O Emmanuel

O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Expected of the nations and their Savior. Come and save us, O Lord our God.

The verses that make up the final antiphon are Isaiah 7:14 and Isaiah 33:22.

Our Gospel for the final Sunday of Advent is St. Luke's account of the Blessed Virgin to her cousin Elizabeth, who, after a life of barrenness, was pregnant with John the Baptist. Immediately after the Blessed Virgin greets her, Elizabeth said, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled."

Franz Anton The Visitation- 1771-77. Fresco in St. Nicholas Cathedral, Vác, Hungary

Emmanuel, God with us. How does this happen to me, that the Lord Himself comes to me in the bread and in the wine? How does it happen that the Lord comes to me daily in so many distressing disguises?

Since this episode is the second of the five Joyful mysteries of the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it is worth pointing out that the fruit of this mystery is love of neighbor, one Jesus' two great commandments, the one St Paul says "fulfills the law" (Gal. 5:14).

Christ calls us to fellowship

Prompted by a question that was posed to me last evening inquiring about what someone might read to explain the Roman Catholic position on Salvation, that is, to use technical theological language, "soteriology," I directed my inquirer to Christoph Cardinal Schönborn's recently translated (2009) God Sent His Son: A Contemporary Christology, particularly chapter 2 of Part IV.

Having given this answer, I felt a bit compelled to go back and peruse it in order to refresh my memory. My effort was rewarded by a great reminder of what an invaluable and indispensable (words cannot describe) gift the Eucharist is and how important it is to remain focused on the Eucharist both during these remaining few days of Advent and on into in Christmas. Why?

His Eminence begins by citing St. Augustine from De civitate Dei, noting that the great bishop of Hippo Regius' insight is very biblical, arising as it does "wholly from the ancient world": "A true sacrifice is every work that is done in order that we may cling to God in holy fellowship, that is to say, that has a reference to that goal of the good, through which we may be truly blessed." He then notes, "Sacrifice builds up fellowship."

Cardinal Schönborn points out that even in the Hebrew Scriptures sacrifice builds up fellowship, creating "fellowship with God among men," which "is why they almost always end with a meal, the sign of restored fellowship." He singles out Exodus 24:11, which tells us that "the sacrifice to seal the covenant ends with the elders eating a meal in view of God"- "Yet he did not lay a hand on these chosen Israelites. They saw God, and they ate and drank." He concludes this brief section by stating, "This connection between sacrifice and meal is seen in the Eucharist. There, too, the sacrifice creates fellowship."

It is still Advent. So, in light of this reflection and on this day when we pray the penultimate (I love finding occasions to use that word!) O Antiphon, "O King of the nations," it seems necessary to point out that it was to establish this "fellowship," to restore the harmony between God and humankind ("Peace on earth and mercy mild/God and sinners reconciled"), between people(s), and between human beings and the rest of creation, He was born, lived and taught, died, was resurrected, ascended, sent His Holy Spirit to establish His Church (giving all who believe in Him a new geneaology as God's children), and for this He will return to fully and finally establish God's kingdom, over which He will reign forever and ever. Amen. Precisely because our Lord desires fellowship with us (why else would He become incarnate?), He will not reign as earthly kings do, by force and coercion. This kingdom is often described, using an image from Revelation, as the wedding feast of Lamb. All of this and more, the beginning and the end, is present and happens in each and every Eucharist.

The Eucharist, which is nothing other than Christ Himself, does not exist in a vacuum, is not closed in on itself, but is given in order to be intimately connected with the lives of those who participate. "Sacrifice builds up fellowship" is a succinct summary of Christ's two great commandments, is it not? This, too, puts me in mind of Pope Benedict's speech to the Curia last Thursday, the part where he talked about the sacrifice required in being married and raising a family: "only in self-giving does man find himself, and only by opening himself to the other, to others, to children, to the family, only by letting himself be changed through suffering, does he discover the breadth of his humanity."

O Rex Gentium

O King of the Gentiles and the Desired of all, you are the cornerstone that binds two into one. Come, and save man whom you fashioned out of clay.

The verses of Scripture that combined make-up today's antiphon are Isaiah 28:16 and Ephesians 2:14.

Just how do we acknowledge Christ as our King? By making ourselves subject to Him.

Three days ago, our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, wrote a brief editorial for London's Financial Times. In his article, "A time for Christians to engage with the world," the Pontiff lays out what this means:

Christmas can be the time in which we learn to read the Gospel, to get to know Jesus not only as the Child in the manger, but as the one in whom we recognize God made Man.

It is in the Gospel that Christians find inspiration for their daily lives and their involvement in worldly affairs – be it in the Houses of Parliament or the Stock Exchange. Christians shouldn’t shun the world; they should engage with it. But their involvement in politics and economics should transcend every form of ideology.

Christians fight poverty out of a recognition of the supreme dignity of every human being, created in God’s image and destined for eternal life. Christians work for more equitable sharing of the earth’s resources out of a belief that, as stewards of God’s creation, we have a duty to care for the weakest and most vulnerable. Christians oppose greed and exploitation out of a conviction that generosity and selfless love, as taught and lived by Jesus of Nazareth, are the way that leads to fullness of life. Christian belief in the transcendent destiny of every human being gives urgency to the task of promoting peace and justice for all

It is likely no accident, especially given the Year of Faith we are observing due the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, that what the Pope writes is an echo from the Council's Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, which noted, "What specifically characterizes the laity is their secular nature" (par. 31). This is developed later in the constitution: "the laity are called in a special way to make the Church present and operative in those places and circumstances where only through them can it become the salt of the earth. Thus every layman, in virtue of the very gifts bestowed upon him, is at the same time a witness and a living instrument of the mission of the Church itself 'according to the measure of Christ's bestowal'" (par. 33).

Defending our humanity: Pope Benedict speaks to his Curia

Yesterday the Holy Father delivered his annual pre-Christmas speech to the Roman Curia. In this annual speech the Pontiff takes the opportunity to review the past year and speak on several topics that he feels are of the utmost importance. As he did back in 2008, which year marked the fortieth anniversary of Pope Paul VI's (whom Pope Benedict declared "Venerable" yesterday as well) promulgation of Humanae Vitae, Benedict XVI addressed the issue of prioritizing "gender" over "sex," or the tendency even to eliminate "sex" (i.e., what you are by nature) in favor of "gender" (posited as a social construction and so having little or nothing essential to do with the identity of any individual human person).

In this year's address, the Holy Father cited the prioritization, or complete replacement of "sex" with "gender" as one thing that is perilous. Citing the work of the Chief Rabbi of France, Gilles Bernheim, Pope Benedict said,

that the attack we are currently experiencing on the true structure of the family, made up of father, mother, and child, goes much deeper. While up to now we regarded a false understanding of the nature of human freedom as one cause of the crisis of the family, it is now becoming clear that the very notion of being – of what being human really means – is being called into question. He quotes the famous saying of Simone de Beauvoir: “one is not born a woman, one becomes so” (on ne naît pas femme, on le devient). These words lay the foundation for what is put forward today under the term “gender” as a new philosophy of sexuality. According to this philosophy, sex is no longer a given element of nature, that man has to accept and personally make sense of: it is a social role that we choose for ourselves, while in the past it was chosen for us by society. The profound falsehood of this theory and of the anthropological revolution contained within it is obvious. People dispute the idea that they have a nature, given by their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being. They deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves. According to the biblical creation account, being created by God as male and female pertains to the essence of the human creature. This duality is an essential aspect of what being human is all about, as ordained by God. This very duality as something previously given is what is now disputed. The words of the creation account: “male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27) no longer apply. No, what applies now is this: it was not God who created them male and female – hitherto society did this, now we decide for ourselves. Man and woman as created realities, as the nature of the human being, no longer exist

Given the inevitable flame that insight sparks, it is easy to overlook the other thing cited as a grave threat to marriage and society, namely "the human capacity to make a commitment or to avoid commitment," an observation that leads the Pontiff to a series of questions that bear on both marriage as well as priesthood and religious life: "Can one bind oneself for a lifetime? Does this correspond to man’s nature? Does it not contradict his freedom and the scope of his self-realization? Does man become himself by living for himself alone and only entering into relationships with others when he can break them off again at any time? Is lifelong commitment antithetical to freedom? Is commitment also worth suffering for?"

(Photo by Eric Vandeville-Pool/Getty Images)

These questions are followed by these pastoral observations: "Man’s refusal to make any commitment – which is becoming increasingly widespread as a result of a false understanding of freedom and self-realization as well as the desire to escape suffering – means that man remains closed in on himself and keeps his 'I' ultimately for himself, without really rising above it. Yet only in self-giving does man find himself, and only by opening himself to the other, to others, to children, to the family, only by letting himself be changed through suffering, does he discover the breadth of his humanity."

The two other topics covered by the Holy Father in his speech were the New Evangelization and inter- religious dialogue. Towards the end of his brief reflection on the challenge of evangelization, saying that "the Church represents the memory of what it means to be human in the face of a civilization of forgetfulness, which knows only itself and its own criteria," addresses the issue, practically forced by his earlier discussion of marriage, that of the relationship of the Church to the state: "In her dialogue with the state and with society, the Church does not, of course, have ready answers for individual questions. Along with other forces in society, she will wrestle for the answers that best correspond to the truth of the human condition. The values that she recognizes as fundamental and non-negotiable for the human condition she must propose with all clarity. She must do all she can to convince, and this can then stimulate political action."

O Oriens

Our Friday traditio is a little known collaboration between U2 and the late Johnny Cash. "The Wanderer" seems almost too fitting a traditio for the final Friday of this Advent. I'll keep it spare.

I stopped outside a church house/Where the citizens like to sit/They say they want the kingdom/But they don't want God in it

"Locusts and honey ... not since John The Baptist has there been a voice like that crying in the wilderness. ... Every man knows he is a sissy compared to Johnny Cash."

-Bono's tribute to Johnny Cash on the day Cash died

O Antiphon:

O Rising Dawn, Radiance of the Light eternal and Sun of Justice: come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

Taken from Isaiah 9:1, Malachi 3:20, 2 Peter 1:19.

O Clavis David

Our O Antiphon for today seems particularly fitting for this year. In the aftermath of last week's horror I think we're all very conscious of the existential fact that we "sit in darkness and the shadow of death." One does not need to be a believer to grasp this aspect of reality. It was Heidegger, I believe, who wrote something along the lines that death is the horizon against we live our lives. Even for believers, those of us who believe life continues over that horizon, we cannot see beyond it. Eternal life is our hope, which is not a wish, but a desire that burns within us. It is Jesus who unlocks the gates of death, making His Father's house accessible to us.

O Key of David and Scepter of the House of Israel; you open and no man closes; you close and no man opens. Come, and deliver from the chains of prison those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

The Scriptures that together constitute today's antiphon are Isaiah 22:22 and Revelation 3:7.

I heard something yesterday while driving to pick my oldest daughter up from her violin lesson, a news story by John Barnett on All Things Considered- "Newtown Tragedy: Would A Good God Allow Such Evil?" The honest answer is that while evil is a great mystery, for whatever reasons, God, in His all-knowing, all-loving mercy, does allow such things, at least for now. At the end of the day there is no satisfactory answer as to why God allows such evil. It was the consensus of all those interviewed that we should be wary "of anyone who says he or she has the answer."

In his song "Hard to Get," the late and still greatly missed Rich Mullins, sang/prayed,

And I know you bore our sorrows
And I know you feel our pain
And I know it would not hurt any less
Even if it could be explained

All I know is that Jesus' birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension, sending of the Holy Spirit, as well as His glorious return are the key to answering this question and overcoming the pain, or fear, or doubt evil generates.

O Radix Jesse

Today is the third day of the Church's annual recitation of the O Antiphons and so we pray:

O Root of Jesse, you stand as a sign for the peoples; before you kings shall keep silence and to you all nations shall have recourse. Come, save us, and do not delay.

Jesse Tree

The passages of Scripture that make up today's antiphon are both from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah: Isaiah 52:13, 15; 53:2. These passages prophesy about David's throne being restored, of a new branch sprouting from an old root. Jesus is the fulfillment of these prophecies, plus many more.

The Archangel Gabriel, at the Annunciation, declared to the Blessed Virgin, "Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." (Luke 1:32-33).