Columban, the patron saint of a united Europe

Statue of St Columban, Luxeuil

The following article by Columban Fr Seán McDonagh appears in today's issue of The Irish Times in its Rite & Reason series.

Rite & Reason: The Irish presidency of the European Union provides an opportunity for us to reflect on the achievements of the Irish in Europe from the sixth to the eighth centuries. (The Republic of Ireland holds the Presidency of the European Union from 1 January till 30 June 2013).

St Columban is arguably the best-known Irish person to have visited the European continent then.

Born on the Carlow/ Wexford border about AD543, he studied under Sinell of Cleenish, whose monastery was on an island of the river Erne, in modern Co Fermanagh.

Later he joined the monastery at Bangor under the abbot Comgall and was ordained a priest. At age 51, with a number of companions, he set sail for Europe to become a pilgrim for Christ.

Annegray

In Saint Columbanus: Pilgrim for Christ, Fr Aidan Larkin gives a biographical sketch of the saint: “The child would grow to manhood and become first a monk, then a priest, a distinguished scripture teacher, a master of Latin prose style and rhetoric, a competent versifier, an abbot, a founder of monasteries and monastic lawgiver, notably in Annegray, Luxeuil and Fontaines, in Burgundy, France, from where he would be expelled, and then in Bregenz, Austria, and finally in Bobbio, northern Italy, where he would die in 615.

Cloister of Luxeuil Abbey

A European saint 

“The monasteries that he founded would multiply themselves. Figures vary, but around 60 is a reasonable claim for the number of monastic communities living under the Columban Rule in the following generation, in France; and, out of roughly 100 French diocesan sees, at least 12 would be occupied by his disciples.”

In June 2008, in a reflection on the life of St Columban, Pope Benedict XVI said there was good reason to call Columban a European saint.

The pope drew attention to the fact that the expression “totius Europae – of all Europe” first appeared in a letter which Columban wrote to Pope Gregory the Great in AD600.

Pope Benedict also points out that Columban’s last monastery at Bobbio became a “cultural centre on a par with the famous (Benedictine) monastery of Monte Cassino”.

Altar, Basilica of St Columban, Bobbio

Columban never forgot his Irish identity. In fact, he is the first Irish person to articulate a sense of what it means to be Irish. In the letter he wrote to Pope Boniface in AD613, he wrote of “...we Irish”. The Irish were not held in high esteem in continental Europe during the Roman Empire and even after the collapse of that empire.

Columban and the monks who followed him to Europe in the sixth and seventh centuries changed that perception radically. The fact that, within a generation after his death Jonas, a monk at Bobbio, wrote the Life of Columbanus is a testimony to the importance of Columban’s legacy in Europe.

Crypt of St Columban, Bobbio

Shaping identity 

The UCC historian Damian Bracken has commented that, “this is another first: Columbanus is the first Irishman to be the subject of a biography”.

Columban and the other Irish monks who laboured in Europe between the sixth and eighth centuries helped to shape the European identity. According to Bracken, “shrines, towns and landmarks across Europe bear Columbanus’s name and testify to the widespread diffusion of devotion to the saint”.

In the middle of the ninth century a biographer of St Gall, a colleague of Columban, acknowledges the debt of his people to Ireland “whence the splendour of such light came to us”.

Robert Schuman, stamp issued in West Germany, 1968

In July 1950 a congress was organised in Luxeuil in eastern France to celebrate the 1,400th anniversary of the birth of St Columban. It was the brainchild of Robert Schuman, one of the founders of the European Union, who was at the time foreign minister of France and a tireless promoter of understanding and co-operation among European countries.

In his speech then he said that, “St Columban, this illustrious Irishman who left his own country for voluntary exile, willed and achieved a spiritual union between the principal European countries of his time. He is the patron saint of all those who now seek to build a united Europe.”

John A. Costello

Taoiseach (title of Irish Prime Minster) of the day, John A Costello, told the gathering that: “All statesmen of today might well turn their thoughts to St Columban and his teaching. History records that it was by men like him that civilisation was saved in the 6th century.”

St Columban's, Dalgan Park, Navan, Ireland

A Columban priest, Fr SEÁN McDONAGH is based at Dalgan Park, Navan, Co Meath. Blog:http://earthcaremission.wordpress.com/

'Thou art my beloved Son.' Sunday Reflections, Baptism of the Lord, Year C

Baptism of Christ, El Greco, painted 1596-1600 (Web Gallery of Art)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa) 

Gospel Luke 3:15-16, 21-22 (Revised Standard Version – Catholic Edition)

As the people were in expectation, and all men questioned in their hearts concerning John, whether perhaps he were the Christ, John answered them all, "I baptize you with water; but he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 

Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, as a dove, and a voice came from heaven, "Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased." 

A friend of my brother some years ago was asked if he would mind playing a round of golf on a course near Belfast with a visitor from the European Continent. He agreed and the visitor was introduced as 'Monsieur So-and-so'. Naturally,  the two men got chatting and the Irishman asked his companion, 'What do you do for a living?' 'Monsieur So-and-so' smiled and said, 'I'm the King of the Belgians'. It was indeed the late King Baudouin.

King Baudouin of the Belgians (1930 - 1993)

King Baudouin, a saintly man, often travelled incognito, as Leo Cardinal Suenens, the late Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, tells in his biography of the King, Baudouin, King of the Belgians, The Hidden Life. They sometimes went on pilgrimage to Lourdes together, the King driving. On one such occasion, the Cardinal recalled, they passed a wayside shrine of the Blessed Mother that had been vandalized. King Baudouin stopped the car and fixed the shrine.

While the video above, from Franco Zeffirelli's 1977 TV miniseries Jesus of Nazareth, doesn't follow St Luke's gospel word for word, it does highlight one remarkable aspect of the baptism of Jesus - he lined up with sinners who wouldn't have known who he was. He is God who became Man, utterly sinless, and yet he asks for baptism, which for John the Baptist was a sign of repentance.  Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:5-8).

In the video St John the Baptist speaks the beautiful words of the Father to Jesus, Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased. And when each of us was baptized the Father spoke the same words to each of us, his beloved sons and daughters. A few days ago at Mass we heard those powerful words of St John: In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins (1 John 4:9-10).

There at his baptism in the Jordan is God made manifest among us. What greater assurance can we have of God's love?

King Baudouin wrote a letter in 1984 in response to one he had received from 'someone who had written to him full or rebellion and indignation against everything that is even remotely related to religious or accepted ways of behaving', as Cardinal Suenens put it. Here are some extracts from the King's reply to this person.

When I was still a teenager, I discovered that God, in the person of Jesus, loved us and loved me with a love that is foolish, but very real. He suffered the most excruciating torture in order to save us, to save me, to save each one of us personally from the grip of evil, and to enable us to share, if we so will, in his divine life. That, if we accept him, his Father will become our Father, my Father. That Mary, his mother, will also become my mother, our mother.

From that day on my life changed. by that I mean my way of looking at things, because I'm afraid I'm still the same poor chap, with the same faults as before. but my weaknesses don't discourage me any longer: on the contrary, they provide me with a reason for trusting totally in the all-powerful strength of my Father who is also your Father.

This is a king writing to one of his people, an angry young person who trusted him enough to write him. King Baudouin is taking the words of St John to heart: In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins . . .

And in recognising that he himself is still the same poor chap he is acknowledging that Jesus is not ashamed of him, no more than he was ashamed of the sinners he lined up with to be baptized by John, even if he himself was utterly sinless.

The Royal Palace in Laeken, near Brussels

King Baudouin wasn't ashamed of his subjects or of those who came to his country from elsewhere. The London newspaper, The Independent, carried an astonishing story about his funeral (I've highlighted some parts):

A former prostitute paid an emotional homage to King Baudouin at the funeral Mass. One of a handful of people chosen to deliver orations, Luz Oral, a Filipino, praised the King for his fight against the international sex trade. She stood in silence as a writer, Chris de Stoop, read aloud the words she had written. Ms Oral had met the King when he paid a highly-publicised visit to a brothel in Antwerp, and De Stoop said both the King and Queen had wanted her to address the funeral. This was her homage:

Now my friend passed away, who else can help us? I come from Manila. My family is very poor. I was promised a nice job in Europe. But Belgian men put us in a sex club. Belgian men put us in prostitution. We cried and we refused. But nobody could help us. We were forced. We were treated like slaves. When I could run away, I was arrested by police. I had many problems. 

Last year the King came to see us in Antwerp. We were five girls there. We cried again but it was different tears. The King was holding my arm. He listened to me. Only the King listened to us. He was shocked. There are too many victims here. From Manila. From Bangkok. From Santo Domingo. From Budapest. From eastern Europe. All looking for a better life in the West. All pushed in prostitution. The King was fighting against this sex trade. He was standing up for us. He was a real king. I called him my friend.

Princess Astrid of Sweden, Queen Consort of the Belgians (1905 - 1935)

King Baudouin, living his faith in Jesus Christ, brought hope into the lives of people on the margins, the hope that Jesus brought into the world by standing with us sinners in the River Jordan. The King himself had suffered much in his lifetime. His mother, Princess Astrid of Sweden, died in a car accident when he was only five. He, his sister and brother, with their father King Leopold III were under house arrest during World War II and spent part of it in Germany. In 1951 Leopold, a cause of bitter division in Belgium because of his surrender to Nazi Germany in 1940, abdicated and his elder son took over, not yet 21.

King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola

In 1960 the young king married Doña Fabiola de Mora y Aragón from Spain. To their great sorrow, they had no children. Queen Fabiola had five miscarriages.

In 1990 King Baudouin asked the government to declare him temporarily unable to reign so that he wouldn't have to sign a bill legalising abortion. The government agreed. The King's stand was one of principle, though he was unable to stop the law coming into force.

Church of Our Lady of Laeken where King Baudouin is buried 

King Baudouin went to Mass every day and to confession regularly. The baptism of St John the Baptist might spur each of us on to avail of the sacrament of reconciliation often and to us priests to make ourselves available for it. The King would write a 'thought for the day' in his pocket diary, a text from the Mass.

And in that diary, after his death, this prayer was found:

Lord, make us suffer with the suffering of others. 

Lord, let us never again keep our happiness to ourselves. 

Make us share the agony of all suffering humanity. 

And deliver us from ourselves, if that is in accordance with your will.

Leo Joseph Cardinal Suenens

(1904-1996)

Cardinal Suenens writes that Baudouin once confided to a friend his purpose in being King:

To love his country, 

to pray for his country, 

and to suffer for his country.

'When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.' Sunday Reflections for the Epiphany.

Adoration of the Magi, Francisco de Zurbarán, 1639-40 (Web Gallery of Art)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa) 

Gospel Matthew 2:1-12 (Revised Standard Version – Catholic Edition)

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him." When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it is written by the prophet: 'And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will govern my people Israel.'" Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star appeared; and he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him bring me word, that I too may come and worship him." When they had heard the king they went their way; and lo, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy; and going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

Liturgical note: The 2002 edition of the Roman Missal re-introduced the Vigil of the Epiphany. The Vigil Mass, celebrated before or after Evening Prayer on the eve of the Epiphany, has its own prayers, Entrance and Communion antiphons, but uses the same readings as on the feast day itself. It is incorrect to refer to a Vigil Mass as an 'anticipated Mass'. The Vigil Mass fulfils the obligation to attend Mass on a holyday of obligation or on a Sunday.

The history of the Church in Korea is unique. The faith was brought there by a 'wise man from the East', the 'wise man' in question being a diplomat and 'the East' being Korea, to the east of China where the diplomat went on a mission to Beijing where he was baptised. He then brought the faith to his own country. The video above, which marks the feast of the Korean Martyrs celebrated on 20 September, gives a brief synopsis of the story. Blessed Pope John Paul II canonised 103 Korean martyrs in Seoul on 6 May 1984. It is estimated that about 8,000 Koreans died as martyrs for the faith.

The Koreans embraced the Catholic Christian faith at great cost. There were four major persecutions in the 19th century. Korea's first priest, St Andrew Kim Taegon, was martyred in 1846 aged 25. His father, Ignatius, was also a martyr.

The last persecution was in 1868. One little incident in that shows a remarkable contrast to the aftermath of the visit of the Magi to Bethlehem when King Herod had all the boys aged two and under killed. Fr Donal O'Keeffe, the Columban superior in Korea, wrote about this after the death of Stephen Cardinal Kim, former Archbishop of Seoul, on 16 February 2009 :

Kim Sou-Hwan (Stephen) was born in May 1922 in Taegu in the province of Kyongsangdo to a fervent Catholic family. His grandfather Kim Bo-hyun (John) was arrested and martyred in Seoul in 1868 during the last persecution of Christians in Korea. His grandmother was also to be executed with him but was released because she was pregnant. The child born was Kim Young-sok (Joseph) who was to become the father of Kim Sou-hwan.

The persecutors spared the Cardinal's grandmother because she was pregnant!

Stephen Cardinal Kim Sou-hwan (8 May 1922 - 16 February 2009) with friends

Mary, the Mother of God, is central to the whole Christmas story. The Magi saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him.

Korean soprano Sumi Jo sings a setting of the words Ave Maria, 'Hail Mary', attributed to Giulio Caccini who died in 1618. But it seems it was written anonymously by Russian composer Vladimir Vasilov in 1970. The two words Ave Maria, the music and the singing of Sumi Jo surely draw us to behold the beauty of your sublime glory, as the Collect of the Mass prays. 

Collect

O God, who on this day 
revealed your Only Begotten Son to the nations 
by the guidance of a star, 
grant in your mercy 
that we, who know you already by faith, 
may be brought to behold the beauty of your sublime glory.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, 
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, 
one God, for ever and ever.

'He communicated best as priest.' Fr James B. Reuter SJ dies in Manila at 96

It's not every day that the death of a priest is marked by an editorial in a country's leading newspaper. But yesterday, 2 January, the Philippine Daily Inquirer carried one, Great soul, about an American Jesuit who had come here in 1938 as a scholastic and, with the exception of two or three years after World War II, spent the rest of his life here, Fr James B. Reuter SJ. He died peacefully on 31 December.

Father Jim was from Elizabeth, New Jersey, and was of German stock on his father's side and Irish on his mother's, a good combination of which he was proud. He was a pioneer in the use of the mass media in the Philippines in the service of the Gospel - radio, TV, the stage. I don't know if he ever got into IT but he had been quite sick for the last three or four years.

In either 1974 or 1974, when I was chaplain in the college department of Immaculate Conception College, Ozamiz City, then run by the Columban Sisters and now La Salle University, I invited him to give a workshop on radio drama to the members of the radio club I had started. I had a number of programmes on DXDD, the station of the Diocese of Ozamiz that had been started by a Columban priest, Fr Charles Nolan.

The first thing that surprised me when I met him at the airport was that he was wearing his cassock. That had been the universal dress of priests in the Philippines until the late 1960s. He was one of the few to continue the practice. The last time I met him, maybe four years ago at a Catholic Mass Media Awards ceremony, he was in a wheelchair. 

We spent the whole of each of the five days of the workshop in Ozamiz in the studios of DXDD and we learned by doing, under the direction of Father Jim. He had brought along five of his own 30-minute plays. As far as I recall, he directed three of the five plays and supervised two of us while we directed the last two. It was hard work but great fun. And we enjoyed listening to ourselves when the station broadcast our work.

During the Martial Law years Father Jim produced a four-page newsletter called The Communicator, which was widely distributed by the Catholic Church. It was published either weekly or monthly, I can't quite remember. He also encouraged rural communities to to write the news on blackboards. Almost everyone had access to radio but the media were controlled and news heavily censored or simply suppressed.

Eventually the authorities caught up with Father Reuter. Lai S. Reyes tells the story in the Philippine Star, the Manila daily for which Father Jim wrote a column, At 3AM, until 2009. Her article, In the Name of the Father - James Reuter SJ, was published on 28 July 2010.

The Communicator, The Hero

Unknown to the younger generation, Fr. Jim also played an important role in restoring our democracy. Through his Sunday radio program, The Commonweal Hour, and his magazine, The Communicator, Fr. Jim exposed the wrongdoings of the late dictator, President Ferdinand Marcos.

“There was one story I wrote, which blew his top. It was about the shoemaker in Manila who got killed because he didn’t give up the land (which he owned) that the government wanted,” Fr. Jim recalls.

The shoemaker’s story displeased the former president.

“As a dictator, Marcos thought he could do anything he pleased because he could easily get away with it. At that time, it was a crime to say or do anything hostile to the actions of Marcos,” Fr. Jim notes. The shoemaker was an ordinary man, but he eventually became a symbol of freedom.

The Xavier House in Sta. Ana, Manila, which served as Fr. Jim’s home and office, was raided by the military during Martial Law. They confiscated all the copies of The Communicator and eventually put the priest on house arrest.

Fr. Jim went on trial for eight days at Camp Crame, but the man behind his arrest got nervous and was afraid that the incident would be exposed to the international press. In no time, President Marcos gave Fr. Jim “amnesty.”

“They had 76 accusations against me. Amnesty means all the crimes you’ve been accused of have been forgotten by the defendant. But for Marcos, it meant otherwise. They told me that I was guilty, but they were not going to punish me yet. However, if I did something that would displease the dictator, they would put me in jail or deport me, or worst, shoot me,” recalls Fr. Jim.

That incident didn’t dampen Fr. Jim’s spirit. In fact, it further fueled his desire to fight back and put an end to the evil deeds of the oppressor. That day came when People Power broke out on EDSA in 1986.

“It was such a sweet victory not only for me but especially the Filipino people. My heart belongs to the Philippines. In fact, I’m more of a Filipino than an American. I even applied for a Filipino citizenship, but I was denied on grounds of being an ‘undesirable alien,’” he says with a laugh.

The long wait is over. In 2006, Fr. Jim was granted an honorary Filipino citizenship by the House of Representatives and the Senate. 

Father Reuter called his column, which he wrote for twenty years, At 3AM because that was the time he wrote it. He was unconventional in another way too. Most westerners in the Philippines take a siesta after lunch, which is usually at 12, but Father Jim used to come to the Columban house in Manila and swim in our pool at that time. He did this into his 80s.

Ma. Ceres P. Doyo of the Philippine Daily Inquirer recalls an interview in 1989 with Father Reuter in her weekly Human Face column today, Conversation with Fr. James Reuter SJ. She notes: 

Being the head of the Catholic Church’s National Office of Mass Media is only one of the many jobs of Father Reuter. But this office is the hub and heart of what the Jesuit padre is into. He writes, he directs plays, gives retreats and spiritual guidance. He is also an organizer, a mover. The youth is his forte.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer editorial yesterday ended with these words:

Reuter’s pivotal role in Philippine history was prepared for in part by the high price he had to pay: He was imprisoned by the Japanese during World War II, and he was silenced, arrested, tried then quietly released during the Marcos dictatorship.

To the thousands who came to work with Reuter, it was perhaps as a teaching priest, a shaper of conscience and character, that they knew him best. In a generous tribute occasioned by Reuter’s 90th birthday in 2006, Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, the archbishop of Manila at that time, zeroed in on this particular gift.

“However, his finest hours as a communicator [are] when he is with people: with the many young people [who] went under his spiritual direction through retreats and recollections, the many nuns [whom] he directed and counseled, the many couples he guided, the many priests he walked with, the many poor he visited and assisted, the many bishops he served, the ordinary men and women who confessed to him, attended the Masses he presided, received his comfort and blessings. He communicated best as priest.”

On reflection, we can now see that the Reuter legacy was not so much the act of communicating (he excelled in many media), but the content of his communication (he had one constant message). Or to be more precise, and recalling the earliest Judeo-Christian traditions, his word was his work. It was all of a piece.

Two years ago, he paid his adopted countrymen the highest compliment: “When I first came here, I thought I was bringing God to the Philippines. But what I discovered was [the Filipinos] brought God to me.”

One little detail remains in my memory from the Ozamiz workshop. Irving Berlin's Blue Skies was to be sung by a young man to his girlfriend in one of the radio plays. However, none of the students knew the song, which I took to be a favourite of Father Jim, so we replaced it with a Filipino love song. When he went home to the USA a the end of the War he probably saw Bing Crosby sing Blue Skies in the 1946 movie of the same name.

For me as a priest it is a blessing to have known Father Jim, even briefly, and to know how faithfully and zealously he lived as a Jesuit priest among the Filipino people whom he loved. And what a lovely tribute by Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, then Archbishop of Manila, on the occasion of Father Jim's 90th birthday: He communicated best as priest. May he rest in peace.

Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God. New Year's Day

The Virgin Mary, El Greco, painted 1594-1604 (Web Gallery of Art)

Second reading from the Mass of the Solemnity, Mary Mother of God (Galatians 4:4-7, RSV Catholic Edition)

But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir.

Introit

Salve, sancta Parens, eníxa puérpera Regem, qui caelum terrámque regit in saecula saeculórum.

Entrance Antiphon

Hail, Holy Mother, who gave birth to the King,

who rules heaven and earth for ever.

The recording by the Benedictines of the Abbey of Solesmes, France, is of the fuller version used in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, the 'Traditional Latin Mass', which includes the Gloria Patri and repeats the antiphon.)

World Day of Peace

The Church also observes New Year's Day as World Day of Peace, though not liturgically. the theme of Pope Benedict's message for World Day of Peace, 1 January 2013, is Blessed are the Peacemakers. Two paragraphs are of particular relevance in the context of proposed legislation in a number of countries, including the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, and of recent legislation approved in the Philippines. And our focus during the seasons of Advent and Christmas is on the Birth of a Child.

Those who insufficiently value human life and, in consequence, support among other things the liberalization of abortion, perhaps do not realize that in this way they are proposing the pursuit of a false peace. The flight from responsibility, which degrades human persons, and even more so the killing of a defenceless and innocent being, will never be able to produce happiness or peace. Indeed how could one claim to bring about peace, the integral development of peoples or even the protection of the environment without defending the life of those who are weakest, beginning with the unborn. Every offence against life, especially at its beginning, inevitably causes irreparable damage to development, peace and the environment. Neither is it just to introduce surreptitiously into legislation false rights or freedoms which, on the basis of a reductive and relativistic view of human beings and the clever use of ambiguous expressions aimed at promoting a supposed right to abortion and euthanasia, pose a threat to the fundamental right to life.

There is also a need to acknowledge and promote the natural structure of marriage as the union of a man and a woman in the face of attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different types of union; such attempts actually harm and help to destabilize marriage, obscuring its specific nature and its indispensable role in society.

I used the video above recently. It's message is not only the powerful words of the Beatitudes given us by Jesus but the dignity of those who proclaim them here. Some say, in all sincerity, that if it is known before birth that a child has a disability, especially a mental one, better that that child not be born. They are really saying that the persons in this video, whose names appear at the end, were not worthy of being born, or would have been spared a life of suffering had they been aborted. Pope Benedict is speaking to those who see things in this way.

I have a close friend whose first child, a son, was born with severe mental and physical disabilities, due to something that happened during the birth. She told me that it has taken her nearly five years to accept this reality. But there is no way that she and her husband regret the birth of their son, whom they have loved to bits from the moment of his birth, indeed from the moment they knew their first child was on his way. And their daughter, now four, loves her older brother to bits in the same way.

How often persons who are pro-life in word and in deed are taunted or dismissed as caring only for the lives of the unborn. My friends are taking care of their son, with professional help, 24/7. There are countless others caring with all their hearts for those in need.

Pope Benedict's words are a message of hope to the many who lovingly care for persons with special needs at whatever stage of life and he is telling them that they are truly peacemakers. He is also quietly challenging those who see things differently.

A Happy New Year!

Juan Diego Flórez sings Cantique de Noël / O Holy Night

I don't recall hearing O Holy Night in my childhood, though I'm sure I did. In the early 1960s, as I recall, a young singer from Limerick, Ireland, named Tommy Drennan recorded it and it became a big hit in my country. I was in the seminary then.

There are many recordings of this song. Some are quite wonderful while some are not. Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez sing in the original French, by Placide Cappeau, and in the English version by John Sullivan Dwight that most of us are familiar with. You can find the words of both versions here. Adolphe Adam set Cappeau's poem to music in 1847. Cappeau had written the poem at the request of his parish priest but some years later the Church in France banned the use of the song for a while. You can read about it here. (That page gives the surname of the composer as 'Adams' but elsewhere he is 'Adam'.)

I have always liked the version of American soprano Leontyne Price best. She recorded it with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Herbert von Karajan. He was born in Salzburg, Austria, where Mozart was also born, and the most beautiful city I have ever visited. I was there for a few days in the spring of 1988. (Silent Night originated in the village of Arnsdorf, in the province of Salzburg of which the city of that name is the capital.)

The video of Juan Diego Flórez was made at a Christmas concert in Vienna in 2008 while the recording of Leontyne Price was made in 1961. I have always found it difficult to make a final choice of favourites of anything. I hope you enjoy the glorious tenor voice from Lima, Peru,  and the sublime soprano voice from Laurel, Mississippi, USA.

Adoration of the Shepherds, Rembrandt, 1646 (Web Gallery of Art)

'Your father and I have been looking for you anxiously.' Sunday Reflections, The Holy Family, Year C

Renante and Christine Alejo-Uy with Kiefer Thomas, their first born. They are active members of Couples for Christ in Bacolod City.

The cover of Misyon, the magazine of the Columbans in the Philippines, November-December 2007.

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Luke 2:41-52 (Revised Standard Version – Catholic Edition)

Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom; and when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the company they went a day's journey, and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintances; and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions; and all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when they saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously." And he said to them, "How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" And they did not understand the saying which he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man.

Christ among the Doctors, Leonaert Bramer, painted 1640-45 (Web Gallery of Art)

Today is the Feast of The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. On 19 March the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Today's gospel refers to Joseph and Mary as the parents of Jesus. Mary says reproachfully to her Son, Your father and I have been looking for you anxiously. To the puzzlement of both Mary and Joseph, Jesus replies, Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?

St Matthew shows clearly the role of St Joseph in the life of Jesus: An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, 'Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins (Matthew 1: 20-21).

Joseph's first responsibility was to be the husband of Mary and, as such, was to name her Son, thereby becoming his legal father. In some paintings of the Nativity St Joseph is a background figure, or partly hidden in the dark, but clearly protective of Jesus and Mary, and in an attitude of worship towards the Infant.

The Nativity, El Greco, painted 1603-05 (Web Gallery of Art)

But in depictions of the Flight into Egypt, of which there are many, we often find St Joseph leading the way, as in this woodcarving. 

The Flight into Egypt, Unknown Flemish Master, c. 1515 (Web Gallery of Art)

The Greek-born Doménikos Theotokópoulos, (1541 – 7 April 1614) who settled in Toledo, Spain, as a young man where he became known as 'El Greco', 'The Greek', captures the role of St Joseph as a protective parent.

St Joseph and the Christ Child , El Greco, c. 1600 (Web Gallery of Art)

As a child I saw my parents as my father and mother. Now I remember them not only as that but as a married couple. And sometimes I think that the Church over-emphasises the importance of the family at the expense of marriage, which is the foundation of the family. St Joseph's primary responsibility was to be the husband of Mary and, as such, to be the one known as the father of Jesus, even though Mary's Son wasn't his. 

And in today's gospel Mary painfully discovers that, in a sense, he isn't hers either, as he says, Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house? At the beginning of his adolescence Jesus was, in his humanity, coming in touch with his heavenly Father's will. The mystery of Jesus being both God and Man is something we cannot fathom. St Paul says that Jesus though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped (Philippians 2:6).

But this incident shows us that Mary and Joseph as parents suffered the same pain that every parent of an adolescent goes through. They were learning that they did not 'own' Jesus, that they would have to let him go at some stage.

I recall some incidents involving my father. One was when I was no more that three, possibly only two. Like St Joseph, he was a carpenter and made a little saddle that he put on the crossbar of his bicycle, on which he went to work every morning. I recall him taking me for a 'spin', probably on a Saturday afternoon, in the area where we lived at the time, I sitting joyfully on the little wooden saddle he had made. It's like a photo in my mind that captures a moment of delight between father and son.

Then when I was around ten he taught me how to ride a bicycle. I borrowed that of a cousin a little older than me. Dad held the back of the saddle tightly so that I wouldn't lose balance and stayed with me patiently. Then at a certain point I realised that he wasn't holding it anymore and that I was moving forward without falling. He knew when to let go. 

He taught me how to swim around that same time, with the same approach. He gave me a sense of security - but didn't cling on when I didn't need that kind of security anymore.

My parents taught me what trust was by trusting me. In Ireland the symbol of adulthood was - and maybe still is, I don't know - the key to the house. I was given the key when I was only 13. None of my friends had that privilege. Even on one occasion three years later when I came home very late on my bicycle from a dance and they were waiting at the door sick with worry - nobody on our street had a telephone and mobile phones probably weren't even in the imaginations of science-fiction writers - all I got was a well-deserved scolding. They still trusted me to use my key responsibly.

I saw too that on occasions when there might be a combination of heat and coldness in their relationship for a few days, they still took care of each other. After attending a very early Mass Dad would come home, prepare my mother's breakfast and bring it to her in bed before heading off for work. And when he came home in the evening his dinner would be always ready. I remember his amusement on the only occasion in their married life when my mother didn't have it ready. She had been delayed by something unexpected and was really embarrassed. Dad just laughed.

In Worldwide Marriage Encounter one of the things we emphasise is that Love is a Decision. It's not a feeling, though feelings are related to it, of course. I saw that in my parents' lives and I also saw that they made important decisions together. One example was when I was 13. My father was asked to take on a job for six months in a town in the south of Ireland. This meant that he would be able to come home only one weekend per month. I know that my parents discussed this thoroughly and also spoke to us, their two sons, about it, before deciding that Dad should take on the job.

This cartoon, which I found on a friend's Facebook, captures in a humorous way what Love is a Decision means. (I think that the cartoon has been been to many places in cyberspace.)

As I look back now, I see clearly that my parents were husband and wife first, and father and mother second. That did not mean that they saw parenthood as being of lesser importance but that they saw it as being a consequence of being married. I think they had their priorities right.

The Feast of the Holy Family reminds us that marriage is the root of the family. Do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus (Matthew 1:20-21).

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The liturgical Season of Christmas continues until the Feast of The Baptism of the Lord on Sunday 13 January. The Huron Carol was written by St Jean de Brébeuf SJ in 1623 and set to a French folk tune. Jesse Edgar Middleton translated it into English in 1926. St Jean, a Frenchman, was martyred in Canada on 16 March 1649

Twas in the moon of wintertime when all the birds had fled
That mighty Gitchi Manitou sent angel choirs instead;
Before their light the stars grew dim and wondering hunters heard the hymn,
Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.

Within a lodge of broken bark the tender babe was found;
A ragged robe of rabbit skin enwrapped his beauty round
But as the hunter braves drew nigh the angel song rang loud and high
Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.

O children of the forest free, O seed of Manitou
The holy Child of earth and heaven is born today for you.
Come kneel before the radiant boy who brings you beauty peace and joy.
Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.

Statue of St Jean de Brébeuf, Midland, Ontario, Canada