Welcome to Finding God in Our Hearts. The following production, Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher, is a weekly program of deep spiritual insight on Scripture, revealing the indwelling presence of God. We appreciate your listenership and if you find this program valuable, please subscribe and share with your friends. Share this program is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you. Make your donation@pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com we’re celebrating the solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. O God, who through the fruitful virginity of blessed Mary, bestowed on the human race the grace of eternal salvation grant.
We pray that we may experience the intercession of her through whom we were found worthy to receive the author of life, our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen. A reading from the book of Numbers 6:22 the Lord said to Moses, speak to Aaron and the sons and tell them, this is how you shall bless the Israelites. Say to them, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace.
So shall they invoke my name upon the Israelites, and I will bless them the Word of the Lord. May God bless you in his mercy. May God have pity on us, and bless us. May he let his face shine upon us. So may your way be known upon earth among all nations your salvation. May God bless us in his mercy.
May the nations be glad and exalt because you rule the peoples in equity, the nations of the earth you guide. May God bless you in his mercy. May the peoples praise you, O God. May all the peoples praise you. May God bless you and may all the ends of the earth fear him. May God bless us in his mercy.
A reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians, fourth chapter four seven brothers and sisters, 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 Word of the Lord. Hallelujah Verse in the past, God spoke to our ancestors through prophets. In these days, the last days, he has spoken to us through the Son.
Hallelujah. The gospel for this feast of Mary, Mother of God, is from Luke 2nd chapter 1621. The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph and the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things reflecting on them in her heart.
And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told to them. When eight days were completed for circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. The Gospel of the Lord. Please ponder these words, these images as we listen to this music. Satan. This celebration ends the octave of Christmas.
And during that octave, eight days we have been celebrating this great mystery. And so Christmas isn’t just a day, but it’s eight days. And these three major feasts are this one today, Mary the mother of God. A phrase that would sound shocking to so many people to say, Mary is the mother of God. But the beauty of the reason that I think it might be there is because we have to keep in mind that Jesus is the fullness of God. He is God incarnate.
He is not simply a nicer God than the Old Testament God. He is the same God, and yet revealing himself in the most beautiful, attractive, and to me, exciting way. Then also it’s the feast of his birth at Christmas, and then there’s the Holy Family feast. So what you have is in a way with the feast of the Mother of God, you have his conception, then his birth. And then in the feast of the Holy Family, we have the image of him growing and developing and evolving until he was 12 years old. And there he was in the temple.
That’s all we know about the childhood of Jesus primarily, is that at one time he was not very sensitive as a 12 year old to his parents. And he did take his own position in life and said that he knew there was something about him, that he had some calling that he had to do his father’s work. And so he was not conscious of the fear and anxiety that his family felt when he was missing. And there he was doing the work, challenging the leaders of the temple, foreshadowing of his whole life. So this is a great feast and I want to focus on what it has basically presented to you and to me, what has been triggered in our imaginations again and again. Are we really understanding this great mystery or are we letting parts of it slip away?
One of the things I find fascinating about these three feasts is in every single one of them, there’s something going on that goes on every day in your life and in mine. We don’t really pay much attention to it. But there are these beings, they’re called angels, and they’re constantly there, giving us message after message through the most ingenious ways. Maybe they take human form and are the stranger that we run into, and they do something for us. Or maybe they are the message in a dream, or they are an insight that came to us seemingly from nowhere. But in every one of these stories, there was an angel.
The angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would have God living inside of her, and this God inside of you would become Jesus the man. And she had no way of understanding this or even coming up with it on her own. But the angel was there to say, this is going to happen, and you’re going to name him Jesus. Then Joseph being concerned and confused over his wife’s actions, meaning her becoming pregnant, her receptivity to that, and what he was then challenged with is, what do I do with this? I mean, she’s obviously been unfaithful, so I have to divorce her quietly. I don’t know what to do.
And then an angel in a dream says, no, no, no, this is something very different than what you think. And then when it comes to the holy family, Jesus and his family, Mary and Joseph, were in a place where he was born, and they were going to go back then to their own hometown. But because Herod was inflamed over the fact that the magi had discovered the birth of the Messiah, but they didn’t know where it was. And so basically, the angel came and took care of the family and made sure that they didn’t go in the direction that might endanger the child. And then, of course, at Christmas, there was this amazing experience at the birth of Jesus that we have in the gospel today. Angels went and told shepherds things that Mary needed to hear.
And Joseph imagined that as a way of imagining the way the world works. These beings constantly there, making sure things are unfolding as they were intended to unfold by our God. So we have this story, this incredible story of an immaculate conception, a birth, and a young boy growing. And when we look at that, and we look at the heart of what it is, I think it’s so beautifully described by Saint Paul in Galatians when he says, look, there was an old world, a world that was very different than the world now. And people in the old Testament were people under the law. They were slaves to the law.
They had to follow the rigorous challenges of the law. And every time they broke that law, they lost God’s favor. That was the slavery that they were in. And now, in this incredible celebration of this work of Mary surrendering, of Joseph being with her, of the different people that were involved in the whole thing, it’s so beautiful that this all took place so that one thing could happen. We’re no longer slaves to a rigid system that overpowers our will, our understanding of what we might need to do. That is something that is gone.
And yet it comes back in people’s lives. It comes back flowing out of pulpits in so many churches. When this Old Testament, which is so easy to understand and so clear, it’s so just. If you don’t do what you’re told, you’re punished. If you have a relationship with someone, you disappoint them, they leave you. Everything is conditional on your performance.
That is all obliterated by this incredible experience of incarnation. And to lose that takes away the enthusiasm we might have for these three beautiful feasts, because they are the beginning of an entire new vision of religion. You know, one of the things I love about the Vatican Council, it was so open and receptive to the beauty of the tradition that we live in. And it awakened in people a teaching that flows, I think, right out of what Paul is saying to the Galatians. And that is, we have within us this place, this tabernacle, where God dwells in us like he dwelt in Mary, giving birth to something within us, not just a child, but our growth from a childhood obligation to God that is based on following rules and regulations to a relationship with God that is so intimate that we call him Abba, which is a word for daddy, intimacy with God. And if we have that God dwelling in us, and we believe that God could dwell in a human being, Mary, then we begin to understand something so powerful that we have within us this law written on our hearts.
And when there is a dilemma of a moral issue that is very complicated and multifaceted, and we are faced with a regulation that is black and white and has no gray area for extenuating circumstances. Without this incredible feast of Christmas, without what it represents, we would be, in a way, enslaved, not able to make our own decisions. But conscience is something that the Vatican Council made so clear. There is this place inside of us, this tabernacle, where God dwells, His law. Is there the law written in your heart and my heart and and when you are in a difficult situation, you ask God, please help me, what is the right thing to do. And the law is not always the right thing to do.
And then we have this dignity, this value of knowing that we can follow this intuition deep in our hearts and not just using it as license to do anything we want. It’s nothing like that. It’s a deep, deep longing, turning to God, asking him to make a difference in a decision that is very, very crucial to our life and the life of those around us. What a beautiful gift. It’s probably the greatest gift that I can think of, I could offer you during this Christmas time to say, please understand. We are no longer bound without reflection to rules and regulations.
They’re there to guide us and to help us. They’re essential, they’re important. But there are times and moments when there is something going on that is so complex, the only answer can be found in our hearts, not in our logical minds, but in our hearts. So I pray that this season of Christmas has been a great, great blessing. I pray it’s been a source of wonderful insights and if it doesn’t leave you with a sense of well being as the first reading expressed. Shalom.
Shalom is that blessing that is given to all those who believe in God. And it means there will be prosperity and goodness and fullness and life. What more can we ask from our God than we live a full, rich life, not free of suffering and pain, but with a sense of deep, deep well being. And that comes from the knowledge that we are loved beyond telling, beyond imagination. And God wills that we receive these gifts that he has presented to us. It’s interesting, the word Old Testament, New Testament, Testament is usually connected to a will and testament.
It’s what we leave to someone and think these stories are our inheritance and we are heirs of this great testament of who God is and who we are. What a wonderful thing to celebrate. We are heirs of a new kingdom filled with dignity and value and in a sense, a belief in our own connection with God. Not dependent solely on regulations and rules. But it’s personal. It’s real.
It’s our father. It’s our daddy. God bless you, foreign father. Your gift of presence is beyond our understanding, beyond anything we could have ever imagined. Bless us with the freedom from those parts of us that resist this great truth. And let us bask in your love, in your understanding and your compassion.
And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen. The music in our program was composed and produced by Ryan Harner. For this show Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you. You can make a one time or recurring tax deductible donation on our website pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com we thank you for your listenership and your continued support. Without it, this program would not be possible.
Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a production of the Pastoral Reflections Institute, a NonProfit in Dallas, Texas dedicated to enriching your spiritual journey. Executive Producer Monsignor Don Fisher produced by Kyle Cross and recorded in Pastoral Reflections Institute Studios. Copyright 2022.
