Newman Catholic Students' Society of McGill University

Today on the blog we have a special guest: the Rev’d Jean-Daniel Williams is the Anglican-United Christian Chaplain at McGill. 

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.’ But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ The angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.’ Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her.

Luke 1:26-38

Today Christians honour the Annunciation, the time Gabriel came from heaven to announce to the Virgin Mary the upcoming birth of our Saviour. The liturgical calendar, by trying to commemorate more than 33 years of the life of Jesus, from conception to ascension, within one year, creates odd collisions. Even as we prepare for Holy Week, today we are invited to recognize that Christmas is coming, nine months from today. Clergy take a one day reprieve from the penitential violet robes of Lent and wear the festal white. Jesus, the Son of the Most High, is coming.

In imagining this sacred event, I have two contrasting images in my mind. On one hand, there is Mary as I see her through the lens of two thousand years of Christianity. The powerful holy matriarch, the saint of saints, the Mary Queen of the World, like Montréal’s Catholic Cathedral. Yet in the moment of this Biblical story, Mary was likely, by today’s standards, still a girl. A bright, a holy young woman, surely, but by worldly standards, meek and lowly.

When the angel Gabriel appeared to her, it is tempting to imagine radiant light shining round him. Indeed, sometimes that is how Biblical angels appear, as the angels to the shepherds when Jesus was born. But sometimes they appear ordinarily human. The Epistle to the Hebrews reminds us, “Some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it” (13:2). It is unclear from this passage which sort of angelic visitation Mary experienced. But imagine a pure and innocent young woman when a man appears in her presence and says, “Greeting favoured one!” Of course she was perplexed. Of course she wondered what kind of greeting that was!

In the course of the narrative, Mary is described as favoured, perplexed, ponderous, afraid, and overshadowed. The profound sacredness of this moment did not mean it was a simple experience of something like “reverence.” It was complex and confusing. Those moments when God breaks into our ordinary lives and calls us to do His work will not necessarily be easy. I appreciate Mary’s holy example to us in this moment. Mary’s holiness did not come in what emotions Mary did or did not feel. A wide range of emotions are valid. God’s plans for our lives can be surprising. They can be terrifying.  And we are allowed to be surprised. We are allowed to be terrified.

Mary was sinless even as she was perplexed, ponderous, and afraid. None of those feelings undermined her favour, because in the end, she said to the Lord, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord.”

The world depended upon Mary’s yes on the holy day of the Annunciation so long ago. And God’s world today still depends on those of us who follow Jesus, those of us who admire Mary, listening for what we are being called to do and similarly responding, “Here am I.”

Today’s reflection comes from our Diocese’s Lay Evangelizer (coolest job title in the world!) Corey Jolly. Read and then follow the link to the video reflection. The Diocese of Montreal is presenting video reflections every week, so check those out on their youtube channel. 

Jesus, getting angry? What’s that all about? In this Gospel reading for the 3rd Sunday of Lent we see Jesus’s passion for us. We see his zeal for our well being. He leaves no doubt that he desires for us to be cleansed so that we can be the best version of ourselves and truly shine. What are are dirty spots in your life? What needs cleaning? What in your life needs to be thrown away and done away with? What’s stopping you from being the best version of yourself?

We thank Katerina Leung for today’s Lenten Reflection!

This week I learned some humbling truths. In the way Christ works consistently in my Life, I learn my lessons in seasons – often everything that is revealed to me is related to a single focus. The current focus for me relates to my Lenten promise. I vowed to work on one aspect of myself that, until recently, I considered as only a weakness and never a strength: vulnerability.

Of the small lessons, Pope Francis’s homily today (Monday March 9) helped me tie this into the neat little reflection I share with you today.

God works in humility, not spectacles

The Pope noted that “one of the three temptations of Jesus in the desert” was to create a spectacle. Satan invites Him to cast Himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple so that, seeing the miracle, the people might believe in Him. “The Lord, instead, is revealed in simplicity, in humility,” he said.

I often think that a grand gesture of charity or witness is the only ones worth making. But really, my abstinence of a particular foodstuff cannot right the damage of arguing with my Mom and certainly the former cannot be more pleasing than avoidance of the ladder. And yet, sometimes saying “I’m sorry” and choosing to see what is right in her claims seems harder than never having [insert food here] ever again. And with clarity, the Lord reminds me in that small voice in my heart that I’d be eternally more satisfied at my last moments on earth cherishing a loving relationship with my Mom than the pride of knowing I could “live” without [insert food here]

“It would do us good this Lent,” the Pope said, “to consider how the Lord has helped us in our lives, and how the Lord has led us onward. We will find that the Lord has always done this with simple things.”

He concluded, “This is how the Lord acts: He does things simply. He speaks silently to you, to the heart. Let us remember in our lives the many time we have felt these things: the humility of God is His style; the simplicity of God is His style.”

Pope Francis’s word reminded me of what Dr. Robert Di Pede shared at the Newman Lent Retreat. He invited us to reflect on what the “desert”, the “wild animals”, and the “angels” were in our lives for Lent based on Mark 1:13 {and he remained there for forty days, and was put to the test by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and the angels looked after him}. Of the “angels”, he offered considering what brought us comfort, who could we turn to during Lent and in other times of trials, and what Graces has God already offered us in dealing with the “wild animals” (the temptations and trials). For me, those were all the times a particular Scripture passage would pop into my head when I needed it most – and believe me, I’m no good at remembering my Scripture passages. The very first was “The Lord is my Shepherd, there is nothing I shall want” {Psalm 23:1}. In the simple act of breathing, I can see how this is true. And through each breath, God provides all the other needs that come from that act. And for those moments when sadness, despair, dread, guilt, or longing and loneliness have threatened to swallow me whole, I heard “deep is calling on deep” {Psalm 42:7}. And in those moments, I need to ask, “Do I trust that God can fulfill that aching empty void?” And slowly, I started to realize I didn’t need to look ahead to know that answer. If I merely decide to glance back, I’ll see many moments deserving of yet-unprofessed gratitude and I realize that He has already filled it – many times over.

So the simple ways the Lord reminded me of His Goodness today: the gentle yet profound realization that the newly born baby laying in the warming table next to his mother and surrounded by nurses is in fact a new unique person – a human! A big soul in a teeny body! – whom I had the utmost privilege of sharing her first breath with! In the discomfort of listening in on gossip while waiting for my nurse which prompted me to leave and then witness another birth. In the reminder to remember that Christ is present and eager to hear me share my thoughts on the day with on the tiring journey home from the hospital. All the times a particular Scripture passage would pop into my head when I needed it most – and believe me, I’m no good at remembering my Scripture passages

And even in the liturgical celebration, in the sacraments, what is beautiful is that which manifests the humility of God, and not the worldly spectacle. It would do us good to journey through our life and to consider the many times the Lord has visited us with His grace, and always with this humble style, the style He calls us, too, to have: humility.”

I used to be truly angry with God that I had yet to wake up to His Plan for me written on my ceiling because all I could see was my hopeless dread-filled stumbling. Especially during my co-op placement days, I clung to the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the daily Eucharist. And as I wrote this, I realized that God was revealing that Plan to me through the Grace of those Sacraments – slowly softening the hardnesses of my heart and healing the wounds I inflicted on it. In the liturgy, He revealed His Beauty and Creativity and Love and concern for me – enough to get me through the day. And as the days spent with Him grew in number, the words of Psalm 84:10 slowly started to become my own: Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere.

I once read, “True humility is truly knowing who God is and who we are” [paraphrased] – to know first and foremost the Greatness of the Love of God for humanity (including His Beauty and Greatness) and to see in a personal way how great that need for His Love is, how great my need for His Love is (the “who we are” part). And today, in a real way, I saw that. Hanging back from witnessing a birth for the time with the baby’s mezzo-sopranic cries rounding out a happy scene, it struck me. The gentle yet profound realization that the newly born baby wriggling in the centre of comparatively larger warming table is in fact a new unique person – a human! A big soul in a teeny body! – whom I had the utmost privilege of sharing her first breath with! And this very little human girl, crying for all her worth in the warming bed in his birthing centre room in this hospital in Montreal of a province amongst thousands of provinces in this laughably insignificant planet in the infinite universe – is in fact, a beautifully created singly unique big soul in an equally masterfully created tiny body – who Jesus, whom I love, has died for and would die for (even if she was the only person on earth to die for). And that’s enough for the world to keep turning.

Quotations (in italics) taken from http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/03/09/pope_francis_gods_style_is_humility,_simplicity/1128062

Today’s post comes from our favourite Jesuit brother Dan Leckman! 

We all have vivid memories of spiritual conversations or events that really marked us in our faith journey. Alright, alright, maybe we don’t all have those vivid memories, but I sure as shootin do!! One of them that stands out for me came in early 2007, when I was starting my application to enter the Jesuits. Back then, I spent a week with a community located in Montreal’s NDG area (in fact, right next to Concordia’s Loyola campus, a campus whose origins are very Ignatian. Concordia doesn’t have much to brag about, but its Jesuits roots should be one of things it does brag about!!–and if there are any Concordia students reading this…remember that I tease because I love!!). Most of the men I met in that community would have a profound impact on my life, showing me what it was to be a Jesuit, and making me feel right at home with this community. For some reason, what I remember most from that week with them was a conversation I had with a priest that left me a little uneasy.

It was a Sunday morning, and I was accompanying him to a local parish where he was filling in for the local priest. That morning, the gospel text he was ‘meditating’ on was from Matthew 4, the temptation of Christ in the desert. Though his reflections on the text to the congregation was pleasant and theologically sound, he shared rather different words with me on our way to the parish: “I hate commenting on this passage. It obviously is one that is fictional. It never happened the way Matthew described it. “

In theory, I have very minor objections to using this line of thinking when it comes to reading any Biblical text. If we read scripture with some degree of ‘resistance’ or questioning, this could help us not get bogged down in a literal reading of the Bible (which is not always the best way to read the Bible!). This line of thinking may also push us to do a little more research around certain scripture passages that are a little more complex (at least, I would hope that if a good theologian wants to say ‘this didn’t happen,’ they then will still do their best to try to explain what the significance of the passage is for us today!). Nevertheless, I do have one problem with this approach, especially with regard to this passage from Matthew 4: It’s dismissive of the core spiritual value behind the account. It’s as if we’re saying “oh, don’t waste your time praying with this text. It’s meaningless.” Yes, I get that many scholars to this day continue to debate whether this account is historical, a parable, or a myth, and that it may be easier for us to simply focus on the imageries of this event, rather than the historicity of it. However, I think it’s important we look at one basic truth around this event: Jesus went to the Desert alone for a period of 40 days. Why? The way I see it, the human aspect of his nature was very conscious of the weight his mission would carry. Consequently, in order to ‘prepare the way of the Lord,’ in order to prepare himself for work that would change the course of history, he wanted to cut himself off from the world. This way, there would be no distractions, and he would be able to live a perfect communion with his Father.

I think most Christians would have no issues around this aspect of the account (they may doubt that he really lasted 40 days without food or water, but this is just healthy doubt that we all must contend with at some point, and not a comment on the validity of the events!) It’s what comes after that confuses many of them and makes them more spiritually rigid. Did Satan really approach Jesus this way, and tempt him? Did he really ‘carry him’ to the top of a high mountain, or to the parapet of a synagogue?

Valid questions. Here’s my own question: Does it matter? He was tempted, and he stood his ground. His responses to sin and temptation become our own models of hope, as we confront the oppressiveness of our own personal sinfulness, and that of our society at large.

Through this passage, we’re also reminded that during this Season of Lent, we need to journey to our literal, or metaphorical desert; whether it’s a spot of absolute silence close to your heart, or whether it’s a book, or scripture passage that will allow you to transcend the stress that you’re probably carrying on your shoulders, the objective is simple: Find that spot (a cottage in the woods, chapel, a sweet spot you have on Mount Royal) or go to that book or passage, and let your ‘desert experience’ take hold of you. Allow all your worries and concerns that take up all this space in your head be silenced, and above all, make room for a holy communion between yourself and the divine. Share this moment with Jesus, and if you find your mind wandering, hear the words that Jesus is telling you in that moment. Because after all, above all the things we do during lent, the most important thing we can do is to develop a closer relationship with Our Lord and Savior, to journey with him in his passion as he journeys with us every day.