Solemnity of The Nativity Of Saint John the Baptist

Today is the Solemnity of The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist.  Today we celebrate the birth of the man who, as Saint Augustine tells us, “represents the boundaries between the two testaments, the old and the new.”  All of the events surrounding the birth of the Baptist suggest that the obscurity of the Old Testament prophesies are to be revealed and illuminated by the one who John is to proclaim, who John had already been proclaiming as he leaped in the womb of his mother Elizabeth at Mary’s arrival.  Leaping like David dancing before the Ark of the Covenant.  Even from the womb John points us past the signs to the ultimate realities.  This is why we celebrate his birth with a Solemnity!

John points us out of the wilderness, out of confusion, to the fulfillment of the words of Isaiah, Hosea, Jeremiah and the prophets.  Words that often were mysterious, and attain their deepest meaning only in the light of Christ’s salvific mission.  And us too, he points us past the mundane to Jesus, in whose light even the most obscure life is elevated and glorified.
 
Of course evil hates clarity and light.  The enemy of your soul will always try to confuse your vocation, obscure your accomplishments and highlight your failings. Even John the Baptist experienced moments of confusion and doubt as he faced down evil in his martyrdom (Matthew 11:2).  From his place of imprisonment John lived out what he had been preaching to all who would listen:   He turned to the Lord; he asked Him for reassurance and in the Lord’s response he was satisfied.  Even in his doubt he fulfilled his mission which is so beautifully portrayed in so many paintings;  in sending his messengers to Jesus, John was pointing to Him and showing us all the way out of our own confusion and self-doubt.
 
If your are tossed between self-condemnation and self-justification follow the pointing finger of the one who cries out in the wilderness.  Like John, go to the One who gives meaning to the obscure prophesies of the past, and the seeming vanities of this life.  Ask the Lord to show you how your life and your toil can be filled with His light and imbued with deep meaning and glory.

Though I thought I had toiled in vain,
and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength,
yet my reward is with the LORD,
my recompense is with my God.
For now the LORD has spoken
who formed me as his servant from the womb,
that Jacob may be brought back to him
and Israel gathered to him;
and I am made glorious in the sight of the LORD,
and my God is now my strength!
It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant,
to raise up the tribes of Jacob,
and restore the survivors of Israel;
I will make you a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.  Isaiah 49:4-6and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength,yet my reward is with the LORD,my recompense is with my God.For now the LORD has spokenwho formed me as his servant from the womb,that Jacob may be brought back to himand Israel gathered to him;and I am made glorious in the sight of the LORD,and my God is now my strength!It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant,to raise up the tribes of Jacob,and restore the survivors of Israel;I will make you a light to the nations,that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.  Isaiah 49:4-6

Saint John the Baptist,  pray for us!
Heidi

I did not know Him

Reflection for Sunday, January 16 --  The Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Judy Morss

The gospel reading for this Sunday is taken from John 1:29-34:

John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said,“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He is the one of whom I said, ‘A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me. ’I did not know him, but the reason why I came baptizing with water was that he might be made known to Israel.” John testified further, saying, “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and remain upon him.  I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain,he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.  ’Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.”

As I read and prayed over this gospel, I was struck by the words, "I did not know Him." John says this twice! How can John not have know Jesus? Jesus was his cousin; when Mary and Elizabeth met one another when they were both pregnant with these special little boys, John leaped in Elizabeth's womb. How could he not know Jesus? Then it struck me that John was saying that he did know exactly who Jesus was; the Lamb of God, the Messiah we all wait for. But John proclaimed who Jesus was, not because of familial relationships, but because of the inspiration John received from God the Father. John saw the dove, the Holy Spirit come down upon Jesus and he believed.

Do my thoughts and actions say that "I did not know Him?" Do I see and recognize Christ in others around me, in my daily life, in events that happen? Or do I forget that Christ is part of everyone and everything? I need to be aware of Christ's presence in everything I say and do; every moment of my life. As in our second reading of today, Paul tells us we are "called to be holy." We cannot be holy unless we truly KNOW Jesus.

With peace and love,
Judy

Prepare the Way of the Lord!

Reflections for Sunday, December 8 --  The Second Sunday of Advent

By: Judy Morss

For those of you who keep the tradition of the Advent Wreath, we light the second candle today. Candles one, two and four are purple in color. The first candle which we lit last Sunday is called the prophet's candle and it symbolizes hope. We think of Isaiah, the Prophet, who foresaw the coming of our Messiah.  The second candle is known as the Bethlehem candle and it symbolizes faith and preparation as we prepare for the coming of Jesus. The third candle is pink/rose in color and is lit on Gaudete Sunday. The priest wears rose colored vestments; my priest laughingly tells us that he is "pretty in pink." This candle is called the shepherd's candle and symbolizes the joy that was proclaimed by the angels when Jesus was born. The fourth candle is called the angel's candle and symbolizes peace and love when Jesus came to earth.  Some churches and families add a fifth candle, a white candle.  This candle is lit on Christmas Eve and is known as Christ's candle.  The Advent Wreath can be a wonderful symbol of our Advent journey as we move closer and closer to the beautiful gift from God, the birth of our Savior.

Today's gospel is taken from Mathew 3:1-12

John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea
and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said:
A voice of one crying out in the desert,
Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.
John wore clothing made of camel’s hair and had a leather belt around his waist.
His food was locusts and wild honey. At that time Jerusalem, all Judea,
and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him
and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.
When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism,
he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves,
‘We have Abraham as our father.’
For I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit
will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I am baptizing you with water, for repentance,
but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand.
He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Advent indeed is a time of waiting, of hope and of preparation. Just as John the Baptist, we are crying out in the desert. We are looking and longing for something. Often we don't know what we are looking for; we just know that we have a hole that cries out to be filled. The Baptist reminds us that we need to prepare for the coming of the Kingdom of God -- Christ himself. We should be focused on "making straight His paths." We often wander about in the darkness or in dim light, not sure where we are going or what we have as our objective. It is so easy to get involved in the preparation of Christmas and lose sight of the wonder that is before us. In order to straighten my path, I need to ask God for forgiveness and hope. If I focus on the holiday instead of the Holy Day, then I wait for Christ in vain. When I spend more quiet time with Him, I begin to see in the birth of Jesus what He really means in my life and what He gives me. Through His love, my life can bloom and flourish. I can indeed make a straight path for Him to enter directly into my heart. May the season of Advent draw you closer and closer to our Savior and as you light another candle each week, may your straight path become brighter and brighter.

With peace and love,
Judy

“Though in the sight of men he suffered torments, his hope is full of immortality”

The title of this post is a quote from the third chapter of Wisdom, and it is fitting that Saint Bede the Venerable used it in his homily of St. John, you can read it in the Office of Readings for the Memorial of the Beheading (or Passion) of John the Baptist. As I was reading thorough Saint Bede’s homily today this paragraph just stopped me in my tracks.

“There is no doubt that blessed John suffered imprisonment and chains as a witness to our Redeemer, whose forerunner he was, and gave his life for him.  His persecutor had demanded not that he should deny Christ, only that he should keep silent about the truth.  Nevertheless, he died for Christ.  Does Christ not say:  “I am the truth”?  Therefore, because John shed his blood for the truth, he surely died for Christ.” 

Things have not changed have they?!  Usually we are not asked to outright deny Christ, we are simply expected to be quiet about Him.  However, do not be surprised if our silent compliance leads to the demand to deny Our Lord explicitly.  Which makes today a good day to ask for the intercession of Saint John the Baptist, for the wisdom to know when to speak, and the courage to follow through.  The concluding prayer for this powerful Memorial is:

O God, who wills that Saint John the Baptist should go ahead of your Son both in his birth and in his death, grant that, as he died a Martyr for truth and justice, we, too, may fight hard for the confession of what you teach.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ your son, one God for ever and ever. Amen

I pray that all of us grow in the courage to place our hope in the immortal Truth, who is Christ.

Heidi

This post is also featured on Catholic Spirituality Blogs Network

Probe me God: A reflection on Psalm 139

Truly you have formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mothers womb.  I give you thanks that I am fearfully and wonderfully made!

What a beautiful Psalm!  These words inspire me in true wonder and awe of the Lord, and with great gratitude and appreciation of the creation of each and every person.  It was read on the Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, who proclaimed a baptism of repentance, and this post is looking at Psalm 139 through the eyes of John. We are often so deformed in sin that we need to hear the words of the prophet anew, and understand how deep this hope of renewal goes. And, I don't know about you, but I need the humility to remember that, yes I am good because I have been created in His image and likeness, but I am also fallen.  I don't want to live easy with my sinfulness, it is destroying me.  I want my hope and my regeneration to begin today.  It is easy to affirm someone who is deeply enmeshed in degrading sin as a child of God, and then leave them there, but when the shame bubbles up again, unless that individual has a higher and stronger faith, he or she may simple be affirmed to sit in death's shadow.

  At the birth of his son Zachariah breaks out with a spirit-filled canticle:

"And you, child, will be called prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of  their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God by which the daybreak from on high will visit us, to shine on those who sit in darkness and death's shadow" Luke 1:76-79

I, who have been made so wonderfully, and with such a high destiny, I am often mired in darkness of sin, and cowering in the deathly shadow of guilt.  So,even if I know that I am a wonderful creation in the image and likeness of God, still I am overwhelmed by the devastation that is wrought by sin and concupiscence in my soul. I am stalked by past guilt, hurt and rejections.  I am put down by current tendencies to envy and tenacious false identities. And the calloused and dark wounds in my heart quietly prompt deep suspicions that subtly corrupt my motives!  How can I ever recover?  And I live in a time that is both highly judgmental on a superficial level, yet very complacent about enduring with those who struggle with truly devastating sin, and the dark shame and anger that hide with it. I need to deepen my shallow hopes in redemption.  Each one of us needs to encourage others to allow the Lord to probe us deeply, again and again. We need to be humble so we can let the Spirit blow into the god forsaken areas of our souls.

So here is the rest of the Psalm above:

Psalm 139:2-16;23

You know when I sit and stand; you understand my thoughts from afar. My travels and my rest you mark; with all my ways you are familiar. Even before a word is on my tongue, Lord you know it all. Behind and before you encircle me and rest your hand upon me. Such knowledge is beyond me, far too lofty for me to reach. Where can I hide from your spirit? From your presence where can I flee? If I ascend to the heavens, you are there; if I lie down in Sheol, you are there too. If I fly with the wings of dawn and alight beyond the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand hold me fast. If I say, "Surely darkness shall hide me, and night shall be my light" Darkness is not dark for you and night shines as the day, Darkness and light are but one. You formed my inmost being; you knot me in my mother's womb. I praise you, so wonderful you made me; wonderful are your works. My very self you knew; my bones are not hidden from you, When I was being made in secret, fashioned as in the depths of the earth. You saw me unformed......Probe me, God, know my heart; try me, know my concerns. See if my way is crooked then lead me in the ancient path."

Awhile ago I was meditating on this passage during my Adoration hour, I was praying about a situation that had recently been in the news in which God's great mercy and healing seemed to be missing.  It was a situation in which a lonely, rejected individual committed a ghastly crime.  This young man who eventually took his own life was filled with rage and contempt for himself, and for a society that offered him so little in terms of transcendence and ultimate hope that his existence was not merely an accident.  I began to think about the many, many people who are lost in the darkness of sin, or weighed down by terrible shame, yet even in our mostly Christian culture, seem to be without hope of redemption.  Many of these people struggle with relating to others, sometimes as a result of inborn tendencies, or from traumas that were not of their making.  They are isolated, lonely and filled with a hopeless rage.   I looked back at my journal where I quoted the first lines of the Psalm:  You know when I sit and stand; you understand my thoughts from afar. My travels and my rest you mark; with all my ways you are familiar. Even before a word is on my tongue, Lord you know it all.  Beside it wrote: "really?  WHERE ARE YOU!"  next to it.  After that I had scribbled a line from the Matt Maher song, You Were On The Cross:

"Where were you when sin stole my innocence?
Where were you when I was ashamed?

 Hiding in a life I wish I'd never made"

It is hard for anyone to wholeheartedly believe that the Lord cares "when I sit and when I stand" or that "I am wonderfully made", when we are acutely aware of how little our souls resembles the high dignity and glory they were created for.  And in the case I was praying about this young man knew how deformed he was, but he had no hope of being reformed because he had no hope that he was created by God and that God willed him to be reformed.  It is even harder in our cynical times of superficial love and sentimental catch phrases to awaken a sense of repentance that is more than just self pity!  And there are still many who are in darkness and in death's shadow, unaware that the tender mercy of our God can and will penetrate anything. We are the ones who need to make them aware, we need to pray for the daybreak from on high to break out upon them, wherever they are!  We are to follow in the footsteps of the Baptist!


The Psalm now begins to whisper to me:  Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand! Repent, for the powers that would enslave you have no power over Him. Repent, for God has never left you; though it may be too dark for you to see Him, He sees you. His hand is upon you! Do not be too proud to allow Him to show you your darkest sins, they are not dark to Him. He knows what they have done to you. Do not be afraid to reveal your most depraved desires or your most wretched fears, he is greater and stronger than any of them.  He can retrieve you from the Sheol in your soul that imprisons you.  Do not be afraid of the chaos sin has stirred up, for His Spirit is with you, encircling you and His mighty wind blows over the dark and formless wastelands in each of our souls, reforming and renewing them. Repent, for the kingdom is at hand!  His light will illuminate the way.

Then I underlined the last line, as a daily prayer for myself, and for many others who do not yet know to pray it. "Probe me, God, know my heart; try me, know my concerns. See if my way is crooked then lead me in the ancient path." 

 

  Here is the refrain to You Were On The Cross, the song quoted above:

You were on the cross.
You were there in all of my suffering,
You were there in doubt and in fear,
I am waiting on the dawn to reappear.

Go out and en-kindle a hope that salvation and reformation are at hand; a hope that no one is an accident or beyond His tender mercy; a hope that is beyond all the sorrows of this world!

Peace and grace,
Heidi