Sunday Gospel Comment
Alberic Jacovone OSB
YEAR C HOLY FAMILY - 28.12.2003 1 Sam 1,20-22.24-28; 1 Jn 3,1-2.21-24; Lk 2,41-52 Conception & family The
Lord’s Birth.
Many people today, find it difficult to celebrate the birthday of our Saviour as
the Bible and the Liturgy ask us to do: namely as an event which is happening
for us here & now. To this event we respond with deep emotions & it
forms our deepest convictions. Because of it we commit ourselves to follow &
live-out a personal union with God. The difficulty lies in the fact that we
separate the historical events of Jesus birth, life and death, events that are
past & gone, from the celebration of those sacred events, which are always
present - available - here & now - for our salvation. This point is not new
and is worth exploring, as it touches the core of liturgical worship, be it
Christmas or the Feast of Holy Family, or Easter or any occasion when we
experience God. This very point was brilliantly argued by a monk from Bavaria
who lived 500 years ago: his name was John Justus Landsberg. This is what he
wrote -in 1500AD- in one of his homilies. “Perhaps someone will say: ‘The
Lord came once; long time ago in Bethlehem he was incarnate and was born many
long years ago. He will not be born a second time’. Well, you are right, when
you believe that he was born physically only once and in this way he will not be
born a second time. Nevertheless, if you desire it, he will be born every day in
your heart. Whenever you conceive in
your heart the idea of how to further your salvation, and firmly resolve to
follow it up, you conceive God in
your heart. Moreover, whenever you carry out what you have conceived and resolve to do it, you give birth to Christ in
you. Now think: if you can obtain this grace any time, how much more will you
not do so on the anniversary-day itself, upon which Grace pours down from heaven
like honey, and when it would be strange for the Lord to refuse a petitioner any
worthwhile request? And if he then, cannot refuse anything that makes for our
salvation, how could he refuse himself? Now therefore, entreat the Lord without fear; entreat him
persistently and fervently; entreat him humbly but at the same time violently -I
mean with the violence by which Christ said heaven is to be seized- for you will
certainly receive Him, He will certainly give you himself - and in his boundless
benevolence he will not refuse you anything”. Conceptions
and misconceptions. At times we disregard the logic & meaning of words and in so doing
we miss & distort their understanding. Take the word the word
‘concep-tion: normally, we refer conception to the process of being born: we
say that Jesus was conceived by the Holy spirit and Mary conceived him in her
womb & she herself had an immaculate conception. However, when it comes to conceiving,
we fail to realize that even before we talk about the physiology of conception,
the very word concept is an activity
of the mind. Every time we build in our mind the picture or the master plan of a
project, we have conceived (pre-conceived?) in our mind the full picture of what
is to be realized. Now, if conceptualizing
is a process that takes place in the mind, it should not be difficult - for
men & women alike- to accept the idea that the Lord is conceived and born in us.
Neither should it be difficult to see how we
are reborn as children of God.
Beautifully John Justus Landsberg comments: “When Jesus asked: who are my
brothers and my mother? he stretched out his hand to his disciples (and us)
& said: ‘Whoever does the will of my Father, is my brother, sister &
mother’. Therefore, be sure of two things: that Christ is conceived & born
in you and that you also are conceived and reborn in him’ ______________________________________ |
