Dec 26 Tuesday: St. Stephen: For a brief biography, click on https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-stephen/Matthew 10: 17-22: Mt 10:17-22:
Life and death of St. Stephen: Today’s first
reading, taken from theActs of the Apostles, describes the death of Stephen,
the first martyr in the history of the Church. Stephen was a zealous Greek
convert from Judaism to Christianity. He was chosen by the community and
accepted by the Apostles to serve as one of the seven earliest deacons in the
Church. These Deacons were meant to help meet the material needs of Greek
Christian widows in Jerusalem who had complained that they were being slighted
in favor of Hebrew Christian widows in the matter of Church assistance. Stephen
was chosen for this ministry of helping the poor because he had good character
and was filled with the Holy Spirit. But he was arrested by the Sanhedrin
because he was converting numerous Jews to Christianity, and the Jewish leaders
could not win against him with arguments. The jealous Jews arranged false
witnesses against Stephen. These men accused him of blaspheming against Yahweh
and Moses. In his final defense speech before his judges in the Sanhedrin,
Stephen, inspired by the Holy Spirit as Jesus had promised all His disciples
they would be when called to bear witness to Him, bravely and eloquently
defended his belief in Jesus as the promised Messiah. He accused the Jews of
unbelief and explained that the sacrifices and sacrificial Laws given by Moses
were temporary. When Stephen suddenly announced that he could see Jesus
standing at the right hand of the Father, the infuriated Jews mobbed him,
dragged him out of the city, and stoned him to death. During the stoning,
Stephen bore heroic witness to Jesus, first praying, “Lord Jesus,
receive my spirit,” and then, obeying the command of Jesus, prayed
loudly for his executioners, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” With
that, he “fell asleep.”
Life message: St. Stephen teaches us how to bear
witness to Christ bravely in our lives, when our Faith and its practice are
questioned or challenged. St. Stephen’s martyrdom is celebrated on the day
following Christmas to remind us of the consequences of giving our lives to Him
who was born an infant in Bethlehem — that we must give Him everything, holding
nothing back, even if it means persecution and death.
Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Dec 27 Wednesday: St. John the Apostle:
St. John, Apostle and Evangelist: John was the son of
Zebedee the fisherman and Salome, a close relative of Mary. John and his
brother, James the Greater, were fishermen, partners of Peter and Andrew; they
were disciples of John the Baptist before they were called by Jesus as his Apostles.
John’s name is mentioned always after his brother’s name in Matthew, Mark and
the Acts of the Apostles. John was the Apostle beloved by Jesus and
one of the three constituting Jesus’ inner circle of friends who witnessed
Jesus’ raising of the daughter of Jairus from the dead, His Transfiguration on
the mountain and His agony in the garden of Gethsemane. After fleeing with the
others from Gethsemane, John returned. He remained faithful to Jesus at the
palace of the High Priest during Jesus’ trial by the Sanhedrin, and he had the
courage to be at the foot of the cross, supporting and consoling Mary. He was
entrusted by Jesus with the care of His mother, and, after the Resurrection,
John was the one who first recognized the risen Jesus on the shore of the Sea
of Galilee.
Missionary activities: With Peter, John played a
prominent role in founding and guiding the Church. John was with Peter when the
latter healed the lame man (Acts 3:1), was in prison with him (Acts 4:3), and
was with him when Peter visited the new Christians in Samaria (Acts 8:14). John
left for Asia Minor and Ephesus when King Herod Agrippa I started persecuting
Christians. He returned to Jerusalem in AD 51 to attend the Jerusalem Council.
According to tradition, when the attempt of Emperor Domitian to murder John by
putting him in boiling oil failed, John was exiled to Patmos Island. As an
Evangelist, John wrote five books of the New Testament: The Gospel
according to John, three epistles and the Book of Revelation.
He preached always about God’s love in his old age. Returning to Ephesus, John
lived there, dying when he was one hundred years old. John reminds us of the
greatest commandment of love given by Jesus: “Love one another as I have
loved you.” (Fr. Tony)
Dec 28 Thursday: Feast of the Holy Innocents
The Holy Innocents whom this Mass commemorates
were the children slaughtered by the soldiers under the the orders of Herod the
Great in his fruitless pursuit of the “newborn king of the Jews.” In our times
this Mass includes the the untold numbers of innocent babies slaughtered by
abortion. The Feast also reminds us of Pharoah’s murder of the male children of
the Hebrews at the time of Moses’ birth.
The context: Herod the Great had been made the king
of Judea by the Roman Empire although he was not even a Jew: his father was an
Idumean, his mother an Arab. This cruel king was kept in power mainly by the
Roman army. He brutally executed all suspected rivals to his throne including
his wife, brother, and two brothers-in-law. No wonder he was terrified at the
news that a rival king, a descendant of King David, had been born somewhere in
Bethlehem, for this child could someday claim to be the legitimate king of Israel
and Judea! Herod’s anger intensified when he realized that the Magi had not
returned to his royal palace to report the whereabouts of the Child Jesus.
Matthew says that the slaughter of the Innocents was in fulfillment of a
prophecy of the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamenting and
weeping bitterly; it is Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be
comforted for her children, because they are no more.” Ramah is a hill
near Bethlehem and the burial place of Rachel, the wife of the patriarch Jacob.
The Jews believed that she wept bitterly in her tomb when the Jews were taken
as slaves by the Assyrians and later when Herod massacred the babies. The most
likely scenario is that Jesus was born around 4 BC; the wise men (by their own account)
arrived in Jerusalem two years later in 2 B.C., and in that same year Joseph,
Mary, and Jesus fled to Egypt. When Herod died, they returned. So, the length
of their sojourn in Egypt was probably about a few months.
Life message: We need to raise our voice against
the 21st century massacre of the Innocents: As in other advanced countries, the
cruel massacre of the innocents, though now illegal in America since the
Supreme Court’s 2022 overturn of the Roe vs Wade Supreme
Court’s decision of 1973, continues elsewhere in the world, and in America, the
proponents of Abortion on demand are have shifted their fight their fight in
the mid-year elections for members the Senate and the House of as well as in
the legislatures of the individual states. While Herod killed at the most a
hundred children, nearly four thousand unborn babies are slaughtered in the
United States every day. They are killed because, like the infants of
Bethlehem, they are inconvenient. Children are sacrificed also for the most
powerful king of the twenty-first century, Science. Babies are killed in their
embryo stage to harvest their “stem cells” for medical experiments intended to
heal the illnesses of their parents and grandparents. Along with prayer, let us
do everything in our power to stop this brutal murder of the helpless babies.
(Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Dec 29 Friday: St. Thomas Becket Luke
2: 22-35: The context: Today’s Gospel presents the head of the Holy
Family, Joseph, faithfully obeying God’s law given through Moses concerning the
purification of the mother and the redeeming of the child by presenting Mary
and the Baby Jesus in the Temple. The events recounted are those we
traditionally celebrate on February 2nd with the Feast of Presentation
of Jesus. We celebrate them today in order to group all the events of
Christ’s Infancy within the Octave of Christmas. Today (and on February 2nd),
we celebrate a combined feast, commemorating the Jewish practice of
the purification of the mother 40 days after childbirth and the presentation of
the child in the Temple. It is known as the Hypanthe feast
or Feast of the Purification of Mary (by the offering two
pigeons in the Temple), the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord (by
prayers and a sacrifice offered in the Temple to redeem or buy back the
firstborn male child from the Lord), and the Feast of Encounter (because
the New Testament, represented by the Baby Jesus, encountered the Old
Testament, represented by Simeon and Anna). On February 2nd we celebrate these
events as a formal ending of the Christmas season. On that day we also
celebrate the Feast of Candlemas (because candles are blessed
then for liturgical and personal use).
Purification and redemption ceremonies: The Mosaic Law
taught that, since every Jewish male child belonged to Yahweh, the parents had
to “buy back” the child (“redeem” him), by offering lambs or turtledoves as a
sacrifice in the Temple. In addition (Nm 18:15), every mother had to be
purified after childbirth by prayers and an offering made to God in the Temple.
Joseph kept these laws as an act of obedience to God.
The encounter with Simeon and Anna: By the inspiration of
the Holy Spirit, the old, pious and Spirit-filled Simeon and Anna had been
waiting in the Temple for the revelation of God’s salvation. Simeon recognized
Jesus as the Lord’s Anointed One, and in his prayer of blessing, he prophesied
that Jesus was meant to be “A light for Revelation to the Gentiles and
for Glory to Your People, Israel” While he blessed Mary, he warned
that her child would be “a sign of contradiction” and that
her own soul would be “pierced with a sword.” Simeon was
prophesying both the universal salvation that would be proclaimed by Jesus and
the necessity of suffering in the mission of the Messiah.
Life message:1)Every Holy Mass in which we
participate is our presentation. Although we were officially presented to God
on the day of our Baptism, we present ourselves and our dear ones on the altar
before God our Father through our Savior Jesus Christ at every Holy Mass.
Hence, we need to live our daily lives with the awareness both that we are
dedicated people consecrated to God and that we are obliged to lead holy lives.
(Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Dec 30 Saturday: St. Egwin Luke 2: 36-40
The context: Today’s Gospel presents Anna the
prophetess who greeted the Baby Jesus as the Redeemer when Joseph presented
Mary and the Infant in the Temple for the purification of the mother and for
the “redemption” of the Baby Jesus.
Anna and her testimony: Anna was an eighty-four-year-old
widow who spent her days in the Temple in fasting and prayer, waiting for the
promised Messiah. She was rewarded with the joy of seeing her Redeemer as a
Baby. In her excitement she praised God and introduced the Infant to others
around her as the expected Messiah.
The Child Jesus’ growth in wisdom and the favor of God: Commenting
on the last sentence of today’s Gospel St. Bede says: “Our Lord Jesus Christ,
as a Child clothed in the fragility of human nature, had to grow and become
stronger. But, as the eternal Word of God, He had no need to become stronger or
to grow. Hence, He is rightly described as full of wisdom and grace.”
Life messages: 1)The Holy Spirit uses ordinary
men and women with simple Faith as His instruments to bear witness to Christ,
His ideals and teachings. 2) We need praying Annas in all our parishes to offer
prayers for all the members of our parish families. Let us cooperate with the
Spirit in everything. 3) Anna’s prophetic life tells us that we each must live
our lives in constant preparation for meeting our Divine Lord in the Temple of
Heaven, remaining alert, as Anna did, to recognize, love, and serve Jesus
hidden in the people we encounter. 4) Like Anna, we must all foster an interior
life of ongoing prayer and penance, and we must direct all our actions in life
to the praise and glory of God and the salvation of our souls. Anna’s life is a
symbolic prophecy of every vocation. (Catholic Daily reflections).
(Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
