Fort Wayne Jaguars won the MICHIGAN BUCCANEERS LEAGUE Championship by a score of 75 to 70 over Michigan Madcows. Shaun Alexander led the team in scoring in the championship round and Drew Brees led the team in scoring for the season. Congrats once again to Fort Wayne Jaguars on a terrific Fantasy football Season. Hope to see you all next year!...
The Vatican spokesman on Saturday denounced Saddam Hussein's execution as
"tragic" and expressed worry it might fuel revenge and new violence.
The execution is "tragic and reason for sadness," the Rev. Federico Lombardi said,
speaking in French on Vatican Radio's French-language news program.
In separate comments to the station's English program, Lombardi said that capital
punishment cannot be justified "even when the person put to death is one guilty
of grave crimes," and he reiterated the Catholic Church's overall opposition to
the death penalty.
Executing Saddam "is not a way to reconstruct justice" in Iraqi society, the spokesman said. "It might fuel the spirit of revenge and sow seeds of new violence."
Lombardi expressed the hope that leaders "do everything possible" so that "from this dramatic situation ways might open to reconciliation and peace."
In an interview published in an Italian daily earlier in the week, the Vatican's top prelate for justice issues, Cardinal Renato Martino, said executing Saddam would mean punishing "a crime with another crime."
All it took the other day was hearing pop star Olivia Newton-John's
recording of the “Ave Maria” for Father Paul Zahl to feel that old, familiar tug
at his heartstrings.
Then came the voices in his head asking those nagging questions that
many weary Episcopalians have pondered in recent decades: “Why keep fighting?
Why not join the Roman Catholic Church?”
"Our Saviour is born to the world!" During the night, in our Churches, we
again heard this message that, notwithstanding the passage of the centuries,
remains ever new. It is the heavenly message that tells us to fear not, for "a
great joy" has come "to all the people" (Lk 1:10). It is a message of hope, for
it tells us that, on that night over two thousand years ago, there "was born in
the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord" (Lk 2:11). The Angel of
Christmas announced it then to the shepherds out on the hills of Bethlehem;
today the Angel repeats it to us, to all who dwell in our world: "The Saviour is
born; he is born for you! Come, come, let us adore him!".
But does a "Saviour" still have any value and meaning for the men and women of the third millennium ? Is a "Saviour" still needed by a humanity which has reached the moon and Mars and is prepared to conquer the universe; for a humanity which
knows no limits in its pursuit of nature’s secrets and which has succeeded even
in deciphering the marvellous codes of the human genome? Is a Saviour needed by
a humanity which has invented interactive communication, which navigates in the
virtual ocean of the internet and, thanks to the most advanced modern communications technologies, has now made the Earth, our great common home, a
global village? This humanity of the twenty-first century appears as a sure and
self-sufficient master of its own destiny, the avid proponent of uncontested
triumphs.
So it would seem, yet this is not the case. People continue to die of hunger and thirst, disease and poverty, in this age of plenty and of unbridled consumerism. Some people remain enslaved, exploited and stripped of their dignity; others are victims of racial and religious hatred, hampered by intolerance and discrimination, and by political interference and physical or moral coercion with regard to the free profession of their faith. Others see their own bodies and those of their dear ones, particularly their children, maimed by weaponry, by terrorism and by all sorts of violence, at a time when everyone invokes and acclaims progress, solidarity and peace for all. And what of those who, bereft of hope, are forced to leave their homes and countries in order to find humane living conditions elsewhere? How can we help those who are misled by facile prophets of happiness, those who struggle with relationships and are incapable of accepting responsibility for their present and future, those who are trapped in the tunnel of loneliness and who often end up enslaved to alcohol or drugs? What are we to think of those who choose death in the
belief that they are celebrating life?
How can we not hear, from the very depths of this humanity, at once joyful and anguished, a heart-rending cry for help? It is Christmas: today "the true light that enlightens every man" (Jn 1:9) came into the world. "The word became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1:14), proclaims the Evangelist John. Today, this very day, Christ comes once more "unto his own", and to those who receive him he gives "the power to become children of God"; in a word, he offers them the opportunity to see God’s glory and to share the joy of that Love which became incarnate for us in Bethlehem. Today "our Saviour is born to the world", for he knows that even today we need him. Despite humanity’s many advances, man has always been the same: a freedom poised between good and evil, between life and death. It is there, in the very depths of his being, in what the Bible calls his "heart", that man always needs
to be "saved". And, in this post-modern age, perhaps he needs a Saviour all the
more, since the society in which he lives has become more complex and the
threats to his personal and moral integrity have become more insidious. Who can
defend him, if not the One who loves him to the point of sacrificing on the
Cross his only-begotten Son as the Saviour of the world?
"Salvator noster": Christ is also the Saviour of men and women today. Who will make this message of hope resound, in a credible way, in every corner of the earth? Who will work to ensure the recognition, protection and promotion of the integral good of the human person as the condition for peace, respecting each man and every woman and their proper dignity? Who will help us to realize that with good will,
reasonableness and moderation it is possible to avoid aggravating conflicts and
instead to find fair solutions? With deep apprehension I think, on this festive
day, of the Middle East, marked by so many grave crises and conflicts, and I
express my hope that the way will be opened to a just and lasting peace, with
respect for the inalienable rights of the peoples living there. I place in the
hands of the divine Child of Bethlehem the indications of a resumption of
dialogue between the Israelis and Palestinians, which we have witnessed in
recent days, and the hope of further encouraging developments. I am confident
that, after so many victims, destruction and uncertainty, a democratic Lebanon,
open to others and in dialogue with different cultures and religions, will
survive and progress. I appeal to all those who hold in their hands the fate of
Iraq, that there will be an end to the brutal violence that has brought so much
bloodshed to the country, and that every one of its inhabitants will be safe to
lead a normal life. I pray to God that in Sri Lanka the parties in conflict will
heed the desire of the people for a future of brotherhood and solidarity; that
in Darfur and throughout Africa there will be an end to fratricidal conflicts,
that the open wounds in that continent will quickly heal and that the steps
being made towards reconciliation, democracy and development will be
consolidated. May the Divine Child, the Prince of Peace, grant an end to the
outbreaks of tension that make uncertain the future of other parts of the world,
in Europe and in Latin America.
"Salvator noster": this is our hope; this is the message that the Church proclaims once again this Christmas day. With the Incarnation, as the Second Vatican Council stated, the Son of God has in some way united himself with each man and women (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 22). The birth of the Head is also the birth of the body, as Pope
Saint Leo the Great noted. In Bethlehem the Christian people was born, Christ’s
mystical body, in which each member is closely joined to the others in total
solidarity. Our Saviour is born for all. We must proclaim this not only in
words, but by our entire life, giving the world a witness of united, open
communities where fraternity and forgiveness reign, along with acceptance and
mutual service, truth, justice and love.
A community saved by Christ. This is the true nature of the Church, which draws her nourishment from his Word and his Eucharistic Body. Only by rediscovering the gift she has received can the Church bear witness to Christ the Saviour before all people. She does this with passionate enthusiasm, with full respect for all cultural and religious traditions; she does so joyfully, knowing that the One she proclaims takes away nothing that is authentically human, but instead brings it to fulfilment. In truth, Christ comes to destroy only evil, only sin; everything else, all the
rest, he elevates and perfects. Christ does not save us from our humanity, but
through it; he does not save us from the world, but came into the world, so that
through him the world might be saved (cf. Jn 3:17).
Dear brothers and sisters, wherever you may be, may this message of joy and hope reach your ears: God became man in Jesus Christ, he was born of the Virgin Mary and today he is reborn in the Church. He brings to all the love of the Father in heaven. He is the Saviour of the world! Do not be afraid, open your hearts to him and receive him, so that his Kingdom of love and peace may become the common legacy of each man and woman. Happy Christmas!
The Roman Catholic bishop of Cordoba in southern Spain has rejected an appeal from Muslims for the right to pray in the city's cathedral, a former mosque.
Juan Jose Asenjo rejected the request made by Spain's Islamic Board in a letter to the Pope.
It had asked that the cathedral become an ecumenical temple where believers from all faiths could worship.
The bishop said such a move would not contribute to the peaceful co-existence between people of different religions.
On the contrary, he said in a statement late on Wednesday, the joint use of temples and places of worship would only generate confusion amongst the faithful.
“Why did he do it? Why did God become man?”
The chant the angels began singing in the grotto—“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests” (Lk 2, 14)—can help answer this question. The canticle of the night before Christmas, which is now in the Gloria, belongs to the liturgy as do the other three canticles from the New Testament which refer to Jesus’ birth and infancy: the Benedictus, the Magnificat and the Nunc dimittis.
Whilst these are included respectively in the morning Lauds, the evening Vesper prayer, and the nightly Compline, the Gloria found its place in the Holy Mass. To the angels’ words a few acclamations were added: "We praise You. We bless You. We adore You. We glorify You. We give You thanks for Your great Glory.” Later “Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father. You who take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us” were added to form an ariose hymn of praise that was sung the first time during Christmas mass and then in all feast days. Included at the beginning of the Eucharistic celebration, the Gloria underscores the existing continuity between and the birth and the death of Christ, between Christmas and Easter, which are indissoluble aspects of the one and the same mystery of salvation.
The Gospel says that the angelic multitude sang: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will”. The angels announced that the birth of Christ to the shepherds “is” glory to God in the Highest and peace to His people on earth. Therefore, these angelic words are conveniently placed on the grotto to explain the mystery of Christmas that is fulfilled in the nativity scene. The word “gloria” (doxa) indicates the splendour of God that his grateful creatures’ praise elicits. Paul said that it is “the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of (Jesus) Christ” (2 Cor 4, 6). “Peace" (eirene) summarise the fullness of the messianic gift, salvation, as the Apostle puts it, which is identified with Christ himself. “For he is our peace," (Eph 2, 14). There is, finally, a reference to men “of good will”. “Good will” (eudokia) would ordinarily make one think of men’s “good will”, but here it refers to God’s, boundless, “good will” towards men. Hence the Christmas message means that with the birth of Jesus, God has shown his good will towards all.
Let us get back to question “Why did God become man?” St Irenaeus said: “The word became the dispenser of the paternal grace for the benefit of men [. . .]. For the glory of God is a living man—vivens homo—; and the life of man consists in beholding God.” (Adv. Haer. IV, 20, 5.7).
God’s glory manifests itself in the salvation of man whom God loved so much, wrote John the Evangelist, “that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life,” (Jn 3, 16). Love is therefore the ultimate reason for Christ’s incarnation. Theologian H.U. von Balthasar’s reflection on the matter is eloquent. He wrote that “God is not, first of all, absolute power, but rather absolute love whose sovereignty does not manifest itself in keeping what is his, but in giving it up” (Mysterium paschale I, 4). The God that we see in the nativity scene is God-Love.
At this point the angels’ announcement sounds to us like an invitation: “Let there be” glory to God in the Highest, “let there be” peace to His people on earth”. The only way to glorify God and build peace on earth lies in humbly and trustingly welcome the gift of Christmas: love. The angels’ song can then become a prayer to repeat often, not only during the Christmas period. A hymn of praise to God in the highest and a fervent invocation of peace on earth that may turn into a concrete commitment to build it with our own life. This is the commitment Christmas gives us.
