By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
Merry Christmas.
This column, the last of 2022, is written with sentiments of gratitude for your readership both of this column and of our historic newspaper The Wanderer. Good Catholic journalism, like much that passes for Catholic in these very strange times, is very rare indeed. Labels cannot be trusted for the reason that many publications and much of media bearing the name of our Faith are in fact the very opposite of what is claimed. I hope you have found this paper, on the contrary, to be a solid Catholic voice among a cacophonic chorus clamoring for attention.
Also, too there is an obsession with filth and with sin among many who claim to speak with an authentic Catholic voice and sensibility. Such persons may hold offices or titles in the Church, but this alone cannot confer the authority of Faith which commands our obedience. No, we must examine what is said and done by anyone, no matter rank or station, against the Faith of all times. We know that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Heb. 13, 8) He taught that new wine must be place in new wineskins. He spoke this way of Revelation, which ended with the death of the last Apostle.
As this paper goes to press the news has come that Pope Benedict XVI is very ill and we are requested to pray for him. Please join me in doing so. A traditional prayer for popes is the following:
Orémus pro beatíssimo Papa nostro Benedetto XVI.
Dóminus consérvet eum, et vivíficet eum, et beátum fáciat eum in terra, et non tradat eum in ánimam inimicórum eius.
As we all grow older with the passing years, and some much closer to eternity as in the case of Benedict XVI, we look back on our lives to see the effects and results of our Faith. Have we grown in the wisdom and holiness conferred by the Lord through the Holy Spirit? Have we been faithful to the authentic teachings of the Church? Do we recognize that truth of morals and doctrine is not ours to manipulate or to change but, because it is the truth, is ours to obey?
Newness of life. Always sounds good. But to make room for the new wine of the Gospel we need new wineskins. Something old and uselessly taking up space must be jettisoned to make room for what is new.
In some areas of the world such as in Italy, the New Year custom of “out with the old” literally means tossing old crockery out the windows. Beware those walking on the street below!
This “newness” that we desire in the midst of the old things, like the passing of the old year, is always ours through our holy Faith. The teachings remain. It is not the teachings that are new but rather the life of grace made possible for us by standing fast in the truth and so witnessing to Christ. Love of the Lord is also unity and oneness with the Lord. Such oneness and unity is made possible by standing in the truth, living the truth while teaching and handing on the truth.
As the old year passes with these days of Christmastide we celebrate the Circumcision of the Lord. Why did our tradition choose this moment in the life of the newborn Savior to hail the arrival of the new calends of 2023?
In the life of the Church the first day of the New Year is also the octave day of Christmas. Why does the Church point so dramatically to the flesh of Christ at this signal moment of fullness in the Christmas season?
The life of grace through Christ the Lord comes through the old law. The old preparing the way for the new, the new fulfilling the old.
“In that time, after eight days were accomplished, that the child should be circumcised, his name was called Jesus.” Thus begins the Gospel for the Mass of the Circumcision from Luke, chapter 2, verse 21. “After eight days,” the first octave of the life of Christ.
In the richness of our Catholic tradition we need never start from zero or make things up as we go along. No, rather we can stand on the shoulders of the spiritual giants who came before us to understand the Word of God more deeply. St. Ambrose thus enlightens us:
“So the Child is circumcised. This is the Child of Whom it is said: Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, (Isaiah ix. 6). “Made under the law to redeem them that were under the law.” (Gal. iv. 4). “To present Him to the Lord . . . He that is circumcised in heart gaineth the protection of God, “for the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous.” (Psalm xxxiii. 16) Ye will see that as all the ceremonies of the old law were types of realities in the new, so the circumcision of the body signified the cleansing of the heart from the guilt of sin.”
The Flesh of the Redeemer submits in obedience to the Law for the sake of bringing all enslaved by sin under the law into the new dispensation of grace through, with and in His sacred Manhood and Divinity.
Ambrose continues:
“But since the body and mind of man remain yet infected with a proneness’ to sin, the circumcision of the eighth day is also a type of that complete cleansing from sin which we shall have at the resurrection. This ceremony was also performed in obedience to the commandment of God: ‘Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy unto the Lord.’ These words were written with especial reference to the delivery of the Blessed Virgin. Truly He That opened her womb was holy, for He was altogether without spot, and we may gather that the law was written specially for Him from the words of the Angel: ‘That Holy Thing Which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God.’
“Among all that are born of women the Lord Jesus Christ stood alone in holiness. Fresh from His immaculate Birth, He felt no contagion from human corruption, and His heavenly Majesty drove it away. If we are to follow the letter and say that every male that openeth the womb is holy, how shall we explain that so many have been unrighteous? Was Ahab holy? Were the false prophets holy? Were they holy on whom Elijah justly called down fire from heaven? But He to Whom the sacred commandment of the law of God is mystically directed is the Holy One of Israel; Who also alone hath opened the secret womb of His holy Virgin-bride the Church, filling her with a sinless fruitfulness to give birth to Christian souls.”
We know from the sad experience of sin that holiness is a hard-won victory over the weakness of the flesh and the wayward human will. Grace alone through faith will save us. The grace of a New Year in the Lord gives fresh promise of God’s dominion over our lives and our world in which the darkness of evil and death yet threatens so much of humanity.
The light needed by the men and women of today is the same light that has always alone pierced the worst darkness: the solitary heart lonely for lack of the love of God. The Lord shines through us, by grace, through the means of His Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist. He is the light through our love of truth and of one another in the truth.
May the New Year 2023 bring ever new graces in the Lord and strength of Faith to you and yours. As we grow together in virtue and holiness we gain the treasure that alone lasts, anticipation and foretaste of the promise of the Kingdom of God.
Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.
@TruthSocialPadre
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