The Christmas challenge

Bishop Robert Barron has a very interesting -- not to mention provocative -- post on his Word on Fire blog titled "Why Christmas Should Bother Everybody". Click the link with the article title to read the entire post. It's worth your time, and I encourage you to read what he has to say.

His point -- if I may -- is that Christmas is not merely some sentimental holiday centered around a cute little baby in a manger surrounded by angels, stable animals, and shepherds. And it is not simply about expressions of peace and good will toward one another (though, hopefully, it includes such behavior). Although he doesn't mention it, Christmas also is certainly not about shopping, gift-giving, decorating, and celebrating at holiday parties. Though there is nothing wrong with those things if embraced in moderation, they are really cultural, secular activities that have very little or nothing to do with the true nature of Christmas.

Bishop Barron laments that in many quarters today, Christmas has been reduced "to a level so low, so banal, that the great Christian feast is offensive to precisely no one." That, he argues, is not a good thing, because what Christmas actually celebrates is the coming of God's Word made flesh, the Christ, to call each one of us to account. Yes, he came to save sinners by his death and resurrection -- but not so we could keep on living as we always have. Christ came to call us to radical conversion of life. Recall that Jesus' very first words to his followers at the beginning of his ministry were: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17). Repentance calls for a change of heart, a turning toward God in every single aspect of our lives. We monks call it conversatio, and it is one of the vows we make. And it is not accomplished overnight; it is the work of a lifetime.

This should understandably unnerve us,  Bishop Barron argues. Our fallen human nature will resist such a call, such a challenge -- which, in a subtle way, is what we are unconsciously doing as a culture when we reduce Christmas to a banal, sentimental, inoffensive holiday. The true challenge of Christmas is to honestly examine our consciences, and to consciously embrace the call of God's Word to radically reorient every aspect of our lives toward Christ so that we are at one with him. And it is not something we can do on our own. By grace, we must rely on the gifts of prayer, Scripture, the sacraments, and the tradition and fellowship of the Church -- and then put those gifts to work in the worship of God and service of one another.

A good place to start is meditating on what it means for God, who out of fierce love for each one of us, became as small as a human infant in a feeding trough -- just as through his death and resurrection he becomes the Bread of Life for us to feed upon daily.

This is a message rarely preached these days, and one that is sorely needed in our world. As Bishop Barron points out, "Jesus is not simply a kindly prophet with a gentle message of forgiveness; he is God coming in person to assume command. He is the Lord."

This Christmas and thereafter, what will be your response? Do you accept the challenge? If so, let us rejoice together with the angels: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests" (Luke 2:14).

Peace and humility

I will hear what the Lord God has to say, a voice that speaks of peace,
peace for his people and his friends, and those who turn their hearts to him.

Psalm 85:8

Above all, keep peace within yourself, then you will be able to create peace among others. It is better to be peaceful than learned.

The passionate person often thinks evil of a good person and easily believes the worst; a good and peaceful person turns all things to good.

One who lives at peace suspects no one. But one who is tense and agitated by evil is troubled with all kinds of suspicions -- never at peace with oneself, and not permitting others to be at peace. He or she often speaks when it is better to be silent, and fails to say what would be truly useful. Such a one is well aware of the obligations of others but neglects his or her own.

So, be zealous first of all with yourself, and then you will be justified in expressing zeal for your neighbor. You are good at excusing and justifying your own deeds, and yet you will not listen to the excuses of others. It would be more just to accuse yourself and to excuse your brother or sister.

If you wish others to put up with you, first put up with them.

Thomas à Kempis

The Imitation of Christ

The patience of Advent

Be patient, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and late rains. You too must be patient. Make your hearts firm, because the coming of the Lord is at hand.

-- James 5:7-8

With the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard "delay," but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

-- 2Peter 3:8b-9

URGENT: Jesus is coming

When the “holiday season” kicks off each year—which used to happen around late November, although it now seems to be much earlier—much of the world makes a mad dash toward December 25. Along with ordinary tasks, the days are filled with decorating, buying, celebrating, buying, fretting, buying, baking, buying—in search of some nostalgic, yet vague sense of hope that, all too often, fails to satisfy and is kicked to the curb on Dec. 26.

By contrast, Christians (in theory, at least) profess this period as Advent (from the Latin term adventus, or coming).

Whose coming do we await? In faith, hope, and love, we await the coming of Christ—God among us—who comes to save humanity from the state that it has itself rendered. Jesus has come once to take on our humanity and redeem it. He will come again to fulfill God’s promise and take all things to himself. And he is coming now, at this very moment—whatever season it is. Eternity will emerge from how we respond daily to God’s eternal presence in the mystical Body of Christ.

Eternity will be what each of us makes of today.

While it’s fine to engage in a little holiday cheer when the time comes, we do well to remember that Advent calls for a joyful anticipation of the Kingdom of God—yesterday, today, and forever. We must recall that the celebration of Christmas (which actually begins Dec. 25 and runs for many days thereafter) evokes that mystical event when God became man in the person of Jesus, whose name in Hebrew means “God saves.” That should indeed bring us great joy—but not the fleeting, superficial, artificial joy so often peddled in the month of December. It is a daily joy tempered by the reality of the crucifixion, a wonderful paradox that gives rise to rejoicing with the psalmist: Lord, “there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered” (130:4).

Advent and Christmas, then, are solemn occasions steeped in true, everlasting joy as we await throughout all our days the full coming of the Kingdom of God. As author Alice Camille points out in her booklet Waiting for God: The Grace of Advent, there is more to it than a cute baby in a manger. It’s serious business. Advent, she says, is a state of spiritual emergency.

Advent involves a different type of urgency than the festal fretting that so often surrounds us before Christmas even begins. We are reminded of this throughout the year at each Mass after the Lord’s Prayer, when the priest says, “Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, that by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.”

For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and forever.

From the Abbey Press book

Grace in the Wilderness, ©2013

Communion prayer

Lord Jesus,

You are

love,

mercy,

grace,

and peace.

You are the

resurrection

and the

life.

Help me

to become

who I

receive

in you.

Amen.

Back in 1908 ...

The first Model T is introduced by Henry Ford.

Construction of the Titanic begins in Belfast, Ireland.

The IV Olympic Games are held in London and women compete for the first time. Among the 24 sports: tug of war, rugby and polo.

William Howard Taft defeats William Jennings Bryan for the U.S. presidency.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, two longtime bank robbers, are reported killed in Bolivia.

The following notable people are born: baseball announcer Red Barber, actor Rex Harrison, author Louis L'Amour, actor Buddy Ebsen, actress Bette Davis, journalist Edward R. Murrow, actor James Stewart, author Ian Fleming, comedian Milton Berle, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson.

Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz is published by Frank L. Baum

U.S. unemployment: 8 percent

U.S. population: 88.7 million

Cost of a first-class stamp: 2 cents

Eggs: 14 cents a dozen

U.S. flag: 45 stars

Population of Las Vegas: 30

Average wage (not minimum): 22 cents per hour

U.S. homes with a telephone: 8 percent

U.S. homes with a bathtub: 14 percent

And in the world of baseball, the statistical leaders were:

Batting average

Ty Cobb, Detroit .324 in American League

Honus Wagner, Pittsburgh .354 in National League

Home runs

Sam Crawford, Detroit 7 in AL

Tim Jordan, Brooklyn 12 in NL

Strikeouts

Ed Walsh, White Sox 269 in AL

Christy Mathewson N.Y. Giants 259 in NL

World Series champion

Chicago Cubs – who did not win again for another 108 years—until last night’s exciting 10-inning, 8-7 victory in Game 7 against the Cleveland Indians.

(The image at the top of this post was the official Chicago Cubs logo in 1908.)

Joy of the souls in purgatory

“Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.

And let perpetual light shine upon them.”

There is no joy save that in paradise to be compared with the joy of the souls in purgatory. As the rust of sin is consumed, the soul is more and more open to God's love. Just as a covered object left out in the sun cannot be penetrated by the sun's rays, in the same way, once the covering of the soul is removed, the soul opens itself fully to the rays of the sun.

Having become one with God's will, these souls, to the extent that he grants it to them, see into God. Joy in God, oneness with him, is the end of these souls, an instinct implanted in them at their creation.

All that I have said is as nothing compared to what I feel within, the witnessed correspondence of love between God and the soul; for when God sees the soul pure as it was in its origins, he tugs at it with a glance, draws it and binds it to himself with a fiery love.

God so transforms the soul in himself that it knows nothing other than God. He will not cease until he has brought the soul to perfection. That is why the soul seeks to cast off any and all impediments, so that it can be lifted up to God; and such impediments are the cause of the suffering of the souls in purgatory. Not that the souls dwell on their suffering; they dwell, rather, on the resistance they feel in themselves against the will of God, against his intense and pure love bent on nothing but drawing them up to him.

And I see rays of lightning darting from that divine love to the creature, so intense and fiery as to annihilate not the body alone but, were it possible, the soul. The soul becomes like gold that becomes purer as it is fired, all dross being cast out.

The last stage of love is that which does it work without human doing. If humans were to be aware of the many hidden flaws in them, they would despair. These flaws are burned away in the last stage of love. God then shows the soul its weakness, so that the soul may see the workings of God.

If we are to become perfect, change must be brought about in us and without us; that is, change is to be the work not of human beings but of God. This, the last stage of love, is the pure and intense love of God alone.

The overwhelming love of God gives the soul a joy beyond words. In purgatory great joy and great suffering do not exclude one another.

St. Catherine of Genoa

Purgation and Purgatory