Carrying the Light of Christ
A special preview of Bishop Douglas J. Lucia’s New Year’s Catholic Sun column
“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year.” With these words of the poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, I begin my first column of the new year 2024. They remind me of the admonition often given: “One day at a time…don’t rush it!” That is easier said than done when this is the year you are getting married or ordained in, or you are expecting the birth of a child, or you are graduating from high school or college and a new adventure awaits you. It might also be difficult to embrace the idea of every day being the best day when one is dealing with illness, especially if it is life-threatening.
Whatever the situation may be there is one thing the Church invites us to focus on in these early days of the new year – God’s blessings! As we do in this first edition of the Catholic Sun of 2024, we are invited to take a look back at 2023 in retrospect – to thank God for the gift of His presence in the various moments of our individual lives and that of our Diocesan Church. Yet, it also a time for us to recall the words of Pope Francis in the recent Vatican declaration, “On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings – Fiducia Supplicans”: “The great blessing of God is Jesus Christ. He is the great gift of God, his own Son. He is a blessing for all humanity, a blessing that has saved us all. He is the Eternal Word, with whom the Father blessed us ‘while we were still sinners’ (Rom 5:8), as St. Paul says. He is the Word made flesh, offered for us on the cross” (#1).
As you and I peer into the New Year ahead, it is with the knowledge that God is with us and is available to us, each and every day of the 366 days that will comprise 2024. Again paragraph 44 of the above Declaration reminds us: “Any blessing will be an opportunity for a renewed proclamation of the kerygma, an invitation to draw ever closer to the love of Christ. As Pope Benedict the XVI taught, ‘Like Mary, the Church is the mediator of God’s blessing for the world: she receives it in receiving Jesus and she transmits it in bearing Jesus. He is the mercy and the peace that the world, of itself, cannot give, and which it needs always, at least as much as bread.’”
On the first day of January as the Church universal celebrates the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God – that is, “Theotokos” – “God-bearer” – it chooses for the gospel passage, Luke 2:16-21. This is the same gospel used at the Christmas Mass at Dawn with one additional verse that reads: “When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb” (v. 21). In other words, the “God-bearer” brings forth “God saves” which is what the name, “Jesus” means. What a powerful statement on the first day of the civil new year! That no matter what the New Year may bring, you and I can find direction from its very beginning in Him who comes to be God’s blessing dwelling in our midst!
In fact, the first reading for Mass on January 1st is the ancient, priestly blessing from the Book of Numbers 6:24-26: “The Lord bless you and keep you! The Lord let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace!” Again, what a way to begin a New Year! As Fiducia Supplicans reiterates: “Blessings…lead us to grasp God’s presence in all the events of life and remind us that, even in the use of created things, human beings are invited to seek God, to love him, and to serve him faithfully” (#8)…“To seek a blessing in the Church is to acknowledge that the life of the Church springs from the womb of God’s mercy and helps us to move forward, to live better, and to respond to the Lord’s will” (#20)…[W]hen one asks for a blessing, one is expressing a petition for God’s assistance, a plea to live better, and confidence in a father who can help us live better” (#21).
These ideas further resonate with the Psalm response for January 1st – “May God bless us in his mercy.” To seek God’s blessings is to strive to grow in the life of God! Now some may feel that because of the circumstances of their lives that they are rejected by God, or at least, they are made to feel that way even by fellow believers. What this recent document on the pastoral meaning of blessings reminds believers is that a blessing can be an opening of the door to God’s grace which can help an individual reconnect with God and recognize how important one is to God! This can then lead to further effort to turn back to God in one’s life as expressed in the prophet Hosea 6:3 – “Let us know, let us strive to know the Lord, as certain as the dawn is his coming. He will come to us like the rain that waters the earth.”
Turning back to Emerson’s words that began this column, “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year” – they express the God-given potential every day of 2024 has for us accompanied by the faith, hope, and love found in God’s blessings. There are some who are concerned that the recent declaration is a weakening of the Church’s teachings regarding sin, but actually it brings to the forefront that, “The sin of the world is great but not infinite, whereas the merciful love of the Redeemer is indeed infinite” (#22). Again and again, we have to remind ourselves that the battle against sin and death has been won; and that like John the Baptist the Church’s whole mission is to point out Christ to those we encounter along the way.
Let me conclude by sharing with you the statement of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) when Fiducia Supplicans was released on December 18th:
“The Declaration issued today by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) articulated a distinction between liturgical (sacramental) blessings, and pastoral blessings, which may be given to persons who desire God’s loving grace in their lives. The Church’s teaching on marriage has not changed, and this declaration affirms that, while also making an effort to accompany people through the imparting of pastoral blessings because each of us needs God’s healing love and mercy in our lives.”
My prayer for our local Church is that in 2024, more and more, we will come to know God’s healing love and mercy in our lives! Happy New Year!
Read the document HERE
