Friends, A blessed Christmas to you and your family! May we pause this day to consider and give thanks for all that our great God has done for us.
God, who is an infinite exchange of love among the divine persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, chose to let His love overflow by creating all things, that the world might reflect His glory. This was not enough, for He willed to create us, men and women, to share in His image, so that we might know, love and serve Him. But even this was not enough. For when we turned away from God in sin, He did not abandon us to death, but sought us out through mighty words and deeds, so that He might be our God and we might be His people.
But speaking in partial and various ways through the prophets was not enough. Now, in these last days, he has revealed Himself through the Son, Jesus Christ. God Himself took on our human nature and made His dwelling among us as a tiny Child, whose birth we celebrate at Christmas. But even this was not far enough for Infinite Love, as this Christ-Child born in a stable for lambs, would Himself be the Lamb of God offering Himself upon the Cross. He entered the depths of our poverty, even death, to save us from our sins. By His rising we too have hope of eternal life.
And just when we might think our God could do nothing more, even that was not enough for Him. When we come to Christ’s Mass, from which Christmas receives its name, the very same Child who once laid in a food trough, offers His own Body and Blood as our food in Holy Communion. Jesus gives us His very self as the food which leads us to heaven.
This is our God who has come so near to us. He it is who has promised, “I will never forsake you or abandon you” (Hebrews 13:5). Jesus, Emmanuel, God is with us: “Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20) Sincerely, Fr. Owen Korte Fr. Kevin Vogel Deacon Doug Tunink Deacon Dennis Knudsen Holy Spirit Catholic Parishes (Holy Trinity, Hartington; St. Michael, Coleridge; St. Joseph, Ponca; St. Peter, Newcastle; St. Jane Frances de Chantal, Randolph; St. Mary of the Seven Dolors, Osmond; St. Paul, Plainview)
