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We begin a New Year by saying, “Happy Birthday” to the woman who is the inspiration for these reflections. 1833 brought great promise to the Lechner family as they welcomed the little girl who would become the Foundress of a world wide congregation. How different was the time in which she lived! It was a time of royalty, of Catholic rulers who were just beginning to experiment with legislating bodies voted into office by their citizens. Great social change was in the making. We are the inheritors of that change. Everywhere there is either a democratic style government or a great desire for something similar.

We have become familiar with the need to be critical of the members of the legislative bodies and the individuals we elect to office. We watch their actions and affirm or protest them. Laws must be evaluated. There are unjust laws which harm especially the poor and those who are otherwise powerless and voiceless. How do democracy and faith interact. I wonder if it does not require a careful balancing act. The laws of God are not a result of a ballot victory. Even if the vast majority of people agree to a practice, it does not mean that it has become morally right. It almost seems today that the obligation to be critical of authority has become a knee-jerk reaction to everything we hear. We seem to criticize so easily. We don’t “like” this or that. Then we go on to another topic. I wonder if Mother Franziska would ask us some penetrating questions about some of our criticisms. Have we studied the topic in depth from various viewpoints and facts? Have we reflected on the common good? Have we looked at the teachings of the Church into which we were baptized? Is this a place where we have an obligation and/or the expertise to comment? Let us not become a part of the destructive wind that is sweeping our sad world, the easy, uniformed criticism of just about everything.Mother Franziska would advice us with a smile to be on the lookout for the good and change the world with loving affirmation.

Mother Franziska will forgive me surely for being jealous of her time and its celebration of Christmas. She was heir to a thousand years of beautiful traditions that had come to surround the feast. Everyone knew them and awaited the customs involving music, prayer and foods of the season. Gifts were actually a very small part of it all and focused mainly on children. The important thing was the commemoration of the coming of the Son of God to His people.

How sad that Christmas has become a season of controversy. All the beautiful things about the feast that have accumulated over the centuries have become sources of argument and protest. I think Mother Franziska would have smiled and answered with the line from a beautiful carol, “Rejoice, the Christ Child is coming soon”. Jesus has come, what is important today is not that we fight for recognition of His presence but to witness it by a joyful, calm dedication to the truth that we know. It is joy and peace that mark the season and these must also be our attitudes. We must smile often and easily to those we meet in our neighborhoods, shops and workplaces. Only by a true devotion and daily reflection on the religious aspects of the season will we have the confidence to smile at the harried, frightened, overworked whom we will meet. We know the truth. Emmanual, God is with us. How can we be anything except calm and joyful. If we have joy, the simplest arrangements will make a great celebration. Christmas must begin with Christ Mass… at midnight or during the day, perhaps prepared for by a sincere confession. When all is right in our hearts Christmas will be right also. We will be connected to the simple, beautiful, sincere celebrations of a long line of centuries past and especially, Edling in Bavaria and Vienna in Austria, where candles still shine in the night.

How many sermons or homilies are remembered for more than a week or even a day or hour. There was one that I have remembered for over twenty years and I would like to share it here from memory.

It was an ecumenical Thanksgiving Service in a Catholic Church in La Costa, California. Thanksgiving is the one holiday that Americans of all Creeds can come together to worship in unity. On this particular day a Rabbi was chosen to give the sermon. What follows is how I remember it.

Today we thank God for the goodness and blessings he has given us all our lives and especially during the last year. Then we will go to our homes and enjoy a great feast of traditional foods with additions from our own cultures. We will thank and congratulate the cook and she deserves all our praise. Tomorrow will be the real test for the cook, however. A new turkey from the store comes with instructions or is suited to the printed recipes. Tomorrow, however the cook will look at a picked over skeleton with pieces of meat and skin hanging here and there. It is the cook who can produce a tasty and appetizing meal from these remnants who will deserve the prize.

So it is in life. We can raise our eyes and smile as we thank God in the good days. It is the times when we are hit with unexpected pain, fear, sadness or loss that our faith comes to a bitter test. Can we then look at God in trust, yes, even gratitude? These are His faithful children filled with the strength that comes only from His grace. Happy Thanksgiving… in fair weather and foul.