The joy of Christmas is behind us and a new year is at our front door. There is something delightful about both days. Christmas reminds us in a very vivid way of the fact that God loves each one of us individually, personally, completely, infinitely and New Year’s Day naturally provides us for an opportunity to both look back and to look ahead. We can’t handle our future successfully unless we at least occasionally evaluate the strengths and weaknesses that we have displayed in our own recent past.
We all know that New Year’s resolutions tend to be a joke. Many of us lists all the little inconsistencies and foibles in our own lives about which we are conscious and we decide that we are going to do a little bit better – less complaining, less chocolate candy, more thoughtfulness with our spouse, etc., etc. Many have the good will and the discipline to actually make a measurable improvement in this or that weakness, but many of them are completely forgotten by February 1st.
I am of the opinion that instead of making a list of self-improvements that have to run in the face of firmly established bad habits, that we should use the great gift of our minds to stop and think about the good things in our lives, the blessings that we experience, the gifts that God has given us. We are all conscious of the fact that we have blessings and strengths but we tend to be a little bit more conscious of negative things. I regret that this is a fact but it is. Maybe we can alter it a little bit.
Today, I want to think about a special gift that God has given nearly every one of us and that is the gift of the human voice. Do you ever think about it? Our minds explore the universe, carry us back for thousands of years and open up the future. These are all exciting things but if you don’t have the opportunity to share them with someone else, the joy is lessened considerably. The gift that God has given us in order to enable us to share them is the human voice. Yes, there are other means of communication – writing, hand signals, waving flags, etc., etc. – but the human voice is the prime method of communication for the great majority of us and what a gift it is.
God spreads his gifts out. Not everybody is Luciano Pavarotti. Not all of us have the melodious, beautiful voices such as that of Richard Burton. It is a gift to be used and to be used in consideration of other people.
I have often said that our individual voices are like a bag of golf balls. There is a putter, there is a driver and there are three, five and seven irons to help us get up on the green and into that little hole. Great golfers know exactly which club to use and that makes the difference between winning and losing. Some people, however, may not be all that good in selecting the proper voice. Have you ever been in a nice restaurant when that man two tables over wants you to know about his failed estate deal? Do you know people who have a tendency to whisper everything forgetting that you are wearing a hearing aid for a reason? Let’s stop and think about our voice. When we want to display anger, when we want to calm a child who has just fallen and hurt his knee, when we want to console someone who has just lost a spouse and when you want to tell a business associate that this is your final offer – each one of these requires different tones and a different exercise of the gift of the voice. The main thing, however, is to appreciate it. It is a gift from God. Most of us have it. Let’s thank him for it and use it thoughtfully.
 

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On December 25th a large portion of the Western world celebrates. That day has been chosen to mark the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem nearly 2,000 years ago. For believers, it is all so beautiful – families trudging into church on a cold night, the church itself ablaze with light and gloriously happy music, a delightful mood marks the congregation as they enthusiastically greet each other hoping that all involved will have a Merry Christmas, a happy Christmas, a blessed Christmas.
Gifts are exchanged and those gifts are intended to be outward signs of a person’s liking or love for another. It is altogether beautiful, isn’t it? However, it is also somewhat unreal!
Unreal? I am not challenging the birth of Jesus or denying his historicity, but I am saying that because the birthday itself is so covered with ceremonies, trappings, paraphernalia and expenses that for some of us it is difficult to concentrate on the reality.
We should ignore the Christian Christmas cards that reflect baby Jesus in Renaissance splendor with perfect hands extended towards the light emanating from his halo. Look at the baby. Right now he is wet and crying. Is your faith strong enough to let you see that in that five to seven pound baby God is present and that baby, several decades from now, will grow to full manhood, teach us truth about life and how it is to be lived and then calmly, carefully and intentionally walk into an agonizing sacrifice of his life for the failures and lack of love of God on the part of the human family. Can you see that in the baby? If you can, forget the carols, the books and the candles and give thanks to God that your faith enables you to clearly focus on what is actually going on here.
Have a holy, happy and blessed Christmas.
 

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Children love Christmas and they should. It is a time of excitement, beauty, families coming together and, of course, with kids opening those presents, getting the tricycle, getting the doll that she has been wishing for months, all come together to make a wonderful thing.
There is nothing wrong with any of this but it would be a shame to let Christmas come and go without talking to our children or grandchildren about the joy of giving and the need to practice generosity to those around us. Little children are naturally selfish. They see themselves as the center of the world and sometimes they see a world in which they are almost alone with the exception of the fact that they have two full-time servants to respond to their wants and desires. Often a small child learns too early that when it says, “I want” the world changes and suddenly what it “wants” is there. Such attitudes can be created that will produce tremendous frustration and unhappiness later on. Sooner or later, the child as an adolescent or young adult will learn the hard way that “I want” does not produce the expected but it can produce frustration and pain.
We should all talk to our little children and give them opportunities to practice to share what they have with each other. Even very young children can begin to learn about their feelings. Feelings can pull us this way or that. Children can learn the importance of getting along with their brothers, sisters and schoolmates.
Have a Merry Christmas…no, have a generous Christmas!

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In modern American secular culture, the celebration of Thanksgiving at the end of November and the Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus fuse together under one heading “the holidays.” For most people, it is a very active period and involves a lot of work, a lot of celebration, usually too much expense, but overall a thoroughly enjoyable time.
It is an accident that these two celebrations are close to each other. Thanksgiving only goes back a couple of centuries and it is a North American celebration, whereas the birth of Jesus has been celebrated for a large portion of the last 2,000 years. Is there a connection? Yes, indeed!
Thanksgiving motivates us to be appreciative of the many blessings that we have received and the people with whom we are sharing life to whom we owe gratitude and appreciation. When we are thankful, we should show and manifest that appreciation. We do it by giving gifts but, more importantly, by giving of ourselves.
The Feast of Christmas is the celebration of the greatest gift in human history – God’s gift of his Divine Son to the human family. Jesus would be one with us, share our human nature, give us the example of how life is to be lived, how we are to relate to each other and when we are joined to him through faith and baptism, we become his brothers and sisters and thereby children of the Father. It is awesome, simply awesome, but real.
Advent is upon us and a time of giving and receiving is here. Some of the greatest gifts that come with the presence of Jesus among us are the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We will think about these special gifts tomorrow.

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It’s over. It’s finally over. Once again, the Church across the world completes the liturgy year, the year of prayer, the year that has been centered on preparing for, receiving, suffering with and walking behind Jesus of Nazareth. We started back on November 27th in 2011 with the first Sunday of Advent. We spent a month symbolizing the time between the creation of Adam and Eve and the coming of Jesus. Then we were at Christmas, the Resurrection and the third great feast of the Church year, the Feast of Pentecost. Then we were urged to acknowledge the fact that not only have we received the faith, but we have a responsibility to strengthen it and carry it on.

Today is the last day of the year and we mark it with joy and triumph. When we look around, we see our own weakness, our own family problems, the difficulties that the United States faces, our concern for more wars, our inability to deal with the tragic poverty on this planet. Sometimes everything looks so grim. But Jesus Christ is king. He is the Lord of the universe and on this day, in a very special way, we acknowledge his triumphant power over anything and everything. God has given the human family the gift of freedom. It is frequently misused but ultimately his plan will be carried out in the lives of individuals and for the whole human family.

Viva Cristo Rey! Viva!

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The Christmas story lingers on. Tomorrow the Church across the world celebrates the great feast of the Epiphany. Epiphaneia – literally means to manifest or to show forth. That is the name that the Christian tradition has given the beautiful section of
St. Matthew’s Gospel when strange men came from the East bringing gifts to the newborn child of Mary. This story is beautiful and filled with mystery. We don’t know who these men were, we don’t know where they came from, we don’t know what their job descriptions were. One translation of the word is that they are astrologists. We would be more comfortable with astronomers. The details don’t matter. The main point of the story is its symbolism. Jesus is born in the Jewish village of Bethlehem. Joseph and Mary were Jews. The shepherds were Jews. Herod, of course, was Jewish. The whole cast was Jewish up until the moment that these three men came bringing gifts to the newborn child. The Church has used this to symbolize that on this day Jesus is revealed beyond the community of Judaism to the whole world and today we celebrate that fact and thank God for it.

I think that faithful Christians are very conscious of the fact that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior and we are thankful for that. We are also concerned about our own eternal destiny and so from time to time we forget the reality that Jesus came to the whole human family, to the entire world and we who are followers of our Savior ought to use some of that prayer, time, energy and resources to move Jesus’ message forward to the rest of the planet. If the truth were known, we haven’t done all that well in two thousand years. With the population of the planet now hitting seven billion, only about two billion on the planet today would have been directly touched by the message of Jesus. We have a great deal of work to do.

Everybody back on their camel!

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This is a big week for John McCarthy. All of us began with the celebration of our Lord’s birth and now it opens into a series of feast days that have special meaning for me. Today is the feast of St. Stephen, the first martyr. I took that name when I was confirmed at about 12 years of age but have never been overly interested in martyrdom for myself in the 70 years since.

Tuesday is my very special feast day, St. John the Apostle. He was the youngest of the 12 and very close to our Lord. I have tried to have a close relationship with him but the road has sometimes been rough. Wednesday is the feast of the Holy Innocents and although this marks that tragic day when the evil King Herod ordered the slaughter of young boys and babies throughout his kingdom, the fact is we have had countless martyred children since then. A tragic number of children die in every war, others starve to death or die unnecessarily of disease. Most cruelly, of course, is the fact that so many children in our abusive society die of mistreatment and neglect. And then there are the young girls who are forced into prostitution at an early age.

Friday is the feast of the Holy Family and what we need is HOLY families, more holy families and yet more holy families. If we had truly HOLY families, many of the problems in our society would be solved. Most of us are members of a family, either core members or extended families, and we must do whatever we can to protect young children. Let’s make that a special goal in the New Year.

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Today is the day that most of the world has been looking back to for 2,000 years. Today is the day to which the ancient world looked towards, not with clear knowledge but with undying hope. Today is the day that makes up for everything else that is sad and disappointing in the human story.

Today is the birthday of Jesus of Nazareth.

The fact that medieval historians were about four years off regarding the date of the birth of our Lord is of no consequence. What does matter is that HE CAME; that God stepped into the human story and joined us in our lives, in our travails, in our journey and, ultimately, in our triumph.

I would like to say something very profound about Christmas but I can’t. The day speaks for itself. All that I can say is that HE CAME and by that fact, we are all eternally blessed.

Have a happy Christmas.

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Happy holidays!  Happy holidays? Happy holidays, indeed!

Several years ago, a number of department stores started directing their employees to stop wishing people a Merry Christmas and indeed to merely say happy holidays.  It is a free country and there is nothing wrong with that but it doesn’t do to people what a joyful expression from the heart that says Merry Christmas or, in other words, I wish you joy as we celebrate Christ’s Mass!

For the past 2,000 years, there has been so much pain, so much crime, so much disappointment that it is hard to see how people maintain some type of basic optimism and hope.  I think one of the things we do maintain is Christmas Day.  We celebrate and we remember that God’s love for the human family, so infinitely strong and beyond the ability of any one of us to comprehend it, is so wonderful, so complete that he himself stepped into our story, dealt with us in a nature identical with our own, except in all things of sin, lived with us, walked with us, taught us and ultimately offered his life in an agonizing act of obedience to his Heavenly Father.

Christ’s Mass has no meaning apart from Good Friday and Easter Sunday.  Jesus has come to us, Jesus will redeem us so it would not be improper to say Merry Christmas and Happy Easter, Merry Christmas and Happy Easter.   They go together, so yes, in that respect, I’ll say: Happy Holidays!

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As Christmas approaches, is anyone in your family thinking about a turkey? A rib roast? Will you be blessed to have a wonderful family gathering with all the trimmings that go with the great feast, which is the Christmas dinner? Not everyone will be so fortunate.

I want to remind you of an extremely important program that operates in this city and all across our country, namely Meals on Wheels. I am writing this in the Christmas rush. I don’t have exact figures for everything that our local group is doing, but it involves thousands of people and vast quantities of food delivered to front doors of elderly people who are often sick and alone.

While we have always had hunger in our midst, it has become much more widespread in urban America. Sixty or seventy years ago, our families lived close together, not only in the same city but often in the same neighborhood. Today, families are scattered across the country. Meals on Wheels is a wonderful and generous response to that difficult situation. It lessens not only the pain of hunger, but isolation as well. These warm meals, delivered directly to the recipients, make a tremendous difference in the lives of these people for whom life is sometimes quite dreary.

The director of Meals on Wheels is Dan Pruett and his telephone number is (512) 476-6325. Could you:

a) Send a check today to Meals on Wheels
b) Volunteer to help Meals on Wheels
c) Send a check AND volunteer

Now there is the spirit of Christ! May God bless you all.

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