The message for Christmas of Fr. Pizzaballa, Custos of the Holy Land and President of ATS pro Terra Sancta

Fr. Pizzaballa, Chairman of the Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land shares his Christmas message.

The message for Christmas of Fr. Pizzaballa, Custos of the Holy Land and President of ATS pro Terra Sancta

On the go - Sunday's reading reflection

When I was a young wife and mother, I could never find the time to pray.  Each day was so full and with each passing year our schedule as a family grew more demanding.  How could I get the laundry done?  How could I find time to pray? 

I finally realized that no one ever came into the laundry room, and the peace of that room was the perfect place to pray.  As I sorted laundry, I prayed for each person in my family while folding pajamas, school uniform blouses and an endless number of socks.  My prayers and my spirituality were shaped in that laundry room, and I have always connected doing the family laundry with prayer.   

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family, remembering how Jesus grew up in the normal busy-ness of family life, how he was shaped as a person by both Mary and Joseph.

Pope Francis wrote in his recent exhortation that the family is “where we learn to live with others despite our differences and to belong to one another.”  That very belonging to each other is what today’s readings are about. 

In the first reading, Sirach entreats parents and children to love and honor each other.  When one generation can no longer care for the other, he calls us to “take care of your father when he is old … even if his mind fails, be considerate of him.”  He adds the care we give for the elderly “will not be forgotten, firmly planted against the debt” of our own failings. 

Our lives are complicated and families don’t always consist of two parents.  But Paul’s letter to the Colossians offers all of us the tools we need to care for each other: .  I can guess that Paul was intimately connected with family as he notes other important family skills, like “bearing with one another” which seems like an apt phrase on the harder days.  When we share a home, we not only have to forgive each other, but to be aware that we need forgiveness from each other, prompted by the example of God’s deeply loving forgiveness for us all.

The Gospel is Matthew’s story of the Holy Family fleeing to Egypt in fear of Herod, who was searching for their son.  The left their homeland and lived in a country they did not know, with languages and customs not their own, separated from their family.  When they could finally return to Israel, fear of Herod’s successor forced them to go not home, but to Galilee, where they would be less likely to be found.

But despite the stress of their situation, I picture them as holding onto each other even more closely.  That seems to be our human reaction to tragedy – we want to gather our loved ones together and hold onto each other. Even with the people who drive us crazy.  But they are family and they belong to us and we belong to them; because family is not about perfection but fidelity.  As Pope Francis says about families, “We remain steadfast in our intention to respect others, to heal wounds, to build bridges, to strengthen relationships and to ‘bear one an­other’s burdens.’”

He says when a parent speaks to a child, the parent “becomes small,” crouching down to eye level and speaking in a softer, different voice.  He says, “Someone looking in from the outside might think, ‘This is ridiculous!’” and yet parents do it “because the love of a father and mother needs to be close.”  He says God comes to us in the same “small” way of a parent, speaking to our fears with gentle love, “Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, I’m here.”

Being part of a family means being faithful to our everyday lives, to loving each other on our best and worst days, and to remembering the sacredness of even the pile of socks, overflowing in the laundry room.

(Adapted from Maureen McCann Waldron)

St. John, the Beloved - Tomorrow's reading reflection

As I reflected on today’s feast of St. John, and its placement in the Octave of Christmas, I was struck again by the delicate layers of insight the Spirit gives to the Church in our liturgical life.  Even before we ponder the poetic proclamation of witness in the first reading, the placing of the feast on the third day of the eight days of celebration of the mystery of the Incarnation tells us a great deal about our lives as disciples.  John is often called the “beloved disciple” because he speaks of a “disciple Jesus loved” as one who lays his head on Jesus’ breast at the Last Supper, and stands with Jesus’ mother at the foot of the cross.  The intimacy of the description seems to be an implied self-description (hence the Church’s reference to John as the “Beloved”) but another way of reading it, similar to the address of the Luke’s Gospel and Acts of the Apostles to one “Theophilus” – or God-lover – can be a general reference about all real disciples, we are, each and all, “Beloved.”  It is we who in the Eucharist and in other tender moments of prayer lay our head on Christ’s shoulder or breast, and we who stand beneath the Cross with our mother, the Church, to receive the instruction to care for and be cared for by her.  It is the “role” of a disciple to be beloved, just as it is the role of the disciple to witness to that loving tenderness of God made manifest in the humanity of Jesus Christ, which we celebrate these eight days (the fullness of time and participation in the new creation marked by the number eight).

The witness of the disciple is simply and strikingly presented in the first reading:  What we have seen and heard in our own lives we report to you – we share with you.  But IF we have seen and heard it in our own lives, then our lives have to demonstrate that.  Pope Francis has been calling all Catholics to be “JOYFUL” because IF we have seen and heard the truth of God becoming human in our own lives  THEN we must manifest that truth by our attitudes, choices and way of life.  What have we seen and heard?  In some way or another we have encountered the profound loving care of God’s personal attention to us.  If that hasn’t happened for us, then we must pray in confidence that God will disclose God’s self to us, and we have to attentively listen to the soft whisper of God that changes everything – like a mighty wind. 

The Advent season called us to patience.  This Christmas octave calls us to attend – to kneel at the crèche, to place our head on the shoulder or chest of the adult Jesus, to stand listening, longing or even agonizing at the foot of the cross, and to run – as today’s Gospel describes it – to run to the tomb, and see the evidence of Resurrection in our life.  Where is new life popping up when we least expect it?  Where does the evidence of gracious events leave us puzzling about how this could be?  Pray with St. John to see how the evidence around corroborates your own experience of God’s presence in Jesus.

              

After Christmas, we would think that the predominate feeling we would have would be gratitude.  Grateful at what family or friends or co-workers have provided; grateful for what we have and who we have that love us; grateful, above all for our lives and the goodness of God who has given us so much.  I especially speak for myself as I type these words – how can I help rejoicing in the gratitude of all that God has given.  But I find a temptation to feel “let down” somehow.  A similar feeling came after a big performance years ago when I did some theater or musical performance.   But Christmas is not about performance.  Christmas is about receiving the Word-made-flesh into our lives.  Maybe if I – (or you?) – don’t feel grateful it is because we did not allow ourselves the humility of the disciple to RECEIVE Christ’s gracious presence.   The great news is that we still have time!  We are celebrating only the third day of the octave – five more days to become attentive . . . receptive . . . to Jesus’ invitation to intimacy as a real disciple – a beloved disciple.  Blessed St. John’s Day!

(Adapted from Eileen Burke-Sullivan)

Urbi et Orbi 2013 (full text)

Urbi et Orbi Message of His Holiness Pope Francis

(Christmas 2013)

Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours (Lk 2:14)

Dear brothers and sisters in Rome and throughout the whole world, Greetings and Happy Christmas!

I take up the song of the angels who appeared to the shepherds in Bethlehem on the night when Jesus was born. It is a song which unites heaven and earth, giving praise and glory to heaven, and the promise of peace to earth and all its people.

I ask everyone to share in this song: it is a song for every man or woman who keeps watch through the night, who hopes for a better world, who cares for others while humbly seeking to do his or her duty.

Glory to God!

Above all else, this is what Christmas bids us to do: give glory to God, for he is good, he is faithful, he is merciful. Today I voice my hope that everyone will come to know the true face of God, the Father who has given us Jesus. My hope is that everyone will feel God’s closeness, live in his presence, love him and adore him.

May each of us give glory to God above all by our lives, by lives spent for love of him and of all our brothers and sisters.

Peace to mankind

True peace - we know this well - is not a balance of opposing forces. It is not a lovely “façade” which conceals conflicts and divisions. Peace calls for daily commitment, but making peace is an art, starting from God’s gift, from the grace which he has given us in Jesus Christ.

Looking at the Child in the manger, Child of peace, our thoughts turn to those children who are the most vulnerable victims of wars, but we think too of the elderly, to battered women, to the sick… Wars shatter and hurt so many lives!

Too many lives have been shattered in recent times by the conflict in Syria, fueling hatred and vengeance. Let us continue to ask the Lord to spare the beloved Syrian people further suffering, and to enable the parties in conflict to put an end to all violence and guarantee access to humanitarian aid. We have seen how powerful prayer is! And I am happy today too, that the followers of different religious confessions are joining us in our prayer for peace in Syria. Let us never lose the courage of prayer! The courage to say: Lord, grant your peace to Syria and to the whole world. And I also invite non-believers to desire peace with that yearning that makes the heart grow: all united, either by prayer or by desire. But all of us, for peace.

Grant peace, dear Child, to the Central African Republic, often forgotten and overlooked. Yet you, Lord, forget no one! And you also want to bring peace to that land, torn apart by a spiral of violence and poverty, where so many people are homeless, lacking water, food and the bare necessities of life. Foster social harmony in South Sudan, where current tensions have already caused too many victims and are threatening peaceful coexistence in that young state.

Prince of Peace, in every place turn hearts aside from violence and inspire them to lay down arms and undertake the path of dialogue. Look upon Nigeria, rent by constant attacks which do not spare the innocent and defenseless. Bless the land where you chose to come into the world, and grant a favourable outcome to the peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians. Heal the wounds of the beloved country of Iraq, once more struck by frequent acts of violence.

Lord of life, protect all who are persecuted for your name. Grant hope and consolation to the displaced and refugees, especially in the Horn of Africa and in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Grant that migrants in search of a dignified life may find acceptance and assistance. May tragedies like those we have witnessed this year, with so many deaths at Lampedusa, never occur again!

Child of Bethlehem, touch the hearts of all those engaged in human trafficking, that they may realize the gravity of this crime against humanity. Look upon the many children who are kidnapped, wounded and killed in armed conflicts, and all those who are robbed of their childhood and forced to become soldiers.

Lord of heaven and earth, look upon our planet, frequently exploited by human greed and rapacity. Help and protect all the victims of natural disasters, especially the beloved people of the Philippines, gravely affected by the recent typhoon.

Dear brothers and sisters, today, in this world, in this humanity, is born the Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. Let us pause before the Child of Bethlehem. Let us allow our hearts to be touched, let us not fear this. Let us not fear that our hearts be moved. We need this! Let us allow ourselves to be warmed by the tenderness of God; we need his caress. God’s caresses do not harm us. They give us peace and strength. We need his caresses. God is full of love: to him be praise and glory forever! God is peace: let us ask him to help us to be peacemakers each day, in our life, in our families, in our cities and nations, in the whole world. Let us allow ourselves to be moved by God’s goodness.

Christmas Reflection - Tomorrow's reading reflection

“Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and always.” With God there is no such thing as time. All of time is totally present to him right now. God’s work among us is always in process, it never comes to an end. In God’s eyes, Christmas is an everyday event, that involves Jesus knocking on the door of my heart, seeking admission. The God-dimension never changes, the offer is always there, the good news is delivered with greater consistency than the morning newspaper. What happens after that is totally dependent on whether I accept the offer, open the door, and make my heart available as a manger.

One important point: when the shepherds heard the message they said, “Let us go to Bethlehem and see it for ourselves.” The life of the Christian is a journey of discovery. It involves coming to find out for myself the truth and the reality of what I had been told by my parents, teachers, or preachers in church. I have to cross that bridge. The gospel is in between two phrases. At the beginning, we are invited to “Come and see,” and, at the end, we are instructed to “Go and tell.”

(Adapted from ACP) 

Also:

Many of the early church fathers have written hymns and homilies in praise of the Incarnation. John the Monk, an 8th century writer, in his Hymn of the Nativity, sings of the great exchange in the mystery and wonder of the Incarnation - God becoming man in order to bring man to heaven:

Heaven and earth are united today, for Christ is born! Today God has come upon earth, and humankind gone up to heaven. Today, for the sake of humankind, the invisible one is seen in the flesh. Therefore let us glorify him and cry aloud: glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace bestowed by your coming, Savior: glory to you! Today in Bethlehem, I hear the angels: glory to God in the highest! Glory to him whose good pleasure it was that there be peace on earth! The Virgin is now more spacious than the heavens. Light has shone on those in darkness, exalting the lowly who sing like the angels: Glory to God in the highest! Beholding him [Adam] who was in God’s image and likeness fallen through transgression, Jesus bowed the heavens and came down, without change taking up his dwelling in a virgin womb, that he might refashion Adam fallen in corruption, and crying out: glory to your epiphany, my Savior and my God! [Stichera (hymn) of the Nativity of the Lord]

(Adapted from Don Schwager)

Manger in waiting - Tomorrow's reading reflection

We do not worship a god who is far away, unapproachable, too busy to notice us, or a god who abandons us to our own devices.  Christmas speaks of a totally different story.  Christmas is all about God’s loving desire to be with us personally, to accompany us on our journey, and to continually invite us into his wonderful life.

Today we realize and acknowledge the magnificent miracle of God actually becoming one of us.  Our faith professed each Sunday and Holy Days during the year tells us that God becomes human for us.  Why?  So that God can share everything with us and to be present to each of us as we are.

On this Christmas Eve, we celebrate God’s creativity in journeying to be with us so intimately as one like us in all things.  The first reading from the Second Book of Samuel has David reflecting on his situation and its relationship with God’s role towards his chosen ones: the People of God.

David remarks, “Here I am living in a house of cedar while the ark of God dwells in a tent.”  He acknowledges that disparity and wants to remedy it somehow.  However, God has quite different plans and seems not to be bothered by the differences David worries over.

God speaks a message to the prophet Nathan for him to deliver to David.  “I have been with you wherever you went. . .  Your house shall endure forever.”  God does not seem to be “slumming” by dwelling in a tent with his beloved people, but desires to be present through David, his family and his house.  God’s commitment is to be faithfully present to the Israelites and to all people beginning with David’s line.

When God “pitches his tent” among us through the Incarnation and the birth of Jesus that same desire on God’s part is manifested in spades.  Now Jesus, the Son of God, the incarnation of God, the very presence of God is made known not in an ark but personally in the humanness of Jesus.

(Adapted from Tom Shanahan, S.J.)