CONVERSATIONS of FAITH BLOG

 

April 2021 Conversations of Faith Blog

Saints Joseph and Rose of Lima Catholic Parishes

 

                          

 

Clearing the Temple of the Soul

By Timothy Andries

Conversations of Faith, April 2021

 

   1.  On the Third Sunday of Lent, Fr. Greg gave a sermon about Jesus clearing out the temple and how at times we search for satisfaction in the wrong places. He also spoke of where true satisfaction comes from and the one person that can give it. Something jumped out at me in Mass and I wanted to share it with the rest of you.

 

   2. On that Sunday morning as I was sitting in church, it wasn’t Fr Greg’s words, but the Holy Spirit’s voice that I heard. In the Gospel reading (John 2:13-25), the Temple had become cluttered and noisy, not resembling the house of prayer that it was meant to be. It’s not that selling goods is wrong, it was being done in the wrong place at the wrong time. Admittedly, my temple resembles my little office room at home. There are some things stacked over here, some things stacked over there, yeah it's an “organized mess”.

 

   3. After Mass I started thinking about my cluttered mind and soul. My temple resembled Walmart on Saturday mornings. There is lots of activity and movement with all kinds of things to check out and see. For me, there's too much news, FB, a bookshelf full of books, and a ton of articles on my laptop.  The mind is filled with questions of when or how I can use all this reading material. What article do I write for the blog? How do I bring the faith to my son? Why is a conversation with the Lord so hard? What do I read next?

 

(Temple scene from the movie, Jesus of Nazareth, 1977)

   

   4. Just by chance or more truthfully Divine providence, I’m sitting at my laptop looking over my virtual Vatican archives. Like I’ve done in the past a few times the compulsive behavior takes over and I’ve downloaded enough reading material to earn 2 PhDs. That's a little overdramatic, but you get the point…. It's a bunch!  I had 85 folders and some 1800 plus articles (yes that’s 1 8 and 2 zeros). My little library has some 90 books on civics, history, and of course the faith. How much time have I spent or wasted re-arranging books, reorganizing, and copying articles? How many times have I deleted everything, only to find myself once again….you guessed it "copy, paste, download"?

 

   5. So what's my point other than I need a hobby? My temple of the soul is cluttered and disoriented.  Like the merchants in the temple, I was doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. I was using too much energy and time collecting the right material to be an apologist, to grow spiritually, and yes learn the faith to teach it. But why wasn't it happening?

 

   6. All the material I had was great, it was written by modern-day authors, recent popes, and councils. I even some early church Fathers to add some apostolic flavor. The truth is I was drowning under news articles, catechisms, bible commentaries……Help! I was so ready to prepare for battle, no book or article could be spared, they were all good, I can learn something. Then Fr Greg’s sermon happens….(humor intended)

 

 

(from the movie Jesus of Nazareth, 1977)

   7. Jesus comes in and says “clear it out!” (see picture above). I didn't need 4 different catechisms, the Code of Canon Law, and 100 articles on every possible thing under the sun. Our Lord never said I had to be an expert, a theologian, or the next Thomas Aquinas. None of that is a bad idea, but I was looking for all these things to satisfy the hunger and desire to know and explain the faith. There is nothing wrong with wanting to make sure that the Catholic faith presented is pure and honest. But that hunger had become spiritual gluttony and uncontrollable. Instead of first preparing a place for the Divine Teacher, I was preparing a place for me to speak instead. I couldn’t see Him from behind all the books, couldn’t hear Him with all the noise, and couldn’t speak with Him with all the distractions.

 

   

 

(Jesus of Nazareth, 1977)

 

   8. In the scene pictured above Jesus is at the door to the Great Temple saying "This is a house of prayer…" That's what the temple of the soul is, a sacred prayer room to converse with Our Lord. It's a quiet place to seek the strength of grace and divine wisdom. It's supposed to be where the Word of God comes to preach, bless, and sometimes correct. Like the biblical temple that had become a marketplace, my temple was becoming a museum, with lots of things to look at, but don't touch it.

 

   9. I had to let the Good Lord in and kick over a few tables so to speak. I needed Jesus to throw me a rope to rescue this soul drowning in clutter! I had to remodel and get rid of most of the junk and turn the stale museum back into the inner sanctum and the Temple of God it was meant to be. In the process, I also learned what pride and attachment can do and how it smothers the flame of the Holy Spirit that burns within. Pride leads to thinking my priority is being able to answer almost any question or at least have a reference for it. Attachment leads to thinking it wrong to delete articles as if I were rejecting the writer or the message.

 

   10. Ironically not only was I breaking God’s commandment in not putting Him first, but I was also breaking one of the commandments of Apologetics 101, "Don't be the Catholic-Answer-Man". That vast collection of material needed to be slimmed down too, what do I need, not just what I want. Our Lord wants us to know our faith that is true. But the purpose of knowing the faith is to know Our Lord and in knowing Him we can share Him with others. But in my case turning his temple into a library missed the point. Our soul, my soul is to be the Temple of God. The air should be filled with the sweet incense of prayer and adoration, not the dust collecting on books. The temple should be filled with the sound of prayers and our conversations with Our Lord. When the High Priest takes His place to preach, He shouldn’t have to step over all the clutter or shout over to be heard.

 

   11. In closing, we need His wisdom and guidance to straighten up the temple and our priorities. Sometimes life will give us “stuff” that Jesus needs to see and hear. Everyone’s temple is different. With His guidance, we discern what things to hang on to and what needs to be put to the road. 

 

Lord breathe your spirit into my soul so that I make a place for you. Teach me, Lord, to seek your presence before all else. Lord God, knock on the door of my heart so that I may open it. May I open the door so that you come and speak to me, and in speaking to me, I hear you Oh Lord?

 

God Bless and have a very happy Easter and a fruitful Lent.

 

MARCH 20201
Genesis and the Incarnation

The Mystery of Ourselves

By Timothy Andries

Conversations of Faith, March 2021

 

Part Three – The Incarnation, God becomes Man

“The Word was God…and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:1, 14)

 

“the virgin will conceive a son…Emmanuel or God-with-Us” (Mt 1:23-24)

1. Now that the devastation of the origin of sin is behind us, imagine for a moment, we’re God. How would you fix the problem? How do we undo the damage to our humanity that has a broken heart, body and soul? We could very easily send the devil into oblivion, but he’s already in hell. Lucifer already made his choice, it’s us that needs saving. Just as you take medication to get rid of the illness, you also have to treat the symptoms. The Devil is the origin of the disease, but our body and soul are still broken. We could just remake humanity and force it to obey. The problem is that humanity be would no different than the animals, no conscience or will just robotic responses and no love. With that we would cease to be human and no longer in God’s image and worse, incapable of loving Him back. We could go with the last option and do the Noah’s Ark routine and wipe everything out and start over. But would killing everything in sight reflect God’s merciful justice? Is that the answer from a loving father who wishes none of His children be lost? As long as humanity is humanity with free will, you still have the same result. Another human race could still fall. Humanity needs to be remade or redeemed.

2. This is why thankfully, we are not God. As justifiably angry as God was, he never stopped loving us. This part is key, God still loves us no matter what! Even after being exiled by Divine Justice for rebelling against Him, after the separation of man and God, He…still…loves…Us. To heal that separation from God, we were promised a savior after the fall into sin. It is not and never will be the will of God that any of his children are lost. “Is it not my will that the sinner should die, but that he repents and live” (Ez 18:23).

3. In part 2, The Fall of Mankind, we saw the poisoning of the soil of the soul and now that humanity is broken, that brokenness will be passed on like a genetic trait to future generations. Man needs help, a new direction, a renewed sprit. But that’s something man can’t give himself and something we’re not always ready to except.

4. So how does God remake a new humanity? How does He start over in a sense, but without destroying us? The body is corrupted because the mind, heart and soul are sinful and weak. So how does God “remake” mankind?

5. In Genesis, the Lord God created humanity beginning with Adam and Eve. So now the Father in heaven will created a redeemed humanity, with a new Adam and a new Eve. This new Adam and Eve will reverse the course and begin the process of redemption and renewal. This new Adam will be humanity with God and the Holy Spirit fully alive in him. The new Eve will also be filled with the Holy Spirit and she will be ready and willing to cooperate with our Lord’s designs.

 

But where does He find them?

“The Angel Gabriel was sent to a virgin named Mary” (Lk 1:26-28)

6. By providential design the Lord God chose Mary to be the new “Eve”, the mother of the living. The choice of Mary to be the new Eve, required that in her humanity, she had to be pure and not tainted with original sin. If not, then the human body that she would give her son, would have been equally corrupted as ours. That Mary was immaculately conceived was by necessity a key part in our redemption, the union or the re-union of God and man.

7. Mary’s virginity and sinless purity is necessary for the creation of the new Adam, the sinless man. Mother Mary’s yes to God, her cooperation with the divine plan is part of the corrective against the sin of the first Adam and Eve. The sinless mother gave a sinless body to be taken up by the Son of God. Mary is the perfect example of Christian discipleship. She didn’t know all the details, only that an angel announced that she would be the mother of the Christ. Mary had free will, a conscience and a soul just like ours, only purer. The plan of redemption, our salvation waited for an answer, “Let it be done according to your word” (Lk 1:38)

 

So Mary provided the flesh for our humanity, but how does that unite us with God’s divinity?

 

“The Word was God…and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:1, 14)

8. After Mary’s yes to God, God took upon Himself the flesh and nature of humanity. “So the Son of God became the Son of man” (CCC #460). The humanity from the sinless womb was joined to the divine nature or divinity of the Son of God. The child then to be born would be, the Word made flesh, true man and true God.

9. Since man cannot save or redeem himself, Our Merciful God, became our new Adam. In His divinity He alone could save us, in His humanity He alone can redeem us. The Catechism, #457 says “Our nature demanded to be healed; fallen, to be raised up; dead, to rise again.”

10. The God-Man, took our humanity to save it and reconcile us to the Father so that we may have life in Him. Jesus Christ was obedient to the Father, even to death on a cross. He was the peace offering to cancel out our original judgement. It was His own life, all that he did and said, down to his last drop of blood that merited our redemption and salvation.

11. If Jesus were just God, then the humanity that he assumed would have been symbolic. Without possessing human nature completely, Jesus could not have fully cooperated with God as a true man. And the humanity offered on the cross would have only been a symbolic gesture. If Jesus were just a man, he would possess our human nature but not the divinity of God. Simply put, Jesus would have been a good teacher or a great prophet. But without possessing the divine nature of God, by whose authority could he teach or work miracles or truly forgive sins? The two, man and God, had to be one. Each had to possess the other.

 

How then does that apply to us? How do we “possess” God?

12. “The Son of God came to dwell in us so that we may know God’s love and to be our model of holiness” (CCC #458 and 459). When the Son of God took on our humanity, it was to prepare us to receive His divinity. Our Lord come down to a humanity left in the darkness of sin, left alone at the mercy of its own passions, and says let me teach you the truth, show you the way and give you the life. The God-Man, calls to his prodigal children to come home and return to me. When our humanity is connected or united to Our Lord Jesus, our lives find their true meaning with Him, in Him and through Him. So how do we possess this divine nature and have God come and live inside us, in our very heart, mind and soul?

 

The answer is in our receiving and cooperating with God’s sanctifying grace.

13. Sanctifying grace is infused into our soul by the power of God Himself. By God’s grace and our willing cooperation and faith, we are transformed heart, mind, body and soul into the very image of Christ. Graces are gifts from God that strengthen and make us holy, like we were intended to be in the beginning, and are called to become today.

14. Sanctifying grace more simply put is the very divine life of God Himself. The Lord God lives within us and it is His life and holiness that in turn makes us holy. It is by His grace that our actions, our minds and hearts become like His. Our loving God comes to us, to personally show us the way, the truth and the life we were created for. By receiving God’s grace, He joins His life to ours, by accepting and cooperating with that grace we join our lives to His.

15. How do we receive those graces, those most precious gifts? These gifts have their beginning and end in God’s own heart and will. The means of receiving grace are many. Our prayers, good works and sacrifices, reading Scripture and receiving the Sacraments are some principle ways of receiving grace. Let us not forget the virtues and Gifts of the Holy Spirit also.

The more we learn about them, the more our hearts and minds will be opened to this great gift of God. The more we receive this divine life, it will strengthen and perfect the soul and the will. With the experience of the divine life and presence of God, the desire for Him will also grow. It must be remembered, that this is a process, not a magic trick or an app we can just download.

It takes time and God is patient because He loves us. The Lord Himself knows we are imperfect and we have to learn to cooperate with that process of redemption.

16. I conclude here with something I found in an article by the Dominican Fathers on the Call to Holiness…..

“Baptism plants the seed of sanctity in the soul, from there, the seven virtues (moral and theological) spring up. The theological virtues unite us to God, the moral virtues remove the obstacles. The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit perfect and strengthen the virtues…..the garden of the soul will produce the fruits of holiness, when the garden is watered with prayer, fertilized or fed by the sacraments, weeded by self-denial and mortification, and warmed by the sunshine of works of mercy and fulfilling our God given duties” (Theology for the Laity, Vol 46, No.6, Nov-Dec 1993)

The Christ life bears fruit in the renewed garden of the soul. The cultivating of the garden is the work in progress in all of us broken people.

 

May the Lord cultivate the garden of your soul. May the Christ-child grow to full maturity and bring you to full bloom in His resurrection.

 

 

Genesis and the Incarnation
The Mystery of Ourselves
By Timothy Andries
Conversations of Faith, February 2021

Part Two – The Fall of Mankind
 “You will not die, you will be like gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:4-6)

”and the serpent was the most subtle of creatures” (Gen 3:1)
  1. If man is made so God-like, then what happened? Why so much pain and misery in human history? Why the corruption and scandal in the world, even in the Church? Questions such as these can seem endless. This can serve as a good reflection for this Lent, considering how the year 2021 began.
  2.  Our Heavenly Father showed us the boundary between our humanity and His divinity. Mankind was to never forget his dependence on God for our very existence. As long as we recognized God as Lord and Father, we would remain in His good graces. The Father warned Adam and Eve not to eat the forbidden fruit. The forbidden fruit was the father of all sin – Pride. This Pride would drive mankind away from God by focusing inward on ourselves. We were warned of the consequences, “you may eat freely of every tree in the garden, but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. On the day that you eat from this tree, you will surely die” Gen 2: 15-17.
 3.  Our Heavenly Father who loves us warns us of danger because he does not want any of us to be lost. As God “wills” to provide for and enter into a relationship with us, we being created in His image, also have the “will” to respond to God and that relationship. The human will is one of those qualities or powers that God created us with. As long as our wills are in union with His or put another way, when we desire only the good that God desires, we remain in His good graces. God’s love and friendship is not one of forced compliance, it’s unconditional and freely given or “willed”.
 4. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is symbolic of the boundary between human and divine nature. Put another way, we are images of God or God-like, but we are not GOD. The Tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the power to determine what good and evil mean. To assume all knowledge of good and evil would essentially mean becoming our own god, not needing any other authority but our own.
  
   5. A tree will grow as long as the soil is good. The young seedling will grow roots and anchor itself in the soil that feeds it. It will grow tall and strong and become firm with its branches sprouting out in all directions. The soil is our soul and the roots are the habits that anchors the tree in the soil of the soul. The tall, strong trunk breaks through the soul and grows through the heart and mind. The branches stretch out into our passions, our will, and our thoughts and so on. The tree will bear fruit, virtue or vice, depending on what feeds it. Sin or Grace, rebellion or faith?
    6. The trap was simple and we can still recognize it today. The Devil’s first question, “Did God really say no, don’t eat from that tree”?  The Devil posed the question not in ignorance, but to make us question God’s own decision and Lordship.
   7. The first question made us stumble or loose balance, the next thing the Devil did was the push over the edge, “You will not die, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God” (Gen 3: 4-6).  So now mankind questions God. “Why should I follow?” “Why should I depend on anyone else other than myself”?  The poison pill of pride, the bitter fruit is now easier to swallow. The icing on the cake is the lie that by breaking all bonds, refusing any authority other than our own, we can become all powerful. Having all knowledge and power will give us freedom to choose with impunity. We say, my conscience is my god and no one can judge me.
 8. The result of our rebelliousness is exile from paradise and separation from God. God seems far off and distant.  The connection with Divine grace that held us together was no longer there. Our broken humanity now gropes in the dark for something we cannot see.
  9. This disconnect or brokenness can leave us feeling helpless or even hopeless. We may think, God could never forgive or love us. Our problems can seem so overwhelming at times. We need help but don’t how to ask, or we assume we should just be stronger than that. Our passions and desires are all confused, our emotions are all over the place.
   10. That’s the real internal struggle that every person has, regardless of what we look like on the outside, or where we live or whether or not we even believe in God. The trap was simple, but the consequences were devastating.
   11. So what do we do know? Tell me this really ends on a good note, that there is an answer, that there is hope. Will we ever return to our former glory, that communion with God? Who will teach us truth, show us the way and give us life? Where is the light to rid us of this darkness?
 (The answer in part 3)
“In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent to a town in Galilee to a virgin named Mary….you will conceive a son and name him Jesus, he will save his people from sin”
Gospel of Luke
Lord Jesus, heal our brokenness and teach us to love one another as you love us. Give us the courage to rise up and become the salt and light of the world that You call us to be. Grant us the wisdom to remove the stumbling blocks that hold us back and renew us in your spirit and truth.
Amen.

 

 

Genesis and the Incarnation

The Mystery of Ourselves
by Tim Andries

 

Introduction

  1. It’s the year 2021 and not a few people have eagerly flipped the calendar past 2020. The last few years have been a rough ride. We have uncertainty, anxiety, a nation of people, even the church that seems to be divided against itself. So many problems with what seems like too few solutions.

  2. Now we’ve had this Covid thing. Oh good grief Charlie Brown!! If tomorrow brought the 10 plagues of Egypt or the zombie apocalypse, it wouldn’t surprise us. We may find ourselves wondering what we can do or if anything can be done.

  So now what?

 3. How do we find harmony or peace without going commando activist or just put up a 20’ brick wall and let the world burn itself down?  Where and how does my life story fit into all this?

  4. We want some kind of a connection in our lives, a sense of direction and purpose. We want to be heard.  Sometimes our lives feel like a computer trying to connect to the Internet, but the network is down. The computer is on, but no connection. 

  5. There are three events in Scripture I would like to focus on to put this disconnect and the process of reconnecting into perspective. They are creation, the fall of mankind in Genesis, and the Incarnation in first chapters of Matthew and Luke. Creation, the fall and the Incarnation are not isolated to distant history, they are a revelation of the ongoing work in progress in and for every person.

   6. This 3 part series is offered as a glimpse into this reconnection of ourselves and God, the ongoing process we call Redemption.  

Part One – God Creates Mankind

   7. What was the original harmony between God and mankind? Our creation in the image of God reveals our intended purpose and what the incarnation is to restore.  Genesis sets the stage for understanding our original state or existence, created in the image of God. A relationship in perfect communion with God, perfect in grace and in love. There was a certain harmony between God, mankind and creation. This sheds light on the purpose of the Incarnation of Christ and the redemption of mankind.

 

Part Two – The Fall of Mankind.   

   8. The next part, the Fall of Man in Genesis chapter 3 reveals the devastation of original sin. The focus is not a pessimistic one of guilt and shame, but a look at the trap the Devil used and still uses to wreak havoc in the lives of mankind. No, mankind is not evil by nature. While we are not guilty of Adam and Eve’s sin, our humanity is tainted by it. By disconnecting from our true source of good, we ended up stumbling in the dark without a sense of direction. Humanity needs to reconnect with God and with itself. But how do we? Showing the discord sown by the Evil One, I think we can better appreciate the depths of Divine Mercy that God will show us in part three.

 

Part Three – The Incarnation, God becomes Man

   9. This third and last section is the Incarnation of Christ or you could say the Christmas-event. The Christ-Messiah will come and reconcile man to God, removing the original judgment of death and restore humanity to its original state. It’s that process that we call salvation and redemption. God Himself will come to man as one of us, so that joined to Him we can be like Him.

   10. These three events give both comfort and understanding to questions we’ve all asked. What is wrong with the world? Why do people fail each other? Why is life so hard and complicated? What is the meaning and purpose of life? These are deep questions that neither you nor I have all the answers to. But while we don’t have ALL the answers, there IS an answer. 

 

Part One – God Creates Mankind

 “Let us make man in our own image and likeness” (Gen 1:26)

 

“In the beginning.”(Gen 1:1)

  1. In truth the story of creation and of mankind in the image of God, sets the stage for understanding our own human dignity and communal relationship with God.

  2. Gen chapters 1-2 give us some very basic truths that all of creation was created by God’s design and was created naturally good. The heavens and the earth, all created things, while created by God, were created for mankind. Mankind was given the responsibility of stewardship over the earth as a gift from his Maker.

  3. God created man in “Our image and likeness” (Gen 1:26).  Our image refers to the Holy Trinity. A simple way of explaining that is, God the Father created us in the image of God the Son with the life of God the Holy Spirit.

   4. So God the source of all goodness, created the world and mankind out of His loving kindness. As human beings, we are given a dignity greater than even the angels. Men and women were created for God and for each other. This new creation was to be the blueprint for the People of God, the Church and the human family. 

  5. In this original state of grace, God was fully alive man and man was alive in God.  Think of the computer mentioned in the introduction, we were completely connected. Mankind enjoyed a certain freedom, the use of the will to live and love God. 

   6. As God created out of loving kindness, so man responded with the same loving kindness. The heart, mind and soul worked or operated in union with each other. Just as the Trinity is a communion of Divine Persons, mankind had a share in that divine communion. The mind sought the truth and knowledge of its creator, the heart desired it’s only true love, the will wanted the good that came from the author of good. The soul found its very life from the sanctifying grace from God which the heart loved, the will desired, the mind sought and our Lord and Father freely gave. It was the union of the heart, mind and will of God with the heart, mind and will of mankind.

 7.  While that may sound like a lofty idea, it’s really a simple truth. The truth that we were all created good. Re-read that again, no matter what your circumstances today, God loves you and always will, without exception. 

 

What does this “state of grace” mean? 

  8. Sanctifying grace is a gift from God, it makes us holy like Him. If we think of grace as the very life of God, then Sanctifying grace is God Himself alive in your very soul. In this state of grace men and women find our only true and lasting happiness, everlasting union with God. In humanity, there was a certain peace that existed between not only mankind and God, but also among men and women and all of creation. This God within us is a very personal and intimate relationship. 

   9. Think sanctifying grace as the beatitudes, the virtues, gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit and Sacraments on steroids. Each gift of grace feeds and strengthens the other. What we may have learned about them in Sunday school or catechism or from the Bible, they were not to remain simply religious doctrines.  It’s not simply a moral code of law to live by. Each is a description of our relationship with God Himself and through Him, with each other. 

  10. We received these gifts from our Creator to make us, not his servants or slaves, but his children. He is to us a Father and we are His children. His children would with this sanctifying grace know, love and serve God with the same love that He loves us.

   11. So there we have it, everyone on this earth, is created in God’s own image and are His children without exception. That’s what needs to be understood about ourselves and in our dealings with others. We are all created for and are capable of holiness. This sets the stage for what happens between parts 2 and 3 next and also gives a glimpse in the question of what salvation and redemption mean…… the Advent-event that took place 2000 years ago and His presence that continues today.

   12. To conclude, I leave a quote from St Irenaeus, “God dwells in man so that man can be accustomed to perceiving God and God becomes accustomed to dwelling in Man” (St Irenaeus, Catechism of the Catholic Church, # 53)

So why is this relationship hard to find today? Why are things or people so messed up?

 

(the answer in part two coming in February)

 

A Merry CHRISTmas Reflection by Tim Andries
 

I offer the following reflection not as a green hairy Grinch or Scrooge for that matter. I offer it as something I too have had to ask myself. We live in a culture that been secularized and to a certain degree commercialized. As brothers and sisters in Christ it is our baptismal mission to evangelize or announce the person and mission Jesus Christ. I offer the question, what has Christmas become and what is it really?

It’s the weekend after Thanksgiving and we’re still recovering and wondering what to do with all the leftovers. The colorful lights are going up on our homes with blow-up decorations in the yard. The tree is going up, the Nativity Scene is out ready to announce…IT’S CHRISTMAS !!

In a couple of weeks we’ll make plans for Ugly Sweater parties and family gatherings and the like. We’ll destroy any chance of a diet (again) and drink too much Egg Nog. With all the décor and the Christmas music, it’s easy to into the festive feel of the season. The closer we get to December 25 the excitement will ramp up and the anticipation will increase. Oh yeah I almost forgot…no one sleeps Christmas Eve night, right.

Television will be showing Christmas parades, Covid permitting of course. There will be Christmas movies galore, from the old animated classics (yes, we’re that old) to the Halmark love stories. They’ll be full of love and happiness, something needed especially during a raging and wild 2020. Understand that none of these things are necessarily bad, but the question remains.

What is Christmas and Where is He?

Where is Our Divine Lord among the empty boxes and wrapping paper on CHRISTmas morning? Where is he among the many gatherings and all the festivities that accompany the season? Where and how is He proclaimed in the songs and holiday movies? How do we or can we announce Him to our families or receive the “Advent” message ourselves?

Have we opened the greatest to humanity, a gift from God – the gift of Himself. We’ve also been given the Holy Family, Our Holy Mother and our Patriarch Saint Joseph.

Have we opened the greatest and most loving gift, our very redeemer and savior, God Himself, wrapped in the flesh of humanity. The poverty of his surroundings announce the Christ-Child in all humility, not in glory. The cold and darkness of the night represents death and darkness of the world due to original sin and separation from God. The shepherds come in from the pasture to see the Good Shepherd, THE Shepherd. It is us, his disciples that will be become the new flock.

The Advent star announces in the darkness of night, the Light of the World has come. The angels are heaven itself announcing the world, that God is faithful to his promises and his people. Saint Joseph and our Holy Mother are models of the new human family that responds with faith amidst trials and says yes Lord, your will be done. The Holy Family is also an example of the hope, that we also “Rise, take the child and his mother” (Matt 1:13) and announce him to our families, neighbors, to everyone.

His very name, proclaims his purpose and mission. Jesus or (Yehoshusua in Hebrew) means “Yahweh Saves”, Emmanuel literally means “God with us”. His birthplace is the Eucharistic promise that Our Lord will always be with us. Bethlehem in Hebrew means “house of bread”, the Christ-Child is the very bread of life and like the Wise Men and shepherds we too can come and adore Him.

Has Advent become simply a calendar or liturgical event? The word “advent” means the arrival of a noble person or event. From the story of creation to the rise and fall of Israel to the prophets, our human history has built up to this very “advent” event. The rest of our history will be written by the life of Christ, alive in the world today.

That in conclusion should be the heart and soul of every song, festivity, family gathering, decorations and all things that make the season….a CHRISTmas season.

The question and mission for me and you, for us is how do I take the Christmas-event that has been received and give that gift to others. Instead of focusing on what material things we have given or received, how can we offer the gift of Christ today? What gift can we give the lonely, those who struggle not just financially but also spiritually, to the poor and abandoned?

That gift, THE gift, is the living Jesus Christ, alive in our hearts and souls who wants to be shared with others. All we need do is look at our own families and neighbors or even ourselves. Where and how can I bring the Gospel message to those in most need? Our Lord does not and neither does the Church expect us to “save the world”, only He can do that. As baptized children of God we should ask Our Lord, “Where will you send me and what can I do today, in my own home in my own life?”

May the Lord be reborn in your hearts, may the announcement of the angels be heard in your voices and may you receive His peace. Lord, may those whom we encounter see a reflection of you in us, and let us also see and come to know you in our own hearts.