All the gifts are opened – right? Or did you receive a gift that you will get in installments – like once a month? That would be a gift that keeps on giving. That was the type of present that Clark Griswold in the movie Christmas Vacation received. His company enrolled him in a “Jelly of the Month” club rather than giving him his usual Christmas bonus. While he is fuming, his wife’s cousin tries to put a positive spin on the situation by assuring Clark that his enrollment is “the gift that keeps on giving.”
When you think about it, we celebrate the gift that keeps on giving every Christmas. Jesus is the gift that keeps on giving. While He came as a human being only once, He left us the gift of Himself. And He is with us, present to us, not just monthly, but always.
We are all created by God. Through Baptism we become members of His family. That family is the Church founded by Jesus Christ. It has grown through the years in many ways, often by witness. Others see our way of living and desire to join us.
From the earliest days, we have had people fulfill that desire by journeying through a Rite – what we call the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. Every year, they come and we respond by supporting and journeying with them. At the Easter Vigil they will make their final decision to be one with the family we know as the Catholic Church. They are responding to the call of God in their lives and preparing and praying for months. They desire the gift that keeps on giving – now and forever.
Having been the recipient of that gift, we are called to respond by sharing it and assuring that it keeps on giving for others. It is a gift that fills us with a love that grows only by sharing it and giving it away. We work with God. We are the hands of Christ working with God to bring all of us together as the one family.
Please support those who are on that journey this year. There are hundreds in our Archdiocese alone and fourteen here at Holy Name of Jesus. God assures us that our support, our gifts of prayer, will be returned to us in the form of new life and THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING.
~Your RCIA Team