Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

*v The Prophets: Announcing The Savior BY FATHER ROBERT KINAST Catholic University of America You’ve heard it before -- “Why do we pay so much attention to the Old Testament if we believe that Jesus is the Savior and has already come?” It is true, of course, that Christians accept Jesus as Savior and as fulfillment of the expectations of Israel and the world. Therefore, most of our attention is righly focused on the New Testament accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry. But it is also true that we cannot fully appreciate, or even understand, the New Testament without some familiarity with the preceding history of Isreal. However, this isn’t the main reason for paying attention to the Old Testament. We should pay attention to it for the same reason that Jews do, because for Jews it is not an OLD testament. Rather it continues to be a source of living encounter with the God of our history. And that should be true for Christians as well. The coming of Jesus 2000 years ago does not mean that he no longer comes into our lives. In fact he continually comes to us and if we are to recognize him in our midst today, we need to be familiar with how he was recognized in the past. Here, the prophets of Israel are especially helpful. The prophets announced the advent of the Savior, but HOW they announced it is important for us. The readings from the Advent Sunday liturgy illustrate this very well. First of all, the prophets expected that the coming of the Savior would benefit COMMUNITIES and in that way benefit individuals. The prophets did not see persons in isolation but as encompassed by others. First Sunday In Advent Eg., Isaiah 2:1-5 (1st Sunday of Advent) sees the mountain of the Lord’s house to which ALL NATIONS shall come. Those to be saved are described in Is. 35:1-10 (3rd Sunday of Advent) in groups: the feeble, the weak, the deaf, the blind. Perhaps we can ask ourselves: what is the most important community we are part of? What would benefit that community most? How would we share in that benefit? Second, the prophets used IMAGES. They used them to concretize the future and at the same time to expand the present. Is. 11:1-10 (2nd Sunday of Advent) takes the common experience of a bud emerging from a stalk and lets it image the offspring of David who will save the family tree and all nations with it. Perhaps we can ask ourselves: what is the dominant image in our present experience? What all can it mean for our future? Might the Savior come to us through this image? Third, the prophets envisioned the FUTURE coming of the Savior by blending their present experiences with the stories of past fact. Eg., Is. 35:1-10 addresses a contemporary experience of exile but draws upon the desert stories of Israel’s exodus to anticipate a new homecoming. Likewise, Is. 7:10-14 (4th Sunday of Advent) faces the need for a sign to strengthen the people in the present and joins this with the traditions of naming future leaders of Israel before their birth. ✓ Perhaps we could ask ourselves: what is our most important present experience? What part of the story of our life up to this point stands out most? Does this help us anticipate how Jesus might be coming to us? (Continued on page 6) Georgia Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta Vol. 18 No. 42 Thursday, November 27,1980 $8.00 per year Will It Be Georgia Or Notre Dame, Father Joe? Holohan is an Irish name. And in our story it belongs to an Irishman who lives in Athens, Georgia. Of course, Athens, Georgia is the home of the Georgia Bulldogs, usually a pretty decent football team. Father Joe Holohan is the Newman Chaplain over at the student center in Athens. And he will tell you that the Georgia Bulldogs are not just a pretty decent team this year, they are Number One. And not just Number One in the state. They are Number One in the nation. And to go down fair and square into the history books as the season’s Num ber One, all they have to do is beat those yankee intru ders from South Bend, Indiana called the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. Father Joe has always been a fan of the Irish. Why not? First of all he’s a priest. Secondly Notre Dame is our Blessed Mother’s team and thirdly he’s Irish. All good reasons to radically rally behind the boys from the Golden Dome. But the good father, living in Athens for many frantic football seasons, will tell you he has always given first allegiance to the Bulldogs. “I have always been a dog of Dooley,” says Father Joe proudly showing the red lining in his black coat. “We have had good years and bad years but the kids at the center, the staff and myself are unshakable in our devotion to the Bulldogs.” However, this football season has brought a slight hitch. You see, Father Joe, one of six children, has an older brother John who has a son called Pete. Well little Pete practically beat every high school football team in New Jersey single-handed. He was all-city, all-state, all-everything and four years ago easily earned a scholarship to - you guessed it - Notre Dame University. He is a senior receiver for the Irish this year. So - Georgia is Number One and Notre Dame is Number Two and they plan a first and final meeting to settle accounts on January 1, down where football bayou bedlam was born - New Orleans. The gunfight at OK Corral will fade into flights of kindergarten fancy in comparison to this shoot-out of North and South. The question remains, which team gets Father Joe Holohan’s hollers? Will it be his home-based Bulldogs or his faith and family Fighting Irish from South Bend? Well, Father Joe has the last word on the matter. In fact, he has a few last words. “I am a true Bulldog fan,” he answers in exasperation. “Look, I even have a “How ‘Bout Them Dawgs” sticker on my car. How can anyone doubt me?” So he will cheer for Georgia, right? “Put it like this,” says Father Joe with finality. “I’m rooting for the Dogs, but praying little Pete does well.” Yeah, Father Joe is Irish alright! NOBEL WINNER MEETS PRESS - Nobel Peace Prize winner Aldolfo Perez Esquivel (left) of Argentina listens to his interpreter, Richard Chartier, editor of Fellowship Magazine, at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington. The Argentine human rights activist and editor fielded reporters questions before meeting with officials of the U.S. Catholic Conference. ARGENTINIAN NOBELIST Award Is “For My People” BY JAIME FONSECA WASHINGTON (NC) - In his whirlwind tour of Washington, Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel of Argentina said many times the award was not for him but “for my people of Latin America, the poor, the peasants, the Indians, and all those who fight for human dignity, church workers included.” Z Most of these people belong to a ° growing movement of Christian grassroots communities or “comunidades de base.” He said he feels identified with them to the point of having been jailed and tortured for his work in defending their human rights through the continent-wide organization “Service for Peace and Justice” which he helped to launch in 1974. “The honor and the moneys go to them,” the 49-year-old peacemaker told NC News. An architect and sculptor before his crusading for justice through non-violence, Perez Esquivel gave lectures in Washington, Philadelphia and New York on his way to Oslo, Norway. He also held meetings with congressmen and human rights leaders. He explained that the $212,000 involved in the 1980 peace prize will go to further programs in publications, education and leadership training “wherever it is needed.” Fresh from a meeting of his group in Chile, he said that contrary to reports about progress in negotiations in the border dispute between Argentina and Chile over territorial waters and three islands near the Beagle Channel, the situation is seen by Catholic leaders “still as critical.” Pope John Paul II has involved mediators in the dispute since April 1979 at the request of both governments. “The church in both nations indeed is using its influence toward a peaceful solution. From my stay in Chile I know the people, like the average Argentinian, do not want war. They consider each other as brothers and sisters who want to live in productive peace. So they support the papal mediation. But again, the people are not participants, only mere spectators. If negotiations do not achieve a good solution because there are hardened sectors in both armies, the whole issue should be postponed until representative governments are in power.” The Chilean military junta has its (Continued on page 7) Thanksgiving Statement On Bigotry Issued (The following Statement of Concern was issued this week by Archbishop Thomas D onnellan and Alvin M. Sugarman, Rabbi, The Temple.) As we celebrate our National Feast of Thanksgiving, we Americans begin to take stock of our blessings. Individually, each of us will have a personal catalog of gratitude that will vary from person to person. Collectively, however, there is little question that freedom stands at the top of the national list of things for which we should offer thanks. The pursuit of freedom under law was one of the dreams which brought our ancestors to this land. The exercise of freedom under law has continued to this day as symbolic of our national character and as essential to our national identity. It is, therefore, particularly disturbing to hear again voices from the past which would tell us that a particular race or creed or national group is not to be allowed the freedom guaranteed by the laws of the land. The injustice in this is obvious. Moreover, such voices, for example those of the Ku Klux Klan, poison something deep in the wellspring of our national spirit. They insult Americans with their bigotry and make us less “one nation indivisible, under God with liberty and justice for all.” They are voices we recognize only too well because we as Catholics or as Jews have heard their hatred adressed to us. But it is not in our own defense that we speak out now. Rather it is on behalf of our Black brothers and sisters, and as an expression of the concern we feel with them over the resurgence of these groups. In their name, and in the name of any other individuals or groups whose rights are denied, let this much be clear: No one has the right to deny anyone else the basic human rights guaranteed by the Constitution of this land; no one has the right to intimidate, repress, or threaten anyone else who seeks to exercise those basic human rights. And here we speak to our own congregations: It is inconsistent with the teachings of our religious heritage that a Catholic or a Jew hold membership in the Ku Klux Klan; to Archbishop Donnellan be associated with such groups is equivalent to endorsing their positions, both present and past. We speak out on behalf of our Black brothers and sisters not because they cannot speak for themselves. Rather, we speak because we are Americans who refuse to allow the Klan to speak for us. More than that, we remind our congregations that we cannot merely stand idly by when the rights of others are threatened, especially when they are threatened by a group that has historically levelled the same attacks at us. An attack on the rights of any one of us is a threat to the rights of all of us. Too often in our history, we have waited until matters reach dangerous (Continued on page 6) Parish-Action Santa MSGR. NOEL BURTENSHAW A lot of things happened suddenly when Ginger Gage planned her good deed for Christmas 1980. And all of them were super good. Ginger is the young singles boss out at Holy Spirit and reaching the empty arms of poor children like a great big chubby Santa was her wish. It came true - and then some. “Our singles group is small,” says this young pretty dynamo, “but marvelously motivated. The idea was really Ray Rerer’s, but we all want it to happen. It will be a great afternoon for the children.” The invited little guests were chosen by EOA, an agency Ginger has worked with in the past. They chose children from the Dixie Hills neighborhood, a community greatly needing care and attention this Christmas. It was in Dixie Hills on the Southside of Atlanta that young Latonya Wilson Was murdered. She is one of Atlanta’s tragic children. The planned outreach of Ginger’s singles will come as a healing to this wounded community. EOA agreed to bus the children out to Holy Spirit for the party. Presents, food and the bright decorations of the season were needed. The plan began to form and as the singles persisted in their efforts, the pieces fell into place. “It will take place on Sunday, Dec. 14,” says Ginger “and the the decorations. “We started to dig down into our own pockets,” says Ginger, “but our Parish Council insisted on having a part. They came across with the money.” So the hot dogs, the creamy cakes, the party hats and all the trimmings will be there, along with brightly wrapped gifts - everything to light up the lives of Atlanta children, who have BMBBBaeoaiHI ■HBananaMBB Heralds Of The Season - Second In A Series gifts will all be there. That morning our Sunday school will have a children’s Christmas Liturgy, and in that liturgy each child will present a brightly wrapped gift at the altar for our little guests.” So Ginger finds that her outreach touches, not just those who need help, but her own little brothers and sisters in the parish. They will be beautifully and excitedly reminded that Christmas is to give - not just to get. The Holy Spirit singles now had the problem of the food and known, to some degree, the shadow of terror. “Miss Copeland of EOA has been wonderful,” says Ginger. “She organized the children of Dixie Hills and will help us make this day one of excitement for the children.” As Ginger Gage, whose brother, Father Phil, is a Marist priest in the West Virginia mountains, relaxes with her family on Christmas Day, she can be comforted that through her efforts, and the thoughtful planning of Holy Spirit parish, one community of children Gifts will be brought to the altar in the children’s liturgy. Later these gifts will be presented to the young guests. All will be reminded that Christmas is a time not just to get but also to give. reached out to another in this season that commemorates the gift of a Divine Child come on earth. “There’s jUst one thing we need now,” said the enthusiastic Miss Gage to this interviewer with an impish grin. “Someone to act as Santa.” Forget it, Ginger. No way. &