Together on the Journey: A Weekly Word from Archbishop Hebda
Merry Christmas! Today’s the fifth day of our celebration of Christmas and I’m hoping that you’re still feeling the excitement of this holy season as we celebrate the great gift of Our Lord’s birth in Bethlehem. I hope you’re still enjoying some Christmas cookies or a few well-preserved leftovers, along with joy-filled gatherings with family and friends as we approach the new year. The mother of one of our Italian priests sent me an incredible Christmas panettone from Milano, and I’m carefully slicing just enough each morning to get me through at least the Octave.
The Christmas celebrations at the Cathedral and Basilica were once again amazing, and I’m delighted to hear from so many of our pastors about beautiful parish celebrations and record crowds. We are truly blessed to have so many faith-filled parishioners throughout the archdiocese. I’m always amazed, moreover, by how many visitors find their way to our churches while in the Twin Cities. I’m told that even the tenor, Andrea Bocelli, and his family were spotted in one of our pews this Christmas. Imagine what it would have been like to be sitting in front of them that morning!
Before heading home to be with my family for a few days, I celebrated the Christmas morning Mass at the Dorothy Day Center in St. Paul. What a blessed opportunity! I couldn’t help but think that if Jesus’ birth had been delayed until 2025 and had been transposed to the Twin Cities instead of Bethlehem, he might have been born at Dorothy Day: the Holy Family, without a place to stay, would surely have found a refuge at Catholic Charities. The words of the Lutheran pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, to describe the Christmas miracle, quoted just last week by Pope Leo, resonated in my heart: “God marches right in… God is near to lowliness; he loves the lost, the neglected, the unseemly, the excluded, the weak and broken.” What a gift!
In the days since Christmas, the Church has reminded us that there needs to be a response to that gift, and that we shouldn’t be surprised that it involves sacrifices. In the midst of our festive Christmas celebrations, the Church inserts every year the commemorations of St. Stephen the Martyr, the Holy Innocents (killed so brutally by Herod) and the saintly archbishop, St. Thomas Becket, martyred in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170. While the child born in Bethlehem is indeed the Prince of Peace, we know all too well that his followers can expect to face obstacles in their lives. It is in those challenges that we are given the opportunity to witness to Jesus. (The word “martyr” derives from the Greek word for “witness.”)
I hope that you’ll take some time in these days to pray before the Nativity scene in your parish or your home. As we anticipate our celebration of the coming of the Magi at Epiphany, let’s ask ourselves what gifts we are willing to bring this year to the newborn King. As the giver of all good gifts, Jesus deserves nothing but the best. St. Stephen and St. Thomas Becket understood that reality and offered the very best that they had to him, up until their last breaths. Let’s ask for their intercession as we too strive to give witness in the new year.
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