Father Paul Weinberger
Saint William the Confessor Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
Christmas 2006
Vigil Mass, December 24, 2006
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord said to the Prophet. “Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall name Him Emmanuel, which means God is with us.”
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen
That prophecy was spoken by Isaiah to Ahaz, who was the father of Hezekiah. Ahaz was a despicable king and one of the ancestors of Christ. He’s offered his own sons in sacrifice. But the prophecy was spoken to him.
Ask for a sign from the Lord your God; let it be deep as the netherworld or high as the sky.
But Ahaz answered,
I will not ask; I will not tempt the Lord.
Isaiah wanted to slug him. He said,
Listen O House of Israel, is it not enough to weary men, must you also weary my God? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you this sign; The Virgin shall be with child and bear a Son and they shall name Him Emmanuel, which means God is with us.”
He was addressing all of Israel even though he was addressing Israel through this most despicable character. Even now redemption was placed in front of Israel and in front of Ahaz. Ahaz had a son named Hezekiah, who became the father of Manasseh. Hezekiah was a great King, but his son Manasseh turned everything back to the way his grandfather Ahaz had messed things up.
When you read the genealogy of Christ it is amazing; the characters Rahab, the prostitute who helped the spies of Israel…you see these people in the genealogy of Christ and maybe even recognize some of your own family or friends or maybe even yourself. But this is the good and the bad, the sweet and the sour.
If you look at this manger scene here you see the beautiful red of the poinsettias, the gold of the angels, but you also see the stone (rocks) and the hay. There is kind of a collision of the fine, smooth, polished marble with inlaid mosaic and the rough; the hay you would find in a barnyard. That is exactly what you find in this genealogy and what you find in the Person of Jesus Christ; a Divinity joined to our humanity in the Person of Jesus and the Mystery of the Incarnation.
In just a little while I will drop one small drop of water into a Chalice of wine; the water will disappear into the wine. This is a symbol of the Incarnation. Jesus wasn’t half God and half man; He is True God and true man and His Divinity deigned to come up against the roughness of our humanity. He took upon Himself our human nature to bring great gifts to us.
It seems like just moments ago I celebrated the 11:30 am Mass on the 4th Sunday of Advent and now just a few hours later it is Christmas Eve. You really had to have a program to figure out today’s schedule. Anyway, at the 11:30 am Mass I was talking about the Lord of the Rings. A friend of mine told me that the Lord of the Rings has been being replayed on TV recently, a mini marathon, playing over and over again. Just watching the movies through one time is a marathon in itself. Tolkien wrote a beautiful story about a group of friends working together against and incredibly evil man named Saruman and his slaves. They were making war on the men of the world. The time of men was nearly coming to a close. The most unusual figures seem to be chosen by some hidden hand to complete the mission. Of course it is the Hobbit, Frodo who is chosen and he was the most unlikely of characters. Hobbits are very short and have large hairy feet. They have a gentle disposition for such a terrible mission.
During the movie you learn something about what they do with Elves in Rivendell and how the Elves there sing Gregorian chant; that IS what they sing in Rivendell. There are dwarves, elves and men and it shows how they all interact. This is a very good series of movies about today’s Feast. The movie is an allegory or a symbol for what is beginning today. This movie features Hobbits and when you read the book “The Hobbit” and the other book you find that on the birthday of a Hobbit they do not receive presents but give them to all who attend the party. Why not show your kids this movie sometime this year and turn Christmas around on them. We could call it, The Priest Who Stole Christmas.” [Laughter] That will be for next year; by then you will have paid off the bills for this Christmas.
Hobbits always give gifts on their own birthdays. How fitting because today with the birth of Christ in Bethlehem, Christ gives to the world the greatest gift of all. As I have remarked again and again, today is the Feast of the Virgin Birth of Christ and as Catholics, whether you have studied it or not, and if you haven’t studied it, believe it until you do study it. This is what the Church teaches and has taught for two thousand years; Our Lady was a virgin before, during, and after the birth of Christ.
“Wait a minute; I WAS following him but he must be joking again!”
It is no joke! You may want to know how this can be. At the Annunciation when Our Lady was told that she was to conceive the Messiah, the Angel who stands in the presence of God, the Archangel Gabriel told her that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and the power of the Most High would overshadow her. So, if she conceives by the power of the Holy Spirit, we haven’t figured that out any more than what was just stated, right? I would say that the same could be said about the Virgin Birth of Christ; that she gave birth by the Power of the Holy Spirit. Nothing more could be said and nothing less.
I say this because recently in the movie The Nativity, St Joseph is pictured or acting as mid-wife. No, not going to happen today and didn’t happen two thousand years ago. If we believe in the Annunciation and that it was by the power of the Holy Spirit…we should consider nothing less and nothing more of the Virgin Birth of Christ. Now that I have seriously tempted the faith of so many, I am going to move on to Bethlehem, but that is what the Church has taught for 2000 years.
Jesus was born in Bethlehem in a stable because there was no room for Him; no one would make room for Our Lady and St. Joseph and the Child Jesus. In Hebrew, Bethlehem has a meaning and even if I don’t speak Hebrew I know that Bethlehem means, “House of Bread”. How fitting to see this Nativity stretched out in front of this Altar, this Altar of Sacrifice upon which the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered every day, where Jesus, by the Power of the Holy Spirit changes the bread and wine into His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. It is not merely something for spectators. He says,
Take this and eat, this is My Body.
His body is on display (in the statue of the Christ child in the manger scene in front of the Altar of Sacrifice) in a symbolic form but His True, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity appear in our midst in moments (at the Consecration ON the Altar of Sacrifice, directly above the Nativity Scene). This is our faith; this has been our constant faith these two-thousand years even though others have tried to attack this truth of faith and say it is a mere symbol or it is pretend and just reminds us of Jesus. NO! It is His True Presence. It sounds to good to be true and again and again I must repeat that the reason it sounds too good to be true is because it is too good to be true but it is true!
Forty years ago I made my First Holy Communion and I have been thinking a lot about that this year as I turned 39… again. [Laughter] For forty years I have been receiving Holy Communion, the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. When you see me genuflect at the Consecration of the Body and the Blood, remember that I am 47 and I don’t genuflect easily but, I do genuflect. Unless my leg is broken I genuflect out of reverence for the Body of Christ. I don’t do that and wouldn’t do that were it not the case; if it was pretend Jesus or imaginary Jesus I wouldn’t even bow. But I do genuflect out of reverence for His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity!
The “House of Bread”, Bethlehem is where the Messiah was born. Interesting, the “House of Bread”, Bethlehem, the place of His birth is where He began and Jerusalem, which is not too far from Bethlehem, is the site of the Last Supper, where He gave us Himself for the first time in the bread and wine changed into His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity so that His Apostles would have food for the journey. He knew that His hour had come and He knew what lay ahead. Read the accounts in the Bible.
And Jesus gave His friends food for the journey
Getting back to the beautiful work by Tolkien, the Lord of the Rings, which was made into a movie and popularized these works so well, the Hobbit is given special food for his journey and it is wrapped in special leaves and it is told that when all food runs out, this whey bread will sustain him and his friend, Sam. Well, this is exactly what happens and you wonder how this little Ever Ready rabbit of a Hobbit can keep going and going. It is because of the whey bread. The longer a Hobbit has been away from substantial food, ordinary everyday food, and exists only on whey bread, the longer the whey bread sustains him. It is counterintuitive as they say. It goes against all your logic. The whey bread is a beautiful symbol of what is really given to us everyday in Holy Communion, which we take too lightly.
Many times I have asked a penitent if they had children and the answer was yes, but that they were all grown. I myself am a grown child of two parents, one who is deceased and one who is right here on the front row, and as a grown man I expect that my parents are still interceding for me; in fact I know that is the case in different ways. One way that parents can support their children, even when they have moved out and the special prayer for them to stay moved out.[Laughter], is the prayer of offering Holy Communion for them.
Think of Our Lady; when Jesus was born she took the baby in her own hands, which is the desire of any woman that has given birth. Our Lady took this Child in her hands and in this Child, Jesus, is every grace and blessing that God the Father possesses; the fullness of grace is in Jesus Christ. We cannot think of Jesus plus five graces because He contains all grace and all blessings and where is every grace and blessing? They are in the hands of Our Lady. If you don’t like it…take it up with HIM! It is true; she had the Child Jesus in her arms!
Disposal diapers have only been around for what, thirty years? Don’t ask any of these questions to my mother; she has gone amnesiac on all of this information and there are no pictures existing of all that stuff. [Laughter] Formula has not been around very long either so it wasn’t around at the time of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. Our Lady fed Jesus; Our Lord nursed at her breast. This is not embarrassing; this is how it actually happened. The food that she consumed was turned into mother’s milk, which nourished the Child Jesus.
Any parent who receives Holy Communion has the privilege and also the obligation of offering part of this Holy Communion to God for their children and grandchildren. This is what nourishes and sanctifies a mother and a father and is passed on as spiritual nourishment to children and grandchildren. This is so incredibly important and beautiful but so overlooked today in our fast paced society. Parents have the obligation and the privilege of doing this and it is made possible by the gift that begins in this House of Bread, Bethlehem.
The beauty of this moment is that Our Lord wishes to share every blessing, not some of His blessings, not some of His graces but every grace with His mother.
“Isn’t that a scandal?”
The answer is “YES”, that is a scandal! He wishes to share every grace that is in His possession with his mother; and now, I am glad you are sitting down and some of you are awake because the real scandal is that the same offer is made to you and me; every grace and blessing is offered to us in Holy Communion if we have made room for Him. As wealthy as we are and as intent as we are on so many things, we can find so many other things to do than worthily receive His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. Just knowing about the offer makes us ache, or should make us ache for the next Holy Communion.
St. Therese’ of Lisieux died in 1897 and she is a Doctor of the Church. At that time you had to ask permission from a Superior to receive Holy Communion every day and it wasn’t often granted but St. Therese’ asked.
“So, who do you think you are? Are you better than all the other sisters?”
St. Therese’ went directly to the Lord and she asked Him in prayer,
This is a woman who knew the teaching of Christ and the gift that Christ is giving us in Holy Communion. Since St. Therese’ couldn’t receive Jesus every day in Holy Communion she said that when she died she would do something about that from Heaven. It wasn’t long after she died that Pope St. Pius X came along and lowered the age for reception of First Holy Communion and made it possible to receive Jesus on a daily basis. We must admit that the sad thing is that something that is offered so generously soon becomes something we take for granted. Children who live in a nice home with good parents begin to take them for granted.Lord, since I cannot receive You every day in Holy Communion, then may You stay with me in my soul from one Communion to the next.
“Oh just leave that towel on the floor; mom will pick it up because she likes that kind of thing.”
Any mother overhearing that comment would know that she is being taken for granted and she may still pick it up but she will continue to work with the children until she can give them up for adoption. [Laughter]
It is too bad that today, almost one hundred years after St. Therese’ made comments about Holy Communion, we approach Holy Communion so carelessly and without thought. We approach almost as if we are getting our parking ticket validated.
“Can you validate this? Body of Christ…amen”
This night is a way to return to Bethlehem, this House of Bread, recognizing in this Nativity scene that we don’t represent the polished or the fine; we don’t represent that which is the beautiful but rather the rough. But, Our Lord comes in His beauty and finery into the soul prepared t receive Him. If at this juncture this is not possible, we long for that day when it is possible. This is the night on which the Savior of the World began His mission against all odds, to conquer sin and death and He did so, not by sliding down the side of a lightening bolt but by being born as you and I are born into this world, with the exception that His mother was free of Original Sin from the very moment of her Immaculate Conception. He was starting the human family all over again and like the “Lord of the Rings”; He wishes to involve His friends. That is one thing that Tolkien carries all the way through the movie. This group of ragtag individuals, a gang that couldn’t shoot straight in some ways, along with some very expert hands, made it through to the end of the Mission, which was the destruction of the ring and the time of man began to reign.
With the coming of Jesus the time of man is possible under the direction of Jesus Himself. Every grace has been given to you and to me again and again in Holy Communion. So many people, and in the name of Jesus, have done so many terrible things. But so many people who have received Holy Communion over the years have very quietly done tremendous things. What was Mother Teresa’s record? Wasn’t it 90,000 pulled out of the gutter, one at a time? She was barely taller than a Hobbit and yet she helped so many people and even started a religious order. She had no idea what God was going to do through her short life, which was too short for my liking. Look what God did as He worked through her. Look what God can do when we allow Him to guide us.
I know of a woman who was born very near where Pope Benedict was born; her name was Theresa Neumann. She died in the 1960s. The last few decades of her life are amazing for so many reasons. During the Nazi rise of power, the Nazis discovered this woman in the area around Bavaria and studied her as only Germans can study someone…under a microscope, filming her, exams by doctors and that kind of thing. Theresa Neumann was a heavyset German woman and a woman who prayed a lot. The last few decades of her life she lived totally on the Eucharist and nothing else. She didn’t shrivel to the size of a candy cane but stayed just as plump as ever. She also suffered the wounds of Christ on her body. You can read about her; from 1925 thru 1962 she had no food and 1927 thru 1962 no water. She lived on nothing more and nothing less than Holy Communion. It sounds too good to be true but then again, it is true. Even the other team (Satan and his brood), had the Nazis come in to study this woman to disprove it and they couldn’t.
Now, you would think that with this occurring in their midst, the Nazis would have been converted. Read the books…they weren’t because they were hard of heart. A place was made in their hearts and souls for this miracle that they studied and their proof serves us today, who study the life of Theresa Neumann. You think someone like Teresa Neumann would be a saint. What does it take to be a saint in this Church? Mother Teresa is still a Blessed, “argh” as they say in German!
Transcribers note: During the war my uncle was blest to be able to visit Theresa Neumann. The Msgr. that married my husband and I was blest to have given her Holy Communion. Please visit this link to learn more about Teresa Neumann
http://www.solt3.org/neumann1.htm
This is such a tremendous day and one that should rattle us, impress us a lot and encourage us to focus more on this “House of Bread”, and not just today but the other 364 days that stretch out before us in anticipation for next Christmas. This was all foretold in the Old Testament and all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said to the prophet.
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord said to the Prophet. “Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall name Him Emmanuel, which means God is with us.”
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen