Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Christmas


Dear Parishioners,

What is so special about Christmas?

People tell me they like looking at the beautifully decorated Christmas trees and homes.  Others enjoy the Christmas carols and reading their Christmas cards.  Children say that they are happy because of the gifts from “Santa” or that they like watching some of the annual Christmas shows that appear on TV.  Still others seem to find a certain peace and serenity in the atmosphere.

Do you know what is so special about Christmas for me?  It’s the mystery of the Incarnation.  God chose to become a man for us.  “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (Jn. 1:14)  Timelessness entered into time.  The almighty and all-powerful God became a helpless, vulnerable infant.  The creator of all life became subject to suffering and death.  The infinite majesty of God became finite.  God walked this very earth.  He could be seen, felt and touched.

Secularists, atheists, agnostics, and various irreverent comedians may deny, doubt or make fun of that which Christians believe as a central mystery of our faith:  God became a man.  Yet, this is truly what Christmas is all about.

If Christmas is experienced as a once a year go-to-church experience, if it is just a time for the family to get together and share an extravagant meal, if it is merely a nostalgic, sentimental feel-good holiday in which multiple gifts are exchanged, then we might just have missed one of the greatest acts of love ever given to us.

Christmas celebrates when Heaven touched Earth and the Love of God took human form.  Christmas is when a baby--the Son of God and Son of Mary--is born for us in Bethlehem.  Christmas is about Christ--Jesus the Christ.

Christmas is a mystery that needs to be pondered regularly so that we can begin to examine all of its beauty--like a magnificent gem.

When you peer into the manger this Christmas, realize that before you is a glimpse of the love that God has for you by giving us His only-begotten Son.

On behalf of all of the priests that serve our parish, we wish you and your families a happy, holy Christmas and a blessed New Year!  May the love of God which took human form in the person of Jesus be honored and revered in every human person that we meet.

After all, God became one of us.

Fr. Ed Namiotka
Pastor

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