When I first became a Christian, I looked for the presence of God in my life. See, I was initially a non-believer, so I asked God for a sign. I’m sure He got a good laugh out of that one. The presence of our Lord was all around me, I just had to open my eyes to see. Yet in Luke 1:39-47, we learn that an unborn child recognized God’s presence in Mary’s womb.

“Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” And Mary said: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior.” “

Now imagine if the blessed Virgin Mary appeared to me, just as she did to Juan Diego a long time ago. Would I have been so ready to accept her presence, just as he did? The opening of the New World brought with it both fortune-seekers and religious preachers desiring to convert the native populations to the Christian faith. One of the converts was a poor Aztec Indian named Juan Diego. On one of his trips to the chapel, Juan was walking through the Tepayac hill country in central Mexico. Near Tepayac Hill he encountered a beautiful woman surrounded by a ball of light as bright as the sun. Speaking in his native tongue, the beautiful lady identified herself:

“My dear little son, I love you. I desire you to know who I am. I am the ever-virgin Mary, Mother of the true God who gives life and maintains its existence. He created all things. He is in all places. He is Lord of Heaven and Earth. I desire a church in this place where your people may experience my compassion. All those who sincerely ask my help in their work and in their sorrows will know my Mother’s Heart in this place. Here I will see their tears; I will console them and they will be at peace. So run now to Tenochtitlan and tell the Bishop all that you have seen and heard.”

Juan, age 57, and who had never been to Tenochtitlan, nonetheless immediately responded to Mary’s request. He went to the palace of the Bishop-elect Fray Juan de Zumarraga and requested to meet immediately with the bishop. The bishop’s servants, who were suspicious of the rural peasant, kept him waiting for hours. The bishop-elect told Juan that he would consider the request of the Lady and told him he could visit him again if he so desired. Juan was disappointed by the bishop’s response and felt himself unworthy to persuade someone as important as a bishop. He returned to the hill where he had first met Mary and found her there waiting for him. Imploring her to send someone else, she responded:

“My little son, there are many I could send. But you are the one I have chosen.”

She then told him to return the next day to the bishop and repeat the request. On Sunday, after again waiting for hours, Juan met with the bishop who, on re-hearing his story, asked him to ask the Lady to provide a sign as a proof of who she was. Juan dutifully returned to the hill and told Mary, who was again waiting for him there, of the bishop’s request. Mary responded:

“My little son, am I not your Mother? Do not fear. The Bishop shall have his sign. Come back to this place tomorrow. Only peace, my little son.”

Unfortunately, Juan was not able to return to the hill the next day. His uncle had become mortally ill and Juan stayed with him to care for him. After two days, with his uncle near death, Juan left his side to find a priest. Juan had to pass Tepayac Hill to get to the priest. As he was passing, he found Mary waiting for him. She spoke:

“Do not be distressed, my littlest son. Am I not here with you who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Your uncle will not die at this time. There is no reason for you to engage a priest, for his health is restored at this moment. He is quite well. Go to the top of the hill and cut the flowers that are growing there. Bring them then to me.”

While it was freezing on the hillside, Juan obeyed Mary’s instructions and went to the top of the hill where he found a full bloom of Castilian roses. Removing his tilma, a poncho-like cape made of cactus fiber, he cut the roses and carried them back to Mary. She rearranged the roses and told him:

“My little son, this is the sign I am sending to the Bishop. Tell him that with this sign I request his greatest efforts to complete the church I desire in this place. Show these flowers to no one else but the Bishop. You are my trusted ambassador. This time the Bishop will believe all you tell him.”

At the palace, Juan once again came before the bishop and several of his advisers. He told the bishop his story and opened the tilma letting the flowers fall out. But it wasn’t the beautiful roses that caused the bishop and his advisers to fall to their knees; for there, on the tilma, was a picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary precisely as Juan had described her. The next day, after showing the Tilma at the Cathedral, Juan took the bishop to the spot where he first met Mary. He then returned to his village where he met his uncle who was completely cured. His uncle told him he had met a young woman, surrounded by a soft light, who told him that she had just sent his nephew to Tenochtitlan with a picture of herself. She told his uncle:

“Call me and call my image Santa Maria de Guadalupe”.

It’s believed that the word Guadalupe was actually a Spanish mis-translation of the local Aztec dialect. The word that Mary probably used was Coatlallope which means “one who treads on snakes”. Within six years of this apparition, six million Aztecs had converted to Catholicism. The tilma shows Mary as the God-bearer – she is pregnant with her Divine Son. Since the time the tilma was first impressed with a picture of the Mother of God, it has been subject to a variety of environmental hazards including smoke from fires and candles, water from floods and torrential downpours and, in 1921, a bomb which was planted by anti-clerical forces on an altar under it. There was also a cast-iron cross next to the tilma and when the bomb exploded, the cross was twisted out of shape, the marble altar rail was heavily damaged and the tilma was…untouched! Indeed, no one was injured in the Church despite the damage that occurred to a large part of the altar structure.

In 1977, the tilma was examined using infrared photography and digital enhancement techniques. Unlike any painting, the tilma shows no sketching or any sign of outline drawn to permit an artist to produce a painting. Further, the very method used to create the image is still unknown. The image is inexplicable in its longevity and method of production. It can be seen today in a large cathedral built to house up to ten thousand worshipers. It is, by far, the most popular religious pilgrimage site in the Western Hemisphere.

Mary’s appearance to Juan Diego as one of his people is a powerful reminder that Mary and the God who sent her accept all peoples. In the context of the sometimes rude and cruel treatment of the Indians by the Spaniards, the apparition was a rebuke to the Spaniards and an event of vast significance for Native Americans. While a number of them had converted before this incident, they now came in droves. According to a contemporary chronicler, nine million Indians became Catholic in a very short time. In these days when we hear so much about God’s preferential option for the poor, Our Lady of Guadalupe cries out to us that God’s love for and identification with the poor is an age-old truth that stems from the Gospel itself.

PRAYER TO OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE

O Virgin of Guadalupe,
Mother of the Americas,
grant to our homes the grace of loving
and respecting life in its beginnings,
with the same love with which
you conceived in your womb
the life of the Son of God.
Blessed Virgin Mary,
Mother of Fair Love,
protect our families so that
they may always be united
and bless the upbringing of our children.

Our hope, look upon us with pity,
teach is to go continually to Jesus,
and if we fall
help us to rise again and return to Him
through the confession of our faults
and our sins in the Sacrament of penance,
which gives peace to the soul.

We beg you to grant us a great love
of all the holy Sacraments,
which are, as it were,
the signs that your Son left us on earth.
Thus, Most Holy Mother,
with the peace of God in our consciences,
with our hearts free from evil and hatred,
we will be able to bring to all others
true joy and peace,
which come to us from your Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ,
who with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
lives and reigns for ever and ever.

Amen.

Happy Holidays?????  When I was a kid, way back in the dark ages, I always thought that “Happy Holidays” meant “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.”  Apparently I was a tad bit under informed……..  So once again, here we go……….

It’s that time of year again.  The time for all and sundry to argue the finer points of holiday greetings:  Merry Christmas versus Happy Holidays.  At the risk of being seen as a non-Christian priest, or a politically correct one, and abandoning or at least not defending my faith and my Lord, I feel compelled for some odd reason, to offer a treatise on the use of Happy Holidays.  So here goes….

“Happy Holidays.”  Now really, what’s wrong with that?  It’s a pleasant wish that encompasses good wishes for an entire month and a half long season.  Granted, that “season” is usually meant to be the period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, and is usually understood to include only Christmas and New Year’s Day.   However, in that time period, what other holidays are there?  “Happy Holidays” is a collective and inclusive wish for the period encompassing Thanksgiving, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Winter solstice, Christmas Day (The Nativity of the Lord), Boxing Day and St. Stephen’s Day, St. John’s Day, the New Year and Epiphany, and it would take me forever to get through the list, if I could remember the list at all, just to give a pleasant hello to someone!  “Happy Holidays” is just easier!  Most of the aforementioned holidays ARE Christian holidays, though, so what’s wrong with “Happy Holidays?”

Leaving those “Happy Holidays” that are in the Christian calendar for a few minutes; let’s look at the ones that aren’t Christian holidays.

The Winter Solstice, or Yule, is celebrated by our Wiccan and Pagan brothers and sisters.   This is when the dark half of the year relinquishes to the light half. Starting the next morning at sunrise, the sun climbs just a little higher and stays a little longer in the sky each day. Known as Solstice Night, or the longest night of the year, the sun’s “rebirth” was celebrated with much joy.  It is from this celebration that we get many, many of our Christmas traditions.

Kwanzaa is celebrated by some of our African American brothers and sisters and is not a substitute for Christmas, nor is it a religious holiday.  Wishing someone a happy Kwanzaa does nothing to deny Christianity.

Hanukkah is a Jewish festival, celebrating a miracle that occurred way back in the 2nd century BCE.  Also known as the Festival of Lights, it is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple (the Second Temple) in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt.  The story of Hanukkah is alluded to in the book of 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees, but Hanukkah is not specially mentioned; rather, a story similar in character, and obviously older in date, is the one alluded to in 2 Maccabees 1:18,  according to which the relighting of the altar fire by Nehemiah was due to a miracle which occurred on the 25th of Kislev, and which appears to be given as the reason for the selection of the same date for the rededication of the altar by Judah Maccabee.  Now, 1 and 2 Maccabees are not considered canonical books by most Protestants, but are included in the Apocrypha, which IS in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles.  So while Hanukkah is not a Christian holiday, per se, it can be considered Biblical.  And since it celebrates the lighting of the rededication of the Temple and is celebrated with lights, and Christ is “the Light of the World,” and the fact that Christianity has its roots in Judaism, Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish friends!

The day after Christmas is Boxing Day, which is celebrated in the Commonwealth countries.  The tradition of Boxing Day has long included giving money and other gifts to those who are needy and in service positions, and this European tradition has been dated to the Middle Ages.  Shouldn’t we, as Christians, do this year-round, and not just during the “holidays”?

New Years Day:  Now, there’s a pagan holiday for you!  The Romans dedicated this day to Janus, the god of gates, doors, and beginnings. The month of January was named after Janus, who had two faces, one looking forward and the other looking backward.  It is from this Roman custom that we get the making of New Year’s resolutions:  looking backward, we resolve to not do something or other, and looking forward, we resolve TO do something or other.  Among the 7th century pagans of Flanders and the Netherlands, it was the custom to exchange gifts at the New Year.  So, I guess I’m asking, should we as Christians NOT celebrate the new year and not wish everyone a “Happy New Year”?  If this is the case, then we should certainly avoid making New Year’s resolutions, too. (Especially those that include diets and exercise!)

And then, there are the religious holidays that most Christians don’t really celebrate, and some don’t even know about.  The Feast of Saint Stephen, who was the first Christian martyr on 26 December, the Feast of St. John who was the “Beloved Disciple” on 27 December, the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 8 December, and the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on 12 December have already been mentioned.

Finally, there is Epiphany, which is perhaps one of the most important holidays of the liturgical or church year.  It is the last day of the Twelve Days of Christmas of which we sing in the (often-denigrated) Christmas carol, and which is overlooked by most non-liturgical churches.  Epiphany, which falls on January 6, is a Christian feast day that celebrates the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ.  Western Christians commemorate principally (but not solely) the visitation of the Biblical Magi to the Baby Jesus, and thus Jesus’ physical manifestation to the Gentiles.  The early Christian Fathers fixed the date of the feast on January 6.  Ancient liturgies noted Illuminatio, Manifestatio, Declaratio (Illumination, Manifestation, Declaration) taken from  Matthew 3:13–17; Luke 3:22; and John 2:1–11; where the Baptism and the Marriage at Cana were dwelt upon. Western Christians have traditionally emphasized the “Revelation to the Gentiles” mentioned in Luke, where the term Gentile means all non-Jewish peoples. The Biblical Magi, who represented the non-Jewish peoples of the world, paid homage to the infant Jesus in stark contrast to Herod the Great (King of Judea), who sought to kill him.  In this event, Christian writers also inferred a revelation to the Children of Israel. Saint John Chrysostom identified the significance of the meeting between the Magi and Herod’s court: “The star had been hidden from them so that, on finding themselves without their guide, they would have no alternative but to consult the Jews. In this way, the birth of Jesus would be made known to all.”  The earliest reference to Epiphany as a Christian feast was in A.D. 361, by Ammianus Marcellinus.   St. Epiphanius says that January 6 is hemera genethlion toutestin epiphanion (Christ’s “Birthday; that is, His Epiphany”).  He also asserts that the Miracle at Cana occurred on the same calendar day, and it was on this day, too, that John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan River.  So on 6 January, after all the Christmas trimmings have been put away, the gifts exchanged, New Years resolutions have been made (and some broken already), and the kids are back in school, we can still say, with all feeling, “Happy Holidays.”

Honestly, don’t you think “Happy Holidays” is so much easier?  And besides, I really like Bing Crosby’s Christmas carol, “Happy Holidays!”

Today the Church celebrates the feast of St. Ambrose, who lived in the 4^th century and is considered to be one of the most influential ecclesiastical figures of that time. He was born to an intellectual and Christian family, who raised him up in the ways of the faith. He was educated in Rome, where he studied law, literature, and rhetoric. He was appointed to a governorship by the Italian Prefect, after serving as lawyer in the court of the Prefect’s predecessor. Following the death of the Arian bishop of Milan in 370 Ambrose, in his role as governor, went out to help mitigate any conflict between the Catholics & the Arians. During his introductory speech, he was interrupted with a cry of “Ambrose, Bishop!” thus electing him by acclamation as Bishop of Milan. Though hesitant at first, he finally assented and was made Bishop of Milan. By all accounts, Ambrose took to his new duties as bishop with commitment and vigor.  He spent several hours each day in prayer and he led a simple and austere lifestyle. Along with administering baptism, penance, discipline of clergy, and civil judicial duties, Ambrose also supervised the charities of the church and defended those who were oppressed. He also had a great influence on another great saint of the Church, Augustine of Hippo. Traditionally, Ambrose is credited with promoting “antiphonal chant,” as well as with composing “Veni redemptor gentium,” an Advent hymn. Ambrose was one of the four original doctors of the Church and is the patron saint of Milan

In our reading from the Old Testament for today from the book of the prophet Isaiah, we hear the Lord calling the people of Israel to trust in Him, to look to Him as their source of strength and help in time of trouble. The Israelites were feeling downtrodden, thinking that God no longer protected them, that He no longer cared for them: “Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God’?” (Isaiah 40:27). The felt that the Lord had abandoned them in their struggles, in their misfortune. Then Isaiah gives us some of the most beautiful words of hope in the Old Testament (Isaiah 40:28-31):

“Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary;

His understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the faint,

and strengthens the powerless.

Even youths will faint and be weary,

and the young will fall exhausted;

but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,

they shall mount up with wings like eagles,

they shall run and not be weary,

they shall walk and not faint.”

In our increasingly secular world today, we may not encounter formal heretics like the Arians of Ambrose’s time, but we do encounter many who do not believe in God and do not find joy for their lives. They often criticize believers and say that our hope is in vain. They believe that true freedom and truth is found in individualism, in atheism and humanism. In our workplace, in our homes, in the store, in our own friends and family are those who feel as though they are alone, dejected, and downtrodden. But our message, our hope, our joy, my friends, is that, “The Lord is an everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth…He gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless.” Let us be strengthened by these words and pass them on to all in our world who need them. Let us proclaim the truth of the Gospel in Jesus Christ, as did St. Ambrose to the people that he served.

St. Ambrose, bishop and doctor of the Church, pray for us.

Which is it?  Christmas?  Xmas?  What’s up with that?

This has been quite the heated debate in the last few years. We have seen the memes and heard folks say:

• they take Christ out of Christmas.
• It’s a sacreligious name for Christmas.
• We are X-ing out Christ in Christmas.
• People are trying to turn Christmas into  a secular holiday.
• It’s an insult to Christians and to Christ.

Oh my!  I”m sure that most of you have seen the “The More You Know” ad spots on television.  Let’s consider this message on of those….So here we go…….

To begin:  Look around in your churches, my friends, especially those of you from a liturgical background, and see how many X’s you can find.

“Xmas” is a common abbreviation of the word “Christmas”.  The “-mas” part is from the Latin-derived Old English word for “Mass”, while the “X” comes from the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter of the Greek word Χριστός, translated as “Christ”.  There is a common misconception that the word Xmas is a secular attempt to remove the religious tradition from Christmas by taking the “Christ” out of “Christmas”.  While “Xmas” is considered to be an informal abbreviation, and should never be used in formal writing, it is historically correct.

The word “Christ” and its compounds, including “Christmas”, have been abbreviated in English for at least the past 1,000 years, long before the modern “Xmas” was commonly used. “Christ” was often written as “XP” or “Xt”; there are references in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as far back as AD 1021. This X and P arose as the uppercase forms of the Greek letters χ and ρ used in ancient abbreviations for Χριστος (Greek for “Christ”), and are still widely seen in many Eastern Orthodox icons depicting Jesus Christ. The labarum, an amalgamation of the two Greek letters rendered as ☧, is a symbol often used to represent Christ in Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Christian Churches.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and the OED Supplement have cited usages of “X-” or “Xp-” for “Christ-” as early as 1485. The terms “Xpian” and “Xtian” have also been used for “Christian”. The dictionary further cites usage of “Xtianity” for “Christianity” from 1634. According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage, most of the evidence for these words comes from “educated Englishmen who knew their Greek”.In ancient Christian art, χ and χρ are abbreviations for Christ’s name. In many manuscripts of the New Testament and icons, Χ is an abbreviation for Χριστος, as is XC (the first and last letters in Greek, using the lunate sigma); compare IC for Jesus in Greek.

Thus, really and truly, the use of the “X” isn’t taking Christ out of Christmas at all.  And instead of protesting the use of “X” during the  Christmas season, wouldn’t we ALL be better people, the world be a better place, and Christ be better served,  if we kept that “X” in our words and deeds every day of the year?  Should we not celebrate Him always, 24/7/365?

So, having said all of the above,  may you keep Christ, not only in Christmas, but also in your hearts and minds and lives, every day and always.  Amen.