Breaking the Word

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs
The Power of the Light

Readings: 1 John 1:5—2:2; Psalm 124:2-3, 4-5, 7cd-8; Matthew 2:13-18

A day after using white vestments for the Feast of John our continuing celebration of Christmas returns us to the blood red color of the martyrs. Why, we may wonder yet again, is there an apparent obsession with suffering and death, with darkness and gloom, even as the Church continues to celebrate the birthday of its Lord and Savior? …

I’m reading a book that some parishioners gave me as a Christmas present. It’s such an insightful and enjoyable read that I sometimes almost cannot contain my delight. Today, I found this little gem of a sentence: There is no recognition of the true light except in the midst of true darkness. We might say too that the converse is also true: that there is no recognition of true darkness except in the midst of true light.

And isn’t this the truth that our readings are presenting to us today? God is light, we are told in the first reading, there is no darkness in him at all. Yet, when that light shines so brilliantly upon us in the gospel – in the birth of the infant Jesus – it is recognized especially by contrast to the darkness: the darkness present in human hearts like Herod’s; the darkness that causes weeping and loud lamentation because innocent children are massacred.

If we do continue to celebrate martyrdom in the octave of Christmas it is not out of a masochism that takes pleasure in brooding over the shadow side of life. Rather, by bravely dwelling on the darkness of death and destruction, we hope to allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the awesome power of the light, the same light emanating from the face of the babe in the manger.

And the power of this divine light is brought out especially well by the martyrs we celebrate today. From one perspective, their death is a horrible tragedy. Yet, in faith, we also see it as an entrance into eternal glory. And their triumph fills us with true Christmas joy and hope especially when we consider who they are. For these martyrs are neither learned doctors of the church, nor are they mighty saints. They are celebrated neither for their deep knowledge of the faith nor for any great works they themselves have done. They are mere infants. They understand little. They are probably hardly able even to speak or to stand on their own two feet. And yet, it is as we shall hear later in our prayer over the gifts, through their martyrdom, the Lord gives them life even before they understand.

How marvelous then is this great power that we celebrate at Christmas. Not only does it enable us to recognize the sinfulness in our hearts and in our world, but it also has the power to free us from the darkness – even in spite of our weakness and lack of understanding – and usher us into the light. Indeed, it is as we heard in the response to the psalm: our life, like a bird, has escaped from the snare of the fowler. This is the wondrous power of the light that we celebrate at Christmas, a power that we begin to appreciate all the more when we are willing to contemplate as well the darkness that it comes to dispel.

Today, how are we being ushered out of darkness into the light?

1 comment:

AnonymousFri Dec 29, 08:29:00 am GMT+8
It's been said that darkness does not exist; it is just the absence of light. Through the grace of God, I have gradually learnt not to marginalise those who live and operate in darkness because they have not seen or encountered the Light.

And pockets of darkness still persist in our world today. In 1999/2000, at the height of the Timorese struggle for independence, countless innocent men, women, children, priests and religious were massacred. That touched the very core of my being and I struggled to sense sense of the tragedy. It was beyond human understanding. Then Friar Clifford Augustine, o.f.m., Chaplain to the NTU Catholic Students' Apostolate remarked at one RCIA session: " No need to be sad, anxious or angry. When Jesus died on the cross, He envisioned this and gathered it in His arms as an eternal offering to the Father along with His life on earth".

As we approach the new year, may we all have a special love for those still in darkness: family, friends, associates. Let us pray that the Light that came into the world on Christmas Day will soon permeate their lives through our love and example.

A happy new year in the LORD, everyone!
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Breaking News: Ordinary Time

Apart from those seasons having their own distinctive character, thirty-three or thirty-four weeks remain in the yearly cycle that do not celebrate a specific aspect of the mystery of Christ. Rather, especially on the Sundays, they are devoted to the mystery of Christ in all its aspects. This period is known as Ordinary Time. Ordinary Time begins on Monday after the Sunday following 6 January and continues until Tuesday before Ash Wednesday inclusive. It begins again on Monday after Pentecost and ends before Evening Prayer I of the First Sunday of Advent. This is also the reason for the series of liturgical texts found in both the Roman Missal and The Liturgy of the Hours (Vol. III - IV), for Sundays and weekdays in this season. ~ General Norms for the Liturgical Year & Calendar, 43-44

From 36th Jesuit General Congregation

It is our union with one another in Christ that testifies to the Good News more powerfully than our competences and abilities.... In our individualistic and competitive age, we should remember that the community plays a very special role since it is a privileged place of apostolic discernment.... The Jesuit community is a concrete space in which we live as friends in the Lord. This life together is always at the service of mission, but because these fraternal bonds proclaim the Gospel, it is itself a mission. –Companions in a Mission of Reconciliation and Justice (CMRJ), nn. 7-9.

With the poor, we can learn what hope and courage mean.... In our communities and apostolates, we hear the call to rediscover hospitality to strangers, to the young, to the poor, and to those who are persecuted. Christ himself teaches us this hospitality. –CMRJ, nn. 15-16.

At the heart of Ignatian spirituality is the transforming encounter with the mercy of God in Christ that moves us to a generous personal response. The experience of the merciful gaze of God on our weakness and sinfulness humbles us and fills us with gratitude, helping us to become compassionate ministers to all.... For us Jesuits, compassion is action, an action discerned together. Yet we know that there is no authentic familiarity with God if we do not allow ourselves to be moved to compassion and action by an encounter with the Christ who is revealed in the suffering, vulnerable faces of people, indeed in the suffering of creation. –CMRJ, nn. 19-20.

(T)he Society must respond more decisively to the Church’s call for a new evangelization, giving special emphasis to ministry to and with the young and with families.... A special gift Jesuits and the Ignatian family have to offer to the Church and her mission of evangelization is Ignatian spirituality, which facilitates the experience of God and can therefore greatly help the process of personal and communal conversion. –CMRJ, nn. 22-23.

In many societies, there is an increased level of conflict and polarization, which often gives rise to violence that is all the more appalling because it is motivated and justified by distorted religious convictions. In such situations, Jesuits, along with all who seek the common good, are called to contribute from their religious-spiritual traditions towards the building of peace, on local and global levels. –CMRJ, n. 28.

Pope Francis has emphasized the fundamental connection between the environmental crisis and the social crisis in which we live today. Poverty, social exclusion, and marginalization are linked with environmental degradation. These are not separate crises but one crisis that is a symptom of something much deeper: the flawed way societies and economies are organised. The current economic system with its predatory orientation discards natural resources as well as people. For this reason, Pope Francis insists that the only adequate solution must be a radical one. The direction of development must be altered if it is to be sustainable. We Jesuits are called to help heal a broken world, promoting a new way of producing and consuming, which puts God’s creation at the center.... The multifaceted challenge of caring for our common home calls for a multifaceted response from the Society. We begin by changing our personal and community lifestyles, adopting behaviour coherent with our desire for reconciliation with creation. – CMRJ, nn. 29-30

From 35th Jesuit General Congregation

From General Congregation 35

By sending us to 'those physical and spiritual places which others do not or have difficulty reaching,' the Pope entrusts to us the task to 'build bridges of understanding and dialogue,' according to the best tradition of the Society, in the diversity of its ministries.
- Decree With Renewed Fervor and Dynamism, n. 6

To be missioned to this work 'at the New Frontiers of our times' always requires that one also be rooted at the very heart of the Church. This tension, specific to the Ignatian charism, opens the way to true creative fidelity.
- Decree With Renewed Fervor and Dynamism, n. 13

In every mission that we carry out, we seek only to be where (Christ) sends us. The grace we receive as Jesuits is to be and to go with him, looking on the world with his eyes, loving it with his heart and entering into its depths with his unending compassion.
- Decree on Identity, n. 15

For ultimately, there is no reality that is only profane for those who know how to look. We must communicate this look and provide a pedagogy inspired by the Spiritual Exercises, that carries people - especially the young - into it.
- Decree on Identity, n. 10

Our ministries of proclamation of the Word and the celebration of the Life of Christ in the sacraments continue to be fundamental for our mission and our lives together as Jesuits.
- Decree on Mission, n. 19

The complexity of the problems we face and the richness of the opportunities offered demand that we engage in building bridges between rich and poor and establishing advocacy links of mutual support between those who hold political power and those who find it difficult to voice their interests. Our intellectual apostolate provides an inestimable help in setting up these bridges, offering us new ways of understanding in depth the mechanism and links among our present problems.
- Decree on Mission, n. 28

Jesuit community is not just for mission, it is itself mission.
- Decree on Mission, n. 41

In this global context it is important to highlight the extraordinary potential represented by our character as an international and multicultural body. Acting consistently with this character can not only enhance the apostolic effectiveness of our work but in a fragmented and divided world it can witness to the reconciliation in solidarity of all the children of God.
- Decree on Mission, n. 43

Faith in Jesus Christ teaches us that self-realization comes from self-giving and that freedom is not so much the power to choose as the power to order our choices toward love. At the same time, love for Jesus Christ and the desire to follow him call us to trusting commitment. Commitment to the Word Incarnate cannot be separated from commitment to the concrete manifestations of the Word that are at the center of our lives, the Church and the Society which exists to serve the Church.
- Decree on Obedience, n. 19