Bishop Kevin Farrell

The Chief Shepherd of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas

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Fourth Sunday of Advent

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The time of fulfilment approaches, indeed, it is already here as the redeemer dwells beneath the heart of Mary. The Shepherd of Israel has harkened to the prayers of his people and has sent a Savior. The process of redemption has begun.

Not from Jerusalem, but from the hill country village of Bethlehem, the Savior will come forth. From the hometown of David, where he was called to kingship by Samuel, the Messiah, will come. What could be more appropriate?

We are reminded that the perfect sacrifice, to which the Messiah is called, is to do the will of the Father. This foreshadows a New Covenant, not marked by the ineffective “sacrifices and offerings, holocausts and sin offerings” of the Old Covenant, but by obedience to God’s will.

Mary, whose “fiat” is a perfect submission to God’s will, reaches out to her aged and pregnant cousin Elizabeth, hurrying to her side. She becomes the first evangelist, carrying the Word to another. Elizabeth’s words of greeting, joined to those of Gabriel, will forever enshrine the event in the beloved Hail Mary.

John the Baptist leaps in Elizabeth’s womb in recognition of the Savior and the two mothers-to-be praise God that the time of fulfillment is at hand.

Third Sunday of Advent

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Third Sunday of Advent

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote that joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God; perhaps that is why the Church sets aside two Sundays a year as Joyful Sundays. This Sunday, the Third Sunday of Advent is one of them; the other is the Fourth Sunday of Lent.

Joy permeates the Sacred Scriptures as the Sunday readings proclaim: “Cry out with joy and gladness” (Isaiah); “Shout for joy, O daughter Zion” (Zephaniah); “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Paul); and “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” (Luke)

Joy is more than pleasure, which is experienced physically. It is more than happiness, which is more cerebral. Joy is of the Spirit — it is one of the Fruits of the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-23) Pope Francis writes, “The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus.” (EG 1)

Conversely, “whenever our interior life becomes caught up in its own interests and concerns, there is no longer room for others, no place for the poor. God’s voice is no longer heard, the quiet joy of his love is no longer felt and the desire to do good fades.” (EG 2)

The Holy Father has said that joy is the Christian’s ID card and that a person without joy is not a true believer.

Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice!

Second Sunday of Advent

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Second Sunday of Advent

In the Gospel for the second Sunday of Advent, John the Baptist echoes the words of Baruch and Isaiah that the way of the Lord would be made straight, the path would be smooth, “Every valley , shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low, the winding down roads shall be made straight and the rough ways made smooth” (Luke 3:4-6).

So what is this “way of the Lord” and how are we to prepare for it? The “way” is Jesus, who tells us, “I am the way, and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:1-6) Early Christians clearly understood this concept, indeed they were called followers of “the Way.”

For us, it is the way of discipleship. A disciple of Jesus is more than an admirer or follower; a disciple is an imitator, one who serves. Pope Francis teaches that we are called by our baptism to be missionary disciples and evangelizers, (Evangelii Gaudium 120) and that being a disciple means that we are constantly ready to bring the love of Jesus to others, especially the poor and the marginalized.(EG 128)

It is the love of Jesus and the joy of the Gospel that makes the way of discipleship smooth in spite of weariness and difficulties and the witness of that love and joy will call others to prepare the Way of the Lord.

First Sunday of Advent

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First Sunday of Advent

Advent is a time of promise, fulfillment, anticipation and preparation. No, I am not referring to the decorations, parties and gifts that keep us busy this season, I am writing about the original Advent, the centuries spent waiting for Jesus, the Messiah.

It is said that the word Advent in ancient times referred to a forthcoming visit from a king or other important person (the Latin ad venire means “to come to”). When Christians began celebrating the Feast of the Nativity in the late fourth century, the coming of the King of Kings, the word Advent was chosen to describe the time of preparation for the feast day.

On the First Sunday of Advent, Jeremiah, the reluctant prophet, emphasizes the theme of anticipation when he says “The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and Judah.”

Prophets always spoke in contemporary terms. For them the Messiah or Anointed One would be a descendant of David, the ideal King. The “shoot” or offspring of the House of David would have the attributes of his ancestor and “do what is right and just in the land”.

That Latin word venire is part of another important Advent theme, Covenant, which is a combination of the Latin co (together) and venire (to come) because the first Advent was a time of awaiting fulfillment of God’s covenant binding Him to Israel.

God’s covenant with Abraham (Gen 17) and renewed with David (2 Sam 7) is the heart of the Hebrew Scriptures; they are a history of its being given by God, broken by Israel and restored by God.

“My mercy is established forever; my faithfulness will stand as long as the heavens. I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant: I will make your dynasty stand forever and establish your throne through all ages.” (Psalm 89:3-5)

We are going to look to the prophets and the Psalms to discover how promise, covenant, anticipation and preparation described the hopes of God’s chosen people during their centuries of waiting.

Reading the prophets and Psalms as we prepare to celebrate the coming of the King of Kings will enable us to experience some of the feelings of those who experienced the First Advent.

Jesus, the greatest gift

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“Behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy
that will be for all the people,
For today in the city of David
a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.”
Luke 2:10-11

Once again this Christmas of 2013 we share our simple gifts with others in humble gratitude for the greatest gift, Jesus, and the realization that we are loved unconditionally.

Interesting, isn’t it, that we don’t just celebrate this one Christmas, but all of our Christmases. Memories flow freely of the innocent delights of our childhood to the rich memories of family celebrations and the events and people that have shaped the tapestry of our lives.

This year has been filled with surprises of the Spirit. We have experienced an historic transition in leadership of the Church and, for the first time, have both a Pope and a Pope Emeritus.

It appears that the surprises of the Spirit are still coming as the joyful witness and humility of Our Holy Father Pope Francis may well portend a New Pentecost. He has proclaimed by word and witness the joys of the Gospel and refocused the world’s attention on the plight of the impoverished and marginalized.

On a personal note, my call to pastor the Church of Dallas has not only shown me the deep faith and generous hearts of the Catholics whom I serve, but also the caring community in which we live. I am privileged to be among you.

My prayer is for a blessed Christmas for you and your loved ones and a very Happy New Year

Fourth Sunday of Advent

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On this fourth and last Sunday of Advent the readings call us to reflect on the Mystery of the Incarnation, the fact that God became one of us.

It is Isaiah who promises a sign to the besieged and vacillating King Ahaz: “Listen, O house of David, it is it not enough for you to weary people, must you also weary my God? Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.” (Isaiah 7:13-14) Isaiah’s promise of Emmanuel (God is with us) to Ahaz was also the promise to us of Jesus, the Messiah.

Paul echoes the prophecy in describing his call to discipleship whereby he was set apart to serve the “Gospel of God in which He promised previously through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, the gospel about His Son, descended from David according to the flesh, but established as Son of God.” (Rom 1:1-4) Like Paul, our response to Jesus, God with us, should be discipleship of service in imitation of the one “who came not to be served but to serve.” (Matt 20:28)

Finally, in his infancy narrative of the circumstances of Jesus’ birth, Matthew takes us back to Isaiah’s prophecy through the voice of an angel reassuring Joseph in a dream of the source of Mary’s pregnancy: “For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.” (Matt 1:20-22)

Thus as the time of anticipation surrenders to the time of fulfillment we prepare to mark not only the birth of Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Mary, but the accomplishment of God’s promise to become one of us.

 

Image Credit: Lawrence OP on Flickr (The Annunciation – Detail from a window in Trinity College Oxford c.1885 by Powell)

 

Rejoice in the Lord always

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Gaudete Sunday, the traditional name for the Third Sunday of Advent, is taken from the entrance antiphon “Rejoice (gaudete) in the Lord always, again I say rejoice. The Lord is near” (Phil 4:4:5) which reflects the spirit of Messianic Joy. The rose colored vestments worn by the priest reflect the joyful change from the more restrained theme and vestment color (purple) of the first two Sundays.

It is that anticipatory joy that we find in the prophecy from Second Isaiah in the passage that is echoed in the Gospel, “Here is your God… he comes to save you, then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing.” (Is 35:5-6) As Christians, our witness should be of Messianic Joy guarding against becoming joyless heralds.

In the second reading, James tempers the joy with a call for patience, “Be patient, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord.” (Jas 5:7a). He uses an image very familiar to people of the land, “See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains.”(Jas 5:7b)  James also reminds his readers that patience should be accompanied by consideration of others “Do not complain…about one another, that you may not be judged.”(Jas 5:9a)  We are reminded of the words of Pope Francis who reminds us that God “is not a ruthless judge, but is like the Father in the Gospel parable of the Prodigal Son” who surrounds us with mercy, tenderness and forgiveness.

The Holy Father cautioned us against false messiahs of which there were many in Jesus’ time. In the final reading Matthew recounts John the Baptist’s caution in sending his disciples to inquire of Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come or should we look for another?” Jesus replied with the words of Second Isaiah, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the Good News proclaimed to them.” (Matt 11:3-5)

Finally in another reference to false prophets, Jesus points out to John’s disciples and the gathering crowd that the prophesied Messiah will not wear fine clothing and live in royal palaces. One cannot but hear the reminder from Pope Francis in these passages that we must be a “poor church for the poor.”

Thus we continue our Advent journey in joyful and prayerful anticipation of the coming of the Lord.

Prepare the way

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Readings for the Second Sunday of Advent begin with another of Isaiah’s wonderful messianic prophecies (Isaiah 11:1-10) about which a book could easily be written.  It predicts the rise of the new and perfect king from the “stump of Jesse,” the ancestor  from whom the Davidic kings are descended and promises that “the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.” The passage describing the gifts he will receive from the Spirit, (Is 11:2)  wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength and fear of the Lord, is seen as the Scriptural basis of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Isaiah then foresees a time of justice and peace during the reign of the great king  “Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat; The calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them.”(Is 11:6) God’s promise spoken by Isaiah applies to us also. We too live in a time of confusion and uncertainty and need strengthening of our confidence in God’s plan.

Paul then, speaks of seeking encouragement in the Scriptures and God’s charge to “think in harmony with one another, in keeping with Christ Jesus.”(Rom 15:4, 6) This passage Paul is certainly echoes with us today when there is such disharmony and discord among Jesus’ disciples and we need to be reminded of a oneness in Jesus and welcome one another as Jesus welcomes us.

Finally Matthew recalls the words of John the Baptist, the forerunner who hearkens back to Second Isaiah’s words of consolation and promise to the Jews languishing in exile in Babylon. “A voice of one crying out in the desert, “Prepare the way of the Lord, and make straight his paths.” Now is the time to prepare the way of the Lord in our hearts…for he is coming.

How do we prepare the way of the Lord, by remembering that Christmas is about God becoming one of us, by celebrating Jesus’ birth with God’s poor, the Anawim, in mind and recalling that blessings are more important than gifts.