Homily for the Feast of the Holy Family

 

Sir 3:2-6, 12-14

Ps 128

Col 3:12-17

Mt 2:13-15

 

We must never forget that Jesus was born into a family.  While His "nuclear" family was small the concept of family was different in the Ancient Near East compared with today.  He was part of a large extended family. Thus we are not certain what references to brothers, sisters, and cousins mean.

 

Jesus was born into a specific geographic place, a specific era of history, and a particular social setting. That world was governed by the religious traditions and laws of Israel.  His parents were observant of those laws and religious customs.  The late Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner made an important observation about Jesus being born into, and coming of age within, a family: He wrote: Jesus: “came into the world the same way we did in order to come to terms with the given facts of human existence, and to begin to die” This fact can supply meditation material for hours if not a few days. What does it mean to come to terms with the facts of human existence?

 

Part of the answer is found in obedience. Obedience and its root word 'to obey' run through the readings and psalm like a sparkling thread in an ancient tapestry, a thread that is impossible to miss though many would prefer to ignore it. 

 

We heard in Sirach, "God sets a father in honor over his children; a mother's authority he confirms over her sons.  Whoever honors his father atones for sins . . . . he stores up riches who reveres his mother."

 

Confucius wrote the following some 300 years before Sirach: “Honoring parents is the beginning of all humanness and the basis for relationships with others. It is an inward attitude and outward action, not just empty gestures, involving supporting parents and ancestors. Serve parents at home earnestly, be truthful, and overflow with love for all, prioritize family duties before personal pursuits.”

 

When used in scripture the image of 'fear of the Lord' indicates obedience not the gut-churning, sweaty-palms, and trembling knees most of us assume when we hear the word fear; the kind of fear when driving on the Pike through the Berkshires in fog and snow.

 

Oddly enough, there are two second reading options from the third chapter of Colossians: verses 12 to 21, or verses 12 ending at 17,editing out the verses on obedience, love, and subordination. Each verse presents a difficult and necessary task to the subject to whom the verse is addressed.

 

"Wives, be subordinate to your husbands."  No comment necessary on the 21^st century reaction to THAT statement.  Yet, lack of subordination, cooperation, or consistency particularly when raising children is a prime mover in appalling divorce statistics and the difficulties for the children of warring parents.

 

"Husbands love your wives."  It is possible that this demand is even more difficult than the previous one. Truly loving someone requires subordination  of one's wants, needs, desires, and dreams. An emptying of self is required for the mutuality necessary for the two to become one.    

 

"Children obey your parents in everything.”  Not a particularly popular idea today. But there is a corollary to the demand for children to obey their parents.  This one receives no air-time.  "Fathers do not provoke your children so they may not become discouraged."  Another admonition to love, in this case to love and respect one's children, even though it may be difficult at times.  

 

We know almost nothing of Jesus' youth or family life.  It seems reasonable to assume that Joseph died before Jesus began his public ministry. How old was Jesus when Joseph died?  How did that death affect him?

 

St. Ignatius included a meditation in the Spiritual Exercises on what he called the Hidden Life of Jesus, those years about which we know nothing. It is a very rich source for meditation. 

 

We know next to nothing about the daily life of the Holy Family.  We know they observed the laws of Israel. More importantly we have their lived example of obedience to God's will.  Not one word is attributed to Joseph in scripture.  We only hear Joseph's eloquence through his actions of taking Mary into his home, taking his family into exile at the command of the angel, and his yes when he returned them to Nazareth. We have the example of Mary’s yes, at the Annunciation. We have the example of Jesus' obedience. at the end of Luke's narrative of Jesus in the Temple: “He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them”  Finally we have the example of Jesus’ yes in the Garden of Gethsemane when he prayed, “not my will, but thine, be done.” 

 

As we commemorate the Holy Family we contemplate how they responded yes to the will of God.  We pray that we will always respond as they did with, “Thy will be done.”

 

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The photos are from Lithuania, St. Casimir Church in Vilnius, Vilnius, and the retreat house in Guronys where I spent the weekends giving talks.  It was as cold as it looks.  The temps never went as high as 20 F.  Thus all of my shooting was indoors, oftentimes looking out.  

 

Painting of St. Casimir above the altar.  

Ironwork makes for very good shots.  

Looking out from the Jesuit residence over the city.  Would have loved to be able to explore but it was simply too cold for the camera and my body.  

The same basic view at night.  Opened the window and immediately closed it.  

The cross at the retreat house in Guronys was very very tall.

My favorite kind of winter scene featuring denuded trees.  

 

Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Homily for Christmas Day 2025

 

When we celebrate the Great Feast of the Nativity of the Lord, we cannot avoid memories of past years. But, we don't have much control over the memories that arise.  The best we can do is sit with them.  The sounds of "O Come All Ye Faithful" or "Silent Night" may trigger the memories of THE BEST CHRISTMAS EVER, or the Christmas during which we were being crushed with pain, sorrow, grief, or a Christmas somewhere in between.  The memories are unique to us and may be difficult to share. The memories attached to this Christmas are only now being formed but they will echo throughout the year. The saddest part of a secular observance of Christmas is that it has been detached from the reality of Jesus coming into the world.  For many, if the holiday does not go according to a tightly written script it will be remembered as somewhere between disappointing and disastrous.

 

Unlike the secular observance of the politically correct Happy Holidays, the  Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord always reflects our lived reality. It is never at odds with our experience, whether it is of Christmases past or the Christmas we are living today; whether it was that best Christmas ever, or a Christmas of pain and distress.

 

At the Masses of Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus, Son of God, Son of Man, and Son of Mary, whom the Eastern Church refers to as the Theotokos, the God-Bearer.  We recall the birth of Jesus, fully divine and fully human,  True God and True Man like us in all things but sin.  We celebrate an event from two millennia in the past that remains immediate today.

 

The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius include meditations that bring the reality of Jesus' birth to a deeper awareness and place that birth into its true context. The meditations help remove crusted eggnog from a sleeve, get that last annoying piece of tinsel from the fingers, and perhaps reduce road rage.  At the beginning of the long meditation Ignatius instructs: “Imagine Mary, with child, seated on a donkey, setting out from Nazareth.  She was accompanied by Joseph.  They are going to Bethlehem to pay the tax imposed by Caesar Augustus."

 

Bethlehem is 90 miles from Nazareth,  about the distance to Hartford, CT--or at least to UConn.  Despite the sentimental greeting cards showing Mary, Joseph, and the donkey crossing sand dunes alone guided only by a star. No one of the time would have traveled alone without the protection of a caravan.  Robbery, abduction, and death while traveling through the desert were as much of a risk then as mugging, robbery, and death are today or anyone foolish enough to wander the streets of some of our major cities at 3:00 AM.  The journey would have taken at least a week or longer. It was not easy. 

 

A bit later in the contemplation Ignatius reminds us of something we cannot and must not forget or ignore if Christmas is to make sense. He wrote. “They made the journey and struggled that our Lord might be born, and that after his labors and hunger, his thirst and travail, and after insults and suffering, that He might die on the cross.  And do this for me.”

 

So that he might die on the cross for me.

 

Today we recall not only Jesus' birth but the entire arc of His life.  Jesus' life on earth changed the history of the world, it would never be the same.  We cannot celebrate His birth detached from all that preceded it or all that followed. The observance of the Nativity is not to be a break in life's tedium.  What we call the Christmas story cannot stand alone. It was the beginning, of the story of our redemption but was not and is not the fullness of that story. There was, there is, and there will be, much more.

 

The wood of the manger in Bethlehem led to the wood of the cross on Calvary. It could not be otherwise.  Without the wood of the cross the wood of the manger is meaningless. Without his passion and death, Jesus is just another kid born in Bethlehem.  Without his resurrection and ascension there would be nothing to celebrate today.

 

Dag Hammarskjold, third Secretary General of the U.N. captured the entire meaning of Christmas and the reason we celebrate, in a haiku.  He did so in just twelve words, with a total of seventeen syllables arranged in three lines. It explains everything we celebrate today.

 

On Christmas Eve, Good Friday

Was foretold them

In a trumpet fanfare            

 

As Apollo 8 astronauts Bill Anders, Jim Lovell, and Frank Borman orbited the moon, on Christmas Eve 1968 each man read part of the Creation narrative from the first ten chapters of the Book of Genesis. Borman, who died two years ago at age 95, also wrote a prayer for Christmas Day which he read at the end of the broadcast.  

 

"Give us, O God, the vision

which can see Your love in the world

in spite of human failure.

Give us the faith to trust Your goodness

in spite of our ignorance and weakness.

Give us the knowledge that we may continue

to pray with understanding hearts.

And show us what each one of us can do

to set forward the coming of the day of universal peace."

 

By way of response we can only say: Venite Adoremus, Dominum.

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The photos are from three different  Christmas locations.  They are in order from top to bottom: the tree in front of Gasson Hall on the BC campus, the Charterhouse of the Transtiguration.  The tree is not in the church,  and the Straw Nativity in Ljubljana.

 

 

Prayers for a blessed Christmas

Fr. Jack, SJ,, MD 

O Key of David : Homily for the 4th Sunday of Advent

 

Is 7:10-14

Ps 24:1-2, 3-4, 5-6

Rom 1:1-7

Mt 1:18-24

 

In three days we begin the Vigil of the Great Feast of the Nativity of the Lord.   How did we get here?  Where are we going?  A review of the readings for the first three Sundays of Advent helps answer the first question.  Only we can answer the second question but then only for ourselves..

 

The Gospel for the first Sunday emphasized being awake, alert, and prepared for the coming of the Son of Man, being prepared to recognize Him when He comes. This is not the only time we will be cautioned to be ready.  The admonition to be awake, alert, and prepared will be repeated several times during the liturgical year.  

 

The Gospels for the second and third Sundays of Advent spoke of John the Baptist, the herald of the Son of Man,  the voice crying out in the desert.  John was the bridge from the Old Law to the New Covenant.  A bridge permits both continuity and change.  It brings the past into the present and allows the present to move into the future.  No one can understand the New Testament without first knowing the Old.  Indeed, the New Testament makes no sense if it is removed from its moorings in the Old Testament. 

 

Today’s Gospel is a shift from the previous three Sundays.  It focuses on Joseph. Not one word is attributed to Joseph in scripture.  We know he was righteous only by actions, actions that reflected his obedience to God’s commands.  He was a compassionate man unwilling to expose Mary to shame.  He carried the burdens of being a parent with grace and equanimity.

 

Ecce Ancilla Domini,

fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum,

 

"Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord,

may it be done to me according to your word."

 

Mary’s yes changed the world, the universe, and all that lies beyond.  That yes continues to reverberate throughout the universe.  Unlike Mary’s yes, Joseph's yes was silent.  It was apparent only in his action, action that also changed the universe. 

 

“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.” Joseph's yes was in his unquestioning obedience.  There was no quid pro quo. He did not argue with God.  Unlike Ahaz in the first reading, he did not weary God.  Joseph did what had to be done.  Upon hearing the angel’s message he took Mary into his house.  Later, an angel would bring another message.  Once again and without question Joseph would take his young family to exile in Egypt. 

 

As we move toward the Great Feast of the Nativity of the Lord we recall and meditate upon events that are very human, events with which we can identify. Mary and Joseph struggled the same as we do.  They experienced stressors just we as we do. They knew the same emotions we know: fear and anxiety, joy and sorrow and everything in between.  Both Mary and Joseph acted with obedience rooted in faith. They knew that obedience entails giving up control. They knew that faith, is the conviction of things unseen, and the acceptance of things that are inexplicable.

 

Tonight before the Magnificatˆ we will chant or recite the fourth of the “O Antiphons”

 

O Clavis David,

et sceptrum domus Israël,

 

“O Key of David,
and scepter of the house of Israel,
you open, and no one shuts,
you shut, and no one opens:
come, and lead the prisoner from jail

seated in darkness
and in the shadow of death.”

 

St. Joseph pray for us.

 

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Photos are from Christmas in Ljubljana, Slovenia. 

 Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

Rejoice in the Lord Always: Homily for Gaudete Sunday

 

The designation of Gaudete for the third Sunday of Advent,  comes from the first Latin word of the entrance antiphon for the Mass.

 

Gaudete in Domino semper,

iterum dice gaudete. 

Dominus enim prope est.

 

“Rejoice in the Lord always;

again I say rejoice! 

The Lord is near.” 

 

Rejoice because our redemption is at hand.  Rejoice because the time of the Messiah has drawn near.  Rejoice because, as we were reminded six days ago, Mary, the Immaculate Conception, responded to the message of the angel that she was to be Mother of Jesus with the most perfectly enunciated yes in history:

 

Ecce ancilla domini,

fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum

 

“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. 

May it be done to me according to your word.”

 

With that ‘yes’ a universe that had been holding its breath sighed in relief and rejoiced.

 

Gaudete in Domino semper,

 “Rejoice in the Lord always;

 

Jesus entered into time and space, He came to the earth so as to save it. He entered into our lives to save us from our sins.  Fully God and fully man He came to redeem us from the sin of Adam and Eve and from our sins. The joy of this third Sunday of Advent is apparent in the readings.

 

Isaiah describes how the desert will exult blooming with abundant flowers on the steppes and rejoicing with joyful song.  The psalmist affirms the joy when he sings 'The Lord God keeps faith forever secures justice for the oppressed. He gives food to the hungry and sets captives free.'

 

Anyone who is familiar with Handel's Messiah will recognize multiple verses from Isaiah throughout the oratorio. That includes some of the verses  that were just proclaimed.

 

"Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing."

 

The simple recitative is followed by the exquisitely beautiful aria “He Shall Feed His Flock."  The aria includes an important directive for all:  "come unto Him all you that labor, come unto Him that are heavy laden, and He will give you rest."

 

As was true last Sunday, the gospel focused on John the Baptist,  the herald who announced the news of Jesus, the voice of the one crying out in the desert, the kinsman who felt unworthy to untie the sandal of the one who was to come.  When John sent messengers to inquire if Jesus was indeed he who was to come, Jesus instructed the messengers, 'tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.'

 

In three days the Church will begin the “O” antiphons that introduce and close the Magnificat at evening prayer.  The antiphons prepare us even more for the ad venire, the coming of our Lord into and onto this earth. It is so near that we cannot help but rejoice. Soon.  Very soon.

 

Gaudete in Domino semper,

iterum dice gaudete. 

Dominus enim prope est.

 

“Rejoice in the Lord always;

again I say rejoice! 

The Lord is near.”  

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All of the photos are from Taiwan, taken in 2010.  I'd stopped over there for ten days before going on to Sydney to begin tertianship.  I also stopped for ten days on the way back for another ten days.   

 

 Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

A Voice in the Desert: Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Advent

 

Is 11;1-10

Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17

Rom 15:4-9

Mt 3:1-12

 

There is no reason to doubt the existence of John the Baptist, a kinsman of Jesus through his mother who was a relative of Mary, Mother of Our Lord.   Mentioned in all four gospels as well as  Acts of the Apostles, in what scripture scholars call multiple attestation,  John is also described in sources outside of scripture, especially the writings of one Josephus.

 

Josephus was an historian of the times who was neither a Jew nor a follower of Jesus.

Though details of accounts vary across sources they are all compatible rather than contradictory.  Josephus wrote, “He was a good man who encouraged the Jews to lead righteous lives, to practice justice toward their fellow men, and piety toward God, and in so doing to join in baptism.’ The practices of justice and piety towards God were necessary for the baptism to be acceptable to God” 

 

Unlike some depictions in paintings, on the stage, and in opera, John was not a proto-hippie. As described in the gospels, his dress and diet were typical of any desert dweller of the time.  The skins were necessary for warmth during cold desert nights.  The diet can be easily explained by noting that he was keeping kosher.  According to Josephus, John was a good man who preached a baptism of repentance.  One analysis notes that no man is more important for understanding the historical Jesus than is John the Baptist. 

 

Not only was John the herald of Jesus—the voice crying out in the desert as prophesied by Isaiah—it was not until His baptism by John, that Jesus’ divine identity was revealed and His public ministry begun.  We will hear the baptism narrative in a few weeks.  John the Baptist will be debated forever.  However, with baptism John initiated a new liturgy within Judaism. 

 

There is no agreement about the nature or meaning of that baptism,   Was it a baptism of forgiveness or a baptism of purification?  There was nothing resembling it in Jewish liturgical practices of the day.  The ritual of baptism itself heralded a new age.

 

The more one reads about John the Baptist the more apparent it becomes that most of what is known’ about him, his motivation, his self-awareness, and his understanding of Jesus, represents more the writers’ projections onto and biases about John, than they do verifiable facts.  Jesuit Father John O’Malley, the great Jesuit historian was fond of saying, ‘there is no history, only historians.’

 

It is the historians who decide what they are going to write about, what sources they will use, what information they will pay attention to, what information they will ignore, and how they will present it.’   In general the more ancient the history the more subjectively biased is the information given by the historian. 

 

Jesus instructs his hearers in today’s  gospel, “Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.  And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’” This short sentence was later expanded in the Letter of James.  “Be doers of the word not hearers only; what good is it if someone says he has faith but does not have works?  Simply saying “we have Abraham as our father” was not a get-out-of-jail-free card.  It did not excuse wrong action.  Today, loudly proclaiming that one has faith in Jesus or that Jeeeeeezus is my savior,  without living out the demands of that faith, is not a get-out-of-jail-free card either. 

 

John's message was uncompromising.  It was the opposite of one of the saddest words

used in the U.S. today:  "Whatever."  John's message is not a 'whatever.'  John's message is that 'this is the sure path you must follow.' In time that message cost him his life.

 

Paul wrote “What was written previously was written for our instruction, that by endurance and by the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Welcome one another, then, as Christ welcomed you, for the glory of God.”  If we are able to live out those words we will help bring about the peace prophesied in the first reading by Isaiah. 

 

We face many choices during Advent.  The important choices do not include colored lights or clear, what kind of cookies do I make, or, where can I find the biggest flat screen TV for the lowest price? The choices are how to live out our faith.  How to live that faith in an attitude of repentance and conversion of heart, and to say with the psalmist:

 

“May his name be blessed forever;

as long as the sun his name shall remain.

In him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed;

all the nations shall proclaim

 

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One of the single greatest experiences I've had with the camera was being snowed in for three days on Mt. Equinox in Vermont.  The total amount to fall in 24 hours was about 17 inches.  This was at 2500 feet elevation.  When I was able to drive down from the mountain, dreading having to clean off the car I was shocked.  No snow.  None.  A very easy drive home on dry roads.  

 

While on the mountain I had access to an SUV. It turns out I was the only thing moving on the mountain.  The snow was soft and fluffy and, in the absence of wind, piled up and stayed.  Below are a few of the photos out of the hundreds I took.  

 

A perfect canopy

The road to the monastery about 1 1/2 miles away.  It was a bit of a thrill to create the tracks. 

A small stream near my quarters.  

A holding pond that is part of the hydroelectric generation.  Water flows from a dam just behind where I was shooting, and continues to flow downhill. 

The entrance to the monastery.

Monastic graveyard.  The silence this particular day was total.

 Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

 

O Come Emmanuel: Homily for the 1st Sunday in Advent

 

Veni, Veni Emmanuel!


Captivum solve Israel!

 

"O come O come Emmanuel! 

And ransom captive Israel!"

 

Despite being the first day of the new liturgical year,  Advent begins without fanfare on the first of the four Sundays before December 24th.  It ends with the joyful commemoration of Jesus’ flesh and blood arrival into this world.  Advent ends celebrating that Jesus, fully God and fully man, was born into and lived on the same planet, on which we live and breathe, study and work, celebrate and mourn. 

 

The word Advent derives from two Latin roots: ad and venire which mean “to come to.”  But the literal translation of the rootsdoes not convey the truth and reality of Advent.  In his book Benedictus, Pope Benedict XVI explained that advent is the Latin translation of the Greek word parousia which means presence, but even more specifically means arrival.  Arrival is the beginning of another’s presence but it is not the fullness of that presence.

 

Consider a child.  The moment the mother’s pregnancy is known the world changes.  And that world never returns to what it was, even if the child is the victim of an abortion.  The presence of that child in the world, even if it was brief such as a miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant death changes the world in ways that can never be fully appreciated.  This is particularly true of the world inhabited by the parents, grandparents, and the rest of the family and friends.

 

A child’s presence is apparent with a woman’s first awareness that she is pregnant.  The news of that presence ripples out to the wider world such that the child is present in the lives of his or her parents, grandparents, and others. That presence ripples out as the date of birth nears.  Birth makes the child’s presence more real to the wider world. But, that presence is never complete, it is always in the process of becoming and evolving.

 

The presence of another never truly ends.  Everyone in the in this chapel is being influenced by the presence of others in their lives who  may be far off or dead.  Parents.  Siblings. Teachers.  Mentors.  Friends.  And others.  Their presence influences our lives.  Even when present only in memory they may influence what we decide, how we act, and the choices we make.  Their presence in our lives--be it tangible or remembered-- may soothe and comfort us during times of stress.

 

Alas, for some, that presence may be the source of continuing anxiety and pain.  No matter if it is comforting or painful, It is impossible NOT to respond to another’s presence.  Even ignoring another’s presence is responding to it.

 

Jesus’ presence is an advent presence. It is a presence that is always a “coming to,” a presence of "coming toward."  It is always dynamic.  During advent we recall that Jesus is present in this world and is always becoming newly present to this world,  He is present in our lives but also becoming newly present in our lives as much as we allow it.

 

Jesus presence is always a becoming,  Advent reminds us that it is the approach of his presence but we have yet to experience the fullness of that presence, a fullness we will only know after we have died. 

 

Jesus is present in our daily lives in three tangible ways.  We only have to look, listen, and taste, to experience that three-fold presence.

 

He is present in the community of believers who participate in the prayers of the Church,  most particularly in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 

Jesus is present in the words of the Gospel proclaimed in the assembly of believers and during meditation  in the Gospel in the silence of one’s room.

 

And, Jesus is present most truly and substantially present in the Eucharist, the bread and wine, that will soon be consecrated, broken, and shared.  

 

Advent is not a countdown of shopping days until December 24.

 

Advent is not the time to prepare for a holiday. 

 

Advent  is the time to prepare for a Holy Day.

 

Advent is a time to prepare for the commemoration of the birth of the Messiah.

 

The Christ,

 

The Anointed One.

 

We are scanning the horizon for the star that announces the coming into the world of the Son of God, Son of David, and Son of Mary.

 

We are awaiting the King of Kings and the Prince of Peace, He who is like us in all things but sin.

 

As we begin Advent we recall that Jesus came toward and into this world to save it and to ransom us from sin and death.  Thus we pray. . . .

 

Veni, Veni Emmanuel!


Captivum solve Israel!

 

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All of the photos are from the  National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in D.C.  I went over there frequently for Mass before I was ordained.  Celebrated or concelebrated a number of Masses there.  It is enormous.  Always went over early with the camera.  

 

 

Fr. Jack, SJ, MD