The Raising of the Christ Child

 We just "raised" the Baby Jesus. That is, we prayed the rosary while my sister lifted him from his little bed, dressed him in a beautiful little outfit and hat, and sat him in his little chair. We usually raise him on March 19th, Saint Joseph's Day, because that was my dad's custom, but we chose today because it's Three Kings' Day, the Epiphany of the Lord. At the end, we gave the Baby Jesus a kiss and I sang "The Kings Come from the East." Here's my Baby Jesus now raised in his Nativity scene.

The Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus

 

God is love. From the beginning of time, He had a plan for humanity, a plan for our salvation. And in that love, God thought of Mary, the Virgin Mother, Mother of God and our Mother, and of course, of salvation through Jesus, our Lord. We cannot speak of Mary without thinking of Jesus. Already in Genesis, God gives us hope when He says to the serpent in Genesis 3:15, “        I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head.”   This new woman is the Virgin Mary, and her offspring is Jesus.   Thus, God promises us a new mother and a savior, a new Eve and a new Adam.   And just as through Eve's disobedience we find death, it is through Mary's obedience that God gives us the hope of eternal life through Jesus.  For without the Virgin Mary's "yes," the life of Jesus would not have been possible.   And it is this Jesus who brings life to humanity, new life through grace.   Therefore, the Virgin Mary occupies a very important place in God's plan of salvation.   I recently heard on an EWTN program that the Virgin Mary can be compared to the Ark of the Covenant, because just as the Ark of the Covenant represented God's presence among the people of Israel, the Virgin Mary is the ark, the virginal womb that carried within her God the Son, Emmanuel, God with us.   Isaiah 7:14 tells us, “ Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign:   The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Emmanuel.”  This young woman could be none other than the Virgin Mary,  the Most Holy and Chaste Virgin before, during, and after childbirth.   This is a dogma of faith, but this ark that carried within her God the Son, this Mother of God, could not be stained by sin; therefore, she is a Virgin and was conceived without original sin.   I don't remember the saint's name because I heard it several years ago, but this is what he said about the Virgin Mary's virginity: "God willed it, He could, and He did it."   The God of creation willed to create the Virgin Mary to be the Mother of Jesus, and He chose her  from the beginning.   The mystery of the Incarnation of Jesus is undoubtedly the greatest miracle of all time.   Through Mary, the prophecies are fulfilled, and God Himself is present in our lives through Jesus, God the Son, who shows us His humility and His love and dwells among us.

First Sunday of Advent

 

Today we begin the Advent season. The deacon explained that Advent comes from the Latin word "aventus," which means coming. This means that Advent prepares us for the coming of Jesus this Christmas. The deacon told us that when we await the visit of a relative we haven't seen in a long time, we are very happy, but we also prepare the house so that when they arrive, they will find it clean and tidy. Likewise, we must prepare our souls and our hearts for the coming of Jesus. We should go to confession and avoid occasions of sin, and read the scriptures. I realized something: the Gospel of Saint Luke has 24 chapters. If we start reading one chapter a day, beginning on December 1st, we will arrive at Christmas knowing whom we are celebrating. I also read something on Facebook today that might be helpful for this Advent season; it's a quote from Saint Augustine: "Live your life in such a way that you are not afraid to die." In other words, if we live like this, we will be prepared to receive Jesus this Christmas and also for the Second Coming of Christ.

We are all called to be saints

Revelation 14:12-13

Here is what sustains the holy ones who keep God's commandments and their faith in Jesus.  I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Yes," said the Spirit, "let them find rest from their labors, for their works accompany them."

We are all called to be saints,

How much I would like to be and I am not,

Because I would also like to rest

In the lap of our Lord.

We are all called to be saints,

To obey the Father's commands

And faithfully follow my Jesus,

That following him gives us eternal life

And happiness already from today.

We are all called to be saints

To resist the evil temptation,

That without noticing it puts in the way

Because he does not want our salvation.

We are all called to be saints,

How far from that ideal I feel today

Step by step I keep getting up

If I don't know where I'm going, I follow the cross.

We are all called to be saints

For he loves us all and has created us all

To reach heaven and be happy

Here, there, even in purgatory

So that upon reaching salvation

We will rest in Him

And be His heaven

The house in which we will live

For centuries. 

Isaiah 43:1-4

1

But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, and formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name: you are mine.

2

When you pass through the water, I will be with you; in the rivers you shall not drown. When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned; the flames shall not consume you.

3

1 For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in return for you.

4

Because you are precious in my eyes and glorious, and because I love you, I give men in return for you and peoples in exchange for your life.

Reflection:

We are valuable in the eyes of God, so much so that he wanted to redeem us and not let us get lost in sin, so much so that we belong to him, and so he takes care of us, because we are his, there is no need to fear, he is always with us, having already paid a high price for our soul: Jesus on the cross paid the price of our redemption, to give us a second chance, and even more, as long as we allow ourselves to be transformed by Jesus and repentantly return to the Father.

Return to your first love!

 

One of the passages of the Bible that has caught my attention the most while reading it is found in the Book of Revelation. It's the message to the Angel of Ephesus. In it, he's asked to return to his first love, to remember where he has fallen. My life has been full of spiritual ups and downs, and it seems that when I read it, I was a little angry with God. However, through this reading, He reminded me of my first love, Jesus. I remembered my history within the Church, within its doctrine, and little by little I returned to that first love. Although I will never again have the innocence of childhood, a prayer in one of the prefaces of the Mass says that God returns it to whomever He desires. Hopefully, if we stray from that first love, we will return with renewed innocence and not forget why we learned to love God and His Church. Innocence because Jesus already said that we must be like children to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Revelation 2:1-7

1

1 2 "To the angel of the church 3 in Ephesus, write this: " 'The one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks in the midst of the seven gold lampstands says this:

2

"I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate the wicked; you have tested those who call themselves apostles but are not, and discovered that they are impostors. 4

3

Moreover, you have endurance and have suffered for my name, and you have not grown weary.

4

Yet I hold this against you: you have lost the love you had at first.

5

Realize how far you have fallen. Repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

6

But you have this in your favor: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, 5 which I also hate.

7

" '"Whoever has ears ought to hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the victor 6 I will give the right to eat from the tree of life that is in the garden of God."'

Fear Not

 He is risen!

He lives,
Jesus, the Nazarene,
who triumphed over death.
 Why should I be afraid?
He walked on water!
 He multiplied the loaves!
He made the blind see!
The sick walked,
and He gave life back to the dead,
For He reigns over life and death.
Why should I be afraid?
 Of demons? No!
He took them out of souls.
Of storms? No!
He stopped the wind.
He speaks and the entire universe hears.
Why should I be afraid?
 He conquered sin for me,
He conquered death for me,
He resurrected, the first...
Because He is First in everything,
Because He can do everything,
 He is our hope,
He is life,
 Whoever believes in Him will never die!
 Do you believe this? He asks you,
If you believe this, do not be afraid,
for nothing is impossible,
 for Him who lives and reigns!
Yes, He, Jesus, is our hope.

God Exists

 Do you have doubts about the existence of God? Doubt occurs when you're not sure about something, when you're debating whether it is a yes or a no.   In that doubt, there's room for yes, yes, yes.   If you were certain, you wouldn't have any doubts; you'd be certain that God doesn't exist, so you can give yourself the opportunity to explore the possibility that there is a God.   Those who don't believe say that man invented God.  But wait, explore the possibility of God.   Everything, absolutely everything, has a beginning, and science is increasingly getting closer to that beginning, the beginning of the universe we live in.   Just as plants grow from a seed, so the universe was born; we had a beginning. Have you heard of the Big Bang theory?   It basically states that at the beginning of the universe there was a big explosion, and from that explosion, stars, planets, and galaxies were born.   And there are laboratories where the conditions of this beginning are recreated, and we're getting closer to confirming it.   And what role does God play in science?   If there is a beginning, there must have been something that initiated that beginning.   Yes, you're thinking the same thing as me: That something was God! God, the perfection of good, God, uncreated.   Yes, God, in his infinite love, had a thought and created us.   And is this God the God the Bible speaks of? Of course, you won't believe that the universe had several beginnings. There is only one beginning, and so the beginning of all good, including the universe, is God, one God.   But if there is only one beginning and one God,   within which the three persons of the Holy Trinity fit, it is here that faith begins. It is an unfathomable mystery. But if you believe in this God of creation, then you can turn to the Bible.    And it is here, in this Bible,  where you can begin to know God. It says in Genesis 1:5:

  “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth had no form at that time; it was a deep, dark sea, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light!” And there was light. 4 When God saw that the light was good, he separated the light from the darkness 5 and called the light day; and the darkness he called night. Thus the first day was completed.”

You see? In the beginning, the Spirit of God was already there.  And so was Jesus, for he says in John 1:1-5:

 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 Through him, God made all things; without him, nothing was made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of humanity. 5 This light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not been able to extinguish it.”

You see? That Word, who was God, was Jesus.

On the first day, God, with the infinite love of a Father, created light.   On the second, the sky, the sea, and the earth.   On the third, He created plants. On the fourth, the sun, the moon, and the stars.   On the fifth, sea animals and birds.   On the sixth, land animals.   And us too! In His likeness! For love of Jesus, and for love of us, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  And a love as great as God's had to have someone to love, and believe me, that's why He created us, to love us, to be happy, so that we would believe in Him and have eternal life. And where is complete happiness? It's in responding to that love that created us, that love that is God. You see? We didn't create God, He created us. And on the seventh day, God saw that all was good, rested, and blessed this day. And how can you reconcile millennia with days? The Bible says in 2 Peter 3:8 “ 8 Moreover, dear brothers, do not forget that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. ” 

A reading from the Book of Wisdom (11:22:26 and 12:1:2)

22

⁴ Indeed, before you the whole universe is as a grain from a balance, or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth.

23

But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and you overlook the sins of men that they may repent.

24

For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned.

25

And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it; or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you?

26

But you spare all things, because they are yours, O LORD and lover of souls,

Chapter 12

1

for your imperishable spirit is in all things!

2

Therefore you rebuke offenders little by little, warn them, and remind them of the sins they are committing, that they may abandon their wickedness and believe in you, O LORD!

 

My comment:

Today (11/3/2013) I heard this Bible reading at Mass, and I must confess that shortly before Mass began, I read it. And I was amazed. In such beautiful, poetic words, a God is revealed to us who loves us so much that he says here, "He did not hesitate to create us; He loved us from the beginning despite our transgressions, our sins." The reading says that we are but a drop of dew, or a grain of dust in God's eyes. He sees in us what we can be, for He created us in His image, and that is why He only rebukes us as a father does his children, so that we may be converted, repentant, and return to Him, as that image in which He created us, which is perfected in Christ Jesus, true God and true man. Jesus shows us this compassionate God, for He came to "heal" sinners, to give us a new life, a new way of living, of seeing the world, and our fellow human beings. He is the image of God, of a love that takes pity on all and desires the salvation of all, who allows us to fall to help us rise and show us a safer path that will prevent us from stumbling. A path that runs hand in hand with Jesus.

 

Love

 Today the Gospel speaks to us about a new commandment that Jesus leaves us: Love one another as I have loved you. The deacon tells us that with this new commandment, Jesus speaks to us about the first commandment, which asks us to love God. As Saint Augustine tells us, the first Christians loved one another because they saw God in each other. That is, they loved God in their neighbors. This reminds me of a time I witnessed an Easter Vigil from inside the church. On that occasion, I watched as everyone entered with a small candle, all lit from the Paschal Candle that represents Christ. I remember understanding that we must love others because Jesus himself is within them. And He already told us: whatever you do to my least brothers is as if you were doing it to me. As a Sister of Charity of the Order of Saint Teresa of Calcutta says, sometimes the saint had to remind them that they were serving Jesus, so that they would remember that it was Jesus whose wounds they were washing and caring for. It's not for nothing that love in Latin is caritas, that is, charity. Deus caritas est, God is love. And Jesus already told us, "Be perfect as my Father is perfect." In other words, let us love as Jesus loved us, who loved sinners, who loved his enemies so much that he asked God to "forgive them for they know not what they do," who died for all on the cross, who became the servant of all so much that he washed the feet of his disciples. And perhaps we cannot perform miracles, but we can love, help our neighbors, and reach out to them if possible. Sometimes money is not needed; sometimes simply listening is a great help to those who need to be heard.