Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings, 01-03-03, Optional: The Most Holy Name of Jesus

For your reading, reflection, faith-sharing, comments and discussion.

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Advent and Christmas Reflections for All -- 2003 -- ##85 and 86

Origin of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" [Underground Catechism]

Journeying with the Magi

Thought for the Day

Nothing restrains anger, curbs pride, heals the wound of malice, bridles self-indulgence, quenches the passions, checks avarice and puts unclean thoughts to flight, as does the name of Jesus.

-- St. Bernard

What good advice:

Nothing restrains anger, curbs pride, heals the wound of malice, bridles self-indulgence, quenches the passions, checks avarice and puts unclean thoughts to flight, as does the name of Jesus.

-- St. Bernard

From: 1 John 2:29-3:6

Not Listening to Heretics (Continuation)

[29] If you know that he is righteous, thou may be sure that every one
who does right is born of him.

We are Children of God

[1] See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called
children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know
us is that it did not know him. [2] Beloved we are God's children now;
it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he
appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

A Child of God Does Not Sin

[3] And every one who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

[4] Every one who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is
lawlessness. [5] You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in
him there is no sin. [6] No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins
has either seen him or known him.

Commentary:

1-24. This entire chapter shows how moved the Apostle is when he
contemplates the marvelous gift of divine filiation. The Holy Spirit,
who is the author of all Sacred Scripture, has desired John to pass on
to us this unique revelation: we are children of God (v. 1).

It is not easy to divide the chapter into sections, because the style
is very cyclic and colloquial and includes many repetitions and further
thoughts which make for great vividness and freshness. However, we can
distinguish an opening proclamation of the central message (vv. 1-2)
and emphasis on two requirements of divine filiation--rejection of sin
in any shape or form (vv. 3-10), and brotherly love lived to the full
(vv. 11-24).

1. "We should be called children of God": the original Hebrew
expression, which reads "we are called...", is also used by our Lord in
the Beatitudes (cf. Mt 5:9): "to be called" means the same as "to be
called by God"; and in the language of the Bible, when God gives
someone a name he is not simply conferring a title but is causing the
thing that the name indicates (cf., e.g., Gen 17:5), for the word of
God is efficacious, it does what it says it will do. Hence St John's
adding: "and so we are".

Therefore, it is not just a matter of a metaphorical title, or a legal
fiction, or adoption human-style: divine filiation is an essential
feature of a Christian's life, a marvelous fact whereby God
gratuitously gives men a strictly supernatural dignity, an intimacy
with God whereby they are "domestici Dei", "members of the household of
God" (Eph 219). This explains the tone of amazement and joy with which
St John passes on this revelation.

This sense of divine filiation is one of the central points in the
spirituality of Opus Dei. Its founder wrote: "We do not exist in order
to pursue just any happiness. We have been called to penetrate the
intimacy of God's own life, to know and love God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and to love also--in that same love of
the one God in three divine Persons--the angels and all men.

"This is the great boldness of the Christian faith--to proclaim the
value and dignity of human nature and to affirm that we have been
created to obtain the dignity of children of God, through the grace
that raises us up to a supernatural level. An incredible boldness it
would be, were it not founded on the promise of salvation given us by
God the Father, confirmed by the blood of Christ, and reaffirmed and
made possible by the constant action of the Holy Spirit" ("Christ Is
Passing By", 133).

"The world does not know us, (because) it did not know him": these
words are reminiscent of our Lord's at the Last Supper: "the hour is
coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.
And they will do this because they have not known the Father, nor me"
(Jn 16:2-3). Divine filiation brings with it communion and a mysterious
identification between Christ and the Christian.

2. The indescribable gift of divine filiation, which the world does not
know (v. 1), is not fully experienced by Christians, because the seeds
of divine life which it contains will only reach their full growth in
eternal life, when we see him "as he is", "face to face" (1 Cor 13:12);
"this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus
Christ whom thou hast sent" (Jn 17:3). In that direct sight of God as
he is, and of all things in God, the life of grace and divine filiation
achieve their full growth. Man is not naturally able to see God face to
face; he needs to be enlightened by a special light, which is given the
technical theological name of "lumen gloriae", light of glory. This
does not allow him to "take in" all God (no created thing could do
that), but it does allow him to look at God directly.

Commenting on this verse, the "St Pius V Catechism" explains that
"beatitude consists of two things--that we shall behold God such as he
is in his own nature and substance; and that we ourselves shall become,
as it were, gods. For those who enjoy God while they retain their own
nature, assume a certain admirable and almost divine form, so as to
seem gods rather than men" (I, 13, 7).

"When he appears": two interpretations are possible, given that in
Greek the verb has no subject: "when (what we shall be) is revealed we
shall be as he is"; or, as the New Vulgate translates it, "when he
(Christ) is revealed we will be like him (Christ)". The second
interpretation is the more likely.

3. "Purifies himself": Christian hope, which is grounded on Christ, is
something active and it moves the Christian to "purify himself". This
verb is evocative of the ritual purifications required of priests in
the Old Testament prior to engaging in divine service (cf. Ex 19:10;
Num 8:21; Acts 21:24); here and in other places in the New Testament,
it means interior purification from sins, that is, righteousness,
holiness (1 Pet 1:22; Jas 4:8). Our model is Jesus Christ, "as he is
pure"; he is the One who has never had sin, the Righteous One (1 Jn
2:29; 3:7); a Christian has no other model of holiness, as Jesus
himself said: "Learn from me" (Mt 11:29; cf. Jn 14:6). "We have to
learn from him, from Jesus, who is our only model. If you want to go
forward without stumbling or wandering off the path, then all you have
to do is walk the road he walked placing your feet in his footprints
and entering into his humble and patient Heart, there to drink from the
wellsprings of his commandments and of his love. In a word, you must
identify yourself with Jesus Christ and try to become really and truly
another Christ among your fellow men" ([St] J. Escriva, "Friends of
God",
128).

4-5. "Sin is lawlessness": although this is not strictly speaking a
definition, it does convey a basic idea: every sin is more than a
transgression of a precept of the moral law; it is above all, an
offense against God, the author of that law, a despising and a
rejection of his will.

To understand the scope of this assertion, one needs to start from the
fact that man has been created by God and is ever-dependent on him. So,
every sin involves a pretentious desire to be like God (cf. Gen 3:5),
to build one's life without reference to, or even in opposition to,
God. Everyone who sins severs his allegiance to God and takes the
devil's side. In this the mystery and "lawlessness" of sin consists.
"This expression," Pope John Paul II explains, "which echoes what St
Paul writes concerning the mystery of evil (cf. 2 Thess 2:7), helps us
to grasp the obscure and intangible element hidden in sin. Clearly, sin
is a product of man's freedom. But deep within its human reality there
are factors at work which place it beyond the merely human, in the
border-area where man's conscience, will and sensitivity are in contact
with the dark forces which, according to St Paul, are active in the
world almost to the point of ruling it (cf. Rom 7:7-24; Eph 2:2; 6:12)"
("Reconciliatio et Paenitentiae", 14).

Moreover, now that Christ has brought about our Redemption, every sin
implies an offense to our Redeemer; it means crucifying again the Son
of God (cf. Heb 6:6). So, St John reminds us about the main purpose of
the Incarnation: "he appeared to take away sins" (v. 5). There is an
echo here of the words the Apostle heard the Baptist say: "Behold the
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!" (Jn 1:29).

Thus, as we profess in the Creed at Mass, "for us men and for our
salvation he (the Word) came down from heaven". Being true God and
therefore completely exempt from sin (v. 5), he took on our human
nature, to burden himself with our sins and nail them to the Cross.
Therefore, the Christian, ransomed from the power of the devil by the
precious blood of Christ, and intimately united to him by the life of
grace, has broken with sin once for all.

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

From: John 1:29-34

The Witness of John (Continuation)

[29] The next day he (John the Baptist) saw Jesus coming toward him,
and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the
world! [30] This is He of whom I said, `After me comes a man who ranks
before me, for He was before me.' [31] I myself did not know Him; but
for this I came baptizing with water, that He might be revealed to
Israel." [32] And John bore witness, "I saw the Spirit descend as a
dove from Heaven, and it remained on Him. [33] I myself did not know
Him; but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, `He on whom
you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is He who baptizes with the
Holy Spirit.' [34] And I have seen and borne witness that this is the
Son of God."

Commentary:

29. For the first time in the Gospel Christ is called the "Lamb of
God". Isaiah had compared the sufferings of the Servant of Yahweh, the
Messiah, with the sacrifice of a lamb (cf. Isaiah 53:7); and the blood
of the paschal lamb smeared on the door of houses had served to protect
the firstborn of the Israelites in Egypt (cf. Exodus 12:6-7): all this
was a promise and prefiguring of the true Lamb, Christ, the victim in
the sacrifice of Calvary on behalf of all mankind. This is why St.
Paul will say that "Christ, our Paschal Lamb, has been sacrificed" (1
Corinthians 5:7). The expression "Lamb of God" also suggests the
spotless innocence of the Redeemer (cf. 1 Peter 1:18-20; 1 John 3:5).

The sacred text says "the sin of the world", in the singular, to make
it absolutely clear that every kind of sin is taken away: Christ came
to free us from Original Sin, which in Adam affected all men, and from
all personal sins.

The Book of Revelation reveals to us that Jesus is victorious and
glorious in Heaven as the slain lamb (cf. Revelation 5:6-14),
surrounded by saints, martyrs and virgins (Revelation 7:9, 14; 14:1-5),
who render Him the praise and glory due Him as God (Revelation 7:10).

Since Holy Communion is a sharing in the sacrifice of Christ, priests
say these words of the Baptist before administering it, to encourage
the faithful to be grateful to our Lord for giving Himself up to death
to save us and for giving Himself to us as nourishment for our souls.

30-31. John the Baptist here asserts Jesus' superiority by saying that
He existed before him, even though He was born after him. Thereby he
shows us the divinity of Christ, who was generated by the Father from
all eternity and born of the Virgin Mary in time. It is as if the
Baptist were saying: "Although I was born before Him, He is not limited
by the ties of His birth; for although He is born of His mother in
time, He was generated by His Father outside of time" (St. Gregory the
Great, "In Evangelia Homiliae", VII).

By saying what he says in verse 31, the Precursor does not mean to deny
his personal knowledge of Jesus (cf. Luke 1:36 and Matthew 3:14), but
to make it plain that God revealed to him the moment when he should
publicly proclaim Jesus as Messiah and Son of God, and that he also
understood that his own mission as precursor had no other purpose than
to bear witness to Jesus Christ.

32-34. To emphasize the divinity of Jesus Christ, the Evangelist
includes here the Precursor's testimony regarding Jesus' Baptism (cf.
the other Gospels, which describe in more detail what happened on this
occasion: Matthew 3:13-17 and paragraph). It is one of the key points
in our Lord's life, in which the mystery of the Blessed Trinity is
revealed (cf. note on Matthew 3:16).

The dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, of whom it is said in Genesis
1:2 that He was moving over the face of the waters. Through this sign
of the dove, the Isaiah prophecies (11:2-5: 42:1-2) are fulfilled which
say that the Messiah will be full of the power of the Holy Spirit. The
Baptist points to the great difference between the baptism he confers
and Christ's Baptism; in John 3, Jesus will speak about this new
Baptism in water and in the Spirit (cf. Acts 1:5; Titus 3:5).

"The Son of God": it should be pointed out that in the original text
this expression carries the definite article, which means that John the
Baptist confesses before his listeners the supernatural and
transcendent character of Christ's messiahship--very far removed from
the politico-religious notion which Jewish leaders had forged.

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

FEAST OF THE DAY

The feast of the Holy Name of Jesus was promoted by St.
Bernardine of Siena during the early fifteenth century. This feast is
rooted in the commandment to keep holy the name of the God, and
encourages us to show our respect, love and devotion for Jesus and
His name.

Bernardine spread the devotion to the Holy name by encouraging
people to add the name of Jesus to the Hail Mary (.fruit of your
womb, Jesus) and by encouraging the use of the monogram IHS.
This is an acronym of Jesus Savior of Humankind in Latin.

This feast was added to general observance throughout the Church
by the recently revised Roman Missal.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. - Philippians 2:9-11

TODAY IN HISTORY

236 St Anterus ends his reign as Pope
269 St Felix I begins his reign as Pope

TODAY'S TIDBIT

On the ninth day of Christmas, my True Love gave to me, nine ladies
dancing.
This verse is a reference to the nine fruits of the Spirit listed in Gal
5:22-23. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."

INTENTION FOR THE DAY

Please pray that people may incorporate the fruits of the Spirit into
their relationships and interactions with all people.

The Word Among Us

Saturday, January 03, 2004

Meditation
John 1:29-34

What do John the Baptist and the prophet Samuel have in common? For one thing, they both had the gift of discernment. When Samuel visited Jesse and his sons, he could tell that only one—David—was fit to be king of Israel (1 Samuel 16:6-12). Centuries later, John was baptizing in the Jordan River when Jesus came toward him. Seeing him, John exclaimed, “Here is the Lamb of God” (John 1:29).

Spiritual discernment is a gift that God gives to everyone who has been baptized into Christ. That means us! God wants us to nurture this gift and learn how to use it. How can we come to know God’s will for our lives—and his will for our daily situations—unless we learn how to exercise this precious gift?

On one level, we all have the basic ability to discern good from bad and righteousness from sin. On a deeper level, however, we know that these distinctions between right and wrong can be murky at times. For these “gray areas,” we need to be more careful. First, we need to take the issue to prayer and ask God for clarity. Then, we need to examine our hearts. What is motivating us? How do the choices we are contemplating measure against the commands of God and the teachings of the church? How do they stack up against what we know about God’s character and his intentions for us? Then, to the best of our ability, we should decide, always preferring to err on the side of caution.

John the Baptist was able to discern how he should live because he stayed close to the Holy Spirit. So did Samuel. And for both, their gift of discernment took them beyond questions of their own lives and enabled them to read people’s hearts and detect the Spirit’s movements in the world around them. For them—as well as for us—discernment was nothing less than insight into the very mind and heart of God. This is why spiritual discernment is more than a matter of good reason. It’s also about yielding to God. And that’s a proposition that brings benefits beyond measure!

“Jesus, give me the insight that will help me face the big decisions of life—and the smaller ones, too—in a way that gives you honor and glory.”

One Bread, One Body

<< Saturday, January 3, 2004 >>

1 John 2:29—3:6

Psalm 98

John 1:29-34

View Readings

CHRISTMAS ENDS WITH PENTECOST

“When you see the Spirit descend and rest on Someone, it is He Who is to baptize with the Holy Spirit.” —John 1:33

The finale of the Christmas season is not Christmas day or even Epiphany but the Baptism of Jesus. This is more emphasized in the Eastern Church. Christmas is Trinitarian. It is to the Father, through the Son, and in the Spirit. Christmas is focused on Christ and culminates in the Holy Spirit, the only true Christmas Spirit. Thus, we should be looking to conclude the Christmas season by having the Holy Spirit stirred into flame in our lives (see 2 Tm 1:6-7). In a way, the Christmas season ends as Easter does — with a new Pentecost.

In our Baptism, Jesus has immersed us in the Holy Spirit (see Jn 1:33). We should be preoccupied with the Holy Spirit. However, we can fall into the temptation of being preoccupied with ourselves. The Lord teaches through the Church: “The more we renounce ourselves, the more we ‘walk by the Spirit’ ” (Catechism, 736). The Spirit poured out within us fights against our selfishness (Gal 5:17). By the Spirit, we can “put to death the evil deeds of the body” (Rm 8:13).

In these last nine days of the Christmas season, let us not merely “have the Christmas spirit” but may the Holy Spirit of Christmas have us. Then we will truly have a great Christmas.

Prayer: Father, give me Christmas by Your standards.

Promise: “See what love the Father has bestowed on us in letting us be called children of God. Yet that is what we are.” —1 Jn 3:1

Praise: Betty follows the lead of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:25) so she can minister to those who most need God’s love.

Homily of the Day

Homily of the Day

Title:	How Malleable Are You in God's Hands?
Author:	Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D.
Date:	Saturday, January 3, 2004

1 Jn 2:29-3:6 / Jn 1:29-34

There's something in us that can't stop wondering what the next part of life will be like. How old will we be? Will we still like to bridge or basketball or whatever? What will our bodies be like? We have all sorts of questions and even more fantastic speculations about the answers. And none of it matters one whit.

In today's gospel, St John points us in a more useful direction. "What we shall be later has not yet come to light. But when it comes to light, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is." There's some gold hidden in that line, which we could easily miss. John is saying that the very experience of seeing God face-to-face will transform us into God's likeness. The change will not come by force from the outside, but freely from the inside, from the heart which at the sight of God will instinctively let go of anything less than God and give itself into God's hands to be reshaped.

That brings us squarely back to the present, for the ultimate transformation that John is talking about is simply the final stage of what our life and especially our prayer should have been about all along, namely, being reconfigured into God's image and likeness. The process of making ourselves malleable in the hands of our Father is the essential work of every day and of a lifetime. So don't let another day pass.

Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.

Novena in Honor
of the
Most Holy Face of Jesus

"I firmly wish that my face reflecting the intimate pains of my soul, the suffering and love of my heart, be more honored! Whoever gazes upon me already consoles me." (Our Lord Jesus Christ to Sister Pierina)

NOVENA

Thank you. That is a beautiful picture and a beautiful Novena