“ORDINARY TIME” … NOT SO ‘ORDINARY’ … With the celebration of the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord last Monday, we ended the 2011 Advent / Christmas season and passed into the first cycle of “Ordinary Time.”  This is the “short cycle,” whichwill last until Ash Wednesday (February 22, 2012).   We then begin the 2012 Lent / Easter season,running through Pentecost Sunday (May 27, 2012).  On May 28^th, we will take up the “long cycle” of Ordinary Time, which will last until December 1^st,the Vigil of the First Sunday of Advent, the beginning of the 2012 Advent /Christmas season.

The “special seasons” of the Church’s year focus on the two unique Mysteries of the Christian faith: the Advent / Christmas cycle celebrates the Mystery of the Incarnation, and the Lent /Easter cycle the Mystery of Salvation in the Death
and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Ordinary Time “sandwiches” the two special seasons, focusing on the words, teaching and actions of Jesus during his three-year public ministry.  It is because of this focus that “Ordinary Time” is not so ordinary!

The Scripture Readings we will hear proclaimed on the Sundays of Ordinary Time in 2012 are from “Cycle B,” the so-called “Marcan” cycle.  On most of the Ordinary Time Sundays this year the Gospel readings will be taken from the Gospel according to St. Mark.  Because Mark’s Gospel is the shortest of the four Gospels, it does not contain enough material for all of the Sundays, and so will be supplemented with portions of John’s Gospel.

Even though Mark is canonically the second Gospel of the New Testament (following Matthew), it is nevertheless the oldest of the four Gospels, having been written somewhere between the years 60-65 AD. According to Church tradition, St. Mark knew Jesus personally and was a bystander in the Garden of Gethsemene on the night Jesus was arrested (cf., Mk. 14.51-52).  The Acts of the Apostles tell us that, as a young and perhaps immature young man,  he was a companion of both Paul and Barnabas on Paul’s first missionary journey, but that for some reason he left them in the middle of the journey and returned home.  This angered Paul, who refused to have Mark accompany them on the second missionary journey, thereby causing Paul and Barnabas to go their separate ways.  Later, Paul and Mark were reconciled and he once again became one of Paul’s trusted co-workers (cf., Col. 4.10f, 2 Tim. 4.11).

In later years, Mark became especially close to Peter, who calls him his son (cf., 1 Pt. 5.13), implying a long-standing and deep relationship.  He served as Peter’s “interpreter” in Rome, which probably meant that he translated into Greek and Latin the oral preaching and teaching done by Peter in his native Aramaic language.  In the Church’s Tradition, the Gospel of Mark is essentially the kerygma (i.e., the proclamation) of Peter while he was preaching in Rome and Mark was his close companion.  St. Mark is said to have ended his days in Egypt as one of the founders of the Church in Alexandria.

This sketch of St. Mark’s life can be a source of consolation and encouragement to us in our faith life.  It shows us how Mark grew spiritually.  As a young man he was fickle and not dependable.  This is what angered Paul, and eventually led to Paul’s split with Barnabas.  Barnabas had been Paul’s mentor in the years following his conversion, and was also a cousin of Mark.  When Paul refused to allow Mark to come on the second missionary journey, Barnabas sided with Mark and took him along with him to Cyprus while Paul went to Asia Minor.  After Paul and Mark were reconciled, Mark went on to become not only his faithful and dependable disciple, but also that of Peter.  In other words, Mark grew over his lifetime and acquired the virtues he needed to become an effective disciple of Jesus Christ, and a valued assistant to the great apostles of Jesus – Peter, Paul and Barnabas.  So too, God gives each of us the opportunity and the spiritual gifts we need to be effective disciples of the Lord according to the Call he has given each of us!  Next week we will begin to examine the themesand characteristics of Mark’s Gospel.
Stay tuned …

THE GREAT SOLEMNITY OF THE EPIPHANY: The Solemnity we observe today is the second oldest on the Church’s calendar.  It was an established feast for almost one hundred years before Christmas began to be celebrated in the Church at Rome.  The only feast more ancient than the Epiphany is Easter itself, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.

The Epiphany – which means the “showing forth” or the “manifestation” – originated in the second century among the Christians of Alexandria, Egypt.  Church historians tell us that it had its remote beginnings in a natural annual event and in the pagan religious celebration of that event.  In Egypt, during the summer and fall months of the year, the volume of water in the Nile River grew less and less.  In mythological terms, it was said that the river was “dying.”  The death of the Nile would have been catastrophic for the land and the people. Every year the Egyptians watched this phenomenon with dread, hoping and praying that the river would revive and “come back to life,” manifesting its “divinity.”  As the winter snows in the mountains of central Africa began to melt, the waters of the Nile and its tributaries were replenished, and the volume of water increased.  By early January each year, this increase of water volume reached Egypt – the Nile had been “reborn.”

This annual “manifestation” of the Nile’s “divinity” was a cause for relief and great rejoicing among the people of Egypt.  Over the course of time a great festival grew up to celebrate the epiphany of the Nile.  By the time the Christian faith was established in Egypt, the pagan festival of the epiphany was a well-established part of Egyptian religious life and culture. Christians, of course, would not agree that a river was in any sense “divine,” but as Egyptians it was impossible for them to ignore the ancient cultural festival.  Their solution was not to do away with the feast, but to transform it meaning!  In doing this, the Christian people followed a precedent set by the Hebrews of the Old Testament, who centuries earlier had not abolished, but rather transformed pagan Canaanite festivals into celebrations of Thanksgiving to the God of Israel.  The Feast of Booths, for example – which Jesus himself celebrated  (cf., Jn. 7:1-14) – had originated as a pagan festival of thanksgiving to the gods for the yearly harvest.  The Hebrews took the notion of thanksgiving for the harvest and applied it not to the pagan gods of their neighbors, but to the one true God of Israel, to whom they offered thanks for a bountiful harvest.

For the Christians of Alexandria, then, the Feast of the Epiphany was not the celebration of the “divinity” of a rising river, but rather the Divinity of God Himself manifested in Jesus Christ! We noted in last Sunday’s bulletin that when it was first observed in the ancient Church, the Feast of the Epiphany commemorated three distinct events in the life of Jesus, each of which “manifested” his divine status and power.  The revelation of the star to the pagan
Magi showed that in Jesus salvation is offered to all people of good will and that people from every nation would respond to God’s salvation in Christ.  At his baptism in the Jordan (another river!), the Spirit descended on Jesus in the form of a dove and the Father confirmed that Jesus was his Beloved Son, “in whom I am well pleased.” Finally, at the wedding of Cana, Jesus gave evidence of his divine power by changing water into wine – “the first of his signs … thus didhe reveal [i.e., manifest] his glory”(Jn. 2.11).

Modern liturgical practice sets the Baptism of the Lord as a separate feast, which this year will be celebrated on Monday, January 9^th – the day after we celebrate the Epiphany.  The feast marks the transition from the so-called “hidden life” to the beginning of his three-year public ministry.  On the Church’s calendar it also marks the close of the Christmas season and the beginning of the first cycle of “Ordinary
Time,” which focuses on the deeds and teaching of Jesus in the course of his public ministry.

THE FIVE GREAT FEASTS OF CHRISTMAS:  The Christmas season is the shortest of all the Church’s liturgical seasons, but in so many ways it is the most beautiful!  Perhaps one of the reasons for this is precisely the reality of its quick passing.  This year, especially, the season will be very brief, ending on Monday, January 9th with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.  We savor the magnificence of the Incarnation in the short time given us.  The season consists of several individual feasts – both major and minor – providing us insight into the Mystery of the Incarnation – the Mystery of the Eternal Son of the Father becoming fully human, being born of the Virgin Mary.  If we think of the Mystery of the Incarnation as a large beautiful diamond, then each feast views the same jewel in a different light, from a different vantage.  None can embrace the full majesty of the gem, but each brings out a unique facet of its beauty.  The major feasts of the season are these:

Christmas Day commemorates the day of Jesus’ birth, not in the sense that it is his historical birthday (the actual date of which is unknown), but rather in the sense that it celebrates the historical event of God’s Eternal Son being born as a human being.  The Feast of the Holy Family – which this year is observed on Friday, December 30^th – underscores the full humanity of Jesus by reminding us “he grew in age and wisdom” – in the context of family life – as is normal for any human person.  God’s Son became like us “in all things but sin.”

The eighth day of the season (January 1, one week after Christmas) is always the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, celebrating the virgin of Nazareth whom the Father chose to be the human mother of his Divine Son.  Because Jesus Christ is a single person possessing the fullness of both the Divine Nature and our human nature, and because Mary is the mother of Jesus, she is called properly “Mother of God.”  Such a glorious and overwhelming Title is given not because of Mary’s personal worth (as unique as it is), but in acknowledgement of the reality of him to whom she gave birth!  In this, as in everything, Mary’s glory is but a reflection of the Glory of her Son.  This is true for all the saints, and it is true for each of us!

The most ancient of all of the Christmas feasts is the Solemnity of the Epiphany – The “Manifestation” of God’s salvation to all peoples in Jesus Christ. This year the solemnity will be celebrated on Sunday, January 8^th.  In ancient times, the feast commemorated three distinct events in the life of Jesus, each of which “manifested” his divine status or power. The revelation of the star to the pagan Magi showed that in Jesus salvation is open to all people of good will.  At his baptism, the Spirit descended on him in the form of a dove and the Father confirmed that Jesus was his beloved Son, “in whom I am well pleased.”  Finally, at the wedding of Cana, Jesus gave evidence of his divine power by changing water into wine “the first of his signs… thus did he reveal his glory” (Jn 2.11.)

Modern liturgical practice sets the Baptism of the Lord as a separate feast, marking the transition from the “hidden life” of Jesus to the start of his 3-year public ministry.  This feast, which this year is celebrated on Monday, January 9^th, concludes the Christmas season.  Each of these five great feasts, then, highlights an aspect of the wondrous Mystery of the Incarnation, calling us to deeper faith in Jesus Christ who is Emmanuel – God-with-us.

Besides the five feasts of the Christmas cycle, the Church honors several saints in the “sanctoral” cycle of the calendar: St. Stephen (the first martyr), St. John the Evangelist (the youngest of the apostles and by tradition the author of the fourth Gospel), the Holy Innocents, St. Basil the Great & St. Gregory Nazianzen (two of the four great Fathers of the Eastern Church), and two American saints: St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and St. John Neuman, Bishop of Philadelphia.  All of these, in their own times and circumstances, bore faithful witness to the Good News of Jesus Christ – God-with-us.

THE PROCLAMATION OF THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST

The Roman Liturgy for
Christmas contains a formal announcement of the birth of Christ in the style of
a proclamation. This will be sung before the Midnight Mass on Christmas:

Today, the twenty-fifth day of December,

unknown ages from the time when God created the heavens
and the earth,

and then formed man and woman in his own image.

Several thousand years after the flood,

when God made the rainbow shine forth as a sign of the
covenant.

Twenty-one
centuries from the time of Abraham and Sarah;

thirteen
centuries after Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt.

Eleven
hundred years from the time of Ruth and the Judges;

one
thousand years from the anointing of David as king;

in
the sixty-fifth week according to the prophecy of Daniel.

In
the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad;

the
seven hundred and fifty-second year from the foundation of the city of Rome.

The
forty-second year of the reign of Octavian Augustus;

the
whole world being at peace,

JESUS
CHRIST, ETERNAL GOD AND SON OF THE ETERNAL FATHER,

desiring
to sanctify the world by his most merciful coming,

being
conceived by the Holy Spirit,

and
nine months having passed since his conception,

was
born in Bethlehem of Judea of the Virgin Mary.

TODAY
IS THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST ACCORDING TO THE FLESH.

ADVENT – 2011 … We have now entered into the second phase of Advent, 2011!  December 17^th always ushers in the latter days of the Advent Season and the more immediate preparations for the great Christmas Solemnity of the Incarnation. At Mass we begin using the Second Advent Preface to the Eucharistic Prayer.  We also begin to use the “O Antiphons” at the Evening Prayer of the Church, as well as during the Alleluia acclamations prior to proclaiming the Gospel at Mass.

The most well-known modern formulation of the “O Antiphons” is found in the beautiful Advent hymn, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”  Each of the seven antiphons addresses God who comes in the person of Jesus Christ with a different scriptural title, and each begins with the invocation, “O” (which gives them their name).  The texts, dating back to the monasteries of seventh-century Europe, are replete with biblical allusions, each of which presents a dimension of God’s salvation coming to us in the advent of the Messiah.  They offer us a rich source of prayer and reflection during these final days of preparation for Christmas.  The following texts are taken from the Evening Prayer of The Liturgy of the Hours, the official prayer of the Church for each day.

December 17:  O SAPIENTIA – “O WISDOM, O holy Word of God, you govern all creation with your strong yet tender care.  Come and show your people the way to salvation.

December 18:  O ADONAI – “O SACRED LORD of ancient Israel, who showed yourself to Moses in the burning bush, who gave him the holy law on Sinai mountain: come, stretch out your mighty hand to set us free.”

December 19:  O RADIX IESSE – “O ROOT OF JESSE, you have been raised up as a sign for all peoples; kings stand silent in your presence; the nations bow down in worship before you: come, let nothing keep you from coming to our aid.”

December 20:  O CLAVIS DAVID – “O KEY OF DAVID, royal Power of Israel,

controlling at your will the gate of heaven: come, break down the prison walls of death for those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and lead your captive people into freedom.”

December 21:  O ORIENS – “O RADIANT DAWN, splendor of eternal light, sun of justice: come, shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.”

December 22:  O REX GENTIUM – “O KING OF ALL THE NATIONS, the only joy of every human heart; keystone of the mighty arch of man, come and save the creature you fashioned from the dust.”

December 23:  O EMMANUEL – “O GOD-WITH-US, king and lawgiver, desire of the nations, Savior of all people, come and set us free, O Lord our God.”

“M A R A N A T H A   -   C O M E,   L O R D   J E S U S!”

“REJOICE  ALWAYS!” …  The ancient Latin name for this Sunday is “Gaudete” – “Rejoice!”  We rejoice because Christmas Day draws closer and closer!  We rejoice because we realize that the yearnings of Israel’s prophets came to fulfillment in Jesus Christ.  We rejoice because we have confident assurance in God’s providence governing our lives, despite whatever problems or sufferings may beset us.  In short, we rejoice because in Christ Jesus our God is truly Emmanuel – God with us!

For some of us, rejoicing in the Advent-Christmas season of 2011 may come naturally.  For those newly married, for those recently engaged, for those who have had a newborn baby this past year, for those looking forward to some great change or breakthrough in their lives, for those just looking forward to still another peaceful, family-centered Christmas – rejoicing may come easily.  Others of us are being called in this season to rejoice through their tears.  Many over the past year have lost someone very close through death. Some are worried about a son or daughter in the military, serving in places of danger.  A few have experienced the pain of divorce or are struggling in troubled marriages.  Some are worried sick about the self-inflicted misery of a loved one trapped in an addiction.  Many either are struggling with serious illness of their own or of someone close to them.  These misfortunes can preoccupy us, casting a dark cloud over what is supposed to be a season of joy.

Perhaps we need to reflect more deeply on just what it means to “Rejoice in the Lord Always.”  We are called to “rejoice” not just when everything in our lives is going smoothly, much less only at those times when we have no serious problems or sorrows or disappointments.  Our joy does not spring merely from natural contentment or emotional exuberance.  St. Paul does not tell us “to rejoice” only when “things are going well” for us.  He bids us, “REJOICE – IN THE LORD – ALWAYS!”  If we stop and think about it, it is really during the “bad times” in our lives that we draw closer to God, realizing our need for His strength and comfort and healing.  It is in those “bad times” that the Lord carries us.

The great figures of the Advent season – Isaiah and the other Old Testament prophets, John the Baptist, Mary – knew well what human suffering entailed.  They were not spared from problems and difficulties.  They never lived “care-free” lives.  It was precisely through their day-to-day struggles that they came to a deep faith in God’s love and providence.  Remember the context of Mary’s beautiful hymn of praise to God, the Magnificat: “My being proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”  Mary spoke those words after she had accepted the perplexing and troubling message of Gabriel; after she had been subjected to the suspicions of Joseph and of her neighbors regarding her mysterious pregnancy; after she – despite being three months pregnant – had finished an arduous journey “through the hill country of Judah” to be with her elderly cousin.  After enduring these difficulties (and there were many more to follow) Mary could say,

“… my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!”

ADVENT—2011 …  Last Sunday we began the season of Advent, a time of joy-filled hope, great expectation and careful preparation.  The outside world of nature is getting colder and darker, but within ourselves we savor the warmth of God’s love for us and rejoice in the light of his truth.  One of the first things we do each Advent season is to inaugurate the catechumenate in the parish.  Up to this point, the 2011-2012 R.C.I.A. process, which began in August, has been more or less an informal “inquiry class” on the teachings of the Catholic Church.  No special commitment has been asked of those attending the Wednesday night sessions.  That will change as we enter the second phase of the R.C.I.A, process.  I have interviewed all those wanting to come into the catechumenate phase over the last two or three weeks.

On this Second Sunday of Advent, during the 11:00 AM Mass, Bishop Wall will preside at the R.C.I.A. Rite of Acceptance.  We will receive into the Catechumenate of the Church 15 adults and children preparing to receive the Easter Sacraments of Initiation (Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist).  Another group of three adults will be accepted as candidates for reception into full communion with the Catholic Church.  This group comprises baptized non-Catholic Christians preparing to make their profession of faith and complete the Sacraments of Initiation (Confirmation and/or First Eucharist).  At today’s Rite of Acceptance, they will publicly profess their intention of embracing the Catholic faith in its fullness, and the Church will formally accept them into the R.C.I.A. process of preparation.  Finally, we have 17 baptized Catholic adults preparing to receive First Eucharist at the Easter Vigil and/or Confirmation on Pentecost Sunday (May 27, 2012).  Through the Rite of Acceptance, we thus establish the 2012 Catechumenate at the very beginning of the new liturgical year.

We also remind you that this Thursday, December 8, is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Patroness of the Catholic Church in the United States.  This is a Holy Day of Obligation for all Catholics.  The solemnity commemorates the Mystery of Faith that God the Father, in preparing for the Incarnation of his only-begotten Son, preserved the woman He had chosen to be the human mother of that Son from all stain of sin, from the first moment of her conception.  The feast does not refer to the Virgin Birth of Jesus, but rather to the pure and sinless conception of his mother.  The one chosen by God the Father to be “Θεοτόκος” – “the God-Bearer” (the expression used by the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD)  was never for one moment of her existence to be under the domination of sin. The Solemnity fo the Immaculate Conception is one of the greatest of all the Marian feasts on the Church’s calendar.  The times of the four Holy Day Masses are given elsewhere in the bulletin.

The second great Advent Marian celebration, as we mentioned last week, occurs on Monday, December 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  This is a fitting feast for the Advent season because the image of “la virgen morena” (the ‘dark-skinned’ virgin) shows Mary not as the “Madonna” holding her infant son, but as a pregnant woman, awaiting the coming birth of her son.  As we await the coming of the Lord in this Advent season, so the Virgin of Guadalupe awaits his rebirth in the hearts of her children!

“M A R A N A T H A — C O M E,   L O R D  J E S U S!”