Dios nos dirige para ofrecer nuestros dones – Mat 2:1-12

Epifanía; San Casimiro

Solo los encontramos en estos 12 versos del evangelio según San Mateo, estos magos. Los otros evangelistas no dicen nada sobre ellos. Pero nos fascinan, estos majos de oriente, tenemos esta fiesta dedicada a ellos. Creo que nos fascinan tanto porque su búsqueda es nuestra búsqueda: buscan donde pueden ofrecer sus dones.

Dios nos recibe en una famila del amor perfecto – Lc 2:41-52, 1 Jn 3:1-2

Fiesta de la Sagrada Familia, Año C; St. Casimir's.

Supimos en las lecturas de una familia perfecta. Pero esta familia perfecta no es la que la fiesta de hoy celebra; no es la familia de Jesús, María y José, sino la familia de Dios, la familia que es Dios. Cuando digo que dios es familia, no quiero decir que a dios le gustan familias, o que dios está circa de nosotros como pariente. No, quiero decir lo que digo, que dios, padre, hijo y espíritu santo es una familia. El parentesco, la relación entre dios padre y Jesús el hijo es el amor perfecto el amor original del que todo el amor previene. Es un amor entre padre e hijo que es la razón por la que Jesús hizo todo lo que hizo. Es por eso que él tenía que ocuparse en las cosas de su padre. Es por eso que Jesús rezaba tanto. Es el amor que fortaleció a Jesús tanto que podía ofrecer todo para nosotros. Es el amor que dirigió a Jesús hacia dios después de la resurrección, para seguir mostrándonos que es el amor, y que lo causó para enviarnos el espíritu para que vivamos en este amor.

Dios llega a nosotros y nos llama a alabar – Lc 1:39-45, Heb 10:5-10

IV Domingo de Adviento, Año C; San Adalberto.

María viene a Isabel para ayudarla. Su pariente Isabel está embarazada y María viene para ayudar. Tal vez María, que acaba de quedar embarazada, también quiere aprender algo sobre el embarazo y el nacimiento. Ambas pueden ayudarse mutuamente. Y si este fuera todo que ocurrió en esta historia, aun sería maravilloso, hermoso, valdría la pena escucharla hoy en la misa. Pero, hay más.

God rejoices over us – Zeph 3:14-18a, Phil 4:4-7

Advent Week 3, Year C; St. Casimir's parish.

The letter we heard from Paul, the letter to the Philippians, was written from prison. Roman prisons varied from place to place, but we can reconstruct with some probability what it might have looked like, smelt like, to be in that prison: it meant no sun light; it meant no heat if this was a winter’s night, no form of cooling if it was a summer’s day; it meant no way of getting rid of sewage; it meant regular beatings; it meant witnessing suicide and spontaneous executions and knowing you could be next.  But, there’s a reason this letter was chosen form us to read from on this Sunday, Gaudete Sunday, Rejoice Sunday, when the church lifts up ‘joy’ as and Advent theme. From prison, Paul writes the most joyful letter we have from him.

God strengthens our hearts – Luke 21:25-28, 34-36, 1 Th 3:12-4:2.

1st Sunday of Advent, Year C; Holy Infant parish. [Note: the parish was doing its "share your Christmas" collection this week. The parish works with various charities who create lists of families who can't buy toys for their children this year. The families make requests and parish families agree to buy the toys. This week people brought the gifts to church and during the offertory, the brought them up and they were arrayed across the sanctuary. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture! By the time I was done greeting people after Mass the people that coordinate delivery had already moved them all.]

Very soon, the sanctuary will be filled with gifts. The primary purpose of this gifts, of course, is the service of our neighbors here in Durham, a practical way of helping them have a livelier more joyous Christmas. Advent is the season to prepare for Christmas, and this is one moment, an important moment in which we help others prepare and thereby help ourselves prepare. But, there are other places we could store them. Everything in the sanctuary is here to help us pray. So, can these gifts help us pray?

Jesus' reign reflects its brightness off of us – John 18:33b-37; Rev 1:5-8

Christ the King, Year B; Holy Infant parish.

My fellow kings, rulers, queens, monarchs, servants, leaders, shepherds! That address makes about as much sense as saying “Merry Christmas” during Advent or even Ordinary Time. That is, it’s premature, but it’s not exactly wrong. You see at baptism, we are baptized into Christ’s priesthood, prophecy and kingship. We’re not kings yet, but we are already part of a kingly royal people and Christ does promise to share his rule, his servant-shepherd-kingly-rule with us in a full way when all the other powers that compete with Christ to try to rule are put down, in the New Jerusalem. And where we are now is that Christ calls us to acknowledge his true kingship while we await its full realization, and to acknowledge that we have been called to share in that, knowing that we await the full realization of that sharing too. But what we have now, is still worth living out.

Jesus shows us sacrifice – Mark 12:38-44, Heb 9:24-28

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B; Holy Infant parish.

I wonder what emotions we imagine in Jesus when he said those words. I wonder what tone of voice carried his words. When proclaiming the gospel, I tried not to impose one on the words, but that’s really impossible, and shows why the reading aloud of scripture is the part of the process of interpreting. But, it’s a really helpful spiritual exercise to listen out for what tone of voice you hear Jesus’ words in when you read those words. (And incidentally, that’s part of why it’s a really helpful part of preparing ourselves for Mass to read the readings before Mass – you can find them online if you google USCCB lectionary, or the references are printed in the bulletin – because the Spirit can work through your imagination to lend a particular tone, a particular interpretation to Jesus’ words, and that might be precisely the one you need to hear). But, to get back to Jesus’ words… when he saw that woman give all she had to the Temple, is there admiration in his words? Is there sorrow, lament, or anger, that that kind of poverty exists, in which someone only owns a few small coins?