December 17 2024 - God's Wisdom orders all things

 Today, December 17, begins late Advent. The O Antiphons begin to be used in the Church’s liturgy, the countdown to Christmas intensifies.

During Deep Advent the Church also sings the ancient O Antiphons both in her official evening prayer and also during the Gospel Acclamation at Mass. Today we sung of the Sapientia, the wisdom, that comes from the mouth of God, by which we are to order our life. O Wisdom, coming forth from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from one end to the other, mightily and sweetly ordering all things: come and teach us the way of prudence

The Church’s liturgy sings of wisdom to help us understand that all time and history has been ordered according to God’s wisdom—from the beginning of history to its end—God has arranged creation for its greatest good. And even when Adam and Eve introduced discord and death into creation through Sin, God’s wisdom included a plan for salvation. 

Deep Advent enters deeply into a reflection of this plan. Our first reading is taken from the very end of the first book of the bible, the book of genesis. Late in the life of Jacob, Jacob, son of Isaac, lays on his death bed, and speaks to his sons. And he lays out a plan for his twelve sons who will become the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel, Jacob issues a series of prophetic oracles about their futures and the future of their tribes. 

One would expect Jacob to predict the greatest blessings to be upon his first-born son. But God had other plans. It is not for Jacob’s first born, Rueben, nor his second or third, Simeon or Levi, that he predicts the most exalted future. But, as we read today, it is for Judah that Jacob foresees a royal future. Jacob calls Judah a lion, the king of beasts, and from Judah shall come a ruler, a king.

In our Gospel, today, St. Matthew traces the royal lineage through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then Judah, leading to the great kings of Israel, David and Solomon, and then generations later, to the king of kings, Jesus who is called the Christ.

As a King wisely orders his kingdom, God wisely ordered the generations of Abraham to make way for the Christ. So too, God will order our lives, when we conform our lives to his wisdom.  

God has a plan for our lives, just as He had a plan for Jacob and Judah and for the generations of Israel, and when we surrender to that plan our lives become ordered mightily and sweetily from end to end and begin to resound with his glory. May we open our ears to receive His wisdom, our hearts to receive His Christ, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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We raise up our prayers of petitions, as we await with longing the Advent of Christ the Lord.

That the Pope and all the clergy may always be guided by the Wisdom of God. 

That our president and all civil servants will carry out their duties with divine wisdom, justice, honesty, and respect for the dignity of every human life.  We pray to the Lord.

That the wisdom of God may direct the hearts of non-believers to the truth of the Gospel.

For those experiencing any kind of hardship or sorrow, isolation, addiction, or illness: may they experience the healing graces of Christ. 

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Almighty ever-living God, who brings salvation to all and desire that no one should perish, hear the prayers of your people and grant that the course of our world may be directed by your peaceful rule and your Church rejoice in tranquility and devotion. Through Christ our Lord.

December 17 2021 - Ornaments on the Tree

 

In preparation for Christmas many families put up a Christmas tree in their homes. And on their Christmas trees they hang lights and garland, and of course ornaments. Some families, like mine, had special ornaments for each person. My mom had an ornament with her name on it, my dad had one with his, my sister as well, and so did I. I think we even had an ornament with our dogs name on it.

Well, today, we heard in our Gospel about a tree with many names: The family tree of Jesus.

If you tilt your heads upwards and look at the ceiling of our beautiful church, you will see part of this tree depicted, beginning here at the foot of the sanctuary with Jesse, the Father of David, then King David, going through the many generations St Matthew listed for us, taking us all the way to our Savior blessing us as we leave through the main doors of the Church out into the world.

God took special care in the life of each one of these people, to form them to be an important branch in Jesus’ family tree. God is so great that he can work over thousands and thousands of years to complete his plan. And he did, so that we might have a savior. 

Today, December 17 is the first day of what is called, Late Advent, the final countdown to Christmas. In just a week’s time, we will be on the threshold of Christmas. 

And we hear about Jesus’ family tree today to remember that Jesus isn’t just a figure that emerges out of no where, he isn’t a fairy tale. He was born from a long line of real people, people whose lives we can read about in the scriptures. 

God guided creation with his power and his love to prepare for the birth of Jesus, and he wants to guide our lives as well, but we have to let him. We have to go to God in prayer every day. We have to learn and obey God’s commandments. As I said last week when we celebrated Mary’s Immaculate Conception, God has a plan for each of us, just like he had a plan for Mary, just as he had a plan for all those generations of people in our Gospel today. But we have to say yes to God, we have to put God first by believing in his promises, following his teaching, ordering our life by his wisdom, filling our minds with his wisdom and our hearts with his love. In this way we are best prepared for Christmas, best prepared for the ways God wants to bring goodness and peace into the world through us, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

December 17 2019 - May God's Wisdom Order Our Lives

Today, December 17, begins late Advent. The O Antiphons begin to be used in the Church’s liturgy, the countdown to Christmas intensifies.

And on this first day of late Advent, our first reading is taken from the very end of the first book of the bible, the book of genesis. Late in the life of Jacob, Jacob, son of Isaac, lays on his death bed, and speaks to his sons. Surrounded by the twelve, who will become the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel, Jacob issues a series of prophetic oracles about their futures and the future of their tribes.

One would expect Jacob to predict the greatest blessings to be upon his first-born son. But God had other plans. It is not for Jacob’s first born, Reuben, nor his second or third, Simeon or Levi, that he predicts the most exalted future. But, as we read today, it is for Judah that Jacob foresees a royal future. Jacob calls Judah a lion, the king of beasts, and from Judah shall come a ruler, a king.

In our Gospel, today, St. Matthew traces the royal lineage through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then Judah, leading to the great kings of Israel, David and Solomon, and then generations later, to the king of kings, Jesus who is called the Christ.

The O Antiphon for this first day of late Advent sings of the “sapientia”, the wisdom which comes forth from the mouth of God. As a King wisely orders his kingdom, God wisely ordered the generations of Abraham to make way for the Christ. So too, God will order our lives, when we conform our lives to his wisdom. 

God has a plan for our lives, just as He had a plan for Jacob and Judah and the generations to follow. And when we surrender to that plan our lives become ordered mightily and sweetily from end to end and begin to resound with his glory. May we open our ears to receive His wisdom, our hearts to receive His Christ, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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We raise up our prayers of petitions, as we await with longing the Advent of Christ the Lord.

That the Pope and all the clergy may always be guided by the Wisdom of God.

That our president and all civil servants will carry out their duties with divine wisdom, justice, honesty, and respect for the dignity of every human life.  We pray to the Lord.

That the wisdom of God may direct the hearts of non-believers to the truth of the Gospel.

For those experiencing any kind of hardship or sorrow, isolation, addiction, or illness: may they experience the healing graces of Christ.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Almighty ever-living God, who brings salvation to all and desire that no one should perish, hear the prayers of your people and grant that the course of our world may be directed by your peaceful rule and your Church rejoice in tranquility and devotion. Through Christ our Lord.

December 17 2018 - Jesus, Wisdom of God

December 17 begins what is called “Deep Advent” or “Late Advent”.  We hear on this first Deep Advent Day from the Gospel of Matthew, the genealogy of Jesus, tracing Jesus’ family tree all the way back to Abraham, who the first Eucharistic prayer calls “our father in faith”

St. Matthew the apostle, the Jewish tax collector, wanted to show the Jewish people of his day how Jesus was the fulfillment of God’s promises to the Jewish nation and the prophecies of the Old Testament. So Matthew, carefully derives the genealogy of Jesus through 42 generations, to show that Jesus is the true Messiah, promised by God to Abraham, to save the human race. Jesus is the fulfillment of their deepest hopes.


During Deep Advent the Church also sings the ancient O Antiphons both in her official evening prayer and also during the Gospel Acclamation at Mass. Today we sung of the Sapientia, the wisdom, that comes from the mouth of God, by which we are to order our life.

Nearly every culture of human history has had some sense of wisdom which helps us to judge right from wrong and to lead a good life. St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, “Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom” (1 Cor 1:22) well, Jesus is the sign of God’s providence, He is the wisdom that comes from God, He is our righteousness, our holiness, our redemption (I Cor 1:30). We are saved by wisdom, because Jesus is the Wisdom of God,  the Word spoken by God, who teaches us to live an ordered and prudent life on earth, that we may come to eternal life.

How different would our world, our city, and our families be, if more men and women, (Christians too), allowed themselves to be guided and taught and saved by the wisdom that comes from God. We long for peace, we long for justice, but these things are only attainable by learning and practicing and making room in our minds and hearts for the Wisdom who is Jesus Christ. For the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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We raise up our prayers of petitions, as we await with longing the Advent of Christ the Lord.

That the witness of the Church may help all nations come to believe in the Lordship of Jesus.

That our president and all civil servants will carry out their duties with divine wisdom, justice, honesty, and respect for the dignity of every human life.  We pray to the Lord.

For an increase in vocations to the priesthood and religious life and a strengthening of all marriages in holiness.

That Christ may banish disease, drive out hunger, ward off every affliction, and strengthen all who suffer persecution for the sake of the Gospel.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord.