Father Mike's Christmas Message

I wish you and yours a Blessed, Happy, Holy, and Merry Christmas!

Fr. Tony Ritter and I were privileged to host a stop on the Holiday House Tour that was sponsored by Downtown Washington on December 11th.  I got to meet so many wonderful neighbors of our larger community.  It was a joy to hear of their experiences with the priests who have lived here over the years, or to hear of how they walked past our Church and courtyard walls but have never been in our buildings.  The Holiday House Tour was a delight and a blessing for me because of the great people I had the opportunity to welcome.

As I was reflecting on how fortunate I was to open the doors of the rectory to welcome in friends old and new, a thought came to me that this is what Christmas is all about!  At least, it’s what Christmas calls us to do.

As we approach Christmas in 2022, there are many reasons to keep our hearts closed or to cause us to think that trying to open them would be a waste of time.  The atrocity of the war in Ukraine and unrest in other places in our world; the everyday banter of politicians and pundits stirring the pot and vilifying “the other side;” the growing divide between parties and even family members over the topics that used to be forbidden in polite company - politics and religion. 

But thankfully we are approaching the celebration of Christmas.  Try as many might to make it about something else, Christmas is about the birth of our Savior.  Jesus is the one who brings us hope.  He’s the one of whom the prophets foretold to the wary and weary People of Israel that he would bring better days in the future, that all was not lost even though they were in slavery and exile.  Jesus is the one who calls us to be better - in the way we treat each other, in the way we speak to and about the other, in the way we choose our words.  “Swords into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks” is what the prophet Isaiah spoke to relay God’s dream for this world.  Our call is to be agents of this.

It was a blessing for us to open the rectory to our neighbors for the Holiday House Tour.  We are called to open the doors of our hearts to Christ and allow him to dwell there more fully so we can know his love for us.  We get called to open the doors of our hearts to the stranger who is in need.  We get called to open our hearts to support the struggling, the grieving, the unemployed and underemployed, the sick and the lonely.  We get called to open our hearts to forgive the one who hurt us, or beg forgiveness from the one we hurt.  We get called to open our hearts to the neighbor in need - whatever that need is - and to do what we can to help.

And maybe, just maybe, our openness to another, our care extended, might inspire another to do the same…and so on.  There’s power in an open heart that can’t be calculated.  While others  may choose to keep theirs closed - which is beyond our control - let that not dampen the spirit of goodness we can share.  I’m so glad and thankful that we opened our doors on that Sunday afternoon in December - it has me thinking and praying about how God - born in the flesh as one of us -  is calling me to open my heart more.  How might this Christmas event, how might the Christ child be calling you?

Christmas Blessings,

Fr. Mike Boehm
Pastor