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The Value of Silence Before the Great Mystery of the Incarnation Msgr. Charles Pope • December 29, 2016 • Something at Christmas urges me (a man of many words) to write of holy silence. Perhaps it is due to one of the great Christmas antiphons, which speaks of the birth of Christ as a magnum mysterium (a great mystery). During Mass recently, the words of Zechariah came to my mind:Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord … Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for...

Our Lady of Guadalupe. Credit: Sacred Heart Cathedral Knoxville via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0). Denver, Colo., Dec 29, 2016 / 02:32 pm (CNA).- What do a grilled cheese sandwich and the tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe have in common?Both bore what appeared to be images of Mary. One was determined to be authentically miraculous, the other was not. Not to spoil any secrets, but it’s not Our Lady of the Grilled Cheese that converted Mexico and continues to draw millions of people on pilgrimage every year.But have you ever wondered just how the Church determines the bogus from the...

The Reality of Christmas as an Antidote to Unreal Times Msgr. Charles Pope • December 28, 2016 • At Christmas we celebrate the birth of the Word made flesh. All the Gospel writers (especially St. John) emphasize the reality of God present among us in a very tangible, physical way. This is a critical truth because one of the dangers is reducing our faith to a mere collection of ideas, setting aside the actual Jesus who took up our full nature, lived among us, and summoned us to a real encounter.These Christmas themes are more important than ever for...

Singing Nun Dominique

Why Is Christmas Considered a Nighttime Event? Msgr. Charles Pope • December 27, 2016 • O Holy night! Yes, a silent night! And it came upon a midnight clear! Christmas, it would seem, is a festival of the middle of the night. Jesus is born when it is dark, dark midnight. We are sure of it. And why shouldn’t we be?Even though we are not told the exact hour of His birth, we are sure it must have been at night. Scripture does say that the Shepherds who heard the glad tidings were keeping watch over their flock “by...

OCTOBER 30, 2013 Johann von Staupitz (c. 1460-1524) on God’s eternal predestination Towards the end of the Middle Ages there was what one may describe as a Neo-Augustinian renaissance which included a number of outstanding theologians such as Gregory of Rimini. This increased interest in Augustine’s writings to a large extent set the table for the Protestant Reformation, specifically with regard to the doctrine of predestination. Johann von Staupitz (c. 1460-1524) was Vicar-General of the Augustinian Order in Germany and a very influential mentor of the young monk Martin Luther. Von Staupitz, however, later had to release Luther from the...

Paradoxes of Christmas Msgr. Charles Pope • December 26, 2016 • In the ancient Church and up until rather recently, one genuflected at the two references to the Incarnation during the Mass: during the Creed and in the Last Gospel (John 1). Why was this done? It was explained to me that the mystery of the Incarnation is so deep, one can only fall in silent reverence.There are many paradoxes and seeming impossibilities in the Incarnation. They cannot be fully solved, so they claim our reverence. We genuflected in the past, and today we bow at the mention of...

Humility Lessons from the Nativity – A Homily for Christmas Msgr. Charles Pope • December 24, 2016 • The Christmas Gospel from Luke provides us with many teachings. One thing that surely stands out, however, is the permeating theme of humility. Throughout the account, God confounds our prideful expectations and insists on being found in the lowest of places.The newborn Christ is not found where we expect Him to be nor does His birth conform to any script we would design. Right from the start, He gives us many lessons in humility and begins His saving work of healing...

No One Goes Away from Jesus Unchanged Msgr. Charles Pope • December 23, 2016 • The video below is a 2008 Coca-Cola commercial that takes up the theme of the star of Christmas.Let us review the impact that the star of Christmas had on the wise men, the Magi. The star moved them to seek meaning outside themselves; it made them look out and up.The star called them beyond what was familiar in their own country and world and expanded their horizons toward Christ and His Kingdom.The star summoned them to seek Christ, and when they found Him, to...

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church cautioned against one-sided commemorations of the centenary of the Russian Revolution. “It is important to avoid overstating or forgetting the heroism of our people, all those good things that happened in the past years, as well as understating or retouching the troubles and confusion that our motherland went through after 1917,” Patriarch Kirill of Moscow said on December 22, according to an Interfax report. A lesson of the Revolution is that a “society built on opposing God and his eternal moral law is destined to self-destruction,” he added. “One should remember that today,...

Why Was Jesus Born When and Where He Was? Msgr. Charles Pope • December 22, 2016 • In preparation for the coming of Christmas, we have been discussing some of St. Thomas Aquinas’ writings. In today’s last installment we’ll be looking at his commentary on the time and place of Jesus’ birth.We live in a culture today that tends toward a kind of temporal pride. We think that we have come of age, that we are smarter and wiser than our forebears. Scientific, technical, and medical knowledge are more highly developed to be sure, but there is more to...

As the Pew Research Center found in 2013, about 81 percent of non-Christians celebrate Christmas in the United States. That includes people without religion, Buddhists, Hindus and American Jews. In fact, close to one-third of Jewish people (32 percent) have a Christmas tree in their homes during the December months, according to Pew. More so, almost 1 in 3 Americans sees Christmas as a cultural holiday, not just a religious one, according to Pew. The data show that 92 percent of Americans celebrate the holiday, with 51 percent believing it’s a religious holiday and 9 percent feeling it is both...

Would Jesus Have Come If Adam Had Not Sinned? Why Did He Wait So Long Before Coming? Msgr. Charles Pope • December 21, 2016 • Continuing our series of questions related to the Incarnation, we next ponder whether Jesus would have come at all had we not sinned in the Garden. We also wonder why He waited thousands of years before coming to our rescue.Regarding the question of whether Christ would have come if Adam had not sinned, St. Thomas Aquinas (in his Summa Theologica) first states that there are different opinions on the matter. He also notes that...

The modern tendency is to start and end Christmas early. Let’s return to our roots and celebrate until CandlemasOne of the downsides of starting Christmas so soon is that it finishes too soon. Obviously, if the season starts commercially just after Halloween, and the Christmas lights go on at the beginning of November, and the party season gets going in early December, you’re over the celebrations by St Stephen’s, or Boxing Day, with one last hurrah on New Year’s Eve. As an uncle of mine used to say dolefully, after tea on Christmas Day: “That’s Christmas over for another...

Why Was Christ Born of a Woman? Msgr. Charles Pope • December 20, 2016 • As Christmas draws closer, we continue to ponder the approaching mysteries. Today we will consider some of the things St. Thomas Aquinas taught regarding the Incarnation.Why did the Lord choose to come to us through a woman, Mary? He could have come in any manner He pleased. Yesterday, we pondered why He took true flesh and a human nature to Himself rather than just coming as a kind of ghost or simply as God. But even in becoming truly and fully man, He could...

GHENT, Belgium — Layers and layers of paint have been virtually and physically removed from the 15th-century Ghent Altarpiece, a renowned work of biblical figures on wood panels, revealing for the first time in hundreds of years the individual brush strokes of the original paintings. In this first phase of restoration on one of the earliest art works to use oil paints on a large scale, new scanning techniques uncovered the singular skills of the Flemish brothers Jan and Hubert Van Eyck, beneath layers of overpainting and varnish. The restoration, which has been taking place for the last four years...

This year marks the 70th anniversary of Frank Capra’s beloved Christmas movie, It’s a Wonderful Life. It debuted December 20, 1946, just a year after World War II ended. (Remember, the film begins and ends with the expected return of war hero Harry Bailey.)The film offers several Catholic perspectives. How many movies today would begin with eight people praying? But, in a world afflicted by the culture of death, I want to salute the pro-life focus of this film.In response to those eight prayers heard in heaven, God summons the angels—his messengers—to help. “At exactly ten forty-five p.m. earth...

Why Did the Second Person of the Trinity Become Incarnate Rather Than the Father or the Holy Spirit? Msgr. Charles Pope • December 19, 2016 • As we continue to await the fast-approaching Feast of Holy Christmas, it is good to ponder some aspects of the Incarnation. Among the questions for us to consider is why it was the Son, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, that became incarnate, rather than the Father or the Holy Spirit.Most people have never even thought of this question let alone sought to answer it. God could have chosen many different ways...

For the last several weeks major media organizations had been loudly vocalizing their belief that this year might see the Electoral College swinging the election against November 8th's winner because of an unusual number of defectors.  In fact, there were an unusual number of defectors yesterday, but not from Donald Trump: Trump managed to win 304 of his 306 possible Electoral Votes.  However, in what was quite the media shocker, Hillary Clinton actually lost five of her electors, winning only 227 of 232 possible Electoral Votes.  Three of her defectors voted for Colin Powell, one for a Native American protester,...

Four Arguments for the Fittingness of the Incarnation According to St. Thomas Aquinas Msgr. Charles Pope • December 18, 2016 • As we approach the Christmas feasts, it is good for us to ponder aspects of the Incarnation. In this article, I would like to consider what St. Thomas Aquinas teaches about the fittingness of the Incarnation. God was not radically “required” to do everything as He did. We do well to ponder why the manner of the Lord’s incarnation is “fitting,” why it makes sense.St. Thomas, referencing St. John Damascene, gives four reasons for the fittingness of the...