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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 —*