| December 29, 2008 | Volume 84, Number 5 | |
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Feast of the Epiphany, Cycle B, January 4, 2009
As parish communities gather to celebrate the feast of the Epiphany, the most common question floating in the air is likely to be, “Did you have a good Christmas?” For Catholics steeped in the liturgical year, a more accurate question would be, “How is Christmas so far?” Even though Santa has come and gone and the Valentine cards are out in the stores, we are still in the midst of Christmas! “The twelve days of Christmas” isn’t just a song about a lot of birds and pear trees. It’s about taking the time to enter consciously into the mystery of the Incarnation and a God who loves us so much that he became one of us. That takes more than a day! For four weeks, we called upon Emmanuel, God-with-us to come anew to our day and our time. Then we heard the beloved narrative of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem and remembered that great love. But Christmas doesn’t stop with a cute baby smiling at a drummer boy! Epiphany takes Christmas out into the whole world, for all time and all people. The real impact of Christmas unfolds as we recognize how and where and when Jesus is being born into our world every single day, how God is breaking into our world in new and surprising ways. That is the ongoing challenge of Christmas. There’s not much challenging about a baby. But the Christmas narratives already foreshadow the fact that this baby and those who would choose to follow him would find the cross as well as the manger. The feast of the Epiphany makes it clear that the Incarnation is for everybody, not just a chosen few. Those magi symbolize the whole world and call us to avoid exclusivity in the claim that Jesus is “ours” and not theirs. Rather it calls us to live as a people of the Incarnation and to bring the Christ-life to every corner of the world, whatever the personal cost. Our calling is to continue the good news proclaimed at Christmas all through the year — God is with us. That should permeate our entire lives and all our interactions. It should affect how we do our jobs, how we deal with others in our family and our daily contacts, how we spend our money, what we do with our time. Our faith tradition tells us, through the writings of St. Paul, that Jesus Christ is now present, born anew into the Body of Christ, the community of believers. By their baptism, they were anointed as Jesus was anointed, priests, prophets and kings. That means they share his messianic mission to live lives of praise and thanksgiving as a priestly people, to live lives accountable to the gospel and to proclaim it as a prophetic people, and to care for all who share their humanity as a royal people. Notice there is nothing about power, prestige, possessions or position in the challenge of the Incarnation. The feast of the Epiphany moves Christmas out of the manger and into the world. It may not be as sweet as most manger scenes, or as full of warm feelings, but it is very real, and a whole lot more challenging. The broader view of thankfulness
When I was a young mother I viewed thankfulness as more an obligation than a state of being. At that stage in my life, being thankful felt like a series of tasks. Write thank-you notes. Buy the teacher an end-of-the-year gift. Teach the children to say please and thank you. Pray before meals. It’s not that I wasn’t sincere, but thankfulness was something I needed to impose on myself and others; it didn’t come naturally. A social construct, thankfulness was reciprocal. If you gave me something, I thanked you. If I didn’t thank you, then I breached etiquette. Likewise, the other way around. From that perspective, expressing thankfulness is a courteous, considerate way of interacting. While there’s a lot to be said for that view of thankfulness, it’s not a complete picture. The longer I’ve lived, the more I’ve come to see a broader view. If I see everything as a gift, then I understand how social thank-you’s and hasty prayers before meals are insufficient, to say the least. If I see my life itself as a gift from God, then I develop a posture of gratitude, not from a sense of obligation, but from the core of my being. If I recognize that my intellect, my talents, my body, my senses have been given to me from God, then I am more likely be grateful for these gifts from my creator. When thankfulness extends beyond the superficial, beyond the material gifts, the good deeds, the luxuries, the good times, and reaches into the depths of a person’s heart, then gratitude manifests itself constantly within that person. The faithful who understand that everything is gift are the ones whose sense of gratitude is not dependent on good fortune, good health, etiquette or reciprocity. Those who’ve adopted a posture of true gratitude are usually the most generous. When people believe God has given them everything, then they are more inclined to give what they have away. Grateful people don’t cling to what they have because they know it’s not really theirs to keep. It is all gift. Truly grateful people share what they have because they recognize they are the recipients of undeserved treasure. The most grateful among us are often the people who have the least material wealth and the greatest hardships and suffering. Too often, those with the most material wealth, and even the greatest talents and benefits, become convinced they have earned what they have and are entitled to it. This attitude encourages them to spend time and energy preserving what they have and pursuing more. They are reluctant to share with others because they believe those who don’t have what they have are simply not as hard-working or talented. Because they believe they deserve good fortune, they find it difficult to surrender anything, be it good health, material wealth, or prestige. Those with this sense of entitlement, rather than feel grateful for all they have been given, concentrate on what they lack. The same is true for personal strengths and virtues. If we see all that is good in us as gifts from God, then we avoid becoming prideful and judgmental of others. Instead, we become accepting of others, treating them with the same loving kindness and patience we have received. We show mercy to them in the way that God has been merciful with us. God’s love is the ultimate gift. We believe that God doesn’t love us because we are good. God loves us because God is good. If we accept God’s love abundantly poured into our hearts, we are transformed. We grow in wisdom and grace. We adopt a posture of gratitude. And, like the One in whose image we are made, we become generous and gracious with others. Holding on for dear life
A few weeks ago my daughter e-mailed a photo of her 7-year-old son holding their six-month-old daughter and the expressions on their faces are priceless. Natalie, with eyes big as saucers, was clutching her big brother, holding on for dear life. At the same time, big brother was grinning from ear to ear, confident that he would not drop her. Nestled in the arm of the overstuffed chair and with both arms wrapped around his baby sister, there was little danger of Bobby dropping her, especially with Mom only a few feet away. But as for Natalie – well, she wasn’t quite so sure. I couldn’t help but think that the picture is somewhat reflective of our relationship with God. As much as we want to trust that God’s love is such that he would never allow anything to harm us, when we encounter life’s scarier moments, our thoughts and actions don’t always reflect the type of confidence that faith calls us to embrace. As the year 2008 gives way to 2009, it’s a good time to examine how we are weathering the current crises that seem to abound these days. As retirement funds shrink, unemployment balloons and the global economy has the best and brightest admitting they don’t know when it will end or what it will take to correct it, many feel a bit like Natalie. They want to believe they are in good hands, but all of a sudden it seems like they are slipping from arms that once made them feel secure. It’s the difference between confidence and holding on for dear life. When stock markets fail and housing markets crumble, we are bound to feel a bit panic-stricken. Some might even get down on their knees and plead with God to make things better. Depending on the situation and a need to control the outcome, they might cling to anything to keep from falling. When that happens, prayer is viewed more as a safety net than a way to enter into a deeper relationship with God. Jesus reminded us that if we who are sinful would not hand our children stones when they ask for bread, or scorpions when they ask for fish, then neither would our heavenly Father who loves us far more.
The problems we are encountering were not created by God. They are the result of human sinfulness. We can point to the greed of those who may be directly responsible, but we all bear responsibility to some degree. Unless you happen to be Mother Teresa or St. Francis of Assisi, you have contributed to the crisis, at least at some level, by falling prey to our culture’s infatuation with consumerism. We crave that which gives us pleasure, be it food, durable goods or entertainment. And for those who couldn’t wait, credit was readily available. While these goods are not bad in themselves, they can contribute to an imbalance when individuals, groups or nations consume a disproportionate amount of the earth’s goods. Sooner or later, a crisis is bound to develop. But if we really believe that God is in charge, then there are lessons to be learned that may contribute to being less self-absorbed. As the New Year beckons, we would do well to reflect on behavior patterns that have made us overly dependent on material goods and less dependent on Gospel values to guide our choices. When gasoline prices skyrocketed, the demand went down because people changed their driving habits. It may have been driven by dollars rather than good stewardship, but it illustrates the fact that our choices do make a difference. The question is: now that the price at the pump is down, will careless driving habits return? And what about other spending habits? The fact that huge inventories remain on store shelves after the holidays indicates that people really didn’t need those items. That being said, 2009 may be the year to distinguish between wants and needs. With more and more people out of work, the need to donate to charitable organizations continues to grow. And here’s where Gospel values matter. Donations fuel the economy and send a message about the chain of supply and demand. In other words, it dictates the market. Giving up wants so others can receive what they need is rooted in confidence in God. It is living the belief that our needs will be provided for if we do our part to maintain the balance which God created and set in motion. And in so doing, we can feel safe knowing that God will not drop us; He loves us too much to let us fall. About Us | Archives | Around | Articles | Contact Us | Editorial | Hispanic Apostolate | Home | Letters | Opportunities | Parish Profile | Shortakes | The Catholic Diocese of Richmond Copyright © 2008 The Catholic Virginian Press. Articles from Catholic News Services, including Fr. Dietzen’s column, may not be reproduced due to copyright considerations. The Catholic Virginian is a biweekly publication serving the people of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond. This website includes some, but not all, of the articles from the print version of The Catholic Virginian. For subscription information Contact Us. |
Recall Jesus’ reassurance that even the hairs on our head are numbered by our Father who loves us more than we can imagine.