[I am offering as my column this week the letter I sent to all our priests on the Solemnity of the Epiphany. Our priests work hard and, at the start of the New Year, I want them to know how much we appreciate them.]

My Dear Brothers in the Priesthood,

Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli

I am taking the opportunity of this Christmastide to offer you my special gratitude and encouragement for your lives as priests. While the secular world around us strips away its Christmas ornaments, we keep the light of Christmas burning brightly in our churches. The very day after Christmas, stores begin to discard their decorations and prepare for the next secular observance. But, we continue to rejoice in the Christmas spirit. Christmas for us is not a day, but a season. It lasts four weeks so that we can draw more deeply from its riches.

Celebrating the vigil Masses on Christmas Eve, we begin the liturgical season of Christmas that closes with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. At the center of this sacred time is the Solemnity of the Epiphany. Traditionally, the Epiphany, the manifestation of Jesus as God and Savior, holds a high place in the Church’s calendar. And, the Epiphany helps us come to a realistic appreciation of the Incarnation, the very mystery we make real by our priestly ministry.

On the Epiphany, we place the three Wise Men next to the shepherds in our Nativity scenes. Their journey is complete. Students of nature, they have followed the star to Jerusalem. There, from the Scriptures of God’s Chosen People, they have learned that Bethlehem is the place of Jesus’ birth. Science and Revelation have led them to Jesus, who is Wisdom Incarnate. I would like to suggest that we not over romanticize the Magi’s coming to the Lord and learn from their journey an encouragement for our lives.

Shortly after his conversion, T.S. Eliot wrote the poem, “The Journey of the Magi.” He took the beginning of his work from the famous 1622 “Nativity Sermon” given before King James I by Lancelot Andrewes, one of the original translators of the King James Bible. Like Andrewes the preacher, Eliot the poet reminds us of the stark reality of the Magi’s journey.

The Magi left their native home, their security, even their strongly held beliefs. They traveled for some time across strange lands. They faced the peril of unknown peoples and the danger of wild animals. Restless and searching through unfamiliar territory, they made their way. With only partial knowledge and the glimmering of faith, they came to the Son of God who had entered our world.

The whole event of the Incarnation is not simply the songs of angels and Glorias on high. Christmas is also about the evil designs of Herod attempting to deceive the wise men and kill the Child Jesus. Christmas is about the wonder of the shepherds mingled with the massacre of the Holy Innocents. The Magi offer their gifts to the Christ child only after their arduous journey.

Christmas is not a simple story of God entering the world and all being well. The mystery of the Word made flesh is only fully revealed on Golgotha and with the empty tomb. The bright star leading the Magi will fade before the rising dawn of Easter morn.

As priests, we set before our people the whole truth about Christmas. Christmas is more than just sentiment and good will. It is about life. Like the Magi, each of us, priests and people, travel through harsh lands of half beliefs and doubt. Not one of us knows ahead of time the paths we will have to tread. We make our way, searching and looking for the fulfillment that only Christ can give beyond this world. And, it is your detachment from the things of this world that points to the happiness that yet awaits our people. It is your priestly spirit of poverty that guides them to Christ. It is your leaving the darkness and clinging to the Light that brightens their way to the Lord. And, I am grateful.

Our work as priests comes with no roadmap carefully laid out. Rather, we accompany our people in their personal journey from doubt to belief, from fear to hope, through suffering to a deeper union with God made man. Through our devout celebration of the sacraments, we seal and sanctify that union of our people with God. And so, for your fidelity as “servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor 4:1), for your prayerful, faith-filled celebration of the sacraments, I give thanks.

We priests leave behind our comfort and security to lead our people in their search for Christ among us. We know the dangers that surround us. Some come from a world hostile to God; some, from people angry and bitter. At times, our sufferings even come from those within the very community of faith. Yet, we remain faithful to our vocation of making others know Emmanuel, God-with-us, by the joy in our hearts and the smiles on our faces. And so, for the joy you share in leading God’s people, I thank you.

As priests, we are “taken from among men and appointed in the things of God” (Heb 5:1). And, so like the people we serve, we face sorrow and loss in our ministry and in our personal lives. Like the Magi, we ourselves wander through the arid deserts of doubt and uncertainty. Yet, we hold fast to the promise given us that the Lord is truly with us and so we never abandon those entrusted to our care.

My dear brothers in the priesthood, your perseverance in the priesthood is a gift to the Church. By means of your ministry, the Church prolongs the mystery of the Incarnation in our time and place. You are much needed and much appreciated.

And so, “I give thanks to my God at every remembrance of you, praying always with joy in my every prayer for all of you, because of your partnership for the gospel” (Phil 1:3-5). And, I repeat to you the prayer the bishop said on the day you were ordained “another Christ.”

May the Lord bring to fulfillment the good work He has begun in you.