With Advent and 2017 coming to a close, we finish off the year with the greatest wish of all: Merry Christmas! And this is the greatest wish of all not simply because it is an offering of “glad tidings” to our brothers and sisters but because the wish comprises the blessing of the Incarnation of Christ and the gift of Eternal Salvation (“Christmas”: the Nativity of Christ and “Merry” giving pleasure, delightful…a salvation that is unending, uncompromising, and unchallenged by any sadness, sinfulness or lack of Godly joy. It is, in fact, the gift of God’s very own Divine Life and given to you and to me to share in for all eternity.

This is the glory of Christmas which the Gospel of Mark noted two weeks ago: The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God. Christ coming among us as a man was the beginning of His gift of Eternal Salvation. He will finish this gift at the command of God, but until then each of us—His disciples—are called to “finish” the rest of the story in our time and place. We are called to act like Christ in all situations of our lives—in our families, in our parishes, in our work places and schools—in every situation we are called to be Christ to another. We do this by the “full and active participation” we give to our faith—at Mass and in the way we infuse our lives with our faith beliefs, particularly with the corporal and spiritual works of mercy: feeding the hungry, caring for the vulnerable, teaching the ignorant, sheltering the homeless and praying for the lost. When Christ formed His apostles and built His Church on earth He Himself setup the structure in which He hoped all this would be accomplished. He asked His apostles to pass on the faith and as shepherds of the Church, they and their successors—our bishops today—are to carry on the mission and ministry of Christ by calling others to His life. Some will be ordained ministers in the diaconate and priesthood, others in the common priesthood through their baptismal calling to be His ambassadors of love and compassion in the world. We see this clearly happening in the many ministries of the Church: food and homeless shelters, the centers of compassion run by the many religious orders of the Church, Catholic Charities and the knights of Columbus, the hospitals and health care ministries such as the Knights of Malta, and the untold number of ministries and programs of the 223,000+ parishes throughout the global Catholic Church.

This is the Catholic Church today—a continuous gift from Christ Himself that is still being unwrapped today over and over again. Each time an earthquake or tsunami happens and Catholic Charities or Catholic Relief Services is on site with food, shelter and water, each time a single woman tries to escape from an abusive relationship and a Catholic shelter welcomes her into safety or a homeless person needs a meal or warm bed and Immaculate Conception Shelter is there, or when a family needs food for the table or oil for the home heater and parishioners from a place like St. Catherine of Siena respond with help and hope, or a family is without Christmas presents for the little ones and a woman formed by her faith provides for a bright and Merry Christmas morning just like one of our parishioner does every year…Christ is in our midst. Hope is the gift given.

As we prepare this weekend to conclude the season of Advent and turn right into Christmastime, may we look into that Catholic “mirror” that is the Church herself, and may we see the face of Christ in the reflection of ourselves…as we try our best to “live our faith with full and active participation” knowing that while we are all imperfect disciples, God is pleased with the attempt and the intent to try our best to serve Him who Was, Is and Shall Ever Be the God of love and compassion, the God of Eternal Life and Joy.

I would like to take this next-to-the-last bulletin of 2017 to say a special Thank-You to all our parishioners here at Saint Catherine of Siena Parish for your full participation, your active generosity, and your loving compassion which makes this a growing parish, a vibrant parish and a parish of great hope for the Archdiocese of Hartford. It is in the big and the small acts of faith—from the teachers who teach our religious education program each weekend, the youth ministers who bring the faith of our Church alive to a new generation of disciples, the many choirs members who sing out the praise of God, the Eucharistic Ministers and lectors who enliven our Masses, volunteers of all our ministries and programs—including but not limited to the Parish and Finance Councils, the many food ministries, Prayer Shawl, the Men’s and
Women’s Club Ministries, the church decorators and flower folks, the ushers, altar servers, our parish staff and so many more—to the simple yet powerful acts of kindness that happen when a family drops off an anonymous gift for another at the rectory or offers help to a family in need. Thank you for these often times unmentioned acts of the Catholic faith. Merry Christ and may God continue to bless you with His love and promised gift of Eternal Life. A happy and Holy New Year to all.