February 21st has been a hard day for me the last several years. In 2011 I received the telephone call from Mom that my younger brother, Mitch, had died. It has been a stark reality that has faced me and my family ever since. The Catholic Church, in its daily prayers, has the Office for the Dead that I have prayed for my brother on his anniversary since that sad day. The prayers, scripture and readings always give me comfort and strength.
In the second reading we are given a letter from St. Braulio (+651) a bishop of the early Church he writes, “Oh death! You separate those who are joined to each other in marriage. You harshly and cruelly divide those whom friendship unites. But your power is broken. Your heinous yoke has been destroyed by the one who sternly threatened you when Hosea cried out: “Oh Death! I shall be your death.” And with the words of the apostle we, too, deride you: “Oh Death! Where is your victory? Oh death! Where is your sting!””
Death is not a fun subject to write about and yet, for a Christian, it is a hopeful theme to dwell upon because of the victory of Jesus Christ. We all recognize in death the ending of something important but we also see in it the gift of life and the blessing of life eternal promised through the Cross of Jesus Christ. It is the promise found in the simple prayer a priest prays during the Mass as he dips his fingers in water and says, “Lord, wash away my iniquities, and cleanse me of my sins.”
It is the cruelty of separation that is often the hardest part of death for many people. I often hear in the voices of those mourning the desire to say one more things, to ask for forgiveness, to share a blessing or to simply say, “I love you” a final time. It rings very true to me each and every time these thoughts are shared because they are the same thoughts that tumbled about in my heart and head asking: When had I last told him that i loved him?
Which gets me to the question I ask myself daily and ask others from time to time…Are you ready to die? It is not a morbid question but one of hope and love because if I am “ready” then I have prepared myself through the gift of loving my neighbor and reconciling with my brother in love.
One of the greatest gifts of our faith is the Night Prayers in the Divine Office (The Liturgy of the Hours) which gives us a primer for a happy death. The prayers and readings remind us nightly of the need to be at peace with God and our neighbor…to not go to rest the with curse of sin on our hearts. It is a call for daily reflection and the seeking of mercy and forgiveness, which by the way, God freely dispenses and generously offers to us in love.
“But your power is broken.” St. Braulio reminds us that the gift of eternal life is the gift of Jesus Christ who has conquered sin and death and when we unite our lives to his in the offering of mercy, reconciliation and peace, where we are united in acts of generosity and love, then the power of earthly death is washed away and we know the sadness we feel is that of unifying love.
I was reminded of this gift once more a few weeks ago, when praying the last rites for a woman surrounded by dozens of children, grand and great-grand children, by family both of blood and friendship, how a gentle peace settled upon us all and the grace of the Holy Spirit filled the room as she took her final breath on earth. It is a blessing that amazes me each and every time God offers it to His family.
I can say, ultimately in the end…I miss you Mitch…rest in the joy and peace of Christ…and I will see you when God calls me home…

God bless
Fr. Mark

Every once in a while the brain gets frozen and nothing seem to move it so I just start writing about almost anything and then from that an idea takes hold…seeking an idea, a thought, a pattern in the words to discover what God may be asking of me this day. It’s called the hot pen (or hot keyboard) and sometimes it works…scribble scribble Mr. Frog.
Many years ago I read an essay about writing and the lost art of cursive writing, when writing manuscripts or even short essays, and how it was changing both writer and editor. The thesis was basically, because of computers and their unique ability to delete, move and wipe away previous thoughts, the writer and editor had lost the ability to see the pattern of change in the writing. Add to this the cold uniformed letters of the computer screen and print out obliterated the emotion and feeling of words scribbled hurriedly or wrote with slow burning passion from the composition and editing of a piece of writing. In other words; the computer which can be a good thing brings the unintended consequences of bad into a process of love and of passion.
I read that essay almost 20 years ago (it’s funny how certain things stick in your mind) but it always comes up when I see something written about how the electronic communication adversely affects our human relationships and how social media allows us to sanitize our interactions and only allow the final draft to be seen, filtered or deleted as we search for the unity of love which God desires each of us to live.
““This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame.” (Gen 2:23-25)
The last sentence of this beautiful passage that calls forth the unity of God desire for our human relations reminds us of a great intimacy formed in the bond of marriage between husband and wife. In an age where each image is airbrushed, photoshopped, filtered and our words are edited and perfected in an endless revision of what we are told is good, to be simply naked in front of the beloved is a revelation from God. Because it is not only the physical nakedness but the emotional and spiritual nakedness before the eyes of the beloved spouse where the revelation of love grows greater, stronger and fuller.
The great Archbishop Venerable Fulton J. Sheen shares this wisdom, “The body is also the means by which we enter into communion with one another: verbally, through words, which are broken fragments of the Eternal Word; physically, by the assistance of our neighbor in the common tasks of daily life, culture, and civilization; artistically, in the dance, the theater, and the arts: sexually, by reducing duality to unity, which is the mission of love; religiously, by adding force to prayer in outward symbols, such as bye kneeling to express the humble attitude of the soul before God.” (p 93 “Three to Get Married”)

Archbishop Sheen reminds us through the body we allow blessings to flow and the story of life to unfold with the corrections, the hurts, the sufferings as well as the blessings, the triumphs and the joys shining forth to tell the great story of life and love. It is in the offering of sacramental marital love that the spouse is able to stand before the other in blessing rather than shame because the gift of love is a non-edited gift of life.
God’s invitation for us is to “scribble scribble” through life not hiding behind the “deleting” of fear but rather celebrating the joy of the love and life wrote in the cursive breath of love in and through our loving God.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

The past few weeks I have had the great joy and blessing of a visit from my mother. It has become a yearly grace as she escapes from the cold Idaho winter to visit those of us who live in slightly warmer climates. It is cold here in California but our low 30’s at night are nothing to compare to the teens of winter. (In fact as I write this letter my brother, Morris, sent a text where the temp was on the negative side of zero at home in Idaho)
One of the things that become very apparent each visit is that I am still her son, her child and thus am called to an obedience of love that respects this relationship. Even as she and I both age…her at 83 and I at 57 the relationship of mother and son still exists in a very profound way. It is a love that has been built, nurtured, tried and strengthened through the many moments of life: good, bad, ugly and beautiful.

“”Blessed are the poor in spirit.” The Beatitudes reveal an order of happiness and grace, of beauty and peace. Jesus celebrates the joy of the poor, to whom the Kingdom already belongs: The Word speaks of voluntary humility as “poverty in spirit”; the Apostle gives an example of God’s poverty when he says: “For your sakes he became poor.”” (CCC #2546)

It is the humility of spirit in which our relationships are strengthened and made whole. Dietrich von Hildebrand in his little book “Humility: Wellspring of Virtue” writes, “Humility is closely connected with that holy freedom in which we acquire the proper perspective in relation to our own person, regarding ourselves no longer with our own eyes but in the light of God.” (p 49) The spiritual journey in seeing ourselves as sons and daughters of God also opens our eyes to the being of a son and daughter in this world. “Holy freedom” in our spiritual life allows us to seek God in our own way, guided by the Church, entrusted to the mission of God’s people by being as St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12 “we are one body but many parts.”
In much the same way parents and children discover a holy freedom when they grow into the holy person, the saint, God has called them to be in their family. We naturally take on different roles within the familial body that when working as one we grow more deeply into a holiness of love and respect. This isn’t easy…perhaps the understatement of the year. Because of sin we can often find ourselves at odds, being hurt and alienated from one another. This is a reality that finds its way into every family.
This is why the nurturing of humility: the holy freedom, the poverty in spirit, the voluntary choosing of being one with others brings us together as one body. if as von Hildebrand entitles his book, humility is the wellspring of all virtue, then the virtues of fortitude and hope move us naturally to the gift of reconciliation and peace in the family. Once again, this isn’t easy…but possible with the help of our heavenly Father. It is when we are able to seek the good of the other, even in the midst of sin that love begins to overcome death. It is a choice we are invited each day to choose.
Does my mom, during her visits, get on my nerves? Yes…but then I am called to go back to the wellspring of virtue and recall the love a mother, the blessings of a mother, the gift of a mother our God has shared and give thanks and listen to God’s whisper of love in the presence of my mother.
GodBless
Fr. Mark

“God calls men to serve him in spirit and in truth. Consequently they are bound to him in conscience but not coerced. God has regard for the dignity of the human person which he himself created; the human person is to be guided by his own judgement and to enjoy freedom. This fact received its fullest manifestation in Christ Jesus in whom God revealed himself and his ways in a perfect manner. For Christ, who is our master and Lord and at the same time is meek and humble of heart, acted patiently in attracting and inviting his disciples.” (Dignitatis Humanae #11)
The above quote from the “Declaration on Religious Liberty” (Dignitatis Humanae) from the Second Vatican Council is a reminder of God’s invitation to follow him in freedom. But it is a freedom that is founded on a truth which is the dignity of the human person created in the image and likeness of God…a dignity extended to all people…a dignity that cannot be erased. This came to mind this past week as our country became embroiled in so many arguments about dignity, respect and the truth of life.
I have read with sadness and shame the decision of the government of New York to remove many protections for children in the womb and the discussion to do the same in Virginia and several other states. It is important to note as Catholic Christians we have an understanding of natural law which informs how we look at the world and understand our duty as sisters and brothers in the larger community.
“Through our human reason, we can come to understand the true purpose of the created order. The natural law is thus our rational apprehension of the divine plan. I expresses our human dignity and is the foundation of our basic human rites and duties…Because the natural law is rooted in God’s plan found in human nature, it applies to all people in all places and at all times. While situations may vary greatly, the natural law is unchangeable.” (p 327 from United States Catholic Catechism for Adults)
What is “spirit and truth” in our lives? We may understand it in our call to be faithful and reasonable in how we live our lives. We are always called to look to the greater, the good and the holy as a path to seek other in society. Serving God, in spirit and truth, following the example of Jesus’ obedient love is the ideal. We are called to be hope filled and joy filled people who see the same in others even when they are different. This invitation to see others in this way comes through and invitation to love where we are not coerced into believing but invited through an act of conscience to enter into a relationship. For me, this is the key…to be in relationship. It is hard to dehumanize another person when we seek to see them in love, in relationship, in the dignity of life.
Yet, we are called to be guided by our judgement where a well formed conscience leads us to truth and life. This is where the living in the image and having a personal relationship with Jesus focuses our conscience. In this we are obligated to know the person of Jesus through Sacred Scripture and tradition and prayerful conversation with God.
“However, in forming their consciences the faithful must pay careful attention to the sacred and certain teaching of the Church. For the Catholic Church is by the will of Christ the teacher or truth. It is her duty to proclaim and teach with authority the truth which is Christ and, at the same time, to declare and confirm by her authority the principles of the moral order which spring from human nature itself.” (Dignitatis Humanae #14)
Each of us is called to be seek to face of God in each person no matter how young (even in the womb) or how old. We seek the face of God always, even when we look in the mirror.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

The temptation of interruption is a sin I battle with constantly.

“The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service and the fruit of service is peace.”

― Mother Theresa,

When I returned from retreat a few weeks ago one of the first things I did was to buy a wristwatch. It was one of the spiritual insights I received during the retreat…I needed to buy a watch. Why? Simply put, by the third day of the retreat I was discovering a deepening prayer and a quiet that went beyond the silence of the retreat and absence of the daily “work” of ministry. It was a memory of prayer I had had before but a prayer that had gone missing recently.
What was the difference? It was the wristwatch…or the lack of one. Like many people I had begun using the ever-present cellphone as my go to time keeper. It seemed easier to just look at the cellphone face and see that it was 1:49 p.m. just as easily as it was to look at my wrist and see its was 1:49 p.m. but there was something more.
I know that many of you have guessed already but the little insight was how often I looked at my cellphone…even if for just a second…as an interruption and distraction in my daily life. On retreat, because the cellphone was sitting quietly on the closet shelf throughout the day and night I quickly found myself slipping into the remembered habit of not seeking the interruption or distraction of the cellphone, especially in prayer, throughout the day.
Sadly, coming off of retreat, the old temptations began to place themselves in front of me…yes, I had my watch on during my Holy Hour in the morning…but what if I got a call, a text, a Twitter beep or one of a hundred different distracted excuses for just interrupting my prayer time to check and make sure I hadn’t missed anything important. It is the lie that I tell myself as I seek to avoid God’s call to silence.
One of the oldest understandings of our hearing the voice of God is in the silence of life. In 1 Kings 19:11-13 we hear these words of blessing, “The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by. Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?””
We know this innately in our souls, when we are quiet we are better able to see the blessings of life like the image of grandparents sitting quietly as their grandchildren scamper about in joy and seeing in the quiet of their hearts grace and hope flow forth in their lives. We hear it when we sit looking out on a vista of great beauty contemplating the grandeur of creation. We feel it as the man and woman stare deeply into the eyes of the other recognizing the blossoming of love.
I’m still working on it…staring deeply into the Eucharistic presence of God, quieting my soul to hear the powerful whisper of blessing. Going off, as Jesus does, into the community of Trinitarian love, to be quiet and know the presence of our Father.
God Bless,
Fr. Mark

“God seeks me in prayer and desires me to seek others in prayer.”

As I noted last week, I was away on a silent retreat, taking time in prayer and reflection and doing some hard labor of spiritual renewal. One of the phrases I noted listening to the spiritual director on the retreat was the one given above. It is not profound or new but a reminder of the how and why of the spiritual life and how and why our spiritual life is intertwined with each and every action that we have and do in our lives.
God seeks me in His Word: “Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”” (Lk 9:23) God’s Word is Jesus Christ and Jesus seeks us. From the moment he proclaims the kingdom of Heaven, to the call of each disciple by name and to his final breath on the cross—Jesus seeks us with love and mercy. Our daily prayer in love is the hearing of God’s voice calling to us. We take into our souls the blessings that surround us and discover more fully how God is inviting me into a closer relationship of love. When I do this then I must seek others in God’s Word, Jesus Christ, because love draws us forth into new life. Knowing God seeks us we find Him in the many prayers such as the rosary where praying the mysteries of Jesus’ life we live with him in our journey of salvation.
God seeks me in His community: “Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge until the destroying storms pass by.” (Ps 57:1) Jesus calls us, his disciples, into a community of love where we find refuge and healing in the great mystery of God’s presence in the community. We know in the family we find a refuge and the family of the Church becomes a greater blessing when we seek to be in the service of our brothers and sisters. As a family in prayer we discover the gifts present with each person and the greater gifts of the community shared and broken. When we begin to see and experience these gifts of blessing and love we naturally seek out the others that surround us as a family of grace and peace. We discover this community in those time when we find ourselves in moments of joy and sorrow. It is the stories we share of a memory of love at a funeral or the joyous blessing of family at the baptism of new life.
God seeks me in His celebrations: “You have stripped off your old behavior with your old self, and you have put on a new self which will progress toward true knowledge the more it is renewed in the image of its Creator.” (Col 3:9-10) We are a party people. God calls us to celebrate with joy and blessing. But the party always begins in prayer because we don’t celebrate nothing but we celebrate someone, Jesus Christ, who offers us the very best of food and drink. We don’t celebrate alone because the community infused in the love of God’s Word sees the very best of who we are and invites us to find the very best in the other by celebrations of joy in thanksgiving of God’s great blessings. We find this most perfectly in the sign of peace during the celebration of the Mass. This simple exchange of peace is focused on offering the fullness of who we are in Jesus Christ and receiving this same fullness from the person celebrating at our side.
Thank you for your prayers during my retreat and your continued prayers for your priests.

God Bless
Fr. Mark

One of the harder memories I have from my service in the Marine Corps was the after Christmas return of fellow Marines when you have been on duty during this festive time.
As a young man those first Christmases away from family, community and tradition often felt empty. Hearing the stories of friends talking about the joy of family, their sharing of gifts and the blessings of being together was not easy to hear. One of the only familiar things I had in Beaufort, South Carolina was Christmas Mass. I can still remember quite distinctly that first Christmas in 1979, I had just recently been assigned to the Marine Corps Air Station and being new was at the bottom of the ladder. Going to Midnight Mass that Christmas was a true blessing as the celebration brought into focus the reality that we are not alone.
I tell this short story not to lament the loss of Christmas with family because it was the first but not the last time I have been away for Christmas but rather the reality of our universal call to holiness and how we discover this through community and tradition that we often don’t even realize we have until it is needed. But it must be a tradition that has been practiced and ingrained in our imagination through time and love. This is where family, the domestic Church as St. John Paul II called it, becomes vitally important for the practice and handing on of the faith.
I doubt that I would have shown up at the base chapel that first Christmas night if I hadn’t done so for my entire life. I did have options…there was bed…there were a few parties with drinks and food that I could have attended…there was the invitation to attend other Christian services but for me the only place I could go was to where I had practiced and formed my early conscience…that was Mass. Let me also make it clear, the Mass was not the only reason I remained in the faith and practiced the faith (very poorly for the four years of service where I showed up when I thought I needed to but certainly not every Sunday) rather it was also the home that was filled with prayer, God and love. We were not a perfect family, Dad had a temper and Mom was often frazzled from the nine children. There was the reality of a large family where the phrase, “you always had someone to play with….and you always had someone to fight with” was true and practiced often.
In reflecting back it was faith both in the service of love in the family and the receiving of love in the Eucharist that were entangled in such a way that one could not be separated from the other. Pope Benedict XVI explains it better that I can in the Encyclical “Deus Caritas Est: God is Love” where he writes, “Only my readiness to encounter my neighbor and to show him love makes me sensitive to God as well. Only if I serve my neighbor can my eyes be opened to what God does for me and how much he loves me. The saints—consider the example of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta—constantly renewed their capacity for love of neighbor from their encounter with the Eucharistic Lord, and conversely this encounter acquired its realism and depth in their service to others. Love of God and love of neighbor are thus inseparable, they form a single commandment. But both live from the love of God who has loved us first. No longer is it a question, then, of a “commandment” imposed from without and calling for the impossible, but rather of a freely-bestowed experience of love from within, a love which by its very nature must then be shared with others. Love grows through love. Love is “divine” because it comes from God and unites us to God; through this unifying process it makes us a “we” which transcends our divisions and makes us one, until in the end God is “all in all” (1 Cor 15:28).” (#18)
Let us pray for the growth of true love and faith in all families during this Christmastime.
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and God bless
Fr. Mark

My heart ran forth on little feet of music
to keep the new commandment.
(O feast and frolic of awakening spring!)
It would beguile the world to be a garden
with seeds of one refrain: my little children,
love one another; so my heart would sing.
(from “My Heart Ran Forth” by Jessica Powers)

The poet Jessica Powers entered the Carmelites at the age of 36 where she was given the name, Sr. Miriam of the Holy Spirit. Her words above remind us of the powerful insights poetry gives to us. As we continue to celebrate Christmas we are given the blessing of the joyful celebration of our Lord’s birth and wonders surrounding this great mystery.
In the opening stanza of her poem “My Heart Ran Forth” we can hear the joy of God’s presence in her life. It is an invitation to us all to take time looking deeply into the eyes of the baby Jesus so that our hearts too may run forth. We all know this is a great challenge for many of us because we can get bogged down in the heaviness of worldly things and loose our focus on the greater things of God. I am not talking about false happiness or forced joy but in the intimate and joyous love we share with each other.
She ends her poem with these words,
…It is said:
Love is a simple plant like a Creeping Charlie;
once it takes root it’s talent is to spread.
(from “My Heart Ran Forth” by Jessica Powers)
This beautiful image of the Creeping Charlie (Ground Ivy) where “it’s talent is too spread” blesses us with an understanding of how God works when we allow ourselves to be the soil in which God plants his very self at Christmastime. It is the vision of a world where love and peace, not the easy sentimental and momentary, but the difficult and enduring virtues are planted deeply and take root in our souls.
What does this look like?
Fr. Peter Schineller SJ tells the story of his time as president of Loyola jesuit College in Abuja, Nigeria where on a tragic day sixty students from the college were killed in a plane crash. He hurried to the home town to console the families who had just lost so many young and promising children, he writes, “because of the deep Christian faith and love of these parents, the meeting took a surprising turn. Parents who were lost one, two or, in one case, three children reached out to me with compassion and kindness. Even as I tried to console them for the loss of their precious children, many tried to console me, saying that as president of the college, I had lost 60 children! Such kindness and compassion, such an ability to reach out beyond their own grief, I will never forget.” (p 213 “The Way of Kindness: Readings for a Graceful Life” from the essay “Try a Little Kindness”
This story embodies the becoming a garden for the seeds of love. Because as a Christian it is the manger and cross united as one where the choirs of angels sing Glory to God in the Highest at the same moments they cry out Hosanna in the Highest. It is often too easy for us to look at the manger and forget why Jesus the Son of God came into the world. It is why we take time to ponder and pray, as Mary did, and to listen and watch, as Joseph did, and to come and see, as the shepherds did on that glorious night.
May God bless you during this Christmas season.
Merry Christmas
Fr. Mark

Link for the full text to the poem “My Heart Ran Forth” by Jessica Powers

https://books.google.com/books?id=wzIU7DGqlb4C&pg=PA45&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false

It is that time of year where Christmas movies are ubiquitous on the television. There are channels that have dedicated that past several months to showing these movies and other channels that run a high rotation. The funny thing is, most of the Christmas movies have very little to do with Christmas. They may take place around the “date” of Christmas but certainly, for the most part, there is very little “Christ” in the Christmas movies. Don’t misunderstand me, I am a fan of a good Christmas movie but I am also more and more aware of how subtly these movies avoid the faith aspect or distort it into a minor and passing thought in the overall plot.
We can begin with one of the great classics, “It’s a Wonderful Life” where Clarence the Angel is seen as a bumbling helper of God but any other expressions of faith are left to the imagination. Or one of my family’s favorites, “A White Christmas” where even in the wonderful musical not a single Christmas Carol is heard. “A Miracle on 34th Street” shows us a Santa Claus but with not one strand of faith or history linking him to St. Nicholas. The myriad of other Christmas movies may, if at all, touch lightly on faith and religion but more often than not the focus is on a love story or adventure where Church, prayer, and acts of faith are absent and ignored. (And we won’t even go into whether or not “Die Hard” is a Christmas movie?)
The point of this whole thing is not to be overly critical of “Christmas” movies but to be aware and true to who we are as Christians where Christmas’ focus isn’t on all the wonderful things that happen around Christmas but rather we are focused and joyful because of the Incarnation of the Son of God. I am not a film critic but here are my simple thoughts on focusing on why we celebrate Christmas
It’s a Wonderful Life…suicide and changing the past aren’t the answers as we are called to trust in the providence of God’s love. “He who attempts to escape obeying withdraws himself from grace. Likewise he who seeks private benefits for himself loses those which are common to all. He who does not submit himself freely and willingly to his superior, shows that his flesh is not yet perfectly obedient but that it often rebels and murmurs against him.” (The Imitation of Christ: Book Three #13 by Thomas à Kempis) Obedience in love is not the accepting of tragedy and suffering but rather searching for the presence of God’s love, mercy and grace in the unity with others. When we are tempted to think the world is better off without us or others we fail to see how God’s plan is fulfilled in loving trust of others (including God) in the most trying circumstances. Think of how easy it would have been for Mary and Joseph to give up…for the Wisemen of the East to stop searching…for the shepherds to just continue with their work.
White Christmas…love and helping are wonderful but only in the context of sacrificial love. “God has made himself visible: in Jesus we are able to see the Father. Indeed, God is visible in a number of ways. In the love-story recounted by the Bible, he comes towards us, he seeks to win our hearts, all the way to the Last Supper, to the piercing of his heart on the cross, to his appearances after the Resurrection and to the great deeds by which, through the activity of the apostles, he guide the nascent Church along its path.” (Deus Caritas Est: #17) Pope Benedict XVI our fundamental understanding of love in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. God leads us along the paths of sacrificial love because he has shown us the perfect example in Jesus Christ and love that is foreshadowed by Mary’s yes and Joseph’s obedient care for the Holy Family. Christmas is a time where we can easily reflect, not just today but throughout the year, on how we are called to serve, love and bless our family, friends and communities each day? Christmas is a love-story of grace.
A Miracle on 34th Street…believing and trusting in goodness are important when they are grounded on the eternal. The Prologue to the Gospel of St. John, (1:1-18), is the other Christmas story. In his commentary of the Gospel Francis J. Moloney shares this insight, the Prologue “expresses the major christological beliefs of Christianity: the Word preexisted creation with God; creation was through the Word; divine filiation is possible for believers; Jesus Christ is the incarnation of God, the Word become flesh; he shares in divinity of God, yet he has taken on the human condition.” (p 41 from “The Gospel of John”) We believe in a divine goodness, a love that goes beyond the moment and the myth and enters with an eternal union of goodness, holiness and peace. Christmas is a time when we seek to encounter this goodness once more at the creche knowing and trusting in a sacred beyond all telling. It isn’t just about allowing children to believe in Santa Claus it is about us, becoming childlike in faith, hope and love where the eternal breaks into our hearts so that we may live ever more fully, gracefully and lovingly as sons and daughters of the living God.
Have a happy and holy Christmas.
God bless
Fr. Mark