My dear parishioners in the Rio Grande Valley

december 22, 2007

Christmas is a time of joy and a time for hope!

First, let us consider joy. Can any of us imagine what it would be like to come to the year’s end without Christmas? Without Christmas, there would be no vacation from work or school; free days at this time of year were established so that the Christian world would have time to celebrate Christ’s birth.

No one would be giving or receiving presents; gift giving arose as an extension of the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh that the Magi brought to the Christ child. To give someone a gift at Christmas means that we see Christ in that person. That is what Jesus told us to do – see him who is the Father’s gift to us, in everyone.

No one would decorate their homes with a Christmas tree, and with lights and ornaments. The light decorations are a symbol of Christ, the light of the world, and the evergreen tree reminds us that God’s word is always alive (EVERgreen), and his kingdom will never end.

Above all, if there were no Christmas, we would have no reason to come to church to celebrate the special Masses of Christmas, and sing the beloved carols heralding our newborn Savior.

Christmas shapes the spirit of this time of year. It is a day when nations at war cease fire, family divisions are put aside and we rediscover our capacity to be generous, to reach out to the poor, and to know goodness in our hearts. Rich or poor, powerful or weak, healthy or sick, young or old, we can all enter into the true spirit of Christmas and bow down in worship to the Divine Infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in the manger. Because of Christmas, God is with us!

Now let us consider hope. What gives Christmas its great and enduring power is the fact that the expected Redeemer came in the fullness of time. It is a wonderful date to remember. Christmas awakens hope within us, hope for his coming again, as he promised, at the end of the age. Hope enables us to look forward to something better, indeed to a better life; it is at the core of our Christian vocation.

The importance of hope is the theme of our Holy Father’s recent encyclical, “Saved by Hope.” He reminds us that without hope, without something good to look forward to, life “can only be monotonous and ultimately unbearable.”

Pope Benedict recognizes that throughout life we all have hopes for ourselves, as well as for the world. We hope for comfort, joy and peace in our lives. We hope for an end to disease and poverty, to war and violence, and to inequality and injustice in the world. These hopes are good and often noble, but the pope reminds us that it is a deception to believe that we could ever design an earthly future that would make us fully happy. We discover in our life’s journey that the world is not “the whole,” that there is something more. And what is that? We all know the answer: it is eternal life with God.

Two thousand years ago, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, so that we could be born to eternal life. Today, as we celebrate his birth, let us receive him anew when he gives us his Body and Blood in Holy Communion. Let us look forward, filled with hope, to God’s blessings and providential care for us in this life. Let us also look forward, without fear or dread, to his future coming in glory when at the Last Judgment, as our Holy Father points out, his justice will be balanced with his saving grace, and the salvation we have hoped for will be ours. As disciples in mission, let us give witness to our confident Christian hope, to each other and to everyone in the Valley.

My prayer for you this Christmas day is that the newborn Child will bless you with every good gift and fill you with new hope. May you and your family enjoy a happy and holy Christmas day!

Haz todo con amor,
Bishop of Brownsville
+Raymundo J. Peña

last updated 05-Jun-2008 9:48 sitemap