Why Are Protestants Afraid of Mary?

Gospel	Luke 1:39-45 ©

Why should I be honored with a visit from the mother of my Lord?

Mary set out and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of Judah. She went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. Now as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, ‘Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honored with a visit from the mother of my Lord? For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leaped for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.’

Well, here we are.  Yes, the fourth week of Advent is upon us. In my mind, I can still remember the Thanksgiving turkey and all of the trimmings that we enjoyed.  Christmas seemed so very far away that day.  But today, like a thief in the night, the fourth Sunday of Advent is here and the fourth Advent candle joins the other three beacons of hope in announcing our wait is almost over. 

Two thousand years ago, a young virgin, who was with child, went to visit her kinswoman Elizabeth.  No sooner did Elizabeth lay eyes on Mary when the child in her womb "leaped for joy."  John the Baptist knew he was in the presence of the Messiah and joy filled his still developing body and he could not be restrained as the love he had compelled him to honor the Christ Child and he did so with an embryonic dance of love.

Our Protestant brothers and sisters have a great fear of Mary.  They are afraid that showing her the honor due to the Mother of Christ will in some manner anger Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit because it takes honor from Them and deposits it on Mary, a mere mortal. We, on the other hand, know that the first person who gave Mary the honor befitting the Mother of God was her Son, Jesus. 

There can be no argument that Jesus kept all ten of the commandments faithfully throughout His whole life without breaking even one of them, as a matter of fact, he never, ever, came close to breaking a commandment as demonstrated on how He bested the devil in the desert causing him to flee to await another opportunity.  So, in His perfect example of obedience to the standards set by the Father on Mount Sinai so many years ago.  

The obedience of Jesus would have included the fourth commandment which was "Honor your father and mother."  In the Scripture, we see that Jesus took this commandment very seriously indeed.  As a boy, once he was reunited with his parents in the temple, he went with them and was subject to them.  Imagine, the Son of God listening to a man and woman, creatures that he created. But obedience was what Christ was all about. 

The wedding feast at Cana was where we can see the obedience and respect that Jesus paid to Mary very clearly.  I can see Him looking into the eyes of His mother stating, "Mom, I am not ready yet."  Mary for her part gave Him the Mother's Stare and a smile and told the servants to "Do whatever He tells you."  So, Mary, like a good mother should launched her Son out of the nest and freed Him to begin to fulfill the work He was sent to do.   At the cross we see how much Jesus loved His mother as in His last moments He summoned almost super-human strength and placed Mary, a widow with no additional offspring, in the care of John the apostle.

Such is the care that Jesus took of His mother.  We Catholics recognize the love Jesus had for Mary and the love Mary had for Jesus.  Our Protestant friends who look to the Bible alone for all of their inspiration do not understand how very special this woman was. They are suspicious of honoring her and heaven forbid praying to her as we Catholics do.  For them, prayer is addressed to Jesus or the Father alone.  To offer prayers to someone who, when all was said and done was a mere mortal seems to them to be a very special form of idolatry that infects the Catholic Church and which leads to all sorts of forbidden things.  They fear offending God by giving Mary her due honor. They could not be more wrong.  

Jesus never sinned and He honored Mary.  We do what our Savior did for Mary is our Mother too. We ascribe no divinity no Mary, she has no powers that approach that of Jesus, as a matter of fact, the only power she has is the same one that we exercise on a daily basis, the power to pray for one another.  Addressing a prayer to Mary causes Protestants to rage at our idolatry because addressing a prayer to a mere mortal takes away that which belongs to God alone, it is sinful!  This argument falls apart when you consider the fact that each of us mortals accepts the task to pray for one another as a routine task.  Protestants consider death a door that nothing can penetrate.  For them, you are either alive or you are dead.  If you are alive, well then you can pray for someone else, even though you are acting as a mediator between them and Christ.  What?  Horror of horrors!  Perhaps praying for one another is sinful?  (Hint: it is not sinful to pray for one another and it is okay to be a mediator for your brother or sister when you pray for them.)

In actuality, death is not a door, it is a portal to the world of God which we call heaven.  We lose our bodies when we die but we do not lose that which God created in His image and likeness, our souls.  We are dead in body but really alive in spirit and we join with the uncounted millions upon millions of souls that went before you know, people like mom, dad, grandfathers, grandmothers, aunts, uncles, and sometimes even our children.  They are not dead, they live with God, Jesus, The Spirit, and yes, Mary in heaven.  These "dead" relatives form one arm of the Communion of Saints.  We know that those in heaven view the Majesty of God in real-time and without the veils that are present during our encounters with the Trinity on earth.  Even Mary did not get the invitation from an appearance of God to her, but from the Angel Gabriel who was the Father's special messenger. 

So, Protestants of the world, do not be afraid of honoring Mary because the practice was not started by the Catholic Church but rather it was started by the founder of the Catholic Church, a fellow named Jesus who was born in Bethlehem, and after a fruitful life of sewing seeds and growing HIS Church, He chose to die for all of us on the Cross.  He started the practice of honoring Mary as the Mother of God,  we Catholics are just following the example He gave us as recorded in the Bible. 

Saint Joseph - A Strong and Humble Man

Gospel	Matthew 1:18-24

How Jesus Christ came to be born

This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph; being a man of honor and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally. He had made up his mind to do this when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.’ Now all this took place to fulfill the words spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son

and they will call him Emmanuel,

a name which means ‘God-is-with-us.’ When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do: he took his wife to his home.

Enter stage left a new character in our drama.  We see a man, his hands are the hands of a working man, he is proud of the work he does, which is that of a carpenter. While he is not old, he is not a wild-eyed youth either.  He has been around and knows life, both the good and the bad.  He is head over heels in love with a young girl named Mary and today she is returning from an out of town trip where she visited her kinswoman, Elizabeth.  He could hardly wait for her.  He was making great strides in preparing a home for his soon to be bride.  He would make her as comfortable as a carpenter could in this town. Then he saw her. He went up to her and he noticed that her figure was fuller than it was when she left three months ago. The joy in her heart was flowing over when she saw Joseph and he asked her if what he thought was true and she answered that it was, she was pregnant. Joseph's heart broke. He was betrothed to Mary and while that conveyed the rights of a husband over her, it was custom to wait until the wedding to consummate the marriage.  He had no knowledge of her.  He looked into her eyes and without another word, he walked away, tears forming in his eyes.  Mary did not run after him.  She turned and went into her family home and to the room where the angel had spoken to her three months earlier.  She prayed and was rewarded for her prayer as the Lord instilled a calmness into her and she knew in her heart that all would turn out well. 

Joseph, on the other hand, was in a stew. He was an honorable man with a keen sense of justice and he knew that he could not wed the girl since she had been unfaithful to him.  If he denounced her and swore that he had not had intercourse with her and if she was indeed found with child, there would be no choice but she would be condemned to death and would be stoned.  He could not see his way clear to do this to her.  She had broken his heart but he still loved her and would do nothing to harm her in spite of her betrayal.  He resolved to send her away to have her child and to stay out of his town and his life.  He would remain celibate and alone and in deep mourning for the foreseeable future.  His world, which was so beautiful when he opened his eyes and rubbed the sleep out of them this morning had crashed and changed into a world of sorrow and woe.  He began to weep bitterly and he fell into a deep sleep.  As the night wore on, Joseph dreamed about the life he would now not enjoy.  Even in his dreams the pain of betrayal infiltrated and changed the joyful into the sorrowful. It was right before he woke up when the dream changed again.  This time he was in a beautiful forest, in a clearing.  The air was cool and crisp and he was looking up into a blue sky when the sun appeared overhead and he raised his arm to shield his eyes.  The glow penetrated his hand and dazzled him but did not cause any pain.  There was an angel in front of him with a kindly face and he carried a golden spear.  He looked lovingly at Joseph and Joseph heard inside his mind these words. "Do not scruple to take Mary as your wife.  The child she carries is holy and the offspring of the Holy Spirit.  Be a father to the boy, bring him up in righteousness and train him for He is the Messiah, the promised one.  You are a just man, Joseph, and God has chosen you for this mission."  Joseph immediately agreed and with that, he awoke to a new day, his heart as light as a feather.  He hastened to the house of Mary and on that day he took her into the home he had been preparing for them.  He told Mary that he now understood.

Joseph was a man of deep faith, he had to be.  No actual angel came to guide him, he just had dreams.  His faith in God and the love he had for Mary carried the day.  Very little is known about Joseph.  He is mentioned even less than Mary in the Gospels. But we know him to be the model father that brought up the child Jesus.  He was called home early in our story because he is not at the wedding feast at Cana when Jesus begins his ministry nor is he at the Cross when Jesus died because if he had been, it would have been his duty to bury his son and we know that his disciples took charge of the broken Body and laid it in a tomb.

Joseph is an example of trust.  Learn to trust in God and He will guide you along.  This honest and humble man descended from the family of David gave Jesus his name and taught Him the humble work of a carpenter.  Jesus was a son to Joseph and Joseph was a father to Jesus. 

Please, remember the Poor Souls in Purgatory during this Advent season. 

The Simple Truth

Gospel	Luke 3:10-18

'Someone is coming who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire'

When all the people asked John, ‘What must we do?’ he answered, ‘If anyone has two tunics he must share with the man who has none, and the one with something to eat must do the same.’ There were tax collectors too who came for baptism, and these said to him, ‘Master, what must we do?’ He said to them, ‘Exact no more than your rate.’ Some soldiers asked him in their turn, ‘What about us? What must we do?’ He said to them, ‘No intimidation! No extortion! Be content with your pay!’

  A feeling of expectancy had grown among the people, who were beginning to think that John might be the Christ, so John declared before them all, ‘I baptize you with water, but someone is coming, someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandals; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fan is in his hand to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn in a fire that will never go out.’ As well as this, there were many other things he said to exhort the people and to announce the Good News to them.

IT IS REALLY SIMPLE SOMETIMES

I guess I am a lazy person because I really like it when these reflections just about right themselves.  Our Gospel reading for this third Sunday in Advent is a reading that lends itself to this.  We humans like to make things more complicated than they need to be at times.  John, anticipating the teaching of his cousin breaks it down for the people. 

DEFEATING THE ME FACTOR

First, ordinary people come and ask John what is it that they could do to prepare for the Messiah.  He keeps it simple.  He tells us that we should step out of ourselves, look less at what is good for "me" and share with those in need.  Again he keeps it simple.  Clothe the naked and feed the hungry. To the tax collectors, he says to be honest and to do your job, collect only what is due. Next came the soldiers.  They were told to be content with their pay and not to demand through intimidation money from innocent citizens. 

LET'S MAKE IT REALLY SIMPLE 

We can boil this down to its organic essence, free from additives or complications and needing very little by way of explanation.  Stop doing evil and start doing good.  Make the world a better place by thinking of others before you think of yourself.  That's it.  Look outside of your little world and engage with those in need around you.

A VIEW OF THE MESSIAH

John also gives us a view of the Messiah that is at odds with the thinking of the time.  The Messiah was going to save Israel, throw the Romans out, bring back the glory days of David, and make Israel the number one nation. Hot Dog!  They could hardly wait!  But what is it that John says about the Messiah?  He says that the Messiah will separate the useful from the useless, the good from the bad.  The good will be gathered up and the chaff, that which is blown away by the winnowing fan, will be cast into an everlasting fire.  

COULD HE BE THE ONE?

John spoke as no other prophet had spoken to the people up to that time.  The people, the pew dwellers of the day, could see that his teaching was new, novel, and they had never heard such a thing from the learned Pharisees and Sadducees in the temple. John tells them that he is not the Messiah and that he, John, is not worthy to stoop down and untie the Messiah's sandal. The people, I believe, read between the lines and while John was not the Messiah, it seemed that the Messiah was very close to arriving. The crowd left wondering if they were the generation that would see the Messiah.  

SO IT IS REALLY SIMPLE

Listen to John.  Stop doing bad and start doing good.  Turn away from evil, repent, and start walking with the Messiah. Prepare the way as John did.  Let everyone know what you know.  Life can be good if we look around and share with one another.  The Messiah is coming and is already in our hearts. 

Prayer for the Holy Souls in Purgatory by St. Gertrude the Great

According to tradition, St. Gertrude the Great was told by Our Lord that the following prayer, each time she piously recited it, would release 1,000 souls (or a vast number) from their suffering in purgatory:

“Eternal Father,
I offer You the most precious blood
of thy Divine Son, Jesus,
in union with the Masses said
throughout the world today,
for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory,
for sinners everywhere,
for sinners in the universal Church,
for those in my own home,
and in my family. Amen.”

What Is Pope Francis Thinking? - Is He In Over His Head?

Okay, I know that I use this space and your time to reflect a bit on the daily reading/  Today's reading at mass speak about how John the Baptist fulfills the prophecy regarding Elijah returning before the Messiah comes.  The readings are self-explanatory and I have already written all I care to about John the Baptist.  Today, I want to speak about Pope Francis and his leadership and where he has brought the church to during his reign. 

WHERE MY LOYALTIES ARE

I am a faithful Catholic and I have believed and continue to believe that where Peter is, there is the Church.  To believe anything else would, in effect, be slapping Jesus in the face and telling Him that He is not able to protect His Church as He said He would. I do not desire to ask him to step down.  The care and feeding of one retired pope is enough for one generation. I believe that when it comes to faith and morals and any definitive teaching from the chair of Peter that Francis makes will enjoy the benefit of being infallible. Outside of that which is promised by Jesus and delivered by the Spirit, I question some of the things he has done, said, and not done, and not said.  

HIS LEADERSHIP STYLE

I wish I had the words to describe the leadership style of Pope Francis because as best as I can tell is that he does not have one. He makes spur of the moment pronouncements on airplanes and at audiences that seem to come out of nowhere and often require the Sala Stampa to rush to fill in the vacuum that his words create.  He seems to speak without considering the consequences of what he has said. He incites liberal clerics to float liberal ideas and he seems to give them informal approval but he never explains what his thoughts are on the subject.  He leaves questionable pseudo-teachings to hang in the air being held up by nothing more than skyhooks. 

CHINA 

If I could have a private conversation with Francis, I would ask him straight out about the China "deal" he brokered. I would ask him if he was out of his flipping mind or if this deal were the first signs of senile decay creeping into his thought process.  To make a pact with the communist government of China defies all logic.  Okay, religion is not logical but statecraft is and the Church gets nothing from signing this deal with the devil. The Jesuit martyrs shed their blood in vain.  The underground Church, which is completely loyal to the Vatican and is passing on the true beliefs of the Catholic Church to its members has been betrayed.  Two bishops have been asked to step down by Francis to be replaced by bishops that belong to the "patriotic association church."   The store has been turned over to the shoplifters. Has the persecution of the Church in China ended with the signing of this secret protocol?  Heavens no.  Churches are still being demolished and priests have been taken into custody.  We got nothing, absolutely nothing, except a photo op and a page two story in some papers.  Francis, what were you thinking?  

COMMUNION AND THE DIVORCED AND REMARRIED

Francis has made some informal pronouncements regarding the receipt of communion for persons who have divorced and remarried but have not obtained an annulment of the first marriage.  Traditionally, people in this state are not supposed to receive communion until they have gone through the annulment process which goes back to the first marriage and states that there were canonical reasons that the marriage covenant that was entered into by the parties was not sacramental in nature and therefore in the eyes of the Church, it did not as a sacrament exist, but only was a marriage in the civil sense of the term.  Francis said in an impromptu fashion that there could be a path other than annulment to rehabilitate these couples in the interest of charity.  The song was taken up by bishops and embellished and fleshed out, especially by Cardinal Casper and it was at this point the Holy Father stopped speaking about it.  Diverse opinions were all over the place and some bishops started to welcome divorced and remarried people to the altar to receive communion.  Other bishops, scandalized by the prospect of this event, sent a question to Francis asking for clarification.  That was about a year ago, I believe, and Francis has been silent about it while the Church stews and argues amongst itself and those of us who have undergone getting an annulment are asking ourselves, "Why?"   Sometimes when a leader is silent on a subject, it speaks volumes.  In this case, however, the silence of Francis is just that, silence and the Church bubbles and fizzles waiting for guidance.  Let me know when that guidance comes and if it is in line with traditional Catholic Doctrine. Actually, let me know if Francis says anything about this.

SEX AND THE SINGLE PRIEST 

Perhaps there is no place where the inept leadership of Francis has done more harm than in the continuing, never-ending, always entertaining (to the enemies of the Church) sex scandal.  I am not sure if Francis is keeping up to date with what is happening in this part of his domain. He has done very little to combat the abuse a certain minority of church employees have committed over the last fifty or sixty years.  The investigators keep finding more and more as they go back further and further.  By ones and twos he is accepting the resignation of a bishop here and defrocking a priest here and there and he is speaking about protecting youth ad nausium.  Francis, wake up and smell the coffee.  The youth are protected, at least in the United States. For example, as a choir member at my church, I have to submit to a background check every year because it is possible that my ministry may bring me into contact with children once or twice in that year.  I had to take training on how to comport myself around youth.  I have to be aware that I should never be alone and out of sight with a young person unless a second adult is with me.  No, Francis, the youth are pretty much protected.  The scandal is that bishops and cardinals have developed the long black line of protection and silence that keeps the perpetrators happily plying their trade as they move them from church to church hoping against hope that the mentally deficient priest can conquer the personal devils that dwell within him and will not offend again.  Here again, we have silence where there should be commands and we have actions that are too little and too late to make a difference.  It is a shocking truth that the Church in America is in danger of being convicted of being a continuing criminal enterprise because of the ill-advised actions that were taken by the magisterium in America over the years.  Imagine, the same laws that put Gambino in jail might be used by America's pro-Protestant regime to punish the American Church.  Payments made to victims over the years were nothing more than hush money and the money came from the faithful and their donations so it was a fraud perpetrated against us, the pew-dwelling public.  Francis is right to condemn what has happened but his words ring hollow because they are not being followed through with action.  Even a Cardinal that had been sanctioned by Pope Benedict, who decreed that the cardinal  should spend the rest of his life out of the spotlight and live a life of prayer and penance for the crimes he had committed was rehabilitated by Francis and rose steadily in the ranks until now he is a major embarrassment to the Church once again. This mess was completely avoidable as Francis knew or should have known the circumstances that were attached like a devil's tail to this criminal.  Finally, there is the possibility that Francis himself engaged in the Wack a Mole game of priest transferring when as a prelate in his native land.  How can he dispense justice when he himself may be guilty of the same crime?  

CONCLUSION

I hear you breathing a sigh of relief.  Michael the Lesser has gone off on a tangent.  If you have read this far, thank you.  I admire Francis.  He is a gentle soul with a humble heart and does many good works of charity.  When he visited Korea, he was driven around not in a limo, but rather in the backseat of a KIA soul - a working man's car.  He visits prisons and has no problem engaging in dialogue with people of other denominations or faiths.  He is an example of how a man should be, a friend and servant to all.  That being said, I have to say I do not think he is a good pope.  It will be left to history as to what his reign will wreak upon the Church for good or bad.  I know that the church will survive even the papal reign of Francis.  I am saddened that a papal reign that started with such great promise has ended up stuck in muck and mire that for the most part are of his own making.  If I could speak to Francis, to give him a one on one evaluation, I would congratulate him for being such a good example of humility and I would castigate him for being such a silent and lackluster leader.   PRAY FOR OUR HOLY FATHER THAT HE RECEIVES SOME INSPIRATION AND STEPS UP AND BEGINS TO PILOT THE BARQUE OF PETER, WE NEED HIM TO DO THAT, WE CAN LOOK TO NO OTHER AT THIS TIME.

Be Not Afraid

First reading	Isaiah 41:13-20

I, the Holy One of Israel, am your redeemer

I, the Lord, your God,

I am holding you by the right hand;

I tell you, ‘Do not be afraid,

I will help you.’

Do not be afraid, Jacob, poor worm,

Israel, puny mite.’

I will help you – it is the Lord who speaks –

the Holy One of Israel is your redeemer.

See, I turn you into a threshing-sled,

new, with doubled teeth;

you shall thresh and crush the mountains,

and turn the hills to chaff.

You shall winnow them and the wind will blow them away,

the gale will scatter them.

But you yourself will rejoice in the Lord,

and glory in the Holy One of Israel.

The poor and needy ask for water, and there is none,

their tongue is parched with thirst.

I, the Lord, will answer them,

I, the God of Israel, will not abandon them.

I will make rivers well up on barren heights,

and fountains in the midst of valleys;

turn the wilderness into a lake,

and dry ground into waterspring.

In the wilderness I will put cedar trees,

acacias, myrtles, olives.

In the desert, I will plant juniper,

plane tree and cypress side by side;

so that men may see and know,

may all observe and understand

that the hand of the Lord has done this,

that the Holy One of Israel has created it.

We live in a crazy world, that is a statement that needs no defense. In France, they suffered yet another terrorist attack where innocent people were put to the sword while enjoying some time with family and friends at a Christmas market.  In my hometown of Chicago, brother kills brother in gunfights that would have appalled gunslingers of the old west at the hatred and violence that they display.  An innocent child, asleep in her bed was riddled with five bullets fired by a stranger at her from her bedroom window.  Men and women with money sacrifice their souls in pursuing chemical highs that take their mind off of their prosperity and to help propel themselves into despair and poverty.  We fear the city, we fear the small town, we fear the lonely countryside for man is man's worst enemy and he is a predator in all of these places.  What are we to do?

The Lord tells us to not be afraid, He hears us and He hears our prayers, he sees our poverty, he feels our fears.  He is ready to move His arm and change everything in a heartbeat in the desert of our heart is ready to sow a forest of good and to help us bear fruit and to build up His kingdom.  He waits for us to turn to Him and say, "Father, I have sinned. treat me as a hired hand." Yet, when we turn to Him, He will treat us as a prince of the land, as an heir to His fortune and nothing will be too good for us.  The evil things, He will defeat and change what is bad into things that are good. His love will fill our hearts and with joy, we will drink at a place where at one time there was only dust and dry sand.  We will eat the fruit of the land at a place where at one time there were only brambles, weeks, and thickets.  We will be refreshed body and soul and God's life will flow through our veins and we will know a happiness that no power can ever take from us.  Be not afraid young warrior, God is with us and for us forever. 

Here is a golden oldie Advent hymn for you:

Searching for Jesus Until He Finds Us

Gospel
Matthew 18:12-14

The one lost sheep gives him more joy than the ninety-nine that did not stray

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Tell me. Suppose a man has a hundred sheep and one of them strays; will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hillside and go in search of the stray? I tell you solemnly if he finds it, it gives him more joy than do the ninety-nine that did not stray at all. Similarly, it is never the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.’

Sheep are rather dull-witted animals.  But, I guess they have a pretty good life.  I mean that there is always a human being, usually somewhat smarter then they are looking after them.  They live their lives peacefully.  They spend much of the time eating and growing wool which their master comes and cuts off of them every so often, they don't seem to mind.  On their list of things to do every day, thinking is way down at the bottom of the list.  Once in a while one of them, usually a lamb, too young to even know how dangerous it is to stray from the flock, wanders off, drawn by a weed that looks different or perhaps he just wants to get a better look at that tree over yonder.  He wanders off and soon the flock is out of sight.  Noone in the flock seems to know that he is missing.  No, the flock is very happy eating, bumping each other to get to a better-looking patch of grass and making noise just to hear themselves.  

The shepherd senses something is wrong.  He knows his sheep and he counts them and sees one is missing.  He immediately leaves the herd and starts to look for the lost lamb.  Meanwhile, our lamb has gotten caught in a thicket.  He sings a plaintive song which soon becomes a song where panic can be heard as an undertone.  A wolf is in the neighborhood and the wind brings him the cry of the lamb. He knows where the herd is and he stays away because when he gets close, the shepherd, a man with no sense of humor when it comes to the welfare of his flock, chases him away with stones and runs at him with his stick ready to flay the tar out of the wolf.   So he backs off and will only approach when conditions are right.  The sound of a lamb in trouble is his call to lunch.  He begins to make his way to where the sound of the scared lamb casserole on the hoof draws him.  Our shepherd too hears the cry of the lost one.  It is coming from the thicket grove which is rich with thorned plants that probably have caught the lost lamb who must be out of his mind (such as it is)  with fear.  There is no time to waste. The shepherd picks up his pace and makes for the sound of his lost little lamb. 

The wolf also has picked up his pace, the growling in his stomach serving to add spring to his step.  He arrives at the thicket before the shepherd does.  He growls and saliva drips from his mouth as he bares his teeth at the lamb.  The lamb sounds the alarm and just as the wolf was going to leap and claim his prize, he is pelted with three good sized rocks which sting him and one of them draws blood.  He turns around and there on the high ground is the shepherd.  There is no time to consider what to do, another rock hits him in the side.  The shepherd comes running with his deadly crook high above his head.  The wolf beats feet thinking that lamb is fattening, maybe he should look for a nice rabbit for lunch.   The lamb hears the shepherds voice and is calmed.  He knows he is safe.  With a bit of pulling, the lamb, shaking in fright, is freed from the bramble and the shepherd carries him on his neck back to the safety of the herd. 

Jesus is our shepherd.  He knows each one of us better than we know ourselves.  He watches out for us.  He loves each one us with a love that we will never understand because it is so deep and so strong.  He loves each member of the herd.  The herd though is a nameless gathering of sheep. His love goes deeper.  He loves you as an individual.  He loves you because he sees you like the special, unique creature that you are.  There is no one just like you.  He created you and there is no duplicate anywhere in the world.  Even if you are one of a set of identical twins, He knows who is who and can tell which is which better than their mother can.  He has such love for you that he died so that you might inherit eternal life with Him in heaven. He rose so that you would not be afraid of death because you would know that it was not an end.  He loved you so much and is such a good shepherd how can we ignore Him? 

Our days are busy as we go from one thing to another and we fall into bed dead tired at night and we don't take time to pray.  We need to be less busy and more attentive to the spiritual side of ourselves. A minute or two is all He asks for. He did so much for us, can't we give him just that minute before we sleep or before we rise for the work of the next day?  Perhaps we can stop the clock for just a minute or two to say a prayer of thanks for all that He has done and all that He continues to do for us.  Make it a point to have a prayer minute, just sixty seconds, sometime during the day.  It will start you on the road to becoming a prayer warrior.  

Please remember the Poor Souls in Purgatory today, they really need your prayers.  Thank you for whatever you can do during your busy, busy day. 

Upsetting The Apple Cart

First reading	Isaiah 35:1-10

The return of the redeemed through the desert

Let the wilderness and the dry-lands exult,

let the wasteland rejoice and bloom,

let it bring forth flowers like the jonquil,

let it rejoice and sing for joy.

The glory of Lebanon is bestowed on it,

the splendor of Carmel and Sharon;

they shall see the glory of the Lord,

the splendor of our God.

Strengthen all weary hands,

steady all trembling knees

and say to all faint hearts,

‘Courage! Do not be afraid.

‘Look, your God is coming,

vengeance is coming,

the retribution of God;

he is coming to save you.’

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,

the ears of the deaf unsealed,

then the lame shall leap like a deer

and the tongues of the dumb sing for joy;

for water gushes in the desert,

streams in the wasteland,

the scorched earth becomes a lake,

the parched land springs of water.

The lairs where the jackals used to live

become thickets of reed and papyrus...

And through it will run a highway undefiled

which shall be called the Sacred Way;

the unclean may not travel by it,

nor fools stray along it.

No lion will be there

nor any fierce beast roam about it,

but the redeemed will walk there,

for those the Lord has ransomed shall return.

They will come to Zion shouting for joy,

everlasting joy on their faces;

joy and gladness will go with them

and sorrow and lament be ended.

The Hebrews expected a lot from the Messiah when He came. There are more extravagant claims than the ones in our reading from Isiah today found in writings from the time. For example, when the Messiah came, all Jews would return to their homeland.  Notice I said all Jews. This meant that the living and the dead would return.  The dead would rise from their graves or some said roll underground and awake on the streets of the new Jerusalem. In any event, things would change when the Messiah came.  Did Jesus deliver?

Well, when we look at the world of yesterday and the world of today, we still have deaf people, blind people, lame people, dry dusty deserts, fierce beasts still populate our jungles and things are pretty much as they were before Jesus came.  What is going on here?  Did He fail in His mission? 

The answer to that question, of course, is no.  Jesus conquered the two greatest problems on earth that of sin and death. He truly upset the apple cart of the natural world where death was forever and sinfulness the natural state of man.  He truly upset the apple cart of the world.  In the end, we will have eternal life with God in heaven.  His sacrifice on the cross made this possible.  But, had he only died, there would have been little proof that He was anyone special.  On the third day after his messy and painful death, he conquered death and rose from the grave, vanquishing the foes of mankind forever and securing the ultimate victory. 

This advent season is given to us as a gift.  It is a time for us to use to prepare to welcome the Savior into our hearts.  At this time of year, we await the little child and God does not disappoint us. He gives us Jesus in all his glory, a small, vulnerable, poor child, wrapped in rags and lying in a manger.  He upset the apple cart once again.  He came to us meek and humble and full of love for all that He had created.  Prepare your heart in the coming two weeks to receive the Child into your heart and allow this babe to make your deserts places of life and to tame the wild animals that haunt your dreams.  Let Him open your ears, your eyes, your mouth, and let Him restore the strength to your legs so that you may sing His praises and bring the story of your redemption to others. 

A hauntingly beautiful Advent hymn for you. ( 1 min 42 sec)

Please remember the Poor Souls in Purgatory this week.  They need your prayers.