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To all of you and to your loved ones I would like to extend a Blessed Christmas, a Christmas centered on the person of Jesus Christ. He came into this world to show us how to live, so that we might find our way to God, and therefore our way to happiness both in this world and the world to come. And may Mary his Mother watch over each of you, with the same maternal care she showed for him from the moment of his conception, at his birth, and throughout his life on this earth.
It is impossible to imagine Christmas without Mary the Mother. Without her “yes” to God, the Incarnation could not have taken place. It is true that in view of what her Son would accomplish, she enjoyed many special graces and blessings, not least of which was that she was conceived without Original Sin. However, like every human being she remained free. And when at the message of an angel she was asked to accept something incomprehensible and troubling, she replied: “Let it be done to me according to your word.”
Representing the human race in its entirety, Mary welcomed the Eternal Word into this world. The dictionary says that to welcome means “to receive with pleasure and hospitality into one’s company or home.” Perhaps it sounds strange to speak of welcoming God into the world. After all, he created it and sustains everything in being. He sees and knows all that is. However, what happened at the Annunciation and Christmas was that God, mysteriously, in the person of his Son, became flesh. He became incarnate as a tiny and fragile speck in the vast expanse of space and time. God-made-man needed, as much as any helpless newborn, a loving face and a loving embrace to welcome him into this world. And that is what Mary did.
Welcoming is very much on my mind these days. We are living through a moment of change in American Catholic history. Old assumptions based on a strong sense of Catholic identity can no longer be presumed. One of those assumptions is that if people are baptized and raised Catholic, they will faithfully participate in the life of the Church. For many reasons this is no longer the case. On Christmas you will see many unfamiliar faces at Mass, not just because of holiday travel, but because there are many Catholics whose practice is limited to Christmas and Easter or other special events.
That is why a welcome is more important than ever. Every parish needs to be a welcoming community for the sake of bringing others to full participation in the Body of Christ through the sacraments--especially weekly Sunday Mass—through prayer and a shared life of mutual charity. St. John gets to the heart of what Christmas really means when he writes: “Beloved, what we have heard, and seen with our eyes, what we have looked upon and touched--the Word of Life—we proclaim now to you, so that you may have fellowship with us, that our joy may be complete” (1 Jn 1: 1-4).
It can happen that we go to Mass without much attention to the person next to us, or perhaps our attention is limited to a small circle whom we know. Yet every one of us, and every newcomer, every stranger, is either a fellow member or a potential member of our Catholic family. Each has gifts to bring for the vitality of our parish. In an often cold and rootless world, we should go out of our way to extend a very warm welcome and to make people feel welcome.
In the last issue of the Chronicle I mentioned that one of the themes of this “Year of the Eucharist” is our communion with one another in Christ. Pope John Paul makes the following points:
“A spirituality of communion indicates above all the heart's contemplation of the mystery of the Trinity dwelling in us, and whose light we must also be able to see shining on the face of the brothers and sisters around us. “A spirituality of communion also means an ability to think of our brothers and sisters in faith within the profound unity of the Mystical Body, and therefore as ‘those who are a part of me’. This makes us able to share their joys and sufferings, to sense their desires and attend to their needs, to offer them deep and genuine friendship. “A spirituality of communion implies also the ability to see what is positive in others, to welcome it and prize it as a gift from God: not only as a gift for the brother or sister who has received it directly, but also as a ‘gift for me’. “A spirituality of communion means, finally, to know how to ‘make room’ for our brothers and sisters, bearing ‘each other's burdens’ (Gal 6:2) and resisting the selfish temptations which constantly beset us and provoke competition, careerism, distrust and jealousy” (Novo Millennio Ineunte, no. 43).
A spirit of communion, of welcome, is especially important for our diocese at the present time given that some of our parishes will be closing. A good number of our fellow Catholics, individually and as communities, will be looking for a new parish to call their own. Some of them are angry and are skeptical as to whether they can ever find another parish to call home. All of them are hurting in some way, especially as they celebrate what may be the last Christmas in their parish.
I invite everyone to take to heart the example of Mary whose loving face and loving embrace welcomed Jesus into this world. Please be a loving and welcoming neighbor to others, so that what I tell them will prove true; namely, that our Catholic family is bigger than any one parish, and that in that family we can always find a home.
May Christ, who was able to “make his home among us” thanks to Mary, bless you now and in the coming year.
Most Reverend Leonard P. Blair
Bishop of Toledo
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