OUR SUNDAY’S IN DECEMBER

Woodrow Wilson once said, “If you wish your children to be Christians, you must really take the trouble to be Christian yourselves. Those are the only terms upon which the home will work the gracious miracle.”

When families offer their children in Baptism and promise, on their behalf, to teach them the doctrine of the Gospel and bring them up in the nurture of the Lord – ah, how this promise is quickly broken! They educate their children to the world and the flesh even though they have renounced these during the promises made. This covenant breaking with God and betraying the souls of their children to the devil must and will lie heavy in the hereafter. Their own salvation depends on the keeping of the promises they made to God!

This is a very special month. We encompass the season of Advent – the beginning of our Church year – a season of penance (like Lent), a season to look into ourselves and our sinfulness and then prepare ourselves to celebrate the birth of Our Saviour! How was it that out of all the women and men of history, Mary and Joseph were chosen to give birth to Jesus and to raise Him? A possible answer is in the Gospel passage for Sunday, December 28th [Holy Family of Jesus]; in Luke 2:22-40; that Mary and Joseph are a pious and observant religious couple.

This was the gift of the Holy Family. Mary and Joseph were not holy simply because of Jesus. They were holy because of how they taught Jesus who He is. This is why all parents must strive to raise their children in the practice of the faith, so that their children will know who they are and from where they have come.

So as we ponder what I have said above concerning promises made for our children at Baptism; and we prepare to welcome the Christ child into this world, despite all the advertising done to get us to spend our money and get everything ‘Santa’ promised…..how about the gift that is Christmas? The gift of Christmas is that with Jesus we can see the world and its people with God’s eyes. Jesus was a most unexpected gift, but He is just the gift we need.

I pray for you all, a very Blessed Christmas and a healthy, joyous New Year!

The most rev. john p. Walzer, D.D.