The Fourth Sunday of Advent

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December 24, 2017

2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8-12, 14, 16; Psalm 24; Romans 16:25-27; Luke 1:26-38

During my recent pilgrimage to the Holy Land, we pilgrims spent time in Nazareth where we visited the Basilica of the Annunciation and Mary’s Well. Upon arriving in Palestine, we first toured the sites of the birth and resurrection of Jesus, the most revered sites in Christianity. Jerusalem, the city of Peace, was the center of all worship life for Jews. This was the mountain where God would visit his people. This was the land in which the Lord would make his home.

Nazareth, by contrast, was an obscure village far to the north where few people would travel. All the commerce happened to the cities to the East, like Capernaum, which bordered the Sea of Galilee and was the merchant crossroads to the North and South and to the East and West. Nazareth sat quietly on the edge of the fertile Jezreel Valley and within view of the Mount of the Transfiguration. Nothing of significance would ever happen in Nazareth. Most Jews of the time of Jesus would not have been able to tell you where it was located or to which tribe in belonged, and yet, this is the place where the Angel Gabriel visited Mary and announced his extraordinary news.

This journey was educational to us in many ways. Before mass began, I pointed to two 15-year-old girls and remarked, “Now we know what Mary looked like.” We learned a lot about our Jewish and Christian scripture and the current political reality between the Israeli government and the Palestinian people. We met the “Living Stones” of the Holy Land, that is the Christian people who live with Muslim neighbors and Jewish settlers. Each of the Palestine Arab Catholics we met were happy people and they regarded Jesus as their distant cousin and an ancestor. They enjoyed being in the land where he grew up. The regarded the land as theirs and they were determined to live and thrive in this sacred land where God chose to settle and dwell. The imposing wall and the encroaching settlements did not dim their hope.

Sobered about the realities we faced, we entered the Basilica of the Annunciation with its cavernous ceilings and a sanctuary that dwarfed us. A singer, a tenor, from behind the veil of the sanctuary began to sing and his sweet voice lifted to the rafters. His voice settled us into prayer and we knew we were entering into a thin line between heaven and earth. When it ended, George, our organist belted out a song on the organ. Hundreds of visiting pilgrims that were not part of our group simply sat down to listen to the music that filled every space of the church. It was as if the organ pierced the line between heaven and earth and we felt closer to God.

We realized this was the place where the angel Gabriel broke through the boundaries of heaven to earth to meet Mary, a young, brown-haired Palestinian girl who adopted a posture of openness to the strange words of this angel.

Mass began and proceeded as usual. We lifted up our solemn prayers as if they were incense streaming to God’s altar in heaven. We shared our concerns and hope for a weary people and for our own needs. God touched the bread and wine we offered and transformed them and then in one voice we chanted the Lord’s Prayer. It came time to greet each other with peace, and as priest, I was astounded by what I saw. Gently, caringly, reverently, tenderly, each pilgrim embraced one another and heart met heart. Real exchanges of care and affection were exchanged, and I sat back and watched God visited his people and taking care of them. It was the moment when these pilgrims bonded with each other in peace, the way Mary and the Holy Spirit were bound to one another. Of all places, Nazareth was the special location once again. The Spirit once again embraced a holy people and found a home.

God continues to search for a home and God finds it in a ready heart – a heart that knows suffering and pain, a heart that remains open despite the odds, a heart that holds onto hope. God continues the pursuit of finding a home with his people. God once took human form to be present with us. Because we carry Christ in our hearts, God finds new ways to take human form to let us know God is close. An open heart that is fully alive will always find God among us – in and through one another. May we open our hearts and homes to God among us this Christmas.

Scripture for Daily Mass

First Reading: 

Monday: (Judges 13) A barren woman was visited by an angel to receive the message that she would bear a son. She named him Samson and he spirit of the Lord stirred within him.  

Tuesday: (Isaiah 7) This is the sign that you will be given: the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and he shall be named Emmanuel.

Wednesday: (Song of Songs 2) My lover come, springing across the mountains, leaping across the hills. My lover is like a young stag. Arise my beautiful one. Come.  

Thursday: (1 Samuel 1) Hannah presented her son, Samuel, to the Lord. She left Samuel to grow as a servant of God.     

Friday (Malachi 3) I am sending my messenger before me to prepare the way. I will send you Elijah the prophet to turn the hearts of all people back to God.  

Saturday (2 Samuel 7) When King David settled into his palace, he was distraught because his Lord had no proper abode for himself. The Lord told David that this house will be David’s.

Gospel: 

Monday: (Luke 1) Zechariah, on priestly duty, and his wife, Elizabeth, prayed fervently. An angel visited them to announce that they would bear a son, who was to be named John. 

Tuesday: (Luke 1) The angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would bear a son who would become the savior of the world. He shall be named Emmanuel.

Wednesday (Luke 1) Mary set out to the hill country to visit Elizabeth and Zechariah. When she entered the house, Elizabeth recognized that Mary was pregnant with the Lord.

Thursday (Luke 1) Mary said, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God, my savior.”   

Friday (Luke 1) When the time came to name Elizabeth and John’s son, they wanted to name him after his dad, but Elizabeth said, “No. He will be called John.”

Saturday (Luke 1) Zechariah sang, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has come to his people and set them free.”

Saints of the Week

December 24: ERO CRAS

In the Roman Catholic tradition, on December 23, the last of the seven “O Antiphons” is sung with the “Alleluia” verse before the Gospel reading at Mass and at Vespers – Evening Prayer in the Divine Office/Breviary. Most ordinary Catholics, however, are more accustomed to hearing these antiphons as verses in the Advent hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”

But the literary construction of these wonderful antiphons is arranged in a unique and surprising way: The order of the seven Messianic titles of the “O Antiphons” (and the seven verses of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”) was fixed with a definite purpose.

In Latin, the initial letters of the antiphons – Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, Adonai, Sapientia – form a reverse acrostic – a play on words – ERO CRAS, which translates into English as “Tomorrow, I will be.”

So, in the silence of Christmas Eve, we look back on the previous seven days, and we hear the voice of the One whose coming we have prepared for – Jesus Christ – speak to us: “I will be here tomorrow.”

December 26: Stephen, the first Martyr (d. 35), was one of the seven original deacons chose to minister to the Greek-speaking Christians. The Jews accused him of blasphemy. Though he was eloquent in his defense, Saul of Tarsus condoned his death sentence.

December 27: John, Apostle and Evangelist (d. 100), was the brother of James and one of the three disciples to be in the inner circle. He left fishing to follow Jesus and was with him at the major events: the transfiguration, raising of Jairus' daughter, and the agony in the garden. He is also thought to be the author of the fourth gospel, three letters, and the Book of Revelation.

December 28: The Holy Innocents (d. 2), were the boys of Bethlehem who were under two years old to be killed by King Herod in an attempt to eliminate the rise of the newborn king as foretold by the astronomers from the east. This event is similar to the rescue of Moses from the Nile by the slaughter of the infant boys by the pharaoh.

December 29: Thomas Becket, bishop and martyr (1118-1170), was the lord chancellor and archbishop of Canterbury in England during the time of King Henry II. When he disagreed with the King over the autonomy of the church and state, he was exiled to France. When he returned, he clashed again with the king who had him murdered in Canterbury Cathedral. 

December 30: The Family of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus, was a feast instituted in 1921. It was originally the 3rd Sunday after Christmas. The Holy Family is often seen in Renaissance paintings - and many of those are of the flight into Egypt.

This Week in Jesuit History

·      Dec 24, 1587. Fr. Claude Matthe died at Ancona. He was a Frenchman of humble birth, highly esteemed by King Henry III and the Duke of Guise. He foretold that Fr. Acquaviva would be General and hold that office for a long period.

·      Dec 25, 1545. Isabel Roser pronounced her vows as a Jesuit together with Lucrezia di Brandine and Francisca Cruyllas in the presence of Ignatius at the church of Sta. Maria della Strada in Rome.

·      Dec 26, 1978. The assassination of Gerhard Pieper, a librarian, who was shot to death in Zimbabwe.

·      Dec 27, 1618. Henry Morse entered the English College at Rome.

·      Dec 28, 1802. Pope Pius VII allowed Father General Gruber to affiliate the English Jesuits to the Society of Jesus in Russia.

·      Dec 29, 1886. Publication of the beatification decree of the English martyrs.

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·      Dec 30, 1564. Letter from Pope Pius IV to Daniel, Archbishop of Mayence, deploring the malicious and scurrilous pamphlets published against the Society throughout Germany and desiring him to use his influence against the evil.