The Last Gospel

Nativity of the Lord: Mass during the Day/Third Mass
    [In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen].  There are so many beautiful images that the Scriptures bring to our imaginations about the Nativity of the Lord.  Maybe we think of Joseph leading Mary on a donkey as she travels to Bethlehem while being nine months pregnant.  Or maybe we think of them going up to inns, trying to see if there’s room, but not finding anything.  Because of St. Francis of Assisi, we may think of them in a barn-like structure, though the older tradition is that our Lord was born in a cave.  We may think of the shepherds seeing the angels, hearing them sing the Gloria, and then going to find the Christ Child.  Based upon the Christmas carol, we might even think about a little boy with his snare drum playing for the Holy Family (which is probably not what a woman who has just given birth wants to hear).    So which of these accounts do we hear as we come to Mass today on Christmas morning/afternoon?  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was God….And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.”  And yet, according to one scholar, John’s prologue was the traditional Gospel for Christmas Day from the time of the earliest lectionaries, or collections of readings for the Mass. 
    So why this Gospel?  Why this elevated reflection Christ as the Logos, the Word?  This prologue is really the Gospel writ small.  It precedes, in a sense, Genesis, and concludes, in a sense the Book of Revelation.  It starts at the beginning, but even before “In the beginning” from Genesis, because it speaks of the time when there was simply God, and nothing else.  It talks about the perennial back and forth between light and darkness, an unequal battle that entered humanity’s realm by the disobedience of Adam and Eve.  But it also talks about those who belong to God, are enabled to become His children, through this same Logos, this same Word, Jesus Christ.
    All of the stories with which we are familiar–Mary and Joseph, the inns, the stable or cave, the shepherds–John encapsulates in the pithy phrase, “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”  John, who wrote this Gospel around the year AD 90, already had the witness of Matthew and Luke giving their own infancy narratives.  But there is more to Christmas than just a baby.  There is also the aspect that this baby brought us the grace to be freed from the slavery to the law.  Christ gave us more than just a new law.  He gave us Himself: “From his fullness…grace in place of grace.”  And John, even in just this first part of the first chapter, is able to start to tease out the invisible realities which this visible baby brought forth.
    Other than today and on Holy Thursday, in the Extraordinary Form, this Gospel passage is read at the end of each Mass and is called the Last Gospel.  This practice began in England in what is called the Sarum Rite from the twelfth century.  Between the eleven hundreds and the fifteen hundreds, it was a private prayer for the priest to say after Mass.  Pope St. Pius V added it to every Mass (with few exceptions) in 1570.  It was eliminated in the post-Conciliar changes to the Missal in 1965.
    But the value is that, at the end of each Mass in the Extraordinary Form, priest and people are reminded of this overarching theme of salvation: God in Himself; God in the Incarnation; God’s grace and truth given to us to become children of God, a revelation only made possible by the Incarnation of the Eternal Word.  And the Eucharist, just received at the time of the Last Gospel, is precisely the same Word, who strengthens the individual Catholic in the Theo-drama of God’s victory of light over darkness and holiness over sin. 
    This focus on the divinity of Christ also reminds us of the power of Christmas over all the other ways that God communicated.  The Letter to the Hebrews adeptly reminds us that God has spoken to us in partial and various ways.  He walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the evening.  He spoke to Noah and commanded him to build an ark to save the righteous.  He called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees.  He called Moses to free His people from bondage in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land.  He anointed David to be the king and shepherd of His people, Israel.  He gave Solomon the plan for the Temple and dwelt there.  He sent prophets to remind the people of their commitment to follow God and the consequences if they did not.  And all of those were good.
    But at that first Christmas, God chose to speak for Himself.  An ambassador is a good communication of the wishes and expectations of a ruler.  But the ruler himself communicates in a way that far surpasses a spokesman.  A picture or a painting can capture some of the beauty of a landscape.  But to be in the presence of the reality far surpasses any representation of that beauty.  Our Lord is the ruler.  Our Lord is the beautiful landscape.  And in encountering Him, in the Incarnation, we have the chance to appreciate the reality beyond the shadows the prefigured it. 
    This may not be the Christmas Gospel we anticipate.  But it’s the Christmas Gospel that explains not just that day, but all of salvation history.  This Prologue reminds us that Christmas is not just about the baby that we see with our eyes, but the God that we see with our faith.  May our appreciation of the Word made Flesh, spur us on to live in the grace and truth that come from Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit are one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

"To Thee Do We Turn"

 Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary
    In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  As a Third Order Dominican, the Rosary is something near and dear to my heart.  It is part of my daily prayer habit.  But it wasn’t always.  As a child, I dreaded praying the Rosary.  Even though it only takes around 15-20 minutes, that was like an eternity for me!  My family had a practice that, whenever we went on long trips, we would pray the Rosary at the beginning of our travels.  That was not my idea of fun!
    Ironically, it is in my car most of the time that I pray the Rosary these days.  And it is a beautiful means of meditation, both for individuals and for families (even if the kids don’t always appreciate it).  And also, ironically, while we are often chastened by our Protestant brothers and sisters for worshipping Mary, as they think is demonstrated by the Rosary, it is actually very much a Scriptural prayer.  Obviously, the Our Father is scriptural, and the Glory Be, while not explicitly found in Scripture, is common to most, if not all, Christians.  But even the Hail Mary finds most of its roots in Scripture.  The first part, “Hail…full of grace, the Lord is with thee,” is the greeting of the Archangel Gabriel to Mary at the Annunciation.  The next part, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb” is the greeting Elizabeth speaks to the Blessed Mother at the Visitation.  And the majority of the mysteries of the Rosary are explicitly found in Scripture, while others are implicitly found there.

   But the Rosary also grew out of a practice for illiterate people to be able to pray with priests, brothers, and monks the Divine Office, the Breviary, the other official prayer of the Church (in addition to the Mass).  In the original iteration of the Rosary, given, by tradition, by our Lady to the Order of Preachers, there were 3 sets of mysteries (joyful, sorrowful, and glorious), which each had 50 Hail Marys, just as there are 150 Psalms (50 times 3 equals 150).  I also pray with the Luminous Mysteries, and find no problem doing so (though we did not add another 50 Psalms).  The Rosary was a way for all people whether able to read or not, to join in prayer together throughout the day and week, following St. Paul’s admonition to pray constantly.

    It also helps ingrain in us these three basic prayers of Catholicism.  I have had priests tell me that they have visited patients who are dying of Alzheimers, who cannot even remember the name of their own spouse or children.  And yet, when the Rosary starts, they join in.  My own sister, Amanda, found the Hail Mary, the staple prayer of the Rosary, as a comfort for her.  When she was in the summer between junior and senior year, she was hit by another car (driven by a young man I had sponsored for confirmation) while traveling at the posted speed of 55 mph.  Her Chevy Astro (van) rolled into the corn field, and landed on her arm (she had gotten moved around a bit as the vehicle rolled).  When the car stopped rolling, she was conscious, but could not call 911.  So she prayed Hail Marys until the ambulance came, which helped keep her calm.
    Those prayers that we memorize, especially the ones in the Rosary, are made for times when we cannot think of our own words to pray.  We all know times in life when we’re just too scared, anxious, or excited for our own words to come to our minds.  At those times, we can turn to our favorite prayers, especially the Hail Mary, to ask our Blessed Mother to intercede for us.

    This feast day also commemorates the victory of the Christian fleet over the Ottoman Turk fleet at Lepanto, and so is a great example of turning to Mary when we need assistance.  The Turks had been “knocking on the door of Europe” for years and had sought a foothold in Europe so that they could take Europe for the Muslim faith.  This was a great victory that signaled the fading of Ottoman military power in the Mediterranean.  
    Where do we turn to, or to whom do we turn, when things look most bleak and dire?  It can be so easy to turn to our own machinations and wisdom, and feel that if we do not take control, then all will be lost.  Instead, as shown to us by Pope St. Pius V, who invited all Europe to pray the Rosary for the success of the Catholic fleet, we should turn to prayer, even while making necessary plans and preparations, entrusting ourselves and the situation to the providence of God.  We should, like Mary, say to the Lord, “Be it done unto me according to [God’s] word.”  It is that confidence in God’s plan that should be one of the hallmarks of our life as Catholics, knowing that God is in charge and He will work all things toward His plan of salvation, even when others, or even we, do not follow His will.  Using the metaphor of a naval battle, the waves may roll around us, and the fire around us may seem like the very gates of Hell, but if we are under our Lady’s banner, then we will not, in the end be sunk or destroyed, but will come out victorious.
    Still, that victory can take a while to develop.  We don’t simply pray the Joyful and Glorious Mysteries.  Sandwiched between them are the Luminous Mysteries which tell of some success and some struggles in preaching the Gospel, and even the Sorrowful Mysteries where it looked like all was lost.  In our life we can expect to have joy, light, sorrow, and glory, each in their own times.  But if we stay close to Mary, and view all of it in the light of Divine Providence, then nothing will shake us, no matter what happens.  
    May Mary, Mother of God and Our Lady of the Rosary, help us to ponder the life, Death, and Resurrection of Christ.  May our life also mirror her abandonment to God’s will, and may Mary be the one we turn to as we go to Christ in our joys, sorrows, and glory of life.  In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.