Lamp
Lighting Time
(Advent
2007)
Isaiah 2:1-5 Romans
13:11-14 Matthew 24:37-44
To
the church in the diaspora[1]
&
to the church of the unchurched[2]
First reading
This is what
Isaiah, son of Amoz, saw concerning
Gospel
Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel
according to Matthew.
Glory to you, Lord.
Jesus
said to his disciples: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the
coming of the Son of Man. In those days before the flood, they were eating and
drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the
ark. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will
it be also at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be out in the field; one
will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one
will be taken, and one will be left. Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know
on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had
known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and
not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an
hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come” (Mt 24:37-44).
The
Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
----------------
Introduction
Dark December Days
Today we exit Ordinary Time and enter into
the Extraordinary Time of Advent in preparation for Christmas 2007. Today is New Years Day in the church. Today
we go from liturgical cycle C to cycle A for the Sunday gospel readings. This
past church year the gospel readings were from St. Luke. This new church year (cycle
A) the readings will be from St. Matthew. Today we also exchange the liturgical
color of Ordinary Time (green) for purple -- the color for penance. That is a
leftover from pre-Vatican II days when Advent, like Lent, was a strictly
penitential season. In those days, Advent frowned on any partying, gift giving
and decorating before December 24. After Vatican II, Advent now is a season of
joyful expectation instead of penance. In a few places during Advent, some liturgists
choose to exchange purple vestments for blue ones in honor of mother Mary and
baby boy Jesus.
It is December 2 today. In this hemisphere, winter begins on the
21st with the shortest day of the year offering us only nine short
hours of light and fifteen long hours of darkness. The physical darkness of
these days magnifies all our aches and pains, and all our worries and fears.
These automatically diminish in size on a bright summer day. The physical
darkness of these days is intensified by the current high price of gas and
health care, and by the never-ending presidential debates in which candidates
tear each down and make promises we have heard before. The darkness is intensified
also by the casualty count of a never-ending war in
No wonder then that both the Jewish and Christian communities
light up their lamps with a vengeance these days to dispel the physical
darkness of December and the spiritual darkness of the times.
Lamp lighting time for Jews
Soon the Jewish community will light up the lamps of Hanukkah. Known also as the Festival of
Lights, Hanukkah is an
eight-day celebration beginning on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar. Hanukkah can
fall anytime between late November and late December. This year (2007) the
first day off Hanukkah lands on the 5th of December.
In Hebrew Hanukkah simply means rededication. The feast
commemorates the purification of the temple in
This time of the rolling year is for telling stories. According to
a story told and retold in the Jewish community no consecrated olive oil could be found to keep the temple menorah
burning through the eight days of rededication. The temple menorah is the seven
branch candelabra prescribed by Moses as temple furniture (Exodus 25:31-40). [3] After diligently scouring the temple, Judas Maccabeus finally found a small jug of oil still
with the high priest's seal intact, and therefore not contaminated by the
enemy. But there wasn’t enough oil in the jug to last through the eight days of
rededication.
Then a miracle
happened! God caused the little amount of oil in the jug to continue supplying
fuel for the temple menorah throughout the long rite of rededication. In
gratitude, Judas Maccabeus, his brothers and all people of Israel decided that the
rededication of the temple should be commemorated yearly for eight days with
joy and thanksgiving (I Mc 4:59; II Mc 10:5) St.
John refers to it when he writes, “The
time came to celebrate the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter”
(Jn 10:22).
On December 5th this year, the Jewish community will
light the first of the eight candles of the Hanukkah menorah. As they are
lighted one by one they dispel the physical darkness of December and the
spiritual darkness of our times.
Hanukkah gone astray
Johannes Buxtorf II (1599-1664), a
Protestant Christian Hebrew scholar, often criticized the way the Jewish community celebrated their feast days.
Writing of Hanukkah he described how they strayed far from the feast’s original
inspiration and overlaid it with superstition and pettiness. He writes,
They
celebrate Hanukkah more by eating, drinking and having fun than by giving
thanks to God for their victory over the enemy. They prepare a seven-branch
menorah and then light one light each day until the eighth night. The lights are
not allowed to burn all night long. While they are burning no one is allowed to
do any work in the house. The menorah
itself must stand on the right side of the door, not less than ten paces from
the ground, and not higher than twenty. The Jews often hold subtle and futile
discussions on how long the lights should burn, who should light them, whether
or not it is permitted to light one light with the other, and similar things.
Buxtorf finishes
off his criticism saying that in their observance of Hanukkah (their Festival
of Lights) “They are very fussy
about the outer light but are not concerned about the great darkness which
abides in their hearts” (Synagoga Judaica by Johannes Buxtorf II).
Lamp lighting time for
Christians
Today, December 2, is lamp lighting time for Christians. The Christian
community will light the first of four candles on the Advent wreath. Each
candle represents one of the four weeks of preparation for the birthday of the
Lord. As the candles are lighted, one each week, they dispel the physical darkness
of December and the spiritual darkness of our times. Then on Christmas Day, He
is born who is the bright Sun of Justice (Mal 4:2) and the Light who enlightens
everyone coming into this world (Jn 1:9).
Christmas
gone astray
Buxtorf,
who berated the Jews for the way they celebrated Hanukkah, would probably berate
us for the way we celebrate Christmas. He would probably charge us with having
strayed far from the feast’s original inspiration -- “an infant wrapped in
swaddling clothes and lying in a manger” (Lk 2:12 ). He would probably charge us with celebrating Christmas
more by eating, drinking and having fun
than by giving thanks to God because a Savior has been born to us, who is
Christ the Lord (Lk 2:11). He would probably berate us for turning the
Christmas season into an orgy of joy which places a heavy expectation upon all
to be merry. That, he would tell us, is
an impossible expectation for those who are out of work and can’t buy the joys
of Christmas, or for those who have lost a partner of 40, 50 years or a loved
one in the battle for Iraq
Buxtorf would probably
berate us also for turning the season into an orgy of busyness with parties we have to host or go to, with
cards we have to write, with gifts we have to shop for and with visits we have
to make. Berating us for all the decorations we hang and all the lamps we
light, he would probably characterize us as he did his contemporary Jews: “They
are very fussy about the outer light but are not concerned about the great
darkness which abides in their hearts.”
A Jew who saved Christmas
This time of the rolling year is for telling stories. Here is a story about a Jew who was filled
with a great inner light which marvelously enhanced the glow of his fully lit
menorah on the last day of Hanukkah. This is the story of a Jew who dispelled
the terrible darkness of a cold winter night and saved Christmas for countless
people.
On the night of
December 11, 1995 (six days before the beginning of Hanukkah on the 17th
that year), a surprise party was being held for the seventieth birthday of
Aaron Feuerstein, CEO and owner of Malden Mills in Methuen, Massachusetts. Feuerstein
is also a devout Jew who reads Shakespeare and the Talmud (a rich treasury of
rabbinical tradition). During the party a boiler exploded and a devastating
fire broke out and demolished a good part of his factory.
Many
thought for sure that CEO Feuerstein would grab the insurance money and run. He
didn't. The morning after the fire, he issued this statement: "With God's
help, we will overcome the events of the past 12 hours and continue to be a
force in
I will get right to my announcement. For the next
30 days--and it might be more--but at least for the next 30 days, all our
employees will be paid their full salaries. I think you already have been
advised that your health insurance has been paid for the next 90 days. But over
and above the money, the most important thing Malden Mills can do for our
workers is to get you back to work. By
There
was a moment of stunned disbelief, and then the workers rose to their feet
again, cheering and hugging each other and also weeping. A miracle had just
happened! It was many times greater than the physical miracle which multiplied the
oil to keep the temple menorah burning through the days of rededication. This
was a spiritual and moral miracle: a devout Jew and CEO had multiplied bread for
his 2400 employees and had saved Christmas for them!
Time magazine for January 8,
1996, reported that Feuerstein was true to his word; he continued to pay his
employees in full, at a cost of one and a half million dollars a week and at an
average wage of twelve and a half dollars an hour. Later that same year, corporate and capitalist
Conclusion
Menorahs and wreaths aglow
with an inner light
Back
in 1995 Hanukkah began at sundown on December 17 -- the day the Novena of
Christmas begins for Catholics. Three
days after Aaron’s stunning announcement to his workers on December 14, Aaron
lit the first candle of his menorah. When after eight days all were lit, his
menorah was luminously aglow especially with the bright light that abode in his
heart. There is an Ite to every