Church of St. Mary at Clinton Heights

The Christmas season ends with two feasts of manifestations.  At the Epiphany, Christ is shown as the savior of all the nations.  At the Feast of the Baptism, it is revealed to us that he is the Eternal Son of the Father by the testimony of the Holy Spirit.

Imagine how surprised people were when they realized these sacred facts.  Jesus did not fit into the mold other people expected.  The Magi represent the nations of the world.  They teach us that the search for God is universal.  It is not limited to one group of people.  God has planted in each heart, the desire to be with him.  As St. Augustine tells us, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in thee”.   The search for God is not easy; it demands from us some sweat equity.  We need to choose to have a relationship with God.  God chooses us whether we believe in him or not.  However, given the gift of free will, we need to choose Christ.  We need to be committed to him.

The day of the Baptism of Jesus was just an ordinary day.  People were at the Jordan, listening to John the Baptist, and no one probably paid much attention to Jesus approaching.   There was nothing about him that made him stand out of the crowd.  However, when John saw his cousin, he say beyond the person he knew and saw the Eternal Son of God that the Spirit revealed.  Consider the scene.  The Jordan is no bigger than a stream; not a mighty river like the Hudson.   Jesus revealed himself among the poor and sinner; among the outcast and forgotten.  But, is not this the reason Jesus came?  To show us the universal love of a God who wants us to love him and each other.

So, as close the season of Christmas and prepare for the Holy Season of Lent in a few weeks, may we allow God to reveal Himself to us in ways that we do not expect.  May we know Christ in the Breaking of the Bread and in the Word proclaimed.

Mary, the Mother of God

 

A few years ago I was looking through a news magazine and come across the image of a mother in the Middle East holding her child in the middle of war torn city.  She had dark skin, dark eyes, and was holding her child in such a tender and protecting way.  I could not help but think that this is what Mary must have looked liked.  She probably looked like any other Middle Eastern mother of the day…. she was a refugee for a while because the government told her to leave her land and she escaped to Egypt when Herod wanted to kill her Son, she worked hard, raised her child, took care of her husband and her house, worried about Jesus when she didn’t know where he was, eventually she had to make it as a widow, she saw the cruelty of the Roman government in her land, she watched her Son be killed and could do nothing but be there with him….

 

It was this Mother that Jesus gave the Church, you and me, from the Cross.  John the Beloved represents us when Jesus says “Behold your Son” and he says to each of us here today “Behold your Mother”. These words are very important for us in this parish because we are specifically under her care and protection.

Mary is the mother of us all

            The refugee and exile

            Those who work hard to support their families and sometimes struggle to make ends meet

            Those who are having difficulties in relationships

            Those who are orphans

            Those who are poor because of war, violence, those who have to be on Social Service..she is in solidarity with every mother who cries because her children are hungry, or cold, or are afraid, or whatever…..

            She is the mother of the sick and refuge of sinners

            She is our mother who longs for the best for us….

            She wants to show us the glory of her son and our brother

Mary wants to teach us to pray; just as our mothers and fathers taught us the words of the Our Father and the Hail Mary.  Mary wants us to learn how to hold the things of life in our hearts and find God in the middle of it all.  The Mother of God prays for us constantly in heaven.  We also need to be in prayer constantly; prayer is having an ongoing conversation with God.  Mary talked to Jesus all the time in the home of Nazareth and she continues to do so in heaven.  Mary talks with Jesus still about us.  She brings our concerns and fears; our hopes and joys.  Our prayer needs to be like hers…to talk always with God.

May Mary our Mother pray for us during this New Year and keep us close to her heart.  May she show us everyday the face of Her Son and our Brother, our Lord Jesus. 

In the carol, “Angels we have heard on high”, we hear the phrase “Come to Bethlehem and see”

See what?

A baby born in a manger, yes, but so much more…. Love Incarnate.  We see that God does something new to show us how much he loves us; he becomes one of us.  So often we hear people quote, John 3/16…” God so loved the world that he sent his only Son” as if was over…..God has never stopped loving us because he continue to give his Son…..here at the Eucharist, here in the Word, here in each other, if we only open our eyes and see.

Come and see, what?

The promise of peace.  In the midst of a war torn occupied country, the Prince of Peace was born.  He who is Peace Incarnate was born to witness that the reality of peace can endure even in the face of the violence of poverty, the violence of oppression, the violence of racism….and not of it done with weapons or violent behavior.  In fact, the Peace that Jesus brought was through his obedience on the Cross and sealed with the empty tomb of Easter

Come and see, what?

The joy of the world.  Our God came to save us.  It is only in Christ that true joy and contentment will be found.  No money, no game, no relationship, nothing will bring us the joy that He brings.  The Shepherds found Joy in the middle of a smelly and damp stable, in a box filled with straw, in the presence of poor man and woman who had nothing, in a barn! Here what the world longs for still today was found.  A lasting Joy found only in the immense mystery of God is found in the middle of all the hours of our days.

Come and see….

The promise of eternal life.  The true future of believers……a relationship with a God who never leaves us alone, in this world or the next.  See in the feedbox that held an infant the promise of the Bread of Heaven that Jesus would leave us as a sign of His presence and what life eternal will be like.  Come and see the Jesus who is present upon the altar every Sunday…the same Jesus who Mary place in a feedbox comes here to feed us…Come and see the God who was laid in a manger and now is placed upon this altar as Bread and Wine that is transformed.   Today we don’t need a manger because we can see him every week and in every Eucharist.  Come and see the Bethlehem, the House of Bread, which is what Bethlehem means….now, we are Bethlehem because when we receive the Eucharist we become what we receive as St Augustine tell us.

Come to Bethlehem and see the new born King here and now….not in the stable of 2000 years ago, but here in Word, Sacrament and in this community.  Come and see: we are the Virgin who gave birth, Joseph who took care of his Body, the Shepherds who listened to the angels and came, the angels who sang his praises. We are the Manger where they gathered; and we are the manger that help his Sacred Body.

Come and see……true Joy, Peace, Promise….Come now and see the Jesus who is born among us now, in our hearts and lives.

 

David has very good intentions in the first reading.  He was living in a palace, quite comfortable, but the Tent in which the Ark of the Covenant was just that… a tent. In the Ark, Moses had place the Tablets of the Law which God gave his people. This was the place where God dwelled among his people.  David wanted to build a Temple, a worthy house, in which God would dwell.  However, notice what God tells him “He will build the house” Not David, but God himself.

David’s son, Solomon does build a magnificent Temple which replaced the Tent of Presence.  The Ark of the Covenant was placed in the Holy of Holies. A part of Solomon’s Temple remains in Jerusalem today; the Wailing Wall which is one of most sacred sites for the Jewish Nation.

But, this Temple was not the house God told David built.  The Temple was destroyed three times and rebuilt until it was almost completely destroyed in 78AD by the Romans.

The reality for us is that God’s Temple was never destroyed.  God’s Temple was born in the womb of the Virgin Mary….God took flesh and dwelt among us or the more accurate translation is that he pitched his Tent among us….a direct reference back to the Temple of presence which held the Ark with the Tablets of the Law.  Mary, by her yes to the angel, becomes the New Ark of the Covenant,  She becomes the God Bearer.  Jesus is the New Temple…. within him dwells the fullness of divinity and humanity.  God fulfillment of his promise to build a house is Jesus, the Incarnate Word.

As we quickly approach the celebration of Christmas in a few short hours, let us pray for the grace to see that God has made a home among us …. not in a manager scene, but in the person of Jesus his Son.

 

“Rejoice in the Lord always”. This Third Sunday of Advent is day of joy.  We rejoice the Christmas is near, but, we always rejoice because Jesus is a part of our lives everyday.  It is easy to let Christ be important only on the Feast of Christmas.  Unfortunately, for many, even Christ is left out of Christmas.  The focus of rejoicing is in the gifts, the parties and stuff.   For us Christians, we are joyful and rejoice because Jesus is alive in our hearts 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.  By choosing Jesus everyday, our joy will not end, even when life gets difficult.  Being a Christian is no guarantee that our lives will be easy; but, how we handle our struggles and difficulties will be different.  We see in the manger scene….a place filled with the smell of animals and hay,  a place hardly worth the birth of King, ….the dawn of salvation, the cause of our joy.  As we quickly approach the feast of Christmas, may our hearts be filled with the a joy that we know year round.  May the Christ whose birth we celebrate be the center of our lives and the cause of our joy.