|
|
From Archbishop Donoghue
|
Mass during the day |
Dear Friends in Christ, I think that one of the most pleasing of all the aspects of Christmas is what we call the “wonder” of Christmas. It is a hard word to really define - wonder. And it is made even less clear by our overuse of its derivative - that indispensable adjective, wonderful. But anyone who has looked at a child contemplating a manger scene, and beheld that look, and perhaps at the same time, remembered their own first amazement when Mother or Dad led them up to the front of the Church, to see the beautiful baby, to see the loving mother, the strong foster-father, the kings and shepherds and angels - anyone who has seen this look on the face of a child, and remembers it upon their own, knows perfectly, the definition of wonder - and I think most of us have seen it, and do remember. Many people - we ourselves included - sometimes tend to think of Christmas, not with wonder, but with relief - relief that it is gone, and with it the thousand and one duties that we impose on ourselves at this busy and sometimes fretful time - it is certainly good to have all that stuff over and done with. But when we get right down to it, and when we consider that on this holiest of days, we are here at Church, and not somewhere else, I think most of us are relieved, not so much that Christmas is done with, but that it has finally gotten here at last. It is easy, once again, to see this in children -their satisfaction on Christmas morning and throughout the day is unbounded and un-self-conscious. But the same thing persists in us, roughened perhaps, by the bumpy road of life, but still there nonetheless. We may grumble beforehand at the inconvenience and the effort that Christmas costs, but what day in the year gives us more joy? - what day in the year has such power to lift us above ourselves? - what day reveals so clearly not only the joy of our own family and friends, but the joy of every creature in heaven and on earth? The wonder of this day finds its only match upon that day when a new life would enter the world, the life of the Son of God gone down to death, to rise again. But that part of the story is far ahead of us now, and at the other end of our journey with the new-born Christ, as manhood will take Him, down the way of trial and sufferings, the way we also will follow, as we choose, and as God’s grace will give us the courage to endure. Dear friends, it can be said that the wonder of children is the wonder of not knowing, but that the wonder of men and women is the wonder of knowing all too well. But I do not wonder about what the Christ-child knew - I believe that from the cradle of the manger, from the lap of the Virgin Mother Mary, from the very thought in the mind of God that St. John can only call the Word become flesh, only one clear, clean, innocent, and pure message springs forth: Love. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. “ Nothing can be more wonderful than this - and nothing can ever give us greater relief - young and old alike. Let us bless God then, for His great mercy towards us, and for the great love He has shown us in Jesus Christ, the Lord and Redeemer of his people, whose Day of Birth we now celebrate. In the name of the Father… + |