TODAY’S GOSPEL
36. And there was a prophetess, Anna, a daughter of Phanuel, from the tribe of Asher. She was very advanced in years, and she had lived with her husband for seven years from her virginity.
37. And then she was a widow, even to her eighty-fourth year. And without departing from the temple, she was a servant to fasting and prayer, night and day.
38. And entering at the same hour, she confessed to the Lord. And she spoke about him to all who were awaiting the redemption of Israel.
39. And after they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their city, Nazareth.
40. Now the child grew, and he was strengthened with the fullness of wisdom. And the grace of God was in him.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/reading.php?n=6311
ST. ANYSIUS
Bishop successor of St. Ascolus in the see of Salonika, in Greece. A friend of St. Ambrose, Anysius was appointed bishop in 383. Pope Damasus also named him vicar apostolic of Illyricum. A loyal defender of St. John Chrysostom, Anysius was one of the sixteen Macedonian bishops to appeal to Pope Innocent in 404 on St. John’s behalf.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/utiles/myprint/print.php
CARTOON OF THE WEEK
By Chip Bok
FOUNDER’S QUOTE DAILY
“[T]he people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of them.”
–Zacharia Johnson, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, 1788
http://patriotpost.us/
TODAY’S GOSPEL
22. And after the days of her purification were fulfilled, according to the law of Moses, they brought him to Jerusalem, in order to present him to the Lord,
23. just as it is written in the law of the Lord, “For every male opening the womb shall be called holy to the Lord,”
24. and in order to offer a sacrifice, according to what is said in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”
25. And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and God-fearing, awaiting the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was with him.
26. And he had received an answer from the Holy Spirit: that he would not see his own death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.
27. And he went with the Spirit to the temple. And when the child Jesus was brought in by his parents, in order to act on his behalf according to the custom of the law,
28. he also took him up, into his arms, and he blessed God and said:
29. “Now you may dismiss your servant in peace, O Lord, according to your word.
30. For my eyes have seen your salvation,
31. which you have prepared before the face of all peoples:
32. the light of revelation to the nations and the glory of your people Israel.”
33. And his father and mother were wondering over these things, which were spoken about him.
34. And Simeon blessed them, and he said to his mother Mary: “Behold, this one has been set for the ruin and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and as a sign which will be contradicted.
35. And a sword will pass through your own soul, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”
ST. THOMAS BECKET
CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY, DECEMBER 29, 2009
St. Thomas was born in London, England around the year 1117. He was the son of a gentleman and a woman who was converted to Christianity by the example and teachings of his father. From his early youth, Thomas was educated in religion and holiness. After his childhood, Thomas was educated at a monastery and later at a school in London. After the death of both parents, Thomas decided to finish his schooling by studying canon law. He was successful in his studies and was made secretary to one of the courts of London.
After working for a while at law, Thomas decided to give the rest of his life to God and began to work toward ordination. In all that he did, Thomas diligently applied himself and became well known as a holy, honest worker. His work came under the scrutiny of King Henry II, and, in 1157, Thomas was asked to serve as Lord Chancellor to the king. After the bishop of Canterbury died Henry sought to elect
Thomas to the position, and in 1162 this suggestion was accepted by a synod. Thomas warned the king that it might cause friction and conflict of interests, but accepted the position.
Thomas served as bishop by seeking to help the people and develop his own holiness. He practiced many penances and was very generous to the poor with both his time and his money. As Henry’s reign continued, he began more and more to exercise his hand in Church affairs. This caused many disagreements with Thomas, and after one especially trying affair, retired for a while to France. When Thomas returned to England, he again became involved in a dispute with the king. Some of the king’s knights saw this as treason and killed Thomas in his own Church. Henry did penance at the grave of Thomas seeking forgiveness for the actions of his knights, and the tomb soon became a place of pilgrimage for the faithful.
Source: The Daily E-Pistle
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=99
Aborting Health Care Reform
By Doug Bandow, American Spectator, December 28, 2009
Both houses of Congress have voted to nationalize American health care, but the battle is not yet over. Abortion coverage remains in dispute, and yet could sink the entire “reform” effort.
Although President Barack Obama may be the most abortion-friendly president ever, pro-life sentiment has been rising. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released a new survey in October, which found the margin of supporters over opponents fall from 14 points to 3 points. An earlier Gallup Values and Beliefs survey found a similarly sizable shift that put abortion opponents in the majority.
Nearly 37 years after the Supreme Court voided state bans on abortion in Roe v. Wade, legal restrictions on the procedure remain few. Most anyone who is determined to get an abortion can do so. And without a revolution in Supreme Court membership that isn’t going to change.
Still at issue, however, is whether the federal government will promote abortion. Those concerned with life long have had to battle pro-abortion activists determined to win official support for abortion. For the latter the simple legal “right” to have an abortion isn’t enough. They want the federal government to promote abortion.
Pay for the procedure as part of Medicaid. Force medical schools to teach abortion and hospitals to perform abortions. Make pharmacists provide abortifacients.
Pro-lifers have been reasonably successful in resisting such efforts. Most importantly, the so-called Hyde Amendment restricts federal funding of abortion. The other issues continue to be fought out case by case, back and forth.
Most abortions are not paid for by insurance. However, nationalized health insurance offers abortion advocates an almost perfect vehicle for pushing abortion far further than before.
Federal direction of the medical system provides Washington with multiple opportunities to turn abortion into a required medical procedure. Imposing a mandate to buy insurance allows the government to decide what coverage is necessary for private plans to comply with the law. Subsidizing private plans provides the government with another hook to set coverage requirements. Creating a “public option” forces the government to decide what procedures to cover.
So far the “public option” has failed and pro-lifers have won significant limits on abortion elsewhere. While Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) insists that his amendment barring federally funded plans from covering the procedure merely maintains current law, Daniela Perdomo of AlterNet charges that the measure could limit “industry-wide coverage of medically-indicated abortions.”
The legislative specifics matter greatly, however. The Senate bill allows state opt-outs, but forces states to either cover all or no abortion services, preventing states from providing abortion coverage limited to the usual narrow exceptions, such as life of the mother. Moreover, even with the state opt-out, observe James C. Capretta and Yuval Levin, both of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, “a state can’t protect its taxpayers from financing abortions beyond its borders.”
What will come out of conference is impossible to predict. Some liberals view health care “reform” to be worth even the Stupak amendment. For instance, E. J. Dionne, Jr., concluded: “health-care reform would leave millions of Americans far better off than they are now.”
However, most pro-abortion forces will fight any restraints. Abortion advocates understand what is at stake. Perdomo wrote: “we need to stop taking our reproductive rights for granted.” People should march, she added, since “All it takes is a little inaction on our parts to set the reproductive rights movement back over thirty years.”
A bitter Katha Pollitt wrote in the Nation: “Prochoicers have been taking one for the team since 1976, when Congress passed the Hyde amendment.” She added, “We knocked ourselves out, and it wasn’t so that religious reactionaries like Stupak … would control both parties.”
Activists Kate Michelman and Frances Kissling focused their ire on Democratic leaders who recruited prolife candidates to win marginal congressional seats: “The Democratic majority has abandoned its platform and subordinated women’s health to short-term political success. In doing so, these so-called friends of women’s rights have arguably done more to undermine reproductive rights than some of abortion’s staunchest foes.”
Abortion advocates are right to believe this to be a crucial fight. Even the Stupak amendment is not enough. No legislative victory is ever permanent. If the government extends its control over health care, nothing would prevent abortion advocates gaining political ascendancy in the future and then using the government to promote abortion.
Abortion is never going to be an easy issue. No one should feel comfortable having the government intervene in such a personal decision. But abortion is not just a medical procedure. It involves another life, and other than the case of rape pregnancy occurs only as a result of the voluntary decision to have sex. As such, abortion is not a “choice,” but an attempt to flee from responsibility for choices freely made.
It is essential for prolifers to continue to challenge Roe v. Wade, which really isn’t constitutional law. Even many liberal academics acknowledge that the ruling is judicial law-making at its most extreme.
Irrespective of how the constitutional battle turns out, it is imperative to prevent abortion advocates from using the national government to promote abortion. Nationalizing medical care is a bad idea on its own terms. It is an even worse idea for anyone committed to the value of life.
Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. A former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, he is the author of Beyond Good Intentions: A Biblical View of Politics (Crossway).
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/12/28/aborting-health-care-reform
The Real War Front is At Home! Has America Relinquished Her Personal Autonomy and Freedom?
Star Parker, TownHall.com, Monday, December 28, 2009
Christmas 2009 and our nation is still at war.
Afghanistan? Iraq?
Yes, of course, brave young Americans are in those far off lands defending our country. God bless them.
But the war’s front is here at home. The war we are having with ourselves.
After the horrendous attacks on September 11, 2001, a few Christian pastors stepped up to say that the unprecedented violation of America’s homeland was a sign of weakness within our nation.
They weren’t talking about how we gather intelligence or how we check travelers at the airport.
The management bestseller from the 1960′s, The Peter Principle, points out that one sign of an organization or an individual at their “level of incompetence” is thinking that re-organizing alone solves problems. Drawing new organization charts or moving around furniture is a lot easier than getting to the heart of understanding what is causing failure.
The weakness which led to our vulnerability on that infamous September day, said those pastors, was moral, not technical. For this, they were widely denounced.
President George W. Bush rallied the nation and talked about good and evil. But the evil he talked about was overseas. We deployed our troops and tried to understand what was wrong with “them” and how we could fix it. But little soul searching or introspection was done at home. What might be wrong with us?
As we talked about advancing freedom in other societies, we bloated our own government and violated and abused the principles of freedom — private property and personal responsibility — on which our own society was founded and built.
As we advanced into the first decade of the 21st century, we chalked up military victories abroad and collapsed at home.
We may speak with thanks and a sense of accomplishment that there has been no repeat of 9/11. But we might also wonder why those who seek our destruction need to bother when we do their work for them ourselves.
Now we have turned leadership over to those for whom the issue is not inadequate attention to our moral pillars, but to those for whom they don’t exist.
After 9/11, we still knew what a terrorist was and we understood that we blew it regarding identifying the ones operating in our own country.
Today, after allowing a terrorist to operate within the ranks of our own military, and, after he did his devastating work at Fort Hood, we refuse to identify him as a terrorist.
We view the maniacs running Iran as negotiating partners while we ignore the Iranian youth who struggle and long to be free.
We sit with silent acceptance as the Israelis, once viewed as friends and allies, are given a choice by Hamas to release 1000 prisoners, many convicted terrorists, in exchange for one Israeli soldier held hostage.
But most inscrutable is that as we end the decade, a decade spent fighting for freedom, our own nation is decidedly less free and as result, weaker. And we have consciously chosen this outcome.
With imminent passage of multi-trillion dollar health care “reform” that is pure socialism, we relinquish our personal autonomy and freedom to a point where the task to redeem them will be unprecedented.
Family and traditional values of personal behavior — once the moral glue holding us together — are now mere life style options.
We should ponder who has emerged out of this decade the victor and who the vanquished. And the likelihood that those terrorists who attacked that 9/11 understood what the Christian pastors who admonished us after the attack did.
Fortunately, tens upon tens of millions of Americans still know who we are.
And as the proverb says, “The hope of the righteous will be gladness, but the expectation of the wicked will perish.”
http://townhall.com/columnists/StarParker/2009/12/28/the_real_war_front_is_at_home
(A Belated & Profound) SUNDAY HOMILY: PROTECT YOUR FAMILY
The Sunday Homily – PROTECT YOUR FAMILY, Fr. James Farfaglia, December 27, 2009
http://donotbediscouraged.blogspot.com/2009/12/sunday-homily-protect-your-family.html
FOUNDER’S QUOTE DAILY
“[W]hen the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British Parliament was advised by an artful man, – who was governor of Pennsylvania, to disarm the people; that it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them; but that they should not do it openly, but weaken them, and let them sink gradually, by totally disusing and neglecting the militia.”
–George Mason, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, 1788
http://patriotpost.us/subscribe/
Letter to the Editor: True Christian Charity vs. The Distribution of Stolen Money
The (Baton Rouge) Advocate, Published: Dec 25, 2009
In the naïveté of youth, erroneous opinions are formulated in the cauldron of inexperience. When I arrived home from my freshman year of college, I told my grandmother that I didn’t see anything wrong with communism since our Lord Jesus Christ forewarned us of the evils of greed and wanted us to share our goods with the poor.
In the Acts of the Apostles, it states, “And they shared all things in common.”
My grandmother nearly had a heart attack and rattled off a litany of the evils that our great-grandparents had suffered under such an evil, totalitarian regime! Age and experience have shown me the errors of my thought.
In the Acts of the Apostles it also states, “There was no needy person among them, for those who had property would sell them and bring the proceeds and lay them at the feet of the Apostles who distributed to each according to his needs.”
In Christianity, proper economics is done through charity and justice. In communism, evil people and regimes confiscate other people’s wealth and distribute the stolen money according to political expediency, not justice.
The right to private ownership is a fundamental, God-given right, and our Lord Jesus Christ foretold, “The poor you will always have with you and you can help them” through charity, not forced confiscation.
Many ignorant politicians and even some pastors have embraced the heresies of liberation theology and communism. A classic example is to allow open borders so that people can illegally enter this country.
I had to gently reprimand several Christian pastors for their misguided compassion. I told them I would gladly help anyone to the best of my ability who had been forced into exile and was in need; however, I would take them into my house and take care of them. I would not expect my fellow industrious worker and taxpayer to pay for my charity.
Anyone who wants to give any marginalized person help or give exiles amnesty should open their rectories and homes to feed, clothe and educate them, and not allow the government to be a thief and steal from those who work hard to take care of their families.
Blessed Mother Teresa owned nothing, which allowed her to take care of the poor for the love of Christ. She didn’t steal from others to take care of them. They gave through charity, not confiscation.
Communism, nazism, fascism, modernism, freudism and even capitalism are the product of man’s futility. There is only one truth, and you can find Him in a manger.
Give to God what is God’s, and to Caesar the light of truth, the King of Glory. Glory to God in the highest!
Richard Mahoney
respiratory therapist
Baton Rouge
http://www.2theadvocate.com/opinion/80089602.html
Pope Benedict Says ‘Merry Christmas’ to the World
.- Pope Benedict XVI directed a message to the faithful and bestowed his Urbi et Orbi blessing from St. Peter’s on Christmas Day. The Holy Father invited the communion of believers in Jesus to join in solidarity to confront the challenges offered by the world today.
The following is Pope Benedict’s address:
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Rome and throughout the world,
and all men and women, whom the Lord loves!
“Lux fulgebit hodie super nos,
quia natus est nobis Dominus.
A light will shine on us this day,
the Lord is born for us”
(Roman Missal, Christmas, Entrance Antiphon for the Mass at Dawn)
The liturgy of the Mass at Dawn reminded us that the night is now past, the day has begun; the light radiating from the cave of Bethlehem shines upon us.
The Bible and the Liturgy do not, however, speak to us about a natural light, but a different, special light, which is somehow directed to and focused upon “us”, the same “us” for whom the Child of Bethlehem “is born”. This “us” is the Church, the great universal family of those who believe in Christ, who have awaited in hope the new birth of the Saviour, and who today celebrate in mystery the perennial significance of this event.
At first, beside the manger in Bethlehem, that “us” was almost imperceptible to human eyes. As the Gospel of Saint Luke recounts, it included, in addition to Mary and Joseph, a few lowly shepherds who came to the cave after hearing the message of the Angels. The light of that first Christmas was like a fire kindled in the night. All about there was darkness, while in the cave there shone the true light “that enlightens every man” (Jn 1:9). And yet all this took place in simplicity and hiddenness, in the way that God works in all of salvation history. God loves to light little lights, so as then to illuminate vast spaces. Truth, and Love, which are its content, are kindled wherever the light is welcomed; they then radiate in concentric circles, as if by contact, in the hearts and minds of all those who, by opening themselves freely to its splendour, themselves become sources of light. Such is the history of the Church: she began her journey in the lowly cave of Bethlehem, and down the centuries she has become a People and a source of light for humanity. Today too, in those who encounter that Child, God still kindles fires in the night of the world, calling men and women everywhere to acknowledge in Jesus the “sign” of his saving and liberating presence and to extend the “us” of those who believe in Christ to the whole of mankind.
Wherever there is an “us” which welcomes God’s love, there the light of Christ shines forth, even in the most difficult situations. The Church, like the Virgin Mary, offers the world Jesus, the Son, whom she herself has received as a gift, the One who came to set mankind free from the slavery of sin. Like Mary, the Church does not fear, for that Child is her strength. But she does not keep him for herself: she offers him to all those who seek him with a sincere heart, to the earth’s lowly and afflicted, to the victims of violence, and to all who yearn for peace. Today too, on behalf of a human family profoundly affected by a grave financial crisis, yet even more by a moral crisis, and by the painful wounds of wars and conflicts, the Church, in faithful solidarity with mankind, repeats with the shepherds: “Let us go to Bethlehem” (Lk 2:15), for there we shall find our hope.
The “us” of the Church is alive in the place where Jesus was born, in the Holy Land, inviting its people to abandon every logic of violence and vengeance, and to engage with renewed vigour and generosity in the process which leads to peaceful coexistence. The “us” of the Church is present in the other countries of the Middle East. How can we forget the troubled situation in Iraq and the “little flock” of Christians which lives in the region? At times it is subject to violence and injustice, but it remains determined to make its own contribution to the building of a society opposed to the logic of conflict and the rejection of one’s neighbour. The “us” of the Church is active in Sri Lanka, in the Korean peninsula and in the Philippines, as well as in the other countries of Asia, as a leaven of reconciliation and peace. On the continent of Africa she does not cease to lift her voice to God, imploring an end to every injustice in the Democratic Republic of Congo; she invites the citizens of Guinea and Niger to respect for the rights of every person and to dialogue; she begs those of Madagascar to overcome their internal divisions and to be mutually accepting; and she reminds all men and women that they are called to hope, despite the tragedies, trials and difficulties which still afflict them. In Europe and North America, the “us” of the Church urges people to leave behind the selfish and technicist mentality, to advance the common good and to show respect for the persons who are most defenceless, starting with the unborn. In Honduras she is assisting in process of rebuilding institutions; throughout Latin America, the “us” of the Church is a source of identity, a fullness of truth and of charity which no ideology can replace, a summons to respect for the inalienable rights of each person and his or her integral development, a proclamation of justice and fraternity, a source of unity.
In fidelity to the mandate of her Founder, the Church shows solidarity with the victims of natural disasters and poverty, even within opulent societies. In the face of the exodus of all those who migrate from their homelands and are driven away by hunger, intolerance or environmental degradation, the Church is a presence calling others to an attitude of acceptance and welcome. In a word, the Church everywhere proclaims the Gospel of Christ, despite persecutions, discriminations, attacks and at times hostile indifference.
These, in fact, enable her to share the lot of her Master and Lord.
Dear Brothers and Sisters, how great a gift it is to be part of a communion which is open to everyone! It is the communion of the Most Holy Trinity, from whose heart Emmanuel, Jesus, “God with us”, came into the world. Like the shepherds of Bethlehem, let us contemplate, filled with wonder and gratitude, this mystery of love and light! Happy Christmas to all!
The Urbi et Orbi blessing followed this address. In this blessing, the Pope wished a Merry Christmas and proclaimed the birth of Christ in 66 languages.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope_benedict_says_merry_christmas_to_the_world/
TODAY’S GOSPEL
| Matthew 2: 13 – 18 |
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| 13 | Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there till I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” |
| 14 | And he rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed to Egypt, |
| 15 | and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt have I called my son.” |
| 16 | Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, was in a furious rage, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the wise men. |
| 17 | Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: |
| 18 | “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they were no more.” |
FEAST DAY: HOLY INNOCENTS
The children mentioned in St. Matthew, II, 16-18:
Herod perceiving that he was deluded by the wise men, was exceeding angry; and sending killed all the men children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremias the prophet, saying: A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning; Rachel bewailing her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.
The Greek Liturgy asserts that Herod killed 14,000 boys (ton hagion id chiliadon Nepion), the Syrians speak of 64,000, many medieval authors of 144,000, according to Apoc., xiv, 3. Modern writers reduce the number considerably, since Bethlehem was a rather small town. Knabenbauer brings it down to fifteen or twenty (Evang. S. Matt., I, 104), Bisping to ten or twelve (Evang. S. Matt.), Kellner to about six (Christus and seine Apostel, Freiburg, 1908); cf. “Anzeiger kath. Geistlichk. Deutschl.”, 15 Febr., 1909, p. 32. This cruel deed of Herod is not mentioned by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, although he relates quite a number of atrocities committed by the king during the last years of his reign. The number of these children was so small that this crime appeared insignificant amongst the other misdeeds of Herod. Macrobius (Saturn., IV, xiv, de Augusto et jocis ejus) relates that when Augustus heard that amongst the boys of two years and under Herod’s own son also had been massacred, he said: “It is better to be Herod’s hog [ous], than his son [houios],” alluding to the Jewish law of not eating, and consequently not killing, swine. The Middle Ages gave faith to this story; Abelard inserted it in his hymn for the feast of Holy Innocents:
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It is impossible to determine the day or the year of the death of the Holy Innocents, since the chronology of the birth of Christ and the subsequent Biblical events is most uncertain. All we know is that the infants were slaughtered within two years following the apparition of the star to the Wise Men (Belser, in the Tubingen “Quartalschrift”, 1890, p. 361). The Church venerates these children as martyrs (flores martyrum); they are the first buds of the Church killed by the frost of persecution; they died not only for Christ, but in his stead (St. Aug., “Sermo 10us de sanctis”).
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The Latin Church instituted the feast of the Holy Innocents at a date now unknown, not before the end of the fourth and not later than the end of the fifth century
The Roman Station of 28 December is at St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, because that church is believed to possess the bodies of several of the Holy Innocents. A portion of these relics was transferred by Sixtus V to Santa Maria Maggiore (feast on 5 May; it is a semi-double). The church of St. Justina at Padua, the cathedrals of Lisbon and Milan, and other churches also preserve bodies which they claim to be those of some of the Holy Innocents.
Wishing you all a very Blessed and Holy Christmas. From everyone at The Brown Pelican Society.
Postings will resume on Monday, December 28, Feast of the Holy Innocents.
Let us consecrate ourselves to the Infant Jesus
Hail and blessed be the hour and moment In which the Son of God was born Of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires, [here mention your request] through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother. Amen.
Has America Crossed the Rubicon?
Stille Nacht (Silent Night )
THE CHRISTMAS STORY! A God So Small, Yet Infinite; Infinite, Yet So Small!
Posted Tuesday, 22 December 2009
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as it were of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Thus does Saint John’s Gospel (1:14) announce the ineffably grand moment when the Son of God “dwelt among us” in order to manifest His glory.
Yet, how discreet, how humble, how hidden was this first step taken by the King of the universe along His path of suffering, struggle, and triumph!
Let us meditate on the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ with the Gospel of Saint Luke (2:1-7).
And it came to pass that in those days there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that the whole world should be enrolled. This enrolling was first made by Cyrinus, the governor of Syria.
And all went to be enrolled, everyone into his own city.
And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his espoused wife, who was with child.
And it came to pass that when they were there, her days were accomplished, that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.
Let us picture a poor wedded couple, dressed with simplicity and bound for Bethlehem, crossing the arid countryside of the Holy Land, an aridity alleviated only by a few streams and olive groves. Mary travels seated on a young donkey, while Joseph proceeds on foot pondering the words of the angel who revealed to him the miraculous character of his virgin spouse’s pregnancy.
Is it for them that there is no room, since they have no prestige? Prestige commonly comes, especially in decadent times, from money and concessions to the vices of the times and the spirit of the “world” (this spirit being understood in the sense the Gospels give it). But this holy couple is poor and gifted with a highly religious spirit — virtues the “worldly” find particularly detestable.
Nevertheless, Saint Joseph and Our Lady descend from the highest lineage of Bethlehem of Judea. Saint Joseph is a prince of the House of David, and Our Lady likewise descends from the kings of Judea.
However, so decadent are the Chosen People that in their eyes Saint Joseph is nothing but a poor carpenter, while Our Lady, his relatively well-off cousin, has chosen to share his poverty.
What are they doing in Bethlehem?
They are obeying the decree of the Roman Emperor, Caesar Augustus, who, certainly for vanity’s sake, had ordered a census to ascertain how many were subject to his power.
The Prince of the House of David, in travelling to the city of his birth, manifests the glory of the foreign emperor. Saint Joseph is conquered, Caesar Augustus is the conqueror, and Bethlehem fails to recognize her illustrious children.
“He came unto his own, and his own received him not” (John 1:11). Mary and Joseph, bearing the very Son of God, are rejected by their own people and are thus obliged to seek shelter in a cave inhabited by animals. So it is in the intimacy and isolation of that dwelling place for beasts that history’s most important event up till that time unfolds: the Word of God made flesh in the most pure womb of Mary comes into the world.
* * *
Thus does one understand the kind of joy proper to the Nativity. A great solitude and deprivation, but at the same time,a great elevation. For over such misery descended riches without name, riches unlike any others on the face of the earth. The Child-God was wrapped in swathes of cloth and lying in a manger where animals feed.
None, save that couple, witness or know how to appreciate this scene of indescribable grandeur.
The highest glory is there present in a tender child who, crying, hungry and cold, extends his little arms towards his mother, requesting a little milk or a blanket to be covered. And Our Lady knows that it is the Creator who opens his arms unto her! The Sovereign of the universe cries, beseeching a bit of milk and warm clothing!
We can imagine the contrast between the supernatural ambience and the poverty of the grotto. There the Child Jesus is adored by all the angels in a magnificent choir, the celestial court celebrating the greatest feast up to then. Angels and Archangels, Cherubim and Seraphim, all with extraordinary brilliance give glory to God through the Nativity. That glory permeates the grotto discreetly, for it is necessary that those outside not take note, that only souls of faith perceive what is happening and only in intimacy. Our Lady is there reclining and praying as the most perfect soul in the history of mankind, save only for the divine Person of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
For Our Lady alone is worth more than all the souls before her, during her time and thereafter; more than all who existed, exist, and will exist until the end of the world. She alone is worth more than all the angels.
A short distance away, praying to the Child-God and to Our Lady, is the humble cabinetmaker, the deposed prince, obscured by history and by the misfortunes that befell his ancestors. That man received an honor proper to no one else: He was chosen to be the spouse of the mother of the Word Incarnate, the adoptive father of the very Son of God!
* * *
This takes place at midnight, when little moved in the ancient world. We can imagine the silence, the abandonment. The inhabitants of the nearby city of Bethlehem comfortably rest in their beds. Outside, even the livestock sleep while the Divine Infant is born. Everything is empty and darkness reigns. Only within that grotto does a small light flicker. Only that couple is there, they and the Child Jesus, the King of ages, the God-Man Himself.
This divine event takes place before few. The greatest of honors is born and resides entirely in a frail infant. The most important historical event up to that time comes to pass in secret. In such a way that the sole witnesses to that august scene desire to meditate, to remain silent, with more desire to feel the Nativity within themselves than to proclaim it in a loud and clear voice. It is the affectionate reverence of those who feel inadequate to render gratitude for the extraordinary honor of touching, in such an intimate way, so high a mystery coupled with pity and compassion for a God who consented to make Himself so small. How to express respect so great that it approaches fear, and tenderness so profound that it seems almost to liquefy the soul? Lofty veneration, then lofty adoration, finally, lofty tenderness.
This also seems to explain the nocturnal aspect of the Nativity. We cannot conceive of it taking place except at night. For darkness is necessary for radiating so discreet a light. Therein we find the joy characteristic of Christmas that hesitates to expand itself for fear of losing its delicacy and intimacy.
* * *
Thus does one understand why such Christmas carols such as “Stille Nacht” (“Silent Night”) are customarily sung in a low voice, almost as if to oneself. They are sung as if not to awaken the Child Jesus. This is one aspect of the genius of “Stille Nacht,” composed by a simple German schoolmaster in the last century, yet now the preeminent Christmas carol of all ages. Hearing it we have the impression that the choir is in a corner of the cave of Bethlehem. The choir sings with such emotion, for it almost cannot help it, yet in a very low voice, so as not to disturb the Divine Infant nor the ineffable and almost internal song with which Our Lady is lulling her Son.
In this way one understands the thousand delicacies that emanate from “Silent Night” and the tenderness of the Nativity. It is a song expressive of a kind of compassion for Him who is being celebrated: How little this infinite God; how infinite this little God!
Centuries of Christian civilization were necessary that the most celebrated of Christmas songs might blossom like a flower in the Catholic Church.
http://www.tfp.org/slideshow/slideshow/a-god-so-small-yet-infinite-infinite-yet-so-small.html
Founder’s Quote Daily: Without Virtue There Can Be No Liberty
“[T]he only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.”
–Benjamin Rush, On the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic, 1806
By John-Henry Westen at LifeSiteNews: Top Ten Good News Stories of 2009
Compiled by John-Henry Westen, Decemer 23, 2009, LifeSiteNews.com
The following are the top ten good news stories of 2009, ranked according to popularity.
1) 12-Year-Old Stuns Pro-Choice Teacher and School with Pro-Life Presentation
12-year-old “Lia” of Toronto become a star at her school and on Youtube with her five-minute pro-life speech, crafted for a school competition. A video of her speech has been watched over 800,000 times on Youtube.
2) List of Bishops Opposing the Notre Dame Invitation and Award to President Obama
83 U.S. bishops spoke out against Notre Dame’s decision to honour the “most pro-abortion president in history.” The widespread and public outrage from the country’s bishops was considered by many to be an encouraging sign about the current direction of the U.S. Catholic Church on the life and family issues.
3) Florida Quarterback Tebow Leaves Reporters Speechless: “Yes I am” Saving Myself for Marriage
Tim Tebow, the young football superstar, literally left reporters speechless when he answered a question during a press conference about whether or not he is “saving himself” for marriage.
4) Star Trek Actor Who Paid for Three Abortions Now Condemns Woman’s “Right to Choose…to Kill Her Baby”
A dramatic turn-around for the actor best known for his roles as Ambassador Soval in the TV series “Star Trek: Enterprise” and Capt. Ingles on “J.A.G.”, who admitted that during his drug-fuelled youth he personally paid for three abortions for women he had impregnated. “Abortion is murder,” Graham now says, after acknowledging that he will be “hated” for saying so.
5) Pro-Life Convictions Worth Risking Career For: “The Passion” Actor Jim Caviezel
Jim Caviezel, the heart-throb actor who took the film world by surprise with his moving depiction of Christ in 2004, said that abortion has nothing to do with helping women and that he is willing to risk his career to say so.
6) 400 Students Defy ACLU and Stand to Recite Lord’s Prayer at Graduation
A dramatic protest against an attempt by the ACLU to silence prayer in Florida schools. Many of the students also painted crosses on their graduation caps to make a statement of faith.
7) ‘In the Womb’ is Now on the Net: Amazing 4-D Footage of Growing Baby
Few tools have been more effective for the pro-life cause than ultrasound. However, recent advances in ultrasound technology have made the humanity of the unborn child even more impossible to deny. This 2-hour Discovery Channel documentary presents a remarkable visual apologetic for the pro-life message that human life begins with fertilization. Showing the continuous development of the unborn child from conception to birth, it shatters all attempts to pinpoint any other time as the beginning of life.
The turning point for Abby Johnson in her journey to the pro-life position was reportedly when she witnessed an actual ultrasound image of an abortion being performed on an unborn child. Since converting to the pro-life position, she has said: “I feel so pure in heart. I don’t have this guilt, I don’t have this burden on me anymore.”
9) Bishop Hermann of St. Louis – Strongest Ever Pro-Life Column
Bishop Hermann wrote: “I may courageously say that I am willing to die to end abortion, but am I equally willing to say that I am ready to let my ego get ruffled daily for the same cause? Yet … that is where I need to arrive if I am to be a credible witness.”
10) Controversial U.K. Mayor Cuts Gay Pride Funding, Pledges End to Political Correctness in Government
A rare breath of fresh air in the world of politics. “I’m not a homophobe,” said Peter Davies, “but I don’t see why council taxpayers should pay to celebrate anyone’s sexuality.” In his first week in office, Davies also cut his own salary from £73,000 to £30,000; reduced the number of councillors from 63 to 21, saving the town £800,000 a year. He also immediately announced plans to reduce council tax by 3 per cent and got rid of the mayoral limousine.
Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), Chairwoman of the House Rules Committee: Kill the Senate Health Reform Bill and Start Over
….”Supporters of the weak Senate bill say ‘just pass it — any bill is better than no bill,’ ” Slaughter wrote. “I strongly disagree — a conference report is unlikely to sufficiently bridge the gap between these two very different bills.” . . . (Says) Scrap the current healthcare bill, and start over….
The Senate’s healthcare bill is fatally flawed, a senior Democrat atop a powerful committee said on Wednesday.
Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), the chairwoman of the House Rules Committee and co-chairwoman of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, said that the Senate’s bill is so flawed that it’s unlikely to be resolved in conference with the bill to have passed the House.
“The Senate health care bill is not worthy of the historic vote that the House took a month ago,” Slaughter wrote in an opinion piece for CNN’s website.
Slaughter argued that while the House bill is far from perfect, the Senate bill’s exclusion of a public option, along with abortion funding restrictions and other measures, make the bill undeserving of a vote.
Specifically, Slaughter said, the Senate bill would charge seniors higher premiums, would fail to nix health insurers’ antitrust exemption and would not go far enough in extending coverage to people in the U.S.
“Supporters of the weak Senate bill say ‘just pass it — any bill is better than no bill,’ ” Slaughter wrote. “I strongly disagree — a conference report is unlikely to sufficiently bridge the gap between these two very different bills.”
The New York Democrat also sounded a note similar to what Republicans have said (though for different reasons): “It’s time that we draw the line on this weak bill and ask the Senate to go back to the drawing board,” she said. “The American people deserve at least that.”
Update, 2:54 p.m.: A Senate Republican aide chimed in on Slaughter: “Unfortunately for moderate Democrats, all the sweetheart deals in the world couldn’t help you win an election when voters from across the political spectrum hate you because of your support for this disastrous bill.”
Obama Vents Frustration at Senate Delays
….Obama’s critique of his former Senate colleagues came just as his allies there were on the cusp of giving him what he wants: passage of a Senate health care bill….
NewsMax, December, 22, 2009
President Barack Obama on Wednesday expressed frustration with the way the Senate does business, saying the use of delaying tactics there harms the nation’s ability to “deal with big problems in a very competitive world.”
“Other countries are going to start running circles around us,” Obama said in a White House interview with PBS. “We’re going to have to return to some sense that governance is more important than politics inside the Senate.”
Obama’s critique of his former Senate colleagues came just as his allies there were on the cusp of giving him what he wants: passage of a Senate health care bill.
The bare-minimum bloc of 60 senators — all 58 Democrats and two independents — voted to end a GOP filibuster and move toward final passage Thursday.
Obama said the use of that vote-stalling tactic, which requires 60 votes to cut off debate, has been imposed in an “unheard of” routine fashion. He said it’s problematic regardless of which party controls the White House and Congress, but conceded that, as president, he doesn’t have much power to do anything about it.
As for the health care bill, the version the Senate is expected to pass must still be reconciled with a House-passed measure.
Obama pledged to take a hands-on role in reconciling the two.
“We hope to have a whole bunch of folks over here in the West Wing, and I’ll be rolling up my sleeves and spending some time before the full Congress even gets back into session, because the American people need it now,” he said.
Congress is expected to pick up the process in January after a holiday break.
The president sought to shift the focus from how the bills differ — on such areas as financing and abortion restrictions — to how they are similar.
“I’m getting 95 percent of what I want,” Obama said. “Now, I might not be getting 95 percent of what some other folks want.”
Obama has faced heat from the left side of his own Democratic Party because, among other items, the Senate bill does not include a so-called public option in which a government-run health care plan would be a choice for consumers. The House version does have it.
Obama said he would sign a final bill even if does not include the public option. He said he disagrees with those who want to “dump all these other extraordinary reforms” because the bill doesn’t include that provision. “I don’t think that makes sense,” he said.
The House bill calls for taxing richer Americans to pay for covering the uninsured, while the Senate version would tax some of the costlier employer-provided health benefit plans. In a separate interview with National Public Radio, Obama predicted that the final bill will end up incorporating “a little bit of both.”
Obama’s interviews were with PBS’ “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” and NPR’s “All Things Considered.”
http://newsmax.com/InsideCover/US-Obama-Health-Care/2009/12/23/id/344525
TODAY’S GOSPEL
1. The book of the lineage of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
2. Abraham conceived Isaac. And Isaac conceived Jacob. And Jacob conceived Judah and his brothers.
3. And Judah conceived Perez and Zerah by Tamar. And Perez conceived Hezron. And Hezron conceived Ram.
4. And Ram conceived Amminadab. And Amminadab conceived Nahshon. And Nahshon conceived Salmon.
5. And Salmon conceived Boaz by Rahab. And Boaz conceived Obed by Ruth. And Obed conceived Jesse.
6. And Jesse conceived king David. And king David conceived Solomon, by her who had been the wife of Uriah.
7. And Solomon conceived Rehoboam. And Rehoboam conceived Abijah. And Abijah conceived Asa.
8. And Asa conceived Jehoshaphat. And Jehoshaphat conceived Joram. And Joram conceived Uzziah.
9. And Uzziah conceived Jotham. And Jotham conceived Ahaz. And Ahaz conceived Hezekiah.
10. And Hezekiah conceived Manasseh. And Manasseh conceived Amos. And Amos conceived Josiah.
11. And Josiah conceived Jechoniah and his brothers in the transmigration of Babylon.
12. And after the transmigration of Babylon, Jechoniah conceived Shealtiel. And Shealtiel conceived Zerubbabel.
13. And Zerubbabel conceived Abiud. And Abiud conceived Eliakim. And Eliakim conceived Azor.
14. And Azor conceived Zadok. And Zadok conceived Achim. And Achim conceived Eliud.
15. And Eliud conceived Eleazar. And Eleazar conceived Matthan. And Matthan conceived Jacob.
16. And Jacob conceived Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
17. And so, all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the transmigration of Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the transmigration of Babylon to the Christ, fourteen generations.
18. Now the procreation of the Christ occurred in this way. After his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they lived together, she was found to have conceived in her womb by the Holy Spirit.
19. Then Joseph, her husband, since he was just and was not willing to hand her over, preferred to send her away secretly.
20. But while thinking over these things, behold, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in his sleep, saying: “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to accept Mary as your wife. For what has been formed in her is of the Holy Spirit.
21. And she shall give birth to a son. And you shall call his name JESUS. For he shall accomplish the salvation of his people from their sins.”
22. Now all this occurred in order to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying:
23. “Behold, a virgin shall conceive in her womb, and she shall give birth to a son. And they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means: God is with us.”
24. Then Joseph, arising from sleep, did just as the Angel of the Lord had instructed him, and he accepted her as his wife.
25. And he knew her not, yet she bore her son, the firstborn. And he called his name JESUS.
VIGIL OF CHRISTMAS
In the first ages, during the night before every feast, a vigil was kept. In the evening the faithful assembled in the place or church where the feast was to be celebrated and prepared themselves by prayers, readings from Holy Writ (now the Offices of Vespers and Matins), and sometimes also by hearing a sermon. On such occasions, as on fast days in general, Mass also was celebrated in the evening, before the Vespers of the following day. Towards morning the people dispersed to the streets and houses near the church, to wait for the solemn services of the forenoon. This vigil was a regular institution of Christian life and was defended and highly recommended by St. Augustine and St. Jerome (see Pleithner, “Aeltere Geschichte des Breviergebetes”, pp. 223 sq.). The morning intermission gave rise to grave abuses; the people caroused and danced in the streets and halls around the church (Durandus, “Rat. Div. off.”, VI, 7). St. Jerome speaks of these improprieties (Epist. ad Ripuarium).
The Synod of Seligenstadt (1022) mentions vigils on the eves of Christmas, Epiphany, the feast of the Apostles, the Assumption of Mary, St. Laurence, and All Saints, besides the fast of two weeks before the Nativity of St. John. After the eleventh century the fast, Office, and Mass of the nocturnal vigil were transferred to the day before the feast; and even now [1909] the liturgy of the Holy Saturday (vigil of Easter) shows, in all its parts, that originally it was not kept on the morning of Saturday, but during Easter Night. The day before the feast was henceforth called vigil. A similar celebration before the high feast exists also in the Orthodox (Greek) Church, and is called pannychis or hagrypnia. In the Occident only the older feasts have vigils; even the feasts of the first class introduced after the thirteenth century (Corpus Christi, the Sacred Heart) have no vigils, except the Immaculate Conception, which Pope Leo XIII (30 Nov,., 1879) singled out for this distinction. The number of vigils in the Roman Calendar besides Holy Saturday is seventeen, viz., the eves of Christmas, the Epiphany, the Ascension, Pentecost, the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, the eight feasts of the Apostles, St. John the Baptist, St. Laurence, and All Saints. Some dioceses and religiousorders have particular vigils, e.g. the Servites, on the Saturday next before the feast of the Seven Dolours of Our Lady; the Carmelites, on the eve of the feast of Mount Carmel. In the United States only four of theses vigils are fast days: the vigils of Christmas, Pentecost, the Assumption, and All Saints.
Christmas Reflection: A Lesson in Giving
He was a 30ish, rail-thin, hopelessly drunken black man. In less politically correct parlance, he was what people once called a bum. The economy when his story took place[1], mostly in late 1982, was far worse than today’s: On its way down from 13.5% inflation and 21% interest rates, it featured inflation still running at 6% and unemployment at a whopping 10.8 %. There were a lot more of “his kind” on the streets in those days than now — “his kind” meaning destitute, apparently living on the streets, begging. Even so, he stood out.
I was a freshman at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., working at an internship for Louisiana’s U.S. Rep. Bob Livingston, when our man — (that’s how I’ll identify him from now on, “Our Man,” or OM for short) — first entered my consciousness. The route back from Capitol Hill to campus involved a transfer from Metro train to a bus at a stop at D.C.’s Dupont Circle. On one of those gray, dreary, late-November days that give ample evidence that winter is on its way, OM, unsteady on his feet, approached several of us waiting at the bus stop and asked for some change “for a cup of coffee.” Or, rather than asked, he loudly announced, while slurring his speech, that he needed the money. Nobody else answered — but, feeling proud of my own generosity, I reached way down deep into my pocket and felt around, first fingering what felt like a couple of pennies, then settling on what turned out to be a big, whopping quarter to give him. He snatched it without thanks and stumbled off down the street.
For some reason, the bus took seemingly forever to get there, because our same group of commuters still was standing at the same stop about 15 or 20 minutes later when OM stumbled back down the street, came right back to us and, without seeming to realize that we were the same people he already had approached — nor that I was the same guy who had just given him a quarter 15 minutes earlier (how dare he not remember!) – again announced that he needed money for a cup of coffee.
Well, harrumph. That sure as hell “learned me,” as the saying goes, about the folly of wasting my money.
Anyway, several weeks went past, and almost every time I waited at that bus stop, OM was loitering nearby, pestering people for money, stumbling around, reeking of alcohol, being a nuisance. One day, perhaps in January (it was quite cold), he lay shivering on the bus-stop bench, under the tiny wind shelter, curled into a ball, holding what looked even through its plastic wrapper to be a soggy, unappetizing loaf of bread. For the five or so minutes until the bus came, I listened as OM sometimes mumbled, sometimes whispered, sometimes said in a conversational tone, and a few times suddenly shouted at deafening decibels, the same phrase, over and over like a mantra: “Bread, but no meat. Bread, but no f***ing meat. God***n bread but no f***ing meat!!!!”
I looked around for clues about what to do, but as all the older commuters just ignored OM, so did I, until the bus came to take me back to Georgetown’s magnificent old buildings, erudite professors, and friends aplenty.
Another occasion, not too long thereafter, OM was even worse. Oh, he wasn’t as pitiful this time, but instead was menacing. A reasonably young woman stood among our crowd of commuters, and OM stumbled up to her. This time, he didn’t ask for money. “Hey, lady,” he said. “D’ya wanta man? You look like you want a man. I can give it to you, lady, I can give it to you good.”
The woman just looked away. I looked at the other male commuters. We made eye contact with each other, and stepped closer to OM, who still was standing a few feet from the woman rather than crowding into her. Somehow, it seemed that about four of us silently made an unspoken agreement: If OM touched the woman, we’d all jump him together. (Gee, how brave of us.)
OM, oblivious to us, swayed a little closer to the woman — not so much a step towards her as just a drunken, off-balance lean — and repeated something like: “C’mon baby, lemme give it to you.”
The four of us all stepped closer still to OM, nobody saying anything yet, nobody wanting to actually make contact, but all of us realizing this needed to be stopped. Slowly, OM noticed that we were crowding into him, and his heretofore slightly unfocused eyes suddenly focused on the biggest of the four of us (certainly not at my 5’8″ frame). The bigger guy stared daggers at OM, and OM muttered something under his breath and turned away, crossing the street and lurching all the way down the next block until out of sight. The woman, meanwhile, just stood there biting her lip, while the four or five of us re-spaced ourselves to normal distances, all of us surely feeling somewhat smug about how well we thought we had defused the situation.
Oddly enough, I don’t remember seeing OM at that stop for the rest of that school year, and he more or less fell from my mind as freshman year and my internship both ended and I went home for the summer. I didn’t renew the internship the next year, so I had no reason to return to the Dupont Circle bus stop.
No reason, that is, until another gray and chilly day, again I think in late November (maybe early December), when I had a free afternoon and decided to go back to Livingston’s office, just for a visit with the office staff that had been so nice to me the year before and also to talk home-state politics.
This was in late 1983, and the Reagan economic miracle by now was revving up. People everywhere seemed to me (or so I seem to remember it) less glum, less grim. And as I stood at the Dupont bus stop after my Capitol visit, wishing I were wearing a heavier jacket to ward off the cold, I was surprised to see OM walking down the block — the same block down which he had exited the last time that I had seen him, 10 months before — this time coming toward us rather than away. But on this occasion OM wasn’t staggering quite the same way. And this time, although his jeans and shoes and shirt still were ragged, he wore on top of them a spiffy, clean, almost-new-looking tan plaid sport jacket. Also different this time was that he wasn’t holding on for dear life to a pathetic, soggy-looking loaf of cold bread; instead, amazingly enough, he had in his hand what looked like a hot roast beef sandwich, steam visibly rising from it in the cold air. OM held the sandwich aloft as if it were a prize, except for when intermittently he lowered it to his mouth to wolf down a hearty bite.
I noticed as OM walked right past the bus stop that he still smelled just a little like alcohol, but otherwise he clearly had had at least a temporary change of fortune. He didn’t even pause to ask commuters for any money. About 15 yards beyond us, though, his gait slowed. Another “street person,” this one white and much older, maybe 60, sort of short and stocky, stood there forlornly looking down at his own feet, not saying a word, just standing there with his arms crossed the way people do when trying to keep warm.
OM stopped. The old white “bum” didn’t even look at him, didn’t say anything to him, may not have even noticed him. But OM noticed Old White, and OM got an idea.
“Hey, you,” OM said to Old White, tapping him on the shoulder. Old White looked up, and leaned a bit away as if unsure of what was coming next. He didn’t look as if he knew OM; they apparently were strangers. Anyway, OM then reached way down deep into his sport jacket pocket with his non-sandwich hand… and his hand emerged with a handful of greenback bills, perhaps seven or even eight of them, of indeterminate denominations that OM didn’t even bother to check.
“I want you to have these,” OM said to Old White, pressing the bills into an obviously surprised Old White’s hands. And, without waiting for Old White to say anything, OM turned on his heels, took another bite of his steaming sandwich, and walked away with a jaunty stride….
From Luke 21: “Truly I tell you: this poor [man] has put in more than all of them; for [he] out of [his] poverty put in all the living that [he] had.”
I watched OM stride away. Suddenly that quarter from deep in my pocket a year earlier seemed incredibly small….
* * *
No matter how fallen somebody is, he can still give, as can all of us. No matter how self-satisfied we are, we can learn from the examples of others. For we already have been given so much, and taught so much, from and through the example of the greatest Giver of them all.
An Episcopalian minister and writer named Martin Bell once wrote a hauntingly sad but beautiful little Christmas short story called “Barrington Bunny,” from a collection of Bell’s stories called “The Way of The Wolf: The Gospel in New Images.” The story tells of how on a cold Christmas Eve, Barrington found himself alone because he was the only bunny in his particular forest — but, moved by love, Barrington hopped around and left gifts at all the other animals’ houses: a stick for the beaver’s dam, and dead leaves and grass for the squirrels’ nest, and so on. And with each gift, he left a simple note that said: “This is a gift. A free gift. No strings attached. Signed, a member of your family.”
That’s the sort of gift handed by OM to Old White on that cold day in 1983, one with no strings attached. And I, the observer, could only stare in wonder, my old judgments upended, my former certainties somewhat scrambled.
On Friday, Christians celebrate a gift far more profound, but given just as freely as the wadded-up dollar bills OM gave to Old White. For that far more profound gift on that first Christmas Day, it was shepherds who stared in wonder.
As indeed all Christians still stare in wonder, for the gifts of the Lord are glorious to behold. The living Bread alone is enough, for it provides all the sustenance we need.
[1] This is a story, first told in The HOYA newspaper at Georgetown University, that I re-tell in a new column about every ten years or so, each time from memory (rather than by looking at my previous columns on this subject) and with the differing perspectives caused by the passing of time — so, some minor emphases in details may change, but not the basic facts of the story.
Quin Hillyer is a senior editorial writer at the Washington Times and senior editor of The American Spectator. He can be reached at QHillyer@gmail.com.
Founder’s Quote Daily
“The whole of that Bill [of Rights] is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals… [I]t establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of.”
–Albert Gallatin, letter to Alexander Addison, 1789
http://patriotpost.us/