More

All that we know of the life of Stephen is contained in two chapters (6 and 7) of the Acts of the Apostles. The date and place of his birth are not known. He was a Hellenistic Jew, his name is Greek (coming from the word stephanos, meaning ‘crown’) and he probably was born and even lived outside the borders of Palestine. But we do not know when or where or how he was converted to Christianity.

The first Christians held what they owned in common, so that the needs of each person were taken care of. However, Acts tells us that the Hellenists, the Greek-speaking members of the community, were complaining that some of them, especially the widows, were not being looked after properly. The Apostles, busy with their work of evangelising, felt they did not have time to take care of this problem. So seven good and prudent Hellenist men were chosen to take care of the situation. The seven were prayed over and ordained by the imposition of hands.

The names of the seven are given. Stephen, who heads the list is a man:

…full of grace and power…filled with the Holy Spirit…
(Acts 6:8; 7:55)

As well, there is Philip, known as “the Evangelist”, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas—all Greek names. Nicholas, we are told, was a convert to Judaism. They were appointed by the Apostles to look after the distribution of alms and would be called ‘deacons’. The word ‘deacon’ (diaconus) means ‘one who serves’. They also helped in the ministry of preaching.

Early on, Stephen showed himself to be a formidable debater with some of the Jews. We are told that:

…some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and others of those from Cilicia and Asia, stood up and argued with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke. (Acts 6:9-10)

These people, injured to the quick, had charges brought against Stephen, saying that he had spoken blasphemies against Moses and against God.

Stephen was then arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin, the same court that Jesus had to face during his Passion. False witnesses attested that Stephen never stopped speaking against the holy place (the Temple) and the Law (of Moses). They claimed they heard him say that “Jesus the Nazorean” would destroy the Temple and change the customs which Moses had handed down.

These, of course, were distortions of what Jesus actually said. He did say that if the temple was brought down he would raise it in three days, referring to the temple that was his own Body. And he explicitly said that no one should change one jot of the Mosaic Law, but he also said that one had to go further than the letter of the Law in interpreting its meaning (see Matt 5:17-48). Acts says that during all these accusations Stephen’s:

…face was like the face of an angel… (Acts 6:15)

Stephen, in response to the high priest’s request, then made his defence in a long speech. It took the form of a quite detailed summary of the history of the Jewish people and their stormy relationship with God, which often involved the rejection of the leaders that God had appointed to lead them. Even allowing for some editing by the author of Acts, Stephen was clearly well versed in the Scriptures and in the history of the Jewish people, as well as being an eloquent and powerful speaker.

His defence of his beliefs was that God does not depend on the Temple which, like the Law of Moses, was temporary in nature and waiting to be replaced and fulfilled by the Christ, the Messiah and Prophet foretold by Moses, and for whom the Jewish people had been waiting so long. He said, quoting from Isaiah:

Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made with human hands; as the prophet says,

‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
or what is the place of my rest?’ (Acts 7:48-49)

Stephen concluded by calling his hearers:

…stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears…
(Acts 7:51)

These were the same people who had over the centuries refused to listen to God and the leaders he appointed:

Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his [Jesus’] betrayers and murderers. (Acts 7:52)

Not surprisingly, this speech did not go down very well:

When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen. (Acts 7:54)

Then Stephen, echoing the words of his beloved Master and filled with the Spirit of God, cried out:

Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God! (Acts 7:56)

His hearers, shocked by what they regarded as absolute blasphemy (as in the case of Jesus), rushed forward, dragged Stephen out of the city and began to stone him to death.

As the men stripped to do the stoning, they piled their clothes at the foot of a young man who looked on approvingly—he was the zealous Pharisee, Saul. And as Stephen lay dying beneath the barrage of stones he was heard to cry—again in imitation of his Master on the cross:

Lord Jesus, receive my spirit…do not hold this sin against them. (Acts 7:59-60)

And then he died. This occurred probably around the year 35 AD (assuming that Jesus died about the year 33).

At least since the 4th century (or earlier), Stephen’s feast has been observed in both the Eastern and Western Churches. His cult received a boost when what was believed to be his grave was found by a priest, Lucian, at Kafr Gamala in 415. Later, his relics were moved to Constantinople, and then to Rome together with some stones believed to have been used in his martyrdom.

From early times he was the patron of deacons. He has been named patron of many churches, including a number of French cathedrals such as Bourges, Sens and Toulouse. Many churches in England were dedicated to him, especially after the Norman Conquest.

In art, he is often shown holding a book of the Gospels with a stone and sometimes a palm of martyrdom. There is a fine cycle of pictures by Fra Angelico now kept at the Vatican.

More

Commentary on Luke 1:67-79

The Gospel is the great hymn Benedictus (meaning ‘Blessed’ from its opening word in Latin), which is sung or said every day in the Divine Office at the end of Morning Prayer or Lauds.

Luke puts it into the mouth of Zechariah, the husband of Elizabeth and father of the newly born John the Baptist. Because he doubted the word of the angel, Zechariah had been struck dumb, but when—at the circumcision of his son—he confirmed that the boy’s name would be John, he recovered his speech and broke out into this song of praise.

God is praised and blessed because:

He has raised up a mighty savior for us
in the house of his child David…

This is a clear reference to Jesus.

Zechariah thanks God for having—in the person of Jesus—visited his people “and redeemed them”, just as he had promised through the mouths of the prophets down the ages:

…he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors
and has remembered his holy covenant,
the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham,
to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies…

Our ‘enemies’ are not those to whom we are hostile, for there should be no such people. Rather, they are those who wish us harm, simply because of our adherence to the vision of life that Jesus has given us.

What was the purpose of this deliverance? Was it so that we could gloat over the defeat of those who wish us harm? No, it was that we:

…might serve him without fear,
in holiness and righteousness
in his presence all our days.

There is enough there already for us to reflect on with deep gratitude.

But Zechariah goes on to speak of his newly-born son:

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways…

That will be John’s special role, to prepare the people for the coming of Jesus our Saviour. He will do that by giving:

…his people knowledge of salvation
by the forgiveness of their sins.

This will be a salvation that will come through Jesus giving his people the experience of being reconciled and reunited with their God.

It is clear that what is said by Zechariah of his son John applies very much to us also. For it is our calling to “go before the Lord to prepare his ways” for others.

All this will happen because of:

…the tender mercy of our God,
the dawn from on high will break upon us…

That “dawn” of course, is our Lord and Saviour, Jesus.

Jesus will give light:

…to shine upon those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death…

That surely includes all of us in some way. In the brightness of that light, he will:

…guide our feet into the way of peace.

The realisation of that peace and harmony in each one, in every community and throughout every society, is a sign that the Kingdom has come.

We all realise how much that peace is needed in our world, in our own society, in our own communities, in our homes and in our own selves. May the Prince of Peace come and dwell among us this Christmas.

More

Commentary on 2 Samuel 7:1-5,8-11,16

The reading from the Second Book of Samuel speaks of David’s concern to build a fitting house for the Lord. David has just settled into his new palace and it is becoming a source of embarrassment to him that, while he lives in such comfort, the Lord—whose presence is represented by the “ark of God” (Ark of the Covenant)—is still housed in a tent, as it was during the long years of wandering in the desert. This was the case from the time the Law was given on Mount Sinai up to the present situation, where David now rules as king in Jerusalem.

When David tells the prophet Nathan about this, the prophet seems to agree:

Go, do all that you have in mind, for the Lord is with you.

Nathan seems to have made this statement on his own initiative, because:

…that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, “Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in?”

The Lord then goes on to say [not part of today’s reading]:

I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. (2 Sam 7:6)

What is more, the Lord never once complained about this arrangement; he never once was heard to say:

Why have you not built me a house of cedar? (2 Sam 7:7)

There is some conjecture that here we have an echo of an opinion that was opposed to having a temple, which seemed to make Israel follow the religious practice of some of its hostile enemies, especially the Canaanites. And, of course, with the death of Jesus, the Temple came to an end for his followers, and the Lord’s presence was henceforth found in his people.

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?….For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. (1 Cor 3:16-17)

The new and enduring temple is the Christian community, which is the Body of the Risen Christ, his visible presence on earth.

But the Lord goes on to say that David had been taken “from the pasture” (where he was a shepherd boy) and made prince over his people Israel. God has been with David and his people, has protected them from their enemies, and will make David’s name great. It is a new development in the people’s relation with Yahweh. From Moses’ time, Israel was a people of twelve tribes. Now it will be a nation organised in their own land, with a central and stable authority—David and his successor kings.

In due course, the Lord will give his people a house where he will dwell. It will not be built by David but by his offspring, specifically, his son Solomon. Eventually a magnificent temple will be built, one of the wonders of the ancient world. It would be rebuilt even more magnificently by Herod the Great and, in fact, the construction was not yet finished in the lifetime of Jesus.

Today’s passage ends with the words:

Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.

The key to understanding the whole of this passage (and there are verses omitted in our reading) is to be aware of the meanings given to the word ‘house’. It refers to the palace that David has built for himself, the temple that Solomon will build and the dynasty which David will inaugurate. David will not be the one to build a house for the Lord in the sense of a temple building, but he will lay the foundations for a different kind of house, the House of David, the dynasty and long line of kings who will come after him—some of them good men and others utter scoundrels. Nor, in fact, did David’s dynasty last for ever. It fell in the year 587 BC, probably after these words were written.

Nevertheless, in the New Testament the line of David is seen reaching down to Jesus, who in the Gospel is often referred to as “Son of David”. And the Gospel for today is the Benedictus, the hymn of praise sung by Zechariah after the birth and circumcision of his son, John the Baptist. There we read:

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has looked favorably on his people
and redeemed them.
He has raised up a mighty savior for us
in the house of his child David… (Luke 1:68-69)

The implication of this passage for us in today’s Mass is that Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the new temple where God lives. We call her the ‘Ark of the Covenant’. She is a fitting place, a place of perfection without any trace of sin or evil. But later on, Paul will remind Christians that each one of them too is now a temple of God, of the Spirit of Jesus. In the New Covenant there is no longer any temple building, but “you are God’s temple”, a temple of which each one is a constitutive part.

And so we could well remember that what pleases God is not so much the beautiful churches we build for him, but the spiritual temple he wants us to build in people themselves. Once again, we ask the Prince of Peace to come and take up his abode in each one of us and let us radiate that peace to all we meet.

More

Commentary on Micah 5:1-4; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-44

The birth of Jesus is now imminent. In just a few days’ time we will be celebrating the memory of that great event. Today’s Mass prepares us for the Christmas celebration. Each of the three readings takes up a different aspect of this great mystery to help us in our understanding and in our personal preparation.

Promise of things to come
The First Reading, from the prophet Micah, sets out the promise of great things to come. The unexpected starting point will be the obscure town of Bethlehem and not some other greater centre of Israel. But the one who will come from there will be the:

…one who is to rule in Israel,
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient days.

The one who is to come:

…shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.

And his new people:

…shall live secure, for now he shall be great
to the ends of the earth.

And, very significantly:

…he shall be the one of peace [Hebrew, shalom]. (Micah 5:5)

A remote corner of Israel
This promise is magnificent, but how is it to come into existence and fulfilment? In the Gospel we come down with a bump into the real world. From the grand prophetic language of Micah we are brought to a small remote corner of Israel. Two unknown women, Mary and Elizabeth, seem to be the principal actors. There is no mention of Zechariah, the husband of Elizabeth, though he must have been around. But he had doubted the word of the angel and so he will not be able to speak until after the birth of his son.

And yet, the really important characters are the unseen children, Jesus and John. It is through their mothers that they are first brought together.

Though both women are with child, it is Mary who takes the initiative to visit Elizabeth. In a sense, that is right and proper because Mary is the younger of the two. On the other hand, we know that the status of Mary is higher because she bears within her the Son of God.

When Mary approaches, the child in Elizabeth’s womb reacts immediately. Already, before his birth, John is touched with the Spirit of Jesus. This, we might say, is his baptism. Although John will appear first on the public stage, Jesus is the real source of John’s role as prophet, and of his greatness.

At the sound of Mary’s voice, John experienced the presence of Jesus and is filled with the Spirit. Elizabeth tells Mary:

For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy.

But Elizabeth also is affected by the presence of Jesus. She bursts into praise for Jesus and his mother and says prophetically:

And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?

And by implication, she is graced with a visit from the Lord himself. Surely it is only through faith and the inspiration of the Spirit that she recognises in her younger cousin the Mother of her Lord.

Spirit of service
Already we can see a major theme of Luke’s Gospel being unfolded at this early stage in the coming of Jesus, even before his birth in Bethlehem. For we are presented with the humility of the mother and her Son. It is they who go to visit and not they who are visited. There is no question of status or ‘face’ with these two people. Even before he is born, Jesus already comes to serve and not to be served. It is through service we will recognise him as Lord. Later on he will tell his disciples:

You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. (John 13:13-15)

It is the beginning of God’s great plan to bring salvation and wholeness to the world. God’s own Son is preparing to come and live among us as a human being. He will be like us in every respect except in his freedom from sinfulness and its source—our fears and insecurity. As we party our way through the Christmas season, let us not forget what it is really about—the coming of God among us to show us the greatest love that can be shown, the laying down of one’s life for one’s friends.

We should not, then, be surprised at the Opening Prayer of today’s Mass. It reminds us to look forward to the life of Jesus, a life lived totally in love that will end in suffering and death as the way to glory and everlasting life. Christmas might seem a strange time to be thinking of the suffering of Jesus. But Jesus’ life is to be seen as a seamless robe—birth in poverty to death on a cross as the essential way to new life and glory. We celebrate his birth because of the triumphant victory of his death. He emptied himself for love of us and the Father has raised him to the highest heavens.

Total submission
All that happened from the moment of Jesus’ appearing among us as a human person can only be fully understood in the light of the passage from the Letter to the Hebrews, which is our Second Reading for today.

It is by the total submission of the Son to the will of his Father that the fulfilment of the promise becomes possible. The Father, says the Letter, is not really interested in sacrifices and oblations of animals and things:

Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body you have prepared for me;
in burnt offerings and sin offerings
you have taken no pleasure.

Instead, “a body” the Father prepared for his Son. And, united with that body as a true human being, the Son offered himself unconditionally to his Father:

See, I have come to do your will, O God…

The obeying of that will was effected by the total offering of his human self. This self-offering far transcends any other offering that could be made. No one can offer more than one’s own self.

That offering of himself will be seen in the whole life of Jesus as it unfolds in the Gospel pages, leading finally to the dramatic confrontation between love and greed, hatred and pride. Not without difficulty, Jesus will make the final offering of himself, saying:

No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (John 15:13)

The outcome will be the Cross as the gateway to Resurrection.

An invitation to follow
Jesus does not only do all this for us while we sit back and wait to be ‘saved’. He invites us to say, along with him, to the Father:

See, I have come to do your will.

Mary herself has already followed her Son, though he is not yet born. Asked as an unmarried virgin if she is willing to be the mother of Jesus and assured that, with God, all things are possible, she has already said: “Yes! Let all this happen to me as you have planned it.” At this stage, she has no idea what is in store for her, but she has said her ‘Yes’ and she will be faithful to it.

An old advertisement once asked: “Have you said ‘Yes’ yet?” It is a question that the readings of today’s Mass are asking each one of us. We are about to celebrate Christmas very soon. Probably all our other preparations have been made, or we are up to our eyes making them. But have we made the most important preparation of all? Have we said our ‘Yes’ to the Father, our ‘Yes’ to Jesus, our ‘Yes’ to all that we will experience in the coming year—our ‘Yes’ to every call that God makes, and will make, of us?

Part of the meaning of Christmas is that, by contemplating the experiences of Jesus and Mary, we learn from them how to say an unqualified and unconditional ‘Yes’, because that is where the real joy and happiness of Christmas lies. All the rest is just tinsel.

More

Note: Depending on the translation of the Bible used, today’s scriptural citations for the last two verses may be in two different chapters. For the New American Standard Bible, they will be 3:23-24, but for the New Revised Standard Version updated edition (NRSVue) Bible quoted in these commentaries, they are 4:5-6.

Commentary on Malachi 3:1-4,23-24 (or Malachi 3:1-4,4:5-6)

The prophecy of Malachi appears as the very last book in the Old Testament and is followed immediately in our Bibles by the Gospel according to Matthew. Nothing is known about this Malachi except that he probably lived in the period 500-450 BC. He speaks frequently of the Covenant and shows great respect for the supplementary priestly teaching of the Torah. His emphases on sin, judgement and repentance in preparation for the Lord’s coming mark him out as a prophet, even though his writing style is different.

The prophet writes:

See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me…

The Hebrew for ‘messenger’ is mal’aki, the name given to the author of today’s reading. But the messenger Malachi speaks about is traditionally believed to be Elijah, who would return to pave the way for the coming of the Messiah. Matthew, however, will apply this text (Matt 11:10) to John the Baptist, whose birth and circumcision are described in today’s Gospel.

John, in fact, will bring the Old Testament to a close. He carries on where Malachi, the last of the prophets, left off. He, himself, then bows out as Jesus inaugurates the New Covenant of God with his people—now the people of the whole world. In fact, the Gospel sees John as more an Old Testament figure (“the least in the Kingdom is greater than he”) because he died before the redemptive work of Jesus was completed.

The return of Elijah was an important tradition in Jewish belief, but Jesus will say that Elijah came in the person of John the Baptist:

He is Elijah who is to come… (Matt 11:14)

And, after the Transfiguration (where Elijah was seen speaking with Jesus), Jesus says to his disciples:

Elijah is indeed coming and will restore all things [i.e. get everything ready for the coming of the Messiah], but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but they did to him whatever they pleased…Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them about John the Baptist. (Matt 17:11-13; also see Mark 6:14-15)

It will be the role of John as the ‘messenger’ of Malachi’s prophecy to announce the Lord’s coming—in the person of Jesus—and bring about the fulfilment of God’s work in history.

He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents…

In Luke’s Gospel (1:17), this is foretold as being precisely what John the Baptist would do. And Jesus, the “messenger of the Covenant”, in his turn will come as a refiner and purifier to purge his people of their sin and their infidelities. He will do this through his life, suffering, passion, death and resurrection.

At the end of today’s Gospel, on seeing the circumstances surrounding John the Baptist’s birth, the people ask:

What then will this child become? (Luke 1:66)

The answer to this is in the Gospel.

But we should turn this question on ourselves. What was I expected to turn out to be? How have I, in fact, turned out?

Whatever my answer, there is still time to turn myself in the direction I know God is calling me to follow. And part of the answer will be—like John the Baptist—to go ahead of the Lord and help bring him into other people’s lives.

More

Commentary on Luke 1:46-56

The Magnificat is not exactly what one would expect to hear from the lips of a simple village girl. It has been described as a highly dangerous revolutionary statement with strong political overtones. It is Mary’s response to the greeting she received from her cousin Elizabeth, who protested that the “mother of her Lord” should come to visit her when it should have been the other way round.

The song is full of joy, especially because Mary recognises that God has acknowledged the presence of a simple girl living in a small place – in the eyes of the world, a person of no consequence. But where God is concerned, everyone is of equal consequence. She proclaims:

My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…

Then, considering her present obscurity, she makes an extraordinary prophecy:

Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me…

Blessed indeed with the unique grace of being chosen as Mother of the Incarnate God. Yet the prophecy has more than been fulfilled and is as true today as it ever was.

Mary then goes on to say that she is not the only one of God’s “little Ones” who will experience a reversal of affairs:

…indeed, his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty.

God has great things in store for his people. It is again a vision of the Kingdom, of God’s will being done on earth. It is the Good News.

All this is very much in line with the picture of Jesus that Luke will show emerging as one reads through his Gospel. His is a Gospel where the poor, the weak, the marginalised, the outcast and the sinful have a special place in the eyes of Jesus.

We, too, can rejoice with Mary in the long list of good things that we have been gifted with by our loving Lord. Those gifts are not just for our enjoyment. Our task, in accordance with those gifts, is to make sure that the love of God is tangibly experienced by the poor, the weak, the marginalised, the outcast and the sinful in our own midst.

The realisation of what Mary sings about will only take place when we all work together with Jesus to bring it about. With Mary, let us say today a resounding ‘Yes’ to God’s plans for his children.

More

Commentary on 1 Samuel 1:24-28

The reading comes from the beginning of the First Book of Samuel. In our Bible, there are two books, although there was only one in the original Hebrew. They speak about three principal characters – Samuel, Saul (Israel’s first king), and his successor, David.

The accounts of Samuel and Saul are found in the first book, while the second half of the first, and the whole of the second, deal with David. Like many of the more significant characters in the Old Testament, Samuel was born of a woman who was barren and had lost hope of having children. We mentioned already the cases of Sarah (Gen 17:16-19), Rebekah (Gen 25:21-26), Rachel (Gen 29:31; 30:22-24) and Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist (Luke 1:5-17).

As we saw in the case of Samson (see the First Reading commentary for 19 Dec), a woman giving birth late in life indicated that God played a special part in the birth of the child, who was destined for some outstanding service to God and his people. And so it is, too, with Samuel.

It all starts with an ordinary couple living a familiar drama in a hill town. A woman, afflicted with sterility, complains to Yahweh – she is not resigned to a seemingly useless life. Yahweh listens to the afflicted and his answer always exceeds what they ask for. He not only gives Hannah a son, he also gives his people a prophet.

According to the Christian Community Bible:

“God likes to choose his servants precisely from those families who have no hope of having children. It is God who gives life to the dead and hope to those who have none. The same happens with the birth of Isaac and John the Baptist (Luke 1:5). In the book of Isaiah is a poem which starts with these words: “Shout out for joy, oh you who were barren!” (Isa 54:1)

Hannah is gifted with a son, but as we saw earlier with Samson, he does not belong totally to her. The language suggests that he is ‘lent’ by God to her, because she will give him back to devote his whole life in the service of Yahweh. She dedicates the child, even before his birth, to be a minister in the sanctuary. And like Samson, his hair remains uncut as a sign of total dedication to God’s service. And, she confirms this in the final words of the reading:

For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me the petition that I made to him. Therefore I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives, he is given to the Lord.

Many a mother must have prayed like this when she saw her son leave home to become a priest or Brother or her daughter leave to become a Sister.

Immediately following the reading is the Responsorial Psalm. It is actually not from one of the Psalms, but rather from 1 Samuel (2:1, 4-8), and represents the hymn of praise and thanksgiving Hannah makes for the birth of her son:

My heart exults in the Lord my Savior.

It is an ancient poem, originally thought to have nothing to do with Samuel’s birth, but it fits perfectly into the context.

In language and context, it bears many similarities to the Magnificat, the prayer of praise and thanksgiving that is put on the lips of Mary on the occasion of her Visitation to Elizabeth, and which is given in the Gospel for today. The Magnificat, however, is more personal in tone. Hannah and Samuel, then, are seen as prototypes of Elizabeth and John the Baptist, but also, though in a different way, of Mary and Jesus.

For us, it is an opportune time to see how God has called us to his service and to what extent we are following that call. Every one of us has a ‘vocation’ – we are all, through our Baptism, called to love and service of brothers and sisters, and to working together to build God’s Kingdom on earth. We might also at this time give thanks for our parents who brought us into this world and set us on the road to Life.

More

Commentary on Luke 1:39-45

We continue reading from Luke, picking up from yesterday’s text. In the last two days we’ve heard about the two annunciations—to Zechariah and to Mary—and about the birth of two special children, John the Baptist and Jesus.

Obviously, both mothers, cousins to each other, must have been very excited about the birth of their first child. They were anxious to share together their joy and happiness.

On one hand, it would make sense for Mary to visit Elizabeth, because the younger should visit the older. On the other hand, Elizabeth should be the one to visit, because Mary’s child was a person of such rank and dignity—God’s own Son. In a way, the story is more interested in the children than in the mothers. And Luke uses his Infancy Narrative as a vehicle to present, in advance, some of the characteristics of Jesus’ future life.

Here, it is the characteristic of service that he illustrates. Jesus later on will say:

The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve…
(Mark 10:45)

And so, still in his mother’s womb, he comes to visit his cousin John, rather than wait at home to be visited.

The power of the Spirit is also much in evidence. John leaps in his mother’s womb at the very sound of Jesus’ voice. Elizabeth recognises this as the power of God in Jesus reaching out to her son. Elizabeth herself is also filled with the Spirit, and recognises in her young cousin the Mother of her Lord.

As we saw, the choice of the First Reading is interesting. It is taken from the Song of Songs (also called the Song of Solomon), a poem of the passionate love between two young people. It is a fitting expression of the love that should exist between Jesus and his followers, and between the followers themselves.

There is no such thing as a purely ‘spiritual’ love. True love literally ‘em-bodies’ the whole person—spirit, mind, emotion and body. Mary, filled with the Spirit, will soon break out into that wonderful hymn of praise that we call the Magnificat, a hymn that will proclaim the message of liberation Jesus will later deliver by word and action. We will see that tomorrow.

More

Commentary on Song of Songs 2:8-14 and Zephaniah 3:14-18 Read 21 December – First Reading »

More

Commentary on Luke 1:26-38

For us Christians, the heart of today’s Gospel passage—continuing immediately from yesterday’s text—is a turning point in the history of the world. It is so even for those who do not know Christ, or who refuse to believe in his origins.

As the story is told by Luke, Mary must have been truly alarmed at the words of her unexpected visitor. Her cousin Elizabeth is now pregnant for six months. The incident is taking place in Nazareth, not exactly the centre of the earth, or even of Palestine. A future disciple of Jesus will be heard to say with some cynicism:

Can anything good come out of Nazareth? (John 1:46)

Truly, in the eyes of the more sophisticated, Nazareth was something of a backwater. Yet this is the place God chooses to enter our world—not Rome, not Athens, not Alexandria, nor any of the other great centres of power, culture or learning in the world of the time.

The angel Gabriel greets Mary:

Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.

Gabriel is the same angel who spoke to Zechariah. How did Mary react to such an extraordinary salutation? The Gospel says that she was “much perplexed”, and well she might be. As a young girl in an obscure little town, what could the words possibly mean? “Favored one” means that she is being showered with God’s special grace. It is more something that is happening to her, than something she already has. The nature of that favour is expressed in what follows—she is to become the mother of a Son whom she is to call Jesus (meaning ‘God saves’). He will be a King:

…and of his kingdom there shall be no end. (Luke 1:33)

What really disturbs Mary is that, although she is already betrothed to Joseph, she is not yet married to him. In other words, she is not yet intimate with him as his wife. How can she become a mother? It will happen because the conception will be the work of God:

The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you…

The child who is born will be, in a very special way, the Son of God. He will also, of course, be the son of Mary. In this way we have the deep mystery of the Incarnation expressed in the language of a story. Jesus will be, at the same time, someone who is fully divine and fully human. Jesus will be the unique bridge between God and his creation. He will be human “like us in all things but sin”. He will also, through his whole life, his words and actions, be the “splendour of the Father”.

In a great leap of faith and trust in the angel’s message, Mary says ‘Yes’:

Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.

For us Christians, the moment of that ‘Yes’ is a turning point in the history of the world—as it is also even for those who do not know Christ or who refuse to believe in his origins. It is the moment of Incarnation, when the Word became flesh and began to live among us as one of us. The world would never be the same. In a way, this is a more important moment than Christmas, but it is understandable that we should tend to celebrate more the visible presence of God in Jesus at Bethlehem.

Mary had yet to learn what that ‘Yes’ involved, but it was given unconditionally and it was never withdrawn. Through a life of trials and tribulations, of which we can know surely only a fraction, right up to those terrible moments as she stood beneath the cross and saw her only Son die in agony and shame as a public criminal, she never once withdrew that ‘Yes’.

There is a clear message there for us. We too have been called in our own special way to give birth to Jesus in our lives and in our environment. We too have been called to say ‘Yes’—an unconditional ‘Yes’ to following Jesus. Now is the time for us to renew that pledge with Mary’s help and example.