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Be a witness

Christians are called to mirror Christ in their lives, so that by their word, deed, and even their being, others can see Christ in them. One of the ways to describe this is: witness. What does it mean to be a witness of Christ? 

According to Merriam-Webster, witness is both a noun and a verb, and has several meanings for each type. Many times we think of a witness as who we are but not what we do as Christians, yet it is both. Before we can take action as a witness, we first need to be one. One of the many definitions of the word is one who has personal knowledge of something. As Catholics, we are called to the most intimate relationship with God through the Eucharist. At Mass and through praying and reading Scripture, we come to have a personal relationship with Jesus, unique to each one of us, where we are in whatever state of life we are in. We cannot be Christ’s hands and feet on earth, if we don’t know Him and what He calls us to do. A relationship is not a once-and-done thing we obtain, but rather a continuous process of seeking to know Jesus ever deeper in all of life’s circumstances. 

Often Catholics shy away from the term evangelize, because it sounds too forceful, they feel they lack enough knowledge, or public speaking fills them with dread. However evangelizing and witness share a common bond. One of the definitions of witness is one who gives evidence. While some may think of standing on street corners and trying to convince people to go to church as evangelization, it’s not the only method. When we share our personal experience of how Jesus has worked in our lives, that is being a witness to Christ and evangelizing to others. Evangelization is not meant to tell people what to do, but rather to invite them to have similar experiences by welcoming Jesus into their lives. Being a witness requires us to open up and share our experiences rather than to keep them for ourselves and our memories. Sharing as a witness to Christ working in our lives doesn’t need to be flashy or extreme, it just needs to be honest and personal. 

While many people can cross our paths throughout a day in our life, we won’t be able to talk to each person who sees us about Jesus. Our actions play an equal role in being a witness that Jesus lives in us and we are trying to reflect Him to the world. The Commandments, the Beatitudes, and the Corporal and Spiritual works of mercy all exemplify a Christ-centric spirit, even if we do not say a word to another. Instead of seeking to please ourselves, our focus is doing God’s will and sharing His blessings with others. In that way, a witness is not just what we are but rather what we do. 

When we witness to our faith and hope in God, we are making tangible the proof of a living God. We do not ask others to accept God because of the blessings He has provided to us, but rather to seek a relationship with Him so that they, too, can become a witness and share the unique wonders God has worked in their lives. 

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Don’t fear the storm

No one would consider it a miracle. However, since man cannot control the weather, and we know that the wind and waves obeyed Jesus’ command, I’m still going to call it a miraculous event. At the very least, it was an answered prayer.

Last weekend the weather forecast for the Richmond, Virginia area included every form of winter precipitation in nature’s arsenal. First there would be heavy snow, followed by sleet, but the worst was anticipated to be hours of freezing rain coating all the trees and power lines. The message was not just about expecting power outages, but that it would be days of the power being out, since the weather after the storm would be below freezing for most of the day and lows in the teens to single digits, making it hard for crews to repair the damages. I’d like to say that I wasn’t worried and that I just left it in God’s hands but I can’t. 

Perhaps the experience of losing power for a significant portion of the day in a much smaller storm last year fed my fears. I was anxious. I was trying to figure out how to pray. Did I ask for God to make the storm all snow? After growing up in Pennsylvania, I can handle a large dump of snow. And it wasn’t the snow or sleet that I feared, it was the freezing rain and the persistent cold temperatures. What if I lost power? What if my pipes froze and burst? Without heat, the threat of frozen pipes would be more of a when it would happen rather than if it would happen. Do I pray that I don’t lose power or that I don’t have an issue with my pipes? Or do I ask God to be with me in whatever happens and try not to think about what all the negative outcomes? 

As the weekend neared, I found myself either reading or hearing songs that contained lyrics that mentioned “Don’t fear the storm.” Each time, I would ask myself is that what I’m fearing? Honestly, yes, I was fearing the storm. I know that God has helped me through good times and challenging times, and I know He would be with me every minute of the storm. Imagining what I would need to deal with if a tree fell on the house due to the weight of the ice coating, it was hard to abandon those fear-mongering thoughts. Yet I was also given an opportunity; I could prepare for days without power and without a way to cook food. I gathered water and baked bread and items that could be eaten cold. I wrapped the outside faucet to protect it. I did all my laundry and ran the dishwasher, so that I didn’t have the machines going when the power cut out. In all that preparation, I was reminded that we’re called to do the same for heaven. Our whole life on earth is meant for us to prepare for heaven, to be with God for eternity. Do I prepare for heaven like I’m preparing for this storm? Do I fear the outcome of hell with as much adversity as I was fearing dealing with frozen pipes?

Although meteorology is a science, it can be incorrect. Thankfully the predicted half-inch or more of freezing rain was largely substituted with sleet. While it has made a mess of sidewalks and roadways, sleet bounces off trees and power lines and Richmond was spared a catastrophe. While we’re not back to our normal balmy weather, and I’m still dripping my kitchen faucet at night to try and prevent frozen pipes due to the severe cold, I thank God the power stayed on for most everyone in the area. I’m sure there were others in the Richmond area praying that we would be spared great difficulties and those prayers were answered. I know other states did not fare as well as the Richmond area, and I pray God will assist them in their needs, especially as it looks like there is another winter storm heading our way this weekend. While this one is forecasted to be all snow, if it does come our way, I hope that I can approach it with more confidence that God will see me through. Yes, I do need to remain prepared as that is the prudent thing to do. 

God is bigger than any natural storm, be it a winter storm, or a storm of trials. We will face all sorts of storms throughout our lifetime. Each one is an opportunity to lean on our faith and hope in God. It can be challenging, since we have no control over storms or their outcomes. Sometimes we will give into anxious thoughts and feelings and other times we do our best to quelle thoughts that lead us away from the peace of God. When it is all over, let us praise God regardless of the outcome. Each storm is an opportunity to prepare for heaven, let us not fear the practice.

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No tear wasted

Throughout the Scriptures we are told to cry out to God and that no tear will be wasted. I’ve been pondering a recent juxtaposition of events and how God uses tears to soften our hearts.

I do enjoy my fiber crafts, but last year I didn’t have much opportunity to weave. As a result, I was a bit rusty in dressing the loom, reducing me to frustration and tears. It was ugly crying over nothing really. I think my frustration was not that I was struggling, but that I didn’t understand what I was doing to cause the issue. If I can learn from a mistake, then as annoying as it is, I can chalk it up to experience. But it was an issue I had faced several times and I’m still none the wiser. After what seemed like hours of trying and making no progress, I thought about how Mary would have woven the clothes for the Holy Family. I asked Momma Mary for guidance, but instead received persistence. It did take several days to completely finish the process, but I did make significant progress after my prayer. It may not be the best I’ve done, but at least I haven’t wasted the yarn. I won’t know how successful I’ve been until I’ve completed the project. 

After struggling with the loom for most of Saturday, I went to the vigil Mass. There were a number of children present and audible, but there was one who was particularly vocal. The child was old enough to talk, but still young enough to wail. I’m not sure what upset him, but he was crying with every fiber of his being. Thinking back to my crying bout earlier in the day, I could totally understand how he was feeling. He was spent and the only emotion he had left were his tears. Not that I was counting, nor did I look to see, but I believe his parent removed him about three times from Mass when he began wailing. I said a prayer for him. Then I said a prayer for his parents. I do commend his parents for bringing him to Mass and not leaving after his first cry. It would have been easy for them to say that they tried and didn’t want to disturb the congregation. But Mass is not about making things easy for us, it’s about putting God first and being nourished by Word and Sacrament. Is a crying child any different than our own thoughts that distract us at Mass?

I can’t say that I’m always this tolerant with distractions at Mass, but I feel like God was giving me an opportunity to learn to be more compassionate towards others. I was also able to appreciate how Father kept going no matter what part of the Mass it was, without stumbling over words or pausing during the disruptions. He may have spoken a bit louder in the microphone to make sure his words could be heard over the crying, but he displayed no evidence of annoyance or frustration of the circumstances. Sometimes I get distracted by my own thoughts when speaking, so to be able to concentrate on praying the Eucharistic prayers over a loudly crying child must be a gift of the Holy Spirit given to a priest. Glory to God for that blessing!

I’m sure there were members of the congregation who were displeased with the crying child and his family. But we are called to cry out to God in our distress, and perhaps that child is a reminder to all that we need to do exactly that. As adults we can cry out silently in our hearts and souls at Mass for our deepest needs and petitions. “My wanderings you have noted; are my tears not stored in your flask, recorded in your book?” (Psalm 56:9) Regardless of the cause of our tears, God shares in them, walking with us, and supporting us even if we can’t feel Him.  

Many times after a good cry there is a sense of release of the stress and anxiety that brought us to tears. It’s not quite peace, but rather an emptying of those negative emotions so that we can return to the issue at hand with a calmer demeanor. Tears may not solve the issues we have, but they are a gift from God to help us understand when we do need help and to lean on Him because He does care for us. Tears are never a waste and they are definitely not wasted when we lift them, and our challenges, up to God. He will see us through and as the Book of Revelation promises, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, [for] the old order has passed away.” (Rev 21:4) 

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Lord and Savior

Most Christians, regardless of denomination, will agree that in order to be called a Christian, you must first accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. But what does this mean and how does one do so?

The question of who Jesus is goes way back, all the way to the time of Jesus, Himself. To some, He was a miracle worker, healing those brought to Him. To others, He was the greatest teacher of all time, “for He taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.” (Matt 7:29) But to His closest disciples, He was more than a teacher, or healer, or even a prophet. He was the Anointed One, the Messiah; the Son of the Living God. Peter proclaims this on behalf of the Apostles in Matthew 16:16 and in John’s bread of life discourse, when others fall away because they find it too hard to believe in eating His flesh, Peter remarks that there is no place else to go, since Jesus has the words of eternal life. (John 6:68) As the early Church grew, it had to face heresies like Docetism, which claimed that Jesus was not fully human, only divine, and on the other side of the scale, Arianism, which taught that Jesus was created and not fully divine.

After 2,000 years, we can see not only the full story of Jesus but all the miraculous wonders it brought about since His time on earth. While I would like to say I would have believed in Jesus if I lived at the same time as He did, it’s impossible to know what choices I would have made. I’m grateful that I’m in the time and place I am and that I can lean on the Church and her history to have the wisdom to believe Jesus is the Son of God. Yet there is not just one title that fits Jesus in all that He is and does. One may argue that as Jesus is God, that should be sufficient, yet it lacks the acknowledgement that He took on flesh and lived on earth, not to mention His Passion, Death, and Resurrection. Even in the Nicene Creed that we reaffirm weekly at Mass, it’s not just a few titles that we use to describe what we believe about Jesus, but rather detailed aspects of His life and being, many of those included to combat heresies that seem to be cyclical in their appearance.

I’ve heard our modern times labeled as post-Christian. While secularism does seem the most popular way people live, there is often an appreciation for Jesus as a teacher or prophet. Yet this boils down Jesus to a nice guy who did good things. Perhaps that is a necessary step to having a belief in Jesus, but it does not go far enough. To make Jesus our Lord means that we put His teachings first, not picking and choosing which teachings we want to follow, but reorder our own desires to align with Jesus and His commandments and beatitudes. In a culture that demands to put ourselves as the most important consideration, Christianity is contrary in that we put self last, so that God and neighbor come first.

When we claim Jesus as our Savior, we acknowledge that we are sinners and need to be saved. The whole point of Jesus becoming human was to offer Himself, the only pure human, for the remission of sins against God. He had to be God in order to align the events of the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection together. Jesus had to be human because it was for humanity that he took upon Himself the actions necessary for our redemption and to bridge the gap between humanity and the divine.

Each time we celebrate Mass, the sacraments, and pray, we are acknowledging Jesus as Lord. When we allow Jesus to rule in our homes, our hearts, our lives, and our choices, we honor Jesus as Lord. When we prepare and receive the sacraments of reconciliation and the eucharist, we are seeking Jesus as our Savior, the only one who can take away our sins and make us new. Accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior is not just an intellectual thought, it is a belief that changes us to become the best version of ourselves because we follow where He leads.

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Free will gift

I agree with Fr. Mike Schmitz’s review, in that I can’t fully endorse the movie, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, but at the same time, it does portray aspects of Catholicism in a positive light.

I was scrolling through Netflix over the Christmas holidays, looking for a Christmas movie when I found it. I did enjoy the previous two Knives Out mystery movies, so I settled in to watch it. The movie opens with the young priest punching a deacon and immediately I felt uncomfortable. I thought this was going to be a movie that would bash religion and specifically, the Catholic Church. Instead of relaxing and letting the story unfold, I felt I had a bit more of a critical eye when watching it. As Fr. Mike points out, Hollywood doesn’t understand how to portray Catholics, and some of it is more of a caricature and to a Catholic, some scenes seem a bit “off.” Yet in watching the movie in its entirety, there are portions of Catholicism that do shine through.

After the initial scene, the young priest gets assigned to a parish that seems a bit rebellious and is anything but welcoming. There are deep secrets that come out through the story which explain the attitudes of the parishioners. Ironically, the scene that I thought was more of a moment of humor, was what Fr. Mike brought out as the highlight of the movie. The young priest, working with the detective, is trying to get information that could help identify the true killer and clear the accusations against him. After conveying the sense of urgency in a phone call for the information, the woman asks the priest to pray for her. The movie doesn’t give too much detail, but conveys this is quite a long conversation and the detective, a self-proclaimed atheist, shows his frustration at what he considers a waste of time. Perhaps Fr. Mike noticed it because he is a priest, but he calls out that the young priest recognized his calling and his duty to minister to the woman. While I saw humor in the eye-rolling exaggeration of the detective’s response, Fr. Mike considers the scene an illustration of our calling: to do God’s will in whatever role he has given us. The young priest is not called to be a detective himself, but rather to minister to those that God puts in his path. 

For me the power of the movie was at the end. Just like in the previous two movies in the series, the detective calls all the potential suspects into one place for the big reveal. He gets everyone’s attention, but then falters. He realizes the power of free will. It is up to the killer to confess. In doing so, his reputation for solving murders takes a hit. Yet the killer bares all in the final confession to the young priest. And while, yes, this is a movie angle to provide the details of how it was done, it goes deeper. The young priest coaches the killer to forgive the person who was the cause for all the actions that followed. The detective could have revealed who the killer was, but may not have been able to provide as much detail as the killer did. More importantly, the killer was able to confess, receive forgiveness, and find peace, not because they were forced to, but to freely make the choice to do so. 

Free will is a gift, but can be a two-edge sword. In granting us the gift of free will, God allows us to choose if we want a relationship with Him, if we want to live as children of God, and obey the commandments that reflect being part of the divine family. As dazzling as the world is, we do see it everyday and even the most spectacular aspects of creation can be just ordinary in daily life. God does not put on enormous displays of His power to convince us of who He is. He gently pursues us where we are and encourages us to become the best version of ourselves that we can be, sometimes allowing our worst traits to bring about a greater good. We can freely say no to God and live a life of lies that we hold as our personal truths, as if we, ourselves, are divine and responsible for our circumstances. We can also say yes to God, and live a life of truth in faith. The choice is ours in every decision we make. 

If you have enjoyed the other two Knives Out movies, and are prepared for a movie that does not portray Catholicism in an idealistic way, this may be one to add to your watch list. Perhaps you, too, will find a nugget of faith shining where you least suspect it.  

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Savoring the season

Merry Christmas! I realize that December 25 was last week, however, I don’t want Christmas to end just yet. And as a Catholic, I get to enjoy Christmas the whole season long!

A few days ago, I was watching a video blog on YouTube about different types of cruises. The woman said one of the many cruises she took was over Christmas, and while it was lovely, she was rather frustrated that Christmas music played the entire cruise, even after Christmas day itself. She indicated December 27 was her limit for playing the seasonal music until the following November. Ah! That’s the issue, I thought to myself. You start way too early! It’s no wonder you’re ready to move on, because you’ve started indulging in the holiday before preparing for it, so that when the actual time for celebration comes, you’re all celebrated out. This is why the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church is so important. Like a mother, it knows that children want to skip straight to celebrating, so in its wisdom, we have the (almost) four weeks of Advent to prepare for Jesus. At Mass, we have songs that remind us to keep hope alive and that a Savior is coming, but is not quite here yet. It reminds us of the entire Old Testament, which saw generation after generation waiting for the Messiah. We can’t fully appreciate the gift God gives us in His Son unless we understand and know what it is like to be without Him and be waiting for Him.

We are still within the octave of Christmas, that is the liturgical celebration of eight days of Christmas as if it was Christmas itself. Traditionally, the timeframe for the Twelve days of Christmas was the time between Christmas and the feast of the Epiphany, which recalls the wise men visiting the Child Jesus. In a time before electric lights and artificial trees, decorations for the holiday were not displayed until Christmas eve, so that the season could be celebrated with the fresh greens. Oh, how I wish we had retained just a little of that sense of restraint! While I do spend time before Christmas baking and listening to Christmas music, I don’t fully engage in celebrating until the holiday is almost upon us. I don’t binge on Christmas movies too early in December but prefer to wait until the week of Christmas and after most of my preparations are completed. After putting in the time and energy to decorate, I want to enjoy the lights, the tree, and the nativity scene. Praying a rosary while gazing on the same infant Jesus in a manger that graced the under-the-tree stable my Dad built for it, is more than just nostalgia, but provides a real sense of connection and continuity of past, present, and future. 

The liturgical celebration of the Christmas season is from Christmas Eve though the feast of the Baptism of Jesus, usually the week following the Sunday solemnity of the Epiphany. While I’ll start to put my decorations away after the Epiphany, that’s to limit the exposure my cats have to them, lest they get too comfortable and begin to think they are toys to be played with. Until then, I want to immerse myself in the holiness of the season. The decorations are not meant to just be festive, but to be meaningful in regards to the season. After experiencing a time of expecting Jesus, we now receive the gift of a Savior. It’s a precious gift to treasure in our daily prayers as well as in our daily activities. We look at the special lights and remember the Light of the World who was born to save us from our sins. We look at the figures of Mary and Joseph kneeling before Jesus nestled in the manger’s hay and remember that God fulfills His promises far more spectacularly than we can ever imagine, but in His own time. Hearing songs like Joy to the World, O Come All Ye Faithful, and Silent Night stir our hearts to both rejoice and find comfort in a God who loves us so much, He became like us. 

While the secular world around us has rushed the season and is moving on to the next celebrations of the Superbowl, Valentine’s Day, and St. Patrick’s Day, let us linger a bit longer in this Christmas season, absorbing all the beauty and graces it can bestow.  

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Glory and peace

“And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: ‘Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.’”
Luke 2:13-14

In those two simple lines from Luke’s Gospel that the angels proclaim to the shepherds is the entire mission of Jesus: glory and peace. These two lines are very familiar. We basically say or sing them whenever the Gloria is used in Mass, which is most Sundays excluding Advent and Lent. They were even included in Linus’s scripture passage he quoted to Charlie Brown in the namesake’s animated Christmas special. Sometimes the passages that are very familiar are the least pondered. Have you ever thought what that proclamation by the entire heavenly host meant? In thinking about it, it seems so obvious that this is such an important message, since the whole choir of angels proclaims it. It’s like it has a heavenly set of exclamation marks at the end of it! 

Jesus’ whole life was lived with and for God the Father. His life on earth is the most perfect example of a life giving glory to God. “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, a son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees his father doing; for what he does, his son will do also.’” (John 5:19) Jesus, Himself, tells us that He is a reflection of God the Father and that all His works are works of the Father. As Jesus mirrors God, so we must strive to mirror Him as well. God has been very generous to us, so we, in turn, must share our blessings with others. Even if we lack material goods, our time, our energy, and even our very person can be used to show the love of God to others in need of it. The Blessed Mother did God’s will her whole life and that is why we show her the respect we do. When we pray a Hail Mary, we’re not praying to her, but rather through her and praising God for His most special creation that agreed to be the mother to His Son. When we praise God, we are giving Him the glory for His works. 

While our life objective is first and foremost to give glory to God, the angels’ proclamation assures us that we will be blessed with peace. If we look around the world today, one may begin to doubt, however, God’s peace surpasses any that can be achieved by man. God’s peace is gifted to us based on our response to Him. God would love to flood our souls with peace, but they need to be prepared. First, peace is brought through reconciliation with God. Jesus opened the door of peace through the forgiveness of sins when He was crucified, died, and rose again. He repaired the rift between heaven and earth and became our advocate to God the Father, since Jesus became like us in all ways but sin. 

When we acknowledge our sin — doing our will instead of God’s, we recognize we have a relationship with God. Another way God blesses us with peace is in our relationship to Him. When we seek Him out, return to Him through penance, and participate in the sacraments, we are cultivating a relationship with the Divine. A relationship with God does not demand special favors or only seeks to pray when one is in need. In both good times and troubles we seek to know God and to praise Him regardless of the circumstances. When we are able to rejoice in the moment we are at, we find the peace of God lifting us up. 

God is well aware of human limitations and frailties. He has given us the Commandments and the Beatitudes as the roadmap of how we should measure ourselves. Instead of looking to others and comparing our words, actions, and blessings, we need to weigh ourselves on how well we are living out the word of God. Here again we find the peace of God when our actions align with the instructions God has put forth. The more we act accordingly, the more we will be able to recognize the peace that comes from fulfilling God’s will for us. I sometimes think that when we are having particular trouble in making a decision, when we finally do choose God’s will instead of our own, there seems to be an extra blessing of peace bestowed on us that can almost seem tangible, and  at the very least, recognizable.

During this Christmastide, I do wish you joy as you glorify God for the blessing of His Son, and you are able to recognize the peace of God, which is truly beyond all understanding. (Phil 4:7)

Merry Christmas!

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Ready to receive?

With the fourth Sunday of Advent looming in a few days, that means that Christmas is not far behind. However, the big question is not, “Is all your gift-giving ready?” but rather, “Are you ready to receive?”

The cliché is true: Jesus IS the reason for the season. When we believe this, our preparations include a spiritual aspect in everything we do. Yes, even from baking cookies to decorating the tree, each can include a spiritual element in preparing for December 25. In our holiday gatherings with family, friends, and co-workers, we see a reflection of Jesus in them; that they, too, are children of God. To use another cliché, when we “put Christ in Christmas,” our celebrations are more meaningful and more complete. 

I love singing along to Christmas songs and Joy to the World is my all-time favorite. Yet many times when it comes to singing hymns at Mass on Christmas day, I find myself rather verklempt. I’ve been singing for weeks about the newborn King, and Jesus in the manger, events that have taken place over 2,000 years ago, and when Christmas Day comes, it’s like it’s happening anew. I am awestruck that God would send His Son into our chaotic world, to live like us, and more importantly, to die for us. We can’t have Easter unless we have Christmas. In celebrating Christmas, we are embracing the gift God gave us, at a particular time, in a particular place. We are able to receive God’s gift to us, when we choose to follow His Son and all He taught us, accepting Him as our Lord and Savior.

While Jesus at one time walked the earth, He did ascend into heaven, and as such, is not bound by time or space. Through His Divine nature, Jesus gave us a gift for our lifetime: the Eucharist. While Christmas is technically a holy day of obligation, how can we not but feel obliged to participate in the most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in remembrance and honor of God’s gift to us? Mass is the highest form of worship we have as Catholics, and Jesus is still giving of Himself even during our worship of Him. He gives us His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in Holy Communion so that we can be one with Him, even in our imperfect state of humanity. How incredible it is that we can receive Jesus in a physical form during the celebration of His Incarnation as a physical person?!

While we may be ready to receive Jesus as a baby in Bethlehem and in our present-day Eucharist, it’s the other coming of Jesus that we might not be so ready for. Are we ready to receive Jesus when He comes again? We don’t know when the world will end, or when we will quit this world, but one of these events will happen and we will meet Jesus then. Will we be ready to receive Him? We will look forward to spending eternity with Him? Or will we feel cheated out of our bucket-list of things to accomplish? Are we tied to this physical world and all of its allurements?  We may not be able to answer these questions now, but depending on how much focus we put on Christ during our Christmas preparations and celebrations, we may be able to determine how much we need to adjust to be ready for Jesus to come again.

Christmas is truly a celebration of Jesus yesterday, today, and tomorrow, all rolled up into one very special holy day. In these last few days of Advent, let us reflect on all the ways Jesus comes to us and prepare our hearts, our souls, and our lives to receive Him.

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Gift of acceptance

As we head into week three of Advent, the week of joyful anticipation, let’s turn our focus on Mary and her gift of acceptance.

The second week of Advent held two great feasts for Mary: the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Guadalupe. Mary does hold a dear place in the hearts and spirituality of Catholics. We see her guiding presence within the Gospels and even in the Acts of the Apostles. Many times meditations on the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel came to Mary asking her to be the mother of God, focus on the visit itself and what it must have been like for her. But what if we took another look at a different angle, specifically, her acceptance.

How many times have we had experiences that were drastically different from what we expected? At times like this my family will comment, “that’s not what I signed up for!” At the time of Jesus, the Jews were expecting a much different Messiah than Jesus. They expected Him to rid the land of the Romans and restore the earthly kingdom. If that’s what Mary was expecting, she was definitely mistaken. Perhaps throughout His life, Jesus prepared her for His eventual Passion and Death, but she could not have known what was going to happen when she said yes. Did she know He would be an itinerant preacher? As she is mentioned in the Gospel at the places where Jesus was teaching, perhaps she accompanied Him on His travels. If she was expecting a more militant savior, the travel probably didn’t surprise her, but perhaps the teachings did. 

If we put ourselves in Mary’s place at the time of the Annunciation, what we can expect is her assessing the risk she was taking by saying yes. As a woman who was only betrothed, she faced scandal by her family, her community, and even her future husband, Joseph. She could have been ostracized or worse, by law stoned to death. And she still said yes. While Mary was still quite young, thought to be a teenager, she was still of an age to marry and have children in those times. But even in her short life at the time, she trusted in God, no matter what consequences came from it.  

God asks us to trust Him like Mary did. While He probably won’t send an angel messenger to obtain our agreement, He still wants us to be open to His Will, even during trials and challenges. As the Church acknowledges Mary’s conception free from original sin, we see that God prepared Mary in a very special way for the special role she has in salvation history. God prepares us in a similar way, for each blessing and challenge is built upon our response to the previous opportunities in our lives. Each time we are free to accept God’s will or to choose our own way, and with each decision, we must also accept the consequences that come as a result of our choices. 

Mary’s gift of acceptance to God has become a role model for us all to follow, regardless of the risks or the consequences. When we accept God’s will, there will be many blessings but also many trials, however, He will always be there for us and help us through it. It may not be what we expect for our lives, but if we are truly doing His will, then our expectations are changed from secular, worldly matters, to the goal of reaching heaven and spending eternity with God and with Mary.

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Giving to the Giver

What do you get the person who has everything? We’ve all struggled with family and friends who are a challenge when it comes to gift-giving. But what about the One who truly has everything, since He created it all: God? 

Matthew’s Gospel contains the visit of the magi, or wise men (Matt 2:1-12). What did these learned men give the newborn king? Gifts of great value which included gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These also correlate to Jesus symbolically to indicate His Kingship, His Divinity, and His Sacrifice. These men took the time and effort to visit the newborn and they were not about to bring Him cheap and worthless trinkets. It’s not like they were in the area and figured they would pop round to the nearest market to pick up a few baubles and drop in for a quick congratulatory visit. They undertook this journey, which itself was probably costly to each of them, because of the significance they understood from their study of the stars. While they are not named, they do not seem to be known by the Jews, even though they are familiar with the Jewish prophecy to be able to correctly understand and interpret the sign of the star. They did bring gifts for the baby, but the biggest gift of all was their time and attention, willingly given.

God has given us everything we have. Perhaps the greatest gift of all is our free will. This means that we always have a choice: to serve God or to serve ourselves. God wants us to freely choose Him. If we want to have a relationship with Him, then all our words and actions need to mirror Him. And God is magnificently generous with us. Even in our trials and challenges, we can find little blessings amongst the thorns. Sometimes the very painful events of our lives end up being transformed into the greatest blessings, even if we can’t see it when we are making our way through. 

Advent gives us a special opportunity to ponder the gifts of God and to think about how we respond to them. Do we wholeheartedly accept them, or do we treat them like an ugly Christmas sweater an old family member gave us and we force ourselves to smile and say a hollow thank you? What about the gift of the sacraments within the Mass and of reconciliation? Have they become items on our holiday checklist that we accommodate within our schedule out of a sense of obligation instead of approaching them humbly to make them the greatest joys of the season? While we can receive these sacraments outside of the Advent and Christmas timeframe, the preparatory nature of the liturgical time urges us to fully embrace the ability to have our sins forgiven, as we forgive those who have wronged us, as well as to receive Jesus, not just in a symbolic gesture, but really and truly in the Real Presence. Do we ask God to help us be as generous to others as He is with us? Or do we play it safe when creating our gift lists? 

Christmas is a lovely time of tradition, but we need to be cautious not to get mired in a sense of obligation, not just towards the celebrations with family and friends, but more importantly to specifically avoid celebrating Jesus’ birth as a duty. The best gift we can give the Giver is to freely choose to celebrate His birth by opening our hearts to Him and being receptive to all the graces, blessings, and challenges He bestows upon us. Why are we preparing ourselves during Advent? Because we believe in Jesus, we have been touched by Him, and we want to continue walking towards an eternity with Him.