MAY YOU HAVE A BLESSED AND HAPPY NEW YEAR      2013

BUT  WHAT  AM  I  GOING  TO  WISH  YOU ?

I know what I would appreciate; that someone would wish me a simple, humble living, surrounded by my family.  I do not appreciate wealth, luxury, living in a mansion surrounded by lush greenery all round, with a household staff at my beck and call, with sumptuous, exotic food. This style of life for the coming year, makes me harbour the idea that I am my own god; I need nothing in life, I need no one, including God and His Providence … no, thank you.

I do not appreciate other wishes, like: ‘May you have good health all your life.’ Well as long as health is accompanied by ‘interior peace’, that would not be a bad idea. What is the use of having excellent physical health, to feel tip-top, but without peace of mind, never happy or contented, always in search of the world to make you happy and smile, maybe running after tranquillizers and sedatives.  No, thank you. I prefer to be a farmer living in the middle of nowhere … but happy, friends with God and neighbor, living the simple life.

PLEASE, THIS IS ALL I ASK OF YOU WHO WANT TO WISH ME WELL:

May you always be in God’s good books. May you always feel that you need God’s help and providence. May you always smile at the fact that others see Christ in you. May you use all that God gave you for all around. May, never a day pass without kneeling down and Thanking God for His Love. May you always be prepared to face the Almighty Judge as your Father and Lover. May you always have a good night’s sleep after having done all the day’s duty.

With these Wishes I am ready to embrace the New Year, 2013, come what may.

THANK YOU. I wish the same to you. God bless us all.

REFLECTIONS ON THE BIRTH OF GOD–MAN

AS A BABE IN BETLEHEM

O depth of love! What heart could keep from breaking at the sight of Your greatness descending to the lowliness of our humanity? We are your image, and now by making yourself one with us, You have become our image, veiling Your eternal Divinity in the wretched cloud and dung heap of Adam.

And why? For love! You, God, became human and we have been made divine! In the name of this unspeakbele love, then, I beg you, I would force You, even,  to have mercy on Your creatures.

I am imperfect and full of darkness, yet You, perfect and lightsome, have shown me perfection and the lightsome path of Your only begotten Son’s teaching. I was dead and You revived me. I was sick and You have healed me. I was blind and You gave me light. I was mute and You gave me speech.. I was dead with leprosy of the body and soul and You made me whole.

Dear Baby Jesus, my Lord and my God! Who would not be set afire with such love?  What heart could keep from breaking? You are so madly in love with Your creatures that You could not live without us.

What could have moved You to such love? It was neither duty nor any need You have of us, we, who are sinful and wicked debtors ... ONLY love moved You. What a mad lover You are, my Lord and my God. Marvellous are the Plans of God for all humanity. My Lord and my God.

THIS IS THE DAY THIS IS D-DAY

This is the day God dreamt about. No wonder we sing with tears of joy in our eyes: “O Holy Night”. This is the Day God dreamt about from eternity. Yes, He did know from eternity; before He created the Universe, before He created the world, before He created Man … that the first Pact, the first Promise was going to be broken by Man, before He had created Man.

I say, could He not forgotten about creating Man ? Could He not have laid aside His plans ? He certainly could. BUT, He could not hold back His love for Man. There lies the difference. God can do anything with the exception of controlling, holding back His love towards Man.
Before He created Man, God knew … or rather ‘knows’ from eternity that Man is going to turn his back on the Creator. From eternity God decided to create a “Holy Night”, a ’Night’ to save humanity ‘that was pining in sin and error’.

We have to keep in mind that in every human being there is the ‘breath’ of God Himself, the ‘ruah’, the ‘spirit’, the ‘soul’. Can a true genuine mum stay away, separated from her babe, even the baby can’t live without the warmth, comfort and love of the mother. That is the ‘thrill of hope’ and the reason why the soul rejoices. That is why whenever we sing that Carol we have tears running down our cheek, for we can feel, though without seeing that ‘yonder breaks a new and glorious morn’.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us ALL, ‘fall on our knees and hear within us the angel voices’, and the night becomes ‘a night divine, a night when Christ was born’.

Let us not feel ashamed to have tears running down our cheeks; for that is a sign that the soul the breath of God, has taken over the material and is closer to God at that very moment. I never read, sing or listen to that Carol without watering my eyes. Believe me, at THIS very moment, the radio is on and … no coincidence that wonderful Carol is being aired. Thank you, Lord for the joy and Peace.

How true, ‘our hearts glow standing by His cradle’ and ‘led by the light of faith’. No Christmas can be Christmas without remembering and celebrating HIS glorious Birth on earth. Who has never experienced this heavenly Joy, does not know what Heaven is like. Yes celebrating a Catholic Christmas is a fore-taste of Heaven, just like taking part in the Holy Mass.

“O Holy Night”, what new-born babe was ever visited by ‘wise men’ and presented with gifts ? Search the History of the World, and you will find none. It happened only once … and it will not happen again in the History of humanity. It was the ‘Babe of Betlehem’ Who brought us a message of ‘love and peace’. ‘ Chains shall He break for the slave’
‘And in His Name all oppression shall cease’.

Let us All fall on our knees, sing, pray and shout “Joy to the world, for Christ is born”.

Heartfelt Greetings and Wishes, TO ALL; to those who follow my postings during the year, my Facebook friends, and even those who are not registered as my friends, a “Very Blessed Christmas”, and may each day of your life be a Christmas Day. May the Babe of Betlehem fill us ALL with His love and Peace throughout our days, overshadowed by His Blessings.

May we all discern and come to realise God’s Divine Plan for each and every one, once we realise His Plan for us, let us embrace it with both arms and accept it as God’s Gift to us to lead us to Sainthood. Meet you in Heaven.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS FOR THE CELEBRATION AND COMMEMORATION OF THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST ON CHRISTMAS DAY…SPIRITUAL THOUGHT..7

“In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus ….” Luke, 2:1-14

The periodical censuses had a specific reason; they wanted to hit two birds with one stone, as the saying goes. Firstly to assess taxation and secondly to discover those who were liable for compulsory military service. But, as we know,  the Jews were exempt from military service (religious convictions) , and therefore it follows that the only aim was for taxation purposes.

According to an official Document written on ‘papyrus’ and discovered in the ‘dust-heap’ of an Egyptian town, we find that all men had to go to the headquarters of their tribe. This was the reason for Joseph’s travel to Betlehem to obey the ‘edict’,  BUT, God had another purpose, another aim in mind. “How great Thou art, O Lord” Christ had to be born in Betlehem … not because Augustus decided so, but because it was thus prophesied.

The journey from Nazareth to Betlehem was 80 miles long. The accommodation for travellers was very primitive, The used to put up a series of stalls opening off a common courtyard. Travellers took their own food; all that the innkeeper provided was fodder for the animals and  a fire to cook. The town was crowded, and as we know there was no room for Joseph and Mary, not even in these stalls, so they had to find shelter in a cave.

The ‘swaddling’ cloth mentioned in the Gospel, was a square of cloth with a long bandage like strip coming diagonally off from one corner. The baby was first wrapped in the square of cloth and then the long strip was wound round and round about him.

That ‘there was no room in the inn’ was … and IS, symbolic of what was to happen to Jesus, and NOW, to what is happening to His followers. The only place where there was room for Him was on the Cross. He sought an entry into the over-crowded hearts of men; He could not find it … and even today He is still in search, and His rejection goes on.

We have to keep in mind how the Jewish ‘man in the street’,  the elite and the religious leaders looked upon … or rather looked down on the shepherds.  Shepherds were despised by the orthodox good people of the day. Shepherds were quite unable to keep the details of the ceremonial law; they could not observe all the meticulous hand-washings rules and regulations.

Their flocks made far too constant demands on them; and so the orthodox looked down upon them. Yet, it was to simple men of the fields that God’s message came first.

But these must have been special shepherds. It was the custom to offer, morning and evening, an unblemished lamb, as a sacrifice to God. They had to assure themselves of a supply of pefect offerings for the Temple. So the temple Authorities had their own private flocks of sheep. We know that these flocks were pastured near Betlehem. Most probably these shepherds were watching over these Temple sheep.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS FOR THE CELEBRATION AND COMMEMORATION OF THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST ON CHRISTMAS DAY…SPIRITUAL THOUGHT..6

Though Christ’s Divine nature was from eternity, His human nature had a Jewish background.  The blood that flowed in His veins was from the Royal House of David, through His mother, who, though poor belonged to the lineage of the great king. In fact His contemporaries called him “The Son of David”.

The people would never have consented to regard as a messiah any pretender who did not fulfill this indispensable condition. Nor did He ever deny it. Luke, who wrote for the Gentiles, traced Our Lord’s descent back from the first man, Adam. But Matthew, who wrote for the Jews, presented Him as the “Son of David” and “The Son of Abraham”.

Luke is concerned about “The Son of Man.” Whilst Matthew is concerned about The King of Israel.”

The genealogy goes beyond the Hebrew background to include a few non-Jews, and some who did not have a good reputation in the world. One was Rahab who was a foreigner and a sinner; another was Ruth, who was a foreigner though morally she was good, and was received into the Jewish nation.

A third was Betsabee whose sin with David cast shame upon the Royal line. Why should there be blots in the Royal escutcheon ?  Betsabee, whose womanly purity was tainted, and Ruth, who, though morally correct,  was an introducer of alien blood into the Jewish stream. Possibly it was in order to to indicate Christ’s relationship to the stained and to the sinful, to harlots and sinners and even to the gentiles who were included in His Message and Redemption.

There were sinners in Christ’s family tree, and he would seem to be the greatest sinner of all when He would hang upon the family tree of the Cross, making men adopted sons of the Heavenly Father.

Adapted from 'The Life of Christ' by Fulton Sheen

 

GREAT EXPECTATIONS FOR THE CELEBRATION AND COMMEMORATION OF THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST ON CHRISTMAS DAY…SPIRITUAL THOUGHTS  … 5

“She Gave birth to a son, her first-born.”  Mark, 5:7

The term “first-born” did not mean that Our Lady was to bear other children according to the flesh. There was always a position of honour assigned in law to the first-born, even if there were not any other children. *

It could very well be that Luke employs the term here in view of the account which he, later on, is to give of the Blessed Mother presenting her child in the Temple as the “first-born Son”.

The other brethren of Our Lord, mentioned by Luke were not sons of Mary; they were either half brothers, sons of Joseph by a possible former marriage, ** or else, His cousins. *** Mary had no other children in the flesh.                     But,  “first-born” could mean Our Lady’s relation to other children she would have according to the Spirit.

In this sense her Divine Son called John her “son” at the foot of the Cross. Spiritually John was her “second” son. St.Paul, later on used the term “first-born” in time to parallel Our Lord’s Eternal Generation as the Only Begotten of the Father.

It was only to His Divine Son that God said:

“Thou art my Son; today I have begotten Thee, or again, I will be father to Him, and he shall be my Son. Again, when He presents the first-born to the world, he says, ‘Let all the angels of God pay Him homage.’ “ Hebrews, 1:5-6

*According to Jewish Culture, the first-born was so important that he would be the one to receive the ‘special blessing’ from the father, it even gave him the legal right of heredity.

**This information or supposition of children from Joseph’s former marriage is found NOT in the Gospel but it is found in some Apocryphal writings, which as we know is not accepted by the Church as being Inspired.

***Regards the ‘cousins’, curiously enough the word ‘cousin’ or ‘cousins’ did not exist in the Hebrew vocabulary, these relatives were accordingly termed as ‘brothers and sisters. A case in point, even we in Malta, still use the term ‘HI’ short for ‘HIJA’, which means ‘Brother’, or ‘OHT’ which means ‘Sister’. I can’t imagine having all those I address in this way to be my brothers and sisters. 

Adapted from “The Life of Christ” by Fulton Sheen.