Month: January 2021

Are you my new neighbor? Are you my new friend? Are you my enemy? Are you the Lord? Who am I? All these questions are to be pondered this second day of the "New Year." The winter sky keeps many of us sequestered. Covid keeps the rest of us inside, and we have nothing "fun to do." So how about some soul searching? The first reading today is by St John. John writes that John the Baptist clearly told people, "I am not the Christ… I am the voice of one crying in the desert, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.’" St. John calls the "other" the antichrist. We have to identify him in our lives. He is a man of lawlessness, he is a liar, he is not "of the church." (St Paul’s descriptions of him.) The antichrist shakes us and frightens us. We have been frightened this year. Several of my friends have been very ill and I have known those who have died. I have to make unpopular decisions like quaranteening and saying NO to friends who ask me to come out.

Maybe this is what New Years resolutions is all about: to answer these questions: Identify! Who are you? Who do you want to help, to be with? Who is your God? How do you honor him? I have a friend who told me she is angry at the church and she does not believe Jesus is God; just a prophet. I was shocked! I couldn’t argue with her. Just hand her a Holy Bible and say "read St Luke." It’s a little like trying to argue with angry people today. I need an expert talker at my side. I know it is the Holy Spirit, but for some reason, sometimes I’m shocked and can’t talk. I can only "Just pray!" Pray my dears for us to get through the next 19 days without really messing ourselves up. God bless America!

Good New Year dear friends. Today’s daily Mass is a celebration of the blessings God has given to us. The reading from Numbers is especially lovely and powerful: " The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord look upon you with his shining face … kindly, and give you peace." Find this blessing in your Scriptures (Numbers 6:22) and read it out loud for your family! Bless one another this beautiful day of the "New Year." Another beautiful blessing is Psalm 67: "May God shed his light upon us; may God bless us in his mercy." And finally Galatians 4:4-7: " You are adopted as son and heir. Cry out Abba, Father." He blesses us because we are his children!

In the old days of the big Peabody parties which ended about 10 years ago, no matter how hung over and sleep deprived I was, I went to Mass on January 1. New Years Day morning we celebrate Mary the Mother of God. On this day we celebrate Mary’s Yes and the fruitfulness that God gave her. Mary is not the creator of God; she is the Theotokus, the God-bearer. Mary is a human mother. She cared for a human child who walked on the earth for 33 years. She stood at the foot of the Cross and she said goodbye to him when he "went to the Father." Mary is the woman in Revelation 12 who stands up against the dragon who wants to destroy her child. Ask Mary to go to battle against the dragon. Ask, "who or what is my dragon?" For many it is anger. For me I think it is impatience. It is impatience with people who won’t "listen." People not doing what I think is right!!! I tend to push my way. I was so disappointed with school children who wouldn’t give a little of their minds to what I thought was so important. In a way, I’m giving what I love, and I’m paying my success forward. I’m sorry for the pain I have caused if I made you feel small. I’m just trying to give from my blessings. My impatience. That’s my dragon. What is your dragon? Place this load of yours in the manger. We still have some time. God bless us! Angels with us.