Five years ago I went on a medical mission trip to Ecuador in South America as a translator. One of the villages we visited was reached easiest by sea, so we boarded a small wooden vessel, too small to officially consider a boat, and ventured out into the unforgiving waves the Pacific Ocean. This was the scariest roller coaster ride of my life, up and down, left and right and the ocean right beneath me. As we approached the village, the vessel got as close as possible to shore, we rolled up our pants and walked onto shore with all our equipment. (For pictures of this adventure look at the next post)
While serving the many people who had come, all of a sudden there was a huge commotion. I ran outside and saw two women pulling at each other’s hair and screaming nasty names at each other. Why? They both wanted the last tube of toothpaste we had brought.
Did you ever think people would fight over toothpaste? We certainly take for granted the fact we can brush our teeth, hopefully three times a day, and when we run out of toothpaste, we go to the store and get some more.
Last Monday I celebrated Christmas Mass at Dooly State Prison in Unadilla. I hadn’t seen before such an attentive and pious congregation, not even in seminary. Some of these men had not attended Mass in years. They were thirsting for the Eucharist, thirsting to participate in the ancient rite of the Church instituted by Christ himself, propagated by the apostles and continued still today throughout the world. The inmates certainly did not take for granted is opportunity, they savored every minute of it.
I hope the point of telling these two stories begins to come clear: we often take things for granted, trivial ones like toothpaste, but unfortunately also non-trivial ones like our relationship with Jesus Christ, our salvation.
Today we celebrate an earth-shattering event to which none of us can remain indifferent. It is the moment of history which the prophets foretold. It is the moment of history where the divine intersects the natural: God and man intersect in Jesus Christ.
The good news we celebrate today is that our God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, has become one like us. God has come to reveal himself to us, to tell us about Himself and to bring us salvation, the forgiveness of our sins. God has come to the Earth and has shown us his glory, he has conquered death so that we may have life. He has conquered the darkness so we many live in the light forever.
God however chose to come in the hiddeness of a baby boy, in the hiddeness of the small town of Bethlehem, in the hiddeness of an ordinary family. For thirty years, Our Savior lived hidden to the world until he began his public ministry.
From this hiddeness, Jesus emerged as the light of the world, a light so strong that it has burnt brightly for 2000 years and will continue to burn brightly. Jesus continues to work in our lives in glory, blessing us and aiding us.
The Catholic Church, the one church founded by Jesus himself works tirelessly to bring the light of Christ to every corner of the world and to every heart. Her goal is to bring souls to Christ by proclaiming the Good News. At the same time the Church begs God at every single Mass to “look not on our sins but on the faith of your Church.” We are members of the Church, we are imperfect, therefore so too the Church has imperfections, but this does not prevent Jesus from working through her. He has promised to remain with us till the end of time.
The Catholic Church has 1.1 billion members worldwide, espousing many cultures, traditions and languages.
The Catholic Church is among the largest charitable organizations in the world, taking care of millions of the poor and underprivileged of the world.
The Catholic Church is one of the biggest health care providers in the world, running well over 5,000 hospitals, 577 leprosy clinics, over 15,000 nursing homes. The Catholic HIV/AIDS Network operates in 107 countries proving care for AIDS patients.
The tireless quest for knowledge and truth within the Church led to the founding of the first universities in Paris and Bologna and has inspired philosophers throughout history including Renee Descartes who revolutionized thought in the 17th century paving the way for the Enlightenment.
The Catholic Church is responsible for and now protects some of the world’s patrimonies of humanity and western culture. The course of Western art and architecture would be quite different had Popes not patronized artists like Michaelangelo, Rafael and Bernini. The Catholic imagination has produced some of the world’s most treasured works of art.
With all the splendor of Christ’s Church now in our minds, we must remember that Jesus Christ continues to come to us in hiddeness too. Jesus is present in our souls and speaks to us in the silence of our hearts. In the same way it is difficult to grasp how God came as a helpless, ordinary, little child, God continues to come into our lives through ordinary means: bread and wine. In the Eucharist the glory of Jesus remains veiled as it is veiled in that little child, yet we know that God is fully present.
At every Eucharist we celebrate the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Since the early Church, the Eucharist has been the means of making present in our midst the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
We can be proud to be called disciples of Christ and be proud to belong to the Catholic Church. Through our baptism, we belong to something much greater than what we can see or imagine: we belong to Christ and are members of His Church.
We cannot take this for granted. How should our lives change when we do not take this for granted?
For those who have been away, I invite you to take the opportunity today to recommit yourself to Christ and His Church. Don’t wait till tomorrow, there is no better day than today and no better time than right now to recommit to Christ.
It is here when we gather for the Eucharist that we most perfectly profess our faith in Jesus Christ. Here we become one bread, one body in Christ. The Eucharist is our source of Christian unity and also a tangible representation that unity exists. At this Christ Mass, may the new-born Christ help us re-live the same experience his apostles lived when he appeared to them after the resurrection while they gathered together.
May the Lord bless us all this Christmas.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In