Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

With the Baptism of the Lord we officially bring the Christmas season to a close. Looking back on it, I believe it was one of the most vibrant, alive Christmas seasons we have ever had at St. Mary. More people came and filled the Masses than before. And your participation at Mass was significant and authentic, praying and singing. The Second Vatican Council, by the way, included this as one of the four benchmarks of the Presence of Christ in the liturgy: when the assembly prays and sings. There was a spirit of reverence, and real presence each time you were here. I believe we touched many hearts this season, and were touched by the underlying love that brings all of us to life in this beautiful season.

I’m not sure I sufficiently thanked all our ministers and those who lead them. Our ushers gave kind greetings tirelessly, our servers served faithfully, our lectors proclaimed the beauty of God’s Word so that we could hear it clearly, and our Eucharistic ministers facilitated the fullness of the Mystery in the action of Communion. Our decorators outdid themselves in beauty making our church incomparable, according to the tradition to which we have become accustomed, to provide our very best to the worship of God in his house. But the greatest thanks could to go to those who, by far, worked the most hours and refined and brought to us the gift of music. David Mathers, our Director of Music, and all his staff, and all the members of our choirs, and musicians — to them we owe a particularly great thank you for the endless repertoire of music and the hours spent in preparation. You have continued to lift our hearts to God in song that is seasonally joyful and reflective, sorrowful and glorious, and each time we join in with you we are changed. Thanks.

There are a couple of things I would like to bring to your attention — please try your best to be involved in several very, very important activities that happen at this time in January that are usually poorly attended, I think, just because people are still taking a breath from Christmas. They are the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Tuesday the 21st), the March for Life (Wednesday the 22nd), and Catholic Advocacy Day (Thursday the 30th). All three should be overflowing with Catholics, indeed, Christians of all churches, to promote unity, life and justice in our community and our nation. But they are not. All three are required, not optional, and we should be involved in all three, even in some small way, to put our faith into action. I challenge you to be involved in all three.

Also, I would like to welcome you to our newest parish campus, www.stmaryfred.org. We had a wonderful website before, and are grateful to the volunteers in the parish who put so much work into making it a reality in the past, but we have taken the step and hired a website expert to produce a new website that is attractive and informative, but most of all flexible and very easy to navigate. Also, our staff managers will have simple access to make their own updates and, hopefully, you will find a website that is always current and pertinent. So we hope, and will try to maintain. So you are invited to go there and walk around sometime.

For more information about Virginia’s General Assembly and the bills and sessions that are planned, and most importantly the Catholic Church’s position on the many pieces of legislation that are up for a vote, please visit the Virginia Catholic Conference website, www.vacatholic.org, and find out how you can get involved. Register to receive emails and become a part of a voice of reason and faith together. Imagine 700,000 Virginia Catholics standing together for life, justice, family and the common good. And stand.

God bless you.

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

So.

If you are ever in a conversation and somebody says that, that means that they have no idea what to say next.

2014. If you’re my age you remember thinking as a kid how impossibly distant the year 2000 was and how we’d probably never get there anyway.

Sometimes when I’m giving a homily I wonder why anyone listens. It probably seems to people like all I ever do is preach. Because pretty much whenever we are together most, I have to preach. But I’m really a pretty quiet kind of person.

I’ve been thinking a lot this season of Christmas about how this only-begotten Word of God-made-flesh, Jesus, spent his first nine months in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary revealing the plan of God to us not saying a word. Here now he’s a baby and he doesn’t have a thing to say. Just baby-talk. Yet God still speaks to us through him —the invisible God made visible—even fully, somehow, in this helpless baby in a cave in a backwater town in the middle of  nowhere – who fully reveals him.

The baby is a great image. Sure, helpless, totally dependent, even silent. But also perfectly beautiful, absolutely innocent, pure, completely the best of what “human” means before we begin to make bad choices and discover independence and ego.

As I said in many of my Christmas homilies – but forgot to include in others – the silence of this time in the infancy of Jesus – the silence in the midst of poverty and danger, the silence proceeding into Egypt as they flee as refugees to save the Child’s life – the silence is what paves the way and gives meaning to the greatest silence 33 years later when suddenly this baby gives over his last breath and delivers his spirit to the Father. It is in the silence of his freely-chosen death that Jesus speaks the loudest words of his life. The work of salvation begun in incarnation – conception at the Annunciation, birth at the Nativity—the salvation begun today in this Christmas season finds it’s fullest expression in the Silence hanging on the Cross.

The wood of the tree encountered by the first Adam is the same wood of the cradle and the Cross by which the Second Adam rights the wrongs of all time and place and brings us back to God in joy and peace.

We get the glad tidings of comfort and joy early in the story; it gathers our families together to share in God’s gifts, it reminds us of our humble origins and the humility that is required for us to unworthily accept the limitless riches that God has waiting for us. It calls us back to the simplicity and total dependence on God of the Son of God himself, who has entered into our history to show us the way.

Remember? Pope Francis said we can’t understand Christmas unless we have found some silence in advance? Well, once that silence becomes a part of us, it is the path toward which we are able to understand the crosses of life, the suffering and death, the meaning of new life and resurrection. Christmas happens only in the middle of the context of Annunciation/Incarnation and Death/Resurrection.

The day of the Lord isn’t some day in the future. It is now. It is the manifestation of Emmanuel (“God with us”) to the Magi who have traveled afar to greet the new king. We are there. It is the revelation of God to all people today. God is saying to us: “Pay attention! Something remarkable and unfathomable is happening to us today!” The plan of God unfolds before our eyes, we who are wordless, helpless and silent; we can hear.

God bless you.

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

On this feast of the Holy Family it seems to me we have a lot to pray about. I’m thinking of the many conversations I’ve had over the holidays when troubled people have expressed their family struggles: lack of unity, refusal to forgive, members who have left the Church, members who have turned their backs on their families. A kind of voluntary estrangement that is the fruit of self-centeredness. You see, in our culture of individualism, addiction and self-absorption, it is tough for the family to survive. The voices of the world are so loud that they have captivated the ears of youth—and many adults—and the old sacred structures of family values based on an understanding of a Divine Plan have lost priority.

We see a lot of new confusing concepts of “family” based on individualism. A lot of marriages are really more arrangements which allow individual license, situations established to allow for personal satisfaction. Divorce is so common. Often, secular values have replaced religious values and the world doesn’t value life, or family, or tradition.

A family requires sacrifice, and a willingness to humbly submit to one another out of love. A time to willingly and gladly set aside our own wants and needs for the good of another. Family life is not easy (I think it gets harder and harder as the years pass), and the obedience and respect of children to parents is something that must develop into a mutual offering between adults when children grow to adulthood; the new generation needs the good example of the previous one to make good choices, and not reject it. But too often today the vital good example just isn’t there. People are just confused.

For years now we have known that Fredericksburg has one of the highest rates of pregnancy outside of marriage in the state of Virginia, and a recent statistic quoted to me (shockingly) states that of the pregnancies which have happened in the City of Fredericksburg this year, 43% of them have been aborted. It is a desperate society that would choose to terminate life and family in this way. And I can only imagine what kind of emptiness this can leave behind; it is hard enough to survive the loss of a loved one in a family when it is beyond our control.

So we must look first to Jesus, Mary and Joseph. A surprise family, to be sure. A great deal of trust in God, and obedience to a plan of faith. Remarkable hardship, poverty. Herod was seeking to kill Jesus. In his rage had all the boys under two years of age murdered throughout Judea. We just celebrated the Feast of the Holy Innocents Saturday this weekend, in memory of all those whose lives were not valued more than the self-will and hunger for control of King Herod.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph became homeless refugees fleeing for their lives to a pagan land—the land from which their ancestors had already fled from death—in order to save Jesus’ life. I wonder if they were welcomed any more than immigrants are welcomed today?

Thank God, St. Mary responds profoundly in support of life with our various pro-life ministries, and our refugee resettlement program. We try to teach our families the values of faith and love, reconciliation and hope, to reach out to those who are in need seeking the truth and answers to their questions. We want everyone to know that they never need to feel alone, fearful, without a solution.

But we need to do more. Families need help, and we need to strengthen each other. We need to keep the message of family and tradition fresh in the minds of our children, and teach by example more than by words. And we need to turn again and again to the Holy Family of Bethlehem, of Egypt, and of Nazareth in their many transitions to see how we might be able to adapt and respond faithfully, like them, to life’s many abrupt challenges and changes. May God strengthen you with his grace, and keep you together in his love.

God bless you.

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

This week has us seeing stars! I have to mention the beautiful constellation of art that has appeared over Bethlehem in the church. They are the loving work of a parishioner, Elise Lynch, who has been creating this beautiful galaxy for many months so that we might enjoy them at Christmas. It is such a great example of how the unique gifts of one can be so beneficial to everyone — to thousands of us.

Bethlehem is ready; the Magi and the camel are still far away, but on the way. The star begins to lead us to Jesus, calling us to prepare in our hearts a place for him to come dwell, an original homeless child seeking a safe place within us, a place of love and concord. In these last days of Advent, we need to empty ourselves a little more of ourselves, so that there can be space for him when he comes to us.

Part of why this is so complicated is that we just don’t live in Bethlehem. Or Nazareth, for that matter. Around this time of year as duties and requests ramp up I usually try to figure out how I can simplify my life to more reflect the world into which Christ was born. I don’t think the simplicity of Bethlehem was a product of not having much to do (I like having nothing to do least of all). Even in the quieter, less hectic context of Bethlehem people were still too busy to realize what was happening. If it weren’t for the angels and the star, the whole birth Event might have been overlooked entirely.

Nor do I think the simplicity of Bethlehem was a matter of solitude. Some people have this ideal of living alone on an island without the cares and complications that are brought about by others. I’m reminded of my dear friend who looked out over a sea of tourists in Venice and said to me, “I’m just not ready for heaven.” I asked what he meant. He replied, “I’m supposed to want to share heaven with all these people.” Being alone is not the answer. In fact, I just spent nearly two weeks in the hospital with rules I had set for myself to prevent too many visitors — no visitors — and recall those days as being so very empty of others. No, the simplicity of life necessarily involves the presence of other loving persons who experience the solitude with you.

Bethlehem wasn’t the lavish accommodations or the gold faucets in the bathroom, or the great feasts — obviously. People who have everything they want will most often be the ones to tell you that everything doesn’t supply you with what you really need.

So what was so great about Bethlehem? I think my answer might surprise some. When I was in the seminary coming to terms with what it meant to make a promise of obedience to a bishop, part of me wanted to rebel. Such a blind commitment seemed to violate concepts of personal freedom and self-reliance that I had come to value greatly in my own life at the time. Of course, such a promise is never binding if someone were to ask you to do something that you know is wrong; but what about the things of which you are not certain?

It requires a kind of trust, an admission that I am not in control, also a humility that says, at very least, that someone is capable of making a decision at least as good as me. And I am willing to give the assent of mind and heart to follow where I am led, believing the source of the leading is God and the place where I am being led is God. When you are following God in faith: hardship, suffering, disappointment, cold and hunger — all these things are bearable if you can see beyond them to a purpose and know that God’s will is being accomplished through it, and through me and my life. And that new life will come from it.

This is exactly how I would describe Bethlehem. The cold, the cave. The faith of Mary and Joseph, the fertile moment in which God is born in us.

God bless you.