Solemnity

Jan 13 2025

Scripture Study for

The reading from Isaiah is the first of four passages traditionally known as the “servant songs.” Most significant in this description of the servant is his endowment with God’s own spirit. Earlier Israelite leaders—the judges, kings, and prophets—were thought to have been seized by the spirit, thus empowering them to act within the community in some unique fashion. The servant will exercise justice, but not the harsh, exacting kind. Instead, it will be gentle and understanding, willing to wait for the establishment of God’s universal rule. This justice will not compound the distress of an already suffering people. Rather, it will be a source of consolation.

Acts of the Apostles describes a scene that took place in the house of Cornelius, a newly converted Roman centurion. Normally, an observant Jew like Peter would not enter the home of a Gentile. The first words of his discourse (“I see that God shows no partiality”) indicate that he was not always open to association with Gentiles as he is now (Acts 10:34). It was a newly gained insight about God that changed his view of those who did not have Jewish ancestry. Peter came to see that God shows no partiality, and Christ is Lord of all. The message of peace given initially to Israel now includes the Gentiles as well.

The Gospel reading opens with a statement about Jesus’ leaving the familiarity and security of his home in Galilee and journeying to the Jordan River where John was baptizing. There is no description of the actual baptism, but we do have an account of what happened afterwards: the heavens opened and the Spirit of God descended. The Trinitarian scene is completed with the voice from heaven identifying Jesus as “Son.” The words spoken combine an allusion to the “servant of the Lord” (see Isaiah 42:1) and the enthronement of the messianic king. He will accomplish this as “servant of the Lord.”

Jan 13 2025

A New Year’s Blessing

We return once again to Bethlehem, accompanying the shepherds, to see the One announced by the angel as the Savior of the world. With them, we stand before the mother and contemplate the child wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger because there was no room in the inn. We are told that “Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart” (Luke 2:19).

Mary invites us to ponder in our hearts the mystery of her Son Jesus, truly God and truly human. He came for us and for our salvation, and so we ask him to banish any darkness from our hearts and to send us out to bring his light into the world.

The light that Christ brings is the blessing of God’s peace, all that makes life full, and transforms the world into a place that cherishes and preserves, rather than neglecting and destroying life. Christ’s gift of blessing is to let us know the Father and the Father’s plan: that all be one, united as family, able to recognize in each other the dignity of God’s adopted children, alive with the life of grace, destined to share in divinity.

Christ’s blessing calls us to grow into maturity, keeping God’s law of love, just as Jesus himself grew up, living a life that brought the law to its fulfillment. We don’t do this on our own, as the name given to the child reminds us: Jesus, which means “God saves.”

Consider/Discuss

What blessing do you ask from God for the coming year, for yourself, for your loved ones, for your country, for the world?
Jesus came to save, to bring God’s salvation. What do you need to be saved from?

Responding to the Word

We pray that God will bless us with peace, with fullness of life, by drawing us ever more deeply into the life of the Trinity. We ask that the Holy Spirit will come upon us and transform us more completely into people the world can recognize as adopted children of God.

Jan 13 2025

Scripture Study for

The blessing found in today’s Numbers reading may be one of the oldest pieces of poetry in the Bible. Although it is the priests who ultimately bless the people, it is Moses who receives the blessing from God and who delivers it to Aaron and his sons. The blessing itself is quite crisp and direct. Each line invokes a personal action from God: to bless with good fortune and to keep from harm; to look favorably toward and to be gracious to; to look upon and to grant peace. Actually, all the petitions ask for the same reality, namely, the blessings that make life worth living. Peace is the fundamental characteristic of Jewish blessing, the condition of absolute well-being.

According to Paul, the goal of Christ’s mission was the transformation of the Galatians from slaves under the law to adopted children of God. He uses a social custom of the day to illustrate the contrast between servitude under the law and freedom in Christ. An heir too young to claim inheritance was appointed a legal guardian until he came of age. Paul compares the believers to underage minors who, until “the fullness of time had come,” could not claim what might be right fully theirs (Galatians 4:4). The law acted as legal guardian. All of this changes with the coming of Christ. Christians are no longer minors bound to the tutelage of the law.

The Gospel is essentially the same as that of the Christmas Mass at Dawn. However, this passage also speaks of the circumcision and the naming of Jesus. This slight addition shifts the focus of the passage from the shepherds to the child and his parents. As observant Jews, Mary and Joseph fulfilled all of the prescriptions of the law, seeing that the child was circumcised as custom dictated. Just as the angel had foretold, the child is named Jesus, which means savior. Now almost everything that the angel had announced has come to pass.

Jan 13 2025

Becoming a Holy Family

Today’s Gospel story reveals that God’s Son was born into a dangerous world. From the beginning, those in power saw the child as a threat. Herod was a ruthless king. Because Joseph listened to his dream, the child was saved from Herod’s murderous rage. The parents of Jesus played a crucial role in God’s plan from the beginning.

The Christmas season is traditionally a time for families getting together and enjoy each other’s company. But this doesn’t always happen because divisions occur even within families. Today’s feast invites us to reflect on what holds a family together and what loosens and even destroys the family bond. How does the mystery of the Incarnation, of Christ being born in us in our own day, enter into the dynamics of family life? The first two readings provide a focus on the family.

While Sirach focuses on the honor and respect that children owe their parents, Colossians also urges fathers—and mothers—not to discourage their children. And the relationship between husbands and wives is to be marked by mutual love and respect. The call for wives to be “subordinate” is an unfortunate choice of words, given today’s reality of spousal abuse.

At the heart of the mystery of the Incarnation is that all our relationships should bring the presence of Christ to the world. We do this when we put on the virtues of compassion, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, and, above all, love. When these are found in family life, then Christ once again is born in our family.

Consider/Discuss

Do you think that the Holy Family was a perfect family?
What makes for a holy family in our day?

Responding to the Word

We can pray for all families in our world, families of blood and families of choice. We pray for the family of nations, especially where division has resulted in hatred and violence. We pray for the virtues that will draw us closer together in the Church so the world may see us clearly as part of God’s family.

Jan 13 2025

Scripture Study for

The reading from Sirach is instruction about family life, identifying the kind of living that results in family harmony. As wisdom instruction, Sirach lists the blessings that follow such a way of life. The child who respects and obeys both father and mother is promised life itself, remission of sins, riches, the blessing of children, and the answer to prayer. The entire teaching about respect for parents takes on a completely different perspective when we remember that it is addressed to an adult offspring, not a youth.

Paul’s exhortation to virtuous living is introduced with the stated rationale for such a manner of life. Because Christians are God’s chosen, holy and beloved, they should act accordingly. The virtues themselves are all relational, directed toward others, requiring unselfish sensitivity. While the author still insists that wives must be subject to their husbands, he instructs the husbands to act toward their wives with love and thoughtfulness. Children are still told to obey their parents, but fathers are advised to be moderate in the training of their children lest discipline become oppressive. This means that in Christ, the relationships between man and woman and child have been radically altered.

The Gospel reading consists of two discrete narratives, the flight to Egypt and the return. They contain many echoes of the Exodus tradition. The family’s flight into Egypt, precipitated by the hatred of Herod, recalls Joseph’s escape to that same land because of the hatred of his brothers. Both the Holy Family and the family of Jacob/Israel remained in Egypt until the death of a ruler persuaded them to return to their land of origin. Just as Israel’s return resulted in its being shaped into the “people of God,” so Jesus returns to his homeland, there eventually to establish the reign of God. This reading emphasizes the early Christians’ belief that the active presence of God directed the events in the life of Jesus.