Dear Parishioners:
Merry Christmas! We joyfully celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ! On Christmas, the Word of God became flesh with the incarnation of Jesus Christ. It reveals God's intimate connection to his children. It expresses God's love and compels us to love one another.
On Christmas day in 1863, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the poem we now know as the Christmas carol, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." Happily, the new bless system is installed and we are ringing the bells once again at OLM to announce the Good News that Christ is born!
On the first Christmas night, the angels announced glad tidings to the poor shepherds in the fields surrounding Bethlehem. They told it with the words: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."
The Christmas Season has become known as the time of peace. Because the Son of God came to earth, He shares His peace with all. But if Christ came to bring peace, why is our world still not experiencing this promised universal peace? Only men of goodwill can receive this gift of peace. Peace begins with each individual interiorly and is only accepted by those who are open to it. And then that peace is spread.
Goodwill is: "a kindly feeling of approval and support, a benevolent interest or concern." It is synonymous with compassion, goodness, kindness, charity, friendliness, decency, and thoughtfulness. The spiritual writer, Father Jacques Philippe, writes: "A necessary condition for interior peace, then, is what we might call goodwill. We could also call it purity of heart. It is the stable and constant disposition of a person who is determined more than anything to love God, who desires sincerely to prefer in all circumstances the will of God to his own; who does not wish to consciously refuse anything to God."
We cannot have peace without preparing our hearts with interior goodwill. We have to cooperate and be receptive to receive God's grace. Goodwill is the habit of saying "Yes" to God in both the little and big matters of life.
In his 1959 Message of Christmas, Saint Pope John XXII spoke of this peace and goodwill. He states: "At Bethlehem all men must find their place. In the first rank should be Catholics. Today especially the Church wishes to see them pledged to an effort to make His message of peace a part of themselves. And the message is an invitation to orient every act in accordance with the dictates of divine law, which demands the unflinching adherence of all, despite sacrifice. Along with such a deepened understanding, must go action. It is utterly intolerable for Catholics to restrict themselves to the position of mere observers. They should feel clothed, as it were, with a mandate from on high."
Silently and without notice, Our Lord came to earth at Bethlehem. He came as the "Prince of Peace" bringing His gift of peace. Peace on earth is a gift from God and not a matter of our merits. This peace is for all those who wish to unite their will to the holy will of God.
The Angel speaks of a kind of peace that transcends any earthly peace we seek. It is the peace of Christ within our very hearts and souls and the answer to the longing in our hearts that only Christ can give us. It only comes to the hearts and souls of those who know and seek the goodwill of Christ himself. We are called to serve and also to will the good of others. We do this through love and sacrifice, just as Jesus did and does every day on the Altar at Holy Mass.
Here at Mass is where we find true peace, the peace in our hearts that comes with being a person of goodwill. So let us announce the Good News to the world with not only the joyful ringing of our new Church bells but with true peace and goodwill. In imitation of the shepherds on the First Christmas, let us go "glorifying and praising God" for all we've heard and seen this day. "For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord!”
In the name of Fr. Mahoney, and Fr. Connors, we wish you a Happy and Holy Christmas and Blessings for he New Year! Please know we will remember you at Christmas Mass and pray that the Peace of the Christ Child may be yours today and in the New Year!