Sunday Meditation: The Sermon of the Great Reversal

 

No, the Sermon of the Great Reversal is not something you have missed in your learning of the New Testament.  It’s my renaming of Luke’s Sermon on the Plain, Luke’s version of the Beatitudes.  On the Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C, we are presented with Jesus’s great sermon of Blessedness.  I call it the Sermon of the Great Reversal because Jesus reverses the values of the world and presents us the values of the Kingdom of God.

 

Jesus came down with the Twelve

and stood on a stretch of level ground

with a great crowd of his disciples

and a large number of the people

from all Judea and Jerusalem

and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon.

And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said:

            “Blessed are you who are poor,

                        for the kingdom of God is yours.

            Blessed are you who are now hungry,

                        for you will be satisfied.

            Blessed are you who are now weeping,

                        for you will laugh.

            Blessed are you when people hate you,

                        and when they exclude and insult you,

                        and denounce your name as evil

                        on account of the Son of Man.

Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!

Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.

For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.

            But woe to you who are rich,

                        for you have received your consolation.

            Woe to you who are filled now,

                        for you will be hungry.

            Woe to you who laugh now,

                        for you will grieve and weep.

            Woe to you when all speak well of you,

                        for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”

~Lk 6:17, 20-26

 

Fr. Geoffrey Plant instructs us on the language intricacies of this passage, and then enlightens us to the Great Reversal.

This is going to seem odd that Dr. Brant Pitre is going to provide the pastoral explanation of the passage, but he does.  In his explanation of the passage, he connects it with the carrying of our daily crosses.

 

Where you find happiness is through the detachment of earthly goods.  Does Luke mean to imply a spiritual detachment or an actual detachment?  This might be more controversial, but I think he means actual detachment, actual poverty, actual hunger, actual mourning, and actual rejection.  After all, isn’t that Christ’s life?

 

Sunday Meditation: “Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.”

 

John Michael Talbot’s “The Beatitudes” is the proper hymn here.

 

 

Movie: Looking at Heaven: The Life of St. José Sánchez Del Rio

I’m not much of a movie goer, but when my Adult Faith Formation class at my parish decided to skip our regular Monday meeting for a movie I didn’t have much of a choice.  So we canceled the class a couple of Mondays ago to attend a movie at one of our local theaters dedicated to Catholic Movie Night.  I am not sure if Catholic Movie Night is a once per month event or ad hoc, but they scheduled a Catholic movie for this particular Monday night, and it wouldn’t be in the theaters otherwise.  The move was Looking at Heaven: The Life of St. José Sánchez Del Rio, the life of a teenage Catholic martyr during the The Cristero War in Mexico during the 1920s. 

The Cristero War was a rebellion/civil war within Mexico during a time the Civil Government tried to squash and eliminate the Catholic faith.  Churches were closed.  Priests were hunted down and killed if caught celebrating Mass.  The rebellion became known as the Cristo Rey (Christ the King) movement and their exclamation was Viva Cristo Rey!  A more comprehensive movie of the rebellion was produced in 2012 titled For Greater Glory.  

Looking at Heaven has a narrower story of a young man, José Sánchez del Río, who at the age of fourteen joined the Cristero movement, was captured, tortured, and martyred for his faith.  The movie is in Spanish with subtitles, but I will say I had no problem following the dialogue.  José came from a devout Catholic family.  His two older brothers had already joined the Cristero soldiers, and when at the point that José could no longer tolerate the persecution toward Catholics joined himself.  The priest who led the Catholic group to the movie theater said the movie depiction was very true to the known facts.

Let’s go through a couple of video clips here.  First there is a biographical clip on the life of José Sánchez del Río.

 

Next is the Trailer for the movie.

 

Finally if you want to see the whole two hour movie, it’s currently available on YouTube. 

 

Edit: It was taken down.  Look for it every so often, you may find it back.

The movie is beautifully produced.  The musical score was so perfect.  The acting outstanding, especially given the young actors.  The cinematography was beautiful, with interesting close in scenes and lavish outdoor vistas.  And finally the story was wonderfully rendered.  It was a beautiful, heart moving movie.  I highly recommend it.  Five stars!

 

Lines I Wished I’d Written: The Storm from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

When he was much younger I used to read to Matthew one book a year from The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis.  The Narnia series is comprised of seven books, and I read to Matthew the first four.  I was going in the newly prescribed sequence as they have been currently laid out.  This new sequence I have found out is actually controversial, and, if I had to recommend a sequence, go by the order in which they were written.  The newly prescribed order goes by chronological order of the time in Narnia.  This new order doesn’t always have continuity with the previous book of the sequence.  It’s not a big deal since the stories are relatively self-contained but a reader might miss a cue established in the previous book.  Be that as it may, I read them in the new order not knowing the logic of the sequencing. 

The fourth one, the last one I read to Matthew, Prince Caspian, we finished in 2021.  You can see the links above in my annual reads.  Matthew was ten years old at this point, and he rebelled.  He rebelled on the start of the fifth book, rebelled against me reading to him, rebelled against reading books in general, and rebelled against stories!  Was it me?  LOL, it might have been.  Reading to a child is supposed to be good for them.  And perhaps he have better grades if he didn’t rebel.

The fifth book was to be The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  I decided I have to finish the Narnia series with or without him, and so it will have to be without him.  I started reading the The Voyage of the Dawn Treader a few days ago, and I’m about half way through already since I’ve had some forced time in bed.  The books are fast and fun reads.  This is the book that introduces Eustice, the Pevensie children’s distempered cousin.  The story begins with Edmund, Lucy, and Eustice looking at a painting of an old sailing ship at sea, and the painting soon becomes the portal into the Narnia world.  The three are sucked into the ocean in the image, rescued by the crew of the Dawn Treader, and find on board King Caspian of Narnia sailing on an adventure to locate the seven lost lords of Narnia.  The three children, despite Eustice’s objection (but what can he do) go on with King Caspian on this quest.

 

Early in the quest there is a storm at sea, and I felt this was just marvelous writing from C.S. Lewis.  Let’s look at it.

 

But this pleasant time did not last. There came an evening when Lucy, gazing idly astern at the long furrow or wake they were leaving behind them, saw a great rack of clouds building itself up in the west with amazing speed. Then a gap was torn in it and a yellow sunset poured through the gap. All the waves behind them seemed to take on unusual shapes and the sea was a drab or yellowish colour like dirty canvas. The air grew cold. The ship seemed to move uneasily as if she felt danger behind her. The sail would be flat and limp one minute and wildly full the next. While she was noticing these things and wondering at a sinister change which had come over the very noise of the wind, Drinian cried, "All hands on deck." In a moment everyone became frantically busy. The hatches were battened down, the galley fire was put out, men went aloft to reef the sail. Before they had finished the storm struck them. It seemed to Lucy that a great valley in the sea opened just before their bows, and they rushed down into it, deeper down than she would have believed possible. A great grey hill of water, far higher than the mast, rushed to meet them; it looked certain death but they were tossed to the top of it. Then the ship seemed to spin round. A cataract of water poured over the deck; the poop and forecastle were like two islands with a fierce sea between them. Up aloft the sailors were lying out along the yard desperately trying to get control of the sail. A broken rope stood out sideways in the wind as straight and stiff as if it was a poker.

 

"Get below, Ma'am," bawled Drinian. And Lucy, knowing that landsmen—and landswomen—are a nuisance to the crew, began to obey. It was not easy. The Dawn Treader was listing terribly to starboard and the deck sloped like the roof of a house. She had to clamber round to the top of the ladder, holding on to the rail, and then stand by while two men climbed up it, and then get down it as best she could. It was well she was already holding on tight for at the foot of the ladder another wave roared across the deck, up to her shoulders. She was already almost wet through with spray and rain but this was colder. Then she made a dash for the cabin door and got in and shut out for a moment the appalling sight of the speed with which they were rushing into the dark, but not of course the horrible confusion of creakings, groanings, snappings, clatterings, roarings and boomings which only sounded more alarming below than they had done on the poop.

 

And all next day and all the next it went on. It went on till one could hardly even remember a time before it had begun. And there always had to be three men at the tiller and it was as much as three could do to keep any kind of a course. And there always had to be men at the pump. And there was hardly any rest for anyone, and nothing could be cooked and nothing could be dried, and one man was lost overboard, and they never saw the sun.

 

The short declarative sentences, the sensory nouns, the active verbs all create a prose that puts the reader into the action.  The nautical terms give it a sense of reality.  I had to look up what “the poop” was on a ship—the rear deck.  I had to look up “reefing the sail”—folding the sail over to reduce the area of the canvas to reduce the force of the wind.  I had to look up “forecastle”—the raised cabin on the forward deck of the ship.  And by the way, it’s not pronounced “fore castle.”  It’s pronounced “folk-sul.”  I wonder how that came about.

The great valley in the waves, the great hill of water higher than the mast, the cataract of water over flooding the center of the ship, the listing of the ship, the spray of waves, the pelting of rain, and Lucy holding onto the rail struggling to get inside in the dark generates an intense scene.  The “horrible confusion of creakings, groanings, snappings, clatterings, roarings and boomings” adds sound to the visual imagery. 

This havoc goes on for three days: “And all next day and all the next it went on. It went on till one could hardly even remember a time before it had begun.”  One could feel the immense weariness that the characters had to undergo.  It’s such a well written scene.

Personal Note: I got Covid, Urgh

Today is Monday the 10th.  So last Wednesday night (the 5^th) it felt a little funny in my chest.  I thought I might be coming down with something.  I woke up Thursday nauseous with dry heaves.  I even teleworked in the morning and took the afternoon sick.  Eventually I was just out of it.  It became hell.  The fever wasn’t high (less than 101F) but I wonder if I was even reading it right.  I was in a delirious state.  Waking up at one point I thought it was the next day. I noticed on Friday morning from my daily pill box that I had already taken Friday's meds.

It felt like my body was encircled by some electric charge and was just trying to survive.  He was ready to have me go to Emergency Room. My screaming out scared Matthew, who had come in the bedroom to check on me. Probably should have sent me to the ER. If it were me watching someone else in that state I would have too. I don’t think my wife ever realized what state I was in.  I had crawled into bed in the middle of the day and time seemed to vanish. 

I felt better on Friday morning but someone suggested I check for Covid. I had my wife pick up a test kit and sure enough I tested positive. I called my doctor and we set up a telehealth visit as they call it. He asked about my temperature (which was oscillating between normal and 101F), looked over my recent blood test on file, asked when I felt it come on, and prescribed Paxlovid.  Doctor said I should quarantine through Tuesday.  I still had recurring chills but after the first dose of Paxlovid that night I started to feel better. There was no fever on Saturday, Sunday, nor today, but a general weakness. 

Today even the nasal congestion seems to have let up.  I feel pretty well.  I happen to speak to a nurse today—about something else actually—and she said that today the flu might be harsher than Covid.  Hmm, I would agree except for what I experienced on Thursday afternoon.  When I spoke to the doctor on Friday, he seemed surprised this was my first time getting Covid.  Is it that common that everyone gets it now?

###

The story has more to it than my experience.  My wife had been sick before me and was still coughing and occasionally feeling run down.  I told her she should check herself for Covid, so she got herself a test kit and also tested positive.  So this was beginning to make sense.  Her mother has been in a nursing home for over a month and a half.  More on that below.  But the floor of my mother-in-law’s room had a Covid outbreak last week, and still does.  My mother-in-law didn’t get Covid but my wife must have picked it up in one of her daily visits.  Nursing homes are just germ magnets, depositories, and dispensaries. 

My wife’s symptoms were nothing as severe as mine, though hers seem to be lasting longer, probably because she has not been prescribed Paxlovid.  This makes me wonder why my body reacted so to the Covid initially.  It reminds me of my first reaction to the Covid-19 vaccine which I detailed here several years ago.  That post was titled, “Knocked on My Butt By the Vaccine.”  Perhaps I’m more reactive to Covid than others.

###

My mother-in-law fell at the beginning of the December.  She fractured her skull, had a brain bleed, they resolved the bleed, but that developed into blood clots, blood clots got into her lungs which nearly killed her, but they resolved that.  You can see I've honed that story down to its bare elements from frequent retelling.  She was three weeks in the ICU.  The day before Christmas Eve she was discharged to a nursing home, and she's been there since.  As you can imagine, this was pretty challenging, especially for my wife, and it still is. 

As it happens, the nursing/rehab facility is very close to our house.  It's less than a mile.  We go back and forth regularly.  The first time she seemed out of it but in time her brain seemed to be getting sharper. Initially she responded very slow and deliberately but now seems to have total comprehension. It took her a while to get up out of bed.  There was nothing physically wrong with her body but perhaps atrophy from being in bed so long.  After a good month of rehab now she has been able to walk up and down the floor with a walker and a cane, go up and down stairs, and fully function as a solitary person.  Today we even got the great news she will be discharged from rehab facility at the end of next week.

###

So let’s end with a song that came to mind as I reflected on my Thursday afternoon delirium.  It’s a song that came off the Rolling Stones’ album that came out last year, “Sweet Sounds of Heaven” of the album Hackney Diamonds.   Many of you know I’m a big Rolling Stones fan, and, while I would agree their later years have been of mixed quality, this album is a glorious return to what I think is just short of their all time great ones.  I highly recommend Hackney Diamonds and perhaps one day I’ll have a post on it.

For now I’m going to highlight “Sweet Sounds of Heaven,” a gospel tune that is uncharacteristically Christian in outlook for the Stones.  Featured on the record are Lady Gaga (vocals), Stevie Wonder (piano and organ), and saxophonist James King.  Wow is not nearly expressive enough.  Here’s the song first, but then I’ll explain why this song came to mind after.

 

Here are most of the lyrics as well.

 

Sweet Sounds of Heaven

(Jagger/Richards)

 

I hear the sweet, sweet sounds of Heaven

Fallin' down, fallin' down to this Earth

I hear the sweet, sweetest sounds of Heaven

Driftin' down, driftin' down to this Earth

 

Bless the father, bless the son

Hear the sound of the drums

As it echoes through the valley

And it bursts, yeah

Let no woman or child

Go hungry tonight

Please protect us from the pain

And the hurt, yeah

 

I smell the sweet scents, sweet

Sweet scents of Heaven, Heaven

Tumblin' down, tumblin' down

Tumblin' down to the Earth (Oh)

I hear the sweet sounds, sweet sounds

The sweet sounds, ooh, the sweet sounds of children

And they're praisin', praisin'

The land of their birth (No)

 

No, I'm not, not goin' to Hell

In some dusty motel

And I'm not, not goin' down

In the dirt (Yes, yes, yes)

I'm gonna laugh, I'm gonna laugh, I'm gonna cry, I'm gonna cry

Eat the bread, drink the wine

'Cause I'm finally, finally quenchin'

My thirst, yeah

 

You can't have a light without a little shadow, yeah

Always need a target for your bow and arrow

I want to be drenched in the rain of your heavenly love

Oh, yeah, c'mon (Oh)

 

Let the music, let the music play loud, play loud

Let it burst, let it burst through the clouds, through the clouds

And we all feel the heat

Of the sun, yeah

Yeah, let us sing, let us shout, let us shout

Let us all stand up proud

Let the old still believe

That they're young, yeah

 

Sweet, sweet sound

 

Sounds so sweet, oh, so sweet

Sounds so sweet, so sweet

Heaven, Heaven

Down

Fallin' down, fallin' down

To this Earth

 

That’s pretty religious for Mick Jagger.  You know he supposedly had converted to Catholicism for his first wife, though he’s never spoken about any religious upbringing, so I doubt it was much.

So why am I reminded of this song?  Well, lying in bed in a delirious state felt so isolating, so other worldly that it felt the end was a possibility.  The verses, “No, I'm not, not goin' to Hell/In some dusty motel/And I'm not, not goin' down/In the dirt” resonate.  If you’ve ever been a way alone (business trips for me) in some crappy hotel, the isolation feels overwhelming with perhaps a sense that if I died here no one would really know.  It’s actually a horrible feeling that I’ve had more than once.  Perhaps in that delirious state, eyes half open in a darkened bedroom, alone and feeling almost out of body, might be as close to a premonition of death as one gets.  At least as I’ve gotten.

But then the sweet grace, the sweet sounds, the sweet sense of heaven came down and revived me.  Thank you Lord.

Edit: It's unclear whether Mick Jagger converted to Catholicism or even had a need to convert.  From what I found on the internet, Mick Jagger's father, Basil Fanshawe “Joe” Jagger, had a Catholic funeral.  There are places that claim Mick was raised Catholic.  Still I doubt religion was a big part of his upbringing.

Sunday Meditation: Into the Deep

Having jumped over the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (because it was replaced with the Feast of the Presentation) we come to Year C’s Fifth Sunday, and we see the apostles in their original vocations as fishermen.  The scene is interesting.  Jesus is standing by the lake preaching and when two boats float by, He jumps into Simon Peter’s boat.  He convinces Peter to go back out and cast their nets into the deep.  The lake is referred to as Lake Gennesaret, which is another name for the Lake of Galilee.   One can get confused with the different names for the same places.  The symbolism of a boat for the Church is keen here.  Jesus jumps into Peter’s boat and guides Peter to catch fish.

 

While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening

to the word of God,

he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.

He saw two boats there alongside the lake;

the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets.

Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon,

he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore.

Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.

After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon,

"Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch."

Simon said in reply,

"Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing,

but at your command I will lower the nets."

When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish

and their nets were tearing.

They signaled to their partners in the other boat

to come to help them.

They came and filled both boats

so that the boats were in danger of sinking.

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said,

"Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man."

For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him

and all those with him,

and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee,

who were partners of Simon.

Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid;

from now on you will be catching men."

When they brought their boats to the shore,

they left everything and followed him.

~Lk 2:22-40

 

I found that Fr. Cajetan Cuddy’s exegesis to be more insightful than the typical reading of this passage.  Fr. Cajetan points out two visions that come to head twice.  That of Peter and that of Jesus’s on fishing and then on the two visions of Peter’s potential.  Notice how he points out the intersection of the two visions.

 

For a pastoral homily I came across this very young looking priest from Australia, Fr. Sam French.  He gives a great homily.

 

He barely looks over twenty!  Nice looking young man too.

 

Sunday Meditation: "Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch."

 

Let’s get back to a John Michael Talbot hymn.  “The Jesus Prayer” is most appropriate for today.

 

 

 

Faith Filled Friday: The Light in the Darkness

Two months ago (Vol 26, No. 10, Dec 2024 issue) Magnificat magazine had a super meditation in one of their post Christmas daily meditations.  It came from Caryll Houselander (1901 -1953), a British Catholic mystic who wrote in many Catholic publications.  I have mentioned her before and posted several posts on her book, The Way of the Cross.  You can read my posts concerning Caryll Houselander here.

Houselander’s insights are certainly devotional but I think her imagination can only be described as mystical.  This is no different.  What starts as an imagining of what the innkeeper must have felt when he turned away the pregnant Mary in Bethlehem turns into a contemplation of what we might all feel in our hearts when Mary and the hidden Christ-child enter us. 

 

I used to think how vexed the innkeeper would have been had he found out who it was that he had turned from his door, but I have learned to think that thankfulness would have overcome vexation, because after all he had the quiet, dark stable outside and he had lent that to the peasant girl in whom God was hidden.  Anyway it was Christ himself who chose the stable to be born in.  He still chooses unlikely places.  In each of us, just beyond the noise of our outward life, there is some place of silence and darkness, an emptiness where, if we have courage enough, we are alone with ourselves.  There is this place of silence, we know that God alone can content us, he alone is our peace.  It is in this sacred place of the soul that Christ wants to be born in us.  He wants to be born in us, that through us he may live in this world again and make it new with his new life…young with his youngness, little with his littleness, true with his truth, childlike with his childhood, pure with his purity.

 

It is in this dark place of our heart that Christ wants the light of the world to begin to burn and from its burning to radiate, until it shines back from the face of humanity.  Here it is that he wants the light to begin to shine in darkness and the life of the world to begin again…It is easy to see the world is wounded, hard to see that its healing begins in our own heart.  We say, repeatedly and rather pompously, that only a vital Christianity can save the world, but how do we imagine that a vital Christianity begins?...Vital Christianity means a living Christhood, a living Christ in man’s heart, and Christ can live in our hearts only if he is born in them individually.  He can be born in us only if we accept him in his own way, in littleness, humility, secret, hidden and small, to be fostered and loved in us, cradled and clothed in us, that he may grow naturally in our lives to his full stature.

 

It requires faith to believe that Christ will be born in man this Christmas, but much more faith to believe that he will be born in our heart, that he could fulfill his will of love in our own life, our life with so little radius for his light, so little journeying for his feet, so small a distance for his hands to reach.  (pp. 348-49)

“It is in this dark place of our heart that Christ wants the light of the world to begin to burn and from its burning to radiate, until it shines back from the face of humanity.”  Nothing starts without Christ lighting up our hearts. 

I think there is also a message for all those who criticize the Mass or the liturgical music or some other exterior form.

 

We say, repeatedly and rather pompously, that only a vital Christianity can save the world, but how do we imagine that a vital Christianity begins?...Vital Christianity means a living Christhood, a living Christ in man’s heart, and Christ can live in our hearts only if he is born in them individually.

Ultimately it’s Christ in us, in the hearts of the vast majority of people that will change the world, not some exterior form.  Ultimately it’s conversion of heart—that light being turned on—is what will bring the Kingdom of God.  You can’t force a conversion from exterior forms.  It is the interior that must accept Christ.

I love that last sentence with the image of the baby Jesus inside our hearts reaching out to touch us, to be picked up.

Sunday Meditation: The Presentation of the Lord

With the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord falling on a Sunday (it comes 40 days from Christmas Day and is unmovable), the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time becomes the Feast.  We do not push the Fourth Sunday to next Sunday.  The Fourth Sunday and the Feast are one.

There is so much to this feast day that no one homily can provide the full significance.  Most homilies will touch on the holy family unit of fulfilling the law.  Some homilies might focus on Christ being the “light to the gentiles” and the cultural development of blessing of the candles.  Others will touch on Simeon’s prophesy and the sword that will pierce Mary’s heart.  Few will bring up the prophetess Anna, and fewer will bring up the Holy Spirit that is all over the passage, even symbolized in the sacrificial doves.  The passage is just so rich for meditation.

 

When the days were completed for their purification
according to the law of Moses,
Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to Jerusalem
to present him to the Lord,
just as it is written in the law of the Lord,
Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord,
and to offer the sacrifice of
a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons,
in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord. 

 

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.
This man was righteous and devout,
awaiting the consolation of Israel,
and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit
that he should not see death
before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. 
He came in the Spirit into the temple;
and when the parents brought in the child Jesus
to perform the custom of the law in regard to him,
he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying:

 

    “Now, Master, you may let your servant go 
        in peace, according to your word,
    for my eyes have seen your salvation,
        which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples:
    a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
        and glory for your people Israel.”

 

The child’s father and mother were amazed at what was said about him;
and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother,
“Behold, this child is destined
for the fall and rise of many in Israel,
and to be a sign that will be contradicted
-and you yourself a sword will pierce-
so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”
There was also a prophetess, Anna,
the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.
She was advanced in years,
having lived seven years with her husband after her marriage,
and then as a widow until she was eighty-four.
She never left the temple,
but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer.
And coming forward at that very time,
she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child
to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.

 

When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions
of 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.

~Lk 2:22-40

 

To explain the passage, let’s turn to Dr. Brant Pitre.

 

The clip is unfortunately cut off before Dr. Pitre addresses Anna’s role, but she is a prophetess and the significance of prophesy is further emphasized.  Here is the irony.  Christ is being redeemed from a sacrificial ritual at the Temple but we look ahead through the prophets of His actual sacrifice on Calvery.

Fr. Joseph Mary of the Capuchin Franciscans delivers a heart wrenching pastoral homily.

 

It doesn’t get better than that.

 

Sunday Meditation: “It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.”

 

Since this passage is so rich Biblical, theological, and cultural significance, I am going to present video clip that captures the broad expression of the Feast.

 

 

Now when I get to that fourth mystery in the Joyous Mysteries, I can appreciate the fullness of the mystery.  I never really got all that before.  I hope you can now appreciate it too.