TK Notes:
A. Any one who is into counseling knows that people come to you because of some anxiety or fear they face in life due to a) a relationship, b) a decision/choice or c) faith/ideology issue. They are all trying to find a way to cope with that situation. Mary too comes with, "How's this possible?"B. Essentially, a counselor helps the counselee to cope with or face or remove that anxiety/fear.
a. Theologically: explains the meaning/purpose of the experience: The Holy Spirit will come down on you. You are going to conceive a child who will be Emmanuel. He is going to save Israel.
b. Sociologically: I'll be with you; I'll accompany you. Even your cousin Elizabeth....
c. Psychologically: Do not be afraid, Mary .....
We touch the heart by addressing the mind/ spirit and providing support.
C. If that's so, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord." Acceptance, conquering the fear and doubt.
People undertake difficult tasks and responsibilities in life if you follow these steps.
We move from "How's it possible?" to "Behold the handmaiden of the Lord" when God enters into our life.
******************
Thomas O’Loughlin
Introduction to the Celebration
as our Lord,
our Leader,
and our Light.’
General Comments
Take the story as a long journey during which God, through the angel, walks with Mary. He is accompanying her at every stage, until finally she surrenders herself to him and he leaves her.
vs 29 – 30: She is filled with awe but the angel reassures her, calling her by name.
vs 31 – 33: The angel unfolds God’s plan for her, a plan that is way beyond
her own expectations for herself.
vs 34 – 35: Mary is in awe again, and once more she receives words of reassurance.
vs 36 – 37: The angle gives further grounds for trust by citing another example of God’s power.
vs 38a: Mary leaves herself humbly and trustingly in God’s hands and plan.
vs 38b: Mary is now perfectly at peace and the angel can leave her.
- she in entering into the struggles of the poor for a more human society;
- voices within the church speak out fearlessly against all forms of injustice;
- lay people grow in holiness through their family commitments and their
work
It seems that you have sent your angel to your church in our time,
with the good news that she is still your chosen one,
called to bring forth your Son into the modern world
and make the dreams of the ancient prophets a reality.
Naturally, we are confused and fearful, deeply disturbed by this word.
We have become set in our ways, sterile even.
Tell us again, Lord, through your holy angel, that we need not be afraid:
- that the power of the Most High will cover us with its shadow;
- what has been conceived within us will be your own child;
- that you have done wonderful deeds before, since nothing is impossible to you,
so that we may see ourselves as your humble servants,
letting you bring to fulfillment the word you have spoken to us.
- can they attempt a reconciliation?
- take on some new responsibility?
- engage themselves in a work of human liberation?
Send them an angel to walk with them as Gabriel walked with Mary,
- to call them by name;
- to speak a word of encouragement -
“Rejoice, so highly favoured, do not be afraid”;
- to assure them that what they have conceived will be great and a Son of the Most High;
- to remind them that nothing is impossible to you,
and finally, when they have accepted your will, to leave them.
and received it as a sign that they are highly favoured.
Even if they feel deeply disturbed,
called to bring forth a holy child who is destined to live forever,
they see themselves as humble servants of this great mystery,
and give themselves trustingly to the fulfillment of your word.
They conceived a vision within themselves, trusting that it came from you.
They struggled with feelings of infertility, imposed on them by society,
but they took courage from knowing that they were servants of a sacred work,
bringing to birth the rule of your Son.
when after a long journey with many doubts and hesitations,
with you at our side calming fears and answering questions,
we finally felt able to let the word you had spoken be done to us
and you could withdraw your sensible presence from us.
The acrostic works like this: take the first letter of each in reverse order and it spells two words thus: ‘ero cras’
O Sapientia 17 Dec. Our wisdom who is more than all human cunning.
O Adonai 18 Dec. Our leader who is like the morning star and calls us from sleep.
O Radix 19 Dec The one promised by the Father who frees us from darkness.
O Clavis 20 Dec The one who shows us the way that leads to peace.
O Oriens 21 Dec And he is the giver of light and happiness to suffering humanity.
O Radix 22 Dec He is God living among his people.
O Emmauel 23 Dec Jesus Christ whom we follow and who we are about to welcome again
this Christmas is all of these, and more
Gospel notes
2) Nothing is Impossible for God! Mrs. Marie
Norton of Elmira, New York, died in the fall of 1951, admired and praised by
all who had known her. Before she had any children, she was afflicted with
cancer, and physicians advised her against becoming pregnant. But Marie decided
to ignore advice and leave matters in God’s hands. She went ahead and brought
ten children into the world, and they were healthy children. When her
brother-in-law lost his wife, she took his children in, too. It was no easy
chore to keep house for such a brood, but she did it and was also her own cook
and laundress. Had Marie’s malady vanished? By no means. For thirty-five years
she was under treatment for malignancies and submitted to as much radium
therapy as her body could tolerate. Forty-two times she went under the
surgeon’s knife. After Marie’s death her son-in-law’s mother wrote a letter to
the paper in praise of Mrs. Norton. “As I observed her giving, besides
services, joy and sunshine … to us all, it has left me with a new reverence, a
feeling that I have witnessed something this sick world needs today… an
assurance that God does hear and answer those who love and trust Him.” Yes, He
hears and He gives us of Himself: the supreme Christmas gift is His beloved
Son. “… For nothing is impossible with God” (Luke, 1:37.
Gospel of the day). (Father Robert F. McNamara). Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
3) The FBI and the White House staff: The FBI
agents conducted a raid in a psychiatric hospital that was under investigation
for medical insurance fraud. After hours of reviewing thousands of
medical records, the dozens of agents were terribly hungry. The chief in
charge of the investigation called a nearby pizza parlor with delivery service
to order a quick dinner for his colleagues. Here is the recorded text of
the conversation: Agent: Hello. I would like to order 19 large
pizzas and 67 cans of soda. Pizza Man: And where would you
like them delivered? Agent: We’re over at the psychiatric hospital,
and we are all FBI agents, and since we have locked the front door to help our
operations, you will have to go around to the back to the service entrance to
deliver the pizzas. Pizza Man: A group of FBI agents calling from
the psychiatric hospital that I should come with 19 large pizzas and 67 cans of
sodas through the back door? Agent: That’s right, and it is very
urgent. We’ve been here all day and we’re starving. I have my F.B.I. checkbook
right here. Will you show up soon? Pizza Man: I don’t think
so. Agent: Why? Pizza Man: Because last week it
was President Trump who ordered pizzas from that psychiatric hospital for his
White House staff! I shall ask your doctors to give you stronger medicines to
ward off your F.B.I. hallucinations and to help you sleep well. Bye.”
Click. Bzzz. The feeling that the Pizza Man had as he participated in that
conversation may have been something like what the teenaged Mary felt at the
beginning of her encounter with the angelic messenger on the day of the Annunciation.
Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
“Terrific!” said the man, “I just signed a contract with the Minnesota Twins
and this’ll be great press.”
To the second man the nurse said, “Congratulations to you too. You are the
father of healthy triplets!”
“Fantastic!” he said. “I’m the vice-president of 3-M Company. This’ll be great
P.R.!”
At that point the third man turned ashen and ran for the door. “What’s wrong,
sir? Where are you going?” called the nurse. As he jumped into his car, the man
shouted, “I’m dashing to my office to resign. I’m the president of 7-UP!”
That’s exactly what Mary was feeling as she listened to the
angel spell out what God wanted of her: “Virgin birth?! Are you crazy? Who’s
going to believe that? I’ll be stoned to death as soon as the neighbors see I’m
pregnant! Dear God, what are you asking of me?” (Msgr. Dennis Clarke) Fr. Tony
(http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
3) Again, a Catholic president in the U. S.? When my Baptist
friend was a young teenager, President Kennedy ran for office. There was near
hysteria in some places about the dangers of having a papist in office taking
orders from the Vatican. Not long after the election, a little elderly lady was
at the post office to buy stamps. The clerk said, “What denomination?” She
adamantly said, “Baptist, but I didn’t think it would come.
19- Additional anecdotes:
1) From Anthony de Mello, a story on Emmanuel: “Excuse
me,” said a small river fish that happened to reach the ocean to a larger fish
he saw there, “You are older than I, so can you tell me where to find
this thing they call the ocean?” “The ocean,” said the older fish “is the thing
you are in now.” “Oh, this? But this is only salty water. What I’m seeking is
the ocean,” said the disappointed fish as he swam away to search elsewhere.
Today’s Gospel introduces God as Emmanuel, one living with us. Our Christmas
celebration should enable us to experience this God within us and all around
us. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
2) “My search is over.” I like the story about a
professor who sat at his desk one evening working on the next day’s lectures.
His housekeeper had laid that day’s mail and papers on his desk, and he began
to shuffle through them, discarding most to the wastebasket. He then noticed a
magazine, which was not even addressed to him but had been delivered to his
office by mistake. It fell open to an article titled “The Needs of the Congo
Mission.” Casually he began to read when he was suddenly consumed by these
words: “The need is great here. We have no one to work the northern province of
Gabon in the central Congo. And it is my prayer as I write this article that
God will lay His hand on one – one on whom, already, the Master’s eyes have
been cast – that he or she shall be called to this place to help us.” Professor
Albert Schweitzer closed the magazine and wrote in his diary: “My search is
over.” He gave himself to the Congo. That little article, hidden in a
periodical intended for someone else, was placed by accident in Schweitzer’s
mailbox. By chance he noticed the title. It leaped out at him. Chance? Nope. It
was one of God’s surprises. This morning we focus on one of the greatest
surprises that ever there was, the surprise that took place when the Archangel
Gabriel appeared to a young teenager, Mary. Gabriel piled one surprise upon
another. Mary and Joseph’s Christmas tree had more astonishing surprises than
any couple on earth had ever experienced. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
3) “What will we do with this baby Jesus?” Wade
Burton tells about a man who was riding a bus from Chicago to Miami. He had a
stop-over in Atlanta. While he was sitting at a lunch counter, a woman came out
of the ladies’ restroom carrying a tiny baby. She asked the man, “Will you hold
my baby for me, I left my purse in the restroom.” He did. But as the woman
neared the front door of the bus station, she darted out into the crowded
street and was immediately lost in the crowd. The man couldn’t believe his
eyes. He rushed to the door to call the woman, but could not see her. What
should he do? Put the baby down and run? When calmness settled in he went to
the Traveler’s Aid booth, and they soon found the real mother. The woman who
had left him holding the baby was not the baby’s mother. She had taken the
child, perhaps to satisfy a motherly urge to hold a child. The man breathed a sigh
of relief when the real mother was found. After all, what was he to do with a
baby? In a way each of us is in the same situation as this gentleman. We are
left with the question, “What will we do with the Baby?” Have we really come to
terms with the fact that this Baby is not simply extraordinarily gifted, but
that he is himself a gift from the heart of God? Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
4) “Didn’t you get my E-mail?” As a little girl
climbed up into Santa’s lap, Santa asked the usual, “And what would you like
for Christmas?” The little girl just stared at Santa with her mouth open and
horrified look on her face for a minute, and then she gasped: “Didn’t you get
my E-mail?” That had to have been the same sort of horrified look that Mary
must have had on her face when the Angel of the Lord appeared to her and spoke
to her about God’s purpose for her life. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
5) “You shall name him Jesus.” Some names are
unfortunate. I heard about a man who joined the Navy. His name was Tonsillitis
Jackson. The Navy couldn’t believe it, so they did a check on him, and
discovered that indeed his name really was Tonsillitis Jackson. What’s more, he
had brothers and sisters who were named: Meningitis, Appendicitis, Peritonitis,
and Laryngitis. A sense of identity, a sense of destiny, comes with the
conferring of a name. And that is the kind of name that was given to Jesus as
we read in today’s Gospel. It conferred upon him a destiny, a vocation that he
was to fulfill for us. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
6) “Do not be afraid!” It’s an obvious
understatement to say we live in a day of great fear. The language of “terror”
has become the motivating mantra of our day. I did a Google search for the word
“fear,” and I came up with a fascinating site called “The Phobia List”—pages of
phobias, A to Z. Everything from Alliumphobia—the fear of garlic and
Lachanophobia—the fear of vegetables to Zemmiphobia—the fear of the great mole
rat. It even lists Ecclesiophobia—the fear of church and, get this,
Homilophobia—the fear of sermons! You can even get a poster of the “Phobia
List” which will cover your entire wall. We all have our own phobia lists, and
the list can be as fresh as the morning papers: Daily bad news from the auto
industry, uncertainty about the present and future course of Covid 19 and its
economic repercussions, about the state of the economy or personal security. A
questionable course in Iraq, Afghanistan … wherever, with no clear sense of how
long all this will go on, when or how it will end. Fear of bird flu or bad
weather or a bitter diagnosis from the family doctor. Add to that,
fear-mongering TV preachers and politicians who use talk of terror for
political gain until the fear of terror becomes its own terror. And add to
that, panic-driven newscasters who can’t even give the weather without
fear-filled, bated breath. It all leads to what Jane Spencer in the Wall
Street Journal refers to as the “fear system” of our day. Into that
maze of fear, we have the audacity to read the word of the angel to Mary: “Do
not be afraid!” Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
7) “You are pregnant”: In January of 2002, a
hospital in London, England, mistakenly sent letters to over 30 unsuspecting
patients informing them that they were pregnant. The hospital’s computer
system, which normally is used to send form letters telling people that their
operations have been postponed, was in the hands of a clerical worker who hit
the wrong key. And so, instead of informing patients about a rescheduled procedure,
the computer sent identical form letters telling the recipients that they were
“great with child.” Among the recipients of the letters were six elderly men.
(“Hospital Tells Elderly Men They’re Pregnant,” Reuters, London, (Jan. 10). Can
you imagine the surprise of those six men? “Your doctor at Such-and-Such
hospital is pleased to inform you that you are expecting a baby!” Quite a
shock, to say the least! Some of the women were probably surprised as well.
“How can it be?” some of them may have asked. “That’s not possible! I think I’m
going to be sick!” There was possibly some high anxiety in the homes of some
women patients who received this letter. Don’t you think Mary, the mother of
Jesus, experienced troubling thoughts when the angel of the Lord first appeared
to her? Mary was a virgin engaged to be married. She had never been with a man
– even the man she was to wed. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
8) “Favored by God with stress points?”:
Years ago a psychologist named Thomas Holmes developed a scale for measuring
stress. He assigned numerical values to events that cause stress such as the
loss of job, moving to a new city, a new relationship. Dr. Holmes even included
Christmas on his stress list. He decided that just a normal Christmas was worth
a hefty 14 stress points. Some of you understand. You’re up to 15 or 20 stress
points right now. A writer by the name of Bridget Kuhns took Dr. Holmes’ scale
and applied it to Mary. Holmes calculated that any pregnancy earns 40 points:
an unwanted pregnancy, add 20 more. A change in living conditions (Mary stayed
three months with Elizabeth), earns 25 more. Marriage to Joseph: 50 points. A
change in financial status: 38 points. Surely there must have been words between
them when she discovered that he had not made reservations at the inn: score 35
points for an argument with a spouse. And then the birth – 39 points: 16 for a
change in sleeping habits; 15 for a change in eating habits. Not to mention all
those uninvited guests: shepherds and angels coming and going and wise men from
the East. Psychologist Thomas Holmes says that people get sick when they reach
200 points on his stress scale. Ms. Kuhns calculates that Mary’s ordeal earned
her a record 424 points. http://home.gci.net/~stjohn1/sermons/2001/dec23.01.htm.
— This, of course, does not even include the flight to Egypt. Or even more
important, the experience of watching her beloved son die as a common criminal
on a cross. Is this what it means to be favored of God? Evidently being favored
of God does not protect you from life’s bumps and bruises. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
9) “$500 for information on the missing cat.”
Remember the story about the guy who hated his wife’s cat? He just hated that
cat with a vengeance, but his wife loved the cat. One day, the cat disappeared.
His wife was grief-stricken, so the man put an ad in the newspaper: “$500 for
information on the missing cat.” His friend saw the ad and said to him: “Wow!
$500 for word on the cat that you hated…that’s pretty risky, isn’t it?” With a
sly, knowing twinkle in his eye, the man responded: “It’s not so risky when you
know what you know.” We know the end of the story. Life is not so scary
when you know what you know. We know God keeps his promises and sends a
Savior. We know Jesus comes and his name is called Emmanuel, meaning “God
with Us.”). Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
10) “He’s out moose-hunting.” There was a story
years ago in the Canadian version of the Reader’s Digest of a
large moose that wandered into a residential area in Calgary, Canada. The moose
ended up on the lawn of a lady named Lorna Cade. A Fish and Wildlife officer
was dispatched to try to coax the magnificent animal back into the wild. After
two hours of absolutely no progress, the officer finally shot the moose with a
tranquilizer dart. The moose bolted down a lane and eventually collapsed on
another nearby lawn. The reporters who had been following this event
interviewed the lady at the house where the moose collapsed. They asked her
what she thought about the moose which had passed out on her lawn. “I’m
surprised,” she answered, “but not as surprised as my husband will be. He’s out
moose-hunting.” — Her husband had gone out looking for moose and a large moose
had come to him. That is the message of Christmas. While humanity spends its
time seeking after God, God comes to us in the Baby of Bethlehem. Fr. Tony
(http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
11) Remember Humphrey, the humpback whale? Humphrey
became a national celebrity in 1985 when he made his way into the San Francisco
Bay and headed up the Sacramento River into fresh water which, of course, could
have been fatal for him. Each evening a large local television audience would
tune in for the latest update on Humphrey’s plight. Then national media
coverage began and the whole country watched the ensuing story. None of the
traditional herding techniques were working and the world held its breath as
Humphrey appeared to be dying. His skin was graying and he was becoming more
and more listless. As a last-ditch effort, Dr. Bernie Krause, who had recorded
the sounds humpback whales made while feeding suggested using them as a
possible way to lure Humphrey out. No one knew if this would work, but it was
their last shot at saving him. A speaker was lowered over the side of a boat,
the sounds of other humpback whales were played, and everyone stood quietly
while the eerie songs reverberated through the hull. Suddenly, Humphrey emerged
from the water at the bow of the ship right where the speaker was playing, and
gazed at the startled crew. The Captain quickly started down the river with
Humphrey following close behind. As they approached the San Francisco Bay, and
the water gained in salinity, Humphrey was visibly excited and began diving
deeply to everyone’s delight and amazement. It was like the climax to a
Hollywood film. The air was filled with helicopters and the river banks were
lined with thousands of spectators all cheering Humphrey on to freedom. Don’t
you think that’s interesting? They failed using various methods to lure
Humphrey to turn around. Nothing worked until he heard the recorded sounds of
other humpback whales. I guess it takes a whale to talk to whales! — Now
imagine God’s dilemma. God sought to communicate His love and His purpose for
humanity through the Law and through the Prophets, through Scripture, and
through the worship of the Hebrew people in the Temple of Jerusalem. But still
the people did not get it. We did not know how much God loves us and that God’s
ultimate plan was for us to love one another. So God did the only thing left.
God became one of us in the Baby in the manger. God came to us when,
intellectually, we could not reach up to Him. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
13) “Somewhere, somehow, set things right.” On
the wall of the museum of the concentration camp at Dachau is a moving
photograph of a mother and her little girl being taken to a gas chamber at
Auschwitz. The girl, who is walking in front of her mother, does not know where
she is going. The mother, who walks behind, does know, but there is nothing,
absolutely nothing, the mother can do to stop this tragedy. In her
helplessness, she performs the only act of love left to her. She places her
hand over her little girl’s eyes so that at least she will not have to see the
horror which faces her. When people see this picture in the museum, they do not
move quickly or easily to the next one. You can feel their emotion, almost hear
their cries, “O God, don’t let that be all there is. Somewhere, somehow, set
things right.” — Luke’s word to us this day is that God hears those prayers,
and that it is into just such situations of hopelessness and helplessness that
the power of God is born. It is there that God invests His treasure, lifting up
the lowly and filling the hungry with good things — setting things right. Fr.
Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
14)”Have you found him?” Here is another Anthony
de Mello story. The young hermit (sannyasi) came to the master in hermit
robes and asked. “For years I have been seeking God. I have sought him
everywhere that he is said to be: on mountain peaks, the vastness of the
desert, the silence of the cloister, and the dwellings of the poor.” “Have you
found him?” the master asked. “No. I have not. Have you?” What could the master
say? The evening sun was sending shafts of golden light into the room. Hundreds
of sparrows were twittering on a nearby banyan tree. In the distance one could
hear the sound of highway traffic. A mosquito droned a warning that it was
going to strike…And yet this man could sit there and say he had not found God.
After a while the young hermit left, disappointed, to search elsewhere. Since
God can be found everywhere, we must continually look for Him and especially,
perhaps in the most difficult places. That is why in the first reading today;
God tells David that He cannot be contained in a man-made Temple. As
we prepare to celebrate the reality of Christmas, the feast of Emmanuel,
(God-With-Us), let us be prepared to recognize the God whose presence can be
known and experienced in the distressing problems of life. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
15) Partners in God’s great work of
salvation. A priest tells a story from the 1940s that illustrates this truth
particularly well. He was attending the funeral of the pastor of Holy Trinity,
then a national German parish, in Boston. In the vestibule he had met a
gray-haired layman and they got to conversing. The layman said to him: “This
dead pastor converted me, and yet I never got closer to him than any of the
pews are to the pulpit. “During the First World War, I was a government agent.
Remember how we were taught then to hate everything German? Even on the
restaurant menus, sauerkraut became Liberty Cabbage. “Anyway, I could speak
German and I was assigned to listen to the sermons here every Sunday morning.
Somebody was afraid that this pastor might be subtly sabotaging our war effort
by taking sly shots at patriotism. “I never heard one word that was
unpatriotic. “But Sunday after Sunday I heard a brief, clear, attractive
presentation of some point of Catholic doctrine. “I became more and more
interested in the Catholic Church and I decided to investigate further. “So I
went to another rectory (I could not go to this pastor, because I was
practically ‘casing’ him) and took a series of instructions. “I was baptized
and have been a Catholic ever since. “The man we are burying today never knew
what I have told you, but when I read about his death in the newspaper, I
thought I should come to say thanks. He doesn’t need it, but it makes me feel
better.” So often, that’s how God works: if we just faithfully fulfill His will
for us each day, He makes us partners in His great work of salvation. (“Ten
Responsible Minutes” by Joseph Manton, C.SS.R, p49/E- Priest.) Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
16) Reminders that God is in charge: One
eloquent reminder is from the life of St. John Bosco, founder of
the Salesians, who died in 1888. He began a ministry for poor boys and orphans
that taught them a trade during the day and gave them school and Faith
instructions in the evening. Every day he would spend time with the
many boys in his school, and every morning he would hear confessions before
breakfast. It was a common occurrence for the saint to point out in the
confessional sins that the boys had forgotten or were afraid to confess. One
day in 1848 St John was celebrating Mass in honor of the Feast of the
Annunciation. The small church was filled with 360 boys and young men. When the
time came for Holy Communion, he went to the tabernacle to remove the Hosts. To
his great surprise he discovered that only 8 Hosts were reserved there – not
nearly enough for the large congregation. Many people present, including
Giuseppe Buzzetti [boot-SEHT-ee], who would later become one of the first
Salesian priests and who was the altar server during that Mass, saw John
Bosco’s predicament and wondered what would happen. The saint removed the 8
Hosts from the tabernacle and began distributing Holy Communion. As the young
Giuseppe followed the priest with the paten, he was amazed to watch as the
ciborium continued to fill up with Hosts, miraculously allowing for everyone
present to receive Holy Communion. God sends miracles like these every once in
a while to boost our confidence, to remind us that nothing is impossible for
him.(therealpresence.org]E-
Priest). Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
17) God’s House, God’s Housemaid: Three
stonecutters were involved in building work. When asked what they were doing,
the first one replied, “I’m breaking stones!” The second answered, “I’m earning
a living!” The third exclaimed, “I’m building a house for God!” Like the third
stone-cutter, in today’s first reading King David desires to build God’s House.
But, let’s ask: who really builds whose house? And ultimately, who is God’s
perfect housemaid? The symbol of “house” is significant in the first reading.
Since he is living in a palace while the Ark of the Covenant rests in a tent,
David tells Prophet Nathan of his desire to build God a House. However, God
asks, seemingly sarcastically: “Are you the man to build Me a House?” The Bible
says that it was David’s son, Solomon – not David – who was chosen to build
God’s House (see I King 5:2-5). Yet, reminding David of all the blessings he
received, God promises, “The Lord will make you a House.” (Francis Gonsalves in
Sunday Seeds for Daily Deeds). Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
18)“Joy to the World”: In the prologue to his
book Joy, William Schutz tells how the birth of his son Ethan
inspired him to write the book. Ethan begins his life by giving joy to his
parents. The joy continues as Ethan sees, touches, tastes and hears things for
the first time. But something happens to Ethan as it does to all of us. Somehow
his joy diminishes with growth, never to return fully. Schutz wrote his book to
help readers recapture some of this joy. Like Ethan, Jesus, too, begins his
life by giving joy. Even before he is born his very presence brings joy to
people. –Even when we cannot achieve our full human potential in some of those
areas Schutz outlines, we can still experience a profound interior joy because
Jesus is in our midst. The power of his presence enables us to endure any
difficulty, transcend any trial or overcome any obstacle. His presence can
bring peace where there is anxiety, sharing where there is selfishness and
dreams where there is despair. Isaac Watts was right when he composed a
Christmas carol entitled “Joy to the World!” Indeed, there is real joy in the
world at Christmas time because the Lord is come. He is Emmanuel, God with us!
(Albert Cylwicki in His Word Resounds). Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
19) “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord. May
it be done to me according to your word.” A Persian legend
runs that a certain king needed a faithful servant, and two men were candidates
for the office. He took both at fixed wages, and his first order was to fill a
basket with water from a neighboring well, saying that he would come in the
evening and see their work. After putting in one or two bucketful’s, one man
said, “What is the good of doing this useless work? As soon as we put the
water inside the bucket with several holes, it runs out. The other
answered, “But we have our wages, haven’t we? Our master may have his
plans.” “I am not going to do such fool’s work,” replied the other.
Throwing down his bucket, he went away. The other man continued until he had
drained the well. Looking down into it, he saw something shining—a diamond ring. “Now
I see the use of pouring water into a basket with holes,” he
cried. “If the bucket had brought up the ring before the well was emptied,
it would have been found in the basket. Our work was not useless.” —
Christians must believe that their divine Master knows what is best, and obey
his commands, and in due time they will know and understand. Mary understood
this and obeyed God in all humility, starting in the Annunciation. (Fr. Lakra).
Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Chuck Swindoll writes, "surprises come in many forms and guises: some good, some borderline amazing, some awful, some tragic, some hilarious. But there's one thing we can usually say -- surprises aren't boring." Surprises are woven through the very fabric of all our lives. They await each one of us at unexpected and unpredictable junctures.
I like the story about a professor who sat at his desk one evening working on the next day's lectures. His housekeeper had laid that days mail and papers at his desk and he began to shuffle through them discarding most to the wastebasket. He then noticed a magazine, which was not even addressed to him but delivered to his office by mistake. It fell open to an article titled "The Needs of the Congo Mission".
Casually he began to read when he was suddenly consumed by these words: "The need is great here. We have no one to work the northern province of Gabon in the central Congo. And it is my prayer as I write this article that God will lay His hand on one - one on whom, already, the Master's eyes have been cast - that he or she shall be called to this place to help us." Professor Albert Schweitzer closed the magazine and wrote in his diary: "My search is over." He gave himself to the Congo.
That little article, hidden in a periodical intended for someone else, was placed by accident in Schweitzer's mailbox. By chance he noticed the title. It leaped out at him. Chance? Nope. It was one of God's surprises.
This morning we focus on one of the greatest surprises that ever there was, the surprise that took place when an angel by the name of Gabriel appeared to a young teenager by the name of Mary. Gabriel piled one surprise upon another. Mary and Joseph's Christmas tree had more astonishing surprises than any couple on earth had ever experienced. Gabriel surprised Mary with the following:
3. "He will be called the Son of God."
f impossibilities. Consider the impossibilities Mary faced in this story: She is a virgin and pregnant-she is having a child while she is a virgin. Impossible! No way! Won't happen! Joseph has to follow through on the marriage after he discovers Mary is pregnant. Impossible! Mary must avoid being stoned to death when the neighbors hear the news. Impossible!
The first artist unveiled his painting, and there was a beautiful, magnificent pastoral scene, with a farmer coming in after a hard day in the fields. His wife was cooking, his children were playing around the hearth, and all was at peace in this tranquil and beautiful farm.
We need a little Christmas right now, but the little Christmas that we need is the courage that comes as the favor of God. We must remember that the Christian community has done its best when it has gone against the wind. William L. Self, Have I Got News for You!
What if the thing was a bomb? Fearing the worse, Margaret telephoned postal authorities. The bomb squad soon arrived with eight squad cars and an armored truck. They took the suspected bomb in the armored truck to a remote tip of Belle Isle in the middle of the Detroit River. There they wrapped detonating cord around the package and, as they say in the bomb business, "opened it remotely."
When the debris settled, all that was left intact was the factory warranty for the contents: a $450 stereo AM-FM receiver and tape deck. Now the only mystery is who is Edward Achorn and why did he send Michael and Margaret such a nice Christmas present?
We live in a cynical age -- an age of terrorists and corporate charlatans. Who can talk of angels and humble maidens and divine revelation in the same breath to such a generation? Yet, on such a foundation does our faith rest.
Etty Hillesum, died in Auschwitz in 1943 at the age of 29. From An Interrupted Life, a compilation of her diaries and letters.
Have a graced, gift-filled weekend!
All for you Daddy!
The story goes that some time ago, a man punished his 3-year old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree. Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said, "This is for you, Daddy." He was embarrassed by his earlier over reaction, but his anger flared again when he found the box was empty. He yelled at her, "Don't you know that when you give someone a present, there's supposed to be something inside it?" The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said, "Oh, Daddy, it is not empty. I blew kisses into the box. All for you, Daddy." The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged for her forgiveness. It is told that the man kept that gold box by his bed for years and whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.
The Gospel focuses on Mary, who becomes the new ark of the covenant, the new tent of meeting, the new dwelling place of God. Mary is great not because of what she did for God but because of what she allowed God to do for her and in her life. “Rejoice, so highly favoured! The Lord is with you! Mary is highly favoured not because she deserves it, not because she has earned God’s favour but precisely because God has chosen her! God does not look at our capabilities but our availability! God does not need our talents, He needs us! Mary is human and so she is surprised by the announcement that she is going to be the mother of Jesus. She asks: “How is this possible? How can this be?” We too sometimes ask: How can this be possible? I have done nothing to deserve this. We are so used to being chosen for our talents and capabilities that we think we have to earn and merit what we get from God. The angel assures Mary that what will happen is the work of grace, in and through the Spirit. With God the impossible becomes possible! Mary’s response is a “Yes” to God’s plan. We see then a contrast between David’s (our) plan for the way God should dwell with his people and Mary’s openness to God’s plan to dwell in her life. We cannot give God anything unless we have first received from Him. Love is an exchange of giving and receiving. What is important is that we receive first what God has to offer and only then can we meaningfully give in return. Christmas is a time of gift-giving. Henri Nouwen once wrote: “When someone accepts a gift, he admits another into his world and is ready to give him a place in his own being… Ultimately a gift becomes a gift only when it is accepted.” Have we accepted His gift?
What you did to the least
Tolstoy once told the story about an old cobbler, Martin, who dreamt that Christ was going to visit him. All day he waited and watched but nothing extraordinary seemed to be happening. While he waited he gave hospitality to one person who was cold, to another who needed reconciliation, to another who needed clothing. At the end of the day, he was disappointed that Christ had not come. That night he had another dream, and all those to whom he gave hospitality returned and a voice said, “Martin, do you not know me? I am Jesus. What you did to the least of these you did to me.
Receiving graciously is also a gift!
They tell of a man in a small town in South Dakota who tried to give some money back to the Social Security Administration, but could not. At age 65 the man retired from his work as a farm labourer and moved into town. His retirement house was extremely modest, sparsely furnished, and simply kept. Most could not manage on his meagre minimum security cheque. At the end of the first month of collecting on Social security, this humble man went to the bank with five dollars in cash and told the teller he wanted to return some money because the government had given him more than he needed. With that request he “blew everybody in the bank away.” They explained to him that he couldn’t do that, that the government could give out social security funds, but that there was no set-up programme for taking any of it back! There was no category for people who wanted to give any of their social security back to the government. Application: To receive something graciously from another is as much a gift as giving.
Praying my way
Some years ago I was sitting by the bed of an elderly lady who was very troubled because she couldn’t pray. I invited her to talk to me about it. She spoke at great length about how she kept falling asleep, how she was disappointed at not being able to complete a rosary, and how her mind wandered all over the place when she watched the mass on television, which was the only way of sharing in Eucharist within her limit at that time. I continued to encourage her to speak, as she told me how important prayer had always been in her life, and how it had sustained her throughout each day. She spoke of how good God had been to her, and how she felt ungrateful now through her inability to give him proper time and attention in her day. After listening for some time, I made a suggestion to her. I told her that what she said was beautiful and was, indeed, a prayer. I stood up from the chair, and I asked her to imagine that Jesus was now sitting in the chair. As I left the room, I asked her to keep talking to him just as she has spoken to me. Each day I called after that, I always had a smile, as she told how she spoke quietly to the chair even during her waking hours of the night, and how she was certain that Jesus was there.
God’s House, God’s Housemaid
God breaks into our lives!
Yesterday I watched a huge flight of geese winging their way south through one of those panoramic sunsets that colour the entire sky for a few moments. I saw them as I leaned against the lion statue in front of the Chicago Art Institute, where I was watching the Christmas shoppers hurry along Michigan Avenue. When I lowered my gaze, I noticed that a bag lady, standing a few feet away, had also been watching the geese. Our eyes met and we smiled –silently acknowledging the fact that we had shared a marvelous sight, a symbol of the mystery of the struggle to survive. I overheard the lady talking to herself as she shuffled away. Her words “God spoils me” were startling. Was the lady, this street derelict, being facetious? No. I believe the sight of the geese has shattered, however briefly, the harsh reality of her struggle. I realized later that moments such as this one sustained her; it was the way she survived the indignity of the street. Her smile was real. The sight of the geese was her Christmas present. It was proof God existed. It was all she needed. I envy her.
Fred Lloyd Cochran in ‘Chicken Soup for the Unsinkable Soul’
Joy to the World
In the prologue to his book Joy, William Schutz tells how the birth of his son Ethan inspired him to write the book. Ethan begins his life by giving joy to his parents. The joy continues as Ethan sees, touches, tastes and hears things for the first time. But something happens to Ethan as it does to all of us. Somehow his joy diminishes with growth, never to return fully. Schutz wrote his book to help readers recapture some of this joy. Like Ethan, Jesus too begins his life by giving joy. Even before he is born his very presence brings joy to people. -Even when we cannot achieve our full human potential in some of those areas Schutz outlines, we can still experience a profound interior joy because Jesus is in our midst. The power of his presence enables us to endure any difficulty, transcend any trial or overcome any obstacle. His presence can bring peace where there is anxiety, sharing where there is selfishness and dreams where there is despair. Isaac Watts was right when he composed a Christmas carol entitled “Joy to the World!” Indeed, there is real joy in the world at Christmas time because the Lord is come. He is Emmanuel, God with us!
May we discover the joy of welcoming Jesus into our lives!!
