Friar’s Corner: Rejoice, Jesus is always with us
Isaiah 7:10-14; Psalm 23:1-6; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-24
I hope you had an exciting and joyful week getting to know Jesus better and wanting to follow him. We are three days away from another remembrance of the first coming to Earth of God’s Son to save and redirect the human race back to God. God had spoken to various key people during two thousand years of Jewish history since the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, yet the messages did not get through to humans clearly enough. So the Son of God had to come to earth himself, taking on our human nature except for the consequences of the sin of Adam and Eve.
He came to speak to us person-to-person and to thousands, as a human person, while he lived on earth for thirty-three years. Many Christians lose the significance of his first coming because this day has been so commercialized with Christmas presents. As faithful followers of Jesus, we celebrate Christmas, Jesus’ first coming, with some degree of joy. Jesus was really born between 6 and 4 B.C. in the spring. But that date was too close to Easter so the early Church celebrates the next great feast on December 25 to replace a great pagan feast in Rome, the Western part of the Empire. In Jerusalem and down in Egypt, the Eastern part of the Empire, January 6 was chosen to replace a pagan feast there. They celebrated the birth of Jesus, baptism and the early teachings.
Those closest to Jesus in his earthly life and ministry missed him greatly after his return to heaven, the feast we call his Ascension. He did promise to come back. We see so much bad news and confusion in these days that we pray in the Liturgy preparing for his second coming for judgment at the end of time on earth between his faithful followers and those who even today reject Jesus and his mission of salvation for all people.
The Real Presence of Jesus
When I heard of the statistics that seventy percent of Catholics do not understand or believe in the real presence of Jesus on earth, I have been writing differently. I sense the words of consecration of bread and wine at our Mass is the most important fact of that service. Other elements are important for our growth in faith, but the consecration is central.
There are various ways of looking at that fact and what young men are taught in Liturgy classes in our seminaries. When you go beyond the Mass ritual, words and “humdrum” mechanics, there are a lot of things there. As priests reflect on various messages from Jesus and Mary over recent years, one begins to experience Jesus and the Holy Spirit piercing our hearts and minds with more of the great miracle of the Mass. The priest takes special bread and wine and says over them what Jesus said at the Last Supper, almost two thousand years ago. By the power in the words of consecration, the ordination of the priest and the power of the Holy Spirit called down on those simple elements, what happens? The bread and wine have been changed into the real presence of Jesus Christ as our “daily bread.”
Read chapter six of St. John’s gospel. He does not talk about the consecration at the Last Supper but puts it in the context of God providing bread and quail in the desert as their food. Then Jesus says several times that he is the real bread come down from heaven for us. We are to eat his Body and drink his Blood as food and salvation for us.
He is not there physically as we see one another in our earthly bodies, but spiritually. We are called in faith to believe this truth which has been taught since the time of the apostles.
God with us
In the past week, as we have been in a seven-day “novena” of preparation for Christmas, we have heard many times in the scriptures we have been reading and the songs we have been singing the word Emmanuel as at the end of Matthew’s gospel this Sunday, Matthew 1:23. We are to call Jesus, Emmanuel.
It is a Hebrew name meaning “God with us.” St. Matthew, an early apostle, is very clear in adding the verb “is.” This is what happens at Mass in a spiritual and mystical way, which we will only fully understand in heaven. As God’s wisdom enlightens us, there is an increase of divine power and invitation to get to Mass more frequently to receive Jesus in this way. It is Christ’s Mass, Christmas which happens each time Mass (Eucharistic Liturgy), is celebrated every day all over the world except on Good Friday.
I pray that the Holy Spirit will enlighten your mind to see and more fully understand this great miracle of our Faith so that you will come more frequently receive Jesus in this way. We are not bringing him a gift. Jesus always has another gift of God’s life for us. I shall be praying for all of you and your family and friends this Christmas and throughout this Holy Season.
Blessings,
+ Father Bob Hilz
fbhilz@gmail.com
(© 2019 Father Bob Hilz, TOR)
