Holy Innocents

In December, all over the world, creches are set up in our living rooms and churches. The figures of Mother Mary, Joseph and the little Christ Child in his manger with arms outspread to all mankind help us to remember why we celebrate Christmas, the day our Savior was born into the world. His birth is momentous. Angels fill the sky worshiping. A sense of peace fills our hearts and souls as we celebrate this great miracle that took place 2000 years ago in a little town far away. As the Christmas season progresses, we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany. In our manger scenes three kings travel from far countries to give homage.

But as we enter the New Year, we read a little farther in the Book of Matthew and find Jesus and His Mother and Father fleeing to Egypt at the command of the angel. Herod is angered because he cannot locate the prophesied King and commands the massacre of the little boys two years and younger in the vicinity of Jerusalem trying to eradicate one small little baby who is King of Heaven and Earth. A sense of horror now pervades as the cruel King Herod shatters the peace. As we enter the New Year, 2009, thousands of years after this horrible event, we must come face to face with the fact that we are still contending with the slaughter of Holy Innocents in abortion.

Why does this sin continue to plague us? Why does mankind continue to devalue human life? There is no greater gift than the gift of life. On New Years Day we will watch the evening news welcome the babies born on this first day of the year, see them held up in their pink and blue blankets, with sleepy eyes, tightly clenched little fists, in the arms of parents who are overcome with joy at their arrival. After the holidays, business will return to normal. Abortion centers all over this country will reopen for business as usual. Where have we gone wrong? We human beings have been given the great privilege and joy of co-creating with our God. Man and woman and Creator share in the creation of new life—another human being, the summit of the Creator’s work (CCC 343).

Maybe that is part of the problem today. We do not see ourselves as God’s greatest bodied creation or maybe not His creation at all. Maybe we see ourselves evolving from some great cosmic explosion and accidentally evolving. Maybe we see ourselves as just one more group of mammals, equal to the seals and whales and puppy dogs; or, maybe not quite as valuable as even those species. The ageless struggle for respect for human life also goes on. Our beloved and stalwart Catholic Church has always upheld this truth and will continue to do so. Her people cannot rest on the achievements of the past few years. They could be gone in a minute or a signature on a bill. The struggle is not for the young alone, it is for all ages. Some will be able to carry a sign or pray the rosary before the abortion clinic. Some will write letters to newspapers. Some will give their time and money to pro-life groups working tirelessly to turn the tide of abortion. Some will call and write their legislators and even the president of this great country, hurt and suffering from the deaths of its’ Holy Innocents.

All of these are vitally important. But, the struggle will be won by those warriors who fall to their knees asking their God for forgiveness for mankind’s sin, who pray constantly for an end to this modern day slaughter. It will be won by the men and women and children at Sunday Mass, at daily Mass, in the Eucharistic Chapel. Our religious men and women on their knees, cloistered in prayer, from morning to night, will win it. “For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens. Therefore, put on the armor of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day and, having done everything, to hold your ground. So stand fast with your loins girded in truth, clothed with righteousness as a breastplate, and your feet shod in readiness for the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield, to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." (Eph. 6:12-17)

This is the struggle that will determine our future. It will not rest on how many banks or auto companies we rescue with our trillions of dollars. We can’t be tired. We can’t despair. We can’t rely on someone else. Young and old must take up the banner of life. “With all prayer and supplication, pray at every opportunity in the Spirit.” (Eph.6:18)

Baby in the Womb
by Dan Lacey

I See Love

If you’d asked me last week “How are things going?” it would have taken a bit of time to fill you in and I’d have rattled on about the broken springs in my car, the inconvenience of air travel, and general difficulties of living in the sandwich generation. But, I’ve had some time to reflect, and I would have to answer that in the past couple of months, I have experienced profound love.

The struggles of life tend to keep me pretty occupied, but the Holy Spirit lately has given me a gift that we all have available for the asking – the ability to “see” love. I didn’t ask for this gift, didn’t know how helpful it would be (God must have figured I needed it), but I will certainly ask God to grant me this again and again, particularly when the chips are down and I need a little bucking up. Two new grandchildren came into this world, Grace and Max. Well, of course, you might say, who doesn’t love a new baby! But, I saw the intense love their mothers had for them before they were born and that got me to remembering the love I had for my own children from the moment I knew they existed. I saw their mother’s stroke their swelling tummies, express a deep knowledge and intimate communion with their little ones, and a longing to finally see them and teach them about love.

My father-in-law experienced a bad fall this past month, a difficult occurrence for a man of 94 years. Here again, at the farthest span of our time here on earth, the love shown him filled me with a sense that this is what our Father in Heaven had in mind when He created us. My husband and his brother and sisters took over the supervision of his care, sat by his bedside after his surgery for hip replacement, held his hand, helped him to eat, calmed him, cheered him, laughed with him, wept for him. Our children, and nieces and nephews flocked to their grandpa’s side to visit, to spend the long nights with him as their parent’s slept, recharging for another day. He is doing pretty well now, still in a transitional nursing home, still deluged with the love of his children, grandchildren and great grand children. Grandpa, for his part, even in times of great stress, worried that there were not enough chairs for everyone in his small hospital room. Even in his drug induced state he talked of borrowing $6 from one grandson to send out for hamburgers to feed his guests. Oh, this is love, and this family has had his example of love for generations. Thank you, grandpa.

During this time that grandpa’s life hung in the balance, our 7 children called daily (that’s a lot of phone calls!) to see how he was and how we were doing. They knew their dad was spending many hours with grandpa before, during and after work and they were concerned for him too. We felt so incredibly blessed and wrapped in caring arms every time the phone rang.

I saw love in the Eucharistic chapel the other night. There you go again, you say, of course! But, this was in a new way for me. Without a doubt, Love Himself is in the small dimly lit chapel. But a person came in, positioned himself in the front row and from his rapt attention and the movement of his lips (no sound) I could see that he was in deep conversation with Jesus. He listened, he answered, he smiled, raised his hands, perhaps conceding a point. I tried not to watch this man in his private conversation with God, but realized that I was gifted to witness this human exchange between man and Love that we often are not privy to nor can we totally comprehend. I was able to realize a little more fully that God is present there.

I went to Texas for several days to see and hold baby Max (and help out a bit), and I missed my husband. When I talked to him on the phone, I was reminded of our courting days some 43 years ago. We’d run out of things to talk about and didn’t want to hang up the phone, couldn't bear to break the connection. I remember thinking when we married that I could not love him any more than I did at that time. Silly child, our love just grows and grows and now I know that married life is a journey in love. As creatures created by Love in the intense love exchange of the Holy Trinity, we are fashioned in the image of our Creator. We are created to love. We flourish in it. We are at our very best when we love and, we see the best in others when we recognize their capacity to love and the ways they show it.

As Christmas approaches and our families gather to celebrate the birth of Love Himself, I think often of those who are no longer with us on earth, my Mom and Dad, Grandparents, etc. I remind myself that love “endures all things” 1Cor.13:7 – even death. At Mass, during the Eucharistic Prayer, I feel the love of those who have passed from this world and exist in the perfect love of God, still loving me, even more intensely than they were capable of here on earth. May you “see” love this Christmas season in family and friends and may you “be” love to all you meet. May your Christmas season be filled with love and the knowledge that this “loving” is what life is all about. (Grandpa is in the nursing home and doing well. Sometimes he is reliving in the past and sometimes sharp as a tack! His family visit often and husband Mike takes him a donut every morning.

He is teaching us love and compassion and the value of every life!

Grandpa Edmund Gaida