Fr. Allan McDonald

Here we are again in the midst of getting ready for Christmas. The secularization of this religious holy day has reached new heights. Rudolph, Santa Claus and all the beautiful secular music all at least implied that Christmas was the reason for the merriment. Today, though, retailers are trying to convince us to buy, buy, buy not because it is Christmas, but because it is the “holidays.” Christmas trees are being renamed “holiday trees” and any reference to the word Christmas seems to be politically incorrect as though using the term might disturb those of different religions or no religions at all.

Let’s make no mistake about it. Christmas is a Catholic feast. Many Protestant denominations in the past did not celebrate Christmas because they too saw it as a Catholic feast used to Christianize a pagan festival held on December 25^th which is true. There would be no secular “holiday” season if not for Christmas.

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There’s no accounting for taste, they say. The poet James Russell Lowell enthused, “And what is so rare as a day in June? Then, if ever, come perfect days.” However, I’ll go with November every time. The summer heat has broken and the leaves are turning their bright autumn colors, but except in the Far North the winter cold is still to come.

For most of the country, the fall also brings the completion of harvest. Although most Americans live in urban areas and many of us seldom even see a farm, the foods we all eat – fruits and vegetables, meats, milk, and the grain for our bread – come from farms and ranches across American and around the world. We may feel far away from farm life and think that the harvest has little to do with us, but we are connected with agriculture more closely than we realize. How the harvest goes affects the prices we pay; and if the harvest were to fail completely, there would soon be nothing available to put on our grocery shelves.

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Authentic Catholic spirituality should always lead us in the direction of being a “disciple in mission.” This means using all that God has given us to serve Jesus Christ and the Church. In a sense, by God’s grace, God redeems not only our sinful nature, but He redeems all we have, including our time, talent and treasure. You can’t get any more spiritual than when God’s redeeming love transforms your time, talent and treasure into something beautiful for God and His Church.

A few years back, I recall an article in Catholic Update from St. Anthony Messenger Press that listed “Seven Secrets of Successful Stewards.”

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We may not be familiar with the opera’s plot or even know any more words from the song, but almost everyone can tell you how Summertime from the opera Porgy and Bess begins: “Summertime, And the livin’ is easy.”  It is natural to think of July when you hear that song. After all, isn’t July the month most Americans would associate with the word “vacation”?

Independence Day does provide a focus for the first part of the month, but then the rest of the month stretches ahead, relatively empty of obligations for many of us.  So the living must be easy – or is it?

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As a pastor, I’ve tried to articulate my vision for our parish to our parishioners. Essentially I get my vision from the old Baltimore Catechism question: “Why did God make me?”

The answer is, “to know, love and serve Him in this life and to be happy forever with Him in the life to come.”  Knowing, loving and serving God in the Divine Person of Jesus Christ must be our common vision and each one’s personal goal and relationship.

Primary to this vision is the celebration of the Liturgy of the Church. Our celebrations must equal in majesty the splendid beauty of our Church’s architecture. The architecture of the Church was built for the liturgy. The two must compliment one another.  We must commit ourselves to understanding what the Liturgy is all about and how the Mass unites us as Catholics not only in this parish, but with Catholics throughout the world as we enter into the one Sacrifice of Jesus which unites us to the Church in heaven.

The Mass on Sundays is where God touches the majority of our parishioners. Everything else we do flows from the liturgy. Absolutely nothing else we do touches more people than the celebration of the Mass. We must put our time, talent and treasure into the Liturgy to assure that our celebrations are inspiring and worthy of the God we worship.  Our celebration of the Mass must form us as Catholics who leave Mass inspired to bring the Good News to our world.

Catholic Stewardship flows from the liturgy. It is at the liturgy that we hear God speak to us not only words of comfort but words of challenge. Following in the footsteps of our Divine Savior is not easy, but made possible by the Holy Spirit. The moral and ethical teachings of the Church are not easy either but by God’s grace we can embrace them with an uncomplaining heart.

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Just who is Jesus? He is the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings. He is mighty God and Prince of Peace. The ultimate event that makes our faith sure and certain is the dramatic and triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, His most sacred passion and death on Good Friday and His glorious resurrection on Easter Sunday. If not for the Resurrection of our Lord, no one would have looked back over Jesus’ life and public ministry and with 20/20 hindsight realized that He was God all along. The resurrection gives us this 20/20 hindsight. It also leads the author of the Gospel of Saint John to declare that Jesus is the eternal Word of God.

If you kept up with the silliness of Scriptural studies immediately following Vatican II in the mid 1960s, you would have heard theologians who should have known better using a method of Scripture study that tried to study the Gospels without the benefit of 20/20 hindsight that the Resurrection of Jesus affords us. For these “scholars” there is a disconnect between the Jesus of the Gospels and the “real” Jesus of His public ministry. This means that no one, not even His apostles believed that He was actually God incarnate (presumably also His Blessed Mother) and that even Jesus didn’t know His true identity until he arose on the “third day.”

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Over the past several years, I have been invited from time to time to give a presentation at the Msgr. McGread Stewardship Conference in Wichita, Kansas. The Diocese of Wichita is a diocese of some 115,000 Catholics in 90 parishes, and it is a powerful example to the rest of the Church in America. It is the prime example of what Catholics who commit to denying themselves and picking up their cross and following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ can do within His Church.

On a diocesan level, the principles of Catholic Stewardship have been encouraged for many decades. This has resulted in Mass attendance in the diocese being more than double the national average. This is a phenomenal statistic in today’s religious culture. Because these Catholics are so invested in their faith and Church, they have experienced the grace of conversion, enabling them to commit an abundance of their time, talent and treasure to the ministry of the Church.

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The secularization of the Advent and Christmas seasons celebrates the “holidays” with full fury all the way up to the 25^th of December. With all the gift buying, partying and anxious rush, we miss the true meaning of the Advent season, which was meant to be more austere, contemplative and penitential.

Even as a priest, I get caught up in the secularization of Christmas. I have to buy gifts, send cards, go to some parties as well as prepare spiritually. The Advent Wreath becomes for me the “Anxiety Wreath” as I see the time pass so quickly and my procrastination so self evident.

Yet, our procrastination, our hectic schedules and our failure to properly grasp the significance of this season due in large part to the successful secularization of our “Catholic Holyday” now reduced to the holiday season, may be the precise metaphor for our examination of conscience and confession of sins in the Sacrament of Penance during the season of Advent.

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It is not easy being a follower of Jesus Christ. Throughout His public ministry, Jesus called people to repent of their sins, to go the extra mile, to turn the other cheek, and to give to those in need. He even said that the person who saves his life will lose it and the person who loses his life will save it.

Jesus was not content that His followers merely observe the commandments of religion; He wanted them to go beyond doing just the minimum that is expected, to doing the most. He called his followers to maximum religious performance rather than the bare minimum.

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Occasionally, I watch the Rev. Joel Osteen preach from his non-denominational mega-church in Dallas. He fills this former hockey arena to capacity every Sunday. His message is completely positive, inspiring people to live their lives to the fullest based upon the foundational belief that God created us good, equips us to live positive lives, and to spread the positive message to others by word and example. He teaches people how to be successful in life by living godly, positive lives. His church’s symbol is the world globe. You will not find the cross at his church, which is an incorporated business under his family’s control.

Of course, I do not watch the Rev. Osteen enough to know if he preaches on Jesus Christ. In the sermon I heard, there was no reference to Jesus, which I thought was a bit odd. Certainly, Jesus was implied, but there was nothing explicit. Nor did I hear anything about sin, suffering, death and the promise of eternal life. No one was condemned. Certain traits such as negative thinking, “pity parties,” inaction and so on were described as what others do which Rev. Osteen’s followers could overcome by their positive outlook on life and responding to the power within themselves. His is a “happy, peppy” religion where faith empowers one to give thanks for what you have, not worry about what you don’t have and allow God to overcome the rest.

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