"It's the most wonderful time of the year" .... almost

Born of the Virgin Mary, he has truly been made one of us, like to us in all things except sin. (Gaudium et spes, 22)

God was is full of so much love that he created man and woman in his image. He wanted wants us to be more than mere puppets. We are our own beings, full of dignity and worth, yet still dependent on Him, through whom all things have existence. But this was not enough. No, he had to come live with us as one of us. Simply communicating to us through the patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament was not near enough to please him. He chose to become one of us. “Who, though he was in the form of God… emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found in human appearance…” (Phil 2:6a, 7). “By his Incarnation, he, the Son of God, has in a certain way united himself with each man” (Gaudium et spes, 22).

On Sunday, we begin the preparation for this awesome event—when God came down from heaven to be with us as one of us! Truly, he loved us so much that he came to us in the person of the Son, the second person in the Trinity, the Logos, the Word. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (John 3:16). How can you have the passion, death, and resurrection without the birth?

If we truly plan to join the angels, singing, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:14), we first need to prepare ourselves. How can this advent be as beneficial to me as possible? What must I do to enter this season of Christmas rejoicing with the angels over the birth of our Lord?

Can't get home without Him....

You never can know how God is going to come to you. It’s so hard to plan ahead and be ready. You can be expecting to spend time in front of the Blessed Sacrament reading about the Sacrament of Reconciliation, but end up focusing on Mary. Then again, Mary is the way to Christ, which is the goal of the Sacraments (ordering us to Christ).

God works in mysterious ways, and that, I believe, is what keeps us close to him. It is the uncertainty that captivates us and makes us want to let him in even more. It is the unending love that makes us open our hearts to him.

God is around us all day, every day. We just have to open our hearts and our eyes. If we don’t take the time to sit and be with him, how can we know him in the hurriedness of our daily life? Prayer is so important, whether it is communal or private. Just taking that time to sit and be with the Lord. You don’t have to talk.

But the scary thing is, the more you do it, the less you can live without it. Then you see those who don’t take the time and appear to be happy. You ask yourself how they do it simply because you have become so captivated by his love that you forget how you didn’t even realize how lost you were before he captivated you. We need God more than we think. We need him in the deepest parts of our souls. We need him in all of our moments of life. But this need is reciprocal—he needs us as much as we need him.

More than being behind the Altar

What is the priesthood? Is it just administering the Sacraments? Sure the Eucharist is at the center of the priesthood and the mission of the priest. But I am not talking about the mere bread and wine. Rather, I am talking about the nature of it—sacrifice. The Eucharist is a physical remembrance, left by Christ, of the sacrifice he made for us on the cross. It is a representation of what we must go through in life as a Christian. During the “Lamb of God” at Mass, the consecrated host is broken apart, just as Christ was broken as he became the eternal lamb, the eternal sacrifice, replacing all other lambs and sacrifices made at the Jewish Temple.

The life of a priest is a life of sacrifice. But he is not the only one called to this. So also are all men and women, lay and religious. We are all called to take part in the Supper of the Lamb, in his sacrifice for us, one way or another. Nonetheless, we are all called to receive Christ through this Sacrament, along with the others, and take it to all ends of the earth. And we are to do so without any fear, as death has already been defeated.

In today’s Church, with the dwindling number of priests in our parishes, it is becoming more and more obvious that you do not need to be a priest, or even a male, to take a position of leadership. Until we begin to get more vocations, there will be more and more places for others to take a role of leadership in the place of the Priest. But even before now, so many lay people, especially woman, have already had (and still hold) places of power in the Church. St Catherine, Mother Angelica, Mother Teresa, Saint Cecilia, and Dorothy Day are but a few major influential women throughout history.

What necessity is it really for someone to personally be able to consecrate the bread and wine, administering the Eucharist? You still get to receive it and take it to others through a variety of careers. You still get to bring Christ to life in your community, evangelizing where the priest is unable to go. The laity and religious brothers/sisters truly are the ones on the front lines. The focus should reside in the meaning of the sacrifice and our daily living it for others.