Faith

On the 9th day of Christmas my true love gave to me, John as a witness to me. 1: 19-28

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The ministry of John the Baptist in Bethany, across the Jordan was certainly making news in the headquarters of the Jewish faith. We are told that the ‘Jews’ sent in the Levites and priests to enquire as to who he was. In the Gospel of John, when we read the word ‘Jews’ it refers to the religious establishment in opposition to Jesus. In verse 24, St John tells us that the ‘Jews’ who sent the priests and the Levites belonged to the super conservative group called the Pharisees who had spiritually ‘separated themselves’ from the rest of Judaism in order that their practices and beliefs in the faith were not contaminated.

If you understand the longing and waiting for the Messiah among the Jewish people, you will be able to decipher precisely the focus and intention in the line of questioning. The Levites and priests did not want to start a national sensation by asking a direct question. Asking John the Baptist if he was the Messiah would have ramifications both on the political scene with the Romans as well as an overthrow of power in Jerusalem’s temple. Hence the ‘discreet’ question, ‘who are you?’

John knew what the purpose of the question to him was. There was a longing for a Messiah and while some wanted a warrior King that would overthrow the Romans many others longed for redeemer. John knew who he was in the larger plan of God and he was not the Messiah. This is his ‘confession,’ “I am not the Messiah.” That line was enough to deflate the hopes of a nation all at once. Think of hopes of the French people being dashed to the ground with that penalty shoot-out against Argentina. However, the matter at hand remains, who then was John?

Jewish aspiration and hope had rested on the belief that it would be Elijah who would usher in the reign of the Messiah.(Malachi 4:5-6). If John was not the Messiah, was he then Elijah? Could the Jewish people still hope for the best? John confesses that he is not Elijah. Yet Jesus noted that in a sense, John was Elijah, ministering in his office and spirit (Matthew 11:13-14 and Mark 9:11-13).

Perhaps if John was not Elijah, was he then a prophet of God? The last prophet of God walked this land 400 years ago and since then there was no Prophecy. In these four hundred years without prophetic voices the Pharisees arose as interpreters of God’s will. If John was not the Messiah, nor Elijah perhaps he was the spokesperson of God to his people? In Deuteronomy 18:15-19, God promised that another prophet would come in due time. Based on this passage, they expected another Prophet to come, and wondered if John was not he? But John confesses he none of the above.

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Faith

On the eight day of Christmas my true love gave to me, the Blessed Virgin, Mother Mary- Luke 2:16-21

Even as we slip into a secular new year, the Gospel continues to proclaim the Christmas story though clearly with one purpose, to honour our Blessed Mother who co-operated with God’s plan of salvation that gave us so great a saviour.

The spotlight falls on Mary today as we celebrate, on this the eight day of Christmas another gift from our true love; God. In 1970, Pope Paul VI instituted the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. In his encyclical on devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, ‘Marialis Cultus’ (1974), he wrote, “This celebration, assigned to January the first is in conformity with the ancient liturgy of the city of Rome. It is meant to commemorate the part played by Mary in this mystery of salvation. It is meant also to exalt the singular dignity which this mystery brings to the holy Mother … through whom we were found worthy … to receive the Author of life.”

The gift of Mary is not just a gift given to us by God alone but a gift that Jesus, the second person of the divine trinity also gave us from the cross when he said to John, “behold your mother.” Yet from the cross we were not just given ‘a gift’ but an inheritance. Here was Jesus dying on the cross and from the cross he was dictating his last will and testament given not just by his own hand but in his own blood.

Inheritances can be stolen but this was given to its legitimate heirs; to you and me, for we are the brothers and sisters of Our Lord. This inheritance cannot be usurped yet it is so great that many more can share in this inheritance especially those who freely become children of God. They then share in this inheritance by virtue that they accept the name of Jesus (John 1)

What do we do with a gift?
This is a question we need to ask ourselves. Gifts come wrapped in lovely ribbon and paper. A gift invokes a certain sense of curiosity, you want to know what is inside. No one takes a gift and leaves it on a shelf hoping that someday the wrapper will fall off miraculously. You need to open it and behold what lies behind the sheets of paper. On this Holy Day, God gives us Mary under the title of Mother of God. While our Blessed Mother is loved by many, there are still so many who have left her like an unwrapped gift on a shelf. You have to discover her by pondering like she did on what might seem simple and ordinary and yes perhaps repetitive and as some say boring; namely the rosary.

Recently an artist who painted a portrait of Pope Benedict was given access to his personal effects in order to get the details right. The staff around the Holy Father gave even his pectoral cross to be studied but when it came to his rosary, they were unable to give it. “How can we give you something that he never let’s go of throughout the day and night?”

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Faith

On the Seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me, Jesus who came and saved me – John 1:1-18

How you begin a book and position the first few pages makes all the difference. The beginning of book gives you its setting, its purpose, its style. It may not reveal the plot but sets you in the mood to sit back and read on or to sit up and study intensely.

Prologues however, stand out especially in ancient writings because they were often used to introduce the important characters in the narrative, situate them within the story, and give some understanding of their importance. But most of all, prologues as in the case of this text of St John, would project the plot by explaining both seen and unseen forces within the action. In short, we are given a sneak preview into the ‘behind the scene’ activities of God. Before we meet Jesus in Jerusalem or in Galilee, we meet him “In the beginning … with God.”

But central to this text is verse 12. Christ had come to his own, he came as the light and yet his own did not receive him. The hero of this story is met with tragic rejection in chapter one and so the plan of God had to change. So, to all who did receive him; the gentiles and prostitutes and tax collectors and sinner, you and me; for all of us, he changed the game. To these who believed in his name, a name which is above every other name, he gave them the power, the right, the privilege to become the children of God.

This is a game changer. Up until now you had to be a Jew, a descendent of Abraham to sit at the table. But all that changes in the prologue, now you just have to believe in the name of Jesus to receive the power to become his children. It will be from the East and the West and the North and the South that God will welcome his children who accept his son Jesus, to be their saviour.

Wherever Jesus went, the crowds that followed him or listened to his teaching got split into two groups — a large group of Jews who refused to believe in Jesus, claiming to be “Abraham’s descendants”; and a smaller group of people who believed in Jesus. The apostle John calls the former group “Jews.” The latter group too were from the same Jewish background. But John refuses to call them “Jews.” He called them “disciples” or the “flock” that belonged to Jesus, or the “branches” of the true vine. Even John did not wish to be called a “Jew”; he wanted his readers to know him as ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved.’

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On the 6th day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a Holy family.

Many of us live in a world of idealism. The presentation of the most flawless skin, perfect home, restful holiday and romantic meal is driven by the need to meet sales targets and executed by the best in the advertisement industry. You can’t change the colour of your skin no matter what the label on the cream claims nor can you control the security of your family no matter what the insurance company tells you. But we fall prey to such propaganda and live in a world of peaches and roses only to be woken up when the briars poke us.

No matter what the media says, there are no perfect people or perfect families. Families are what we make of them by investing in the needs of one another. We build the foundation of love when we stretch ourselves for each other. Some roles come naturally; the altruism of a mother and father for a sick child as they sit the night in vigil besides their baby burning with fever. Some roles are learnt along; the need to share your toys with your sibling. Some roles are thrust upon us, the role of learning to be a nurse to an ailing and aged parent or an elder sister or brother who has to become the de-facto parent to her or his siblings because their mother died tragically.

The family of Mary, Joseph and Jesus are airbrushed today. The statues to honour them show this perfect and peaceful trio as if they had no trial or tribulation thrown at them. The Gospel on the feast of the Holy Family is not a narrative of perfection. It is the story of a plot to kill baby Jesus, a midnight flight into a foreign land under the cover of darkness. A family becomes refugees; driven out of their land and their source of income only to be told to return several years later and then to find that the threat to their lives had not entirely been eliminated. They then had to choose Nazareth as their home, an obscure village with not more than twenty families in a district of Galilee which had lost much of its Jewish heritage over the years and had become more secular in its approach.

There are no perfect families but families that that called to perfection. There are no families that have no challenges but families who challenge the situation they are faced with by faith. The perfect studio pictures that hang in your home are but a presentation of a day we dressed up for that photo shoot, the rest of our days are filled with the reality of struggle, challenges and chores.

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On the 5th day of Christmas my true love gave to me the Holy Spirit – Luke 2:22-35

The narrative of this Gospel is marked by a superscription or a title that reads in the RSV Bible as, ‘Jesus is presented in the temple.’ It encapsulates the religious ceremony of purification that took place forty days after the birth of the first born. While first born animals had to be sacrificed, first born sons had to be ‘redeemed’ by paying five shekels to the priesthood.

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The bulk of this narrative surrounds the life of one ordinary man who lived an extraordinary life. The Gospel of Luke does not call him explicitly a prophet but just a man with holy attributes. We are told his name is Simeon and we are told that he is from Jerusalem and was ‘righteous, devout and looked forward to the consolation of Israel.’ But then in rapid succession we are told that the Holy Spirit had an important role to play in his life. It was the Holy Spirit that ‘rested’ on him, the Holy Spirit that ‘revealed’ things to him and the Holy Spirit that ‘guided’ him.

The focus of the Christmas story has often been on the babe in the manger; Jesus. But that is an incomplete narrative of this faith story. Remember it was God who so loved the world that he gave his son and it was the Holy Spirit that came upon Mary and overshadowed her. It was the Holy Spirit that filled Elizabeth, revealing that the child in Mary’s womb was the saviour. It was Zechariah who was filled with the Holy Spirit when he Blessed and praised God in what has come to be known as the Benedictus and it is the Holy Spirit that plays a pivotal role in the narrative of the Gospel of the day.

One should ask, why Simeon? Why was he chosen? Our life in the spirit is a journey and not a moment. God does not just randomly pick people for a mission. Simeon, we are told, was already on a spiritual journey and he is described as righteous and devout. He was not simply one that was chosen in the Bible but rather one who chose to be righteous and devout. As righteous, he was blameless in God’s eyes and was devout in his spiritual duties.

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