A Tale of Two Christmases
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- Written by Very Rev. Fr. Dennis Loomis, M.S., Superior General, La Salette Missionaries
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| Very Rev. Fr. Dennis Loomis, M.S., Superior General, La Salette Missionaries |
What a difference perspective can make. The way we see things at one point in our life can radically change as time goes by. As I look back on Christmases past, my focus as a child was totally and completely on gifts, and this continued long after I grew into adulthood.
As children, we were given various catalogues that came to our house through the mail, and we were asked to choose one big gift and one small gift. Anything else we were to receive would be of a practical nature, mostly clothes.
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Santa’s helper visits La |
I would agonize for days over my choices, and the agony became especially intense as the deadline for choosing drew nearer. If Advent was a season for the preparation for Christmas, my Catholic education notwithstanding, my only preoccupation was on the gifts we would get at home as well as those from my grandparents and uncles and aunts. I guess I was materialistic before materialistic became the vogue. However, life goes on and all of us change.
I cannot with any precision, say when my attitude changed, but change it did. Certainly it was sometime during my transition from childhood to adulthood, when I began to take special notice of the liturgical readings. Prior to that event was another significant episode. On retreat, our director focused almost totally on the passage from John's Gospel: “For God loved the world so much that he gave he gave his only Son, so that every one who believes in him may not die but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to be its judge but to be its Savior” (Jn 3:16-17).
It is difficult to change old habits, but they can be transformed. My focus on gifts was transformed from things material to blessings that can truly bring us happiness. In the vigil liturgy, Matthew's Gospel, he quotes Isaiah: “’The virgin shall be with child and give birth to a son, and they shall call him Emmanuel,’ a name which means ‘God is with us’” (Mt 1:23).
If we take this to heart and truly believe this, we can answer the cynic’s cry in the Psalms, “Where is your God?” (Ps 42:10). On our life's journey, we are never alone, never abandoned.
The Gospel passage from Luke at the midnight liturgy is very reminiscent of Mary's greeting at La Salette. The angel’s announcement of the birth of the Savior to the shepherds begins with: “You have nothing to fear...” And why do we have nothing to fear? Because God is Love, as the scripture tells us. If we accept this gift into
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| La Salette Facsimile at La Salette National Shrine, during Christmas Festival of Lights |
our lives, then we can assert what St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Love never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never fail.” Love is more than a benevolent sentiment on God's part, it is an eternal commitment, and is all encompassing.
The simple crèche scene I grew up with in childhood, also came to mean something very different from being a mere Christmas decoration. Unlike Fontinini's crèche scene populated with enough figures to populate a small city, each of the personages represented have something crucial to say about the birth of Christ.
Joseph and Mary speak to a faith that contradicts all human logic. Mary, with some puzzlement to say the least, accepts that she will give birth to a child in a way never before heard of up to then, and never again heard of since. In so doing, she models for us the meaning of faith, a faith that requires an absolute trust in God.
Joseph was also called to make a leap of faith, placing trust in both his betrothed and in the message delivered to him from God. I need not a catalogue to know what kind of gift I want for Christmas, I simply want a portion of the kind of faith Joseph and Mary exhibited. I also realize that faith like that of Mary and Joseph comes at a price: accepting the impossible as real; keeping in mind that God is God and I am not; and the courage to let go and let God. It is with some trepidation that I dare ask for this.
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| Pilgrims at La Salette National Shrine, Attleboro, MA, during Christmas Festival of Lights |
A crucial part of God's message at the birth of Christ is found in the persons of the shepherds. At that time shepherds were seen as unclean, among the lowest members of society. Keeping the flocks did not allow them to observe the Jewish laws of purification. That they were the first to receive the good news of the savior’s birth was certainly not by accident. God's saving love encompassed all people; all had dignity and worth in God's eyes. The gift of sight, beholding one another as God does, is most probably a gift that the vast majority of the world's population is very much in need of.
This same openness is also a truth represented by the Magi. The Good News of the Gospel is, and was, not intended only for the Jewish people. Given the state of our world today, more than a few billion people could use such a gift even if they do not celebrate Christmas. We, as people who have embraced the La Salette message, simply call this gift reconciliation.
I wish you all the best this Christmas and in the coming New Year. May the gifts you receive bring you closer to God and to the people you are called to serve.
