The Reason for the Season

I continued my Christmas tradition this week of attending the Christmas services of a church besides my own. I love Christmas and the feeling of unity with all of Christendom as we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I love the images of Christ, the beautiful music and the sermons and sharing that special spirit of Christmas, even with perfect strangers. There were a couple of things that really stood out to me at the service that I would like to share.

The pastor spoke (of course) about Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem, their search for a place to stay and the birth of Jesus Christ in the stable. And then he gave a beautiful metaphor, one of my favorites. From Luke 2: "And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger". A manger, or a feeding trough for animals. One of the most humble places imaginable, and yet perfectly symbolic of the Savior. Jesus himself said (John 6:51) "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." The baby Jesus was laid in the feeding trough, seemingly unfit for the Redeemer of the world, and yet incredibly fitting. He is indeed the Bread of Life; only by partaking of him and his grace can we be saved.


And then were uttered the seven words I never expected to hear at a Christmas service:

Jesus ISN'T the reason for the season.

In all fairness, I didn't completely disagree with what came next. It was just missing the crucial element.

He relayed a story about a British couple in Africa who had adopted a baby hippo and explained how when that hippo grew up, it couldn't be released back into the wild because it had quite literally forgotten how to be a hippo. This part is important. He said that Jesus isn't the reason for the season: We are. He taught that humankind had forgotten how to be hospitable, tolerant, compassionate; in short, human, and that Christ was born to teach us and remind us how to be all those things.

It's clearly not untrue. Christ is our ultimate example for all good things: He teaches us love, compassion, tolerance, forgiveness, charity, hope, and faith. He taught us how to pray, how to fast, how to treat our neighbors. But the prophets taught these qualities and attributes as well (although of course Christ is the perfect example). He was indeed born for us, but not just to teach us how to be hospitable and compassionate. Saying that this is WHY Christ came to the earth ignores his primary purpose. In Mark 8:31, Jesus taught the disciples that "that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again." Christ did for us what none of us could do for ourselves. He suffered the pains of hell and died on the cross that each one of us might be able to have eternal life with our Father in Heaven. The Atonement of Christ is the real reason for Christmas. Perhaps this sounds more like Easter than Christmas, but the two are inseparably connected.

I am grateful for this knowledge, that Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem of the virgin Mary. That He taught us the way to perfection, that He was our exemplar and our elder Brother. But most of all, I am grateful to know that He died for all of us collectively and for me individually, that through his grace I may be forgiven of my sins and that through his mercy I may be succored in all my weaknesses and infirmities.

Happy Christmas.

We'll miss you, Elder Wirthlin

I logged into my email this morning only to discover that Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, the oldest member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, passed away in his sleep last night. I will miss the stories he tells and the extraordinary humility and compassion that defined him in my mind. I feel like at different moments in my life, there are always one or two speakers whose messages have spoken directly to me - Elder Wirthlin has filled that spot for the past few years. Many of you will remember a year ago, during the October 2007 General Conference, when Elder Wirthlin was giving a talk and began shaking so violently that I wasn't sure he would be able to deliver his whole talk. (To be perfectly honest, I had to go back later and re-read the conference archives, because I was too focused on what was happening and not enough on what was being said.) Elder Nelson stepped up alongside Elder Wirthlin, silently and beautifully illustrating the topic of the address: the responsibility we have to love and support one another. One of my favorite passages from the talk defines the true measure of success in life as the ability to love and serve, as Christ did, our fellow man.

"The gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of transformation. It takes us as men and women of the earth and refines us into men and women for the eternities.

The means of this refinement is our Christlike love. There is no pain it cannot soften, no bitterness it cannot remove, no hatred it cannot alter. The Greek playwright Sophocles wrote: “One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love.”15

The most cherished and sacred moments of our lives are those filled with the spirit of love. The greater the measure of our love, the greater is our joy. In the end, the development of such love is the true measure of success in life."

Something to contemplate, for sure. How am I going about developing the love of Christ? Am I making a conscious effort to find opportunities to love and serve?

We will miss you, Elder Wirthlin, but know that you are now happily reunited with your beautiful wife. I'm so thankful for the lessons that I've learned through your words.

I'm grateful to live in a day when we have living prophets and apostles, the true organization of Christ's church, on the earth. I know that Elder Wirthlin was an apostle of God, and I know that the things he taught us were the words of the Lord. I'm also grateful to know that whoever is chosen to replace him will likewise be called of God, and that the gospel of Jesus Christ will never again be taken from the earth.

My new motto

"Come What May, and Love it"

Read it. That's all I'm going to say.

I Love To See the Temple...

Most of you know of my obsession with Italy. A lot of you were probably there with me. And the rest of you may laugh and say that I wasn't there long enough to have such an obsession. Let's be honest though, anyone who has spent any amount of time in Italy can relate.

Right before I moved to Rome (about 3 years ago), the Roma stake was created. Then just after I left Torino, the Alessandria Stake was formed, and most recently the Verona Stake. In addition to the previously existing stakes and districts, Italy had more than fulfilled the membership requirements for a temple. Rumors had been flying for years about a temple and speculation on when it would actually be built. Saturday morning, President Monson laid all those rumors ro rest and announced a new temple to be built in Rome, Italy. I screamed. Follow the progress of the Rome temple.



President Monson also announced new temples in Cordoba, Argentina; Philadelphia, PA; Kansas City area, MO and Calgary, Alberta, Canada.