Unveiling the Light

The entire media complex is telling you that the Christmas season is upon us but the Church will instead begin celebrating Advent on December 2nd. This is a liturgical season but it is one that can be embraced to the benefit of all. Advent is a good thing. Of course, we will still celebrate Christmas but in the Church that celebration begins the evening of December 24th and lasts until January 14th. It includes Epiphany which commemorates the Three Wise Men who, unlike the depiction of most Christmas Eve manger scenes, actually came days after the birth of Jesus.

Advent can be a good thing for all because it is a time of preparation for the coming of Christ, not a celebration of the event. It can help us to retreat somewhat from the merchandising frenzy and get some perspective on what we celebrate on December 25th. Advent includes the four Sunday weekends before Christmas. It remembers the world that awaited the birth of our savior while reminding us that He is returning. The season is meant to help us come to realize the great gift we have been given while reminding us that our life is also a gift, one that leads to the Resurrection when Jesus returns.

Advent should be a time of reflection as well as happiness. The secular celebrations can help us to be grateful for God’s gift of His Son but our realization that the true celebration has yet to begin can help us to resist the temptation to overspend, overeat, over commit and overlook the true reason for the season. It can be a great family project to use this time to prepare for the true celebration by emphasizing prayer, time together, helping others, and increasing our efforts to make the best use of this time given us to follow the lead of Jesus Christ and form ourselves in His image.

Jesus Christ is the great gift from our God who loves us enough to share our existence and who gave His only Son as a sacrifice for our sins. The best way to prepare for that gift, the one already received and the one to be received when He returns; is to allow God’s love to come forth in us. We best do that by practice. We practice by loving one another, by seeking to love those who are rejected by others, and by seeking to return His love to God through our conversion in the name of Jesus Christ. Advent is a time to make this effort the center of our lives. Then, when the time comes to truly remember the birth of our Lord, we will be ready with open and loving hearts, being strengthened by the love of our family, friends, and our growing relationship with God.

This does not have to be a time of rushing around, anxiety, and stress. We can make it a peaceful, loving, and fun time by stressing the love in our lives. We don’t have to divorce ourselves from the hustle and bustle around us but we can control that activity so that this is a time of growth, not exhaustion. We can participate in the parties without overdoing it and can shop for gifts without financial stress as we instead emphasize the relationships the gifts celebrate. Then, on December 25th, we can gather with those we love and enter into a true Christmas season of giving thanks to God for all of His gifts and realizing just how blessed we are. Now have a very Merry Christmas!

Father Steven Foppiano

Posted by Fr Steven Foppiano at 11:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Americans are a generous people. We lead all countries in voluntary giving but we should not rest on our laurels. The fact is that we have been given a great many gifts. We live in the freest and most prosperous country this world has ever seen. We are relatively free from war, pestilence, famine, and a host of other catastrophes that exist throughout the world. For this we should be thankful and that should lead us to be generous indeed. God has been good to us. We should return the favor by being generous to God. We do so by being generous to those most in need.

Unfortunately too many of the elite see such generosity to be a function of government, thus something the rest of us should give to, not by choice but by force. How much better it would be if there was a personal contact between those who have and those who receive? Instead of dealing with a government bureaucracy that treats them like a number, the poor would receive help from real people. That is why private and church charities are so important. They are people reaching out to people. In my own parish’s ministries, the human compassion and dignity offered are just as important as the food or help that is received.

Perhaps we have the wrong heroes. I read today where Britney Spears makes $737,000 a month. Yes, that’s each and every month or $8,844,000 per year. Out of that $737,000 a month, she gives an astonishing $500 to a charity, and of course it is a charity that bears her name, the Britney Spears Foundation. I hope her fans give generously because her giving is a sham. Someone who has been given everything should be very generous. Perhaps I should be more generous with Britney but I am shocked at her lack of gratefulness for the gifts received and her non consideration for others. We should not be surprised however. She is part of a popular “Me First” media culture that calls on us to spend on ourselves first.

We don’t have to judge Britney or any of her contemporaries but we should see in this example how human selfishness can be overwhelming and work to avoid this trap ourselves. Nobody I know thinks that Britney is happy. If anything she seems to be on a self destructive path and deserves our compassion and prayers. She is living proof that Jesus was right when he said that we must die to ourselves to find true life. We will never find what we need in things or status. We will find it in God and in each other.

We can learn to be generous and that most things we want are not really needed and won’t salve old wounds. That will allow us to seek healing, be comfortable with ourselves, and to truly enjoy the gifts that surround us each day. We are gifted and life offers many experiences that lead to personal growth and happiness. All too often we are so set on a better future that we ignore the current life we are living. By the time we “make it” we find that we were chasing a false dream and often it is too late to connect with those we ignore on our climb up the ladder.

There is nothing wrong with ambition or bettering ourselves but we need to also enjoy each day of our life. We need to realize the gifts God has granted us this day and understand that the people we live with, interact with, and work with are with us today and need us today. They are God’s gift to us. Those children will never be this age again, this event will never be repeated in the same way again, and life cannot be rewound. This is not a trial run but is the real thing. Live your life generously, share your gifts, accept the gifts shared by others, and know that you are loved. This is God’s gift to you.

Father Steven Foppiano

.

Posted by Fr Steven Foppiano at 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Welcome to the Christmas Season. Actually, it has been gaining speed now for some two or three weeks, starting even before we had time to carve out our pumpkins. As Halloween candy sold, the stores simply replaced the shelf space with Christmas items. Soon, the Thanksgiving holiday will be followed by the day that really gets businesses excited, the following Friday which is the busiest shopping day of the year.

Are you ready for all of this or are you, like so many, dreading the rushing around, the overuse of credit cards, the gross consumerism, the overpriced gifts, and the growing stress of trying to make this the “perfect Christmas.” If so, you are not alone. Every year it seems December 25th is more of a finish line than a celebration of Christ. Instead of coming together in love to enjoy the greatest gift ever received, we stagger across the finish line totally exhausted, loaded with often unusable gifts, happy that “all of that is over with,” and dreading the bills that will soon come in the mail. It does not have to be like this!

We have a choice and it is not an all or nothing decision. We can simply cut back. We can decide to not use credit to buy gifts and instead give something personal that has meaning. It does not even have to be a material thing. One could give a hand written invitation to parents to come over for dinner, a promise to spend a day with a sibling doing their favorite thing, or a promise to paint a porch or clean a garage. Parents could give the family a weekend together or each parent could give each child some special time. Children could do a host of favors for their parents.

There are a lot of fun events during the Christmas season and there is no reason to avoid them but we should not let them overwhelm us. We can enjoy these events but avoid rushing around. Give ourselves time to spend with loved ones at home. Make sure the family has dinner together as often as possible. It does not have to be a fancy dinner, just make it enjoyable and make everyone schedule plenty of time to enjoy it, without cell phones, games, or other distractions. Family time together is one of the most important gifts we can give each other this Christmas season.

Make cleaning and decorating the house a family affair and not one filled with stress. Allow it to be fun. It does not have to be perfect. They will remember the time together far longer than the way the house looks or even the gifts they receive. Even preparation of the family holiday meal can be a task shared by all. Members of the family will probably enjoy it all the more knowing that they each contributed to it.

Be especially careful with the use of credit cards. Credit can quickly become a weight around our necks, holding us down and keeping us from enjoying the life we have been granted. If you have a heavy debt load, this would be the perfect time to sit down with the family and plan how you will get out of it. Being free of debt or at least an overwhelming debt will leave you free to pursue life on your own terms. One cannot serve God if one is overwhelmed by the burdens of past expenditures. It is a good practice to only go into debt on assets that increase in value (the home) or in cases of emergency.

The secular Christmas season has begun but the Church’s Christmas season only begins on December 25th and lasts until celebration of the Baptism of the Lord in January. They are wholly separate things, one dealing with the idea parties and gift giving, the other with the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. The secular season has its roots in the Church but has morphed into something quite different. It is not necessarily bad but does have many dangerous elements that can lead us astray. They can exist side by side but we need to maintain control. We cannot allow secular affairs to overwhelm the true meaning of Christmas. This is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, the Lord, the greatest gift ever given and we should not let anything take away from God’s gift of His Son.

Father Steven Foppiano

Every year it seems December 25th is more of a finish line than a celebration of Christ.

Posted by Fr Steven Foppiano at 09:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)