EPIPHANY OF THE LORD - YEAR B

EPIPHANY OF THE LORD – Year B
(Is 60:1-6; Eph 3:2-3, 5-6; Math 2:1-12)

Theme: Let us read well the signs of the times and change our way/ways

Reflection

- Centrality of the feast of Epiphany: today we celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord, that is, the self-manifestation of Jesus to all the people of the world. It is an important feast for the Church that she keeps it between two great manifestations of Jesus in the world: Jesus’ self-presentation to the world in his incarnation and Jesus’ self-sacrifice and offering of new life to the world in the paschal mystery; it is for this reason, the church proclaims today the date of ‘Easter’ and all the principle celebrations around it starting from the Ash Wednesday to the First Sunday of Advent; in this way this feast serves as the central and connecting day of the whole liturgy of the Church; it ends with the all the manifestation of the first mystery of Jesus on earth: his birth and his presentation to the whole world as the ‘boy’ born for the salvation of the humanity; and it opens the new manifestation of the second and final manifestation of Jesus on earth: his baptism, his public life and ministry and his paschal event of passion-death-resurrection and thus, as the ‘messiah’ who offered his life to obtain new beginning for all those who follow him; such is an importance of the feast we celebrate today: we close our adoration of baby Jesus and we move towards finding the adult and matured Jesus who is ready to fulfill his Father’s will and thus manifest his unconditional love on the cross.
- Celebration is perennial: Jesus’ manifestation is an ever growing and an never ending celebration; He wills to manifest himself always and everywhere there is a true need; today is the ultimate manifestation of the purpose of his ‘entrance’ into the world and his ‘indwelling’ among the people; he has already manifested himself on the day of Christmas: he manifested himself to Mary and to Joseph; he manifested himself to the shepherds in the night bringing them to himself through the message of an angel; he manifested himself to the few people of Bethlehem;
- Universal significance of the feast: Now is the time to widen and enlarge this manifestation; now is the time to make this manifestation universally significant and that all people are called to participate in this revelation; now is the time to invite all to ‘follow’ and ‘to see’ the glory of God; and this is the feast of Epiphany: the manifestation of the Lord to the Magi, means wise men, from the east; Although Jesus is born in particular time, in particular place and to the particular parents, his birth is not confined to the particular people; his birth is for all; his love is for all; his glory is for all; his joy is for all; and thus his self-manifestation is for all; to his people first and to all others next; the coming of the Magi from the distant place signify that they do not belong to the elected people of Israel but belong to the section outside the chosen race; his fragrance of love permeates the whole earth; his message of salvation embraces the whole universe; his invitation to participate in the eternal joy reaches to the ends of the earth; thus this feast has a character of universality and catholicity in our particular sense;
- Call to have great joy: the magi have found great joy when they have seen the star which was always a guide for them from their house to the savior’s house; today is the day of joy just as all the Christian celebrations are the moments of finding the true joy of the Lord; this joy is not restricted to some people alone; it crosses the boundaries of all spheres of life; it is an inner joy that the heart finds in ‘embracing’ the Lord born of us.
- understanding the signs of the time: the wise men from the east have seen the ‘strange star’ in the sky as they are also astronomers and they have immediately understood that there is something miraculous event taking place; they have so curious and they are so overwhelmed by this star that they have followed it till the end; they had made their way to the place where it has pointed them to. It has to be same with us as we celebrate this feast. God in fact provides us many ‘signs’ and ‘occasions’ to find out his interventions in our life; we have to be attentive to these ‘little’ yet ‘meaningful’ manifestations of the Lord; this is what is for us understanding the signs of his presence; once we understand what this sign/or incident or the occasion means for us we are encouraged to follow it until we reach its final realization in our life; now let us see ‘the star’ of this particular feast for us today and what it ‘shows’ to us and where it guides us.

From this particular celebration of the Feast of Epiphany we can learn at least four things in order to have the same experience of the Magi, the Wise men of the East:

First: Our desire for the Lord has dominate our knowledge of him

- Having a knowledge of the word of God and having a teaching of the scriptures thoroughly in the mind is not enough to have the experience of the Lord or to participate fully in the manifestation of the Lord but we need have desire for him and this desire is the fruit of the knowledge of the Lord; there it is not enough that we stop with knowing him but we move towards desiring because only in the desire we get him and only in the desire we become united to him and only in the desire we become part his life;
- It is this message we learn from the attitude of the Magi today: it is in contrast to the leaders and the priests of the people of Israel; King Herod and his priests have turned the pages of the scriptures, have found the prophecies about the baby-savior born in Bethlehem and thus, they acquired the full knowledge of who, where and what of the ‘king of Jews’; but they have not moved even a single ‘step’ to go and see him; they have stopped with the knowledge they got; they are happy to find out all the references of him; they are content to guiding the magi with the exact information of the birth of the king in Bethlehem; but the fate is that ‘they have not moved’ out of their houses; they are satisfied with the knowledge of his birth; they never had a ‘desire’ to see him and to meet him;
- But the attitude of the Magi is different and goes beyond that of ordinary knowledge of the priests and leaders of the locality: they too have the knowledge and they too have seen the star and they understood well what it means for them and for the world; for the world it gives the message of the new born king; and for them it gives the message of making a ‘journey’ towards him and to embrace him with all their life; once they have understood this and once they had this knowledge of the ‘king born for the Jews’ and to all they have not remained there. More than having the knowledge of it, they had desire to find out what it means and where it leads; they had the desire of becoming part of this great event in the history; they had the desire of offering their total life to the one who is born in the world and to the one which this star indicates and leads them; this is this desire that made them ‘move’ or step out from their houses and from their places; this is this desire that made them to have a long journey; though they travel for long time they are tired or they have not given it up; because the desire in them has dominated their physical fatigue and their mental knowledge; their desire to see the baby king is so great that nothing stopped them from their journey; so it is desire that goes beyond the ordinary knowledge of him;
- We are called to learn this truth that ‘our knowing of Jesus’ is not enough to participate in his manifestation and we need to have ‘the desire’ to find him and to be with him and to be for him; unless we have this desire it is difficult for us to see his light and his glory; it is this desire that will make us move out of our comfort zones: like that of our house, our family, our relations and specially, our thoughts, our ideas, our knowledge and all that what is ours; it is this desire that will makes us make a ‘journey’ towards him who is our king and savior; otherwise we remain in our houses and with our occupations and preoccupations without recognizing the ‘true life-giver’ born for us; therefore, let our knowledge of the bible or scriptures has to lead us to the desire of finding him and to the desire of having him and finally to the desire of ‘being with him’ always.

Second: we have to make ourselves ‘humble and small’ in front of the greatness of the Lord

- The Magi are not an ordinary people; according to the tradition we come to know that they are Wise men, the astronomers who read the stars and thus, in a certain sense, they are scientists; there is also another understanding of Magi that they are kings from the east and it is known with the gifts they carry to offer to the ‘strange one’, Jesus, who is born. By this we know that they are in any not small people but ‘they are already great’ in their status and in their places;
- But their attitude of making themselves ‘small’ and ‘humble’ by their leaving their royal and kingly throne and position and following a star that would lead them to the ‘wonderful event’ for the universe is noteworthy; it was in reality not necessary for them to abandon their greatness as rulers/as kings but they have still done it because they have recognized that there is born a King who is above all kings and specially, above them and their own kingdom; they have made themselves small and unworthy and in the particular manner they have so humble that they have give up their dignity and have come down to ‘glorify’ the King of kings;
- Even their gestures demonstrate this virtue of their meekness and humility: let us read once again the verse 11: “On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” Let us observe keenly the important acts; first, they have entered into the house or the presence of the king born for the world; secondly, they have ‘seen’ him; thirdly, they have bowed down and adored him; fourthly, they have opened their bags; and finally, they have offered the gifts to him; each gesture is very significant;
- This is the teaching we have to learn from these wise men:
o First: let us make ourselves small and meek; we have to give up our pride and arrogance; we have to recognize that we are humans and in any way not greater than God as we always tend to be and pretend to be; we have accept our unworthiness before the great manifestation of the Lord; what are we? We are after all his creatures and the work of his hands; how can we try to dominate him or at least how can we question him and his actions; if we do not understand them let us ‘try’ at least to be ‘quite’ because we have no capacity to comprehend all the marvelous events of the Almighty for us; this is the teaching not only for us Christians but to all those who pretend to be ‘gods’ and tend to dominate the world with their knowledge and scientific experiments and with their technological enhancements; they are great things that man can do; we accept this fact that God has given the capacity and capability to the man; but it doesn’t mean that we can overtake God and take up his place; Jesus being God made himself appear in the human and much less in servant form; it is to teach us that we are small and we have to be humble before ‘appearance and action’ of God;
o Second: we have to imbibe well all the gestures that the Magi have manifested so that they could really fulfill their desire by ‘embracing’ the King of kings: we have to first of all ‘enter’ into the house of God and we do it every time we come for the mass or for the prayers; entering is not enough; we have to ‘see’/or participate in what is this small baby Jesus is doing for us right now, means, every time when we come we have to ‘observe’ well the word proclaimed for us and the Eucharist given for us; entering and seeing is not enough; we have to ‘bow down and adore him’ with all our meekness and with our smallness as the wise men of today have done it; from this act of adoration come also ‘opening’ of the self, not only the shelf, opening of the heart, not only of the eyes and this will make us ‘offer’ all that we carry from our house; we carry from our house all the troubles, all the difficulties, all the sufferings and also with them, all the hopes, all the desires to be good Christians and this is for us, the gold, the incense and the fragrance; only in this way we can ‘participate’ totally in the mysterious manifestation of the Lord;

Third: We have to leave the way we have come and take another way

- The third point we have to learn from the Magi is that we have to return to our homes and our work and to our life itself with an ‘another way’ found from the joy of meeting the baby savior; the Magi have done this and they encourage us to follow the same; let us reflect again the last verse of the gospel passage of today: “And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their country by another road” (v.12). The previous verse 11 is full of gestures of Magi in their confrontations with the baby king and the present verse 12 is the decision-prepared by an angel by which they have made their return journey in a different way; and both these verses are conjunct with a word “and” which signifies that there is a close link between the first and the second and that the first one leads to the second and the second is the fruit of the first.
- The Magi were always attentive to the ‘sign’ or ‘star’: from the beginning they were following the star because they were attentive to it; now again there is God’s intervention in their decision, this time it is in the form of a ‘dream’ and yet they were attentive to heed to it; it is this attentiveness and heeding to ‘God’s sign’ which made them to save themselves and the king whom they have just embraced and adored from the furious Herod on one hand, and which made them to take a different way/another way that their return is not just like their coming but it is different because it is filled with joy of experiencing the presence of God in the world; they have changed their way; they have trodden another way; their return is quite different and joyful;
- We are invited today to ‘change’ our ways of return as those of Magi; we here into the church; we listen to the word of God; we experience joy of being in His presence; this joy should be continuous; we have to carry this joy to our homes, to our lives, to others whom we meet and to our working places; this joy has to be shared; this joy has to be reaching to other through us; for this we have to return to our homes differently; it has a spiritual meaning: we have to return from the presence of the Lord to our homes/our lives with the renewed heart and transformed life; the way we have taken to church is that of ordinary and usual one; our way to God’s presence is full of hurdles and full of doubts and full of desperation; but once we participate in the glory of God all these will be transformed into the ‘hope of joy’, ‘courage of confronting the life’ and finally ‘joy of living them’. Therefore, let us change our way; let us renew ourselves; let us leave ourselves to be transformed by God;

Fourth: We have to be ‘true’ and ‘authentic’ researchers of God

- We enter into the last point that we can learn from the Magi today; Magi as we have already noted are not the Jews; instead, they are gentiles; they are pagans; they are outside of the house of Israel, the privileged ones of God;
- But they are the ‘symbol’ for all those who search for God with sincerity and with truth: they have come all the way from their countries ‘searching’ for the one who is born to change the fate of the world; they have come from distance ‘seeking’ the true God who would be amidst his people; they have not stopped their researched; they have continued until they have found him whom they are searching in spite many doubts and many hindrances on the way;
- We have to be ‘authentic’ seekers of the truth and ‘sincere’ researchers of God: we are circled by many religions and many faith and many ideologies; we are affected by lots of doubts about the presence of God and specially about his silence towards the suffering humanity; we are attacked many a time by many who come and block our faith by creating number of doubts about the scriptures, about the church, about the failures of the priests and about the failure of Christians in giving testimony of life;
- When these attacks come from outside we are immediately shocked or disturbed; we feel as though our foundations were shaking; we tend to really cling on to them and their powerful images; specially, few religions who always find fault with the Christianity; it is normal that we are disturbed and preoccupied about the effect of these religious attacks;
- But we need not fear them; we can make these stumbling blocks as the stepping stone for climbing upwards in our authentic research for the truth; they give us possibility to deeper our own faith and to deepen our seeking; they are the occasions for us to question our stand as Christians and to grow in the firm faith; they are the doors for us through which we enter into the reality of ‘true and authentic’ faith that will sustain us; we have to learn to treat them with respect, not with fear;
- The Wise men of today’s reflection are our models and examples; they have never given up their research and their seeking; instead, they have made even the chosen people to recognize and to realize who this baby is and for whom he is born; if we sincerely seek the truth we do not give up until we find it; and seeking the truth is a process and we are still in the process; we know the Jesus is born for us and we have accepted him as our savior but as Christians; still we do not have answers for all the problems of the world; but our trial is always is there; our research is always there; the world’s technology and science and the other religious pressures give us the possibility and encourage us to ‘continue firmly’ in our seeking the truth and in growing in faith; let us learn to be sincere seekers of God;

Conclusion: You/I are the star of the world

- Jesus is the star of God’s love to the world; he is the light of the world as he himself manifested in his proclamation; he is the light that has shown on the people who are walking in the darkness; he is the true light in which we see ourselves clearly and thus take part in his ‘heavenly splendor’;
- Church is the star of Jesus in the world and for the world; the church leads all men to the truth by its interpretation of the scriptures and by its proclamation and theological explorations of the truth: Jesus Christ - the Truth, the Way and the Life;
- Each Christian is the star to the others; we have to shine in our life first with the joy and glory of God and thus we have the responsibility of throwing this light on others; we have to guide the world now; for this we have to ‘deepen our own life and faith’.
- Today and Now, You are the star and we always have this vocation of being the star; and you have to guide yourself, your family, your work and your life to the manifestation of Jesus;
- For all these, let us remind ourselves, let us first understand well the signs of the God’s presence and doing in our lives and change our way/ways with the renewed heart and transformed spirit and be the ‘true seekers’ of God.

NEW YEAR - MARY, MOTHER OF GOD - YEAR B

JANUARY 01 - NEW YEAR - YEAR B: Mary Mother of God
(Num 6:22-27; Gal 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21)

Theme: Let us safeguard well in our hearts the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Reflection:

General introduction of the day

- Today, the Church asks us to celebrate three important feasts: Mary, Mother of God; The New Year; and The World Peace Day. In this way we are full of continuous joy of the Christian life and vocation.
- Mary, Mother of God: the Church has proclaimed, the ever virgin mother of Jesus who is both fully divine and fully human, as the mother of God. Therefore, when Mary has given her final consent of 'being a servant of the Lord' she has already become the part of the redemptive design of God and when she has given birth to Jesus and thus becoming his mother she has become also the mother of God her creator himself. We celebrate this maternity of Mary today.
- The New Year: we have yet another year of the grace of the Lord. We are in the central point from which we move back to the memories of the year just passed away and from which we look forward to the hope of the year just started. Memories of the past always serve us as the 'events of experience and learning' (past year) and thus we have 'ample of possibility' (present year) ahead to really live and to make our life worthy-livable. We celebrate this moment of entering into New Year today.
- The World Peace Day: Peace is the 'single word and common task' of the world's nations today. 'We want peace', 'let us work for the peaceful society', 'let us construct a world with peace and justice' are the 'daily cries' of the people. Very happy to hear this news. But peace is not a word but an action. It's not just a prayer for peace but there is need of everyone's responsibility to work for it. Let us pray for the peace, yes, indeed, it is the gift of the Lord and but we have to also 'work' for the peace with our kind words and with our merciful acts, yes, indeed, it is our human task. We celebrate this world peace day today.

Particular introduction of the day

- Celebration of Eternity in time and space:
- We are here today to celebrate the eternity of Christian life and salvation. It seems little strange in this context of our feast. But it is apt and true. Today we celebrate 'The Eighth Day' of the Christmas. Ordinarily speaking there are only seven days a week. We measure our time and our days and months with this. Eighth day of the week usually never appears in our general calendar of time and year. Still the Church makes us to celebrate this eighth day of Christmas and 'also of the Easter'.
- Our Christian faith makes us to celebrate these eight days of feast as 'One and Same Event of Jesus Christ'. By celebrating 'the eighth day' we go 'out of our ordinary measurement of time' and thus 'we move out of our general time'. That means that we go beyond our time and beyond our human measure.
- This going beyond our normal counting of the days and time is at the same time means 'entering into another, unusual, countless and unlimited measurement of time'. It means in a simple word, we enter into eternity; which also means that we enter into the time and space of God himself.
- Thus by celebrating the eighth day of Christmas today we celebrate our Christian mysteries without limit and without end; we are to continuously and tirelessly enter into the joy of celebration of God's Word and Event for us.
- God entered into the time, space and history by the incarnation, so that he could move the same time, space and history into eternity of his own nature and being. Theologically these words may seem to be very strong and incomprehensible to our human mind and we can understand with the simple reason that it is not human doing but God's own will and work.
- The joy of celebration of Jesus' entrance into the world and into our midst (John 1:14) has to be for us 'continuous and lifelong and even beyond' celebration of life and mission of Christian faith.
- In the simple words, we cannot celebrate the midnight or day mass of Christmas on 25th December and say that we have finished our celebration of the great feast. No, we do not have an end to our celebration. We do not have a limit to our joy of Jesus' presence with us. We do not have a need to conclude our feasting of faith and life. Every Christ is born in us and every day he fulfills his work of salvation in us with the power of his Spirit. Any feast for that matter and in a special way two great feasts: Christmas and the Easter because they are the two pillar of our life here on earth and our future life there in heaven.
- Therefore, today we celebrate 'our entrance into eternity'. We are reminded today that we are not people of limited time and space but we are called to live in eternity, means, to live in the Lord. We have to be mindful of this truth every second of our life and only then we will be able to keep up and live up to the worthy of 'being the people of eternity'.

Message of God for us today

- First Reading: Blessing of the Lord
o It is a message of blessing pronounced by God himself to Moses;
o It is a blessing that the priests have to confer to the people of Israel;
o It is a blessing with the same words that God himself commanded to use;
o It is a blessing which contains all the possible requirements of spiritual nourishment for the life:
" It contains the blessing of the Lord: thus, his presence
" It contains the care of the Lord: thus, his power
" It contains the splendor of the Lord: thus, his glory
" It contains the grace of the Lord: thus, his choice
" It contains the peace of the Lord: thus, his gift
o It is a blessing which we too have to make it our own and thus our life itself should become a blessing for us, for our neighbor, for our community, for our society, and for the entire world.
o Therefore, on the first day of the year we shall keep in mind that it is a time to rejoice because we are given a blessing and it is a time to share because we are given a vocation of reaching out this blessing to others. Therefore, on the first day of the year itself, we have a grace on one hand and we also have a task on the other hand.

- Second Reading: Christian dignity of being children of the Lord
o St. Paul reminds us today the 'fact' and the 'fruit' of the coming of the Lord into the world:
" The fact is that the Lord has entered into the time and history 'under the same law' and 'through the natural and worldly means' of being born of a woman (not by the woman because woman is not the cause for the birth but the Spirit of God; and not through the woman because it is not human act that caused the birth but divine intervention).
" The fruit is that we are saved from the law and slavery of the old law and we are made 'children of God' by the working of the sanctifying grace of His Spirit which makes all of us shout and cry out with One Voice and with One Heart: Abba! Father! As the children we are no more slaves for anything of the world and anyone of the world but we become the heirs of his life and being - thus we become the partaker of his eternity.

- Gospel: Example of Mary and the modality of the shepherds:
o In the gospel of today, which is the continuation of the gospel passage of the Christmas, we have two models for our Christian journey: they are, first - Mary and second - the shepherds; for our reflection let us start from the shepherds because they are the ones who are found in the beginning and towards the end of the gospel of today;
o Shepherds: After hearing the good news of the birth of the savior in Bethlehem from an Angel, they started their journey towards the manger to see the baby. In the journey of the shepherds we find four steps that made their experience of joy of the savior full and perfect:
" First step: 'going' (v.16): they have immediately set out to go to reach the place indicated by the angel so that they could see the savior born for them; they could not remain there in the fields because the news is so exciting, so marveling and so powerful that they could not stay 'firm' on their ground but wanted to move to see how and what this baby 'born for them' could be.
" Second step: 'referred' (v.17): they have seen the baby and with the joy of his sight they could not control their emotions and their feelings; they started talking about all that has been said to them by the angel and they tried to describe all the events that have taken place in their venture into finding the savior;
" Third step: 'returning' (v.20): the power of joy is not personal. It makes the one who finds it to go and share it. It does not keep quiet until it is given to somebody else. It is so contagious that all become partakers of it. The same thing happened to the shepherds. They could not control their joy of seeing the baby and talking about him; they immediately returned to spread the good news to others; in other words, they have soon shared their joy of the savior with others. The joy of the Lord makes the person to return to his life and to his work to live it and to share it.
" Fourth step: 'praising and glorifying' (v.20): Joy of the eyes that have seen the wonderful act of God soon has become the song of praise and thanksgiving to God. The shepherds feeling themselves blessed and fortunate to have this experience of 'watching' the baby who has filled them with hope of salvation, kept on offering their hymns of praise to the Lord for his presence amidst them;
" Fifth step: 'our step': now it is our turn to take the model of the shepherds and do the same. First, we have to listen to the good news of salvation and then 'go out' to see the reality of the words proclaimed; the savior is born for us and we have heard the good news and thus we go to the church to see and experience this 'birth of the savior' for us and before our naked eyes. Second, we have to 'talk' and 'speak' all that happened; we can ask ourselves a question here: did I ever speak of the event of incarnation after my Christmas Mass to at least few of my neighbors? Did I spend some time to witness Jesus' birth for me and in front of me? We have to use our tongue and our lips to 'refer' the things of the Lord; if we have an answer for this question, it's well and good; otherwise we have 'revise' who we are and what we are until today. Third, we have to return from the presence of the Lord, after the mass, into the world, into our families and into our life; we are not called only to pray and to sit wondering at the events of the Lord but we are called to 'live' them and to share them with the others. Fourth, we have to give praise and glory to God for all his marvelous acts for our salvation; the experience of the joy that we have received from our participation in the mystery of incarnation makes us to glorify God and to offer our whole life to him; therefore, just watching and listening is not the end of Christian life but 'living, sharing and thanksgiving' is the final step of our life and mission. Let us for this Christmas and the time that follows, learn to 'go' to see the Lord, to 'refer' his words and message, to 'return' to our life with task of sharing our joy and thus, finally offering our lives as a sacrifice of thanksgiving and glory to God.
o Mary who has kept everything in her heart: between the 'coming' with the hope and 'returning' with the joy of the shepherds there is the 'attitude of Mary' which we have to notice and take as an example to continue our wondering of the mysteries of the Lord and specially of his incarnation into the world. "Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart" (Luke 2:19): this is the silent-admiration of Mary with all that is happening in her and around her. Yes, indeed, God's great deeds are in fact talked and proclaimed; but more than that, they are to be 'treasured' and 'pondered' in one's heart;
" Mary Treasured: treasure is something precious and to be safeguarded and kept preserved. Treasuring something is an act by which one 'makes his own' all that he wants to secure; it is an act by which one saves all that he gathers and receives; precious treasure is treasured preciously; about the event of the 'birth of the savior' all those who gathered there around manger were amazed when they the shepherds told them the words of the angels and their finding of the baby and their experience of an inner joy; there are certainly Mary, Joseph and shepherds and there could have been also the near ones who would have gathered; in any case, the shepherds were joyful and exclaimed the wonderful acts of God in their midst; but "Mary, on her part, has kept all these words in her heart". This is the unique and marvelous attitude that Mary has demonstrated before the magnificent joy that God has endowed her with; All have preferred to talk and chat but Mary has preferred to 'treasure' them because she alone knows how precious these words and event are because 'she' has participated in it with her 'amen'.
" Mary pondered them: mystery of God and his interventions are very often incomprehensible to the human limited mind and reason; God entering into the world taking a human form is highly un-intellectual and un-philosophical of the time. God's entering into the world as a poor and disguised baby in the manger is too hard even to those religious and awaiting authority of the time, that is the priests and leaders of the people of Israel, to understand it and that is the reason why they are not able to accept him (John 1:10-11); both reason and faithful waiting failed; both philosophy and so called religiosity have not succeeded in recognizing the mystery of God amidst them; it is only poor and simple shepherds who were able to 'believe' and 'to go' and 'to find' and 'to return with praise and glory' and finally filled their life 'with the joy of the presence of savior amidst them'; it is so complicating and yet it is so simple that the mystery of incarnation is not invited by the elite and literate officials of the time; BUT, the evangelist Luke uses this conjunction to show the difference between those who talked and shared about the joy of the baby savior and those who actually taught us with their silent attitude that the mystery is so deep that we cannot be momentarily joyful; Mary knows how deep is this mystery; she knows that this mystery is not fully manifested; she knows that the same mystery in the process of its revelation will demand total life of the participant; she is the participant of the mystery and so she has to give up all her life and her being for the perfect realization of the mystery; that is the reason why she is still deeply pondering where could this mystery of Jesus leads her and the world to; with all these thoughts in the mind she preferred to ponder them over than speaking about them and thus manifesting momentary joy than complete personal sacrifice and transformation in and for the mystery of God.
" In her Heart: Mary has gone beyond the mind and thought she knows that the mind can falter and thought can doubt the interventions of God; therefore, she has kept everything in her heart; heart is her only place for the indwelling of God's design and will; as one of the Early Fathers of the Church said "Mary has conceived God in her heart before she conceived him in her womb". As soon as she said 'I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it done to me according to your word, she has given birth to the 'redemptive plan' of God and thus carrying in her heart already the eternal project of the Father who wills to send his Son by the power of the Spirit; thus her heart is 'always open and recipient' of the mystery of God and now the mystery of incarnation. Only in the heart it can be safeguarded and preserved well even if the mystery is shattered with the human doubts of the mind and reason; heart/will has always a place to embrace and meditate deeply all that is not incomprehensible; that's the reason why Mary has preferred in keep all thing in her heart; heart is silent and joyful when the events occur either desirable or undesirable; the mind cannot stay firm and the tongue cannot control both the moments either of joy or of sorrow; instead, the heart is always ready to 'ponder' the meaning and value of the things happen in our life; therefore, it is possible only to the heart to comprehend what is happening and to ponder over when it is not comprehensible;
" Like Mary we too are called today to treasure all the wonderful interventions of God in our life on one hand simply rejoicing internally and to treasure as well all that we are not able to understand on the other hand simply placing them in our meditation and thus seeking their context and meaning for us today; let us not be disturbed or too much worried of the thing we don't understand; let us accept that we are humans and we cannot grasp everything of the world with our small mind; and how much difficult it should be with the 'actions' of God; therefore, let us only in complete trust and in confidence wonder over the mysteries of Christian faith; let us preserve them in our heart and ponder over them because every event that happens in our life has a meaning and a purpose for our life and for our Christian journey; let us take Mary, mother of God and of Us, as the example and only in this way we can be 'calm and tranquil' in moments of misunderstanding, incomprehension and of un-recognition.

New Year or yet Another Year?

- Another Year: We never have 'new year' but we only have 'another' year; we often make the concepts and we ourselves do not really understand their meaning; I would prefer to say that we do enter into the year with the first day of every year but we enter not into new year but into another year; there is lot of difference if only we have time to reflect over it; day after day the time passes; year after year the possibility of another year starts; with the term 'new' we often fall into misconception and we enter into false preparations and false celebrations; if we celebrate every year as new year we have to also celebrate every day as new day but why we don't? everything is a matter of time or tickling of the clock; one moment passes another enters; one minute passes another arrives; one week passes another is at our disposal; one month passes another knock our door; one year passes another opens us the possibility of choices; it is not more than this; why we make so much preparation and spend so much of money and organize so much of program? Why finally we neglect and give up our spiritual renewal? Is it not false festivity? Let us celebrate not as a new year but 'another year' which God has kept in our hand opening the possibility of betterment of life.
- Wishes of Better Life instead: We may celebrate New Year, because we are already in the clutches of worldly and false attractions, and even if God himself comes down to stop these we are not ready to do it; so what are my words after all? We exchange wishes of the New Year and these wishes make round today and whole of this month. It is well and fine. Let us only try to understand well what we are celebrating and what are our wishes for; wish can be just a combination of few beautiful words; is it enough? Is it a real and true wish? Where is our heart and mind when we utter these words? Do we really wish it? What does a real wish signify? We have to answer all these questions before we exchange our wish. If we have an answer we are 'worthily' exchange the wishes and not wishes of New Year but of better life. It should not be the wish of pretention but a real wish; real wish is not only saying a few words but 'doing everything possible' to make the wish come true; are we ready to do it? we wish today and from tomorrow we live as though we are strangers; in this situation what could the meaning of our celebration?
- Today is the starting of 'another year of possibility for the better life': we may not have fulfilled all that we wanted fulfill; we may not have reached the goal we wanted to reach; we may not have completed all that we wanted to complete; we may not have come to the human growth and spiritual renewal that we really wished to have; Today is the opening of another possibility; today is the time to enter into another year; today is the appointed or given time and space for us to 'have a betterment of our life'; more than celebration and wasting of time with false imaginations and false prestige, it is a 'time given' to us to 'ponder and work out for the self renewal; it is not our time; we are not in grade of adding even a single moment to our life; it is a time 'provided' for us, provided for us by God as we believers hold, and provided by luck/or some other unknown power as non believers hold; in any case, it is time 'provided', not earned by our human efforts; let us keep this truth in mind before we celebrate 'any form of time' - be it a birth day or feast day or new year. Only then we will really 'enter into the celebration of our life and our mission' on earth, in and for the world. It is not to discourage the celebration but it only for the meaningful celebration that this reflection is aimed;

Conclusion: Better Life with the Presence and Power of Baby Savior Born For Us Today

- We are the children of God and we have to enter into the life and being of God and that is, into eternity; this time is temporal; this time passes away; these celebrations too fade away; night time we celebrate and day time we worry for the life; so simple is the reason; let us not go after pretending life but 'open' life; we live only few years; we have minimum time to live in the world; why do we waste it with misunderstandings, with struggles, with faces of sorrow and with the complaints of life; let us live it and make other live;
- We have two personalities for us to imitate and to go forward in our journey of another year:
o Mary who taught us to just wonder at the working of God rather than finding reasons because divine interventions go beyond our normal thinking; let us take the example of Mary and 'treasure in our heart' all the incomprehension and failures of knowledge and thus giving space to the Spirit to work in us and to bring forth from our heart the savior.
o Shepherds who taught us to find God in the simplicity of life and openness to the truth and availability to the divine inspirations and to rejoice over them and give glory and praise to God; great thing is the summary of the simple things just as the great ocean is the summary of the single and simple drops; so also God acts in the simple hearts that are ready to listen to him, that desire to see him, that set out to meet him and finally that renders due praise and glory to the Him; let us try to understand this and live as simple and available as the shepherds to the mystery of God for us and amidst us. In this way let us safeguard well in our hearts the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ. May God Bless Us Today and the Days to Come.

CHRISTMAS - DAY OF LOVE

CHRISTMAS – B

(Midnight Mass: Is 9:1-3, 5-6; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-14)
(Day Mass: Is 52:7-10; Heb 1:1-6; John 1:1-18)

Theme: Let Us Become Ourselves A Crib For The Lord

Reflection:

- Happy Feast and Happy Christmas to all of you. It’s Great Day. It’s a Joyful Day. It’s a Blessed Day. It’s a Marvelous Day. It’s a Delightful Day. It’s a Luminous Day. It’s a Day of the Lord. It’s a Day of Man and It’s a Day of Appointment of God with Man. The list can go on. We are very happy and elevated to hear all these excellent and beautiful words. Yes, indeed, they are true and they are a reality ‘Today before Our Own Eyes’ because ‘Is born for us a Savior’.
- It is the Day the Lord has made and let us rejoice and be glad in it. Today is not the day the humanity has found or has organized or willed. It is the Day the Lord himself willed, planned, proclaimed and placed before us. We are called to rejoice over this Day. We are called to overwhelm this Day. We are called to leap with joy of this Day. And finally we are called to be glad IN this Day. And today is the Day because ‘Is born for us a Savior’.
- Being glad in it means ‘making the day our own’ and ‘making the Lord’s doing our own’. It means also ‘entering ourselves into the design of God’s salvation’. It means also ‘living and proclaiming the same joy which is given to us’. We are here to ‘listen’ to that Good News. We are here to ‘see’ that Light. We are here to ‘experience’ that Grace on Grace. We are here finally ‘live’ the joy of being part of God’s Day. We are really partaker of his holy will because ‘Is born for us a Savior’.
- Day of Love: Above all today is the ‘Day of Love Incarnated’. Today is the day that has proved that ‘love’ is no more a word, no more a concept, no more a idea or no more a wish. Today is the day that has proved that ‘love’ is a presence, that love is a ‘being with’, love is a ‘giving’ and ‘offering’, that love is a ‘loving action’. We are happy to see this ‘transformation’ of word-love into love-action. Love has become ‘flesh with the flesh and bone with the bone’. It is not four lettered word anymore but ‘it is an event happened, still happening and will happen for ever’ because ‘Is born for us a Savior’.

Festivity of the ‘Sun’: ‘Sol Invictus’

- In the roman empire of that epoch there was a feast of the celebration of the sun. According to the roman culture of the time, during the season of winter the days were short with the long nights. There was more darkness than the light. There was more night than the day. It is only around 25 December that the days of the winter start changing. Little by little there was a more light. Days started to be with the sunlight. The darkness became shortened. In this ‘period of change’ of the winter night into the spring day, there was a feast celebrated in the honor of the sun which comes to illuminate them and to give them the more light. This was the feast of the sun.
- The early church has thought of Jesus Christ who has come to the world as ‘the Light of the World’ and his nativity was in the time of winter. In this context the church has delighted herself to call her ‘Savior’ and ‘Messiah’ Jesus Christ as the ‘Sun’ that has come to visit us and to illuminate us. therefore, merging the prophecy of the OT and the reality of NT into one person: the prophecy is that of Isaiah 9:1, “the people who walked in darkness has seen a great light” and the reality is that of the Benedictus of Zechariah, in Luke 1:78, “by the tender mercy of our God, the dawn (light) from on high will break upon us”. Two verses or two prophecies are realized fully and perfectly in Jesus Christ who manifested himself as the ‘Light of the World’ (John 8:12). Thus the feast of the sun has become the feast of the ‘Rising Sun’, Jesus Christ.
- By the word ‘sol invictus’ means the ‘invincible sun’: the sun which has its light forever and that light which is never extinguished by anything. Jesus Our Savior is the Sun which makes us awake and keeps us alert and enthusiasm and makes us clear about the things of the world just as the natural sun which makes us rise up in the morning and keep us always alert during the day without falling down and which finally helps us to see the things clearly. Let us turn to the Sun which has shown for us because ‘Today the Savior is born for us all’.

Festivity of the Humility

- Decree of registration: the manifestation of the power and authority
o In the gospel of Luke (2:1ff) we see the Emperor Augustus who has made arrangements for the registration of the names in their proper native places. It is an occasion for demonstrating the authority of the emperor. Through this the power of the emperor is recognized. This is the way to measure the ‘power and authority’ of the empire and the emperor. How much of the land is occupied by him? How much of property he has saved? How much of peace he has acquired in the kingdom? How many people are under his rule? All these are the measurements to know the capacity of the emperor. It is for this reason that even Emperor Augustus has made the decree with the want of ‘showing himself’ as a great and powerful emperor.
o Even before this we see King David in the last days of his life doing the same and finally receiving the punishment of God (2 Sam 24:1ff).
o God punished David not just because of the census of Israel and Judah he has ordered but because of the intention behind it. He wanted to prove himself great and he desired to have all the praises and glory, thus, forgetting that it is the Lord who increases the number of his people.
o In both occasions the emperor has strived for their personal glory and wanted to show their power and authority by their orders and decrees. In both occasions they have neglected the True God, the True King and the True Emperor of the entire world and they have not given him proper glory and praise.

- Degree of meekness and humility: the manifestation of God’s reign and God’s glory
o Instead, Jesus Christ has shown another path, a different mode of conquering the crown of glory: it is by the total self-renunciation and by utter giving up of oneself.
o His total offering of himself for the loving will of the Father and for donating a true and eternal life to the humanity have been revealed in his taking the human form: “though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself and became obedient to the point of death – death on the cross” (Phil 2:6-7).
o Jesus found this ‘total self-emptying’ as the only way to offer to God, his Father, the glory. He has made himself small; he has made himself servant; he has made himself loser; he has made himself a sacrifice.
o This is the only way to meet God and to be always in his will and way: this the proper message of Christmas: we have to humble ourselves to be partaker of his glory: “who humbles himself will be exalted and who exalts himself will be humbled.”
o If we want to live genuinely the message of Christmas we have to ‘low ourselves’, we have to ‘bend our heads’ before him; his birth was in a such small hut that those who enter to see the baby they have to bend and enter in. This may be small gesture but it has a spiritual meaning: that we have to lessen ourselves, we have to humble ourselves and we have to bend ‘our heads full of pride and arrogance’ if we ‘want’ to enter into the small house - ‘tent amidst us’ – prepared by the one who has born for us and to experience his peace and his salvation.
o Therefore, Christmas is the feast of celebration and living of humility keeping aside/ emptying ourselves of our desire for power, name and fame, authority, greatness. Only then we celebrate a real birth of the Savior for us and in us.

Festivity of contradiction

- Jesus makes himself poor and weak while Augustus had made himself great before the world. Jesus makes himself a ‘giver of life and giver of his total self’ while Augustus had made himself a ‘taker of life for his name and for his glory’. Jesus empties himself of his heavenly glory and humbles himself to become a human like us, while Augustus had filled himself with the immeasurable riches of the world and exalts himself to become an ultimate power and authority of the world.
- One side there is the worldly greatness in the form of the emperor of the earth - Augustus, on the other side there is the heavenly smallness in the form of the emperor of the whole creation – Jesus Christ; one side there is manifestation of power and authority – Augustus, on the other side there is revelation of poverty and humility – Jesus Christ;
- How can we balance this scandalizing difference? Where is the proper meeting point of both of them into one true reality? It is ‘in the birth of Jesus Christ’ – the Christmas;
- In the very message of Angels: ‘To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ (Luke 2:11-12). There are two phrases of truth: the birth of the savior and being lied in a manger; the connecting phrase or the central words are important: ‘this is a sign’.
- The birth of contradiction of Christian life and existence: birth of savior but birth place is contradictory; according to human mind and human wish, savior is a great person, more over he is the Messiah, the Lord, therefore, minimum thought is that ‘his birth has to place in the palace, his birth should be to the parents who are great like king and queen’. This is the authentic sign for the human intellect. BUT ALREADY CONTRADICITON HAS STARTED. Already a different sign is made. The normal human intellectual sign is changed. Everything has become contradictory even to believe what is really happening: Birth of a savior in the stall, to the poor and unknown parents, in the small village of Bethlehem which is not even identified in the world map of those days.
- Therefore, to be joyful in the difficulty, to be patient in the suffering, to be vigilant in the temptations, to be tranquil in the anguish….. the contradicting attitude is already revealed in the mystery of the Savior Born In The Stable.
- Today we feel so much disturbed and depressed in the midst of the sufferings and difficulties but living these moments with the hope and love is already manifested to us before two thousand years by the birth of the Savior in the Stable.
- Therefore, as Jesus himself said, we have to renounce ourselves/empty ourselves and take up the cross/daily difficulties and go behind him with calm and serenity because He himself is walking before us with the biggest and heaviest cradle-cross. Therefore, during this Christmas we have to learn to accept and to live the contradictory life in our confrontations in the world and with the things of the world.

Festivity of Good News that has changed the phase of the world: Good News of Love

- The ever refreshing, ever encouraging and ever cherishing good news is that “the Word is made flesh and came to live amidst us” (John 1:14). This is the news and the only news that has promised to change the world, still continues changing it and will continue to change in its journey into eternity.
- We have many other good news in the world: with the rapid development of the scientific technology humanity is fast growing, with the knowledge and with the industrial empowerments the political and economic standards are rising to the skies, with the awareness of absolute freedom and ultimate liberty the social, cultural and moral values of the humanity are ‘reaching their highest degrees’.
- In spite of all these revolutionary and technological definitions and developments is man going ahead with happiness and joy or is he in the situation of self-closure? A sincere and deep search into this ever trickling question will make us realize the ‘authenticity of the news’ and the ‘efficacy of its proclamation’ whether it is good and useful.
- Man is doing anything and everything to be happy, it seems to be its ultimate goal. And our Christian faith teaches that Man is created to be in joyful relationship with himself, with the other, with the world and with God. He is destined to find his felicity in his being ‘rational and relational’ and more than that in his possibility of being ‘spiritual and supernatural’. This happens when man journeys from his rationality to personality and from his personality to spirituality.
- His rationality is in his ‘becoming mature in mind and thought’, his personality is in his ‘becoming mature in will and relationship with himself and with others’ and finally his spirituality is in his ‘going beyond all the previous stages and entering into his thirst of the heart and the spirit’. It is here that we may find the limitation of all other ‘linguistic, cultural, even philosophical relations’. Man has to go beyond, yet living all of them, to find true happiness and this we Christians call it – the friendship with God and an intimate bond with him.
- And it is ‘to restore’ this broken relationship with God ultimately but passing through our normal and conditional bonds – personal, family, social and political – that Jesus Christ, the Word of God has taken human form: that is what we celebrate now – the Christmas.
- This Good New of God’s Entrance into the World has:
o Changed the story and history of the humanity: according to our faith, it is for this that the whole story has been placed in time and space; whole story of God’s interventions in the life of the people of Israel from Abraham to John the Baptist has taken place – in view of Him and in the preparation for Him, Jesus Christ, who willed to take up our story as his. This story of God has become history in the very person of Jesus Christ. With the coming of the Word into the world everything has a CENTRAL POINT, for which, to which and around which all move and have its being: Jesus Christ – that is the real Christmas we celebrate today.
o Revealed the ‘limitation of human inquiry’ and ‘unlimited and unconditional love of God’: this is the good news that we have received with the birth of the Savior in the Stall.
 It has revealed that the human mind and human inquiry has its limitations; it continues to research and research but at a certain point it finds it ‘blocking wall’ or ‘final station’ to get down and start return journey: the human language is limited in describing all the realities of the world, whether material or spiritual; the human science is limited because it may prolong the life but cannot stop the death; the human authority/political power is limited because though there is the possibility of ‘creating global solidarity’ still it fails because of its human fragility; finally even the human philosophy is limited because it may try to define and defend all that exists but at the end of day, it cannot enter into the integral reality of the creation and its systematic formation and the God who guides it and it accepts the limitedness and helplessness of the human ‘reasons and concepts’.
 This is the last stop of human intellect and will which is not enough for the ‘ultimate bliss or blessedness’. Here there is some truth that comes to the aid of humanity; that helps him break the blocking wall; that enables him to build the bridge to go still ahead; that guides him to journey forward taking the same train which has stopped in the last station; stations are over but not the journey; stations can be always created and prolonged only if there is will and love to go into the search. The truth that leads the humanity into these unknown and darkened mysteries is only the Word of God: Jesus the Light of the World and he assures that when we walk in him we shall not falter but walk straight (John 8:12). The Christmas reveals this truth of love of God who wants man to enter into his intimacy accepting the human limits and taking guidance of love who makes him move forward with total trust and complete confidence.
• Yes, indeed, Jesus reveals to all the peoples the love of God who wills to be in their midst and in their form so that they become partaker of his same love.
• Yes, indeed, Jesus reveals that ‘all the human sciences and technologies’ find their ultimate rapport with God because it is from him that everything has taken its origin and it is to him that they return.
• Recent Christian Theology explores this truth: Pope Benedict XVI puts it beautifully in his encyclical Deus Caritas est, 12: “The real novelty of the New Testament lies not so much in new ideas as in the figure of Christ himself, who gives flesh and blood to those concepts—an unprecedented realism.” And another theologian Balthasar explores that the incarnation of Christ has taken place “for the two reasons that cannot be separated. First, in order to restore what has been perverted and seduced from its end. On the other hand, it was not our wickedness that compelled the Son of God to become flesh; rather, it was God’s exceedingly great merciful love” (BALTHASAR, Theo-Logic II: Truth of God, p.234).
 Only IN love and WITH love we can come out of ourselves, empty our heart of all the doubts of faith and difficulties of life, enter with humility and meekness into the ‘stall of Jesus’ and into the ‘sheep of Jesus’ to experience this love that wins everything and leads us to the ‘unbreakable and irremovable’ intimacy with the Lord, for, it is only IN HIM We find our life and our being. This is the truth of Christmas that we have to celebrate.

Summary

- Let us sum up into few points all that what we have said so that we have not the tips but the truths in our hand for the celebration of this Christmas:
- Christmas is the Feast of the Sun which shines forever: Jesus Christ; let us accept this light so that we do not anymore walk in the darkness of fear and falling but walk straight in the way of the Lord.
- Christmas is the Feast of the Humility and littleness: Word made Flesh; let us break all our pride and power in order to enter into the presence of the baby born for us so that the life becomes the testimony of humility and tenderness.
- Christmas is the Feast of Contradiction: Savior in the Stable; let us realize that we have to undergo these contradictory as long as we are in the world just for the reason of being Christians for, as John Paul II has said “we are in the world but not of the world”. Jesus himself had made known to us this reality therefore, let us accept it and move forward with complete hope and self-emptiness.
- Christmas is the Feast of Love: love goes beyond all the human ideas and thoughts and conceptual formulas; true love understands and does everything; it is the only force that makes us ‘confront’ and ‘pass through’ all the human weakness and human relations and finally to enter into the eternal blessedness, that is, Beatific Vision of God; love makes everything possible. Therefore, let us take this powerful weapon of love and win over our selfishness, our envy and our possessive nature so that we can clearly see God’s image in all and thus we may be able to contaminate ourselves first, our community and society next and the whole world finally, with the medicine of love.
- Our celebration of Christmas is meaningful only when Jesus – the knowledge and power of God – the immeasurable love of God – is born in us and only if we are ready to make our life a ‘stable’ for his birth and for his indwelling. “To Him the Glory and To Us the Peace.” Amen.

THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT - B

FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT: B
(2Sam 7:1-5, 8-12, 14, 16; Rom 16:25-27; Luke 1:26-38)

Theme: We have to become ourselves the ‘home of welcome’ for the Lord

Reflection:

- We are in the last Sunday of Advent and we are moving very rapidly towards the Great Feast of Our Christian Life: Christmas – the Birth of the Savior. As we are thoroughly preparing for this great event God desires that we ourselves become a ‘home’ for Him. This is what we are called to ‘make ready’: the House for the Lord.
- Last week we meditated on the theme that we have to enkindle our life with the joy of the Lord and thus we promised him to be ‘happy’ and ‘joyful’ always. Before, we enter into our reflection today, let us examine ourselves, let us ask ourselves whether we are still happy and joyful, whether we still carry with us the joy of the Lord and whether we are still with the shining light of the Lord or whether we have put off the ‘light of joy’ by being drowned into the ocean of daily difficulties and problems.
- Today, the Church asks us to leave aside all these worries and place them in the hands of the Lord because he is the one who bears all our ‘difficulties’. Instead, the Church exalts us to ‘prepare a home’ for the coming of the Lord. Not any home but a home which is always ready to welcome anyone who wants to enter in.
- As we are approaching the celebration of the coming of Jesus, we have to prepare this home of welcome and allow him enter because ‘He wants to be with us’ and He is Immanuel. The readings of today help us in preparing this ‘home of welcome’ which is nothing but our own heart.

First Reading:

- The kingdom of David will remain firm forever:
o The promise of Nathan to David is the basic text for entire phrase of biblical messianic theology;
o David wanted to build a house for the Lord. It is his desire expressed to the prophet Nathan;
o He puts forward what he thinks; after having a big and great house for himself in the capital of Jerusalem and after seeing that the ‘ark of the Lord’ is still under the roof of the tent, he makes known his will to build a house also for the Lord: “See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent” (v.2);
o Even the prophet, in his human thinking, suggests to him to do what he thinks is right: “God, do all that you have in mind; for the Lord is with you” (v.3);
o Here we see the combination of two human minds, the thought of two human intelligence, and the work of two human wills: ‘the desire of David and the advice of Nathan to do the same’; they are not worried about what God’s plan is and what God thinks about it; since their intention is to build a house for God, they thought that it would be fine; that’s why even the prophet, who as a spokesperson has, normally and as a condition, to consult with God before he speaks out a word, did not do what he supposed to do, instead confirms the desire of David and asks him to go forward in doing what he thinks.
o But God’s will and intention is different: “God’s thoughts of far distant than human thoughts and God’s actions are beyond human actions” is the prophecy of Isaiah about God’s powerfulness and almightiness (Is 55:8-9). It is here it is fully expressed: He appeared to Nathan and told him to prophesy differently than what he has already proposed to David as his own word. The verse is very clear about this. Verses 4 and 5: “But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan: God and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in?” these verses need little explanation to understand the true will of God:
 But: the verse starts with ‘but’ which is placed as the contradicting adjective to all that what has been planned and desired.
 That same night: God’s intervention is immediate and contemporary, though many times people think that He acts slowly. God intervenes certainly when his plans are misunderstood or when something is planned contradictory with regards to his plan. ‘That same night’ is the phrase which also proves that ‘false prophecy’ or ‘false testimony’ or ‘false word’ will not last longer; it will be confronted immediately and at the immediate possibility;
 The word of the Lord came to Nathan: it is the word of the Lord that has to prevail and take predominance. It is the word of the Lord that has to be announced and made known; it was contrary to this word of the Lord that Nathan has spoken and it is not in accordance with this word that the prophet has talked; for this reason, now the word of the Lord himself comes to the prophet to alert him and to make him realize his mistake of pronouncing his own words;
 God and tell my servant David: God acknowledges and accepts David as his servant since it is He himself who has called and made David a king; God once again emphasizes the ‘important position’ of David as his servant and his recognition before him. That’s what He asks the prophet to go and tell to David;
 Thus says the Lord: God confirms his word by saying ‘thus’; with this He keeps the desire of David on one hand and the positive response of Nathan on the other at false side; God throws away the intention of David and the word of Nathan; He reveals to Nathan that they have made ‘thoughts’ against his thoughts and they wanted to act as they wanted; Now God demands Nathan to tell word as His word and it is prophet’s responsibility to say God’s word;
 Are you the one to build a house? : A question through which God admonishes David; a question which leads to many other questions: ‘who has said that you have to build?’, ‘who are you to decide what you have to do for me?’, ‘Are you so much capable and powerful to build a house for me?’; building the house for the ark of the Lord on the part of David is nothing wrong but ultimately it is God who decides what he wants and where he lives; David and Nathan have forgotten this truth; in his prosperous and victorious life David thought that he can do anything and everything for the Lord and he, by doing this, for moment, forgets that it is the Lord himself who has made him successful king;
o God declares his desire and wish reminding David all that He has done to him: that’s what God says in the following prophecy:
 It is He who has called him: “I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel” (v.8);
 It is He who has guided him: “I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies before you” (v.9);
 It lets David to come down again from his high thoughts of himself and place himself as a humble servant before the will of God, because, he would not have done anything good or he would not have this power and position now without the ‘call’ and ‘guidance’ of the Lord.
o God once again promises to David that it is not he who has to build the house but it is the one whom he will rise up as his descendent who will build a temple for him and it is through him that He would keep the kingdom firm and forever.
- God amidst his people: Immanuel:
o God does not want a building or a temple or a house for him;
o From the beginning He has decided or desired to be with his people and among his people;
o His residence is amidst his people and in their hearts;
o He wanted to be with them than staying in a beautiful edifice or great temple;
o David and Nathan were not able to understand the desire/design of God;
o It is with this purpose of ‘living with his people’ that God has chosen them and safeguarded them till now and will do so forever.
o God wants that we prepare our heart as ‘a home of welcome’ for him.

Second Reading:

- The mystery which was kept in silence for centuries is now revealed:
o The final part of the letter to the Romans is a small yet grand hymn in which the Church, as St. Paul himself, expresses her wonder and amazement in front of the mystery of incarnation and of salvation offered by God to the entire humanity. It is a mystery “proclaimed through the prophetic scriptures”; it is a mystery which was hidden for years together in the will of God; the silent mystery has been now manifested and “revealed” in the person of Jesus Christ;
o The Church now goes back to reflect and “retrospect” the promise of salvation, and enjoys the gift of self-communication of God in time and in history, that is, the presence and efficacy of Christ himself, and re-lives now this mystery of ‘the Birth of her Savior’. It is the key of reflection that the Church puts forward as she celebrates the birth of Jesus in the history and for the salvation of every person;
- Break of silence and beginning of action:
o The silence of the mystery is break open; the word which was always in its proclamation in and through the prophecies of the Old Testament is now become ‘The Word’ made ‘Flesh’; the word which was above the world and through which the whole creation is brought forth is now ‘in’ the world and ‘amidst’ his people (John 1:1-14);
o This Word of God, which was kept in secret is now manifested; God was waiting for the appointed time and preparing His Word to enter into the world; for years He has kept is hidden only because ‘the time has to come’.
o Jesus Christ, the Word of the Father, the Word from the beginning of the world, the Word who was the Cause of all creation, was the silent speech in the mouth of the prophets; was the silent command in the mouth of the kings; was the silent word in the promise; and it is the same silent word which has destroyed its silence and entered into the world and finally, is manifested in the mission of Jesus.
o All the proclamation of this Word/Gospel, in silence as mystery and in time as revelation, has taken place – in history – so that all the people and all the nations will reach God with the same obedience and faith which the Word itself manifested in its Speaker (Christ/Word’s obedience and faith to the Father/God).

Gospel:

- Mary is the virgin-mother chosen by God: the exegetical understanding of the passage of the Gospel:
o Annunciation to Mary is preceded by the ‘annunciation to Zachariah’ (Lk 1:5-25) and the immediate reference is made to Mary about Elizabeth who is ‘in the sixth month’. And it is the starting point for this passage too: ‘in the sixth month’ Angel Gabriel is sent to Mary. After describing the places and situations, Luke presents the ‘the message of an Angel’ and it has a beginning with the ‘greeting’ of angel and the reaction of Mary (vv.28-29) and then there is the development of the message of an angel in two parts (vv. 30-33 and vv.35-37) which are divided by the question of Mary which comes in between (v.34) and the Luke ends this account with the ‘response’ from Mary (v.38).
o An Angel sent by God (v.26): it is God himself who prepares and fulfills his interventions in the history of mankind through his ‘ambassadors’ and here it is angel Gabriel; Nazareth (v.26): is a small village in the province of Jude which is hidden and ignored in the bible and in the story of Israel until now and from now on it will be remembered for ever because, it is from here the ‘novelty’ of the future started and it is from here the annunciation of ‘good news’ began and Nazareth is the first village from which the word of God will begin to enter into the new and unknown places too.
o Virgin (v.27): Angel Gabriel after meeting the old man and a married priest, Zachariah, now comes to meet a young virgin Mary in her house; nothing more is spoken of Mary except “promised bride” of a man from the house of David, called Joseph: this tells us some changes and some innovations that would take place soon: Joseph who comes from Nazareth, a small and insignificant village, brings us to the truth that the real house of David is in destruction (Amos 9:11 and Acts 15:16-17) and it will be reconstructed from ‘nothing’ (Lk 2:10-12) and it would be realized through the gratuitous grace of God (Is 11:10) and this is what Gabriel has come to announce as we see in the following verses.
o Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you (v.28): literally it means ‘rejoice!’ it is a Greek form of greeting and it is a greeting of joy. It reminds us to be joyful of the ‘good news’ of the divine oracles (Wisdom 3:14; Zach 9:9); ‘full of grace’ or ‘favored one’: it manifests God’s gratuitous love towards his people and it is with this privilege that God has endowed Mary. It only shows the ‘condition’ in which Mary is found; Mary is found in the grace of God and in the favor of God; in this way Mary becomes the personification of the whole people of Israel (till then) and the Church (from then on). That is the reason why the early Church has recognized Mary as the ‘icon’ and the ‘image’ of God’s grace. The Lord be with you: it is the expression found very often in the bible and in the moments of the vocations: Moses (Ex 3:12), Gideon (Judges 6:12), and Jeremiah (Jer 1:8). In Mary this formula has reached its peak and its fullness because ‘the son’ who will be born of her will be called ‘Immanuel’ which means, ‘God with us’ (Is 7:14; Math 1:22-23).
o Perplexed (v.29): Mary is perplexed like that of Zachariah (v.12). it is not because of the presence of an angel but because of the word of the angel that Mary is disturbed: She is not able to understand what sense that this kind of greetings brings to her.
o Do not be afraid (v.30): In front of the divine manifestations Mary, like that of all the figures of Old Testament (Moses, Gideon, Isaiah, Daniel and Zachariah too in Luke 1:13), feels a religious fear. In this context, and each time of this sort, the messenger brings the assurance of God: ‘the Lord is with you’ and this is the formula also found in the many oracles of salvation (Is 41:10).
o You will have a son (v.31): having a son is good news to any mother; God acts with Mary as he has acted with the mother of Isaac (Gen 18) or with the mother of Samson (Judges 13). Mary has understood that this announcement is the realization of the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14. You will name him Jesus: the name of Jesus is also provided before as that of name of John to Zachariah. Jesus is the name which brings the hope and that is the reason why it signifies: “the Lord saves’, but this would be revealed only later in 2:11.
o Son of the Most High (v.32): not only the name of Jesus but this ‘boy’ will have another name, that is, ‘the son of the Most High’. With this the true identity of the baby is revealed. The throne of David which God will give him will be realized when ‘he will be recognized by the people’ as the son of David (18:39 – the blind men see in Jesus the son of David);
o Will reign (v.33); God fulfills all that He has promised to David (2 Sam 7). He brings to the end the story of his people and gives them new initiation with this Jesus, son of David.
o How? I do not know man (v.34): Mary does not object what has been said to her by angel; she only asks for the clarification of the mode in which this annunciation would be realized; “I am a virgin or I do not know man”: with these words Mary only states her situation and her condition which is not the ‘ripe time’ for the conception of a baby; here, the Church has found the virginal conception of Jesus: Mary is sinless and stainless in her giving birth to Jesus; here, the Church found the divine origin of the baby and as the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
o Holy Spirit (v.35): This is the first and decisive intervention of the grand actor of the opera of salvation, in Acts and in Luke: the reference of the Holy Spirit. Even before being revealed in the Baptism of Jesus in Jordan, Holy Spirit acts in Mary to make Messiah to be born of her. “Shadow of the Holy Spirit” (v.35): the same Greek word of ‘shadow’ is used also during the Transfiguration of Jesus (Lk 9:34). It leads us back to the experience of the desert in which there was a ‘shining cloud’ which was guiding the people and with its shadow covering the tent that Moses had made in the camp (Ex 40:34-35). The tent was the house of God in the midst of his people. here, by bringing this expression, Luke presents Mary as the ‘virgin-woman’ who become the house for God: in this way the prophecy of Nathan would be fulfilled (2 Sam 7). But there is also something else that takes place: God edifies the new and true house of David in the person of Mary (not in the person of his son Solomon); because it is from her that God makes his true and only son born. This is the reason why God makes her full of grace and gives her to his son as his home. ‘Son of God’ (v.35): the boy will be called the son of God: it was same as the ‘son of the Most High’ of v.32; more than the meaning of the words, the actual difference is emphasized on the ‘virginity of Mary’ and the ‘action of the Holy Spirit’ and these two aspects make the baby ‘son of God’ and this would be later on confirmed in the voice of the Father (3:22) and in the Transfiguration (9:35) and will be found again in the prayers of Jesus (10:21-22), in the agony (22:42) and on the cross (23:46).
o Elizabeth (v.36): a sign of faith is provided to Mary; God in his many of interventions gives the signs so that ‘the faith will be aroused’ for the acceptance of his word and will; this is only the thought of Luke and it would be found often in his writings (2:15) and in Acts (8:15-17).
o Nothing is impossible to God (v.37): this expression has its origin in the event of God’s interaction with Abraham and Sarah (Gen 18:14) and it provokes them to believe in the Lord’s providence; the same faith was demanded in all the stages of the history of salvation.
o I am the servant of the Lord (v.38): this title of servant: a) express the humility and the availability of Mary in the confrontation with God’s will; b) express also her heart and her desire to collaborate with the action of God; in the bible, the great personalities are called the servants of God; Mary serves embracing the Word; serves also reaching out to her relative Elizabeth. “According to you word” (v.38): this word of Angel contains the entire Gospel. By accepting this word of an angel by her ‘great Yes’ she becomes the first disciple of the Gospel.
- Mary responds ‘with her Amen’ to the choice made by God:
o We may have to go in the reverse gear to understand this; the entire passage of Gospel has its meaning and fulfillment only in the last verse in which Mary says: “Here I am, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” (v.38); if this positive response were not to be there we could not imagine the whole context and whole text at all;
o Not only that God has made her say ‘yes’ by making her full of grace and giving her all the privileges; it is also that Mary has prepared herself to that level of ‘being available’ for the great event of salvation;
o With her hope and with her prayers she was also waiting for the Messiah and for the kingdom of God; finally when it has come and it has asked her, her consent, for its fulfillment, Mary who was always ready and awaiting, has realized that it is through her that God has willed ‘for the great event’ of salvation and this is what made her say ‘Yes’ to the Word of the Lord;
o Only this type of expectation of the salvation and restoration of life made her to be always at the disposition for the will of God, although there are many other troubles and humiliations await her on the other hand.
o She is ‘so courageous’ to accept the will of God and make her ‘womb’ a home for the Lord: it is because she is always prepared for any kind of intervention of God.
o God wanted the ‘human consent’ for his coming and for his entrance into the world; human consent with full freedom and with perfect personal decision; this is what God expected or asked of Mary and Mary too, who is always ready to accept everything in silence and in faith, has given her ‘total and free consent’ for the action of God in and through her;
o In other words: She has always her heart and her life as a ‘home prepared’ for the Lord; it was the home that was always pure and virgin; and God searches this kind of ‘house’ for himself and once he finds it prepares the person with his grace towards the acceptance of his will;
o We cannot imagine the salvation without ‘Yes’ of Mary; it is not that God could not have done or chosen other ways but in his freedom and in his love, He has chosen to be born of a Virgin and this Virgin, knowing well His intentions with the grace already working in her, accepts to ‘bring forth’ the savior of the humanity.

Conclusion:

- The Annunciation reveals two things for us:
o It is the ‘loving act’ of the Trinity: it is the first instance in which the Trinity is revealed and Mary becomes already the ‘bearer’ of the love of the Trinity: it is the Father’s Plan, it is the Son who is to be born of her and it is the Spirit who makes her give birth both to the design of God and the savior of the world;
o The entire salvation history has its final ‘stage’ in the annunciation: it comprises the whole promise made through the prophets and the whole preparation made by the people and it is totally ‘realized’ in the dialogue and acceptance of Mary; Jesus is to be the ‘heir of David’: it is with David that God has established and stabilized his kingdom although there was king Saul before him; Jesus will be the eternal king who comes from the throne of David; Jesus is from the house of Jacob: it is with Jacob that God has stabilized his people, calling him Israel, although the actual beginning was in Abraham; by bringing these two references – David and Jacob – the annunciation connects all the salvation history which will have its final realization in Jesus and through Mary.
- God has willed to take human help:
o Not that God needs men for his actions; St. Augustine says that ‘God, who has created you without you, cannot save you without you’.
o God wills and asks the human cooperation in his work of salvation: we are the human hand for God’s will.
o Mary has accepted to be ‘the human collaboration’ to bring the will of God into an action; Mary has extended her help in time and in worthiness.
- Let us prepare a house for the Lord:
o God wants to live among us; God will to be with us; God searches a house amidst us;
o May be for this Christmas He wants to be with you and with me: therefore, as we prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord, let prepare our heart as a house for his indwelling and the human heart is the ‘home’ that God likes most to live in.
- We have to become ourselves the ‘home of welcome’ for the Lord: not any other cribs, nor any other preparations that God needs; he needs only ‘YOU’ and he needs ‘Your HEART’ and it should be the ‘HOME’ we have to prepare for the Lord for this year and let us conclude this reflection by asking ourselves: ‘Am I ready to become a home for the Lord?’

THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT - YEAR B

THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT – YEAR B
(Is 61:1-2, 10-11; 1Thess 5:16-24; John 1:6-8, 19-28)

Theme: Let us light up our life with the joy of the Lord

Reflection:

- The Sunday of the ‘Gaudete’: the Sunday of Joy: We have entered into the Third Sunday of Advent and as we have already indicated it is proposed by the Church as the Sunday of Joy. It is apt that in the middle of the celebration of Advent we have again one Sunday in which we accelerate our preparation with the joy of ‘nearing’ the great feast of the Nativity of the Lord. We have just finished two weeks of ‘distant’ preparation in which we have mediated the ‘second coming’ of the Lord at the end of times. We have to just initiate our entrance into the ‘immediate’ preparation of the celebration of the ‘first coming’ of the Lord in time and in history for the salvation of mankind. Now we are exactly in the middle of the preparations – that is between the reflections of the two comings of Jesus. That’s why we are joyful on the one hand for completing fruitfully the first part of the Advent and on the other hand to restart with the same spirit of joy the second part of the Advent which will reach us to the core of the preparations – the final celebration of the Birth of the Lord in the world.
- Let us remind ourselves of the two previous themes: ‘Let us promise to the Lord that we do not ever go away from his house’ was our meditation for the first Sunday and ‘We await and hurry up for the day of the Lord preparing our hearts for him’ was the reflection of the second Sunday. With the force of these two themes we shall reflect on the theme that we are called ‘to enkindle our life with the joy of the Lord’. Accordingly we have two action-words for our reflection today: the light and the joy; these are the two words that dominate today’s readings.
- Light and Joy: are the two things we always want to have in our life and accept and admit that they are same things that we always miss. We are full of want of them and we feel full of emptiness every time with the lack of them. Let us ask ourselves to gear up our journey of reflection: ‘Are we joyful and illuminate?’ if we are able to answer this question sincerely our Sunday celebrations are fruitful and we will have spirit-filled outcome of our life. It is not so difficult to find out whether we are happy or not and whether we are delighted or not.
- Let us just stand in front of the mirror and see ourselves: the joy and delight are imprinted on our faces and if we see our faces and how they look like will indicate whether we are ‘happy’ and ‘delighted’. Our face is the indicator of our heart and our feelings. Whatever takes place inside of us will be pumped out from the face and from the eyes. We are not taking about the shape or the color of the face but – the expression of the face. What we are is manifested on how we are. What is in the mind is revealed on how we speak. What is in the heart is known on the eyes. And finally, what we feel inside is known on our face. Therefore, let us examine ourselves whether we are happy and delighted at this moment as we listen now this word of God.
- Both ‘Joy and delight’ are interiorly connected: we are joyful when we are delighted (enkindled with light) and we are delightful (our faces will be shining and our heart will be rejoicing) we are joyful. Let us start how these two words are presented to us today in the readings and what they mean for us as we prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord.

First Reading:

- Prophet is the one who is sent:
o In the biblical world the prophet is one who is elected and sent for a cause in the particular context and with the particular content;
o Who is sent is not the one who sends. He only acts and talks on behalf of the one who sends him. he cannot pretend to be the actual one who is the cause of his coming;
o Who is sent is a ‘herald’ of the design of the one who sends; he has nothing to in his life or he has no meaning for his call if he does not speak out what is asked of him;
- Prophet Isaiah is the one who is sent:
o Like any prophet of the Old Testament, today we have Isaiah the prophet sent to speak what the Lord is going to do in the particular context and particular content:
o Particular context here is that the people of Israel who the Lord has chosen for himself are now under the rule of Persians; the Babylonian slavery is over and the command is taken by the Persians who made them again slaves; they have again cried out to their God to be their savior and to rescue them from this situation and release them out. The Lord who has listened to their cries of anguish and pain has come in their aid and in this context the Lord is sending his prophet to the people.
o Particular content here is that the proclamation of the liberation, and the joy with which the Lord will fill the depressed hearts of his people and the dignity of life they would enjoy in near future. About the alliance which the Lord is going to renew with them by taking them back to himself as the bridegroom takes to himself the bride; therefore, about the joy of the matrimonial union between the Lord and his people.
- The life of the ‘Sent’: in this context and the content of the message of the prophet his whole life is integrated and it is the message not only to be announced but to be lived first; therefore, the life of the one who is sent is the life lived in the Lord (therefore, personal life) and for the Lord (therefore, life for the mission yet to be completed). Here, in today’s context of Isaiah’s prophecy we can see both his personal life and his mission are interlinked: He himself is called to be first of all
o Live with joy (vv.10-11): in these verses we see the joy of the prophet in his life and that joy which comes from the Lord: “I rejoice totally in the Lord and my soul exalts in my God”. This is being joyful personally and living with the joy of the Lord. It is not the joy of his merits or his wonderful doings or his capacities or talents but he knows it that it is the Joy of the Lord; and he also gives the reason for his joy: because the Lord has
 Clothed him with the garments of salvation,
 Given him the cloak of justice, and
 Decorated him with the adornments of the wedding.
o To announce Joy (vv.1-2): the joy that is experiences within and lived is always expressed and proclaimed; here too, the prophet who is joyful is also goes out to proclaim the same Joy designed by God for his people; therefore, the prophet becomes the joyful messenger of the joyful message. He is pronouncing with joy what God has asked him announce as the ‘bringer of joyful news’:
 The good news for the poor and oppressed,
 The healing to the broken hearted,
 The liberty to the slaves and captives,
 The freedom to the prisoners; and in a word
 To proclaim the ‘year of the Lord’ – the joy of the Lord.

Second Reading:

- Paul: the messenger of Joy:
o Once touched, healed and called by Jesus on his way to Damascus, Paul has found the real joy and joy of being a Christian and joy of being a persecuted Apostle for the Christ whom he was persecuting.
o Joy of Paul is quite different from the joy of other disciples or apostles:
 other Apostles have been with Jesus, have seen him doing wonders and miracles and finally have seen him suffered-died-and resurrected and so they were full of the joy of the resurrection;
 Paul’s context and content is different; He was to defend his faith and he had to eliminate all the elements that disturb the law of the Jews including the name of Jesus Christ and the life of his followers; he was not ignorant but he was doing what he was sent to do; that was his joy to defend and safeguard the Law and Prophecy; when his authority told him that the newly come-up Christians are proclaiming Jesus and thus disrespecting their law, he thought that it was his right and his ‘joy’ to restore their faith by putting to death all these followers of Christ; only on the way to Damascus, with the intervention and interaction of Jesus, he has discovered the true joy and the joy that is really joyful;
o Man and Messenger of Joy:
 He has become a ‘man’ of joy from then on. Once he has known that the real joy was found in the person of Jesus and he has been transformed into a man of Joy; he was not afraid to live the joy that he has found in his encounter with Jesus; he lived in even in his sufferings; even the sufferings have become for him ‘the moments of experience of Joy’ in and for Christ;
 He has become also a ‘messenger’ of joy and we can find this admonition of joyful life in Christ very often in his epistles. Especially even when he was in the prison he writes to the Philippians to be joyful because we are the people of joy of Christ who died and rose again. He says, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice” (4:4) and even today’s passage from the Thessalonians demonstrate the life in the community with the joy of the Lord and he says, “Rejoice always” (v.16). in this way he has preached also ‘the joy without limits’ that can be found by accepting and living for Christ;

- Community of Joy: in the Spirit and with the prophecy of Joy:
 The Spirit is the source of joy: St. Paul tells his community not to leave the Spirit, “Do not quench the Spirit” (v.19); quenching the spirit is almost equal to ceasing to be joyful; The Spirit is the one who generates the joy in the person; It is the same with Jesus: when Jesus was filled with the Spirit he has joyfully praised his Father (Mt 11:25);
 The prophecy is all about the future joy in the Messiah: the promise of God through the prophets and the very words of the prophets is that ‘God will bring all the dispersed people into one family of joy’ and joy that would come from the salvific event in Christ. It is because of this St. Paul asks his community not to “despise the words of the prophets” (v.20). Rejecting the words of the prophets is almost equal to the neglecting and ignoring the call to be joyful.

Gospel Reading:

- Textual and contextual interpretation of the gospel passage: the testimony to the light
o Today’s gospel passage is in two parts:
 The first part is vv.6-8: John ‘sent’ by God to testify the light;
 The second part is vv.19-28: John ‘sent’ to be the voice to the Word;
o John the Baptist is the ‘man’ sent by God (v.6): this is placed in contrast to the Word that was with God and which was God; it is about the man who has his duty in a certain determined time. The recalling of John the Baptist is to make it known the whole content of the prologue, the time between the prophecy and actuality, and finally to present Jesus as the Word incarnate.
o To give testimony (v.7): the greatness of John is to be the testimony; his mission is above all is to be subordinated to that of Christ. The testimony is one of the main keys of the fourth gospel and it is in its totality ‘the testimony to Jesus’ (John 19:35; 21:24).
o He was not the light (v.8): when this gospel was written the community of John the evangelist thought of John the Baptist to be the messiah (Acts 19:2-8), (John 1:20, 27, 30, 34).
o Now we enter into the second part of the gospel passage: actually the testimony of the Baptist has taken place in two days: one, the explanation of his proper mission (1:20-28) and two, the testimony rendered to Jesus (1:29-34).
o Testimony (v.19): John is the testimony of the light (1:6-8) and now he himself gives testimony and keeps his personality in humbleness to the greatness of Jesus. Jews are nominated first time here as the depositors of the authentic tradition and from here they continue to appear every time when Jesus teach or perform some miracles and it will go on until they put him to death. Levites are the priests that are responsible to offer sacrifices and to safeguard the doctrine.
o “Who are you?” is the question that is found and repeated three times here. Though they question here to find out he is, it is not to believe and accept him but only accuse him if the fault is found with him. It happened also with Jesus a times.
o The confession of John the Baptist (v.20-21): he confesses that ‘he is not’:
 He is not the Messiah because messiah was expected to come as the descendent of David, the heir of his kingdom, announced by the prophets.
 He is not the Elijah because Elijah did not die but is taken up into heaven (2 Kings 2:11). Diverse traditions talked about his return as the annunciation of the day of the Lord, the day of judgment of the people and the foundation of the kingdom of God (Malachi 3:23-24; Sir 48:10, 11).
 He is not a prophet: they were already waiting for a prophet like Moses as was pronounced (Deut 18:15);
 In all the three instances he confesses that he is not the one they thought of him to be: he is not Messiah, Elijah and a Prophet.
o The self-identification and his mission: the voice (v.23): the text of Is 40:3 is utilized by all the evangelists and it is to define the role of the Predecessor. Only John put it in the citation on the lips of John the Baptist; he becomes the manifestation his humility (1:27). He becomes a testimony, a cry who announces someone else.
o In this way, John the Baptist manifests his identity as the testimony to the light and voice to the Word.
- John is ‘Sent’ as a prophet: his life as that of prophet Isaiah the integration both of his person and mission:
o As a person, John the Baptist, is always connected to Jesus and his mission and that’s why:
 His person is more than a prophet,
 His mission is less than Jesus because it is only a pointer that points to Jesus.
o As a life, John the Baptist, is always to liked to Jesus because he is a testimony:
 A testimony is the friend of the one whom he testifies
 A testimony that gives voice to the Word and keeps the Light on the lamp-stand.

Conclusion:

- We are called to be ‘the sent ones’:
o Though we born in the world as humans, we are ‘sent’ out into the world as Christians;
o Therefore, our human life as born in the world and our Christian life as sent out in faith are to be integrated in the same person;
o That means, our personality (what we are) and our mission (what we do) are to be combined and they are internally connected with the spirit of Christian call and vocation (because we are sent).
- We are called to live and share the joy (the first reading):
o We are called to ‘live’ in our day to day life the joy that we have received through entering into faith in Jesus and thus lead a personal life giving him praise and glory;
o We are called also to ‘proclaim’ both by our words and actions the same joy we live; because joy is contagious it cannot be contained in a small box and is hidden; it has to be shared; the nature of joy is to be joyful and make others through it joyful.
o As we prepared for the joyful event of Christmas – let us try be joyful and happy within ourselves first; and then let us spread this joy like a disease to all around us.
- Let us depart from the view of one phrase of interest for us today: “In the midst of you there is one whom you do not know” (v.26): Jesus is amidst us; his gospel is amidst us; his word and his liturgy is amidst us; his service is amidst us; his church is amidst us; but very often, as John the Baptist notices, we do not give attention to us and pretend to be not knowing; it is like a gift in the dust bin; we are given the gift of joy and gift of light and if we do not attend them and if we do not accept them they are like a wastage that is thrown into the garbage; let us recognize the presence of Jesus as the source of our joy and our delightfulness of life.
- Let us be the men and messengers of Joy and make our community an instrument of joyful singing (second reading) and for this we remind ourselves once again our theme of today: Let us light up our life with the joy of the Lord.

MARY: FULL OF GRACE

DECEMBER – 8

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF MARY
(Gen 3:9-15, 20; Eph 1:3-6, 11-12; Luke 1:26-38)

Theme: We Shall Recognize and Preserve the Grace We Have Found With God

Reflection:

- Celebration of the ‘Day of Grace’:
o Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. It is the festivity through which we enter into the reality of grace that is donated by God. Thus, we have every reason to thank and praise God for his marvelous doing for having called us into this ‘mystery and ministry’ of grace.
o We enter into the mystery of grace because it is God himself who has destined us to this status of grace in his ‘Word-Jesus’ even before the creation of the world and therefore, the original state of our life is ‘holy and immaculate’ as reminds us St. Paul in the second reading of today; into this mystery of grace that Mary is brought prior to us – as a woman who is full of grace – by her total commitment to God’s salvific design.
o We enter into the ministry of grace because it is same God who has called us to preserve and live this life of grace so that we become one with him since we partake in his work of salvation through our personal and charitable life; again into this ministry of grace that Mary has entered prior to us – as the woman who has found grace with God – by her great and challenging ‘yes’ for the redemption of the world.
o Let us, therefore, thank God for calling us into this life of grace and at the same time let us promise him that we, in spite of the difficulties, insults and attractions of the worldly pleasures surround and block us continuously, live life of grace with joy and commitment for His glory and for the well-being of the humanity, in other words, for His Love and for the Love of our Neighbors.
- Advent is the suitable time for the celebration of this feast liturgically?
o If the time of Advent is a time of waiting with preparing the way for the coming of the Lord: by leveling all ups and downs of life – that is, the moments of pride, arrogance and astray on one side as the mountains; and the moments of self-degrading, helplessness and negligence on the other side as the valleys – with the total surrendering of ourselves to Him,
o If the time of Advent is a time of preparing a home – or symbolically a crib – for one guest who is important and lovable and thus we prepare our hearts and lives for his coming into us,
o Then, the celebration of the feast of Immaculate Conception is apt both liturgically and theologically in the time of advent: Mary is a Holy Temple, Pure Home that the Lord himself prepared for the birth of His Son and for His Coming into the world. Thus, Mary has not only prepared her life by prayer and by waiting for the kingdom of God, but when it has come, or when it is time for its coming, she herself accepted willingly to bring it into light.
o As we celebrate this feast this is another aspect we have to keep in mind that, first we have to await for the coming of the Lord, with the prayer – “Let Thy Kingdom Come”, and second when it is the time for its entrance we have to be in front to give a space for its realization through our willingness to carry it in us, again with the prayer and mission – “Let Thy Will Be Done” and that is what Mary said at the end of the discourse with God’s messenger and angel Gabriel: I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it done to me according to your word. This is the moment of the combination of both: the prayer and the mission, mystery and ministry of the grace – in and through Mary, who is as Virgin a mystery and as a Mother a ministry.

First Reading: The First Annunciation of the Redemption through the New Eve – Mary

- While reading the first reading of today, a passage from the first book of the Bible and in the beginning chapters itself we find: both effects of first sin and the promise of redemption:
o The disobedience of humanity who supposed to enjoy the whole creation with the friendship with his Creator;
o Thus fall of the man from the ‘dignity of being created in His image and likeness’ and thus loss of ‘the figure and the beautify’ of God in the life of man;
o The effects of the first sin of man:
 To the man to work hard and sweat for the daily earning: this is in contrast to the freedom of eating whatever he wants in the heavenly garden prepared for him;
 To the woman to find difficulties in bringing forth the children and being kept under the domination of the man: this is in contrast to the creative hand of God who can generate anything/anyone from the mud and from the rib and later John the Baptist says that God can make the children come out from the stones (John 3:8) since nothing is impossible to Him (Lk 1:37);
 To the serpent to scroll on the belly and eat mud and being cursed among all the creatures: this is in contrast to the ‘beauty’ and ‘blessedness’ of whole creation by God who saw all that he created to be ‘very good’ (Gn 1:31).
o At the same time we see also: the promise of redemption through the new woman:
 God has promised that the new woman will come with the fullness of Grace: this is in contrast to the status of ‘disgrace’ brought by the first woman;
 God has promised that the offspring – son – of this new woman will strike the head of the serpent: this is in contrast to the first Adam whose head is full of pride and arrogance and the new man will come with the head full of obedience and love for God and his will;
 God has promised that this son will strike the heel of the serpent which signify that he would keep it under his feet – this is in contrast to the false power of evil which tries to be always in the skies instead of being grounded;
- We already find also the would-be mission of the new eve – Mary in the first reading:
o The first eve has led Adam into disobedience and false position but the new eve – Mary, would lead the New Adam – Jesus into the obedience and to the true position as the Son of God;
o The first eve has led Adam to eat the fruit that God has abandoned to eat and thus led him to curse and to death but the new eve – Mary, would lead the new Adam – the whole humanity to the tree of life, the cross and thus lead them to the blessing and to the immortality;

Second Reading: We are called to be holy and immaculate

- The status of grace is already predestined to us by God in His immense love in Christ and in Jesus God has glorified us because of his will is that we are always with him;
- From our part, we have to only accept this call and we have already accepted it through the faith in Him and we have been made holy and immaculate when we are called by name in the Baptism;
- And we have to remember and recall to our minds our status of life of grace and live so accordingly that we do not disfigure ourselves by disobedience and pride as once has done the first Adam and as we often tend to do;
- The feast of Immaculate Conception of Mary calls us back to this reality of grace and helps us to live it by the testimony of our words and our works.

Gospel: We are found in Grace before God

- Model for the dialogue between God and man:
o We must have read this Gospel number of times and we know that it is only about the announcement of the Birth of Jesus to Mary by Angel Gabriel and we are quite right;
o But there is another aspect we have to learn from it: it becomes a model for the dialogue between God and us:
 The dialogue starts with the proposal of God’s redemptive will
 There are questions posed and answers given
 And it ends with the acceptance of the proposal in freedom and in love
 The origin and the destiny of the dialogue between God and Mary was of this type and the purpose of the dialogue should reach and should make us to accept what God proposes to us;
o In reality what we do every Sunday or every time we come to the church of mass is this type of dialogue only and we have to realize this and be ready to say ‘yes’ to his plan of love.
- Two important moments: the being and the doing of Mary
o The moment of the nature of Mary: being filled with the Spirit and being in the state of grace: “Do not be afraid Mary, you have found grace before the eyes of God” (Lk 1:30);
o The moment of the action of Mary: being immersed in the project of God for the humanity accepts to ‘do’ what is asked of her: “Here I am, the handmaid of the Lord, let it happen to me according to your word”.
o In these two moments: the life and the vocation of Mary is combined and one is interlinked with the other and one completes and perfects the other.
o We too should not separate our life from our Christian vocation; we may have many have number of other things to do but ‘our state of grace’ makes us to keep in mind our responsibility towards our vocation and mission as the followers of Christ.

Conclusion

- While being happy for celebrating this feast of Our Mother Mary – we will also be happy because we are also called to be in the status of ‘holiness’ and ‘sanctity’;
- While being content of the ‘status of grace’ – we will also remember that this status is not a simple gift of God but it demands our missionary task;
- The mystery and ministry of grace, thus, should be combined in our life and in our daily actions; and finally,
- In a word, and to recall our theme, We Shall Recognize and Preserve the Grace We Have Found With God.
- MARY IMMACULATE – PRAY FOR US