Advent Reflection: Christ, Yesterday, Today and Forever

“Be watchful! Be alert!
You do not know when the time will come… 

One of the great highlights in my life as a priest was my involvement with the 1987 Second Pastoral Visit of Pope St. John Paul II to the United States.  As part of the preparation for this historic event, liturgical composers here in our Country were commissioned to write special music for the liturgical celebrations that were a center-piece of the visit. 

Together with On Eagles Wings by the American priest composer, Jan Michael Joncas, there is probably no more beloved or familiar hymn than, I am the Bread of Life, by Sr. Suzanne Toolan.  A less well-known hymn that she was commissioned to compose for the 1987 Pastoral Visit of His Holiness, is the hymn, Jesus Christ, Yesterday, Today and Forever.   

I mention this moving hymn today as the Church enters a new liturgical year with this First Sunday of Advent, because in the simplicity of this refrain, we have captured the entire theology of the Advent Season. 

This season of hope and promise has three temporal dimensions, past, present and future upon which the eyes of our heart are to be focused.  We remember with gratitude the longing of our ancestors in the faith for that moment promised to them by God when the Lord would break into history itself and reveal the fulness of his presence in the one we call, Emmanuel – God is with us.   

Yet, Advent is no mere experience of nostalgia, wedded solely to the past.  We remember the present moment of our lives when the God of unfailing mercy and love continues to break into our lives sacramentally in the Church that is his living Body today.   

While we cherish that divine presence in the present moment of our lives, Advent calls us to look to the future – to be watchful and alert -for when the Lord of all Creation will come again – to judge the living and the dead – and to transform all of created reality in his great Second Coming. 

Past, Present and Future.  We remember the past with gratitude.  We celebrate the present with hearts filled with faith and love.  We look forward to the future coming of the Lord with Hope.  Jesus Christ, Yesterday, Today and Forever!

Sunday Reflection: Christ, King of the Universe

I myself will pasture my sheep;
I myself will give them rest, says the Lord GOD. 
The lost I will seek out,
the strayed I will bring back,
the injured I will bind up,
the sick I will heal… 

Since my teenage years, I have always been attracted by the beauty and simplicity of Byzantine iconography. This is one of the earliest forms of Christian art that emerged from Eastern Christianity.  Some years ago, during my traveling days, I acquired a splendid icon in Athens of Christ seated in Glory as King of the Universe.  In Greek, this classical depiction of Christ coming in glory at the end of time is referred to as Cristos Pantocrator.  The image exudes the sovereign power and majesty befitting the Lord of Creation.  The Lord is surrounded by a host of angels as he comes to judge his creatures at the end of time.  It is the visual depiction of the story we find in the Gospel today taken from the 25th chapter of Matthew on this Solemnity of Christ, King of the Universe. 

When we think of a King, it is only natural for our mind’s eye to go directly to one who exhibits unlimited power.  Ancient kings were absolute in their power.  How paradoxical, then, that on this Feast that conjures absolute power, that our first reading today should speak of shepherds and sheep, the very antithesis of Kings and their subjects. 

Within that paradox, my friends, stands the reality of the Lord’s true sovereignty over all creation.  Not the capricious and arbitrary power of a narcissistic potentate but, rather, the image of the simple and loving shepherd whose life is given over for his sheep – to seek out the lost, bind up the wounded and heal the sick. 

The Feast that brings to a close our Liturgical Year, a year that we will never forget, speaks of our Eternal Shepherd who will judge our hearts at the end of time precisely on how well we, too, have been there for others who were lost, abandoned, sick, imprisoned, the homeless, the naked or broken in anyway.  Christians will ultimately be judged, not for their theological brilliance or deft moral reasoning but simply how well they have recognized Christ in one another and reverenced that divine presence in one another.  

I myself will pasture my sheep;
I myself will give them rest, says the Lord GOD. 
The lost I will seek out,
the strayed I will bring back,
the injured I will bind up,
the sick I will heal…

Sunday Reflection: Children of the Day

But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness,
for that day to overtake you like a thief. 
For all of you are children of the light
and children of the day. 

My morning ritual for these past challenging months of the pandemic is to check the statistics of those who have both contracted Covid as well as those who have tragically died the day before in the New York Times.  For the past weeks, those numbers have sadly been spiking, as all the epidemiologists had soberly predicted.  Who would have thought that in this age of medical and scientific wonders that we would be facing the same pandemic challenge that the world wrestled with in 1918?  

It is so very easy for many faced with the dire predictions of the daily news to become oblivious of the Good News that should be the rock and anchor of hope for us who profess to be followers of the Christ who is the light of the world.  How easy it is for us all to let our fears paralyze us and drain our lives of the hope that will ultimately sustain us through the challenges of this life into the glory of the next. 

Those words perhaps trip easily off the lips of those who haven’t had to deal with the wrenching and agonizing death of a loved one by Covid.  Yet, even for those who have had to face the crucible of this wretched disease, all the more is the hope that Christ has brought to a waiting world for nearly 2000 years, that must be our guiding light leading us through this valley of darkness. 

As much as all of us cling to the goodness and beauty that our lives and this world brings, the Good News of the Gospel reminds us that you and I are essentially pilgrims in an alien land.  We have an eternal destiny and, as St. Augustine so beautifully stated, our hearts are restless until they rest in you, O Lord!  The author to the Letter to the Hebrews said it best when he said, We have not here a lasting city…. No, our homeland will be with the Lord and all those whom we have come to know and love in this life, in the unending glory of the life and eternal communion to come. 

And so, as St. Paul reminds us today, despite the darkness that surrounds us, let us be children of the day.  And, let us make the beautiful prayer of St. Richard of Chichester our own as we continue our pilgrimage to the promised land. 

Thanks be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ,
for all the benefits thou hast given me,
for all the pains and insults thou hast borne for me.
O most merciful redeemer, friend and brother,
may I know thee more clearly,
love thee more dearly,
and follow thee more nearly, day by day.

Sunday Reflection: Solemnity of All the Saints

“Amen.  Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving,
honor, power, and might
be to our God forever and ever.  Amen." 

Probably one of the most familiar pieces of great choral music is the beloved, Halleluiah chorus from Messiah by George Frideric Handel.  Tradition has it that when King George II heard it for the first time, he was so moved by the emotions that it stirred within him, that he stood, thus initiated the tradition to this very day that all stand for its singing.   

As much as I love this wonderful piece of music, it was always the final chorus of Messiah that claimed my heart.  Handel, in concluding his epic Oratorio of the life of the Savior, brought to a close his magnum opus by setting to music the text taken from the 7th Chapter of the Book of Revelation.   Logic gives way to poetry for the author of this final Book of the Bible to paint a dramatic picture of what will be when all of created existence is gloriously transformed in Christ at the end of time.  Scripture sings poetically a story of an intimate communion of all peoples around the throne of the Living God in loving adoration.  The brokenness of humanity will be eternally healed as with one heart and mind, the human family of the redeemed sing an endless song of praise and thanksgiving. 

On this All Saints Day, we capture a glimpse of that destiny that awaits you and me as we venerate the women and men down through the centuries who kept their eyes on the eternal prize that is promised by the God of mercy and unfailing love.  While we Catholics cherish the names and stories of those famous Saints that have endeared themselves to us, today we remember the countless unnamed Holy Ones who have been the friends of the Lord through the simplicity of their lives, unmarked and unnoticed by the world.  The countless parents who selflessly sacrificed daily in love for their children; the men and women of integrity who lived daily the Gospel-values they professed with courage and conviction; the priests and religious who brought the Good News of Christ to God’s people, not counting the cost; those who have died for their faith in godless dictatorships down through the centuries and to this very day.  Today, we give thanks to God for the witness of their lives as we, with unfailing hope, look to the day of our eternal communion with them. 

“Amen.  Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving,
honor, power, and might
be to our God forever and ever.  Amen."