Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
December 20, 2000
The Greatest Gift of the Season
By Most. Rev. Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.
This year, as we've journeyed through Advent, I've tried a little experiment. I've kept track of how often I've heard about "the holidays," "holiday sales" and "holiday gift-giving" . . . and how little I've heard about the heart and meaning of the season: Christmas.
Of course, some of this is quite appropriate: our Jewish and other non-Christian friends are rightly sensitive to preserving their own religious identities. Nonetheless, the word "Christmas" seems less and less a part of our public festivities. And this despite the fact that the great majority of Americans still describe themselves as Christians — in other words, followers of Jesus Christ — who celebrate December 25 not as just another secular holiday, but as the birthday of the messiah; the birthday, in the words of St. Leo the Great, of life itself.
Christians live in a special time of joy during these waning days of the Great Jubilee, and it has very little to do with holiday sales. Jesus Christ is Emmanuel — "God with us." The greatest gift of the season is the presence of God Himself. Sharing presents with friends and family is a wonderful tradition that springs eagerly from our Christmas joy. But my wish for all of us this year is that we never allow the noise of mere things to drown out the quiet voice of God's love made flesh in the birth of Jesus. Bethlehem, for each of us individually and the world as a whole, is the beginning of something utterly new and utterly beautiful if we ask God for the purity of heart to possess it.
For anyone who has yet to seek the Jubilee indulgence, now is the time to act. It's never too late to ask the Christ Child into our hearts, and surely this tired and complicated world never needed Him more.
So let me invite you to two very important events.
The first is a special prayer vigil for passage to the Year 2001. After 6:30 p.m. Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Holy Family Sunday, December 31, the Blessed Sacrament will be exposed and all faithful of the archdiocese are invited to come for quiet prayer and adoration in the ensuing hours. Groups from around the archdiocese will periodically lead music. At 11:30 p.m., I will lead a special prayer vigil to carry us into the new year.
The second event is the special Jubilee Year closing Mass, Friday, January 5, at 5:30 p.m., again at the cathedral, offered in thanksgiving for all we've received throughout the Great Jubilee.
Let's join together this Christmas season in honoring Christmas for what it really is — the birthday of Our Lord. And let's live these remaining weeks of the Jubilee Year as disciples — and public witnesses — of "God with us."
May God grant a truly merry Christmas to all of us, and know that I will remember you at Mass on Christmas Day and throughout the coming year!
