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34 As he went ashore he saw a great throng, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
35 And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a lonely place, and the hour is now late;
36 send them away, to go into the country and villages round about and buy themselves something to eat.”
37 But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?”
38 And he said to them, “How many loaves have you? Go and see.” And when they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.”
39 Then he commanded them all to sit down by companies upon the green grass.
40 So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties.
41 And taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all.
42 And they all ate and were satisfied.
43 And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish.
44 And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.

We must often draw the comparison between time and eternity. This is the remedy of all our troubles. How small will the present moment appear when we enter that great ocean.

– St. Elizebeth Ann Seton

12 Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee;
13 and leaving Nazareth he went and dwelt in Caper’na-um by the sea, in the territory of Zeb’ulun and Naph’tali,
14 that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
15 “The land of Zeb’ulun and the land of Naph’tali, toward the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles –
16 the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.”
17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
23 And he went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people.
24 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them.
25 And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decap’olis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan.

Trials and tribulations offer us a chance to make reparation for our past faults and sins. On such occasions the Lord comes to us like a physician to heal the wounds left by our sins. Tribulation is the divine medicine.

– St. Augustine

O Lord, my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot in your hands (Ps 16:5)

The background of this Psalm verse is the ancient image of the cup containing the lots for each man, and God holding these lots.  Yet in this image two different conceptions about the meaning and challenge of time collide, conceptions that even nowadays still determine our struggle for the future. 

The pagan world view was also familiar with the image of the lots, but with entirely different premises: the world is a game of luck governed by the one rule - blind chance.  Time, altogether blind, spews out the lots, of this kind and that.  The Bible has fundamentally transformed this frightening image.  Indeed, there is the cup with the lots, containing winners and losers.  But this cup with the lots is held “in your hands”, in the hands of eternal Wisdom and eternal Love.  This is the indispensable premise that alone can provide for man any hope at all.  Because the cup is in his hands, the only losing lot would be the refusal to accept at all the lot from his hands. 

The Latin translation of the Bible has conferred on this inexhaustible Psalm verse still greater depth: In your hands, there rests my time.  In purely linguistic terms we could also translate: In your hands, there rest my temples.  Thus an image arises of ourselves entrusting our head, our temples, to God’s good hands.  It also becomes evident that man’s time is not merely the time reckoned by the revolutions of the sun, the earth, or the moon.  Far from it!  With man a new center of the world has appeared, a new unit of calculation: a heartbeat, constituting the measure of his existence, even the new measure of all being as such, and a new center of the world. 

To draw our existence out of this time, to acknowledge this time as our true time, and out of this awareness to model this our world - such is the call of this Psalm verse.  The time of the heart is transformed into sunlit time by the fact that our heart does not beat in a vacuum: our heart, conferring rhythm also on our brain and our mind, finds the true timing of its beat by putting itself into the hands of him who holds all our time in his hands - into the hands of eternal Wisdom, which is eternal Love and so our only true Hope. 

And so the, we put this new year, the new time and our future, into the hands of God: Lord, do accept us, and grant us your blessing!

From: Ordinariatskorrespondenz, no.1 January 4, 1979

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God;
3 all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7 He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him.
8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light.
9 The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world.
10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not.
11 He came to his own home, and his own people received him not.
12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God;
13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.
15 (John bore witness to him, and cried, “This was he of whom I said, `He who comes after me ranks before me, for he was before me.’”)
16 And from his fulness have we all received, grace upon grace.
17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
18 No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.

Every morning you put on your clothes to cover your nakedness and protect your body from inclement weather. Why don’t you also clothe your soul with the garment of faith? Remember each morning the truths of your creed, and look at yourself in the mirror of your faith. Otherwise, your soul will soon be naked with the nakedness of oblivion.

– St. Augustine

36 And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phan’u-el, of the tribe of Asher; she was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years from her virginity,
37 and as a widow till she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.
38 And coming up at that very hour she gave thanks to God, and spoke of him to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.
39 And when they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth.
40 And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

Invisible in His own nature, He became visible in ours. Beyond our grasp, He chose to come within our grasp. Existing before all time began, He began to exist in a moment in time. Incapable of suffering as God, He did not refuse to be man, capable of suffering. Immortal, He chose to be subject to the laws of death.

– St. Pope Leo the Great

 The first Christmas carol of history, which determined for all times the inner harmony of Christmas, had no human origins - Saint Luke records it as the song of the angels who were the evangelists of the holy night: Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth among men, those with whom he is pleased, those of good will.  This song sets a standard; it helps us understand what Christmas is all about.  It contains the key word, which, in our time especially, commands people’s interest more than just about anything else: peace.

The biblical term shalom, which is usually so translated, implies much more than the absence of armed conflict; it means the right order of human affairs, well-being -a world where trust and friendship prevail, where neither fear nor want nor treachery nor dishonesty is found.  Yet the song of the angels first lays down a precondition, without which there can be no lasting peace: God’s glory.  This is the message of peace at Bethlehem: peace among men results from God’s glory.  Those who are concerned about the human race and its well-being have to be concerned about God’s glory first of all. 

God’s glory is not some private concern, left to the personal choice of the individual; it is a public affair.  It is a common good, and wherever God is not honored among men, there man as well will not remain honorable.  The reason why Christmas affects the peace of man lies in this: because it has restored God’s glory among men.

From: Lob der Weihmacht, pp. 36f

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