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RENEWED LOVE FOR GOD

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SAINT STEPHEN, THE FIRST MARTYR Acts 6:8-10,7:54-59; Ps 31:3-4,6,8,16-17; Mt 10:17-22 The Friendship Renewed in Love We celebrate the first Christian martyr, Saint Stephen. The Church celebrates this feast within the Christmas octave for a reason. The celebration confirms the efficacy of the largess of grace and heavenly blessings that became ours at the Incarnation of the Son of God. The mystery we celebrate at Christmas is real and bears real fruit in the lives of the people who believe in the Good News we have heard. Before the salvation of God was unveiled for us, scarcely could anyone be found who knew God; there was nobody in all the world who could bear convincing witness to the love of God for us, not to talk of laying down his life for the word of God. But the Incarnation of the Word of God has caused the knowledge of God to fill our land and earth as the water covers the sea. The Good News, which the multitude of angels were the first to proclaim to the shepherds, has c...
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THE GIFT OF THE SON OF GOD

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THE SOLEMNITY OF CHRISTMAS Isa 52:7-10; Ps 98:1-6; Heb 1:1-6; Jn 1:1-18 The Son of God has been given to Us Our reflection is on the readings of the Mass of the day. We celebrate the mystery of mysteries today, the human birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. We consider the wonder of God’s love for us men, which made him take our human nature and be born like one of us. The plan and purposes of God can never be thwarted by evil. His divine plan for us, from the beginning, is to have us dwell with him eternally. When our sinful choice made it impossible for us to dwell with God, He extended his plan to accommodate the Incarnation of his Son. The Incarnation of the Eternal Word is the greatest proof of God’s love for us, mortal men, whom he made in his image. Love unites the lover to the beloved inseparably. God’s love for us could not let him remain in heaven while we languish and waste in the darkness of sin and evil in this valley of tears. The Eternal Word, through whom the Father ma...
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A DEEP MYSTERY OF GOD

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  24 DECEMBER 2 Sam 7:1-5,8-12m14,16; Ps 89:2-5,27,29; Lk 1:67-79 The Coming of the King of Glory We have come to the eve of the solemnity of Christmas. What we celebrate at Christmas is not a sudden realisation of God’s plan, but a well-planned, prepared, and announced coming of God to his people. We have understood, through the reflections, that the mystery we celebrate at Christmas has its origin in the time of creation. The Incarnation is a key component in God’s plan and operations to make us like himself. Because the original sin caused a rift in human trust in God due to the doubt and division planted by the evil one in human awareness, God planned to take our human nature to demonstrate his goodwill towards us and the plan he has for us from all eternity. The persistence of doubt in human minds about God and his will for us prompted God to proclaim his good intentions for us through the prophet Jeremiah. “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for w...
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THE IMMANUEL

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23 DECEMBER 1 Mal 3:1-4,23-24; Ps 25:4-5,8-9,10,14; Lk 1:57-66 Jesus, Immanuel, God with Us The Church praises and invokes the coming Messiah as Immanuel, the prophetic name given to us by God through the prophet Isaiah. It is a name that denotes the messianic city of God and the relationship between God and the inhabitants or citizens of the city. Isaiah the prophet gave us the literal meaning of the name as ‘God-is-with-us.’ The prelude to the giving of the name connects it to the ancient sign of salvation of the woman and her offspring. What God revealed about the woman and her offspring implies that the city where God-is-with-us will be characterised by the divinely established enmity between the woman and the serpent, between her Offspring and its offspring. Thus, the city of Immanuel will be free of sin and every corruption of evil and works of darkness. This is made possible by the characterising awareness of the citizens, namely, that God is with us. This awareness is gen...
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KING DESIRED BY THE PEOPLES

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22 DECEMBER 1 Sam 1:24-28; 1 Sam 2:1,4-6; Lk 1:46-56 Jesus, the King desired by the People Human nature is incomplete without God, for God made us for himself, to live in communion with him. Only our communion with God will bring us to be like God. If we are created to be like God, we are therefore made to be ruled by God's word. When Adam and Eve failed to take God's word as the rule of their lives from the beginning due to the serpent's deception, God proposed another means to represent His word to us for our redemption and glory. We see through the history of salvation that God has taken pains to prepare a people to receive his word in faith and live in communion with him. In so doing, all the peoples and nations would learn to do the same, thereby entering into the planned communion of God and men. In the divinely planned communion, the Eternal Word of God will be our King, and we will be his loved and cherished subjects, worshipping God and sharing his dominion o...
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THE RISING SUN OF GOD

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  SUNDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ADVENT Isa 7:10-14; Ps 24:1-6; Rom 1:1-7; Mt 1:18-24 Jesus, the Rising Sun The readings for the fourth Sunday of Advent include some of the readings for 20 December. This is because the readings of 21 December are replaced with the Sunday readings. Hence, it would seem we are taking the same readings as those of yesterday. But the second reading and the Gospel are different. But the novena theme is that of the 21 December. We consider Jesus as the Rising Sun of God with healing rays. Just as the sun rises to dispel the darkness of the night, bringing in the day when people rise with new hope, joy, and aspiration for a new day, Jesus Christ is coming as a new dawn of divine revelation and spiritual energy. He brings new spiritual life, strength, and hope for eternity to men who live subdued by the forces of evil, sin, and death. Because he comes with spiritual light, we need faith to connect to him and receive the light that he brings. At his birth mor...
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THE KEY OF DAVID AND SCEPTRE OF ISRAEL

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20 DECEMBER Isa 7:10-14; Ps 24:1-6; Lk 1:26-38 Jesus, Key of David and Sceptre of Israel The Church invokes and praises the Saviour as the Key of David and Sceptre of Israel. We understand the former title from different perspectives. As the Key of David, the Son of Man is the access to the promised House that God is to build for David. David's desire and intention were to build a house for God. But God made him understand through Nathan the prophet that it is not man who builds a house for God, but rather the reverse is the case; God builds an everlasting house for Himself and for man. In the first instance, we understand man to be the original house God is constructing for himself. In the second instance, in the house that man is, each of us learn to live in the house of God, in communion with him. So, God is building us into a house where he will dwell with us in communion. In this latter sense, David was already being constructed into a house for God by his faith in the w...
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