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20 Dec 2009 - Fourth Sunday of Advent, Cycle C

This weekend usually is one of the busiest travel times of the year. Airports, bus terminals, train stations, and, of course, highways will be filled with people laden down with gifts, all trying to make it home for the holidays. Home with their loved ones is where people want to be, if at all possible. And so they are willing to withstand all sorts of incredible trials and tribulations to get to where they want to go. If some snow is added to the mix, it is guaranteed to snarl everything up. But year after year people do it. Scripture tells us nothing of Mary’s journey to her cousin Elizabeth’s home. We are given only vague details telling us that it is somewhere in the hill country and that Mary hurries there because of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. It probably was a grueling trip for her to make. But Mary does it willingly to be where she is needed. And when her own pregnancy nears completion, she will take another difficult journey, this time to Bethlehem to fulfill the words of the prophets. Mary, this “Christ bearer,” is bringing to Elizabeth the presence of the messiah for the first time. And it has a dramatic effect on her and on the baby John in her womb. Neither would ever be the same again. With Christmas only days away, we are challenged to bring that very same presence to all whom we will touch this holiday season. Mary has become the embodiment of what we are called to be and do as Christians in our service to one another.

Authors Father Dominic Grassi

journeys pregnancy mary and elizabeth

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07 Jan 2018 - Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, Cycle B

Have you ever seen an inviting path and started down it, even though you didn’t know where it would lead? Questions start to pop up in your mind. The way could be longer than you’re prepared for. You may not be wearing the right shoes, or have enough water with you. You don’t know when you may return—or if this path ever comes back this way at all! Taking an unknown route is an adventure: Maybe you are “boldly going where no one has gone before.” It’s safer, of course, to meekly go where someone has gone before. The unknown route harbors risk, but also the excitement of discovery. Only seekers will take a path they don’t know and travel to an undetermined destination. The rest of us prefer to stay at home, surrounded by the familiar. Some of us, in fact, are only willing to move down smooth, paved, and well-traveled lanes, where just about everybody has gone before. But the best-traveled roads often have the least to show us. Today’s story is about travelers who took a very peculiar route to a destination with no guarantees. Because they were following a star, they had to travel at night, “walking by faith and not by sight.” They took big risks, passing through foreign territory that could be full of enemies. But what they were after, they were sure, was worth it. A radiant vision And they were radiant at what they saw, to use Isaiah’s poetic phrase. These travelers from afar followed the light out of their country and out of the safe and familiar world they knew. It took time and resources to make the journey, but it also took faith in a mysterious promise which they read in the nighttime sky. Though darkness covered the earth, they believed the glory of the Lord was about to be revealed. To honor that reality, they brought with them precious things, gold and frankincense. And to reverence a sadder and more distant truth, they brought myrrh with them as well. When the writer of Matthew’s gospel sat down to tell his story, he remembered the prophecy of Isaiah. In Matthew’s generation, the treasure of the church was passing out of the confines of its founders and into the trust of the people beyond Israel. What the religious authorities of the temple had been blind to, the Gentiles saw plainly and embraced. So Matthew mirrored these events in his tale of the birth of Jesus with memorable characters: Herod and the priests and scribes of Jerusalem on one side, anxious to destroy the child Jesus. And the Magi from the East, outsiders to the story of salvation, just as eager to meet Jesus and do him homage. Herod’s jealousy and fear made his mood as dark as the legacy of sin that obscured human history. The hope of the Magi made them as radiant as the star they followed. Each became what he turned his face toward. What do we seek? Whether we intend it or not, we are all on a journey through this world of ours. Some of these journeys won’t take us beyond the confines of our routines, but others lead beyond our wildest dreams. And as we travel, we bring along what’s most precious to us—our riches or our relationships or the work of our hands—by any other name, our gold. We also bear frankincense, the symbol of our relationship with God, the “fragrance” of our prayer. Finally, we carry our myrrh, that which prepares us for the hour of our death. All of these gifts are vital, because we have to live fully invested in the world we know, and at the same time live toward the world we cannot see that is to come. The Magi show us how it’s done. (We are traveling a road where someone, at least, has gone before.) We walk by faith and not by certainty. We bring our gifts, prepared to offer them freely at the hour when they are required of us. And perhaps the greatest lesson of the Magi is that, like them, we become what we are seeking. If we turn toward the glitter of this world with its fame and fortune, we become insubstantial, sparkling for only a short while. (Note the progression of our celebrities: on the cover of Time today and The Enquirer tomorrow!) If we turn our faces toward the Holy One, we will become a holy people, and shine like the stars for eternity. Nothing we gain on this route can ever be lost. Related scripture links We walk by faith: 2 Cor. 5:7 The role of the stars: Gen. 15:5-6; Job 38:6-7; Psalm 148:3; Luke 21:25 Journey and faith: Gen. 11:1-4; Exod. 3:10; Mark 6:8; Matt. 28:19-20 Church mission shifts to Gentiles: Acts 14:16-17; Eph. 2:11-13; Rom. 11:11-29 Catechism links Theophany and epiphany: CCC 697, 707 Incarnation: CCC 456-463 Baptism of the Lord as epiphany: CCC 438; 535-37; 1223-1225 Light as symbol of manifestation: CCC 696-697; 1168; 1202

Authors Alice Camille

unknown travelers guiding star guiding light magi journeys

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30 Dec 2018 - Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Cycle C

How could you possibly lose Jesus? He’s the boy with the radiant halo and the singular genealogy. Follow the trail of minor miracles and cured childhood colds and there he is. Or so we might imagine. After all, Mary and Joseph had one child. Was it so difficult to keep track of their adolescent? And they didn’t notice him missing for days? The story begins to sound more suspicious by the minute. This family was on the road in first-century Palestine, and traveling used to be a significantly more dangerous activity then than now. Highway robbery was commonplace, and journeys on foot took a considerably longer time to accomplish. You stayed together. You took greater care. But we can also imagine that Mary and Joseph kept Jesus on a long leash. After all, he was at the age when a boy could nearly be counted as a man. And one suspects that Jesus showed a special maturity for his age, as indicated by his response later at the Temple and the rapt attention of the religious teachers. Mary and Joseph probably had a lot of confidence in Jesus and had become accustomed to his independent ways. Still, the more we look at this story, the more we realize it is not about child-rearing technique as practiced by the Holy Family, and we are not expected to learn anything about the historical boyhood of Jesus. We are not glimpsing a charming scene about the domestic life of the perfectly pious. So what is Luke trying to tell us? Samuel as the model As an evangelist, Luke pursues a focused agenda relentlessly in both his gospel and Acts. Among his themes are the centrality of the Temple, the obligations of faith, and journey as a metaphor for spiritual growth. When the Holy Family takes a trip to Jerusalem, of all places, we can be sure this is no family vacation. And it would be anemic to determine that the lesson here is about being an obedient child to God and parents, as the story is often wielded by catechists. When Mary, Joseph, and Jesus set out on the road, we understand them to be expressing outwardly an experience of growth in faith. They are embarking on a new phase of being a “holy” family, that is, dedicated to God, and the fact that Jesus is 12 at the time of this incident is no accident. “The man in the boy,” as one scholar puts it, is about to be revealed. This story has its parallel in the story of Hannah and Elkanah, the parents of the prophet Samuel. They also took a journey to a holy shrine (this was in pre-Temple days, when a shrine was as good as it gets) resulting in a prophecy, miracle birth, and consecration of their son to God. At age 12, according to Jewish tradition, Samuel began his vocation of prophesying. The moment a boy becomes a man, it seems, he takes on the work that God intends. This would be in line with the cultural practice of that century to apprentice a son to his father’s business at that age. Up to now in the gospel, Luke has announced the identity of Jesus many times. This identity has been declared by the angel Gabriel, Mary, Zechariah, a choir of heavenly hosts, and the prophets Simeon and Anna. But now Jesus is 12, and it is time for him to speak this awareness himself. His words at the conclusion of the story are clearly the point of telling it. Before this year, Jesus was content to be the son of Mary and Joseph, but now that he is an adult, the only authority he will recognize is God. The place and the message Jesus would not have chosen the backstreets of Nazareth for this proclamation of his identity, naturally. For every Jewish believer, Jerusalem is the city of prophets, and for Luke’s purposes, the Temple is key to the story of the gospel. Jesus is presented there as an infant, re-presents himself at maturity, returns to the Temple at the apex of his ministry to claim it with his cleansing action, and his followers return there again and again to praise God in the Book of Acts. If the Temple is the chosen dwelling place of God, then Jesus is keenly identified with that structure and becomes himself the “temple not made by human hands” that will be “raised up in three days.” So it makes sense for the Holy Family to take the journey to Jerusalem when Jesus is 12 and for him to choose the Temple as the place of his pronouncement. But the seeming harshness of his words is what strikes even the most casual listener to this story. How could he talk so coldly to his mother? How could he be so spare and unyielding at such an hour of crisis for his parents? These hard words match perfectly the tone Jesus routinely takes with those who try to sentimentalize his message. Despite our modern emphasis on family values, Jesus has few soft warm words about nuclear families throughout his ministry. Serving God is a priority; clinging to home and hearth is a distraction that becomes too easily an excuse for true discipleship. Even Mary gets an earful when she seems to question his choice. Applying the word Orientation is everything “Must” is a big word for Luke. He uses imperatives and absolutes liberally because he views discipleship as an either-or proposition. Though Luke’s gospel is often regarded as a warm fuzzy because of its infancy narrative, generous inclusion of women and foreigners, and many healing stories, Jesus the teacher is no pushover in his presentation. You must orient yourself to the Kingdom or have no part of it, he says in various ways and situations. The occasional failure is acceptable within these high standards, but being mealy mouthed in your commitment is not. Once you’ve come of age in faith, the only allegiance left is to God. Related scripture links Other Temple scenes in Luke: 1:5-25; 2:22-38; 4:9-12; 19:45-48; 20:1-21:38 Journey as metaphor: 1:39-56; 2:1-20, 22-38; 3:4-6; 5:11; 9:1-6; 10:1-11, 29-37; 14:15-24; 15:11-32; 24:13-35 Something higher than family values: 8:19-21; 11:27-28; 12:49-53; 14:25-33; 18:29-30 Either-or propositions: 9:23-25, 57-62; 16:13

Authors Alice Camille

coming of age journeys

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12 Sep 2021 - Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

At the beginning of 2020, my diocese declared it the Year of the Eucharist. Ironic, since after that Ash Wednesday, it was the year I went without it. But I spent that year caring more about it than I ever have. Distance makes the heart grow fonder, they say—and I repented taking it for granted. During the pandemic, I watched Mass on YouTube every Sunday, and for the first time learned what an Act of Spiritual Communion was. Saying those words before a TV screen—“I desire to receive you into my soul . . . come at least spiritually into my heart . . . Never permit me to be separated from you.”—I encountered Christ present in the Eucharist in a way I couldn’t have imagined without being present myself. Even though I’d spent more than a year preparing for my next Communion—on an isolated spiritual journey courtesy of a plague of biblical proportions—I wanted to treat it like my first, and as the day got closer, I doubled down on prayerfully getting ready. It wasn’t until the first Sunday after Pentecost 2021 that I returned to Mass. Ordinary Time seemed so fitting as I started to feel normal again. Except I wasn’t the same as before. Having been denied, I wanted to follow him more.

Authors Jennifer Tomshack

Eucharist communion sacrifice pandemic spiritual journeys

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13 Oct 2024 - Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

A doctor I know finds today’s gospel about the rich man going away sad the most disturbing of all Jesus’ stories and parables. He has notes and comments scratched alongside these verses in his Bible, and his personal journal is filled with pages of reflections about what it takes to follow Jesus. The doctor, who happens to be a very generous person, is constantly looking for a catch, a way out of Jesus’ command to the rich young man. But there is no catch—except to say the gospel isn’t necessarily about wealth and personal possessions. It is about our spiritual journey and what it takes to progress. For some of us, money gets in the way; for others, it is a desire to be liked or admired or perfect or in control that prevents us from taking that last leap and trusting in God for all our joy and happiness. Jesus loves the rich man, and the rich man is trying to do his best to be a good and decent person, but Jesus is telling him and us: “Don’t hold anything back. Love God with your whole heart, mind, and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Like the rich man and my doctor friend, most of us end up sad after hearing this gospel because we know we still have some major hurdles in our spiritual journey.

Authors Patrice J. Tuohy

jesus and the rich young man spiritual journeys

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