Today’s Thoughts: In these last days until Christmas, we are reminded repeatedly how the Christmas story came to be. Yesterday we heard about Zechariah’s encounter with the Lord and Elizabeth’s conception after years of being barren and today we hear about Mary’s encounter with the angel Gabriel. Each story is a snapshot of the greater story of God’s human presence in the world. In today’s Gospel (Luke 1:26-38) we are reminded that Mary was truly a believer. Even though she did not know the full extent of her “yes” she proclaimed it anyway. She trusted in God. She had faith and she staked her life in the promise of God something Ahaz, in our first reading (Isaiah 7:10-14) was unwilling to do.
Not having a clear vision of the road ahead is not always an easy way to live. It demands trust, it demands faith, and it demands a sense of hope in all that one does. Mary certainly defines this way of living. She did not know the implications of her “yes”, but she had trust, faith and lived by an unrelenting hope. There is a quote by Calvin Miller that I have often used. It is from his book The Christ of Christmas: Readings for Advent. I find it a wonderful way to think of the gift of Mary in our life and so I share it with you again today – “We must look to Mary's example to know how to deal with the glorious impossibilities of God. Look how she turned the world upside down by making one simple statement.” Mary’s one simple statement was “yes” to God. Today we remember another moment from the Christmas story. It is a moment that reminds us that if we trust, if we believe, if we live by hope we will encounter God most often when we least expect it but always when we are most in need! Have a great Wednesday everyone!
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Today’s Thoughts: I had a little sadness in pondering the readings today. Two stories of hope about women who were unable to have children and God blessed them, especially Elizabeth in her advanced years. We have two wonderful stories today alive with the theme that anything is possible with God.
My sadness comes from thinking about all the women who would love to have children but cannot. Perhaps they do not struggle with cultural shame like Samson's mother and Elizabeth, women of their time who were married and without children bore a heavy burden of embarrassment and shame, but I think women and their husbands of today do struggle with a personal sadness, a personal burden, a personal loss, a personal grief. My own sadness comes from the fact that so many women today who don't want children look to end their pregnancy when so many others would give anything for the chance to bring a child into the world. Perhaps it would be a wonderful miracle from God, the making of something impossible, possible if all who didn’t want children would not be able to get pregnant and all who wanted children would be able to get pregnant or maybe more realistically, if all who do not want children and become pregnant would just carry the child to birth and offer the child to those who cannot have children but truly want them. What a beautiful story, what a wonderful story of hope that would be. Through the intercession of Samson's mother and Elizabeth today I pray for all women who want to be mothers and all women who do not want to be mother that they might help each other make the life of children possible! Have a holy and blessed Tuesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: The point of Advent and of Christmas in many ways comes down to being reminded that “God is with us!” Sure, we might say that is the point of every day, but during Advent and Christmas – Emmanuel – becomes a special focus, a special refrain. The great Dominican mystic Meister Eckhart gave a Christmas homily in which he said that Christ is born three times. Christ was first born over 2,000 years ago. Second, Christ will be born at some point in the future when he comes again and thirdly Christ is born every day in our hearts.
Yes, each day we have the opportunity to give birth to Christ. We have opportunity to bring to the world like Mary and Joseph, Emmanuel, God with us! We do it by following in Mary and Joseph’s footsteps, by saying yes to God’s invitation to be part of this journey of faith called life. We do it by living our lives to the fullest, by sharing the image and likeness of God in which we have been created with the world. We do it by trusting in God’s love and by living in hope. My friends today is a new day so let us give birth to Emmanuel today through the hopeful living of our lives. Have a holy and blessed Monday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: "Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus “(Words from Paul). The anticipation of Christmas is probably getting to us by now. We have been in and out of stores, fought the crowds, looked for bargains, yet not all the shopping or preparation is done. The tree is up, the decorations are out, and we have caught the Christmas spirit. However, it is still Advent, we are still in anticipation. We are asked today to be joyful, to pray and to be thankful, all of which will prepare us for the gift of Christmas!
There is joy and happiness to the fact that Christmas is coming but we still have to deal with everyday life. There is still work to be done. The Third Sunday of Advent always seems to bring these two feelings together, the joy, the rejoicing and the anticipation of what is coming - Christmas and the patients and investment in everyday life that is needed because Christmas is not here yet. The mixing of emotions can be difficult and stressful. We can sometimes let one emotion overcome the other. Yet patience and joy are the essence of what makes life livable! In the Gospel today, (John 1: 6-8, 19-28), the people want to know who John the Baptist is. They think he might be the Christ or Elijah, or a Prophet, but John says he is not any of these he is “the voice of one crying out in the desert, make straight the way of the Lord.” John is a preparer. John is a person of hope. John is pointing the way to Christmas and to our relationship with God. If we believe, if we have faith, then what is it we are looking for out of life? What do we expect from our relationship with God? Can we find joy in it? Are we prepared, are we ready, can we be patient and let the story, let the journey play out? Yes, Christmas is coming, it will be here in eight days. We must continue to prepare by praying, by giving thanks, by keeping the gift of joy alive, by living in the moment. Can we rejoice in the hope that God is always near? Have a blessed and holy Sunday everyone and don’t forget to give God a little time today! Today’s Thoughts: There is a very challenging quote from St. Oscar Romero that might help us reflect on our Advent readings today. St. Oscar Romero said, "Those who want to bear the mark of the Spirit and the fire that Christ baptizes with must take the risk of renouncing everything and seeking only God's reign and justice." Do we truly want to bear the marks of being a Christian people? Do we want to bear the marks of Elijah, John the Baptist and Jesus from our readings today? Do we want to be a people of Life?
Both of today’s readings seem to highlight the prophet Elijah – the first emphasizing his miraculous deeds, and the second (in the person of John the Baptist), his murder by the powers that run the world. This might seem a strange emphasis just 1 week shy of Christmas, so it’s helpful to recognize that, like Elijah, Jesus was a prophet – in fact the last and the greatest of the prophets. We’ve called Him many things, “Savior”, “teacher”, “Son-of-Man”, “Messiah”, but St. Luke, particularly, stresses that Jesus was first and foremost a prophet, the last in a line of individual prophets. Some describe a biblical prophet as, “one who comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable.” We can be comforted by the words of Elijah John the Baptist and Jesus today, but they can also be disturbing words when put into the context of the words of Oscar Romero. Are we ready to bear their marks? Are we ready to live by their word? Have a holy and blessed Saturday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Each time I read today's Gospel I think of the phrase, "You can please some of the people some of the time, but you cannot please all of the people all of the time!" I can also hear Jesus say, "But can I just please somebody!"
The fact is Jesus did please people, but his mission wasn't about pleasing people it was about helping, challenging, enlivening and gracing people. Sometimes these values of faith don't please in the way we expect. Life remains a struggle however if we come through the struggle – freedom and God's Love is waiting. There will always be people in life who don't like anything. We have met them, nothing that gets done or is suggested is ever right. We say black, they say white. Perhaps the challenge of today's readings is to not become one of these people. The voice of God comes to us in many different ways. Sometimes it is the voice of John calling for repentance and forgiveness, other times it is the voice of Jesus offering acceptance, compassion and love. The challenge is to let God's wisdom guide and direct us so that we hear God's voice when God speaks and act so that it transforms our lives! Have a blessed and holy Friday everyone. Today’s Thoughts: Isaiah's words are challenging but also hope filled. While Jesus' words seem to have a sting to them today. Isaiah reminds us that God is in control. No matter how bad it gets in this life God is always going to be there. God is always going to keep his promise even if we do not. Jacob can turn into a worm and Israel can become a maggot, but God will still be faithful. These certainly are comforting words but also words that should challenge us to be faithful.
Jesus reminds us today that no matter how great we become in this life it still pales in comparison to what awaits us in eternal life. John the Baptist was the greatest of all prophets; perhaps the greatest of all people yet the least person in the Kingdom of Heaven at that moment was greater than John. These are hard words to hear yet Jesus asks us to hear! We like to think of ourselves as in control. We like to think of ourselves as important. Yet the scriptures remind us today that we are not, in control or important. You might say the Word for today is "remember it is not about us, it is about God." God who is always faithful! And isn't that a hopeful message to take with us and proclaim today! Have a blessed and holy Thursday everyone – one filled with Advent hope! Today’s Thoughts: I think sometimes we struggle because God doesn’t seem to be present in ways we would like. We cannot take God fishing like Peter and the other disciples did. We cannot invite God in for a meal like Zacchaeus did. We cannot stop amid our daily work and have a conversation about life like the woman at the well did. We cannot argue a frustration like Martha did. We cannot ask a question and get an immediate answer like the disciples often did. We cannot feel that loving embrace like Mary and others surely did.
We must live by faith and hope not personal contact. Our time is a time of trusting in God’s presence and having faith that God is at work in us helping us make the right choices, helping us live a good life. We might say that throughout his time as pope, Pope Francis has challenged us to take up the “yoke” that Jesus mentions in the Gospel today (Matthew 11:28-30). It is the “yoke” and “burden” of the people around us who do not have the necessities of life, who are hungry, cold, homeless, suffering, immigrants without a home, children born and unborn without a voice, women not respected, people fleeing war and violence of all kinds. Yes, seeing these people, encountering them, perhaps even being one them is a burden and a yoke that is heavy, difficult to carry and a problem which often seems impossible to solve. Yet, Jesus says pick it up, carry it, but not alone. Like Jesus, Pope Francis, knows that if we do this we will learn from Jesus and we will come to know that the impossible can become of the possible. Perhaps our challenge today is to be “humble of heart” and trust in God’s strength to help us help the world. Have a great day everyone! Have a blessed and holy Wednesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Today’s Gospel (Luke 1:39-47) reminds us that Mary was truly a believer. Even though she did not know the full extent of her “yes” she proclaimed it anyway. She trusted in God. It was a trust that could be seen. Elizabeth saw it as Mary entered her home. For Elizabeth, Mary was blessed among women and her voice proclaimed the presence of God even to the baby in Elizabeth’s womb. Our God is not only a God of sight but also of sound.
Not having a clear vision of the road ahead is not always an easy way to live life. It demands trust, it demands faith, and it demands a sense of hope in all that one does. Mary certain defines this way of living. She did not know the implications of her “yes” but she had trust, faith and lived by an unrelenting hope. As Calvin Miller puts it in his book The Christ of Christmas: Readings for Advent – “We must look to Mary's example to know how to deal with the glorious impossibilities of God. Look how she turned the world upside down by making one simple statement.” Today we remember that Mary turned the New World upside down when she appeared to Juan Diego, an Aztec Indian convert, as a beautiful young woman on Tepeyac Hill near Mexico City on December 9, 1531. Just another reminder that if we trust, if we believe, if we live by hope we will encounter God most often when we least expect it but always when we are most in need! Have a holy and blessed Tuesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Today provides us with two wonderful readings. The first from Isaiah, within it we find a wonderful image, a world where everything is about life. A world where every obstacle is overcome. My favorite part of this reading is, "A highway will be there called the holy way...It is for those with a journey to make, and on it the redeemed will walk." Once again, Isaiah provides us with the gift of hope. Whenever I get the chance, I watch the movie "The Way" with Martin Sheen. I have watched this movie five or six times now, but each time I enjoy watching it because the story is a journey that started out as a struggle but ended with redemption. It like Isaiah's reflection today is about faith and hope made possible by God's mercy and gracious love.
The Gospel presents us with a two-part story. One Jesus' struggle with the religious leadership and the other is the graced story of the man who cannot walk, and his friends bring him to Jesus. They cannot get to Jesus because of the crowded house so the open a hole in the roof and lower the man in so that he might be healed by Jesus. The great gift of the second part of the story is that the man is healed because of the faith of his friends. We might say that these two readings work together for us today. The image of Isaiah's wonderful world is hopeful only if we work together, only if we journey together. Community, friendships, relationships bring about life and help us overcome what is not life. They often make healing and forgiveness possible. Perhaps today we might get a little closer to the world of Isaiah if we get on the holy way and bring someone else with us so that we can make the journey to God's love together! Have a blessed and holy Monday everyone. |
Fr. Paul R. Fagan, C.P. "Preacher on the Run"Just a few thoughts to help you on your journey through life...let me know from time to time what you think... Archives
April 2024
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