Silver and Gold, Silver and Gold, Everyone Wishes for Silver and Gold

Dear Brothers and Partners,

Advent 2015

Each year there are certain Christmas melodies that go through our heads, bidden or unbidden. For me Burl Ives’ Silver and Gold from the 1964 claymation classic, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, is one of them. Silver and Gold conjures up the lights and beauty of Christmas and our desire for those things which have lasting value. Sure, nice things, but also those desires of our hearts which long for something much deeper and more enduring.

During these Advent days we enter into a season of God’s extravagant love for us. Into the mystery of God-with-us which carries the promise of fresh hope for our spirits and gives courage to our hearts. Despite how broken and hopeless the situations around us may seem, our Advent scripture readings are rich with faith and hope-filled expectations reminding us that God can and does bring forth peace, life, and possibilities where none seemed possible.

In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter, in an act of mercy, says to a lame beggar looking for a handout, “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus, rise and walk.” (Acts 3:6) The gift Peter offers of Jesus and the belief of this lame beggar brings about the miracle of healing and new life.

Advent takes on special power for us this year because it coincides with the start of the Jubilee Year of Mercy called by Pope Francis, beginning on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. In the first line of its proclamation Pope Francis tells us that “Jesus is the face of the Father’s mercy!”

The linking of this Year of Mercy to Advent by Pope Francis is no accident, for Advent is the time when we prepare our hearts to receive Jesus, to become more like Jesus. As followers of John Baptist de La Salle we are not strangers to this message of asking Jesus to make his spirit come alive in us so that we might re-present Him to the young folks entrusted to our care. As followers of Jesus, we are now also called to be the “face of the Father’s mercy” for them.

None of us is a stranger to the need for mercy. We have all been that traveler beaten, robbed, stripped, and left for dead along the Jericho road, and that prodigal son or daughter in need of forgiveness. What better preparation for preaching mercy and extending it than to have experienced it! For Pope Francis “mercy is the beating heart of the gospel!” understood as compassion, tenderness, and forgiveness – coming to the aid of a brother or a sister in need.

Let us rejoice that the miracle of incarnation is not just a one-time event but an ongoing invitation to welcome Jesus into our hearts, becoming flesh in our lives for others.

Warmest best wishes for Silver and Gold and so much more this Advent and Christmas!

Brother Dennis Malloy
Provincial/Visitor