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Posted by on Jan 12, 2025

You are my Beloved Child

You are my Beloved Child

“You are my beloved child, with you I am well pleased.” These are words I suspect every person wishes to hear from a parent. We especially hope to hear them when things are tough and we are afraid we will never be able to live up to expectations – of our parents, society, teachers, family, or more devastatingly, of ourselves! “You are my beloved child. I am well pleased with you. You are trying so hard to do what is right. I love you always.”

Christmas Season comes to a close with The Baptism of the Lord. We celebrate this event in the life of Jesus on the Sunday after the Epiphany. Between the time of the stories told about his birth and the first few months of his life – with the exception of the story of the family visit to Jerusalem when he was 12 – and the revelation he experienced at his baptism in the Jordan River at about age 30, we know very little about his life. We know that he was a carpenter from Nazareth, son of a carpenter and therefore experienced in the trade from a young age. There was not anything particularly noteworthy about his life. Those who knew him were astounded and many were dismayed at the change in him that followed that baptism. “Who is he to be passing himself off as a healer and teacher? We have known him from childhood. He’s not anybody special – just a carpenter and son of a carpenter!”

And yet, as he was praying after coming up out of the water, he experienced something very special. The heavens opened and the Holy Spirit of God came upon him “in bodily form like a dove.” He heard a voice from heaven that said, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” (Lk 3:15-16, 21-22)

When we experience the direct touch of the Lord God, it is life-changing. Hearing directly or sensing directly the great love that created and keeps all in existence speaking directly to us or embracing us is not quickly forgotten or written off. We know only one thing matters, to accept and return that love.

For Jesus, that happened at his baptism. His response was wise, he went off to the desert to ponder the experience and pray. When he returned, it was as a man with a mission. To share the good news of God’s love and desire to heal a wounded world – to announce the coming of God’s kingdom.

Folks around him didn’t know what to make of him. He kept on speaking anyway. Some folks came to hear what he had to say. They didn’t always understand what he meant when he spoke of God’s unrestricted love for those whose lives were difficult or didn’t meet acceptable standards – folks like tax collectors or prostitutes. Some folks came out of curiosity. What will he do this time? Others came seeking healing for themselves or friends. People blind from birth became able to see. Those paralyzed could pick up their beds and walk home. Lepers found their skin healed at a word or touch. A child who was on his way to burial was returned alive to his widowed mother. Thousands of people were able to eat one day when he gave thanks for a few fish and loaves of bread offered by a child, then began to share them out to the crowd.

We will spend the next weeks and months hearing the stories of what resulted from that day at the River Jordan and the revelation received by Jesus.

This carpenter from Nazareth turned out to be the one long anticipated by the prophets – the one about whom Isaiah spoke when he proclaimed that the glory of the Lord would be revealed. “Prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! … The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together…” (Is 42:1-4, 6-7)  The Lord’s servant will come, the one who has received the Lord’s spirit, and bring forth justice to the nations, not shouting or crying out, but tending to the bruised reed, the smoldering wick, and healing all with a forgiving justice. (Is  40:1-5, 9-11)

Those who came to know and follow Jesus closely through the next three years of his life found their expectations and their understandings of the relationship between the Lord God and people to be much too narrow. They had to figure out who he was, the source of the authority with which he spoke, how to understand the counter-cultural things he sometimes said or did, his insistence on going into danger despite knowing full-well it could end badly for him. When he was condemned and executed, most of them took off and hid. But he came back, first revealing his resurrection to women, then to the others!

As his friends received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, they continued to reflect on what they had experienced. They learned, when the Spirit came to the Roman authority Cornelius and his household before they were baptized, that God’s grace and salvation were not restricted to any one chosen people but were for all humans! (Acts 10:34-38) They learned the importance of living justly and devoutly in their everyday lives, trusting that God’s mercy, which had opened them to receive the outpouring of the spirit, would guide them through life and lead them to eternal life. (Ti 2:11-14; 3:4-7)

We are still learning these lessons today. Our world is experiencing raging wars, repression of peoples, threats of trade wars between countries, deportation of millions of people who have already fled for their lives from their own home nations, fires and other natural disasters, and divisions among the peoples of nations. It’s a crazy, scary, unnerving, and anxious time.

Yet we remember the words Jesus heard on that day so long ago. “You are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.” It was not a time of peace and ease in which he was living. The world has never really gotten to a point at which all people are living in peace, with access to all the basics needed for living. We too often think that if we take from others, things will be better for us. But that has never worked. It only breeds more conflict.

As we move from Christmas to our time of reflection on the life of Jesus in Ordinary (Counted) Time, may we remember the coming of the Holy Spirit to Jesus at his baptism. May we know deeply that the same Holy Spirit came to us at our baptisms and in the sacrament of Confirmation. He comes to us in Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, the sacraments of vocation, and our everyday experiences of living together through the challenges of life.

“You are my beloved child” – God speaks these words to each of us. Believe them. Live them. God doesn’t joke or lie about such things. They’re for real.

“You are my beloved child.”

Readings for The Baptism of the Lord – Cycle C

 

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Posted by on Dec 29, 2024

Growing in Wisdom, Age, and Grace

Growing in Wisdom, Age, and Grace

When I was a girl, I loved going to visit my maternal grandparents. They lived in a big home, with a wonderful yard and friendly neighbors, one of whom was a girl about my age. It was approximately three hours from our home to theirs, so we always stayed for at least one day, usually over a weekend, from Friday night to Sunday afternoon. My mother was the oldest child, so when I was born, there were still children at home when we went there to visit. It was always fun to be with them. I clearly remember the meals in which after everyone had had their fill, my teenage uncle would finish the rest of the potatoes and gravy – “to fill up his hollow leg,” we were told.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the past few weeks as I have spent time with one very young grandchild and a couple who are older. I am now a grandmother (and have been for quite some time now). But this time, when a creeping baby and a toddler grace my days again, I am remembering how my own Grammy and Grandad welcomed us, helped us feel at home, and always had a place and time for us. I’m sure we were no more aware of all they did for us than our grandchildren are of what we do today. Somehow, food was ready, clothes were there to keep us warm or cool, and a lap full of books, stories, and love was always ready to receive us or comfort us when we fell or were afraid. I suspect they smiled and laughed as they observed our innocence and eager readiness to try new things or explore whatever we could get our hands on.

This weekend we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. Joseph, Mary, and Jesus were ordinary folks from a small, conquered country in the Roman Empire, not far from the Sea of Galilee. Joseph was a carpenter and passed the trade on to his son. Mary became a mother at a young age, as was customary, and spent her days caring for her family and their home. They were part of an extended family; everyone was in those days. All knew their place and what was expected of them.  Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Grandparents shared the love of the family.

We don’t know much about the lives of the Holy Family. They weren’t famous or powerful, after all. We have a few stories about Jesus’ birth and the sojourn of the family in Egypt, a land visited to protect the newborn Jesus from the jealously of the local king, Herod. We also have St. Luke’s story of the time the family visited Jerusalem when Jesus was 12 years old. It was an annual pilgrimage and lots of people went there together, traveling in caravans. Jesus was not yet old enough to be considered a man.  He was only 12 and should have remained with his family and the other boys. But he didn’t. He stayed in Jerusalem, visiting the temple on his own and speaking with the teachers there.

Mary and Joseph were terribly frightened when they realized at the end of a day’s journey that their son had not actually been with the other parent all day. They returned immediately to Jerusalem, but it still took three days for them to find Jesus. They were quite upset with him. “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” Jesus, with the innocence and confidence of a child who is approaching adulthood responded, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

Jesus’ response made no sense to his parents. His father’s house was in Nazareth, after all, not the Temple in Jerusalem. Obediently, he returned to Nazareth with them and continued to learn and grow with them there. It wasn’t until he was much older that his life became dramatically different and he truly began to understand his calling. St. Luke tells us that as he grew up, “Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.” Lk 2:41-52

We too are called to grow in wisdom, age, and favor (or grace) before God and the other humans with whom we share this world. We are not alone. We are part of our personal families and part of the great family of humanity. We learn as we go along how to treat each other, what our roles will be in the world, how others will expect us to behave. Each culture has its own expectations for how men and women will behave and what their interpersonal interactions will be like. As followers of Jesus, we have the great gift of knowing that we are loved by our God who is the Father who loves us dearly, allows us to learn much on our own, and is always ready to have us run back to him for a hug and a new start when we realize we didn’t make the right choices.

St. Paul reminded the Colossians to put on “heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience” and to love and forgive others freely. Love and the peace of Christ are to control our behavior and expectations. Col 3:12-27  St. John reminds us that as we love each other, as God commanded we do, we remain in God and God in us, because he gave us his Spirit. 1 Jn 3:1-2, 21-24  Sirach, speaking from an ancient wisdom tradition, reminds us to care for each other, honor those who are older than we, share with those who have fewer riches, and be kind to those whose abilities to care for themselves are failing with the years. Sir 3:2-6, 12-14

Most of us do not share the experience of Hannah and her husband, who were unable to have children for most of their lives together. Hannah begged the Lord for a child and was given a son in her older years. She dedicated this son, Samuel, to the Lord when he was three and he grew up to be one of the last prophet/judges who led Israel before the anointing of Saul as first king of Israel. 1 Sm 1:20-22, 24-28

Those of us who have been blessed with children ordinarily watch them grow in wisdom, age, and favor with the Lord and with other people. We marvel at the adults they become and smile as we watch them teaching their little ones the same things we taught them. As their children, our grandchildren, play with some of the same toys, we smile, knowing the gifts we received from our parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents (I knew mine), are tumbling along like a mountain creek, bringing new life and possibilities to those they will meet as they travel through life.

May we all grow in wisdom, age, and favor with the Lord today, as we close out this tumultuous calendar year and enter a new one. May we have courage to love and to speak out for those in need or for those with less influence or power. May we ponder the tidbits of wisdom that spring from the mouths of the children and young people in our lives. May we humbly share what we have learned and the hope that through all things, God is with us. Emanuel has come. Peace and joy and hope will mark our passage through life as we patiently accept each day and pour love into it.

Peace be with you.

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Posted by on Dec 31, 2023

Families Come in Many Shapes and Sizes

Families Come in Many Shapes and Sizes

When one of my children got married, the photographer was ready to take family pictures of the bride and groom with each of their families. The pictures were to be outside in a lovely courtyard. Somewhere around three quarters of the people in the reception hall got up when called to report for the picture. The couple’s friends who were not family had to reassure guests who didn’t know us well, that the party wasn’t over and we would all return soon!

As family members approached the courtyard for the photo session, the photographer first took pictures of the couple. Then, as people kept approaching, he asked if the families were all present now. No, they were still coming. A few more photos of the bride and groom and the question was repeated, followed by a question about whether the groom’s family were all there yet. No, not yet. How about the bride’s family? Yes, those people sitting at that table over there, was the response. So that set of family and couple pictures were taken.

Finally, all of the groom’s family arrived on scene. There were so many of them that the photographer put all of them up on a large outdoor dining area “balcony” and he went down below to take the photos.

The contrast in size of family has played out in many weddings through the years. Once in a while, both families will be large. Often, one will be large and one will be small.

Families come in many shapes and sizes. It’s a fact of life. Some large families are close. Others are not. Some, whether large or small, have members who have differences of opinion on many topics. Siblings, parents, cousins, grandparents – all can find themselves at odds with others in the group over many things. Sometimes relationships become so strained that they break. Sometimes it’s possible to mend the relationship. Sometimes it’s not possible or advisable to do so, especially if there was a history of abuse in the picture.

Looking beyond the immediate picture of nuclear families (Mom, Dad, children), there are larger family structures. The kinship structures of peoples around the world are not identical. In some, kinship is defined by relationships along only the male line. In others kinship is based on the female line. These are quite different from the bilateral, nuclear family kinship system that is characteristic of the majority of families in Western societies today.  In some kinship systems, the family is multi-generational, with the eldest members of the family making the decisions for the younger generations. We call these corporate kinship systems. In nuclear family kinship systems, the individual adults make their own decisions for themselves and their families.

Fictive kinship adds another layer to the picture as well. Godparents, sponsors, people who are close friends of a family, can play roles like those of biological relatives. These systems provide extra support to the family as they raise their children.

This complexity comes to mind as I hear the readings for the Feast of the Holy Family. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were a family. Parents and child together, making their way through life. Their family was a part of a larger corporate family. Kinship included relatives beyond Mary and Joseph. These relatives worked together to support themselves and their children. Kinship passed through the male line, so Jesus was raised as a member of Joseph’s extended family. Fortunately, for those who keep track of such things, the line of King David was quite large by that point in time, so Mary was also descended from David’s line.

Family dynamics – who is in charge, whose authority is primary, who takes care of whom and when – all play a role in how healthy family relationships are. Sirach presents a picture of family relationships that bear imitation. (Sir 3:2-6, 12-14) The reading is all phrased in terms of the parents and their sons, but that’s a feature of the culture of the time. One could easily substitute our less specifically male terms today to make it more inclusive.

“God sets a father in honor over his children; a mother’s authority he confirms over her children. Whoever honors their parents atones for sins, and preserves themselves from them.”

Sirach admonishes his listeners to be kind, respecting and supporting each other. Older folks care for younger ones. Those younger ones in turn care for the older ones as they age. “Kindness to a parent will not be forgotten…”

St. Paul speaks to the Colossians about living as a community. (Col 3:12-17) The same advice he gives regarding communal relationships applies to successful families too. (Successful in this case is a term referring to loving, supportive families.)

Members of the community are to “put on,” (to wear) compassion, kindness, gentleness, humility, patience, and willingness to forgive as the garments that enfold their lives. In their dealings with each other, grievances are to be forgiven because the Lord has forgiven all. Love is the bond of perfection. And above all, the peace of Christ forms all into one body.

We respond to the word of Christ dwelling within us with prayer, songs, and gratefully living in the Lord’s name.

Returning to the family of Joseph and Mary, we again see a loving family living within their tradition. (Lk 2:22-40) After the birth of a son, the family brings the child to the temple. The child is seen as belonging to God. The parents offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving for him. Poorer families offered two turtle doves or pigeons. Wealthier families offered more elaborate sacrifices. Joseph and Mary were not rich, so they offered the two birds in sacrifice.

While at the temple for Jesus’ circumcision and to offer the sacrifice for him, they met two older people who had been promised the great gift of seeing “the Christ of the Lord” before their death. The first was named Simeon. He took Jesus into his arms and praised God for having sent the child who would become “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel.”

The other person was an old woman, a prophetess named Anna. She too gave thanks to God for having seen the child. She told all she met that this child had at last been born.

None of the people involved in these events knew all that would happen to this family and this child. But Simeon and Anna knew he was special, through the gift of the Spirit’s revelation to them. Joseph and Mary knew they had a beautiful baby boy. They gave thanks for his birth and returned to their home to raise him in a loving family and community. We are told that he grew “and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him.”

As we live and grow in our families, may the blessings lived by the Holy Family be with us too. May we grow strong together in faith, trust in God, and loving kindness. Does this mean we go around with our eyes cast down and a serious look on our faces? Absolutely not! We are children of a loving God who has a fantastic sense of humor. We are to be joyful and hopeful. We are to laugh at the funny things that happen and at our own foibles. We are to sit around and tell stories of family and friends, and the amazing things we have seen and heard. We are to care about and for each other, not throwing away anyone. All are loved by God.

On this day and in the new year that is fast upon us, may we grow in wisdom, age, and grace as well. May our eyes be open to see the Lord in each other and in those around us. May we grow hearts that are larger and more inclusive, bringing people who have no families or whose loved ones are far away into our circle of love. We are members of biological families, yes, but we are also members of the family of the Lord. That one is HUGE! May we enjoy meeting and growing together in God’s family of love.

Readings for the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph – Cycle B

 

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Posted by on Dec 25, 2021

God’s Recipe for Change: Step Two – Get Personally Involved!

God’s Recipe for Change: Step Two – Get Personally Involved!

Christmas is upon us. The word itself tells us much. This is the day and season during which the Mass we celebrate, our Eucharist, is specifically a celebration of thanksgiving for the coming of the Christ, God’s Chosen and Anointed One. Christ’s Mass!

Usually, I would look at the readings for the Mass of the day and talk about them. Who is featured? What is the message for us? Are there any common themes? How do the themes of the readings speak to me (and to us) today?

However, there are many Masses for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Many parishes only choose one set of them, because it’s easier to prepare just one homily, worship aid, set of hymns, etc. But which one will my parish choose? Which one will your parish choose? Will your parish celebrate each of them in turn?

The first set of readings is for Christmas vigil – Christmas Eve – and features Matthew’s listing of the genealogy of Jesus from Abraham, through David, to St. Joseph (Mt 1:1-25). This is followed by the narration of the decision of Joseph to accept Mary as his wife, even though she was pregnant before they were living together as man and wife. He believed and accepted the word of the angel who came to him in a dream with the message that this was God’s child.

The second set of readings is for Christmas night (midnight Mass). In these readings, St. Luke (2:1-14) picks up the story with the decree of Caesar Augustus that all must return to the town of their ancestors for a census and taxation. There are very specific names of officials in various regions of Palestine given, which tells us historically the timeframe of the events which follow. Luke tells us of Jesus’ birth in the stable and of the message to the shepherds carried by the angels. “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

The Mass at Dawn has Luke (2:15-20) telling of the decision of the shepherds to go and find the child. They find him in Bethlehem, lying in a manger, just as the angels had described. When they leave the stable, they tell everyone they meet about what they have heard and seen, “glorifying and praising God.”

The final Mass for Christmas is for Christmas Day. This one gives us the Prologue from the Gospel of St. John (1:1-18). This gospel was written many years after the Resurrection. It reflects a long period of theological reflection on the mystery of what has happened in history. In John’s Gospel, the focus is more on the divinity of Jesus. What he does is done deliberately and because God is in charge of the whole process.

The Prologue begins: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” It goes on to say that “He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him… And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us…”

The combined readings of all the Masses of Christmas tell the story of Salvation History from the beginning of creation through the birth of Jesus. The first and second readings of each of these Masses also differ – but the themes are similar in their focus on Salvation History. In the first readings, we see in great joy the coming of the Lord, or a return from exile, a rebirth of the community. In the second readings we hear of the early Church’s proclamation of the good news to the Jewish community (Acts 13:16-17, 22-25) and also their reflection on the effects of the coming of “our great God and savior Jesus Christ” (Ti 2:13) in the letters to Titus and the Hebrews.

In the weeks and months to come, we will learn more about the continued unfolding of that history in the life of Jesus and the birth of the Church, but for today, we stop and celebrate a wondrous reality. God cares enough about us that God chose to become one of us. This is the crux of the matter that we celebrate today. God’s plan for change included getting personally involved. God became a human being, with a name, a family history, a life story. In doing this, God shows a total commitment to making things better for all of us. We are not condemned to everlasting battles, unhappiness, struggles for justice. God got involved personally to lead the way into a new way of being human.

Let us take time today to rejoice and be glad. The Lord has come!

God’s Recipe for Change: Step Two – Get Personally Involved!

Merry Christmas!

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Posted by on Dec 31, 2015

A Prayer at Christmas time

A Prayer at Christmas time

 

Nativity - Zambia - Escoto.Acosta collection

 

Almighty God and Father of light,

a child is born for us and a son is given to us.

Your eternal Word leaped down from heaven

in the silent watches of the night,

and now your Church is filled with wonder

at the nearness of her God.

Open our hearts to receive his life

and increase ouf vision with the rising of dawn,

that our lives may be filled with his glory and his peace,

who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

From Liturgy of the Hours, Morning Prayer
Christmas

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Posted by on Feb 21, 2015

A Prayer at Christmas time

Light

800px-Sunrise on Mt Sinai in Egypt - June2006 - by Mabdalla - public domainLight is fascinating. At Christmas time we are enthralled with the lights all around us, candles and Yule fires. We feel safe in light. Light is beautiful to us. At Epiphany and the Feast of the Presentation (Candlemas) we hear that a light for the nations has come into the world and that people from afar have come to witness its arrival. Light is a physical, energetic reality so fundamental that it takes on symbolic meanings as well.

An energetic force

Light is so basic and essential that we take it for granted. It travels at 186,000 miles per second. So amazingly fast. It is an electromagnetic radiation, a specific energy, that has a spectrum of forms from short waves (ultraviolet) to long waves (infrared). In the middle are the manifestations of light we can see, such as colors. Its most notable characteristic for humans is that light stimulates the organs that help us see: the retina, the optic nerve, etc. We are richly blessed to see ourselves, people, and objects. Light is so important to humans that we can become very ill if we lack it for a long time.

A symbolic image

But, light is much more. It is also spoken of as mental illumination or insight. The word itself can mean to understand. It can also be used to describe being guided, as John of the Cross describes his own journey in spiritual darkness during which he is guided by nothing “save only the light burning in my heart.” (Dark Night of the Soul).

Light has been experienced as God presence, enlightenment and strength (Psalm 27:1). God is described in the Scriptures as our light, a light that shines in our darkness (John 1:5), a light who calls us out of darkness
(1 Peter 2:9). Jesus himself tells us in turn to be the light of the world and not to hide our light (Matt 5:14).

God is our light. Our lives can be in darkness, darkness from letting ourselves be in agitation from bad habits or denial. We can give in to negative thoughts or fear. On the other hand, if we practice openness to seeing and hearing God speaking in our hearts, we can see and hear a desire in us to be illuminated and strengthened. We can feel the fog lifting and an ability to live in light. It is our choice to say yes to this. We don’t have to earn it or produce it, we just have to consent to it.

Image by Mabdalla, Sunrise at Mt Sinai in Egypt, public domain

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Posted by on Jan 16, 2015

The Magi and the Gift of Holy Discontent

The Magi and the Gift of Holy Discontent

 

http://youtu.be/m8jHx7W-iI4
Fr. Geoffrey Plant of Sydney, Australia has prepared a multimedia homily for the feast of the Epiphany. In his homily, Fr. Plant presents the main points of the feast.

The term “epiphany” comes from the Greek meaning to “shine forth”. We tend to assume that there were three kings because there were three gifts named: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  Fr. Plant notes that they were not called kings but “magi” in Greek, with stands for wise men or sages.

The gifts are symbolic of the nature and meaning of Jesus. Gold is a symbol of royalty, frankincense is a sign of the divine, and myrrh is for burial, indicating that Jesus will triumph through suffering and death.

Fr. Plant suggests the wise men also brought the gift of Holy Discontent. Examples of holy discontent may be seen in the character of Popeye. An example of unholy indifference is seen in the the character of Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit. Fr. Plant sees the magi as showing a holy discontent: a willingness to search, to be changed, and not to feel comfortable again. He compares them to Herod’s wise men who despite being so close to Bethlehem fail to see the signs in the heavens though others have seen them from afar.  Quoting W. H. Auden, Fr. Plant compares the hardness of heart of Herod’s wise men to our own post-modern era:

We would rather be ruined than changed

We would rather die in our dread

Than climb the cross of the moment

And let our illusions die

W.H. Auden, The Age of Anxiety

This gift of Holy Discontent — the gift of prophecy and activism — is what the wise men bring to the Christ child and to us according to Fr. Plant. It is the divine call to the kingdom through suffering, death, and resurrection.

 

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Posted by on Jan 5, 2015

A Prayer at Christmas time

Experiencing and Celebrating God-With-Us Through Gifting

 

Presents-under-the-Christmas-treeby Petr KratochvilGifting, the giving and receiving of gifts during the Christmas season, serves to remind us of God’s great gift in coming to live with us personally. In Jesus, the Word of God, became a human, like us in all things but sin. God chose to enter into the vulnerable, imperfect, uncertain, but wonderful reality of life as a fully human being, starting as a baby with normal human parents, family, and friends in a small village. Through the gift of incarnation and redemption, God healed the division between the divine and the human, giving humans the chance to be re-united with their source.

Christians have celebrated this great gift from the very beginning through their celebrations of the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist. Sharing of gifts of time, talent, and money has also been a hallmark of the Christian life, not just within the community but also reaching outside to the most vulnerable members of society. The world has never been the same since God entered personally into our human experience, because now God lives as Holy Spirit within each of us and reaches out to make a difference in the lives of those around us.

Diverse gifting traditions

Traditions for giving and receiving gifts vary around the world. In some areas St. Nicholas brings gifts on his feast day, December 6. In others Santa Claus or the Christ Child bring gifts at Christmas. In still others, the gifts arrive at the celebration of the Feast of the Epiphany in early January, when the coming of Jesus was shown forth to the Gentile world as well as to the original children of Israel.

The gifts arrive in different ways as well. Some are placed in shoes, others in stockings. Some are placed under a tree, others arrive carried by family or friends. Some are wrapped, others shine in all their glory to delight children who wake early to find them. Some even come via the postal service and other freight delivery trucks! However they arrive and however they are packaged, they carry love in their wake.

As we have moved through Advent and into the Christmas Season this year, I have also been noticing the ways that traditional holiday foods arrive in or as packages. Many candies and baked goods arrive in lovely containers. The tamales we enjoy at Christmas and New Year’s Day have meat or vegetables seasoned with chili hidden inside the corn dough. Chinese dumplings eaten to celebrate the New Year have a mixture of meat and/or vegetables hidden inside the noodle dough that we see. King cakes have a figurine or other surprise hidden inside. Steamed puddings have nuts and raisins inside. Each of these traditional forms of gifts and food (and others from around the world) is a way that we as humans express the wonder of God’s gift of himself to us through the birth of Jesus.

May the joy of Christmas and the wonder of Epiphany be yours now and into the year we have begun.

 Image by Petr Kratochvil – public domain

 

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Posted by on Dec 26, 2011

A Prayer at Christmas time

A Christmas-tide Reflection

CHRISTMAS STAR

Across the world once again, a star is in our sky,
a gift is in our hearts: It’s Christmas.

Right here at home: our highway is our backbone, our rivers,
our arms and legs.
The forest is our clothing.
The ocean is our blood.

As a people, we have known: Struggle, Isolation,
Darkness, and Bitterness.

But more importantly, we have also found: Success,
Security, Happiness, and One another.

It’s Christmas once again: time to focus on what makes light overcome
darkness and love overcome emptiness.

It’s time to believe once more that no matter how battered our lives are,
no matter how well off we are materially, there is still someone who knows
our darkness and lights it,
who knows our hurt and heals it.

It’s a moment for healing, and we really need it this time.

Healing is the medicine that can close the wounds
between parent and child, brother and sister,
government and people.

Healing comes from God – directly or indirectly.

We must do what we can do; God does the rest.

Merry Christmas

Received from Fr. Ron Shirley,
who received it from someone else.
Used with Fr. Ron’s approval.

Image from NASA – NGC 5584

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Posted by on Dec 24, 2009

A Prayer at Christmas time

Merry Christmas to All

Adorazione del Bambino - Fra Angelico

Adorazione del Bambino - Fra Angelico

Christmas is upon us here in Santa Cruz, California. It’s been a lovely, sunny day for Christmas Eve. Not hot, but not cold either. A fine day for a walk by the ocean. Tomorrow promises to be as lovely.

I’ve been reflecting a lot recently on the great miracle that is life. I don’t do church work for a living. Randy and I work as consultants in the design of health care services and delivery of care, among other things.  One of my areas of expertise is translation of health care related materials into Spanish. These past couple of months, I’ve been working on a glossary of terms for a basic Biology textbook. It’s been absolutely fascinating.

Over 30 years ago, I graduated from Gonzaga University with undergraduate majors in Biology and Spanish. Through the years, I’ve combined the interests in a lot of ways, but I really haven’t had the chance to keep completely up to date with my knowledge of science. As a result, a lot of what I’m translating is new information for me. I’m spending a lot of time on the Internet, learning the new basics of Chemistry, Biology and Enviornmental Sciences so I can translate the definitions in a way that they will make sense in another language. I spend a lot of that time reading in Spanish, to find correct technical terms for things like “blebbing” and “Wobble base pairing of nucleotides,” as well as whether a particular metabolic pathway is generally called a “ruta” or a “vía.” As I said, it’s been a fascinating, though time consuming project.

So what does this have to do with theology and Christmas? The thing that keeps blowing my mind is that all that I see around me, all the people in my life, all the wonders of nature and of technology, all keep going because of simple positive and negative charges in atoms and the way those atoms interact with each other! Without those very fundamental chemical reactions, none of this, none of us, would even be, let alone be who and what we are. And yet, beyond the chemistry that underlies the biology, there is a spark of Divine life within each of us as humans. There is something that makes us different. While we can sometimes be as blind to other possiblities as the family cat who couldn’t figure out this morning that she could go around her perch to get up on it and eat her breakfast away from the neighbor cats, we do have the capacity to look at a challenging situation or something that is different than we expected and find new  and different solutions.  And we can think up new and better ways to do things, making life easier for all. We can choose to do great evil, but we can also choose to do great good. That spark of Divine life is a tremendous gift.

And then we come to Christmas. And at Christmas we remember that the Creator of all, the One who Is and Was and Ever Will Be, the One who loves all of creation into being and keeps us in existence with love, didn’t stop with being above it all and loving it into being. God chose to become one of us. And on top of that, God became a baby boy. A tiny, helpless child. All I can say is, Wow. We are truly blessed.

Merry Christmas to all. May this coming year be one of great joy and peace for you, through all the challenges you face, and may you know deeply the great love of our God who is Father/Parent, Son/Brother and Holy Spirit of Love.

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