Emmaus Blog

 Tuesday, December 31, 2024: We celebrate Kwanzaa:  I rise Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear" - From "Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou Unlike Christmas and Hanukkah, Kwanzaa—the youngest of the major winter holidays—was conceived in the United States, and is not based directly on ancient religious festivals. Africana professor and activist Maulana Karenga created the week-long celebration back in 1966 by drawing from a number of African traditions. Since its creation, the goal of Kwanzaa has been "to introduce and reinforce seven basic values of African culture which contribute to building and reinforcing family, community and culture among African American people as well as Africans throughout the world African community." The holiday starts on December 26 and ends on January 1. Ea...

  Monday, December 30, 2024: I will continue to add light to the world. How to Remain Joyful in Difficult Times by GoodNewsRoundup I have been able to keep a lot of joy in my life since the election.   I’ve had moments of despair and worry and anger.  I anticipate having more. My own personal life has had great moments of joy as well as great sorrow and worry.  You know how life tends to be. But I am choosing joy.  I am choosing optimism.  I am choosing kindness. That may sound naive or impossible or foolish but to me it comes down to a concerted effort and determination to not let that monster take from me what he took from me in 2016 — my joy. I spent months after the 2016 election having panic attacks.  Feeling depressed.  Feeling dread.  If you are feeling that way now, I understand.  My heart goes out to you.  I have been there. But this time, I made a decision not to let him take my joy. To me, keeping joyful and hopeful ...

Sunday, December 29, 2024:  Take advantage of today to celebrate this original vision of the Holy Family There might not be a feast in the church year that feels less hospitable to queer Catholics than the Feast of the Holy Family. It seems to follow the welcoming message of God’s incarnation for all with the quick caveat, “except for you.” This is true not just for queer folks, but for all families who have suffered death, separation, divorce, deportation, imprisonment, or any other circumstance that prevents their household from resembling—or sometimes even striving to resemble—the model heteronormative, nuclear family: Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. Yet the idyllic 1950s-style, fuzzy-focus graphics of the “traditional” nuclear family that grace bulletin covers and inspire homilies are deceiving. In scripture, the real Holy Family is queer and nonconformist. Mary, a young woman already betrothed to a man named Joseph, conceived Jesus out-of-wedlock in apparent infidelity. The nearest a...

  Saturday, December 28, 2024: First, hang on to the rope of hope, hang on to the anchor by its rope, never let go; second, throw open your hearts, have an open heart." Rome — December 26, 2024:  Wearing red vestments for the feast of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, Pope Francis knocked on the door of the church in Rome's Rebibbia prison complex and walked over its threshold. After reciting a formal prayer before opening the prison's Holy Door Dec. 26, the pope took the microphone back to explain that he had inaugurated the Holy Year 2025 by opening the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica. "I wanted the second Holy Door to be the one here, at a prison," he said. "I wanted all of us, inside or out, to have an opportunity to throw open the doors of our hearts and understand that hope does not disappoint." Members of the penitentiary police band played the official hymn of the Holy Year 2025 when the pope arrived, while about 300 people waited i...

 Friday, December 27, 2024:   Born Under Oppression Writer and activist Kelley Nikondeha reminds us of the location of Jesus’ birth in occupied territory:   Advent narratives reveal the Incarnation as more than the Spirit entering a human frame. They are also the revelation of The Spirit  engaging with human trauma of a specific place and specific people. The Spirit experienced the excruciating reality of empires and economies from the position of the weak and powerless ones. The Spirit absorbed loss and pain in that body.   The Incarnation positions Jesus among the most vulnerable people, the bereft and threatened of society. The first advent shows The Spirit wrestling with the struggles common to many the world over. And from this disadvantaged stance, Jesus lives out The Spirit’s peace agenda as a counter-testimony to Caesar’s imperial peace imposed on people through terror, cruelty and slaughter. [1]  Liberation theologian Gustavo Gutiérr...

Thursday, December 26, 2024: ‘Mankind Was My Business’ Ebenezer Scrooge visited by the ghost of Jacob Marley Around the world, authoritarians seem to be regaining their strength and daring. In the United States, a political coalition—one that includes people for whom, as my colleague Adam Serwer has memorably written, “the cruelty is the point”—is returning to power. It’s been a tough year for people who believe in liberal democracy. But during the Christmas season, let me make the case for a little faith in the resilience of goodness and justice—and how we can all learn something from Charles Dickens and one of his best-known works, A Christmas Carol. You don’t need to be a Christian to find solace in A Christmas Carol, because it’s not really a story about Christianity. It’s a story about one man’s bitterness, his regrets, and his repentance. More broadly, it’s about the joy that everyone can find by deciding to be a better person in a world that sometimes feels cold and overwhelming...

Wednesday, December 25, Christmas Day 2024:  Merry Christmas! God Bless us All  While they were there, the time came for her to have her child,  and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes  and laid him in a manger,  because there was no room for them in the inn. Now there were shepherds in that region  living in the fields  and keeping the night watch over their flock. The angel of the Lord appeared to them  and the glory of the Lord shone around them,  and they were struck with great fear.  The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy  that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David  a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.  And this will be a sign for you:  you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes  and lying in a manger.”  A Christmas homily from our friend Jim Fredericks: Merry C...