Solemnity

Jan 24 2025

Jesus, the Open Door

Good scribe, I am getting old. I must tell my story before I die: The porter began to push the palace door closed: “You are not of the Chosen People. We do not want your kind here.” “But wait! We have seen a star. We have come to worship the king of the Jews.”

“Wait here.”

They let us squeeze in through a crack. The room was heavy with perfume, masking the stench of unwashed bodies. In the stale air, I could not breathe. I longed to be back home, in the crispness of the desert air, basking in the radiance of the stars and the moon. The long trek to get to Jerusalem, to follow that star, just to have the door slammed in our faces, to see this man . . . This was not the king that we were looking for.

“Go to Bethlehem. Find the child. Come back and tell us so that we too can go and worship.” I smelled a lie. I smelled darkness, deceit in these halls of power. My stomach felt like it was being stabbed.

She opened the door. “Come in. Welcome!” I smelled fresh bread. (Some have pictured us coming to a stable—but no, we came to his house.) The baby laughed and reached for us, holding out his arms. I felt a surge of joy. The radiance of the star shone in his little smile, as though he would be a ray of light in the vast darkness. I was happy to give him my gift. They had welcomed us in. We were truly wanted and loved! I felt sure that this king, small as he was, would open the door for others as well.

But let that putrid Herod foul this holy place? No. No. I just wanted to go home.

Consider/Discuss

When have you felt unwanted, as though a door has been slammed in your face? How does that feel different from the welcome of a that has been door graciously opened?
Jesus opened the door of faith to the Gentiles as well as the Jews. How can we more fully appreciate that? How can we, in turn, generously open doors for others?

Living and Praying with the Word

Gifts. Savior of the world, we bring you gifts. Yet all that we give to you has already been given to us. You have clothed us in radiance. Your star has arisen in our lives. We have nothing to give. So we pay you homage and bow before you. Glory to you, O Lord! Your light has shone upon us!

Jan 24 2025

Scripture Study for

The passage from Isaiah begins with an image of a world covered in the darkness and thick clouds of spiritual blindness, confusion, ignorance, violence, and woes of every kind. The exception is Zion, the city of the God of Israel, in which God appears in glory. It is this divine presence that sheds light over Jerusalem, bringing healing, wisdom, and shalom. In such a world, the prophet concludes, all the nations are naturally drawn to the light that shines from within Israel. The prophet foresees a new day dawning for the entire world, beginning with Jerusalem, which will become a destination for all the nations as they move inevitably toward the Light, proclaiming praise for the God of Israel.

Although most of the Old Testament focuses on the particular relationship between Israel and God, that central story is clearly situated within the story of God and the entire human family: Abraham is promised that through him all the families of the earth will find blessing (Genesis 12:3). This larger divine purpose drives much of Paul’s thinking, such as we see it here in the Letter to the Ephesians. Here the emphasis is on God’s “outreach” to the nations. The grace that Paul has been called to proclaim is precisely that Gentiles are now called to join with Jews as heirs of God’s ancient promises. This inheritance, obtained through Christ, is unearned, founded solely on God’s graciousness.

Understandably threatened by the news of a “newborn king of the Jews,” Herod naturally wants to know where he might find this child. The prophecy, derived from Micah 5:1–3, speaks of a Davidic king who will emerge from David’s ancestral town. Herod of course intends to harm the child, but the focus of the reading is on the homage of the wise men, who are not dismayed in the least that the new king of the Jews is to be found in such humble circumstances. Clearly believing the child is in fact the king of the Jews, they bring him costly gifts, which tradition has suggested point toward Christ’s royalty (gold), divinity (frankincense), and eventual death (myrrh).

Jan 24 2025

The Lord Bless You and Keep You

When I was little, I worried about the sheep. The angels sang “Glory to God in the highest” and the sky burst with light. I loved the story of the shepherds. But I worried about their sheep. In the picture in my children’s Bible, they looked like white dots scattered on the hillside. I saw no fences with barbed wire. In the next picture, when the shepherds knelt by baby Jesus in the manger, they were not there. Had the sheep wandered every which way and gotten lost? Did they fall off a cliff? I looked at the pictures a long time. Would they be okay?

In my adult life, I have learned that ancient shepherds used shrubbery to make a fold called a keep, a hedge with thorns to guard and preserve and keep their animals. The sheep were enfolded, kept secure. Yes, they would be okay.

The author of Numbers uses that same Hebrew verb “to keep” in the blessing of Aaron: “The Lord bless you and keep you.” He is asking the Lord to protect, to preserve, to hedge us in, to make us safe. When the Lord “shines his face upon us,” we are beloved sheep. We are enfolded, kept secure from all harm.

Mary also “kept” all these things in her heart. In the Greek, that verb has a similar sheltering feel—to keep close together and to preserve from all harm. As the shepherds departed from her, her face shone upon her newborn beloved and she treasured these thoughts; she built a hedge around all that was said about him to shelter him in her heart.

Maybe we still worry in our grown-up way, will those we love wander and get lost? Will we ourselves be okay? Lord, bless us and keep us!

Consider/Discuss

Devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe involves a powerful sense of the Virgin Mary’s protection, asking her to wrap her cloak or mantle around us. What joy and security do you feel when you are enfolded by love?
The shepherds in Jesus’ day were not cute little children dressed up in robes carrying stuffed animals. They were characters outside the margins of society, not necessarily the most desirable of guests. Yet the Gospel of Luke places them on the inside, at the heart of the Christmas story. As you make your New Year’s resolutions this day, who are the shepherds in your life? How could you enfold them into your life more intentionally in this upcoming year?

Living and Praying with the Word

Shepherd of souls, the thorns that surrounded your head have become the source of our safety. Wandering and scattered, we sometimes feel lost. We pray for those we love who also feel lost. Wrap your arms around them and do not let any harm befall them. Also protect those whom we do not love as we ought. We may all just be little white dots on a hillside, but we are also all your beloved sheep. In this New Year, whatever comes, be our shelter, keep us safe.

Jan 24 2025

Scripture Study for

A significant aspect of the priestly role in ancient Israel, as today, was to ask for God’s blessing for individuals and the entire community. In this passage from Numbers, God gives the priests a specific prayer of blessing to call down divine favor on Israel. Divine blessing is an all-encompassing concept, with material and spiritual aspects. It involves protection, fecundity, well-being, personal and social harmony—in a word, shalom. The holistic nature of the blessing is captured in a number of ways. To keep means to guard and protect, while to “shine his face upon you” means to have a generally favorable disposition. Graciousness implies the divine generosity, as does the notion of divine kindness.

In his Letter to the Galatians, Paul emphasizes both the divine and human origins of Christ, both of which bring blessing on those incorporated into Christ through baptism. Born of a woman, Jesus is fully human, sharing in our human condition and subject himself to the law. At the same time, as God’s Son, he has the power to save, which the law cannot do. This salvation is effected by making Christians the children of God by adoption, a legal and familial metaphor that means that they are heirs, along with Christ, to all of God’s promises. This selection features the work of (what would eventually be understood as) the Trinity: God the Father, who through the Spirit, brings Christians into “sonship” along with Christ.

The shepherds have been informed by the angels that the child born in Bethlehem, although poor and unknown, is in fact the Savior (Luke 2:8–15). Finding the child in a manger, they announce what they have heard to Mary and Joseph. While the onlookers are amazed that such a child could possibly be “Messiah and Lord,” Mary is unsurprised, and subsequently reflects on “these things.” The shepherds, among the first believers in this gospel, now go back out into the world to glorify and praise God for what has been done in Jesus.

Jan 23 2025

Small Beginnings

My garden experiment is to grow all of the vegetables that we eat in a year. But to harvest lettuce for the whole year is tricky; it takes planning, for I have to replant even before I harvest. So for my January crop, today I gently lay tiny seeds in the soil to germinate under the grow lights in my basement. The mature crop that I seek is contained right here in this small beginning.

As I plant and pray, distressing flashes from the news play in my head: images of children in refugee camps, leaders who lie and betray. What is the matter with the human race, I wonder?

Why does it sometimes feel that you, God, allow evil to win? Come on! Do something!

In the saga of Adam and Eve, you planted the seed of free will and gave those first parents a choice. They blew it. They went their own way. Free will seems to be at the core of human wrongdoing. Why, Lord, when we could choose goodness, do we not?

Yet even then, you wrapped the human race in love and forgiveness. You, Creator-Most-Excellent, are a painstaking planner. You planted the seed of salvation into the womb of the world, preserving Mary as immaculate so that she could be a pure vessel for the One who would come to rescue us. The end that you planned was contained right there in that tiny beginning.

So that seed of free will, though a difficulty, is not a mistake? The final end that you are looking for is our graced but freely given yes: our yes to you each day; our yes at the end of life; our yes at the conclusion of time? You must be planting for an abundant harvest!

Consider/Discuss

Do you also ever felt impatient with God’s patience? I see the distress of the world and call out, “Come on, God! Won’t you just do something? Why do you keep trying to work through us human beings when you know that we are fatally flawed? Come on, God!” How can we grow to trust in God’s broader and bigger plan for human history without descending into glib or superficial answers?
There is much good fruit in this world that does not make the news. Where have you witnessed someone’s yes that is bearing an abundant harvest? What if all the people of good will in this world said a more robust yes to goodness and justice and honesty? How would that change history?

Living and Praying with the Word

Lord God of all creation, we are not alone in asking you: what is the matter with the human race? What about all of the troubles of the world? All through history, people have pleaded with you to intervene more clearly. Yet you are at work. Thank you for all of the little acts of love and selflessness that go on in homes and hospitals, churches and schools, homeless shelters and businesses. Thank you for free will, for being so willing to work through us as friends and co-workers.