This Week's Headlines

As another week comes to an end, this is your chance to top off your glass with a final helping of news, current events, and just plain interesting stuff that may not have made into the mainstream media. A chance to linger for a few more moments before we close the door on the week. Below are some links to articles, blogs, and miscellaneous happenings that caught my eye over the past few days. Sample what you like - I'll serve up more next Friday...


It's a short list this week...busy with the holidays and vacation time with the family. Hopefully more next week...


Don't Be a Liar at Christmas - "As human beings we are persons with bodies. We have a soul that is spiritual but it is joined with a body that is physical and material... Our Faith has to become flesh, it has to reach and influence our very behavior."

A Meditation On the “Bloody Octave” of Christmas - "...[I]n a certain sense this IS still Christmas day. Christmas Day is one long day of eight days from Saturday the 25th to Saturday January 1st. ...[O]ne of the striking things about the Christmas octave is its bloodiness. It is One of the bloodiest weeks of the Church’s years.



New Year’s and the Lord of History - "...the real 'new year' begins with First Vespers of the First Sunday of Advent. And if that’s true, then going bonkers over the turn of the civil calendar is giving a bit more to Caesar than Caesar has a right to receive."

The Pope's Warning to a Disintegrating Western Civilization - "Catholics, Protestants, Agnostics... the vast majority of conservatives of every stripe would agree with this almost non-reported speech made by Pope Benedict XVI on 20 December, 2010."

Why the News Makes Us Dumb - "The product of the news business is change, not wisdom. Wisdom has to do with seeing things in their largest context, whereas news is structured in a way that destroys the larger context. You have to do certain things to information if you want to sell it on a daily basis. "


Ezra Klein Lays It On The Line  - "What we see behind this attitude as expressed by Klein is a disdain for permanent things. It is the core issue that separates progressives and conservatives. Conservatives seek to preserve the heritage of the Constitution..."


Obamacare: Undercutting the Rule of Law - "Obamacare’s construction of a system of bureaucratic fiat is not good for health care–nor the country."

Christmas (2010)

In a unique way, the Son of God was born not merely to live a human life, but to die a human death. The stable at Bethlehem foreshadows the cross of Calvary. And the cross in turn gave to us the food of eternal life, Jesus’ flesh sacramentally present under the appearance of bread. In this way Christmas points us toward the Eucharist. The Incarnation (God-made-flesh) gives to us the flesh that is our spiritual food. The biblical story of Christmas hints at this reality.


Jesus was born in a town called Bethlehem. The word Bethlehem comes from the Hebrew for house of bread. So the man who would one day call His own body “the bread of life” took his first breath in a town fittingly named for that purpose. Bethlehem certainly became “the house of bread” on that night.

Jesus was laid in a manger. The English word “manger” is derived from the French manger which means to eat, or possibly from the Latin manducare - to chew. A manger is where food for livestock is placed to be eaten. How interesting that this simple detail of Jesus’ infancy (where they placed the baby) is preserved for us in Scripture. Jesus was placed where food would normally be for sheep and cattle. The symbolism is obvious. His body would one day feed His flock.

The manger says still more… Jesus in His humanity is placed where lesser creatures receive their food. A higher being placed where lesser beings eat. To be humbled in this way was the purpose of His coming. As God’s Son, His divinity far surpasses our weak human nature, and yet our Mighty God offers His own body as food. This higher Being (God Himself) is placed before us to be eaten. So the baby Jesus placed in a manger as food for animals points us to the Eucharistic reality at every Mass. God feeds us with His own Body.

And finally, the star. It shone in the sky above Bethlehem as the first sanctuary lamp. In every Catholic Church there burns a single candle near the Tabernacle to remind us of Jesus’ Presence. We look to it and are assured that He resides there in our midst. So too the wise men gazed at the Christmas star and were led to that divine Presence on the night when Jesus first arrived in the House of Bread. We pray this Christmas that others are led to that reality and see in Christmas a foreshadowing of the Eucharist.

Prayer for the Feast of Christmas


Ant. A light shall shine upon us this day: for our Lord is born to us; and He shall be called Wonderful, God, the Prince of peace, the Father of the world to come, of Whose kingdom there shall be no end.

V. A child is born to us.

R. And to us a Son is given.

Let us pray.

Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord our God, that we who rejoice in celebrating the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ may deserve by holiness of life to attain unto fellowship with Him. Who liveth and reigneth forever and ever. Amen.

This Week's Headlines

As another week comes to an end, this is your chance to top off your glass with a final helping of news, current events, and just plain interesting stuff that may not have made into the mainstream media. A chance to linger for a few more moments before we close the door on the week. Below are some links to articles, blogs, and miscellaneous happenings that caught my eye over the past few days. Sample what you like - I'll serve up more next Friday...

Putting the Christmas Back in Christ   - "We must never suppose that Jesus abandoned the innocence of that night in Bethlehem. We must not transform Him into those sorts of grownups we readily understand and readily dismiss: as if the 'real' Jesus would only appear once He began to preach in Galilee and Judea, or once He began to reinterpret the old covenant and the law of Moses."

Paradoxes of Christmas - "As we approach Christmas I would like to list some of the paradoxes of Christmas....the word paradox means something that defies intuition or the common way of thinking. It unsettles or startles us to make us think more deeply."

Fathers of the Church - "My Christmas present to readers of this electronic journal this year will be to tell you to go read the Church Fathers...I'd been disposed, by the Protestant environment in which I was raised (as everyone in North America is raised), not to expect the earliest Christian writers to be very Catholic. Only recently has this "nervous twitch" been entirely cured..."

The Christmas Light in the Shopping Madness - "Christmas is a match struck to darkness; its steady light—despite the best efforts of Mad Men and Marketers—still pierces and warms our awareness; we are not wholly overcome."

Facing the scandal of Christmas, will we turn away? Or believe and obey? - "No one, other than the occasional Scrooge, is opposed to celebrating family or giving gifts or singing joyful songs. The scandal of Christmas, however, is that the Incarnation is not a vague, sentimental concept, but a stunning, concrete reality. It is an Event that is a Person. And that Person, Jesus Christ, requires a response."

Defending Christmas in a Secular world - "As Christians, our response should always be: We’re here to share a gift of eternal life and peace with Our Lord Jesus Christ during our time on earth - and turning all your sorrow into joy."

Archbishop Fulton Sheen on the Advent and Christmas Mystery - "With characteristic insight and eloquence, he penetrates to the heart of the Christian life with practical reflections on love, holiness, spiritual power, miracles, and Christ-like living."



The Old Testament and the Messianic Hope - "The Messianic expectation of ancient Israel consisted of several strands, some of which were highlighted or stressed more at one time or by one prophet than others, but all together they introduce this multifaceted Messianic hope, which God presented in a more and more definite way over the course of the salvation history of the Old Covenant."


Did St. Joseph suspect the Blessed Virgin Mary of sin? - Interesting analysis (from Traditional sources such as the Church Fathers) of Joseph's motives in initially wishing to "quietly divorce" Mary upon finding her "with child." 

2010: The year that Christmas surrendered to mob rule - "...many shopping centers, food courts and malls, from Cleveland to Seattle, have staged these wonderful 'spontaneous' performances of the 'Hallelujah Chorus.'"
 

Christmas Without Apologies - "NPR legal correspondent Nina Totenberg reached the front lines in the perennial 'Christmas Wars' with an odd comment during a roundtable discussion "

Barbara Walters’ Question on The View Gives Pregnant Pause - "The View co-host Barbara Walters is getting an earful from popular pro-life blogger and family advocate Rachel Campos-Duffy." 

Take a Virtual Tour of the Sistine Chapel  - "The level of detail is superb, making it almost as if you were there, inside the room itself where conclaves are held and popes are elected. Check it out."

Being on God’s Side: An Open Letter to the Religious Right  - "There are those who call us 'Christianists' and claim we are attempting to 'impose a theocracy' - because name-calling and scaremongering are easier than engaging us in debate."

 

Why Taking Marriage for Granted Fails - "...equality and justice are indeed crucial to the debate over civil marriage law, but that to settle it—to determine what equality and justice demand—one must answer the question: what is marriage? So this is what the debate is ultimately about."

The Repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell - "Yes, we respect the dignity of all human beings. But the homosexual agenda is about changing our moral order."

New Census Numbers Make Obama 2012 Re-Election Tougher - "Ultimately, states voting against Obama in 2012 gained eight electoral votes while states supporting him in 2008 lost eight — a total shift of 16 electoral votes."

Keeping 'Mary' After Christmas

As Advent comes to a close, another reflection on a passage from Pope Benedict’s Images of Hope...

Catholics have a special place for Mary among the Saints. She is Queen of Heaven and Mother of God. She is our spiritual Mother and the archetype of the Church. She is the New Eve, conceived without original sin. Christmas especially highlights her role in salvation history, though we have many feasts dedicated to her throughout the rest of the liturgical year. All of this means that Mary is ever-present in Catholic spirituality and devotional practices. The Rosary, the Angelus, statuary and artwork, all bring us closer to the Mother of our Lord.

Our Protestant brethren do not share the same doctrinal beliefs and practices concerning Mary. I have often heard it said that for Protestants Mary is confined to the Nativity crèche. She is “taken out” and “dusted off” once a year, and placed next to the infant Jesus only to be “boxed up” again when the season has ended without much consideration until the next Christmas.

The Holy Father reminds us that Mary’s role as mother of Jesus did not end with His nativity. Just as the Incarnation has implications that go beyond the infancy of Jesus, so too  does Mary’s Motherhood extend beyond the stable at Bethlehem:

“…Christ counts for us not only through his work, through what he did, but above all through what he was and what he is in the entirety of his person. He counts for us differently from any other man because he is not merely man. He counts because in him earth and heaven touch, and thus in him God for us is tangible as man. The Church Fathers called Mary the holy earth from which he was formed as man. And the miracle is that God in Christ forever remains in union with the earth. Augustine expressed the same thought once as follows: Christ did not want a human father in order to make visible his sonship to God, but he wanted a human mother.

“'He wanted to take up the male sex in himself and give distinction to the female sex by honoring his mother…If Christ had appeared as man without regard for the female sex, women would have to despair of it. However he honored both, recommended both, assumed both. He is born of the woman. Men, do not despair! Christ saw fit to become a man. Women, do not despair! Christ saw fit to be born of woman. Both sexes work together for salvation. Come the male or come the female, in the faith there is neither man nor woman.'

“Let us express it a bit differently. In the drama of salvation it is not the case that Mary had a part to play before exiting the stage like an actor who has said his lines and departs. The Incarnation from woman is not a role that is completed after a short time; rather, it is the abiding being of God with the earth, with men, with us who are earth.”

Mary should not “exit the stage” when Christmas is over. She should not be packed up with the tree and the stockings, the garland and lights. These objects are used by us to celebrate the holy event of God-made-flesh; they are removed at the proper time. But Mary is not used in this way – she is an active participant not a passive symbol. God became flesh through the Virgin Mary and through her He raised up mankind. This is a fact that should be celebrated year-round, as indeed Catholics do. We should pray that all Christian find such a place for Mary long after the Christmas season has ended.

Sunday Mass Readings

December 19, 2010
Fourth Sunday of Advent
 
Reading 1

Is 7:10-14

The LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying:

Ask for a sign from the LORD, your God;
let it be deep as the netherworld, or high as the sky!
But Ahaz answered,
“I will not ask! I will not tempt the LORD!”
Then Isaiah said:
Listen, O house of David!
Is it not enough for you to weary people,
must you also weary my God?
Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign:
the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,
and shall name him Emmanuel.

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 24:1-2, 3-4, 5-6

R. (7c and 10b) Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.

The LORD’s are the earth and its fullness;
the world and those who dwell in it.
For he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
R. Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.
Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD?
or who may stand in his holy place?
One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean,
who desires not what is vain.
R. Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.
He shall receive a blessing from the LORD,
a reward from God his savior.
Such is the race that seeks for him,
that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.
R. Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.

Reading 2
Rom 1:1-7

Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus,

called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God,
which he promised previously through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,
the gospel about his Son, descended from David according to the flesh,
but established as Son of God in power
according to the Spirit of holiness
through resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Through him we have received the grace of apostleship,
to bring about the obedience of faith,
for the sake of his name, among all the Gentiles,
among whom are you also, who are called to belong to Jesus Christ;
to all the beloved of God in Rome, called to be holy.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Gospel
Mt 1:18-24

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.

When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,
but before they lived together,
she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.
Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,
yet unwilling to expose her to shame,
decided to divorce her quietly.
Such was his intention when, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.
For it is through the Holy Spirit
that this child has been conceived in her.
She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,
which means “God is with us.”
When Joseph awoke,
he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him
and took his wife into his home.

This Week's Headlines

As another week comes to an end, this is your chance to top off your glass with a final helping of news, current events, and just plain interesting stuff that may not have made into the mainstream media. A chance to linger for a few more moments before we close the door on the week. Below are some links to articles, blogs, and miscellaneous happenings that caught my eye over the past few days. Sample what you like - I'll serve up more next Friday...

What About Santa? - "Do you teach your kids that Santa is real? Or do you worry that such tales might interfere with their understanding of the real meaning of Christmas?"

Is the Abbreviation “Xmas” Really a Secular Slight of Christmas? Or is it Something Else? - Generally speaking I avoid the term today even though, due to my training, it does not bother me. Tactically speaking I also avoid it due to the fact that we need to unambiguously announce Jesus and “X” just doesn’t do that anymore.


Why we need the Catholic League - Archbishop Dolan: "Bill Donohue hardly needs me to defend him.  He’s well-able to do it himself, and has a lot of experience doing so.  But, he’s stood up for a lot of us before, and I am glad to express my encouragement for the work he does." See also this article.


Do You Renounce Kennedy and All His Works? - "The issue is no longer (as it was for Pope Leo XIII) whether the state should provide a basic 'safety net' to catch the unlucky victims of market vagaries. No, the modern Left wants a comprehensive nanny state that wipes every snotty nose, gives 'time outs' for every insensitive remark, and nudges every citizen toward healthy, tolerant behavior productive of the maximum long-term pleasure."

The Beginning of the End for Obamacare? - "On what basis did the Obama administration and the Congress believe they could use the force of law (IRS enforcement) to compel U.S. citizens to purchase a service, in this case health insurance, against their will? More specific, where in the Constitution is Congress given that kind of power? The answer to that question, given by Judge Hudson, is a blunt, 'nowhere.'"


“The Big Cover” of Government Solutions - "It is a deleterious slab of a 'solution' that suffocates us unless we adapt to it, and in truth make ourselves rather uncomfortable in order to accommodate it..."


Shadowing an Exorcist - "Exorcism was central to what Jesus was trying to do in his public ministry. There was spiritual warfare in the early Church, and it has been passed on to priests today who are now exorcists."


Bearing Better Witness - "Is emotional commitment between two adults what the state should care about in marriage? What should a state that does not establish any religion understand marriage to be? I think the answer is clear. The state must promote the best setting in which to nurture the next generation of wholesome citizens."

The Ethics of Profit, the Profit of Ethics - "We ought to celebrate the free market, the drive for profitability and the quest for efficiency. We ought to acknowledge and thank those business enterprises that do business the right way and realize the financial reward."

What Are We Missing? - "It’s easy to get caught up in the mainstream ideas of what’s important but the fact remains that as Christians we are called to go against the mainstream.Our children are on loan to us from God.  Are we doing what He would want us to for them to get to Heaven?"

The Joys of Boys - "I have to admit that there's a refreshing simplicity about the way that most boys handle conflicts...If they need to, they fight."

Abortion and the Occult: A Glimpse Inside Life at a Death Mill - "Seidman described her mother’s abortion clinic as 'pervaded with occult imagery and practices.' ...Seidman’s story aligns strongly with the experience of Rev. Thomas Euteneuer, an exorcist and former president of Human Life International, who has spoken for years on abortion’s connection to the occult."

The ACLU’s Not-So-Holy Trinity - "The ACLU seems unusually active right now. Maybe it’s the Christmas season, which seems to make the ACLU more miserable than usual."

CNN Clearly Hates Half the Country - "CNN has officially lost its mind. OK. That may have happened a long time ago but this is just too ridiculous."

Please give me some of that ol' time religion! - "I have seriously considered becoming Orthodox as of late..."

Fr.Paul, Fried Chicken and the Immaculate Conception  - Note: This post is a little old since the Immaculate Conception was celebrated on December 8, but I couldn't pass up this quote: "We believe in the Immaculate Conception because the Pope tells us to. Pass the fried chicken."

A Christmas People

As Christmas approaches I thought I would share a passage from the book Images of Hope: Meditations on Major Feasts, by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI). In this excerpt, the future Holy Father highlights for us the humility of God in the Incarnation, and also how fitting it is that God’s Son should take the form of a child:

“…God truly became ‘Emmanuel,’ God with us. No barrier of majesty or distance divides us from him. He has drawn so near to us as a child that we unabashedly address him familiarly and can have direct, personal access to the child’s heart.

“In the child Jesus, the defenselessness of God is apparent. God comes without weapons, because he does not wish to conquer from the outside but desires to win and transform us from within. If anything can conquer man’s vainglory, his violence, his greed, it is the vulnerability of the child. God assumed this vulnerability in order to conquer us and lead us to himself.

“Meanwhile, let us not forget that the highest title of Jesus Christ is ‘the Son,’ Son of God. The divine dignity is designated by one word that shows Jesus as the eternal child. His being a child stands in a unique correspondence to his divinity, which is the dignity of the ‘Son.’ Thus his being a child gives direction, tells us how we can come to God, how we can come to divinization. It is in this respect that we are to understand his words: ‘Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven’ (Mt 18:3).

“Whoever has not understood the mystery of Christmas has not understood what is decisive in being Christian. Whoever has not accepted this cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven…”

Earlier in the same text, Cardinal Ratzinger points out that the original feast of Christianity was not Christmas, but Easter. “For indeed it was the Resurrection that established Christian faith and let the Church come to be… Being a Christian means living from Easter, that is, from the Resurrection that is celebrated every week on Sunday.” Thus it is the Passion, death and Resurrection of Jesus that marks the beginning of the Catholic Church.

Yet Jesus’ birth (the celebration of Christmas) has great significance for us as well. Certainly Jesus tells us we must take up our cross and follow Him; that we must die to this life so that we might rise with Him to new life; we must conform our lives to the life and death of the adult Jesus. But He also says that we must become like children, we must have the faith of a child, and humble ourselves as He did in taking human form. We are sons and daughters of God as He is the Son of God and the son of Mary.

Certainly Christians are called to be an Easter people, but so too are we a Christmas people. Before the empty tomb there was a stable in Bethlehem. Before the cross there was the wood of the manger.