Advent through Christmas -- 2007
St. John of Damascus
”Joachim and Anne, how blessed a couple! All creation is indebted to you. For at your hands the Creator was offered a gift excelling all other gifts: a chaste mother, who alone was worthy of him.” ~St. John Damascene
Tuesday, December 4, First Week in Advent
Today is the optional memorial of St. John Damascene.
Born about 676 in Damascus, Syria, John’s Christian education for a captured Italian monk was supplemented by Muslim schools.
He became chief counselor for the caliph, but when the new caliph became hostile to Christians, John left Damascus to become a monk at St. Sabas Monastery, southwest of Jerusalem.
After ordination, John lived a quiet life of prayer and writing. He wrote commentaries on St. Paul, adapted choral music for liturgy and composed hymns. He also successfully defended the use of icons (painted or mosaic religious art) against critics who felt venerating icons was akin to worshipping idols.
John died in 749, and was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1890.
Advent through Christmas -- 2007
Tuesday, December 4, First Week in Advent
Jesus said, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him” Luke 10:21-24
This small section of Luke’s Gospel has what would be called a “very high theology” which emphasizes the divinity of Jesus.
In the story of Jesus’ birth, the angel Gabriel said to Mary: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you…Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.”
Make no mistake about it. The child born in Bethlehem is not simply a great prophet…not simply a miracle-worker…not simply someone specially chosen by God. The child born in Bethlehem is the Son of God.
In our relationship with Jesus, we always have to balance intimacy and reverence. Jesus did not come for us simply to look at him from a distance. He came so that we could join intimately with him and share in his own relationship with the Father.
On the other hand, we need to be reverent. We need to be aware of who it is we are relating to so closely…whom we are joining with in the Eucharistic prayer…whom we are receiving when we take the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ at Communion.
Intimacy and reverence. I could work on both right now as I spend some time with the Lord.
Spend some quiet time with the Lord.
