Catholic Diocese Tucson

10 CATHOLIC OUTLOOK DECEMBER 2019 It is with exceptional joy that I find myself celebrat- ing my third Christmas Season in the Diocese of Tucson. I am greatly blessed for having been led to southern Arizona, a land of true faith, great beauty and an extraordinary blend of cultures. The people of our diocese are daily in my prayers and I kindly ask that in the new year each of you will lift me up in prayer to our Lord. As I reflect upon the birth of God’s own Son into the world some 2000 years ago, my mind goes first to the love of his mother and father. Mary’s “let it be done to me according to Thy word” made room for Jesus in her heart before she made room for Him in her womb. Likewise, having accepted the mysterious message of an angel brought to him in a dream, Joseph’s warm embrace of the child born to Mary in unexpected circumstances further reveals the great love which awaited the infant Jesus. I am next reminded of the poverty into which the Christ child was born. The religious belief of his day was that poverty was a sign of aban- donment from God. Jesus would confront this misunderstanding and go on to teach that a life of great simplicity lends itself toward a life of great holiness. While He is never concerned about His own poverty, He does recognize that devastating poverty in the lives of oth- ers can be crushing. In His adult life and ministry he will never pass by anyone suffering without touching their pain or lessening their poverty. We must remember too that He was almost im- mediately an immigrant (the flight into Egypt). At His birth shepherds and angels sang, but the King of His day wanted His death, fearing that the Prince of Peace was his enemy. And thus, the infant is rushed to a foreign land by His parents who were seeking to save His life. When He would begin His adult ministry He would reach deeply into the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) and would prize the protec- tion and care of the traveler and immigrant among the greatest of virtues. Perhaps most important of all, His birth into the world was to reveal the incredible depth of His Father’s love for all His children. United with the Father and in the power of the Holy Spirit, the infant Jesus was born into our world to redeem and save us through the power of His love. Pondering this year’s Christ- mas, I am struck by a great many similarities with the world into which Jesus was born. Many of us were welcomed into the world with great joy and affection, but there are still those who are not born into love and care. May we be a prophetic call to life, reverencing the unborn, the elderly, the sick, and all those who - like the Christ child - are vulnerable and without a voice. Like Mary and Joseph, may we make room for them in our hearts which will lead to our making room for them in our lives. Let us also hear the Christmas call to remediating the crushing weight of poverty in oth- ers, reverencing the Christ child in the immigrant and asylum-seeker, and speaking love to a secular world that so often chooses division and dismay over faith and hope. Indeed, may we welcome the Christ child this year into our hearts and lives, and may His redeeming love touch us in new and abundant ways. May God bless you abundantly, This year, live Christmas by pondering Christ’s world and our own Pondering this year’s Christmas, I am struck by a great many similarities with the world into which Jesus was born. Many of us we welcomed into the world with great joy and affection but there are still those who are not born into love and care.