He is Our Shepherd: Are We a Dumb, Conformist Flock?

Not exactly a highbrow image for
the human community? Hmmm....

Jesus is the good shepherd, and we are all his sheep.

The "pastoral metaphors" in Scripture are often taken by us as picturesque and superficial. We feel a vague warmth about them but then pass them by without much consideration. We've heard them so many times.

But such metaphors are often misunderstood by critics of Christianity as images of obscurantism, fear of initiative, or escape. It is thought that Christians would rather conform themselves to a flock and follow a superior being than use their own reason to judge and construct their own lives.

We Christians might not be so comfortable about being called sheep if we gave it some thought. Aren't sheep supposed to be really stupid? They have to be put in pens, and led into pastures just to find the food they need. Alone they are vulnerable, lost, and -- of course -- always easy prey for the wolf.

What does this image have to do with the rational human being? We use reason to accomplish spectacular feats. We build cities, measure the distance to stars, find cures for diseases, develop computer software and master ever more refined information technology. Sheep?! We're not sheep! It seems like an insult to compare the human person to a sheep, or the human community to a mindless flock.

Perhaps we have forgotten what this metaphor intends to convey.

It is interesting to note that recent neuroscientific studies indicate that sheep are not so dumb after all. In fact, their cogitative skills are surprisingly high among the animal species. Science has confirmed what grizzly shepherds have always known, namely, that sheep can recognize faces and sounds, and even respond to their own distinctive names.

The animal instincts and sense-cognition of sheep are markedly relational. What appears to us as an anonymous flock is in fact a group of animals that have high capacity for memory and recognition. Studies have shown that sheep remember one another's faces as well as the faces of their shepherds. They distinguish and remember the bleating of their companions and other familiar sounds. They even develop particular one-on-one familiarity; i.e. sheep within a flock can become "friends" with other particular sheep. They are highly competent animals in their own sphere and within their own environment. What makes them vulnerable is the larger context of an unknown world abounding with dangers and predators.

Sheep thrive by sticking together. They are domesticated not by coercion, but by the guidance of their relational instincts and the training of their memory. It turns out that a flock of sheep is not a mass of stupid, indistinct, and anonymous beasts that follow blindly according to the most primitive instincts. On the contrary, it is group of animals with a high degree of interactive sophistication, who remember and recognize the distinctive features of one another and of the human beings who care for them, protect them, and help them find the things they want: food, water, and an optimal environment in which to reproduce. There is some indication that these capacities for recognition and memory also correspond to a surprisingly high level of emotional responsiveness. There is an "animal affection," an emotive bonding within the flock, and between sheep and shepherd.

None of this would be news to shepherds anywhere in the world. For millennia, they have cared for their flocks, and they could easily say something like, "I know my sheep and my sheep know me" (John 10:14).

Human beings are not sheep. Human beings are persons, each with an identity, intelligence and freedom that are embodied in flesh and blood, and yet also transcend the whole material universe. Every human person is unique and inviolable, possessing always an intrinsic value worthy of being loved for his or her own sake. At the same time, human persons are profoundly related in families, friendships, communities, peoples, and a world in which we must learn to recognize and remember one another's faces and to call each other "brother" and "sister."

The shepherd, the sheep, and the flock are images that help us to reflect on some aspects of the mystery of who we are. They are only images, and so they have their limits, but they also have evocative power and poetic beauty. With careful attention, we may discover that these images have greater depth and nuance that we thought. Moreover, for Jesus, these images are a starting point for drawing us all up into the mystery of his relationship with the Father.

"The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers" (John 10:2-5).

"I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again" (John 10:14-17).

"My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one" (John 10:27-30).

The Whole Universe is Refreshed with Mystical Streams

Today
through the presence of the Lord
the waters of the Jordan river
are changed into remedies.
Today
the whole universe
is refreshed with mystical streams.
Today
the sins of mankind
are blotted out by the waters
of the Jordan river.
Today
paradise has been opened to mankind,
and the Sun of righteousness
has shone upon us....
Today
the Lord comes to be baptized,
so that mankind may be lifted up....
Today
the land and the sea divide between them
the joy of the world,
and the world is filled with rejoicing.

~ from Byzantine Prayers for the Theophany

"God-With-Us": Let Us Live What We Celebrate in These Days

From Bethlehem to the Jordan, we have celebrated in these days God's "opening up of himself," his giving of himself to us. He who is the Mystery that every human person seeks; he who is on "the other side" of the *More* that every person pleads for in front of reality: he has done something beyond all of our dreams and our myths and our philosophy and our striving. He himself--the Infinite Mystery--has come into our reality, into actual human flesh and blood.

God is with us. He had made his dwelling among us and remains with us. He has intervened directly and totally in the story of the human race. God himself dwells in the midst of our cruelty, barbarism, blindness, idolatry, and willful ignorance of his compassion and love.

God has given everything; he has poured himself out in love, and in so doing he manifests his ineffable glory, for God is Love. The fullness of the revelation of God is in this love that overcomes sin, that embraces us and heals us. The Infinite Mystery is Infinite Mercy.

And Divine mercy has a human face and a name: Jesus.

Jesus is the reason for the joy and wonder that fill our hearts in the Christmas season, and at any other time when we recognize in life some sign of him for whom we hope. We celebrate his coming with the awareness that in the risen and glorified Jesus (and in Mary) the New Creation has already begun in its fullness. Meanwhile, we remain in this present age so that we might grow into the fullness of perfect adherence to his mercy, and so that we might announce the gift of God’s love in our world of fear and illusion, frustration and weakness, violence and malice, searching and incomprehensible suffering.

In front of the suffering of our brothers and sisters we must witness that Jesus Christ is the only answer to the search for meaning and the yearning for love that God has fashioned in the depths of every human heart. Only Jesus really knows me; only he can answer for me the question, “Who am I?”

Christians must become more profoundly aware of this fact. They must not rest content and comfortable (or afraid) behind closed doors. They must beg the Lord to deepen the conviction and the ardor of their faith and love, so that they will perceive more concretely that the glory of Christ is the real, superabundant, unimaginable answer to every human misery, every human cry of anguish, every authentic human desire for something more than the limits of this world can give.

We Christians: we need this capacity to see life as it really is. Then we will be able to give love, to bring healing, to meet human needs with God's mercy, to be witnesses.

The "New Evangelization" calls upon us, first of all, to become more deeply aware of the fact that Jesus himself corresponds to the mystery of the human heart -- my own heart, and the heart of every person I meet. We must beg God to give us the grace to see our world, our circumstances -- vividly -- in light of this truth.

We must beg God to teach us how to pray, to open our eyes and our hearts to recognize his presence, to be changed by his "humble glory." We must seek him in the life of the Church, drawing strength from the Eucharist and the sacraments, and from one another in the companionship that is born from this new unity we share in his mercy and love.

We are called to have a faith that lives on the concrete, day to day level with conviction and deep, abiding joy. Jesus is Lord. He has all things. He is the meaning of the universe, the meaning of history, the meaning of today, this day, this moment, now.

He enters into our "now" and transforms it into an invitation to respond in love to the mystery of his love. His presence empowers our hearts and draws us to respond more and more in love to his love, to abandon ourselves to his love.

He is here: he who is the Source who sustains all things and "saves them from nothingness." Human beings live in fear of the Ultimate Mystery; they flee from it because it appears to them to be a gaping abyss of darkness. A true Christian does not deny this mysterious abyss, or seek to replace it with some ideology or cheap sentiment. A true Christian lives the mystery of being human all the way to the abyss and suffers it's darkness. Christian faith knows that Jesus is here too, and above all.

Jesus has fathomed the abyss of our own mystery, and calls upon us to trust in him because the abyss is Eternal Love. The abyss is Mercy that will finally take us beyond yearning and longing, beyond ourselves and our limits and into the fulfillment for which we have been made. He is here and we will be saved if we adhere to him and hold onto him and never let go. 

To seek, to live, to bear witness to the enduring presence of Jesus in the world, the presence of Jesus who embraces the whole of life: this is the most essential thing we can do to carry the mystery of Christmas beyond these days of celebration, for it is through us that Jesus continues to appear to the world and make himself known.

It's Still the Christmas Season: The Light Shines For Everyone

We continue to follow the star.

Grant, we ask, almighty God,
that the Nativity of the Savior of the world,
made known by the guidance of a star,
may be revealed ever more fully to our minds.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
– Amen.

Thus we pray on the Friday after the feast of the Epiphany. The final week of the liturgical season is crowned with Sunday's feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the event known as the Theophany in the Eastern churches: the manifestation of God. It is at the baptism in the Jordan that the Trinity is revealed and the sending of the Son openly proclaimed. As Jesus rises up from the waters, the Holy Spirit descends upon him in the form of a dove, and the voice of the Father is heard, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased" (see Matthew 3:13-17).

Christmas is all about the manifestation of God. It is about God making his epiphany in the world. Jesus is born in Bethlehem. The shepherds, the poor of Israel, are summoned to be the first witnesses to God's definitive presence in the world.

At the same time, a star rises in the heavens, a sign appears on the horizon of the human search for goodness and beauty, for truth and meaning. The Mystery: the holy, infinite, unknowable One who is the Source of all things, and who draws with implacable persistence the heart of every human person, shines upon the horizon and beckons them to follow this light.

The nations, the peoples from all corners of the world embark upon a journey guided by the light: those who are poor in spirit, who are searching and hungering for the Mystery, and who are wise enough to know their complete dependence on this Mystery, who have allowed themselves to be wounded by the hunger that is within them, who have listened to the promise whispered in their hearts even if they have not understood it.

They follow the light.

There are others too, who are awakened from a slumbering life by the fire of this light that stirs their soul. It comes as a surprise, a completely new beginning for them, even if it is true that the light has always been there beneath their shadows.

The peoples journey from afar, carrying with them the things that are most precious and most weighty: their hopes, troubles, questions, and also their sins, and their need for healing.

And they find the glory of God manifested. They encounter Infinite Love humbled before them, gazing upon them with the face of a child.

"Wow, Some Weather We've Been Having," Said Everybody

Massanutten mountain: It was even colder up there

I can't think of anything that will be less "news" to you (if you live in the USA) than another story about how crazy nuts cold it has been this week!

But it is the main event that has been on our minds (not to mention our bodies) during this past week. Americans have been briefly united by a snowstorm and the "polar vortex" that came in its wake and brought ice-age temperatures to much of the nation.

And I know, my dear northeastern and midwestern friends, that you had the worst of it. Of course, you took it in stride because you are the toughest and just simply the most rugged people. Frozen winters? Mosquito infested summers? Hey, I bow to you. Okay? ;)

Still, it was freaky freezing here in Virginia and points further south.

We all felt like brothers and sisters this week, as we braved First World Problems in their most dire form: How to get the car started when it's one degree (that's fahrenheit, which means -17 celsius); how to get from the car to the nearest heated building without getting blown off our feet by 40 mph winds; how to get to the car at all (for those of us who had lots of snow); and -- by far the most desperate problem -- how to entertain ourselves during the days when we were stuck inside the house.

Some snow. Some sunshine. Our house looks cozy. Nobody went out to play!

Winter is interesting because, really, nobody can control it. We try to control it by watching the Weather Channel obsessively, but it still comes upon us and asserts itself. Suddenly, we all feel small and needy. We help one another out. We talk to our neighbors. We think about where we are going, take our time, and are grateful for whatever we manage to do.

In snow and cold, we are all realists. It's something in front of us, not a fabrication of our self-posturing. We have to deal with it, and it establishes the method by which we must proceed. People have profound disagreements about methods when it comes to politics and economics, but everyone knows that snow must be shoveled and scraped, and that we must be well protected against the cold.

This is the face of bravery and boldness

And this is the face of cuteness. In her best coat.

Everybody knows it's cold; we can feel it. (boy can we feel it!) No one thinks of being ideological about the fact that we need to bundle up. I didn't see anyone walking on the street this week in just shorts or a bathing suit, and claiming that they didn't "believe in cold." Imagine some guy: "I'm a warmist. This cold is just an oppressive structure imposed by the meteorological elites (or 'the government,' or a lack of tolerance for temperature diversity, or whatever)."

"You're a 'warmist'?" I'd say, through my scarf. "I'm a human being. Either you get inside or I'm calling 911 so that someone can come and get you and prevent you from freezing to death."

That's why weather is such a universal topic of conversation. It's something we all have in common, and it reminds us (implicitly) of many of the deeper things we have in common, the things that motivate us to deal with the weather because it's a factor in our real lives, an aspect of reality that we cannot ignore or censor from our awareness just because it doesn't fit in with our projects.

It reminds us that being human is a mystery, a gift, and a responsibility.


[By the way: Always keep an outdoor extension chord around the house. A LONG one. If the starter lock in your car doesn't turn because it's frozen because the car has been out all night because you don't have a garage (you have a carport) because you live in "the South" where things like this don't happen... you'll need a hot air blow dryer. And plenty of patience.] 

This Mysterious Joy

"Let us witness to the newness, hope and joy that the Lord brings to life. Let us feel within us the delightful and comforting joy of evangelizing" (Pope Francis).

The Pope has invigorated the theme of evangelization by indicating how important is the characteristic of joy. We can sense this joy in the radiance of his own face. Looking at him, we can't help but want, somehow, to feel in ourselves whatever it is that motivates such a genuine smile.

Still, we know that "joy" is something more than a superficial emotion. It passes through the profound center of the person, as an outpouring of the vitality of God's engagement of the depths of human reason and human freedom.

It is in the overflowing of joy from the heart that we are sustained by experiences of delight, comfort, and peace. Our witness to Jesus is concrete because we know him, because he has entered into a relationship with us and has awoken our adherence to him in faith and love. Our witness to Jesus is joyful precisely because it is a witness to him, his presence, his love for us and for the world.

It is important to remember that in witnessing to the Gospel we don't have to try to "manufacture" by our own power what we think are feelings of joy within ourselves. If we just love Jesus, seek Him with our hearts, let Him love us, and be true and humble with other people, we will be joyful witnesses. Others will see this "human-but-different reality" that has taken hold of us, this newness of life, and they will be provoked by the awakening of hope within themselves.

And we will find joy. We will feel it, not like some emotional stimulation or psychological power that gives us dominance over ourselves and others, but rather we will feel it within the motion of love itself. We will feel joy within the living of our relationship with Jesus and others, within our attention and service, within empathy, patience, and the freedom to wrestle even with our weaknesses.

Joy consists in finding our identity in something greater than our limits and our brokenness, something that embraces us in our fragility and renews us. And we will find that joy accompanying us in unimaginable places, in the darkest abysses and the most profound suffering, present in ways that are inaccessible to the "surface level" of our awareness and that would evade any reflexive psychological description.

Because it doesn't depend on us. It depends on Jesus, in whom the joy of God's Word penetrates the depths of the earth and renews all things.

Whatever the trials we face, whatever fragmentation of our frail conscious perception by the agony that washes over us, we will be sustained by this mysterious joy, sufficient enough to keep going forward and to surrender ourselves to our loving Father with trust.

A Birthday and the "New Math": 51 = 5 + 1 = 6.

So I had my 51st birthday. Unlike last year's turning of the biological odometer, this didn't seem like a big deal. We had a quiet day, just the family, while the snow fell and the wind howled.

I told Josefina that I was younger than her because she is now seven, but I am five and one. Five plus one equals six, haha!

I think she actually got the joke.

Anyway, I never have time to feel "old" for very long. The kids keep me young at heart....

As does my wife who cooks fantastic birthday meals. The Greek ancestry that no doubt stirs somewhere in my Mediterranean roots was roused by Moussaka and Zucchini pancakes. Thank you, Eileen:

A New Year, But a Familiar Path

Selections of texts on the Gospels
by Benedict XVI (WordAmongUs)

On this first day of the year 2014, I have been doing some spiritual reading about the the Mother of God from a book of homilies by a beautiful and holy witness to the Gospel. We have forgotten about him, and I am not proposing any nostalgia, much less hinting that I prefer him to his successor (who also leads us to very good pastures).

Let us not think we can find our security in life by pretending to be insider-journalists or wise critics. Let us instead be led by the Spirit, and transformed in our minds. Let us listen with hearts that hunger and thirst for the truth of life; let us look with eyes that seek the face of God. Let us listen, and when we speak let our words be the pleas of our hunger and our seeking.

God gives us shepherds to lead us, to guide our hearts so that God can shape them from within (mysteriously) by his grace, so that he can give them the seal of a love that we cannot imagine. We will never learn about our real selves except by following the God who made us, the God who is Love and who gives himself away in love by becoming a child, born of a woman.

Things are not so much different from one year ago. There is still the New Evangelization, and it still means first of all that I myself must hear the call to be converted, to change, to be conformed to the will of God. And doing God's will is not slavery, because God is Love, and because his will for me is the mysterious truth of who I am. It is the way that I am called to be in his image and likeness, to be a gift of love.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us. Pray that we will say "yes" to God's love, so that the beauty of Jesus might shine brightly in the world.

Here are some words I read today:

"God's will is not a burden;
God's will gives us wings to fly high,
and thus we to can dare,
with Mary,
to open the door of our lives to God,
the doors of this world,
by saying 'yes' to his will,
aware that this will is the true good
and leads us to true happiness.
Let us pray to Mary,
Comfort of the Afflicted,
our Mother,
the Mother of the Church,
to give us the courage to say this 'yes'
and also to give us this joy
of being with God
and to lead us to his Son,
to true life."

~ Benedict XVI

The End of 2013: We Have Grown in This Year

It is New Year's Eve.

Has the year gone by quickly? No way! I feel like we've lived through a decade. On New Year's Eve of 2012, I would never have imagined what kind of a year this would be. So many things happened. But just look at 2013 in terms of its most public drama.

Twelve months ago, if you had asked me, "who is the most famous Argentinian in the world?" I would have said, "Lionel Messi, of course!"

[He's a soccer player, just in case you don't know...]

Jorge who?

My gosh, no one saw that coming.

I woke up one February morning, opened up Twitter and saw *Pope Benedict Resigns* on someone's tweet, and I thought, "Yeah, right! What's this, The Onion again? Or someone is spreading pseudo-news on Twitter. Some joke! I'm not fooled, no sirree, not me, I'm know how this goes, ha. ha. ha. ..."

Here was Pope Benedict on Twitter, just the day before. What could be more solid that that?

My main man! The Pope who reassures me every day about God's mercy.

There were so many days when Benedict had words in a tweet, or a homily or one of his encyclicals, that would pull me out of my deep hole! I would come out of the funk, at least a little, enough to say, "Yes, this is reality. God is here. He loves me. I can trust him."

Anyone who thinks that Benedict XVI was some kind of dark, somber pope has obviously either never listened to him or has never been in the dark.

Resign!? No way, that's crazy, that can't possibly happen, that's just....

But I kept seeing the tweets. There were lots of them. Do you remember seeing this for the first time? This was not a joke.

It was only February 11, 2013.

Resign. He was letting go, not out of fear but with trust in the mighty power of God's mercy. Benedict was moving forward, with confidence that the Church is always in the hands of the Lord.

This blog has covered the events that followed. We experienced the first digital interactive multimedia conclave. We watched and prayed with the cardinals right up until the doors closed in the Sistine chapel. And then we stared at the live stream videos of the smoke stack, and then after that we waited forever at the window of St. Peter's until Franciscum Georgium Marium somethinorother was announced and millions of people went:

"Who?"

And we had our first, unforgettable look at this man. We thought we had finally reached the end of an extraordinary ecclesial event.

It was only the middle of March, 2013.

We had no idea what was still to come.

I'm not talking about the media attention, the "controversies," or even the controversies-about-whether-or-not-there-should-be-controversies. I'm talking about the challenge that this man's witness has introduced into our lives (I should say, first of all, into my life). It's a challenge that comes from the distinctive "accent" that he brings to his way of living the gospel and looking at human beings. It has been impossible to ignore.

The Lord has been using him to provoke us and to change us. Sometimes we wrestle, in different ways, but none of us can really deny that we are wrestling with the vocation to grow more profoundly in our confidence that Jesus is living in His Church and guiding her in the Holy Spirit.

What awaits us in 2014? What awaits me, our family, our home, our community? Each day it will unfold, along with the promise of Jesus, the promise that sustains us, the promise that we must always remember: "I am with you always...."

The Economy: What's the Big Picture?

Look! Money! Lots and lots of Money!
 Now that I have your attention...

2013 hasn't been a banner year for most people's economic confidence.

We're worried about stuff. We're worried about debt, taxes, monetary policy, China, debt, mandates, bad websites, education, debt, downturn, outsourcing, China, debt, unemployment, under-employment, debt, foreclosure, products, China, energy reserves, resources, climate change, pollution, China, poverty, debt, heathcare, trade, China, wages, benefits, stock, retirement, debt, bankruptcy, fiscal collapse, bailouts, treasury bonds, China, politics, debt, debt. debt, DEBT... TRILLIONS AND TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS, and.... (wait, how many zeros does a trillion have again?)

Is "it" all going to come crashing down? Or is "it" just going to crumble slowly? You know, our "way of life"....

The Janaros are struggling, economically. We're pinching pennies and just getting by. We're not rich. We make a lot of sacrifices. We manage, somehow.

Then I put things in historical perspective. It doesn't really make me feel better; I like the life I have; it's the only way of living I have ever known. I'm used to living the way I do, and I consider it normal.

But there is nothing "normal" about it, really.

This is the fact: as 21st century Americans who are (broadly speaking) "middle class" we are -- BY FAR -- among the richest and most comfortable and (in our possibilities for for so many life choices) most "powerful" people who have ever lived in the history of the human race!

Just think about it for a minute.

Look at this house I live in, this house that is "much too small" for our family. Ha ha ha! Emperors in all their glory had nothing like the power that is accessible to me at the flick of a finger. I command the light, the water, and even the air temperature of my dwelling. I am master of my realm. And then I have two blazing chariots ("used clunkers," but they still go), that can transport me vast distances in any direction I choose.

If Odysseus and his crew found themselves at my house, all I would have to do is flick on a light switch and they would fall on their faces and worship me as a god! (Granted, I can't turn them into pigs. But I can give them television and nachos and microwave popcorn and beer....)

But never mind the ancients. What nobleman, what lord, what king, what rich smug capitalist from a hundred years ago can say what the average middle class American can still say today, namely, that with a computer, a credit card, and an airline ticketing website, we can travel anywhere we want on this planet within seventy two hours. Decide now, and We can be there in three days. Australia? Non-stop. India? Non-stop. Timbuktu? Okay, that's a bit of a challenge. First we change flights, preferably in Paris. From there we fly to the international airport at Barnako, Mali, which has domestic flights to Timbuktu. Assuming there's no civil war going on, I can book the tickets NOW. The connection in Mali might be a bit unpredictable. But that's why I said "three days."

Are we not, materially speaking, the richest and most powerful people who have ever lived?

My little house has magical gadgets that never occurred to Kubla Khan in his wildest dreams of Xanadu. Here, right now, I am sitting in front of the glittering computer square that can make the space between me and anywhere else in the world evaporate.

Louis XIV? Bah! He would have envied my bathroom.

So what is my point? Many in the world today live without what we commonly consider "necessities." Indeed, our loaded lifestyle has its polar opposite in the hunger and sheer misery of millions of people. Still, our society is capable of opening up these possibilites to anyone. 200 years ago no one lived with anything like the material comfort that we possess. We are uniquely endowed with wealth, and with a "living network" that puts colossal possibilities within our reach.

But with all our material strength, we Americans have difficulties. Some of our difficulties are fundamental, and it cannot be denied that the vast power we possess has also created new problems that our ancestors never had to bear. Life remains hard, because the human person is so much more than material wealth and power. It can be overwhelming. People become dizzy with so many choices and experiences that can be multiplied without ever bringing satisfaction.

My son astutely observed that "today, life is easier physically but harder mentally." We can cure so many diseases today, and yet our "way of life" has made us vulnerable to new diseases that we hardly understand: diseases that kill us or drain us or rob us of our minds. Everyone is under stress to be productive in a way that can be quantified -- a way that expresses and extends our material power. The inner development of the human person is not seen as an end worth pursuing for its own sake, but at best as a means to make human beings more coherent and imaginative, and therefore more productive of new ways to dominate the material world. Everything is an "industry." I work in the "Education Industry," which surprised me when I first found out. I thought I was a teacher.

These are great difficulties. But they do not cancel out the fact that material progress has brought many blessings to daily life. In principle, it has the capacity to free us for a deeper cultivation of understanding and freedom, and to be able to perceive all of our work as service, as an expression of self-giving, and as a participation in the interpersonal relationships that give rise to a real human community.

When I think of my relationship with God, my opportunities to educate my children and to share life with others in community, it is clear that these are the true riches. I want my living environment to help support these riches (and it can, in many ways). But if it hinders or distracts me from living like a human being, then it has really become a form of poverty.

I know for sure that, to be human, I do not need as much material power and possessions as I can possibly acquire. What I need is "enough," which means enough material wealth to be able to fulfill my vocation and to assist those who are deprived of what they need.

Indeed, humans are blessed with material wealth (just as we are blessed with personal talents) in order to give to one another, to help sustain one another as human beings, to be bonded together in the sharing of concrete human life.

In this manner, we store up a treasure that will endure in the face of any economic crisis, a treasure that moth cannot eat and thief cannot steal, a treasure that survives the rise and fall of nations, a treasure that does not depend on our power because it is perfected in weakness.

What Shall We Offer You

O Christ,
what shall we offer You
for Your coming on earth as a man for our sake?
Every creature that has its being from You
gives thanks to You:
The angels offer hymns of praise,
the heavens give a star;
wise men present their gifts
and the shepherds, their wonder;
the earth provides a cave
and the desert a manger.
As for us,
we offer You a Mother,
a Virgin Mother.
O God who are from all eternity,
have mercy on us!

--from Christmas Vespers, Byzantine Liturgy  

The Celebration of a Miraculous Birth

Here is something from the time capsule that is pretty well done. On Christmas Day, December 25, 1990, young JJ penned a theological meditation on the much-neglected mystery of the birth of Jesus. Here it is, from the archives:

Christ is born of the Virgin Mary. Come, let us adore Him.

Christmas: We Cannot Calm Each Other's Restlessness

Merry Christmas 2013! Praised be Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary, the Prince of Peace, God-With-Us, our hope.

Ok, Teresa too. My little girls.

We had a quiet Christmas at home this year. Well, it was as quiet as Christmas with five kids can be. They still have plenty of enthusiasm, even if Josefina is the only one still young enough to have that little kid sense of wonderfulness that is practically bursting out of her.

We went to the morning Mass, and then came home to take our annual Christmas photo before changing into comfy clothes and opening presents. That picture has circulated plenty among friends, but I'll post it again here for the record:

The Janaros, Christmas 2013

Presents: lots of things to eat and small items. We did get a new microwave oven, thanks to a gift card from Eileen's brother. Uncle Walter came and added to the fun (and the stash of presents). Then we had a really good dinner.

Presents!

Even in difficult times, this day in December has a hold on us. It won't allow us to lose our sense of wonder.

But as we grow older, the celebration of Christmas is more and more filled with memories that are precious and tender but also irrevocably past. People who shaped this day for many years are no longer part of it. The present time, and (God willing) the times to come will bring fresh memories, but we become more aware of how fragile they are.

It is not so much that we learn to take nothing for granted. Rather, we learn that everything is granted. Everything is a gift. We pass through life, through time and pain and aching loss. Past memories and present suffering can cause us to weep, and we learn how poor we are in front of one another.

All of our gifts and all the efforts of our love fall short, and we cannot calm each other's restlessness.

Still our present moments and our memories have a warm glow like garland when we remember that they reflect the light that is leading us home.

Joseph Might Not Have Thought What We Think He Thought

Everyone is familiar with the Gospel reading from Sunday's liturgy. It was all about Jesus being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary... from the perspective of St. Joseph. We think we know what is going on in this passage, but perhaps we assume too much:

"When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit. Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 'Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. 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'" (Matthew 1:18-21).

Ah yes, that "touchy" little situation.

Thus we are introduced to St. Joseph, and the testimony of Divine Revelation to this greatest of saints after Mary herself is largely contained in these first two chapters of Matthew (along with some references in Luke 1-2). Indeed, this is one of his most important moments; it is the moment upon which his vocation is founded. What do we learn about him in this passage?

Perhaps it is something a little different from what we initially think. For a person like me, this story might enter into my mind and get mixed around and end up sounding something like this (note well -- the actual words of the Scripture are in bold type; the rest is JJ's imagination coloring in the details):

Joseph her husband, when he realized that Mary must of been... well... unfaithful to their betrothal (which really surprised him since Mary had been so completely, astonishingly, immaculately good up until then) since he was a righteous man, yet [YET?] unwilling to expose her to shame, (in other words he was "righteous" but he wasn't like "crazy righteous" -- the Law said an adulterous wife should be stoned to death [see Deuteronomy 22], but he decided to ignore the Law and let it slide because he was a nice guy,) decided to divorce her quietly. (Mary had this story about an angel and a miracle and the Holy Spirit, but as Joseph himself said in Zeffirelli's movie Jesus of Nazareth [and he must have said it, because we saw it], "That's too much for any man to believe!" But still, he was a nice guy so he was willing to break it off quietly.) Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David [why did he call him that?], do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. [PERIOD! That means the angel finishes his sentence here. Then he takes a deep breath and continues with the next sentence...] For (in other words, after have taken his deep breath, the angel proceeds to explain to Joseph what really happened, setting the record straight that Mary was telling the truth after all) 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." At which point Joseph goes <FACEPALM> "If I had known, O angel, that Mary was really bearing the Messiah, the Son of God, in her womb by the power of the Holy Spirit, I would never have 'divorced her quietly'! Oh no, I would have taken her into my home and taken upon myself the earthly responsibilities of fatherhood for... you know... God Incarnate...."

Okay, JJ... enough snarkiness. What's the point? Well, the point here is that if I step back and examine what seems to be the common sense interpretation of this text, it starts to raise all sorts of problems. There's not a whole lot of bold type in that long paragraph. I have to make a lot of assumptions, which is not unreasonable since these assumptions are generally made even by theologians (generally, but not universally, and -- as we shall see -- there is good reason for a different reading).

The interpretation fills in details that are precisely not mentioned in the text, but that seem necessary to make sense of it. The thinking is that Joseph is divorcing Mary for infidelity, and he is assuming that her pregnancy is a result of that infidelity (maybe she tried to explain it and he didn't believe her, or maybe she said nothing because of humility, in which case he still must have been somewhat flustered). He is a "just man," so he's not interested in getting revenge against the perpetrator, nor does he want to "press charges" according to the Law, but he also has no intention of covering the whole matter up by taking her in as his wife and presenting himself as the child's father. Then the angel appears to him and tells him not to be afraid to marry Mary because she is innocent and the child has been conceived by a miracle. The child, in fact, is the Savior. Problem solved. The marriage is back on.

Problem solved? On closer inspection, maybe not. Actually we have several problems here. The underlying problem is that we interpret this whole event based on a presupposition that is not in the text. In fact, a closer look at the text reveals that our presupposition (that Joseph is divorcing Mary because he thinks she's pregnant by human agency) is not supported; indeed, the implications lead in another direction entirely.

What I'm presenting here is theological and exegetical opinion, which has been much more precisely expressed by theologians and biblical exegetes (such as, for example, John McHugh, in his fascinating book The Mother of Jesus in the New Testament [1975] and Giorgio Buccellati, longtime professor of Ancient Near Eastern studies at UCLA [see e.g. "The Prophetic Dimension of Joseph," Communio, Spring 2006] -- just so you know that my ramblings here are backed by scholarly heavyweights). Scott Hahn refers to the two opinions on this text as the Suspicion Theory (Joseph thinks Mary committed adultery until the angel reveals otherwise) and the Reverence Theory (which is... well, let's see). Scott himself doesn't "take sides" here, but (to my reading) he also leans in the direction of the latter theory (see The Gospel of Matthew, Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, p. 18).

That will have to suffice for scholarly "apparatus" in what is a decidedly non-scholarly blog post. JJ just wants to outline why he now sees this event in a different light, not only because it makes more sense, but also because St. Joseph is his homeboy. (Really, I don't know where I'd be without him.)

Let's take a closer look at this text. Mary "was found with child through the Holy Spirit." What does this mean? Exactly what it says (also in the Greek). Before Joseph took Mary into his home, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit. Once again, note well that does not say that she was "found with child and claimed that the child was conceived by the Holy Spirit." We might assume that the point here is that Mary was "found with child" and that Matthew just adds the Holy Spirit parenthetically. Is this assumption warranted? Let's examine further and see if we really need these invisible parentheses.

Clearly, Mary is with child and Joseph wants to end the relationship. He has no choice but to divorce Mary, since the betrothal is already a binding legal commitment. But he doesn't want to "bring shame" upon her (stoning to death and all that), so he decides to do it "quietly." And all of these assumptions hinge on Joseph being a "just" or "righteous" man, which means that he is a man devoted to the Law (hence divorce) who is simultaneously a man willing to set the Law aside (hence "quietly").

Hmmmm.

The quiet divorce is something of a head-scratcher. Our lectionary translation gives us something that is appropriately bumbling: "Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly." Since? Yet? He was righteous, but...? And while we're at it, let's look at this term that Matthew decides to toss in here: dikaios. This is Greek for the Hebrew saddiq. Such a title is not awarded lightly in the Scriptures. This is a profound and full sense of righteousness, such as is attributed to Noah and Abraham. This is the kind of "justice" out of which radical foundations can be made. Here is Joseph the Righteous.

And Matthew has introduced this term to explain to us (while also confusing us further) the reason why Joseph decided to be kind and merciful to his adulterous wife? Assuming that there's some wiggle room in the Law for this kind of arrangement (and we all assume this, of course), it would seem that a decent man could take this road without much heroic virtue. It hardly requires the righteousness of Noah or Abraham to walk away from an unfaithful spouse, without obligations and with a spotless reputation. The betrothed woman is allowed to live. We assume (again) that the "quiet" will succeed in smoothing over the situation for everybody, whereas in fact it refers only to refraining from filing a public charge. In such circumstances, the woman is still socially disgraced and even cast out of home and family, shamed for the rest of her life. It's not like she can go abroad for a year, have the baby, and then come back with nobody knowing anything about it. This is not the Hamptons. This is a Palestinian village. In 4 b.c. Everybody knows everything. As for Joseph? Not his problem anymore.

But, Matthew tells us, Joseph is not the average man who wants to cut his losses and get out of town. He is saddiq. He is just. He is righteous. The angel in the dream does not rebuke him nor cause some great moral conversion. Joseph is already the quintessential steadfast man. Still, given what we assume to be his understanding, he's not doing anything "wrong." (Or is he being shifty with the Law? Isn't there a better way? Oh gosh what a mixup!)

What's wrong with this picture?

Perhaps we can keep all these human assumptions (as many, but not all, church fathers and many, but not all, interpreters have) and still squeeze it all together and make it fit. It's all a big misunderstanding that the angel clears up, to our great relief, by telling Joseph the truth.

If only Joseph had known from the start that Mary had conceived by the Holy Spirit, then it would have been.... ? What "would it have been"? What if?

Consider this possibility: What if Mary told Joseph about the Annunciation, and Joseph did believe her? What if Joseph, the righteous man, totally, totally believed her?

Here also, we are assuming (or hypothesizing) something that the text doesn't come right out and state. But why do we assume that it didn't happen this way? There is nothing implausible about this communication between these particularly extraordinary betrothed spouses. I would think that Joseph would be the first person she would tell. What we do know of Mary from the Gospels indicates that she was humble and obedient, yes, but not timid. She was also practical.

This was something Joseph needed to know. I see no reason why Mary would not have told him the whole thing, right away.

And how far have we really departed from the text in "assuming" this? Matthew 1:18 says "she was found with child through the Holy Spirit." Matthew is giving us Joseph's perspective here (is any other person mentioned?). So who "found" out that she was "with child"? Joseph. And how did he find out? Mary told him. Is it possible that what Joseph "found" was that Mary was "with child through the Holy Spirit"?

"But, but..." we might say, "if he had known, there wouldn't have been any thought of divorce, right?"

On the contrary. In these circumstances we have precisely what we need to make sense of the "quiet 'divorce' of the 'just man'" -- this is where lots of pieces fall into place in a way that I find compelling. It is precisely at this point that Matthew tells us that Joseph is saddiq, that he is righteous with that sense of awe and wonder at the mystery of God; in fact he is one in a million, the man to whom the Lord had already entrusted His most magnificent creation: the Immaculate Virgin Mary. But what has Mary just told him? She has been "overshadowed" by the Most High and has now become, in a new way, the dwelling place of the Holy One. (When Mary asked the angel, "How?" in Luke 1, she got a very clear answer.) Both Mary and Joseph recognized in these terms the references to the Shekinah, the Glory of God who descended upon the Ark of the Covenant, who dwelt in the Holy of Holies in the temple.

Only those called specifically by God to the Levitical priesthood were allowed to pass beyond the veil and enter the Holy of Holies. But what was this that had happened to Mary? The Glory dwells in her. It is precisely because Joseph is "Just" according to God's own heart that he would never presume that a human betrothal gave him the right to take the New Ark of the Covenant by his own authority into his home. (I know, I'm coordinating Matthew and Luke here, but I'm one of these people who actually believes that whatever literary genres are being employed in these narratives, their purpose is to convey to us stuff that really happened.)

Joseph learns that Mary is "with child through the Holy Spirit" and that she has received a new, divine vocation. But he has had no revelation from God, no new vocation that corresponds with Mary's. What can he do? He is a "righteous man" and is able to understand that Mary has become a bearer of God's Glory. Surely, the Lord will make His will known for Mary and this extraordinary child. He will assure that Mary is protected, no doubt by someone worthier than himself. The only role he sees for himself here is to release Mary from the obligations of the betrothal (yes, the word for "divorce" can be understood in this way) to make room for whomever God chooses. Of course, Joseph will do it "quietly," secretly, because it would be manifestly more than unjust to expose Mary to shame. It would be wicked. "Joseph, since he was a righteous man" (1:19) would never do such a thing. He will release her right away, and keep her secret to himself.

For his own part, Joseph is filled with awe and humility. He is full of that eminently righteous gift which is the fear of the Lord. No doubt he wonders about many things, and is probably confused and "afraid" in the emotional sense. But above all, he is surrendering Mary to the mystery and the freedom of God's plan.

This is his intention when the angel appears. And here more things start to make sense. The angel says to him, "Do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home." The "fear" indicated here is the kind that the human person has before the mystery of God. The "Suspicion Theory" has no way to explain this fear. If Joseph thinks Mary's pregnancy is ordinary, it's hard to see what he would be "afraid" of even in a purely human sense. He would be opposed to taking an adulteress into his house, not for any reasons of fear, much less the fear of the presence of God. He would be concerned for her dismal future. He would have no fear about himself; he has done the right thing.

But the angel invokes that fear in the presence of God and relates it directly to Joseph taking Mary into his home. That would make perfect sense if Mary in fact has the presence of God within her in a wholly new and unimaginable way.

But how do we account for the angel giving Joseph the news of Mary's miraculous conception in a way that seems "fresh" if he already knows about it? Isn't there a divinely inspired PERIOD that divides 1:20? "Do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her." These two sentences do sound like the angel is relieving Joseph's "fear" by informing him that Mary's child is in fact of the Holy Spirit. But we've seen that this fact is the only meaningful reason for Joseph's fear in the first place.

Here's where we must realize the limitations of translation. The New Testament was written in the common Greek of the first century, with no word spacing or punctuation. Many terms that have various possible renderings get standardized by translators for a variety of reasons. Frankly I'm not a New Testament scholar or a Greek scholar. But here I'm relying on John McHugh (see above) who is both. McHugh says that it is legitimate to read this verse in a different way, pulling out the punctuation that isn't there in the first place and using some unwieldy clauses which don't sound great in English but render the sense more accurately.

The result is that the angel's words to Joseph actually emphasize that Joseph's knowledge of the miracle is the cause of his fear. What we should read here goes something like this: Do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home on account of the fact that it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. Now that makes sense.

And there is a hint here too of what the angel's real purpose is in this vision: "Joseph, son of David..." he says. It's interesting that this narrative begins at verse 18. Last week we read the first 17 verses, which are a genealogy from Abraham through David (the King to whom the promise of God is given) to Jesus. When I hear the genealogies being read, I am tempted to zone out. I am even tempted to open Matthew's gospel and just start at verse 18. But this genealogy does catch my attention (and might cause consternation) because after all these carefully recorded names we arrive at "Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born" (1:16).

Wait! If Joseph is not Jesus's biological father, then what good is the genealogy? In fact, it's a lot of good, and it sets the stage and indicates the focus of the narrative that follows. Kingly inheritance passes from father to son in the Hebrew tradition. Mary's lineage has no legal significance and it is the legal claim to be a descendant of David that is necessary for Jesus to inherit the Davidic kingship and fulfill the promise. But there was no human father! The inheritance can only be handed on if a descendant of David steps in and acts as father to Jesus (we say that Joseph "adopts" Him, but I'm not sure that we have an entirely adequate term to describe the sui generis role that Joseph is called to play).

"She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus" (1:21). Now we know what this angelic visit is all about. The angel is giving Joseph his specific vocation; he is conveying God's authorization (indeed His command) that Joseph enter into a unique service to this new Shekinah, this new presence of God in the world: that he take his wife into his home without fear, because he, Joseph, is the one called by God to take on this responsibility. And he is called to this because he is a "son of David" and he therefore passes on the earthly line of the Messianic king to Mary's son, to whom he gives the name of Jesus.

Personally, I'm convinced. This has gotta be it. Remember that Scott Hahn called this the Reverence Theory, and I think we understand why. It's simple. It makes everything fit together. It's consistent with the details Matthew gives us and fits better into the context. It explains Matthew's statement that from the beginning Mary was "found to be with child through the Holy Spirit." It accounts eminently and in every respect for Joseph's title of saddiq, right in the place where Matthew introduces it (without resorting to casuistry about the Law, or a murky sense of what Joseph was up to or what human problem he was afraid of, or having to posit this odd, tense, and mistrustful beginning of the Holy Family).

The "Reverence Theory" corresponds to the singular sanctity of the man, St. Joseph -- always obedient, always steadfast, always following God's will and trusting in His wisdom. That is the St. Joseph I know, and I have no reason to believe he was ever otherwise.

In the Father's Hand

I need to print these words out and hang them up, like, right in front of my face; i.e. I need to remember the truth that is expressed here, again and again and again.

      "Become like a child

      and lay your life

      with all the searching and ruminating

      into the Father's hand."

Still, even this beautiful advice (that St. Teresa Benedicta [Edith Stein] wrote to a friend) can become abstract. "Lay my life into the Father's hand"... what does that actually mean? How exactly am I supposed to do this?

Something struck me today that helped me get past all of that, and remember how very simple it really is.

A child in a father's hand... I remember what it was like to hold a very, very little child in my own hands.

I've held five little children in my hands, and I cherished each one of them. I even made up little songs for each of them, and I remember looking at their little eyes and singing their songs to them.

The youngest of my children was particularly small, helpless, and vulnerable. How did I carry her in my hands? What did I expect her to do for me in order to "earn" my love? How ridiculous! I know that the father who held that tiny, imperiled child couldn't even imagine such a question.

My gosh, I just wanted her to live! I wanted to love her, all the more because her life was so fragile. My child! I am bending over, in the picture above -- bending down to put my face next to hers. She is helpless, and so I do everything I can to draw close to her. My desire is to pour out everything I have so that she will live and grow and become herself.

Of course, I am a selfish man, and I rarely live up to this desire in the daily circumstances of raising my own children. But I try. I know something of what a father's love is meant to be.

I try to give what is good to my children.

"How much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!" (Matthew 7:11)

Stop being afraid. Stop trying to comprehend it. Stop trying to justify yourself. You know that a father's strength is in his tenderness, and all his ardor is for your healing.

"Become like a child and lay your life with all the searching and ruminating into the Father's hand."