Looking back at the weekly messages of Father Paul Counce, first published in The Carpenter, our weekly Parish Bulletin
Published: December 15, 2019
The Christmas season is just about here. Virtually everybody considers it the most favorite time of year! (It’s a good thing that hunting season also occurs in the winter, though, so that some people don’t have to make a tough choice between favorites!)
The late Father Raymond Brown, probably the most pre-eminent American Scripture scholar ever, long held and taught that the Bible’s Christmas story is a short summary of the whole, longer history of salvation. (The technical word he used is microcosm.) It has promise, challenge, defeat and ultimately victory within it; its poetry speaks of salvation breaking upon world darkened by sin like candles softening the dark nights of December.
I’ve often stolen Father Brown’s ideas a bit and re-worked them: I think the Christmas story is also a microcosm of our own lives! After all, our lives are complicated mixtures of many ideas and experiences: we know “beauty in the midst of dirtiness.” We can appreciate feasting because we know what hunger is. We’re familiar with generosity because we also know how widespread selfishness is. Beautiful music appeals to us because we’ve also heard cries of pain and loneliness and poverty. The achievements of adulthood are all that more satisfying because of the years of study and homework – and friendships made and lost – that preceded.
In sum, we know that in the midst of the darkness of our life’s limitations, light shines! In other words, there’s “a little bit of the Christmas story” in each one of us! My prayer for you this holiday season is that you notice and savor the grace of Christmas, in your own favorite way – and that you notice how your very own life can reflect Christmas so much!
Of course, celebrating Christmas includes Mass on December 24/25. I hope you’re already planning to join us here at the Cathedral for one or more of them: the Vigil Mass at 4 pm; the “Mass during the Night” at 9 pm (with a musical program preceding, beginning at 8:15 pm); the 8:30 am “Mass at Dawn” on Christmas morning; and the 10:30 am Mass of Christmas Day itself.
Many ask why the “Mass during the Night” – as the Roman Missal calls it – isn’t celebrated at midnight any longer. Of course, it could be. But liturgical law says it need not be, and it just seems right for us in our situation to schedule it a bit earlier. The average age of our own parishioners here at the Cathedral is a bit older than most parishes, and they and the many “friends of the Cathedral” who worship with us often drive quite a distance to be with us for Mass. When we switched to this earlier hour a decade ago, it more than doubled our attendance! Our musicians appreciate the earlier hour, as do our ministers, staff and security detail. All in all, it seems, it makes a big difference getting home well before midnight instead of at 2 in the morning!!
So plan to join us here at your Cathedral! I can assure you that in the end the graces of Christmas here will be profound. I hope you can come to be with us!
In the coming Christ,
Very Rev Paul D. Counce
