Friars Corner: Heavens greatest gift, Jesus Christ still with us
Fr. Bob Hilz, TOR
Zephaniah 3:14-18a
Isaiah 12:2-6
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:10-18
Dear Holy Spirit, please help us understand the joy of Jesus’ presence with us personally, our Catholic parishes, our blessed country and the world. Jesus, you baptized us with water, the Holy Spirit and fire. Today, please, pour out more of your fire so more of your children will come to know you personally.
During the first two weeks of Advent we were reflecting mostly on Isaiah, Old Testament prophetic texts about the coming and work of the savior of the Jewish people and of all humanity. The next ten days we shall look briefly at the ministry of St. John the Baptist. He was the link between the Old and New Testaments. God sent him to proclaim the immediate public ministry of his cousin, Jesus Christ.
It is interesting to me that some thirty-three years before Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was orchestrating the people and events around the birth of Jesus. That is why I encouraged you last week to get Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich’s book, Volume 1, on “The Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations,” by Tan Books and Publishing.
Details of Jesus’ story
We shall see in the Masses of the next ten days, St. Matthew’s giving us the genealogy of Jesus with other details. St. Luke will focus more on Mary’s annunciation and her visit with her cousin Elizabeth. Her son, John the Baptist, was baptized in the womb by the presence of Jesus inside Mary. We shall see other details of the story as it unfolds. Jesus’ birth was a complete miracle.
The greatest ongoing miracle is that Jesus comes each day and offers himself to us as our “daily bread,” our best divine meal. Each day at Mass we are telling more of the wonderful stories about Jesus. We remember his whole life and not just his death and resurrection.
This Sunday is the halfway mark before our Christmas celebration. We rejoice with great expectation that Jesus continues to be with us in such amazing ways. I was hearing confessions this morning for twenty people helping them get excited about this ongoing miracle of Jesus’ presence with us. As we attend Mass, we aren’t bringing him a gift. He offers us more gifts and our best spiritual meal. Alleluia!
Rejoice in the Lord
Rejoice in the Lord, always. Again I say rejoice. I rejoice in a special way as we sing in the gospel acclamation today, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring” you all these glad tidings. Let us all rejoice and be glad.
Take a little time talking with and enjoying Jesus’ presence with you during these busy days of our worldly Christmas preparations. There is a sentence in the second Advent Preface that “has put me in orbit” for some years as it did again at my Morning Mass with a small group of sisters and men. “For all the oracles of the prophets foretold him, the Virgin Mother longed for him with love beyond all telling, John the Baptist sang of his coming and proclaimed his presence when he came. It is by his gift that already we rejoice at the mystery of his Nativity, so that he may find us watchful in prayer and our hearts filled with wonder and praise.”
As I open “the satellite dish of my heart” to receive the radiance of the face of Jesus, through the eyes of Bette Myers’ picture given her by Jesus, www.truefaceofjesus.com, I am filled with more wonder and praise of our beloved Jesus. As we seek and long for him, he takes us deeper into the mystery of his love for us.
Have a blessed week,
+ Fr. Bob Hilz
fbhilz@gmail.com
(© 2018 Fr. Bob Hilz, TOR)
