EPIPHANY

Mt 2:1-12 

Dear Friends, The Infancy Narratives in Matthew in chapters one and two are called a miniature Gospel. They affirm three basic points of the Good News of salvation:

God intends salvation for all.

Jesus is the long-awaited Messianic Savior.

The mission is to the whole world with all the variations of languages cultures and races.

Jesus speaks to all people. This includes a message of wisdom directed to all the variables of age, stage of life, culture and individual gifts. All are welcome at the table of life and salvation for the Bread of Life. All are enlightened by the Light of the World.

The Epiphany is commonly known as the feast of the Three Kings. The scriptural text says nothing about the number three. It also makes no mention that they are kings nor anything about their racial makeup. These are various cultural expressions developed over the centuries. The Gospel message of the feast is about the universality of God’s saving grace and love. All peoples are invited to the heavenly banquet.

Cultural and folkloric expressions have always enriched the proclamation of the Gospel. Often, these additions have been enlightening to the basic message of salvation. On the other hand, the message also has been deeply distorted with the overlay of pietistic exaggerations and even contradictions rooted in national and cultural prejudices.

One of the major hopes of Vatican II was to get us back to the central Gospel message, to put Jesus at the center. One of the most important developments of that holy gathering occurred a decade later when Pope Paul VI gave us one of the all-time great papal documents on the topic of Evangelization. Paul VI pointed out that the message of the Gospel is never free of cultural expressions but that we have to work to always go beyond any particular cultural, national or racial expression that limits the Gospel.

Whether it is the St. Patrick’s Day Parade or the celebration of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Cristo Negro of Esquipulas, or the celebration of Our Lady of Lourdes they all have a pull to limit the Gospel to some partial view of one group or nation. Today’s feast of the Epiphany opens us up to universality. We are invited to include everyone. This is no small challenge.

At the center of today’s feast is not the three kings, but the elusive truth that all human beings share a common dignity and destiny. Every human being is called to union with God. There is a gospel inclusiveness that is a never ending challenge to the followers of Christ. Our great obstacle is the endless ways that we divide and degrade, often in the name of Jesus.

Jesus relentlessly proclaimed the dignity of women and children. Jesus constantly attacked sin, disease and ethnicity as barriers to the common unity of all. The Church and all other religions and ideologies have struggled mightily down through history even to this mornings news with this call to universal acceptance.

Today’s Gospel account of the Magi is much more than a lovely tale about strange visitors coming in an unexpected way to a poor family. The Magi are a symbol of the universality of salvation. This is a message of Good News that informs us that this child is the long-awaited Son of David, the promised ruler and savior of Israel. He will open the gift of salvation to all peoples. No one needs a visa or a green card or residential papers at the crib! All are welcome!

Today’s Gospel tells us we need not travel far to seek Jesus. Exotic places do not have to be part of our search. The Epiphany, the revelation of Jesus, is always taking place in the midst of our life. Jesus is all around us. We need only look with faith to embrace Him in our brothers and sisters especially the poor and needy among us.

Some five decades ago, Vatican II stated the truth of this feast in this insightful and beautiful declaration:

"The joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the people of our time, especially those who are poor and afflicted in any way, are the joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well. Nothing genuinely human fails to find an echo in their hearts."

Gaudium et Spes, December 7, 1965

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HOLY FAMILY

Mt2:13-5, 19-23 

Dear Friends. The fundamental message of our Christmas Season is that “the Word was made flesh” (Jn 1:14). The emphasis is not the baby story of Jesus. It is about the humanity unveiling the divinity, about grace and love entering a sinful world. The paradoxes of the Gospel penetrate the infancy narratives of Luke and Matthew. The divine becoming human exposes the incessant pull of birth and death, innocence and suffering. This is the light and the way to our journey in our search for God.

The stuff of every family, regardless of the vast cultural differences of the relations of spouses and that of parents to children, is found in the Holy Family. It was through the institution of the family that God chose to relate to humanity. Jesus learned to live and to love in his relations to Mary and Joseph. In spite of the shock and trial of being refugees and immigrants and the horror of unimaginable violence in the Holy Innocents, love opened a way for them.

Matthew had an additional message beyond the family relationship of the three. He intended to offer us a prologue of the Gospel. Jesus was to summarize in the dramatic story of his infancy the saving history of Israel. In this way Jesus was modeling and addressing the Messianic expectations of Israel.

There are three stories in Matthew’s Infancy narrative: the escape to Egypt, the massacre of the Holy Innocents and the return from Egypt to Nazareth. They all mirror a particular experience of the Chosen People and Moses.

Our faith calls us to accept Jesus as truly human. In this genuine humanity he grew as we all do. He was part of a family, a truly holy family. It was in the context of these family relations that Jesus learned who God intended him to be. In his role as Savior, Jesus learned how to respond to life and its many mysteries of good and evil in the warmth and acceptance of his loving parents, Mary and Joseph.

The message for us today is clear. No matter what the cultural variations and limits, the family is the school of love. All our fundamental relations and responsibilities are filtered through the basic foundation of a family experience that gives us our personal identity. Our task is to build on the good points and eliminate the elements of selfishness and entitlement to let love flow openly in spite of all the inherent conflicts. Privilege and power in family life have to give way to acceptance, service and humility if we expect to continue to create a joyful and meaningful life for all.

Joseph and Mary found themselves drenched in confusion and bewilderment. They were uprooted, impoverished, exiled, threatened and isolated all in a matter of weeks. All this was the result of a child promised to be a Savior. Only the deepest commitment of faith and trust allowed them to continue the struggle. They were not following script. They were living an apparent tragedy of monumental depth. We need to ponder the beauty of their simplicity and generosity in the midst of a situation that would challenge any our lives.

Today’s feast invites us into this mystery of darkness and pain. We are invited to bring our story of family struggles to find light and direction. The message was eventually clear to Mary and Joseph as it will be to us as we walk in faith. God is with us no matter how desperate the circumstances. “The Word was made flesh” and we are gifted with the best all gifts, Emmanuel! God is with us!

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CHIRISTMAS REFLECTION

As we celebrate this Christmas day the truth is that we have no place on earth and no individual that is free from the consequences of our first parents sin described in Genesis. It is so rampantly clear we need salvation. Wherever we look, be it far or near, we need peace. We need reconciliation. We need justice. We need mercy and compassion.

God knows this and he has sent his Son to engage us in the conversation that will bring this healing and this freedom. This is what we celebrate this Christmas day.

In the most consequential event in history, The Word has become Flesh. When we lose sight of the Child becoming one of us, we also miss another consequential point. We are called become one with the overwhelming Mystery that is Love, the God of Abraham. We are getting lost in the darkness on this great day of Light! Our celebration quickly fades into a passing illusion.

Putting Christ back into Christmas is surely the desire of most Christians. The intensity of the “Black Fridays” and “Cyber Mondays” seems to never let up. It is truly difficult to break through the message to “shop till you drop.” On a personal level, a great number of people try to balance the gross commercialism and the spiritual significance of the feast. An honest and intelligent reading of the Scriptures opens up the chasm between our celebrations and the great mystery of the feast. The truly radical message in Luke and Matthew of the birth of Christ go wildly beyond the catchy slogan, “Put Christ back into Christmas”. We are caught in a conundrum of the incredible cultural pressure of the commercial conquest of Christmas and the simple overwhelming act of love that is the Word made flesh.

We miss the point of Christmas if we do not open our eyes to the evil at our doorstep and in our heart. Christmas invites us to share in breaking the stranglehold of darkness by embracing the Light that is the Word become flesh. The often-hidden message is we are called not only to celebrate the Light. We need to become the Light to bring hope to our broken world by the way we live.

In our Christmas liturgies we use the Gospels of Luke, Matthew and John. We have created a sentimental and flowery description of the birth in Bethlehem that distorts Luke’s story. The commonly accepted version hides the uprooting, poverty and deep bewilderment of Mary and Joseph. How could God allow his Son to enter the world in such destitution?

Our “Silent Night” is the sentimental interpretation of the event that leaves little room for the true message of Luke, and practically no room for Matthew’s description of the story. Both evangelists are inviting us into the deepest and truest dimension of our reality, a graciousness that is always calling us out of the darkness into the light. The evangelists’ harsh and challenging description of the birth offers a suitable backdrop for God’s ultimate conversation with a broken humanity in the person of Jesus Christ.

An important point to remember is that both Matthew and Luke describe the birth of Jesus as an overture for the entire gospel message. The child in the manger is the beginning of a journey that leads to the Messiah on the Cross. God speaks to us in both events that are of the one reality: God’s saving love for us. A few cultures capture this profound truth by using the wood of the creche for the wood of the cross for their Good Friday celebration. Matthew’s story emphasizes the connection of Jesus’ birth to the Jewish longing for the Messiah as the Son of David. This Messiah in Matthew is Emmanuel, God with us. The reaction to the birth, seen in Herod’s effort to manipulate the Wise Men, prefigures all the intrigue and violence that will happen in the journey to Golgotha.

While Luke has a strong element of song and joy, the somber note in Matthew continues in the exile into Egypt and the killing of the Innocents. Mary’s infant avoids the slaughter by divine intervention only to face the Father’s will in the Garden.

Matthew’s version of the conflict of good and evil features the Holy Family and Herod. It looks back at Moses and the Pharaoh and looks forward to the saving death that concludes in the resurrection. The world Matthew is portraying in Jesus’ birth is a portrait of our world today with our unwelcome migrants and sexual slavery, gangs and abuse in families, grossly unjust distribution of wealth and vast investment in arms, the ever-present curse of racism all crystallized in Putin’s war and the horror of the people of Gaza. On top of it all, we hardly have a newscast that does not start out with the ravages of climate change.

From the moment of her call to be the Mother, Mary faced the irony of utter joy and wonder in her heart against the continual disorientation, confusion and total displacing of her plans and events in her daily life.

Both Matthew and Luke are addressing the question that pervades all the Gospels: What kind of Messiah will Jesus be?

Our cultural and commercial celebration of Christmas is filled with an answer that Jesus challenged at all times in his life, ministry and teachings and especially in his death and resurrection. He will not be a Messiah isolated from the poor and marginalized. He will not be draped in wealth and power. He will be a Messiah of sacrifice and service wrapped in swaddling clothes. The salvation Jesus offers as a suffering Messiah is not one of the easy fix. It is a salvation that calls for our purification and self-giving leading to a personal transformation and even the washing of the feet of our neighbor in need!

Luke’s message of hope and joy is more wonderous in the context of this full gospel message.

Just a few months before his death, Archbishop Romero captured the spiritual depth of Christmas. He said, “Today, we recall God’s reign is now in this world, and that Christ has inaugurated the fullness of time. Christ’s birth attests that God is now marching with us in history – that we are not alone, and that our aspiration for peace, for justice, for a reign of divine law, for something holy is far from earth’s realities. Nevertheless, we can hope for all these things, not because we human beings are able to construct that realm of holiness which God’s holy words proclaim but because the builder of a reign of justice, of love and peace is already in the midst of us.”

These words, on the Christmas message of hope, draw me into my Christmas story which I experienced a few years ago. I was at a police station filling a report on my stolen phone. Waiting for my report, a young mother and her six-month-old son sat next to me. I shared how crazy it was to lose your phone. She responded, “If you want to know about crazy, you need to have a violent and abusive husband.” In our conversation I learned she was an immigrant from a Muslim country only here two and a half years. Even though they both still live in the same building, the situation between her and her husband is so bad, they must exchange the child at the police station. This happens four days of the week when she goes to school. She is pursuing a Doctor’s degree in clinical psychology.

What struck me about this scene was how hopeful she was despite being an abused woman, a Muslim immigrant and the mother of a young child in a failed marriage.

It was obvious to me that the message of hope and the grace of the Infant of Bethlehem is for all people and at all times even if they do not have the label Christian. The Word made flesh has exposed a reality pregnant with life and love for all people at all times no matter how challenging the circumstances.

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FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Mt 1:18-24

Dear Friends, No matter how much we try, it is a truly an uphill battle to truly grasp, “Jesus is the reason for the Season!”

Over our lifetimes we have been the recipients of billion upon billions of advertising dollars to immerse us in a neatly packaged idea of a commercial Christmas. It is a subtle and attractive enticement. In the end, however, it has little, if anything to do with the Christ of the Gospels.

In the opening prayer of today’s liturgy, the Church, like a voice in the wilderness, is calling us back to Jesus in the stark beauty and wonder of the gospel message. It directs us to be aware of the Angel’s message of the Incarnation. Then, in almost shocking contrast to our vision for the Season, has us pray that we may “by his Passion and cross be brought to the glory of his Resurrection.”

It is a message that cuts through all the fluff and deception. It tells us if we really are going to enter the mystery of the Babe in the crib, we need to accept the totality of the message. This is actually only possible by accepting the Crucified and Risen Christ. In this broader view, we are able to grasp the genuine truth of the Bethlehem experience. It is the beginning of the final battle of good and evil that is opening the darkness of our life and world to a new Light of the World that is Christ.

In this approach to the Christmas mystery, Dec. 26th or any other day of the year is not a letdown of the emotional high when we clean up the mess left by the commercial event. The true experience of Christmas engulfs us in a message of hope every day.

So, today, in this final Sunday before Christmas, we are invited to ponder two clearly comforting and revealing phrases in our Scriptural lessons.

In today’s Gospel story the two phrases are, “be not afraid” and “Emmanuel” which means God is with us. These phrases mark the change in focus of the Advent message. The Incarnation of the coming Christmas Season is moving to center stage. Each of today’s readings is on this theme. Emanuel is born in time to be forever with his people as the new presence of a loving and saving God.

While the phrase “be not afraid” is used over three hundred times in Scripture, the Infancy narratives of Luke and Matthew convey this expression four times. It is always related to the supportive presence of God in a challenging situation such as Joseph’s dilemma with Mary’s pregnancy.

Just like the almost destructive ambiguity that Mary and Joseph faced, our lives are never free of the consequences of evil. Sickness, ignorance, prejudice, violence, and hatred come at us in all manner of ways. This is the reality of living with the seemingly endless battle of good and evil in the events of our day. No sooner has Covid been reduced as a threat, than we have Putin’s war in the Ukraine or the apparently endless violence in the Middle East. These incredible horrors confront us with human carnage, destruction of the environment, threat of nuclear disaster and the waste of all these resources to the neglect of the poor and hungry. This gross manifestation of evil affects everyone.

“Emmanuel” reveals God’s faithfulness and involvement in all human reality. God is always present calling us into the mystery of new life and new love amidst the evil. On this fourth Sunday of Advent, we begin to recall the great event of God becoming human in the person of Jesus. This is the ultimate revelation of God’s saving involvement in our broken world. Our challenge is to be open and accepting of the call on God’s terms.

While “be not afraid” and “Emmanuel” are profoundly comforting statements, Mary and Joseph needed all the support they could get. If you do the minimal analysis of their situation, the challenge to their relationship was enormous. Anytime the betrothed says she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit, where does the dialogue go from there? Add the fact that the child is to be the Savior of his people, the only saving grace would have to be divine intervention. That’s what happened!

Mary and Joseph had to dig deep into the comforting and reassuring message of the angel to make any kind of sense of the reality of their poverty and uprooting that was to be part of the crisis that surrounded them. It truly challenged them to look with faith on the baby who needed a diaper change and see hope for the world.

On this fourth Sunday of Advent as we recall the wonder of God’s becoming flesh, we are invited to embrace the great gift of Emmanuel. God is with us in love, mercy and saving grace in the person of Jesus, the son of Mary. Our challenge is to respond to this call of love on God’s terms.

For Mary, it was just the beginning of a long journey of confusion and bewilderment. Only her faith and trust could comfort her in the midst of a perplexing series of events that ultimately brought her to the foot of the Cross.

When you think about it, it is similar to our journey! It is no wonder that the great prayer of Advent is so relevant to our life. Come, Lord Jesus!

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THE FALSE SELF AND THE TRUE SELF-1

Merton’s Gift Leading To Deep Personal Prayer 

Recently, I had the opportunity to read, reflect on and pray with some of the many wonderful books of Thomas Merton. He was definitely a person of prominence as a wisdom and prophetic figure in 20th century America.

Most of his writings deal with a more advanced spirituality. I am always on the search to gather information to help people in the beginning of the journey of deep personal prayer. Two items popped out to me as truly fitting the message for my blogs on the first stages of prayer.

These two items are Merton’s definition prayer, and his teaching on the False Self and the True Self. In both of these subjects, Merton points to their importance in achieving the final goal of prayer, contemplation. I would like to offer a series of reflections on these important insights of Merton. The two Merton items are remarkably helpful in the early stages of the quest for deep personal prayer.

In a brief analysis of the two items, I hope to describe how they connect to some of the most significant factors that support growth in deep personal prayer.

Merton’s Definition of Prayer

From the beginning of my writings on deep personal prayer, which began almost ten years ago, I have used Merton’s definition of prayer. Prayer is yearning for the awareness of the presence of God, a personal understanding of God’s word, knowledge of God’s will and the capacity to hear and obey.

There are some immediate consequences that flow from this approach to prayer.

1. It centers on God and not ourselves.
2. It is about our personal transformation flowing from God’s word and will.
3. It centers on a hunger in our heart for God rather than on our personal needs.
4. These three initial insights offer a great beginning of a spirituality that will support a continual growth in prayer leading to a life rooted in gospel vales.

False Self and True Self

Merton gives extensive treatment to this fundamental teaching about the spiritual journey. Most of it is related to the need to pursue the final stage of prayer, contemplation. In fact, his conception is that the True Self is only totally achieved in contemplation or at the moment of death.

I believe his teachings on the topic also offer great guidance and highlight the meaningful implications for those in the beginning stages of the prayer journey.

In treating the False Self, Merton begins by pointing out that we are dominated by false values that ultimately, not only deceive us, but lead us nowhere. Merton has a long list of adjectives that at various times he uses in place of his main describing word, false. They are: superficial, empirical, outward, contingent, private, shadow, illusory, fictitious, smoke, petty and external. These all contribute to his principal message: to describe the consequences of Original Sin in the daily human experience.

The True Self offers a goal of freedom and transformation, and in our search for God, a return to our original innocence. It happens as we live the gospel values. Its final expression is when we reach our goal, union with God.

Along the way, there are several helpful activities that facilitate this movement from an all-engrossing selfishness to walking with Jesus. These contributing elements are self-knowledge, transformation of consciousness, detachment, elimination of addiction, humility and a growing focus on Jesus and his message.

These are all indicators and facilitators of the transition from the False Self to the True Self. Deep personal prayer is central to this activity which is the basic stuff of the spiritual life.

I hope to flesh out these positive contributions to our Christian life in search of the gospel in a series of blog reflections. In particular, I would like to connect several of the gospel stories, characters and parables to our personal passage from the dominance of our False Self to the life-giving pursuit of our True Self. In the process we are basically seeking to share Paul’s reality: “Yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives within me.” (Gal 2:20)

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THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Mt 11:2-11

Dear Friends,

In today’s Scripture, Isaiah draws a poetic picture of the Jews walking away into freedom after fifty years of anguish and exile in Babylonia. He uses his beautiful and poetic language to mirror the great event of the Old Testament, the Exodus from slavery to the Promised Land.

Today’s Gospel is about John the Baptist’s question, “Are you the one who is to come?” This plunges us into the mystery we celebrate this Advent season. Each of us in the depths of our heart has a basic yearning for Jesus. We long for him to bring salvation for us and for our world.

The message of Advent has many rich and beautiful dimensions. Most center on the coming of the Lord. Today we are called to experience this coming in the saving acts of Jesus as seen in the past and experienced in our life today. Faith will draw us into the wonderous truth that Jesus is truly the one for us and our world.

We have to see our life’s struggles in this context of these biblical journeys to freedom and healing. Jesus says, “Go tell John what you hear and see.” (Mt 11:4) The real message of Advent makes us able to see that not only are the blind given sight but the lame who now are able to leap like stags are even ready to go Dancing with the Stars. This is because the Advent message tells us that our reality is pregnant with a graciousness. The Advent implications for today reveal Jesus as still bringing restoration on the way to our original innocence. We are, indeed, being set free in our lives today. We do need to let the cry of Advent burst forth from our hearts: Come, Lord Jesus! Even more, we need to let this hunger in our hearts for a new day direct us to live the Gospel message. We have to walk in the footsteps of Jesus today. Our lived commitment brings the transformation of reality we yearn for right now. A life lived in love is the answer to our Advent prayer: Come Lord Jesus! The fullness of salvation we long for in the future will take place now when we walk in love in the footsteps of Jesus.

Jesus’ message to John in today’s Gospel is clear. There is a new day breaking through in his conquest of evil and the demonic power in his healing miracles. Just as the return of the Exiles from Babylonia mirrored the freedom of the great act of deliverance in the journey of people out of Egypt, God continues to manifest the great saving action of Jesus in our day. We need to see with eyes of the heart. The salvation we long for is taking place right now when we are sharing the compassion and love that Jesus continues in our day. This calls us to tear down the barriers. This calls us to work for reconciliation always and everywhere. This calls us to hear the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth.

The gift of hope leads us out of fear and despair to a life of action and commitment to the wonder of the Gospel message.

The battle of good and evil still dominates our world. The pull to freedom, the search for happiness and security still only find a lasting solution in Jesus. Jesus alone still possesses both the message and the power to draw us into eternal life. We still are the blind, the lame and the sinners that need healing and mercy. The answer to our cry for deliverance from the overwhelming power of evil in our day awaits us. That is what we pray for in our Advent prayer, Come Lord Jesus!

While we wait, we have to address our life situation now. St. Teresa of Avila gives us the direction in her classic Book Marker Prayer:

Let nothing disturb you,

Let nothing make you afraid.

All things are passing.

God alone never changes.

Patience gains all things.

If you have God you will want for nothing.

God alone suffices.

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SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Matt 3:1-12

Dear Friends. Advent is an invitation to ponder the Christian perspective on time. Time, for the Christian, is not the relentless and isolated moving of the the hands on the clock. It is not the mindless and purposeless waiting for Godot. The Christ event has made time pregnant with the endless possibility of new life. Time is the messenger of God calling us into a gracious future where a new day will prevail.

In Advent, we see the mystery of time intimately connected to the past, present and future in the Christ event. The past recalls in the Incarnation of the Word. The present is the encounter with God’s grace leading us to walk with Jesus. The future is the final completion of Christ’s victory in his Second Coming, the final fulfillment of both our personal destiny and human history.

To understand this mystery of time, we look back to the events of our saving past. Today, it is Isaiah who presents the beautiful passage of hope that foreshadows the coming of Christ. These seemingly impossible relationships will only be possible by the divine intervention of the Messianic presence in Christ both at Bethlehem and at the conclusion of our historic venture

“Justice shall be the band around his waist,

And faithfulness a belt upon his hips.

Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,

And the leopard shall lie down with the kid;

The calf and the young lion shall browse together,

With a little child to guide them.

The cow and the bear shall be neighbors,

Together their young shall rest;

The lion shall eat hay like the ox.

The baby shall play by the cobra’s den,

And the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.

There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain;

For the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord,

As water covers the sea” (Is 11:5-9).

Advent, more than anything else, is a time of joyful and purpose-filled waiting for God who has assured us of his coming. Because we already know the one we are waiting for, the best way to anticipate his coming is to become like him. We need to let our life express the joy and hope that is the central message of the Advent season. We need to be the instruments of peace and justice, of service and healing that anticipate the new day we long for.

The Gospel today draws us to John the Baptist. It is a call to prepare for Christ as the total mystery of the Word made flesh, not a nostalgic return to the beauty of Bethlehem. We need to recall the entire Jesus event. This includes his challenging message and the saving events of the death and resurrection. In longing for Jesus, we understand John’ message, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt 3:20). This demands that we change our lives as we prepare for the coming of the Lord.

These changes will happen as part of personal and communal conversion. Along with our personal and communal transformation, we recognize that we are responding to the imitative of God’s call. This Advent season reminds us of the overwhelming mercy that is revealed in the coming of Jesus into our life and into our history.

The waiting of Advent is not like the drudgery of getting stuck in traffic nor is it the seemingly endless line in the market. Nor is it the anxiety-driven time waiting for the results of a test or other life-changing news from a doctor. Advent waiting is a joyful anticipation of new life. This new life demands a creative openness that leads to repentance and conversion. It means we welcome the God who continually comes and knocks at the door of the human heart. Advent leads us to develop a spirituality of watchfulness that opens to the appreciation of the giftedness of today and hope for tomorrow. We prepare for all of this Advent waiting with the special prayer of the season, Come, Lord Jesus!

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THE FALSE SELF AND THE TRUE SELF

Introduction

I am going to offer the following eleven reflections on Thomas Merton’s teaching on the True Self/False Self dynamic. This conflictual but enlightening relationship permeates Merton’s huge quantity of writing on the spiritual life. The basic point of the conflict is the individual’s pull toward and away from God, one’ true and ultimate destiny. Merton’s exposure of the consequences of original sin is ruthless in its intensity. This is the task of the False Self. At the same time, the pull of the True Self, the ever-present call of God’s personal and passionate love, is even more powerful. The human heart is the battlefield of this seemingly endless confrontation.

Merton portrays the True Self as an ever-present invitation into a glorious future that is never achieved with the exception of an effective purification of contemplation or the experience of death. Nevertheless, it is a driving force in the definitive human endeavor to seek God.

This powerful attraction of the True Self calls us into the depths of our being where God dwells. The foundation of the Christian life is this. To truly embrace the True Self in God, one has to leave oneself and give it to others in love. This is almost always a partial and incomplete effort for most of us. The True Self’s clash with the False Self is always an experience calling us into a new future. The grace for us is in the seemingly endless struggle to choose the True Self and to forsake the False Self’s plea for indulgence, self-enhancement and glorification of our bondage to self-centeredness. This is the battle of the spiritual life. This is the breaking loose of the affliction of our self-absorption to be free walk with Jesus.

Merton’s approach to spirituality is very human and down-to-earth. For Merton, the true relevance of the True Self/False Self dynamic flows from an authentic spirituality that affects every level of life. It responds to life as experienced by ordinary people. In contrast, most distorted spiritualities usually end up in fanaticism or elitism far removed from the common experience of most individuals.

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FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Matthew 24:37-44

Dear Friends, Advent invites us into a new year in which we journey with the Gospel of Matthew. This is a graced time when we are summoned once more to an encounter with Christ as our Savior and Lord. The Advent Season first guides us to prepare for the Second Coming and, in the final days, to plunge into the mystery of Word becoming flesh.

Advent has us look backward, so we can look forward. Both views call us to live in the present. Advent is not a penitential season but a celebration. We are called to rejoice in the gift of Christ. We recall He is coming today just as He came in the poverty of the first crib. A special element of Advent is the challenge of making the Second Coming produce consequences for our daily living. Jesus emphasized the suddenness and surprise of the final hours. There will be a swift judgement that sifts good from evil with a decisiveness that is final and absolute. However, he did not call us to do anything different beyond the utter importance of our ordinary responsibilities and relationships. Both in the incarnation and the Second coming we have a powerful invitation to embrace the gift of today, the now of the present moment, as a concrete opportunity to walk with Christ.

Isaiah is the featured Old Testament author of the Advent Season. The beauty of his poetry is filled with hope for deliverance and longing for the final expression of God’s saving power.

Matthew’s message in this time of Advent, is based on the fundamental confidence flowing from the Christian message. Christ will return in glory and with him will come the fullness of redemption. A new day is coming. Matthew is emphatic: we need to be ready.

This longing for the return of the Lord mirrors the passionate longing expressed in Isaiah. Yet it is incredibly enriched and supported by our gift of the Gospel reality. Paul tells us, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.” (Romans 13:14) So, we join together in our Advent liturgies and in our lives to proclaim the Advent yearning: Come Lord Jesus!

In the meanwhile, Isaiah, Paul and Matthew have a clear and simple message for us. Live today in faithfulness to the Lord. Enter into our reality. We do not know the future but we are gifted with the present. We are called to live the Gospel with acts of mercy and forgiveness, with concern for justice and the constant struggle “to beat the swords into plowshares and the spears into pruning hooks.” Isaiah 2:4)

Swords and plowshares are not our ordinary arsenal in our daily battles with one another. We often have looks and words and attitudes that are up to the job of antagonizing our neighbor. Our anger and resentments join with our prejudices to create walls of isolation and hostility. We have a way of making our time, interests and convenience the measure of our actions, all to the detriment of fraternal charity. More often than not this is done with a facade of righteousness. Advent is a time to put away the weapons of hostility and division and isolation. It is a time to pray with a truly humble heart, “Come, Lord Jesus!”

Advent challenges us to look at the lost opportunities, the time wasted and misdirected. We all have more than enough to account for. Advent calls us to gather ourselves together and live today, with the gift of the present moment. Tomorrow is in God’s hands. We indeed need to cry out, Come Lord Jesus! A life seeking to walk with Jesus right now makes our Advent Prayer all the more real and focused.

God is very capable of keeping the schedule. He will do his job of finishing the program at the appropriate time. It is quite normal for us to use that familiar question of our youth, Are we there yet? God will let us know. In the meanwhile, our task is to be faithful to the Gospel message and express the hunger in our heart for a new day with the beautiful Advent prayer, Come Lord Jesus!

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CHRIST THE KING

The Thirty Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Lk 23: 35-43

Dear Friends, On this feast of Christ the King, we celebrate a “kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace” (Preface of Christ the King). We are asked to gaze again on the Crucified Christ. We are driven to ponder Mary’s words: How can this be?

The Angel said to Mary, “You shall name him Jesus. He will be great and called the Son of the Most High and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father….And Mary said, “How can this be?” (Lk 1:31-34)

We have journeyed the year with St. Luke’s Gospel, a Gospel where the theme of reversal is a dominant message. We have been invited into the mystery where the last shall be first, and the first last. We have heard the strange teaching where we have to lose our life to save it. Even stranger, we were told to “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you…to the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other as well.” (Lk 6:27-29)

As we contemplate the mangled body of our King, so many events of the Gospel journey seem like a long-faded past. The miracle worker and the healer is hidden in the agony of the Cross. Peter’s boat overflowing with the great catch, the multiplication of the loves and fishers, Bartimeaus jumping for joy with his new sight, the penitent woman rejoicing in her tears and so many other events unveiling the gracious possibilities in life. We have to ask, how is such a radical turn to darkness possible? The contradiction of the Cross goes so beyond any possible human understanding. Yet we ponder and see a crucified Savior and Messiah, a King in total poverty and apparent defeat. A leader has been abandoned by almost all. With good reason we need to ask, How can this be?

One part of the Passion of Jesus is the startling expression of his service and compassion for others in spite of his personal suffering and rejection at all levels. In the garden, he heels the ear of one of the mob. After the trial, he reaches out to Peter in sympathy and tenderness. On the road to Calvary, Jesus expresses his kindheartedness for the suffering women. On the cross, he forgives the Good Thief. With a heart unlocked by this compassionate love, Dismas is able to see a Savior and a King. “Today you will be with me in paradise.” (Lk 23:43)

This is the King at the deepest time of personal loss and denunciation. His Kingship is clearly an emptiness of self and openness to God in the brothers and sisters.

The mockery of the rulers, the soldiers and even the unrepentant thief holds the seed of the answer. “Save yourself.” Indeed, hidden in all the darkness of evil’s apparent victory is the reality of salvation for all.

In this crucified King and Savior, we encounter the deepest wisdom of God. Jesus’ greatest power is revealed in the manifestation of his weakness. The truly poor misguided leaders speak the truth in their sanctimonious petition to “the Christ” and “the Chosen One”. Their plea “save yourself” was, in fact, addressing the ultimate and most consequential event in human history, the universal saving death of Jesus Christ. This was the gift of eternal life being offered to all of humankind.

Luke’s pattern of reversal, the up side down world of Jesus’ Gospel, has its ultimate expression in today’s Gospel: death giving way to life! It is not only the good thief, but all of us, who celebrate the victory of a loving God answering our question, How can this be? The unconditional love of God revealed in Jesus Crucified and Jesus Risen tells us how this can be! Alleluia!

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CALL TO HOLINESS-4

Evangelization and Contemplation: Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus
Over the past several years, I have called upon Teresa of Avila and Pope Francis to help explore the riches of our Catholic spirituality. I would like to go to the well of their insights and wisdom once more for help understanding the call to universal holiness. I will use the Pope’s call to evangelization and Teresa’s summons to deeper prayer in the Carmelite tradition.

These seemingly very different persons offer much clarity for our directive to proclaim the Good News of a loving God to a world floundering in a search for meaning and direction. In both The Joy of the Gospel and The Interior Castle, we find a vast font of wisdom to guide us on our pilgrimage to God in the confusion and brokenness of our lives and of our world. Both the Jesuit Pope and the saintly Carmelite never tire of telling us to keep our eyes and our heart fixed on Jesus. Both agree that one of the major consequences of this continual encounter with Jesus will be a new and inviting awareness of the poor and those on the margin in our midst.

Challenge of Evangelization and Need for Contemplation
For Francis, the emphasis in this quest for universal holiness calls us to share Jesus’ call to evangelize. For Teresa, deeper prayer opening to contemplation, is the most important experience. These two ostensibly different concepts and experiences are mutually supportive in a search for God.

Francis tells us at the beginning of The Joy of the Gospel that bringing Jesus into our life frees us from narrowness and self-absorption. We move steadily to the development of ourselves in accord with God’s plan for us. We want to share the love we have discovered with others. This personal and spiritual growth moves us to share the Good News, to evangelize all we meet in life.

Francis refers to a statement by the Latin American and Caribbean Bishops: “Life grows by giving it away, and it weakens in isolation and comfort. Indeed, those who enjoy life most are those who leave security on the shore and become excited by the mission of communicating life to others.” Francis is simply adding his voice on the theme of evangelization to a message expressed many decades earlier by Paul VI and repeated by John Paul II and Benedict XVl. We are all called to proclaim the gospel and, in doing so, to transform the world and ourselves by giving new life in Jesus Christ. We are all summoned to be evangelizers, missionary disciples.

This is new to us. This is not a common vision we share as followers of Christ in today’s Church. For many, the idea of evangelization is limited and often distorted. True evangelization means far more than to stand on the corner holding a sign: “Jesus saves!” Likewise, most respect others’ religion and simply are not comfortable talking about the richness of our faith. Religion is a private affair in the usual social interchange we share. This is especially so on personal issues but also to a degree in the social, economic and political realm.

Vatican II set the stage for this renewed challenge of evangelization. The Council members set out a clear call to universal holiness. This too is a mandate that has not been part of the generally accepted understanding of what it means to be a good Christian. Francis and Teresa offer a deeper and more extensive view of what it involves for us to walk with Jesus in the God-given task to evangelize and to seek God’s gift of contemplation. We are summoned to be holy and we are directed to share the Good News of God’s love in Christ both in our life and in our actions. Evangelization, understood in the fullness of its meaning, is a radical breakthrough in our awareness and acceptance of our Christian calling. Francis asks us to proclaim the depth of God’s love in Christ as we enter more deeply into the Mystery. He quotes John of the Cross, the great Doctor of Mysticism, in describing this process: “The thicket of God’s wisdom and knowledge is so deep and so broad that the soul, however much it has come to know of it, can always penetrate deeper within it” (Spiritual Canticle, 36, 10).

Contemplation, a new and different experience of God, where God takes a fresh and active role, normally is the result of a faithful and generous journey with Jesus. Teresa of Avila points out us a clear and direct path to this special development.

In the centuries following the Reformation certain elements of the tradition were either neglected or misrepresented. Evangelization and contemplation were two significant victims of neglect and misrepresentation. The distortion and neglect of both evangelization and contemplation led to minimizing holiness for most members of the Church. Contemplation was specifically twisted to be understood as the privilege of a chosen few rather than the normal consequence of a faithful Christian life. Evangelization was both diminished and considered primarily an exclusive task of the clerical faction of the Church.

Like its invitation into so many other buried treasures, Vatican II has directed us to recover the hidden riches of these profound resources, a central one being holiness for all the disciples of Christ. This deeper encounter with the message of Christ and the call to a more profound experience of prayer are a passageway to our most authentic experience of God.

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THIRTY THIRD SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Lk 21:5-19

Dear Parishioners,
As the Church Year draws to a rapid conclusion, the Gospel message is once again a story of the end. Last week it was a personal ending. This week it is the end of the world.

Luke’s description in today’s Gospel is the destruction of the Temple. It is the first of three destructions in this chapter of Luke. The next two are of Jerusalem (Lk 21:20-24) and the world (Lk 21:25-28).

This passage addresses the early Christians and us. Our first ancestors in the faith expected a quick and almost effortless passage to glory on their acceptance of Christ as Savior. No such luck. Rejection, conflict and persecution shortly followed their conversion. Slowly they had to delve more deeply into the Gospel message to find meaning in their new puzzling, and at times, frightening world.

It is the same for us. We come to Jesus seeking comfort, and soon, much of our new world is caught in the challenge of walking with Jesus on the road to Jerusalem.

Jesus’ message today is that the struggle will continue to the end. Our journey of discipleship is only possible in his footsteps on the road to Jerusalem where death gives way to life. Good and evil will be our daily fare until the end. Whether it be the call to martyrdom or dealing with the in-laws, whether it is the loss of a child or the aging process, whether it is a loved one lost in a destructive addiction or the crisis of a Church floundering in search of the Gospel, the weeds and the wheat will be the stuff of our experience till the end.

Jesus’ message is very clear about what we should do when the end is at hand. We do not need to store up food and supplies in our bunker on the mountain or in the basement. What we need to do is continue to serve and love our brothers and sisters in the context of our life’s responsibilities.

When our little world, locked into prejudice, is threatened when immigrants are no longer convenient, we need to seek justice that recognizes their humanity and inherent dignity and rights. When our world of stereotype and distortion is crushed by the emersion of gays as equal in our humanity we need to flee from our fear and ignorance to a new heart filled with compassion and acceptance. There are many of our worlds that will continue to crumble as we embrace the light of the Gospel. In the process we need to be faithful to the struggle on the journey to Jerusalem.

The word Jesus has for us today is that the grace is in the struggle. Yet, the comfort Jesus assures us is gradually perceived in a growing awareness of a loving presence. Slowly we grasp that we have been lifted up on eagles’ wings. The dangers that have haunted us somehow fade into oblivion. Jesus calls us to persevere, to be patient, to be faithful as we experience the destruction our little worlds of comfort and prejudice on the way towards the end of the world. When we will be hated because of His Name we are called to stay faithful. We need not be afraid. He guarantees “not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will be saved”. (Lk 21:19)


In Christ,

Fr. Tracy O’Sullivan, O. Carm.

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CALL TO HOLINESS-3

THE JUSTICE PERSPECTIVE

THE NEED FOR AN INTEGRATED SPIRITUALITY

The traditional spiritualities such as the Carmelite, Jesuit, Franciscan, Benedictine and others have been challenged to adjust to some of the fundamental changes introduced by the Second Vatican Council. The insights of this historic event unleashed the power of the social message of the gospel. The final document of Vatican II, The Church in the Modern World had this to say on that topic: “A new humanism is emerging in the world in which man and woman are primarily defined by their responsibility toward their brothers and sisters and toward history.”

Vatican II made it clear that there is no part of human life and history that is not affected by faith and the gospel. Grace touches all of life whether it is personal, in the home, the workplace, the political arena, the theatres, the stadiums or any and all social reality. All of God’s created handiwork is influenced by the saving presence of God’s grace. An isolated “natural order” is a fiction far removed from the divine dominion that encompasses all creation.

Basically, this call for a new humanism is a summons to adjust our religion, to refocus how and where we experience God, to direct our attention and to be open to this world. Many of us were raised to understand our central faith project as saving our souls. Our attention was focused on “the spiritual”, “the other worldly.” Events in this world simply formed the context for this fundamental personal endeavor. Carmelite spirituality, like all other traditional spiritualities, had been distorted over time to exaggerate the personal and private to the neglect of the wider picture of the social and historical, including the actual experience of our daily lives.

Pope Francis, in his beautiful and transforming Exhortation, The Joy of the Gospel, speaks of our need to change our ways so we can bring justice to the poor. His message is completely in tune with the gospel, the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and the long and magnificent tradition of the social teachings of the Church. Francis lays out a concrete program that is founded on a mature development of Vatican II’s message. The problem many people have with his call for involvement is rooted in a narrow and damaging understanding of spirituality.

Slowly, we have come to realize that Jesus did not preach a message of just saving one’s soul. He proclaimed the coming of the kingdom. His message includes saving one’s soul but also concern for this world, its history and the struggle for a just society. The gospel is about the kingdom of God (Lk 4:43); it is about loving God who reigns in our world. To the extent that He reigns within us, the life of society will be a setting for universal fraternity, justice, peace and dignity. Both Christi preaching and life, then, are meant to have an impact on society. We are seeking God’s kingdom: “Seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Mt 6:33) Jesus’ mission is to inaugurate the kingdom of his Father; he commands his disciples to proclaim the good news that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Mt 10:7) Pope Francis highlights this call to social involvement over and over in The Joy of the Gospel. Here is one example: “We cannot ignore the fact that in cities human trafficking, the narcotics trade, the abuse and exploitation of minors, the abandonment of the elderly and infirm, and the various forms of corruption and criminal activity take place … The unified and complete sense of human life that the gospel proposes is the best remedy for the ills of our cities … But to live out human life to the fullest and to meet every challenge as a leaven of gospel witness in every culture and in every city will make us better Christians and bear fruit in our cities.” 1

This is the Justice Perspective. It involves both a personal and a social transformation. It calls us to experience a spirituality that includes the just transformation of our society. This is the prophetic dimension of the gospel which has played a minimal role in the lives of many if not most Christians for centuries.

The Synod on Justice in 1971 captured this fundamental call to expand our horizons in this historic statement: “Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as constitutive dimension of preaching of the Gospel, or, in other words, of the church’s mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation.”

In his response to the environmental crisis, Laudato Si, Pope Francis makes a strong point about concern for the poor. He states that we must always include a social approach in our response to the gravity of the ecological issues that confront us. We must constantly include action on behalf of the poor. Justice has a vital role in uniting our response to both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.

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THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Dear Parishioners, Today’s challenge for Jesus is with the Sadducees. They were a small but powerful and elitist group in the Jewish hierarchy in the time of Jesus. They had both wealth and power. The literal meaning of their title was “the righteous ones”. They were adamant that there was no after-life.

They were totally convinced that their scheme of the widow and the brothers would reduce Jesus’ teachings about the resurrection to total absurdity. Of course, Jesus quickly placed the absurdity package in the Sadducees home court.

In responding to the Sadducees’ disagreement, Jesus highlights that the resurrection is a totally new form of life that transcends any form of marriage. Likewise, Jesus is teaching us that God is a God of the living. Thus, our relationship with God goes beyond the experience of death. St. Paul explained this in his Letter to the Romans: “I am certain that neither death nor life…nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God that comes to us in Christ Jesus.” (Rom8:38-39) Our faith is clear. Death is only a passage to a richer life with a God who loves us.

In today’s Gospel story the Sadducees challenge Jesus with a simplistic and ridiculous story about seven brothers marrying the same woman. Jesus turns the story into a profound truth that we profess in the Apostles’ Creed: the resurrection of the body. But before the new life where, in the coming age, we neither marry nor are given in marriage, we must face death. This truth is central to today’s liturgy.

We are in the final weeks of the Church year. The liturgy weaves a very fascinating story of the end and the beginning. In the process it invites us into the mystery of time.

Today we are confronted with the reality our bodily death. Next week we are challenged with the end of the total historical venture that we call the end times. Then the first three weeks of the new year give us the Advent message and cry for the new reality, “Come, Lord Jesus!” In between the message of the ending, and the plea for the new beginning, we celebrate Christ the King. This is a bridge that connects the transiency of our human reality, our mortality, with our ultimate purpose and goal of life: to be in the eternal embrace of our loving Lord, our immortality.

In these fascinating times of ending one year and beginning again a new year in the cycle on the path of salvation with Jesus our Crucified and Risen Savior, we are asked to ponder the Christian perspective on time.

We learn that time is relentless. It waits for no one. We learn that it is pregnant with life and hope. We learn that ultimately it is gracious in the victory of Christ. While It is urgent, it is calling us to be patient in trust while longing for the coming of the Lord. The final two verses of the Book of Revelation and the final verses of the Bible say, “The one who gives this testimony says, Yes, I am coming soon. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. (Rev 22:20-21) It is, indeed, calling us into a merciful and compassionate future of new life even in the face of death.

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Thirty First Sunday of Sunday of Ordinary Time

Lk 19:1-10

Dear Parishioners, Luke gives us a truly rich character in the wealthy tax collector, Zacchaeus. In today’s story, Luke taps into three of his favorite themes. The first is the oft-repeated attack on the harm riches can be in pursuit of salvation. Then he has Jesus once again reaching out to the neglected, rejected and marginalized. Finally, as Jesus identifies the faith of Zachaeus, once again the Evangelist identifies Jesus as the source of life and salvation.

"Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and a wealthy man, was seeking to see who Jesus was." (Lk 19:2) Jesus shattered the norms of correctness and invited himself to dinner at Zacchaeus’ home. In the process, the restless tax collector was introduced into the Jesus game where you win by losing.

Luke is the only evangelist who brings us into the delightful Zacchaeus story. He does so, in part, to highlight the difference between the chief tax collector and the rich official who did not want to play the Jesus game. (Lk 18:18-23) On the surface, the two men where dramatically different. One had all the right credentials of social acceptability. If the rich official were operating today, he surely would be a daily communicant and probably on the pastoral council of his parish.

Zacchaeus was a low life. He not only would not go into the crowd to try to see Jesus because he was short. He knew it would be dangerous for him because as a tax collector for the despised Roman oppressors he was a hated man. On the other hand, both men shared that hunger in the heart that Jesus so easily surfaced by his presence and message.

Zacchaeus had to run ahead and climb a tree to get a glimpse of Jesus. On the other hand, the rich official was blessed with a close up and intimate encounter with the Lord.

After Jesus made his pitch, the two men went in different directions. It is hard to find a more heartbreaking line in the Scripture than, “But when he heard this, he became quite sad, for he was very rich.” (Lk 18:23) He was not buying into the Jesus game.

Zacchaeus, however, got the message. He understood this saving encounter with Jesus had immediate and concrete consequences in his life. He opened up not only the purse strings, but much more importantly, his hurting heart. So, Jesus could say in joy, “Today salvation has come to this house…For the Son of Man has come to seek and save what was lost.” (Lk 19:9-10)

Zacchaeus rejoiced in the Jesus game where you win by losing. He became wealthy in a new way by freeing his heart of the burden of his old wealth that had made him a poor man. Now Zacchaeus had new purpose and direction in his life. He had a new way of living and new values to enrich his life. He gladly made restitution with a sense of joy and direction in his astonishing calling leading to new life in Jesus.

Each day in our lives, we are open to the possibility of the Zacchaeus surprise. In the daily flow of our life, with its myriad relationships and responsibilities and experiences, Jesus is saying to us, “I mean to stay at your house today.” Each day we are able to open our heart to the best of all gifts and invitations. We are being called into God’s love and mercy in a deeply personal way. Like Zacchaeus, we are being called to change our ways, to see our wealth in a new way. Now we are being asked to see these possessions not as our security but as the source of sharing in God’s love for all and for all of God’s creation. Like the beleaguered tax collector, we have the amazing opportunity to say yes to Jesus with a renewed hospitality. With a heart set free of the bondage of “our things”, we being called into a new lease on life in the footsteps of Jesus.

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