The Friar Podcasts - preaching prayer and spiritual reflections

In the spiritual classic, The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence writes about finding the presence of God in the everyday things we do in our lives. Can we find God while we are doing the dishes, or can we find God when we are doing the laundry, or when we are at work or school, or even just when we are bored not knowing what to do? For sometimes the danger when it comes to the spiritual life is that there is the spiritual self that is evident when we are in Church on Sunday, but another self, completely separate from our "Sunday self" the other days of the week.

The Two Mothers

Luke 1:39-45

According to Plato, “The beginning is the most important part of the work,” so it is appropriate that the Gospel of Luke begins not with the accounts of John the Baptist nor Jesus, but with the stories of their mothers, Elizabeth and Mary.  Elizabeth, advanced in age, is told by God that she will have a son, and she faithfully accepts the shocking news as a blessing.  Unbeknownst to Elizabeth, her cousin Mary received a similar message from Angel Gabriel himself, who proclaimed to Mary, “Hail favored one! The Lord is with you.”  Although confused and unsure, Mary also faithfully accepts God’s calling.

Et Verbum Caro Factum Est. How beautiful this is! Houselander tells us so beautifully that every sacramental encounter is one of flesh and spirit. Bread and wine are the vehicle for Christ to become really present to us. Water becomes the very way in which we share in the salvation of Jesus in baptism. God forgives sins through the raising of the hands of the priest in confession. Oil becomes the material sign of healing and anointing reminds those ordained of the high calling to serve Christ the anointed King. By acknowledging the Incarnation, and more importantly by living it, the words of Psalm 139 ring true. “I praise you, because I am wonderfully made.”

Today’s Gospel focuses on one of the most beloved saints of all time: a man who is depicted in thousands of pieces of artwork, has many institutions named after him, is a figure of many devotionals, and a prominent character of the Christmas narrative. Yep, you guessed it, St. Joseph.

Today we have every lector’s nightmare, the genealogy of Jesus from the Gospel of Matthew.  It is a list of names tracing the ancestors of Jesus all the way back to Abraham.

The list includes the faithful and the unfaithful ancestors of Jesus.  The heroes that stood up against injustice and stayed true to God even at the cost of their own lives.  It also includes those that turned away from God, worshipped false gods, and lead others to do the same.

Today's reading brings up points of happiness and excitement. And I think it only appropriate that this reading be shared today, as we approach the end of finals week and the upcoming Christmas break. These happy times spent with friends and family are especially poignant and important for many people, so take time to appreciate today what makes you happy.

Tell John what you see. I was really struck in a not so happy way with the results of a survey of priests which suggested that many felt the Church was in a mess. I disagree. There have been worse times. And I still see signs of active presence of God in the world. To be sure, if I believed everything were up to me, I might feel differently. But Christ is still active in His Church and the gates of Hell will never prevail against it.

Readings for Today

In today's Gospel, John the Baptist sends two disciples to find Jesus to ask Him to confirm His identity as the Messiah. Jesus responds to the two by healing people around them and then tells them to go to John to report what they have seen.

There’s this scene in the 2016 film, Moonlight, that comes to mind with today’s readings. Juan, a man who sells drugs in Miami and who will die in a few years, is teaching Chiron, a young boy struggling to know himself, to swim. The water is beautiful and Chiron rests in Juan’s arms. After the lesson they sit together in the sand, and Juan becomes vulnerable about his childhood, finally inviting Chiron into loving who he really is. Tender compassion between a man whose life seems to epitomize immorality and a boy inflicted with trauma: exactly what God imagines for us.

As we look to these next chapters, Augustine is pondering the very nature of God. And what he discovers is that there is much about God that to his mind seems to be a paradox. God fills the earth, yet does not contain it. God is in all things, but is not all things. We owe God a debt, but God never loses anything. Even though we cannot pay the debt, God is no less complete.

Moreover, the actions of God are equally paradoxical. God is poured out in us, but nothing ever flows out. In fact we are made more full by God. Augustine recognizes that in the contemplation of God there will always be this paradox, since in fact, we can never understand God. Chapter 4 begins with a question that we cannot answer, namely, "Who is God?" This is in fact such a difficult reality for us. We seek and strive to understand mysteries. Science longs to solve the problems that plague us. We want to know with certainty who this God is that loves us. But God is so far beyond all we can imagine it simply is not possible.

Does this mean the exercise is pointless? Of course not. Even the little ways we can know God more fully are of great benefit to us. Even in very small ways we grow in tremendous grace because God's love for us is so vast, so great, so awesome. Even when we become broken by sin, God is not poured out of us. In fact, all we can do is to place ourselves in the magnificence of God and be filled with awe. We can only realize the brokenness of our own lives and ask God to come into our hearts. We must begin with a simple admission that we cannot save ourselves and as a result we need a Savior. But the good news is that we have one.