Christmas Eve Mass, 4:30 p.m.
Christmas Morning Mass, 10
a.m.
_________________________________________
Just in time for
Christmas,
today’s readings shed light on God’s identity—who is God?—
and
on our own identity—who are we?
These scriptures speak to us of
incarnation—
the mystery that we celebrate this coming
Thursday:
God-with-us in human
form.
_________________________________________
Our first reading from
Samuel
starts with King David trying to put God in a box,
but our
God-beyond-all-names speaks out:
I have been with you wherever you were;
I
was with you no matter what you were doing,
and I will be with you and your
offspring,
from all eternity and for ever.
God is with
us.
____________________________________________
Paul, in our second
reading, makes clear who we are:
we are the ones with strength from
God;
we are the ones to whom God’s mystery is revealed;
we are the ones
who give glory to God through Jesus;
we are the people of God,
giving
praise by following the Way of Jesus.
Our identity—our very being—is part of
God.
We are in
God.
_______________________________________________
Then our Gospel tells
the same truth
in the story of Mary and her cousin Elizabeth,
servants of
God and women of courage,
open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
They
don’t see how or why, but they go ahead anyway, in trust.
They say yes to
carrying children and giving birth
in the midst of the oppression and
violence
of the Romans who occupy their land.
They recognize God’s
presence
alive in each other and in their children.
Not only is God with
us, God is within us.
__________________________________________
So the
scriptures tell us that God is with and within us,
and we are in God, always,
for ever and ever.
But that has to make sense in terms of the reality of our
daily lives.
The world we live in
is not always an experience of “forever”
and “always.”
It’s not always an experience
of God who is, who is with us,
who is within us,
and we don’t always experience ourselves as in God.
Too
often life is made up of lost jobs, dashed hopes,
fleeting friendships,
broken marriages, and aging and dying
in a world of violence and
bloodshed.
It’s as if God has abandoned us,
like in that last line of
today’s Gospel: And the angel left
her.
________________________________________________
Down at Claver House
Tuesday
we talked about the morning news report
of the murder of a hundred
Pakistani students,
and some of the guests, haltingly at first,
began to
talk about the horrors of the wars they had served in.
George talked of
Korea,
Jim and Daniel of Viet Nam,
Chris of Afghanistan.
Tough
men.
Yet tears came to their eyes when they remembered,
as if it were
yesterday,
the grief they felt 40, 50, 60 years ago.
A brother killed on
his third tour in Vietnam,
a note from his buddy
found tucked by his name
in the Memorial Wall in Washington.
The 18-year-old who took a bullet in his
heart
the day after he arrived on the battlefield.
The chaplain reading
Last Rites over still bodies.
And the grief they still feel.
The sad
understanding how hard it is to unlearn that training to kill.
Their broken
families.
Their broken lives.
They remember.
They marvel that they’re
still alive, and they are grateful.
They don’t understand how they
survived
and some of their buddies didn’t.
In spite of it, and because of
it, they go on,
having faith that God was with them then
and is with them
now,
and, they told me,
they believe that God remains
with and in those
who didn’t come home.
__________________________________________
In the
encyclical Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict wrote this:
Seeing with the eyes
of Christ,
I can give to others much more than their outward
necessities;
I can give them the look of love which they crave.
It’s that
look of love that I saw in those men Tuesday—
they listened to each other
with respect and understanding,
that look of acceptance and love that each of
them craved.
___________________________________________
In five [four]
days we’ll be celebrating the Nativity of the Lord—
Christmas with its joy
and song,
family traditions and special meals with loved ones.
The turmoil
in our world—and even in our family circles—
can make us question if God is
really with us and within us.
That’s why we have to see our world,
and all
the people we meet,
with the eyes of Christ.
As much as we love our
perfect spouse and our perfects kids,
as much as we love our perfect
selves,
we have to love the in-laws and the outlaws,
the uncle with the
off-color jokes, the whiny aunt,
the inconsiderate neighbor, the judgmental
friend,
the ex-offender, the old college buddy with too much to drink.
All
of them.
We have to love the vet who killed in our name,
and the
draft-dodger who left for Canada.
Every
one.
___________________________________________
We are called to see our
world with the eyes of Christ,
to look on ourselves
and everyone
else
with that look of love,
so we can know who God is
and who we
are.
So we can see Christmas.
--
Holy Spirit Catholic
Community
at 3535 Executive Parkway (Unity of Toledo)
Saturdays at 4:30
p.m.
Sundays at 5:30 p.m.
www.holyspirittoledo.org
Rev. Dr. Bev
Bingle, Pastor
419-727-1774
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