This is my first Christmas as your Bishop. I want to wish you and your loved ones a blessed and peace-filled Christmas. I want to assure you of my prayers during this holy and joyful season in which we celebrate the birth of our Savior.
What does it mean to celebrate the birth of Christ today? Perhaps we have forgotten what happened. Let me reflect with you on the Birth of Jesus. … At a moment in history, something happened. There was an Event. A man and woman, awaiting their first child, journeyed to a different town to register their names during a census. They searched for a place to stay but finding none, their child was born in a cave. Do we realize today that this is what we celebrate – this Event?!!!
The shepherds hastened to see this child. The angels rejoiced, singing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace to men of good will.” Wise men came from the East to find the newborn Infant. The Child Jesus grew, hidden from the world, until He began His public ministry. In His ministry, Jesus called disciples to accompany Him as he proclaimed the Kingdom and worked miracles.
They believed and followed because of His Presence – because of an Event. His miracles and His preaching were part of this Event, but there was more. People followed and believed because of what Christ showed Himself to be – the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He made a proposal to them – a proposal charged with meaning: Follow me and you will see the glory of God!
His disciples later would be sent to make new disciples. This group became the Church. It was Jesus Himself who established the Church – calling and forming people to be His Church. No mere human organization, the Church is divinely instituted. Educated by Jesus to belong to Him, the disciples were called by Him to be united, to become missionaries, and to witness to Him until the end of time.
Jesus left the world a precious gift – His Church. Although we are the Church, it is His Church. This Church is the place where Jesus offers each of us the opportunity to have an encounter with Him, to receive His Holy Spirit, the power of God to be His witnesses, and to exercise this witness daily.
There are those who would like to belong to a community, where they could have this encounter, but who, instead, live in isolation – the sick and the elderly; those who are incarcerated; those who have been forced to flee their homelands because of war or poverty. Christ came for them; they are looking for a home. Our Church can be that place of belonging, and not just a place of belonging, but the place to experience love and true joy.
Jesus offers each of us a place. Although there was no room for Him at the inn, He opens His Heart to us, and He asks that we, His Mystical Body, open our hearts and our doors to receive others. It is true that there are some who come to church seldom, perhaps even only at Christmas; nevertheless, they acknowledge the newborn Child to be the King of Kings and Prince of Peace.
Christianity offers peace. Christianity is not a tired, old religion; it is an announcement of an Event, not something that simply happened 2,000 years ago, but that is alive, that proposes something new – something that opens us to the Mystery of God and His Plan. Christianity is an announcement of an Event – of the Person of Christ who comes to save us.
None of us is perfect. We are all sinners. We need a Redeemer. For this Christ was born. Salvation comes to us in Christ through the Church – the living Presence of God in humanity. The Church exists to announce God’s Presence to humanity.
The newborn Child mysteriously and surprisingly invites us, fragile as we are, to be part of this mission, part of this Event, to announce to the world: “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy which will come to all the people, for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
Merry Christmas!
Completely Yours in the Lord,
Most Reverend Earl K. Fernandes
Bishop of Columbus