Msgr. Robert J. Batule: An Advent for Truth and True Freedom

By Msgr. Robert J. Batule, The Catholic Thing, Dec. 15, 2024

Msgr. Robert J. Batule, a priest of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, is the Pastor of Saint Margaret Church in Selden, New York. He had been a faculty member at two different seminaries and has been a contributor of essays, articles, and book reviews to various Catholic publications throughout the course of his nearly forty-year priestly ministry.

Back in 1999, the Cable News Network (CNN) featured something called Voices of the Millennium. The voices chosen were historians, politicians, actors, musicians, athletes, scientists, and a great many others. Some of these figures were well-known and others almost completely unknown, but they all voiced commentary on events, ideas and movements that were changing the way we look at ourselves and the way we view the world.

What brings us to church at Christmas is a voice too – a voice not from late in the second millennium, but from early in the first millennium, calling us to truth – and to God’s freedom. That voice made its debut when it pierced the stillness of the night air in Bethlehem of Judea. It was the voice of a baby crying. But how could the people of first-century Palestine know that this particular baby was their long-awaited Savior?

Some may have known of Isaiah’s prophecy that a child would be born, a son given, who would be called Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, and Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:5) But could people in His time know that this prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus? ….

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