Readings: 2 Samuel 7, 1-5, 8-16, The Lord said to King David, 'Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever;' Psalm 89, Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord; Romans 16, 25-27, To him who can strengthen you be glory; Luke 1, 26-38, The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a virgin.
4th Sunday of Advent
Mary is told in our gospel reading that she is to give birth to the Messiah, the Christ. She asks the messenger from God how this could possibly happen. ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.’ With astonishing faith she replies, ‘May it be done to me according to your word.’
As John the Baptist (the messenger of the past two Sunday liturgies) baptized the people in water, they acknowledged their sins. Then he tells them, ‘Christ will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’ So that the Holy Spirit will come upon us.
How will this happen? When we welcome and put into practice Christ’s words we are bathing in the Holy Spirit. The inspired writers of the John gospel tell us that Christ’s words are living waters that satisfy our spiritual thirst by filling our hearts with the Holy Spirit.
It is through the power of the Spirit, Christ is alive in the hearts of those who live his words! Then, all Christians together, Jew or gentile, man or woman, free man or slave, in union with Christ become what the Apostle Paul calls the body of Christ. As one body we all share in the mission of Christ in the world.
In the Mark gospel we are told that together with Christ we are the one loaf that is blessed and broken, for we have become the word and bread we have consumed. The acceptance of being broken is the tough part; but there is no other way to feed the other unless we give of ourselves in and with Christ.
A few weeks ago Judy and I watched a DVD she had ordered from Netflix. It was a French film in black and white with captions in English. The film came out in 1987 and was directed by Louis Malle [Louie Mall]. The title of the movie in English was ‘Goodbye Children,’ however after watching the film I realized the title really was to be understood as ‘Goodbye Childhood.’
The basis of the film was what Louis Malle experienced when he was eleven years old while he was attending a Provincial Catholic Boarding school on the grounds of a Carmelite monastery during the German occupation of France. It was 1944. When France was liberated in December of that year the children had been pushed out of their childhood into adulthood.
The film begins with the children returning from their wealthy French families after Christmas vacation to the boarding school. Soon after, Fr. Jacob the Carmelite priest at the school introduces three new pupils to the boys. The boys are unaware that the three new students are Jews, that Fr. Jacob is the leader within the faculty who are joined to an underground network of Christians across France to save the Jews.
Fr. Jacob has given the three boys gentile names hoping that he can keep them hidden and alive until the Germans are pushed out of France. A few months now pass with the three new boys fitting in rather well. A classmate from the school, Julien, befriends one of the Jewish boys. A few things unexpectedly happen, including Julien hearing his friend praying in Hebrew one evening. (The Jewish boys do everything the Catholic boys are doing, including going to Mass.)
The school has a parent day in the fall at which Fr. Jacob gives a homily on social justice directed toward the rich parents attending Mass with their boys. The three Jewish boys are in attendance by themselves. The friend of Julien is moved by the Priest’s words (from the spoken Word) and enters the line with the Catholics to receive communion. Julien is next to him as the Jewish boy sticks out his tongue waiting for the priest to place a host on it.
I am as intent on seeing what happens as is Fr. Jacob, Julien and the young Jewish boy. (The Jewish boy has a different understanding now of why Fr. Jacob and other Christians are risking their lives for the Jews…at any time Fr. Jacob could literally become ‘bread broken’ for him…taken and killed by the Germans by hiding him.
Fr. Jacob does not place the host on his tongue, but his mere presence to the Jewish boy is bread blessed and broken. The boy seems a bit surprised not have received the host but peaceful in his presence among these Christians. There is a moment of quiet as the priest moves on to Julien who will only later become aware of what has really happened. Julian, however, is now aware that not only is the boy is a Jew, but that Fr. Jacob is well aware of it.
Another icon of the Church in the world that you are probably not aware of might now become apparent to you as the season of Advent is about to end: the Christ child in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. For the strips of linen are burial attire—As Church we are the Suffering Servant and Lamb of God to which we show our gratitude believing through the sacraments of Christ’s words and actions that our sins have been forgiven…and our responsibility to also forgive the contrite of heart. The manger is a feeding trough. Blessed, we gather together in thanksgiving each week to consume the essence in the Liturgy of the word and Eucharist with conviction to become the bread we eat.
A kitchen worker is fired by Fr. Jacob, after the priest becomes aware that the worker was selling some of their food in the black-market. (Those watching the film can sense a coming betrayal.) The Germans have somehow become aware of the three additional students in the school. Julien had seen his friend’s name partially erased from the inside cover of one of the books that he had brought with him. When one of the German’s asked for that person to stand, Julien glanced at his friend. The German had noticed what he had done.
Later, the courtyard was filled with the boys standing in lines facing the Germans, who take with them their Science teacher and his family, Fr. Jacob and the three boys who are Jews. The boarding school boys tearfully called after Fr. Jacob, ‘Goodbye Fr. Jacob.’ Fr. Jacob calls back to them, ‘Goodbye Children.’
The children had been pulled from childhood into adulthood in the tragic awakening of man’s inhumanity toward one of their teachers and his family, their priest and three of their classmates. Later they would come to know what it means to become the Bread we eat…It is in dying to self by showing goodness and justice to others that one is born to eternal life.
The Science teacher and his family and the three boys were gassed to death upon arriving at Auschwitz. Fr. Jacob was sent to a concentration camp in Austria where a few months later he died after the Americans forces had taken control of the camp.
When we see some of the children of this community wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger on Christmas Eve, recall the significance of what that represents: We have been baptized in the Holy Spirit to be Word and Bread, blessed and broken.
Picture 1: The Team, John, Mike, & Kevin
Picture 2: Ryan lights the candles with Jim & Michelle, his dad & mom
Picture 3: Penitential Rite, people, "Please forgive me." Jan & Charlie
Picture 4: Penitential Rite, minister, "I forgive you. I accept you. Peace." Mabel & Mike
Picture 5: Cole with his mom & dad, Erin & Chuck
Picture 6: Sean
Picture 7: Emma
Picture 8: The Gang, Judy, Marilyn, Chuck, Sandra, & Geri