Fr. Paul Weinberger
St. William’s Catholic Parish
Greenville, Texas
1/1/06
Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God
When eight days were completed for His circumcision, He was named Jesus, the name given Him by the Angel before He was conceived in the womb.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen
Today we do not celebrate the New Year; pagans do that. We are not pagans, we are Christians and today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of God. This day has been dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, Mother of God and the maternity or motherhood of Mary for lees than fifty years. Before that January the first was always the Feast of the Circumcision of the Lord. To our modern ears this sounds odd. Why in the world would we have a feast of the Circumcision of the Lord? It is mention in the last sentence of the Gospel today.
When eight days were completed for His circumcision, He was named Jesus, the name given Him by the Angel before He was conceived in the womb.
Up until recently whenever you saw baby Jesus depicted in religious art, you always saw a rollie pollie little baby without a stitch of clothing. This was to combat error and heresy and to show His compliance with the law and yes indeed, when eight days were completed He was circumcised. It is also interesting too that up until recently in religious art in Europe and Mexico, when one found a crucifix; Christ was stripped of all His garments. They stripped Jesus before they nailed Him to the cross and for the same reasons, to combat error and heresy and to show the scandal of the cross. It is so easy to tell a lie.
If you look at the back of the bulletin you will see one of the most recent lies.
If you have no bulletin to refer to you can access the article by clicking on the link below.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/artic ... E_ID=48106
Diane Sawyer is a very smart woman but she did not lift a finger to find the truth about the subject of last week’s TV broadcast on “Pope Joan”. There was no such person as “Pope Joan”. She could have called prominent Protestant scholars and they would have told her that. She could have called prominent Catholic scholars and they would have told her the same thing. She could have called the Vatican, they haven’t moved! They would clarify what the scholars said. She could have picked up Patrick Madrid’s popular book…”POPE FICTION” and they could find a whole chapter that treats on the lie concerning a “Pope Joan”. Evidentially Diane Sawyer was promoting her own theory!
I like what De Feo says on the bottom of the page.
"The facts themselves scream out that this is a crackpot theory,"
But how many kids and adults are strong enough in their faith to have watched Pope Joan and be able to defend the papacy and the pope. You may realize that it doesn’t sound right but you also have no clue how to defend or where to start. It is such a fantasy but more than a fantasy it is a lie about the popes. We did have some popes in there that had some problems and difficulties but we certainly didn’t have a “Pope Joan”! Recently it took a Jewish leader and Rabbi, Rabbi Dalen to publish a book defending Pope Pius XII, who was pope during WWII. I know what you are thinking.
"Father, no one is alive today who was alive during WWII."
Of course people are alive today, who can remember world leaders and newspapers across the world lauding Pope Pius XII and his defense of refugees, especially Jewish refugees. The chief Rabbi of Rome along with his wife watched all of this as pope Pius XII personally hid Jewish refugees. At the end of WWII he and his wife converted to the Catholic faith. The chief Rabbi of Rome took for his baptismal name, Eugenio, which was Pius XII’s name before he became pope.
Christians and non-Christians everywhere always understand Mother Teresa of Calcutta as someone who loved and served the poor, and yet at her internationally televised funeral, Christopher Hitchens, a man of great intelligence told lies about Mother Teresa. You know, if Mother Teresa of Calcutta cannot have a quiet funeral with everyone agreeing that she indeed loved and served the poor throughout her life, no one is safe.
“Pope Joan”, Pope Pius XII or Mother Teresa…we can easily find other examples of lies concerning these people or non-existent people. We can easily find other examples. There is a whole book of them called the Da Vinci Code. How many Catholics have read the Da Vinci code but have never picked up that other book? What is it called? Oh yea, the Bible!
All these lies can be easily dispelled. When the lies are about God we call them heresy. The Da Vinci Code is a novel and when questions come up concerning certain things people will say,
“Well, it must be true because I read it in the Da Vinci Code!”
How sad that people can tell lies about God and get away with it. How sad that they can tell lies about saints or prominent people in the Church and get away with it; people who know better who could lift a finger. You don’t broadcast a television show like they use to, put on plays like the “Our Gang” television series.
“Hey, my dad has a barn, why don’t we put the program on in there?”
No, it takes weeks and months of decisions and the lawyers have to look at all of it as well. You are telling me that no one at ABC thought of checking his or her facts?
The Person of Jesus Christ and His Blessed Mother are under attack. The Da Vinci Code says that Mary Magdalene was the “lover” of Jesus Christ. If people feel so confident in the Da Vinci code, how many of you would like to go before God to be judged with a copy of the Da Vinci Code with the title facing out? God would ask,
“What is that book you have in your hand?”
“Nothing, err, nothing!”
How many would feel that confident? It is a screen of lies! There are people who pontificate about how the Blessed Virgin Mary had other children as if it is an absolute truth. Absolutely not!
“Oh so, she had one by the Holy Spirit and then others by someone else.”
She only had ONE and that was by the Holy Spirit! So what is the blessed Virgin doing, just jumping around here? Not at all! The word that is used for “brothers and sisters of the Lord”…any commentary or any scholar whether they be protestant or Catholic should be able to tell you that the word could mean your biological brothers and sisters or your first cousins, your second cousins and so on. How many of you here can name your second cousins? Right, uh huh! Oh, but they are so firm in telling everyone that it says here or there that she had other children an that these mentioned were brothers and sisters of the Lord. Just pick up a book and investigate it!
To tell lies about Christ… Very early after the resurrection and Ascension of the Lord, people began to spread this lie, which is still around; Jesus was true God but He was not a true man, he only appeared to be a true man. He took on the appearance of a man. We say in the Creed, “True God and True man.” That is our belief but very early after the Ascension people began to doubt, and admit that He was true God but not true man. They say He only “took on” the appearance of man. I guess kind of like “Casper the friendly Messiah”, huh?
“Oh, look! He is a ghost pretending to be a man!”
After the Resurrection Jesus appeared to His Apostles and a number of times he told them,
See that I am not a ghost. Does a ghost have flesh as I do?
He ate a piece of fish that had been cooked. What, what He hungry after the resurrection? You know, rising from the dead can really work up an appetite. No…He was doing it to show that He had a body! He had a body; He is True God and True man. In the New Testament, the letter to the Hebrews, chapter two, verses 9-17…
12 I will declare thy name to my brethren; in the midst of the church will I praise thee.
13 And again: I will put my trust in him. And again: Behold I and my children, whom God hath given me.
14 Therefore because the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner hath been partaker of the same: that, through death, he might destroy him who had the empire of death, that is to say, the devil:
15 And might deliver them, who through the fear of death were all their lifetime subject to servitude.
Or as St. Paul says in the second reading.
When the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son born of a woman, born under the law to ransom those under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons. As proof that you are sons God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying out, “Abba, Father” so you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then also an heir through God.
The mark of the covenant before Christ was the mark of circumcision. Christ humbled Himself in every way before the law, even to the point that on the eighth He was circumcised according to the law. What is that proof that you and I are adopted sons and daughters of God the Father; “brothers and sisters” of Christ? The second reading tells us that the proof that we are sons is God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying out, “Abba, Father” so we are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then also an heir through God, not the knife cut of circumcision to show a material connection but the sending of the Spirit into our hearts, which makes us adopted sons and daughters of God the Father and “brothers and sisters” of Christ; and so we are joined to others who are baptized.
Christ took on our human condition in every way except for sin so that He might redeem us. So, isn’t it fitting that at the very beginning of His life that a drop or two or more of His blood might be shed at the Circumcision; a foretaste of what would happen at His crucifixion? It shows that Christ wasn’t a ghost at the beginning and became a man at the end when He began His public life. That mark of circumcision means many things but you can’t circumcise a ghost and Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day, thus dispelling the error, the heresy that would crop up very soon about this wonderful child.
The Gospel of St. John tells us of that beautiful prologue of how in the beginning there was the Word, and it shows us that Jesus, Who is the very Word of God, was with God from all eternity and then it speaks of how the Word became Flesh and dwelt amongst us. Then soon after in the Gospel of John, it speaks of John the Baptist in the desert pouring water over people and baptizing them so that they might repent of their sins. The following chapters speak about the first miracles of Jesus in Cana and Galilee where water was used again but not to baptize anyone. This water, a common element was changed into wine at the intervention of the very Mother of God.
The Blessed Virgin Mary was with Jesus and the Apostles at the wedding at Cana in Galilee, so says St. John’s Gospel. Weddings at that time went on for weeks and involved putting your family up and feeding them and giving them drink. Not too different from the last couple of weeks for some people…probably! It would be a tragedy to run out of these essential provisions such as food and drink but that is exactly what happened at the wedding at Cana in Galilee. The Blessed Mother approached her Son and told Him that they had no more wine. Through her intervention Jesus preformed the first of His signs, so says St. John’s Gospel. We all have our favorite among the miracles, but this is the first and marks the beginning of the public life of Jesus, and many came to believe in Him.
In the words of this miracle we have the best words you will find from any human being contained in the New Testament and they are from the lips of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She directs the servants while motioning to her Son and she says to them,
Do whatever He tells you! Do whatever HE tells YOU!
These words are beautiful to listen to still and are even more beautiful to follow. So the servants filled these great stone water jars; they didn’t merely put the water hose in them and turn on the water. That is only a recent innovation that we can use. They either had to use a well or a stream and a lot of muscle to do this. But, because they listened to the Blessed Virgin Mary, they cooperated with her and with Jesus in the first miracle that took place at Cana. It was through Our Lady’s intervention; she didn’t turn the water into wine but she directed her Son’s attention to this need. At the foot of the Cross, and at the end of the life of Jesus, we see an adoption. At the very beginning of the life of Jesus we see an adoption. In the second Reading today, St. Paul tell us about adoption, so that we might receive adoption as Sons.
At Christmas we see the persons of Jesus, Our Lady, and St. Joseph. St. Joseph is the foster father of Jesus and he was the one to provided for and protect Our Lady and the Child. He was the FOSTER FATHER of Jesus; he was in a sense, adopting Jesus as His son but in the process, Jesus adopted him. St. Joseph made more of that adoption than God did. St. Joseph was taken by Jesus as His foster father and benefited from having been adopted by Jesus.
Before Jesus gave up His Spirit on the cross, we read in the Gospels how Jesus said to His mother and then St. John,
Behold your son; behold your mother.
St. John was the only man at the foot of the cross with Jesus. There was Our Lady and her sister along with a few others but all the Apostles had turned tail and were viewing everything at a safe distance; somewhere in Egypt probably. Yea, they were quite a distance away from the whole thing. St. John is given the Blessed Virgin Mary by Jesus.
“He can’t do that! Lets follow the logic in this. God’s Son, the creator of everything cannot give His mother to St. John and through St. John to the Church ”
How do you figure that? He could do it and He did do it! He gave His mother to us as His last gift before He gave up His Spirit, which was the greatest gift He would give for us. So, when we speak of the Blessed Mother as our mother, she is our mother by God’s gift. In essence, she adopts us and boy, doesn’t she get the better end of that bargain, right?
Oh, I am so happy that I am the mother of Fr. Paul!
Awe gee, right? The Blessed Mother is mother of all who would follow Christ and she tells us as she told the servants at the wedding at Cana to do whatever HE tells you. Do whatever He tells you.
This week we begin to make a series of resolutions we probably will not keep. People will begin to go to heath clubs and sign up. Some may go the extra mile and get what is known as a “personal trainer”. This is someone you pay good money to who will scream at you, yell at you and force you to do more, more, more! I thought that is why God gave us family. You are actually paying someone to scream at you to do more pushups, more sit-ups, more time running and you name it. Personal trainers are very helpful indeed I am told, ha ha. You couldn’t tell it by me. Personal trainers give direction in improving your health.
Think of today’s Feast Day, Mary, Mother of God. A whole year stretches before us and we can see God’s mother and our own mother, who will help us day after day to do whatever He tells us to do. When people talk about great numbers they always like to talk about the National Debt. I’d like to know the hours of television viewed by each individual in the U.S. I wonder which number would be bigger. The fact is that Americans watch a lot of TV on New Years. Lets say that someone at the end of the day while stretching says,
“You know, I just calculated and I watched eight hours of TV.”
There is no one who would say,
“Why you are such a fanatic!”
But if you told your friends and family that you had just spent two hours in prayer at the church or four hours they would say that they thought you were a Catholic not Amish! Right? They would ask if you were a zealot or if you were an unhinged kook praying all that time; as if God will demand to know if you have watched enough TV while on earth. Wasting time watching television is not in the “plus” column when we go before God.
How are we going to use the hours of 2006? If only we had someone who could remind us, who could guide, help and protect us along our way. We do! We have Mary, the Mother of God, who is also OUR mother. As Fulton Sheen said in that beautiful poem,
The Blessed Mother can help us in 2006. Why not just take the time you would use viewing television and cut it in half and spend the better portion in prayer or helping someone in need? All of a sudden there is a lot of throat clearing; we find time for one but not the other.Lovely Lady dressed in blue, teach us how to pray.
The Blessed Mother as personal trainer has an investment in each one of us; like the mother that she is, she wants to see us all in heaven with her son and her. Placing ourselves under her direction and asking her for counsel everyday, I know what she will tell us. She will tell us to do whatever HE tells us to keep us from the errors and heresy that hem us in and show up all around us, like Diane Sawyer. The next thing you are going to be telling me is that you can’t believe 60 Minutes. Gee, is there nowhere to turn? Hahaha!
The Blessed Mother will never lie to us or lead us to the other team. She will show us the way to her Son every single time. Each time someone is asked over the past 2000 years, she has done it and will continue to do it, so let us place ourselves in her hands and she will guide us as her adopted sons and daughters, given to her by Christ on the cross; a real cross for her to bear but one which she does gladly.
When eight days were completed for His circumcision, He was named Jesus, the name given Him by the Angel before He was conceived in the womb.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen