Category Archives: Weekdays

Friends in the Lord, normally, the feast of the Epiphany would be today, but in this country it was moved to Sunday; in these days following Epiphany therefore, we have daily readings about other ‘epiphanies,’ ways in which the Lord reveals himself in sign and power.

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Yesterday was the multiplication of the few loaves to feed over 5000 people. The Church has always known this to be a sign of the Holy Eucharist, of the Mass. Miraculous bread is given to a vast crowd, just like at Mass. And notice, Our Lord does not distribute the bread; he has the apostles give it to the people, they will be his first priests.

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Today’s gospel follows that multiplication of the loaves; the apostles are in a boat, which encounters wind and trouble. They cry out for Jesus to come, and he comes into the boat with them. It says that after Jesus got into the boat, the apostles were ‘completely astounded;’ ‘they were astounded’ it says, ‘because they did not understand about the loaves.’

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So what does this mean? ‘They did not understand about the loaves?’ What does the multiplication of the loaves have to do with the boat? Well for this, we have to put on our Catholic thinking caps. When we see a boat in the scriptures we should think of – the Church. The boat is a symbol of the Church; and the sea, with it’s dangers and storms, is a symbol of evil and sin. That’s why we sometimes call the Church, the ‘Bark of Peter.’ ‘Bark is an old word for boat.

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So in St. Mark’s gospel he shows us the apostles in the boat, and we should immediately see there, Jesus’ first priests in the Church. The 12 in the boat, symbolizing the Church, are being tossed about by the wind of the world. They are afraid. They call out for help, and Christ comes into the Church.

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Does that happen now? Yes. The Church is here, we are the Bark of Peter. And daily, we call out to the Lord, amidst the storms of this world, of life, and Jesus comes into the Church – right here, in the miraculous Bread on our altar. This is what St. Mark is getting at.

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Now we can see the meaning of that final, mysterious statement. ‘They were astounded, ‘but they did not understand about the loaves. We understand. The miraculous loaves, the Eucharist – this is Christ, who comes to us here, in the storms of life, into the boat, the Church; and he says to us each time, ‘Take heart, do not be afraid.’

Friends in the Lord, we are these days in the Octave of Christmas.

A liturgical “octave” is an eight day period following and including the feast, in this case, Christmas, but we also have an Octave for Easter. In a way, the Church suspends time so that we can “rest” within the mystery that we have celebrated, and consider it from different angles.

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Perhaps you have gone to a museum and seen a magnificent statue. Glancing at it for a moment is not enough; you want to spend some time. You look at it first from this direction, then another. You walk around it to see it from various points of view, and examine some detail.

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In the same way, a single day per year does not suffice to gather in the different dimensions of the mystery of a great feast such as Christmas. An octave allows us to reflect on a feast in different ways.

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During Advent, we reflected a lot on the prophets who foretold the coming Savior; we are reading these days about the events of Christ’s infancy, for example Anna in the temple, who sees the long anticipated fulfillment of the prophecies.

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Pius Parsch says, that the feasts of Sts. Stephen, John the Evangelist, and the Holy Innocents which we celebrate during the Octave, permit us to approach Christ, first as martyrs, then as virgins, then as virgin-martyrs.

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Theologically speaking, an octave anticipates the eternal bliss of heaven. The old Creation is based on a cycle of 7 days, 7, being the final day of creation. But the 8^th day is a sign of the New Creation, it is a sign of the resurrection and of heaven. Many of the ancient baptismal fonts from the first centuries are 8-sided, recalling the New Creation; and so, the Octave, 8, calls to mind Eternal Life.

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It is also fitting to celebrate the Holy Family within the Octave of Christmas which we did. The Holy Family teaches, points us, to the Communion of life in heaven, in God himself, the ‘family’ of the Holy Trinity, our goal.

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And so we see that the Octave is a time to contemplate the many aspects of this great Mystery of Christmas, of God made man, and all that it implies for us. 

Friends in the Lord, today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Innocents.

The Holy Innocents are those children who were massacred by King Herod in his attempt to destroy the Child Jesus. We call these children ‘martyrs,’ because they died in the place of Christ; Jesus escaped, but their lives were taken. St. Augustine compares these tiny martyrs, to springtime buds on a tree: “They were the first buds,’ he says, ‘killed by the frost of persecution.

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People ask, how can God permit such evil: the death of those little, innocent children? St. Thomas Aquinas, and also St. Augustine say: God would not have allowed the massacre, if he did not plan to bring a benefit to those children.

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If there is no next life, then such tragedy is horrible and meaningless. But this is the point in Jesus’ coming: he has changed death into life. Christmas is about Jesus coming to win victory over death, for us. Those children are in heaven, interceding for us now. There can be no greater honor than to die for Christ. Death is laughed at by believers in Christ. We Catholics laugh at death. This is because we know that God will raise us up in the resurrection, he will renew all things. ‘Behold, I make all things new,’ says the Lord.

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My father had that inscription placed around the rim of my ordination chalice – it says: Ecce nova facio omnia: ‘Behold, I make all things new.’ The Holy Innocents are not dead, but alive. Their death was because of Jesus Christ, and so now they rejoice in victory with him.

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True story: A preacher read some liberal, fool-hardly book, and proceeded to say in a sermon that the death of the Holy Innocents was a myth, that the bible is just stories. As he walked out of the Church he fell down and broke both arms. Now this man’s friend, another ‘progressive thinker,’ the next year, preached the same thing; I tell you the truth: he too, broke both arms!

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I therefore will stand with the Holy Scriptures as true. Today we honor the Holy Innocents, as a bold affirmation, that death is only the beginning of life, and that despite the trials here below, we hope to one day praise God above.

Friends in the Lord, we’ve read in the scriptures in these days, about Zechariah – he was officiating as a priest in the temple and was struck dumb, unable to speak, because he did not believe the angel; and his wife is Elizabeth, who will become the mother of John the Baptist.

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Today Zechariah’s tongue is loosed and he is able finally to speak, and it is interesting, that the people thought his son should be named after him; but the parents insisted that his name would be John. Here we are seeing the displacement of the Old Covenant by the New Covenant.

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Zechariah is a priest of the Old Covenant, a Levitical Priest. His priesthood was under the Law; he offered animal and grain sacrifices to God, which could not take away sins. The temple, and his priesthood, and those sacrifices however, were symbols pointing to the New Temple, and New Priesthood of Christ, thereby anticipating the True Sacrifice which will take away the sins of the world.

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Elizabeth and Zechariah represent the Old Covenant. Notice that they were sterile, signifying that they did not have the grace of Christ. But now with the coming of the Lord, both Elizabeth and Zechariah are filled with the Holy Spirit – grace comes to them. ‘And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, she was filled with the Holy Spirit.’ ‘And immediately his tongue was loosed, and Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit.’

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The name Elizabeth means ‘promise of God,’ or ‘God’s oath’. God promised he would save his people. The name Zechariah means ‘God remembered.’ God has not forgotten his people, the Savior is come. And the name John, which they insisted he have, means ‘God gives grace.’

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Thomas Aquinas says, it is evident by allegory that John the Baptist came to announce the grace of the New Covenant. The Jews who were under the Law of the Old Covenant wanted John to be named after his father, a priest of the Old Covenant; but the name John means the grace of God, and the ancient priesthood, of ceremonies and sacrifices was only a foreshadowing of the New Covenant; John comes to announce the New Covenant of grace.

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A torrent of grace poured onto the world at that first Christmas; so let’s us, be open to God’s grace in the coming days of Christmas.

Friends in Christ, today, as we near Christmas, we encounter Mary in the gospels, bursting forth into praise. This poetic exclamation by Our Lady is called her ‘Magnificat.’ “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.’

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Mary shows us, that for those full of faith, their life bursts forth in testimony to God’s greatness. For years, as a youth, the Blessed Virgin prayed for the Savior to come; she prayed for that virgin, who was foretold by Isaiah, who would bear the Redeemer. She had no idea that it would be herself! But since she IS that virgin, she rejoices.

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It’s true – Mary knew that her life would not be easy from that day forward, she knew of her heavy responsibility, and the cross that lie ahead. Yet, her total trust in God causes her to have peace, to simply continue to do his will, and to rejoice. ‘The Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name.’

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It kind of reminds me of King David, who, seeing the favors of God in his life, went in and sat before the Lord and said: ‘Who am I Lord, that you have brought me to this point.’

Who am I? What am I, that you would do all this for me?

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God wishes that we too would see his blessings in our life, and that in the same way, we would thank him and praise him. The more that we do this, the more that we bring the Christ-life alive in ourselves, the more Jesus is born in us.

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St. Ambrose writes about this in the Sunday Breviary: He says: In the same way as Mary ‘you also are blessed because you have heard and believed. A soul that believes, also conceives and brings forth the Word of God, and acknowledges his works. ‘Let Mary’s soul be in each of you, he says, to proclaim the greatness of the Lord. Let her spirit be in you, to rejoice in the Lord.

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Christ has only one mother in the flesh, but we all bring forth Christ in faith. Every soul receives the Word of God if only it remains pure and free from sin. The soul that succeeds in this, proclaims the greatness of the Lord just as Mary’s soul magnified the Lord and her spirit rejoiced.

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The word ‘magnificat’ means ‘magnify.’ The image of God is in us, and the more that we live the Christ-life, the more that God is magnified in us, and then we share in His greatness.

Friends in Christ, today we begin this series of holy days running up to Christmas. The gospel today contains the genealogy of Jesus, demonstrating Christ’s human lineage, all the way back to Abraham.

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Now gallons of ink have been spilt, commenting on the meaning and symbols of this genealogy. But some scholars, and skeptics, have pointed to the curious phrase that concludes the genealogy: ‘The generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, from David to the Babylonian exile, fourteen generations, and from the Babylonian exile to the Christ fourteen generations.’ Now if we count, we will see that indeed, the first two lists have 14 names, but the final list has only 13. ‘Aha!,’ say the skeptics, an error. St. Matthew miscounted!’

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A professor once told me, ‘when you see something in scripture that seems strange, study it more, because something great is there.’ Many explanations have been attempted to explain this supposed ‘error.’ How can Matthew say that there are 3 sets of 14 generations up to Christ, when the last set – especially the one that includes the birth of Christ – when that one, seems to be missing one generation?

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Well, why don’t we ask the saints? St. Hilary, writing back in the 4^th century says that one cannot read Holy Scripture superficially, for there are important hidden meanings there. He says that we are told there are 14 generations until Mary, yet we only count 13. In reality, this is not an error, because Our Lord Jesus Christ did not take his origin from Mary alone. Christ’s Eternal Generation by the Father is also to be included.[i]

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Therefore, Matthew was not mistaken or in error; generation refers to ‘begetting; the one birth of Christ should be considered as having two generations: his being born from Mary as Man, and his being Eternally Begotten by the Father. Matthew therefore listed the 13 human generations, but says that there are 14, in order to include the Divine generation.  He added together the generations from the Father and from Mary, to teach that the eternal Son of God and the Son of Mary are one and the same Person. And this is what we are preparing to celebrate next week.

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[i] Mary and the Fathers of the church, p. 183.

Friends in Christ, today in the scriptures, Isaiah and also David in the psalms, they cry out for the Savior to come down from heaven. ‘Let the clouds rain down the Just One, and the earth bring forth a Savior, says the Psalmist. And Isaiah: ‘Let justice descend, O heavens, like dew from above, like gentle rain, let the skies drop it down.’

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The coming of the Savior is alluded to, as a gentle rain that comes down, or a dewfall. But the Lord’s coming down from heaven required some preparation. The saints tell us that God, having decided to become man in order to redeem lost humanity, needed to choose a Mother. God therefore sought the world over for the maiden that was the most holy and humble. The Son of God was preparing to drop down like rain to a parched earth, but He needed a safe beginning point, a ‘beachhead’ as they say in a battle, as God comes to take back the earth.

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And so God, having admired the Virgin Mary for her virtues and simplicity declared: ‘This one is my dove, my perfect one,’ to quote the scriptures. In the Song of Songs, Mary is referred to. It says, ‘While the king was at his repose, my spikenard sent up its sweet scent’ St. Antoninus explains this passage in the following way: Spikenard, he says, is used to produce a beautiful perfume, with an exquisite scent. It is a small and lowly plant. And so this little, humble plant is a symbol of Mary. Therefore, it was the sweet scent of Mary’s humility, which ascended to heaven and awakened the Divine Word, reposing in the bosom of the Eternal Father, and drew him down into his Mother’s womb.

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The Lord was drawn down from heaven as it were, by the sweet scent of the goodness of the virgin Mary, to become man and redeem a lost world.

We enter tomorrow the special days leading up to Christmas; it is a time of holiness, we wish to make it a time of peace. We ask that our prayers ascend to heaven with a sweet scent, to awaken the Divine Spouse, that he would shower us with many graces in the coming days.

Friends in Christ, today Our Lord uses the example of children playing in the market place to show how fickle and ungrateful the world is. “To what shall I compare this generation, he said. It is like children who play in the marketplace.

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At the time of Christ, there was a game where the children were supposed to dance or cry or act out something when flutes were played. If a sad song was played, they were supposed to cry; if the flute switched to happy, they were supposed to dance; whatever the song told them to do.

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The world is this way with religion; it wants to manipulate and distort religion to it’s own ideology. It wants religion to dance according to it’s tune. This secular spirit even tries to manipulate the wonder of Christmas, distort it into anything except what it is: God become man, to save his people. God has become a baby, in order to save us. This is astounding, or it SHOULD be astounding.

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But the world has turned it all into shopping and Santa and snowmen and parties – anything, except Christ. There is no gratitude to God for what he has done for us.

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St. Alphonsus says, who could believe that a God, for love of a worm such as ourselves – that a God would become a worm like us, to save us? Suppose that walking along you accidently step on a worm and crush it, and then someone says: ‘if you wish to restore that worm to life, you yourself must become a worm, and then shed your blood for it; we would say, ‘what does it matter to me whether that worm lives or dies if I have to purchase its life with my own death? We would say this especially if the worm were ungrateful.

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But this is what Christ has done for us, we vile and lowly worms. Really, for us poor creatures, what difference should it make to God whether we are forever dead in hell or not? Yet God has such a love for us, that to save us from eternal death, he has become a worm like us, and poured out his blood to the last drop. As scripture says, He has loved us, and washed away our sins in his own blood.

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In these two weeks remaining of Advent, let us be full of gratitude to Christ the Lord, for all he has done for us.

Friends in Christ,

God can do whatever he wants, he is all powerful. As St. Alphonsus says, by a mere nod of his head, he created heaven and earth out of nothing. And if he wanted to, he could destroy the immense machinery of the universe by a glance. God is all powerful.

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And yet despite this power of the Creator, there is a surprising rashness in mankind. Proud sinners flagrantly sin against God, defying him every day. And this is us.

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Suppose we would see some insect, say a tiny ant. And if this ant decided to make an attack against a soldier, we would think this is ridiculous and fool-hardy. Well, how much more foolhardy it is, for man to make an assault against his Creator by sinning.

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Here we are beginning the season of Advent. And we are preparing to celebrate a surprising event: The reckless and ungrateful sinners of this world are the very ones, for whom the Son of God comes down to save, by making himself a humble child.

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God becomes a child who needs milk to live, who is so feeble that he cannot even feed himself. The Eternal Word in coming into the world, wishes to conceal his strength. St. Cyril says: ‘Behold he who governs the heavens;’ ‘Behold God in swaddling cloths, unable to even stretch out his hands.’

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When Mary and Joseph took Jesus to Egypt, he could not even walk, he had to be carried. As St. Bonaventure says, when they returned from Egypt, Jesus was too large to be carried, but too little to make a long journey, and so they often had to stop and rest. God reduces himself to this weak and lowly state, for us.

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There he is in the shop at Nazareth; he busily works, helping Joseph as a carpenter. The boy Jesus exhausting himself to shape some piece of wood, laboring a whole day on it. He, who could create it out of nothing in a glance.

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A God then, has become so little and so weak. Why did he do this? To make himself loved.

Advent is a time to love this Child as he deserves.