Advent with the Saints

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT 2024 

Dear Holy Cross College Community, 

On this first Sunday of Advent, we welcome you to join us as we journey together through this holy season of hope. Each day until December 24, you will receive a daily Advent reflection as an email. They are written by members of our faculty, staff, students, and friends of the College offering their thoughts, memories, and hopes in preparation for the great feast of the Incarnation, the birth of Jesus.  Our Hope is Real reflections are like an Advent retreat. It is a time each day to pause, to read, and pray as a community. This year, we are using the Sunday gospel reading as a source for the reflections. The scripture passage below comes from Luke 21:25-28, 34-36.  

And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand… Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from…the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap (Luke 21:28). 

The first Sunday of Advent traditionally begins with the words of Jesus focusing on the promise of salvation while at the same time, reminding us that we can easily become so distracted by what troubles our daily lives that our minds become clouded with doubt, and hearts filled with anxiety and fear. All too often, it is difficult to see beyond the present moment.  But today, we hear Jesus reassure us, as he did his own disciples, to look beyond the disturbing events and frightening anticipation of the future that can fill our hearts and once again to trust in the magnitude of God’s mercy and compassion that will heal us.   

As we begin the liturgical year, this is the promise of Advent. In this season, we are invited to enter the vision of God’s glory that is revealed in our Christian story.  It starts with the promise of the Messian coming into glory in this first week and continues to unfold with events leading to his birth.  Advent is a season of anticipation clothed in a hope that is wrapped in the light of the candles of an Advent wreath. The first candle is hope’s light that breaks into our darkness of the loneliness in our winter hearts, longing to see more clearly what God has promised us through his Son. Each week, the darkness gives way to more and more light as each week, another candle joins the others until all are luminated by the fourth Sunday of Advent.  It is then that we basked in the light of this great mystery of the Incarnation, the Word made flesh, God among us.  

At the beginning of this Advent, I am reminded of the words of Thomas Merton, “you do not need to know precisely what is happening or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith, and hope.”  In the lighting of the Advent candles, we hold this mystery close to our hearts and rejoice, “Hope is Real.”  

Dianne Barlas, 

Vice President of Mission and Ministry  

Hope is Real Reflection

Dr. Kevin Myers, Director of Campus Ministry

“I sing because I’m happy, I sing because I’m free, his eye is on the sparrow, and I know he’s watching me.” (His Eye Is On The Sparrow, C.D. Martin, lyrics and C.H. Gabriel, music)

Hope is real, but so is anxiety. It is something that attacks all of us, some in deep and dark ways, others in small nagging ways – either way, it attacks all of us. In my own life, I have let the anxieties of daily life affect my prayer life, my personal relationships with others, and even brought me to deep bouts of depression that I never thought I would rid myself of. It was in those moments that I always asked the question, “Why me, Lord?” The lyrics I referenced above are from an early 1900s hymn that speak of the comfort of knowing that the one who created us is always here for us. We don’t need to do anything to receive the grace and mercy of our Father in heaven. Knowing that Jesus is our redeemer gives us reason to sing and reason to proclaim our freedom from sin to all we encounter. All darkness that we face is eliminated by His radiant light.

When Jesus says in Luke’s gospel that we will see the Son of Man coming in great power and glory, it is not to frighten us into living virtuous lives and catching us when we are living contrary to His love, rather it is quite the opposite. He is calling us to feel comforted and free. Free from the corruption of sin, free from the fear of death, free from all anxiety. He wants us to remain alert for the sureness of his return – not the “what if?” of his return. Nothing in life is more comforting than that fact, that our creator who redeemed us by his cross and resurrection will return in glory and power where anxiety won’t even be a memory. So sing my friends and be joyful, for the Lord who created you and loves you has not forgotten you, will never abandon you, and will always watch over you. In this we can say, thanks be to God. Hope is real.

The Gospel from the First Sunday of Advent presents a simple and yet profound invitation. Luke, the author of the Gospel, encourages us not to let our hearts droop or to grow anxious because we have the hope that we will see Christ (Luke 21:27-28, 34). At first glance, it seems that Luke has contradicted himself. After all, we currently do not see Christ as he has ascended to the heavens. And yet, Christ did not leave us without hope, since he continues to dwell among his people as he did at Bethlehem through Mass. 

I am called to go to daily Mass, perhaps the greatest privilege of my life as a religious brother. Every day, I am asked to go to the place where God makes himself fully known on Earth and receive his unconditional love. We are anxious about so many things in this life, especially at this time of year. So many expectations are thrown upon us during the holidays. We also strive to be the “best” at our jobs and “competent.” Sometimes we are tempted by some form of prestige, thinking that this will bring us fulfillment; it is a lie. When I am at daily Mass and truly paying attention, the truth is that I have no anxiety. I see Christ in the body and blood of the Eucharist, and I am touched by his love, becoming reminded that I am simply a child of God. I am called to love all as God loves them and pray that all will be touched by the love of Christ’s Sacred Heart. God dwells among his people every day in the Mass, and no matter how I am feeling, I can be filled with joy, because Christ wants me to be holy and not possess the “best” resume. 

The Mass is at the center of Advent, and must be at the heart of Holy Cross College, because God so loved that the world that he dwelt among us in a little stable at Bethlehem. 

 — Brother Robert McFadden, CSC, Associate Professor of Theology 

I would be lying to say that I do not struggle through advent and the over-commercialization that happens every year. I am the person that will play Christmas music way earlier than everyone else and plan in October what I’m going to be making when I host my family for Christmas Eve. However, since becoming Catholic in 2020 each year I try a little harder to focus on the coming of Jesus.

In my first year, I attended Taize prayer at my local parish. It was a beautiful time to reflect and celebrate. I’ve continued this each year. In my third year, my husband and I committed every Sunday to light our advent wreath together and read the Sunday readings, and have a meal at the dinner table. This is extremely hard for us as most nights we have something taking our attention away, a sporting event or a television show we are watching together. This simple act and commitment made us come together as a family and celebrate each week and prepare for what was to come.  

I am not a perfect Catholic, but each year, adding a new way to prepare and reflecting on the actual meaning of Advent and Christmas helps me better prepare for the birth of our Lord.  

Samantha Derksen 

Director of Admissions 

“The anxieties of daily life…”

Upon reading this gospel passage from the first Sunday of Advent, I feel many of us can relate to these words. What scenarios come to your mind when you think of the anxieties of your own daily life? As a professor at Holy Cross College, I think of the next class that I need to prep for, the quiz that remains only partially graded on my desk, that email from a student that I still haven’t responded to, the final exams I have yet to write… the list goes on and on. Especially during this pre-holiday, end-of-semester season which easily becomes so busy with exams, papers, grading, holiday gatherings and events, shopping for gifts, and running from one thing to the next, it is all too easy for these daily worries and troubles to overwhelm us, until we have no room to hold anything else. I wonder if Jesus often approaches our hearts only to find that there is no room left for him, just as in the inn at Bethlehem. 

Advent is a liturgical season of the Church which invites us to make room for Christ. Adventus in Latin literally means “arrival” or “coming”. During this season, we prepare our hearts for Christ’s coming in three ways: for his coming into the world at Christmas, for his second coming at the end of time, and finally for the ways in which he comes to us in this and every moment, waiting for us to open the doors of our hearts to let him in. The challenge for us is to remain open to his coming. I know that for myself, despite my efforts at daily prayer and the abundance of opportunities to engage in prayer as a member of the Holy Cross community, I often find my heart distracted by the “anxieties of daily life” which Christ himself refers to in our gospel. In this state, I realize that I am closed off from the love and grace that Jesus is offering to me, that is mine for the taking – right now – if only I would let him in and receive him into the humble stable of my heart. “Let earth receive her king” is the text of a well-known Christmas carol – are we prepared to receive Jesus as our king? 

This Advent, I hope the refrain of our hearts will beVeni, veni, Emmanuel – “O come, o come, God-with-us.” Christ indeed is with us, waiting at the door of our hearts – all that remains is for us to let him in. 

Laura LeGare 

Instructor of Mathematics 

“Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent  and to stand before the Son of Man.”

I’ve never felt that I approached Advent with the same verve or enthusiasm as I approach Lent.  There are some possible reasons for this.  Lent is longer.  Lent precedes Easter, both older feasts and practices in the church.  Lent follows a festive carnival season, often lasting a couple months.  It can seem like we give Advent a bit of a short shrift, with a culturally secular Christmas season and daunting end of the semester activities like finals and grading that captured Advent’s few precious weeks of preparing us for the birth of the Lord Jesus.

Luke’s gospel, however, reminds us of the importance of the Advent season in a rather dramatic fashion.  We are told of a foreboding that renders the earth “shaken” and in disarray.  People will “die of fright” and be “perplexed.”  We have to “beware” a life of sloth and anxiety.  And, the good news—the Son of Mon coming in great glory—is an occasion that might frighten us to our core and we should be ready to “raise our hands” because our redemption is now.

Sometimes, the anxieties of daily life leads us to reject hope, to give into a kind of spiritual laziness and to bypass seasons of waiting.  However, Jesus calls us to vigilance and preparation, to build strength to fight off a lackadaisical attitude during this time of Advent.  It requires recognizing our sins and shortcomings and fighting off the tendency to be satisfied with our lukewarmness, which makes us easy prey for the trap of indifference and apathy.  In order to fight off this attitude, we must build strength to face this day of tribulation and to hope in the Lord’s promise of salvation—all the while training our hearts and minds to stand before the Son of Man.  Hope is real, friends—Happy Advent.

Professor André Polaniecki

Department of Humanities

This past weekend during the Second Sunday of Advent Liturgy at Saint Joseph Parish in South Bend, IN, three members of the parish community received the Sacrament of Baptism.  Leading into the Rite of Baptism, the Congregation invoked the intercession of a great cloud of witnesses by singing the Litany of Saints.  In the lives of these holy men and women, we see God making winding roads straight and rough ways smooth.  God truly is with His people, helping men and women to live lives of heroic virtue.  Remembering the Saints of old and looking at the faces of neighbors and friends gathered around me I could not help but think how awesome our God is that he would be present to us in this way.  Our Lord is our God and we are His people.  Joining in one voice to invoke the intercession of those who have gone before us strengthens our faith and provides us a roadmap for this journey we are still on.   We too are called to be in this company.

The cleansing waters of Baptism truly do wash away sins.  The white garments worn by the three new Christians were reminders that they were washed free of the stains of sin and made blameless in the sight of God.  As the people of God who are led by the lights of our own Baptism, we too can see the salvation of God.  Let us continue in our Advent journey as a community of believers looking to the Saints that have gone before us and the neighbors with us now for a renewed sense of God’s presence among us, helping us all to prepare the way and make straight the path.

Andrew Polaniecki

Associate Vice President of Campus Operations

A common phrase heard around institutions associated with the Congregation of Holy Cross, is “people with hope to bring” which comes from the Constitutions or rule of life for the Congregation. I have a love/hate relationship with this phrase, I can simultaneously feel it captures the Christian life and be annoyed thinking what does that even mean. It feels both poetic and jargony. However, a good friend of mine offered the definition that to be a person with hope to bring is to be someone who keeps showing up, and that has stuck with me and I offer it as a way to enter into the words of the Prophet Iasiah;

“Prepare the way of the Lord, 

make straight his paths.

Every valley shall be filled

and every mountain and hill shall be made low.

The winding roads shall be made straight,

and the rough ways made smooth,

and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”

Preparing the way for something takes time and commitment. Filling in valleys and lowering mountains means working alongside our neighbors to slowly see progress. To repave the road to be straight and smooth requires thoughtful consideration so that other may actually walk it more easily. To do all these things, requires that we show up and that we keep showing up and by doing so “all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”

I invite you to consider that to participate in revealing God to others this advent is to be a person with hope to bring. Keep showing up to where, what and whom the Lord has put in your midst and reflect on who are the people with hope to bring in your life.

Tricia McCarthy

Hall Director

The word “gospel” comes from the Greek “evangelion,” which in antiquity was often used in reference to the sharing good news of victory in a dispatch from the battle front. In our gospel passage for the Second Sunday of Advent Saint Luke begins with a reference to the mightiest of imperial military force of his age: Rome. However, the Evangelist quite quickly indicates that this is not where our attention, our minds, allegiance, or our hearts is to be directed. Saint Luke instead passes over worldly these powers and orients our imaginative gaze to the “word of God” – who comes to John in the wilderness and ignites in him a fire that causes him to become the greatest of all prophets and makes him cry out with zeal to repent and prepare the way for the advent of the Messiah and the long-awaited salvation of God proclaimed by the Prophet Isaiah. (Luke, 3:1-6). On Christmas Eve, we will hear of the good news of the victory and dominion of this newborn Prince of Peace foretold by Isaiah who will cause every boot that tramped in battle and every cloak rolled in blood” to be “burned as fuel for flames.” (Isaiah 9:1-6). 

In today’s readings for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas, we hear of the young Mary of Nazareth, who is visited by the Angel Gabriel and with her whole being assents to the word of God, becoming the first home to Word made flesh. Mary, the “highest honor of our race” commits a “deed of hope which will never be forgotten by those who tell of the might of God.” (Judith, 13:18-19). Like St. Luke, the Prophet Isaiah and St. John the Forerunner, Our Lady of Guadalupe directs the gaze of St. Juan Diego and Bishop Juan de Zumarraga gaze – and ours – from the darkness of dragon-like imperial powers and principalities of our exile to the Almighty Incarnate Word in her womb – Jesus Christ. We hear St. John the Revelator tell us in the scriptures today that after giving birth to the child destined to rule all the nations that “The woman herself fled into the desert where she had a place prepared by God.” (Revelation 11:19-12:1-6,10). 

We probably more readily associate the desert with the liturgical season of Lent, but the Church sure is presenting us with plenty of desert motifs to ruminate upon this week, which in a way, is appropriate, for as a medieval monk once asked: “What is Advent but Lent in the wintertime?” We are being beckoned home by God, but it would seem we must first go into the wilderness to a place the LORD has prepared for us, where we will encounter both merciful salvation and a prophetic charge in this Prince of Peace’s reconciling mission. These saints who have gone before us to this place and were transformed are directing our gaze to where it truly belongs and praying for us as we journey.   

In what ways is the Holy Spirit inviting you to shift your gaze? How will you set aside time this day to go into the “desert,” to discover what God has prepared for you? What is a situation in your life where Jesus is prompting you to “cry out” for forgiveness or seed repentance like Saint John or commit a deed of hope like Saint Mary?  

Shawn T. Storer 

Lecturer, Theology 

It’s PINK CANDLE Sunday!  For the Bingham family, this third Sunday of Advent marks a very special tradition that has emerged for us over the past few years. Each year we volunteer to process up with the GIANT advent candles, at St. Joe Parish. It’s the perfect job for our little family of three, and of course Sam, our son, always gets the pink candle!   

I remember one particular year of this cherished tradition; Sam was eight and we were right in the middle of the pandemic. I was so nervous, still not convinced that my little boy could carry the giant pink candle! My husband on the other hand, had no fear of the possibility that our child might drop the massive wax masterpiece on the floor mid opening hymn. He had convinced me that this was safe, and that my child’s eyelashes would not be singed by the candle’s relentless flames. Truly his capacity for hope was much greater than mine.  As for Sam, his eternally hopeful demeanor made him oblivious to the impending doom of the current situation.  

The music started and there was no turning back. Thank goodness I was wearing a mask, otherwise my son might have seen the look of sheer terror on my face. Had that been the case, his empathic nature may have caused him to lose hope and not proceed with the task at hand. We slowly processed down the aisle, and as we arrived at the altar, I noticed that none of my imagined catastrophic events had come to pass. No hot wax had dripped onto any tiny fingers, and our family caused no disruption to the opening hymn. “Thank you, Jesus!” I yelled as loud as my internal monologue would allow. We bowed and turned our attention to the advent wreath. 

While I was nervous about how we were going place all three candles without incident on the wreath, if we had made it this far, we could definitely make it the rest of the way. Our prior success finally allowed my own hope to arrive on the scene. (Better late than never!) Carefully James, my husband, placed his candle first on the wreath, then Sam’s, then mine. Before returning to our seats, we bowed to the crucifix even more hopeful for our dear savior’s birth.  

Tonight, the Bingham family will once again carry the three advent candles on this Third Sunday of Advent. Sam is 11 now, and his hands are nearly as big as my own. He’s a boy scout and knows more about starting fires than I ever will. In so many ways, I am far more hopeful than I was on that night. Over these past few years, I have learned to learn into the hopes of my husband and son. Their unwavering trust in Christ is such a blessing. While I worry about singeing eyebrows and melting wax, they see an opportunity to serve and in doing so become closer to a tiny baby that will soon arrive in a manager.  

This advent season I encourage you to lean into the hopes of others, to lean into this most amazing Body of Christ, so that you may find yourself strengthened by His love and not crippled by your doubt.   

A Blessed Advent to All! 

Dr. Ann Bingham, Ph.D. 

“When Balaam raised his eyes and saw Israel ” Numbers 24:2-7 

Much is made in today’s reading of being able to see. 

The first time seeing is mentioned in the Bible (Genesis 3), it is used to describe what Adam and Eve saw after they disobeyed God by eating the apple He had forbidden them to eat. “Their eyes were opened,” says Genesis, and they saw “that they were naked.”  

The word there for naked is “erom” (AY-rome), which means not only physically naked but publicly exposed. To their mutual shame, their lack of trust and disloyalty was plain to see. Their humanity was now vulnerable, subject to a world of pain, and destined for death. As we can see, this propensity to selfishness became endemic. That unfortunately is the story of Israel and all humanity.  

Our readings in Advent show us, nevertheless, that God has never stopped reaching out and down to restore communion with us. In the Book of Numbers, He even used Balaam, who was not Jewish, to try to turn the hearts of the Israelites back to God. Balaam was sent by his wicked king to curse Israel, but Balaam found (after amusing episodes, one involving a donkey) that he could not.  

Balaam’s third and last moment of clairvoyance was that Israel would be blessed with a Savior: 

I see him, though not now;
         

I behold him, though not near:
     

A star shall advance from Jacob,
         

and a staff shall rise from Israel. 

We can see that God made, and keeps making, His eternal and creative Love visible. Yet there are, as the saying goes, “none so blind as those who will not see.” In the end, Balaam was not softened by what God showed him. He died “by the sword” (Joshua 13:22) on the battlefield in Moab. 

This Advent may our eyes remain fixed on what Balaam, due to misplaced loyalty and sin, lost sight of: the continuing love and fidelity of God to everyone, particularly those who love and look for Him. 

Anthony Monta

Professor of English and Fellow for Academic Culture 

Admissions Counselor

Advent is a Call to Action

As a young boy my parents often told me stories of celebrating Christmas during the depression and war. In 1941 my sister was two years old, and a little less than three weeks after Pearl Harbor, my family, like millions of others looked with anxiety upon an uncertain world and wondered if this would be their last Christmas together. Truth be told the world has never celebrated Advent when there was not war, conflict, suffering, and uncertainty. This Advent season is no different.

I have always believed that the true message of Christmas is imbedded in this dichotomy of so many celebrating a season of peace, joy, and hope, while others suffer, for one reason or another, sorrow, turmoil, and despair. I would like someday to celebrate Advent in a more harmonious world, where there is greater unity than division, and more peace and good will than hate. “Wouldn’t we all!” It sounds more like a lyric from John Lennon’s “Imagine” or a naïve, fantasy about trying to create heaven on earth. But if hope is the true message of Advent, then I find inspiration in Leon Joseph Suenens who said, “Hope is not a dream but a way of making dreams become reality.” And if we are truly followers of Christ we must follow by example. The first line of the “Peace Prayer of St. Francis” affirms it “Lord make me an instrument of your peace.” Gandhi may not have said it, but the quote is eloquent in its simplicity, “be the change you wish to see in the world.”

So, for me, advent has always been the inspiration, the call to action, a time for prayer and reflection to think about what I can do, in ways small or large to make the world a better place, and then to go out and try to do it. In Luke’s Gospel, 3:10-18 the crowds kept asking John the Baptist “What should we do?” If he were here today perhaps, he would say simply “erase the dichotomy.” Would not that be the ultimate Christmas gift!

Thomas Spencer
Adjunct Professor in History and College Curriculum

A few years ago, on the recommendation of my colleague Shawn Storer, I read A Radical Hope by Jonathan Lear, and it has been slowly expanding in my mind ever since. The book focuses on Plenty Coups, who was the chief of the Crow Tribe during their removal to a reservation in Montana. The virtues take different forms and differ in both relative and absolute importance depending on the circumstances in which a person or community is situated.  These circumstances can change dramatically in ways that neither the individual nor the community can control.  Navigating such a transition was the task forced on the Crow and on Plenty Coups, their leader.  For his part, Plenty Coups was sustained and aided by a vision he had seen as a young man.  This vision gave him hope in a future that he could to some extent see but not comprehend because he was formed in a different set of virtues and practices.  But he believed that God, who had sent the vision, would provide for his people and would see to it that they were able to flourish, in ways that he could see only as through a glass, darkly.  It was a hope that could only have come through faith.

I thought of this as I strolled two miles from my home near the South Bend of the St. Joseph River to the southern edge of campus to watch Notre Dame’s home playoff game in a bar on Angela Boulevard.  The buzz and the merriment were undeniable and contagious.  Now, my brain’s emotional centers lack any real resonance for a “college football playoff” game beyond the fact that it is always fun to watch Notre Dame play football.  I get excited for beating rivals in long-standing rivalry games, for undefeated seasons, for winning bowl games on New Year’s Day, and—for teams other than Notre Dame—for winning the championship of a regionally-based conference.  I’ve often pined for what college football once was, and as youth is the time for sports fandom to take its form I doubt that this circuitry can be rewired at my age.  But it delighted me to see that the world of college football is still a vibrant one.  In spite of all that I can’t pass on to or share with my children because it no longer exists, I still get to raise them in a town that pulses with joyful energy for a doubtless very different college football, and I even get to watch the games with them.  I couldn’t have imagined this, and to tell the truth, I still can’t really comprehend it, but I’m very happy for the kids.

And I think of these things when I reflect on my younger brother’s unexpected death, a few days before he was to be married. So much of what I looked forward to, and what I had hoped that I would give my children, was bound up with him and the future we imagined for our families together.  Since then I’ve learned that when he died I lost more than I could even have realized at the time, but I’ve also learned that many things I lost could be preserved in part, sustained, or recovered in another form.  Many blessings he brought into my life remain, and many more have, in strange ways, come into my life through him since his death.  But beyond that I’ve come increasingly to hope that good things will be provided to my children, conducive to their happiness and salvation—even if they are not at all the things I had imagined, even if they require a different set of virtues and attitudes than I had been prepared to impart, and even if it all plays out in ways I can’t fully comprehend.  After all, as an adult convert to the Catholic Faith I have no idea what it’s like to be a Catholic child, yet one of the greatest delights of fatherhood has been raising my children in that Faith, and it is this Faith that sustains my hope and joy.

John Biddle, PhD

Assistant Professor

Physics.

“Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let earth receive her King!” We all know this opening line from the often-sung hymn on Christmas day. I don’t know about you, but the moment I hear this song it brings a smile to my face. I recall the memories of my own youth and the joy of Christmas with my family. As a parent, this song would bring a smile to my face when my kids would sing it at their annual Christmas pageant. During my years working in schools, it also gave me great joy to hear this sung by the school choir accompanied by the school’s orchestra.  

While this song is sure to bring a smile to our faces, as Christians, we know that Jesus is the source of pure joy. Outside of the occasional use of the word during the holiday season, we don’t often hear the word joy in everyday conversations. Joy is mentioned often in Scripture. In fact, the words “joy” or “rejoice” appear over 400 times! God calls us to be joyful, even amongst the many sorrows of this life. Yet we all know that it is not always easy to remain joyful. We might be facing serious hardship. Perhaps we are fighting moments of sadness, loneliness, depression, or anxiety. Or maybe, for no apparent reason, we simply experience day-to-day doldrums that are getting in the way of joy.   

Joy is different than a smile, a warm feeling, or even happiness. Pope Francis stated: “Joy does not mean living from laugh to laugh. No, it’s not that. Joy is not entertainment. No, it’s not that. It is something else. Christian joy is peace, peace that is deeply rooted, peace in the heart, the peace that only God can give. This is Christian joy. It is not easy to foster this joy.” Pope Francis continued emphatically: “Jesus is our joy.”  

As Christians, we believe that Christ is our faithful friend who is always at our side, no matter what we face, even in our hardships. Furthermore, our faith tells us that the Lord is always with us in all we do. In today’s Gospel reading we hear the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Like all of us, it is in understanding our stories and our histories, that help us to know who we are, how we got here, and why God placed us on this Earth. For Jesus, it was the story of salvation history. Looking back on our stories retrospectively is often when it becomes most clear when God was present, even through the ups and the downs, the crosses and the triumphs, and even in the ordinariness of the day.  

The Christmas season provides us with wonderful opportunities to be reflective of the past year, and, if you are so blessed to still have your parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles, learn more about our unique stories. If you look hard enough in your own lives, you will see God’s presence around you, within in you, and in your story. I am blessed beyond to be a part of the journey of our students at Holy Cross, as they both learn their story, and write the next chapters in it. I witness everyday encounters with the living Christ here at Holy Cross. Through interactions between our students, faculty, and staff, in nature within the beauty of Notre Dame, Indiana and our setting on the St. Joseph River, through the service programs in the city of South Bend, in times of praise and worship in our St. Joseph Chapel or the new Devotional Shrine of Our Lady of Holy Cross, and in our classrooms and curriculum which integrates the Catholic intellectual tradition, Catholic Social Teaching and our unique Holy Cross mission. Joy to the world, the Lord is come! 

As Blessed Basil Moreau wrote in one of his early letters to the brothers and priests who were facing hardships in writing the story of Holy Cross, “Whoever has Jesus has everything.” I pray that this Christmas and in the new year ahead, you will seek Jesus, for you too will have everything. As you prepare to continue your story in 2025, I also pray for you that God blesses you abundantly so that your story can become one of the greatest stories ever told as a passionate and hopeful disciple of Christ. 

Have a Merry Christmas everyone, and may your new year be filled with joy, peace, love, and hope! May it be filled with Jesus! 

Ave Crux, Spes Unica, 

Dr. Clark