Christian Reflection and Prayer

PRAYER: O holy Child of Bethlehem, Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in, Be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels The great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us, Our Lord Immanuel! Amen.

A Gift We Will Love
December 25, 2010
Christmas Day(A)

Isaiah 52:7-10; Psalms 98:1-6; Hebrews 1:1-6; John 1:1-18

"The Word became flesh and He lived among us" (John 1:14). 

It was December 22nd and the mother of several children suddenly realized that she hadn't sent out any Christmas cards.  In dismay, she sent her 10-year-old son to the drugstore for a box of Christmas cards.  "Hurry," she said, "I'll barely have time to get these in the mailbox before the day's final pickup."  The boy ran all the way to the store and soon returned with a box of twenty-ive cards, all alike.  Quickly, without even looking at them, she signed them, addressed and stamped the envelopes, handed them to her boy who promptly deposited them in the corner mailbox.  Later, the mother noticed that there was one card left in the box.  She picked it up and looked at the verse.  It read,

"This little card is just to say,
a gift you'll love is on the way."

Most of us get caught up in the Christmas hustle and bustle: The Christmas cards, the Christmas trees, the Christmas lights, the Christmas lists, the Christmas shopping, the Christmas presents, and on and on.  But these are not the essence of Christmas.  All of the hustle and bustle is the tinsel of Christmas, the icing on the cake, so to speak: the trappings.  And they can be wonderful, but they also can be so distracting that the real meaning of Christmas somehow gets lost.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... The Word became flesh and He lived among us" (Jn. 1:1,14).

Puccini's operas -- La Boheme, Tosca, Madama Butterfly -- are among the world's favorites. After he was stricken with cancer in the early 1920's, the great composer was determined to write a final opera. He entitled it "Turandot," and it is considered to be a magnificent work, his most polished score. Struggling as he was with the cancer, Puccini was implored by his students to rest; to save his strength. But he continued to work, saying, "If I do not finish my music, my students will complete it." In 1924, he was taken to Brussels for surgery. He died two days later. His students did finish "Turandot" and, in 1926, the premiere performance took place at the famous LaScala opera house in Italy, under the direction of Arturo Toscanini. When the point came in the score where Puccini had been obliged to put down his pen, Maestro Toscanini, his face wet with tears, put down his baton and said to the audience, "Here ends the master's work." After a pause, he picked up the baton, smiled broadly, and said, "But his friends finished his work."

Our blessed Master came into this world to do the Father's work. Before leaving this world, He asked His friends to carry on and move the work toward completion. We who claim to be his friends are privileged to pick up the task; to enlarge the score with beautiful harmonies of peace, and soaring arias of love.

Christmas is supposed to be about giving!

The Story:

This is about the difference between heaven
and hell.
Seems these two fellows get together one day.  One
is from heaven and the other from hell.  The man
from heaven asks what is hell really like  
"It's terrible, says the man from hell.  We get really
hungry feeding the furnaces , and  every night they sit
us down at these big beautiful banquet tables piled
high with food.  And the devil comes out and says,
"all you can eat, seconds even thirds.  There's
just one rule, you got to be polite down here and use
your forks."  "Their we are already to eat this food,
and we reach down and pick up our forks, and every
one of those forks got handles 3 feet long, there
is no way in the world we can get that food into our
mouths."  "And that old devil just stands there and
laughs at us every night over and over again, laughing
and laughing."  " I tell you it is torture something
awful."  "Well, says the other man, we got big tables
of food like that in heaven too, and our forks have the
same long handles, no way we can feed ourselves
either."  "SO WE JUST SIT DOWN AND FEED EACH OTHER!"

Reflection:
What and idea, what and amazing thing to do.  Makes the
whole difference between feast and famine, happiness and
torture.  How come nobody down in hell thought of that, not
one soul.  Why, because that's not the way they think, that's why
they are down there in the first place.  It wouldn't occur to
them to do anything for anybody else.  That's the real curse,
that's the real pain of living in hell.  You see it is the curse
they laid upon themselves when they walked the earth.

THIS CHRISTMAS SEASON HOW WILL YOU WALK THE EARTH,
LIKE ONE FROM HEAVEN, OR ONE FROM HELL.  IT'S YOUR
CHOICE.

Isaiah 7:10-14; Psalms 24:1-6; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-24

"The virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son and they will call Him Immanuel, a name which means God-is-with-us" (Mt. 1:23). 

A woman named Betty tried to cram all of her Christmas preparations into a single day.  Starting at 9 a.m., she shopped her entire Christmas list, bought a Christmas tree and poinsettias, ordered a turkey, carried home the groceries for Christmas dinner, brought up from the basement the big box of Christmas lights and tree decorations and, finally, at midnight, finished carefully gift-wrapping presents for her husband, Herb, and their three daughters.

Wearily, she began to congratulate herself on a job well-done -- and then, suddenly, she remembered: "The Christmas cards! I forgot to send the Christmas cards."  Tired, but determined, she signed and prepared for mailing all eighty-nine cards on her list.  Then she topped off her day's work by writing a check to a department store.  When the holidays were over, the extent of her exhaustion at the end of that busy day became apparent.  Her check to the department store was returned by the bank with an "Incorrect Signature" notation.  She had signed the check, "Betty, Herb and the girls."

In a Roman Catholic elementary school, a few days before Christmas, the curtain was about to go up on a Nativity play.  The centerpiece of the set was a creche, complete with statues of Mary, Joseph, the three Wise Men, shepherds, sheep and other animals.  Two nuns were busy making last-minute adjustments to the children's costumes.  The school principal was standing by, keeping an eye on the preparations.  Suddenly, in a panic, one of the nuns rushed up to her and said, "Mother Superior, we forgot the Baby Jesus."  With a wry smile, Mother Superior replied,

"THAT'S EXACTLY THE TROUBLE WITH THIS WORLD!"

Christmas is nearly upon us.  And even though you may have forgotten a thing or two in your Christmas preparations, it's "Don't-forget-the-Baby-Jesus" time.  It's time to ponder the meaning of the Incarnation, for your life and for the lives of all others.

In today's Gospel Lesson -- Matthew's account of the birth of Jesus Christ -- we read ...

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son and they will call Him Immanuel, a name which means "God-is-with-us" (Mt. 1:23).

We ponder the Mystery of the Incarnation as we prepare our hearts and minds to celebrate on Christmas Day the indescribable Gift of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  The Mystery of the Incarnation is at the very heart of our Christian Faith.  God gave us His Son to be our Immanuel: God with us.  And that is at the very essence of the Christmas Message.