Friday Coffin Break #7 Soft Robes Don't Break the Wind

Wishing everyone a happy Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, as we begin the little triduum of this second Friday of Advent in preparation for Gaudate Sunday. We commence these three days by offering something in gratitude for the coming of the Lord, and for the great favor bestowed on this continent with the miracle of Mary’s visitation to Juan Diego in 1531. Let us willfully enter into this time of preparation for Sunday’s Joy by considering the upcoming Gospel reading in the light of the grave:

This Sunday's Gospel is Matthew 11: 2-11 (from the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible)

Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him “Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is he who takes no offense at me.”

As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to behold? A reed shaken by the wind? Why then did you go out? To see a man dressed in soft robes? Behold, those who wear soft robes are in kings’ houses. Why then did you go out? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written,

‘Behold I send my messenger before your face,

Who shall prepare your way before you.’

Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”

Some time later, when the soft-robed Herod, shaken by the wind of his wife’s daughter’s request, anxiously ordered the axe to remove Saint John’s head, the prophet himself had little to lose and everything to gain. He knew his treasure awaited him in Heaven. Though few, if any, of us will renounce this world as vigorously as Jesus’ cousin, that is not a reason to dismiss him as a role model in our comfortable modern lives.  Even starting with a small weekly investment in Eternity has substance and, with a loving God as The Great Compounder of Interest, we can, with sincere and infectious hope, anticipate that day when our accounts will be settled. Rejoice!

“Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”

Friday Coffin Break #6 Starve the Viper, Grow the Fruit

Happy First Friday of Advent! Welcome to this weekend’s Little Triduum and the opportunity to contemplate whether we would rather be timidly zig-zagging through a viper-infested, rock-strewn desert, or straightforwardly strolling a lush, fruit-laden, orchard.

Let us consider Sunday’s upcoming readings in the Light of the Grave:

This Sunday's Gospel is Matthew 3: 1-12 (from the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible)

In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said:

            “The voice of one crying in the wilderness:

            Prepare the way of the Lord,

            Make his paths straight.”

Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair, and a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sad’ducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “you brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit that befits repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Jarred by the stern words of Saint John the Baptist, we must ponder the possibility that we not only have the power to transform that danger-filled desert into a teeming garden but we are, essentially, going to be an eternal component of one or the other. Each moment of our lives we are either mostly viper or mostly fruit tree.

Do people seek us out as a source for nourishment and greater life, or avoid us in fear of little injections of poison?

There are better days and worse days. Today can be a better day; a day of sacrifice and good work, a repentant self-pruning of sorts to make way for the healthy new growth from which might hang life-giving nourishment for the people God brings to our orchard – the people and the encounters which become more and more vivid as earthly life dims and Eternity comes increasingly into focus.

“May the God of endurance and encouragement
grant you to think in harmony with one another,
in keeping with Christ Jesus”

Blessed Second Sunday of Advent, Everybody!

Friday Coffin Break #5 From a Tryptophaned Thanksgiving to Vigilant Living

I was halfway through a slice of pie and a cup of coffee this morning when the calendar began to take hold. Well, I knew it was Friday, but I did not think of it as FRIDAY; as in the beginning of a Little Triduum, intentionally organized around a penitential period meant to create a hunger for the culminating Sunday Feast of Our Lord’s Resurrection. Kind of fitting, in a none-too-personally-impressive sort of way, given that this Sunday is the First Sunday of Advent.

So, if at first you don’t succeed and all that, let us consider the upcoming readings in the Light of The Grave:

This Sunday's Gospel is Matthew  24: 37-44 (from the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible)

As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they did not know until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of man.

Then two men will be in the field; one is taken and one is left. Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the householder had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched and not let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

I call these weekly reflections “coffin breaks” not only as a play on words, but that they might be a prompt to dam the downpour of disordered desires that drown our attention as days stream into weeks, weeks into months, and months into years, until we are harshly confronted with the fact that this life is not the life we were created for.  How perfect then, from a spiritual standpoint, that Black Friday precedes the First Sunday of Advent – the losing world makes a final all-out assault on our attention as our victorious Lord commences his eternal return.

“Let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day.”

Blessed advent of Advent, everybody!