The Meeting Place with God

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Let’s start in the beginning. Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth…” One the sixth day God created people, pronounced it better than good, declaring it was very good. On the seventh day, God rested. It was the first Sabbath, when man and woman could be in communion with God. In the beginning we were holy and able to be in the presence of God. From the beginning Scripture makes clear that the entire cosmos and all that is in it was created for humanity’s Sabbath communion with God.  Continue reading →

Revealed in a Reply

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This coming Sunday is the 4th Sunday of Advent. In the previous post, after hearing the announcement from the angle Mary asks a question reminiscent of Zechariah’s query, “How can this be?” 35 And the angel said to her in reply, “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.  Continue reading →

The Promise of Mercy

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Today’s gospel is Mary’s prayer immediately following her encounter with her cousin Elizabeth in a scene known as the Visitation. It is part of a larger prayer known as the Magnificat and forms part of every evening prayer in the Church’s Divine Office. Mary’s prayer in today’s reading is about something much bigger than herself. When she thanks God for the things he has done for her, she remembers at the same time the things he has done for generations before her. Continue reading →

Mother of the King of Kings

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This coming Sunday is the 4th Sunday of Advent. 30 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, 33 and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”  Continue reading →

Song of Songs

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In yesterday’s reading  the Angel Gabriel invited Mary into the plans of God for redemption and salvation of the world in the reading known as the Annunciation. Today’s gospel is a familiar part of the Christmas story. It is the first part of the Visitation reading when Mary arrives at the house of her cousin Elizabeth and the child in Elizabeth’s womb leapt at the approach of the Messiah in the womb of Mary. It was a prenatal song of joy matched by Elizabeths’ outpouring of amazement and joy: “how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”  In tomorrow’s reading Mary will join this growing chorus of praise in her song of the Magnificat. These are the songs of the larger song of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Continue reading →

Confluence

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This coming Sunday is the 4th Sunday of Advent. Luke’s narrative style is on display as he deftly moves from the “annunciation” concerning John the Baptist to the one concerning the salvation of all humanity. There is a confluence of temporal and chronological markers, and the reappearance of Gabriel. The “sixth month” recalls v.24, and seems to imply that Elizabeth has only now come out of seclusion. This prepares for the sharing of the news of her pregnancy in v.36 and her subsequent welcome of Mary (vv.39–45). Yet geographically and socio-religiously we move away from the center (Jerusalem and the Temple) to the margins of the nations (Nazareth in Galilee). Gabriel, God’s messenger, is the connector, pointing to the God’s Word active in the world. Continue reading →

To Whom the Word Came

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Today’s gospel is a familiar part of the Christmas story – the Angel Gabriel inviting Mary into the plans of God for redemption and salvation of the world. Given our proximity to Christmas, I suspect we quickly want to jump ahead in time and move our thoughts and attention to the Nativity of Jesus. But let us put things on “pause” for a moment and savor the scene on its own – as did Da Vinci, Rembrandt, El Greco and countless iconographers over the ages. Continue reading →

A Tale of Two Men

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A Tale of Two Cities is the well-known novel by Charles Dickens whose opening line is famous but whose first paragraph is a masterpiece.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way…

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Similar, yet…

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This coming Sunday is the 4th Sunday of Advent. In many respects our gospel is similar to the annunciation of the birth of John. The angel Gabriel appears to announce the birth of the child, and the annunciation follows the pattern of birth annunciations in the OT: The angel says, “Do not be afraid,” calls the recipient of the vision by name, assures him or her of God’s favor, announces the birth of the child, discloses the name of the child to be born, and reveals the future role of the child in language drawn from the Scriptures. After their respective announcements, Zechariah and Mary each ask a question, a sign is given, and the scene closes with a departure. Continue reading →