Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Speaker A: Welcome back to another edition of our Diocesan podcast, Big City Catholics, with our diocesan Bishop, Bishop Robert Brennan, and myself, Father Christopher Henu. Let us begin this podcast as we begin all podcasts in prayer. I'll pray today, the second Sunday of Advent, its opening prayer for Mass, which we will pray this coming Sunday. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Almighty and merciful God, may no earthly undertaking hinder those who set out in haste to meet your son. But may our learning of heavenly wisdom gain us admittance to his company, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Bishop We've mentioned last week the very quick Advent season. This is three full weeks.
[00:00:58] Speaker B: It seemed like forever incoming because usually, very often this first Sunday of Advent is right after Thanksgiving. And it just seemed like that. Now we're at the second Sunday of Advent and already it's December 10. I mean, wow, where's it all going?
[00:01:14] Speaker A: Two thirds over, basically.
So there's a lot to get done in this season of Advent. I know that there's a lot of traditions here in the diocese during the season of Advent. One of them was celebrated this week, and what a successful celebration it was. The annual Bishop's Christmas luncheon, which is ran by the Catholic foundation of Brooklyn and Queens. And Bishop, that was an incredible event.
[00:01:39] Speaker B: I always enjoy that. First of all, my first experience of it was just a few days after I arrived. I arrived on November 30, and early in December we had that big gathering. It's about close to 900 people and it's really just a joyful celebration. So for me, that was part of my orientation. I got to meet so many people who are involved in our parishes and in the different works of the diocese. And now, third time around, it's like getting together with old friends.
[00:02:09] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:02:10] Speaker B: And it really is that celebration. So it helps to raise money for the work of the foundation in supporting schools in terms of scholarships and in terms of youth events, youth Ministry, World Youth Day. A lot of the things that we do for our young people find support in this event. But it really is one of those feel good events, isn't it?
[00:02:34] Speaker A: It really is. And we have parishes that sponsor a table and offer an opportunity to either take their staff members for an opportunity to eat, or perhaps even some parishioners to thank them as well as they join in the excitement and the joy of the Christmas season. And every year, my highlight of the event is usually a school comes and has a group of children that perform the Nativity scene for us, and you were there reading the Gospel verses of the scene of the Nativity. And this year there was just a beautiful element to the children's innocence and then singing songs for us as we entered. It was a very nice experience.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: It is. So these were 6th graders from St. Elizabeth's Catholic Academy. They were filled with joy themselves. They were a fun group of young people. They were singing Christmas carols as we came into the reception room, and they then led us in the national anthem. At the end of the afternoon, they got into their costumes and they performed in Nativity scene. They were great. They were a lot of fun, and they did a marvelous job. There's something about children performing the Nativity that really sets the tone, doesn't it? It's a part of a memory that's in all of our lives and all of our experiences, but there's a beautiful element to it, and I was glad to be with them.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: I remember myself. I took part in a Nativity when I was younger, and I still remember those moments as well. One of our annual traditions, sponsored by Desels Media, is the lighting of the Christmas tree, which normally is placed in the center of Grand Army Plaza. But they have a lot of construction going on there by the Arch, so it's a different location this year. Still a prominent one nonetheless. Always a windy and cold evening. Granted no rain, thanks be to God.
[00:04:22] Speaker B: Even in the midst of a week that was a little bit warmer than it's been, we found the cold hour.
[00:04:28] Speaker A: Of the cold day, but a nice tradition with some songs. And at that moment, Bishop, you were able to bless the tree. Beautiful tree. And the Nativity scene.
[00:04:38] Speaker B: Yes, it is. It's a beautiful sight. So when the lights come on, it really is very beautiful. And this year, because of its change in location, it's also set up a little bit differently. So the figures of the Nativity set are right in front of the Christmas tree?
[00:04:52] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: And it really stands out. I don't know if I'm just remembering things differently, but I don't remember it being as prominent as it is when it's right there, front and center in front of the Christmas tree, lights on it.
[00:05:06] Speaker A: Truly a place where the crossroads of Brooklyn, where a lot of people will see it and look upon it.
[00:05:12] Speaker B: Grand Army Plaza, Prospect park, the intersections of Vanderbilt, Flatbush, Eastern Parkway coming in. It's just a whole conglomeration of streets. It's a great, great spot, and it really is symbolic of the city, New York City. And here we are living in New York City. And in the midst, Christ is in the city.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: I don't know if you noticed, Bishop, there was last year you made mention there was a group of high schoolers running, like, track past us. And this year as well, there was another group running.
[00:05:44] Speaker B: I remember last year, I didn't catch it.
[00:05:45] Speaker A: This year there was a group. So I think that's what part of the running tradition.
[00:05:48] Speaker B: And isn't that a great thing, though, that life is going on around this? It's not hidden away in some corner, but we're proclaiming our joy, our hope in the midst of all of this gathering. And hopefully it speaks a message of joy and hope to people as they drive by.
[00:06:05] Speaker A: And as you say, Catholics in the big city.
[00:06:07] Speaker B: Catholics in the big city. It's a great thing. It's a great thing.
[00:06:11] Speaker A: One of the things that you mentioned, Bishop, during the blessing, was that the idea of the Nativity scene, which was created, really given to us by St. Francis of Assisi in a town called Gretchio in Italy.
[00:06:22] Speaker B: In the year 1223, St. Francis of Assisi gathered the people of Gretcha to live out, to do a live nativity scene. Years later, we gathered at Prospect park, at Grand Army Plaza to do the very same thing. But think about that scene. In the midst of everything going on, this would have been a more agricultural society. So you really did have all the animals and the people.
Why do you do it? I think in some ways, as human people, we kind of lose our way. We kind of get wrapped up in our own things. So I wouldn't call Christmas in the 13th century a very commercial thing. It was a different kind of a setup. But he was really capturing the reality of what happened in the Incarnation. He was capturing the reality that Christ came into the real world, not a world of make believe, not just as a memory or as a theoretical thing, but that Christ really entered into human life, that shared life with us. He came into the messiness of our lives. He didn't wait for the world to be perfect, to enter in. He entered into the real messiness to a state of poverty, to a state of constant migration.
He entered to chaos so that he would really be in solidarity with us. I often, often turn to that hymn in the letter of St. Paul to the Philippians. Though he was in the form of God, Jesus did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at. We do a lot of grasping at things he didn't grasp at, hold on to, but rather he emptied himself in, emptying himself. He really did. Not just symbolically, but really entered in. And I think Francis was trying to capture that reality for the people in his time. We get busy with our lives, we get caught up with our own projects, and he was trying to capture that sense of reality and that Jesus entered into the reality of our lives in solidarity with us. So he gave them an experience of entering into the reality of what Jesus lived in solidarity with him. And thus began a wonderful custom. So we see living nativities, people acting it out like the children earlier this weEk, or like many parishes or schools will do. But we also have our own Nativity scenes. We had the prominent one at Grand Army Plaza. We'll see Nativity scenes in our churches and public displays. You have the Nativity scene set up in front of the co cathedral, but also in our homes. This is something we do to recall what Christmas is all about and to recall the reality of God coming in solidarity with us. Last week, I was home to visit with my folks and we pulled out the Christmas tree, decorated it, but we also pulled out the Nativity set. My parents, I think I've said this last year, my parents have a Nativity scene that was given to them when they were engaged.
[00:09:23] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:09:24] Speaker B: So that when they established their home together, they would already have the Nativity set. And so that Nativity scene predates me. But it first was displayed in Christmas of 1961, and yours truly arrived six months later, in June of 62. But they've displayed the nativity scene. It's seen two generations, three generations of children, grandchildren, now great grandchildren, and it looks every bit of it. It's old, it's beaten up, but we wouldn't have it any other way because that's been part of our family tradition.
[00:09:59] Speaker A: I thinking the same thing. At the luncheon, I invited my parents to join our table. And at each table was a beautiful Nativity scene that at the end of the event, they offer some sort of a way in which you should tell who receives it. So this year it was the closest birthday past January. My mother's birthday is December 23. If it was the closest birthday, she would have won it. And she said, oh, this is a beautiful Nativity scene. She's turned to me and said, you need to get me a new Nativity scene. And I said by thinking to myself, the Nativity scene we have, it's old and it's been through the mill, but it's that sentimental value to it. I remember as a child setting up the Nativity scene, a very important aspect of the Christmas season, of the Advent season, in preparation for Christmas. I don't think I would want it any other waY. So she may have to wait for.
[00:10:52] Speaker B: Maybe she can get a secondary, secondary set.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: Fine, we'll allow it. A great gift I was given by the missionaries of charity one year and I've held onto it. It was very simple. They took a piece of bark off the tree and created with a pine cone, sort of a triangular, so as the bark, as the base and a pine cone standing up, and another piece of bark that came down sort of triangularly and a little plastic infant baby Jesus that they probably were gifted or one of those ones that you find in the cakes or know and just gifted that to me as the Nativity scene, just in its purest, simplest form, is a beautiful scene. A beautiful reminder too. So I cherish that. The importance, Bishop, as you mentioned, of families having the Nativity scene up in a prominent place in their homes, that they can look upon it and reflect on the Mysteries of what we're celebrating.
[00:11:48] Speaker B: To use the fancy word, it's the great tool of evangelization that probably for a family, in a family is one of the most powerful signs. You show a child the figures of a Nativity set and the story comes alive and you introduce them to baby Jesus. And then you tell them about who Jesus is and what he did. The image of a family, Mary and Joseph and the baby there. And then you see the other figures like the shepherd, the kings, and you tell the story. It's biblical, it's scriptural, it just announces the good news and the picture says a thousand words. That image, the Nativity scene, says so much more than you could ever put into words. It really does. And it announces something and it stays with the young people. So it really is a keep tool. And I would encourage people to, if you haven't gotten Nativity set already, then maybe this is the year to do it. And it doesn't have to be fancy. If you want to get a Lennox or porcelain set somehow, fine, go right ahead. I think that's nice. But it doesn't have to be fancy. And sometimes maybe just grow, maybe just get the Holy Family and then next year get the other figures. But somehow or another, please incorporate that into your family celebration. It's a powerful, powerful tool.
[00:13:04] Speaker A: Bishop, you and I were talking a few weeks ago and you mentioned something that I think is quite controversial. I would like to hear what our audience members think of, but I was always part of the family that held the baby Jesus away from the Nativity scene until Christmas Day. We placed the baby Jesus in the Nativity scene. And you say, it's okay, we can put the baby Jesus in the Nativity scene.
[00:13:27] Speaker B: All right. Absolutely.
[00:13:28] Speaker A: All right. That's controversial.
[00:13:31] Speaker B: I know in churches there is a custom at the Church of bringing the baby Jesus at the first Mass of Christmas. But I say Jesus isn't being born. Jesus is born. Jesus has already come among us. So basically what we're doing is telling the story of Christmas, and I'm in the school of set the whole thing.
[00:13:50] Speaker A: Up, the two camps of the whole thing up.
It's a beautiful gift, and of course, an essential part of the Nativity scene. And we released this podcast on Friday, December Eigth, is the role of our Blessed Mother and her, yes, her fiat. And today, on Friday, December eigth, we celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception. And I think sometimes there's misconception about whose Conception.
[00:14:17] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:14:17] Speaker A: And so Bishop maybe give a little reflection on the feast of the Immaculate Conception and its role in our diocese.
[00:14:24] Speaker B: People speak of the Immaculate Conception as if it was the Conception of Jesus, being that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And that's certainly a powerful mystery in our faith. But that's not the Immaculate Conception. The Immaculate Conception speaks about Mary and that God in his wisdom, God in his great design, knew Mary. He knew Mary before she was even born. And he gave her this gift, that she was conceived without original sin. She had no stain of sin, she never committed sin in her life, and she didn't even have that weakness that we speak of original sin, that stain of original sin that God preserved her from, that as a gift of grace, that she was predestined to be the mother of God. And what we see in Mary is sort of a cooperation, God's gift of grace to Mary, but Mary's use of that gift to say yes to God. And so that beautiful cooperation or collaboration, that Mary was conceived from the very, very first moment of her life, Mary was without sin, and that remained with her until the moment she was assumed into heaven. We're at the end of her life. She was taken up, body and soul, into heaven. Mary plays a special role. So in a sense, we celebrate on the Immaculate Conception the beginning of the great drama, if you will, of the Incarnation, that even before Christ would be born, God was already at work in Mary, and Mary was already in communion in a special way with God. Speaking of Jesus, what we speak of is the enunciation. And I guess it gets a little confusing because the Gospel that we use on the Immaculate Conception is the story of the right, but the focus there is on Mary's response to God. We'll proclaim that gospel again as we get closer to Christmas. But right now, what we're focusing on is Mary's. Yes, Mary, I am the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to his will, Mary had perfect trust in God's will. God would be faithful to his promises.
So there is that bit of Conception. But what a great grace. We thank the Lord for the gift of Mary's. Yes, and we thank Mary, and we all can then feel that sense of closeness, a mother of the Church, that she's close to us all.
[00:16:49] Speaker A: And here in the United States of America, the feast of the Immaculate Conception.
[00:16:53] Speaker B: Is our Mary, under the title of Our lady of the Immaculate Conception, is the patroness of the United States. But also the Diocese of Brooklyn is under the patronage of Mary in the Immaculate Conception. If you go to the auto, the book that has lists all the feast and also shows all the necrology, remembers the priests and the deacons who have died and speaks of significant days. You'll see a note on December eigth that it's the patronal feast of the Diocese of Brooklyn. From its early roots, we always had a special connection with Mary under the title of the Immaculate Conception.
[00:17:29] Speaker A: Right. One of the gifts of being conceived without sin is that there is no death. Death is a result of sin. And so our Blessed Mother again did not die, but yet was assumed into heaven, one of the prater natural gifts of being conceived without sin. She was perfect in all ways and in all things, and so a great model and a great inspiration for us.
[00:17:50] Speaker B: And for us know Mary is one of those figures of advent, too. It's a great feast day, but it kind of connects us to the celebration of this season of advent. We look to Mary in her watchfulness, her being attentive to God, in the call to be the mother of Jesus. We see it in her patience and her waiting. Waiting the birth of her child. We see it in her patience and waiting, seeing what would become of this child. She knew the sufferings that were there. She knew that wasn't going to be an easy life, but she didn't know exactly what that meant. We have the image of Simeon telling her about the sword that would pierce her heart. But patiently she waited. She trusted. She knew that God would be faithful. So she teaches us that sense of waiting during this time of advent as well. Watchful and joyful, hopeful and expecting as we prepare to celebrate the great feast of Christmas.
[00:18:44] Speaker A: Perhaps on that note we could ask our blessed Mother's intercession upon us and our diocese and all of our listeners if we end in prayer.
[00:18:52] Speaker B: Sure. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
[00:18:59] Speaker A: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for our sinners now and at the hour of our death.
[00:19:03] Speaker B: Amen. And may the blessing of Almighty God come upon you and remain with you forever in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[00:19:10] Speaker A: Thanks for joining us in another edition of Big City Catholics. Countdown continues to the feast of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ on Christmas Day. We hope that you have a blessed week and a great advent season and join us again next week.
[00:19:23] Speaker B: God bless.
