24 December – Gospel

Commentary on Luke 1:67-79

The Gospel is the great Benedictus hymn (meaning ‘Blessed’ from its opening word in Latin), which is sung or said every day in the Divine Office at the end of Morning Prayer or Lauds.

Luke puts it into the mouth of Zechariah, the husband of Elizabeth and father of the newly born John the Baptist. Because he doubted the word of the angel, Zechariah had been struck dumb, but when—at the circumcision of his son—he confirmed that the boy’s name would be John, he recovered his speech and broke out into this song of praise.

God is praised and blessed because:

He has raised up a mighty savior for us
in the house of his child David…

This is a clear reference to Jesus.

Zechariah thanks God for having—in the person of Jesus—visited his people “and redeemed them”, just as he had promised through the mouths of the prophets down the ages:

…he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors
and has remembered his holy covenant,
the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham,
to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies…

Our ‘enemies’ are not those to whom we are hostile, for there should be no such people. Rather, they are those who wish us harm, simply because of our adherence to the vision of life that Jesus has given us.

What was the purpose of this deliverance? Was it so that we could gloat over the defeat of those who wish us harm? No, it was that we:

…might serve him without fear,
in holiness and righteousness
in his presence all our days.

There is enough there already for us to reflect on with deep gratitude.

But Zechariah goes on to speak of his newly-born son:

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways…

That will be John’s special role, to prepare the people for the coming of Jesus our Saviour. He will do that by giving:

…his people knowledge of salvation
by the forgiveness of their sins.

This will be a salvation that will come through Jesus giving his people the experience of being reconciled and reunited with their God.

It is clear that what is said by Zechariah of his son John applies very much to us also. For it is our calling to “go before the Lord to prepare his ways” for others.

All this will happen because of:

…the tender mercy of our God,
the dawn from on high will break upon us…

That “dawn” of course, is our Lord and Saviour, Jesus.

Jesus will give light:

…to shine upon those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death…

That surely includes all of us in some way. In the brightness of that light, he will:

…guide our feet into the way of peace.

The realisation of that peace and harmony in each one, in every community and throughout every society, is a sign that the Kingdom has come.

We all realise how much that peace is needed in our world, in our own society, in our own communities, in our homes and in our own selves. May the Prince of Peace come and dwell among us this Christmas.

Read more

24 December – First Reading

Commentary on 2 Samuel 7:1-5,8-11,16

The reading from the Second Book of Samuel speaks of David’s concern to build a fitting house for the Lord. David has just settled into his new palace and it is becoming a source of embarrassment to him that, while he lives in such comfort, the Lord—whose presence is represented by the “ark of God” (Ark of the Covenant)—is still housed in a tent, as it was during the long years of wandering in the desert. This was the case from the time the Law was given on Mount Sinai up to the present situation, where David now rules as king in Jerusalem.

When David tells the prophet Nathan about this, the prophet seems to agree:

Go, do all that you have in mind, for the Lord is with you.

Nathan seems to have made this statement on his own initiative, because:

…that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, “Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in?”

The Lord then goes on to say (not part of today’s reading):

I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. (2 Sam 7:6)

What is more, the Lord never once complained about this arrangement; he never once was heard to say:

Why have you not built me a house of cedar? (2 Sam 7:7)

There is some conjecture that here we have an echo of an opinion that was opposed to having a temple, which seemed to make Israel follow the religious practice of some of its hostile enemies, especially the Canaanites. And, of course, with the death of Jesus, the Temple came to an end for his followers, and the Lord’s presence was henceforth found in his people.

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?….For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. (1 Cor 3:16-17)

The new and enduring temple is the Christian community, which is the Body of the Risen Christ, his visible presence on earth.

But the Lord goes on to say that David had been taken “from the pasture” (where he was a shepherd boy) and made prince over his people Israel. God has been with David and his people, has protected them from their enemies, and will make David’s name great. It is a new development in the people’s relationship with Yahweh. From Moses’ time, Israel was a people of twelve tribes. Now it will be a nation organised in their own land, with a central and stable authority—David and his successor kings.

In due course, the Lord will give his people a house where he will dwell. It will not be built by David, but by his offspring, specifically, his son Solomon. Eventually a magnificent temple will be built, one of the wonders of the ancient world. It would be rebuilt even more magnificently by Herod the Great and, in fact, the construction was not yet finished in the lifetime of Jesus.

Today’s passage ends with the words:

Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.

The key to understanding the whole of this passage (and there are verses omitted in our reading) is to be aware of the meanings given to the word ‘house’. It refers to the palace that David has built for himself, the temple that Solomon will build and the dynasty which David will inaugurate. David will not be the one to build a house for the Lord in the sense of a temple building, but he will lay the foundations for a different kind of house, the House of David, the dynasty and long line of kings who will come after him—some of them good men and others utter scoundrels. Nor, in fact, did David’s dynasty last for ever. It fell in the year 587 BC, probably after these words were written.

Nevertheless, in the New Testament the line of David is seen reaching down to Jesus, who in the Gospel is often referred to as “Son of David”. And the Gospel for today is the Benedictus, the hymn of praise sung by Zechariah after the birth and circumcision of his son, John the Baptist. There we read:

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has looked favorably on his people
and redeemed them.
He has raised up a mighty savior for us
in the house of his child David… (Luke 1:68-69)

The implication of this passage for us in today’s Mass is that Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the new temple where God lives. We call her the new ‘Ark of the Covenant’. She is a fitting place, a place of perfection without any trace of sin or evil. But later on, Paul will remind Christians that each one of them too is now a temple of God, of the Spirit of Jesus. In the New Covenant there is no longer any temple building, but “you are God’s temple”, a temple of which each one is a constitutive part.

And so we could well remember that what pleases God is not so much the beautiful churches we build for him, but the spiritual temple he wants us to build in people themselves. Once again, we ask the Prince of Peace to come and take up his abode in each one of us and let us radiate that peace to all we meet.

Read more

Sunday of Week 4 of Advent (Year C)

Commentary on Micah 5:1-4; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-44

The birth of Jesus is now imminent. In just a few days’ time we will be celebrating the memory of that great event. Today’s Mass prepares us for the Christmas celebration. Each of the three readings takes up a different aspect of this great mystery to help us in our understanding and in our personal preparation.

Promise of things to come
The First Reading, from the prophet Micah, sets out the promise of great things to come. The unexpected starting point will be the obscure town of Bethlehem and not some other greater centre of Israel. But the one who will come from there will be the:

…one who is to rule in Israel,
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient days.

The one who is to come:

…shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.

And his new people:

…shall live secure, for now he shall be great
to the ends of the earth.

And, very significantly:

…he shall be the one of peace [Hebrew, shalom]. (Micah 5:5)

A remote corner of Israel
This promise is magnificent, but how is it to come into existence and fulfilment? In the Gospel we come down with a bump into the real world. From the grand prophetic language of Micah we are brought to a small remote corner of Israel. Two unknown women, Mary and Elizabeth, seem to be the principal actors. There is no mention of Zechariah, the husband of Elizabeth, though he must have been around. But he had doubted the word of the angel and so he will not be able to speak until after the birth of his son.

And yet, the really important characters are the unseen children, Jesus and John. It is through their mothers that they are first brought together.

Though both women are with child, it is Mary who takes the initiative to visit Elizabeth. In a sense, that is right and proper because Mary is the younger of the two. On the other hand, we know that the status of Mary is higher because she bears within her the Son of God.

When Mary approaches, the child in Elizabeth’s womb reacts immediately. Already, before his birth, John is touched with the Spirit of Jesus. This, we might say, is his baptism. Although John will appear first on the public stage, Jesus is the real source of John’s role as prophet, and of his greatness.

At the sound of Mary’s voice, John experienced the presence of Jesus and is filled with the Spirit. Elizabeth tells Mary:

For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy.

But Elizabeth also is affected by the presence of Jesus. She bursts into praise for Jesus and his mother and says prophetically:

And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?

And by implication, she is graced with a visit from the Lord himself. Surely it is only through faith and the inspiration of the Spirit that she recognises in her younger cousin the Mother of her Lord.

Spirit of service
Already we can see a major theme of Luke’s Gospel being unfolded at this early stage in the coming of Jesus, even before his birth in Bethlehem. For we are presented with the humility of the mother and her Son. It is they who go to visit and not they who are visited. There is no question of status or ‘face’ with these two people. Even before he is born, Jesus already comes to serve and not to be served. It is through service we will recognise him as Lord. Later on he will tell his disciples:

You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. (John 13:13-15)

It is the beginning of God’s great plan to bring salvation and wholeness to the world. God’s own Son is preparing to come and live among us as a human being. He will be like us in every respect except in his freedom from sinfulness and its source—our fears and insecurity. As we party our way through the Christmas season, let us not forget what it is really about—the coming of God among us to show us the greatest love that can be shown, the laying down of one’s life for one’s friends.

We should not, then, be surprised at the Opening Prayer of today’s Mass. It reminds us to look forward to the life of Jesus, a life lived totally in love that will end in suffering and death as the way to glory and everlasting life. Christmas might seem a strange time to be thinking of the suffering of Jesus. But Jesus’ life is to be seen as a seamless robe—birth in poverty to death on a cross as the essential way to new life and glory. We celebrate his birth because of the triumphant victory of his death. He emptied himself for love of us and the Father has raised him to the highest heavens.

Total submission
All that happened from the moment of Jesus’ appearing among us as a human person can only be fully understood in the light of the passage from the Letter to the Hebrews, which is our Second Reading for today.

It is by the total submission of the Son to the will of his Father that the fulfilment of the promise becomes possible. The Father, says the Letter, is not really interested in sacrifices and oblations of animals and things:

Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body you have prepared for me;
in burnt offerings and sin offerings
you have taken no pleasure.

Instead, “a body” the Father prepared for his Son. And, united with that body as a true human being, the Son offered himself unconditionally to his Father:

See, I have come to do your will, O God…

The obeying of that will was effected by the total offering of his human self. This self-offering far transcends any other offering that could be made. No one can offer more than one’s own self.

That offering of himself will be seen in the whole life of Jesus as it unfolds in the Gospel pages, leading finally to the dramatic confrontation between love and greed, hatred and pride. Not without difficulty, Jesus will make the final offering of himself, saying:

No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (John 15:13)

The outcome will be the Cross as the gateway to Resurrection.

An invitation to follow
Jesus does not only do all this for us while we sit back and wait to be ‘saved’. He invites us to say, along with him, to the Father:

See, I have come to do your will.

Mary herself has already followed her Son, though he is not yet born. Asked as an unmarried virgin if she is willing to be the mother of Jesus and assured that, with God, all things are possible, she has already said: “Yes! Let all this happen to me as you have planned it.” At this stage, she has no idea what is in store for her, but she has said her ‘Yes’ and she will be faithful to it.

An old advertisement once asked: “Have you said ‘Yes’ yet?” It is a question that the readings of today’s Mass are asking each one of us. We are about to celebrate Christmas very soon. Probably all our other preparations have been made, or we are up to our eyes making them. But have we made the most important preparation of all? Have we said our ‘Yes’ to the Father, our ‘Yes’ to Jesus, our ‘Yes’ to all that we will experience in the coming year—our ‘Yes’ to every call that God makes, and will make, of us?

Part of the meaning of Christmas is that, by contemplating the experiences of Jesus and Mary, we learn from them how to say an unqualified and unconditional ‘Yes’, because that is where the real joy and happiness of Christmas lies. All the rest is just tinsel.

Read more