Day 74: The Christmas Mystery (522-526)

• Today is DAY 74!!

• Yesterday we talked about how CHRIST’S WHOLE LIFE IS MYSTERY

• His whole life is a mystery where He is a REVELATION of the Father

• His whole life is a MYSTERY OF REDEMPTION

• His whole life is a MYSTERY OF RECAPITULATION

• We are brought into that COMMUNION IN THE MYSTERIES OF JESUS

• We are called to LIVE IN HIM all that He Himself lived

• Jesus enters into EVERYTHING THAT WE CAN GO THROUGH

• Jesus enters into ALL OF HUMANITY

• NOT STOPPING AT DEATH!!

• BUT ALSO…

• OUR DESTINY!!

• God wants for us to RISE TO NEW LIFE in Him in the ETERNAL RESURRECTION TO GLORY

• JESUS DID ALL THAT!!

• JESUS REDEEMED ALL THAT!!

• WHICH IS AMAZING!!

• Today we are going to talk about THE MYSTERIES OF JESUS’ INFANCY AND HIDDEN LIFE

• 5 short paragraphs

• We are not going to get through ALL of the INFANCY AND HIDDEN LIFE

• We are just going through Advent and Christmas

• Tomorrow we will talk more about Jesus’ infancy, life in Nazareth, and public life after that

• Today we will talk about the ACTUAL ADVENT that lasted roughly a couple of centuries

• Also the mystery of Christmas

• Paragraph 522 says, “The coming of God’s Son to earth is an event of such immensity that God willed to prepare for it over centuries. He makes everything converge on Christ: all the rituals and sacrifices, figures, and symbols of the ‘First Covenant.’ He announces him through the mouths of the prophets who succeeded one another in Israel. Moreover, he awakens in the hearts of the pagans a dim expectation of this coming.” 

• The Old Testament and the Covenant that God made with His Chosen People of Israel was to PREPARE THEM for the coming of the Messiah

• ALL THE UPS AND DOWNS

• ALL THE STRUGGLES

• ALL OF THE SUFFERINGS

• ALL OF THE BLESSINGS THAT GOD HAD GIVEN TO THEM

• ALL OF THAT…

• Was to PREPARE THEM to have HEARTS THAT WERE READY AND DESIRED to welcome the Messiah

• READY TO RECOGNIZE CHRIST WHEN HE ACTUALLY CAME!!

• God also awakens the PAGANS

• C.S. Lewis spoke about this alot

• It seems like Christianity has certain HINTS in other religions 

• They talk about DYING AND RISING

• They talk about a god that comes CLOSE

• Lewis says, “Yeah, some of those stories exist.”

• He called them “GOOD DREAMS OF HUMANITY”

• Maybe there is MORE to life than JUST DEATH

• Maybe there is a RESURRECTION after death

• Maybe there is a GOD WHO CARES OUT THERE

• No one EVER came to that conclusion until God revealed that about Himself in the Jewish Scriptures and the Covenant that God made with His people

• IT COMES TO FULFILLMENT IN JESUS

• BUT…

• The HOPE for that…

• The LONGING for that…

• C.S. Lewis called them, “The good dreams that God had given to people who didn’t know him.”

• Imagine being among the people that NEVER KNEW that God is ONE

• NEVER KNEW that God is GOOD

• NEVER KNEW that God CARES

• NEVER KNEW that God REVEALS HIMSELF

• NEVER KNEW that God WANTS TO HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH YOU

• So here’s THE PREPARATIONS

• We have the DISTANT PREPARATIONS centuries over centuries before

• There are also IMMEDIATE PREPARATIONS

• Paragraph 523 says, “St. John the Baptist…inaugurates the Gospel, already from his mother’s womb…”

• Paragraph 524 says, “When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year…”

• We prepare ourselves NOT ONLY to commemorate the FIRST coming of Jesus

• BUT…

• Advent is there to prepare to welcome Christ AT HIS SECOND COMING

• The first coming of Jesus is the FIRST CHRISTMAS

• There is the FINAL COMING of Jesus at the end of time

• The Church also holds onto this INTERMEDIATE COMING

• Jesus comes into our lives, in a particular way, IN THE EUCHARIST

• BUT…

• Jesus also comes into our lives EVERY TIME WE PRAY

• EVERY TIME WE ENCOUNTER HIM IN THE SACRAMENTS

• EVERY TIME WE ENCOUNTER HIS GRACE

• HE BREAKS INTO OUR WORLD!!

• Advent is meant to highlight these THREE COMINGS OF JESUS

• THE FIRST COMING AT CHRISTMAS

• THE INTERMEDIATE COMING AND HOW JESUS COMES INTO OUR LIVES THROUGH PRAYER ETC.

• THE FINAL COMING AT THE END OF TIME

• Paragraphs 525 and 526 are THE CHRISTMAS MYSTERY

• Paragraph 525 says, “Jesus was born in a humble stable, into a poor family. Simple shepherds were the first witnesses to this event. In this poverty heaven’s glory was made manifest.”

• Kontakion of Romanos the Melodist sings in Paragraph 525, “The Virgin today brings into the world the Eternal and the earth offers a cave to the Inaccessible…”

• Paragraph 526 says, “To become a child in relation to God is the condition for entering the kingdom. For this, we must humble ourselves and become little. Even more: to become ‘children of God’ we must be ‘born from above’ or ‘born of God.’ Only when Christ is formed in us will the mystery of Christmas be fulfilled in us. Christmas is the mystery of this ‘marvelous exchange’: O marvelous exchange! Man’s Creator has become man, born of the Virgin. We have been made sharers in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share our humanity.”

• So here is Jesus, the Eternal God, the Second Person of the Trinity, who BECOMES A CHILD

• IN FACT…

• To become children of God we have to be BAPTIZED

• Let’s pray and call upon our God and Father!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we give you praise and we give you glory. We give you thanksgiving, just like the angels sang your praises singing, ‘Holy Holy Holy!’ Singing, ‘Glory to God in the highest!’ The angels continue to sing, ‘Hosannah!’ The angels continue to cry out your name in prayer, in praise, in thanksgiving, giving you glory. We too join our voices to the voices of the angels singing, ‘Glory to God in the highest and on Earth peace to people of good will.’ We cry out like the angels in Heaven singing, ‘Holy Holy Holy!’ We cry out. We just praise you, Father. Help us to become like children in relation to you. Help us. Help us to accept you and to let you love us. That’s the love that can change our lives. It’s the only love that can change the world. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen”

• It’s a short one today!

• IT IS POTENT!!

• IT IS PACKED!!

• For centuries God prepared His People for His arrival, the coming of God’s Son to Earth

• Paragraph 522 says, “The coming of God’s Son to earth is an event of such immensity that God willed to prepare for it over centuries.”

• Paragraph 523 says, “St. John the Baptist is the Lord’s immediate precursor or forerunner, sent to prepare his way…He inaugurates the Gospel, already from his mother’s womb welcomes the coming of Christ, and rejoices in being ‘the friend of the bridegroom,’ whom he points out as ‘the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.’ Going before Jesus ‘in the spirit and power of Elijah,’ John bears witness to Christ in his preaching, by his Baptism of conversion, and through his martyrdom.”

• THAT IS REMARKABLE!!

• St John the Baptist has the IMMEDIATE PREPARATION

• A lot of us have that DISTANT PREPARATION

• IN FACT…

• St. John Paul II said, (I’m going to paraphrase all the stream of consciousness-speak that Fr. Mike utilizes so generously 😉) “When you are preparing for your vocation like marriage, a lot of your life is called ‘remote preparation,’ where you see other relationships like your parents and you say, ‘that’s good’ or ‘that’s bad’ and you kind of learn and you are being prepared and formed. And then there is more proximate formation where you are in a relationship yourself and you realize, ‘Ok this is how I am in relationships. This is helpful for me to know. This is how other people treat me. This is how I should treat other people. This is good. This is bad.’ And then once a person gets engaged there is the immediate preparation for marriage. And that’s when it’s like let’s do this work because it is coming. We are about to enter into this Sacrament. We are about to enter into this vocation. So you have this remote preparation and a more proximate preparation and then the immediate preparation. And there is something just like this that happened in the history of humanity.”

• WELL I JUST REALIZED THIS ENTIRE PARAGRAPH IS FR. MIKE SQUIRRELLING!!!!!

• THERE IS NO WAY ST. JOHN PAUL II SAID EVERYTHING THAT FR. MIKE JUST SAID!!

• DID I GET LOST HERE???

• AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

• Ok so God has this REMOTE preparation for His own coming into the world

• Then there is this more PROXIMATE preparation

• Then John the Baptist helps people with the IMMEDIATE PREPARATION

• HE PREPARES THE WAY FOR THE COMING OF THE MESSIAH

• All of us are in ONE STATE OR ANOTHER

• We could probably be in all stages at any given moment

• We might still be in REMOTE PREPARATION for what God wants to do in OUR LIVES in the distant future

• We might be in PROXIMATE PREPARATION for what God is ABOUT TO DO

• We might be in IMMEDIATE PREPARATION for what God is calling us to do TODAY

• WHICH IS REMARKABLE!!

• GOD IS ALWAYS PATIENT WITH US!!

• GOD IS ALWAYS WORKING WITH US!!

• GOD IS ALWAYS COOPERATING WITH US!!

• GOD IS ALWAYS CALLING US CLOSER TO HIMSELF!!

• THAT’S WHAT ADVENT IS!!

• Paragraph 524 says, “When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah…”

• THIS IS REMARKABLE!!

• We get to inflame into our hearts that Season of Advent this EXPECTANCY

• Not only are we going to celebrate His original coming in the first Christmas

• BUT…

• We are going to PREPARE FOR HIS FINAL COMING

• We are going to PREPARE FOR HIS DAY TO DAY COMING IN OUR LIVES

• One of the ways we prepare is to prepare like John the Baptist, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

• “Oh Lord, I want you to reign. I want you to be glorified. I want you to be the star of my life.”

• So often, we desire to be THE STAR in our own story

• So often, we desire to be THE PROTAGONIST in our own story

• It makes sense

• We are the ones who get to choose

• We are the ones who have to act

• AT THE SAME TIME…

• We can be the protagonist that God wants us to be while remembering that HE IS THE ACTUAL STAR

• GOD IS THE ACTUAL ONE WHOM MY LIFE IS ABOUT!!

• My life is NOT about me

• Your life is NOT about you

• We are responsible for it

• BUT…

• At the same time, JESUS IS THE STAR

• HE MUST INCREASE, I MUST DECREASE!!

• Paragraphs 525 says, “Jesus was born in a humble stable, into a poor family. Simple shepherds were the first witness to this event. In this poverty heaven’s glory was made manifest. The Church never tires of singing the glory of this night: The Virgin today brings into the world the Eternal and the earth offers a cave to the Inaccessible.”

• THE INACCESSIBLE GOD IS BORN IN A CAVE!!

• THIS IS INCREDIBLE!!

• Paragraph 526 says, “Only when Christ is formed in us will the mystery of Christmas be fulfilled in us.”

• SALVATION IS BEING SAVED FROM BEING UN-CHRISTLIKE!!

• To become more CHRISTLIKE, when He is FORMED IN US, then CHRISTMAS IS FULFILLED

• We love the presents

• We love the decorations

• We love the songs

• We love family coming together

• If your Christmas is like that, it is a gift

• The beauty of Christmas is NOT just in those EXTERNALS

• The mystery of Christmas is in our Lord God who draws near to us

• Paragraph 526 continues, “We have been made sharers in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share our humanity.”

• When Christ is FORMED in us the mystery of Christmas is FULFILLED in us

• When Christ is FORMED in us then we become even more deeply and fully conformed to the mystery of the divinity of Christ in us (my brain hurts…. 😞)

• PRAY ABOUT THIS!! (yeah I’m going to have to because I have NO IDEA what Fr. Mike is talking about here… 😐)

• If we took it on the surface, that’s a neat idea

• When we internalize this, “Lord, this is what you want from me. This is what the whole point is.”

• Jesus humbled Himself enough to SHARE IN OUR HUMANITY so now we can SHARE IN HIS DIVINITY 

• Ok that makes more sense!!

• ONLY WHEN CHRIST IS FORMED IN US WILL THE MYSTERY OF CHRISTMAS BE FULFILLED IN US!!

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• I cannot WAIT to see you tomorrow!!

• But first, I need to sleep!! 😴

"Born From Above"

-Notes compiled by Andrew Adamany

The Catechism of the Catholic Church

526 “To become a child in relation to God is the condition for entering the kingdom. For this, we must humble ourselves and become little. Even more: to become "children of God" we must be "born from above" or "born of God".”

"Born from Above" - other translations - "Born anew," "Born Again"

In Scripture, only John 3 and 1 Peter 1 talk about being born anew:

How does one become born anew?  The Church says we are born anew in Baptism, and according to Scripture, Jesus answers Nicodemus with two things that Scripture also highlights in Baptism:

What Jesus, Paul and Peter all say, or write in Scripture, about what happens in Baptism, is the same as what Jesus and Peter say are the effects that result in being “Born Anew.”

In the Old Testament, whenever there is a type of New birth or Salvation, water and the Spirit are involved.

Click to Read Excerpts from the Early Church Fathers tying Born From Above to Baptism

According to Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium, the effects of Baptism result in being "Born from Above"

Sources

The Holy Bible- RSVCE

Interlinear Greek Bible- Strong’s Concordance

Catholic.com- What The Early Church Believed: Born Again and Baptism

Youtube Video:  How to Be Christian: “What Does Born Again Mean”

Youtube Video: Steve Ray: “Born Again”