Merry Christmas! We are now into the 4th day of the Octave of Christmas! To most of the world, despite vacation from school, Christmas is passed and we are getting ready for New Year's day. Yet the Christ Child continues to beckon to us to be with HIM! We are invited into greater union with the mystery of Emmanuel, God with Us! The challenge is to allow ourselves to be like Mary, "ponder(ing) these things in her (our) hearts." This is my first Christmas with you as a Pastor. I am very blessed by the gift of Christ allowing me to journey with you on pilgrimage to holiness.
Holiness is a difficult thing to keep our eyes on if we allow it to remain an abstraction. Just as the Incarnation forces and encounter with a person, the child held in the arms of Mary, so too does holiness require of us the capacity to recognize God's presence in our daily lives. Attention to personal prayer, to members of our family, to our parish family, and to our community are the places of encounter with Christ. This is the crucible of conversion as the promise of redemption and the work of conversion are impressed upon us.
Like sheep we have to attune our ears to recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit with greater clarity that we may respond with greater alacrity. Jesus declared that we are called to enter through the narrow gate. There is nothing childish about holiness! Jesus was clear that the road to holiness is narrow and few travel upon it. We are constantly challenged to joyfully apprehend the NOW of the kingdom and to prioritize the value system of the Kingdom of God in all areas of our lives. This is a time of great HOPE as we respond to the promise of Jesus to "make all things new." There are three major mysteries remaining in the Christmas season: January 1: Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God, The Epiphany, and the Baptism of the Lord. All three mysteries evidence the transformative power of God's love concretely affecting humanity and human history. It is for us to enter like little children more confidently and trustingly into the arms of this season of grace!
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