Dear Friends,
Many do not realize that we Catholics end our Christmas season today, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Many believe that our Christmas celebration ends on the Feast of the Epiphany (or, as many call it, “Little Christmas”), January 6th, but that is not the case, nor was it ever in our history. In the years before Vatican Council II, we actually ended the Christmas season officially on February 2nd, the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, or Candlemas Day (in those days February 2nd was known as the Feast of the Purification of Our Lady).
It is important that we realize the significance of today’s feast. We end the season of Christmas with the Lord’s baptism by John, an act which marks the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. With his baptism he officially begins the work he was sent by the Father to accomplish. He goes forth to save the world by his life-giving words and actions, words and actions which will be given their fullest meaning with his death and resurrection.
At our baptism we, like Jesus, were sent forth by the Father to unite ourselves with the saving work of Jesus. Our words and actions need to reflect the fact that we belong all to God. As sons and daughters of this loving God, and as brothers and sisters of Jesus, we are called to accomplish the work of Christmas each and every day of our lives: to let all the world know of God’s love and of the fact that Jesus came to save us.
Many years ago, someone shared with me a piece by the writer Howard Thurman about the end of the season of Christmas and its significance for us who believe. I share this with you today, as I have in the past, in the hope that it will touch your heart as it has touched mine, as we officially end our Christmas cycle and enter into the Church’s period of Ordinary Time:
When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the heart.
Know that you and those you love are daily remembered in my Mass and my prayers.
Love and prayers,
Father Olivere