'Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.' Sunday Reflections, The Baptism of the Lord, Year B

The Baptism of Christ (detail), Tintoretto, 1579-81

Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa) 

Gospel Mark 1:7-11 (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada)

John the Baptist proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

The Census at Bethlehem, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1566

Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels [Web Gallery of Art]

Two weeks ago, on the Feast of the Holy Family, I celebrated Mass in Holy Family Home for Girls here in Bacolod City. At the beginning of my homily I asked a number of the girls to look at a copy of the painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder above and to point out the Holy Family in it. None of them could find Mary and Joseph, just as none of the figures in the painting notices the young woman on the donkey and the man leading it.

Detail of Bruegel's painting [Wikipedia]

In Tintoretto's painting of the Baptism of Jesus it is clear who the two figures in the foreground are. But there are many people in the background. When Jesus asked John to baptize him the others in the line would not have known who he was. They would have presumed that, like themselves, he was a sinner instead of the Word who became flesh and lived among us (John 1:14).

In his birth and at the beginning of his public life Jesus is almost anonymous, a 'nobody'. St Theodotus of Ancyra  reflects on this:

The Lord of all comes as a slave amidst poverty. The huntsman has no wish to startle his prey. Choosing for birthplace an unknown village in a remote province, he is born of a poor maiden and accepts all that poverty implies, for he hopes by stealth to ensnare and save us.

If he had been born to high rank and amidst luxury, unbelievers would have said the world had been transformed by wealth. If he had chosen as his birthplace the great city of Rome, they would have thought the transformation had been brought about by civil power.

Suppose he had been the son of an emperor. They would have said: 'How useful it is to be powerful!' Imagine him the son of a senator. It would have been: 'Look what can be accomplished by legislation!'

But in fact, what did he do? He chose surroundings that were poor and simple, so ordinary as to be almost unnoticed, so that people would know it was the Godhead alone that had changed the world. This was his reason for choosing his mother from among the poor of a very poor country, and for becoming poor himself.

Pope Francis will be coming to the Philippines on 15 January. One of my priest-friends whose flight was delayed in Manila the other day for two hours - one of many delayed flights - in the context of many flights that will be cancelled on the day the Pope lands in Manila and on the day he leaves - said, only half-jokingly, He should be made wait two hours like everyone else! Bruegel's painting, The Census at Bethlehem, suggests that Mary and Joseph will have a long wait when they join the queue outside the office to the left of the picture. And maybe Jesus the adult had to wait quite a while before reaching St John the Baptist, just as in my young days I often had to wait quite a while outside the confessional in my parish church in Dublin on Saturdays because there were so many sinners there before me.

Tacloban Airport after Haiyan/Yolanda [Wikipedia]

And in today's Philippine Daily Inquirer [9 January] Archbishop John Du of Palo, the archdiocese that includes Tacloban City devastated by Supertyphoon Haiyan/Yolanda in November 2013, is reported as asking security people to 'soften' their draconian security measures during the visit of Pope Francis to Leyte. Pope Francis specifically asked to visit Tacloban City so that he could meet survivors of the typhoon. He will celebrate Mass at the airport there on 17 January. But those who wish to attend will have to be there the evening before and will not be allowed to bring tents, umbrellas or bottled water, though there will be water stations at the airport. And tonight's weather forecast says that an area of low pressure may hit where Tacloban is located around the time the Pope visits. If it does it will probably bring lots of rain.

The ordinary people of Leyte, many of them still living in makeshift houses, will be treated just as Joseph and Mary were along with the people outside the office in Bruegel's painting. And the Pope's very purpose in visiting Tacloban will be thwarted to some extent, even though tight security is sadly necessary in today's world.

But the world of first-century Bethlehem, the world of Bruegel's 16th-century Netherlands, the world of 21st-century Tacloban City is the world in which the Word became flesh and lived among us.

The Good News is that the Word who became flesh still lives among us.

This hymn by contemporary English composer John Rutter isn't linked to the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. But it is a hymn of thanksgiving to God for all that he has given us. The greatest gift of all is our Christian faith, received at our baptism. It is that faith, for which many Filipinos have a great sense of gratitude, that Pope Francis is coming to affirm. Please pray that his visit will bear fruit and bring all of us to focus our lives on Jesus Christ so that we, like St John the Baptist, may draw others to him.

'We . . . have come to pay him homage.' Sunday Reflections, The Epiphany of the Lord.

The Adoration of the Magi, Velázquez, 1619

Museo del Prado, Madrid [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings for the Solemnity of the Epiphany

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa) 

The readings above are used both at the Vigil Mass and at the Mass during the Day. Each Mass has its own set of prayers and antiphons.

In countries where the Epiphany is observed as a Holyday of Obligation on 6 January, eg, Ireland, the Mass of the Second Sunday after the Nativity is celebrated. The same readings are used in Years A, B, C:

Readings (Jerusalem Bible)

Alleluia and Gospel for the Epiphany

Alleluia, alleluia!

Vidimus stellam eius in Oriente,

We have seen his star in the East,

et venimus cum muneribus adorare Dominum.

and have come with gifts to adore the Lord.

Alleluia, alleluia!

The same text (cf. Matthew 2:2), without 'Alleluia, alleluia,' is used as the Communion Antiphon at the Mass during the Day.

Gospel Matthew 2:1-12 (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada)

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem,  asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.”  When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:

‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
    who is to shepherd my people Israel.’”

Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared.  Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

Adoration of the Magi (detail), Filippino Lipi, 1496

Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence [Web Gallery of Art]

While based in Britain from 2000 till 2002 I was able to spend Christmas with my brother and his family in Dublin, a short flight from England, in 2000 and 2001. During the holiday in 2001 I saw a documentary on RTÉ, Ireland's national broadcasting service, about Filipino nurses in Ireland. These began to arrive in 2000, initially at the invitation of the Irish government to work in government hospitals. Very quickly there was an 'invasion' of Filipino nurses and carers, now to be found in hospitals and nursing homes in every part of the country.

One of the nurses interviewed told how many Filipinos, knowing that the Irish celebrate Christmas on the 25th, unlike the Philippines where the culmination of the feast is on the night of the 24th, offered to work on Christmas Day so that their Irish companions could be with their families. This also helped to dull the pain of being away from their own families.

I was moved to tears at the testimony of one nurse, from Mindanao as I recall, speaking about her job and her first Christmas in Ireland in 2000. She spoke very highly of her employers, of her working conditions and of her accommodation, which she compared with that of the Holy Family on the first Christmas night. She spoke of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in this situation as if they were members of her own family, as in a very deep sense they are, or we of their family.

Here was a young woman from the East powerfully proclaiming, without being aware of it, that the Word became flesh and lived among us. The fact that she wasn't aware of it, that she was speaking about her 'next door neighbours', made her proclamation of faith all the more powerful. She would have known many in her own place, and very likely knew from her own experience, something of what Joseph and Mary went through in Bethlehem. Her faith in the Word who became flesh and lived among us wasn't something in her head but part of her very being.

For much of the last century thousands of Catholic priests, religious Sisters and Brothers left Europe and North America to preach and live the Gospel in the nations of Africa, Asia and South America. Some of the countries and regions from which they left, eg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Quebec, have to a great extent lost or even rejected the Catholic Christian faith. The Jewish people had, in faith, awaited the coming of the Messiah for many centuries. But when He came it was uneducated shepherds who first recognised him and later Simeon and Anna, two devout and elderly Jews who spent lengthy periods in prayer in the Temple.

Today's feast highlights wise men from the east, not 'believers' in the Jewish sense, led by God's special grace to Bethlehem to bring gifts in response to that grace, explaining, We . . . have come to pay him homage.They reveal to us that God calls people from every part of the world to do the same and to bring others with them.

Will nurses from the Philippines and from Kerala in India, migrants from Korea and Vietnam, from the east, bring the gift of faith in Jesus Christ once again to the many people in Western Europe and North America who no longer know him in any real sense? Will they by the lives they lead as working immigrants gently invite those in the West who have lost the precious gift of our Catholic Christian faith to once again come to pay him homage?

An arrangement by John Rutter of the old carol

Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God. Happy New Year!

The Granduca Madonna, Raphael (Raffaello), 1504

Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence [Web Gallery of Art]

St Luke 2:16-21

So the shepherds went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

Adoration of the Shepherds, Caravaggio, 1609

Museo Regionale, Messina, Italy [Web Gallery of Art]

[Alternative] Antiphona ad introitum    Entrance Antiphon

Cf. Isaiah 9:1, 5; Luke 1:33

Lux fulgebit hodie super nos,

Today a light will shine upon us,

quia natus est nobis Dominus;

for the Lord is born for us;

et vocabitur admirabilis, Deus,

and he will be called Wondrous God,

Princeps pacis, Pater futuri saeculi;

Prnce of peace, Father of future ages:

cuius regni non erit finis.

and his reign will be without end.

This is sung in the chant of the Ambrosian Rite, used in the Archdiocese of Milan.

A Mhuire Mháthair, Mother Mary

This hymn in Irish is sung to the melody of the Maori song Pokarekare Ana. Below is my translation.

Mother Mary, this is my prayer,

that Jesus will live for ever in my heart.

Ave Maria, Ave, my love!

You are my mother and the Mother of God.

Mother Mary, throughout my life,

be with me as a protection against every danger.

Ave Maria, Ave, my love!

You are my mother and the Mother of God.

Mother Mary, full of grace,

May you be with me at the hour of my death.

Ave Maria, Ave, my love!

You are my mother and the Mother of God.

Happy New Year!

Manigong Bagong Taon!

Athbhliain Faoi Mhaise!

'The parents of Jesus brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.' Sunday Reflections, Feast of the Holy Family

Presentation in the Temple, Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, 1671

Szépmûvészeti Múzeum, Budapest [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa) 

The above include alternative First and Second readings and Responsorial Psalms for Year B. This Gospel is always read in Year B.

Gospel Luke 2:22-40 [or Luke 2:22, 39-40]  (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada)

When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, the parents of Jesus brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord [(as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying,

 “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,
    according to your word;
 for my eyes have seen your salvation,
     which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,

 a light for revelation to the Gentiles
    and for glory to your people Israel.”

 And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him.  Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage,  then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.]

When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.  The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

The text in [square brackets] may be omitted.

Before Christmas we listened to the words of St Matthew: Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:18-21). 

Joseph, by obeying God's messenger and by naming the Son his wife Mary bore, became the legal father of Jesus. The Church honours him above all as the Husband of Mary. St John XXIII added the words and blessed Joseph, her Spouse to the Roman Canon, now also known as the First Eucharistic Prayer, while Pope Francis has included that phrase in the other three main Eucharistic Prayers. It was as the Husband of Mary that St Joseph took care of her and of Jesus. It was St Joseph whom Jesus knew as Dad/Papa/Tatay. It was from St Joseph that Jesus, God who became Man, learned, in his humanity, to grow into manhood.

St Joseph submitted his whole being, as did his wife Mary, to doing God's will. Jesus was flesh of her flesh, but not of his. Yet he loved Jesus as if he was his own son, first of all by loving his mother.

The Census at Bethlehem (detail) 

Pieter Bruegel the Elder,1566

Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels [Web Gallery of Art]

Peter Bruegel the Elder, maybe the first major painter to focus on the lives of ordinary people, captures the quiet responsibility of St Joseph, leading the donkey on which the heavily pregnant Mary is riding. The picture above is a detail of the full painting that I used on Christmas Eve. Bruegel has transposed Bethlehem to a village in the Netherlands in the middle of winter. He captures the reality that the Holy Family were 'nobodies'. None of the people around notices them. They too are caught up in the red tape of their day, having to travel long distances to have their names registered.

Gerbrand van den Eeckhout in the Presentation in the Temple shows St Joseph as a man who is somewhat shy, not wanting to be in the limelight, but standing protectively over Mary as she kneels before Jesus held in the arms of Simeon, with Anna the Prophetess in the background. St Joseph here reminds me very much of my own father.

And in the video of the Presentation what strikes me is that St Joseph is the one carrying Jesus. But before he hands the infant to Simeon he quietly asks Mary's permission to do so. Mary hands Jesus back to Joseph after receiving him from Simeon and it is St Joseph, as head of the Holy Family, who presents the infant to the priest who offers him to God. The priest has no idea who this child of poor parents really is.

On 17 November Pope Francis said: It is necessary to insist on the fundamental pillars that govern a nation: its intangible assets. The family is the foundation of co-existence and a guarantee against social fragmentation. Children have a right to grow up in a family with a father and a mother capable of creating a suitable environment for the child's growth and emotional development. This is why, in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, I stressed the 'indispensable' contribution of marriage to society, a contribution which 'transcends the feelings and momentary needs of the couple' (n. 66). And this is why I am grateful to you for the emphasis that your colloquium has placed on the benefits that marriage can provide children, the spouses themselves, and society.

There have always been children who have grown up without one or both parents. In the Bible they are seen as young persons in need of special care from the wider community. I have known many single parents, some of them widowed, raising their children lovingly and heroically. But this is not the norm.

Incredibly, many within the last two or three decades have come to dismiss the importance of husband/father and wife/mother, have come to dismiss the conception and birth of children in the way that God intended.

Pope Francis with a young recovering addict 

World Youth Day 2013, Rio de Janeiro [Wikipedia]

Though without a family of my own I have for many years experienced the title 'Father' as a call to be one in a number of senses: a 'spiritual father' who leads others to our Heavenly Father through his Son Jesus Christ, and a father-figure to young persons who may have lost their father or who may even have been abused by their father or by other fatherly figures in whom they should have been able to trust.

As a man, I see today's Feast of the Holy Family to be a call especially to us men to be like St Joseph, to be responsible, to be loving; if married to love our wives above all, if not, to be like fathers to young persons who come into our lives in whatever way and for whatever reason.

As a priest I am grateful to God for calling me not only to be 'Father' but to be a father to many in the sense that St Joseph was truly a father to Jesus.

Some Christmas Songs

Good King Wenceslas

This English Christmas carol, very popular also in Ireland, is hardly known at all in the Philippines.

In Dulce Jubilo

The melody of this carol goes back at least to 1400. It is sung here by Libera, a London-based boys' choir.

A Christmas Reflection from Pakistan

Fr Tomás King is a Columban priest from Ireland who works in the Diocese of Hyderabad, in the Sindh Province of Pakistan. This is his Christmas reflection.

View of Nagarparkar City from Karoonjhar Mountains

CHRISTMAS 2014, Nagarparkar 

Dear Friends, greetings from Pakistan. I hope all is well with you as you prepare to celebrate Christmas. 

 Malala Yousafzai 

Last weekend I sat down to put a few thoughts together to send as Christmas greetings. I was hoping to focus on the good news story for Pakistan in recent weeks; that being the teenager Malala Yousafzai being joint winner of the Nobel Peace prize along with, Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian    child rights activist. Malala was shot a few years ago by the Taliban, but survived.  Her offence; to go to school, as well as to demand education for all children, particularly girls. Malala, in her acceptance speech, she asked her government to 'build schools and not tanks'. 

Kailash Satyarthi

But just a few days later, Tuesday 16th the Taliban attacked a school in Peshawar city and killed 148 people, most of whom, 132, were children. It is simply incomprehensible, impossible to understand the mentality that would motivate one to carry out such acts.The children were systematically and intentionally targeted, so as to cause as much death, damage and destruction as possible.  

What kind of response is possible, and necessary to such pure hatred? Are there any hints of answers in the Christmas story? St Luke’s Gospel tells us that the 'shepherds were keeping watch in the night'. What were they looking for? Maybe for something to brighten up their difficult lives. Maybe they were looking for the 'the light that shone in the darkness' which is the image used in St John’s Gospel to describe Jesus’ presence among us. How does light shine in darkness, as the image seems to suggest?  

Christ being born in our world, is very much about finding God inside of ordinary every day events. And also it seems, even in the darkness of sin, violence, war, greed and the other negative realities that are part of our world, difficult as that is. Christmas is about light being seen inside of darkness. Christmas invites and challenges us to watch like the shepherds when we look at the world and see the light which is God’s presence, grace, graciousness, forgiveness, love, unselfishness and innocence. 

We also need the attitude and disposition of Mary. St Luke’s Gospel also tells us that when Mary heard from the shepherd what Jesus was to become her response was to 'treasure all these things and ponder them in her heart'.  There is a lot in this appearance of God in the world that we cannot understand. But ‘watching,’ ‘treasuring’ and ‘pondering’ will help us on the way to understanding and enable us to give and receive the blessing, the ‘benediction’ that Rabindranath Tagore speaks off below: 

Benediction 

Bless this little heart, this soul that has won the kiss of heaven for our earth. 

He loves the light of the sun, he loves the sight of his mother's face. 

He has not learned to despise the dust, and to hanker after gold. 

Clasp him to your heart and bless him. 

He has come into this land of an hundred cross-roads. 

I know not how he chose you from the crowd, came to your door, and grasped you hand to ask his way. He will follow you, laughing the talking, and not a doubt in his heart. 

Keep his trust, lead him straight and bless him. 

Lay your hand on his head, and pray that though the waves underneath grow threatening, 

yet the breath from above may come and fill his sails and waft him to the heaven of peace. 

Forget him not in your hurry, let him come to your heart and bless him.  

Rabindranath Tagore

    

Peace and Blessings this Christmas for the coming year. 

Father Tomás

Adoration of the Shepherds, El Greco, c.1610

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York [Web Gallery of Art]

Photos from Wikipedia.