Holy Family C

There were three important feasts for the Jews, the Passover, Pentecost and the Feast ofTabernacles. Many Jews used to go to Jerusalem for one of these feasts. The Holy Family used to go for the Passover, the greatest of the three. Nazareth is just some eighty miles from Jerusalem. For the trip they used to go several families together; the journey took four or five days. Coming back to Nazareth, Jesus stayed in Jerusalem without the permission of his parents. They used to travel in two groups, one of men and another of women, and the children could go with either. Mary and Joseph thought that Jesus was part of the other group. It is easy to think that God is with us, but it is more important to ask ourselves if we are with God.

When they realised Jesus wasn’t there, they returned to Jerusalem. After three days, they found him in the temple. One day leaving Jerusalem, another returning, and on the third day, early in the morning, he was where he should be, at the temple in Jerusalem. For the Jews the temple was everything. It was where God was. Jesus wanted to be closer to his Father God, to spend time where he could feel his presence. Do we try to find the best place to encounter God? Do I know the fastest way to connect with Him? Have I found the best hot spot? It is important to have a desire to be with God, to find the peace and joy that only God can give us.

We can imagine the distress and anxiety of his parents. They were supposed to look after him and they lost him. Why did Jesus do that? He was twelve years old, the age when they were supposed to go to Jerusalem once a year. For us he was still a boy; for their society he was a young man. He wanted to teach them a lesson and to find answers to many of his questions. They found him talking to the religious leaders of the time. We too need to ask questions and find out the meaning of our lives, what we are here for.

Jesus’ mother complained: “Why did you do that?” He answered them, a bit perplexed: “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” He must have put on that beautiful smile that his mother loved, just to soften his words. He told them that the temple was his place, that he came to earth to do the will of his Father. This should be our attitude in front of things that separate us from God. We should ask ourselves this question: Is this helping me to become closer to God? If the answer is in the negative, we should get rid of it. This should be the benchmark that measures everything we do.

The Gospel says that they didn’t understand him, but Mary kept all these things in her heart. She was pondering everything, trying to find out what it meant, what God wanted her to do. There are many things in our lives that we don’t understand, and many times we rebel and we get upset with God, because he is not doing what we want him to do. Better the attitude of Mary: to reflect on what all this means. God has a reason for everything and everything is part of his plan, immersed in the great scheme of things. We are just a little speck of dust in his universe. All we need to do is contemplate how God is acting in our lives.

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Christmas

During this Advent, in our quest for Jesus, we have been following the example of John the Baptist, Joseph and Mary. They have led us to him. We have arrived at our destination. We have reached the center of our lives and the focus is a baby. Now we realise that baby Jesus is all that matters. These days of Christmas are days of calm and serene contemplation of baby Jesus. All we need to do is to look at him, to plunge into the mystery of God becoming man, admiring the mingling of humanity and divinity. Just that, to look at him, and nothing else. Trying to enter deeper and deeper, into the infinite abyss of God’s love for us, a bottomless pit of his majesty and power. And all this is concentrated in a little tiny baby.

Why did he have to come to us? He didn’t. But he wanted not only to live with us, but to become one of us, and go through the same things we are going through, except sin. And he is now as we were when we were born, just a baby. A baby that cannot open his eyes, doesn’t have teeth, he cannot utter a word, and he’s got his little hands closed. All he does is eat, sleep, cry and dirty nappies. He is completely useless, a hundred percent dependent on his mother. All he can take is his mother’s milk. A God so defenceless, that if you leave him alone, he would die. At this moment he cannot even smile. His face is red and he doesn’t have much hair. If we could open his eyelids, we would see his beautiful brown eyes.

And this baby is what we need to contemplate, even though he cannot look back at us; he is sleeping. It is a one way gaze, trying to learn from his professorial chair, from his cathedra, from his open book, the book of his life, his first lessons of his life on earth. He could have come to us as a grown up man, but he wanted to start from the beginning, because we are slow learners. We need hours of patient contemplation in front of the statue or a painting of him in the manger, suffering cold, or in his mother’s arms, sleeping peacefully. Two simple, important lessons we learn straight away: poverty and humility. He came like us, with nothing, and when he goes, his only possession is going to be the wood of the cross. And what about humility? Can you find a better example than God coming to us as a baby?

And now in front of this baby, what do we do? We don’t need to do much. What do mother’s do with their babies? They look after them, giving them attention, love, tenderness. Many of us we don’t know how to look after a baby, but we can give him plenty of love. Some people don’t know how to love. This baby can teach us how to do it, just hold him in your arms, being careful not to drop him. We drop him many times a day. We can also offer ourselves to him. A baby brings out the best in us. In front of him we cannot say no. We need to be ourselves. The first thing he tells us when we get closer to him: get rid of your fancy clothes; be yourself. We cannot pretend, show off or try to deceive him.

But maybe the best thing we can do is to sit down in a corner of the cave, out of the way, hidden in the shadows, and contemplate how Mary looks after Jesus. It is an amazingly beautiful scene. She tends him knowing that he is God and man. She teaches us how to deal with his humanity and his divinity. You cannot become tired of looking at the mother and the child. Many artists tried to catch a glimpse of it. It is all in our imagination.

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Fourth Sunday of Advent

After the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel left Mary, Saint Luke says that she set out in haste to a town in the hill country of Judah. Mary was in a hurry to fulfill the will of God. Even though God didn’t ask her directly to help her cousin Elizabeth, Mary understood immediately what God wanted her to do, and she didn’t waste time thinking about it. Joseph would have accompanied her, on a trip of three or four days, walking dangerous paths through the mountains, and would have asked her why her sudden change of plans. She couldn’t tell him about her own pregnancy, but she told him that her cousin was expecting. The Fathers of the Church saw in this episode an example of Mary’s entire life: a prompt, joyful obedience, to whatever God asked her. We need to learn from our Mother and be quick to fulfill God’s will. We cannot drag our feet. Once we see what God wants us to do, we should do it.

Another lesson we learn from the Visitation of Mary to her cousin, is her willingness to help others, even though she had to prepare herself for the birth of baby Jesus. She had plenty of excuses to postpone her trip, but knowing that Elizabeth was pregnant in her old age, and that she was already in her sixth month, triggered in her a quick reaction. When the Holy Spirit through many different ways, places on our heads the realisation of other people’s needs, we should follow the path of Mary, and be ready to give a hand. We cannot forget that we are happy when we give ourselves to others. We all have problems, but the best way to solve them is focusing on others. Most of our worries are created in our minds and they disappear when we use our talents for the service of others.

Mary brings Jesus to her cousin Elizabeth. She also brings Jesus to us. We are now in a time of waiting anxiously for Christmas, for the birth of Jesus in our soul. Mary fulfills her role of mediatrix, channel of all graces. The closer we are to Mary, the closer we are to Jesus. Having God in our hearts, we can share our faith with others. Mothers experience the blessing of giving birth to a new life for the world. We can also experience spiritual birth when we bring Jesus to others.

When Mary greeted Elizabeth, her baby leapt in her womb. Two babies met in a very strange way, in their mother’s wombs, and they recognised each other. Saint John couldn’t contain his joy and wanted to get out straight away. Six people were witness to this scene: two babies, two mothers, and two fathers, Zachariah and Saint Joseph. Theologians say that John was sanctified in his mother’s womb, in a way baptised by giving witness to who Jesus is. This is why we celebrate his birth. It is not easy to recognise Jesus passing by our lives, sometimes very hidden behind the cross. We ask today Saint John the Baptist to help us, to witness him and to leap with joy at this encounter.

Elizabeth began to praise our Mother full of the Holy Spirit: “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” We say these words every time we say a Hail Mary, many times without realising what we are saying. Let us too be witnesses of Jesus in our lives and bring him to others.

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Third Sunday of Advent

Today we can use rose vestments. Why? To express our joy because the Lord is coming. Today’s Sunday it is called Domenica Gaudete, because this is how its entrance antiphon begins in Latin: Gaudete, rejoice. It comes from Saint Paul’s letter to the Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say rejoice. The Lord is near.” After two weeks of penance for preparation for Christmas, we take a break, a rest, and we look at the beautiful panorama that the ascent of mount Advent shows us: Jesus is almost upon us. When we climb higher, the air becomes fresher and we can see things more clearly. Today also we light the third candle, the rose candle on the Advent wreath. The first light of sun rise is rose. We try to see everything with rose colored spectacles, a more cheerful way of looking at things. You could almost say that God has this colour on his eyes.

What is the reason of our joy? The Lord is very near. He is closer than we think. We don’t need to walk far away to find him. We are waiting for him, he is walking towards us. If we don’t see him, we need to examine our conscience to see what are the obstacles between us and him. These are normally caused by our own pride and selfishness, two relics of original sin that grow into big bushes and trees, that hide Jesus from us. We need to prune them or cut them down; at least clear the undergrowth. Maybe a bushfire will do. But we need to be sincere and point out what separates us from God. It is not easy because we get attached to this vegetation; some of it has been there for a long time, and we think it is immovable, set in stone. But the presence of God can destroy any castle, crumble any fortification or melt down the most powerful iceberg. The love of God is so powerful, so hot, that nothing, but our will can resist.

Patrick Murphy, an Irish guy, died and went to his judgment. Because of a tsunami, there was a long queue of people to be judged. He could hear what Jesus was telling others. “I was hungry and you fed me; come inside. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink; come inside. I was sick and you visited me; come inside. I was naked and you clothed me; come inside.” He realised that he never did these things: “I was always in the pub drinking Guinness and cracking jokes.” He was afraid when he faced Jesus. Jesus looked at the computer and said: Patrick, I was sad and you told me jokes, I was down and you made me laugh; come inside.

They say that the quotation in the Bible people search most is “Be not afraid!” You can find it in more than three hundred verses. This is what Jesus told the apostles, what angels say when they appear to men. These are the first words John Paul II said when he was elected Pope. We are afraid of ourselves, afraid of the future, of the unknown, afraid of failing, of something bad that could happen to us. Fear takes our joy out of us, paralyses us, it doesn’t allow us to trust God, to abandon things in his hands.

The closer we are to God, the more interior joy we have. It is a natural reaction of our make up: we are created for him. Therefore it is a logical conclusion of our search for happiness. We are constantly looking for him in the wrong places, and we find difficult to recognise our mistake. Why is that? Because those things are means or results of happiness, not the real thing. And because we are very earthly, and spiritual things normally don’t attract us. Today is a day to place our heart in the right place, close to Mary our Mother, cause of our joy, who is carrying the creator of the universe, the maker of all the things we like, the one who knows what we like and loves us with divine love.

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Second Sunday of Advent

Today we follow Saint John the Baptist in our way to Bethlehem. He is going to lead us to baby Jesus. But his path is not going to be easy for us because it goes through the most difficult terrain, the desert. He was inspired by the Holy Spirit to retire into the wilderness. There he devoted himself to prayer and to live a penitencial life, where he could meet God without distractions from other people. Origen says that “he went into the desert, where the air was more pure, the heavens more open, and God more familiar, that till the time of his preaching was come, he might employ himself in prayer in the company of angels.”

During this time of Advent we need to follow John the Baptist to find our hermitage in the wildernes; a place where we can encounter the three s’s of the spiritual life: silence, solitude and simplicity. We are called to disengage our hearts from the ties of this world and to fix our eyes into what’s important. We are too caught up in the things of this earth and we need some distance to have the right perspective. By holy retirement, the fascination of its enchantments disappears. We have the experience that to seek happiness in the world is like looking for flowers among thistles; their beautiful colours only prick and wound our hands.

The most difficult sound is silence. We are surprised when we can hear nothing. It troubles us, surprises us, we stop to hear the absence of sound. It happens when we are surrounded by nature, far away from society, and we can only hear the sound of the wind. The most expensive head phones to buy are the ones which can cancel every noise. We need to shut down one by one the noises that separate us from God. Some of them are very difficult to identify. They are like ringing in our ears, not knowing where they come from, or what produces them.

Solitude is related to silence but it is not the same. It is difficult to handle when we are not use to it. Farmers and people working in the bush love it. We are not used to being alone, not having anyone to talk to, without being able to rub shoulders with others. We are afraid of loneliness, having fear of being left out, looking to be among people in a shopping center for example. To have quality time with God we need solitude, recollection and time to be alone with him.

The last s we learn from Saint John is simplicity. Saint Jerome says that “he lived in the desert, and disdained to behold other things with eyes which coveted to see Christ. His raiment was coarse, his food locusts and wild honey; all of which are conducive to virtue and continence.” We don’t need much to live with. We create for ourselves thousands of necessities and we complicate our lives. Detachment from things gives is the true freedom to follow Jesus more closely.

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First Sunday of Advent

Today we begin a new liturgical year. It is a new beginning, where we walk again through the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why do we need to tread on his footsteps every year? Because once is not enough. We human beings need to be reminded of important things over and over again, because we forget or because it takes us a long time to grasp its full meaning. That’s why companies need to keep advertising their brand names, with a logo to remember their products. The liturgical year is like a spiral where we run around our Saviour, every lap a bit closer to him. Or like a meteorite circling around the sun, being attracted by its gravitational force, until one day it will be sucked into its fiery core. Hopefully one day we will be ready to jump into the immensity of God.

It is a reminder of our travelling nature. We are pilgrims on this earth. We come from God and we go back to him. We would like to find our home here, but we are not made for this world. We keep trying to build our permanent nest here. We would like to stop time, thinking that here below things won’t change or they are going to last for ever. We are constantly changing, in the making, getting better or getting worse. We are born as babies and eventually we will become old and frail. Our bodies reminds us of our fleeting nature, our growing and diminishing.

Advent means coming. It is a reminder that we are going and Jesus is coming to pick us up. We need to be ready to go to the place God has prepared for us. We are travellers, pilgrims, wanderers. We are people from a different world, displaced, refugees, migrants from a foreign land. Our time here is a preparation for eternity, our final destination. That’s why we need to travel light, with a quick pace, with our eyes fixed on our goal, not to miss it.

In the Middle Ages people used to go on a pilgrimage, either east, towards the Holy Land, or west, to Saint James’ tomb, a very long trip that lasted months or even years. It was a way to fulfill a promise, for penitential reasons or to find the meaning of one’s life. Nowadays around two hundred thousand people every year follow the Camino of Santiago, for many different reasons. All of them come back changed, by the mere fact of spending few days just walking. We have lost the sense of walking; we now drive or fly. We talk more about being fulfilled, developing our carees, achieving our personal goals. These pilgrimages remind us of our human condition, the important journey all of us are embarked on. What is important is not what we do, or what we possess, but that we keep walking towards our final destination. The way shows us who we are.

Mary, Miriam in Hebrew, means star of the sea. In the same way sailors used to orient themselves during the night on high seas by looking at the stars, we can look at our Mother, the bright star that leads us during the journey of our lives, through the treacherous passages of our trip, back to a safe and secure haven, in Jesus Christ.

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Pontius Pilate

Today the Gospel brings to us the conversation between Pilate and Jesus about his kingship. Pilate was the governor of Judaea for ten years, the time of Jesus’ passion and death. His name appears in the Creed to place Jesus in a particular time of history. Tradition says that he became a Christian and died a martyr. We don’t like kings in our present time. We either see them as oppressive or irrelevant. In our individualistic world, we are critical of authority. We don’t want to be told who we are, we prefer to choose who we want to be, and decide what is right and wrong for ourselves. We Christians belong to Jesus‘ kingdom because he wanted us to be baptised, but we need to choose him.

Jesus said to Pilate that his kingdom is not of this world. What sort of kingdom are we talking about? The Preface for today’s Mass gives us some of its qualities: a kingdom of Truth and Life, a kingdom of Holiness and Grace, a kingdom of Justice, Love and Peace. He rules from the cross. He was crowned with thorns, dressed in a purple rag, and given a reed for a scepter. His throne is a piece of timber, his jewels are three nails, his chalice full of vinegar. His soldiers, the apostles, have deserted him, running away, leaving him alone. Normally kings send their armies to war to die for them; Jesus on the contrary, died for each one of us.

Because it is a kingdom not of this world, it will last for ever. All human kingdoms and empires, all cultures and nations, all big companies and corporations, have or will pass away. Jesus’ reign will reach eternity, his rule is everlasting. Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, God from God, light from light, true God from true God. He is Lord of lords, King of kings, Emperor of emperors. His kingdom is supreme, over all peoples, universal, embracing everything, eternal, it will last for ever. It is spiritual, over angels and men. And Jesus is asking us if we want to be part of it.

There are only two kingdoms: either his kingdom or our kingdom. His kingdom frees us from the things that enslave us. Our kingdom is ruled by tyrants. It is the tyranny of fear, guilt, hurt, resentment, envy, shame and insecurity. Fear paralyses us. Guilt makes us walk backwards. Hurt and resentment lead us to avoid people. Envy produces sadness in front of the good of others. Shame pushes us to hide in the cave of our pride. Insecurity leads us to hate ourselves. What are the real tyrants that are ruling now our lives? What are our addictions? Jesus is the only one who can free us from these tyrannies, and gives us the freedom and the glory of the children of God.

In the Cathedral of Seville, there is a royal chapel where Saint Fernando is buried. An image of Our Lady presides over the chapel, sitting on her throne, with the child Jesus on her lap. Her title is Queen of Kings. On top of the image there is an inscription, engraved in silver that says: Per me reges regnant. Kings rule through me. She is the Queen Mother, Regina Pacis, Queen of Peace. We pray for peace in our country. We pray for peace in our hearts.

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Second coming

We are now to the end of the liturgical year where we get these apocalyptic Gospels, which talk about the end of times. Apocalypse means unveiling, to lift the veil and to reveal what is going to happen, what is behind the curtain that separates us from eternity. We know that Jesus is going to come back one day, every day a bit closer, to end our time and to begin his everlasting Kingdom. Next Sunday we close the liturgical year with the feast of Christ the King. In the creed we say every Sunday: “He will come again in his glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.” We use the word Epiphany, appearing, or Parusia, coming, the second Advent. It is a Christian and Muslim belief.

The early Christians thought it was going to happen during their life time. So much so that Saint Paul had to tell them to keep working and not become lazy, just waiting for everything to disappear. For us it is not as important as for them, because after two thousand years, we are still waiting. Personally I think that first we need to colonise the whole universe. A lot of people have predicted this event and have failed. In every generation we have prophets of doom. We have a desire to know the future, what is going to happen, but we Christians know that our future is in God’s hands, and he tells us what we need to know. Prior to his coming there will be amazing signs, the Antichrist and natural disasters. Everything will be destroyed; there will be a new heaven and a new earth. We shouldn’t be too concerned about our planet because one day it will disappear.

We talk about the three comings of Our Lord: the Incarnation, when the Word became flesh; our personal meeting with God, when we die; and the second coming of Jesus. The first one was hidden to the public eyes, our personal one is unexpected, and the third one will be amazing. November is a month when we bring to our consideration our departure, events that we don’t normally think about, the last things, eternal truths, the other life.

Jesus said that he had to go and prepare a place for us. He is coming back to pick us up, to take us to his place, to be with him and with the people we love for ever. We don’t normally think about the hour of our departure. It is the only thing that is going to happen to us for sure, every day a bit closer, and it is what gives meaning to our lives. We think that it is very far away from us. The thought of death brings to the fore what is really important in life, and makes all the artificial things disappear.

Jesus in the Gospel is constantly reminding us to be ready, to watch out, to be on guard. He says that he will come like a thief in the middle of the night, unexpectedly, for us to render an account of the talents he gave us. We are not ready because we are still here. This November we have another opportunity to prepare ourselves to face our personal encounter with Jesus Christ. For others it is the end; for us it is the beginning. Jesus dying for us has taken away the sting of death, and opened the gates of heaven. We can say with joy like the early Christians: Maranatha, come Lord Jesus.

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