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peg 4 GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1963
the
Archdiocese of Atlanta
GEORGIA BULLETIN
Christmas
SERVING OIORGIA'S 71 NORTHERN COUNTIES
i
Official Organ of the Archdiocese of Atlanta
jfirarak Published Every Week at the Decatur DeKalb News
PUBLISHER - Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan
MANAGING EDfrOR Cerard E. Sherry CONSULTING EDfTOR Rev. R. Donald Kiernan
2699 Peachtree N.E.
FLO. Box 11667
Northside Station
Atlanta 5, Ga.
Member of the Catholic Press Association
and Subscriber to N.C.W.C. News Service
Telephone 231-1281
Second Class Permit at Atlanta, Ga.
U.S.A. $5.00
Canada $5.00
Foreign $6.50
Wake Up!
It’s Christmas
Wake up! It's Christmas
morning!.
What parent ever had to
shout this command to his
children? What parent has
never heard his children sh
out this command at him?The
excitement of the tree, the
toys and the gifts act as a
natural alarm clock for all
children on Christmas that
holds back morning.
But what about the true Gift
I I of Christmas? Are we adults
just as excited about God's
Gift to us on Christmas mor
ning?
God's Love for us sent His
Son to us wrapped in our hu
man flesh. God's love now be
ats in a human heqrt. God's
wisdom now thinks in a human
mind. God chooses now with a
human will. This is God's gift
to us on Christmas. His only
begotten Son has become our
Elder Brother. Are we awake
to this?
What does it mean to have
God as our Brother? Since
God is our Brother, His Fa
ther is our Father. Since God
is our Brother, His family tr
easures have become our
family heirlooms. Since God
is our Brother, lives our life,
then our humanity has been
raised to the level of the Di
vine.
God wears our flesh. Thus
this vessel of clay can no lon
ger be despised; nor need it
despair. What it flesh is a so
urce of sin from youth?Christ
has worn it. What if flesh is
a drag that holds back the ma
ture? Christ has worn it. What
if the illnesses and ultimate
death of the flesh are so ter
ribly distracting? Christ has
not only worn it. He has con
quered its death. Wake up, 0
Human Flesh. This is Chris
tmas morning!
God reacts with human
reactions. Divine power now
has a human emotional expre
ssion. Unchained anger can
shatter love as well as pla
tes, but it need not. For it
was with a human anger, un
der control, that Christ clea
nsed the temple. Unbrid
led grief can paralyze and
prostrate, but it need not.
This, because human grief
made God weep human tears,
when Christ wept over Jerus
alem. Fear and despair can
destroy and disintegrate, but
they need not, since Christ ro
de fear and despair to the
brink in the blood spattered
Garden. Wake up, O Human
Emotions! This is Christmas
morning!
God loves with a human he
art. Love is the wildest pow
er on earth. It challenges us
to rise to the heights, but it
can lead us to the depths. Wo
rse still, we can refuse to
love; we can water love down
by selfishness; dissipate it
with indulgence; or parody it
with lust. Because of its nobi
lity and power, love can be da
ngerous and the timid may
withdraw from its influence.
3 't now there is no need of
timidity or fear, because Ch-
i ist has loved with a human
love.
Wake up, O Human Heart!
This is Christmas!
God became man, God lives
our L ife. God shares our joys
and our sorrows, our pains
and our pleasures. God does
all of this so we can live His
life, so that we can become
divine. This is the real gift of
Christmas. When we are a-
wake to this fact, then every
day will be Christmas.
GERARD E. SHERRY
J&r
A NEW RELATIONSHIP
Clergy And The Laity
BY REV. LEONARD F. X. MAYHEW
Daniel Callahan’s The Mind of the Catholic
Layman has been called "the clearest indica
tion yet that American Catholicism has come of
age.” That is a mighty burden for one small
book to bear. The fact remains that it is a fas
cinating analysis - mature, honest, knowledge
able - of American Catholicism from the lay
man’s point of view. A further fact of the mat
ter is that it will inevitably be immensely in
fluential in forming “the mind of the Catholic
layman” from now on. Let me deliver myself
here and now of a blanket recommendation for
everybody to read it.
One of Mr. Callahan’s most
interesting chapters ferrets out
a particularly sacred Sacred
Cow for some fresh air and
bright light. It is called “Con
cord and Conflict: Clergy and
Laity.” In these days of wide
spread, even rampant, dialogue,
the subject of clerical-lay rela
tionships is much discussed -
but too often in monologue. Priests discuss it
with each other and laymen discuss it among
themselves. Too seldom does the discussion
cross the rectory fence. Callahan’s treatment
may end up as some kind of turning-point.
THERE MAY BE SOME Catholics, clerical
and lay, who will wonder why the subject needs
to be discussed. I cannot believe these to be
more han a small minority. For them, the an
swer, in the words of the mountain climber, is
simply “because it is there.” Others, perhaps
a more sizeable number, may feel it is better not
to discuss it. However, there is considerable evi
dence that the subject cannot - and must not - be
ignored. Mr. Callahan remarks, what most Catho
lics must know, that normally the clergy-lay rela
tionship in America is very strong and quiet
cordial. There are some signs, however of growing
strain and an increasingly critical attitude toward
the clergy, particularly on the part of the younger
and better educated layman. Too much is at stake
to ignore the evidence. Nor is it sufficient to lay it
all at the door of secularism and loss of respect
for authority. The matter needs genuine concern
and honest investigation.
The Catholic Church in the United States has had
a history of rapid and dramatic development. From
a tiny minority in colonial America, Catholics have
grown into a large and complex element of Ame
rican society. The main thrust of this expansion
came from the waves of European immigrants that
arrived during the middle nineteenth century. The
demands peculiar to the conditions of an "immi
grant Church’ ’ largely determined the nature of
clerical activity. To some degree, the relics of
this condition still exert strong influence. It will be
far more helpful and accurate to conceive any
signs of clergy-laity tension as symptoms normal
to continuing social changes than in terms of
clericalism and anti-clericalism. These notions
are foreign to our history and do not do justice to
the complexities we need to face.
AMONG THE CATHOLIC immigrant groups who
came to America, the priest was the natural lead
er. He was normally the only well-educated per
son in the parish. Of necessity, he exercised
a great many functions in the lives of his parish
ioners over and above his properly priestly
tasks. Even in carrying out his pastoral chores,
the pastor, and more so the bishop, had to wear
a great many hats. The task of building, financing
and managing expanding physical facilities neces
sarily absorbed most of his time and energy. One
result of this situation is the widespread image
of the pastor and bishop as an administrator, de
spite the fact that most priests certainly conceive
themselves in more clearly religious terms.
An educated laity, who have successfully become
a part of themainstream of American life, demand
and need a different kind of clerical service than
their immigrant forbears. For many of the ser
vices formerly cared for by their pastors they
consult other professionals or their own compe
tence. Accustomed to freedom of decision and re
sponsibility, they seek a place of initiative in the
work of their Church. Papal directives have long
recognized this changed situation and have heral
ded a new age in the Church’s history.
LITURGICAL WEEK
The Lord Draws Near’
BY REV. ROBERT W. HOVDA
DEC. 22, FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT. The
Gospel places Advent in history. “It was in the 15th
year of the emperor Tiberius’reign...” John pro
claimed an advent.
If Christianity is sometimes accused of being
“other-worldly” to a myopic extent, it is because
we fail to remember that the things we celebrate
in mystery, in our sacramental worship, are his
torical events. They are events which took place
in this world, at definite times and places, ad
vancing the course of the world.
It is by God’s grace and his
Sacramental order that these
decisive events, already a part
of the history of the human race,
can become a part of every-
man’s personal history as they
are mysteriously, sacramen
tally made present in ever,
congregation of the people of
God here and now.
The urgency of today’s Mass, expressed in
such texts as “Pour out your dew, you heavens,
from above” “Put forth your power, Lord, and
come,” “Th e Lord draws near,” “Make no
dela\” is an urgency which has a present di-
ON CHARITY
Christmas
Meditation
GERARD E. SHERRY
Next week we will be celebrating Chrismas.
For most of us, it will be a happy time, wth an
abundance of all the material trappings whih we
find necessary for a successful celebntion.
Recently we made some editorial oberva-
tions on the commercialization of ChristmS, and
received some letters of rebuttal. One geneman
suggested that the majority of those businesmen
who made a few extra bucks at Christma were
also God-fearing, and not as crass and mjerial-
istifc as wehadpaint-
REAPING*
AT
RANDOIV
ed them. Alas, we
probably did not ex
press ourselves too
well, tor we were at
tempting to go beyond
the possibility of ma
terialistic shopkeep
ers.
While we may have
an abundance this Christmas, there aren awful
lot of people who will be deprived of even ie bar
est of subsistence: there will be others/ho will
be alone, deprived of the main essentl. love;
there will be, too, the shut-ins, those in Fspitals,
and those in prison, with few to worry ab»t them.
To be sure, there are organizations whii attempt
to take care of these people. They do eir best,
and mostly on a meterial plane.
ALL THIS is brought to mind by a p'ase con
tained in a little pamphlet by Archbkop Halli
nan entitled “The Heart of the Archdfese”. He
quotes from a statement put out by t Archdio
cesan Council of Catholic Women thr‘ ‘personal
charity is the foundation upon whic organized
charity must rest.” This is a pote statement
which could serve as a practical nditation for
Christmas. There are some who off their
obligations to charity with a check'‘How much
do you want?” or “How much ddoti need? ,
is the businesslike method used, hese people
are good and sincere, but they lacthc personal
concern and real involvement * necessary.
Most of us give donations becauswe can afford
it. If it requires real sacrifice v s i m Ply do not
write the check for an amou which hurts.
THE SAME is true in “persol involvement”
in charitable activities. For eAPle, how many
of us have thought in depth of tf-orporal Works
of Mercy, once we have left e embrace of a
Catholic school? How many us have visited
the sick or the imprisoned, * prayed for the
dead, other than when it involvour own relatives
or close friends? Yet the demds of charity obli
gate us to all these people, ere are people in
our very' midst who need us, rphysical involve
ment as well as our money.Y m °st of us pay ofi
our obligations with a donaticAgain, it was a bis
hop, not a layman, who saw 2 deficiency and ex
plained it rather well in accent conversation.
He was talking about they apostolate, and the
fact that before decisions f made laymen should
be consulted. He made a v» telling point I While
it was obvious that layrr who take seriously
their role in the profess‘S, arts, scholarship,
and government are a “rst” in such consulta
tion, so too, are those of 2 laity teaching in the
confraternity class, woAg in the St. Vincent
de Paul program and o !r charitable activities
in the parish. Indeed, I pointed out a practical
problem of the laymen the professions. Educat
ed as they are, willing advise as they are, too
few have the practica’ x P er i tnce of real paro
chial life. They havDttle or no involvement
in the elementary cha a ^ e expression of Chris
tianity. Many have reasons. They are gen
uinely busy, becominfilled in their profession
and attempting to g- witness in it. They are
well-versed in the CP ora ^ Worts of Mercy, but
have little or no tir to participate. Nowhere is
this more obvious tP among members of the Ca
tholic press.
mension as well as a past and a future. The pre
sent dimension of today’s Mass is decisive for
our salvation-history as a community of be
lievers in the present moment, a moment made
holy by Christ through His action in this sac
rament.
MONDAY, DEC. 23, MASS AS ON SUNDAY. So
our encounter with Christ in the Mass, or in any
of the sacraments, or in the preaching of His
Word, is an encounter with a living and reigning
Christ-of-this-moment rather than the recovery
of a historical figure.
When I hear John’s cry in the Gospel, “Pre
pare the way of the Lord,” 1 do not speculate
about the events of the last days, when creation
reaches its consummation. John’s cry is an appeal
for my action now, in terms of faith and hope and
love.
TUESDAY, DEC. 24, VIGIL OF CHRISTMAS.
The “now” of today’s liturgy is our response to
the fact that human nature, matter, the world it
self are blessed, reclaimed, in a sense “divini
zed,” by the feast we prepare to celebrate.
“Tomorrow earth’s defilement will be washed
away.” “All that is flesh and blood will see our
God and Saviour” (Communion Hymn).
(Continued on page 5)
» rOLLD g'back in my own engagement >ok
and satisfactory account for 50° r s 6 ° in c**
week, include Saturdays and Sundays. in Cjo-
1 ic activity: <ut-of-office coverage of
ecumenical >alogue, Civil Rights demonstraths
workshops, tnd the like. These are
to the iob ' J t how much better if our editoru-
zine as ed-ors was backed up by the practicof
elementar forms of charity. The same goesir
Catholic octors, lawyers, business executis,
many of «hom do spend a lot of time in wc-
ing for tP Church.”
The ft. Vincent de Paul Society or the Legiorf
Mary ioesn’t sound very exciting to the man o
comm nds a big readership: to the man of rm*
cine \ho dedicates himself to saving lives; oo
the ltgcl mind who furthers respect for our Is.
Some professional men do belong to these 3
grotps and other organizations which derra
“personal involvement.” Alas, in most pari?
anr diocesan groups, you can count them on-
ha»d.
The few who do are really the only onesJ
fejve the right to impatience with the seemV
s ow pace of acceptance of lay rights vis-«®
the constant hammering at lay obligation*®
the bishop in question put it, the majority ( s
professionals have “sketchy parish credent! •
We are not involved enough in some of the t^
that mature us on the road to spiritual and
cational formation* This fact should hit ho^
such a time as Christmas, when love andcc n
rv.r- f*llou —*