Wearing Betsy’s Breakfast

12-19-2021Pastor's LetterFr. John Bonavitacola

Dear Friends,

A while back I went with the Preschoolers on a field trip to a farm. We went into the barn where Betsy the cow stared at us and we at her. Then she decided it was time to take her morning constitutional. Out it came like an open fire hydrant. As we all got sprayed with what remained of Betsy’s breakfast, the girls screamed, “eeeeeewe” and the boys all smiled and said, “cooooool”. At that moment, I was more in agreement with the girls. So, when you think of the stable in Bethlehem where Jesus was birthed, remember it was, well a barn for animals.

What the Gospel writers are trying to tell us is that the world in which the Savior came was a decrepit and decaying place. The God who made the creation and all things beautiful, good and true, returned to a scarred and broken world. The light of Jesus would spread light and reveal all that had gone wrong and then He would light up the way to restore it anew.

On this Christmas 2021 Jesus once again comes to a world that is decrepit, broken and scarred. Certainly, the Way He showed us has fallen in so many ways into disrepair. The society we built with the moral foundation of His teaching has been relentlessly attacked and weakened. Not just by outside forces, though there are plenty of them. But even by the internal weakness of the witness of His followers. But the good news is that He comes again to shed that same light and strengthen those who follow Him.

But we have to be prepared. The Light of Christ always reveals the true intentions of hearts. Just as it did when He walked this earth. The hostility that Jesus faced is proof enough. And that is what we need to prepare for: the more God is revealed and the name of Jesus proclaimed the more will increase the hostility to those who believe.

As things begin to shift in our society, many choose to double down on error and disorder, thinking that will strengthen their position. They think that it will somehow blunt the light of truth. It won’t. The anti-God forces are enraged. I do not expect them to yield to the Truth or go down easily.

When things come to a boil this is often the point where so many weaken. They don't want to be labeled by all the various “phobias” or “isms” that are hurled against those who don't agree with the current cultural fashions. But know this: hearts will be revealed and the time of choosing will come.

During these last two years of this Pandemic we all have been stretched, bent and broken but we also have been given many chances to prepare well and many graces to strengthen us. The past Year of St. Joseph called us to deeper prayer and trust in God’s Plan for His people and His world. Now we wait to see what will be revealed. How God will use historical circumstances, events and happenings to bring the world back to Christ?

In the meanwhile, until that time when God acts, we must be always ready to tell a broken, decrepit world in disrepair, that God IS and that God is good and that God intends our good and not our destruction and that He wants to renew His creation once again through the power of His Light and Love. As God’s Light is revealed, many will recoil since they have grown comfortable in the darkness. We, however, will stand in the warmth of that Light and see all things clearly.

Jesus comes to us anew to recalibrate a disoriented and fractured world. Will you be an instrument He needs to restore His beautiful world?

Merry Christmas!