Merry Christmas | Msgr. Stephen Salocks' Christmas Message to the Saint John's Seminary Community

On behalf of the seminarians, faculty and staff of Saint John’s Seminary, I want to wish you and your families a blessed, joyful, and healthy Christmas!

The message of Christmas is timeless. Every year, we hear and reflect on the Gospel accounts of the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We acknowledge the ways God has fulfilled the promises of old and appreciate the ways the event of Christ’s birth is a promise for the future. Christmas beckons us to look back in faith and understand how God has fulfilled his promises and to look forward in hope to what God has yet to do on our behalf through his new-born Son.

The scriptural passages that accompany the Gospel accounts of what happened at Bethlehem more than 2,000 years ago are most helpful, and I am always struck by the way the prophecies of Isaiah give way to the proclamation and teachings of St. Paul.

For instance, at the Christmas Mass during the Night, after hearing Isaiah tell us about a son that is given us, we hear St. Paul proclaim,

“The grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age, as we await the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of our great God and savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to deliver us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people as his own, eager to do what is good.” (Titus 2:11-14)

And at the Christmas Mass at Dawn, after hearing Isaiah speak about the coming of our Savior, we hear St. Paul reinforce the explanation of our Lord’s birth when he says,

“When the kindness and generous love of God our savior appeared, not because of any righteous deed we had done but because of his mercy, he saved us through the bath of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he richly poured out on us through Jesus Christ our savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:4-7)

It is clear then that Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, who came to Earth to save us from sin and give us hope, love, and joy. Christmas is a time to look to the future when Jesus will raise us up to be with him in a place where sorrow and despair will be gone.

This Christmas, with the Church, we begin the Holy Year, Jubilee of 2025, and we are, in the words of Pope Francis, called to be “Pilgrims of Hope.” With you, we at here at Saint John’s Seminary hear the Holy Father’s call to bring Christ and his message of hope to the world. With you, we want to join with the Church around the world to work for peace and to proclaim the love of God that leads him to send his Son to provide forgiveness, rescue, and transformation.

Today, with you and filled with the hope that the newborn Christ brings, we offer praise and glory to God for the gift of His Son. We give thanks to God for the incarnate Word whose birth changes the world forever.

Merry Christmas!