Exiit qui seminar
While the Christmas songs on the radio have greatly diminished and for many their Christmas trees have already been put away or discarded, the Catholic Church is still celebrating the feast of Christmas itself. The solemnity of Christmas, the highest level of feast day in the Church, lasts for 8 days, just like Easter. During this period we prayerfully reflect upon the impact of the Birth of Christ in our lives. On December the 26th, we celebrate St. Stephen, the first martyr of the early Christian Church. Today, we celebrate the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph and how we are called to echo their "Yes" to the will of God in our lives. Normally on the 27th we celebrate John the Evangelist, whose Gospel we listened to on Christmas Day - the Beloved Disciple that proclaims that Christ is the light that shines forth through the darkness of sin and death and that the darkness can never overcome the light! Monday is the feast of the Holy Innocents, the children who were killed as Herod the Tetrarch attempted to stop the birth of the Messiah. The Octave of Christmas ends on January 1 with our celebration of Mary, the Holy Mother of God. All these feast days help remind us of our mission as Catholic Christians, but our willingness to offer our lives over to God either with the entirety of hearts or even to the point where we are willing to shed our blood.
After the Octave of Christmas ends, the Christmas season continues with the Epiphany (the coming of the three Magi who bring gifts to show Jesus as the great high priest, His prophetic mission and His role as King of the Universe) and ends with the Baptism of the Lord on January 10 as Christ gives the great witness of being baptized so that we might do so too. So even though the secular world may think Christmas is over, we know that it is just beginning! May the Christ Child fill us with HIs joy and may we share that joy with one another!
God Bless!
Fr. Rob Sinatra
