Christmas Day - God became man so that men might become gods

Isaiah 52:7-10, Psalm 97:1-6, Hebrews 1:1-6, John 1:1-18

God became man so that men might become gods. These words of St Athanasius sum up the mystery of the Incarnation. This is what we celebrate at Christmas and it is the source of our great joy.

The Incarnation changes everything. It brings together what the world tries to keep separate – God who is pure spirit, and the material world. Because of this, the true meaning of Christmas is a great challenge to our world. Because of sin, there is a great tendency for us to live fractured dualistic lives where the material reality is separated off from the spiritual reality. From the material perspective, human beings are seen as nothing special, just mere collections of fundamental particles of nature. This is the world of cold facts. This perspective is contrasted with the spiritual perspective where human beings are essentially centres of consciousness, and it is from this spiritual perspective that people try to search for meaning and love. This disunity between materiality and spirituality results in all kinds of evils. When people do not base the spiritual perspective on anything objective, there is no firm foundation to morality – things are only valuable or have meaning because an individual say so. If we believe that from the material perspective we are nothing special, there is no need to treat our bodies with any respect – we just treat our bodies in a way that is consistent with our own artificial set of values.

The sin of Adam in the Garden of Eden, was that he wanted to live beyond his material-spiritual existence, so as to exist in the same way God exists. But in trying to overreach himself, his material and spiritual unity was undermined – he became an enemy of God. God reminds Adam he is dust and to dust he shall return. Ever since the Fall, there has been a war between the material and spiritual realities. Man is uncomfortable in his own skin. He tries to strive for a spiritual existence and to escape from his mundane materiality, but his materiality drags him down and makes him do things he hates doing.

In the Incarnation, all this changes. God, who is pure spirit entered into our material world. The source of all our values, all our meaning and all our loving became a historical fact, Jesus Christ, a child born in Bethlehem 2000 years ago. Through Jesus Christ, not only is our integrity restored, but by taking on human flesh and dying on the cross, God freely gives to man, what man tried to take by force at Eden. God becomes man so that men might become gods. The powers of darkness still try to undermine our material and spiritual unity, but we now know that this darkness is impotent in the light of Christ. In the words of St Leo the Great, we hear the true meaning of Christmas:

O Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bear in mind who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Do not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of God’s kingdom.

24th December - Zechariah: An Advent Conversion

What is the price of your doubt? When Zechariah doubts God’s plan, he loses the ability to speak. His lack of voice comes at the most inopportune time, as he is serving as priest in the sanctuary. Fortunately, his loss and eventual regaining of speech is part of God’s plan. For when he sees his son, John the Baptist, and finally believes the message of the angel, he sings a song of praise to God that the whole world hears. Zechariah, a man who doubted God’s power and plan, now shouts words that each morning will echo from the mouths of Christians for thousands of years.

The Benedictus, Zechariah’s canticle, unites the history of God’s covenant with the saving work we begin to commemorate this evening. He reminds us of God’s promise throughout the Old Testament, that He would “save us from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us,” and “show mercy to our fathers” (Luke 1:71-2). It is from Zechariah that John the Baptist first hears his mission. His tender infant ears hear his father’s proclamation: he would be Prophet of the Most High, announcing His way.

Zechariah’s praise demonstrates the power and mercy of God, and the capacity of man to change in light of God’s grace. For when he doubted the message of the angel, Zechariah could only see his own limitations – he and Elizabeth were advanced in years and unable to bear a child. He could not open his mind and heart to the angel’s message. Zechariah could not see through his own shortcomings how God could elevate him and his wife as the parents of the Messiah’s great forerunner.

When Zechariah sees his child, he sees in him God’s promise fulfilled. What great faith he demonstrates in his conversion! He does not have to lay eyes on the infant Christ or even hear him preach as an adult. He requires no further evidence. Zechariah takes one look at his son, the Forerunner of the Messiah, and immediately sees the whole of salvation history. He understands how every event in Scripture has led his people to this moment before dawn, when his son will announce the Christ.

At some time in our lives, we all fail to see how God can use us to fulfill His plan. There is no shame in our initial doubt. However, at our moment of conversion, we must follow Zechariah’s example. When we recognize God’s action in our lives, however great or small, we must respond as God commands and sing our praise to God. Others may initially look at us in confusion, just as the crowd did with Zechariah’s naming of John. But, he did not hold back from doing as God commanded, and God granted him the ability to sing words of eternal value.

We have less than a day before we enter the Christmas Season. As you make final preparations, consider how God tries to work in your life. Look for the places where He calls you to act. And sing God’s praises with confidence and joy as a witness to the Good News.

Waiting in Hope: O Rex Gentium

Continuing our series of pre-Christmas talks, Br Gregory Pearson offers a reflection on the great O antiphon for today, 22^nd December, O Rex gentium.

Christmas Services at Blackfriars, Oxford

For those wishing to join the community in Oxford for our liturgical celebration of Christmas, below are the times of services at Blackfriars:

24^th December - Christmas Eve
12 noon - Mass of the Weekday of Advent with Sext and Absolution from Faults against the Rule
6pm - Solemn First Vespers of Christmas
11:30pm - Vigil and Midnight Mass

25^th December - Christmas Day
8am Mass
9:30am Family Mass
6pm Solemn Second Vespers of Christmas

Please note there will be no Mass at 6:15pm on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

Waiting in Hope - O Oriens

As we prepare for Christmas, Br Matthew Jarvis offers a reflection on today's great O antiphon, O Oriens, in this video specially pre-recorded for Godzdogz.

20th December - 'Thy Will Be Done'

Today’s gospel passage from Luke is deceptively familiar. So familiar that it can be easily lost on us. When we hear these words spoken, do we really listen to them? Do we fail to appreciate that what we hear is the greatest ‘Yes’ ever uttered in history; the beginning of the greatest story ever told?

If we fail to hear, it’s probably because our own stories, our own lives, with all their clamour and noise, with all their drama – both good and bad – deafen us. Listening is a virtue, which requires much practice. It is the virtue of obedience. Obedience, from the Latin, oboediens, means to listen, harken and obey. When religious take a vow of obedience, it is a vow of listening to God’s word, often mediated by superiors. Few of us are naturally great listeners, but we have to persevere because when moments of change and trial are upon us – that is when we need to listen most.

Our lives, as Blessed Mary’s, have their life changing moments. The kind of moments, after which, nothing is ever the same again. Sometimes we may not immediately recognise them, but on looking back we can see them. We may fall in love; get married; change career; first come to faith; find our vocation; lose a loved one. Nothing is ever the same again. Depending on circumstance, change can be easy for us or very hard, and we can respond to such change in two ways; we can face up to it or we can run away and pretend that nothing has happened. We can ignore our responsibilities to each other; to our families; to God and the Church. Or we can we face them as Christians, listening in faith to God, that he will walk with us and guide us, regardless of what we may face. We have to make our choice. We have to listen.

For Blessed Mary, that day of the Annunciation was perhaps the most alarming imaginable. We read that, ‘she was greatly troubled’, by Gabriel’s words. She had every right to be so; this was no ordinary day. She must have felt that all was to change and that though such change would bring with it great joy, there would follow an inevitable suffering. The Angel seeks to reassure her; ‘do not be afraid Mary, for you have found favour with God’. On being told that she will bear Jesus Christ, ‘the Son of the Most High', she responds will a simple question; ‘how can this be since I have no husband?’ Her words are few; she is attentive. She has long listened in her heart to the word of God and seeks only clarification. In the stillness of her heart she is prepared to face the momentous change to come; she is happy to face such change, in spite of all hardship, in order to serve the God she has always pondered in her heart. Ultimately she is reassured that, ‘with God nothing will be impossible’.

Now Mary, though sinless, was otherwise like us. She was a human being, with all the hopes and fears common to our state. She had free will; she, just like us, had the power to choose. In faith, with a listening ear, she placed her trust in God. She said yes. She uttered the Fiat – let it be done - that would forever change her life and the life of all humanity. Such courage, such trust and humility, can only come through taking time to listen. It comes through taking time to be with God in the stillness of our hearts.

The Incarnation; that great moment in salvation history – when the Word was made Flesh - was made possible by a humble woman’s faith and trust in God. Our Lady knew that her true happiness and fulfilment lay not in running away from this great responsibility but in facing it in faith. She had learned to listen to the Word of God and to trust, to let go and allow God to be God. She had learned to say; ‘thy will be done’. I wonder, amid the clamour and noise of Christmastide, can we do the same?

Advent – 19th December: Elijah, John, Jesus and the Coming of the Lord.

Judges 13:2-7 & 14-25a; Ps 71; Luke 1:5-25.

It was a common belief among the Jews at the time of Jesus that the prophet Elijah would reappear and prepare the people for a visitation of the Lord in holiness. Elijah was thought to have been caught up into heaven at the end of his life (2 Kings 2:1-14). Since he had not died, he would be able to reappear before the Day of the Lord (See Malachi 3:23-24.) When he came, he would preach conversion, holiness, and reconciliation among the people.

In the gospel accounts of the public ministry it is clear that some people speculated that John might be this return of Elijah (John 1:21) and some thought Jesus was fulfilling this role (see Lk 9:19; Mk 8: 28; Mt 16:14). Jesus made clear in Matthew (17:9-13), Mark (9:9-13) and less directly in Luke (7:24-27) that he considered John had fulfilled this role. In today’s gospel, the annunciation of the angel to Zechariah about the future role of his son also makes this clear: ‘with the sprit and power Elijah, he will go before him to reconcile fathers to the children and the disobedient to the good sense of the upright, preparing for the Lord, a people fit for him (Lk 1:17). It seems that John did not take this identity upon himself but simply saw himself (Jn 1:21) as articulating the words of Isaiah 40: ‘prepare the way of the Lord’ (Jn 1:22-23; Lk 3:3-6 and also the Benedictus, Lk 1:76-79). However, it is highly significant that Jesus and the early church following him, ascribe the role of Elijah to John. It makes him a very great prophet, bringing their line of looking forward and witness to its climax and end. At the same time he heralds a new age and so stands on the threshold of two ages, or phases of God’s providence for his people (see Luke 7:24-30; & 16:16).

Giving this significance to John as Elijah, points to a still greater significance for Jesus. If John, not Jesus, is Elijah, then Jesus is connected far more closely with the actual visitation of God to save his people. He is the Lord come in person to save his people. Jesus is also called the Christ as well but this was understood to mean he was a divine Christ, one caught up into the heavenly realm and more closely associated with God than a very earthly Christ who many expected (Lk 20:41-44). ‘Elijah’ then, prepared for this heavenly Christ, who is the Lord. John was right in saying he was unfit to undo his sandal strap. And neither are we!

The God who comes at Christmas is a God of immense holiness and for whom only God can prepare us by grace but this can only happen with our co-operation. It is for these reasons that each Advent the Church represents John as Elijah, calling ‘prepare the way for the Lord’. Jesus made it clear that the people of his day in general did not heed the message to prepare for the Lord and they would thus reject Jesus too (Mk 9:11-13; Mt 17:9-13; Lk 7:29-30). Will we do any better? Are we responding to the message of John as we prepare for Christmas? Let us not be distracted or misled by cute cribs and beautiful babies! The conception of John points to the mercy of God and to God’s power to change hopeless human situations. Given hope by this, are we preparing for Christmas by a focus on the Lord, and, in the light of this, by moral conversion, by being reconciled to those around us, by acting justly, by humility of heart (Lk 3:7-18)? Or will we in effect ignore or reject Elijah, John and Jesus this year, however much religion, carols and festivity we get caught up in? Each of us must choose, and each of us must face the consequences of that choice. They may be a lot worse than losing our voice for several months …

Fourth Sunday of Advent - The Awesome Gift of Holiness

Readings: 2 Samuel 7:1-5.8-12. 14.16, Psalm 88(89), Romans 16:25-27. Luke 1: 26-38

Holiness, according to the Old Testament, is not primarily a kind of moral goodness, but a characteristic of God, and a terrifying characteristic at that. Holiness for the ancient Hebrews is like a fire, it needs to be treated with respect and caution lest it burns up and destroys what is profane. This is why the levitical law has such strict purity laws, it is dangerous to approach God when unclean. Only those people and things that have been given a share in the holiness of God can survive His presence. Israel, unlike the gentile nations, is able to endure the presence of God because she has been set apart, because she has been consecrated: Israel, as the chosen people, participates in the holiness of God.

It is important to note that Israel did not earn her holiness, she was chosen: her intimacy with God is a grace, a gift. This explains why in our first reading the well meaning King David is unable to build a dwelling for God. No human construction, no matter how glorious, can be fit to recieve God; we cannot achieve holiness by our own strength, consecration is a gift. Instead God promises that one of David's offspring will 'build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever' (2 Samuel 7: 13).

This promise, both of a temple and an everlasting Kingdom, was of course preeminently fulfilled in Christ - Son of David and Son of God. John's Gospel tells us that when challenged to explain why he had expelled the money changers from the temple, Jesus declared: 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up' (John 2: 19). Where in the desert Israel met God at the Tent of Meeting, and after Solomon in the temple in Jerusalem, now Israel meets God in human flesh and blood - in Christ Jesus himself. God's love for Israel gives her a fertility that enables her to bring forth a divine life, the one who will give new life to the world.

In some sense, then, we have in today's Gospel, very fittingly for the last Sunday before Christmas, the fulfillment of the Old Testament. The Angel Gabriel tells Mary: "the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God" (Luke 1: 34). In Mary, then, the vocation of a nation is actualized. Just as Israel had been made holy, able to bear the terrifying and destructive holiness of God in the desert, Mary - immaculately conceived and protected from sin - was holy, able to bear the holiness of God in her womb. Mary was made able to 'tabernacle' the Incarnate God, and as such becomes an image of the church - the new Israel. Through our baptism we are made a limb of Christ: we are made part of his body, sharing in his holiness, sharing in the eternal and infinite love and life of the Trinity. This is an awesome gift, one that we ought not to take for granted. Through our union with Christ we stand in a holy fire of divine love. As we approach Christmas, let us make sure we are properly prepared, lest we get burnt.

Waiting in Hope - Preparing for Christmas with the Dominican Students in Oxford

In the lead-up to Christmas, the Dominican students brothers in Oxford will be giving reflections on the coming feast on the three days before Christmas Eve (21^st, 22^nd and 23^rd December), taking their inspiration from the great O antiphons that fall on those days. For those of you in Oxford, the details are on the poster below: for our readers from further afield the talks will also be specially pre-recorded and put up on the blog.

17th December - "Son of David, Son of Abraham - Wisdom of God"

Readings: Genesis 49: 2, 8-10; Psalm 72; Matthew 1: 1-17

As we enter this final stage of Advent, when the Church expresses her yearning for the coming of the Saviour in the great ‘O’ antiphons, the contrast between the text of today’s antiphon, O Sapientia, and the day’s Gospel is striking. In the antiphon, we refer to Jesus as the wisdom coming forth from the mouth of the Most High that powerfully and sweetly orders all things. We contemplate him as the one who was with the Father from all eternity, sharing in his act of creating and sustaining all things: we apply to him the many and exalted things the Old Testament has to say about the Wisdom of God.

Then we turn to the Gospel: here, we find ‘the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham’ (Mt 1: 1). What clearer way could there be of emphasising his humanity? He is born in a human family, with a human history: he is a human being like us.

Of course, it is precisely this contrast which lies at the heart of the mystery of Christmas: the one of whom we prepare to celebrate the coming as a helpless infant, born in a stable to a human mother, is the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, the Son begotten of the Father before all ages.

Christmas can sometimes become an overly familiar celebration: every year we hear the same readings, sing the same carols, and we all feel like we know the story. In this final week building up to Christmas, then, the Church in her liturgy presents us with this striking juxtaposition of Jesus the son of Mary and Jesus the pre-existent Wisdom of God: to prepare us to celebrate the feast, we are to be shaken out of our complacent familiarity by this amazing truth of the Incarnation.

O Wisdom, who came forth from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from one end to the other, powerfully and sweetly ordering all things: come to teach us the way of prudence.

The 'O' Antiphons, December 17-23

For the text and music of the O Antiphons, sung at Vespers from today until December 23rd, see the posts gathered here.

A cosmic 'O', the work of Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)

Third Week of Advent – Friday – Living the faith that we preach

Readings: Isaiah 56:1-3a.6-8; Psalm 67 (66):2-3.5.7-8; John 5:33-36

Today’s Gospel enlightens us on two major points: all our efforts in preaching God’s message should lead to Christ and the best way of conveying that message is by example.

It is a common thing today - as it was in the past - that some people are highly gifted in preaching the Good News of the Kingdom of God. Through different gifts and talents, they become famous preachers and illustrious public speakers. John the Baptist was a good preacher. Jesus himself talks of him as “a burning and shining light [and people] were willing for a reason to rejoice in his light.” (Jn 5:35).

Today's gospel reminds us that it is always good to look beyond the shining stars and recognize the work of God in them. Otherwise we focus on those stars and we are blinded by their light. It is like looking at the finger that is trying to show us great mysteries.

The second point is that as much as we might be brilliant, unrivalled preachers, if that is not translated in our lives, it is empty. John the Baptist himself knew that. He wanted people's conversion to be translated into actions. God's words are sweet. And we might even pretend to make them sweeter to people’s ears when we use more sophisticated and highly intellectual terms. But they need to be accompanied by deeds that prove that we live what we preach. How could we convince people of things we do not live out? Jesus said: "The works that the Father gave me to accomplish, these works that I perform testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me." (Jn 5:36). We know that most of the disciples who followed Christ did not grasp fully his message but were amazed by his deeds: his compassion towards the excluded and those who were rejected by his religion, his compassion towards the hungry and the sinners. Most of the time his message appeared clearly to contradict his religion's laws. But his deeds were obviously divine to his followers that they could not see them otherwise.

Concluding I would say that today's gospel also invites us to recognise the work of God in those other people we seldom consider as messengers of God: those who do not share our way of thinking, those who do not share our religious beliefs and those who do sometimes even oppose our faith. God's ways being mysterious, God can use anyone, any time, anywhere to make the Good news reach our hearts. We only need to open our eyes and our hearts.

May this Advent help us to focus more on our Lord and Saviour and less on ourselves and our successes. May it help us to recognise God's hand in other people's words and deeds.

By Br Gustave Ineza OP

Third Week of Advent - Thursday - Accept the Fullness of God's Plan

Readings: Isaiah 54: 1-10; Psalm 30; Luke 7: 24-30

John the Baptist holds a distinct honor in the Gospels in that he inaugurates Jesus’ public ministry. He foresees Jesus’ coming long before anyone else recognizes him. John’s prophetic witness is unmatched. His convictions are more genuine and faith more steadfast than anyone else in the Gospel aside from Christ himself. “Yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Lk 7:28).

Jesus’ statement about John does not reveal a low opinion of the Messiah’s forerunner. Quite the opposite is true. Jesus’ declaration raises God’s expectations of how we understand and accept our own Christian vocations.

Those who approached John in faith knew his baptism made them whole again. His baptism removed their sins. Their hope was to restore their relationship with God. They wanted to be as God created them and originally intended them to be: His holy and faithful people. Jesus takes their expectations and elevates them to a divine level.

Herein lies the great scandal of the Pharisees’ rejection of John’s baptism. Not only have they rejected God’s pardon (if they even recognize a need for pardon). They also fail to receive the ultimate gift of Christ: deification. These faithful people, however great their sins, come seeking reconciliation. They find God’s saving power in John’s baptism. And beyond that monumental conversion, God also makes them like Him.
He restores them and elevates them to a share in His life.

As we move closer to the Christmas Season, let us spend this remaining time contemplating what it means for Christ to take on our flesh. In doing so, he takes away our sins. Yet, Jesus’ act of removing sin from our human nature is only a footnote compared to what he adds to it: God’s very self.

14th December – St John of the Cross

Readings: Isaiah 45: 6c-8, 18, 21c-25; Ps 85; Luke 7: 18b-23

It is fitting that we celebrate St John of the Cross during Advent, as we hear anew the call of John the Baptiser. For these two Johns have much in common. John the Baptiser inaugurated a great religious awakening, but was thwarted and imprisoned by Herod Antipas, and later executed. His disciples wondered, would God fulfil his promises and save them yet?

St John of the Cross, Carmelite friar and priest, religious founder and reformer, mystic and Doctor of the Church, was similarly at the heart of great religious upheavals, this time in the sixteenth century. This John was also incarcerated, after he founded, along with St Teresa of Avila, the ‘Discalced’ (shoeless) Carmelites, to the chagrin of his lax superiors. First he was persecuted by his superiors, then later by the opposite ‘extremist’ camp of his own Discalced order. Reform is a thankless task.

But his reforms did last, thanks to his wisdom and sanctity. He called his brothers and sisters in religion to a simpler lifestyle, to prepare their hearts to receive the poor and humble Jesus. Like the Baptiser, John of the Cross was a fearless preacher of God’s word, and a mystic whose writings show an affinity with the desert mentality, especially his poems written from his prison cell: for God causes the whole earth to bud forth, ‘not creating it to be a waste, but designing it to be lived in’ (Is. 45:8, 18).

'Justice shall look down from heaven'
(Christ of St John of the Cross, by Salvador Dali)

Both Johns understood that the path to God is through self-emptying love, because God himself is self-emptying love. In his kenotic sacrifice on the Cross, Jesus uttered the Psalmist’s cry of abandonment (Ps. 22:2-3). We too must seek no support but the Cross, as we enter the ‘dark night of the soul’, and abandon ourselves to God’s mercy and will, trusting that he will fulfil his promises.

‘There is no just and saving God but me.’ (Is. 45:21) And what does the justice and salvation of God look like on earth? We only have to look at Jesus, who cures all our ills. ‘The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.’ (Lk. 7:21-2)

Jesus is Lord! ‘In the Lord shall be the vindication and the glory of all the descendants of Israel.’ (Is. 45:25) We know that Jesus Christ is our vindication and glory, through his Cross and glorious Resurrection (cf. Acts 2:24). So, trusting that God will vindicate us too, let us join Jesus on the Cross, give ourselves up lovingly in the service of God’s kingdom, on earth as it is in heaven. Let truth spring out of the earth, and justice look down from heaven!

Rorate caeli desuper et nubes pluant iustum! (Is. 45:8)

13th December - St Lucy

Readings: Zep 3:1-2, 9-13; Ps 34:2-3, 6-7, 17-18, 19 And 23; Mt 21:28-32

The Church has a long tradition of absorbing what start as pagan traditions, but by being Christianised become Christian traditions after a while. We see this today as we celebrate the feast of Saint Lucy. She was a young girl who suffered martyrdom under the Roman Emperor Diocletian in the year 303. The date of her death, the 13th of December, was considered the longest night of winter according to the old calendar. This night was not only the longest, but also the night when Lucifer and all his evil demons went about, threatening both man and beast. If we look even further back in history, we see how this belief is connected to the pagan traditions, where mid-winter sacrifice was performed to appease the gods. The name ‘Lucy,’ which is etymologically connected to the Latin word for light, and so is also connected to the name ‘Lucifer’, thus reminds us of the forces of good and evil that we face in our lives.

If we turn to Saint Lucy, the tradition tells us that she was given the grace of great lucidity and clarity of vision, which made her a powerful instrument in God’s hands. Her first miracle was performed as she went on a pilgrimage to Catania in Sicily, to the grave of Saint Agnes, to pray for her mother who was seriously ill. On her way there, Saint Agnes appeared to her and said: 'Sister, why come to me to ask for something that you yourself easily can give your mother? Your faith has healed her!'

This was the beginning of the cult of Saint Lucy, and soon many miraculous stories came about. One of them talks of a young man who fell in love with her because of her exceptionally beautiful eyes. Without further ado, Saint Lucy, it is said, tore out her eyes and sent them to him on a plate. This led to an immediate conversion of the young man, and Lucy herself was blessed with a new and even more beautiful pair of eyes, and this is why saint Lucy is also the patron saint of eye sight and of blindness. I think we should add here that this kind of manoeuvre requires exceptional blessings and divine intervention, so don't try this at home!

But what we may try at home is to let our sight be purified and filled with light. Jesus says that 'Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness.' (Luke 11: 34-35)

Through an inner transformation we may be able to better discern between good and evil, and to choose the will of God in our lives. As we proceed in this period of Advent, let us then strive to change our vision, so that our self-centred 'No' may be transformed to a deepened and whole-hearted 'Yes' to Christ our Lord.

Third Week of Advent - Monday - Discernment

Readings: Numbers 24:2-7,15-17; Matthew 21:23-27.

Balaam, whom we encounter in today’s first reading from the Book of Numbers, is a curious character: on one hand, he’s reviled as a “wicked man” who tries (and fails) to curse the nation of Israel (2 Peter 2:15), and on the other hand he’s revered as a gentile prophet, being given in the Midrashic interpretations of early Rabinnic Jews an exalted status amongst the gentiles equivalent to the status of Moses amongst the Jews. In today’s excerpt, he prophetically recognises Israel’s exalted calling in God’s plan of salvation (24:3-9) and foresees the coming of a Messianic Davidic King who will conquer and liberate (24:14-19). Baalam, it seems, was a man not born of the chosen people, who lived amongst Pagan idolators and worked as a sorcerer, yet whose eyes and ears God opened to realise the truth (24:4).

In a world saturated with competing truth claims, it is often difficult to discern what comes from God and what comes from man, and many people seem – like Balaam – to be deeply ambivalent, capable of spreading both profound truth and weaving confusion. It is this question of discerning the veracity of the claims implied by the actions of Christ that vexes the chief priests and elders in today’s gospel, who treat the Lord with deep suspicion, asking Him under whose authority He acts. Although we often associated ‘authority’ with ‘power’, ‘jurisdiction’, and ‘control’, the Latin auctoris closely associated with ‘authorship’ and ‘origination’. The task of discerning under what authority somebody acts is not merely about determining the mandate for their action, but also about determining which ‘story’ they are part of: are they part of the narrative written by God, or are they trying to write their own story, dissenting from God’s plan of salvation?

In our Dominican tradition, study serves an integral role in this task of discernment, helping us to seek truth amidst falsehood. As Christians, we find the fullness of truth about ourselves and our world in the Scriptures, and in the Tradition of the Church, but we can claim no 'monopoly' over truths, and so, looking at the world around us through the eyes of faith, we hope our study will enable us to find reflections of truth there: in the sciences, in the arts, and in our friendships with other people. Our study, however, is necessarily animated by our lives of prayer, through which we encounter Truth Himself - the incarnate Word of God -  who will open our eyes and our ears, like the prophet Balaam’s, to receive His saving message. 

Third Sunday of Advent - “Rejoice!”

Readings: Isaiah 61: 1-2, 10-11; Luke 1: 46-55; 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-24; John 1: 6-8, 19-28

Today is Gaudete Sunday, named after the Latin word “Rejoice!” or ‘Be joyful!’ Joy is or expresses a sense of well-being, a fullness of blessing, gratitude, confidence, assurance, celebration, and may be more exuberant or peaceful depending on the person and situation. Joy in some way takes you out of yourself and focuses your attention on another. You cease to become pre-occupied with yourself and are occupied joyfully with another.

Joy certainly involves emotion but can it be spiritual? There are plenty of references in the psalms to people being joyful owing to their relationship with God. Joy flows from God's presence to them - and them to him. It is the pleasure that God takes in people, and in acting on their behalf and blessing them.

Is there such a thing or quality as Christian joy? Paul thought so and lists it as one of the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5: 22). As we read today, Paul thought it important enough to encourage the Thessalonians: "Always be joyful! (1 Thes 5:16)"

Real Christian joy is based on Christ's Risen presence to us which transforms everything if we let it. He comes to us with his blessings and the joy he takes in us. Advent is a time for us to come more and more into the presence of God who comes to us anew. The Lord says to us: "Rejoice in my presence. I am present to your hearts - to your deepest self where I dwell. Do not overlook this or turn away. Let me also be present to your mind, your conscience, your conduct. Let my presence grow and be fully manifest. Grow in my presence and in your presence to me - by your joyful and loving attention and trusting surrender to me and my will." This is close to the advice of the section of Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians that we read today. This joy in God flows to and from the joy we see in goodness around us, in others or the world, both of which come from the goodness of God. Joy increases the more things are seen in a divine light, the more we orientate ourselves and our priorities towards God and let the joy that comes from God be our strength. But we can seek joy in the wrong things. Jesus, and Scripture generally, indicate that such joy does not last.

Mary in her Magnificat (today’s psalm) expresses the joy of someone whose life is focussed on God. Today’s gospel with its call by John the Baptist to repent and make our paths straight for God and its challenge that, like John, we realise how small we are before God also tells us how to be joyful. I think John the Baptist would have endorsed the following anagram of J-O-Y for what our priorities ought to be – had he only known English! According to it, our priorities need to be: J - Jesus firstly; O - others, secondly; and Y - yourself, last. Then we will be ready for the Lord. We will also be able to rejoice in him now and always!

Second Week of Advent - Saturday - 'Elijah has already come'

 Readings: Sirach 48:1-4,9-11; Psalm 80; Matthew 17:9.10-13

John the Baptist must have cut a strange figure in his day. No matter how many and various the attempts to sanitise his image, he is for many of us, an extreme character. Yet, he is a character who fulfils a vital role in salvation history. But however ‘obvious’ he may have been, the disciples in today’s Gospel could not immediately equate John with another, equally extreme figure of scripture, Elijah. Elijah, ‘whose words were a flaming furnace’, and who was destined to return and ‘to turn back the hearts of fathers to their sons.’

Following Jesus down the mountain after his Transfiguration, the disciples ask him; “Why do the scribes say that Elijah has to come first?” Jesus replies: “I tell you that Elijah has come already and they did not recognize him but treated him as they pleased.” Like the scribes, the disciples presume that the literal Elijah, who was translated into heaven, would return as forerunner to the Messiah. They do not immediately see John the Baptist as a ‘type’; one who would precede the Messiah in the spirit and power of Elijah, and prepare the way for his coming (Malachi 3:1, 4:5).

The disciples initial blindness to this fact is echoed in the wider people, Israel; ‘they did not recognize him’. Not only did they not recognize him, but he was treated cruelly and killed for his pains. Like Christ he was destined, ‘to suffer at their hands’. With Jesus to explain, the disciples were to understand all this, unlike the ‘scribes’. A clear implication for us is whether we are to be disciples or scribes. Are we to grasp the message of Christ and prepare earnestly for his coming or are we to reject his words and ultimately him. Further to this we can indeed, try to be ‘types’ of John the Baptist, and make others ready for Christ’s coming. We can try to share in the Baptist’s ministry and, ‘make straight the way of the Lord’ (John 1:23) However, in doing so, we must be prepared for others to see us as strange and extreme, and be prepared for the cruelty and rejection of the world should it come.

Second Week of Advent - Friday - 'Wisdom is justified by her deeds'

Readings: Isaiah 48:17-19, Ps 1, Matthew 11:16-19

If you want to live as part of a happy community, usually it's a good idea to try to fit in and not cause offence to other people – don't rock the boat. This principle governs much of our day to day behaviour, and within reason, this is no bad thing, but today's Gospel reminds us that this cannot be an ultimate principle. John the Baptist, who went out into the wilderness and preached a message of repentance, definitely didn't fit in, and Jesus, who ate and drank with tax collectors and sinners, certainly caused offence.

What is at work here is divine wisdom. Jesus says 'Wisdom is justified by her deeds.' The ultimate guiding principle to our actions must be love of divine wisdom. If we show sorrows for our sins by fasting and try to live lives of purity, we might not fit in with the rest of society, but we will be open to divine wisdom. Likewise, befriending people who don't follow Church teaching may be a cause of scandal – we may find ourselves being accused of selling out or supporting sinful behaviour – but this fear of scandal cannot be a reason for hostility towards such people. If we are to be open to divine wisdom, we must also be willing to share it. It is our greatest gift. Trying not to rock the boat may be an expression of love of neighbour, but all too often, we are motivated by purely selfish motives – we don't want people to think we are weird and we want to be respected and loved. Let us therefore pray that our hearts may be truly open to the divine wisdom, the Word of God, who became Incarnate in Jesus Christ.

8th December - The Immaculate Conception - "Just another difficult dogma?"

Readings: Genesis 3: 9-15, 20; Psalm 98; Ephesians 1: 3-6, 11-12; Luke 1: 26-38

To summarise the question of a commenter on a previous year’s Godzdogz post on this feast, what’s the point of the Immaculate Conception? Isn’t it just another of those impossible things which Catholics, like the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, have to believe before breakfast?

Well, first of all, we should make sure we’re clear what we’re talking about: far too often, people talk of the ‘immaculate conception’ when what they really mean is the Annunciation or the Virgin Birth – in other words, the conception and birth of Jesus without an earthly father. In fact, however, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is something completely different, teaching that Mary, uniquely among human beings since Adam and Eve (other than her Son), was free from sin from the first moment of conception. If it is an impossible thing, it’s an impossible thing that those who would deny original sin believe to be true of everyone!

What if we do accept the notion of original sin, though? What is the significance of Mary’s Immaculate Conception? Well, we must remember that the Immaculate Conception was not an isolated event, but the beginning of a life entirely without sin, a life entirely in accordance with God’s will. In saying that Mary was free from sin from the first moment of her conception, we are saying something about the primacy of God’s love over sin and death; that same love which we see revealed when the Son of God dies upon the Cross, we see too in its power to preserve the Mother of God completely from the stain of sin.

The Incarnation of God’s Son is the way in which God restores us to his friendship, which we lost with the sin of the first human beings, and it is also the way in which he reveals that he has done this; the Immaculate Conception of Mary, in turn, is one way in which we see the difference ‘fullness of grace’ (cf. Lk 1: 28) makes – that grace which Jesus offers to us all. For we should not forget that, in defining the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, Pius IX made it clear that it was ‘in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race’ (Apostolic Constitution Ineffabilis Deus) that Mary was conceived without sin. In this special grace of Mary’s, this complete freedom from sin for the whole of her life, we see something of what life will be like in heaven for all whom, through the merits of Christ, God calls his friends.

So no, the Immaculate Conception is not just another difficult dogma we have to believe as a sign of our obedient submission to the faith: rather, it presents us with one aspect of the amazing truth of the power of God’s providential love for the whole human race.