Happy New Year, everyone! Beginning today, I will send out daily Gospel reflections from my new book A Daily Catholic Devotional Reflections on the Daily Mass readings January-June, 2024.
The 1st day of January in the year of Our Lord, 2024
The Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God
The Octave Day of Christmas
Gospel
Luke 2:16-21
16 And they came with haste; and they found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. 17 And seeing, they understood of the word that had been spoken to them concerning this child. 18 And all that heard, wondered; and at those things that were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God, for all the things they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.
21 And after eight days were accomplished, that the child should be circumcised, his name was called JESUS, which was called by the angel, before he was conceived in the womb.
What a wonderful way to start the new year! Today’s readings emphasize that the promise given to Abraham was fulfilled in the Christ. The complex laws of the Torah and the Temple worship of the Jews had come to a close. The early Church Fathers wrote in the first century of Christianity, that God had intended only to give Moses only the Ten Commandments to be the law for His chosen people. But, no sooner had he given the Commandments than the Hebrews had turned their hearts back to the pagan religion of Egypt. God’s voice was still thundering in fiery clouds on the mountain, when they returned to worshiping idols, rejecting the God who brought them out of slavery through miracles and power. The Bible tells us that God was further offended by their complaining in the desert, and their doubting of His providence when they came to the Promised Land and were afraid to enter it.
He punished them in three ways. First, He made them wander in the desert for 40 years and did not allow Moses to enter the land. Secondly, He gave them the complex Mosaic Laws, such as we read in Leviticus, that were nearly impossible to keep. Lastly, He warned them that if they did not uphold this heavy burden, He would destroy their nation by allowing them to be invaded by pagan peoples and would eventually give their religious birthright to the gentiles.
For 4,000 years or so, the saga unfolded. The Jewish people would wander far from God, disobeying the Law, worshiping pagan idols and falling to all manner of sin. God would raise up pagan kings to war against them, enslave them and destroy the Temple. Again, and again they came to repentance, pledged to worship God, alone, and to follow the Mosaic Law. When asked how many times should a man forgive his brother, Jesus answered, “seventy times seventy”, a sum denoting infinity. In God’s patience and understanding of human weakness, He forgave them at least as many times, allowing Israel to reestablish and the Jews to have their Promised Land.
Then, the world changed.
By the time of our Lord’s birth, Israel was not a strong nation. They had fallen under Roman rule even given the heroic deeds of the religious and nationalistic Maccabees. We must wonder why? Jesus explains that the religious leaders of the time had come to emphasize the letter of the law over its spiritual meaning. He called them “hypocrites” and “White-washed tombs”. He excoriated them for punishing people for violating minute details of the law and demanding expensive tithes, while providing them with excuses not to follow the commandment, “Honor thy father and thy mother.” He openly defied them by encouraging His disciples not to follow such symbolic practices as ceremonial hand washing and leading them on long walks on the Sabbath when religious Jews were only allowed a number of steps on that day. He allowed His disciples to pick grain on the Sabbath and He healed the sick on that day on which the religious leaders said it was forbidden. He outraged them by saying that He was the Lord of the Sabbath, and “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”
The religious Jews of the time could not understand His words. This was also a punishment, as Jesus explained. Because they had rejected and executed so many of God’s prophets, they would hear His words and see His deeds but not be able to understand that the Messiah so long awaited had come. They would accuse Him of being demon-possessed and a blasphemer. They had come to worship the Law and the Temple and could not recognized God in their midst.
In today’s second reading we find the beautiful words, “So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son then also an heir, through God.” Through the incarnation of Jesus Christ, both the Jew who was a slave to the law due to the disobedience of their ancestors, and the gentile who was not a part of the People of God could become something entirely new… the FAMILY of GOD! Through belief in the life, death, resurrection and divinity of our Lord, all of humanity was freed both from the Mosaic Law and the penalty of death that was the result of the sin of our first parents. What had been given to the older brother was taken away and given to the younger brother. The first would be last and the last first. The entire world and the history of humanity was changed and pivots on this singular event.
On this first day of the new year, let us meditate on the profundity of this promise. As Jesus told the young man who asked what is necessary for salvation, “Love God with all of your heart and your neighbor as yourself.” This, He explained was what God had intended to give the Jews through the Ten Commandments. Now, the promise is ours because He has made us heirs. Let us enter the new year in the awe and gratitude that these words should inspire!
A Daily Catholic Devotional Reflections on the Daily Mass readings January-June, 2024. may be purchased as a .pdf directly from me using this link https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2023/12/a-daily-catholic-devotional-reflections.html or in paperback on Amazon amazon.com/dp/B0CPD1DC7Q
I am also giving the .pdf as a free Thank You gift to anyone who becomes a paid subscriber to The Uncensored Catholic newsletter.
Gospel passages are taken from the Douay Rheims Bible.