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New Albany parishioners celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe
By Galen Holley
NEW ALBANY – The soft, musical whispering of the rosary was interrupted only momentarily by the raucous, heartfelt shouting of “Vive!” as Hispanic parishioners at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in New Albany welcomed the approaching dawn.
They prayed the Joyful Mysteries. The Holy Rosary is a blessing from the Virgin, and although all the mysteries depict episodes throughout the gospels, perhaps none more vibrantly unfold the feminine, motherly life of Mary as do the Joyful Mysteries.
The parishioners started at 4:30 a.m. Many had to be on factory furniture lines when the belt started rolling at 6 a.m. Still, they rose early, put on at least one special article of clothing, and found a spot in the crowded little church to kneel and pray.
Alejandro Caballero and his friend, Maria, donned matching shirts bearing the image of the Virgin. Their garments were bedecked with sequins and many handmade, special attentions.
Many of the faithful, like Bernie Garcia and family, whose patriarch, Pablo, is studying to be a deacon, brought in cooing babies in bassinets. Others walked arm-in-arm with aging abuelos, wrapped in shawls against the damp, morning air. “Ave, Maria,” they all whispered, crossing themselves with holy water and never turning their backs on the Blessed Sacrament.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, has been depicted in many ways, most often as a blushing, pale European. Our Lady of Guadalupe is an ethnic image of Mary, one with dark, distinctly indigenous features who exemplifies the universality of the Christian Gospel.
In the Guadalupe apparition, Mary had dark skin and spoke in Nahautl. Her turquoise cloak signaled royalty to the indigenous people; the black sash around her waist was their sign for pregnancy. She was clothed in stars and stood upon the moon – signs connecting her both to Indian concepts of deity and to Revelations 12:1.
Today, the image of “Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe” is perhaps the most pervasive religious image in Hispanic culture.
St. Francis of Assisi Parish demonstrates to the surrounding community how the Christian Gospel reaches across racial, ethnic and cultural divides. Father Jesu Raj Xavier, a native of India, speaks excellent English, and he’s quickly learning Spanish. Pablo Garcia has long been a leader in the Hispanic community, and now he’s making a focused effort to improve his English. Anglo and Hispanic parishioners feel equally at home at both Sunday morning masses.
Juan Diego, the native man to whom the Virgin appeared, was canonized as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church in 2002. His cloak, bearing Mary’s image, hangs in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe near Mexico City on the site of the Tepeyac Hill. The basilica is one of the most visited sites in Christianity, second only to the Vatican in number of annual pilgrims.
Southern culture is one in which mothers’ welcome children and their friends to the table. The abundance of life and nourishment found in the Gospels is the bread that feeds us all. The motherly love of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which the parishioners at St. Francis of Assisi demonstrate so well, is a symbol of the life available to all of us through the sacraments and in loving union with one another.
(Galen Holley is a parishioner of St. Francis in New Albany.)
More picture around diocese:
Pearl, Jackson Cathedral, Jackson St. Therese, Madison and Tupelo
Symbols in the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe
By Msgr. Michael Flannery
In the world of the Aztec Indian, they examined the signs and symbols and related these to each other, so that the hieroglyphics told the whole story when put together. Different explanations are found, but all of them are variations of the same theme.
- Mary is standing on the crescent moon. In the Aztec world, Mexico was the land in the middle of the moon. Therefore, Mary was the queen of Mexico.
- The moon is black moon. This meant that Mary would overcome falsehood and lead to truth.
- Her right knee is bent. This meant that she is poised for a liturgical dance. She is not a goddess, but she gives honor and glory to God.
- Time of the apparition. It was early in the morning. This would mean the first manifestation of God.
- There are clouds in the extremities of the picture. Clouds signified the presence of God.
- The rays: Their form is elliptic, small at the ends and bigger closer to the source. The straight ones indicate the light of the sun and the wavy ones indicate the light of Venus.
- Mary is standing in front of the sun and Venus. This indicated that she was greater than the sun and Venus. The sun and Venus were two of their important deities in the Aztec world. She was not going to take them away from the Aztecs.
- She wears a blue mantle. This is a royal color, but she is not a god. There are 46 stars on her mantle. A comet had predicted the end of their civilization. Now stars indicate a new beginning. In recent times astronomers have found that that was the exact location of the stars on December 12, 1531.
- She wears a black band on her waist. This means she is pregnant with child.
- She has a broch with a cross. She is pregnant with child and the child is Jesus.
- Her face and color. She is not a conquistador. She is Aztec. She has a faint inviting smile, encouraging people to approach her.
- Her eyes are gentle and soft.
- Her hair is combed in the style of the Aztec Indian. Another indication that she has not come with the conquistadores.
- Her hands. A close look at her hands and one can see keys. She holds the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
- The angel. She is supported by an angel. The angel has dark eyebrows. He is a mature angel and the message of the lady is believable.
- The angel holds her tunic in one hand and her mantle in the other. For the Aztec this meant that she joins heaven and earth together.
- She spoke Nahuatl to Juan Diego. This was the language of the Aztecs. It reverses the roles. It is the conquered now telling the conqueror what to do in building a temple for Our Lady.
- Flowers and music were the best ways to communicate with the gods and both flowers and music are used as the drama unfolds.
- Her dress. It is a pale red. The color of the rising sun. It indicated new life is coming.
- The Indian flower: Right in the center of her dress is the Indian flower. This indicated the center of the cosmos. For the Aztec it meant that her child was the center of the universe. This was the new temple of the presence of God and it was in her womb.
- The inverted J. The inverted J on the right side of her dress signified the light of the world in the Aztec culture.
For the Aztec standing before the picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe, it told the whole story. No further explanation was needed. They understood perfectly what Our Lady wanted to communicate to them. Ten years following the apparition, the number of converts to Christianity had grown from 10,000 to 10 million and all because of the picture. It happened mostly by word of mouth. The good news was spread by the Aztecs themselves.
There has always been a tremendous devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. She is the patroness of the Americas. Ten million people visit her shine every year. Mexico had a number of persecutions against the Catholic church in its history. Nevertheless, they have never been successful in closing the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In a persecution which took place in 1921, a bomb was placed beneath the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The bomb exploded. A bronze crucifix nearby was seriously damaged, but no damage was done to the image.
Overtime, studies of the tilma (poncho) have been made. The conclusions were that it was made from the Maguey plant. It is a coarse fiber and does not take well to paint. In another study, done by Kodak, it was found that the image was imprinted on the tilma and not painted. The most noted study took place in 1951 when an ophthalmologist, Dr. Enrique Grave y Diaz Gonzalez sought and received from the archbishop of Mexico City, permission to do a detailed study of the eyes of Our Lady. There on the retinue of the eyes, in miniature, is the reflection of the Archbishop, his secretary, and an image of an Indian woman sitting in the background. An artist would not have been able to paint this in the detail that is there and in its miniature form.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!
Bishop’s Christmas rituals reflect love for tradition
From the Archives
By Mary Woodward
JACKSON – For those of you who knew Bishop William Houck, you know he was a larger-than-life persona. His booming voice and laughter were recognizable before he ever entered the room. He was a great man of the church and never missed a chance to evangelize others through word and deed.
Bishop Houck clung to traditions and for every holiday he had one. We always knew which holidays were spent with whom and what time he would head to Mobile for family celebrations. He adored his family, and they looked forward to his visits with great joy.
At Christmas, Bishop Houck loved for his residence to be decorated with lights, angels, poinsettias, wreaths and any Christmas merriment that could be found in his vast collection. He had an outdoor nativity set given to him by Virginia McCaskey, owner of the Chicago Bears. For this festive ensemble, he had a local craftsman build a stable that could be disassembled and stored in the garage after Epiphany. It was my task to meet the craftsman each year to retrieve the stable from the garage rafters, set out the holy family, and plug up the lights; then meet him again to take it all down while Bishop Houck was on the annual region V bishops’ retreat.
Another annual tradition was getting the live Christmas tree for his house. Bishop Houck did not like artificial trees. I still remember the look on his face when someone suggested he get one. Yikes for that person!
Jim McCraw, Knight of Columbus extraordinaire, was the man with the truck who was called upon each year to go with Bishop Houck to get the perfect tree. Keeping with his tradition, Bishop liked to wait until closer to Christmas to get the tree. I remember one year he waited a little too late and the lot where they normally got the tree had been abandoned. Fortunately, the trees that didn’t sell were left behind as well, so that year the evergreen was a little dry but gratis.
McCraw was reminiscing about tree shopping a few weeks ago and sent me the following account of the yuletide expedition.
“Right about now I’d be getting a call from the bishop wanting to go tree shopping. I looked forward to it every year and always enjoyed his stories about his dad taking him to get their tree as a child. After getting it in the house, his mother would make him go outside and look through the window to make sure it was straight.
“Bishop would look all the trees over until he found the perfect one. You knew when he found it because he’d explode in energy: ‘THIS IS IT!’ He talked to everyone – a true man of the people.
“After getting the tree inside and in place my final task was to put the bowl of water under it. I’d offer to do the lights, but he always said: ‘No Jim, I leave all that to Mary Woodward.’ (Author’s note: I would have been fine if Jim had put the lights on the tree, but it was Bishop’s tradition, and I was blessed to be a part of it.)
“One of our early trips had us looking for Christmas tree lots in northeast Jackson. We ended up driving past the Gray-Lewis house with the kids playing outside. They waved so he wanted to stop. “Vic and Geri had a neighbor who was in her final hours, and they asked if Bishop would give her a blessing. Out he went … they told him she didn’t speak English. ‘Fine, Fine’ he said in his booming voice.
“As he got back in the truck, in his non-clerical tree-shopping attire, the youngest Gray-Lewis child asked: ‘Are you really the bishop?’ You can imagine his laughter. Made his day.
“I asked him about the language barrier, and he said: ‘It’s not what you say, it’s that you’re there, Jim.’ Great man. I do miss him.”
I miss him too. He was an imparter of great wisdom and a wonderful mentor to so many. The memories of his traditions will live on in my heart, Jim’s heart, and especially the hearts of his family.
Whether you open presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day; whether you go to the family Mass at 4:30 p.m., Midnight Mass, or Mass on Christmas Day; whether you eat turkey, ham or tofu; may you all have a very Merry Christmas where you joyfully celebrate your own cherished traditions and maybe create a few new ones. Take time to remember those who have gone on to the Lord (as Bishop Houck would say) and thank God for placing them in your path.
Christus natus est!
Mississippi bishops issue statement on latest execution
By Bishops Joseph R. Kopacz, D.D. and Louis F. Kihneman, III
Bishop of Biloxi
JACKSON (Dec. 13, 2022) – In anticipation of the execution of Thomas Loden tomorrow, our thoughts and prayers go out to the Gray and Farris families as they continue to grieve and heal from his horrific act of violence. Their unspeakable suffering remains a heavy cross in their lives.
We share in their suffering. In 2016, two Catholic Nuns were murdered in Holmes County, Mississippi. Sister Paula Merrill, and Sister Margaret Held, served at a local medical clinic. Their brutal murders in the small community of Durant, Mississippi caused shock and sadness.
Even in the midst of such profound loss, the Sisters’ religious communities, their families, and the local church stated their opposition to the death penalty. This response is deeply rooted in our Christian faith and Catholic tradition.
The death penalty is not a deterrence to murder. We cannot teach that killing is wrong by killing those who kill others. Likewise, the antidote to violence is not more violence.
The execution of Thomas Loden is the second in just over a year in Mississippi. We respectfully submit the perspective and teachings from our Catholic faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that promote the abolition of the death penalty.
We encourage and pray for a more comprehensive debate that calls into question our assumptions used to morally legitimize the death penalty in Mississippi and in our nation.
We recognize that the State must protect innocent people from violent criminals. Our State and country have the ability to provide justice and protect the innocent without using the death penalty. At this time in our nation when violence afflicts the web of life, we do not need state sanctioned violence to add to this vicious cycle.
We implore our fellow citizens to ask our elected officials to end the violence of the death penalty and to replace it with non-lethal means of punishment. We are called to respect every human life because each of us is created in the image and likeness of God. (Genesis 1:27)
As Christian leaders we call for alternatives to capital punishment more in keeping with our Christian values, the common good, and the dignity of the human person.
‘O Holy Night’ tops all hymns used in churches in December, according to poll
By Mark Pattison
WASHINGTON (CNS) – The Christmas carol “O Holy Night” ranked first in a list of hymns most played in December at Christian churches in the United States.
“O Come All Ye Faithful” and “Silent Night” ranked second and third, respectively.
The list was compiled by Pushpay, which offers electronic giving options for churches and their congregants.
It asked its 15,000 subscribing churches last December what hymns they used that month, and released the results this Dec. 1. A Pushpay spokeswoman, Katie Griffin, could not supply a breakdown of Catholic parishes among those churches.
The top-10 list is filled with carols familiar to Catholics. Following the top three choices are, in order, “The First Noel,” “Joy To The World” and “Angels We Have Heard On High.”
Following those are two songs featured more in the repertoire of non-Catholic churches.
“Glorious Day,” which ranked seventh overall, was recorded by the contemporary Christian group Passion, featuring Kristian Stanfill on vocals. It is more of a salvation narrative without any lyrics taking note of the birth or infancy of Jesus. Still, the song’s official music and lyrics video has received 6.6 million views on YouTube.
There are several versions of the eighth-ranked song, “Goodness of God.” One video of the song has climbed up to 7 million YouTube views. The song is another in the Christian contemporary genre which focuses more on a first-person-singular, personal relationship with Jesus than a first-person plural voice found more often in Catholic hymnody.
Ninth is the gospel melody “Go Tell It On the Mountain,” which has found a home in many Catholic hymnals and parishes.
And, to prove that the list took into account all of December and not just the week beginning Dec. 25, winding up in the 10th spot was “O Come O Come Emmanuel,” an Advent song based on a chant melody familiar to Catholics not only in the United States but throughout the world.
Griffin told Catholic News Service it’s conducting the poll again this December. The top five songs from the 2020 poll were, in order, “Joy To The World,” “O Come All Ye Faithful,” “Silent Night,” “O Come O Come Emmanuel” and “O Holy Night.”
Dreams, center of salvation history
By Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz, D.D.
I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, an experience of pure magic coming down from the heavens, settling on trees, lawns and Christmas scenes but not on roadways or sidewalks. This could be a reality in Jackson on Christmas day, but it’s too early to tell. However, there is no uncertainty that Jesus Christ is born once again into our lives through faith at Christmas. It is the stuff that dreams are made of – the Word made Flesh, the light coming into the world filled with grace and truth as pure gift. (John 1:14)
Dreams are at the center of salvation history in the Bible, especially in the Infancy narratives. Mary’s encounter with the Angel was more like a daytime vision or dream that progressed from confusion to certainty and peace, by God’s grace. (Luke 1:28-38) For Joseph the nighttime dream became his pathway to discern the will of God regarding Mary and the child that was not his own, but rather the One belonging to the whole world. (Matt 1:18-24)
The scriptures say that Joseph is a righteous man (Matt 1:22) in right relationship with God and others, especially with Mary. We can readily accept that he possessed a rich inner life of prayer, a discerning spirit and a purity of heart; the first beatitude, all of which God formed in him through faith in order to accomplish His will through Mary and Joseph in the plan of salvation.
Building upon last Sunday’s Gospel from St. Matthew, the dreams continued when Joseph was alerted to escape from the murderous rage of King Herod, (Matt 2:13) and then, forewarned once again to return from Egypt to Nazareth (Matt 2:20) where the Holy Family could finally settle down, allowing Jesus to grow in wisdom, knowledge and grace until the time of his public ministry.
The promptings of the Holy Spirit in the minds and hearts of all of us, asleep or awake, can be as impactful because these inspirations come from the mind and heart of Jesus Christ and the bosom of the Most Holy Trinity. But no different than Mary and Joseph, we understand that that the gifts we need at Christmas and every day of the year are purity of heart, humility, obedience to God’s will, and an abiding awareness that we are God’s children now, already having received the first installment of the promise of eternal life. (Eph 1:14)
Over the Advent season we were exhorted to prepare the way of the Lord, through prayer and repentance, to cultivate a discerning spirit to value the things that really matter, and through acts of loving service, justice and peace to make this world a better place. Like Mary and Joseph, we are called to dream with God.
Rejoice, as we joyfully celebrate the Lord’s birth, because God so loved the world that he sent his only Son to save us, (John 3:16) to draw us out of darkness into his own marvelous light. (1Peter 2:9) This is a dream come true, white Christmas or not, and with all of the heavenly hosts, let our voices resound with, “Glory to God in the Highest,” (Luke 2:14) and with Mary, let us proclaim, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” (Luke 1:46)
Merry Christmas!
Doubt can be a step toward deeper faith, pope says
By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Even the most fervent believers go through moments of doubt and questioning about God, and it is a good thing, Pope Francis said, because it helps one see that God does not fit into the little box people make for him.
Doubt “helps us understand that God is always greater than we imagine him to be. His works are surprising compared to our calculations; his actions are different, always, they exceed our needs and expectations; and therefore, we must never stop seeking him,” the pope told people joining him for the Angelus prayer Dec. 11.
People face a constant “temptation: to make ourselves a God to our measure, a God to use,” the pope said. But “God is something else.”
Pope Francis spoke about the day’s Gospel reading about how John the Baptist, while in prison, sent followers to ask Jesus if he was the Messiah even though John had earlier baptized Jesus in the Jordan.
With an estimated 25,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the midday prayer, the pope said sometimes people find themselves in an “inner jail,” unable to recognize the Lord or even trying to hold him “captive” to preconceived ideas about who God must be.
“Dear brothers and sisters, one never knows everything about God, never!” he said. “Perhaps we have in mind a powerful God who does what he wants, instead of the God of humble meekness, the God of mercy and love, who always intervenes respecting our freedom and our choices.”
And, he said, it is a temptation to think one knows everything about other people, too, using one’s prejudices “to attach rigid labels to others, especially those we feel are different from us.”
Advent, he said, is a time to let go and allow oneself to be surprised by God.
Especially as families prepare a Nativity scene or one goes to look at one set up somewhere, he said, it is an occasion to think about who the Lord really is and how to imitate him in daily life.
“Advent is a time in which, instead of thinking about gifts for ourselves, we can give words and gestures of consolation to those who are wounded, as Jesus did with the blind, the deaf and the lame,” the pope said.
After reciting the Angelus prayer, Pope Francis blessed figurines of the baby Jesus that hundreds of children had brought to the square in preparation to place them in Nativity scenes at home or at school.
He asked children “to pray before the creche that the nativity of the Lord will bring a ray of peace to children all over the world, especially those forced to live the terrible and dark days of war, this war in Ukraine that destroys many lives, so many lives, and many children.”
Jesus’ dysfunctional ancestry
IN EXILE
By Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI
The full story of how Jesus Christ came to be born includes elements that we do not easily imagine when we sing our Christmas hymns. Jesus’ family tree and bloodline were far from perfect and this, according to the renowned biblical scholar, Raymond Brown, needs to be kept in mind whenever we are tempted to believe in Jesus, but want to reject the church because of its imperfections, scandals and bad history. Jesus may have been immaculately conceived. However, as the Gospels make clear, there is much in his origins that is as jolting as any contemporary church scandal.
For example, in giving us the origins of Jesus, the Gospels point to as many sinners, liars and schemers in his genetic and historical lineage as they do to saints, honest people, and men and women of faith.
We see, for example, in Jesus’ genealogy a number of men who didn’t exactly incarnate the love, justice and purity of Jesus. Abraham unfairly banished Ishmael and his mother, Hagar, rationalizing that God favors some people over others; Jacob, by scheming and dishonesty, stole his brother Esau’s birthright; and David, to whom Jesus explicitly connects himself, committed adultery and then had the husband of his mistress murdered to cover up an unwanted pregnancy in order to marry her.
Moreover, the women mentioned in Jesus’ background don’t fare much better. It is interesting to note, as Raymond Brown does, which women don’t get mentioned in reference to Jesus’ origins. The Gospels don’t mention Sarah, Rebekah or Rachel, all of whom were regarded as holy women. Whom do they mention?
They mention Tamar, a Canaanite woman, someone outside the Jewish faith, who seduces her father-in-law, Judah, so that she can have a child. They mention Rahab, also a Canaanite woman, and an outsider, who is in fact a prostitute. Next, they mention Ruth, a Moabite woman who is also outside the official religion of the time. Then they mention Bathsheba, a Hittite woman, an outsider who commits adultery with David and then schemes to make sure one of her own offspring inherits the throne.
All of these women found themselves in a situation of marriage or pregnancy that was either strange or scandalous, yet each was an important divine instrument in preserving the religious heritage that gave us Jesus. It is no accident that the Gospels link these women to Mary, Jesus’ mother, since she too found herself in a ritually taboo pregnancy and in a marital situation that was peculiar.
Further still, beyond these less-than-saintly characters in Jesus’ lineage, we see as well that some of the institutions that shaped the Jewish faith were also less than saintly. Institutionalized religion back then suffered from many of the same problems it has today, including the corrupt use of power.
Indeed, Israel itself (perhaps justifying the deed by referring to what Jacob had done to Esau) seized the land of Canaan from those who had a prior claim to it, claiming ownership by divine privilege.
Finally, and not insignificantly, we see too that the lineage that gave us Jesus built itself up not just on the great and the talented, but equally on the poor and insignificant. In the list of names that makes up the ancestors of Jesus, we see some that are famous but also others who can make no claim to specialness or significance. Jesus’ human blood, scripture tells us, was produced equally by the great and the small, the talented and the talentless.
What’s to be learned for all of this? Perhaps Raymond Brown captures it best. What all this tells us, he says, is that God writes straight with crooked lines, that we shouldn’t accept an overly idealized Christ, and that our own lives, even if they are marked by weakness and insignificance, are important too in continuing the story of the incarnation.
As Brown puts it: “The God who wrote the beginnings with crooked lines also writes the sequence with crooked lines, and some of those lines are our own lives and witness. A God who did not hesitate to use the scheming as well as the noble, the impure as well as the pure, men to whom the world harkened and women upon whom the world frowned – this God continues to work through the same mélange. If it is a challenge to recognize in the last part of Matthew’s genealogy that totally unknown people were part of the story of Jesus Christ, it may be a greater challenge to recognize that the unknown characters of today are an essential part of the sequence.”
Christianity isn’t just for the pure, the talented, the good, the humble and the honest. The story of Jesus Christ was also written and keeps being written by the impure, by sinners, by calculating schemers, by the proud, by the dishonest and by those without worldly talents. Nobody is so bad, so insignificant, so devoid of talent, or so outside the circle of faith, that he or she is outside the story of Christ.
(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser is a theologian, teacher and award-winning author. He can be contacted through his website www.ronrolheiser.com.)
The greatest gift
Reflections on Life
By Melvin Arrington
Gift giving and the Christmas season go together like trees and decorations. It’s hard to think of one without the other. Adults understand this, but children usually have a different perspective.
When I was a little boy, Christmas to me was all about getting gifts rather than giving them. What was the best present you received as a child? I can still remember a few of mine. When I was in second grade my parents gave me a little robot. It was only about a foot tall, but it was simply the finest Christmas toy ever because it would come alive when I moved it forward and backward by remote control! Another year my favorite present was an illustrated copy of Dickens’ Christmas Carol, a book I still have on my shelf after all these years.
When I was around ten my favorite was a transistor radio. That little Zenith model really opened up the world to me. It wasn’t even necessary to stay home to listen to it. I could take it with me practically anywhere and listen to ball games and all the wonderful music of that era. To my young, immature way of thinking that was the greatest present ever.
But as I grew older those childhood attachments gradually became less significant as the things that really matter began to occupy more of my time and thoughts. Eventually, I came to realize that residents of Western democracies have been endowed with individual God-given liberties that oppressed and/or poverty-stricken peoples around the world do not have. How often do Americans take for granted clean air and water, abundant food, warm clothing, comfortable housing, good health and loving family members? And what a wonderful blessing to have children and grandchildren! Of course, not everyone in our country enjoys these benefits, but a lot of us do, and we should take the time to acknowledge these things and give thanks for them. And most of all we should be grateful for the gift of life itself.
But rather than focus on things received, our thoughts should concentrate on giving during this holy season. This means not only material gifts but monetary ones as well. Everybody has probably received requests for charitable contributions in which the sender lists a series of suggested donation amounts, ending with a blank space and the words “my best gift,” or something to that effect. The amount written in may be less than the minimum suggested donation or it may be greater. Either way, that phrase allows the contributor to set the amount according to his or her own resources.
This raises a question worth pondering: What’s my best offering? A friend of mine likes to say, God sent us His best: His Son and His Spirit. He loved us so much that He sent His love, His only Son, to be our Savior; and He sent the love He shares with the Son, the Holy Spirit, to be our advocate and comforter. Those are gifts that can’t be topped!
The Holy Family also left us beautiful models to follow. Mary gave her best when she said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38) What hope would the human race have if she had not agreed to become the Mother of God? In addition, Joseph set a high standard when he responded in the affirmative to God’s call by lovingly taking Mary into his home rather than denouncing her as the law prescribed.
Jesus offered Himself as well. The King of Kings left his celestial home and humbled himself by becoming the Babe in the manger. Then, at the end of His earthly life he sacrificed himself on the Cross in order to pay our sin debt. And now, so that we might have the Divine Life within us He offers His precious Body and Blood in the Eucharist.
So, if the members of the Holy Family gave their finest gifts, why shouldn’t I try to do likewise? Giving of self in service to others is not easy, but it affords tremendous bonuses because the giver receives abundant spiritual gifts in return. As St. Paul, quoting the words of Jesus, tells us: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35)
During this time of year many people, unfortunately, suffer from sadness and loneliness. If you are one of these, here’s a suggestion to bring some happiness into your life: do something to help another person. In doing so you will experience the joy that comes from cooperating with God’s plan. Here’s a quotation that helps put service to others in perspective: “Whenever you have an opportunity to do something for someone, do it, because you may be the instrument God uses to answer that person’s prayer.” The chorus to an old Protestant hymn gracefully captures the essence of these thoughts: “Others, Lord, yes others. Let this my motto be. Help me to live for others, that I may live like Thee.”
If we have God’s love in our hearts, it will be nearly impossible to keep it bottled up inside; we will feel compelled to share it with others. Christmas is about giving, and nothing has greater lasting value than the gift of God’s love. The more we love, the more we will want to give of ourselves. After all, that’s the most precious thing we can give this Christmas.
(Melvin Arrington is a Professor Emeritus of Modern Languages for the University of Mississippi and a member of St. John Oxford.)