Since we are travellers and pilgrims in the world, let us ever ponder on the end of the road, that is of our life, for the end of our roadway is our home (St Columban, 8th sermon).
GospelJohn 1:29-34(English Standard Version, Anglicised)
At that time: John saw Jesus coming towards him, and said, ‘Behold, the
Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said,
“After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.” I myself
did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptising with water, that he
might be revealed to Israel.’ And John bore witness: ‘I saw the Spirit descend
from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but
he who sent me to baptise with water said to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit
descend and remain, this is he who baptises with the Holy Spirit.” And I have
seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.
Fr Barry Cairns, a Columban priest born in New Zealand in 1931 who is still enthusiastically testifying in Japan that this is the Son of God tells a story in a number of our Columban magazines of one of his parishioners, Mr Dismas Shigeru Kato, who is doing the same in his 90s.He became a Catholic as an adult. Only about one person out of 200 in Japan is a Catholic. Father Barry tells us about his parishioner when they were both younger.
I would like to introduce Mr Dismas Shigeru Kato. He was born 91 years ago in a small fishing village called Kushimoto in Wakayama Province of Japan. In his youth and when drafted into the wartime army he built up a massive debt for alcohol at different bars.
Then he got married. His wife was very patient with him. Mr Kato worked for the Kansai Electric Power Company. He cared for external power lines. He was paying off his debts bit by bit.
Then Mr Kato became a Christian, first with the local Protestant Church and later the Catholic Church where he was baptized. He chose as his baptismal name Dismas, which is the traditional name of the penitent brigand on a cross beside Jesus at his crucifixion.
At this time I was pastor of Kushimoto which was one of the smallest parishes in Japan. It was definitely a mission of primary contact to the un-evangelized! At Sunday Mass we had 5-10 people attending. However after Mass, 50 non-Christian children from the village came for Sunday school. Mr Kato's daughter, Majimi, was the only Christian.
It was here that Mr Dismas Shigeru Kato really shone in the darkness. For the children we used a projector showing a film strip about a small Catholic boy in Africa. Remember this was before TV came into the village. The film strip was in colour and most extensive with many episodes. Mr Kato would study each episode during the week and in the darkness needed for the projector could tell the story without looking at the script. Each character in the story was given in its own distinctive voice. It was a masterful and captivating presentation. I often heard the children discussing both the developing story and its Christian message.
At this time too Mr Kato was giving witness in another field. The Kansai Electric Company had a trade union seminar. The subject was traffic safety. During the open discussion Mr Kato stood up and said: ‘As many of you know I am a Christian. You have probably heard that Christ 2,000 years ago was strong on love of others. A modern aspect of love of neighbour is safe driving. Let the driver be concerned and respectful for others who use the road. Aggressive, dangerous driving can be a form of self-centredness. Careful, considerate driving is a form of love of neighbor. Let this be our motive for safe driving.’
A moment of spontaneous reflective silence was followed by massive applause. This was a new, different, and appealing approach.
The provincial section of the newspaper featured Mr Kato and his talk emphasising motivation for safe driving instead of just keeping rules for their own sake.
At 91 Shigeru Kato has moved into a Catholic-run retirement home. Here he is a leader of a group who pray the Rosary together.
I pray for more like Mr Kato to evangelize this nation of Japan.
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Mr Kato's life, where his Catholic Christian faith permeates everything he does, reflects the spirit of the Letter to Diognetus, written in the second century, which speaks of how we Christians are meant to live in the world. We can get a flavour of it here.
For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe . . . They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed.
People in many countries, and many here in Ireland itself, were utterly shocked and disheartened at the many voters here in recent referendums - one in 2015 that re-defined marriage as no longer necessarily involving a man and a woman, the other in 2018 to do with the sacredness of the life of the unborn child - who saw no connection between their faith and the way they voted. We can never separate the reality that through our baptism we become the beloved sons and daughters of God the Father, brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ and of one another, from the reality of our daily lives and our lives as citizens. Everything is meant to be permeated by that marvellous truth in which we find our deepest identity, the truth that by baptism we are the beloved sons and daughters of God the Father.
Kinasai-omoniwo-oumono
Composed by Saburo Takada
This Japanese hymn is based on Matthew 11:28-30.Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Traditional
Latin Mass
Second
Sunday After the Epiphany
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 1-18-2026 if necessary).
The steward of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, 'Every man serves the good wine first; and when men have drunk freely, then the poor wine; but you have kept the good wine until now' (John 2:9-10; Gospel).
At that time the disciples approached
Jesus and said, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”He
called a child over, placed it in their midst,and said, “Amen, I
say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter
the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the
greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one child such as
this in my name receives me.
“See that you do not despise one of
these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look
upon the face of my heavenly Father."
This first appeared in Cebu Daily News some years ago. It is used here with permission. Simeon Dumdum, Jr, known to his friends as 'Jun', is a retired Regional Trial Court judge, a writer and a poet.
Not too long ago, a couple gifted us with a wood carving of the Child Jesus. It has the size, curls and royal garments of the Santo Niño of Cebu, as well as its crown, globe and scepter. Except that the globe lies on a seat and the figure reclines on it, sleeping – the scepter resting on a leg.
The statue, which has apparently gained popularity, goes by the name Sleeping Santo Niño.
In the house we give pride of place to a copy of the standard, the official representation enshrined in the basilica. It occupies the center of a table that serves as altar, together with the crucifix and the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. But I am unsure as to where to put the Sleeping Santo Niño. My decision on the matter would almost certainly depend on whether it is a holy object or a mere artistic item – an objet d’art. I have since been inclined to the latter, having dragged my feet towards having it blessed (terrified of the priest’s refusal or ridicule), and for the moment having installed the statue above a console together with a paper weight portraying the head of a plumpish baby angel.
How did the first Sleeping Santo Niño come about? Did the one who carved it, true to his restless, artistic soul, make it purely for the purpose of creating something different, just as others have come up with their own different versions of the Holy Child, many of them clearly out of character, such as a Santo Niño holding a saw, a sight that would have terrified good St Joseph himself.
Did the carver want to make such a statement? By the way, the official statement of the official representation of the Santo Niño is of the universal Kingship of Jesus, who is God, who became man, and is shown as a child to stress the need in the kingdom for the childlike virtues –dependence, trust, simplicity.
Someone, who apparently was losing in his grapple with faith, wrote about the Sleeping Santo Niño being a revelation of the “real” character of God – detached, indifferent, unconcerned with human problems.
This was exactly what the disciples felt when, while aboard a boat on the lake, a storm arose and the waves began swamping them, and Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. Mark tells us that they woke Jesus up, saying, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are about to die?” Jesus got up and rebuked the wind, commanded it to stop, and then turned towards the disciples to chide them, “Why are you cowardly? Do you still not have faith?”
I doubt that the originator of the Sleeping Santo Niño had this episode in mind when applying chisel to wood. Likely as not, he thought of a tender human scene – Baby Jesus, like any infant elaborately dressed up by its parents for a pageant and unmindful of adult concerns, succumbing to sleep, the thing that infants most need and yield to no matter the occasion.
But subconsciously the carver has conveyed to me the message that Mark gives in the incident about the storm on the lake. It was not accidental that Jesus slept on a cushion at the stern (neither was it inconceivable – it was evening, and as usual Jesus must have had a full day). His rebuke being proof, he gave the disciples a lesson on faith – of reliance on the protection of the Father so complete that like him they should have slept the storm away, as well as that his mere presence among them should have been assurance enough of safety. After all, he had power at any time to tell off the wind and the waves.
People who complain that God does not intervene enough in human affairs really want Him to do the work for them. But really with full faith in God they should first act, carry out their roles, let the play of their lives unfold, and not always whine for the Author to appear. Incidentally, C. S. Lewis tells us, “When the author walks on the stage, the play is over.”
Perhaps the Sleeping Santo Niño deserves a second look. It does no more than remind, not of a divine pastime, but of the proper human attitude – trust. The God who appears to sleep is really an unsleeping God – as watchful as a parent is of an infant that is learning to walk, and coming to its aid only when necessary.
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I love Jun's reference to the sight of the Child Jesus holding a saw as something that 'would have terrified good St Joseph'! As the son of a carpenter named Joseph myself I felt embarrassed the first time I tried to use a saw and didn't have a clue. I still don't!
GospelMatthew 3:13-17(English Standard Version, Anglicised)
At that time: Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John,
to be baptised by him. John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be
baptised by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so
now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.’ Then he
consented. And when Jesus was baptised, immediately he went up from the water,
and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from
heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’
El Greco painted the Baptism of Christ a number of times. In the painting above he shows Jesus kneeling before his cousin St John the Baptist, as does Pasolini in his film The Gospel According to Matthew, with nothing, just as John had nothing. Both were totally open to the will of God the Father.
For me one of the most astonishing realities in the baptism of Jesus is that he lined up with everyone else, all of whom were sinners. All those present, except John, would have presumed that Jesus was just another sinner like themselves. This shows the extent of God’s love for us as sinners, that God who became Man, Jesus, allowed himself to be seen as a sinner.
It is here that God the Father proclaims, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. The Father uses the very same words at the Transfiguration, with the words listen to him added (Mt 17:5). In the latter Peter, James and John the Apostle had caught a glimpse of the reality that Jesus is God. At the baptism the people saw someone they presumed to be a sinner.
Lawrence Wren, a former head of the Irish police who died in 2016, lived near my brother in Dublin. I remember that when he held that position he used to stand outside the parish church after all the Masses on one Sunday of the month with other members of the St Vincent de Paul Society collecting money to help the poor. There was nothing to indicate who he was or the very important position he held. I was always struck by that and that he and his family lived in an ordinary house just like everyone else.
The fact that Jesus identified himself, in effect, as a sinner shows that God is not ashamed of us despite our sins. He identifies himself with us even though he is pure love, utter sinlessness.
And just as God the Father proclaims Jesus as my Son, the Beloved, at his baptism, he does the same with us at our baptism which, unlike the baptism of John, makes us God’s very own sons and daughters, brothers and sisters of Jesus and therefore brothers and sisters of one another. This is our deepest identity.
In Ireland, England & Wales the Solemnity of the Epiphany is a Holy Day of Obligation and is celebrated this year on Tuesday, 6 January, the traditional date. In many countries the Epiphany is celebrated on this Sunday, 4 January. The readings below are those for the Second Sunday After the Nativity, observed in Ireland, England & Wales. You will find Sunday Reflections for the Solemnity of the Epiphany here.
Readings(English
Standard Version, Catholic Edition: (England & Wales)
GospelJohn 1:1-18 or 1-5, 9-14(English Standard Version, Anglicised)
In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was
in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him
was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the
light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not
overcome it.
[There was a man
sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about
the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came
to bear witness about the light.]
The true light,
which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world,
and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to
his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive
him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who
were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man,
but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his
glory, glory as of the Only Begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
[John bore witness about him, and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He
who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.” ’For from his
fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through
Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the
only begotten God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.]
In The Ascent of Mount Carmel St John of the Cross writes: When [God] gave us, as he did,his Son, who is his one Word, he spoke everything to us, once and for all in that one Word. There is nothing further for him to say . . .
Consequently, anyone who today would want to ask God questions or desire some vision or revelation, would not only be acting foolishly but would commit an offence against God by not fixing his eyes entirely on Christ, without wanting something new or something besides him.
God might give him this answer, '"This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him." I have already told you all things in my Word. Fix your eyes on him alone, becuse in him I have spoken and revealed all. Moreover, in him you will find more than you ask or desire.'
This passage is used in the Office of Readings, Advent, Week 2, Monday.
