Advent 2nd Week: Dec 8-13:
Dec 8 Monday: Feast of the Immaculate Conception of
BVM:
Lk 1:26-38: Mary’s prophecy, given in her Magnificat, “Behold
all generations will call me blessed,” was fulfilled when the Catholic
Church declared four dogmas of Faith about her: 1-The Immaculate Conception,
2-The Perpetual Virginity, 3-The Divine Maternity, 4-The Assumption. The
Immaculate Conception is a dogma based mainly on Christian tradition and
theological reasoning. It was defined in 1854 by Pope Pius IX as a dogma of
Faith through Ineffabilis Deus. Definition: From
the first moment of her conception, Mary was preserved immune from original sin
by the singular grace of God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ,
Savior of the human race. (CCC #491). This means that original sanctity,
innocence, and justice were conferred upon her at her conception, and that she
was exempted from all the evil effects of original sin, except for sorrow,
pain, disease, and death which are temporal penalties given to Adam. (Catholic
Encyclopedia).
Basis in Sacred Tradition and the Bible:
(A) From Church tradition: The Immaculate
Conception is a dogma originating from sound Christian tradition. Monks in
Palestinian monasteries started celebrating the feast of the Conception of Our
Lady by the end of the 7th century. The feast spread as the Feast of the
Immaculate Conception in Italy (9th century), England (11th century), and
France (12th century). Pope Leo VI propagated the celebration, and Pope Sixtus
IV approved it as a Feast. Finally, in 1854, Pope Pius IX declared the
Immaculate Conception to be a dogma of Faith. Mary herself affirmed this in
1858 by declaring to Bernadette at Lourdes, “I am the Immaculate
Conception.”
(B) From Holy Scripture: 1) God purified the
prophet Jeremiah in the womb of his mother (“Before I formed you in the womb
of your mother I knew you and before you were born, I consecrated you” (Jer
1:5), and He anointed John the Baptist with His Holy Spirit before John’s
birth as John’s mother attests (“And how does this happen to me, that the
Mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your
greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy” (Lk 1:43-44).
Hence, it is reasonable that God kept the mother of His Son free from all sins
from the first moment of her origin. 2) The angel saluted Mary as “full of
grace” (Lk 1:28). The greeting means that she was never,
even for a moment, a slave of sin and the devil. 3) “I will put enmity
between you and the woman and between your seed and hers; He will strike at
your head while you strike at His heel” (Gn 3:15). “The Woman”
stands for Mary, and the promise would not be true if Mary had original sin.
(C) From logical reasoning: 1-If we were allowed
to select our mother, we would select the most beautiful, healthy and saintly
lady. So did God. 2-The All-Holy God cannot be born from a woman who was a
slave of the devil, even for a moment in her life. “Deus potuit, decuit,
fecit.” (Duns Scotus).
Life messages: 1) Every mother wants
her children to inherit or acquire all her good qualities. Hence, our
Immaculate and holy Heavenly Mother wants us to be holy and pure
children. 2) Let us honor her by practicing her virtues of
Faith and obedience. 3) Let us respond to God’s grace by using it to do good to
others. L/25
Dec 9 Tuesday: St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin: Mt
18:2-14:
The context: Since the self-righteous Pharisees
who accused Jesus of befriending publicans and sinners could not believe that
God would be delighted at the conversion of sinners, Jesus told them the
parable of the lost sheep and the shepherd’s joy on its discovery, the parable
of the lost coin and the woman’s joy when she found it, and the parable of the
lost and returned son and his Father’s joy on his return. These three parables
defended Jesus’ alliance with sinners and responded to the criticism that he was
welcoming tax collectors and sinners. The central theme of today’s Gospel is
that our God is loving, patient, merciful, and forgiving. This parable reminds
us that we have a God who welcomes sinners and forgives their sins when they
return to Him with genuine contrition and a firm resolution to amend their
lives.
Shepherding in Judaea was a hard, dangerous task. Pasture
was scarce; thorny scrub jungles with wild animals, and vast desert areas were
common, posing constant threats to the wandering sheep. But the shepherds were
famous for their dedicated, sacrificial service, perpetual vigilance, and
readiness for action. Two or three shepherds might be personally responsible
for the sheep owned by several families in a village. If even one of the sheep
had gone missing, one of the shepherds would go in search of it, sending the
other shepherds home with the flock of sheep. The whole village would be
waiting for the return of the shepherd with the lost sheep and would receive
him with shouts of joy and of thanksgiving.
Life messages: 1) We need to confess our sins to
regain peace and God’s friendship. We have to be humble enough to recognize
that we need God’s forgiveness to be whole. If we have been in sin, our God is
ready to receive and welcome us back, just as Jesus welcomed sinners in his
time. Let us pray today that we may allow God’s love and forgiveness into our
lives.
2) We should also ask God for the courage to extend this
forgiveness to others who have offended us. As we continue with the celebration
of the Holy Mass, let us pray also for God’s Divine Mercy on those who have
fallen away from grace.
(Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Dec 10 Wednesday: Our Lady of Loretto: Mt 11:28-30:
The context: In today’s Gospel, Jesus offers “rest
to those who labor and are burdened,” if they are ready to accept his
“easy yoke” and “light burden”. For the Orthodox
Jew, religion was a matter of burdens, namely, 613 Mosaic laws and thousands of
oral interpretations, which dictated every aspect of one’s daily life. Jesus
invites the overburdened Israel, and us, to take his yoke upon our shoulders.
In Palestine, ox-yokes were made of wood and were carved to fit the ox
comfortably. The yoke of Christ can be seen as the sum of our Christian
responsibilities and duties. Jesus’ yoke is light because it is given with
love. It is the commandment to love others as Jesus did. Further, the yoke of
Christ is not just a yoke from Christ but also a yoke with him.
So, we are not yoked singly to pull the plow by our own unaided power. We are
yoked together with Christ to work with him using his strength. Jesus is
inviting each one of us to be yoked with him, to unite our life with him, our
will with his will, our heart with his heart. By saying that his “yoke is
easy,” Jesus means that whatever God sends us is made to fit our needs
and our abilities exactly.
The second part of Jesus’ claim is: “My burden is
light.” Jesus does not mean that his burden is easy to carry, but that
it is laid on us in love. This burden is meant to be carried in love, and love
makes even the heaviest burden light. By following Jesus, one will find peace,
rest, and real refreshment. We are burdened with many things: business,
concerns about jobs, marriage, money, health, children, security, old age, and
a thousand other things. Jesus is asking us to give him our burdens and take on
his yoke in exchange. By telling us, “Take my yoke . . . and you will find
rest,” Christ is asking us to do things the Christian way. When we are
centered in God, when we follow God’s commandments, we have no heavy burdens.
Life messages: 1) We need to be freed from
unnecessary burdens: Jesus is interested in lifting from our backs the burdens
that drain us and suck the life out of us, so that he
can place around our necks his own yoke and his burden which bring to us, and
to others through us, new life, new energy, and new joy. 2) We need to unload
our burdens before the Lord. One of the functions of worship for many of us is
that it gives us a time for rest and refreshment, when we let the overheated
radiators of our hectic lives cool down before the Lord. This is especially
true when we unload the burdens of our sins and worries and evil addictions,
first in the
Confessional and then, forgiven, on the altar and offer them
to God during the Holy Mass. (Fr. Kadavil) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Dec 11 Thursday: St. Damasus I, Pope: Mt 11:1-15:
The context: John the Baptizer preached the
coming of a fiery Messiah. But what he heard when he was imprisoned by Herod
was that Jesus was a loving, merciful, and forgiving preacher who befriended
tax collectors and sinners. Hence, John sent some of his disciples to Jesus to
learn whether Jesus was, or was not, the expected Messiah. After Jesus had sent
them back to John to report the miraculous actions by which the Messianic
prophecies were being fulfilled, he paid the highest compliments to John in
today’s Gospel.
Jesus praised John first as a prophet and second as the
expected Elijah. As a prophet, John had God-given wisdom in his mind, God’s
truth on his lips, and God-given courage in his heart. He had been heralding
the Messiah with the courage of his prophetic convictions. John had lived like
the Prophet Elijah who was expected to come just before the Messiah. He had
spoken with the same prophetic authority and had corrected the self-righteous,
while attracting Jewish followers by the hundreds to receive the baptism of
repentance. Jesus, however, stressed the fact that His own followers were more
blessed than John because, while John knew only God’s judgment and punishment,
we also know God’s love, forgiveness and the salvation, given through Jesus.
But Jesus warned his followers that they would be persecuted for their trust in
God’s Kingdom, and that they would have to use force on their selfish and evil
tendencies to reach God’s Kingdom.
Life message: We need to have the courage of our
Christian convictions to profess in public what we believe and to practice what
the Church teaches.
(Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Dec 12 Friday: Our Lady of Guadalupe (USA): Lk
1:26-38:
Most of us know the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe. On
December 9, 1531, an elderly Indian man named Juan Diego had a vision of Mary,
the mother of Jesus, at Tepeyac, a poor Mexican-Indian village outside Mexico
City. Mary directed Juan Diego to tell his Bishop to build a Church in Tepeyac.
The Spanish Bishop, however, dismissed the Indian’s tale as mere superstition.
But to humor Juan Diego, the Bishop demanded that the visionary bring some sort
of proof. Three days later, the Virgin Mary appeared again and told Juan Diego
to pick the exquisitely beautiful roses that had miraculously bloomed amidst
December snows, and take them as a sign to the Bishop. When Juan Diego opened
his poncho to present the roses to the Bishop, the flowers poured out from his
poncho to reveal an image of the Virgin Mary painted on the inside of the
poncho. That image hangs today in the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City and
is venerated by thousands of pilgrims from all over the world. This apparition
occasioned the conversion of nine million Indians to Christianity in twenty
years. The original Church was built in 1533, the second in 1556 and the third
in 1709. It is estimated that ten million pilgrims visit the Basilica every
year. The Virgin of Guadalupe was declared the Patroness of Latin
America by Pope St. Pius X (1907), Queen of Mexico and Empress
of America by Pope Pius XII (1945), Mother of America by
Pope St. John XXXIII (1961) and Star of Evangelization by Pope
St. John Paul II (1979).
Life messages: 1) The story of the apparition
tells us how Jesus, as Emmanuel, and Mary his mother, want to be among us,
especially among the poor, the downtrodden and the marginalized in society who
have neither voice nor influence, political or social. That is why Our Lady
appeared to a poor Indian in a village, not as a white woman but as a
brown-skinned mestiza Indian princess, speaking his
native Nahuatal language, and why Mary did not appear to any
of the Spanish overlords. God wanted the Basilica in honor of Jesus’ mother
built in the village, not in the city but in the outskirts, for all the people
who were otherwise repressed or ignored.
2) The vision challenges us to listen to the ordinary people who do not look or
act like important people and to treat them with reverence. While it is true
that God loves each and every one of us, there is a special place in God’s
heart for the poor and the powerless – God’s preferential option for the poor.
So the feast challenges us to see and serve Jesus in the poor and the
broken-hearted in our communities.
Anecdote: About sixteen years ago a priest (Fr.
Phil Bloom) received a very unusual request: A young woman asked
him if he would help her get rid of her unborn child. The priest was obviously
surprised, but he tried not to react negatively. “Why do you want to end your
pregnancy?” he asked. She replied that when she told her boyfriend, he said he
was going to leave her. She loved him and desperately wanted him back. The
priest resisted the temptation to say, “Your boyfriend is a rat.” Instead,
he asked her to do three things: first, to allow the priest to pray with her
and bless the baby; second, to see a medical professional that he knew, and,
third, to watch a short video. The video showed the development of the human
embryo. After she left, the priest thought about the young woman and wondered
what she would do. In his room he had a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe. He
noticed the black ribbon below her folded hands and he remembered that the
ribbon signified pregnancy. The child within her, of course, was Jesus. The
priest asked Our Lady to help that young woman. A month or so passed. The
priest heard a knock on his office door. When he opened the door, he saw a shy,
smiling face. It was the young woman. she told the priest she had decided to
keep her baby. A year later he saw her again. She was holding a lovely baby
girl. After some conversation, the priest asked her, “Would you give up
your baby for anything?” “No,” she said, “she is my
treasure.” The girl is now a teenager. She lives with her mom and
grandmother. In their home they have the picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe that
the priest gave to Mom.* (http://www.homilies.net/e/E-10-12-12.asp)
Dec 13 Saturday: St. Lucy, Virgin, Martyr: Mt
17:9-13:
The context: Today’s Gospel describes the
warning and instruction given by Jesus to Peter, James, and John as they were
coming down the mountain after witnessing Jesus’ Transfiguration. Jesus forbade
them to give any publicity to what they had seen, because people were expecting
a conquering political messiah with Elijah as his forerunner, and a powerful
reformer who would destroy evil and restore justice in the land for the Messiah
to rule.
The Expected Messiah. Then Jesus indicated that He was the
expected Messiah, and that John was the Elijah they had been waiting for.
John’s mission had been to prepare the way for the first coming of the Messiah,
as Elijah’s mission would be to prepare the world for the Messiah’s second
coming at the end of the world. The scribes misunderstood and taught that
Elijah would come before the first coming of the Messiah. But Jesus told the
disciples that (for those who were willing to believe it), John the Baptist had
served as Jesus’ Elijah in announcing and preparing the people to receive a
Messiah, who would fulfill the Messianic mission not by political power, but by
suffering and death.
Life message: 1) Let us accept Jesus as our Lord and
Savior, Who became our Messiah by dying for us on the cross. We do so by
cooperating with our Savior in our eternal salvation, by obeying Jesus’
commandment of love, and by following the instructions given by the Church
Jesus founded, allowing God to transform our sufferings into redemptive
sufferings.
(Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
