December 16, 2011
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ilton (Uncle Miltie) Berle was one of the best known television personalities of the mid-20th century. He was a stand-up comedian, but his thunder was stolen by Fulton (Uncle Fultie) Sheen who shared the same time slot on a different network. In his first year on TV, 1952, from a field of candidates that included Lucille Ball, Arthur Godfrey, Jimmy Durante and Edward R. Murrow, Fulton J. Sheen gained the Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Television Personality. In 1956, he was drawing as many as 30 million viewers each week. Now, in the 21st century, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen is a candidate for another award as his case for sainthood proceeds through the office of the Vatican. Milton Berle quipped that his rival did better than he did in the ratings because he had better writers: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
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hristmas is such a great holiday that even the non-religious find it hard to resist co-opting it as a celebration of humanity’s best moments of kindness and generosity. It is interesting to observe our normally rational society try to attach the language of mystery to a secularized holiday, substituting “Christmas magic” for Incarnation. This is not surprising given the fact that Christian imagination is no longer brought to us in Technicolor. Raised in a culture rich in Christian imagination, replete with a soundtrack of Angelus, Rosary and novena, the kids from the neighborhood once debated the relative significance of the two great Christian feasts: Christmas and Easter. Looking back nearly 45 years ago, we kids from the Irish enclave of Rockaway Beach, Queens, made pretty strong arguments supporting either Christmas or Easter supremacy. Before the argument moved dangerously beyond theology and into something more violent, the Jesuit son of our neighbor walked through the courtyard and settled the dispute with a single word: Resurrection. The Resurrection of Christ is the catalyst that creates all
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The Anchor
The Sower
We can picture Jesus lookIf you find it difficult to ing directly at individual think of the then-Bishop farmers who had to deal with Fulton Sheen as a stand-up rocky soil, weeds, birds, drycomedian on his show, “Life ing heat, etc. As He painted is Worth Living,” then you will find it even more difficult His picture for them and they recognized themselves on to think of Jesus as a comic. Both were! Both used humor to gain rapport with their audience and to illustrate their teaching. Nowhere is this more clearly seen than in the parable of By Father “The Sower.” Martin L. Buote This parable and Jesus’ own explanation of it are found their own farms, they unin Matthew 13, Mark 4, and doubtedly laughed at themLuke 8. While the image of selves. the sower has extensive backThen, again, to the peasground in other Jewish literaants in Jesus’ audience who ture, Jesus puts a new twist were engaged in substinence to it. Other literature saw the farming, the yields of which world as evil and not capable Jesus spoke could only be of the great fruitfulness of laughable. The Roman writer the golden age to come. Jesus Marcus Terentius Varro (first saw the Kingdom of God century B.C.) wrote that the already evident in this world, and great blessings co-existed rich landowners of his day could expect a yield of 10 to with mediocrity.
Parables of the Lord
one. The peasants of Jesus’ land could hardly expect that much, let alone 30, 60, or 100 to one of which Jesus spoke. In a recent Internet search, I found several different experiments on yield ratios using the most modern methods of farming, good soil, and good fertilizer. The yields ranged from 22 to one up to 107 to one. The parable as told by Jesus placed everything in the present time of the hearers, not a contrast between then and a time to come. As His listeners mulled over His “jokes,” they would be being prepared for His teaching about the Kingdom of God that was in their midst, not a concept for the far distant future. The explanation that Jesus gives for this parable treats the parable as an allegory, giving an interpretation for each of the various elements of the story. Through this explanation it
Renewing the Resurrection energy
old elf making toys in the of that Christmas magic the North Pole. His legendary world loves so much. Unable gift giving was no simple act to grasp the Mystery of the of charity, but was rooted in Incarnation with a Christian imagination, the feast of Christ’s birth has easily been absorbed into secular banality. The world is much more comfortable with a mythologized By Claire McManus saint who embodies human goodness and generosity than it is with such concepts as Incarnation and Resurrection. justice. The real St. Nicholas once gave an anonymous Perhaps the only way we gift of gold to three young can recover the authentic women who were about to be mystery of Christmas is by sold into prostitution by their reclaiming what the Resurrection has done to our belief. father because he couldn’t afford their dowry. This is The Resurrection changed serious discipleship in action, the whole meaning of disand this is the true meaning cipleship for the people who of Christmas. walked in the footsteps of JeWe validate the celebration sus. The disciples of Jesus did of Christmas when we ournot just hand over the teachselves become the incarnation ings of a master, long dead. of Christ. We are the mysteriWhat made the first disciples ous “spirit of Christmas” that of Jesus different was their captures the imagination of belief in a master still with the world every year at this them. “If Christ has not been raised, then your preaching is time. We are spirit people who give Resurrection energy in vain” (1 Cor:15). If Christ to Christmas. When those has not been raised then we little gift tags are removed might as well celebrate the from the Giving Trees in the life and work of a really nice back of church and replaced guy named Nicholas. This with presents for the needy, saint, when viewed through the lens of authentic Christian Christmas comes to life. When a meal is shared with a discipleship, was no jolly
The Great Commission
lonely heart, Christmas comes to life. When we sit with the bereaved to hear of grief amplified by holiday cheer not shared with a loved one lost, Christmas comes to life. We bring Christmas to life inside the walls of prisons, nursing homes and hospitals. We bring the light of Christmas dawn to shine on a world steeped in the darkness of greed, war, poverty, oppression, human traffick-
becomes quite clear that Jesus is not speaking of some golden age to come when the land will give bountiful harvests. The field of which Jesus is speaking is the individual person’s soul. The harvest yield is to be found in the realm of the spirit, not in the number of bushels of grain. Since Jesus has given us the paradigm of this parable, we can translate the agricultural terms to fit the circumstances of any modern occupation. Think of the setbacks and difficulties that make success difficult for a person today, and then see an outcome greater than anyone could imagine. Now you have a basis for understanding how God can work in your life with your cooperation. Father Buote is a retired priest of the Diocese of Fall River. For more than 30 years, he has been leading Bible study groups in various parishes and has also led pilgrims to visit sites in Israel associated with the Bible.
ing, and marginalization. Our gift to the world this year is to renew the resurrection energy in others by simply living Christmas. We can make our own the saying of John Wesley: “Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can.” Claire McManus is the director of the Diocesan Office of Faith Formation.