Mary Our Mother
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- Written by Paul Hughes OP
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2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time
John 2:1-11
The wedding feast at Cana is the event portrayed in this Sunday’s Gospel. Last week was the feast of the Baptism of the Lord and the Church has chosen to bring our attention to the wedding feast of Cana one week later. In order to understand why, we need to think a bit about why Jesus told John to baptise Him. John the Baptist rightly says that he is not worthy to do so, not even to undo the straps of Jesus’ sandals. But Jesus tells him to do it anyway. He is beginning to show Himself as our Saviour. In the Baptism in the Jordan, Jesus is symbolising the reality that He is going to offer Himself to the Father in the place of Humanity. In Baptism water is used to symbolise cleansing, which is one way to begin to understand redemption. Jesus then in being baptised is showing us that He will be our redeemer.
Jesus The Beloved Son
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- Written by Br Alan Hopkins OP
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The Baptism of the Lord
Luke 3:15-16, 21-22
In today’s Gospel, the people are waiting with expectation of the coming of the Messiah. John is the focus point for the people. They believe that it is he who is the One. John knows differently he has spent his ministry preparing the way for the Christ and bringing people to knowledge of the Christ. The One who is to come is much more powerful than John, as He baptises with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus like everyone else waits in line to be baptised by John. John recognises him as the One. By his waiting in line Jesus shows that he has taken his place among the history of humanity with its joys, the sorrows, and the pressure and the emotions of humanity. He enters truly into the depths of humanity and fully takes on all that humanity has to offer.
To Preach Jesus
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- Written by Eoin Casey OP
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Feast of the Epiphany
Matthew 2:1-12
The front piece on the altar of the tomb of St. Dominic in Bologna, Italy is of the Epiphany. At first this can strike one as strange, a scene from the Christmas story on the tomb of a dead man. But it is there to recall the reason St. Dominic founded the Order of Preachers. Then Dominican Order’s mission is to preach Jesus as the Truth coming into the world and He is for all peoples.
The feast we celebrate on January 6th reminds us that when Our Blessed Lord was born, the Good News of His Birth was not just for the few who actually visited the stable; it was not just for those in Bethlehem or only for the Jews but Christ is for all peoples. These three kings from a foreign country represent all of us coming to find Jesus. No one is excluded from coming to Christ and receiving his love. As Pope Benedict XVI says in his recent book when speaking of the Magi: “In this sense, these figures are forerunners, preparers of the way, seekers after truth, such as we find in every age”.
Mary the Mother of God
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- Written by Daragh McNally OP
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The Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God
Luke 2:16-21
We can picture the scene described by Luke. Mary, and Joseph are together with the new-born Jesus in the stable. The stable is most likely noisy with all the animals and shepherds that are in it, it is probably also smelly and dirty, as stables usually are. With the arrival of the Shepherds, the stable becomes both crowded and noisy. The shepherds are eager to talk about what they have just seen and heard.
Despite this, there is a strange calm to Mary. Nothing about the conditions they are in seems to bother her. The Holy Family are in very lowly conditions indeed, but Mary hardly seems to notice. The Mother of God has just given birth to Jesus, who lies in the manger. If the stable was smelly or dirty or crowded or noisy, it does not bother her, because her loving heart is completely caught up in the Word made Flesh that lies in the manger. Mary has brought a life into the world, but more than that, she has brought Life itself into the world.
A Model of Family Life
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- Written by Patrick Desmond OP
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Feast of the Most Holy Family
Luke 2:41-52
We see in the holy family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph the model of family life. It is fitting that we should once again gaze upon the holy family today, given that modern notions of family take on many different forms. Some leading academics who study the sociology of the family for example, consider ‘doing family’ as a series of choices. It is no more than an agreement that independent actors buy in to. Family life is something of an economic trade–off between individuals who are free to define, constantly redefine and ultimately withdraw from at any stage if they no longer reap personal benefits from the contractual basis underpinning their common life together. A fundamental denial of any natural bonds that nourish family life is de–humanising. Furthermore, the uncertainty and instability that comes with this kind of unlimited freedom, subject only to our inconsistent individual desires perhaps reflects the instability and uncertainty we see at a wider societal level. When considered from a purely Marxist perspective which revises history and seeks to redraft the very essence of what it is to be human, this freedom to design families finds an able ally in post-Christian societies.
Ears to Hear - Christmas Day
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- Written by Luuk Jansen OP
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Sermon by Pope St Leo the Great (185)
Happy Christmas! Nollaig shone dhaoibh go léir! Today, Jesus is born in Bethlehem. What does this mean for you and for me? It means everything’s changed - because in the manger we see that God loves us more than we can imagine, and ‘nobody is an outsider to this happiness’.
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