Looking back at the weekly messages of Father Paul Counce, first published in The Carpenter, our weekly Parish Bulletin
Published: December 30, 2018
This time of year sure is long. Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas. The famous “Twelve Days of Christmas” begin on December 25 and end on “Twelfth Night,” the vigil of the Lord’s Epiphany, on January 5. Indeed, if one looks at the Church’s liturgical calendar, the Christmas Season goes on a little longer than that, even, including the Feast of the Lord’s Baptism (January 13 this year). Sandwiched into all of that time are also this weekend’s Feast of the Holy Family and the dual celebration of the Feast of Mary the Mother of God on secular New Year’s Day. And of course “Twelfth Night” is, for us in Louisiana, the traditional beginning of the Carnival season which will culminate on Mardi Gras.
I mention this because so much is compacted into these six or so weeks. A liturgical year ends and begins. A calendar year ends and begins. Festive seasons begin and end with religious feasts. And I suppose that a lot of holiday cookies and other goodies – including gumbos around here! – also meet their end during these days.
May I suggest that it is crucially important, however, that we not let the frenetic pace of December and January overwhelm us. Even more the celebrating must not de-sensitize us to the many other important things that go on in this and every season. In particular we need to notice – with all due spiritual sensitivity, too – what else goes on in these times, and not just the good things.
Suffering still happens, for example. And not just far away for Syrians and Afghans weary of war, or in urban ghettos closer to home for forgotten lives. The mystery of illness and death still happens, and is not just a concern for those suffering chronic conditions or for those whose hearts ache with memories of family members lost in the past year. Fate still seems to be a charm for only a few, and a cruel enemy for more, far too many in fact.
You might think I’m being too melancholy for this happy season. Perhaps, but if so I’m trying to unite in spiritual solidarity to those whose pains are far worse than mine. Part of my reflectiveness is due to the sudden terrible illness which overwhelmed our Cathedral Parish’s longtime organist and director of music, Mr. Robbie Giroir. Part of it is due to the mystery of death among a couple of others of our parishioner’s extended families and one of my longtime friends. Part of it is due to the tragedy of marital breakdown, which destroys happiness and worse, attacks the very ability to trust and love again. And part of it is due to both the apathy and the meanness which tempt others to disengage from society rather than build up community and achievement.
Remember why Jesus was born, after all. God the Father looked down and saw humanity’s fallen state, unable by our own actions and aspirations to overcome sins in this world or obtain eternal life in the next. We were all lost and hopeless. Thank goodness “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life” (the famous verse Jn 3:16). In Christ Jesus and their Holy Spirit, God sought to be in solidarity with us in our misery. That is something that takes a long, long time to appreciate fully.
Still yours in the newborn Christ Child,
Very Rev Paul D. Counce
