Presentation of the Lord

Celebrated Mass at St. Julia, the church on the main street in Weston.  Pretty little church with an active and involved congregation.  A trip out to Spencer to see my spiritual director and then home to watch the Super Bowl.  Not so super play by Denver.  Wretched commercials.  The Oikos Yogurt one was offensive.  Pathetic. John Stamos reached a new low, something I didn't think possible after being in Full House.

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Mal 3:1-4

Ps 24

Heb 2:14-18

Lk 2:22-40

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, a feast known in the past as Candlemas.   On Candlemas the beeswax candles used in both Church and home for the coming year were blessed.  The Gospel just proclaimed is one of the many exquisitely beautiful narratives found in Luke.  It includes Simeon’s prayer, the Nunc Dimittis

"O Lord, now you let your servant go in peace

Your word has been fulfilled . . . "

The Church prays this daily at the end of night prayer.  It has been set to music by many composers. 

More than any other Gospel, Luke gives us a window into the dynamics of Jesus’ family life and relationships.  The Annunciation, the Vistitation, Jesus’ birth, the circumcision, Jesus’ presentation at the Temple, and a brief look at Jesus at the age of 12.  All of this detail is an important reminder that Mary and Joseph were observant Jews who fulfilled all of the laws and customs surrounding the birth of a son.  They were indeed righteous people.  All of this emphasizes that Jesus was like us.  He was like us in all things but sin.  The story of Jesus is a human and humane one.  The details of Jesus' life as put forward in Luke's Gospel are details with which we can identify. 

In the second readings we heard,  "Since the children share in blood and flesh, Jesus likewise shared in them, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death . . . and free those who through fear of death had been subject to slavery all their life."

Jesuit Theologian Karl Rahner  points out what is obvious in this reading from Hebrews: 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”

What Rahner calls the facts of human existence are not always easy to understand.  Many of us rage against the fact that we must suffer and die. Perhaps we rage even more violently against the fact that those we love must suffer and die.  Here we can turn to Mary.

There are hints of the pain to come in Simeon’s cryptic comment to Mary, “and you yourself, a sword will pierce” or, in another translation

“and a sword will pierce through your own soul also.” What did Mary feel when she heard these words?  Did she recall them later at the foot of the cross?  There is no pain greater than that of a parent who endures the death of a child at any stage of the child’s life from life in the womb to death in old age.  But there is also pain in watching a parent or a spouse in end stage of Alzheimer's or coping the harsh realities of cancer or the myriad of other diseases that can claim us.  All of us have our hearts pierced with a sword many times in our lives. 

"And suddenly there will come to the temple the LORD whom you seek,  And the messenger of the covenant whom you desire.

Yes, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts."

We just heard how this prophecy from the Book of Malachi, was fulfilled in this Gospel.  Jesus was brought to the Temple.  He was recognized. He was not recognized by the crowd in the Temple but by two people whose eyes were open.  Jesus was recognized by two who were awaiting the Lord, and were disposed to recognize Him when He came. 

Simeon and Anna are us.  And they are examples for us. They are examples because they recognized Jesus in the infant brought into the Temple.  They were open to the grace of Jesus' presence.  They knew of God's promise and were eagerly awaiting the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One.

Our challenge is to recognize Jesus when we encounter Him, wherever we encounter Him and in whomever we encounter Him.  We may encounter Him in the adolescent at school, or in the child noisily exploring the world.  And most critically we encounter Jesus in the child being carried in the womb.  We recognize Him in that child who, just as Jesus was under attack by Herod, is under concerted attack by American government and society.  We are called to recognize Jesus in the elderly afflicted with dementia.  We are called to recognize Jesus in all whom we encounter.

Lent begins on 4 March, a month from this coming Wednesday.  We will hear more in the Gospel narratives how Jesus was like us in pain, suffering, and death, how Jesus was like us in all things but succumbing to temptation, like us in all things but sin.  But today on Candlemas we recall and celebrate that Jesus is the light of the world, a light that will never be extinguished.

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Playing with black and white conversions in photos.  The first role of film I shot with a Canon AE-1, a revolutionary camera in its time, was ASA 400 black and white.  I continue to have a fondness for that medium.  The eye notices different things with black and white than it does with color.  I've been posting photos lately on a web site for photographers.  Purely for fun.  

I took this near Chiang Kai-shek's tomb in Taipei.  There are two huge theaters at opposite ends of a massive square.  A women's choir was going into the hall for rehearsal.  They had a photographer taking photos as they made their way across the square.  I decided to join in the fun.  It was very hot and humid.  The women were wearing all black.  The secret is that there was a second man standing in the background.  I removed him.

These are prayer requests at Wen-wu Temple at Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan.  Sun Moon Lake is one of the most beautiful places I will ever visit.  Complete tranquility. 

This is not black and white but it might as well be.  I'd never seen a white peacock before.  Note the pink beak and feet.  Probably an albino.  

And on to Australia.  All of these were taken at Sevenhill during the long retreat.  

The first is the road from the house where John, Simon and I made the retreat.  We walked it multiple times per day.  Unlike the weather this year where the temps are hitting 105 and higher, we had cool, rainy and foggy weather.  It was disastrous for the grape harvest. 

The meadow across from the house. 

Moon rise. 

A meadow in the early morning light. 

This last is Sydney, Australia by night.  It is a lovely colored photo but the intensity of some of the colors reflecting off the harbor is distracting.  I much prefer this one. 

+Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

It has been a while.  The pace here has been busy since early January with many trips into Boston, covering Masses in a variety of places, and giving a day of recollection to the Carmelites of the Aged and Infirm in Framingham.  And a minor bout of food poisoning that, though uncomfortable for about twenty-four hours did not approach the agony of norovirus last year.  Just saw a note on the ABC news webpage about a gastrointestinal illness affecting over 250 people on a cruise ship.  I cannot imagine being that sick in a tiny stateroom bathroom.

Homily first and then some photos from the retreat house at Gloucester.
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Is 8:23-9:3

Ps 27:1,4,13-14

1 Cor 1:10-13,17

Mt 4:12-23

In the essay introducing the Book of Isaiah, the Jewish Study Bible notes:  "Isaiah is perhaps the best-loved of the prophetic books.  It is cited more than any other prophetic text in rabbinic literature."  One can say something similar about the role of Isaiah in the Catholic Church.  The challenge over the centuries

(Isaiah lived in the last half of the 8th century B.C.) is the meaning of the text.  Was Isaiah speaking of Christ?  Was he speaking of someone or something else entirely?  One's religious biases, prayer, and contemplation will determine one's answer in part.  Biblical scholars are all over the place on this one.   

In the commentary from the same source, on the verses just read, there is an interesting explanation of the name Isaiah.  "Semitic names often consist of sentences that describe God; thus the name Isaiah in Hebrew means, "The Lord saves."  The commentary goes on to explain why Isaiah used the past tense in the verses.  Recall we heard:

"The people who have walked in darkness,

have seen a great light;

upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom

a light has shone.

You have brought them

abundant joy

and great rejoicing." 

One way to look at the use of the past tense in verses that the Church understands as speaking of Christ is what is called "the prophetic past."  Remember, these verses of Isaiah were written approximately 800 years before Jesus' birth.  How then could Isaiah have been speaking of Christ?  Using the past tense to describe the future is one of the ways.

The prophetic past predicts future events using the past tense because those events are already as good as done.  The prophetic past tense is rooted in the faith and hope that what we ask of the Lord, and what the Lord has promised, is as good as done, even if the present is not as we would want it to be, even if the present bears no resemblance to what God has promised. 

Paul was not happy with the Corinthians when he wrote his first letter to them.  He was writing about abuses that had found their way into the Church at Corinth.  Paul discusses these abuses from chapter one through chapter six of his letter.  The abuses included: divisions among the faithful, a case of incest, lawsuits among Christians, and sins against chastity.  Not too much different from today.

"I urge you . . . in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree in what you say . . . that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose." 

In writing this Paul is not suggesting that Christians cannot disagree on earthly affairs: politics, gun control, or the Patriots vs. the Jets are fair game for disagreement.  Paul is referring to the unity of the Church.  He is referring in particular to unity in understanding the foundational dogmas of the Church.  The kind of sectarianism against which he railed: I belong to Cephas, I belong to Paul, is a sectarianism that implies different understandings of Christ. This is dangerous and divisive.  Alas, we have to contend with it daily. 

Matthew's Gospel recounts the calling of the apostles.  The story is simple on the surface. It is terrifying in its implications when one parses out the meaning of being called by God. 

In Xavier Leon-Dufour's Dictionary of Biblical Theology one finds the following:  "A calling supposes a change in being since God's call catches a man at his ordinary work, interrupts him in the midst of his friends, and involves him in a project known to God alone."  That description certainly fits the Gospel just proclaimed and what we know transpired after the apostles accepted Jesus' summons. 

There they were, Peter, Andrew, James and John, working as fisherman.  Hauling in the nets, perhaps grumbling a bit about the quality of the catch. Their backs were sore. Their fingers ached. They were probably cold and wet. And then they heard Jesus: "Come after me."  Come follow me.  "And I will make you fishers of men."  That last is not a very specific job description.  And so it is for us.  When we accept Jesus' call to us, we are beginning a project that doesn't have a very detailed job description, . . . if it has any.  But it was through this kind of call that Jesus surrounded himself first, with the apostles and then, as we will hear in Gospel narratives throughout the year, others who were called to be disciples.  Some accepted in the spirit of the apostles:  immediately and without equivocation.  Others rejected the call.  Others rejected the invitation to follow Christ, sometimes for the flimsiest of excuses. 

To be called by Christ is to be called into His mission.  This call is mediated by the Church not by one's own whims and desires of the 'I-don't-need-a-Church-to-tell-me-how-to-follow-Jesus' variety.  Or the cafeteria variety, 'I can accept that Jesus was the Christ but I really can't believe that stuff about the real presence.'  The Church is not perfect.  At times it has to deal with the kind of sectarianism decried by Paul.  It is, after all, a Church made up entirely of sinners.  However, it is what has come down through the millennia preaching the salvation found in Christ. 

Our own prayer for today should be taken directly from the responsorial psalm:

"One thing I ask of the Lord,

this I seek:

to dwell in the house of the Lord

all the days of my life,

that I may gaze on the loveliness of the Lord

and contemplate his Temple"

Sit with that prayer.  Meditate on those images. They will yield much fruit. 

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I enjoy taking photos that explore shape, color, texture and so on while filling the frame.  I had to make an unplanned trip to the retreat house at Gloucester (where the novices are making their long retreat at the moment) to pick up some things for a Jesuit who had become ill.  There was time to wander around the grounds.  Autumn is, and will always be, my favorite time of the year.  The first two photos explore shape, color and so on.  That is my definition of photographic fun. 

The first is a ceramic Jesuit seal mounted on a stone wall in the middle of a trellis.  

The next is strips of cloth and ribbon on a wall-hanging in the house.  The vibrant colors caught my eye.  The beige stone in the background is an interesting contrast. 

The two chairs that look out onto Brace's Rock are frequently occupied by silent retreatants.  Sometimes they are writing in their journals. 

There are Adirondack chairs scattered all over the property.  Lovely to look at they can be a challenge to get out of, particularly for the elderly or those with any sort of lower-body weakness.  

I hope to get up there one of these days when the temps are not so low as to possibly damage the camera.  

+Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

Snowing. A Lot.

The original plan for today was to celebrate 9 AM Mass down at St. Zephiran Church in Wayland, about five miles from here.  However, the snow began this morning.  Perhaps I could have made it but Mass was canceled.  I wasn't eager to try to get there and was thus relieved.  There is no way anyone will go to Mass tomorrow.  Predictions range from 10 to 18 inches with the snow ending at noon.  The winds are fierce so that there will be drifts as well.  Am scheduled to go to St. Zephiran next Thursday and Friday.  Perhaps it won't snow.  The homily below was the one I prepared for tomorrow.  Then the photos.

Christmas Weekday

1 Jn  2:29-3:6

Ps 98 1, 3cd-4, 5-6

Jn 1:29-34

The gospel reading today continues where yesterday’s left off, with John the Baptist in the Desert, announcing Jesus in his role as “a voice crying out in the wilderness.”  It recounts Jesus’ baptism

The description of Jesus’ baptism in John’s Gospel is different from the other three gospels.  There are many points that are the same but what John did not include was a description of the baptism ritual itself.  At some point during this particular passage one realizes that John baptized Jesus but the baptism is not explicit. 

More important than the details of the baptism is the significance of that baptism.  Looked at in this way this gospel almost overwhelms with material for meditation.  The last sentence alone, “Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God” has resulted in thousands of pages trying to understand what “the Son of God” means.  

One thing is so obvious that most of us never think of it.  Jesus bore no outward distinguishing mark. There was nothing about Jesus that set him apart from any other man of his time.  Certainly there was no halo or aura of light emanating from him, as depicted by artists through the centuries. Jesus was not recognized as “the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit” by how he dressed or carried himself.  He was fully God and fully man to be sure.  But people walked past Jesus daily without recognizing him and without knowing him, just as we can go through our daily lives without knowing Jesus or recognizing how he acts in our lives. 

In his time Jesus was fully known only through God’s revelation.  In our time today Jesus is known through God’s revelation and faith in that revelation. And just as John the Baptist was ready to see that revelation when he “saw the Spirit come down like a dove from the sky and remain upon him”,  we must be ready for the revelation.  Indeed, as we go through life we will receive repeated revelations of Jesus self and action in our lives.  But only if we are ready to receive them through faith.

We are coming to the end of the Christmas season, the season that commemorates Jesus coming to this world as flesh and blood.  Sunday is epiphany followed a week later by the Baptism of the Lord, which will be described in Matthew’s Gospel—pay attention to the differences compared with the Gospel this morning.  And then the Christmas season is over.

Lent will be here soon but for now we still sing Gloria in Excelcis Deo.  Christ is born.  It makes sense that the psalms today instructs us to:

Sing praise to the Lord with the harp,

with the harp and melodious song.

With trumpets and the sound of the horn

sing joyfully before the King, the LORD. 

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It was a privilege to have two of my photos used for the community Christmas cards.  Over the past two days I spent at least 8 hours in the chapel here taking photos for next year's cards.   The photos below reflect some of that work.  Most of them were long exposures ranging from 20 seconds to more than a minute (none of the very longest ones appear below).  While the black and white one will not be a Christmas card I am more than pleased with it.  A lot of smoke appeared after the 18 candles were extinguished yesterday morning at about 10:30 or so.  There was no time to grab the tripod because the smoke was dissipating.  So, I jacked the ISO to 500 and shot followed by a lot of post-processing.  No commentary on each one.  

Have a Blessed New Year.  

+Fr. Jack, SJ, MD