Merry Christmas! I am so glad you are with us to celebrate the birth of Jesus. No matter if you’ve been with us all year or you are just visiting for today or you were drug here by someone else against your will, no matter what it is good to be with you for Christmas!
Jesus is with us too! As the Gospel of Matthew (Mt 1:20-23) relates:
[T]he angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means “God is with us.”
Jesus fulfills a prophecy of Isaiah in a unexpected way. Jesus was not literally named “Emmanuel” but that is exactly who Jesus is. Jesus is God, the Son of God, who is WITH us. The name Jesus, we see also explained in Matthew, literally means “God saves”—“he will save his people from their sins.” So, Jesus is WITH us, and if he is to save us FROM our sins, that means Jesus is AGAINST sin (and all that comes with it—death, pain, hurt, fear, division, etc.)
And to round this out, what is Jesus FOR? We hear in our Christmas Mass at night readings: For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord. (Luke 2:11) Jesus is born FOR us. This is the BEST POSSIBLE NEWS EVER!!! St. Paul realizes how great this is when he writes his letter to the Romans (Rm 8:31-33): What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him? Who will bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who acquits us.
So to sum up, Jesus is FOR us and WITH us and AGAINST anything that harms us (sin and death—he saves us from those things). What about the Catholic Church? I see a lot of confusion on this point, but it truly is simple. The Church is FOR you, WITH you, and AGAINST anything that would harm you. Jesus is the head of the Church—the Church is the Body of Christ. The Body has to go where with head leads. Now sometimes (too often) an individual member (person) of the Body fails to live this out and acts against another. This is sad. But the Body, the Church in the bigger sense, is always FOR what Jesus is FOR.
Jesus, and thus the Catholic Church, are FOR all people and want to be WITH all people. There is not a person on this earth we are not FOR. We are AGAINST no one, but only against the things that harm us and harm our souls, the things Jesus came to save us from. That is our starting point, but what an important starting point it is, and it should be a place where we all have common ground.
So, again, I am so glad you are with us this Christmas (and took time to read this strange article entirely based on three prepositions)! If there is anything Prince of Peace parish, myself, the staff, our members, can do FOR you, please let us know. We are WITH you. May God bless you, be with you always, and set you free from anything that would be harmful!
Peace,
Fr. Greg