Millennium

By Bishop Raymond A. Lucker

Diocese of New Ulm

I am sitting with my mother in her room at the Holy Family Residence operated by the Little Sisters of the Poor in St. Paul. I rushed here yesterday from New Ulm after the Sisters called to say that my mother was dying. She is now 100 years of age and has congestive heart failure. She suffered an episode where she couldn’t breath. It is a frightening experience. With oxygen and sedatives, she was resting well by last evening.

Today when I arrived she was sitting up in her wheelchair feeling quite well. "That was terrible," she said. "I thought I was a goner." She is ready for death and often says, "Why doesn’t the Lord take me?" A few weeks ago a lady down the hall died. My mother said, "Now she has that over with, doesn’t she."

It is just a few days before Christmas and people are rushing to get everything ready. My mother has few needs. She says, "I don’t need anything." But, she receives the gift of life every day with gratitude and love.

This Christmas is very special. We are ending a century, beginning a new one, and indeed beginning a new millennium, a new one thousand years after the birth of Christ.

We celebrate two thousand years of God’s presence among us. God became flesh in Jesus. "God is with us" is the meaning of the word Emanuel. Jesus came to show God’s love for us. He came to be a bridge between sinful, weak humanity, and the all loving God. He came to make us one and to unite all creation in Christ.

In Christ Jesus, God has been present among us for two thousand years in the flesh, in the Holy Eucharist, in God’s people and in his living word. As we look to the new millennium we are reminded of our call to make God present in our daily lives and in the institutions and structures of society.

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated the diocesan Junior High Rally at Kerkhoven High School. Well over five hundred young people and youth leaders participated in a wonderful day of excellent presentations, music, sharing, the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, and a concert. I was so proud of this group of 7th and 8th graders who came with such openness and who responded with such enthusiasm. I was proud and happy with the youth leaders, the pastors, and pastoral administrators who accompanied them.

In my homily I talked to them about God’s presence among us and how we are called to be the hands, feet, and mouth of Christ in our society. I challenged them to reach out to the poor in Guatemala.

I told them about how a family needs only two and one half acres of land and access to water to live a good life. Their land was originally taken from them by the Spanish conquerors four centuries ago. I told them how on two acres of land they could grow enough corn and beans, squash and vegetables to feed their family with some extra to sell to buy the other things they needed for clothing and for building a modest house. The other one half acre is planted in coffee. After several years the coffee can be a means of additional cash for the family.

I challenged each parish youth group in the diocese to try to purchase once acre of land for a family. An acre of land costs about $2,000. The motto is "$2,000 in 2000". Seventh and eighth graders don’t have a lot of money, but I challenged them to contribute a little bit for a poor family in Guatemala.

I asked them to tear off a piece of paper from their program and write on it the gift they were going to bring to the altar during the presentation of gifts. They could write "I love you Lord", or "I give you my heart", or "I offer my day." I asked the young people to write their gift on this little piece of paper and put it along with their contribution to Guatemala in the collection. I think it is important for young people to contribute to the collection at each Mass, even if it is just a little coin.

I was overwhelmed when I heard that this group of seventh and eighth graders contributed $1,000, enough to purchase one half acre of land.

We pray at Mass during the preparation of the gifts, "By the mingling of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity."

We are bringing ourselves to the altar. We are offering our gift with Jesus. We take Jesus into our hearts and are told to bring him into the world. That is the meaning of Christmas. That is the meaning of these last two thousand years. That is the meaning of the new millennium which we begin on Christmas Eve.

May this Christmas be a special time of God’s presence in your lives.