DIVINITY & HUMANITY
There is no greater story that has resounded on the earth than the story that has two great book ends – the story of the birth and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Yet it is not a story just like any other because a regular story can teach us or entertain us, but the story of Jesus is real and true and life changing for all who believe in Him. His coming as a baby and his growth in “age and grace and wisdom” was the fulfillment of all of the prophets, yet He was one of us – a human in all things but sin. He laughed, blew little baby bubbles, soiled his diaper and learned to walk and eventually run. He was divinity dwelling in a human nature born of Mary.
The following two poems and the story of Artaban: The Fourth Maji tell us the humanity and the divinity of Jesus, Our Saviour, and about St. Joseph, Jesus’ foster Father.
Jesus,
I believe you laughed
as Mary bathed you
and Joseph tickled your toes.
I believe you giggled
as you and the other children
played your childhood games.
And when you went
to the Temple
and astounded the teachers,
I believe you chuckled
as all children chuckle
when they stump adults.
And surely there were
moments of merriment
as you and your disciples
deepened your relationship.
And as you and Mary
and Martha and Lazarus
fellowshiped, mirth
must have been mirrored
on your faces.
Jesus,
I know you wept
and anguished. But
I believe you laughed, too.
Create in me
the life of laughter.
Lois H. Morgan
The Story of Artaban: The Fourth Magi
The Wise Man Artaban, in his pursuit of the King of the Jews, misses his three friends, who set out before him: Balthazar, Gaspar, and Melchior. He misses the Christ Child, too, because his adventures lead him into strange encounters with dying beggars and frightened mothers, to whom he gives two of his three jewels saved for the Christ Child. He returns to Jerusalem after a fruitless in Egypt. There, after thirty-three years he still diligently searches for the child.
This year it is Passover time. Artaban, now an old man, notes an unusual commotion, and he enquires about its cause. People answer him, “We are going to the place called Golgotha, just outside the walls of the city, to see two robbers and a man named Jesus of Nazareth hanged on a cross. The man Jesus call himself the Son of God, and Pilate has sent him to be crucified because he says that he is the King of the Jews.”
Artaban knows instinctively that this is the King he has been searching for. So, he rushes toward the scene. But on his way he meets a young girl being sold into slavery. She sees his royal robes and falls at his feet pleading for him to rescue her. His heart is moved, and he gives away his last jewel for her ransom. Just then, darkness falls over the land, and the earth shakes, and great stones fall into the streets. One of them falls on Artaban, crushing his head.
As he lies dying in the arms of the girl he has just ransomed, he cries out weakly, “Three and thirty years I looked for thee, Lord, but I have never seen thy face nor ministered to thee!” But then a voice comes from heaven, strong and kind, and says, “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.” Artaban’s face grows calm and peaceful. His long journey is ended. He has found his King!
There is much said about Mary, the Mother of Jesus. Poems and hymns are written about her, but St. Joseph often gets only a walk-on part at Christmas. I came across this poem about St. Joseph many years ago and have committed it to heart for life.
Poem for Saint Joseph
Whenever the bright blue nails would drop
Down on the floor of his carpenter shop,
St. Joseph, Prince of carpenter men,
Would stoop to gather them up again.
For he feared for two little sandals sweet,
And very easy to pierce they were,
As they padded over the lumber there
And rode on two little sacred feet.
But alas on a hill between earth and heaven,
One day three nails into a cross were driven
And fastened it firm to the sacred feet
Where once rode two little sandals sweet.
And Christ and his mother
looked off in death
Afar to the valley of Nazareth,
To the carpenter shop, all spread with dust
While the little blue nails all packed in rust,
Slept in a box on the window sill
And Joseph lay sleeping under the hill.
READY OR NOT … ADVENT
I know that as I write this bulletin article for the fourth Sunday of Advent, which arrives just on the heels of our Christmas celebrations, the last thing on all our minds is the Advent message yet again. “Come on, Father, get a grip. It will be Christmas in a few days and there are tons of things to do. No point in talking about Advent now and ‘preparing the way of the Lord’. Yet actually there is and there always will be.
Yes, Christmas is fast approaching and all of us, even us priests, have much to do that is good and necessary for a worthy celebration of Christ’s first coming in our parish and in our homes.
The thing is that with the down turn in our economy that affects us still, with an ever-present and growing uncertainty in our present and our futures, our focus should be keenly set on the heart of Advent and the heart of Christmas.
At Christmas we celebrate the birth of our salvation in Jesus Christ who came into the world like one of us, though born of a Virgin. We “celebrate” because of what Christmas did and means for us – “Today, a Saviour has been born for us.” Yet while his coming to us is the greatest of all news, it is so precisely because he came to save us – which links his cradle to the cross.
This year Christmas will be a truly tough time for many people. Some will enter it worried about paying the bills, making ends meet and trying to put food on the table. Some will face Christmas morning with a sense that perhaps they have overextended themselves financially in order to make others happy with their extravagance and generosity, all from a sincere heartfelt desire to bring joy and happiness to others. But we can’t make others happy and things just won’t do it apart from some short-term happiness. Some others will fear that the present economic situation will leave them with no job and having to do with far less.
I can’t help but feel in my own life and in the life of the whole world that we are way out of whack with our priorities, at least those of us who are living in this culture and in our western affluence. We have so much, we receive so much and we depend on having so much to live and we are spared much of the deprivation, starvation, neglect and hunger that befalls much of the rest of the world, largely because we aren’t generally great at thinking about or caring about the plight of others. It always disturbs me when I hear it said, “This is the season to share with others and to give to others”, as if at other times it wasn’t to be expected of us. The message of Advent is a message for every single moment of our lives. The call of Lent to get rid of our sins and turn back to God is equally a present, everyday message and an urgency that is not to be put off for another time. At every turn, at every moment of life, in each and every occasion of our existence the Christian is to be ready, attentive, responsive, humble and in prayer for our God who constantly and ultimately comes.
We have to face the fact, I think, that we have sanitized Christmas into something it is not and we make it into this dreamy scene of a happy couple celebrating the birth of their first and only child, Jesus. The truth of the matter is that there was always a direct link between the cradle of Jesus and the cross upon which he would die. His coming, unlike that of all other people, was not to live but to die. Dying was his goal, not merely his life being taken from him.
Fulton Sheen wrote in the 60’s so profoundly of this connection in an essay entitled
THE CRADLE AND THE CROSS
“She gave birth to her first child, a son. And as there was no place for them inside the inn, she wrapped him up and laid him in a manger.” (Lk. 2:7)
“And when they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him with the criminals.” (Lk. 23:33)
“Is it easier to understand the love of the cross than the love of the cradle; the love that manifests itself in giving up life for another than the love which humbles itself in infancy that men might never boast of their greatness?
He accepted the manger because there was no room in the inn; He accepted the cross because men said, “we will not have this Man reign over us.” Disowned upon entering His own creation, He is rejected upon leaving it. He was laid in a stranger’s stable at the beginning of life and a stranger’s grave at the end. At His crib in Bethlehem, He was flanked by an ox and an ass, and on the cross of Calvary by two thieves. Swaddling clothes bound Him in His birthplace; swaddling clothes wrapped Him in His tomb.
His life was lived not just from Bethlehem to Calvary, rather it began with Calvary. The cross was there at the beginning. It cast its shadow backward to His Birth. We ordinary mortals go from the known to the unknown, submitting ourselves to forces beyond our control. That is why the life of so many of us is a tragedy. But He went from the known to the known, from the reason for His coming, namely to be Jesus, or Saviour, to the fulfillment of His coming, namely, the death on the Cross.
Hence, there was no tragedy in His Life, for tragedy implies the unforeseeable, the uncontrollable, the fatalistic. Modern life is tragic when there is spiritual darkness and unredeemable guilt. For the Christ Child there were no uncontrollable forces; no submission to fatalistic change from which there could be no escape; but there was an ‘inscape’ – the microcosmic manger summarizing the macrocosmic cross on Calvary.
For all the people who know themselves to be stables, inhabited by inner beasts, and who give Him welcome, there is a joy that makes them shout in their hearts – ‘Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas’.” (Bp. Fulton J. Sheen, Christmas Inspirations, Maco Books, 1966)
MUSIC AT CHRISTMAS MASSES
It would not have even occurred to me that parishioners would prefer to know what music groups in our parish will be playing at which Masses on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but apparently some do, so here goes….
CHRISTMAS EVE – 5:00 P.M. MASS (Warning: Packed!) Sunday 9:00 a.m. Mass Group with guitars and voices (May & Johann leaders)
CHRISTMAS EVE – 9:00 P.M. MASS (Saturday 5:00 p.m. Mass Group ) John VonZuben (guitar) and choir Carols will begin at 8:30 p.m. before Mass
CHRISTMAS EVE – MIDNIGHT MASS (11:00 A.M. Sunday Mass Choir) The Midnight Mass will be preceded with Carols by choir, organ and brass or strings at 11:30 pm The brass/strings will accompany all of the music of the Midnight Mass as well
CHRISTMAS DAY – 11:00 A.M. MASS (No 9 a.m. Mass) 11:00 A.M. MASS GROUP with Organ and (possibly) choir
NOTE TO ALL PEOPLE WHO BREATHE We plan to use incense at all Masses of Christmas
…AND SADNESS FLEE AWAY These are the last words in our well-known Advent song “O Come Divine Messiah!” There is no avoiding, I suppose, a sense of “let’s get Advent out of the way to prepare for the 25th”, but the wisdom of the Church in choosing its scriptures for this Sunday reminds us to continue to be ready, to make straight our paths to the Lord. “Who” Jesus is perplexed not only John the Baptist but confronts us still as we seek to follow him.
Aside from the four Sundays when the scriptures tell us to be ready and prepared for the coming of the Lord, this season of joyful preparedness can be a very difficult time for so many people: for those who are poor or marginalized; for those who have to face the holiday season alone with memories of better times and the loss of a loved one who is no longer with them; those who are experiencing the breakup of a relationship; those who are coping with an illness or poor health; those who are fearful, worried or faced with much anxiety. The holiday season can be the worst of times at a time that is supposed to be joyous, festive, celebratory and fun.
Now, it’s not that I want to address this Advent season with a “downer” of an article, but I really feel, as I think we all do, for those who are sad, lonely, perplexed, vexed with the constant onslaught of too many things to do, but especially for those who are suffering from what can seem to be an immovable sense of sorrow, loss and relentless sadness at this time when everyone else may seem to have it all.
For me, if I should ever be sad, it is not mindless games that can shake me from my mood, but rather the work of the artist who can paint the scenes I see and feel inwardly, the poet who can speak of what I sense, the composer and the musician who can lead me to think that they know what it is to feel as I feel. I turn to that great poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who wrote Day Is Done.
DAY IS DONE
The day is done, and the darkness Falls from the wings of night, As a feather is wafted downward From an eagle in his flight. I see the lights of the village Gleam through the rain and the mist, And a feeling of sadness comes o’er me That my soul cannot resist: A feeling of sadness and longing, That is not akin to pain, And resembles sorrow only As the mist resembles the rain. Come, read to me some poem, Some simple and heartfelt lay, That shall soothe this restless feeling, And banish the thoughts of day. Not from the grand old masters, Not from the bards sublime, Whose distant footsteps echo Through the corridors of Time. For, like strains of martial music, Their mighty thoughts suggest Life’s endless toil and endeavor; And tonight I long for rest. Read from some humbler poet, Whose songs gushed from his heart, As showers from the clouds of summer, Or tears from the eyelids start; Who, through long days of labor, And nights devoid of ease, Still heard in his soul the music Of wonderful melodies. Such songs have power to quiet. The restless pulse of care, And come like the benediction That follows after prayer. Then read from the treasured volume The poem of thy choice, And lend to the rhyme of the poet The beauty of thy voice. And the night shall be filled with music And the cares, that infest the day, Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs, And as silently steal away.
Ah, the music of words from the poets experience, perception, pen and mind. While sadness is real just as physical pain is real, they are not in and of themselves all powerful. We need to recognize them for what they are, temporary feelings and sensations that will pass in time. Here I am not talking about people who suffer from depression due to a chemical imbalance, as real and as awful as this can be, for these can sometimes be treated with therapy and medical treatment. But I am addressing those whose sadness comes from the helplessness of their life situations whose symptoms cannot be readily remedied with a pat on the back and a “there, there, now – everything’s going to be all right”. There is a need for those who are sad to face their pain and work through what they feel in order to one day be able to move o, especially when moving on seems the hardest thing to do. When, for example, someone is suffering from the death of a life-partner in a husband, or wife, or in the death of a child, while grief is real it is something to journey through towards a sense of healing so that while the one we have lost and the loss we feel will never truly go away, time itself can bring about that healing with the aid, support and love of others who have been through the same things we have.
In the Christian context, suffering is not something to be avoided or swept under the carpet as if it were all in our minds: it is rather to be confronted. Sometimes in the face of great sorrow, sadness and grief, there is a tendency to think that if we just busy ourselves with other things and other thoughts and even other people, the sadness will go away and the pain will disappear. However, this is not true and avoidance is not healthy. If we bury things or deny them they still go somewhere and will no doubt surface again when our resistance is down. Christ tells us that in this life, in our human existence, we will experience sorrow and sadness, pain, suffering and grief, and that these will be real just as his suffering and death on the Cross were real. But Jesus also tells us that our “sorrow will be turned to joy” as His was! Yet it is not “pie in the sky when you die” that Jesus addresses here, rather it is the truth that even in this life here on earth are we meant to experience the “abundant life” he spoke of. The abundant life is not a life of ease and mindless bliss that we might project into our thoughts of retirement, but it is living in and having the perspective and truth of what life really is all about, and having this truth touch the realities of the ups and downs of our lives.
The real sadness of this world is found in those who do not know or will not allow the reality and presence of God and His plan for their lives now and always to penetrate their being. There is a new world coming and its truth is meant not only to touch but also colour our perception and understanding of this world that is, in fact, passing away. Love cannot eliminate pain but it certainly can soften it, and there is no other love that is like that of our God. We will only understand fully the redemptive character in pain and suffering when we are with the Lord forever in the fullness of the life that is to come, for then we shall see. O come divine Messiah. The world in silence waits the day, when hope shall sing its triumph, and sadness flee away! (Blessed Advent! Fr. Charles)
SHOW RESPECT… GENUFLECT
Upon entering a Catholic church there are two specific gestures that we make even before we take our seat in the pew of our preference; we bless ourselves with Holy Water and we genuflect toward the tabernacle before we take our seat. It is right and fitting and just that there be some specific way of acknowledging the Presence of Christ in the tabernacle. In Classical Latin the term ‘genu flectere’ means to ‘bend the knee’. A genuflexion is achieved by dropping the right knee to the floor with the left leg supporting your body while facing in the direction of the tabernacle. Originally the Jewish people always stood to pray as is attested to in the scriptures. However, whenever a prayer was of great solemnity, in urgent need, or if the one praying was fervent, the Jewish person would kneel. Genuflecting, on either one or both knees, began in the Middle Ages a momentary gesture where the body stops any motion, kneels on one knee momentarily while looking in the direction of the tabernacle, then stands once again.
As pastor I have often noticed great throngs of people passing by our tabernacle on their way to the Parish Hall without a single person genuflecting. While the act of genuflecting is not meant to be a showy thing or an action merely for the eyes of others, we do remind one another of what we ought to do by the example we give. Children certainly imitate the things their parents often say and do. Teaching a child from a young age about the tabernacle being the House of God will set the pattern for life when that child become adult attends Mass or visits the Blessed Sacrament.
Walking into a Catholic Church is not like walking into any building or hall – it is holy ground because it is built and dedicated to the worship of God and is the place where God’s holy people gather to pray to and sing the praises of our God in Jesus Christ.
Genuflecting, of course, is reserved as a bodily, physical acknowledgment of the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. The priest, once the host and the cup of wine have been consecrated, genuflects after each separate consecration in acknowledgment of the fact that Jesus is now truly, sacramentally with us, therefore, the priest bows his knee to that reality while the congregation kneels throughout the Eucharistic Prayer.
To bend low is not only to humble oneself before the God of all things, but to make oneself lower than the One who is worshipped and adored. Let us resolve to restore the great acknowledgment of our God and King: Show respect… Genuflect! (Fr. Charles)
“I go to Mass and bless myself, I bless with Holy Water.
then genuflect, to show respect for Christ upon the altar.”
NEW HOLY WATER FONTS
Our parish now has four new Holy Water fonts at the entrances to the church from the vestibule. We also have a fifth font which will be situated lower on the wall at the center door entrance for the use of the children who can’t reach the higher fonts. Awhile back I had asked for donations towards the fonts purchased and am happy to report that all four new fonts have been paid for by the following groups and parishioners:
X Knights of Columbus Council 11528 (2 fonts)
X Mr. Doug Fitzsimmons (1 font)
The following individuals made contributions which together covered the cost of 1 font:
X Mr. Geoff McPherson and Family
X Christy Dayot
X Lorraine Ebata
Thank you to all of our generous donors. (Fr. Charles)
ADVENT & THE CHRISTMAS SEASON
What our culture prepares for months to celebrate and then only celebrates for one day (December 25th), the Church prepares for in one month – Advent – and celebrates for eight days in the Season we call Christmas.
The Church reminds us to slow down, to prepare ourselves inwardly to celebrate the birthday of Jesus. A well lived Advent will prepare us for a well celebrated Christmas lest Christmas be merely a one-day family day which ends with a big dinner followed by the chucking out of the Christmas tree.
Without Advent people would just prepare for many months in buying themselves crazy for a disappointing one-day celebration. In Advent we take four weeks and their Sundays to enter into the fact that Christ lives among us now as we celebrate the ever-present reality that Christ, Emmanuel, “is with us”. We remember that Christ will come again in His Second Coming, which will occur on God’s watch and at a time known only to God and, therefore, we sort out our lives and our living according to that coming. But Advent also leads us to Christmas when we recall in memory that Christ came once in the mystery of the Incarnation – God taking on a human body – in order that we might be drawn to Him and the life He promises now and forever.
Let us use these present days as the gift they are to begin again, to make right, to restore, to resolve and to imitate the One whom we await still.
To our own personal longing for the more in life that is really a yearning for God, let us with our all say:
“COME LORD JESUS, COME!”