by SFXparish | Jan 17, 2019 | BLOG
“… You shall be called…Espoused. For the LORD delights in you and makes your land his spouse. As a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you. (Is 62:4-5)
This is the first Sunday celebrated in Ordinary Time since the conclusion of the Christmas liturgical season. Yet still we celebrate the echoes of Epiphany with the great gospel manifestation of Jesus at the Marriage at Cana where the Virgin Mary directs her son, the Son of God, to begin his miraculous ministry. Our first reading is from Isaiah which predicts how the Lord God through the person of the Messiah would bind himself in marriage to Jerusalem, a symbol of the Church. There are many such images in the New Testament such as in the Book of Revelation when St, John’s vision on the isle of Patmos sees “a New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev 21:2).
In Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians he uses the image of the Church to describe the sacrament of marriage and vice versa. Jesus as the head sanctifies his body the Church, bathing it in the water of the word so that he might present it to himself as a bride “holy and without blemish” (Eph 5:27). This word once came to mankind through the mouth of Jesus Himself; now it comes through Holy Scripture and through the grace of the Holy Spirit in the sacramental life also gifted by Christ whilst He was personally present on earth. Further, Jesus offers Himself as the “bridegroom” in His answer to the question about His disciples not fasting (Mt 9:15) and in the Parable of the Ten Virgins (Mt 25:6). Even John the Baptist says that he stands in as best man rejoicing that the bridegroom, Christ, has finally come to claim His bride (Jn 3:29).
On this Second Sunday in Ordinary Time we have created a parable or rather an allegory of sorts for our bulletin cover. We use the beautiful work of Rembrandt entitled the The Jewish Bride (1666) to explain the love between Christ and His Church. Here we see the noble lord representing Christ approach his bride with a gentle, loving embrace. While drawing his bride to him with his left hand, he places his right hand over her breast so as to indicate the grace he pours into her heart. She, humble to his loving approach, only touches his hand softly with her left hand accepting affectionately his gracious love. The bride then displays tenderly the fruit of this grace (which always bears forth in wisdom and worship and good works) by placing her right hand over her womb. The noble man here is Christ-the-head; the noble woman here is Church-the-body or heaven and earth still being prepared as the New Jerusalem for its eternal nuptial to Christ on the last day in time which we all eagerly await.
Interestingly, this work has many interpretations to which we have here added our own. Perhaps, Rembrandt biographer Christopher White puts it best: this work is a “tender fusion of spiritual and physical love” (Reference: Wikipedia). So is the ministry of Christ which offers His divinity and His incarnate flesh for His beloved Church.
–Steve Guillotte, Director of Pastoral Services
by SFXparish | Jan 11, 2019 | BLOG
The people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Christ. John answered them all, saying,”… one mightier than I is coming… He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Lk 3:15-16)
Just a few weeks ago we wrote in this column that the essence of the Advent season is “expectation”. The Church (that is, the Holy Spirit) instructs us today that the substance of the Christmas season is also one of glorious anticipation.
Christmas concludes with the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus, and as our quotation above from today’s gospel reading testifies (although we depart the liturgical Christmas season for another “ordinary time”) our religious practice is meant to be anything but ordinary. It is meant to be full of expectation.
Sunday is always focused on Jesus Christ, especially this Sunday. However, in order to sharpen this focus, the Church presents us today with St. John the Baptist. It was on John that the expectation of the Judean people of the 1st century A.D was initially focused in their hope of salvation. This is not the first expectation surrounding the person of John. At the birth and naming of John, Luke tells us in his first gospel chapter that, “All who heard these things took them to heart, saying, “What, then, will this child be?” For surely the hand of the Lord was with him” (Lk 1:66). Remember that the Blessed Virgin Mary’s cousin Elizabeth conceived John in her old age and that John’s father Zechariah had an angelic vision whence he was struck mute, and that he regained his speech only at the naming of John. Even Jesus calls John the Baptist the greatest man born of woman (Lk 7:28) meaning that his natural capacity and constitution must have been great indeed! In this way he was easily a magnet to the people. In the Spirit, he was certainly a magnet for God.
For this Sunday’s feast we place on our bulletin cover a work by the late Italian Baroque painter, Luca Giordano, entitled St. John the Baptist Preaching (1695). Giordano painted this work later in life during his residency in Spain. However, his early training was completed by a Spaniard residing in Italy – Jusepe de Ribera. This work is thoroughly Baroque. John is presented in strong physical stature and his listeners are filled with expectation as to what he will say and do. (Even the small dog has a posture of excitement). But here we see John refocusing the crowd’s expectation by pointing upward indicating that there is another coming after him; someone who comes from heaven bearing the full Godhead. John’s testimony is depicted solidly as he stands on God shown as a “rock of refuge” (Ps 18:2 & 71:3).
John tells his followers, “One mightier than me is coming”. In fact, this mightier one had arrived many years earlier in a manger in Bethlehem. He did as John had foretold and sent His Holy Spirit to enliven the faithful with grace. Jesus will come one last time, as we say in our creed, “in glory to judge the living and the dead”. If we approach His coming with expectation and joy, rather than with apathy or dread, then we show ourselves to be true disciples of hope in God.
–Steve Guillotte, Director of Pastoral Services
by SFXparish | Jan 11, 2019 | NEWS
Thank you to all parishioners, parish apostolates, and others who contributed to our Annual Christmas Shoe Drive (2018) for children living in a Rwandan village. This year we raised $4,000 to be used only for the purchase of shoes by Father Leonard Kayondo when he returns home to his country soon. God Bless you all for your generosity!
by SFXparish | Jan 4, 2019 | BLOG
Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you. See, darkness covers the earth, and thick clouds cover the peoples; but upon you the LORD shines (Is 60:1-2)
The word epiphany means “appearance” or “manifestation”, specifically an appearance or manifestation of the divine – a glorious revelation occurring in world history. Still an epiphany is not for everyone to see. When an epiphany does occur there are only certain people chosen to perceive it. Epiphanies are especially given to those whose hearts are ready for religious wonder: the pious Jewish shepherds of the field, the Eastern kings seeking clues of the One God, John the Baptist anointing Jesus in the Jordan River. Not many have seen a manifestation of the Lord. Perhaps this is because so many people today would not recognize it if they saw one; or in recognizing it would not act upon it in the thoroughly devoted and transforming way it is meant to inspire? Only God knows.
This Sunday’s Feast of the Epiphany asks each and every Catholic and all sincere seekers of God to believe, through faith, in the revelation of God; specifically in the divine revelation associated with the life of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The Church does not require that you be present at the manifestation of God in real time, but that you only recall the words of Jesus Himself in his final beatitude and legacy left to mankind before He departed the world: “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed” (Jn 20:29).
In order to celebrate this great feast day which falls on the “twelfth day of Christmas” we have placed on our bulletin cover a beautiful medieval work by the three Limbourg Brothers known as The Adoration of the Magi (1416). This piece was probably from an illuminated manuscript on parchment as part of a larger book or bible. The Limbourg Brothers were Dutch, however they were mostly active in France as masters of miniature illustration in what is known as the Late Gothic style.
This painting, typical of the talented brothers, is a panoply of activity for the artistic eye. Almost the entire right side of this tempera painting is a sea of jostling figures from which the magi emerge. Here they appear, as ones stranded by the storm still blowing from Eden. Here they represent all sincere mankind as they offer praise and thanks for their salvation, even as one king kisses the “dry land” before the infant Jesus, the wellspring of eternal life.
The scene also has its share of four footed creatures: sheep and horses, camels and leopards all present so that creation itself can express homage to the creator born on earth of Mary who is seen here already in her heavenly royalty while she presents her Son to others for adoration. Above we see the shepherds at night engaged with their own manifestation of angels who themselves offer “Gloria” amidst the shining star in praise of Emmanuel, God-with-us. Mary is attended by ladies in waiting, one lady seen bearing the fruitfulness of the womb.
Off in the distance we see a great French Gothic city defined pictorially by two flags flying. For us, this is looming Jerusalem which will claim the life of Jesus, yet will still play its full part in salvation history (Rev 21:2). May the Lord manifest his Holy Spirit to all those who seek Him!
–Steve Guillotte, Director of Pastoral Services
by SFXparish | Dec 28, 2018 | BLOG
“Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them. (Lk 2:48-50)
There are solid families, broken families, dysfunctional families, and caring families, and some families that have been over time all of the above. Yet, how many families do you know that are holy families. Rather, how many families do you know that make it their daily effort to be holy. In point of fact you may know some families right in this parish which pursue holiness; you may live in such a family. Further, you may be aware that a family is made holy in the same way a church is made holy: not by the imperfect people who fashion it, but by Jesus Christ who instills it.
Such is the story of the Holy Family of Nazareth. No doubt, Joseph was a holy and righteous man (Mt 1:19); no doubt, Mary was a holy and blessed virgin; but without Jesus Christ we would not have the Holy Family. It is the same with churches: without Jesus Christ we would have no “Holy (Apostolic) Church” as we declare in our Nicene Creed at Holy Mass (which by the way is made “holy” by the Eucharistic sacrifice of Jesus Christ).
Holiness does not always require complete understanding, as our quotation above from today’s Gospel reading indicates. What the Blessed Virgin Mary did not fully comprehend she would always contemplate in her heart (Lk 2:51) thus perfecting her holiness. We might call the Holy Family the Wondrous Family because as we see in our quotation from Sacred Scripture, even anxious and fearful moments conclude in wonderful revelations; for in the Finding of the Temple, that mysterious narrative about Jesus when he was only twelve years old, the world receives the first installment of the unveiling of the Holy Trinity as Jesus relates to his parents that God is Father and Son (with the disclosure of the Holy Spirit still to come)!
To celebrate this Sunday’s feast of The Holy Family we display on our bulletin cover a work by the Venetian master, Paulo Veronese, entitled Christ among the Doctors (1560). This painting is in panorama and so we are able to show you only a portion of it. Veronese places Jesus “on high” to show that He is the Word-descending to the earth . This is a classical High Renaissance work which depicts the Jewish temple court as a Greek “agora” with columns and colonnades (not seen here) – a place of assembly and debate. The figure of Jesus is seen pointing toward heaven with his right hand, while gesturing outward with his left, thus indicating His visitation from His Father. In the background we see Mary and Joseph inquiring about their missing son.
Veronese himself makes a clever artistic gesture by positioning Mary so as to point in the direction of her divine Son. It is as if we have fast forwarded from the Temple in Jerusalem to the wedding at Cana where she tells the wine servants, “listen to Him” (Jn 2:5). Even today she speaks this to us: to each and every one our parish families.
– Steve Guillotte, Director of Pastoral Services
