We have passed the Winter Solstice, and days will now begin to grow. In December, as the days shrink to their lowest ebb, the Christian world turns its gaze to the baby growing in Mary’s womb. In the only image of Our Lady painted by no human hand, inexplicably imprinted on Juan Diego’s tilma, Mary carries the Light of the World not in her arms but in her womb. The black ribbon encircling her abdomen, a traditional Aztec sign of pregnancy, tells us that she is with child.
 
On December 11, the eve of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I climbed four flights of stairs to bless the apartment of a young married couple, and to receive my reward of a fine French dinner after the blessing. The couple is expecting their first child in a month, and while the mother is Swedish Lutheran, the father was a French atheist until he submitted himself for baptism at our parish two years ago. David welcomed me into their dwelling and presented me to his wife Johanna. And there she stood, beaming and brimming with life, wonderful with child, and a black ribbon over her abdomen. I gasped slightly and exclaimed “You look like Our Lady of Guadalupe!” She didn’t know to whom I was referring. I explained how Catholics revere an image that appeared on a poor Indian’s cloak in 1531 and asked her husband to pull the image up on his computer. Johanna gazed at Our Lady of Guadalupe with joyful recognition.

Rose Colored Vestments  

“Gaudete Sunday” takes its name from the first word of its opening scripture verse, the introit from Philippians 4, which is also the Epistle for this Mass: Gaudete in Domino semper: iterum dico, gaudete. Dominus prope est. “Rejoice in the Lord always: again I say it, Rejoice!... the Lord is near.” From the perspective of a sinner facing judgement, the nearness of the Lord is fearful, as in the Dies irae sequence. But from the perspective of the sinner facing final redemption, his imminent arrival is joyful. We want to get on with the necessary judgement so we can get through Purgatory and on to Heaven. We want the Lord to come quickly, because the arrival of the Lord is always our supreme good. Thus the priest and the altar clothe themselves in rose vesture to indicate the joy of the Lord’s imminent arrival.

Joy is More than a Feeling

​St. Paul does not ask but commands us to be joyful, in the imperative. He does not suggest; he requires that we radiate joy. Remember that birthday party when you were pouting and your mother said “You will be happy!” St. Paul can command joy because joy is not just a feeling. As they say in Retrouvaille, a program for troubled marriages, love is not a feeling; it is a decision. I will love you, even when I don’t feel love for you! I will radiate joy, especially when I don’t feel joyful. Sound “inauthentic” or “fake?” It’s not. It’s called fidelity. Contemporary culture, following the dictates of the sexual revolution, commands us to follow our feelings. Jesus commands us to overcome our feelings and to practice goodness even and especially when we don’t feel good. The good news is that we can choose to exercise joy even when things around us make us feel sad.
 
Joy is a virtue: it’s a habit we form by repeatedly choosing a good behavior.
Joy is a duty: God calls his disciples to radiate confident joy in his divine providence, the unshakable conviction that “all things work for the good for those who love God” (Romans 8:28). Joy is a net by which we catch souls, beginning with our own. A sad Christian is a bad Christian. We can lose our own soul by grumbling, by complaining, by falling into a pervasive negativity. When we grumble we throw God’s gifts back in his face. Complaining is a kind of blasphemy. And finally, joy is possible. God does not command the impossible, and we all know people who have suffered terribly but remain serenely joyful.

Prayer Guarantees joy

How can I retain that joyful peace when so much is wrong within and without? St. Paul’s answer is clear: prayer. “Rejoice in the Lord always,” he says. “Have no anxiety at all, but by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.” Like everyone else, I struggle with sadness, frustration and discouragement. Being a priest in a culture that marginalizes priests because it ignores God is not easy. Being a priest in a Church whose leaders are confused is confusing. Being a practicing Catholic in a Church whose leaders have been living criminally double lives is discouraging. The betrayal of our leaders drains our courage to be Catholic. We all struggle to put on a joyful face every day with our co-workers, our children, our spouses, and with that most difficult of person, the one we see in the mirror every morning. Personally, what saves me is getting my old carcass out of bed and into the chapel every morning. What can we do when everything else fails but come before God?

The Star of the New Evangelization

​The great image of Our Lady of Guadalupe to my left is still with us from her feast last Wednesday. She brought joy to an entire continent at the lowest point in American history. The most highly developed civilization on the American continent, the Aztec empire, was in its death throes. When she appeared to Juan Diego Cuat-loat-at-zin in 1531, his civilization and the sacred beliefs of his ancestors were being destroyed by the Spaniards. She said to him, “Escucha, ponlo en tu corazón, Hijo mío el menor, que no es nada lo que te espantó, … no se perturbe tu rostro, tu corazón; … ¿No estoy aquí yo, que soy tu Madre?” God gave us His mother, so that we would believe in his tender love for us. By coming to Him through her, we will never flag in Christian joy. Our Lady of Guadalupe, cause of our joy, pray for us!

Mother of the Americas

Yesterday the entire archdiocese came together, it seemed, to honor the Mother of God. 40,000 pilgrims made their way through the city to the cathedral in the 25th annual Guadalupe Procession, walking, singing, and praying for 12 miles into the City of St. Francis. Horsemen in brilliant Guadalupano colors led the way onto the central plaza, pausing at the church door to let in a young woman dressed in the bright mantle Our Lady of Guadalupe, accompanied by a bearded indigenous man dressed as Juan Diego. Thirty Aztec concero dancers in plumage and shells followed them, all keeping their eyes fixed on the 20-foot cathedral mosaic of la Guadalupana. They made their way to her, offering gratitude and prayers to God for sending his holy mother to the Americas in 1531. After the singing, they backed away toward their places for Mass, never turning their faces from hers. And it seemed to me that she was with us yesterday; more than a mere image, the Mother of God who left her image on Juan Diego’s tilma 487 years ago has never left the Americas. God sent his Mother to Mesoamerica during Advent, a Christmas gift, a birth of the Christian faith in the new world. In that year, ten years after Hernan Cortez landed in Veracruz, both Spaniard and Aztec were locked in a war of attrition, grinding toward mutual destruction. Only a mother, and only the Mother of God, could reconcile God’s children. Today they are one race, La Raza, and all of us from Canada to Chile, are Guadalupanos.
 
In my catechism class yesterday, I asked four children to draw a picture of “Christmas” on the board. Each of them drew a Christmas tree. I asked them: What does a fir tree have to do with the birth of the Messiah? And a little girl said it was because Jesus would carry a big piece of wood one day through the streets of Jerusalem. Yes, Christmas is the birth of the Messiah who would save his people by the wood of the cross. Advent is a time of greater prayer and penance to knock down the mountains and fill in the valleys in our lives: to dismantle sinful or simply exaggerated behaviors, and to fill in good habits that may be lacking, especially consistent prayer. Most of us don’t pray enough, and because we don’t give significant time to focused conversation with God, we become easily stressed, irritated, discouraged, depressed, angry, and abusive. The answer to every confusion in our life, the strength for every weakness, is to come before the altar of God, like the Aztec warriors themselves did 500 years ago in Tepeyac, and as they did yesterday in the cathedral. I want to thank all the people from our parish who attended this Mass on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the patronal feast of the United States. Thank you for coming before the altar of God today as well.

Make Straight the Path

Luke begins his Gospel with a list of important historical figures, establishing his credentials as an historian: In the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar, in the governorship of Pontius Pilate, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas…” But the word of God, and the judgement of God, did not come through these great leaders. It came through John the Baptist, a simple preacher who lived in the desert. He wore animal skins and ate insects. He said very simply: Prepare the way for God to enter your soul. Make a straight path for him into your life. Straighten yourself out. We have work to do in these last three weeks Christmas, and I don’t mean only shopping. We must send out the cards and buy the gifts and stage the parties, which are good things. But please do not neglect the real meaning of this season, which is to prepare our souls to receive Him.

The Immaculate Conception

​On Saturday we celebrated our national patroness, the Immaculate Conception. It was on this day, Dec 9, that Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego, a poor little Indian man who could not even speak Spanish. He was on his way to the Mass of the Immaculate Conception when she drew him in by flor y canto, by roses blooming among cactus and songs of delightful birds. In exquisite sweetness she called out: “Juanito, Juan Diegito, el mas pequeño de mis hijos.” He asked who she was, and she told him: “Know for certain, my son, my littlest one, that I am the perfect and ever virgin holy Mary, mother of the true God, through whom all things live, the creator of mankind, the sovereign of all that is near and far, the maker of heaven and earth.” We are all children of this woman, and children of God. Our lives can be ordered and peaceful, preparing for heaven even while on earth, so that nothing here can disturb us. We only need to pray to the good God through Our Lady, and that prayer is how we make straight the path for God into our hearts this Christmas. We celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe this Wednesday, December 12, at 6 in the morning. Can I count on you to join Juan Diego and me on that day, at that hour, to meet her in our church here on Geary Boulevard?

St. Nicholas Happy Feast of St. Nicholas, one of the great bishops of the early Church. “Jolly old St. Nick” certainly radiated joy and a sense of humor, but was not afraid to suffer for the faith as well. He was imprisoned under the Diocletian persecutions, although he did not die a martyr at a time when the clergy were often killed for doing their jobs. Last month I was offering Mass in honor of St. Clement—priest, bishop, pope and martyr—and the thought came to me: bishops used to have lots of enemies. The Church’s Founder, Our Lord Jesus Christ, had many enemies and only a few real friends during his lifetime. He was executed by his own people and sold out by one of his closest friends. Only his mother and one of twelve of his disciples (and two other women) ended up standing by him at his crucifixion,
 
Successful Bishops “Successful” priests and politically powerful bishops are rarely canonized. If the Church holds popular clerics up as models and heroes of our faith, it is despite their success in this world. Good fund raisers generally make poor saints. Our Church's Summer of Shame began with one of America’s most successful and politically powerful cardinals, Theodore McCarrick. Let us hope that the Church’s own “Me-Too Movement” will continue to unmask and purify the private horrors of many popular and powerful American clergy.
 
Why do Cardinals wear red? It would be helpful to remind ex-Cardinal McCarrick, and many of the standing cardinals who were his close collaborators, that they wear red for martyrdom. In the early Church, when a man took holy orders, he was signing up for persecution and possible martyrdom. The first 25 popes were mostly martyrs. When popes become media stars, loved by all, and appreciated especially by the secular world, we have a problem. When priests manage to avoid all conflict with a secular society, when they get along just fine with those who have declared the Christian faith toxic to society, we have lost our way. When everyone loves your parish priest, and your bishop has no enemies, know that the Gospel is not being preached well. To be a Christian in a post-Christian world is to have enemies. We Christians do not seek confrontation, but the same Jesus who said “blessed are the peacemakers” also said that he came to bring “not peace but the sword,” and “a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.” He said that we would be hated by all on account of His Name. So I say again, if your bishop has no enemies, he is not doing his job. If your pastor is not receiving insults and slander, he is withholding parts of the Gospel. If you yourself are comfortable with everyone at work and you have no conflict within your own family, you may not be witnessing the full Gospel of Jesus Christ. And that is the real scandal. 

Tomorrow I will be 57 years old but I still feel like a boy. I guess that is because my mother is alive and well, and they say when your mother dies you become an old man. She still tells me how to drive, for example, and when she leaves me I will feel a lot older. Sometimes I don’t listen respectfully to my mother, and that makes me feel old. One great gift from both my dear parents is my Catholic faith. My mother in particular taught me how to pray to the Mother of God through the rosary. As long as we love our Mother in heaven, we are young. Even when our earthly mothers leave us, we need not lose our childlike simplicity because the Blessed Mother looks after us. My mother named me Joseph because I was born in December (St. Joseph is the unsung hero of Christmas). Isn’t it lovely when parents name their children after the liturgical season or nearest saint’s day? In December we have two lovely feasts of Our Lady, in addition to Christmas. This Saturday will be the Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8), and the following Wednesday Our Lady of Guadalupe (Dec. 12). December 8 is a Holy Day of Obligation, but because it is a Saturday this year my parish will have only one Mass for the Feast (the evening Mass will be for the Second Sunday of Advent). But I personally will attend the Archbishop’s 2pm Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral, which will fulfils the obligation. If you are in driving distance, I encourage you to attend that Mass also, which will feature the Cathedral Choir singing a new Mass of the Americas, the Missa Guadalupana, by composer Frank La Rocca. The Cathedral should be full of pilgrims who will have walked the 12 miles from South San Francisco, just as St. Juan Diego had walked the 12 miles for Mass on Dec 9, 1531, when he encountered the beautiful Lady clothed with the sun. December is a fine month to honor the Mother of God, for the more honor her the more simple joy comes into our childlike hearts. 

I'm on the island of Kauai with some priest friends for our annual vacation, trying not to get too bruised and beaten up on our biking, hiking, and snorkeling adventures. So far we've sustained only one broken toe, some bruised ribs, and lots of cuts and colorful contusions. It seems we are a bit older and less flexible. 
 
Kauai is the northernmost and coolest of the Islands, but the house a generous benefactor has afforded us has ample air conditioning anyway. Our AC is off most of the time, but I noticed that the compressors in the unit next to ours runs day and night, even though the outside temperature is 60 degrees. We Americans are scandalously given to wasting God's natural resources. We make up 4% of the world's population but consume 30% of the world's resources. We take six times more energy, food, and land than the rest of God's children, and we seldom give it a thought. Many feel badly about this, so we pass laws prohibiting waste. We also attempt to shame people through mass and social media into living more simply. Our schools teach "environmentalism" as well, but it doesn't work too well. People still crank their AC units to 60 degrees instead of opening the windows (and we still take vacations in Hawaii instead of staying local). 
 
Some of the clergy of the Catholic Church struggles with this same propensity, they preach high ideals some of them scandalously flout. The religious term for this is "hypocrisy," although the climate change activists who spend much of their time flying jets to conferences in luxury hotels don't call it that. Hypocrisy within the Catholic Church has reached new highs in the last thirty or forty years, with pious cardinals and bishops calling out for the protection of children from abuse while themselves abusing.  
 
Gerhardt Cardinal Mueller recently weighed in on the Vatican's response, or perceived lack thereof, to the McCarrick and other scandals in America. I think any person who refuses to play politics with sex abuse must thank Archbishop Carlo Vigano for boldly stating some exceedingly compromising facts, although he has done so with some imprudence and inaccuracy. But someone has to talk, because every day more good people trip over these sharp "scandals," causing bloody injury. The McCarrick and other crimes are leading many to lose their faith in the Church, and so lose their faith in the whole Christ (which includes the Church He founded). 
 
"How can our leaders solve this mess?" Cardinal Mueller asks. "Rules, norms, and external discipline are not enough." he said. "We need spiritual renewal, prayer and penance, drawing on the grace of the sacraments, reading and meditating on the Bible.... We must be priests according to the heart of Jesus, the heart of Jesus Christ on the cross, who suffered and died for the love of all sinners and every human being.... There are priests who never go to spiritual exercises, never approach the confessional, never pray the breviary. And when the spiritual life is empty, how can a priest act according to Christ."
 
Someone asked GK Chesterton what was wrong with the world. He replied "I am." Although Chesterton may have died a canonizable saint, he had much that was wrong with him. But he did what Cardinal Mueller advises all of us Catholics to do when faced with the disgusting crimes of the Church from top to bottom: go to confession, read your Bible, fast and pray before the Blessed Sacrament. It's as simple as not eating breakfast on the Friday while you are on vacation in Kauai (and the neighbors have just dumped a load of food on you). I leave it to you, my dear reader, to ruminate as to whether your scribe actually pulled that off this morning. But I will say that we have kept our AC off, even the Big Guy in our group that's addicted to AC, for the last four days. "Make of everything you do a sacrifice" Our Lady told Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta. In other words, make of everything a gift to the good God, who has given everything to you. This is the essence of personal holiness, which is the only way back to sanity for our Church and our World.