The Forgotten Annunciation

by Susan Fox

“The Lord spoke to Nathan and said: “Go tell my servant David, “When your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm. It is he who shall build a house for my name. And I will make his royal throne firm forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.” (2Samuel 7: 4-16)

The blind man Bartimaeus was sitting by the roadside begging. “When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mark 10:47)

March 19, 2014 -- God so loved the world He gave His only Son. (John 3:16) And the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us. (John 1:14)

Wait. Wasn’t there something in the middle I forgot?

Oh yes, how did Jesus come into the world?

Jesus was born into a human family descended from a line of Jewish kings. A lowly Virgin from Nazareth, betrothed to a man named Joseph, became the mother of Jesus. She cooperated in Christ’s conception through motherhood. King David, himself is her ancestor, whose throne God promised would stand firm forever.

  

And so Mary receives the news from an angel ... it wasn’t any stray angel; it was an angel with a purpose -- the Angel Gabriel, whose name means “God is my strength.”

 

The Annunciation to Mary

He was sent by God to bring Mary the good news: “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:31-33)

God invited Mary to become the mother of His Son, and then waited for her answer. 

She responds to the angel, “I know who I am.” (Such will determine her choice.)  “I am the Handmaid (Servant) of the Lord. Be it done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38)

Let’s try it again from the top.

God so loved the world He gave His only Son. (God initiates the giving of His Son)

“Be is done to me according to your word.” (Mary accepts God’s will)

And the Word became Flesh (Jesus is Incarnate).... Wait I missed something there in the middle.

There’s a second Annunciation -- the one that is always forgotten. Denver Archbishop Samuel Aquila brought this to my attention on Wednesday night at a Mass celebrating the Feast of St. Joseph.  Mary was betrothed to a man named Joseph – a direct descendant of the Royal Line of David. God had told David that He Himself would be as a Father to David’s heir, and “Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.”

So Mary said her great “Yes!” to God, but then Mary was found with child before she came to live with her husband Joseph. He thought to divorce her quietly.

That was his human plan because Joseph was a righteous man, faithful to the law, but he didn’t want Mary to suffer shame. This was the future earthly father of Jesus, Who one day would be faced with a similar dilemma when a woman caught in adultery is brought to Him for stoning.

Jesus and the Woman Caught in Adultery

Stoning was the penalty for adultery. Such was the Jewish law. But Jesus simply said, “Let him who is without sin throw the first stone.” And all the woman’s accusers melted away. How safe that woman must have felt in Jesus’ Presence. Without any humiliation, she repented of her sin, and Jesus sent her away with the admonition, “Sin no more.” Jesus must have been conscious of the fact that His mother had faced that same vulnerability at one time. But Joseph chose to take her into his home. How safe Mary must have felt under Joseph’s protection.

How interesting that even in the unusual circumstances of the “Virgin shall be with Child,” God still wanted a man and a woman to make a family with a Child. I grew up in a fatherless household, so I am well familiar with the difficulty of a woman raising a child alone. But it can be done.

Yet God planned that every child have a father and a mother bonded in married love. God could not deny His own identity. Even in the making of His own earthly family, God remained true to the nuptial meaning of the human body, which He designed in His Image. He gave Mary physical motherhood. But He invited Joseph to participate in His own Fatherhood.

“Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?’” (Matt 19:4-6)

The Annunciation of St. Joseph

This is Joseph’s Annunciation. God sent an angel to Joseph in a dream, who said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matt. 1:20-21)

When Joseph woke up he did exactly as the angel had instructed and took his wife into his home.

Okay, let’s try it again from the top.

The Father initiates action: God so loved the world He gave His only Son.

Mary cooperates: “Be it done to me according to your word.”

Gabriel explains how: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35)

Jesus is conceived: And the Word was made Flesh...

Joseph cooperates in God’s plan: “When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.” (Matt 1:24)

And the Word was made flesh. He is Jesus, Son of David, whose throne will last forever. He dwelt among us in safety and security from the moment of His conception until Joseph’s natural death thanks to the obedience of his foster father, Joseph, according to Archbishop Aquila.

There were two angelic annunciations to two human beings, Mary and Joseph. Both were told how this divine conception took place (by the power of the Holy Spirit). Both were told His name, Jesus. Joseph was addressed as the son of David, and Mary was told that her Son, Jesus, would have the throne of David. Both – male and female -- responded with a resounding, “Yes!”  And so the Holy Family was conceived – first in the mind of God, and then with the surprised cooperation of two human beings who never planned on spending their lives together raising the Son of God.

Mary and Joseph had another mutual ancestor. His name was Abraham. God had promised him that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars. This was a startling promise because Abraham’s wife Sarah was barren. Finally in his old age, she gave birth to Isaiah. Abraham is famous for his belief that God’s promise to him would be fulfilled, as is Mary -- not coincidentally.

“It was not through the law that the promise was made to Abraham and his descendants that he would inherit the world, but through the righteousness that comes from faith.” (Romans 4:13)

“He believed, hoping against hope, that he would become the father of many nations, according to what was said. Thus shall your descendants be. That is why it is credited to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4:18, 22)

Mary and Joseph both obeyed God through the same righteousness they shared with Abraham, the archbishop said. “We live in challenging times. Faith is not a static gift. Despite trials and attacks on Christian Faith and on religious freedom, we must trust as Joseph and Mary trusted.”

 

Archbishop Samuel Aquila
offers Mass at Holy Ghost
Catholic Church,
Denver, CO
on March 19, 2014

“See how faithful Joseph is. He sees the truth in his dream. He sees that the Holy Spirit placed this Child in Mary’s womb. He is given the honor of naming the child,” Archbishop Aquila said, “His name shall be Jesus because He will save his people from their sins.”

 “We must continue to pray for faith,” the archbishop said, arguing that Catholics will be able to speak the truth in these difficult times if we imitate the faith of Joseph and Mary.

We recognize that Mary is our mother because when her Son, Jesus, was dying ignominiously on the cross, He said to his disciple John, “Behold your Mother.” And from that point forward, John took Mary into his home.

But John’s actions were just a repeat of those of Joseph. Not Jesus, but God the Father Himself instructed Joseph to take Mary into his home. And Our Lady continued to believe that God’s promises to her would be fulfilled even as her Son died. She knew the throne of Jesus, Son of David, would remain firm forever. And it has. He reigns at Daily Mass in every Catholic Church in the world. And in the hearts of many people.

Listen to your God! Welcome Mary into your lives! Everything good comes from taking Mary into your home. 

The Holy Family:
Mary, Jesus & Joseph

Skid Row Profiles 2: Tom, The Fish Salesman

(Linda had a cleft palate as a child. This makes people very emotionally vulnerable as adults.)

by Susan Fox

You swim in currents

of disguised insecurity.

You are cold and slippery

like the fish you pull daily

from the sea.

So one night

you popped out of the bar room toaster

and attempted to seduce

my friend, Linda.

I am the man – dressed in white,

sitting at the foot of her cross,

a broken glass in my hand

and spilled vodka on the table.

You are kissing her.

She is melting into kittens;

an old wound reopens,

tonight, she knows only desperate need.

Near the table,

there is a fourth

and malevolent presence:

years ago -- the woman who refused to mother her.

With persuasive phrases,

an open and an honest face,

you proceed with the need to defile her,

as you have been defiled.

Linda does not comprehend:

she gives you both,

Mother and lover,

easy access to her soul.

But you have forgotten me—

the man standing in white –

I am held close by

and my love is stronger than jealousy;

it is stronger than shiploads of tuna:

your anger and your fishy need.

Take your greedy violence

And all the blackest storms you can pull from the sea.

She belongs to God,

and therefore she is kept impregnable.

The press release concerning these events of Sept. 12, 1979, said simply:

“Raphael bound up a demon in the upper regions of the Olympic Peninsula.”  

NEWSFLASH! Jesus is Lord and God, Not the State

by Lawrence Fox

A Denver federal appeals court ruled July 14, 2015, against the Little Sisters of the Poor, demanding that they submit to Obamacare's birth control mandates. The sisters are praying about what they will do next.  

“Just sign this letter, and you will not be prosecuted,” the Obama Administration coaxed the Little Sisters of the Poor, urging them to allow third party insurance to provide contraception to their employees.

The Little Sisters of the Poor are tasked with a 21^st Century decision: obedience to the Deposit of Faith or participation in the Culture of Death. They refused to sign.

Up until six years ago such a mandate imposed upon religious orders from the U.S. Government seemed vaguely possible, but not necessarily likely. With the two-term election of Barack Hussein Obama a cursed reality has blatantly “emerged out of the earth.” 

It seems that most Americans have not even noticed the bullying tactics of the Obama Administration, and perhaps a large part of American Catholics sympathize with the mandate.  This is probably due to collective amnesia. Disastrous Catholic education, catechesis, homiletics, and pastoral care in the past 50 years have caused Americans to completely lose any sense of Catholic identity or memory. The last 2,000 years of Catholic history no longer exists in their minds.

The Little Sisters of the Poor care for the aged poor and those unable to stay at home, and their Catholic apostolate is gravely endangered. The God we once worshipped has been shoved aside. Now Americans hunger for the state. 

The Worship of the State

Christianity’s missionary journey to the gentiles took place within an empire fashioned by the “Cult of Caesar.”  In most pagan cultures, the person who ruled was divinely ordained and protected by the gods of the land.

With the establishment of the Roman Caesar, this divine ideology reached its logical conclusion. Caesar was not simply ruling by divine authority but was “Dominus et Deus”, that is the “Lord and God.”  With the death of Julius Caesar at the hands of Brutus, his adopted son Augustus forced the Roman Senate to proclaim Julius to be divine. Augustus then was logically known and proclaimed to be the “son of god.” Under Augustus Caesar, there was a period of worldly peace. His decrees then became known as the “good news” to the citizens of Rome.

Coin with the Image of Julius Caesar,
who was divinized after his death

Images of Augustus Caesar and subsequent Caesars were erected within the Roman Empire. Loyalty to the Empire was demonstrated by offering incense and sacrifices before the image of Caesar. To do so was to preserve one’s virtue of citizenship, livelihood, and understanding of peace and justice within the Empire.  The state was understood to be the primary distributer of bread to the masses.

Within this context, Jesus of Nazareth made it clear to all those who wanted to follow him, “If you want to be my disciples, you must pick up your cross.”  The cross was the Roman’s perfected instrument of cruel death.  The in-scripted sign placed on the cross above the head of Jesus read, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” The inscription was meant to mock the Sanhedrin (evil also turns on evil) and to remind everyone, there was only one recognized emperor in the Roman Empire. The state  alone was to be worshipped for the emperor was the state, and the emperor was the “son of god.”  The Romans with the encouragement of the Sanhedrin placed before Jesus’ apostles and disciples a stark choice. Either “Jesus is Lord and God,” or the state is lord and god.   

Peter’s faith in Jesus -- “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” -- is the profession that would bring about his death sentence. Thomas’ profession, “My Lord and my God,” echoed throughout the Empire. Rome took notice time and again.

Paul addressed his letter to the Church in Rome, “When a person believes in his heart and proclaims with his lips that ‘Jesus is Lord,’ he shall be saved.” (Rom 10:9) Paul was not inviting the Church to recite “the sinner’s prayer.” He was encouraging them to embrace the death of Jesus Christ. Not only that, but he asked them to embrace the possibility of losing their virtue of worldly citizenship, losing their livelihood, and losing their worldly sense of peace and justice as promulgated by the state.  Paul was not beheaded for possessing a religious sentiment; instead he was beheaded for refusing to worship Caesar, for in fact  professing “Jesus is Lord and God.” Peter was crucified for steadfastly proclaiming Jesus to be “the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” There was no comparison in the minds of these apostles between Jesus and the Caesars, who were just dust and to dust they would return.

Image of the Beast (rational man living as an irrational creature or animal) and His Puppet

In the Rev. 13:11-18, the author describes the persecution of the Church by a puppet (a second beast like a lamb with two horns), which orders everyone to worship and offer incense to an image of the first beast. Those who do not are killed.

This language is literally contained in Pliny’s Letter to Emperor Trajan (113 AD). Pliny was a Roman governor of Bithynia. In his letter, Pliny describes for Trajan the conditions that existed in his territories. Christians were brought before him for trial and judgment. Pliny would ask the accused several times if they were Christians. If they responded, “Yes,” to each question, they were condemned to death.

In some cases, those accused denied they were Christians or said that they were at one time Christians and subsequently renounced their faith.  To prove their rejection, Pliny required them to offer incense and wine to the image of Emperor Trajan and then to curse Christ. Pliny really had no firsthand knowledge of what Christians believed only what they would not profess. 

“Those who renounced Jesus as Christ, declared to Pliny that the sum of their guilt or error was simply to meet on an appointed day before daybreak (an indirect reference to Sunday) and to recite a hymn antiphonally to Christ as to a god and then bind themselves by an oath (sacramentum), not for commission of any crime but to abstain from theft, robbery, adultery, breach of faith and to not deny a deposit when it was claimed,” the letter said.

In one case, Pliny was not certain of their account and like a good materialist and empiricist tortured two deaconesses, “but (he) found in their testimony nothing but depraved and extravagant superstition. And therefore he postponed his examination.

Their depraved testimony was only their baptismal profession of faith: “I believe in one God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth; in Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord, who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, suffered died and was buried; on the third day he rose from the dead; ascended into heaven and will come again to judge the living and the dead…”

Pliny notes in his letter to Trajan that with the persecution of the Christians the pagan temples were being visited again, the purchase of idols was increasing, and sacrifices once abandoned were now coming back into vogue.

The Voice of the Good Shepherd and the Voice of the Beast and His Puppet

Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd...my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”  (John 10:21)

I remember participating in a retreat, which purposely placed side by side the words of Jesus and the words of Satan as captured in Sacred Scripture. The intent was to contrast their manner of delivery, the content of their messages, and the logical conclusion of following the one voice versus the other.  The voice and message of Jesus Christ was a call to live in truth in order to experience freedom in which one’s intellect and will governed -- through grace -- sinful nature. The voice and message of Satan was to live a life of materialistic efficiency and expediency that flowed from a small compromise of conscience in which one’s intellect and will served sinful nature. Satan speaks through human agencies -- some very well intentioned.  The events surrounding the martyrdom of Polycarp, the Bishop of Smyrna, and the Obama Administration’s advice to the religious Little Sisters of the Poor offer almost identical satanic voices. 

A disciple of John the Evangelist, Polycarp headed the diocese of Smyrna, one of the 7 churches identified in the Book of Revelation. As such, he was hunted down by Roman soldiers and brought to Herod - the head of Roman security in the City - and Nicetas, his father. They coaxed Polycarp, “Come now, where is the harm in just saying, ‘Caesar is Lord’ and offering the incense and so forth when it will save your life?”  Polycarp responded, “No I am not going to take your advice.”

Obama Administration: “If you only sign the letter permitting a third party insurance company to provide contraception to your employees, you will be in compliance with the HHS Mandate, and you will not be prosecuted, fined, and eventually forced out of religious service.” The Little Sisters refused to take the advice of the Administration.

Martyrdom of St. Polycarp

Eventually, Polycarp was taken to the “Circus”-- the arena where the State staged cruel gladiator bouts to appease the masses. Polycarp was brought before the Governor who advised Polycarp, “Have some respect for your years…Swear an oath, ‘By the Luck (fortune) of Caesar’…Save yourself and say you are wrong and say, ‘Down with the infidels.’”   Polycarp responded to a different voice: “Polycarp be strong, be the man.” He refused the offers and resisted the threats of the governor. So he was burned at the stake and stabbed.

The Little Sisters of the Poor also face a similar trial in U.S. courts, where Obama’s cronies very well may decide their future.  

What is at Stake?

Kathleen Sebelius, excommunicated Catholic,
and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services

The Obama Administration (beast) and the Secretary of Health and Human Services (puppet) are advising the Little Sisters of the Poor to cooperate in their efforts to promote evil; to compromise the principles of moral good; and to participate in diminishing the dignity of human life. Consider the fact that one of the major benefactors of the HHS mandate is Planned Parenthood, which happens to be the leading provider of abortion the U.S. and an avid promoter of masturbation, promiscuity, pornography, and homosexuality.

Tragically, prior to 1930, almost all Christian denominations would have looked on in horror at the tableau of the U.S. government demanding a Christian organization pay for and subsidize contraception --  especially forms of abortifacients such as the morning after pill and IUDs as well as sterilization. But times have changed.  Elements of anti-Catholic prejudice both within and without the Catholic Church have increased significantly. We are living in what Blessed John Paul II identified as the “Culture of Death.”

“The fact that legislation in many countries, perhaps even departing from basic principles of their Constitutions, has determined not to punish these practices against life (abortion, contraception, euthanasia), and even to make them altogether legal, is both a disturbing symptom and a significant cause of grave moral decline,” he said in the Gospel of Life. In fact, the promotion of moral decline by so-called political and voting “Catholics” is most distressing.

Contrast

The Little Sisters of the Poor is a religious order composed of women who have heard the voice of the Good Shepherd, saying to them, “Leave all that you have and come follow me.” (Matt. 19:21) They are women who have given up all things including father, mother, family, wealth and even the goodness of married love in order to embrace -- by God’s grace -- the beatitudes of Jesus Christ: Blessed are the pure of heart, blessed are the meek, blessed are those who mourn and blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

They are also being called to embrace the more challenging beatitude, “"Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.” (Matt. 5:11)

They suffer this while serving the least in the Kingdom of God. In their lives, they fulfill the words of Jesus Christ: “Whatever you do to the least of my brethren you did it for me. I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I was sick and you looked after me.” (Matt 25:31) Theirs is a ministry that affirms the Gospels, the Glory of God, and the dignity of human life.

The Battle Ground

I was asked by a curious non-American, “What is the meaning of the good?” I explained in the simplest of terms that an action by its very nature which promotes, preserves, and protects the dignity of human life is good. Any action, which by its very nature prevents, diminishes, destroys and denies the dignity of human life as intrinsically good is evil.

The Catholic Church drawing from the Deposit of Faith has consistently maintained that the promotion of activities, which by their very nature are contrary to the dignity of human life, such as contraception, abortion, sodomy, and euthanasia, are intrinsically evil. “The acts of sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambitions, dissensions, schisms, and envy drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you as I did before that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”(Ephesians 5:19-21)

The term sin means to miss the mark. The causes of sin include ignorance, weakness of intellect and will, and moral indifference. The Catechism of the Catholic Church identifies sin as an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is a failure in genuine love of God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods.  Sin is a personal act, moreover we have a responsibility for the sins committed by others when we cooperate in them directly or voluntarily by ordering, advising, praising or approving of them, by protecting those who do evil, and by not disclosing or not hindering them when we have an obligation to do so. This is what the Obama Administration is doing.

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12) When immoral people attain political power there is a one-to-one participation in evil. That is, earthly rulers participate in the evil of the demonic rulers, and human authorities participate in the evil of the demonic authorities.  And yet Paul writes where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.

Jesus does not promise that sin will diminish; in fact it will continue to grow until the Second Coming. “But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?" (Luke 18:8) But Jesus does promise that he has overcome the world and that through grace, God’s adopted sons and daughter will overcome the evil one and remain steadfast in the truth and enduring in faith leading to life everlasting.

I say,  “Play the man, Little Sisters of the Poor. May more Catholics join you, and stay firm in their faith.”  

Did you enjoy this piece? Would you like to read Genderless Marriage Threatens the Foundation of Civilization by the same author?