If today’s gospel sounds not only familiar but brings about the thought, “didn’t I just hear that gospel….?” – you are correct. It is a scene from Luke’s gospel called the Visitation when Mary goes in haste to the hill country to see her relative Elizabeth, mother-to-be of John the Baptist. It was proclaimed as the gospel in the Sunday just past, and is the traditional reading for the 4th Tuesday in Advent. Continue reading
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 its proximity to Christmas, I suspect we quickly want to jump the 9 months and have our thoughts move quickly to the Nativity of Jesus. But let us put things on “pause” for a moment and savor the scene on its own – as have Da Vinci, Rembrandt, El Greco and countless iconographers over the ages.
My friend, Fr. Bill McConville OFM, notes that part of the church’s art tradition is that the scene of the Annunciation often portrays Mary, not empty-handed, but holding a book or a scroll, her reading and reflecting on Scripture being interrupted by the angel’s pronouncement. The tradition is that she is meditating on Isaiah 7 (today’s first reading) in which there is the promise that a virgin will bear a child. Perhaps. Continue reading
Today’s gospel is the traditional reading for the 4th Sunday of Advent (year A) but here in Year C, it is placed to tell part of the story that just precedes the birth of Christ. These familiar episodes set the stage for one of the Bible’s best-known passages, the story of Christmas. This reading aligns well with the readings of the seven days of Advent that immediately precede Christmas. Not only do the readings for the daily Masses just before Christmas include the beginnings of the Gospel infancy narratives (Matthew 1 on Dec. 17-18; Luke 1 on Dec. 19-24), but we again get to hear the traditional “O Antiphons,” at Mass. It all begins to answer the question of Advent: who is coming? The reading contribute to the larger answer: Jesus Christ, son of Mary, adopted son of Joseph, son of David, named Jesus, the one who will save his people from their sins, and Emmanuel…God with us. Continue reading
Today, our “O Antiphon,” our expression of desire and longing is this:
O Adonai, O Lord of the House of Israel
Giver of the Law to Moses on Sinai
Come to rescue us with your mighty power
In its own way, if Sunday December 26 2021 is Holy Family Sunday, then perhaps this weekend is “Holy Couples Weekend.” Our gospel for tomorrow is about Mary, a mother’s story, as we see her set out to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Today our gospel is the Father’s story – the narrative of the angel’s message to Joseph as he ponders what to do now that he knows Mary “was found with child through the Holy Spirit. Joseph…since he was a righteous man, [was] unwilling to expose her to shame, [and so] decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream.” (Mt 1:18-20) It was not the way he hoped to start their life together. Continue reading
Not only do the readings for the daily Masses just before Christmas include the beginnings of the Gospel infancy narratives (Matthew 1 on Dec. 17-18; Luke 1 on Dec. 19-24), but we again get to hear the traditional “O Antiphons,” at Mass. Most of us were introduced to the antiphons via the popular hymn, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” Yet the “O Antiphons” are more than a thousand years old. Curiously, the first verse of the familiar hymn is actually the last of the traditional “O Antiphons” while the other verses of the hymn (in the order printed in most hymnals) correspond to the Antiphons for Dec. 17 to 22: Continue reading
Today’s gospel is taken from the opening verses in Matthew’s gospel. Apart from the argument of which gospel is the first or the oldest, the placement of the Gospel of Matthew as the first book encountered in the New Testament is brilliant. The opening verses “connect” the story of Jesus to the whole of the Old Testament through the genealogy. We know the biblical VIPs: “the son of David, the son of Abraham” and we know a few more: Isaac, Jacob, Judah, and Jesse and Joseph…but most are hard pressed to know many more on the list. Continue reading
In today’s gospel, we are again in the desert with John the Baptist – at least as far as Jesus asking the people (who apparently went out to see John the Baptist in the desert): “What did you go out to the desert to see…” In other words, what were you expecting? I would suggest Jesus is simply asking them to remember what motivated them to take the trip out into the dessert, to the Jordon River. If you have ever been to the Holy Land you know that Jerusalem to the Jordan River is not a walk in the park. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 4th Sunday in Advent in cycle C of the lectionary. The gospel, the final words from Elizabeth are: “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” (Luke 1:45)
Several weeks ago a blind man shouted out to Jesus, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!” (Mark 10:47). Similarly, words of Elizabeth are “cried out” (anaphoneo) with a “loud voice” (krauge megale). First Elizabeth “eulogizes” Mary and the “fruit of her womb.” Literally, the word eulogeo means “to speak well of,” then “to praise,” then “to bless,” and finally, it can refer to deeds that bring blessings, “to act kindly towards.” Continue reading
There is always continuity in the readings for daily Mass, especially the gospels. Often there is continuity in the story itself. The readings for the previous two days came from the gospel of St. Matthew. They described questioning of Jesus by the chief priest and elders of the Temple, wanting to know by whose authority Jesus was teaching in the Temple precincts. But Jesus turns the tables on them (having already overturned the tables in the Temple courtyard) and asks them questions about what was religiously playing out before their eyes, beginning with the ministry of John the Baptist. Lots of questions. A good week in which to ponder such things. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 4th Sunday in Advent in cycle C of the lectionary. Our Gospel is taken from Luke 1:39-45:
39 During those days Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, 40 where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit, 42 cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43 And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”
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