3rd Week of Advent, Monday, Dec 12
Numbers 24:2-7, 15-17 / Matthew 21:23-27
Balaam prophesies; A star shall advance from Jacob.
Douglas Hyde was an English journalist who disliked the Catholic Church. One day he bought an anti-Catholic book to use in his attacks against the Church. The book had just the opposite effect on him. It led him to the Church. Something similar to this happened to Balaam in today's reading. He set out to curse Israel but ended up blessing her instead.Early church writers considered the words about the star in today's reading as a prophetic reference to the star that directed the Magi to Jesus.
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How open are we to changing our minds when the truth reveals itself to us? "God, give us the courage to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish one from the other." Reinhold Niebuhr
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“We want to be liberated from those illusions, frustrations, injustices and repression to which the modern world has subjected us in violation of its promises – this is what the young are saying, the disinherited, the automatons of modern technology: we want to be free persons, real persons, people rescued from hunger and from the spiral of incurable inferiority. Yes, answers the Man of people: come to me all of you who are in tribulation and I will console you. I am with you, with the power of the Spirit, not with violence and “but with passion.” Wisdom alone liberates the world.” Paul VI, Christmas Message, Dec. 25, 1970.
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The main story of Balaam whose oracles we heard in the 1st reading, occurs during the close of forty years of wandering in the desert of the Israelites and before they crossed the river Jordan. The Israelites have already defeated two kings east of the Jordan. Balak, king of Moab (Numbers 22:2), consequently becomes alarmed, and sends elders and his messengers (Numbers 22:4-5), to Balaam, son of Beor, to induce him to come and curse Israel.
Balaam agreed but after a couple of divine interventions, he could only bless Israel instead of cursing them. He explained to Balak that as a prophet, he could only speak words that God had put into his mouth and not otherwise.
In the gospel, the chief priests and elders wanted to challenge the authority of Jesus. But when they were posed with the question of the authority of John the Baptist, they were thrown into confusion. They knew in their heart of hearts that John the Baptist was a prophet sent by God. Yet when it came to the question about who Jesus is, they did not look into their hearts to find the answer.
Advent is a time to quieten our hearts in prayer and reflection and meditate on the mystery of the Incarnation and on who Jesus is in our lives. Blessed are we when we prepare a special place for Jesus in our hearts during this Advent so that His Word may be made real in our lives.
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Opening Prayer
Lord, our God, in a world of injustice, war and exploitation, in which more and more people have the means to live but not many reasons to live for, you promise us a star to follow, Jesus, your Son. God, keep in us the hope alive, that he will come today and that, if we are willing to take the demands of the Gospel seriously, we can become indeed a new people completely renewed in him, Christ our Savior, for ever and ever. Amen
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Our Lady of Guadalupe
Feast Day December 12
On December 9, 1531, a 57-year-old Aztec, Juan Diego, saw the Blessed Mother on a hill in Mexico City. She told Juan to have a church built in her honor. When Juan went to ask Bishop Zumarraga about this, the bishop did not understand the Indian dialect—and he did not believe in the vision Juan described.
Three days later, on December 12, Mary appeared again to Juan Diego, and this time she gave him a sign for the bishop. “Take these roses to the bishop,” she said, as she arranged in his cloak beautiful roses she had Juan Diego pick from the hillside although it was winter. When he was admitted into the bishop’s room, Juan Diego opened his cloak, and out dropped the roses. On the cloak there remained an image of Mary as she had appeared to Juan Diego.
The image of Mary on the cloak is known as Our Lady of Guadalupe for an interesting reason. On that same day, Mary appeared to Juan’s uncle and cured him, giving him a message for the bishop, saying that she would “crush the serpent’s head.” The bishop did not understand the Indians’ language. The Indian word for “crush the serpent” sounded to him like “Guadalupe,” the name of Mary’s shrine in Spain. Thinking that the Virgin wanted the new shrine to have the same name, the bishop called her Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Mary appeared to Juan Diego dressed as an Aztec woman to show her love and compassion to an oppressed group of people. Mary had heard the prayers and pain of these people, and she came to give them hope.
Mary’s visit to Guadalupe is a reminder that God will remember his mercy for all people. In Mary’s song of joy, the Magnificat, she praised God because he has put down the mighty, exalted the lowly, filled the hungry, and sent the rich away empty. People honor Our Lady of Guadalupe because they recognize her motherly concern for them.
