Assumption of Mary is about a son taking his mother home to be with him. It's act of love from Jesus to Mary.


It's about family being together.