The Happy Priest on Living the Christmas Gift

God is love.  He calls us to be a gift for one another.  How absurd it is to waste our lives by not being a gift for others. Each time we come to the Eucharist, we come to a new Bethlehem.  He, who rested once in a manger, now rests in our entire being, as we receive him in the mystery of the Mass.  Jesus the gift calls us to be a gift for one another.

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX (Catholic Online) - Benjamin Carson did not have an easy life.  Born in Detroit, Michigan, his mother, Sonya, dropped out of school when she was in the third grade and was only thirteen years old when she married Ben's father.  Carson's father abandoned the family after Sonya discovered he had another wife and kids, leaving Sonya to raise two boys as a single mom. 

Ben's mother insisted that her boys overcome their obstacles by getting an excellent education.  She demanded that they read at least two books a week, completing book reports that they would give to her for her review and correction. 

Ben graduated from high school with honors and proceeded to earn a psychology degree from Yale University.  After Yale, he attended the University of Michigan Medical School where he decided to become a neurosurgeon. 

Ben was given a very special gift.  His extraordinary hand-eye coordination and three dimensional reasoning skills make him a gifted surgeon.  At the age of only thirty-two, he became the youngest Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. 

In 1987, Dr. Benjamin Carson made medical history by successfully separating a pair of Siamese twins joined at the head. 

My dear friends, Benjamin Carson was given a gift and he used this gift to help so many people throughout his career as a famous neurosurgeon.

On Christmas we celebrate the gift of Jesus.  "Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.  For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved" (John 3: 16 - 17).

Jesus gives himself entirely to us in order to save us from sin and recreate us anew.  He calls us to respond to his unconditional love by being a gift for one another.   "We are to love, then, because he loved us first.  Anyone who says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother is a liar, since a man who does not love the brother that he can see cannot love God, whom he has never seen" (1 John 4: 19-20).

The celebration of Christmas fills us with profound memories. From early childhood, I remember how our entire family always attended Christmas morning Mass at our parish.  Inevitably, somewhere along in the liturgy, the choir would sing Silent Night. As the beautiful hymn filled the church with harmony, my grandmother would begin to weep uncontrollably.  Once, as a child, I asked my grandmother why she wept so much. "God loves us so much," was her immediate answer. 

This Christmas memory of my grandmother fills me with sadness at times, but then I remember how she had died not long ago.  As she lay in bed taking her last breath, she said, "Dear God, I love you."  I am sure that now in heaven she contemplates the eternal face of the God made man, born in Bethlehem as a gift for us.  

All of us are familiar with the character of Ebenezer Scrooge depicted in Charles Dickens famous novel, A Christmas Carol, or we have come to know of him through movies and television specials aired during the Christmas season. Ebenezer Scrooge is completely self-absorbed.  He is resentful of the demands made upon him by those who are poor and less fortunate.  Scrooge, a tragic figure indeed, is visited by three spirits: the spirit of Christmas past, the spirit of Christmas present and the spirit of Christmas future.  The dramatic journey elicits his repentance. He becomes aware of his past indifference and cruelty and is moved to be more generous and benevolent toward those he had been mistreating in the past. 

Through a profound catharsis, Ebenezer Scrooge learned how to live for others. By breaking the circle of his ego, he had enabled the light of Christianity to invade his soul and change him into a new man filled with joy and hope.

And so each Christmas we contemplate the mystery of our God who became man.  He comes to us as a gift.  He is born in silence, poverty, simplicity and purity in Bethlehem, the house of bread.  Our God made man later taking bread and wine transforms it into his body and blood; thus is the gift of the mystery of his Incarnation continued for us in the gift of the mystery of the Eucharist, God made real for us.  God becomes man. Bread and wine becomes God-man.

Each time we come to the Eucharist, we come to a new Bethlehem.  He, who rested once in a manger, now rests in our entire being, as we receive him in the mystery of the Mass.  Jesus the gift calls us to be a gift for one another.

Christmas is a special time of joy for all of us.  But, for me, there is the added joy of celebrating my vocation to the Catholic priesthood.  I was ordained on December 24, 1987, the morning of Christmas Eve.  I celebrated my first Mass on Christmas morning, at the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome, Italy.  How grateful I am that God has called me to be his priest.  I am a very happy priest.  There is so much that needs to be done!  I have been given the gift of one life and I want to live that one life as a total gift for others. 

I am repulsed by egotism, selfishness, complacency and indifference.  These things are so contrary to the gift of the Gospel.  God is love.  He calls us to be a gift for one another.  How absurd it is to waste our lives by not being a gift for others. 

A Spanish scientist was able to take some time off from his work at a prestigious university in order to do some research.  He was seeking a secluded location where there would be total silence. 

A friend told him about the availability of a rental house in a small town.  The only thing that was close to the house was a monastery of cloistered Carmelite nuns.  The scientist, an avowed atheist, thought that this would be the perfect spot.  Naturally, he was not interested in the religious practices of the nuns, instead he knew that it was there that he could find the quiet atmosphere that he needed for his work. 

The scientist quickly settled into his new surroundings and began his studies diligently.  He was surrounded by a profound silence.  However, piercing through the silence were two daily moments of intense laughter that lasted each about 30 minutes.  The scientist knew that it was coming from the neighboring monastery of cloistered Carmelite nuns, but he could not figure out the cause of the intense laughter that he heard two times a day.

A few days had passed and the scientist, a deeply committed atheist, became so intrigued by the twice daily periods of laughter that he decided to visit his neighbors and find out what was going on. 

One of the sisters opened the door after he knocked on the large wooden door of the Carmelite monastery.  He proceeded to ask the sister about the loud periods of laughter that he hears two times a day. 

"We have two periods of recreation each day," explained the sister to the surprised atheist.  "We go out to the courtyard after lunch and after dinner."  The rest of the day is spent in prayer, silence and work.

"Why is there so much laughter?" asked the scientist.  "That is simple," responded the Carmelite.  "We are convinced that God loves us so much.  His love fills us with a profound joy." 

"Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life. For God sent his son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved" (John 3: 16-17).

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Father James Farfaglia, the Happy Priest, is the pastor of Saint Helena of the True Cross of Jesus Catholic Church in Corpus Christi, Texas.  Father has a hard hitting blog called Illegitimi non carborundum.  He has also published a book called Man to Man: A Real Priest Speaks to Real Men about Marriage, Sexuality and Family Life.  You can contact Father at fjficthus@gmail.com.  You can click here for the audio podcast of this Sunday homily.

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