The Day After Christmas, Then vs Now

In this day and age, December 26th is a bit of a letdown for most people.  

The presents, the feasts, the music ... all of it has been replaced with a dose of reality.  Some call it a Christmas Hangover, others the Christmas Slump.  

But I wonder what the day after Christ's birth was like for those in Bethlehem.  Sure, Mary and Joseph had to deal with a newborn - which was life-changing in its own right. 

(We interrupt this blog post for a tangent.  Did you ever think about life for the Holy Family those first few days?  How long was it until they found a better living situation?  How many visitors did they have the day after?  What were people in Bethlehem saying?  How many residents of the city even knew what happened?  What did Mary and Joseph talk about?  Did Joseph find any relatives?  How often did the baby Jesus cry?) 

In any case, I'm guessing there was no hangover for them at all.  Or the shepherds.  Or any of those that witnessed the Miracle in their midst.  

I bet they felt hope.  Yes, it might have been coupled with some wonder and questions.  But I bet it was quite different than what society feels today.

The reason is obvious, of course.

Their Christmas was truly focused on Our Savior.  

Today's Christmas seems to be focused on anything but.

I hope you and your families are having a blessed Christmas season.  God Bless you.

I Can't Believe I Missed this Biblical Symbol

This is embarrassing.

The other day I realized I have missed a very obvious symbol in the Bible.

It isn't even in some obscure passage that we never hear in Mass.  In fact, we hear it every year at least once, and see reminders of it for weeks.

My only hope is that one of you out there missed it as well so I feel a little better.  

Ok, here it goes...

Jesus tells His followers that He is the Bread of Life, and whoever comes to Him will never go hungry.  Likewise, at the Last Supper, Jesus tells the Apostles to take and eat the bread (His body).  

In other words, Christ is "spiritual food" for them, and us.

Rewind to our our much-repeated Nativity Story.  Where did our Blessed Mother and St. Joseph lay the baby Jesus?

In a manger!

And what is a manger?  

A place where food is placed!  

Granted, normally it is food for animals, but in this case, it was The Bread of Life ... food for all of our souls!

Not sure how I could have missed that symbolism all these years.

God Bless.   
 

With Blessed Joseph, Her Spouse

Did you know that on June 19, a decree was announced, granting priests permission to add Joseph to the Eucharistic Prayer?

In Eucharistic Prayer II, for example, you may now hear:

"... with the most Blessed Virgin Mary, mother of God,
with Blessed Joseph, her spouse, with the Blessed Apostles..."

Ironically, both of our current Popes have bonds to St. Joseph.  

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's was, of course, baptized Joseph Ratzinger.

And Pope Francis, as we fondly remember, chose The Solemnity of St. Joseph as the date for his inaugural Mass.  He also has a spikenard, a symbol of St. Joseph, on his coat-of-arms.

O St. Joseph, do assist me by your powerful intercession and obtain for me from your Divine Son all spiritual blessings through Jesus Christ, Our Lord; so that having engaged here below your Heavenly power I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of Fathers.

God Bless.

Are We Telling Our Story All Wrong?

We love to romanticize everything.
  
Clean it up. 


Make it shiny and beautiful.


We just completed the Christmas season where we sang of a beautiful star, a Holy Babe wrapped in perfect linens, and a confident, smiling Mary and Joseph.  There were angelic shepherds, and perfectly behaved, fragrant sheep and cows.  Heck, even a little kid played a catchy little ditty on his drum in the background.


As I wrote earlier, it probably didn't happen like that.


But it just feels all warm and fuzzy when we add some creative touches to it, doesn't it?  


Well, perhaps we are doing a disservice to the real story and to our religion.

Anne, who is always teaching me new things, posted an article written by Bishop Hying in which he wrote:


"We cannot romanticize the Christian narrative without decreasing its potent reality. God comes to us in all of the messiness and lunacy of the real world to save us as we are, not to redeem some idealized version of ourselves." 


I've been thinking a lot about that over the past two weeks.


The power of the Catholic story shines through most brilliantly in the ugliness of this world, not the cleaned up version of it.


God sent His only Son to us in the remoteness of Bethlehem, not the grandeur of Jerusalem.  In a crowded, smelly stable, not a lush palace. And in a world full of sin, not the perfection of Paradise.


Mary and Joseph didn't go from wedding bells to cigars and baby announcements.  They struggled with the reality of being chosen. Walked miles and miles through harsh terrain while pregnant.  Were chased after giving birth to their Son far away from the "comforts" of home.


And our Savior did not come here on a cloud and banish all His enemies from an Earthly throne.  He was born among the animals, grew up in a lowly town, and was beaten and crucified for teaching love. 


Bishop Hying is right.  Our world is not perfect.  It is ugly and full of sin. And our Salvation happened within those realities ... not in some fairy tale we cannot relate to.  


Ironically, it is through that lens that our story becomes more powerful, not less so.


(Thanks again, Anne, for that thought provoking post.)


God Bless.

Let's Jump Back 2000+ Years ...

You've been told that in just 21 days, the the Lord is coming in human form, to dwell among us.


How would you prepare?


How would you find Him?


What would you wear?  Your best outfit to show respect?  Or your most mundane one to show Him that material things don't matter?


What would you bring?  Would a gift fit for a baby be insulting to one that is also God?


What would you do when you got there?  Would you cry?  Dance? Would you be speechless?  Would you ramble on, wondering if a baby that is also a Deity could understand you?


How long would you stay?  Just a few minutes out of respect?  Or as long as you possibly could, since anywhere else you could go would pale in comparison?


Needless to say, we would all probably think long and hard about how we would get ready for such a day.


Now imagine you were about to become His Earthly parent ...


How in the world do you even begin to prepare for that?


This Advent season, as we prepare for the coming of our Savior, let us not forget the commitment Mary and Joseph made when they said "yes" to God.  And I pray the Holy Spirit gives us the strength to do the same.  


God Bless.

Joseph Was What???

We had a guest speaker the other day at our church, who gave a very moving lecture on Joseph and Mary.

Some of the discussion was reflection on their Holiness, and some of it was thinking about what life for them was like. (You know I love doing that)

I almost fell off my chair, though, when our speaker said "Well, you know Joseph was only about 16 right?"

What??

The Earthly father of our Lord .... a teenager?

The strong carpenter I've seen in pictures - like the one in this post? A mere boy?

The blessed man who had the maturity to trust in God despite the "unique circumstances" around his wife? He was how young?

Sixteen??

Like I said, I was blown away.

I'm not sure why I never thought about it, to be honest. Probably because every statue and picture of Joseph shows him as ... well, older.

I knew Mary was probably young. And it would make sense to assume Joseph was around the same age. But I never took time to think about it.

Shame on me.

I know 16 back then was a lot more mature than 16 is now. But it still magnifies how amazing Joesph's (and Mary's) faith was.

St. Joseph, thank you for saying "yes" to God. Please help us to have the great faith and trust that you had.

God bless.

Joseph's Thoughts

Now that Advent is upon us, I am reminded of one of the most interesting, thoughtful quotes I have ever heard in a movie. It is from the Nativity Story (2006).

In one scene, Mary and Joesph are on their way to Bethlehem. Mary is very pregnant, and she and Joseph are mixing silence with wonder.

At one point, Joseph says “I wonder if I will even be able to teach [Jesus] anything.”

Simple enough quote right?

I think its brilliant. All my life I took for granted that Mary and Joseph knew everything that was going on. But this quote made me really ponder that. What if they weren’t quite sure what to expect (which is likely!). After all they knew they were giving birth to our Saviour. But what did that mean? Was he to look like a human baby or something more God-like? We have the luxury of knowing that he was to be just like us in appearance. But they didn’t know that yet! They probably didn’t know if he would be all-knowing. Nor did they know the extent of pain and suffering that he would go through for us.

So it would be perfectly logical for any nervous father-to-be to wonder what he could pass onto his son, let alone one that was to be the Earthly father of our Lord. Odds are he really did wonder if there was anything he could teach his Son.

I don’t know about you, but I love movies or books that help me paint pictures of what life was like in Jesus’ time. The Nativity Story, and Joseph’s quote in particular, really gave me some thoughts to ponder.

God Bless.