Solemnity

Jan 29 2025

Scripture Study for

Often referred to as the Aaronic priestly blessing, the reading from Numbers illustrates various roles, one played by Moses and another played by Aaron and the priests. YHWH, the personal name of God, is repeated three times, demonstrating the power of that name. God is called on to bless with good fortune and to keep from harm; to look favorably toward and to be gracious toward; to look upon and to grant peace. These petitions all ask for the same thing, namely, the blessings that make life worth living. However, they are really all asking for peace, the condition of absolute well-being.

Christ’s mission in the world is the major focus of Paul’s teaching. “The designated time” refers to that time in history when God brought the messianic expectations to fulfillment by sending the Son into the world. Referring to Christ as God’s Son establishes his divine nature; acknowledging that he was born of a woman establishes his human nature. The Christology in this passage is rich and complex. Paul contrasts servitude under the law with freedom in Christ. Still, his attitude toward the law is really not negative. He sees it as a necessary guardian that carefully watches over minors until they are mature enough to take care of themselves.

The Gospel narrative is set within the context of the family. However, the focus is really on the observance of religious practices. Circumcision was the ritual that initiated the males into the community of Israel. As observant Jews, Mary and Joseph fulfilled all of the prescriptions of the law, seeing that the child was circumcised as custom dictated. This was also the time of naming. The child is given the name told to Mary by the angel at the time of his conception. Most of what the angel had announced has now come to pass. But we all will have to wait to see how her son will acquire the throne of his father David and rule the house of Jacob forever.

Jan 29 2025

God’s Passionate Love for Us

A stained glass window in the Redemptorist house chapel in Washington, D.C. offers visitors an image of the Annunciation. Mary looks like a beautiful princess, wearing a white gown embroidered with gold stars, shrouded in a dark blue cloak. Her blond hair falls around her face, her eyes are cast down in humility, and her arms folded across her breast. She is in a sunlit room with multicolored coverings on various pieces of furniture, a lily by her side. An open book of the scriptures is behind her. Most striking is the handsome angel hovering above her, hair wreathed with flowers, and wrapped in enough cloth to drape several large windows. Above them, a dove.

For years I confess I found it all a little silly. After all, wasn’t Mary an illiterate peasant woman, living in a small town? Her appearance, clothing, and household furnishings would have been quite simple. But one day, the look in the angel’s eyes caught my attention as it never had before. I realized what the artist was trying to communicate. Gabriel, whose name means “God is strong,” was looking so lovingly and protectively at her that I found myself thinking of those words in the Song of Songs that speak of a love “stronger than death,” one that “deep waters cannot quench, nor floods sweep away.” As Gabriel stands in for God in this scene, so Mary does for us. Today’s feast celebrates God’s saving love waiting again and again to become incarnate in all human flesh.

Consider/Discuss

Consider God’s gift of grace to you, given at your baptism into Christ. You are chosen to be holy, destined for glory, as Ephesians reminds us.
Does this feast separate Mary from us or bring her closer?

Responding to the Word

Creator God, your grace touched Mary from the moment of her conception, making her worthy to be the mother of your Son. May your grace work with our freedom so that we might bear your Son in our lives and be holy, all to the praise and glory of your name. Amen.

Jan 29 2025

Scripture Study for

The first reading is a story meant to explain the antagonism among human beings as well as the struggle they experience against evil. The story is set in primeval time in order to show that such antagonism and struggle are universal and perennial. This is a story about sin and its consequences. Contrary to artistic representations of Mary as the Immaculate Conception, it is the woman’s offspring, not the woman herself, who will be in constant conflict with the offspring of the serpent. According to this story, human beings might have to struggle with evil, but they will not be conquered by it.

Paul insists that believers were not chosen because they were holy and blame less, but that they might be holy and blameless. In other words, salvation is the cause of and not the reward for righteousness. We do not earn it, it is given to us. Furthermore, it is through Christ, the only real Son of God, that others can become God’s adopted children. The reading begins and ends with praise of God. Regardless of when believers may be called, they are called to praise God’s glory. Adoption, redemption, and forgiveness of sin are the primary reasons for praising God’s glory.

Reading the account of the promise of the conception of Jesus on the feast of the conception of Mary has led to great confusion. However, the Gospel story is explicitly about Mary, not Jesus. She has been chosen to be the mother of God. As the first reading reminds us, all human beings struggle with sin and its consequences. At issue is not the question of a virgin being a mother, but of a vulnerable human being bearing the Son of God. This feast assures us that Mary was “full of grace,” God’s “favored one.” We were chosen and made holy after Christ’s resurrection; she was chosen and made holy in anticipation of it. God’s plan for the whole world is now being accomplished.

Jan 29 2025

The King

It was thirty years ago. I was strong and quick. That’s why they chose me to guard Pilate. No one would harm the proconsul on my watch. Some write that the governor was alone with Jesus. Pilate was never alone with a prisoner. I stood in the back at attention. I was there. I heard. I saw.

“Are you the King of the Jews?” Pilate asked.

The rebel was strong. He carried his shoulders as one accustomed to lifting heavy burdens, to working with his hands. I watched those hands; they could do damage to Pilate’s throat if he chose. But I would kill him first.

“Your own nation has handed you over. What have you done?” Pilate was relaxed. He had spent many years judging men all over Judea. This man was not important. But the chief priests had asked that he be tried for sedition, for inciting people to rebel against Rome.

To Pilate, here was another small man pretending that he was somebody big.

“My kingdom does not belong to this world. My kingdom is not here,” the prisoner said.

Pilate was taken by surprise. “Then you are a king!” He looked past the man and glanced up at me.

The prisoner turned to look me in the eye. “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

My heart burned. I could hardly breathe. “This is the King,” I knew in that moment. “This is my King.”

Ever since that day, I have told the story of Jesus’s encounter with Pilate. So today, my Emperor Nero, I will not change my statement. Your lions can tear me apart. You can slay me with the sword. I will serve no king but the King, ruler of the kings of the earth. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last. I will serve no other.

Consider/Discuss

The “unknown soldier” in this story was willing to give his life for his King. What does it mean to you to give your life for your King?
Looking back at the events of this liturgical year since the beginning of last Advent, in what ways have you seen the King of the Universe triumph? In what ways has it seemed that darkness and falsehood have prevailed? This day, we do what has to be done in spite of what the future may hold. How can we live today faithful to the King rather than dwell in fear?

Living and Praying with the Word

God of the living, you are our future. As we launch from this holy year to the next, we do not know what those days will bring, but you will be there. You will guide us. You will uphold us. We want to honor your kingship. We want to give our lives for you.

All you unknown martyrs of the faith, pray for us. We want to bear witness to Christ—the King—as you did. In courage and strength, we too will serve no other.

Jan 29 2025

Scripture Study for

The scene from Daniel draws on ancient motifs to depict the final triumph of God’s power over hostile, chaotic forces. The time of persecution comes to an end when God (“the Ancient of Days”) sets up thrones of judgment against those who have brought chaos to the earth (Daniel 7:1–12). At this time, a figure “like a Son of man,” that is, with human features, appears on a chariot of clouds. From God this figure receives dominion over the whole earth. As the Jewish tradition developed, this image came to be associated with an expected Messiah who would establish and rule over the kingdom of God on earth. It was in this sense that “the Son of Man” was understood by many in the first century.

The book of Revelation was intended to inspire faith in the final victory of God and the Anointed One—the Christ—over the forces of evil that had been persecuting Christians. Thus, the book begins with a vision of Christ as the victorious and supreme sovereign, whose power extends through space and time. Key themes of the book are sounded here. Jesus is the “faithful witness” who was obedient to God even to death. Resurrected, he is the first of many who will be raised. The work of Christ is a work of love, which seeks to free those whom he loves from all bondage, beginning with sin. As God’s Christ, he is forming a people to give glory to God. The final section, which draws on the vision in Daniel, connects Christ to Jewish messianic expectations.

Pontius Pilate and the Romans were concerned about Jesus and his actions only because they believed them to be connected with political insurrection against the Empire. Was Jesus claiming to be the king of the Jews in an attempt to establish a Jewish state? Pilate wants to know what Jesus’ intentions are. Jesus affirms he has a kingdom, albeit one not of this world, and so in a sense no threat to the Romans. But he is strangely reluctant to affirm explicitly that he is a king (perhaps because it is a title that can be misunderstood), focusing instead on the question of truth. Those who belong to the truth know who and what Jesus is. Pilate can call him whatever he wants.