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Our second reading for this Sunday begins with St. Paul stating, “I should like you to be free of anxieties.” He then speaks of how unmarried people are anxious “about the things of the Lord.” Married people are “anxious about the things of the world.” Confusing? Maybe. My guess is that the word “anxious” has a different flavor, depending on the context. What I think is more helpful is to acknowledge when we are anxious. We ask what is most likely the cause of feeling anxious. If there is something practical we can do about it, we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us to take action. If there is nothing we can do about it, we allow God to remind us that despite our anxiety we continue to be loved.

Our Psalm response for this weekend is “teach me your ways, O Lord.” How helpful this can be given that we have any number of serious concerns these days. We pray that we allow God to guide us in God’s truth, not what we at times think is truth. We pray that we can develop our humility; we remind ourselves that to be humble does mean we demean ourselves. It means that we accept that we are not God; therefore, we need to let God shows us how to bring about true justice in our world. We pray that people can easily observe that our lives are marked by goodness, kindness and compassion.

Our Responsorial Psalm for this weekend reminds us of how to achieve peace in our lives, relationships and world. It comes about by choosing to do the will of God. The more we align our lives to do God’s will, the greater the delight we will experience. The more we are attentive to the voice of truth, the more we are attentive to what the Holy Spirit says from the depths of our being, the more God will put a new song into our mouth. We will praise God best as we listen attentively to the voice of God speaking to us in all of our experiences. We are called not to restrain our lips when God calls us to announce and bring about justice for the world.

This Sunday, our second reading includes the words, “in truth, I see that God shows no partiality. Rather, in every nation whoever…acts uprightly is acceptable to him.” All the scripture passages for the Season of Christmas emphasize the conviction that the good news of God’s love is for all people. Pope Francis is fully in line with this thinking because he encourages us to develop a sense of world solidarity. A fundamental aspect of this idea is that all people are created in love by God. All are equally a part of God’s family. We pray that during this recently begun New Year, we can see evidence that we are doing our part in continuing to develop this sense of solidarity.

Isaiah 9:1-6; Psalm 96:1-3, 11-13; Titus 2:11-14; Luke: 2:1-14 The scripture passages we reflect on for our Christmas Masses are very familiar to us. We prayerfully ponder them again to allow our hearts to be touched anew by God’s goodness. Mentioning Caesar in the first line in the part of the Gospel where Luke describes Jesus’ birth sets up a deliberate contrast of Caesar with Jesus. Caesar might have thought that he had all the power, but Luke makes clear that “a little child shall lead them.” (cf. Isaiah 11:8) Also, Luke shows how inept the mighty Roman Empire was in using such an inefficient way to get more people on the tax rolls. Caesar Augustus, who ordered this census, was considered a divine child known as the savior of the Roman Empire. The birth of the real Savior would reveal the true source of power, mainly, the love of God that Jesus revealed. Some people think that Mary was well along in her pregnancy when she and Joseph made the 90-mile journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. The passage says, “while they were there the time came for her to have her child.” It never says how long they had been there. Another element to be careful about is the reference to their not being room in the inn. It was a symbol that connected with Jesus saying later in the Gospel that He had nowhere to lay His head. He came for a mission, and according to Jewish custom people were expected to provide for such people. Jesus being placed in a manger is a symbol for how He offers Himself as our source of nurturance; we share in His Real Presence whenever we share in Holy Communion. Another very meaningful symbol is that the shepherds were the first to visit Jesus. The shepherds were considered unclean because of their work with sheep. They were therefore not allowed to be take part in any Jewish rituals. Their visiting Jesus is a sign that Jesus came to transform the notion of who belonged and who did not. With Jesus, all were invited to be part of the community, evidenced by His constant interaction with those who were considered among the worst sinners of His day. Our parish follows the example of Jesus by our welcoming everyone to our community. This is not just some fanciful notion. As we notice in our Responsorial Psalm, there are words such as “all you nations.” Pope Francis encourages us to do all we can to share the good news of God’s love for all people. He asks us to ponder how we can most effectively think in terms of world-wide solidarity. Reflecting on our first reading, we have the privilege and opportunity to bring light to all the places in our world that are living in the darkness of poverty and discrimination. We are called to undo as many burdens from people’s lives as possible. We have the responsibility to do all we can to achieve world peace. If Isaiah could speak of lasting peace some 500 years before the birth of Jesus, the least we can do in honor of the Prince of Peace is to plot how we will rely less on weapons of war and more on negotiation. In honor of Jesus’ birth, we pray that we will be the best possible instruments of that love that brings true peace and lasting joy.