On the Epiphany my thoughts came together on the intertwining of Christmas, Good Friday and Easter. In our world we often try to focus on the “hopeful” story. The reality is we cannot get to Easter without the first two, and our God wrote it all into the bible’s imagery for us to know this. I spent all season looking for a photo to capture this, and I finally did last weekend.

On Christmas Mary gave birth to the Jesus, the son of God, second person of the Trinity, in a manger. The infinite became finite The all power powerful became vulnerable. In order to atone for the sins of man, God became both humanities’ High Priest and sacrifice. His first clothes were swaddling clothes. These clothes normally wrapped the dead. His first manger was a feeding trough where animals feed. What grain put in a feeding trough to feed the flock is not already dead? This all foreshadows Jesus’ sacrificial death, and feeding us with his own body in the Eucharist.

On Good Friday Jesus would hang from a man crafted tree called a cross. A tree devoid of life, on which should hang condemned criminals. People who no longer get to live in society. On this dead tree Christ, would complete the ultimate sacrifice foreshadowed at Christmas, and break open the doors to heaven. His body forever broken of its finite bonds, it shatters death, and opens the doors of heaven. From heaven he continues to feed us as the High Priest with the bread of life at every mass, absolve our sins in confession, and await us as our judge at the end of time.

So Christmas supports the total victory of Easter. You cannot have Easter without Christmas. You cannot have the meaning of Easter without the context of Christmas.

Driving on a back road here in Loudoun County, I saw this manger before a cross, graveyard and church. I immediately saw the trough, the cross and its victory it can offer over death and sin if we embrace the full truth of the Gospel in our lives. I hope you do too.

God Bless You!

-ehw

(You can see cross much faster in the black and white, which focuses us on shapes and leading lines. Also a quick thanks to Archbishop Fulton Sheen, who taught me this in the Life of Christ!)

You also are blessed because you have heard and believed. A soul that believes both conceives and brings forth the Word of God and acknowledges his works. A Commentary of Luke by St Ambrose Bishop, Divine Office 21 Dec

A common phase we hear today is the St Francis saying of "Preach the gospel at all times, if necessary use words." In our overly politically correct culture, we get bombarded with messages saying words of evangelization offend people and turn them off to the faith. So any way out of explaining or evangelizing with words, is actually welcomed by those of us who fret we may not have all the tools to evangelize properly. Giving into this fear however will not promote the gospel in anyway.

Our early church fathers recognized all people can see natural law, and form lives which conform to it. Natural law in this case being defined as the revelation of the Eternal Law of heaven in nature. Aristotle, aka The Philosopher, remains one of the foremost pagan observers of natural law. We find Aristotle referenced constantly by St. Thomas Aquinas and other Doctors of the Church as they framed their arguments about church doctrine.

Despite the brilliance of observation by natural law observers, they often found themselves going astray because they lacked one vital element to guide their daily reasoning. While these observers could see God's eternal law peeking out in nature, they lacked the other two legs of the trinity to guide their minds to full truth. These men and women lacked the words of Christ, and the timeless inspired words of Wisdom gifted by the Holy Spirit we find in the Holy Bible.

In today's man filled world of noise, the Bible must compete for time in people's thoughts. Therefore, God really does call each each of us to advertise for him. Our actions must of course be consistent with our thoughts and words (That is another blog topic), but we need to use words to form the invitation to know this Holy Bible is worthy of spending time with it!

We do not need to be be a St. Ambrose, Augustine, Aquinas, Mother Teresa, or John Paul the Great. We just need to live our lives, and then make the invitation to come to the book when the moment strikes. When someone asks you why you were kind you can say, "Because I want to live as Christ wanted me to." When someone is in need of support, or looking for guidance on a tough moral decision you can always offer to pray with them or for them.

When we don't know the answer to anything we are asked, we have legions of saints writings and active religious to reach for. These faithful instructors to illuminate the word in different methods. This allows the word to reach, and touch the souls, of those with different backgrounds and cultural references.

Actions alone will never satisfy the soul's need for ministry. We must preach with words to bring the word of God deep into people's hearts and minds. This is where the mysteries can make a stronghold. It will let new faith stand the tests of the world like a fire against a cold night with equal parts emotion and reason.

-ehw