Free Republic

By Dr. John BergsmaThe Readings for this Sunday are exceptionally rich, so we will have to limit ourselves to following just a few themes. The First Reading is the account of the Fall, in which Eve, followed by Adam, gives in to temptation by eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. 2. Reading 1: Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7The LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being. Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in...

By Dr. John BergsmaThe “Hippie Jesus" is one of the common misunderstandings of Christ that are circulating in popular culture. People think of Jesus as a laid-back guru who traveled around Israel in this Volkswagen Vanagon, accompanied by twelve dudes in tie-died T-shirts. Jesus taught that all we need is Love, and not to be so uptight, like all those rule-bound priests and scribes. Of course, that view of Jesus is wrong. People adopt it, however, because they misunderstand the nature of Jesus’ conflict with the priests, scribes, and Pharisees that dominated Jewish religious practice in his day. Because Jesus...

By Dr. John BergsmaThe Readings for this Sunday remind me of the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, which I’ve had the privilege of visiting a couple of times in the past few years. This beautiful church is built on a hillside and is easily visible from much of the modern city of Nazareth. The architect designed the dome of the basilica to look like a lighthouse, symbolizing the light of Christ going out to all Nazareth and the rest of the Galilee region, in keeping with the theme of last week’s Gospel, “Those walking in darkness have seen a...

By Dr. John BergsmaChildren play make-believe games in which they are royalty—kings and queens, princes and princesses—but one of the main attractions of this kind of fantasy play is the imagined wealth that goes along with it. Who would not like to wear the finest clothes, live in the finest dwellings, dine on the best food, and be waited on hand and foot by servants? This is our standard notion of what “royalty” involves, but in this Sunday’s readings Jesus inaugurates a new kingdom, the “kingdom of heaven,” in which the aristocrats are going to live a lifestyle completely opposite...

By Dr. John BergsmaThe Readings for the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time this year are like a “holy hangover” from the Feasts of Epiphany and Baptism that we celebrated last week. Traditionally, three events of our Lord’s life have been celebrated clumped together around January 6, between the Christmas season and the transition to ordinary time. These are the arrival of the magi (Epiphany), the Baptism, and the Wedding at Cana. These are the three events in the various Gospels that “manifest” or show forth Jesus’ glory at the beginning of his life or career: the Magi in Matthew, the...

By Dr. John BergsmaThis Sunday we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which will close the liturgical season of Christmas. But why do we celebrate this event at all? The primary meaning of baptism appears to be the washing away of sin. Since Jesus had no sin, why be baptized? That’s one of the more obvious questions raised by the theme of this feast and by the readings. At the same time, the readings for this Sunday point us in the direction of an answer. 1. The First Reading is Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7:Thus says the LORD: Here...

By Dr. John BergsmaThe Christmas season can sometimes seem to be just one joyful feast after another. We are scarcely past the glow from the Holy Family and Mary, Mother of God, when Epiphany is already upon us. The word “Epiphany” comes from two Greek words: epi, “on, upon”; and phaino, “to appear, to shine.” Therefore, the “Epiphany” refers to the divinity of Jesus “shining upon” the earth, in other words, the manifestation of his divine nature. The use of the word “epiphany” for the revelation of divinity predates Christianity. The Syrian (Seleucid) emperor Antiochus IV (175-164 BC), the villainous...

By Dr. John BergsmaJanuary 1 is the Solemnity (Holy Day) of Mary, Mother of God. To call Mary the “Mother of God” must not be understood as a claim for Mary’s motherhood of divinity itself, but in the sense that Mary was mother of Jesus, who is truly God. The Council of Ephesus in 431—long before the schisms with the Eastern churches and other non-Catholic Christians—proclaimed “Mother of God” a theologically correct title for Mary. So far from being a cause of division, the common confession of Mary as “Mother of God” should unite all Christians, and distinguish Christian orthodoxy...

By Dr. John BergsmaThe Sunday that falls in the Octave of the Solemnity of Christmas is dedicated to celebrating the Holy Family. The Readings for this Sunday focus on the rights and responsibilities of family members toward each other, and the Gospel focuses on the role of the “most forgotten” member of the Holy Family, St. Joseph, who cared for and protected the Blessed Mother and infant Jesus through the dangerous early years of Jesus’ childhood. 1. The First Reading is Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14:God sets a father in honor over his children; a mother’s authority he confirms over her sons.Whoever...

By Dr. John BergsmaAs Christians, we tend to assume that the idea of God coming into ones’ life is always an attractive concept. However, that’s a bit naïve. Having the almighty creator of the universe come into one’s reality could also be an upsetting prospect. When doing evangelism, I have encountered people who understood the concept of “letting Jesus into your life” very well, but didn’t want that to happen, because it might upset the apple cart, so to speak. A God living within you might want to change things. He might want to take over. Are we ready for...

By Dr. John BergsmaOnce when I was a grade school kid, my mother and I camped in Shenandoah National Park for a week in the fall. One morning we got up to go hiking, but the weather was bad. It was starting to rain. I was bummed. My mom said to go back in the tent and pray that the weather would clear. So I did go and pray. But the weather didn’t clear, it only got worse. The rain got heavier, and the wind began to pick up—slowly and first, but soon so strong that the tent was shaking...

By Dr, John BergsmaEvery year on this, the Second Sunday of Advent and thus the second Sunday of the new liturgical year, the brash and burly figure of the Baptist bursts onto the liturgical stage, bellowing his characteristic charge, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” As we know, the First Sunday of Advent is always given to reflection on the Second Coming of Christ and the end of the world whereas the Second and Third Sundays always focuses on John the Baptist, one of the most pivotal yet underappreciated figures in salvation history. In the context of...

By Dr. John BergsmaHappy New Year, everyone! The Church Year begins this week with the First Sunday of Advent, and we are back to reading cycle A. There is a very ancient tradition in the Church of reading the Book of Isaiah during Advent. In antiquity, both Jews and Christians considered the Book of Isaiah to be one extended prophesy of the “age to come,” the “latter days” when the Anointed One (Heb. “Meshiach,” =” Messiah”) would arrive. The First Readings for Sunday Mass and for weekday Masses, as well as the Office of Readings in the Liturgy of the...

By Dr. John BergsmaThe Church year comes to an end this Sunday with the Solemnity of Christ the King, one of my favorite feast days. The Readings focus heavily on the theme of the kingdom of Christ, which was typified or foreshadowed by the Kingdom of David in the Old Testament. 1. The First Reading is 2 Samuel 5:1-3: In those days, all the tribes of Israel came to David in Hebron and said: "Here we are, your bone and your flesh. In days past, when Saul was our king, it was you who led the Israelites out and brought...

By Dr. John BergsmaSome years ago I was driving through the back hills of Ohio with my son, and we passed a billboard in a farmer’s field that read: “God has a Judgment Day coming!” My son asked me if the farmer who had placed the billboard in his field was Catholic or a non-Catholic. I suggested he probably was a non-Catholic Christian. My son asked why Catholics didn’t put up billboards like that. I theorized that perhaps fewer Catholics owned farms close to the highway, or maybe they were less convinced that announcing the coming judgment was really an...

By Dr. John BergsmaThis year we have a special treat in the month of November, in that the Feast of the Lateran Basilica, the Cathedral of the City of Rome and Mother Church of Christianity, falls on a Sunday. Usually only week-day mass goers get exposed to this wonderful feast and its Lectionary readings. The Feast of St. John Lateran is unusual in the Church’s calendar, because it is a feast for a building rather than a saint or an event in salvation history. The Lateran Basilica—dedicated to Christ the Savior in honor of both John the Baptist and John...

By Dr. John BergsmaThe Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, or more popularly, All Souls Day, is entirely unique in the Church's liturgical calendar. Although it is a very significant liturgical observance that attracts substantial Mass attendance (in regions where piety is healthy) on par with solemnities and other major feasts, it is neither a solemnity nor even a feast, and the spirit of the day has a unique mix of penitence, consolation, and intercession. The challenge for the homilist on All Souls is to offer consolation to those who grieve for lost loved ones without implying the canonization of...

By Dr. John BergsmaSeveral years ago, an experiment was done in which three American families were taken to a remote part of the Midwest and left to survive with few belongings and 19th century technology (horse-drawn plows, etc.) for a year. As I recall, two families were able to persevere through the year without being rescued, and at the end of it, they returned to their twentieth-century lives, with video games, TV, etc. When interviewed a year after the end of the experiment, almost to a person the family members agreed that the year "in the past" had been very...

By Dr. John BergsmaUsually we think of men of prayer and men of war as complete opposites. A monk in a habit—such as St. Francis—is a man dedicated to peace, a total contrast to one clad in armor brandishing weapons. Yet the Readings for this Sunday combine the imagery of war and prayer in interesting ways that provoke our thoughts about the nature and reality of supplicating God. 1. Our First Reading is Exodus 17:8-13: In those days, Amalek came and waged war against Israel. Moses, therefore, said to Joshua, "Pick out certain men, and tomorrow go out and engage...

By Dr. John BergsmaThe themes of the Readings for this Sunday focus on the gratitude for God’s salvation. Gratitude is an important psychological and spiritual disposition. Dr. Daniel G. Amen, the popular brain researcher and public health spokesman, identifies gratitude as a key character quality of persons with physiologically healthy brains. That’s right: gratitude affects your physical health, including the shape and functioning of your brain. This Sunday’s Readings focus particularly on gratitude to God, and how it should be expressed. 1. Our First Reading is 2 Kings 5:14-17: Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times at...