Journeying Together Toward the Kingdom of God
This month of December holds many significant celebrations all surrounding Mary, our Mother. One is the solemnity we just celebrated on Dec. 8, her Immaculate Conception. Another is Dec. 10, the memorial established by Pope Francis of Our Lady of Loretto. The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Dec. 12, is very special to our Diocese with its large Mexican population. The final, of course, is Christmas when we celebrate the Birth of Christ, conceived and born of the Virgin Mary. All during December, Mary is present in the Advent season as the one whose perfect giving of herself to the will of God gave us God’s Son. As the Mother of Christ, she is present in the Christmas season as the Lord’s Mother, and ushers in the New Year with the Feast of Mary, the Mother of the Lord.
This month of December also holds another significant celebration. That is the 60th anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council, which occurred Dec. 8, 1965, also the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Some of us are very familiar with the council, having lived before, during and after this significant event in the life of the Church. Many of us grew up during the days of the council and the implementation of its work. Others of us do not personally know the years of the council and, having grown up after it, are familiar with it only as history. However, no matter our living relationship to the Second Vatican Council, it continues to have a profound influence upon our lives of faith as members of the Catholic Church.
In his Angelus message on Sunday, Dec. 7, Pope Leo XIV made reference to the 60th anniversary of the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council. He reminds us that the council, like Advent, calls us to “journey together toward the Kingdom of God with everyone eager to welcome and serve it.”
Like Mary, the Church is also our mother, and very much plays a role similar to Mary in handing on Christ to us. Just as Christ became flesh through Mary, Christ becomes flesh to us today through the Church. At the opening of the Second Vatican Council on Oct. 11, 1962, St. Pope John XXIII delivered an address which set the tone for its work. This address, Mother Church Rejoices, not only set the council’s tone but also the implementation of the council’s work with which we are still involved. The Church, like Mary, rejoices because she is the bearer of Christ. The Second Vatican Council was meant to help us grow closer to our Lord.
Sixty years ago, on Dec. 8, 1965, Pope Paul VI concluded the Second Vatican Council in an address in which he emphasized that the council left an image of the Church as a community of faith and love and also left the heritage of Christ’s teaching, which the Church has continually translated into “flesh and blood.” He quoted the words of St. Pope John XXIII’s opening address: “The greatest concern of the ecumenical council is this: that the sacred deposit of Christian doctrine should be guarded and taught more effectively.” St. Pope John Paul II referred to the Second Vatican Council as a “compass” with which to orient ourselves in the third millennium.
During this month of December, as we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, and as we celebrate so many feasts involving Mary, we need to look to Mary, our Mother, and to the Church, our mother, in a world which has changed drastically during the past years but whose basic problems and needs have remained the same. The teaching of Christ has not changed, and it is only the teaching of Christ that helps us to address the problems and needs of society as well as those of our own lives. Mary was keenly aware of this. With her gaze fixed completely on God, she was able to cope with the many challenges and difficulties she encountered, especially those which came to her as the Mother of the Lord. With her gaze fixed on Christ, the Church has handed on the Gospel of Christ for more than 2,000 years in times that have revealed the difficulties and needs of humanity in new contexts. The unchanging Gospel always answers these difficulties and needs.
The Second Vatican Council was and continues to be an instrument by which Christ transmits His teaching and love to a world that needs to know His words. Mary was and continues to be an instrument of God by which He makes the Church alive in bringing Christ into the world. Mary’s most effective witness was her living the Gospel most fully. These days of Advent are ones of joy because we know that God is with us and continues to reveal Himself to us.
May Mary, our Mother, and the Church, our Mother, continue to be “compasses” by which we can find joy as a “community of faith and love” in which the “flesh and blood” of Christ are truly present! May we continue to journey together toward the Kingdom of God!
Most reverend Gerald M. Barbarito
