The Star Over Bethlehem

When I was about five years old our family took a vacation trip to Florida. One of our stops was at St. Augustine where there supposedly was a place where Ponce-de-Leon found the fabled fountain of youth. They had a cup of the water dipped from the little grotto spring for each person to drink, but when it came to me I refused saying; "I want to be a grandpa someday". I actually lucked out twice. Everyone else drank what they described as foul tasting water and still got old, and I've been blessed with a bunch of beautiful grandchildren.

About that same age two other things happened. I was walking with 3 young friends a block from my house and one of them suggested that we all pick up stones and throw them at the next car that drove by. Everyone gathered their stones, a car turned the corner, we each made a throwing motion, and I was the only one to actually let the stones fly. The automobile came to a screeching stop and a rather angry man came out of the car and asked; "Who threw those stones?" Each of my "friends" pointed their hands toward me and said; "He did!" "Well, don't do something so stupid again" the man said, then he got in his car and drove off.

It was a year or two later and our class at St. Francis de Sales was in training to receive our first holy communion. We would start each school day by going to mass and one day during communion the thought occurred to me that maybe this was the day we were suposed to go up and receive communin. Thinking about it now I don't know why I came to that conclusion. It certainly wasn't a special Sunday service, no one else from our class had gone forward, and I was sitting in the middle of the row. Well, I went up, opened my mouth, stuck out my tongue, got the host, and went back to the pew. A minute later the nun who was our teacher came over to me and wisphered; "Stich out your tongue!", which I did. She then turned around and went back to her own pew, but I never heard another word about it from her. Later that day when I was home I told my dad what had happened. "I think I just had my first unholy communion". My dad laughed and said: "Did the same thing myself when I was your age."

I bring up these old stories for two reasons. The first is because my daughter Becky "tagged" me, asking for a few little know facts about myself that I should post on my blog. But the second is that this is a good time of year to talk about Grace. Grace is receiving blessing and favor that you don't deserve. The man getting back into his car, the nun going back to her pew, and the attitude of my dad showed me grace. And I also learned at an early age that I might as well be good because it seemed I usually got caught.

The star over Bethlehem is a sign of God's grace. It pointed to the location of the birth of the Word of God who was "now in flesh appearing":. It represents a light that shines in the darkness, bringing God's grace and truth to mankind. "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth . . . For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ". (John 1: 14-17)