Monthly Newspaper • DIOCESE OF BRIDGEPORT

I’m sorry…I didn’t mean it
I take it back
Strike it from the record

What is as irreversible as murder, violates its victims more than theft, is as deadly as an epidemic? And is a lot closer to you than you want to think?

Gossip, slander, and thoughtless speech. Gossip is a million-dollar industry in our country today. We tend to think of it as a sport, harmless and fun. After all, it’s only words. We even have shows devoted to it.

As Christians, we are called to see things differently. Which is worse, we must ask, to steal from someone or to speak ill of someone? To defraud a person or to humiliate him? Answer: Property can be restored, but the damage done to another can never be undone. In fact, our Jewish brothers and sisters compared slander and humiliation with murder: the destruction is irreparable and enduring.

You can’t take it back. What we say about each other is terribly powerful: words have a long, long half-life, and they can destroy in unseen, unhealable ways.

Our words are a footprint we leave for the world. What will they reveal about the way we treat our children, our parents, our friends, students, co-workers, employees? How we treat ourselves?

It’s a new year. Perhaps none of us will find a cure for cancer, or feed the world’s hungry, or bring about world peace. But nearly every day we find ourselves with someone’s reputation or sense of worth in our hands.

We can improve our world in a powerful, pervasive way; we can act as though our words had the power of life and death.

They do.

About this Reflection

 
When I was a child, there was an advertisement in the Wall Street Journal with the headline and text above, though I have edited some text. The ad was in celebration of the Jewish New Year, I believe. My mother, wise as she was, cut it out and posted it on the refrigerator. If you said or did something that warranted further reflection, you got to stand in front of the full page of newsprint. In time, I had it memorized. When her children moved out of the house, my mother made sure we each got a copy. Mine hangs on the refrigerator and I can still say it by heart. We learn slowly as children…and sometimes more slowly as adults.

Happy New Year One and All.

– Patrick Donovan (Director, The Leadership Institute)

Now that Christmas Day has arrived, we can look back on the last few weeks and appreciate how truly hectic they have been for many of us. We managed competing obligations that demanded our time and attention, often making it difficult to immerse ourselves in the true meaning of Christmas and the many blessings of this season.

The distractions we face are also tied up in a net of our own making, given our growing dependence on cell phones, emails and social media that are always buzzing and demanding our immediate attention. Even the landscape of public discourse, that has grown more polarized and even militarized via social media, is a growing distraction, rendering us unable to access unbiased information with which we can understand the depth of the challenges we face in our contemporary society.

Given our lives filled with such distractions, how do we discover and enjoy the true meaning of Christmas? How can we build a personal and communal spiritual life in the midst of such constant “noise”? As I reflect upon my own busy and sometimes distracted life, it seems to me that these questions will not have an answer unless we intentionally rediscover the power and necessity of silence.

For it is in the quiet whispers found deep within our hearts that God speaks powerfully to you and me. It is in the quiet that God reminds us that He is always with us, inviting us to draw closer to Him. For the child of Bethlehem is Emmanuel, which means “God-is-with-Us.”

If we summon the courage to face the power of silence, we will also rediscover a new clarity of vision. In Proverbs 29:18, we read, “Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained.” Other translations of this proverb are more direct. They suggest that people perish when they lack a common vision. While this admonition clearly applies to the responsibility shared by leaders of all faiths, it is a question that each person must address in his or her own life.

Perhaps Christmas, more than most times of the year, offers us a glimpse into a vision that can transcend political and personal divisions. Its meaning is universal and enduring: peace on earth, goodwill to men and women, and hope for the world because of God’s love for us!

As Christians, we celebrate this great festival of love, and we find ourselves joining the shepherds and the magi as we adore the infant in the manger who is love incarnate. Who are we to receive such a divine gift from our God who loves us so unconditionally that He walks with those whom He created?

However, to welcome the gift of God’s love born in Bethlehem, we must be able to recognize His presence. This means we need to turn down the volume of the noise around us, allowing silence and true rest to enter our lives. Can you remember the last time you took a few hours to just sit and reflect? In the silence of your soul, are you willing to let go of whatever anger and resentment you may be feeling, and replace it with the light of God’s love?

The Christian mystic, St. John of the Cross, once taught: “In the evening of life, we will be judged on love alone.” At first glance, it may seem strange that he makes no mention of orthodox faith, faithful attendance at Mass or even observance of the commandments as the main criteria for judgment, as important as they are. However, all these righteous and necessary acts must flow from a life that has encountered, embraced and lived love fully in every circumstance that we find ourselves. For if they do not flow from love, they will not give honor and glory to our God, who is Love Himself.

We encounter many people who have good intentions and believe that they are doing the right things but act without love. Such people may seem righteous, but their efforts will bear little lasting fruit. In our digital world, where we are encouraged to “react” to anyone who has offended us, we should pause and reflect. We must learn to resist the temptation to lash out in anger or vent our frustrations. In the face of hatred and division, we must learn to stop, take a moment to sit in silence and offer only love in return. Those are the “actions” that can help us to rebuild our fractured society.

There is no doubt that we will face many challenges in 2019, for each of us personally, as a nation and as a community. In this Christmas season, let us reject all division, anger and contempt that is found in our world. Let us seek to love our neighbor as the Lord loves us and leave everything else behind.

Denver, Colo., Dec 21, 2018 / 01:22 pm (CNA).- After communion at Mass this morning, our parish school choir began one of my favorite hymns.

The first line filled my heart.

“Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and with fear and trembling stand.”

It was darling to hear those solemn words intoned by the cherubic voices of third and fourth graders, already giddy for Christmas break to begin.

I looked at my wife and smiled– at her, at the baby in her arms, and at the thought of our older children kneeling in prayer with their classes, indistinguishable in the sea of plaid jumpers and navy sweaters, somewhere in the pews ahead of us.

The moment felt to me like the end of Advent should feel– Christ is coming, our family will be together, work and school and activities will be put on hold for a few days of feasting, and resting.

But then the school choir sang the next lines:

“Ponder nothing earthly-minded, for with blessing in His hand, Christ our God to earth descendeth, our full homage to demand.”

I realized then that I had spent most of Mass pondering “earthly-minded” things.

I had been thinking about the work I had to get done before Christmas could begin. I had been thinking about the presents I still wanted to buy. I had been thinking about friends I hoped to see, and books I hoped to read over Christmas break, and for a while, I had gotten sidetracked thinking about why our den is so drafty and what I can do about it.

None of that seemed to me like “full homage” of Christ, our God. If God was demanding that I should be thinking only of celestial things- of angels and saints, perhaps- I was failing.

My warm feelings about Advent eroded quickly. My mortal flesh had not kept silent. I was not, I realized, ready, in a spiritual way, for Christmas.

But the extraordinary thing about Christmas is that no one was ready for it. Mary and Joseph were not ready to be expecting a baby. Bethlehem innkeepers were not ready to welcome the Holy Family. Herod was not ready to receive the news that the Messiah had come.

Christmas came- Christ came- no matter who was ready.

There’s a reason for this. The reason is that while Christ warns us to be ready- ready for his coming, ready for our deaths, ready for our judgment- Christ also is the one who makes us ready.

We cannot be ready for the things that matter most unless Christ has come into our lives, and transformed them.

We cannot be ready to respond to hatred with love unless Christ has tamed our tongues and quieted our hearts. We cannot be ready to give without counting the cost unless, in Christ, we know that self-denial gives us real joy. We cannot be ready to go out and make disciples unless Christ has made us disciples.

And we cannot be ready to give up pondering “earthly-minded” things unless Christ has lifted our sights, transformed our vision, filled us with a love that consumes all else.

That transformation takes a lifetime. It is the transformation of becoming a saint. We have a part to play. Mostly our part is to ask for grace, to try, to fail, to repent and try again. To trust that our efforts are not in vain, and that, by grace, our habits will become virtues and our virtues will perfect our intellects, our appetites, and our wills.

But all of that starts with Christ. With grace. With his coming into our lives- through the sacraments, and Scripture, and the Church- just as he came into the world in Bethlehem.

In his 2010 Christmas homily, Pope Benedict XVI wrote that in the Christmas message, two “elements belong together: grace and freedom, God’s prior love for us, without which we could not love him, and the response that he awaits from us, the response that he asks for so palpably through the birth of his son.”

He continued: “God has anticipated us with the gift of his Son. God anticipates us again and again in unexpected ways. He does not cease to search for us, to raise us up as often as we might need. He does not abandon the lost sheep in the wilderness into which it had strayed. God does not allow himself to be confounded by our sin. Again and again he begins afresh with us. But he is still waiting for us to join him in love. He loves us, so that we too may become people who love, so that there may be peace on earth.”

Things start small. With a glimpse of hope, or a moment of self-mastery- with an act of charity that surprises us, or a moment of clarity we didn’t expect. Faith grows. Hope grows. Love grows.

God doesn’t move in our lives because we are perfect, God moves in our lives to make us perfect.

We may not be ready for Christmas, but Jesus Christ is ready for us.

By JD Flynn | Catholic News Agency

DANBURY—“We were glad that our neighboring families and their friends were able to join us in celebrating the wonderful joys of the Christmas season,” said president of Immaculate High School, Mary Maloney, of the “A Very Immaculate Christmas!” concert and tree lighting which took place on Sunday, December 2.

The event featured seasonal performances by Immaculate High School’s acapella group, mixed and concert choirs, guitar ensemble and concert band, as well as a special guest performance by the choir from St. Joseph School in Danbury.

In addition to hot cocoa and festive cookies, guests enjoyed a special lighting of a Christmas tree and a visit from Santa Claus.

“The voices of our choirs, ensemble group and guest children’s choir group captured the hearts of all in attendance,” said principal Mary Maloney.

Immaculate High School is a private, non-profit Catholic college-preparatory institution serving students from 28 communities in Connecticut and New York. Founded in 1962, Immaculate High School allows students to focus on academic excellence, spiritual development, personal commitments and service to others. Immaculate High School is located at 73 Southern Blvd. Danbury, CT 06810. Online at www.immaculatehs.org.