Wheat & Weeds: December 2017

Merry 7th Day of Christmas ~ New Year's Eve!

Posted by RC2 at 9:00 AM | Labels: 12 Days, Popery, The Arts

Nativity with Gloria in Excelsis, Luca della Robbia, 1465-ish

Msgr. Pope with tough medicine on this feast of the Holy Family. Also:

The old Simeon, in particular, inspired by the Holy Spirit says about the child Jesus: "He is destined for the fall and for the rising of many in Israel and as a sign of contradiction [...] so that the secret thoughts of many may be laid bare.”
These prophetic words reveal that Jesus came to bring down the false images that we make of God and of ourselves; to "contradict" the worldly certainties on which we claim to support ourselves; to make us "rise up" to an authentic human and Christian journey based on the values of the Gospel. There is no family situation that is precluded on this new path of rebirth and resurrection. Whenever families, even those wounded and marked by frailty, failure and difficulty, return to the source of Christian experience, new paths and unimagined possibilities open up.

~Pope Francis, Angelus for feast of the Holy Family, trans. by Fr. Dennis Brown

Merry 6th Day of Christmas!

Posted by RC2 at 8:46 AM | Labels: 12 Days, Popery, The Arts

Image credit: William Congdon, Natività, 1960

Each year the Nativity scene and Christmas tree speak to us through their symbolic language. They render more visible what is understood from the experience of the birth of the Son of God. They are the signs of the heavenly Father’s compassion, of his interest in and closeness to humanity, which does not feel abandoned in the darkest of times, but sought out and accompanied in its difficulties.
The tree reaching upward spurs us to reach for “the higher gifts” (cf. 1 Cor 12:31), to rise up above the cloudy haze in order to experience how beautiful and joyful it is to be immersed in the light of Christ. In the simplicity of the Nativity we encounter and contemplate God’s tenderness, manifested in that of the Baby Jesus.

~Pope Francis, to the delegation of those who donated the Vatican's Christmas tree and nativity scene

Merry 5th Day of Christmas!

Posted by RC2 at 7:12 AM | Labels: 12 Days, Popery, The Arts

Image Credit: Haitian artist met on a friend's mission trip, 2017

...let me go with you to the cave near the little town of Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem. Let us all be there rather than here—there where "in the silence of the night" was heard the wail of the newborn infant, that eternal expression of the children of the earth. At the same moment was heard the voice of Heaven, that "world" of God dwelling in the inaccessible tabernacle of Glory. The majesty of the eternal God and mother earth making herself known by the wail of the newborn Infant enable us to glimpse the prospect of a new Peace, Reconciliation, and Covenant: "To us is born the Saviour of the world," "all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God."
Nevertheless at this moment, at this strange hour, the ends of the earth are still afar off. They are pervaded by a period of waiting, far from peace. The hearts of people are filled rather with weariness; people have fallen asleep, as have the shepherds in the Bethlehem valleys close by. What is happening in the stable, in the rock cave, has a dimension of profound intimacy: it is something between the Mother and the Babe to be born. No outside person has access. Even Joseph, the Nazareth carpenter, is but a silent witness. She alone is fully aware of her Motherhood. She alone perceives the special expression of the infant's wailing. The birth of Christ is pre-eminently her mystery, her great day. It is the feast of the Mother.
It is a strange feast: there is no trace of the synagogue liturgy, no reading of the prophets or singing of the psalms. "Sacrifices and offerings thou hast not desired, but a body has thou prepared for me" (Heb 10:5) seems to be what is said by the wailing of the one who, although he is the Eternal Son, the Word who is of one being with the Father, "God from God, Light from Light," has become flesh (Jn 1: 14). He reveals himself in that body as one of us, a little infant, in all his frailty and vulnerability. Dependent upon people's care, entrusted to their love, undefended. He wails, and the world does not hear him, cannot hear him. The newborn infant's wail can only just be heard a few steps away.

~ St. John Paul II, homily for Midnight Mass, 1978

An interesting exercise is to RTWT and then compare it with Pope Francis' homily this Christmas Eve.

Merry 4th Day of Christmas!

Posted by RC2 at 8:00 AM | Labels: 12 Days, Popery, The Arts

Image Credit: "The Nativity," Lorenzo Leonbruno de Mantova

In the Child of Bethlehem, God comes to meet us and make us active sharers in the life around us. He offers himself to us, so that we can take him into our arms, lift him and embrace him. So that in him we will not be afraid to take into our arms, raise up and embrace the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned (cf. Mt 25:35-36). “Do not be afraid! Open wide the doors for Christ”. In this Child, God invites us to be messengers of hope. He invites us to become sentinels for all those bowed down by the despair born of encountering so many closed doors. In this child, God makes us agents of his hospitality.

~ Pope Francis, Homily for Midnight Mass 2017

Merry 3rd Day of Christmas!

Posted by RC2 at 9:43 AM | Labels: 12 Days, Gospel Truth, Popery, The Arts

The Dream of St. Joseph, google search failed me

Michael Pakaluk has a nice reflection this morning on what we can learn from St. Joseph at Christmas: Here Comes That Dreamer.

To Joseph is given the important legal role, of naming the child: “She will bear a son, but you will give him his name.” As fathers do generally, he navigated the family through the demands of legal relationships and authorities. No doubt it was Joseph who insisted that pregnant Mary accompany him to Bethlehem, to follow the Emperor’s decree.
So, all the traditional traits of Joseph are found right there: prudent deliberation, decisive action, and complete virtue under law – which is deemed “righteousness.”
Yet this list of his distinctive traits is incomplete. To see why, consider this test. Suppose you asked 100 Catholics whether they thought it essential to be open to messages from God in dreams, how many would say, “of course”? And yet this was essential, for Jesus to live beyond infancy.

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