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Posted by Kathleen Brewer de Pozos, PhD on May 1, 2008

The Feast of St. Joseph the Worker – May 1

The Feast of St. Joseph the Worker is a relatively new one in the Catholic liturgical calendar, though feasts of St. Joseph are not. Celebrating St. Joseph’s vocation as a carpenter, a worker, dates formally to 1955 when the feast was proclaimed by Pope Pius XII as a response to Communist celebrations of a festival honoring workers on May 1.

It’s not uncommon for the Church to take non-Christian celebrations and give them a Christian focus. Celebrations such as Christmas and the Feast of All Saints, for example, have been set for times when non-Christian communities into which Christian witnesses/missionaries were entering were celebrating their own religious or civic feasts. Sometimes we say those feasts were “baptized” — a kind of shift in interpretation to give new meanings to old rhythms and rituals.

Reverence for human labor and an insistence on the protection of workers predated the Communist revolutions in the Soviet Union and other nations of the world. The writers of the Gospels noted that Jesus was the son of a carpenter from Nazareth, and that He was also a carpenter. His first disciples were fishermen, tax collectors, home makers — the everyday, ordinary folk now celebrated as “workers” on May Day.

Pope Leo XIII laid out the biblical and intellectual foundations of contemporary Catholic social teaching with his encyclical, Rerum Novarum, subtitled On Capital and Labor, in 1891. From that first encyclical, through the 20th Century and into the 21st, the Church, through the writings of its Popes and Bishops, has insisted that the dignity of human labor and human laborers is to be respected and protected. No perfect social system exists – from communism through capitalism, the negative excesses of all have been critiqued and the benefits of all have been noted.

The Church insists that laborers are entitled to a fair wage. Employers have a right to make a reasonable profit, but not to excessive profits at the expense of the health and safety of their employees. Working conditions must be safe. The poorest of the poor must have a chance to live with basic human dignity and security assured. Those who are in positions of power must use that power to protect the powerless. Those with education must look out for those who have not. People of faith must speak on behalf of those treated unjustly.

Fundamentally, we are a family — God’s family. And we are responsible for each other. Each of us has our own “work” to do. Whether our work is to build bridges, tend the sick, educate the children, prepare the meals, or write blog posts, we each have a calling to work for the good of all and to build up the community.

On this Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, may we be aware of the work of great and small in this world, respect the gifts we all bring, and be attentive to protect those whose labors are least valued and respected.

Posted by Dcn. Randy Pozos on Mar 24, 2008

Easter: Not Recognizing the Risen Christ

The very core of Christianity is the amazing tenacity of the believers to assert the impossible – a man publicly tortured to death rose from the dead. What is even more surprising is that they did not recognize Him.

Seeing loved ones after they are dead is not that uncommon among those stricken with grief. According to psychologists, this delusion always produces an immediately recognizable image of the dead person.

One of the most affecting scenes in the Gospel is the encounter between that most faithful of disciples, Mary of Magdala, and the Gardener in the Gospel According to St. John, Chapter 20: 10-18.

Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

“Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ “

Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

In the the other encounters of the disciples with the Risen Christ, there is a similar pattern. The very people who lived with Him on a daily basis, shared His travels, and even argued with Him, didn’t recognize Him. The reality was so much beyond a delusion of grieving friends and followers, so much beyond irrational expectation, that we only get a glimpse of how preposterous it was in the expressed doubts of Thomas. (John, chapter 20)

More than any other event in the Gospels, the stories of the empty tomb, the encounters, the general chaos that occurred is hard for us to fathom, let alone appreciate, since we have heard the story so many times. The story of the suffering and death of Christ is always muted for us because we know how the story ends. The men and women who followed Jesus were more bewildered and confused on that first Easter because what they heard was so outlandish.

The term for Easter in Romance languages drives from Passover – “Pascua” in Spanish and Italian, and “Paques” in French. Since the English term doesn’t bear this heavy direct reference to Passover – the Passover of the Lord – we can miss a key fact of experiencing the Resurrection – being led out of bondage is a tumultuous, confusing, and fearful process. We can cope with grief, disillusionment, and grinding oppression, finding comfort in cynicism, skepticism, or addiction. Resurrection for us is only a painful beginning, an inconvenient surprise, getting stretched on a rack of hope.

Having seen the worst, Mary of Madgala, like us, could conceive of only the worst when she saw the empty tomb. These glorious “men” in white must have taken the only memento left of the Teacher whom she so desperately loved. Where was his body? She had come to do the courageous and loving act allowed to women of her time. But there was no body.

Everything shattered when she heard her name, in a voice that no other could have uttered. Her love would only cause more problems. Are we ready for that?

Posted by Dcn. Randy Pozos on Mar 22, 2008

Good Friday: Identifying with Christ or Christ Identifying With Us?

For those who love Christ, remembering His passion and death is always an occasion for sorrow. However, such human acts as compassion are never simple. The pain of the impending loss of a loved one – anticipatory grief – can be worse than the actual loss. In fact, when death finally comes, we often feel guilty about experiencing relief. My friend Jim lost his father when Jim was in eighth grade, after a protracted two year battle with cancer. When we talked about it a couple of years later, Jim confessed that he still felt more relief than grief.

Of course, we couldn’t experience compassion without a close identification with the other. This becomes very complex in the person of the Christ. He did not fight his enemies. He did not curse. He did not condemn. He forgave. He blessed. This human-divine reaction to an injustice that is almost as inconceivable as it is enraging provides no adequate psychological outlet for the post-Freudian soul. How can we proclaim and fight for justice if God Himself did not? Tragically, the consolation in the Gospels and the wider testimony of the New Testament – that no evil, no matter how overwhelming, how senseless, can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus – escapes us. (Romans 8:38-39) Instead of experiencing this Passover of the Lord – the Blood of the Lamb on the door posts and lintel of our home that spares us from the Angel of Death – we run out into that night of despair by focusing on the ways we have been complicit with that evil.

When we hear that we are saved from a life defined by suffering and pain without meaning and no exit, we can think that we were saved from something we deserved. “Evil as you are … who among you would give his son a scorpion when he asked for bread?” (Loosely taken from Luke 11: 11-13) is a stark reminder to the disciples that Jesus could not conceive of His Father wanting anything less than we ourselves would want for our own children. Just as our children are all too much in our own image and likeness, we are in God’s. The teaching and life of Jesus in this regard is at odds with the vengeful patriarch of the Old Testament who punishes and chastises. (Lest we be tempted to think that Jews hold or held onto to this concept, we should remember that Jesus was not the only Jew who presented a view that had grown beyond it. The are interesting similarities between Jesus and his contemporary, Hillel the Elder.)

Enter God’s protectors:

“Ah hah! Now he has said it on his very own blog! Your own words condemn you. God doesn’t care about sin, you say. There are no consequences, no punishment, no reckoning. You present a God who is merciful, but not just. If Christ did not die for our sins how was the Father appeased? How is he the sacrificial victim?”

The Blogger Offers a Parable:

Once upon a time, there was a wonderful teacher who healed by word and touch and saved people from all kinds of physical, psychological, and social maladies. He made the mistake of speaking truth to power and telling religious and civil leaders that outward observance only made them into whitened sepulchers. They waited for the right time and got a close friend to betray him, and they took him off to Guantanamo, and then transferred him to a third world country, where he was tortured to death by specialists trained at the School of the Americas. Like so many thousands of his time, he was supposed to have become one of the disappeared. Fortunately for us, He didn’t stay dead and he didn’t stay hidden. Strangely though, he left again, said he would return, and in the meantime the were supposed to wait for a Holy Wind to make everything clear.

Yet His disciples wanted an explanation. If He was truly God’s Son, how could this have happened to Him? If he really was the Messiah, how could he have failed? He was just as maddening as those parables he used to tell them. Where are the answers? It was like one of those Eastern religions. “The question is the answer.” And that other junk the Beatles found in India, under the influence of something other than the great American mystic, Jack Daniels.

God finally sent them someone they could understand – sort of. “Like, well, yuh see, dude- God don’t need sacafices, ” The voice of the aging surfer was hoarse with too many years of funny cigarettes, his faced etched with too much salt and sun, his eyes opaque while he waited for the waves to rise. “It’s like, all ’bout love. All God wants is love. The torture and sufferin’ part, that’s what we do to us and each other. Man, like the Teacher Dude, the Guru Guy, like he couldn’t hang out forever. ‘Cause like, you guys were all brain dead on a kind a gnarly bad trip. Like he let it happen. The tube was closin’. Like there was just the wipeout; like really bad at Mavericks. He did it to show y’all that if yah stay in the water and go for it, sooner or later it’s gonna happen if ya stay true to the search for the Big One. Dude, got some extra change? My old lady’s on me for the rent, like ya know.”

The words of reproach, as the seeker turned away, were familiar. “That sucks man. What a waste. I came to hear some guy explain some @$#%?! blogger’s crappy parable. I could’a been watchin’ the game on my big screen.” So he zipped up his jacket and marched straight home, out of the saving mystery, ignoring the glory of the sky, the dazzle of the water, and the carpet of color and bird song all about him.

Posted by Kathleen Brewer de Pozos, PhD on Mar 20, 2008

Each Little Light …

Dr. Megan McKenna uses many stories in her teaching, claiming that all stories are true and some actually happened. She tells this story, one that actually happened, about a community she visited in India. It was a very small village, with an even smaller Catholic community. The community generally gathered in the evening. As dusk fell, her hosts invited her to go outside and look around. In the gathering darkness, she saw the hills around the village come to life with little twinkling lights. The lights began to move across the hills and gradually to converge on the small building which served as their church.

In the middle of the church, there was a large iron contraption, with many arms jutting out from the center. As the people arrived, they hung their family’s lantern on one of the arms. When it became clear that no more people were coming, the contraption, now a chandelier, was hoisted up over the gathered people. It shone over the altar, giving light to the entire community as they celebrated Mass together. Then, when the time came to leave, the chandelier was again lowered and each family took its own lantern. But rather than go home, they went out from their celebration to visit the homes of the members of the community who had not been able to join them that night. They knew exactly who was missing because those lanterns had not been on the chandelier giving light to the community!

A lesson Megan drew from this experience and shared with my parish community is that we aren’t really a community until we know who is missing when we gather to worship.

I thought of this story when, along with many thousands of others, I attended Sunday afternoon liturgy in the Anaheim Arena as part of the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress 2008. The arena was beautifully decorated. The music was outstanding. Cardinal Mahoney was presiding, along with many bishops and priests of the archdiocese. The deacons were there with their wives, entering and leaving in the processions together. It was altogether a wonderful time and place to be.

It happened to be the Sunday when the Gospel is the story of the healing of the man born blind. This is one of the three Sundays when we celebrate “The Scrutinies” as part of the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA). The focus of the second Scrutiny is the ways in which we are blind. The prayer of those preparing for Baptism, Confirmation and/or Eucharist at Easter, as well as of the larger community, is for deliverance from those forms of blindness.

After the homily, when the time came for the Scrutiny, those preparing for the “Easter sacraments” (Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist), were invited to kneel around the altar in the center of the Arena. Their sponsors stood before them as they knelt there. And we were all invited to pray with them, then raise our hands in prayer over them, asking the Lord’s blessing on them as they left with their catechists to continue reflecting on the Scriptures and preparing for Easter. Then they all rose and left the Arena.

I was sitting in the third tier of seats, so I had a great view of the floor and all the proceedings. It was an impressive sight, because approximately 5 rows of people on both sides of the aisle on the main floor left the room together. There was a huge hole in the middle of the community gathered there for worship. Although I didn’t know any of those people personally, I knew who was missing from that community! Those who will bring their own light of insights and God’s unique presence to our/their communities when they are welcomed into full participation in the Church at the Easter Vigil.

I remembered Megan’s story and also her statement that the gospels were written by the Christian community for those who were becoming new members of the community. They are for the instruction of new Christians, and the gift of the RCIA, and of those preparing to join the community, is the opportunity to see these stories anew and to experience their power to change lives – the lives of new followers of The Way and of those who maybe have begun to take it for granted.

As we celebrate the many liturgies of the next few days, I invite you to look around and see who is missing. Who needs us to reach out in love and ease a burden, or offer a word of hope and consolation? Who is homebound? Who is discouraged? Who has been hurt by our institution or our community? Who have we ourselves hurt? As we reach out in love to those missing, we will experience the Resurrection of Jesus in a deeper way and we will become a sign of love to the world, just as those little lights coming down the hillside were a sign of a loving community in one small Indian village.

Posted by Dcn. Randy Pozos on Mar 20, 2008

Holy Thursday on the California Coast

Holy Week on the California coast, from Pt. Mendocino above San Francisco to the Mexican border, is a place of spring time sun, deep blue skies, and blossoming flowers. At the Equinox, the ocean loses its grayness and picks up more yellows, subtle greens and muted turquoise. The salt air becomes more pungent, as the kelp forests put on new growth to accommodate the explosion of trillions upon trillions of sea plants and animals. The succulents and coastal chaparral burst out in purples, roses, and pinks, peppered with the bright yellow of sour grass blossoms. The Santa Cruz redwoods seem to stretch, fresh washed from the winter storms, looking forward to the morning and evening fog that gives them sustenance and flourishes their layered ecosystems that change every 20 feet upward, dancing in the dappled ray filled sunlight of the forest canopy.

It is a time of happiness and rejoicing. Sunglasses come out, flip flops slap the pavement, and shorts replace the winter denim, even though the day time temperatures are barely in the mid-60s. It is the coming of First Summer, before the Fog Season that begins on Memorial Day in late May and ends on Labor Day in early September. On the Central Coast, we host our first guests during Spring Break and settle in to enjoy the peaceful days before our June to August onslaught of shivering, fog-bitten visitors and their much welcome tourist dollars.

Aren’t we supposed to be down or at least subdued during Holy Week? How can we rejoice Saturday evening and Easter if we have somehow not rationed that joy? We should at least lament our unfaithful adherence to our Lenten resolutions – right? Christ’s terrible torture and death stayed the arm of a rightfully vengeful Father, so shouldn’t we show at least some token of fear for not being swept out into hellfire? If God’s Spring and Passover are any indication, maybe Cotton Mather had it wrong. Maybe we are a lot more than “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God.”

If we, and all creation, are the overflowing love of the Trinity, are we the products of a God who can somehow demand the death of the the Eternal Word Made Flesh, God’s very immediate recognition and instantaneous self-acceptance, who shares the eternal dance of the Three in the joy of the Holy Spirit? Yes, much of the language that shapes our souls is a reflection of the fallen world where the Word “pitched his tent” – the actual Greek expression we use in the Creed. Yes, Jesus died and saved us in his rising from the dead. Yes, Jesus is the Lamb of God. Yes, we are the reason, we are his motivation for sharing our lives and submitting to the capital punishment of being tortured to death by an occupying superpower. Perhaps, the gravest sin of pride is to even think that we were the cause. Yes, God as Love couldn’t bear to leave us to the fate of hatred, despair, and alienation.

Why should people celebrating their rescue be glum, depressed, lost in narcissistic guilt? Why is this night different from any other night? It is the Passover of the Lord. If we are not washed in joyful Spring, can we share the Passover meal? Can we have any part in Him?

Posted by Dcn. Randy Pozos on Mar 18, 2008

Holy Week – Salvation Through Suffering or Self Actualization?

The profound Christian mysteries of Holy Week – the Last Supper, the Passion, Death, and Resurrection – are part of a cycle that we often break up into pieces. We can focus on the suffering Christ or move more comfortably to the Resurrected Christ. We can focus on the suffering humanity of Christ or His triumphant divinity. The problem of course is holding the contradiction to arrive at the truth by affirming the opposites. Is Christ human or divine? Yes.

In our lives, are we supposed to unfold and blossom in all of our God given gifts or do we have to exercise discipline and self-scrutiny and trim away important parts of ourselves – our sensuality, our connectedness with the earth, our search for joy and happiness? It seems that from the 1700s to the mid-20th century there was an emphasis on asceticism – a word created in the enlightenment – for the rational and spiritual to dominate at the expense of the heart, the emotions, and all things physical. Even the great secular Freudian construct of the human person posits a dominant super ego, the besieged ego, and the troublesome impish id of desire and impulse that seeks to undo the ethical correctness of the super ego and the reasonableness of the ego.

The psychology of Maslow is known for its emphasis on the self-actualization of the human person. The focus of Christian existentialism in the 20th century was on authenticity. In the late 20th century, the immanence of God with us was emphasized, as opposed to the previous focus on God’s utter transcendence. The re-emergence of Catholic and Protestant teaching of the social gospel has focused on the rights and dignity of individuals and communities to develop their gifts, free of domination and exploitation.

Of course, as we all know, we pay a price for our self-actualization and for advocating this freedom for others. That price is suffering – due to our own imperfect attempts at being authentic or “real”, the fear and resistance of ourselves and others to freedom, and the forces of oppression which come upon us in violence, social disapproval, or our own lack of will.

When we come right down to it, it is often more comfortable to stay in our zone of known suffering than to accept the insecure joy of resurrection. If I experience love, joy, and some glimmer of self-actualization, it will always be imperfect, and the “blues” (the dark days) will return. It may be a spiral upward, but it’s also a lot of insecurity and hassle and change. We have to live ambiguously. We don’t have the answers. In fact, we have to affirm opposites. Who needs this tension?

The bad times and the good times – through both there is only one guarantee – challenge.

Posted by Dcn. Randy Pozos on Feb 4, 2008

Mardi Gras / Carnaval – A Non-Moveable Feast?

Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, has often been a raucous holiday throughout the Catholic world. In New Orleans we have “Fat Tuesday” – literally Mardi Gras. In Rio de Janeiro and Venice, the day before the beginning of the Lenten season of preparation for the Easter Triduum is called Carnival, or Carnaval in Portuguese.

The Carnival celebration in Rio de Janeiro has become a major part of the economy, due to the tourist trade and large expenditures for floats, constumes, and neighborhood performance groups. Although the celebration was only introduced in 1845 by European elites imitating the Parisian celebration, Carnival has taken on a life of its own and has incorporated African and Amerindian elements. In 2008, Carnival will attract 700,000 tourists and $510 million dollars. Like New Orleans, the party can start a whole week before the actual day of Carnival.

Of course there are always problems with success. The key one for Mardi Gras is that the date is 50 days before Easter. This means that the actual date of Carnival floats in relation to the date of Easter, following the lunar calendar. Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon of Spring. For Brazil, Carnival marks the end of the southern hemisphere’s summer vacation season. If Carnival comes too early, as it does this year, on February 5, the vacation and tourist trade can dry up. In fact, the date of Carnival can range from February 3 to March 9 – a span of 5 weeks.

The big problem is that when Carnival is over, the party is over. Lent begins with its fasting, penance, and almsgiving. Big parties are not in keeping with the season. The hotel and tourism industry in Brazil are concerned that this will mean a huge economic loss. The “summer” economic season would end 7 weeks early. There is a movement in Brazil to make Carnival the first Sunday of March to avoid these economic dislocations. The Secretary General of the Brazil’s Catholic Conference of Bishops, Dom Dimas Lara Barbosa, is not opposed in principal to moving the date to January so that the festival will not occur during Lent.

January seems a little to close to Christmas and New Years and so there has been some thought of turning Carnival into a purely secular festival. But then again, it wouldn’t be Carnival if it were. On the other hand, many of our Protestant cousins would probably remind us that Carnival seems to have gone beyond any deep religious significance anyway.

Posted by Dcn. Randy Pozos on Jan 18, 2008

Christian Unity: A Week of Prayer – Chair of Unity Octave

One hundred years ago, a group of Episcopalians – the Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Atonement – led by Fr. Paul Thomas Wattson and Sr. Mary Lurana White in Garrison, New York at Graymoors, started the observance of a week of prayer for Christian unity. The whole story is fascinating and encouraging since it traces the emergence of ecumenism in the 20th century. Fr. Wattson and the Franciscan Order of Atonement, which he co-founded, entered the Catholic Church in 1909 but continued to promote Christian Unity.

During the 1920s and 30s there was a growing movement for Christians to observe a week of prayer for Christian unity. During the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), interfaith dialogue and prayer received a new emphasis with the 1964 issue of the Decree on Ecumenism, which called prayer the core of the ecumenical effort and encouraged Catholics to observe a week of prayer. In 1966, the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches and the Vatican Secretariat for Christian Unity began working on a common set of prayers for the Octave. Since 1968, The Graymoor Ecumenical and Interreligious Institute has facilitated and published the international texts for use in the United States. In 1991, a Sunday was incorporated into the week of prayer. Each year’s theme is developed by an ecumenical group whose members are appointed by the World Council of Churches and the Pontifical (Catholic) Council on Ecumenism. The 2008 theme is “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thes. 5-17).

Posted by Kathleen Brewer de Pozos, PhD on Jan 12, 2008

The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

The third Sunday after Christmas is the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. On this day we recall that Jesus went out to the Jordan River, where his cousin John was baptizing, and himself entered into the water to be baptized. All four of the gospels tell of this event, in which the Spirit of the Lord came to rest upon Jesus, like a dove. Matthew, Mark and Luke tell us that a voice spoke from the heavens, saying, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” John tells us that John the Baptist told his disciples, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.”

Jesus’ baptism was a life changing event for him. He went out into the desert to pray and to ponder and absorb the immensity of what had been revealed to Him as He stood in the water with John. This experience of coming to know that He is God’s Beloved Son was the foundation for His entire ministry. When He returned from the desert, He began going among the people and spreading the Good News that God cares about what happens to people here and now, that God loves even the most insignificant person, that loving actions speak louder that pious prayers, that joy and peace are signs of the presence of God.

Each of us, in our own baptisms, have been given the gift of sharing in the life and work of Jesus. This feast is a reminder to us of that great gift and of the fact that our response is to be like that of Jesus – to go out now and share the same Good News through our actions in our daily lives, with peace and joy and love.

Posted by Dcn. Randy Pozos on Jan 7, 2008

Astronomy and the Star of Bethlehem

As we approach the end of the Christmas season in this week after the Epiphany, I wanted to share two interesting astronomical sites about the Star of Bethlehem.

Astronomynotes.com blends historical, scriptural, and astronomical sources to take us back to the birth of Christ.

BethlehemStar.net is a well done site blending scientific and excellent historical information to arrive at dates and times for the Christmas Star and also for the Crucifixion. This site is more devotional and more evangelical in that is desires to elicit a faith response.

Both sites are excellent blends of faith and reason. However BethlehemStar.net makes a definite but discrete appeal to conversion.

Posted by Kathleen Brewer de Pozos, PhD on Jan 6, 2008

Quote of the Day – Madeleine L’Engle on Jesus and the Star

Like every newborn, he has come from very far.
His eyes are closed against the brilliance of the star.
So glorious is he, he goes to this immoderate length
To show his love for us, discarding power and strength.
Girded for war, humility his mighty dress.
He moves into the battle wholly weaponless.
– Madeleine L’Engle

This lovely poem was quoted in our local diocesan newspaper, Observer, in the January 2008 edition. It seemed perfect for the feast of the Epiphany. For the entire article, see http://www.dioceseofmonterey.org/observer/2008/jan/newborn.htm.

Posted by Dcn. Randy Pozos on Jan 6, 2008

The Feast of the Epiphany – The Three Kings

Epiphany – literally the shining forth – was traditionally celebrated on January 6 but is now observed on the second Sunday after Christmas. St. Matthew’s Gospel (2:1-12) is the only one to recount the story. This feast is of singular importance because it is the first manifestation of Christ to non-Jews. It is also remarkable in that the importance of Jesus is reflected in the stars and attracts the attention of Zoroastrian priest-astrologers in Persia who come to pay homage to the newborn king.

St. Matthew’s account does not tell us the number of Magi -literally magoi or “Great Ones” – and certainly they were not kings. For those familiar with current contemporary science fantasy books, the term in Greek for the visitors is Mages – magicians or sorcerers. The term is generally translated as Wise Men, softening the sense of black or destructive magic. The three gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh were seen as offerings for a god, according to St. John Chrysostom in the second century. Some scholars characterize this story as a non-historical account which has symbolic importance for the very special divine status of the Christ child.

Was there a star? Well yes and no. According to Ball State University astronomer, Ron Kaitchuck, contemporary astronomical research – which has its origins in this same priestly Zoroastrian caste – indicates that there were unusual conjunctions of key planets in significant constellations. The story is somewhat complicated because we are not sure of the actual month or year of the birth of Christ. (When the Christian calendar was being established, an error in arithmetic changed the count by 3 years. Christ was actually born in 3 B.C. – we think.) Astrophysicist Grant Matthews, at Notre Dame University, has found supernovae which he suggests as potential candidates.
Creationists who are also well credentialed scientists have come up with some interesting scenarios to explain the Christmas “Aster”. The Greek term we translate as star can be just about any light in the heavens. (You want to watch out for bad “asters” or “dys-asters”.)

Lambert Dolphin, an accomplished physicist, has published an updated account of the Christmas Star by Barry Setterfield, an Austrailian astronomer who has tried to reconcile literal biblical accounts of the young age of the earth with a novel approach to scientific dating that assumes the duration of atomic processes does vary over time. Needless to say, Setterfield’s ideas are not considered to be in the scientific mainstream. However, his account of the ancient night sky and the dating of Christ’s birth follow a rigorous logic. His approach is also shared by another noted astronomer, Craig Chester of the Monterey Institute for Research in Astronomy.

While Setterfield and Craig issue the traditional warning against the practice of astrology and the occult, it is hard to see anything else in their analysis of the ancient star patterns other than ancient astrology. It is a curious contradiction that we are supposed to watch for signs and portents in the heavens and assign some religious predictive meaning to them by interpreting the scriptures but we are to avoid astrology. Clearly, the admonitions are meant to avoid pre-Christian and other earth based religions that attempt to manipulate the transnatural or “buy off” disasters with various types of animal sacrifice.

When the ancient night sky can be traced to certain historical events, such as the Roman census and the rise and fall of various rulers, it has a certain grounding. If we look at Setterfield’s and Chester’s analysis of sky charts to reveal the creation of the world or the coming of the apocalypse, there is really nothing to ground these speculations except for a string of assumptions that don’t seem to be supported by outside verifiable evidence.

Whether we believe it happened or see it only as a shining metaphor of the favor of Heaven, the Star and the Magi are portents of the coming of all people to faith.

Posted by Kathleen Brewer de Pozos, PhD on Dec 31, 2007

The Feast of the Holy Family

The Feast of the Holy Family falls on the Sunday between Christmas and the Feast of Mary, Mother of God, January 1. The readings for the day focus on qualities that make for happy relationships between people, including members of families.

Sometimes when we focus on the Holy Family as the model for family life, we get bogged down with the perfection of Jesus and Mary, the holiness of St. Joseph, and the impossibility of actually living a perfect life ourselves. Then we write off their example as just another bit of pious nonsense that has nothing to do with the reality of crying babies, mortgage payments, difficult bosses, and all the other stresses that come with marriage and family. For those who are not married and/or don’t have children, the feast can seem irrelevant or even be a painful reminder of unfulfilled hopes.

So, I find myself wondering, what is it that makes a family, any family, “holy?” It seems to me that if the Holy Family is to be a model for the rest of us, that must mean that we are also to be “holy.” What made them holy?

Being holy does not mean having no problems or challenges in life. Holiness, it seems to me, lies in how we handle those difficulties that come in every life. After all, without the problems, difficulties, challenges, “crashes,” struggles, “hitting bottom,” or whatever we call it, we would never need to turn to God for help. We could just continue blithely on our way, assuming everything is fine, and in the best American cultural sense, be “rugged individuals” who can make it on our own.

But that isn’t what the spiritual life and journey are all about. Our spiritual lives are about learning from our mistakes, growing in wisdom, reaching out for help and community, being purified in God’s love, so that we can run joyfully to the Lord at the end of our days.

When we look at the lives of Mary, Joseph and Jesus, we find that they were filled from the beginning with many of the same challenges faced by other families. An unexpected, unplanned pregnancy, one outside the marriage; governmental demands that upset a family’s plans; taxes; inconvenient timing of a birth; the necessity to leave home and become refugees in another land; a child who feels grown up enough to go off on his own at the age of 12 without telling anyone where he’ll be; the death of a spouse or parent; a child whose life choices and career don’t meet the expectations of the family or community; the untimely death of a child. All these things were part of the lives of the Holy Family, as they can be part of our own lives. What made Joseph, Mary and Jesus holy as a family was their response to these challenges and their loving support of each other through them.

Joseph’s first recorded response to Mary’s pregnancy was compassion. He did not want to expose her to the penalties of the Law. He loved her and wanted her to be safe. When the angel told him in a dream that Mary had not been unfaithful, he accepted her as his wife. He made a home with her and supported her through the pregnancy and birth. He took her and Jesus to safety in Egypt, again following the instructions received in a dream. When it was safe, he took them back to their home in Nazareth cared for them and made a home for them.

Both Mary and Joseph must have “pondered” many things along the way. Many things did not make sense at the time. They really didn’t know what God had in mind. Jesus was a normal child. He had to learn how to be a man and how to respect and love the people around him. Mary and Joseph taught him by their actions as well as their words, just as we teach our children more by the way we act than by our words. It’s no surprise that people in families tend to share many gestures, facial expressions, attitudes and beliefs. The Holy Family would not have been different in this. The characteristics we seen recorded about Jesus were probably in great part those he learned from his parents.

In this week following the Feast of the Holy Family, as we enter a new calendar year, I hope we can take their lives as ones that exemplify the kind of relationships that result from heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, and love (Col 3:12-17). These qualities are not ones that stem primarily from feelings, but rather they are attitudes and behavioral choices to which we are all called.

Posted by Dcn. Randy Pozos on Dec 26, 2007

Christmastide – 12 Days of Celebration

(Christmas Eve: Goa, India)

There can be a strange misconception that Christmas ends on the morning of December 26. Many people take down Christmas trees and other decorations and gear up for a secular New Year of parades and American football games. It does make some sense, because many people have been exhausted going to “Christmas” parties since early December, eating and drinking a lot, while chasing through the shopping malls.

Christmastide, however, from December 25 to January 6 – the former feast of the Epiphany when the Three Wise Men came to visit the infant Jesus – is actually the time for celebrating. In many Latin countries, gifts are exchanged on the Epiphany in honor of the gifts of the Magi.

The white fish recipes that are part of gourmet menus for Christmas Eve are actually an echo of a time when December 24 was the last day of Advent – a time of preparation. Christmas Eve was a day of fasting and abstaining from meat.

There is still time to reclaim the joys of Christmastide. Relaxation, reflection, some daily exercise and a slower pace – just spending time with each other – is the acceptance of the Gift beyond comprehension – Emmanuel – God with us.

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Easter: Not Recognizing the Risen Christ

Good Friday: Identifying with Christ or Christ Identifying With Us?

Each Little Light …

Holy Thursday on the California Coast

Holy Week – Salvation Through Suffering or Self Actualization?

Mardi Gras / Carnaval – A Non-Moveable Feast?

Christian Unity: A Week of Prayer – Chair of Unity Octave

Astronomy and the Star of Bethlehem

Quote of the Day – Madeleine L’Engle on Jesus and the Star

The Feast of the Epiphany – The Three Kings

The Feast of the Holy Family

Christmastide – 12 Days of Celebration

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