December 20
Sunday
4th Sunday of Advent
1st Reading: Mic 5:1–4a
The Lord says this, “You, Bethlehem Ephrathah, so small that you are hardly named among the clans of Judah, from you shall I raise the one who is to rule over Israel. For he comes forth from of old, from the ancient times.
Yahweh, therefore, will abandon Israel until such time as she who is to give birth has given birth. Then the rest of his deported brothers will return to the people of Israel.
He will stand and shepherd his flock with the strength of Yahweh, in the glorious Name of Yahweh, his God. They will live safely while he wins renown to the ends of the earth. He shall be peace.”
When the Assyrian invades our land and sets foot on our territory, we will raise against him not one but seven shepherds, eight warlords.
2nd Reading: Heb 10:5–10
This is why on entering the world, Christ says: You did not desire sacrifice and offering; you were not pleased with burnt offerings and sin offerings. Then I said: “Here I am. It was written of me in the scroll. I will do your will, O God.”
First he says: Sacrifice, offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire nor were you pleased with them-although they were required by the Law. Then he says: Here I am to do your will.
This is enough to nullify the first will and establish the new. Now, by this will of God, we are sanctified at once by the sacrifice of the body of Christ Jesus.
Gospel: Lk 1:39–45
Mary then set out for a town in the Hills of Judah. She entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leapt in her womb. Elizabeth was filled with Holy Spirit, and giving a loud cry, said, “You are most blessed among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb! How is it that the mother of my Lord comes to me? The moment your greeting sounded in my ears, the baby within me suddenly leapt for joy. Blessed are you who believed that the Lord’s word would come true!”
Commentary
The Fourth Sunday of Advent highlights the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the story of our salvation. God chooses to enter into our human experience through the person of the Blessed Mother. By assenting to the invitation of the angel Gabriel, Mary changes the course of human history. Her unconditional “Yes” to God’s will untangle the knot tied by the sin of Adam and Eve. Her example of fidelity and obedience serves as a model for us to follow as we seek the path of holiness and everlasting life.
As we prepare to celebrate Christmas in a worthy manner, we ask the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We ask her to pray with us and for us, that we might welcome the saving presence of the Lord into our lives and embrace Him as our Savior and King. We pray that we might know the Lord’s will for our lives and embrace that will with determination and courage. As she was privileged to hold the Lord Jesus in her womb and in her arms, so may we be fashioned by God’s grace into bearers of the Lord.
December 21
Monday
4th Week of Advent
St. Peter Canisius
1st Reading: Zep 3:14–18a (or Song 2:8–14)
Cry out with joy, O daughter of Zion; rejoice, O people of Israel! Sing joyfully with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem!
Yahweh has lifted your sentence and has driven your enemies away. Yahweh, the King of Israel is with you; do not fear any misfortune.
On that day they will say to Jerusalem: Do not be afraid nor let your hands tremble, for Yahweh your God is within you, Yahweh, saving warrior. He will jump for joy on seeing you, for he has revived his love. For you he will cry out with joy, as you do in the days of the Feast.
I will drive away the evil I warned you about, and you will no longer be shamed.
Gospel: Lk 1:39–45
Mary then set out for a town in the Hills of Judah. She entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leapt in her womb. Elizabeth was filled with holy spirit, and giving a loud cry, said, “You are most blessed among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb! How is it that the mother of my Lord comes to me? The moment your greeting sounded in my ears, the baby within me suddenly leapt for joy. Blessed are you who believed that the Lord’s word would come true!”
Commentary
Advent is a season that seems to get lost in our culture. Because we so often think of the month of December as the Christmas Season, and we use this time to prepare our homes for the holidays, we often neglect to prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ. One way to prepare our hearts is by growing our relationship with God. Because God is so much greater than our minds can begin to comprehend, we can only know God through glimpses…..through reflections. That is what we offer here: reflections! One day we will see God face-to-face, but now we only see through a mirror, dimly.
Nevertheless, these reflections do provide a means of knowing God as best we can. By exploring various images of God, our hope is that God will become more real, and that relationships with God will deepen and grow. As we take time out for prayer and reflection during the season of Advent, may these reflections deepen our relationship with God, so that we may more fully experience the celebration of the coming of Christ. Our hope is that these reflections will provide a way of making the Advent journey more meaningful. Maranatha!
December 22
Tuesday
4th Week of Advent
1st Reading: 1 S 1:24–28
When the child was weaned, Hannah took him with her along with a three-year-old bull, a measure of flour and a flask of wine, and she brought him to Yahweh’s house at Shiloh. The child was still young.
After they had slain the bull, they brought the child to Eli. Hannah exclaimed: “Oh, my lord, look! I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to Yahweh. I asked for this child and Yahweh granted me the favor I begged of him. Now, I think, Yahweh is asking for this child. As long as he lives, he belongs to Yahweh.”
And they worshiped Yahweh there.
Gospel: Lk 1:46–56
And Mary said:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit exults in God my savior!
He has looked upon his servant in her lowliness, and people forever will call me blessed.
The Mighty One has done great things for me, Holy is his Name!
From age to age his mercy extends to those who live in his presence.
He has acted with power and done wonders, and scattered the proud with their plans.
He has put down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up those who are downtrodden.
He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.
He held out his hand to Israel, his servant, for he remembered his mercy, even as he promised our fathers,
Abraham and his descendants forever.”
Mary remained with Elizabeth about three months and then returned home.
Commentary
Advent is a time for penance. In this, it is similar to Lent. But, it doesn’t have the same rugged intensity as Lent. It’s a bit softer and sweeter. Lent is a more severe penance, aiming at the ultimate extremes of Good Friday and Easter. Advent aims for Christmas and its images of the baby in the manger, with Mary and Joseph, the Shepherds, Wise Men and animals, in peace and calm. Advent is a time of penance, but with the cozy feelings of Christmas. Advent is Lent with a little sugar on top!
Nonetheless, Advent remains a very real time of penance. Beneath the peaceful manger scene is the rather harsh reality of the King of Kings born in the rugged poverty of a manger instead of a traveller’s inn. This is where the real penance begins. We must use all of the God-given tools at our disposal to embody the love of Christ in our daily lives. This Advent, let us, please, try to get beneath all the signs and symbols of the celebration, to the reality of Christ in our life. This will cause us all to do penance, or to change…..and to change for the better!
December 23
Wednesday
4th Week of Advent
St. John of Kanty
1st Reading: Mal 3:1–4, 23–24
Now I am sending my messenger ahead of me to clear the way; then suddenly the Lord for whom you long will enter the sanctuary. The envoy of the covenant which you so greatly desire already comes, says Yahweh of hosts. Who can bear the day of his coming and remain standing when he appears? For he will be like fire in the foundry and like the lye used for bleaching.
He will be as a refiner or a fuller. He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver. So Yahweh will have priests who will present the offering as it should be. Then Yahweh will accept with pleasure the offering of Judah and Jerusalem, as in former days.
I am going to send you the prophet Elijah before the day of Yahweh comes, for it will be a great and terrible day. He will reconcile parents with their children, and the children with their parents, so that I may not have to curse this land when I come.”
Gospel: Lk 1:57–66
When the time came for Elizabeth, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the merciful Lord had done a wonderful thing for her and they rejoiced with her.
When on the eighth day they came to attend the circumcision of the child, they wanted to name him Zechariah after his father. But his mother said, “Not so; he shall be called John.” They said to her, “No one in your family has that name”; and they asked the father by means of signs for the name he wanted to give. Zechariah asked for a writing tablet and wrote on it, “His name is John,” and they were very surprised. Immediately Zechariah could speak again and his first words were in praise of God.
A holy fear came on all in the neighborhood, and through-out the Hills of Judea the people talked about these events. All who heard of it pondered in their minds and wondered, “What will this child be?” For they understood that the hand of the Lord was with him.
Commentary
The season of Advent has been a time of fasting and penitence for sins, similar to the season of Lent. However, a different emphasis for the season of Advent has unfolded in much of the Church. Nowadays, Advent has come to be celebrated more in terms of expectation or anticipation in the context of oppression and injustice, the longing for redemption from the systemic evil of the world, expressed in evil empires and tyrants. In that sense, all creation groans for its redemption, as we witness the evil that so dominates our world.
There will be time enough, during the rest of the Church year, to remember our sins. So, we celebrate with gladness the great promise in the Advent, knowing that there is also a somber tone as the theme of threat is added to the theme of promise. This is reflected in some of the scripture readings for Advent, in which there is a strong prophetic tone of accountability and judgment on sin. But this is also faithful to the role of the king, who comes to rule, save and judge the world. So, the prayer of Advent remains: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel!
December 24
Thursday
4th Week of Advent
1st Reading: 2 S 7:1–5, 8b–12, 14a, 16
David said to Nathan the prophet, “Look, I live in a house of cedar but the ark of God is housed in a tent.” Nathan replied, “Do as it seems fit to you for Yahweh is with you.”
But that very night, Yahweh’s word came to Nathan, “Go and tell my servant David, this is what Yahweh says: Are you able to build a house for me to live in?
“Now you will tell my servant David, this is what Yahweh of hosts says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the sheep, to make you commander of my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you went, cutting down all your enemies before you. Now I will make your name great as the name of the great ones on earth. I will provide a place for my people Israel and plant them that they may live there in peace. They shall no longer be harassed, nor shall wicked men oppress them as before. From the time when I appointed judges over my people Israel it is only to you that I have given rest from all your enemies. Yahweh also tells you that he will build you a house.
“When the time comes for you to rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your son after you, the one born of you and I will make his reign secure. I will be a father to him and he shall be my son. If he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod, as men do. Your house and your reign shall last forever before me, and your throne shall be forever firm.”
Gospel: Lk 1:67–79
Zechariah, filled with holy spirit, sang this canticle, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has come and redeemed his people.
He has raised up for us a victorious Savior in the house of David his servant, as he promised through his prophets of old, salvation from our enemies and from the hand of our foes.
He has shown mercy to our fathers and remembered his holy covenant, the oath he swore to Abraham, our father, to deliver us from the enemy, that we might serve him fearlessly as a holy and righteous people all the days of our lives.
And you, my child, shall be called prophet of the Most High, for you shall go before the Lord to prepare the way for him and enable his people to know of their salvation when he comes to forgive their sins.
This is the work of the mercy of our God, who comes from on high as a rising sun shining on those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, and guiding our feet into the way of peace.”
Commentary
Everything works together to deepen the mystery of a new presence in the solitude of Christmas night, making it more intimate, more divine. Joseph and Mary’s outward poverty is the guardian of this mystery. If Joseph and Mary had looked as if they were rich, people would have made room for them in the inn, because of Mary’s condition. They would have turned out other less important guests; they would have found a way to keep them; and the mystery of the birth of Jesus would no longer have this solitude and silence. It would have happened in the midst of noise. This is not the way, in which God visits our earth!
On the contrary, poverty must push aside all those who seek only earthly possessions, all those who think only of settling on earth. When it comes to the mystery of the Incarnate Word’s first visit to this world, poverty has done its job so well that there is no one left, except Mary and Joseph. When poverty is loved and accepted, there is true solitude. It is this solitude of Mary and Joseph that Christ comes to live and to reveal, to give and to surrender Himself!
December 25
Friday
The Nativity of the Lord
1st Reading: Is 52:7–10
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who herald peace and happiness, who proclaim salvation and announce to Zion: “Your God is king!”
Break into shouts of joy, O ruins of Jerusalem, for Yahweh consoles his people and redeems Jerusalem.
Yahweh has bared his holy arm in the eyes of the nations; all the ends of the earth, in alarm, will witness God’s salvation.
2nd Reading: Heb 1:1–6
God has spoken in the past to our ancestors through the prophets, in many different ways, although never completely, but in our times he has spoken definitively to us through his Son. He is the one God appointed heir of all things, since through him he unfolded the stages of the world.
He is the radiance of God’s Glory and bears the stamp of God’s hidden being, so that his powerful word upholds the universe. And after taking away sin, he took his place at the right hand of the divine Majesty in heaven.
Gospel: Jn 1:1–18
In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God; he was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him and without him nothing came to be. Whatever has come to be, found life in him, life which for humans was also light. Light that shines in the dark: light that darkness could not overcome. A man came, sent by God; his name was John. He came to bear witness, as a witness to introduce the Light so that all might believe through him.
For the Light was coming into the world, the true Light that enlightens everyone. He came to his own, yet his own people did not receive him; but all who have received him he empowers to become children of God for they believe in his Name.
These are born, but without seed or carnal desire or will of man: they are born of God. And the Word was made flesh; he had his tent pitched among us, and we have seen his Glory, the Glory of the only Son coming from the Father: fullness of truth and loving-kindness.
From his fullness we have all received, favor upon favor. For God had given us the Law through Moses, but Truth and Loving-kindness came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but God-the-Only-Son made him known: the one who is in and with the Father.
Commentary
When we are with family and friends at Christmas, we are at our best. Christ’s call is to give to all of us, again and again, the opportunity to share in His unconditional love. To let down our defenses and to marvel at all the small growth moments that touch our souls, is to keep us vulnerable and receptive to God’s presence. Above all, Christ invites us to be child-like in our faith and to trust in a creator, who always knows where we are and what we need. A creator, who knows the difference between a fish and a snake, a scorpion and an egg, when it comes to sustenance and nurture.
Christmas Day keeps hope alive in our sometimes jaded and weary hearts, by reminding us of the infant Jesus, as we sit quietly, allowing peace and simplicity to seep into our souls. The nativity is God’s blessing personified, our connection to the mystery of the stable. Our prayer, on this Christmas Day, should be that we experience Christ’s birth with an open heart and contemplative vision. Christmas is memorable in that it challenges us to display our spirit of peace on earth and goodwill to all humankind!
December 26
Saturday
St. Stephen, First Martyr
1st Reading: Jdg 13:2–7, 24–25a
Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people. Some persons then came forward, who belonged to the so-called Synagogue of Freedmen from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia and Asia. They argued with Stephen but they could not match the wisdom and the spirit with which he spoke.
When they heard this reproach, they were enraged and they gnashed their teeth against Stephen. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, fixed his eyes on heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus at God’s right hand, so he declared: “I see the heavens open and the Son of Man at the right hand of God.”
But they shouted and covered their ears with their hands and rushed together upon him. They brought him out of the city and stoned him, and the witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. As they were stoning him, Stephen prayed saying: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
Gospel: Mt 10:17–22
Jesus said to his disciples, “Be on your guard with respect to people, for they will hand you over to their courts and they will flog you in their synagogues. You will be brought to trial before rulers and kings because of me, and so you may witness to them and the pagans.
“But when you are arrested, do not worry about what you are to say and how you are to say it; when the hour comes, you will be given what you are to say. For it is not you who will speak; but it will be the Spirit of your Father in you.
“Brother will hand over brother to death, and a father his child; children will turn against parents and have them put to death. Everyone will hate you because of me, but whoever stands firm to the end will be saved.”
Commentary
On this first day after Christmas, we turn to that first Christian martyr among Jesus’ followers. Stephen was a leader of the Greek-speaking Jewish Christians. He was one of seven deacons, chosen to deal with internal community affairs and thus free up the apostles for preaching. Stephen was described as a man filled with faith and the Holy Spirit. The apostles prayed over him and then imposed hands on him. This gesture of human touching bestowed special power and appeared often in the New Testament. The laying-on of hands signified healing, imparting the Holy Spirit, and a commissioning for ministry.
The glory of God, which Stephen saw in an opening in the sky, pours out its power over us today. Stephen’s final cry speaks powerfully to us. The apostles’ hands were once laid upon him as a blessing for service. Now, other hands, in rage, propelled the stones that pierced open his flesh. We pray to Stephen for help to control our tempers. As we try to remedy every harmful result of human misdeeds, we try to follow Stephen’s example of suffering meekly. Christ’s love for us reconstructs what has been torn to pieces in our hearts.
