Two U.S. Border Patrol Agents have been sentenced to a decade long prison terms for apprehending an illegal alien at our border!
Almost as outrageous is that the illegal alien drug smuggler, who was given immunity for testifying against the agents is now suing the U.S. for $5 million, claiming he was permanently injured!
I have just signed a petition calling for the President to pardon these two Border Agents and I'm asking you to join with me by clicking here for the full story and the petition:
They come……. often uninvited but not wholly unwelcome….. But they will surely come….. As soon as the Christmas tree is lit this evening…. As soon as the Christmas dinner is served tomorrow…. As soon as the presents are unwrapped…. They will come….
Who are they? They are the ghosts of our Christmases past. Not some scary spooks from out of a Steven King movie, nor some dour figment of Charles Dickens imagination…. No…. these ghosts are neighbors, who have moved away, grandchildren, too busy to come home, childhood friends, long since lost touch with, and all our beloved dead.
These ghosts come to us at the holy time, tinged with sadness, but so much a part of our Christmas memories we could not banish them if we would want to…. but who could wish something so dreadful!
Our memories, and the ghosts they conjure, are as much a part of today's celebration as the packages sitting under the tree this very minute or as the lights that beautify our church this very night. They are a part of us and they are holy.!
They come back to us….. served up in special Christmas recipes they hand down….. unique Christmas ornaments that were theirs, and those special songs of the season that they loved to sing. They are our special holiday friends. Aunts smelling like lavender, Grandmother's who baked the best bread in the world, small friends who shared their newly arrived red wagons, and brothers and sisters who wrapped their Santa's workshop gifts with all the love their small hands could muster. They are our special holiday friends, these ghosts of Christmas.
For you see…. they are part of our history, and our history is holy. For if this Christmas celebration means anything at all, it means that when God became a part of our human story, our lives took on a part of the divine story. The moments of our lives, each one of them, bears the mark of the divine life. And therefore, the people of our lives, all of them, are holy images of God among us. These ghosts who visit us, trimmed in evergreen and glowing in Christmas lights, these ghosts remind us that our story is a part of God's story…. For God touched our lives on this holy night.
We need not fear them, these ghosts of love and laughter, these ghosts of family and friendship…… We need not fear them, for they are our own history, coming back to reminisce in this holy season.
Our history, made holy, by God becoming one of us.
And so, as I drive down the turnpike tomorrow to celebrate with my family, they will come back to me, the ghosts of my own Christmases. My Grandfather fussing to make sure the house is spotless, my Grandmother standing in her apron in front of the stove cooking macaroni.
I hope yours visit you, and when they do, when those memories of people not with us this day come to reminisce, remember, they are signs to us of how holy our history is…. Our own history that is made holy by God who took on our history when he came to Earth this very night.
Greet those ghosts with love for they are signs of God's love…. Greet them with love…. welcome them home….. and Merry Christmas to you and to all who are with you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By Father Patrick Ferraro
St Joan of Arc – Streetsboro Ohio
December 2003
This sermon was given at
my parent’s Church.
I thought it was so touching I had my Dad ask
Fr. Patrick for a copy to send to Vinny who was in Iraq at that time.
