A reflection for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, year B. The readings are Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7; Psalm 29; Acts 10:34-38 and Mark 1:7-11.
The Church tells us that today marks the end of the Christmas season and today we see a very different image of Jesus that we’ve been seeing the last couple of weeks: The baby is replaced by a very grown man. The supporting characters of the young married couple looking for a place in the Inn are replaced by the a character who lives in the desert and wears clothing made of camel’s skin. The flying angels are replaced by the Holy Spirit in the shape of a dove and instead of hearing choirs singing Gloria, we hear the voice of God the Father.
I’ve said this before: I find it a bit confusing – is today the end of the Christmas season, or the beginning of Ordinary Time? In my parish, all the Christmas decorations have been taken down. Isn’t it true that the Christmas season is the time when we get to listen to all the stories about when Jesus was a child? But Jesus was baptized as an adult! And the Presentation at the Temple, which happened when Jesus was very much a baby – 8 days old – does not happen for another three weeks, on February 2nd. Why is that not part of the Christmas season? I was told today that the Vatican leaves all their Christmas decorations up until February 2nd. In fact, that’s what it used to be. I’ve been told by some who remember before Vatican II that the Christmas season used to end on February 2nd.
Read more…
It’s Christmas and all our worries- the food, the dinner guests, our families, the presents- seem to be multiplied. Jesus’ birth is supposed to bring us peace, but instead, during this time of the year, it seems that what we have least of is peace.
And we go to Christmas Eve Mass looking for a little bit of peace. We hope to listen in the Gospel that beautiful Christmas story that we all love with the starry night, the angels, the shepherds and the little lambs (or at least we assume that there are lambs if there are shepherds). But instead of that story, we have to listen to a long list of names: the geneology of Jesus! (Matthew 1:1-25) All these unpronounceable names. Names like Jeconiah, Zerubabbel and Rehoboam. Forty-two names. What does that have to do with Christmas?
Read more…
A reflection for the 2nd Sunday in Advent, Year B. The readings are Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11, Psalm 85, 2 Peter 3:8-14 and Mark 1:1-8.
Do you know the Lord’s Prayer in Latin? Pater noster (our Father), qui es in caelis (who art in Heaven), sanctificetur nomen tuum (hallowed be thy name). Now this is the line I want to share with you: Adveniat regnum tuum. It means, “Thy Kingdom come,” or “may your Kingdom come.” The verb “to come” is “Adveniat” in Latin. Adveniat. Sounds familiar? That’s where we get the word “Advent.” It means “to come”, “coming”. That’s what we pray every time we say the Lord’s Prayer: We are praying for the Advent of our Lord: the Second Coming.
And what do we do when we’re expecting someone who’s coming? I don’t know about you, but we clean the house. In fact, we only clean when someone is coming. Actually, we periodically invite people over, just to force us to clean – otherwise we would never clean! And we don’t just clean, but we also de-clutter. We take all the stuff off the table; we sort it; get rid of the stuff we should have gotten rid of weeks ago and the other stuff gets put away somewhere where no one can see it. That’s what we do at Advent: we clean; we de-clutter; we take out the trash. That’s why Advent is a penitential season. That’s why we wear purple. But it’s different than Lent. Lent is penitential in a sacrificial way: We focus on prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Advent is penitential in an “anticipation” kind of way. We are preparing with anticipation for a special guest.
Read more…
Titus Destroying Jerusalem by Wilhelm von Kaulbach
A reflection for the 1st Sunday, Advent year B. The readings are Isaiah 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7, Psalm 80, Corinthians 1:3-9 and Mark 13:33-37.
I was at a high school last Friday and I noticed how different the students behave when the teacher is not in the room; even if there is a guest speaker. (Sometimes they are better behaved without the teacher!) And I remembered when I was in High School. We were a very close group of about 30 students in my class; most of us had been together since kindergarten and we were tight. We covered for each other. If ever we were without a teacher and for some reason we were up to something that we didn’t want the teacher to know about, we would put someone on watch. We had a teacher who would give us an exam and then he would leave the room. Undoubtedly some people (not me!) would cheat. But the only way they could get away with it, was if someone kept watch. Don’t want the teacher coming in to catch you doing something you’re not supposed to be doing, or not doing what you’re supposed to be doing.
Last week, also, I was watching a documentary about World War I (since it’s the 100th anniversary this year) and the story was about a 19-year old French soldier who had been given the night watch at the trenches and had fallen asleep. But despite the pleadings of his commander, who said that it was his own fault – he shouldn’t have given this young tired man the night watch – the young soldier was court-martialed and sentenced to the firing squad. Apparently the French army did this a lot. They had to make an example of him, because you can’t fall asleep while you’re on night watch – not during a war!
Read more…
deacon pedro 