December 12. 2020
Good Morning, God and All! From his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace (John 1:16).
By The Numbers:
It’s the 347th day of the year, with 19 days remaining.
Day among the annual Eight Crazy Nights we’re celebrating today: 2
Days ‘til YulFestiMaZaOx: 9/11/13/14/14
Likelihood that Donald Trump will ever concede the 2020 Presidential Election, as well as the likelihood of his getting the results overturned anywhere: 0%
Probability that Jesus Christ has ‘overcome the world’: 100%
Start Your Day With A Song:
Las Apariciones Guadalupanas (The Guadalupe Story) Traditional Mexican hymn
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of Latin America, Pray For Us!
Fifty-five year old (Saint) Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin met the Blessed Virgin Mary on the morning of December 9, 1531, as he hurried to Mass near Mexico City. She wished to have a church built and to be acknowledged as the Mother of the True God. After the local bishop deflected the Virgin’s request - something that bishops seem to have a tendency to do - Juan brought roses from her in his rough cloak as a sign. Roses in December are an unusual phenomenon in Mexico, even as the climate is warmer than that in the United States. Unfurling his cloak before the astounded bishop, Juan revealed a miraculous image of the Virgin wearing a black maternity belt and bearing the jasmine flower over her womb. The Aztec symbolism clearly showed Mary’s unborn Child to be the divine center of the cosmos. In 1999 Pope (St.) John Paul II declared Our Lady of Guadalupe the Patroness of the Unborn. (Magnificat)
All in the Family Matters (the Message):
The infancy narrative in St. Luke’s Gospel (chapters 1-3) contains much detail about Jesus’ extended family. There’s the detail about first cousin once removed Zechariah and his incredulity over the angel’s announcement that his wife Elizabeth would be giving birth to their son. Zechariah’s reaction would result in becoming speechless for nine months or so - but that obviously didn’t keep him from expressing his intimate love and affection for his wife. Then Mary meets Joseph, before her own encounter with the Archangel Gabriel and her awe-inspiring consent to bear God’s child. It’s unclear which came next - her explanation of this miracle to an astounded Joseph or her visit to Elizabeth to assist in the birth of John the Baptist. Luke tells us that after John is born. Mary goes home. My guess is: Mary visits Elizabeth, comes home beginning to show outward signs of pregnancy, explains this to Joseph who, after his own encounter with an angel in a dream, quickly takes Mary as his wife; and they all live happily ever after… or so we would have wanted to believe.
Mary certainly had some insight into what she had given her consent. Joseph likely also knew that the child to be born was going to stand the world on its collective end. I’ll come back to this in a bit.
Jesus had other extended family, not of this world. He is the Second Person of the Triune God who created all that is, who offered his mother-to-be a privilege no other human, man or woman, has had, before or since. Who also created Gabriel and all the other unnamed angels, Cherubim and Seraphim, who appeared at Jesus’ birth and whose Gloria in excelsis Deo! has outdone any rendition of Happy Birthday to You! Who knew Joseph to be an upright man, a man after God’s heart.
While Joseph has no speaking parts in the Gospels, St. Matthew’s Gospel gives us a picture of a man who prayed frequently, discerned in his heart and mind what God wanted of him, and lived his life that way. If Jesus needed to learn the art of manliness through his (earthly) father’s example, Joseph was certainly the model. We should not presume that Joseph didn’t say much, or took a passive role in raising Jesus through childhood and adolescence. I believe he was a very active - and proactive, as Matthew points out - father. A strong, silent type to us; just as strong, but hardly silent, before Jesus, Mary, or God.
We need to re-familiarize ourselves with this model of family, especially now. Joseph had to take every caution, listening and watching for signs, as there would be threats upon the lives his family. Mary would take it all in, knowing some of what it meant and where it was leading, but not to the extent that it inevitably did. Both placed themselves at the service of God, trusting in His direction. The family, the backbone of all society, is under spiritual attack as attempts to redefine what family is and means come repeatedly and with angry force. May we be granted the spiritual drive and determination to stand up to them. May we be given the resolve that Joseph had, the trust that Mary had, to do what is proper and pleasing in the sight of God.
Memorable Moments:
1870 – Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina becomes the second black U.S. congressman.
1901 – Guglielmo Marconi receives the first transatlantic radio signal (the letter "S" [***] in Morse Code), at Signal Hill in St John's, Newfoundland.
1917 – Father Edward J. Flanagan founds Boys Town as a farm village for wayward boys.
1941 – Adolf Hitler declares the imminent extermination of the Jews at a meeting in the Reich Chancellery.
1945 – The People's Republic of Korea is outlawed in the South, by order of the United States Army Military Government in Korea.
2000 – The United States Supreme Court releases its decision in Bush v. Gore, ending litigation surrounding the outcome of that year’s presidential election.
Happy Birthday!!!
1893 – Edward G. Robinson, American actor (d. 1973)
1915 – Frank Sinatra, American singer, actor, and producer (d. 1998)
1923 – Bob Barker, American game show host and producer
1952 – Cathy Rigby, American gymnast
1962 – Tracy Austin, American tennis player and sportscaster
We Remember:
1999 – Joseph Heller, American novelist, short story writer, and playwright(b. 1923)
2006 – Peter Boyle, American actor (b. 1935)
2007 – Ike Turner, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (b. 1931)
2008 – Avery Dulles, American cardinal and theologian (b. 1918)
2008 – Van Johnson, American actor (b. 1916)
Parting Words:
My ‘dance card’ is filling up as Christmas Day approaches. Technology has finally figured out how I can be in two or more places virtually, at the same time. As the pandemic continues to drive forward, I hope we can all agree that it’s real. Please protect yourself and your loved ones! If you desire and are able, please follow your church’s procedure to sign up for attending Christmas services. If there are any serious issues that prevent your going, know that there will be many, many more choices to view service online in the comfort and relative safety of your home. I ask my friends to do so to help keep Christ in Christmas.
Until we meet again; Blessings of Our Lord, through the Love of Our Lady…
+the Phoenix
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