Tag: Christmas

Solemnity of the Epiphany

Happy new year to you all. At the end of each calendar year we reflect on the past year and with grateful hearts thank God for the blessings we have received. Among the special blessings of the past year is the opening of the Bishop Dudley Hospitality House which carries the beacon of hope which is this Cathedral out into the broader community, sharing the love and mercy of Christ with those who need a helping hand. Another great blessing was the Legacy event at which we thanked God for the 125 years of our diocese. Thank you to all who helped make these two significant happenings possible. Now we begin a new calendar year filled with mystery and uncertainty, yet also a Jubilee Year of Mercy. May we use it well.

Today is the Solemnity of the Epiphany. It offers us the opportunity to take the time amidst the complicated and busy lives we lead to discover and reflect on the simplicity of the message and reality of Christmas. Jesus Christ, the son of God, broke into the world to save us and to encourage us to break out of the world.

Soon the trees, the decorations, the special music and celebrations will end. Next week we return to Ordinary Time where we spend most of our lives. Before we go there, let us rest in this sacred Epiphany moment to reflect and prepare for the New Year.

Isaiah in the first reading prophecies this simple reality with the words: “darkness covers the earth and thick clouds cover the peoples, but upon you the Lord shines.” Darkness surely covers the earth today with violence, terrorism and disrespect for life in all its phases. Thick clouds cover the peoples living in poverty, sickness, unfaithfulness, injustice. Yet today upon us the Lord shines if we see in that darkness the star that leads us to the Christ child and then bow in humility and hope in homage before Him as did the Magi.

The inspired scripture with the beautiful images of the Magi contains an encouraging affirmation of inclusiveness. Christ is here for us all. Those who came were outsiders yet they bowed in worship before the Lord of us all. St. Paul in the 2nd reading underscores this truth. He wrote that the Gentiles were coheirs, members of the same body, and sharers of the same promise. Jesus is a Christmas gift open to all, regardless of status, age, economic standing, education, gender, ethnic background or any artificial separation enacted by man.

This gospel also is reassuring because it identifies the fullness of the power of Jesus Christ, reflected in the gifts presented. As one writer put it: Gold was the symbol for divinity. “This Child, who would be betrayed for silver, comes to transform our perspective of wealth to treasure again the things of God – compassion, forgiveness, and peace are the coin of the realm of the new born King.”

Frankincense is an all-purpose medicine. “This Child comes to restore and heal not just the physical ailments of those he will meet in his gospel journey, but to heal humankind of our fears and doubts, to bridge the chasms that separate us from one another and from God.”

Myrrh is used to embalm the dead. “This Child comes to re-create us in the life of God: his death will be the defeat of death, his cross with be his – and our – glory. (Cormier)

This time of year I recall an experience I had in my first years as a priest which I have shared before. I was at a Christmas party in the Diocese of Madison sponsored by the Apostolate to the Handicapped, a ministry to those with special needs. Over 1,000 were there including frail elderly, others in wheelchairs requiring assistance. Mass was prayed then healthy high school students served a festive holiday meal.
At the front of one long table was a young man, likely in his twenties, blond hair and beard. He was in a wheelchair, a quadriplegic. I later learned that he was a victim of a motorcycle accident. With him was a woman who looked on him with such love. She was his sister. She held his hand throughout Mass. The chair was fitted with a special brace on which his head could rest. Every once in a while his head would fall forward. His sister would so gently lift it back up. I could not help but look at those siblings and so many more struggling in so many ways wondering how they could handle what they must each day. How when the festive lights are darkened and the routine of ordinary time takes over do people cope, from where comes their hope. At the end of Mass the answer was given. With the final blessing the sister stood up, took the arm of her brother and helped him make the sign of the cross – in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Simple yet profound.

The Christ born in Bethlehem, to whom the shepherds and the Magi paid homage was with them, is with us all every day. That sister was the Christmas star leading the way.

Darkness still covers the earth and thick clouds still cover the peoples and yet as Isaiah predicted upon us the Lord shines. Christ broke into the world to save us and to encourage us to break out of the world. That is the simple message of Christmas. May in the darkness and clouds of ordinary time we keep close to the star that leads to Christ – His Church.

Merry Christmas to You and Yours!

“Glory to God in the highest and peace to all men of good will”

Dear Friends in Christ,

Merry Christmas! May the Joy of the birth of the Word incarnate, the Nativity of Jesus Christ, fill your heart during the Christmas season. God’s plan to send His Son for our salvation is celebrated during this solemn season of course. But in a particular way during this Jubilee Year of Mercy, we give praise for the Love shown unto us.

Not just in this Year of Mercy, but always, we are invited to know of the Father’s mercy so that we might change our own lives and then in turn extend mercy to others.

As you spend time with family and friends during this beautiful season, I encourage you to reach out to those who have been away from the faith. With gentleness and mercy and through witness and invitation, you can be messengers of God’s Love. If you are seeking resources to share, the diocesan web page is great place to start. My weekly TV Mass homilies, the Bishop’s Bulletin and prayer resources are updated regularly for all to use as we look to nourish the faith that has been handed on to us.

Be assured that you will be remembered in my Christmas Masses and that you are always in my prayers. Rejoice, our Savior is born!

Yours in Christ,

Most Reverend Paul J. Swain
Bishop of Sioux Falls

Fourth Sunday of Advent

Today we lit the last of the advent candles. Our wait for the coming of the Lord is almost complete. Whether the One who came and is to come is with us on Christmas day and the days to follow depend on whether we see the light, the light in the window, the window of our hearts. We desperately need that light to guide and console us through the storms of life. We need the light of Christ to guide us on our way with hope.

Some years ago there was an article in Catholic Digest about a Native American on a reservation here in South Dakota remembering when during a winter blizzard he had to go out to get wood. He had tied ropes from the house to the wood pile, but the wind had blown them down. On his way back he stumbled away from the house toward the open prairie and likely death. Confused for direction, he turned in circles and then saw a light. His wife had placed a kerosene lamp in the only window of the house. He recalled: “It was hard to see through all the snow – kind of shimmering light that seemed to be dancing. The woman hung it there for me to see in case I got lost. It saved my life, that light. All that was between me and the big dark.”

When Advent begins, it is dark. Slowly one by one the candles are lighted, the light becomes brighter, and the Light of the World comes closer. God sent his Son, that light, for us, in case we get lost, to save us. But do we see it? There are blizzards in our lives, real ones – war, terror, violence, persecutions, natural disasters, sickness, loss of loved ones, and blizzards within us – doubt, guilt, fear, sin. To avoid falling out into the open and facing the big dark, we need to find that light in our window, our heart. It is represented by the lighted candle and the Christmas star. But to do so we must truly believe that Jesus is that light, the Son of God come into the world to save us, the love that came down at Christmas.

Is the Christmas story too nonsensical for us to really believe? Or has it become simply a memory or a story? Is it real to us? There once was on the Church calendar, December 18, the Feast of the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a time for prayerful reflection on the reality she was experiencing in anticipating and bearing the Christ child. There is a beautiful song in this year’s Christmas at the Cathedral concert entitled Real (Nordeman/Stevens) in which one pondering an outdoor crèche offers these poetic reflections:
“Frozen statues in the cold washed in moonlight, blue and gold, Mary’s babe in plastic hay, quiet wonder on her face. Mary you look so serene, far too pretty, much too clean. We might think we know you well, but what stories would you tell? Of all the dirt and dust and shame, every burning labour pain? And as I turn to walk away, I hear you say: “I am real. Don’t turn me into memory or myth. Let me be real, and I’ll show you what it means to love like this.

“Shepherds bending to the ground Bethlehem is safe and sound. Joseph you look brave and true. Do we know what it was like to be you? How many sleepless nights awake found you desperate and afraid. And as I turn to walk away I hear you say: “I am real. Don’t turn me into memory or myth. Let me be real and I’ll show you what it means to love like this. . . More than a memory, more than a story.”

These last days of Advent we might ask ourselves: Is the birth in Bethlehem as the prophet Micah foretold real for us; are Mary, Joseph and Jesus a memory, a myth, a story or real to us?

There is a song that says Christmas is for children; it’s for children people say. Many in our culture declare that Christmas is only about make-believe, about fantasies, and so the decorations become ends in themselves. But as incredible as it sounds and seems, it is true; it is real. God intervened in the world in ways that we cannot explain, but for our good. Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit to become the light of the world to guide us in the Father’s love. That same Holy Spirit has planted that light within each of us at our baptisms.

One of my favorite paintings is of a lighthouse on the coast of Maine, so stark in its simplicity. Among my favorite stories is that of an old man who sat watching the sea, the ebb and flow, the crash and splatter of the waves. He had spent most of his life as a lighthouse keeper. He would tell stories of the sea, of ships caught in storms, threatened by hidden rocks and more, stories in which the light of the house was always the hero. “You see,” he said, “my mother always left a light in the window. It was there when I was a boy in Maine coming home from school in wintertime and the snow was blowing almost horizontal. When I was away in service, fighting overseas, she kept it burning still, like some kind of altar light to show the way back home. Later, when my wife died so sudden, and I was thinking about walking out there into the sea and being taken to wherever she might be, the memory of that light stopped me. A person needs a light in the window, something to show that he’s still expected, that someone is waiting for him. Because not being expected is about the worst thing there is, being left by yourself in the storm. There’s got to be a light somewhere or you’re lost.”

Jesus is that light, the light of the world, the light in our window, the light that tells us we’re expected, we’re loved, we are not alone, we are not lost. Nowadays we have so much glare surrounding us in sight and sound and movement that the light of Christ can seem dim amidst all that glow. The truth is that other lights eventually lose their power and go out. The light of Christ always burns for us even when we do not notice, waiting for us to see him, see him as real and present not just in history but today.

As we enjoy the fun and festivities of the holiday, let it also be a true holy day. May we take a moment to focus on the truth of what we celebrate. If we forget or miss it, come December 26 we can become lost again in the storms of life. ”A person needs a light in the window, something to show that he’s still expected, that someone is waiting for him. There’s got to be a light somewhere or you’re lost.” Friday we celebrate the fact that God the Father has gifted us with that light: the love that came down at Christmas in the person of the Christ child who wants to light our way every day.

Merry Christmas to you all and those you love.