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St. Andrew the Apostle Friday Flash | December 24th, 2021

Friday Flash

December 24, 2021

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR 2022

Dear Friends,

We have come to that special moment of the year when we once again rejoice and celebrate the birth of God’s only son Jesus, as our Savior. Even though we continue to celebrate this event amidst the pandemic challenges as we did last year, this year is nevertheless still unique in very many ways for our parish. We have continued to grow in our faith through the various sacraments we celebrated, the journeys towards holiness and their focuses on the cross during Lent, the Eucharist in the weeks preceding the feast of Corpus Christi and journey towards Bethlehem during this past advent season.

As I ponder the ramifications of the celebration of these events in the context of God becoming a fragile man in the small family of Mary and Joseph in Nazarreth, I am in awe by just how incredible this is. In this state of awe, especially during this particular Christmas season, let us give gratitude for the many blessings we have received as individuals but also as the family of St. Andrew the Apostle. Let us recall that lying in that manger in total poverty and surrounded by the discomfort and cold of that environment, the little family of Joseph and Mary beheld, adored and protected the hope of the entire world.With that little family surrounding that manger, with their nearest companions being the shepherds and their animals, and the angelic choir, let us rejoice and reclaim that hope for ourselves.

Reflecting more deeply on this, I am reminded of a Christmas Homily that Pope Benedict XVI delivered some years ago on the gospel of the mid-night Mass which I also shared two years ago. In his reflection, he looks to the reaction of these Shepherds spoken of in Luke’s Gospel after the Angels depart which says: “The shepherds said to one another: Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened for us (cf. Lk 2:15). The shepherds went with haste to Bethlehem, the Evangelist tells us (cf. 2:16). A holy curiosity impelled them to see this child in a manger, who the angel had said was the Savior, Christ the Lord. The great joy of which the angel spoke had touched their hearts and given them wings.” Benedict continues, “Let us go over to Bethlehem, says the Church’s liturgy to us today. Trans-eamus is what the Latin Bible says: let us go ‘across’, daring to step beyond, to make the ‘transition’ by which we step outside our habits of thought and habits of life, across the purely material world into the real one, across to the God who in his turn has come across to us (in poverty). Let us ask the Lord to grant that we may overcome our limits, our world, to help us to encounter him, especially at the moment when he places himself into our hands and into our heart in the Holy Eucharist.”

Indeed, we are challenged today to encounter Christ in a way we have never done before especially during this pandemic. Let us approach this Christmas as an opportunity for all of us to receive Christ as he enters into our lives and into our families from a new perspective. As we do so, let us ask ourselves this fundamental question: What is it that we need and what is it that we might offer God back, as a libation and as St. Andrews? The God of the universe desires that we might know Him and love Him deeply through our focus on this little baby boy who is also very present in the Eucharist. This is the invitation we have all been given this Christmas, how will we now respond?

In responding, we must draw a great lesson from the example of the holy family and their infant child Jesus. We must be ready to quit complaining about the little discomforts we encounter in this world and instead be grateful for the abundant blessings we have received in the course of the year as a result of God-becoming-man in that manner of the manger.

My dear friends, may God bless you all most abundantly this Christmas season and may He continue bless our wonderful parish of St. Andrew the Apostle the entire coming year of 2022. As we enter into this new year 2022, we look forward to establishing perpetual adoration here in our parish as a means of perpetuating the presence of this new born child among us. St. Andrew, know that I am looking forward to that moment with greater anticipation. Will you join me?

St. Andrew, I love you all very much! Merry Christmas!

- Fr. Robert

Offices will be closed December 27th-31st.

We will resume on January 3rd.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

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