Year C

Jan 24 2025

The Presentation in the Temple

Look at me. The skin on my hands is so thin that I can see my veins and my bones. My feet shuffle so slowly that everyone rushes past me in the street. The ache in my back never stops. Isn’t it enough already, you who have been our hope for ages past? Long ago, you said that you would not take me to you until I had seen your Messiah. I felt then that it was a wonderful promise. But extreme old age is a burden heavy to bear. All that I love is gone. I have waited so long.

What’s that? This is the day? Go to the temple?

Look at her. Her cheeks are fresh, gleaming with joy, as she holds that boy. She is young. Yet a sword will pierce her heart. The babe is light in her arms. She doesn’t know how heavy it will be to hold a lifeless child. The man stands behind her, a holy family. She doesn’t know the hole left in your heart when your spouse dies. O Lord, I have seen too much. The heaviness of earth weighs me down.

What’s that, you say? This is the One? The child?

Look at him. His tiny head nestles in the crook of my arm. His eyes briefly open. His eyelids flicker as he looks into my eyes. This, this is the one who will set your people free? Joy rises within me. We your people have waited so long. This baby so small will be our hope for years to come? My ribcage swells in jubilation. My aches are gone. I feel like dancing!

Now, Master, please, set me free. Let me come to you in peace. You have fulfilled your promise! Bless you, bless you, my God!

Consider/Discuss

God works miracles through the very old. Abraham and Sarah, Simeon and Anna—they were faithful for so many years. The Lord’s promises to them were fulfilled. How have you seen the beauty of God through eyes of those who have lived long?
God works miracles through the very young. The Holy Family is a sign of promise for years to come. How have you seen the beauty of God through the lives of those who are very young?

Living and Praying with the Word

God of the heavens, you asked Abram to count the stars, to trust you for descendants. You asked Simeon to trust that the Savior of the world would come. You ask us to trust that you do fulfill your promises. You came to us within a human family. So this day, we entrust our families and all those we love to you to hold and keep safe. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, pray for us!

Jan 08 2025

Scripture Study for

A major theme in Malachi is God’s apparent inattention to injustice. Immediately before the reading, God notes that the people have demanded, “Where is the just God?” (2:17). God responds that soon the messenger of the covenant will appear in advance of the one whom they seek. It is not clear from the biblical text who this messenger is or how the messenger relates to God. Understood eschatologically, it refers to the figure who will come to be known as the Messiah. In any case, the advent of this figure will bring about the justice the people seek, beginning with cleaning up corrupt priests (Levites) and their worship.

The focus of the reading from Hebrews is on the fact that Jesus shared our human nature (flesh and blood) precisely so he could deliver us from the fear of death. It is this fear, and not death itself, that holds us in bondage to the devil. In a time of persecution, it is fear of suffering and death that the author sees as potentially leading his audience into infidelity (3:1—4:14). Thus, the message: they have nothing to fear from death, because Jesus has endured it and come out the other side. Because he acts now as high priest, merciful and faithful, those who die have nothing to fear.

The Torah prescribes that a newborn son be circumcised, marking his acceptance into the covenant community, and that the mother should be ritually purified (Leviticus 12:1–5). This gesture of obeying the Torah indicates the larger Gospel theme that Jesus himself will perfectly fulfill the Law. More than that, with Jesus’ advent God is fulfilling covenant promises to Israel, and ultimately to all nations. Thus, inspired by the Holy Spirit, Simeon announces that in Jesus God has brought consolation and salvation—a gift that some will oppose (“contradict”). The widow Anna also recognizes Jesus, and likewise announces the good news of the redemption of God’s people.

Jan 08 2025

Faith—Assurance That God Is at Work

Have you ever met someone who is really old and really wise? I have met several such men and women, mostly at daily Mass. Their eyes are gentle. Smile lines are etched into the wrinkles of their faces. In some, a lifetime of generosity is written into their bodies, as though their hands reach out to hug you, even when they have not moved. Others are quieter, but their faces radiate peace. Kindness and holiness have become a way of life for them.

Simeon and Anna are the first-century equivalent of those saints whom you and I have met. These two pray. They pray a lot. Simeon is described as “upright and devout.” When he sees the child, he believes. He believes! An eight-day-old baby is being presented to the Lord. And Simeon sees in that child the Savior of the world. How does that work? Something must have moved within him.

Faith is an inner assurance that rises within us to convince us that God is at work. That belief, at that moment, is a gift. Anna has prayed night and day in the temple for years and years and years. Many of us have tasted the seasoning of the Spirit. But there are saints who have tasted of the pure Spirit, as though it were something they drank straight. Anna seems to be one of those people, those who live on the borderline between God and the world.

You might just be one of those people. If you are, thank you for your life of holiness. If you are not, then like me, let’s keep working to drink deeply of God’s Spirit, day after day. God is real, at work at all times. Faith is a gift, an inner assurance that this is so.

Consider/Discuss

Think about those moments when you have been gifted with an inner certainty about God’s movement or action in your life. It could be a delicate touch or an overwhelming conversion experience. Share that story with someone this week.
Sometimes we start to think and act as though the living God were just an idea. If God is real, at work at all times, what does that mean for how we listen, how we are attentive? What does that divine presence mean for how we live our lives day after day?

Living and Praying with the Word

On this day of presentation, God of glory, we present ourselves to you. Purify us to become more holy. We see in others what beauty a lifetime of grace can create. We want to be like that. Lead us in your everlasting way.

Jan 07 2025

The Quiet, Tender Spirit

Happy Pentecost! This is the day on which we celebrate the life-changing power of God. The apostles preach to the ends of the earth through the strength of the Spirit and the church is born. Big, powerful, great stuff!

As I reflect on the grand event of Pentecost, I am holding my four-day-old granddaughter in the rocking chair. Her soft hair brushes my cheek. Her breath is irregular and a little squeaky. Her tiny body sinks onto my chest, asleep. Softness toward this new life swells into my throat. That tenderness brings to mind who the Holy Spirit is in my life.

I have had a few grand sweeping moments when the Spirit has filled me with fire to go out and change the world. But more often, the Comforter has come in the quiet of the night, bringing peace in a moment of grief, courage in a time of desolation, strength when I felt that I had no strength left. Like the touch of baby hair on my cheek, I have felt nudges so gentle. Like her soft breathing, I have felt a breath so tender. Like her body nestled into my chest, I have felt a Presence so warm. So . . . what? So held. As I am holding this tiny child.

I could be mistaken. I could be the most deluded of women. This might be all in my mind. I only tell you what I have seen and heard. My life has been touched by the Spirit, the Holy One who is with us. Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel that he must go. But we are never left alone. We are not abandoned; we are held. The most powerful of Advocates enfolds us as the most tender, the gentlest, and the warmest of Comforters. This Pentecost day. And all ordinary and everyday days.

Consider/Discuss

Describe a tender moment in your life. How has that experience of tenderness led you to God and love?
At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit spoke through the apostles in many tongues and in many different ways. The Holy Spirit continues to speak through us: many spiritual gifts but the same Spirit, many forms of service but the same Lord. You may not be rocking a newborn baby at the moment. But what unique experiences do you have through which the Spirit would like to speak to this world?

Living and Praying with the Word

Holy Spirit, we offer you this Pentecost day. Help us not to be too proud to surrender to you. You want to be at work through us. But we are as powerless as a newborn child. We cannot hold our heads up by ourselves. We struggle to breathe the air of this world. We get cold. We get startled. We need you. Divine Comforter, surround us and enfold us this day. Be our warmth. Be our breath. Be our strength. In this surrender, you are our happiness. Come, Holy Spirit, and renew the face of the earth!

Jan 06 2025

Reigning from the Cross

A good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. For this reason the image of a shepherd become connected to the kingly role in the Old Testament. Good kings, like good shepherds, provided for and guarded their flock. As a boy David went from safeguarding sheep to defending his people, going up against Goliath. Later, as a king, he brought together all the tribes of Israel, uniting them as one people.

Jesus spoke of the good shepherd who left the ninety-nine to go out after the one lost sheep and bring it back. We see him do this even from the cross in his last moments. One criminal calls to Jesus to save himself and them, but the other recognizes Jesus is the innocent one who is passing over into his kingdom. When he asks that Jesus take him there, Jesus gently promises to do so.

As we approach the end of the year, we are reminded that our own end will come one day. Let us have the confidence of that criminal we commonly refer to as the “good thief” and make his request to the Lord our own. And whenever that day comes, we can learn from Jesus how to face it: by extending forgiveness to any who have hurt us, by being compassionate up to our final moment, and by handing over our spirit in trust to our Father in heaven. The king will then surely come, gather us up in his arms, and take us with great joy into the Kingdom.

Consider/Discuss

Does today’s image of Jesus on the cross help you to appropriate the image of Christ as king?
What does it mean when we hear that by baptism we are part of a royal people?

Responding to the Word

Lord Jesus, remember us. Give us a share in the spirit of forgiveness you so generously expressed from the cross, the spirit of generosity that enabled you to turn from your own sufferings to comfort another, and the spirit of trust in your Father expressed in your last words.