December 12, 1999 |
"Rejoice in the Lord always! Again, I say "Rejoice!" These words of St. Paul usher in the final weeks of Advent. Today is Gaudete (Rejoice) Sunday. The pink candle on the Advent wreath is lit. The Feast of God made man -- Christmas -- is ever near.
This truly is a time of joy. You can feel it in the air. You can see it in people's faces. It is a time for coming together; for celebration. The center of the Christmas celebration is the family. It is important to us that whenever possible all of the family be home for Christmas. We come together to share past memories; to bring our gifts; to be present to one another; to feast together and to share our love. Joy and peace and love are the true gifts we give at Christmas. Rejoice! We celebrate the Father's gift of love. Jesus has come and lives now with us His people. We welcome Him to our Christmas celebration. Let St. Paul's words be your guide for the season. "The Lord is near. Dismiss all worry, all anxiety from your minds. Bring your needs to God in every form of prayer. Then God's own peace, which is beyond all understanding, will stand guard over your hearts and minds."
This Sunday, in the Roman Liturgy, is known as GAUDETTE SUNDAY. This comes from the Latin word meaning to Rejoice. The word rejoice is found in the entrance antiphon for this Sunday, which says Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice! The Lord is near. The violet color of Advent is lightened to a rose color. The change in color, and the tone of the Liturgy reminds us that the birth of Christ is near. Again this Sunday, the appearance of St. John the Baptist calls us to repentance: a reminder that the best way to prepare for the celebration of the birth of Christ is conversion and a new heart. One of the ways in which we do this, of course, is the Sacrament of Reconciliation, or Penance. The schedule for the Advent penance services in Decatur can be found listed below.
You will notice that this week's bulletin cover is Our Lady of Guadalupe. The feast day is traditionally celebrated on December 12. Although the Sunday liturgy normally takes precedence over any feast day, I have seen to it that an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is on the cover. Earlier this year, before he came to St. Louis, our Holy Father proclaimed that Our Lady of Guadalupe is not only patroness of Mexico, but of ALL of the Americas. In 1531 Our Lady appeared four times to a native convert, Juan Diego Cuatitaltoatxin (meaning the talking eagle) at Tepayac, near Mexico City. A member of the Chichimeca people, he was perhaps a leader of his own people and may have been involved in the area's textile industry. Known for his holiness, Juan Diego devoted himself, tradition says, to the pilgrims who came to see the miraculous image of Mary imprinted on his cloak; beautified in 1990 by Pope John Paul in Mexico City. (From the Order of the Mass). I mention this because it is important to be aware of how the Church in our Country is changing due to the Hispanic population increase. We are told that within not too many years the Church in the United States will be nearly 25% Hispanic. They bring to us a rich heritage of family and culture, all rooted in Catholic Faith. They may very well help us to appreciate our Catholic heritage and perhaps recover some of it! We will have Mass this Sunday for Our Lady of Guadalupe around 2:00 PM. Anyone is welcome to attend!
Lord, Source of All Energy and Light,
the ancients saw the sun
as a great fire wheel rolling across the sky.
May our Advent wreath,
this small wheel of green,
be for us a symbol of the sun
and of the Son of God.
May its ever-greenness
be a sign of life and light
in the midst of the darkness of winter.
May the candles that burn brightly upon it
remind us of Your Son, Jesus,
who was the light of the world.
Grant, Lord, that this our Advent wreath
may be for us and for all who visit our home
a sign of faith in a world grown cold with disbelief,
a symbol of hope in a time of gloom and despair
and a flaming image of love
in a winter of mistrust and hate.
May all who look upon this symbol of Advent
be encouraged to prepare their hearts
for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
May this green wreath with its bright candles
help us to prepare for the real Christmas
which happens within our hearts. Amen.
Frs. Earl & Gilmary
Is December 25 really Jesus' birthday? Is it really going to be the 2000th year since the birth of Christ? For about 300 years now, really has come to mean that we can prove it with a government document or a scientific experiment. But for our ancestors, something that might not be so easily proved could still be real, still be true.
We don't have a birth certificate for Jesus. In fact, the gospels are silent as to the date of Christ's birth. The two gospels that do speak about the year contradict each other. Matthew 2:1 states that Jesus was born in the days of King Herod, who died in March or April of the year that we would call 4 BC, 2004 years before the year 2000. Luke 2:2 states that Jesus was born when Quirinius was governor of Syria, that is, not until the year that we would call AD 6, or 1994 years before the year 2000. So we don't know scientifically the year of the Savior's birth.
What about the date December 25? It's possible that this is Jesus' birthday. We know that some churches kept December 25 as a solemn feast of the nativity very early on. Maybe they knew something we don't. Some think that there are other reasons why December 25 has been kept at Jesus' birthday at least since the year 336.
Some scholars think that Christians began celebrating the birth of Christ on December 25 because it was the pagan feast of the Unconquered Sun, proclaimed by the Roman emperor in AD 274. According to the calendar at the time, December 25 would have been the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, when hours of sunlight stop shrinking. (December 21 is the solstice on modern calendars.) Since Christians knew that Jesus was truly the Unconquered Sun of Justice, what better day to feast his birth? (At least everybody already had the day off.)
Another group of scholars think that the early Christians thought, Well, the gospels say nothing of Christ's birthday, but John the Baptist, as usual, points to the truth. He says, 'Christ must increase, but I must decrease' (John 3:30). Now we can figure out Jesus' birthday! People in those days believed that what happened in nature was a clue to the whole meaning of life. So John the Baptist was hinting that his birthday was the summer solstice - the longest day of the year - June 25 on the old calendar. (In fact, we still celebrate the birth of the Baptist on June 24!) After all, John is the brightest and strongest of the prophets to foretell Christ's coming.
So this means that John would have been conceived on September 25 (the autumn equinox on the old calendar.)
Being a holy saint, a perfect person, he would have been in Elizabeth's womb for exactly nine months. Well, Luke 1:26 tells us that John was conceived six months prior to Jesus. So Jesus was conceived on March 25. (We still celebrate this day as the solemnity of the Annunciation, and it was the first day of spring according to the old calendar!) Being the Son of God, Christ is the perfect human being, so of course he was in Mary's womb exactly nine months, and thus born on December 25.
Some today scoff at this logic, sadly missing its profound poetry, its inner truths. (In a time when most people didn't know math, such calculations would have been respected as sacred knowledge.) And sadly, there are still those today who won't believe that Jesus even existed until they see some kind of birth certificate. But we who are baptized are open to other ways of knowing truths bigger than official documents and laboratory evidence can tell. We learn in our liturgy to sense divine action in human history. We know that we can trust our church calendar, waiting in Advent, rejoicing at Christmas, joyfully celebrating God in the flesh - our flesh! - born into our world, redeeming even our calendars, giving us holidays to cherish.
Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord!
(Archdioces of Chicago: Liturgy Training Publication)
Rejoice always! The words of St. Paul in the second reading reflect the tone for this Third Sunday of Advent. His exhortation also implies a question: What makes you happy or how can you always rejoice? As Christmas draws near, the excitement of children is contagious. Social gatherings, shopping, and all the special traditions add to the festivity of this season. All this excitement will pass when the millennium celebration dies down. How does Christian joy perdure?
Christian joy springs from deep within a faith filled heart and soul. Joy is the assurance of that faith and the inner calm that is born of confidence in God. Joy is so deep within that it remains untouched by outward circumstances and is not extinguished by suffering, struggle or sorrow. In his letters, Paul tells us how to keep joy alive: remain prayerful and thankful. Isaiah calls us to find joy in the healing, freedom and forgiveness that we have in Jesus. John the Baptist in the gospel today directs our attention to Jesus, the Savior and Light of the world. John is the Advent prophet challenging us to cultivate that authentic joy that will sustain us in every eventuality.
In her book Something Beautiful for God, Mother Teresa understood that authentic joy must communicate itself in love and service. Joy is prayer, she said, joy is strength, joy is love...joy is being with God in Christ, loving as He loves, helping as He helps, giving as He gives, serving as He serves, rescuing as He rescues, being with Him twenty-four hours and touching Him in His most distressing disguises. Finding, recognizing and tending to God in the least of God's people gave Mother Teresa lasting joy. I remember a quote from her when I visited the mother house of the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta: Never let any difficulty take away the joy of the risen Christ.
Today we celebrate the Third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, the joyful Sunday of Advent as we prepare for the Lord's imminent coming. So what makes you happy and in what do you find your joy?
Father James Tobin, S.M.
Pastor
I had a brief glimpse of the last presidential candidates' debate and discovered, as expected, that it was filled with not much more than a little teasing of each other. The press, however, likes to put its own spin on such events as debates. It likes to tell us who the winners and losers were, although it is their task merely to report on it.
One of the news magazines, Time or Newsweek, also likes to tell us who the winners and losers are in national happenings. Now, I do like that idea of winners and losers. There is some value in talking about these, especially in the context of the Advent Season.
If a telephone interviewer called and asked you who were the real winners and losers in the world, how would you respond? Would you give the names of presidents, kings, movie stars, singers, popes, parents?
Someone recently wrote a Letter to the Editor in which they complained about a political candidate that they had helped to elect. They stated that he had promised this and that...and had accomplished nothing...but had just joined the "old boys' club." He was a winner, as they listened to his pre-election promises. He became a loser, as they saw that promises are promises are promises are promises...
Well, to editorialize a little I would suggest a winner that we all should keep our eye on is John the Baptist. Most likely his appearance was not appealing, but his message had force. He didn't come to exalt himself, but he kept his eye on Jesus and talked about His importance. The losers were those who did not see him as a prophet who was showing the people the way to Jesus.
Another winner, of course, is Jesus himself. He too spoke a message that had force, much more force than John's. And he did not exalt himself. Rather, he spoke of his Father in heaven whom we needed to turn to so that we could return to him some day.
The losers were those who did not get the message because other messages interfered with their acceptance of Jesus' words.
Today, Advent 1999, are we winners or losers? Having just set up a crib scene in the parish office and in the rectory, I asked myself the question: "Am I just going through the routine of doing what is expected at this time of year or does what I am doing have real meaning for me?" In other words is John the Baptist and is Jesus a winner for me so that I too am a winner?
Let's all haul out those religious symbols of the season and as we set them in place let's state that we are winners because we associate with, listen to and follow winners.
The Third Sunday of Advent! ("GAUDETE" Sunday!, REJOICE!) How are the Christmas preparations coming? Cards out? Shopping finished, wrapping gifts finished, baking? (cookies for Fr. Homer!!!) Feeling the press of the season? This Sunday, (our traditional Rose Sunday, definitely not "Pink") we shift our focus from preparing for Christ's coming in glory at the end of time, to preparations for the celebration of His birth in Bethlehem. Once again we hear the Advent prophet, Isaiah telling us of 'glad tidings'. John the Baptist returns in our Gospel as one who testifies to the light, though he himself is NOT the light. He was calling people to prepare, "to make straight the way of the Lord." Is this a needed message for us this Advent? How do our lives, our attitudes, our Christmas plans need to be 'straightened out' so that we will be able to see the light that shines in the darkness and gloom of being overwhelmed, frazzled and fretting the days ahead? Listen to St. Paul's special 'Gaudete' message this Sunday, "May the God of 'peace' make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ..." When the Scrooge within surfaces this week, remember your God of Peace. Say with the prophet Isaiah, I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul."
The final days of 1999 are passing quickly as we prepare for Christmas and the Jubilee Year 2000. The readings for this Sunday are most appropriate and timely with the traditional third Advent Sunday theme of rejoice, and the first reading from Isaiah heralding a year of the Lord's favor, a jubilee year. Throughout the season of Advent, the readings from Isaiah set the tone of Advent - a season to quicken our longing for Emmanuel - God with us. The author William Barry, S.J. in his book Paying Attention to God, puts the Advent readings in the perspective of God's vision for future ages:
The scriptural readings for the liturgies of the Advent season provide one glimpse of God's intention. I have a dream, we can hear God say as we listen to these words of the prophet Isaiah.
Many peoples will come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths. . . He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord (Is 2:3-5).
God dreams of a universe where there will be no more wars, nor even training for war. Such a universe would be one where human beings no longer feared one another, but loved and cared for one another.
I have a dream, says the Lord: The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Is 11:6-9).
Excerpts from1. Contemplating the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God, the Church prepares to cross the threshold of the Third Millennium. Never more than at this time do we feel the need to make our own the Apostle's hymn of praise and thanksgiving: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him. He destined us to love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will... For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth" (Eph 1: 3-5, 9-10)
The birth of Jesus at Bethlehem is not an event which can be consigned to the past. The whole of human history in fact stands in reference to him: our own time and the future of the world are illumined by his presence. He is "the Living One" (Rev 1:18), "who is, who was and who is to come" (Rev 1:4). Before him every knee must bend, in the heavens, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue proclaim that he is Lord (cf. Phil 2:10-11). In the encounter with Christ, every man discovers the mystery of his own life.
2. The Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 is almost upon us. Every since my first Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis, I have looked towards this occasion with the sole purpose of preparing everyone to be docile to the working of the Spirit. The event will be celebrated simultaneously in Rome and in all the particular Churches around the world, and it will have, as it were, two centres: on the one hand, the City where Providence chose to place the See of the Successor of Peter, and on the other hand, the Holy Land, where the Son of God was born as man, taking our flesh from a Virgin whose name was Mary (cf. Lk 1:27). With equal dignity and significance, therefore, the Jubilee will be celebrated not only in Rome but also in the Land which is rightly called "Holy" because it was there that Jesus was born and died. That Land, in which the first Christian community appeared, is the place where God revealed himself to humanity. It is the Promised Land which has so marked the history of the Jewish People, and is revered by the followers of Islam as well. May the Jubilee serve to advance mutual dialogue until the day when all of us together -- Jews, Christian and Moslems -- will exchange the greeting of peace in Jerusalem. This awareness commits the community of believers to live in the world knowing that they must be "the leaven and, as it were, the soul of human society, destined to be renewed in Christ and transformed into the family of God". In order to meet this commitment effectively, the Church must persevere in unity and grow in the life of communion. The imminent approach of the Jubilee offers a powerful stimulus in this direction.
The journey of believers towards the Third Millennium is in no way weighed down by the weariness which the burden of two thousand years of history could bring with it. Rather, Christians feel invigorated, in the knowledge that they bring to the world the true light, Christ the Lord. Proclaiming Jesus of Nazareth, true God and perfect Man, the Church opens to all people the prospect of being "divinized" and thus becoming more human. This is the one path which can lead the world to discover its lofty calling and to achieve it fully in the salvation wrought by God. (by Pope John Paul ll)
Celebrate 2000!...Reflections on Jesus, The Holy Spirit, and the Father,
by Pope John Paul II.
Building Peace...Precisely because of their faith, believers are called-as individuals and as a body-to be messengers and artisans of peace. Like others and even more than others, they are called to seek with humility and perseverance appropriate responses to the yearnings for security and freedom, solidarity and sharing, which are common to everyone in this world, which as it were has become smaller. A commitment to peace of course concerns every person of good will...Yet this is a duty which is especially incumbent upon all who profess faith in God and even more so upon Christians, who have as their guide and master the Prince of Peace (Is 9:6)...
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you, Christ has said to us (Jn 14:27). This divine promise fills us with the hope, indeed the certainty of divine hope, that peace is possible, because nothing is impossible with God (see Luke 1:37). For true peace is always God's gift, and for us Christians it is a precious gift of the risen Lord...
I wish to reaffirm the need for intense, humble, confident and persevering prayer, if the world is finally to become a dwelling place of peace.
Prayer is par excellence the power needed to implore that peace and obtain it. It gives courage and support to all who love this good and desire to promote it in accordance with their own possibilities and in the various situations in which they live. Prayer not only opens us up to a meeting with the Most High but also disposes us to a meeting with our neighbor, helping us to establish with everyone, without discrimination, relationships of respect, understanding, esteem and love...
Prayer is the bond which most effectively unites us. It is through prayer that believers meet one another at a level where inequalities, misunderstandings, bitterness and hostility are overcome, namely before God, the Lord and Father of all. Prayer, as the authentic expression of a right relationship with God and with others, is already a positive contribution to peace.
[TPS 37/3, 1992, 161-3, 166]
THE JUBILEE YEAR WAS AN INVITAITON FOR PEOPLE TO SEE THEIR LIVES FROM A DIVINE PERSPECTIVE: All that they were and all they did should be in accord with God's will for building a community of justice, mercy, love and peace. - Like the ancient Israelites in their time, Catholic laypersons today ought to see the coming Jubilee as a call to renewed practice of charity, pursuit of justice, welcome to the stranger and new efforts to permit all to participate in the life of the community.
Our Lady of Guadalupe? Say what? Who's that? It goes back a ways, to 1531, just 39 years after the traditional date for Columbus' discovery of America. The story tells of a humble Indian peasant who was walking along the road to Church in what was then a rural area outside Mexico City. His name was Juan Diego. He was a new Christian, having heard the Spanish missionaries preaching in his area, and he accepted their call to faith. This was not a usual morning. He sensed a beautiful aroma in the air and saw the image of a most unusual woman. She identified herself as Mary, Mother of Jesus. She asked Juan Diego to tell the Bishop that she wanted a Church built in the very place where Juan Diego encountered her. Well, the Bishop was not about to run off and build a Church in the middle of nowhere on the word of a peasant. He asked for a sign. The Lady gave them a sign. The next day, 12 December, the area was covered with roses... out of season. Juan Diego gathered roses in his tilma, the rough peasant cloak worn in the area, to bring them to the Bishop. When he opened his tilma to show the Bishop the roses, the flowers dropped to the floor and in their place was an image of Our Lady dyed into the coarse cloth of the cloak. The Church was built and became a place of pilgrimage for first, Latin Americans, and eventually all Americans. This story is a reminder of how every culture and place has an image of Mary that is called its own. Titles vary, like Lourdes, Knock, Fatima, Czestochowa, but all reference Mary, Mother of Jesus. The place is anywhere and everywhere. The fiat of Mary, woman of the first Advent now guides us as mother to the new Advent. Over the years, Mexico City has grown out to embrace the Church and Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Among its most recent pilgrims is Pope John Paul II. The message of the story remains the same and that's what attracts so many people to Guadalupe. Juan Diego believed that God cared enough about him and the other peasants to come into their lives. Advent is a study of God's presence in the lives of believers. We await God's intervention in our lives. Christmas is the celebration of a caring God. He cared enough to send the very best, Jesus Christ. Juan Diego believed and saw his miracle. Look with the eyes of faith and find your own miracle!
Father Michael Doyle, OSM
