Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4
The Georgia Bulletin
December 17,1981
Christmas-Timeless Love
Poured Into Our Lives
Filling That Christmas Emptiness
Dolores Curran
Christmas is a timeless feast,
seemingly taken out of time. It is a
celebration one thousand nine hundred
eighty-one years old . . . and yet new
each year. There is a reason for that, in
that Christmas is the reality of our
timeless God coming to us and staying
with us; it is the reality of His timeless
love poured into our world and our
lives.
When Mary first voiced her
magnificent commitment to God -- “Be
it 'done unto me according to Your
word” -- something unexpected and
unheard of happened in the universe:
God became Man in the unborn Jesus
Mary carried in her womb. God gave
Himself and us the gift of touch,
reaching us in ways that had never been
possible before Jesus . . . and that has
made all the difference.
What makes the difference now is
how well we allow Him to touch us and
our lives this Christmas and all this
coming year. As birth is a beginning, so
is Christmas a new beginning, a fresh
start for a renewed dedication, a
deepened commitment, a sharpened
sense of discerning how to let our God
and His love invade our choices and
values now, even as He entered our
world and history that first Christmas.
It is part of my prayer that this
Christmas be for you a time of fullness
in all these ways - dedication,
commitment and discernment
enriching your life with the rebirth of
God’s love deep within you. That will
make Christmas a year-long
reality . . . not merely a seasonal one.
This prayer has an added focus for
us as the Church of the Archdiocese
because we begin soon after Christmas
the consultation to help determine our
priorities as God’s People for the next
five years. This can be for us, as the
Family of the Church in North Georgia,
a fresh start, a new birth, as we look
prayerfully at how we can best offer
ourselves, our talents, our energies, our
resources, as the instruments whereby
God’s love touches the lives of all who
live here.
May the birth of Jesus which we
celebrate together be for all of us the
richest possible rebirth of His love
among us. May His Peace guard you and
your loved ones all through 1982.
Archbishop of Atlanta
“I dread Christmas,” a mother told me last
fall. “Every year we go through the same
thing. First, my husband is extravagant and
excited, insisting that we get the kids more
toys than I think we should. Then, a few days
before Christmas, he goes into a dark mood
and doesn’t come out of it until after
Christmas. He gets angry for spending so
much money, refuses to play with the kids, or
even go to our relatives for dinner.”
I listened to her for awhile, asking a few
penetrating questions, and eventually learned,
as I suspected that her husband’s childhood
had been an unhappy one. His father had
abandoned the family and there just wasn’t
any money for things like trees, toys and
feasts. While the rest of his friends
experienced these parts of Christmas, he
didn’t. He has grown up with great
expectations of the holiday and overspends in
anticipation, but when the day itself begins to
approach, his anger at being denied Christmas
as a child consumes him and he withdraws
into brooding.
It’s fairly well publicized that the holidays
are not happy for many. Grim suicide and
depression statistics tell us that while we’re
decking the halls with boughs of ivy, others
are looking for ways of blocking out the pain
of the season. Around them they see warmth
and festivity. Television reminds them that
Christmas is a time of reunion and love. Few
of those in the Christmas specials are depicted
as lonely, alcoholic, recently divorced or
widowed, or inheritors of painful Christmas
pasts.
Yet these people exist all around us. It’s
more to them than just finding some place to
eat Christmas dinner. It’s the whole season,
from the first department store display in
October to the after-Christmas sales. “I can’t
bear it,” said a woman whose husband and
children have joined a strange cult in another
state. “Every year I try something to help me
not feel so empty — entertain more, gather
other single friends together to cook dinner,
or help with Christmas for the needy — but
underneath it all, I know I’m just
compensating for an emptiness that shouldn’t
exist at Christmas.”
Who says it shouldn’t exist? How many
people who celebrate gaily on the surface feel
empty underneath because Christmas has
little or no meaning to them? Many feel
letdown after the holiday because of this
emptiness, and they have loads of family and
friends around. Many who are alone within
marriages feel an even more acute despair
because they are supposed to be happy, not
lonely, at Christmas, doing the things happy
couples and families do.
Perhaps it is this emptiness that leads us to
the Crib at Christmas. If we experience the
total package of parties, programs, gifts, trees,
decorations, relatives and food, and still
experience emptiness, it just might be God’s
reminder of HIS Christmas message: “Peace
and joy are found in Me.” When we allow
Jesus to be central to our holiday, our focus is
not turned so completely to the festivities and
our despair is not so great if we find ourselves
alone or unhappy at this time.
I suspect that all of us experience some
emptiness at holiday time but we just don’t
admit it. How can we, surfeited as we are with
goods and festivities? If those among us who
are more fragile than the rest know that, it
might help them endure some of the
emptiness that brings them close to the brink.
If we admit it to ourselves, it might bring us
closer to the true meaning of Christmas, fewer
parties and gifts, maybe but more prayers and
reflection upon the gift that fills the
emptiness, Jesus himself.
Merry Christmas
North Georgia
Father Richard Wise (1) with twin brother, Father Stephen.
Look at those sparkling bows and
wrapping under your Christmas tree.
How you have been remembered this
year. There is fever-pitch excitement in
your home and you just know that the
morning will never dawn when all will
be revealed.
In the vast regions of our North
Georgia Archdiocese we bid you to add
another gift. It comes not wrapped and
bowed, but actually anointed. It is not
shop-bought nor home-made. It has
color and life that, we promise, will
never fade.
The gift that is given to far flung
country missions, cozy rural
town-churches and big city bustling
parishes is one spanking new priest of
the Lord. On December 12, as Advent
galloped on to a happy conclusion,
Richard Wise was given to us, another
Christ, forever a part of the priestly
nrdfir of Melchizedek.
Father Richard comes to our North
Georgia Church glowing with all the
newness of Christmas. Like the
prophetic voices of biblical times, like
the final prophet, John the Baptist, he
points to the miraculous savior who
slips among us in humble straw.
The angelic choir serenaded the
shepherd band with divine
announcements on the first Christmas
and ended the heralding by simply
saying to those hilltop urchins, this
miracle is "for you.” The church
repeats that message as the newly
ordained grasps the mantle of service.
“This one is chosen for you.”
From the Church of God to us
pilgrims in North Georgia, Merry
Christmas.
-NCB
And A Blessed
New Year
As we close another year, we at the
Georgia Bulletin pause to wish you a
season filled with the gladness of the
Prince of Peace. We have enjoyed the
challenge of bringing our weekly
From Us
tidings into your home during this year
of 1981. May the new year bring
blessings to our media apostolate and a
deeper faith to those iives we are
privileged to touch.
I \Thr
\ Gnmjjq
(USPS) 574 §80)
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Most Rev. Thomas A. Donnellan - Publisher
Rev. Monsignor Noel C. Burtenshaw — Editor
Gretchen R. Reiser — Associate Editor
Thea K. Jarvis Contributing Editor
Member of the Catholic Press Association
Business Office U.S.A. $8.00
680 West Peachtree, N. W. Telephone 881 -9732 Canada $8.50
Atlanta, Georgia 30308 Foreign $10.00
DEADLINE: All material for publication must be received by MONDAY
NOON for Thursday’s paper.
Postmaster: Send POD Form 3579 to THE GEORGIA BULLETIN
601 East Sixth Street, Waynesboro, Georgia 30830
Sond all editorial correspondence to: THE GEORGIA BULLETIN
680 West Peachtree Street N.W.
Atlanta, Georgia 30308
Second Class Postage Paid at Waynesboro, Ga. 308 30
Published Weekly except the second and last weeks
In June, July and August and the last week in December
at 601 Cast Sixth St., Waynesboro. Ga. 30830
The Feast of the Holy Family (B)
December 27,1981
THE W ORD
THIS W EEKEND
Paul Karnowski
Sirach 3: 2-6,12-14
Colossians3: 12-21
Luke 2: 2240
JMJ..It was my introduction to the world
of Catholic abbreviation. Later I would learn
the meanings of BVM, OSB, OFM, and SJ, but
for now I listened attentively as my teacher
explained why we were to place these three
letters on the top of our homework and test
pages.
“We write JMJ on the top of each page to
remind us of the Holy Family-Jesus, Mary
and Joseph. We ask for their help in our work
and we pray that our families may be more
like theirs.’’
That sounded like a reasonable
explanation at the time. But several hundred
JMJ’s later, it dawned on me that I knew very
little about the Holy Family. Did Jesus play
baseball after he finished his homework? Did
he always do EVERYTHING his parents told
him? How about Joseph and Mary? Did they
ever argue? I had a thousand questions that I
didn’t dare ask. I wanted details, but I never
received any.
When I grew older, I found out why. “The
gospels,” my scripture professor explained,
“are not biographical accounts of the life of
Jesus. They are proclamations of the good
news: by rising from the dead Christ
triumphed over evil and death once and for
all.” He went on to explain that the Gospel
writers did not place as much emphasis on
biographical detail as we do. “Hence,” he
added, “we know remarkably little about
Christ’s childhood or his family life.”
But what do we know? We know from
passages such as today’s gospel that Joseph
and Mary were devout Jews. They
“presented” their son to God, in keeping with
the Law of Moses. Luke tells us that the
family returned to Galilee and “the child grew
in size and strength, filled with wisdom, and
the grace of God was upon him.” There are a
few other passages, but they offer us little
more information.
How, then, do we emulate a family about
whom we know very little? Perhaps we should
take our cue from the Gospel writers. Instead
of bogging ourselves down in the bottomless
mire of our family biographies, we should
broaden our vision to see the Resurrection at
work in our relationships; try to view our
encounters with evil, sickness and conflict as
battles already won. JMJ, I’m sure, would
approve.
Choose Life
Sheila Mallon
Would you support legislation which
would, if passed, save some 1,480,000 lives a
year? Because that is what the Hatch Human
Life Amendment could do. The Hatch
Amendment states: “A right to abortion is
not secured by this Constitution. The
Congress and the several States shall have the
concurrent power to restrict and prohibit
abortions: Provided, That a law of the State
which is more restrictive than a law of
Congress shall govern.”
Even if Congress were to pass national
legislation requiring exceptions for life of
mother, rape, incest and serious fetal illnesses
(such as Tay Sachs disease), we would be
talking about approximately 20,000
abortions a year nationally. That means that
we could save 1,480,000 babies a year who are
aborted for other reasons.
There has been some controversy in
pro-life groups about the Hatch Amendment
and it has been handily manipulated by the
pro-abortion media. Many who have been
active for many years in the battle to save the
unborn feel that the Hatch measure does not
provide protection for the unborn and they
would like to see personhood defined in an
amendment or bill.
We must be realistic. Understand that we
have been fighting an uphill battle for the last
nine years against an ultra-liberal pro-abortion
media and federal judiciary and a fantastically
well-funded group of radical feminist
organizations - not to mention Planned
Parenthood and the ACLU. We simply don’t
have the votes right now to pass any other
kind of amendment. Our opponents always
present the hard cases to the people. Carefully
they avoid the more than 98 percent of
abortions performed for reasons of
convenience and concentrate instead on those
for the life of mother, rape, incest, etc.
A majority of Americans really believe that
abortion is wrong, but when presented with
these “hard cases” they will vote against bills
or amendments which allow no room to
maneuver.
Of course, the Hatch Amendment is not
perfect and if we wait to pass a “perfect”
amendment we will lose heaven only knows
how many more lives in the process. If I sound
impatient it is because I am. As long as
abortion continues at its present rate and
public opinion is being influenced by the
“legal” fact of abortion on demand we are
losing ground.
I was privileged to hear Senator Orrin
Hatch recently in Washington. He was
speaking to a group of pro-life coordinators
from around the nation. He told us that this
amendment was our best hope. The
amendment would effectively reverse the
Supreme Court’s abortion decisions, allow for
effective and universal protection of unborn
children against abortion and has good
prospects for ratification. We would follow
the ratification of the amendment with
federal legislation which would require only a
majority vote.
Most important of all, the ratification
process would give us a forum in each state to
present the true facts about abortion as it now
exists in our country and would create a
massive tidal wave of pro-life sentiment.
When I har Karen Mulhauser of NARAL
(National Abortion Rights Action League)
shrilly denounce the Hatch Human Life
Amendment as the “most serious attack on
abortion rights” to come down the pike for
the pro-abortion folks, I know we have a
winner.
Give a Christmas gift to all the unborn yet
to come and write to Senators Mattingly and
Nunn at the Senate Office Building,
Washington D.C. 20550 and ask them to
support the Hatch HLA.
Pope John XXIII in his encyclical ‘Mater et
Magister’ gave us a message for this time. He
said: “It sometimes happens that even sincere
men have differing views. When this occurs
they should take care to have and to show
mutual esteem and regard, and to explore the
extent to which they can work in cooperation
among themselves. Thus they can in good
time accomplish what necessity requires. Let
them also take great care not to weaken their
efforts in constant controversies. Nor should
they, under pretext of seeking what they
think best, meanwhile fail to do what they can
and hence should do.”