A Homily – The 2nd Sunday of Christmas, The Solemnity of Mary (Year A)

A Homily – The 2^nd Sunday of Christmas, The Solemnity of Mary, A Holy Day of Obligation (Year A)

  

First Reading - Numbers 6:22-27 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 66(67):2-3, 5, 6, 8 ©

Second Reading – Galatians 4:4-7 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Hebrews 1:1-2

The Gospel According to Luke 2:16 - 21 ©

 

(NJB)

  

Listen!

 Consider the blessing God, the creator of the universe; remember that God is not a lord, free God from that title, and free yourself in doing so.

 Know this, the blessing of God belongs to all God’s children; feel God’s presence, God is always with you, keep yourself in the way of God.

 If you are mindful, you may see the face God in the face of everyone you encounter; treat them as if they were God: your spouse, your friend, your parents and children, the stranger and your enemy (if you have them); for they are God, each and every one of them, God dwells within in them.

 Peace comes through understanding, God is utterly transcendent; God is not a god of tribes or of nations, or even other worlds. God is not circumscribed by any such delineation; God is the God of all creation.

 Listen!

 The psalmist is right to ask God to bless all peoples and all nations; to have pity and to be merciful, and we are right to seek this fulfillment, because this is the promise of God.

 Be mindful.

 God is not confined to one place, neither to one time, nor does God belong to one people. God is the God of everyone, whether they know it or not.

 Therefore seek God’s blessing, not just four yourself; seek it for everyone.

 Listen!

 Consider the teaching of the apostle and know that the death of Jesus was a political murder. It was a sacrifice, but not a sacrifice of redemption. Jesus was not purchasing anything for himself, or for us when he was killed on the cross, he was not paying a debt or offering himself as a substitution for our sins.

 Jesus went to his death to show us the way. Jesus was acting out of love, taking the wrath of the Sanhedrin and the Romans on himself, rather than have that anger visited on his broader group of followers; his family, the disciples and theirs.

 His sacrifice was not magic, it is not mystical or supernatural. Jesus was a faithful son of God, exercising ordinary compassion in extraordinary circumstances. He was acting as a champion of justice, he did so in humility and was denied our mercy.

 Jesus demonstrated his faith every day in his ministry of healing, through his loving service, and finally by his death; he believed in what he taught and and did not deviate from his mission because he trusted God.

 Be mindful of this.

 God’s spirit animates all of us. We are all God’s children, and all of us are the heirs to God’s promise: Christian and non-Christian, alike.

 Listen! God speaks to everyone; listen to the voice of the divine speaking in the secret chamber of your heart.

 Listen! God calls us to justice, to goodness, and to humility.

 Consider the Gospel for today:

 Understand that, the apostle Luke never met Jesus; he was not one of the disciples. Luke was a protégé of Paul, and Paul had never met Jesus either.

 Luke and Paul travelled broadly, meeting many of those that followed Jesus during his life. Paul met with James, who was Jesus’ brother, but they never met Jesus himself; everything they knew about Jesus was hearsay.

 It is important to note, that while the Gospel of Luke bears Luke’s name, it was not written by Luke. None of the Gospels were written by individuals, all of them were exercises in collective development, and the writing took place over generations as the communities who authored them did their best to narrate their understanding of the life and mission of Jesus in terms their audience would understand.

 The Gospel of Luke says that Joseph and Mary and baby Jesus were visited by three shepherds. This is presented in distinction to Matthews Gospel which says that they holy family was visited by three Magi, who were “wise men” sometimes called kings, but the Magi were priests in Persia. The Gospel of John, the earliest Gospel, and that of Mark, neither of them treat the subject at all.

 Matthew’s community and Luke’s community were writing to very different audiences. As such, they tailored the narrative of the birth of Jesus to them, each creating in their own way a fiction that was pleasing to the people to whom they were preaching.

 This is the essence of propaganda, to understand the Gospels, this must be understood first of all:  The Gospels contain some legitimate historical data, but the facts are difficult to sift out. They Gospels are the product of artifice; they are fictions, speaking to some truths that are universal, and relating some true events, but they cannot be relied on as a true account of anything

 They speak to us of historical realities but they are not historical narratives. The Gospels are propaganda, which is not to say that they are bad, it is only to say that they must be taken for what they are.

  

First Reading - Numbers 6:22-27 ©

 They Are to Call Down My Name on the Sons of Israel, and I Will Bless Them

 The Lord spoke to Moses and said, ‘Say this to Aaron and his sons: “This is how you are to bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them:

 May the Lord bless you and keep you.

 May the Lord let his face shine on you and be gracious to you.

 May the Lord uncover his face to you and bring you peace.”

 This is how they are to call down my name on the sons of Israel, and I will bless them.’

  

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 66(67):2-3, 5, 6, 8 ©

 O God, be gracious and bless us.

 O God, be gracious and bless us

 and let your face shed its light upon us.

So will your ways be known upon earth

  and all nations learn your saving help.

 O God, be gracious and bless us.

 Let the nations be glad and exult

  for you rule the world with justice.

With fairness you rule the peoples,

  you guide the nations on earth.

 O God, be gracious and bless us.

 Let the peoples praise you, O God;

  let all the peoples praise you.

May God still give us his blessing

  till the ends of the earth revere him.

 O God, be gracious and bless us.

  

Second Reading – Galatians 4:4-7 ©

 God Sent His Son, Born of a Woman

 When the appointed time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born a subject of the Law, to redeem the subjects of the Law and to enable us to be adopted as sons. The proof that you are sons is that God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts: the Spirit that cries, ‘Abba, Father’, and it is this that makes you a son, you are not a slave any more; and if God has made you son, then he has made you heir.

  

Gospel Acclamation – Hebrews 1:1-2

 Alleluia, alleluia!

 At various times in the past, and in various different ways, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets; but in our own time, the last days, he has spoken to us through his Son.

 Alleluia!

  

The Gospel According to Luke 2:16 - 21 ©

 The Shepherds Hurried to Bethlehem and Found the Baby Lying in the Manger

 The shepherds hurried away to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. When they saw the child they repeated what they had been told about him, and everyone who heard it was astonished at what the shepherds had to say. As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen; it was exactly as they had been told.

  When the eighth day came and the child was to be circumcised, they gave him the name Jesus, the name the angel had given him before his conception

 

The 2^nd Sunday of Christmas, The Solemnity of Mary, A Holy Day of Obligation (Year A)