3rd Week of Advent 2024 - Monday - Star and Staff

 During the first two advent weeks, we read predominately from Isaiah, the prophet of the Babylonian exile, and his promises to captive Israel of the coming Messiah. Well, our old testament readings over the next week will include a smattering of prophecies from the Old Testament; for Isaiah was neither the first nor the last of the prophets to foretell the Messiah’s coming.

We read today from one of the most ancient books of the old testament, from the Pentateuch book of numbers, one of the five books of moses. Numbers describes the wilderness experience of the Israelites as they wandered 40 years in the desert after departing Mt. Sinai. And after wandering for 40 years, the Israelites come to the plains of moab, on the east bank of the Jordan river. And there, a group of Israelite elders encounter a Moabite prophet named Balaam, son of Beor. And it is through Balaam, this non-Israelite, as we heard this morning that the God of Israel issues one of the very first prophecies of the Messiah in the Old Testament.

Balaam prophecies of a king who will defeat the enemies of Israel, who will know the thoughts of God, whose wells shall be over-flowing. 

Then, Balaam speaks of the king’s birth: “A star shall advance from Jacob, and a staff shall rise from Israel.” Here of course is a prophecy of the star of Bethlehem which would guide the Magi to the newborn Messiah. 

The “staff” signals that the Messiah would come from the lineage of a king of Israel—certainly an interesting prophecy, since Israel would not even develop a monarchy for hundreds more years. Additionally, to many of the ancient peoples, like the Moabites, stars were themselves considered divinities that watched over the earth. The coming of a star, then signaled a divinity being involved in the rise of this king. 

Little did Balaam or Moses know that this was in reference to the fact that the Messiah-King would also be God himself in the flesh. 

A star which would lead them to the presence of the one true God-made-flesh, the king of kings that would defeat the most ancient foes of Israel—sin and death. 

In the Gospel passage, the chief priests and elders question Jesus about the authority by which He acts and teaches. While they are unable—or unwilling—to recognize His divine commission, the earlier reading from Numbers reminds us that true authority comes from God and that God’s chosen one was prophesied long ago. The star from Jacob and scepter from Israel signify that God will raise up a ruler with legitimate authority, one who does not need to rely on human endorsement. Jesus, in refusing to disclose the source of His authority to the questioners, indirectly highlights that His authority is neither borrowed nor dependent on human recognition. Instead, it is rooted in the divine plan revealed through the centuries. 

In these final Advent days, let us grow in wonder and awe at the God’s plan to deliver us, and deepen our love for Jesus the Messiah, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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For the Church: That in these remaining days of Advent, the Church grow in  greater wonder and awe at God’s saving plan.

For all peoples and nations and that leaders may be guided by divine wisdom, working to bring about justice, peace, and the dignity of every human person, as they acknowledge the true authority that comes from God alone.

For those who struggle to believe: That the star of God’s truth may shine upon all who wander in doubt or darkness, leading them to encounter the Messiah who fulfills the deepest longings of the human heart.

For our parish: That as we reflect on the divine authority and kingship of Christ, we may grow in reverence, deepen our love for the newborn King, and await His coming with joyful expectation.

For those who are sick, weary or burdened: That in moments of hardship and uncertainty, they may draw strength from the promise of a Messiah-King who defeats sin, brings overflowing blessings, and comforts those who suffer.

For the faithful departed: That they may be welcomed into the fullness of God’s kingdom, especially, N. for whom this mass is offered. 

Gracious Father, you have guided your people through centuries of waiting and longing. Hear our prayers today, and lead us ever closer to your Son, the Messiah foretold by prophets and revealed in the humble stable of Bethlehem. Through Christ our Lord. 

Epiphany 2024 - Star worshippers, astrology, and reordering life to Christ

 In keeping with the ancient practice, following the proclamation of the Epiphany Gospel, I just chanted what is called the announcement of Easter and the Moveable Feasts for this liturgical year.  

Before the age of mass-produced calendars and smart phones, the chanting of the feasts was a practical necessity; now, we do it as a way of remaining rooted to Catholic tradition, and to remind us to plan our year around Christ—to order our year—to orient our lives to Christ. 

And in a very real sense, that’s what the feast of the Epiphany is all about, reordering. The birth of Christ has reordered creation, it has reordered time, it has reordered history, and it has reordered humanity. The Magi from the east, following the star to Christ, illustrates this reordering. 

There is an ancient hymn from the Eastern Orthodox liturgy that talks about this reordering. It goes like this: Your Nativity, O Christ our God, / has shone to the world the Light of knowledge; / for by it, those who worshipped the stars / were taught by a star to adore You, / the Sun of Righteousness, / and to know You, the Dawn from on High. / O Lord, glory to You!”

Those who worshipped the stars, referring to the magi, were reoriented, they were taught by a star to adore Christ. 

In the ancient east, and many parts of the world, the stars had tremendous significance; so much so, that many peoples actually worshipped the stars. 

Learned ones, like the magi, of course could keep track of the seasons by studying the stars. Keeping track of the winter and summer solstice, and the spring and autumn equinox, was even a matter of survival. The stars told people when to plant their crops. Plant too early, or plant too late, and your family, your village, would starve. The stars could be counted upon. They were a source of stability in an otherwise chaotic universe. And for that reason, it’s not too difficult to grasp why the ancients worshipped the stars as divine beings. For what is religion but that which helps us to order our lives to something that is greater than ourselves.

So, the gentiles—the pagan world—were star worshippers. The Sumerians, the Babylonians, where the magi in the gospels were from, the Egyptians worshipped the celestial bodies. For the Romans, mercury, venus, mars, Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn, were the names of not just planets, but gods. Many of the constellations—Orion, cassiopia, Hercules—are named after gods who were worshipped. 

It’s also not too difficult to grasp why astrology has been so popular throughout the millennia. Now it’s considered rather silly to think that the position of the stars and planets have any bearing on our personality or world events. But that’s because of Christ. Why are we not worshipping planets and stars right now? Because of Christ.

The Feast of Epiphany celebrates this. It celebrates the pagan world, once bound by error and idolatry—enslavement to stars—now through the birth of Christ  being given the invitation to know and worship the one true God. The magi, representing all the star worshippers of the world, now come to know, adore, and worship the maker-of-the-stars-made-flesh. 

Notice the gifts which the magi bring to the Christ child. The bring gifts, not just fit for a king, but fit for a god. And to this day, we still use these gifts to worship him. We use gold—in our church vessels and furnishings. We use oil—to anoint—to open the soul to divine life. We use frankincense—as part of our worship—to acknowledge the presence of God. 

The time for astrology has passed. We don’t look to the stars for answers to guide our life, we look to the creator of the stars, who has made himself known, and who has entered into this world, to save man from idolatry, error and sin.

In fact, scripture and our catechism explicitly prohibit astrology. The Catechism lists astrology as a sin against the first commandment. It says, “All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to "unveil" the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums...contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.”

As our western culture continues to reject Christ more and more—we are seeing a rise in popularity and interest in astrology and occult practices. Instead of converting to truth, the world is reverting—regressing, going backwards. If you pay attention to pop culture, you see occult and demonic symbolism all over the place, and witchcraft. Remember, we had demonic graffiti on our church steps this summer. Lucifer—the light bearer—who is called “the morning star” in the book of Daniel--revels in our culture’s regression back into the old occult practices. Back in the 1960s our culture celebrated the dawning of the age of Aquarius with the sexual revolution and the beginning of the breakdown of the family and the eclipse of right religion. And it’s only gotten worse.

But there is also some good news here. There is a hunger for the divine. If Magi from the East will travel thousands of miles to seek Christ, then it’s not impossible for people who live down the street, to accept an invitation to meet Christ here. Because he is here, really and substantially, in the Eucharist. He is proclaimed by the Church, and encountered in our divine worship. And meeting him, and knowing him, and loving him will change your life, and deliver you from the misery that comes from those empty pagan practices.

But the task of the Church—the task of our parish is to be on fire with love for him. The light of our love is the new star that will guide the searchers and seekers to Christ.

Now of course we have some competition. Not only the false light of those old pagan practices, but the addictive light of iphones and computer screens, the light of technology promises people happiness without the need for old fashioned things like church and prayer. The internet, social media, is a new god for a lot of people—and it’s got people enslaved. In a sense, it’s almost worse than the old gods—because at least people were praying back then—they believed in something bigger than themselves. 

So our competition is pretty fierce. And that probably means that Christians of 2024 need to be a lot more public about our faith than in previous generations to draw people’s attention away from the false gods of the world to the one true God—Christ the Lord. Are you up to the task? Are you willing to be reordered a little in order to be the instruments God wants to draw souls to Christ? 

Well, it starts at home, dear ones. Make sure your days are ordered to him—praying as much as you should be, fasting from frivolous entertainment—interacting with real people, geting the rest you need to keep your strength up for the work God has for you, ordering your family life to focus on Christ, to draw life and light from Christ, for the glory of God and salvation of souls. 

Epiphany 2022 - "We saw his star at its rising"

 In keeping with the ancient practice, following the proclamation of the Epiphany Gospel, I just chanted the announcement of Easter and the Moveable Feasts for this liturgical year.  

Before the age of mass produced calendars and smart phones, the chanting of the feasts was a practical necessity; now, we do it as a way of remaining rooted in our Catholic tradition, and still to help us plan our year around Christ.

God Himself planned creation around Christ. He planned our salvation around Christ. From the Big Bang nearly fourteen billion years ago, God planned the saving birth of Christ at Christmas. “In the fullness of time” writes St. paul to the Galatians, “God sent forth his Son born of a woman.” And this plan of God included the confluence of a multitude of historical events—the census of Caesar, the plotting of King Herod, the appearance of angels to the shepherds, the inquisitiveness of the wise men from the east, the stable, the gifts, the poverty of the Holy family, the Christmas star. 

A few years ago, Frederick Larson, an American university professor set out to investigate the Christmas star using modern scientific methods. And he discovered some very interesting things. 

First, he looked into the bible’s claim of the wise men from the east. There are many references in ancient literature to the Magi who were basically the “scientists” of the ancient world. They didn't have the benefit of modern scientific, experimental methods, but they did make a rational, logical study of philosophy, medicine, and the natural world - including the stars.

One group of these scholars revered throughout the ancient world were the Chaldean Magi, based in the city of Babylon, just south of Bagdad, in modern Iraq. The scholars of Babylon were already well-established 600 years before the birth of Jesus. The prophet Daniel encountered them during the Babylonian exile. In fact, it’s likely thanks to Daniel and the exiles, that the Magi even heard the biblical prophecies of the Messiah and the star marking his birth. 

After verifying the biblical claim of these wise men from Babylon, Professor Larson put modern astronomy to work. He programmed computer software to show what the stars would have looked like in Babylon around the year 3 BC. Larson deduced that the star of Bethlehem wouldn’t have been a shooting star, or a super nova, or even a comet. Those things would have been obvious to everyone, and yet, King Herod and his advisers were astonished by the Magi's news of this strange astronomical event. Instead, this event would have been detectable only by the wise, those who were looking for it. And there was a remarkable astronomical event at that time. 

That September, the Planet Jupiter, the brightest planet in the night sky, known as the King Planet, began to converge upon a star known at that time as Regulus, regulus whose name also means King. The convergence of the King Planet and the King star was an interesting coincidence, but that’s not all. 

The convergence of Jupiter and Regulus occurred within the constellation known as Leo, the Lion. The Magi would certainly have recognized the Lion as the Biblical image for the tribe of Judah, from which the Messiah would be born. 

Thirdly, the constellation Virgo, the Virgin, began to arise in the east, and right at the feet of the constellation of the Virgin, sat the new crescent moon, the "birthing" moon. The birthing virgin—that’s an interesting idea. Where have we heard that?

Together, these astronomical coincidences pointed to Jewish King coming forth from the line of Judah being born to a virgin. But that’s not all…Nine months later, things got even more interesting astronomically.

In June of the year 2 BC, the Planet Jupiter, the King Planet, was no longer in conjunction with the King Star, Regulus. Instead, on the horizon of the western sky, Jupiter was having an even more spectacular rendezvous. Jupiter came so close to the Planet Venus that their light merged, becoming the brightest light in the night sky - the brightest the Magi would have ever seen. The Magi, along with the rest of the pagan world, knew the planet Venus as the Mother Planet - the icing on the cake. 

If at that point the Magi had begun their journey, by the time they reached Jerusalem the orientation of the Jupiter-Venus conjunction would have changed. Looking up from Jerusalem, the Magi would have seen the stars pointing south - the exact direction of Bethlehem. And so, leaving Herod’s company, as we heard in the gospel today, they simply followed this convergence of planets and stars, that God had set into motion billions of years ago.

This scientific research gives credence to the biblical claim and our Catholic faith that God had planned the saving birth of Jesus Christ from the beginning—our salvation is God’s highest priority. His love for us, is truly beyond all telling.

And like the wise men, we are to use our intellectual gifts and talents to seek him out, to understand him, to bow down and worship him. The God who guides the entire universe, who guided the Magi to Bethlehem, wants also to guide our lives because he loves us and desires our salvations.

But we must do our part, we must seek him out. “Seek and ye shall find” the Lord says in the Gospel. Why do so many not believe, even though Christ, Savior, King, and Lion of Judah has been born of the virgin and  has been revealed to the nations? They do not really want to find him. Their egos, like Herod’s eclipse the truth, that Jesus is Christ and Lord, and to him every knee should bend.

Because upon finding him, you have a choice: will your life revolve around him or not? Will you allow him to be the center of the universe or not? Many do not seek him out because, like Herod, they are threatened by Him, by the babe of Bethlehem. They will not allow the universe to spin around anyone but themselves. And their earthly lives are sorrier for it, and their eternity is in danger. 

The feast of the Epiphany reminds us that the wise seek him out, and fall down in worship before him, and by doing so, point others to do the same, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.