I returned to Queretaro last Wednesday and the next few days were busy with many things around the community. Many meetings and homily preps for me. I had 3 Masses on Christmas Eve and one Mass on Christmas Day. I played guitar and sang during the homily like I am known to do in the US. The people really appreciated it. After the 8pm Mass we celebrated Christmas together in community with a special Cena. Br. Fermin cooked an excellent stuffed pork tenderloin with salad and macaroni. There was plenty of wine and tequila to go around. We had a woman staying with us from Colombia who was a former Marianist Sister. After a great meal and a few drinks we all took turns dancing with her. It was a lot of fun. I was pretty beat after the day and was able to sleep in on Christmas morning.
The Brothers all began leaving the community to go visit their families. Right now I am here in Queretaro with one other Brother who will stay here until the 2nd of January. I will head to Orlando on the 29th to visit my dad and brothers in Orlando. It's a quick trip just to catch up. I will also spend some time with a former colleague of mine who lives about an hour from my dad. So it should be a great time away. I hope your Christmas was special and that you received the blessings you needed for your life. So I guess this is the last post for 2016, see you in the New Year!
Creche in the Chapel
Creche Outside
Creche in the Dining Room
Here is my homily for Christmas:
Christmas
Eve and Christmas Day
Gloria…..in excelsis Deo
Gloria….in excelsis Deo
Good Evening Church! Merry Christmas! Turn to the
person next to you and say, Merry Christmas friend! This is a night for
family. This is a night for
friends. This is a night for faith and
belief in the impossible. This is a
night for hope. This is a night we wait
for every year because the Christmas story reminds us that God so loved the
world that he gave us his only begotten Son.
This story reminds us that God’s promise is stronger than doubt, that
God asks the least likely to act on his behalf, and that God comes to us in
ordinary ways. Christmas is a time to
celebrate Jesus. Christmas is the
reminder for all of us that God is with us, Amen?
Just like we sing certain songs in Church during
specific seasons, we also sing Christmas songs and hear the Christmas story
presented to us in Scripture each and every Christmas. For me, it would not be Christmas if I did
not hear from the Prophet Isaiah, the letter of Titus, and the Gospel of
Luke. My Christmas tradition was built
on these readings and even though I will not hear them in English this year, I
celebrate the sentiments of each of these readings in Spanish. Last year, I was in the Ivory Coast for
Christmas. Everything was in
French. The music and the culture was
uplifting. I am happy to celebrate this
Christmas tradition in Spanish, with you, my favorite people, Amen? And like the angels of long ago, we too sing
our praises:
Gloria…..in excelsis Deo
Gloria….in excelsis Deo
And
so what does the Word of God invite us to ponder during this celebration of the
Word become flesh? The prophet Isaiah
paints a picture of hope for a people who were downcast and not full of hope. The familiar words of the prophet, “the
people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” always reminds me of
Christmas and possibilities. The next
lines of the prophet were so beautifully put to music by Handel in his work The
Messiah: For unto us a child is born, a son is given us; upon his shoulder
dominion rests. He shall be called
Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, and Prince of
peace. When I hear these words I am reminded of Christmas past and my youth, as
I sang these words in my high school choir. The Messiah to be born was to be a
messenger of peace and hope. When we
walk in the dark times of our lives, we need peace and hope, Amen? Jesus is the
light that dispels the darkness. When we
can see clearly, we can do more things.
In the dark it is difficult to have a good perspective on our
lives. Jesus is the light that gives us
perspective, and tonight we celebrate his great birth, Amen?
Gloria…..in excelsis Deo
Gloria….in excelsis Deo
The letter of Paul to Titus reminds us that the grace
of God appeared in Jesus Christ and because of this we need to give up our old
ways that lead us down the paths of destruction. The way of Jesus is light and grace. We await his second coming with blessed hope,
but we celebrate his first coming with blessed joy, Amen? Blessed hope is the
belief in the impossible. Blessed hope
helps me each and every day to get out of bed.
Blessed hope helps me to look at our world with all its violence, abuse,
injustice, and greed and say, “hope has the final word.” This is not the world that God dreams
about. There is an alternative
possibility to what we have right now.
God’s answer to violence is peace.
God’s answer to abuse is care.
God’s answer to injustice is justice and mercy. God’s answer to greed is sharing with one
another. This is the world that Timothy
reminds Titus is for us in the birth of Jesus Christ. This is the world I want to live in. Turn to the person next to you and say, I
want to live in God’s world! Tonight we celebrate being in that world where the
powerful God becomes a child. And with
the angels we sing:
Gloria…..in excelsis Deo
Gloria….in
excelsis Deo
And what would Christmas
be without hearing the story of the birth of Jesus? Mary, Joseph, the inn,
angels, shepherds, swaddling clothes and a manger. Thousands of songs have been written and sung
over the past two thousand years in every language of the world about each of
these important people and things in this story. These songs tell the story of our faith. Turn to the person next to you and tell them
your favorite Christmas song. Now don’t
you feel good just thinking about that song?
That’s what our faith does. When
we sing our faith in song, it helps us to feel good, to feel connected, to feel
at home. All of these people and
characters are important to Luke in telling the story of the birth of
Jesus. Mary and Joseph go to Bethlehem
for a census and so the Messiah is born in the city of David. A new king will follow the old king. Jesus becomes the great King of Israel. Because there is no room for them in the inn,
Mary and Joseph must spend the night in the barn with the animals. The Son of God is born in a common place, not
in a palace with servants but with common surroundings. Jesus is wrapped in swaddling clothes and
laid in a manger. A manger was a feeding
trough for the animals. Jesus, the Bread
of Life, will be food for others. The
angles appear to shepherds and not royalty.
The shepherds were the outcasts of society because they could not
fulfill their religious obligations because they were in the fields caring for
their sheep. Good News is first
proclaimed to the outcast and marginalized, not the rich and powerful. The shepherds eventually go and see the baby
and his mother and come to believe in him.
The angels tell of the glory of God in the birth of Jesus. What a remarkable story, Amen? This is our story. This is our story of faith. The story of a God who became like one of
us. The God who became a child and lived
among us. The story of God, Emmanuel, God
with us. This is a story of love, Amen?
And so repeat after me, Christmas is about hope. Christmas is about faith. Christmas is about
love. And with the angels we sing:
Gloria…..in
excelsis
Gloria….in excelsis Deo
Feliz Navidad…Feliz Navidad, Feliz Navidad Prospero
Ano y Felicidad