1. On the Mystery of the Incarnation

    It's when we face for a moment
    the worst our kind can do, and shudder to know
    the taint in our own selves, that awe
    cracks the mind's shell and enters the heart:
    not to a flower, not to a dolphin,
    to no innocent form
    but to this creature vainly sure
    it and no other god-like, God
    (out of compassion for our ugly
    failure to evolve) entrusts,
    as guest, as brother,
    the Word.

    Denise Levertov


    painting: newborn king by dan freed


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  2. Gospel Reading: Matthew 1.18-25 (Joseph Takes Mary as His Wife)

    As a little boy, waiting eagerly for Christmas to come,
    I would often listen to a Christmas carol with these lines:
    Said the night wind to the little lamb,
do you see what I see?
    Way up in the sky, little lamb,
do you see what I see?


    What do we see? How do we see?

    I’d like to think that Advent invites to see anew,
    To see what we ordinarily take for granted, or what we don’t really want to see.
    After all, Advent is really a time preparing us to see Jesus at Christmas,
    to see not his physical birth that was 2000 years ago, or his coming in glory as the Risen Lord,
    but to see the goodness of Jesus in our lives today, and to celebrate this.

    When I arrived at the School of Theology and Ministry for the first time,
    I found myself seated with others in a circle and introducing ourselves.
    As we did so, I found myself looking at my fellow classmates:
    some of us, the lay faithful, preparing to become lay ministers;
    the rest of us, Jesuits, Redemptorists and Capuchins, preparing for ordination.

    As I looked at them, I asked myself,
    who or what am I really looking at?
    Am I looking at how different or similar they are to me?
    Am I looking at another who can be a friend?
    Or worse, am I screening out possible competitors?
    Is my gaze fixating him into the saint’s role because he appears holy,
    Or is my gaze discriminating her because her more progressive views?

    Do you, like me, sometimes find yourselves,
    looking at another only to label him as this or that kind of person?
    To be honest, we all do. It is part of human nature.

    St Joseph did that too. In today’s Gospel, he looked at Mary.
    He did not see the young girl he was engaged to
    and expecting to love, to marry, to have a family with.
    He saw instead a pregnant woman,
    whose pregnancy raised more confusion and questions
    His human gaze fixated her as unfaithful, ungodly, sinful.
    To Joseph, pregnant Mary was not worthy to be his wife.
    He felt it was better to quietly divorced her, put her aside, cast her out of his life.

    If we are honest, we are sometimes like Joseph:
    We look at others and cast them aside when they do not fit
    our expectations of who and what a person should be. So, we might
    distance ourselves from immigrants with foreign tongues and foreign ways,
    condemned the vagrants and beggars as good-for-nothing and do little to lift them up,
    debase the uneducated thinking they are fit only for demeaning work.

    Like Joseph, we would rather set ourselves apart from these lesser ones.
    Have nothing to do with them. Let them fend for themselves.
    They are they; I am me.
    We build fences between us because this makes for good neighbors.

    When we do this, however, we misuse the gift of vision, the gift to look.
    It is gift because our eyes are made to see another’s goodness,
    not her shortcomings or his sinfulness, as we are prone to do.
    To be made in God’s image and likeness is to see the world with God’s loving eyes.

    Joseph’s eyes could not see Mary as she really is: one created for God, one bearing Godself.
    Our eyes that fixate the lesser amongst us do not see them as they are: God’s own.
    What Joseph and we need is “to see anew.”

    Joseph learns to see again by listening to the angel in his dream.
    The angel speaks the truth of Mary’s pregnancy.
    Only then does Joseph see Mary anew:
    “Behold the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall call him Emmanuel.”

    What about us? Can we see God in the excluded, the discriminated, the oppressed? How so?
    I believe we can. We can by following Joseph’s example.
    He teaches us not to see what is before us but who is before us, one destined for God.
    Mary was not just a pregnant girl who seemed to have betrayed their engagement.
    She was pregnant with God.

    When we join Joseph and look at the excluded, the discriminated, the oppressed
    —the pregnant Marys in this world—we will find God-with-them.
    Like Mary, they bear God.
    They bear God in their pains and suffering, in their dreams and hopes.
    Like Mary, t
    hey bear God to us, the Josephs with limited vision.

    The Gospel is silent about what Joseph said to Mary after the dream.
    All Matthew tells us is that Joseph took Mary into his home.
    Where words are silent, actions speak.

    Joseph speaks to Mary with his touch.
    He welcomes, affirms and honours her with his embrace.
    If we are moved by this intimacy Joseph has for Mary,
    it is because we know that touch speaks more than words
    of God’s compassion, forgiveness and restoration.

    Touch reminds us we are valuable and valued by another, and by God.
    Joseph’s vocabulary of touch, of caring for Mary, can also be the visible language
    of our looking at the lesser in our world.
    Our seeing them as God’s own finds expression
    when we reach out and touch them in respect and concern to life them up.

    Today’s Gospel’s challenges us with this reality
    as we continue our Christmas preparations:
    Advent is as good a time as any, if not the best time,
    to look more honestly and with greater compassion at:

    -- the homeless, God’s creation, on our streets.
    who we can bring warm meals and safe shelter to.

    --the sexually different, God’s beloved, who are family and friends,
    we can invite to feast, to sing, to laugh, to be one with us at the Christmas meal.

    -- the criminals, whom God forgives and forgives, locked away,
    but whom we can visit and clothe them with Christmas cheer.

    -- the poor and the unemployed, the lowly God will always lift up,
    who hope for a Christmas miracle that we can make real with our care and generosity.

    May be on this Fourth Sunday of Advent,
    you and I are being challenged to be like Joseph,
    to look at the Marys in our lives who ask us this Christmas:
    “Who am I really to you?” “Can you care for me, please?”



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  3. We have come to the final week of our Advent prayer slides for this year. We invite you in this final set of slides to enjoy the joyful expectation of Jesus' coming at Christmastime.


    As with previous prayer slides, begin by clicking on the arrow in the middle of the slide above. Then, enlarge the slide by clicking on the small rectangle to the right of the bar below the slides. Use the arrow keys on bottom left hand corner of the bar or your mouse to help you move through the slides.

    May this final set of prayer slides be your joy this final week of Advent.

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  4. This week we continue with our third set of slides to pray for Jesus' coming this Christmas.



    As before, you may begin your prayer by clicking on the arrow in the middle of the slide above. Then, enlarge the screen by clicking on the square box at the bottom right of the bar below the artwork. You may use the either the arrows on the bar (to your left) or your mouse to move through the prayer slides.

    May this time of prayer remind you how wondrous it is to be loved by God.


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  5. We continue with our second set of guided prayer slides our Advent contemplation, "To Jesus Through Mary."

    See more presentations by adriansj Upload your own PowerPoint presentations


    We invite you to begin praying by enlarging the screen. You can do this by clicking on the rectangle in the bar below the painting above. When you are in full screen mode, use either the arrows in the bar at the bottom of the full screen or your mouse help you move along.

    Take your time to pray. Follow God's Spirit that moves within you. May your time with the Lord remind you of God's Peace, Jesus.
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  6. Gospel Reading: Matthew 3:1-12 (Prepare the way of the Lord)




    Two roads diverged in a wood, and

    I—

    I took the one less traveled by,

    And that has made the difference.


    Do you remember a road that you walked down before,

    a road that made a difference in your life?


    Perhaps, it was

    a road in the woods you took -- like Robert Frost whose lines I quoted -– one that led to a surprising discovery.

    Or, it was a road to that first day at school or to a new workplace, and with it, a hopeful beginning.

    Or, it might have been the road to new friendship marked by love and laughter,

    or marriage, with the happiness of a new life shared.


    May be, you are looking ahead to 2011 and hoping to take new roads in your life:

    from suburban Burlington to exotic Singapore;

    from economic uncertainty to steady income.

    New roads from suffering to healing, from hatred to forgiveness,

    from a year that hasn't been great to the hope of a brighter new year in 2012.


    The road we take and walk on.

    The road that gets us from here to there.

    The road. This is the image today’s gospel invites us to ponder on.


    John the Baptist cries out,

    Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.

    This way, these paths are

    the road Jesus takes to meet us.

    They can also be our Advent road to Jesus.


    What kind of a road will this be?

    We have a clue in John the Baptist’s call to repentance.


    John the Baptist challenged all he called

    to repent, to have a change of heart,

    to walk the straight and narrow path that leads to Jesus

    who will come to baptize with the Holy Spirit.

    Jesus who is “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6).

    He who is the long awaited Messiah,

    God's Word made flesh and splendor of the Father.

    Jesus who comes to save us

    and to bring us into God's marvelous light.


    John the Baptist’s message of repentance is difficult to hear;

    they confront; they challenge; they call his hearers to make their lives right.

    He calls them, and us, to nothing less than taking and walking the road less traveled to God.


    But his words are hope-filled.

    The road to Jesus is the road to peace.

    A peace in which opposites unite, differences are reconciled.

    As the Prophet Isaiah tells us in today's First Reading

    this is an extravagant peace where

    “the wolf and the lamb together eat,”

    “the leopard and the kid lie down side by side,”

    “the calf, the young lion and the little child play.”


    With three more weeks to go before Christmas,

    John the Baptist’s challenge is timely for all of us,

    and perhaps, necessary for some of us.

    He is inviting us to pause and to ask ourselves,

    “What is the quality of my Advent journey, my preparation for Christmas, the road I am taking to meet Jesus?


    Am I too fixated on shopping for presents and gifts?

    Am I too preoccupied with baking cookies and gathering ingredients for the Christmas meal?

    Am I simply wallowing in the feel-good Christmas lights and carols I see and hear?

    Or, am I not even bothered that Jesus comes to meet me this Christmas time?


    If we are honest, we might recognize in John the Baptist’ message God's voice:

    inviting us to change our lives,

    to take the road less traveled this Advent.


    How can we begin to walk this road?

    We can start by re-imaging Advent anew.

    More than preparing for Christmas festivities and merrymaking,

    this is the season of joyful expectation:

    the joyful expectation of coming home.


    To prepare the way for the Lord

    is to prepare for Jesus’ coming home,

    coming home to the one place God wants to be --

    with you and me, in us and among us.


    Jesus, Emmanuel, God-with-us, is coming home.

    He is coming home to us by doing something so inconceivable of God:

    by emptying himself of his majesty and might to become one like us, human.

    And Jesus does this by taking the road less traveled.


    And now, we are being invited to take a road less traveled to meet him.


    I believe all of us here look eagerly with hope to Christmas,

    to Jesus’ coming, to his radiant light dispelling the darkness in our lives.


    We can do this because we know Jesus has come,

    and we believe Jesus will come.

    We know and we believe because we experience Jesus in our everyday life:

    in our laughter as the goodness of life;

    in our tears as consoling comfort;

    in our pain as healing balm;

    in our mistakes as words and embrace of forgiveness.

    We have these experiences of Jesus through our family and friends.

    Indeed, these make our exclamation of reliving again Jesus' birth at Christmas a joyful song like Simeon's:

    “My eyes have seen the salvation of our God.”


    Now, if the gift we wake up to on Christmas morning

    as we're snuggled up in our warm beds, with snow falling around us and the first yawns of our family waking us up,

    is Jesus, God's most wondrous gift:

    is it not worth then for you and me

    to take a walk this Advent to Jesus by transforming our lives?

    And wouldn't our first steps be to take the road less traveled?






    photo by d l ennis


    This homily was preached earlier today at the Vigil Mass for the Second Sunday of Advent at St Malachy Parish, Burlington, Massachusetts.



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"Bukas Palad"
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is Filipino for open palms
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Peace and welcome, dear friend.
I hope you will find in these posts something that speaks to you of the God who loves us all and who always holds us in the palm of his hand. Blessings!
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Fall in Love, Stay in Love
Fall in Love, Stay in Love

"Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute way final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything."

Pedro Arrupe, sj, Superior General, 1965 - 1983

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is a 50something Catholic who resides in Singapore and works for the Church. He is a priest of the Roman Catholic Church.
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©adrian.danker.sj, 2006-2018

The views I express in these pages are personal. They do not speak for the Society of Jesus or the Catholic Church.
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