J
JReducation
Guest
I have always loved Christmas. Since I was a child, I was moved by the Christmas story. I remember having wonderful day-dreams of what it must have been like to be Joseph and Mary knocking on doors looking for a birthing spot for Jesus. Even after many years of theological and biblical studies and a deeper and more academic understanding of all the elements in Luke’s infancy narratives I remain deeply moved by the fact that Jesus was born with a price on his head.
While the story of Christmas lends itself to beautiful pageantry and a dreamy quality about a star-filled night with angels singing, shepherds coming to pay homage to the new-born King, the charm and romance of the manger that we have added to it over centuries, it is still a story about an innocent child whose right to be born was denied. It was the courage of his Blessed Mother and beloved foster father that protected his right to enter into the world according to the Will of the Father. All too often, at Christmas we forget that this child was born with a death sentence. This stark realization adds balance and reality to Christmas. It is more than a beautiful story of our Lord’s birth. Matthew’s Gospel leads us into the beginning of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.
At the same time that the child is born, some wise men from an unknown part of the world see a bright star and they set out to find him. They did not know who he was or where he was. Neither did they know that this child was a wanted man until they present themselves at Herod’s court, only to have it revealed to them in a dream that Herod has a sinister plan for the innocent child who nursed at his mother’s breast and was kept warm by the hay in a manger.
Today, Jesus’ life is still threatened before his birth. On Christmas Eve, over one million children will be executed in their mother’s womb, at the very hour in which the Savior of the world was secretly delivered in a manger. They too need protection from a premature, murderous and unjust death sentence. Like the Wise Men from the East, the Franciscan Brothers of Life are looking for these children.
We are praying, meditating, doing penance, preparing our Christmas liturgy as are other Christians. But the few of us that there are, will not be spending the days before Christmas at the mall or home baking cookies. We won’t even be preparing for a family gathering on Christmas Day. Our meal will probably be a simple one that day, because we will not have had enough time or money to buy and prepare a turkey and all its trimmings.
As Christmas day quickly approaches the number of men and women looking for an abortion actually increases. This is the time of year when abortions are at their peak. The number of people with depression increases. Many are elderly or persons who have been chronically ill, for whom Christmas is the saddest time of year. The suicide wishes and attempts rise exponentially. It’s incredible to think that at the time when the salvation of the world was born, human life is most vulnerable.
The Brothers are spending more time in prayer and in service to the vulnerable at this time of year. We are awakened someone who wants to take his life. We are spending our Christmas prep time with these people, either at the hospital or at their homes. Like our holy Father Francis who prayed at the Christmas manger, we are spending countless hours with men and women who want to kill their babies, or who want to take their own lives. At this time of year, the average night’s sleep for us is about three hours. Our average prayer day is about five hours. We spend the other 16 hours in pregnancy centers, on crisis hotlines, in homes or at a hospital with a depressed person who believes that there is no hope for life.
But I don’t want to leave you with a bleak image of Christmas; because it’s not. For the Franciscan Brothers of Life, Christmas is a mystery of hope. It is the beginning of the Paschal Mystery, for he who was not sin, became sin to so that he might die on Good Friday and come back to us on Easter Sunday. Our Franciscan vision Christmas is filled with great joy knowing that Christ is born to restore all things back to the Father at the appropriate time. Therefore, our celebration, even though it will be simple, poor and attended by a few exhausted friars, will be a joyful one. That night, at Midnight Mass, we will present to the child in the manger the only act of adoration that we can afford, our simple attempt to bring life into the world and to protect it. Like the shepherds of the area, the Franciscan Brothers of Life will have no expensive gifts for the newborn King, because every cent, every ounce of energy, every moment of the days preceding Christmas will have been spent preparing mangers for unwanted unborn children and pointing to the sky so that the sick and the hopeless can also see the Star of Bethlehem and follow it.
This Christmas, could the child in the manger be calling you to be a Brother of Life?
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
While the story of Christmas lends itself to beautiful pageantry and a dreamy quality about a star-filled night with angels singing, shepherds coming to pay homage to the new-born King, the charm and romance of the manger that we have added to it over centuries, it is still a story about an innocent child whose right to be born was denied. It was the courage of his Blessed Mother and beloved foster father that protected his right to enter into the world according to the Will of the Father. All too often, at Christmas we forget that this child was born with a death sentence. This stark realization adds balance and reality to Christmas. It is more than a beautiful story of our Lord’s birth. Matthew’s Gospel leads us into the beginning of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.
At the same time that the child is born, some wise men from an unknown part of the world see a bright star and they set out to find him. They did not know who he was or where he was. Neither did they know that this child was a wanted man until they present themselves at Herod’s court, only to have it revealed to them in a dream that Herod has a sinister plan for the innocent child who nursed at his mother’s breast and was kept warm by the hay in a manger.
Today, Jesus’ life is still threatened before his birth. On Christmas Eve, over one million children will be executed in their mother’s womb, at the very hour in which the Savior of the world was secretly delivered in a manger. They too need protection from a premature, murderous and unjust death sentence. Like the Wise Men from the East, the Franciscan Brothers of Life are looking for these children.
We are praying, meditating, doing penance, preparing our Christmas liturgy as are other Christians. But the few of us that there are, will not be spending the days before Christmas at the mall or home baking cookies. We won’t even be preparing for a family gathering on Christmas Day. Our meal will probably be a simple one that day, because we will not have had enough time or money to buy and prepare a turkey and all its trimmings.
As Christmas day quickly approaches the number of men and women looking for an abortion actually increases. This is the time of year when abortions are at their peak. The number of people with depression increases. Many are elderly or persons who have been chronically ill, for whom Christmas is the saddest time of year. The suicide wishes and attempts rise exponentially. It’s incredible to think that at the time when the salvation of the world was born, human life is most vulnerable.
The Brothers are spending more time in prayer and in service to the vulnerable at this time of year. We are awakened someone who wants to take his life. We are spending our Christmas prep time with these people, either at the hospital or at their homes. Like our holy Father Francis who prayed at the Christmas manger, we are spending countless hours with men and women who want to kill their babies, or who want to take their own lives. At this time of year, the average night’s sleep for us is about three hours. Our average prayer day is about five hours. We spend the other 16 hours in pregnancy centers, on crisis hotlines, in homes or at a hospital with a depressed person who believes that there is no hope for life.
But I don’t want to leave you with a bleak image of Christmas; because it’s not. For the Franciscan Brothers of Life, Christmas is a mystery of hope. It is the beginning of the Paschal Mystery, for he who was not sin, became sin to so that he might die on Good Friday and come back to us on Easter Sunday. Our Franciscan vision Christmas is filled with great joy knowing that Christ is born to restore all things back to the Father at the appropriate time. Therefore, our celebration, even though it will be simple, poor and attended by a few exhausted friars, will be a joyful one. That night, at Midnight Mass, we will present to the child in the manger the only act of adoration that we can afford, our simple attempt to bring life into the world and to protect it. Like the shepherds of the area, the Franciscan Brothers of Life will have no expensive gifts for the newborn King, because every cent, every ounce of energy, every moment of the days preceding Christmas will have been spent preparing mangers for unwanted unborn children and pointing to the sky so that the sick and the hopeless can also see the Star of Bethlehem and follow it.
This Christmas, could the child in the manger be calling you to be a Brother of Life?
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
