Come, walk around our quiet Motherhouse as Advent wanes and we await the Christmas Dawn. Mercy holds each one of you in prayer this Holy Night.
And may each of us, in our prayer, hold all those suffering throughout the world from war, hunger, sickness, poverty, and all the other brokenness that Jesus comes to heal.
Today’s Readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122423.cfm
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, on this Christmas Eve and Fourth Sunday of Advent, we are blessed with the iconic reading from Luke:
The angel Gabriel was sent from God
Luke 1:26-38
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the house of David,
and the virgin’s name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said,
“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
But she was greatly troubled at what was said
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Then the angel said to her,
“Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.
“Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
But Mary said to the angel,
“How can this be,
since I have no relations with a man?”
And the angel said to her in reply,
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born
will be called holy, the Son of God.
And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,
has also conceived a son in her old age,
and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;
for nothing will be impossible for God.”
Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”
Then the angel departed from her.
Poetry: The Blessed Virgin Compared to the Air We Breathe – Gerard Manley Hopkins
Wild air, world-mothering air,
Nestling me everywhere,…
Minds me in many ways
Of her who not only
Gave God’s infinity
Dwindled to infancy
Welcome in womb and breast,
Birth, milk, and all the rest
But mothers each new grace
That does now reach our race…
And makes, O marvellous!
New Nazareth in us,
Where she shall yet conceive
Him, morning, noon, and eve;
New Bethlems, and he born
There, evening, noon, and morn…
Be thou then, O thou dear
Mother, my atmosphere;
My happier world, wherein
To wend and meet no sin…
Stir in my ears, speak there
Of God’s love, O live air,
Of patience, penance, prayer:
World-mothering air, air wild,
Wound with thee, in thee isled,
Fold home, fast fold thy child.
Music: Ave Maria (in German) – Franz Schubert
Today’s Readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122323.cfm
(Today, the Church repeats the King O Antiphon. But I love the concept of Christ as Radiant Dawn. It also fits so clearly with the sacred purifications alluded to in today’s readings.)
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we have finally reached the “delivery” stage of Advent. Just like those Amazon packages that keep showing up on doorsteps in the days preceding Christmas, other important arrivals are popping up in our readings.
Malachi announces that a prophet is coming who will purify the people, particularly concerning their worship practices which have corrupted:
Thus says the Lord GOD:
Lo, I am sending my messenger
to prepare the way before me;
And suddenly there will come to the temple
the LORD whom you seek,
And the messenger of the covenant whom you desire.
Yes, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.
It seems that Malachi and his friends, perhaps like some of us, haven’t had the discipline and devotion to safeguard the Temple rituals. Maybe like Mal and the gang, we start to take things for granted, to become cavalier about liturgical intention, to cut corners, to program our own agendas into the sacred rituals of common prayer. — to forget that God is the center of worship, not us.
Becoming that “forgetful” hardens the heart to grace. The One Who longs to encounter us in prayer and worship is stymied by our distracted negligence.
Our Gospel, too, is reminiscent of a sanctuary scene, for it was there that Zechariah learned that a prophet was actually going to be his son! Zechariah encountered God’s Word purifying his life and directing it in a totally unexpected manner. Surely, in the ensuing nine months of silence, the essence of Zechariah’s worship was transformed.
In today’s reading, the incredulous neighbors at John’s bris question Elizabeth’s assignment of such an unfamiliar name. But Zechariah confirms Elizabeth’s declaration. Zechariah’s purification and graceful evolution are complete. His tongue is loosened to proclaim the Word God has spoken in his silent heart.
“There is no one among your relatives who has this name.”
Luke 1: 61-64
So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called.
He asked for a tablet and wrote, “John is his name,”
and all were amazed.
Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed,
and he spoke blessing God.
(I often wonder why the neighbors “made signs” to Zechariah.
Why didn’t they just speak to him?
He wasn’t struck deaf, just mute.:)
Poetry: Zechariah by Andy Sabaka, Pastor of Grace Fellowship Church in Louisville, KY
Day one of his nine months of silence
Began as Zechariah entered God’s presence.
When he walked past the curtain to behold
Gabriel standing by the incense altar of gold,
Zechariah did what all who are not regularly
In the presence of such shining authority
Do: he fell to his knees, filled full with dread,
Assuming in moments he would be struck dead.
Yet Gabriel’s words were frightfully comforting,
Ringing off the walls like heavenly trumpeting.
“Zechariah, my friend, do not be afraid,
For the prayers you and Elizabeth have prayed,
Have been heard by our God, the All-powerful One,
And I tell you, soon your bride will bear a son.
His name will be John, a man set apart,
Filled with God’s Spirit, calling the hearts
Of all who will listen to make room and repent
Because the coming Messiah is soon to be sent.”
The announcement of who the promised child would be,
Never reached Zechariah’s ears, for all he could see
Was Elizabeth’s barrenness and how old they both were.
He was stung that the promise had come so long after
They had given up hope of any offspring.
The guarantee of a child brought back an old sting.
His fear of the angel faded, now replaced by disbelief,
Combined with renewed disappointment and grief.
He said to the angel, “How shall I know this is true?
Can’t you see we are old; our youth long ago flew?
So I hear your authoritative proclamation
But from the little I know about procreation…”
“Silence,” the angel said, and Zechariah obeyed the command.
“Gabriel is my name; before God in heaven I stand.
I was sent from there to give you this good news.
But since you have rejected these wonderful truths,
You will be silent until you see their fulfillment.”
And at the exit of Gabriel, Zechariah’s voice also went.
The crowd outside had been worried at Zechariah’s delay,
So when he finally emerged, they demanded right away
An explanation for all that had happened inside,
But Zechariah’s mouth could give none, no matter how he tried.
It was obvious to all that a vision had been sent
And those who heard of his muteness responded with wonderment.
Yet the response to Zechariah’s silence was nothing compared
To the way that everyone would stop and then stare
At Elizabeth’s pregnant stomach. How could it be
That a woman her age could possibly conceive?
So it was that dumbfounded silence was the reply
To Gabriel’s message that could no longer be denied.
Elizabeth named her child John the day he was born,
But everyone received the name with great scorn,
Insisting the name Zechariah was the right one,
But his father wrote clearly: “His name shall be John.”
It was in that moment of faith, when Zechariah obeyed,
When he showed he believed all the angel had said,
God reached down and touched the lips of the man,
Releasing his tongue to speak once again.
And when his voice first spoke after being dead for so long,
It rang out clearly in the words of this song:
Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, who has come to save
And redeem his people – a horn of salvation he will raise
And he will come from the house of David, his servant,
The one who the prophets said would be sent,
Bringing salvation from our enemies and great mercy
To our fathers before and to all who now see
The promise of Abraham fulfilled in our days.
We are free now to serve with no fear in the way
To walk in righteousness before the rising sun,
And in holiness from this blessed day on.
And you, John, my son, will be a prophet of the Most High,
Preparing the way for him – in the desert you will cry,
Giving the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sins
That the tender mercy of God has come here to win.
He will rise like the sun from heaven and shine bright
On those living in darkness, giving them sight,
Calling them out of the shadow of death to release
Their feet to walk in the path paved with peace.”
Our first advent candle tells us to recall
The miracle of Christmas and the wonder of all
It took for our God to prepare and then send
His Son to bring sin and death to an end.
Let us silently wait in this season pregnant with meaning
Until God loosens our lips to break forth with loud singing
About the rising sun from heaven who has risen again
And brings forgiveness and life to each of us when
We repent and believe that God can do
Any miraculous thing that he wants to,
Including save doubting sinners like you and like me,
Shutting our mouths, making us able to see.
Music: Anticipation – from The Secret Garden
Today’s Readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122223.cfm
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray a heartfelt antiphon beseeching God to transform our world.
Our readings strengthen our prayer because they vibrate with luminous faith deepened by a palpable humanness like our own. We pray with these spiritually powerful women:
Mary and Hannah
courageous mothers
shining believers
agents of worship
prophets in common disguise.
Our first reading once again foreshadows Christ’s life. Hannah, a mother like Mary, gives her only son fully to God’s work. Notice that Hannah, not her husband, brings Samuel to the Temple and initiates the ritual of his dedication. It is Hannah who, claiming her womanhood, utters the simple canon that dedicates Samuel’s life.
Hannah brought Samuel with her,
1 Samuel 1:24-28
along with a three-year-old bull,
an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine,
and presented him at the temple of the LORD in Shiloh……
I am the woman who stood near you here, praying to the LORD.
I prayed for this child, and the LORD granted my request.
Now I, in turn, give him to the LORD;
as long as he lives, he shall be dedicated to the LORD.”
She left Samuel there.
Hannah Leaves Samson at the Temple
But how poignantly the reading ends! Do not miss the human emptiness that filled her heart as she returned to her childless home.
1 Samuel 1:28
In our Gospel, Mary offers us her Liturgy of the Word as she proclaims the liberated dimensions of a redeemed world.
My soul proclaims your greatness, O God!
My heart rejoices in you, my Savior,
because you have showered your servant with blessing!
From now to the end of time,
all generations will know the great things you have done for me.
Mighty One! Your name is holy!
In every age, your compassion flows to those who reverence you!
But all who seek to exalt themselves in arrogance
will be leveled by your power.
You have deposed the mighty from their seats of power,
and have raised the lowly to high places.
Those who suffer hunger, you have filled with good things.
Those who are privileged, you have turned away empty-handed.
You have come to the aid of your people,
in fulfillment of the promise you made to our ancestors
when you spoke blessing to Sarah and Hagar
and all their descendants, to the utmost generation!
from the Cortona Altarpiece by Fra Angelico
After her courageous declaration, Mary spends three months with Elizabeth in a mutually-directed matriarchal retreat. She then goes back, alone but not alone, to the life she has yet to shape for the coming God. Once again, the striking solitude of this young mother as she travels home:
Luke 1:56
What can we learn from these women today as we make a place for God in our hearts and in our world? Like Hannah, to what liturgies of giving am I called? Like Mary, does my life proclaim my faith in God’s transformative intention for Creation?
Poetry: The Eternal Feminine by Pierre de Chardin
When the world was born, I came into being.
Before the centuries were made, I issued from the hand of God. . .
God instilled me into the initial multiple
as a force of condensation and concentration.
In me is seen that side of beings by which they are joined as one,
in me the fragrance that makes them hasten together and leads them,
freely and passionately, along their road to unity.
Through me, all things have their movement and are made to work as one.
I am the beauty running through the world,
to make it associate in ordered groups;
the ideal held up before the world to make it ascend.
I am the Eternal Feminine.
I was the bond that held together the foundations of the universe. . .
I extend my being into the soul of the world. . .
I am the magnetic force of the universal presence
and the ceaseless ripple of its smile.
I open the door to the whole heart of creation:
I, the Gateway of the Earth, the Initiation. . .
In me, the soul is at work to sublimate the body —
Grace to divinize the soul.
Those who wish to continue to possess me
must change as I change. . .
It is God who awaits you in me!. . .
If, God, then, was able to emerge from himself,
he had first to lay a pathway of desire before his feet,
he had to spread before him a sweet savor of beauty.
It was then that he caused me to rise up,
a luminous mist hanging over the abyss—
between the earth and himself—
that, in me, he might dwell among you. . .
Lying between God and the earth,
as a zone of mutual attraction,
I draw them both together in a passionate union.
. . . I am the Eternal Feminine.
Music – Magnificat – Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (8 March 1714 – 14 December 1788), commonly abbreviated C. P. E. Bach, was a German Classical period composer and musician, the fifth child and second surviving son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach.
Throughout his lifetime, Bach worked on the Magnificat in D, Wq. 215. J. S. Bach was alive to hear it in 1749, and C. P. E. continued to revise and perform it as late as 1786. The work clearly shows the influence of J.S. Bach’s own Magnificat, including the striking resemblance of the Deposuit movements in both works.
This is the track list for the album Magnificat, taking the various phrases of the Latin prayer and expressing them in melody. If you don’t have time to listen to the whole thing, you might like to take a portion or two at a time.
Tracklist:
00:00:00 Symphony in G Major, Wq 173: I. Allegro assai
00:02:59 Symphony in G Major, Wq 173: II. Andante
00:05:34 Symphony in G Major, Wq 173: III. Allegretto
00:08:38 Symphony in G Major, Wq 180: I. Allegro di molto
00:12:50 Symphony in G Major, Wq 180: II. Largo
00:17:12 Symphony in G Major, Wq 180: III. Allegro assai
00:20:26 Magnificat in D Major, Wq 215: I. Magnificat (Chorus)
00:23:18 Magnificat in D Major, Wq 215: II. Aria. Quia respexit (Soprano)
00:29:35 Magnificat in D Major, Wq 215: III. Aria. Quia fecit (Tenor)
00:33:40 Magnificat in D Major, Wq 215: IV. Et misericordia eius (Chorus)
00:41:28 Magnificat in D Major, Wq 215: V. Aria. Fecit potentiam (Bass)
00:45:14 Magnificat in D Major, Wq 215: VI. Duet. Deposuit potentes (Contralto, Tenor)
00:51:00 Magnificat in D Major, Wq 215: VII. Aria. Suscepit Israel (Contralto)
00:56:31 Magnificat in D Major, Wq 215: VIII. Gloria (Chorus)
00:58:17 Magnificat in D Major, Wq 215: IX. Sicut erat (Chorus)
Music: To counterpoint your quiet, here’s a high-spirited welcome to the Solstice from Jethro Tull.
Now is the solstice of the year
Winter is the glad song that you hear
Seven maids move in seven time
Have the lads up ready in a line
Ring out these bells
Ring out, ring solstice bells
Ring solstice bells
Join together ‘neath the mistletoe,
By the holy oak whereon it grows
Seven druids dance in seven time
Sing the song the bells call, loudly chiming
Ring out these bells
Ring out, ring solstice bells
Ring solstice bells
Ring out, ring out the solstice bells
Ring out, ring out the solstice bells
Praise be to the distant sister sun,
Joyful as the silver planets run
Seven maids move in seven time
Sing the song the bells call, loudly chiming
Ring out these bells
Ring out, ring solstice bells
Ring solstice bells
Ring on, ring out
Ring on, ring out
Ring on, ring out
Ring on, ring out
(Photo by Norexy_art on Pixabay)
Ah, the perfect summer night… the kind you remember from when you were a kid:
Music: Song for Summer Solstice – Libby Roderick
Daylight comes and nighttime goes, nighttime falls, day flies
Round and round the cycle goes, we live and then we die and then we live and then we die.
The seasons of my life go round, the sunshine and the rain
The fallow and the fruitful days, the joy and then the pain and then the joy and then the pain.
As light below, so light above, so light in all we see
The light is in the act of love, the light that sets us free, yes, it’s the light that sets free.
Daylight comes…
Today’s Readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122123.cfm
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, the Church sings out to God the warm, familiar Advent invitation:
Our first reading from the Song of Songs vibrates with anticipation of God’s arrival:
Hark! my lover–here he comes
Song of Songs 2: 8-9
springing across the mountains,
leaping across the hills.
My lover is like a gazelle
or a young stag.
Here he stands behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
peering through the lattices.
When the Divine Lover arrives, the one who waits must be awakened from frost, flood, or barrenness that has drowsed them.
“Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one,
Song of Songs 2: 10-12
and come!
“For see, the winter is past,
the rains are over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of pruning the vines has come,
and the song of the dove is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth its figs,
and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance.
Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one,
and come!
As we pray with the Song of Songs, we are reminded that relationship with God exceeds our comprehension and expression. We have only our human descriptions to help us explore the infinite dimensions of Grace and Mercy. We image the Holy One as Father, Mother, Sister, Brother, Child, Light, Wisdom, Love, Lover, or Beloved – each aspect offering a necessarily limited metaphor for the Incomprehensible One.
As we consider places in our world, and in our own hearts, which are frozen, flooded, or barren of life, let us invite the Passion of God to rescue and reinvigorate us.
As we reflect on today’s Gospel, we can imagine both Mary and Elizabeth filled with that Holy Vigor which changes and restores everything to God’s original hope for Creation. It was into such ready openness that God’s Word leapt in one moment 2000 years ago. May it leap again into our hearts.
Poetry: Love Gaze – Renee Yann, RSM
Caught in the ferocious wind
of my own inadequacies,
I cling by finest web
to the energy You are,
fixing my soul on yours
in that precarious holding.
You are the magnet, gathering
all my emptiness beyond itself.
As if my fears were only stones
to tread upon, You come into the marshes
of my life as stillness, paused
and vibrating like a deer
among the reeds in dusklight.
I cannot word what it is
to swim in the deep pool of your Eyes.
All the universe, and all my understanding
turn reverently aside to offer privacy
for such profound combining.
Music: Veni, Dilecte Mi – Orlande de Lassus (1532-1594), one of the leading composers of the later Renaissance
Latin:
Prima pars
7:11 Veni dilecte mi, egrediamur in agrum, commoremur in villis,
7:12 Mane surgamus ad vineas. Videamus si floruit vinea, si flores
fructus parturiunt, si floruerunt mala punica.
Ibi dabo tibi ubera mea.
Secunda pars
4:11a Favus distillans labia tua, [dilecte mi], mel et lac
sub lingua tua.
8:6a Pone me ut signaculum super cor tuum,
quia fortis est ut mors dilectio, dura sicut infernus aemulatio.
English:
Prima pars
7:11 Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us abide in the villages.
7:12 Let us get up early to the vineyards, let us see if the vineyard flourish, if the flowers
be ready to bring forth fruits, if the pomegranates flourish:
there will I give thee my breasts.
Secunda pars
4:11a Thy lips, my spouse, are as a dropping honeycomb, [my beloved] honey and milk are under thy tongue;
8:6a Put me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm,
for love is strong as death, jealousy as hard as hell.
(Douai-Rheims)
Today’s Readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122023.cfm
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, Isaiah foretells the conception and birth of the Messiah.
Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign:
Isaiah 7:14
the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and shall name him Emmanuel.
Isaiah offered the prophecy to one of the bad guys of the Hebrew Scriptures – King Ahaz (who was, nevertheless, the 16th great-grandfather of Jesus in the long David line). But Ahaz refused to believe, subsequently pursuing his own agenda rather than God’s. Ahaz’s choice ended up in disaster for both the religious and social framework of Israel.
Isaiah had handed Ahaz the Key to believe
and to act in union with God’s Will,
but Ahaz remained closed to the grace.
About 700 years later, when an angel offers her the Key, a young girl opens her heart to the miracle Isaiah once prophesied.
In the sixth month,
Luke 1:26-33
the angel Gabriel was sent from God
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the house of David,
and the virgin’s name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said,
“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
But she was greatly troubled at what was said
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Then the angel said to her,
“Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”
The stark contrast between Ahaz’s and Mary’s responses encourages us to consider our own openness to God’s interventions in our lives. We live a series of experiences, learnings, mistakes, reminiscences, hopes, disappointments, and a thousand other turnings of circumstance and relationship. Each holds the potential to draw us closer to God if, by prayer and reverence, we can find the key hidden under human appearances.
We can hear Mary searching for that key in her question to the angel:
But Mary said to the angel,
Luke 1: 34
“How can this be,
since I have no relations with a man?”
The angel assures Mary that there is a world transcending our perceptions where God’s power holds sway beyond all human calculation.
And the angel said to her in reply,
Luke 1: 35
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Expressing her profound faith and trust in God, Mary was able to suspend the limits of expectation and definition. Ahaz didn’t even try.
Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
Luke 1: 38
May it be done to me according to your word.”
Poetry: Annunciation – Marie Howe
Even if I don't see it again—nor ever feel it
I know it is—and that if once it hailed me
it ever does—
And so it is myself I want to turn in that direction
not as towards a place, but it was a tilting
within myself,
as one turns a mirror to flash the light to where
it isn't—I was blinded like that—and swam
in what shone at me
only able to endure it by being no one and so
specifically myself I thought I'd die
from being loved like that.
Music: The Annunciation from Rosary Sonata – Heinrich Biber
Today’s Readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121923.cfm
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we summon the Redeemer with the title, “O Root of Jesse”. Our readings, rich with biblical tradition, sculpt an image of Christ as an omnipotent radical Presence who alters the course of time.
To clarify that image for us, our readings first offer Samson, a prototype of Jesus in these ways:
Samson by Norman Rockwell,
commissioned by Cecil B. Moore
for the film Samson and Delilah (1947)
The woman went and told her husband,
Judges 13: 6-9
“A man of God came to me;
he had the appearance of an angel of God, terrible indeed.
I did not ask him where he came from, nor did he tell me his name.
But he said to me,
‘You will be with child and will bear a son.
So take neither wine nor strong drink, and eat nothing unclean.
For the boy shall be consecrated to God from the womb,
until the day of his death.'”
The woman bore a son and named him Samson.
The boy grew up and the LORD blessed him;
the Spirit of the LORD stirred him.
The Church gives us this reading about Samson today so that we can focus on these characteristics of the Messiah whom Samson foreshadows.
Praying with those images, I remember an amazing tree I once saw in South Carolina. My friend Mike, a proud South Carolinian with a mellow drawl and a matching hospitality, suggested that we take a short ride from Charleston to visit a remarkable treasure (and to enjoy a Gullah dinner on the way home!).
The Angel Oak Park is located on Johns Island where you can find what is known as “A Lowcountry Treasure”. The Southern Live Oak tree is a historical site and focal point of one of the City of Charleston’s public parks. It is considered to be the largest Live Oak Tree east of the Mississippi estimated to be 300 to 400 years old. The Angel Oak receives approximately 400,000 visitors each year. The tree is 65 feet high with a circumference of 25.5 feet, shading an area of 17,000 square feet.
https://www.charleston-sc.gov/153/Angel-Oak
The tree is breathtaking. Being in its presence at once propels us back centuries while convincing us that life endures forever into the future. Standing in its expansive shade, we sense the immeasurable rootedness underfoot, and implacable steadfastness proven in storm.
The tree suggests, although it does not possess, the eternal steadfastness of God. With that suggestion, we are inspired to pray under its silent branches.
Such is the power of Samson in today’s reading. We are reminded and foretold, before Christmas Day, of the omnipotence of our longed-for Redeemer so that we may be more open to the surprising graces he will bring.
The Angel’s Visit to Zechariah – Luis Paret y Alcazar
Fittingly, our Gospel gives us another kind of angel, a real one – not a tree. This angel comes and nearly shocks the tonsils out of Zechariah, another good and righteous man. In his imposed silence, Zechariah hears a description of his son and of the coming Christ. The description is rich with images no doubt familiar from Zechariah’s long life of scripture study. Maybe, as he listens, he thinks of Samson and all the long lineage now tied into his own bloodline!
With the angel’s word Zechariah is given the gift of his own kind of nine-month spiritual pregnancy – one in which to let those images mature in him like the burgeoning of a faith-filled tree.
As we pray with these scriptures today, what angels and images visit us to prepare us for the rebirth of Christ in our hearts?
Poetry: Song of Zechariah (Luke 1:59-79) – Irene Zimmerman, OSF
At the circumcision of his son,
relatives and neighbors came
to speak for Zechariah of the tied
tongue. The child, they concurred,
would bear his worthy father's name.
But during her husband's silence,
old Elizabeth had found her voice.
"His name will be John," she said.
Why this strange, unprecedented choice,
the relatives and neighbors wondered.
Armed with writing instrument,
back they went to poor, dumb Zechariah.
But during the long confinement,
as young Mary and Elizabeth
spoke about the missions of their sons,
he had listened and grown wise.
Straightaway, he wrote, "His name is John."
he caught Elizabeth's smiling eyes,
felt his old tongue loosen, found his voice,
sang of God's tender mercy,
sang of the breaking dawn,
sang of the prophet, their son,
who would make straight the way
for the long-awaited One.
Music: Sacred Silence – Lyrics by Tom Booth, Jenny Pixler, and Anthony Kuner
Today’s Readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121823.cfm
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with our beautiful O Antiphon:
In our prayer, we call out to God as a Leader, a Leader we desperately crave because we cannot find the way ourselves. Oh, how badly we need that Divine Leader today!
Throughout these past few weeks, as I have prayed and written about the salvation history of Israel, interwoven with our Christian faith, I have been so painfully aware of the current situation in the Holy Land. The human carnage being executed there, as well as in Ukraine, screams against our mounting stagnation and indifference.
As the world observes and opines over the sacrilegious slaughter of human life, I know God’s heart breaks, as does the heart of anyone who loves as God loves. Where are the human leaders who will hear God’s cries to fashion a peace for these people, and for the world which is sickened by their suffering.
“We, people of God who proclaim the Gospel of the Risen One, have the duty to cry out this truth of faith: God is a God of peace, love, and hope. A God who wants us all to be brothers and sisters, as His Son Jesus Christ taught us. The horrors of war, of every war, offend the most holy name of God. And they offend Him even more if His name is abused to justify such unspeakable carnage.”
Pope Francis
War, and its reflection in proliferating smaller violences, is the extreme expression of a heart and a civilization deadened by sin. When a culture has normalized the tactics of death, it can be rescued only by the Divine.
As we pray today with Jeremiah’s promise to a beleaguered people, let us pray for mercy and justice for all people, especially women, children, and the poor who are always the most brutalized in war. And let’s do all that we can to move our government to moral leadership against the embedded sin of global violence.
Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD,
Jeremiah 3:5-6
when I will raise up a righteous shoot to David;
As king he shall reign and govern wisely,
he shall do what is just and right in the land.
In his days Judah shall be saved,
Israel shall dwell in security.
This is the name they give him:
“The LORD our justice.”
Prayer: On Peace and War – Walter Brueggemann from Prayers for a Privileged People
We are aware, acutely aware in your presence,
of the grind of tanks,
of the blast of mines hidden against human flesh,
of the rat-tat-tat of sniper fire.
We are aware of the stench of death,
bodies of our own military women and men, bodies of countless Iraqis,
and the smell makes us shiver.
Such smells and sounds are remote from us,
but not remote from us are bewilderment,
and anxiety, and double-mindedness.
We are bewildered,
whether we are liberators or invaders,
whether they are terrorists or freedom fighters, whether we should yearn for peace or savor victory.
The world has become so strange,
and our place in it so tenuous,
where gray seems clearer than the white purity of our hopes,
or the darkness of our deathly passions.
There is so little agreement among us,
perhaps so little truth among us,
so little, good Lord, that we scarcely know how to pray,
or for what to pray.
We do know, however, to whom we pray!
We pray to you, creator God, who wills the world good;
We pray to you, redeemer God, who makes all things new.
We pray to you, stirring Spirit, healer of the nations.
We pray for guidance,
And before that, we pray in repentance,
for too much wanting the world on our own terms.
We pray for your powerful mercy,
to put the world – and us – in a new way,
a way after Jesus who gave himself,
a way after Jesus who confounded the authorities and
who lived more excellently.
Whelm us by your newness, by peace on your terms
– the newness you have promised,
of which we have seen glimpses in your Son
who is our Lord.
Music: End the War. Grant Us Peace – Lord’s Loving Melody
Lavish Mercy 