Sunday, December 28, 2014

Holy Family - 28 Dec 2014

Genesis 15: 1-6, 21:1-3 + Hebrews 11: 8, 11-12, 17-19 + Luke 2:  22-40

Click here to listen to this homily
Recorded at Holy Spirit Catholic Church, Mustang, Oklahoma

Many people think of the Christmas mystery as a “moment” and focus solely on that one moment of the birth of the Savior. Most of the world thinks of Christmas only in this way, the celebration of the birth of a baby, who will become the Messiah. With this kind of mindset, Christmas is only one day to celebrate with family and friends, and then move on with the rest of one’s life.


For Catholics, the celebration of the Incarnation—God taking our flesh in Christ His Son—is more than a momentous birth. Rather it is a wonder-filled story of the Son of God becoming fully human. This story takes time to tell and to reflect upon, which is why the Church gifts us with the Christmas Season, a sacred and joy-filled time stretching from Christmas Day until the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord. The Christmas Season is between 2-3 weeks long—this year it is 17 days.

For the Son of God comes to save us by more than simply being born human.
He comes to save us by becoming fully human. This is the deepest blessing of Christmas—that the 2nd Person of the Holy Trinity, the Divine Word that existed before time, is born in order to become fully human! The Church in her wisdom gives us the time and the space during the days of the Christmas Season to ponder this supreme act of love—the Son of God growing and maturing, like us, into a fully human person.

The closing line of today’s Lukan Gospel passage states this truth clearly: “The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom and the favor of God was upon him.” This growing into his humanity, this process of becoming fully human, takes place for the Son of God in the best environment for this growth—in a family.

With the loving assistance of Mary and Joseph, Jesus grows from a newborn baby to an infant to a toddler to a child to an adolescent and then into an adult. His growth---physically, intellectually, and spiritually—is facilitated by a foster-father and mother who love him deeply, and by an extended family where he learns how to relate to other human beings.

Jesus grows physically and becomes strong by the providential love of his parents.
Ensuring that their children have enough food to eat is a fundamental act of love, which is why parents suffer deeply when they do not have the means to feed their children. Joseph and Mary provide food for Jesus’ physical nourishment and growth, and they prepare it with love.

But Joseph and Mary also feed Jesus’ desire to learn, for he, like all children, is curious about the world around him. Jesus becomes filled with wisdom, because his parents and others pass along what they have learned. The child Jesus asks questions and his parents help him find the answers.

Jesus also grows into his humanity by having his spirit fed by Joseph and Mary.
His parents help Jesus grow in relationship with heavenly Father by teaching him how to pray. Jesus’ intimate image of God as “Abba” (Father) is the result of his parents teaching him about God’s tender care and protection. Mary’s trusting faith which brought about Jesus’ conception and birth (“Let it be done to me according to your word”) enables her teach her son to pray, “Father, your will be done.”
As Joseph and Jesus work together in the carpenter workshop or out on the job,
Joseph shares with Jesus the stories of Sacred Scripture, how the God of Israel had saved His people from slavery in Egypt and exile in Babylon. How David defeated Goliath and how Daniel survived being tossed into the lion’s den.

Joseph and Mary take Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem, not only as a newborn babe to dedicate him to God, but also on numerous other important religious feasts of the Jewish people, especially for the annual celebration of Passover. 
Jesus’ parents had to make sacrifices in order to remain faithful to their religious traditions.

For the trip from Nazareth in Galilee up to Jerusalem is no easy matter, but an arduous journey on foot that takes a number of days. Nourished by the sacred texts of Scripture, engaging God daily in the interactive conversation called prayer, and regularly worshipping God at the temple Jesus grows spiritually strong.

Becoming fully human, the Son of God grows, day by day, month by month, year by year—physically, spiritually, intellectually—thus making holy our own growth into the fullness of our humanity.

The Son of God saves us by becoming fully part of the human family. The Son of God redeems all humanity by becoming more than a member of a particular family in Nazareth but by becoming fully part of the human family. He is born as Son of Mary, and grows into a fully human being, in order to transform everything human into a potential encounter with the Divine. The 2nd Person of the Holy Trinity becomes fully part of the human family in order to make us see there are no nations nor borders, only one human family, of which we are all brothers and sisters in and through the One who is Fully Human, Christ Himself.

One of the seven principles of Catholic Social Teaching, called Solidarity, flows from our belief that God has joined himself forever to humanity through Christ Jesus. In fighting against injustice, our common humanity must be the starting point, understood through radical interdependence. 

Solidarity means being vulnerable enough to get to know those who are suffering from injustice, to see the dignity of others as intimately connected to my own dignity. My dignity is wrapped up in your dignity being respected, and when your dignity is attacked, mine is as well. Solidarity opens our heart to feel the pain of the other and to allow that pain to change us, so that once we recognize in the other a brother or sister, we have seen something that cannot be unseen. Then we know in a very experiential way that we are in this together, as members of one human family under God. This is what it means to stand in solidarity with others.

Thus solidarity is something more than charity, where we can distance ourselves from the pain of others by giving them something (dollars or food or clothing).
Solidarity is the gift of oneself, by choosing in love to stand alongside others, allowing them to know me and me to know them.

How the world would change if whites and blacks would sit down at the same table and listen to each other describe their fears and struggles, their hopes and dreams.

How much the world would change if native born Americans would sit down with immigrants and tell the stories of how their grandparents or great-grandparents came to this land and the hardships they endured to make this country a better place. And then listen to modern-day immigrants share their own stories of the challenges of making it to America and making a life here.

How the world might change if Muslims and Christians would sit down at the same table and Muslims share with Christians why they pray 5 times a day and Christians share with Muslims why they believe Jesus from Nazareth is the Savior of the World.

We would recognize our common humanity, our shared dignity. We might even recognize Christ dwelling in our midst, growing within us to maturity.


Fr. Joseph A. Jacobi

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Christmas Day- 25 Dec 2014

Isaiah 52: 7-10 + Hebrews 1: 1-6  + John 1: 1-18

Given at Holy Spirit Catholic Church, Mustang, Oklahoma

Mercy is different than forgiveness. Mercy grants new life. To forgive another person means I am not going to hold this against you. Forgiveness means choosing not to be filled with resentment and bitterness for the rest of my life because of something done unto me I am going to let it go, into the hands of God. Forgiveness is more for the sake of the one forgiving than the one being forgiven—it is medicine which we drink to heal our hurting heart.

Mercy is something much, much more. Mercy grants new life where it is undeserved. Mercy brings new life where it is not merited.

The chosen people of Israel are sustained by the mercy of God. The people of Israel are gifted with the Promised Land even though they grumbled and did not trust God in the desert. The Chosen People of Israel about 500 years later are held captive in Babylon. God forgives them for their transgressions which led to their captivity, but also gives them new life by His mercy. The prophet Isaiah proclaims the wonders of God’s merciful love!

God makes a way where there was no way for them to return home, even using the pagan Persian King Cyrus in his plan. God brings about new life from death by His merciful love, restoring Zion, raising up a new Jerusalem from the ruins of the old.

In the time before the birth of Jesus, God spoke in partial and various ways through the prophets about his saving, merciful love. But now that Word of Mercy takes human flesh in Jesus, born of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The divine, Eternal Word, in and through whom all things are made, who existed before time---it is the 2nd person the Divine Trinity who out of merciful love takes our flesh. The Eternal Word pitches his tent with humankind in order that we might be able to clearly hear God’s word of merciful love spoken for all eternity. In Jesus, the Word made flesh, we hear God’s song of love for us, and by Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, we hear a life-giving, saving word, and that is MERCY!!!

The Son of God seeks out sinners, because they need the healing balm of his merciful love. The self-righteous, those who think they have it all together, who are self-sufficient and won’t admit their weaknesses and frailties, close themselves off to the mercy of God in Jesus. Those who are strict adherents to the Law and are constantly judging others who they deem not worthy—these self-righteous ones the Son of God seeks out as well, but they are not open to the great gift of his mercy, because they are unwilling to share it. Jesus is clear in his teaching and in his life: You can only receive it if you are willing to give it away.

The Son of God, through whom the entire universe is made, is born to die for us. This is what mercy looks likea just person laying down their life to save others who are not worthy of such a gift.

This is the saving mercy of which Pope Francis preaches and lives--
God’s merciful love for the sinner. Pope Francis challenges us to share this merciful love of God by reaching out beyond the safe confines of our church buildings to those who are lost, who are broken-hearted, who despair, who are poor, who hunger for the great gift of God’s merciful love.

The setting for the French novel turned musical, Les Miserables, is in the early 19th century in France. The novel opens with the main character, Jean ValJean, completing his 19 year sentence on a chain gang for stealing bread so that his sister’s children could eat. Jean ValJean is granted freedom, but then finds himself starving because no one will hire him to work because of his criminal record. Then a bishop welcomes Jean ValJean into his home, feeding him and giving him a place to stay the night. In the middle of the night, Jean ValJean steals the Bishop’s silver, so he can sell it and have some money. However, he is quickly nabbed by the police, who drag him in front of the bishop, and ask the bishop if the silver is his. The bishop surprises the police and Jean ValJean by stating that he had given his silver to Jean Valjean as a gift. Then the bishop hands over to Jean ValJean the beautiful silver candlesticks, saying, “Here.  You forgot these.” When the police leave, the bishop tells Jean ValJean, “I have purchased your life for God.”

The bishop grants Jean ValJean new life by such a merciful act, and Jean ValJean vows that he will be the same instrument of mercy to others. The rest of the story reveals how he becomes that instrument of mercy, raising an orphaned child and saving this child’s future husband from certain death. This is how the marvelous word of God’s merciful love takes our flesh.

Or there is a married couple who I know who tried and tried and tried to have children, but to no avail. My friends could have chosen to be angry at God and at life in general, or they could have chosen to “forgive” God and move on with their lives. Instead they became instruments of the Eternal Word’s saving, merciful love by choosing to adopt three children. Those three children have grown up into beautiful young people because of the merciful love of their adopted parents. This is one way how God speaks his word of mercy today and gives new life.

Or there are the photojournalists who have given their lives to bring to light the atrocities of warfare and terror in the Middle East. One of these brave souls was held hostage and then released. He could have simply forgiven his hostage-takers, left the dangerous situation in the Middle East, and come home to safety. Instead he chose to keep bringing to light the injustices there, until he gave his life, beheaded in a terrible act of brutality. This is what mercy looks likea life given away as complete gift in love of others.

Around this holy table on this joyful day, we celebrate the Sacrifice of merciful love that gives means to all of our sacrifices of merciful love.
We receive Him who is Mercy enfleshed in His Sacred Body and Blood.

We cry out for Mercy Himself before we come forward for Holy Communion. Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Even to the last little prayer we say before allowing the Son of God to come and dwell within us:  “Lord, I am not worthy to enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” What is the word that the Lord Jesus says?  MERCY!

The mercy that flows out of our Savior into the lives of we believers is a great gift. By it, we carry him, the Merciful One, into a world that desperately needs such a gift. He is born in us and through us by our words and deeds of mercy. Transforming a world of violence into peace, a world of retribution into justice, and stops the terrible force of hatred with self-giving love.

So that all the ends of the earth may see the saving power of God at work in and through God’s people.


Fr. Joseph A. Jacobi

Christmas Midnight Mass - 25 Dec 2014

Isaiah 9:1-6 + Titus 2: 11-14  +  Matthew 1: 18-25

Click here to listen to this homily
Recorded at Holy Spirit Catholic Church, Mustang, Oklahoma

You may be wondering what happened to the traditional Christmas story
from Luke’s Gospel. Where are the shepherds and the child wrapped in swaddling clothes in the manger?

I chose the account of Christ’s birth in Matthew’s Gospel for this Christmas Mass because it has a powerful lesson to teach us about the mystery of the Incarnation. In other words, why did 2nd Person of the Holy Trinity take our flesh? Why did the Son of God empty himself of all divine privilege in order to become flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone? Merciful love is the reason---for God is mercy, and mercy shows its face in the act of self-giving love, especially where such a great gift is not warranted or deserved. Matthew’s Infancy Narrative, in its stark simplicity, reveals this saving attribute in God---MERCY!

Mercy is different than forgiveness. Mercy grants new life.

Forgiveness means choosing not to be filled with resentment and bitterness
for the rest of our life because of something done unto us. Forgiveness means letting go of the hurtful deed or hateful words and surrendering it, and the person who did it, into the hands of God. Forgiveness is more for the sake of the one forgiving than the one being forgiven—it is medicine which we gladly take to heal our hurting heart.

Mercy is something much, much more. Mercy grants new life where it is undeserved.  Mercy brings new life where it is not merited. Joseph the Just becomes the instrument of such saving mercy to Mary.

Joseph, a man of faith who knows the God of Mercy, shows there is something greater than following the letter of the Law. To be righteous meant to follow the letter of the Law, but Joseph re-defines righteousness as shaped by mercy.
For the Law demands that Joseph deliver Mary to the religious authorities for becoming pregnant by another man. Since Mary is betrothed to Joseph, in the eyes of the Law she is married to him, so she has committed adultery. The consequence of adultery---stoning to death. So by deciding to divorce her quietly, Joseph not only “forgives” Mary, but also grants her new life where death is warranted.

Because Joseph lives by a deeper reality than the Law, because his actions are informed by mercy, he is open to receive God’s messenger. Because he chooses in faith to take the path of mercy, Joseph hears God’s message about the mysterious working of God in the life of his beloved Mary. Joseph goes beyond protecting Mary from death---he takes her into his home as his wife, to protect her and support her and her child, a child not his own. This is what mercy looks like—it is generous and life giving, resulting in surprising sacrifices of love.

Surely Mary later shared with her Son this story of God’s saving mercy at work
in her beloved Joseph. Jesus learns from his foster-father the law of mercy and would later proclaim as one of his Beatitudes in this same Gospel of Matthew:   “Blessed are the merciful….”


God’s mercy takes flesh in Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary, born as the adopted son of Joseph, born to save us from our sins. The Son of God is born for us, not because of our goodness or good works, but because of the merciful love of God for us who are lost in our sins and lost as well in the pain we carry because of the sins of others. God is not going to allow us to remain lost in our sin nor walk forever in the darkness of death but is going to come and find us and bring us home to new life.

Mercy takes flesh in Jesus Christ:  undeserved,  unmerited, sheer gift to us. The Son of God seeks out sinners, healing them by the balm of his merciful love. The self-righteous, those who think they have it all together, who are self-sufficient and dare not admit their weaknesses and frailties, close themselves off to the mercy of God in Jesus. They are not open to the great gift of His mercy, because they are unwilling to share it. By what Jesus teaches and by the way he interacts with other, Jesus reveals you can only receive mercy if you are willing to give it away.

St. Paul, a fanatical Pharisee and devout follower of the Law, discovers on the road to Damascus the merciful love of the Risen Jesus for him. He finds out there is something more than simply keeping the letter of the law. Something more is required, and it is the divine law of Mercy. What Paul called it is “agape”---a special kind of love, a godly kind of love, that is shared even when others do not deserve such a gift. He sings of the beauty of such merciful love in his famous hymn to agape love in the 13th Chapter of Corinthians, describing how this kind of merciful love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

This is the saving mercy of which Pope Francis, preaches and lives by --- God’s merciful love for the sinner. Pope Francis challenges us to share this merciful love of God by reaching out beyond the safe confines of our church buildings to those who are lost, who are broken-hearted, who despair, who are crushed by poverty, who hunger for the great gift of God’s merciful love.

For the Son of God is born to die for usso that we might lay down our lives in love of others. This is what mercy looks like --- a just person laying down their life to save others who are not worthy of such a gift.

We cry out for this godly gift before we come forward for Holy Communion. Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Even to the last little prayer we speak before allowing the Son of God
to come and dwell within us:  “Lord, I am not worthy for you to enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” What is the word that the Lord Jesus says?  MERCY!

The mercy that flows out of our Savior into our lives is a glorious, life-giving gift.
By it, we carry him, the Merciful One, into a world which desperately needs such a gift. He is born in us and through us by our words and deeds of mercy, as we transform a world of violence, retribution and revenge into His kingdom of peace, justice, and self-giving love.
Fr. Joseph A. Jacobi

Sunday, December 21, 2014

4th Sunday of Advent - 21 Dec 2014

Link to Today's Readings
2 Samuel 7: 1-5, 8-11, 16 + Psalm 89 + Romans 16: 25-27 + Luke 1: 26-38

Click here to listen to this week's homily 
Recorded at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Mustang, Oklahoma

We sometimes make promises we cannot keep, for whatever reason.
But what God promises, God does. What God says God will do, God does. 

God keeps making promises and keeps on keeping His promises. What seems impossible from the human vantage point, becomes possible in and through God who works in and through the human situation.  

So when God promises to build an everlasting household for David, David trusts this will be accomplished, even though David cannot comprehend how it will come about.  If God promises that the kingdom and throne of David will endure forever, this will come to pass. By God’s saving initiative, the Davidic covenant is born.

David trusts God will be true to God’s promises because there is evidence in David’s own life, where God made the seemingly impossible, very possible and real. Like when the prophet Samuel chose David, the youngest of Jesse’s sons and a common shepherd, to be King. David was not the most likely candidate in Samuel’s eyes, for the prophet thought God would select one of David’s very capable older brothers. Or when David defeated Goliath, relying solely on the Lord His Rock to propel him to victory. David relied not on heavy, protective armor to shield him from the blows of the giant, nor on a sharpened spear or sword---only his faithful slingshot.  for a mere youth, not dressed properly for battle nor with the proper weapons could defeat the Giant Goliath. But they and all Israel discover through David that with God all things are possible.

What also sustains David’s hope that God will be faithful to God’s promises is how God has done marvelous, seemingly impossible things with people of faith before him.

As David examines the history of his ancestors, and ponders the other covenants God made, he sees how over and over again God made the impossible possible.

Take Abraham and Sarah. They are called forth by God from the comfort of their own home to go to a land God promises to give them, and to be the father and the mother of a great nation, even though they are childless. Even though they are without a son, God promises that their descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky or the sand of the seashore. From this aged couple, who to all the world appeared as good as dead, God raises up a son, Isaac. For all things are possible for God when human beings are open to and cooperate with God’s saving action. Thus, the covenant with Abraham is established, which will never be destroyed.

Then there is the Mosaic covenant, or the Covenant at Mt. Sinai, where God,
through Moses, forms the wandering Hebrew slaves from Egypt into his chosen people and blesses them with His saving Law, at whose heart are the 10 Commandments. David knows by heart the incredible ways God acted to set the stage for such a great covenant of love. God chooses Moses to set his people free from slavery in Egypt and lead them through the desert on the way to the Promised Land. But Moses is a wanted criminal in Egypt, plus he struggles to speak well--- surely God would have been better off choosing someone else for such an impossible task. But when Moses says “yes” to God’s call, God is able to use him in ways he never dreamed possible. The Hebrew people are set free from slavery in Egypt, not by a powerful army, but by the hand of God, who sends plague after plague until Pharoah lets them go free. When they are trapped on the shore of the Red Sea, God makes possible a way forward where there is no way forward, opening up the sea for the people to pass through. When the people grumble and complain against Moses and God for bringing them into the desert to die, because there is not enough food and water, God sends them water from a rock and manna as bread from heaven.

David sees the impossible made real in the lives of Abraham and Sarah, Moses and the chosen people of Israel, and others who surrendered their lives into God’s hands--Joseph and Judith, Gideon and Joshua, Ruth and Esther—and what seemed impossible for them God made happen, because God is faithful to God’s promises. The Blessed Virgin Mary, who marries into the house of David through Joseph, knows the history of her people and how the God of Israel is a God for whom all things are possible. Thus, she can say, “YES” to God’s plan for her to bring his only Son into the world.

Mary has been carrying on a conversation with the living God long before Gabriel visits. She is in a living, dynamic relationship with the God who did the impossible by bringing new life to Abraham and Sarah. She knows in an intimate manner the God who did one improbable deed after another to save her people from slavery and lead them through the desert to the Promised Land. Mary knows, simply by reflecting on the past deeds of God, that God can do great things in and through her. She understands, however, that God makes the impossible a reality through the consent of a human being who is open to God’s voice and cooperates with God’s plan.

What makes Mary’s “YES” possible are the “yes’s” of all the faithful people
who have gone before her. Her courageous consent is built upon the courageous consent of others.

Abe and Sarah’s “YES” which causes them to journey into the unknown enables Mary to say, “YES,” and make the same journey into the unknown, so that in and through her all generations will be blessed. Moses “YES” to God’s plan to set His people free encourages Mary to submit to God’s wild and wondrous plan to use her to bring into the world the Savior, who will set all people free from sin and death. David’s “YES” to being selected the next king, he the most unlikely person of all, empowers this humble maiden to say YES and allow the King of Kings to be born in her.

God, who throughout His long history with the people of Israel, has transformed impossible situations into something possible and very real, now does the seemingly most impossible thing of all---becomes human, like us. But God can only do so through the cooperation of Mary---her YES.

Mary’s “Yes” makes possible our Yes to God’s desire to take our flesh and be born into our world. Christ has only one mother in the flesh, but we are all called to bring forth Christ by faith.

Her YES and the YES’s of all those faithful ones before us gives us the courage
to step out on a limb and say YES to what God is asking of us today, no matter how impossible it may seem.

But even if we are not able to take the leap that faith requires by saying, “YES”,
even if we initially say “NO”, the God of all hope-fullness perseveres, by sending another angel, and then another. By reminding us daily that our lives, and this earth on which we live,  are miracles made possible by His Creative love.

So we can trust that with God all things are possible, even God’s desire to come to life in and through us by the power of God’s Spirit.

Fr. Joseph A. Jacobi

Sunday, December 14, 2014

3rd Sunday of Advent - 14 Dec 2014

Link to Today's Readings
Isaiah 61: 1-2a, 10-11 + Luke 1: 46-50, 53-54 + 1 Thess. 5:16-24 + John 1: 6-8, 19-28

Click here to listen to this week's homily 
recorded at Holy Spirit Catholic Church

As human beings, we cannot live without hope.
We cannot live without something to look forward to.
Without hope, our hearts harden, and we slowly die in despair.
We may be alive and functioning, but without hope we are not truly living.

The Prophet Isaiah proclaims words of hope to a people who have lost all reason to hope. The people of Jerusalem and all of Judah are being held captive in Babylon, and their beloved temple and capital city have been burned to the ground. They have hung up their harps for they no longer have reason to sing; instead they weep over all they have lost.

Isaiah stirs up the dying embers of their hope into a mighty flame by assuring them that the God who saved them from slavery in Egypt and did such mighty deeds in the desert and led them into the Promised Land, will save them again, will bring liberty to these captives and heal their broken hearts.

The 61st chapter of Isaiah proclaimed today dates to the period immediately after the return of the people from exile in Babylon. God made a way home for a people who had been imprisoned in exile, but now they stare forlornly at the ruins of Jerusalem, wondering how they will ever rebuild their temple, their city, and their lives. The stirring words and beautiful images spoken by Isaiah strengthen their hope, so they might begin again.

We have even more reason than Isaiah and his people for hope.

The coming of the promised Messiah in history immeasurably confirms and strengthens our hope. As the promised Messiah, as Hope enfleshed, Jesus reveals to us that God is not far off, but is already in our midst.

Thus, hope is the reason for this Season of Advent.

All our hopes are rooted in the Coming One, the Messiah and Lord, who frees us from sins that enslave us, who is the Light scattering the darkness of despair, the One who heals our hurting hearts. The challenge remains, though, to recognize the Messiah in our midst.

Like the priests and Levites and Pharisees sent from Jerusalem to question John the Baptist, we do not recognize the Messiah in our midst. The problem is not that He does not come, for he keeps on coming in mysterious and hidden ways by the working of the Holy Spirit. The problem is we do not recognize his coming.

You may have heard the following story about a monastery that had fallen on hard times. The monks did not talk with one another; there were no new, young monks; and people had stopped coming to the monastery for spiritual solace and direction.

In the woods that surrounded the monastery a rabbi lived in a small hut. Occasionally, the monks would see the rabbi walking in the woods, and, almost hypnotically, they would say to one another, “The rabbi walks in the woods.”

The abbot was greatly distraught at the decline of the monastery. He had prayed and pondered over the situation and admonished the mood and behavior of the monks--all to no avail. One day he saw the rabbi walking in the woods and decided to ask his advice.
He walked up behind the rabbi. The rabbi turned, and when the abbot and the rabbi faced one another, both began to weep. The sorrow of the situation affected them deeply. The abbot knew he did not have to explain the decline of the monastery. He merely asked, “Can you give me some direction so the monastery will thrive again?” The rabbi said, “One of you is the Messiah.” Then he turned and continued to walk in the woods.

The abbot returned to the monastery. The monks had seen him talking to the rabbi who walks in the woods.  They asked, “What did the rabbi say?”

One of us is the Messiah,” the abbot said the words slowly, almost incredulously.

The monks began talking to one another.  “One of us?  Which one? Is it Brother John?  Or perhaps it is Brother Andrew? Could it even be the abbot?”

Slowly, things began to change at the monastery. 

The monks began to look for the Messiah in each other,and listen to each other’s words for the Messiah’s voice. Soon new, younger monks joined, and people returned to the monastery for spiritual solace and direction.

If we live with this consciousness that the Messiah is in our midst, then our world will be transformed. If we live with this awakening alertness, with a new level of attention to others, and treat each person as if he or she were Christ Himself coming to us, think of what would happen. Racism would be eradicated from our midst. Violence would be replaced by peace. Torture would be no more, not only the terror of water boarding, but emotional torture as well--gossip and slander which rip apart another’s reputation.

If we choose to live with the awareness that the Messiah may be coming to us in the most unlikely of people, we can then be a saving instrument of hope. We can joyfully bring glad tidings to the poor by our generous gifts and by working for justice. We can heal those whose hearts are broken by listening to their sorrow with compassion, and walking with them in their pain. We can release those held captive by fear or doubt or despair.

This new state of heightened awareness means putting technology in its proper place, pulling it away from the center of our attention, by lifting our heads from our glowing screens and becoming more aware of those around us.

I’d like to call this heightened state of awareness, “John the Baptist consciousness.” Humble like him, we know who we are not---we are not the Savior, Christ is. The world does not revolve around us, it revolves around Him. With this kind of awareness we know who we are and what we are about — we are to prepare the way for the Lord by welcoming Him present in others.

Alert to welcome the coming Messiah, we find we are more alive than ever before. Living to serve Christ in others, loving Him present there, we discover a new-found joy. A joy that is much different than the fleeting nature of pleasure, a joy that is a gift of the Spirit, empowering us to rejoice always.

So, we rejoice with the Blessed Virgin Mary, for like her, we are pregnant with Hope, because God has done great things for us and will continue to do so. We sing with Mary because God in Christ has lifted up we who are lowly to new life, in Him and with Him and through Him.

            Fr. Joseph A. Jacobi