The Epiphany of the Lord - Year A

Isaiah 60:1-6; Ephesians 3:2-3.5-6; Matthew 2:1-12

At the heart of the Gospel today is that wonderful moment when: going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and falling to their knees they did him homage.

Imaginations have exercised themselves over this line for many centuries; it is a moment of tenderness and worship, of fulfilment and release. And yet, for the wise men, and for us, it is also the beginning of a new journey, guided by the light of an equally delightful star, the light of faith, drawing us to the hill of Golgotha.

Matthew has already told us much about this child. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. His name is Jesus and he has come to save his people from their sins. He is Immanuel, God-with-us. He is son of David.

The wise men kneel before him and pay homage to the one they call ‘the infant King of the Jews’. They have travelled from afar to find him and their reward is that now he has found them; the infant King has three new subjects.

The infant King must become known; he must take possession of his kingdom. No one hides a light under a bushel and neither does God. No, a light is placed on a lamp stand. This is really what we celebrate in the feast of the Epiphany. God wants his Son to be known by the whole world and so our first reading exultantly announces to Jerusalem: your light has come … the glory of the Lord is rising on you.

Jesus is the light, the light of the world. The language is what we call analogical. Of course we all know Jesus does not actually ‘shine’, like a light would shine in a dark room, but in our attempt to grasp the reality, the truth of who Jesus is, we have recourse to analogy. Jesus is the light which, like the dawn, pushes back the darkness of sin and ignorance. And like the dawn, his light will be available to all nations, no one is denied. Only those who hide from the light will remain in darkness.

We can only wonder how much the wise men understood about the child in Mary’s arms. Would they have understood that the ‘infant King of the Jews’ was also the ‘Light of the world’? I wonder. Let us at least, today, and in our moments of quiet prayer, approach this child and confess our faith and say, ‘Little Jesus, I believe that you are indeed the Light of the World, and the Light of my life.’

Another beautiful title we use of Jesus analogically is: Word of God. This can be confusing for some until we grasp the several different ways in which this expression can be used.

John the Evangelist opens his Gospel with the words:

In the beginning was the Word,and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. (Jn 1:1)

Pope Benedict wrote recently in his exhortation Verbum Domini, ‘The Father eternally utters his Word in the Holy Spirit.’ This is the mystery of the Blessed Trinity, a communion of love in which the Father eternally begets the Word in the Holy Spirit.

And it is this Word of the Father, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, through which he created everything that is. This is why, to a very real though limited extent, we can ‘discover’ God in creation; his Word made it and holds it in existence. Consequently, since God’s Word is the foundation of all reality, we can only understand ourselves and the world in the light of his Word.

We use the expression ‘word of God’ also of the words spoken throughout salvation history by the prophets. This is the same word of God spoken by the Apostles and by the Church today in her living Tradition.

Hand in hand with Tradition the word of God is heard in the inspired writings of Sacred Scripture, both the Old and the New Testaments and, as Pope Benedict points out, this shows that ‘the Christian faith is not a “religion of the book”: Christianity is the “religion of the word of God” '.

Finally we come to the final revelation of the word of God, which the evangelist John renders simply: …and the Word became flesh. (Jn 1:14).

Through the Virgin Mary, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Word of God became man!

I give the last word to Pope Benedict: ‘Now the word is not simply audible; not only does it have a voice, now the word has a face, one which we can see: that of Jesus of Nazareth.’

The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph - Year A

Ecclesiasticus 3:2-6.12-14; Colossians 3:12-21; Matthew 2:13-15.19-23

It would be a mistake to imagine that today’s feast belongs on the ever-growing list of special Sundays like Seaman’s Sunday, Respect Life Sunday, Refugee Sunday, Social Justice Sunday, and so on. Neither does it belong with secular feasts like Father’s Day or Mother’s Day. You won’t find any of these celebrations in the Roman Missal but you will find the feast of the Holy Family, and you will always find it on this day as part of the celebration of Christmas because the feast of the Holy Family is actually a part of the celebration of the Incarnation of Jesus.

The Saviour took flesh of the virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit and even though this miracle bypassed natural means of conception it could not bypass the matrix into which all children should be born and raised – the family.

If we cannot speak of a fish without reference to water, it is even more unthinkable to speak of a child without reference to a family.

Therefore, God in his providence set about searching for an earthly father for his Son. I use the word ‘searching’ not because God needed to search, but as a tribute to the apocryphal literature which tells us how all the would-be suitors for Mary were examined by the High Priest who could not arrive at a decision. He therefore sent them home but asked each man to leave his staff in the temple overnight. In the morning one of the staffs had burst into blossom. It was Joseph's. From his staff sprouted beautiful lilies.

And so Jesus was born into a human family, just as it is the unchangeable plan of God that every one of his children should be born into a family. And let me hasten to add, not a family with two fathers or two mothers because that is not a family, but a family with a father and a mother.

Family is not an option for us as humans, it is a necessity, somehow written into our DNA. How many sociological and psychological tests have shown this! A child grows to maturity, in all its many dimensions, most effortlessly in a normal, loving, human family.

No wonder the family is one of Satan’s prime targets. If he can destroy the family he destroys the basic building block of growth for individual human beings as well as the basic building block of society. Let us resist his attempts to do this wherever and whenever we can.

Jesus was born not only into a family but into a holy family. A holy family is a family which has God at its conscious centre.

As we saw during the readings of the last few days, from the moment of her conception of Jesus, the life of Mary and Joseph became even more centred on God who had now entered their lives in bodily human form. Both took up positions of profound reverence. Mary did not speak to Joseph of her pregnancy, she considered this to be God’s prerogative.

Joseph, noticing Mary’s pregnancy and yet, fully convinced of her purity, did not think himself worthy to speak to her about it. Both spouses humbly left to God the ‘unfolding’ of the mystery he had introduced between them, and God did not disappoint.

Let me repeat: A holy family is a family which has God at its conscious centre. It is a family in which all the members, including the children, seek out the will of God as their primary goal in life. In their marriage, in their parenting, in the orientation of their individual hearts this ‘seeking’ was, in Mary and Joseph, utterly, awe-inspiringly habitual.

The Holy Family is the model for every family and yet, how far from this ideal has modern secular society not drawn us! All too often God has been granted but the merest foothold, even in Catholic families. It would not be too much to state that today Catholic family life is in deep, deep crisis. The conscious centre of family life today is all too often the ideals held up to it by a Godless, materialistic, individualistic society, which is itself in deep crisis.

What can be done? Well, there are lots, and lots of different levels at which something can be done but there is just no avoiding the fact that the only place we can begin is with ourselves. Forget the husband, forget the wife, forget mum and dad; I can only start with me.

And where do I start? Perhaps St Paul offers the best answer in today’s second reading. It’s a request addressed today personally and individually to you, and only you give it the real thought it needs so that it can open up a way forward for you: Let the message of Christ, in all its richness, find a home with you.

Christmas Day Mass - Year A

Isaiah 52:7-10; Hebrews 1:1-6; John 1:1-18

This morning we wake up to the light. We take that for granted but we shouldn’t. Last night at midnight it was dark. The whole world was in darkness. It doesn’t matter that maybe you were asleep. The fact remains the whole world was in darkness. This morning it is light.

For non-believers it is light because the sun has risen. For believers it is light because a Son has been born. Yesterday we were still people of darkness. Not the darkness caused by the absence of the sun but the darkness caused by the absence of the Son of God.

But today everything is different: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone. (Isaiah 9:1)

What has made the difference for us?

As our Entrance Antiphon told us right at the beginning: A child is born for us, a son is given to us ..

Who is this child?

This child is the Word of God. This child is the word of God made flesh.

How can this be? Who is the Word of God and how could he become flesh?

Let me take an example from your own life.

When you were young you fell in love. You spoke a word of love to one another: I love you! Your word of love was total, committed, permanent, faithful, exclusive and open to new life.

Then, at your wedding you spoke that word of love in front of all your family and friends and especially, before God: I John, take you, Betty …I Betty take you, John.

Then, after some time, a marvellous thing happened. Your word of love became flesh. A child was born. At the moment of the most intimate expression of your love – in the marriage act, all that total, committed, permanent, faithful and exclusive love was expressed in a beautiful act of self-giving and receiving – and the word of love you spoke to each other became flesh.

When this little child was born to you, you could hold it up and say to your spouse: This is my love for you! This beautiful child is my love for you made flesh.

And so it is with Jesus.

In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was God. The second person of the Blessed Trinity, the eternal and only-begotten Son of the Father, the Word through whom everything was created, the word of love spoken to mankind promising salvation from the darkness of sin became flesh in the person of the baby Jesus.

He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things came to be, not one thing had its being but through him. All that came to be had life in him and that life was the light of men, a light that shines in the dark, a light that darkness could not overpower.

Jesus is the Word of God made flesh. Jesus is everything that God is. Jesus is God made Man. God came among us as a child to save us from our sins and so to give us a share in God's own life.

Christmas Midnight Mass - Year A

Isaiah 9:1-7; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-14

Tonight we join with Christians of all denominations in celebrating the extraordinary event which happened 2000 years ago – the entry of God himself into human history in the person of the Infant Jesus.

For a Christian there is tonight no tinsel, no glitter; there are no fairy lights – only the silence and peace of a stable in which a mother holds her child wrapped in swaddling clothes.

The child is God. Can you believe it? This child is God - a mystery of love. The mystery of a God who lowers himself to take on human nature so that he may live among us, and die for us. A Saviour has been born for us. Only those who open their hearts and minds to this child, and accept him as their God can discover the true meaning of his presence among us.

Tonight, in our liturgy, we gaze at this child, our hymns sing of him, our readings speak of him and our Gospel rejoices at his birth.

And how simple the message of each of the chosen passages is.

• The first reading tells us: ‘Rejoice, especially if you are in darkness for the light has come.’
• The second reading tells us: ‘Salvation is now possible for all.’
• The third reading tells us: ‘A Saviour is born for us.’

The darkness, of course, is sin. This child has come to save us from the darkness of our sin. He is the Light which chases away the darkness. In the vigil Mass a few hours ago we heard the angel explain to Joseph what this child had come to do. He told him: He is the one to save his people from their sins.

In a world where human solutions to humanity’s problems are proving every day more inadequate we need to open our lives once again to God’s plan for the world proposed in this infant lying in the manger. It is a plan centred on all that makes us noble and capable of peace – peace in our hearts and peace in the world. This child is the answer to our every question, he is the meaning of our lives.

In our crib lies a statue of the infant Jesus. Joseph and Mary are kneeling beside him, rapt in adoration. They are adoring God in their newborn child. And the infant has his arms outstretched. You may think he is reaching for you and you are right. But first of all, before anything, his little arms are stretched out in praise and adoration of God his Father in heaven. Already he is instructing us, teaching us, and his message is: Do as I do; worship God!

The next thirty-three years of Jesus’ life could be described simply as a lesson in how to do that; how to worship God. But that is a story for later on.

Yes, the arms of the child in the crib are stretched out to you. He is there for you. He came for you. He loves you, and his love, if you let him, will give you life.

Merry Christmas

Christmas Vigil - Year A

Isaiah 62:1-5; Acts 13:16-17.22-25; Matthew 1:1-25

Nine months ago the angel Gabriel appeared to the young virgin Mary and announced to her the plan of God that she should be the mother of the Redeemer. Mary was taken aback but gave her full consent: Let what you have said be done to me.

At that moment a profound mystery occurred. Though she was a virgin Mary conceived a child. The angel told her: The Holy Spirit will come upon you … and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God.

There is no suggestion, of course, that the Holy Spirit could be called the father of the child. The Holy Spirit is present as the creative action of God in the womb of the Virgin Mary just as he was at the dawn of creation. Clearly, Matthew intends this parallel between the first creation and the conception of Jesus who is the ‘first-born of all creation’. (Col 1:14)

Mary does not speak to Joseph of the angel’s message, nor of her pregnancy. This must have been very difficult for her. So profound is her humble obedience that she leaves all initiative to God; after all, this is his work. What a huge lesson for us, who impulsively intervene and confuse situations we simply don’t understand!

Mary immediately sets off to visit her elderly kinswoman who is also pregnant.

Tonight the Gospel tells Joseph’s side of the story and asks us all to reflect on the greatness of this righteous man who proved himself a worthy spouse of Mary. As the genealogy of Matthew makes clear Joseph is a member of the house of David. He is to give to the Messiah his lineage as ‘Son of David’, as the prophets had foretold.

After three months away Mary returns and Joseph soon notices that she is pregnant. Again the same heroic restraint is evident in Joseph as we saw in Mary. And how fitting that this mighty work of God be allowed to unfold between them without question or comment. They hold themselves before it as reverently as they knelt on either side of the crib in Bethlehem.

Joseph is trapped between two irreconcilable facts – the unquestionable virtue of Mary and her obvious pregnancy. The first caused him to want to spare her public humiliation and the second required him to acknowledge that this child was not his. Finally Joseph decides to very quietly bring the relationship to an end. However, that night, in a dream, an angel appears and in a few words resolves all his difficulties. What joy he must have felt, what relief; and what immense gratitude to God.

It is worthwhile, at this point, to take note of the presence of the angels in the revelation of the mystery of God’s plan for salvation. Indeed, we can say the angels had been extremely busy. Starting with the appearance to Zechariah, the husband of Elizabeth, in order to announce birth of John the Baptist, then to Mary to announce the birth of Jesus, then to Joseph to put his heart at rest and, let us not forget, tonight the angels will come to announce to the shepherds the birth of the Messiah.

Tonight, on the eve of the birth of Jesus, we honour Joseph his father. We marvel at the grace operating in this humble man. Like his spouse Mary he gave his Fiat, to the angel’s message when: he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do: he took his wife to his home and, though he had not had intercourse with her, she gave birth to a son; and he named him Jesus