That Reading You Always Have to Hear on Christmas Eve

Happy end to Advent, Kansans!  Last week I linked to an article on Pope Benedict's Jesus of Nazareth book touching on its general approach toward the historicity of the Gospels and their portrayal of Jesus' birth.  If you've ever been at the Christmas Eve mass and been bored by the genealogy, then you ought to read Benedict's book!  But for now here are just a few of my thoughts which went up today on Crisis Magazine.

A Final Thought - a teacher learns from her students

Excerpts from a Theology Final Exam

Course: Theology III - Life in Christ, Fall 2013

Author(s):  25 Junior Bishop Ward High School students

·        God gave us the wisdom; we just have to live it.

·        God is always there with me, he is the reason why I am here.

·        To know that you can make an impact is an awesome feeling.

·        God is always there, waiting for you.

·        God is what makes me most happy, not anything else.

·        If I changed one life, than that would change who I am as a person.

·        A moral life is the best life.

·        True happiness comes from love and devotion to one another.

·        Moral laws have a purpose, to help us get to Christ.

·        I haven’t physically seen Jesus, but I know that he is alive within my soul.

·        In our lives there are times that it gets tough and its’ hard just being ourselves.  We must stay strong and believe that he will come and help us through our prayers.  It is hard, and it does bring us down, but in keeping in our faith, we will see the face of God.

·        Happiness is God in our lives.

·        At mass… I began to think every second spent on Earth is precious.

·        God will take care of everything.

·        It might be really hard to be a good person but it will certainly make our lives better. 

·        …love ... as Jesus told us to. I feel things like this, are what will really matter in the end.

Jesus’ Infancy through the Eyes of Benedict XVI

Blessed Advent wishes to everyone as we celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe and head toward Gaudete ("Rejoice!") Sunday.  In case you didn't get it when it came out last year, there's still time to get speedy delivery and read Benedict XVI's Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives, which at only a little over 100 pages makes for great Advent meditation.

Today I am linking to one of at least a couple posts I'll be sharing on the book this Advent.  It's on a great site--especially for catechists and pastors--Homiletic and Pastoral Review.  Here's the link to my post.

So What Are We Waiting For?

"So what are we waiting for?"

Pope Francis asks this question in his new apostolic exhortation on "the joy of the Gospel" (Evangelii Gaudium). He's referring to our mandate to go out and evangelize! In paragraph 120 he further writes:

"All the baptized, whatever their position in the Church or their level of instruction in the faith, are agents of evangelization, and it would be insufficient to envision a plan of evangelization to be carried out by professionals while the rest of the faithful would simply be passive recipients. The new evangelization calls for personal involvement on the part of each of the baptized. Every Christian is challenged, here and now, to be actively engaged in evangelization; indeed, anyone who has truly experienced God’s saving love does not need much time or lengthy training to go out and proclaim that love."

I invite all Catholics to take to heart the Pope's teaching on evangelization. In addition, I encourage readers to visit my series of posts at No Place Like Home summarizing this rich teaching, including today's post "Evangelizing Church," on how all Catholics are called to be "agents of evangelization."

A Bridge to Truth

I have posted on another blog, one dedicated to Blessed John Henry Newman. While it does not directly address evangelization, the article addresses two common struggles people have today; how to discern the truth and overcoming fear. 
My argument is that the two are related.  Since we have a reduced understanding of truth, we experience fear.  The truth will set us free and in our efforts at evangelization, we will be meeting people who lack the tools of reaching the fullness of truth.  By expanding the ways we can come to know the truth with certainty, we open up new roads for people to come to the fullness of the Catholic faith.
http://www.cardinaljohnhenrynewman.com/building-a-bridge-to-truth-card-newman/

Evangelization and Imagination Part II

            This morning I was going over the calendar for the month of December when I saw under the heading December 25 “Christmas (Holy Day of Obligation).”  That caused a bit of a jolt.  Of course, as a priest, I know that Christmas is a Holy Day of Obligation, but what surprised me is how strange it seems to be reminded of this. 

            As a pastor, I have always made sure to announce the Sunday before that, “Such and such holy day was indeed a ‘Holy Day of Obligation,” requiring attendance at Holy Mass.  I dutifully do this for Holy Mary, Mother of God, Assumption, All Saints and Immaculate Conception.  But I have never considered it necessary to remind people that Christmas is a Holy Day of Obligation.  In fact, I think if I reminded people of that on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, they would laugh.  “What a ridiculous thing to say, of course we will go to Mass on Christmas.”

            “Of course we will go to Mass on Christmas,” is not just a remark of a Catholic who faithfully attends Mass every Sunday.  It is something said by many people, including those who are far from the Church and are not active, faithful Catholics.  Millions of people who would not consider themselves “active” or “faithful” Catholics will come to Mass for Christmas.  Almost every Catholic Church in the world is filled to the rafters for at least one or two Masses. 

            Why is that? 

I would propose that it because Christmas Mass is a celebration that has grabbed their imaginations and is indelibly marked in their memories. Now, the Church clearly teaches that Mass is not the place for evangelization. Mass, in order for it to bear fruit, must be preceded by evangelization and conversion (CCC 1072). We create grave injustice to both the Mass and evangelization when we try to combine them. But we evangelize people so that one day they may be ready for the Sacred Liturgy.  And this, I propose, requires more of our evangelization efforts be directed to engaging the imagination of the person. 

In my first post on this topic, I suggested that success in evangelization will not be found in simply offering more catechesis that educates the intellect, service projects that engage the will or activities that influence the emotions.  Christmas Mass attendance is the perfect example. People do not come to Christmas Mass because they want to be intellectually engaged.  They certainly do not come because they feel they are under a penalty of grave sin for missing Mass on a Holy Day of Obligation.  While their emotions are engaged, there is more to it than that.  They come because Christmas is just not Christmas without coming to Church.  It is an activity that is deeply impressed upon both their imaginations and their memories.  Christmas is a celebration that has captured their imagination and they cannot imagine December 24/25 without "Christ’s Mass."  The next question is, “How can we capture the imagination of these people who come at Christmas and invite them into something more than Christmas Mass?”

The Beginning of Advent

Yesterday marked the beginning of our Liturgical year in the Catholic Church- the First Sunday of Advent. Advent is a beautiful season in the Church that reminds us to prepare for the coming of Christ. One of the verses we hear often during the season of Advent is "Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time will come...Watch, therefore-for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning-lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!" When I hear this I experience a few different emotions. I get excited and anxious at the same time. It is so important during this season of Advent to prepare ourselves in every way we can to be ready for the coming of Christ. By this I not only mean to be ready for when Christ calls us home, but also to be prepared at Christmastime when we celebrate the birth of our Lord. During these next 4 weeks we are to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ. 

A few things to remember:
1.Examination of conscience- finding those things that are separating us and distancing us from God. We need to take the time to reflect on our daily struggles and habits. Advent is a time to reflect on our lives and form ourselves into the men and women that God has created us to be.
2.Prayer- we have to set aside time each day to pray; not only to pray for the things we need but to give praise and thanks to God for all of the many blessings he has given to each of us. As we go deeper into our spiritual lives, we begin to reflect more on who we are, and who we are called to be.
3.Confession- we need to be making sure we are receiving the Sacraments. Confession is a great way to start the season of Advent. A clean and fresh start as we prepare for the coming of our Lord-nothing better! 

There is so much joy and anticipation as we wait for the coming of our Lord. As we strive to grow in holiness and virtue each day, we need to be aware that we are going to struggle. We are not perfect. Our faith will be tested and we will be tempted by evil things, but our God is faithful and merciful. We have to pray for the strength and wisdom to keep our eyes fixed on the things of heaven, and not let little things of less importance interfere. As we look forward to Christmas and get excited about the shopping and decorating, let us also experience the joy and anticipation that comes from preparing for the coming of our Lord.