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The Holy Family: Real People
BY THEA JARVIS
The Christmas creche is a delightful tradition said to have originated in 12th
century Italy with Saint Francis of Assisi.
According to legend, Francis staged a live manger scene to help his little
village remember the birth of Christ. To Francis, the Holy Family and the
event they shared was real and historic, and he wanted others to experience
this reality as he did.
For us celebrators of a 20th century Christmas, it is difficult to envision
such reality. Very often the Holy Family is merely a rustic ideal of the simple
life, forever encased in wood or plaster in our living room mangers, having little
relevance to our own helter-skelter lives.
Let us remember how real it was for them, who lived out the Chirst-event.
Joseph was a hard-working carpenter who used many of the tools we know
today for his trade. Like other Palestinian woodworkers, he gathered his own
raw materials from the surrounding countryside of Nazareth. Joseph
envisioned, no doubt, a simple but comfortable life with a loving wife and
dutiful children to surround him as he grew older.
No such peace awaited him in his hidden life with Mary and Jesus.
Joseph soon learned that his young bride-to-be was with child. Hoping to
shield her from shame, he offered to divorce her quietly, with as little scandal
as possible, since the Jewish tradition held a betrothal to be almost as binding
as a marriage vow.
Is it any wonder that this gentle man required the guidance of one of God’s
messengers - an angel - to direct his decision-making? Left to his own lights,
Joseph would surely have followed a different path.
And what of Mary, his betrothed? It was common for 13 to 14-year-old
Jewish maidens to enter into marriage and begin their own households. Mary
must have been about this age and skilled in the duties of an efficient wife
when she and Joseph made their plans.
She no doubt drew water from the village well, ground the barley grains for
bread flour, and kept the oil lamp always burning in her simple home.
But the only peace that Mary could have known was a quiet confidence in
her God, for from the beginning, things happened to her that must have raised
innumerable questions in her young heart.
Luke’s gospel tells us that Mary was “deeply disturbed” by the words of
Gabriel, who called her “favored” by God and asked her to be the mother of
the Christ. Only from her deep wellspring of faith could Mary answer with an
unequivocal “yes.”
The journey she made soon after with her husband to register for the
Roman census was no easy trek. It is 90 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem. On
donkey, with child, and withoug guarantee of lodgings, such a trip becomes a
considerable challenge.
Another of Mary’s challenges was her son.
Jesus, whose birth we now celebrate, was not the ideal child. He must have
been a puzzle to his parents, as well as himself, as he confronted his destiny.
One senses from his adolescent debut in the Temple that Jesus was
remarkable, even in his youth. But remarkable children are not often the
easiest to explain to inquiring friends and relatives who can’t understand why
they are not like everyone else.
As Jesus grew and eventually departed his quiet home in Nazareth, he was
Third Sunday In Advent
befriended by common fishermen, tax collectors, and prostitutes. He lived as
an itinerant preacher, his bed an open field, his food the sharings of other’s
tables.
No doubt many countrymen shook their heads and wagged their tongues at
the Holy Family of Nazareth. They might today be called a troubled family, a
family in need. Some might recommend them for counseling, or food stamps,
or even a Christmas basket.
Only the eyes of faith bring them to their full stature as persons of strength
and courage. Through difficult and often confusing times, they sought to find
the hand of God in their lives. Finding his presence there, they were able to live
their life as whole - or holy - people.
This “wholeness” that characterized the Holy Family is what we now seek
in our own lives. In faith we again begin our journey - as they did - at
Christmas.
THE WHOLENESS that characterized the Holy Family is what
we now seek in our own lives. In faith we again begin our journey -
as they did - at Christmas.
Merrily Marching Army
“Some of my best men are
women.” General Booth said it, he
meant it and, in that man’s army, it
was true.
William Booth was indeed General
of the Army but not the trench
trained fighting type. He was
founder, just one hundred years ago,
of the best known, street fighters
that ever carried a cross or a musical
note. The Salvation Army.
The best single sign of Christmas
is the roaring,
red kettle that
swings between
the trombone
and the drum
on your finely
festive shopping
mall. It may not
be the smooth
sound of
Tommy Dorsey
and the choir-
-of-four will
hardly sell into
the millions. But the purpose is
achieved. The many mercy missions
of this season will get the Army’s
prompt attention, in your name, if
you just fill that musical kettle.
Year in, year out, the Salvation
Army marches merrily to victory.
Turkey on the table for every
unshaved, homeless hobo on
Christmas Day is the goal of these
uniformed serenaders. As we sit
down to the overloaded table of
delicious calories, so too will the
guests of the Army. Toys will appear
to heal broken hearts and cute dollies
will be cuddled in the once empty
arms of deleriously happy little girls.
The Army and their kettle will do it
all. But then the Salvation Army has
been doing it, in many ways, for a
glorious, golden hundred years.
In Boston’s nortorious “Combat
Zone” the victims of vicious pimps
and pornographers find food, shelter
and shoulders to lean on at Army
headquarters. In Spanish Harlem the
visible blue-clad cadets speaking
Spanish and English lend a hand to
broken families and a refuge to
battered wives.
In Detroit the retarded are trained
to handle the hurdles of life and if
emergency shelter is the need, you
can call the Army in St. Louis, Los
Angeles or any city in the nation.
Here in Atlanta, vivacious young
Army women run a high powered
home for runaway teenage girls.
After many years of watchful counsel
this non-uniformed division knows
the terror facing these girls in flight -
prostitution rackets on the streets
and puzzling, incestuous sexual abuse
in the home. With Army training and
know how, healing gently happens.
They are an Army of crusading
Christians. Booth founded his ragtag
mission to the derelicts of society in
Victorian London in 1878. Two
years later the Army invaded the
New World, and their mission to
America began. That mission of
outreach has never stopped.
The quarter you throw into the
kettle has a long distance to travel.
The Army and its tireless recruits
will wage many wars with that small
silver piece. With sacrifice, joyful
and generous, they will make your
quarter do a fifty cent job. So - in
the spirit of one hundred years
service - why not this year throw in a
dollar.
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Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 18 No. 44
Thursday, December 11,1980
$8 Per Year
MISSIONARIES MURDERED - Three Maryknoll nuns pray
over the bodies of four American missionaries who were found dead
by a roadside near San Salvador. Three of the bodies were nuns and
the fourth was a lay woman. All the women were shot.
MARYKNOLL SISTERS
6 In Love With God And People’
BY SISTER MARY ANN WALSH
ALBANY, N.Y. (NC) - Maryknoll
Sisters Ita Ford and Maura Clarke,
who were found murdered in El
Salvador Dec. 4, were “in love with
God and people,” said Maryknoll
Sister Annette Mulroy, who knew
both of them well, in an interview
with The Evangelist, Albany diocesan
newspaper.
The dead nuns are the first
Maryknoll Sisters to have been
murdered since the community was
founded in 1921. Their bodies were
found with those of Ursuline Sister
Dorothy Kazel and lay volunteer
Jean Donovan, both of Cleveland, in
a shallow grave by a roadside
between San Salvador and its airport.
The four women had been missing
since Dec. 2. A soldier at the scene
said all four had been shot in the
back of the head.
Sister Ford, 40, had been in El
Salvador only a short time, said
Sister Mulroy of the Maryknoll
Office of Social Concerns at the
community’s headquarters near
Ossining, N.Y. Previously she had
served in Chile and was there during
the overthrow of Marxist President
Salvador Allende in 1973. That was
the first assignment for Sister Ford,
(Continued on page 6)
New U.S. Apostolic Delegate -- Story Page 6
POPE JOHN PA UL
Violence “Most Bitter Fruit”
BY NANCY FRAZIER
VATICAN CITY (NC) - Violence
o is the “most bitter fruit” of the
confusion of ideologies in today’s
society, Pope John Paul II told
Italian lawyers and judges Dec. 6.
Addressing participants in the
national convention of the Union of
Italian Catholic Jurists during an
audience ih the Vatican’s Consistory
Hall, the pope emphasized the
distinction between strength and
violence, calling the former a
“necessary instrument” of law and
referring to the latter as the “radical
antithesis” of law.
“There often remains today a
confusion of ideas, deriving from the
plurality of old and new disciplines,
the diversity of schools and the
opposition of political ideologies,”
he said.
The confusion leads to conflicts
“between those who think that you
can and must reform structures
peacefully and those who believe
that only after the total and violent
annihilation of himself can man be
(Continued on page 6)
Far From
BY GRETCHEN REISER
Like the lull before the storm,
! the day begins with Mass. Then
I the phones at the St. Vincent de
Paul Society office in southwest
Atlanta are placed on the hook.
, All three lines light up at once.
: The door opens and two women
walk in, waiting to see Sharon
Maddox, the society’s caseworker.
The first call is a woman,
trying to find Christmas toys to
i give her children. Someone else
needs money. A family calls;
; they’ve been burned out of their
1 apartment. Another call from
someone needing money,' “We
: don’t have any money right now,”
; says Betti Knott. “If they get here
by 11:30, we can get them some
food ... a hot lunch and some
- canned goods.” The caller takes
directions to St. Anthony’s
; Church.
The needs are there all year
round, but from Thanksgiving to
Christmas, there is no respite from
the ringing phones, the daily
struggle to match up the donated
food and the limited gifts of
; money with the stories of need
that flood the office. Between
8:30 and 11:30 in the morning
each day, the office is averaging
100 phone calls from people
The Shopping Malls...
looking for help. The only help
staff members have to give is what
they receive from contributors.
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This year, someone got there
before the needy. On Sunday
night, November 30, the
warehouse near St. Anthony’s
Church where the Society stores
its food supplies was burglarized.
cold cereals, and foods that will
appeal to children. The families
who come to the office for help
are no different from those who
don’t have to turn to the Society.
They want something special to
give their children, especially at
Christmastime, said Sharon
Maddox. “No one likes to see
their children go without.”
Heralds Of The Season-Last In A Series
Five thousand cans of food,
the donations from parishes and
schools that pour in around
Thanksgiving time, were stolen.
The quantity, which sounds so
large, would have lasted a month
and a half at the most, Mrs. Knott
said. Although police caught some
people believed involved in the
burglary, the food supply for the
Christmas season is almost gone.
Food and emergency financial
aid are the backbone of the
Society’s program; the small staff
concentrates its assistance in these
areas. With the theft, the need for
donations is urgent.
The office tries to give families
a balanced food supply, and needs
not just canned vegetables but
canned meats and fish, hot and
A man from College Park is on
the phone with Betti Knott. It’s
three weeks before Christmas and
he has lost his job. They have
talked before in recent days and
he is just calling to tell Mrs. Knott
not to worry - somehow he is
going to make ends meet.
He has a family and is two
months behind in his rent,
threatened with eviction. The
agencies are trying to piece
together the money to keep them
in their home for Christmas: $50
from the Salvation Army, $50
from St. Vincent de Paul. There is
still a gap; the husband insists he
will come up with it somehow,
working as a day laborer. . .
somehow he will get it. “Don’t try
AT THE ST. VINCENT de Paul Thrift Shop on Beecher St., S.
W., Betty Early waits on a customer. The Thanksgiving to Christmas
season is the busiest time for all the St. Vincent services.
to take it all on yourself,” Mrs.
Knott says. “Remember, we’re
here if you need us.”
In other calls, it’s necessary to
say no, or direct people elsewhere
- to agencies that specialize in
help to fire victims, for example,
or to those that concentrate on
gathering toys for children at
Christmastime.
Far from the shopping malls
and the newspaper circulars
advertising discounts for
Christmas, the phones light up,
and the need for gifts of food and
money continue.
The challenge lingers to give
not just from pur abundance, but
from our substance and through
St. Vincent’s we become heralds
of the season.
To support the St. Vincent de
Paul Society, call 752-6394 or
mail to P. O. Box 10494, Atlanta
30310.
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