A Wonderful Mystery

Deacon Tom writes on…

A Wonderful Mystery

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Deacon Tom writes ©

A Wonderful Mystery

Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year B

St. Paul uses the one word that succinctly summarizes this Advent Season and the most holy event it precedes, the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The word he uses is “mystery”. The Mystery of the Incarnation, the mystery of God made man is the mystery of God’s abiding love for us. Because of this love, “Christ emptied himself and took the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men” (Phil 2:7). Fully God, fully man, Jesus enters human history to reveal the fullness of God’s love for all creation.

We read today of two people who were drawn into this mystery of God’s self-revelation to the world. They are David and Mary. The Prophet Samuel tells us that David wants to build a dwelling for God. But God has other plans. Yes, David will establish a house for the Lord, but not in the way that David envisioned it. The household that the Lord will establish through David will be one that will last forever. It will be a household that includes Joseph and Mary and that finds its completion in Jesus who fulfills that promise by becoming a “dwelling place” for all.

On this Fourth Sunday of Advent our hearts are yearning for the Divine to come to us. We turn away from the noise and clatter to hear the deep silence within give way to the chant, “Come, come, Emanuel, come Emanuel”.

What is our heart’s desire this Christmas day?  What is it that will make us complete?  What will it take to fill our emptiness?  My guess is that material things can’t come close to satisfying the cravings of our human spirit. What we really want, what will satisfy our innermost longings are the gifts that only God can give us, such as: calming our restless spirits, consoling our loss of a loved one, filling us with an inner peace, bringing us true joy, and, perhaps, a bit of happiness. We are looking for help in to let go of old grudges and to jettison old hurts or memories. We are looking for spiritual or emotional comforts and healings.

It is not possible to imagine that the infant whose birth we await desires that we remain in the constant state of hopelessness and despair. On the contrary, He came to set us free from all that would keep us bound up. He came to proclaim, “release to the prisoners”. That includes freeing us from our own self-imposed bondage(s).

May the mystery of God’s love revealed in the Infant Jesus free us from all that keeps us from loving Him and from loving one another.

May you celebrate a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year filled with Christ’s Peace and Joy!

Deacon Tom

Rejoice

Angel Trumpets Gaudete Sunday / odcsuffolk.com

Deacon Tom writes ©

"Rejoice"

Third Sunday of Advent, Year B

Jesus begins His ministry in Galilee quoting the words of the Prophet Isaiah that we hear today on this Third Sunday of Advent (remember Gaudete Sunday?).  They are worth reading again:

“The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the LORD and a day of vindication by our God…” 

(IS 61:1- 2a)

This is the “Good News” that has been celebrated generation after generation since this prophesy was fulfilled by Christ 2000 years ago. Jesus is the one who brings us the good news that our captivity has come to and end, the good news that lifts our broken spirits pummeled by sickness, sin, and death. Jesus is the one who frees us from everything that imprisons us or has robbed us of our human dignity; Jesus restores our genuine freedom. Jesus comes to our rescue announcing that God’s favor is upon us. On our part, we wait in hope; we wait patiently for Emmanuel to come into our lives. So we wait… and watch.

Advent is a wonderful time of year. It is a season of hope and anticipation. It is even more so this year as we face so many challenges and difficulties of epic proportions. Our world has grown cold. It is a world very much in need of the “fire of God’s love”.

As we light the rose candle this Third Sunday of Advent, we rejoice in God’s nearness to us. We rejoice because the Light of Christ approaches and the days of darkness are coming to an end. We rejoice because Christ comes to fill us with the fire of His love. We rejoice because our time of deliverance is at hand. We rejoice because Our Savior comes to do what the world cannot do – give us the joy and happiness that can only come from Him; joy and happiness to be shared with one another; joy and happiness that will last forever.

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom  

Waiting in Hope

Deacon Tom writes ©

 “Waiting in Hope”

                         Second Sunday of Advent, Year B

Several weeks ago we read the Prophet Isaiah raising this prayer to God on behalf of God’s chosen ones:  “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down”. Today we read from Isaiah again and he is instructing the people, “Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Judah:  Here is your God!  Here comes with power the Lord God, who rules by His strong arm…”.

These two readings from Isaiah express a wonderful mystery of our faith, that God is with us right at this present moment, and yet, at the same time, we have not yet fully experienced His presence. Advent is a time to reflect on His presence in our daily lives and to know that there is more to come…And so, we wait in hope! We look ahead to the day when God’s fullness will totally reign in our hearts and in the world. We wait for that day when a new heaven and the new earth will replace the old order; we wait for the day when the justice, peace, and the realities of God’s kingdom replace the disharmony and chaos that are the dominant forces at work in our world today; we wait for our lives to be more complete and fulfilling.

Advent is a season of expectant hope. It is a time when we dream new dreams about becoming the person God has called us to be. It is a time when the spirit of hope leads us to new beginnings. Who do you want to be when that new heaven and new earth arrives?  Do you want to be a more caring person?  Do you want to be more gracious, more thankful, and more prayerful?  Or, perhaps, we want to leave behind memories of the past that are painful and full of sorrow. The beauty of Advent is that we get to fill in the blanks… and be filled with the hope that, with God’s help, we can accomplish all that we dare hope for. Advent is a time of waiting, a season of hope, for God to come into our lives and fill us with the true gifts of this season… peace, joy, love, those gifts that come from the Holy Spirit.

Each of us has the opportunity to reclaim Advent as a special time of hope. Each of us can make this a spiritual season by looking inward and hoping that the promises God holds in store for each one of us will become our reality… promises of newness, renewal, of our well being. That’s what hoping is all about. .

May this Advent journey be a time of new beginnings, new hopes, and new joys. May God’s gift of new life set us free to seek the giver and share the many gifts He has in store for those who place their hope in Him.

Enjoy the day and the Season!

Deacon Tom 

Can Anybody Help Me?

      Deacon Tom Writes ©

   “Can anybody help me?”

First Sunday of Advent, Year B 

There was a commercial on TV some time ago showing a man riding in circles on his new lawn mower while telling viewers about his financial problems.  It’s not that he was poor, quite the opposite.  He had a lot of money, he just didn’t know how to budget it…  In addition to the new lawn mower he had just purchased, he also complained of having bought a new car that he put in the new house and the list goes on. Now he is “up to his eyeballs in debt”.  As the focus of the camera narrows in on him,  he looks into it with glazy eyes and asks, “Can anybody help me?”  This is a sad but fairly accurate depiction of our human nature at work. We manage to dig quite a deep hole for ourselves before we recognize the trouble we are in and our need to ask for help.

Our spiritual lives can be very similar. In the reading from Isaiah on this First Sunday of Advent, the beginning of our new liturgical year, the prophet begs the Lord to come once more to the aid of His people who now humbly confess their sins… “Why did you let us wander, O Lord, from your ways and harden our hearts so that we fear you not?” the prophet asks.

The first step in solving a problem is to recognize that we have one, like the fellow in the commercial reaching out to “anybody” who might be able to help him with his financial problems. We do well to take this approach with our spiritual shortcomings and reach out to God and ask Him to “rend the heavens and come down” to our rescue.

The image of God as the potter and we the clay is a powerful one for us to explore this Advent. Just like clay in the hands of an artisan, God shapes and molds our lives…if we let Him. And that’s the key; God does not barge into our lives but rather waits for an invitation.  Advent is a time for us to realize that we need to invite Emmanuel into our lives and renew us from the inside out.

Let us invite God into our lives in a deeper and more intimate way this Advent Season so that He can mold us and fashion us into whatever beautiful vessel will be most fulfilling for us to accomplish His will, the plan He has in store for us. On our part, we need to be watchful so that we may recognize how God is constantly shaping us through the events, people and the always-changing circumstances of our lives.  This Advent let us be watchful for the many ways God comes to our rescue…

Enjoy the day and Happy New Year too!

Deacon Tom

The Feast of Christ the King, Year End Review

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"Year End Review"

The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

Today we celebrate the "Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe", more commonly known as the “Feast of Christ the King”. The gospel we read is from Matthew and is known as “The Judgment of the Nations”. It is an apocryphal reading meaning it has to do with the “end times” and the Final Judgment. Matthew is presenting us with a summation of Christ’s teachings, which is namely this: that there is a direct relationship between our actions in this life and where we will spend our eternal life. This is very appropriate since today marks the end of the liturgical year. It is right that we stop and do our own simple “Year End Review” on how faithful we have been to the gospels and the teachings of Jesus Christ this past year.

Today’s gospel gives us insight into the ordinary call to holiness. Often it seems that the work of the gospel is way beyond us, that we have to be a Saint like St. Francis or St. Martin de Porres to be faithful disciples of Christ. That’s not the case at all. Look at the sheep in our reading today who have done the good works of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, etc. Isn’t it interesting that they were not the lease bit aware of the good they had done for the Lord?  They have to ask, “Lord, when did we see you hungry, or naked, or sick?”  They were “surprised” that what they had done for others was noteworthy. You see, the good that they did for the Lord was the ordinary good they did for everyone and anyone around them. It was not some overwhelming, impossible task. They were not asked to do the impossible. They lived a life of ordinary goodness or holiness, giving of themselves without counting the cost, day in, day out, to friends and strangers alike.

We are called to be just like them. As a matter of fact, that is what God wants most from us…to be ordinary in our love for one another. We have been called by God to live ordinary lives of holiness, to share our love with others by our example, our witness, our smiles and laughter, our words of encouragement and hope, and at times, even our material support and physical presence through which  we become Christ for one another.

May God’s abundant blessings be with you and your families this Thanksgiving weekend.

Deacon Tom 

An Unfailing Prize

                 

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Deacon Tom Writes ©

"An Unfailing Prize"

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Today’s reading from the Book of Proverbs talks about the joy a man has in finding true riches in this life. Oddly enough, the sacred author does not take us on a search for silver or gold or for any material wealth for that matter. Rather he reminds us of the treasures we uncover when we find a worthy wife (or husband as the case may be)….We obtain an unfailing prize.

The marital contract is a sacred one. It is life giving and life sustaining. Like all living things, marriage is subject to the laws of nature that say “grow or die”. In order to grow, relationships must be mutually beneficial. It requires genuine love to make a marriage grow and prosper. It takes self-sacrifice, the ability to defer or abandon one’s own plans and desires, a willingness to be more concerned about the “other” than about “self”. It is a challenge to be successful in building a mutually supportive and lasting relationship. We are all aware, I’m sure, the high percentage of marriages today that end in divorce. Yet, all who are called to this vocation must be prepared for the work of a lifetime.

It is within this relationship of marriage that we participate in the creative work of God. In this sacramental union, we are God’s instruments working in harmony with His divine plan to bring forth new life, a visible sign of His love for us that allows us to participate in the very act of creation itself. This human family that we create is, in itself, a reflection of the divine love that exists within the Most Holy Trinity.

The Gospel today calls us to reflect on how we use the gifts we have received from God. The gift of our family deserves consideration here. Chances are we may have some room to grow in this area. That’s fine, because, no matter how successful we may be, our work in building good relationships with our family, spouses and children is never done. It’s like the ad for one of the airlines that said, “We earn our wings every day”. Being a good husband or wife, father or mother, son or daughter is something we must strive to do every day. Some days we may find ourselves doing better than others. Some days we are colossal failures. We call that the "real world". What’s important to remember is that we see in our husband or wife, in our children, and in our families, the unfailing prize that we are to each other because God’s love abides within.

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom

Holy Space

Lateran Basilica, Rome 

Deacon Tom writes ©

"Holy Space"

Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, Year A

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica. It is dedicated to St. John the Baptist, St. John the Evangelist, and to Jesus Christ, our Savior. It became the Mother Church of Christendom around 313 AD when the Emperor Constantine gave it to the Bishop of Rome. Many Councils, referred to as Lateran Councils, were held within its walls in the early days of the church. It was there that much of the dogma of our faith that we profess today was formulated.

I have seen this beautiful church and indeed it has a lovely edifice. The architecture, the decorations, the adornments are beyond description. This is true for many of our basilicas and cathedrals. Many of our churches are a sight to behold. Yet, what gives them their real beauty is not the adornments. It’s not the gold and silver decorations, nor the renaissance paintings, nor the jeweled sacred vessels. What makes these grand structures so magnificent is the One in whose name and memory these houses of worship were built - the Lord, God Almighty.  

We know from our Old Testament history that David desired to build a house for the Lord and that his son, Solomon, is credited with building the magnificent Temple in Jerusalem. But buildings come and go. The temple that God wanted to establish among His people was made of human flesh. It was Christ, the God-Man. Salvation History is the story of God visiting His people and creating within them “holy space” that would be the living, breathing temples of His Holy Spirit.

Whenever we enter into this “holy space”, we come into a communal celebration to share in the banquet Christ has prepared for us through His sacrifice on Calvary. We enter into a mystery that is beyond us and that summons within us a faith that rises above our understanding. Within this “holy space” we are joined by other believers to be nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ and enlivened by the Words of Sacred Scripture. Then, reenergized by God’s love for us, we are commissioned to take our gifts out into the world and share them eagerly with everyone we meet. The gifts we receive inside our “holy spaces” will atrophy and die if we do not bring them to each and every person we encounter; if we do not used them in every situation we find ourselves, if they are not a part of all our decisions and judgments we make in the course of the day. We are the church, the living, breathing, holy spaces God desires to dwell within.

Enjoy the Day!

Deacon Tom