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AND JOSEPH also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. [Lk 2:4-5]

Artist: Victor Luciano Rebuffo

(1903 - 1983)

Buenos Aires, Argentina

THY WILL BE DONE ^_[1]

NAME AND MEMORY

1. Zechariah the priest and his wife Elizabeth were much older than Elizabeth's cousin Mary. Their world was shrinking, and they had long since abandoned many hopes and dreams which animated them in earlier years. Like the Jewish men and women of their day, Elizabeth and Zechariah placed a premium on procreation.

2. Children were a hedge against old age and grandchildren a pledge of perpetuity. Elizabeth was barren, to her great sadness, and she and Zechariah had long ago stopped talking about conceiving children. They did talk about the prospect of their name and memory disappearing from the life of the village. Zechariah and Elizabeth were alone.

GOOD REASON

3. One day, while serving at the altar of incense in the temple at Jerusalem, Zechariah beholds the archangel Gabriel. The angel tells the old priest that his wife will conceive and bear a child. Elizabeth and her husband name him John: "And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea; and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, 'What then will this child be?' For the hand of the Lord was with him." [Lk 1:65-66]

4. Many first century Jews were convinced that God had taken his hand off Israel's shoulder. They had good reason. The royal line of David was extinguished. The tree of David was no more than the stump of Jesse. [cf. Isa 11:1] In the 8th c. BC, the Assyrian army defeated the Northern Kingdom and its capital Samaria. The ten northern tribes were force-marched into Assyria and ultimately disappeared. Scarcely 135 years later, the Babylonian army invaded the southern kingdom, its capitol Jerusalem, and carried the Judeans into exile. The promises of the people's future died with the destruction and conquest of their beloved "land flowing with milk and honey". [Exo 3:8]

STARTLING NEWS

5. Sent home from Babylon by the decree of Cyrus, King of Persia, the new colossus, the Israelite refugees struggled to rebuild the nation and its capitol Jerusalem. They were to be conquered again, by the Greeks and then the Romans. In the days of Caesar Augustus, the Empire of Rome ruled Palestine with its heavy burdens of taxation and military occupation. Until Israel overthrew the Roman empire and refounded the kingdom, according to widespread belief, imperial servitude would continue forever. The Jewish people were exhausted and losing hope.

6. Behold! God sent the archangel Gabriel to Mary with startling news: "Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you!...Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus." [Lk 1:28, 30-31] "He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end." [Lk 1:32-33] Behold! An angel of the Lord visited Joseph in a dream and commanded: "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit...for he will save his people from their sins." [Mt 1:20-21]

CHAINED DOWN

7. The prophet Isaiah had comforting words for the Kingdom of Judah, stricken by the destruction of the Northern Kingdom: "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined." [Isa 9:2] Not all our hopes and dreams for the future are realistic. Not all of them will be fulfilled. Over this past year, many worthy intentions ran through our fingers like water. We chose selfishly, preferring material goods and free-wheeling promiscuity to fruitful relationships and authentic love.

8. We are trapped in our old selves. We are chained down by the past. Freedom in the present eludes us. Our hope for the future diminishes by degrees. Believing our self-perceptions to be the last word, we loathe ourselves as aging, bloated failures. Behold! The last word does not belong to the Word of the World. The last word is the first word spoken by God's own voice:

IN THE beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. [Jn 1:1-5]

WORD AND TRUTH

9. This is the word of the "Word of God", the divine Logos (Gk. word), Jesus Christ, the Son of the eternal Father:

IT IS done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the fountain of the water of life without payment. He who conquers shall have this heritage, and I will be his God and he shall be my son. [Rev 21:6-7]

The Son is the Logos of the Father who sent him. The divine Logos is Word and Truth: "I can do nothing on my own authority; as I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me." [Jn 5:30]

10. The gathered Church cries out to God in heaven, "Thy will be done!" [Mt 6:10] Imploring "thy will be done" in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass goes far beyond evidence and arguments over religion in human history. It far surpasses in power and glory the mere human recollection of God's intervention in the cosmos and in this, deeply afflicted by human error and awash in violence. This four word confession of faith is a stirring proclamation of the inevitability of God's redemptive love, the completion of our salvation and the transformation of every created thing.

CONSECRATE YOURSELVES

11. To pray Thy will be done is more than a hope. It is the profound realization of men and women everywhere that God's will will be done. By faith, we know that possibility has given way to promise. By faith, we know that promise has yielded to fulfillment. By faith, we know that what God has spoken, he will do. [Heb 11] The son of Mary, the carpenter's boy, the suffering servant astride a donkey, the Prince of Light who rides the steed are all one. Christ is born on the day we believe, but he will never die on the day we cease to believe.^[2]

12. Out of the old arises the new: "For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, thou hast broken as on the day of (battle)." [Isa 9:4] You have nothing to fear. Examine yourselves, therefore, and consecrate yourself to the Lord. For God has anointed your head with the oil of his graces, he has filled your cup of blessing to overflowing! [cf. Psa 23:5] You have every reason to offer praise and gratitude to God.

JOY OF SALVATION

13. Ask the Holy Spirit to rush into the hearts and souls of doubting and frightened people. Pray for the Spirit to come like a mighty wind, to uplift those who are in need of the Lord. Pray that all faithful seekers of the Child of Bethlehem receive the Word of God in their hearts and proclaim it by mouth. Beseech God to strengthen and renew Holy Mother Church for the great struggle that lies ahead. Pray that God will restore this inconstant nation of ours and bring it to life. Engage life consciously and morally. Dare to be a humane human being!

14. I give you the joy of your salvation and the prophetic promises fulfilled on this high holy day of Christmas! "We need a song to sing, a message of hope and cheer. \We need a love which transcends time and space. \Our hearts seek the knowledge that amidst all the clamor \and clutter of life there is Someone who cares. \Jesus is God's message of deliverance given to us. \He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. \He is Emmanuel, God with us. He is God's message of love. \With the angels and shepherds and all God's children we sing, \Jesus is born. Joy to the world!" ^[3]

^[1] Cycle C /Mass at Midnight /Isa 9:1-6 /Tim 2:11-14 /Lk 2:1-14.

^[2] cf. Dag Hammarskjld, MARKINGS, trans. Leif Sjberg et al. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972) 56. "God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason."

^[3] "Joy to the World", "Day Spring Cards", Seasonal Selections (Siloam Springs, AR: Outreach Publ.)

Baptism of the Lord Year A

Baptism of the Lord Year B

Baptism of the Lord Year C

Mary Mother of God Year A

Mary Mother of God Year B