Father Christopher Zugger

Every night as the sun sets, Catholics read or sing Vespers. In every ritual Church, Simeon’s prayer is sung, the Nunc Dimittis: Now you shall dismiss your servant, O Lord, according to Your word in peace; a light of revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people, Israel.

As the daylight fades, candles are lit, electric lights are turned on, and the Church focuses on the light of Jesus. Vespers in the Byzantine rite launches the next day; we follow the Jewish and Old Testament practice of evening begins the next day which begins not at midnight but at sunset. So as daylight fades, the True Light illuminates the new day.

Two couples mark the celebration today. They are of different generations, but united in fidelity to worship at the temple and in being obedient to the Law, and to what God has asked of them over time. Joseph and Mary and Simeon and Anna are both couples who represent the anawim of God, the little ones, the people who listen to the Spirit of God and act upon God’s wishes. Simeon and Anna were both very old by the standards of their time period. They probably had outlived everyone they grew up with, but continued to wait for the Messiah in prayer and sacrifice.

Joseph and Mary were young, just starting out their married life and now family life. They already had made sacrifices of remaining virginal, of traveling to Bethlehem to fulfill the prophecy of the town where the Messiah would be born, of being alone without their parents and friends in such an emotionally and spiritually important time. To redeem Jesus from service as a Levite, they could only afford to sacrifice two birds, being far from home and without Joseph’s carpenter shop producing income.

All four are listening to God regarding this little forty-day old boy. For Mary and Joseph, Simeon’s proclamation and Anna’s preaching are confirmation that they have indeed heard the voice of God. This little baby is not just the messiah, but the holy one of God. The road ahead promises to be difficult: a sword will spiritually pierce Mary’s heart, and Simeon accurately predicts that Jews will be forced to make final decisions regarding Jesus – He will accepted be the messiah, or He will be rejected. Everything will focus on Him and His destiny.

It is a bitterly cold night tonight. The wind is howling out of the mountains, much of North America is at freezing or below freezing temperatures, snow is falling in much of the country. We have a storm that stretches from Vermont to New Mexico and all points in between. But it remains February 2, it remains the feast of the Encounter, of the Meeting of Jesus and His people, the presentation of Christ not just in the temple but to Simeon and Anna who personify the faithful of Israel, the generations and generations of Jews who were waiting patiently for God to send the  messiah. Even though the arrival of the messiah is in the person of a 40-day old infant and not a triumphant general leading an army against pagan Rome, Simeon and Anna are happy. They rejoice, they preach, they sing, they pray, they tell anyone who will listen that salvation is now close at hand.

The light of Christ never goes away. During the Presanctified Liturgy in Great Lent the priest holds a single candle in the doorway of the icon-screen, and that light pierces the darkness. Vespers comes, and the Nunc Dimittis promises that no physical, spiritual, or moral darkness will ever conquer against the true light. He is the light of revelation to the Gentiles – and to all Israel. He is the light of revelation to our souls. He is the light of revelation to our searching hearts. His Church stands firm against all darkness, against all hostility, against all heresy, against all failures of its members.

Tonight, then should be a night of rejoicing. Candles are blessed tonight as a sign that Jesus is the light of the world, as the prayer makes clear. In praying tonight in this liturgy, let the power of the Holy Spirit bring us warmth on this cold winter night, and let the power of Jesus Christ, even as a 40-day old baby, even under the form of a little cube of bread soaked in wine and water, transform us into souls as patient and faithful as Simeon and Anna, and to imitate Joseph and Mary in staying true to what has been handed to us in our Catholic faith.

There will always be attempts by forces of darkness to conquer the light. But the light will never be defeated. Christ is among us.

On the Sunday before Christmas, the Byzantine Rite presents the genealogy of Jesus according to Saint Matthew. This is given in the Roman Rite on December 17. The genealogy places Jesus in time, as a descendant of Abraham and King David, through his legal father Saint Joseph, and of course as a Man through his mother Mary. But Matthew puts four women into the listing of names, the only time it happens in the whole Bible. And these four are very unusual ancestors! Tamar: a Gentile widow who disguised herself as a prostitute and seduced her father-in-law. Rahab: a Canaanite prostitute of Jericho, who hid the spies of Joshua and so saved her family. Ruth: A woman from Moab— the nation condemned as having been born of incest, and so the worst foreigner of all. Bathsheba: the Jewish wife of King David’s loyal officer Uriah; Solomon was born out of the adultery she and David committed. Not exactly who you would want to emphasize in your family tree! For that matter, David of course we just saw was an adulterer; Abraham lied about his wife Sarah; and Isaac and Jacob aren’t great saints either. No family is made of perfect people, even the legal ancestors of our savior Himself!

Matthew’s gospel readers could take comfort that Jesus does not hide His human relatives, or create a legend so that they all look terrific. These four unusual pregnancies from those four women all are used by God to bring about our salvation, and to show that EVERYONE has a place in God’s plan, no matter what their ethnic or racial origin, no matter their gender, their social status, their wealth or poverty. Compared to the scandal of those four pregnancies, the virginal conception of Jesus in Mary’s womb through the power of the Holy Spirit looks positively normal!

God’s grace conquers all difficulties. God’s mercy fixes all problems. God’s love provides a way for everyone to find their way home. In these last days of preparation for Christmas, let’s focus on what truly is important: where I and Jesus are going together! It is so easy to think that everything should be perfect, flawless, special. But God chose to come into the world through a family line that was messy, even shameful. The centuries of longing for the Messiah are fulfilled in Joseph’s family tree in ways that were unusual in the eyes of “holy people” === but as Jesus repeated over and over, He did not come for the self-righteous, but for us. The ordinary, sinful, broken folks who lose their way, but who bravely pick themselves up and get back onto the right road again. May we open up our hearts to the love, mercy, and grace of the Holy Child, and may we really and truly understand this year that God hungers for each of us, and hungers for those we bring to Him. Nobody is perfect except God Himself. No family feast is going to be “just right.” No celebration is flawless. God is perfect, flawless, and always right. I never will be 100% right, or perfect, or flawless. But in His eyes, I am what He wants: a sinful servant who wants to be saved. May the Holy Child bring us many blessings, may He bring us healing, may He bring us awareness of how loved we are, may He fill us with divine peace and give us rest in His own unique Heart. Merry Christmas.

The oldest icon in our parish church is the one of Saint Nicholas – it dates back to the early 1700s, about 300 years old. For centuries people have prayed to Saint Nicholas for his intercession in front of that icon.

Nicholas is so important that his icon must  be at the north end of every icon screen in every church that uses the Byzantine rite, Catholic or Orthodox. He the saint of charity and justice, a model for bishops, and is one of the only saints other than Saint John the Baptist with two feast days, the other being May 9, the commemoration of the arrival of his relics in Bari, Italy, where they rest in a huge shrine.

Even during his life, he was credited with being a powerful intercessor with God, with many miracles attributed to him of the unjustly condemned being saved from execution, children rescued from kidnappers, sailors saved at sea. He is the patron saint of multiple occupations – sailors, children, singers, clergy, merchants and the poor, orphans, innocent prisoners, women seeking a husband and men seeking a wife, pharmacists,  teachers and students, babies, judges, preachers, pilgrims, notaries, and along with St Christopher he is the patron of travelers. For our Byzantine Catholic Church, he is the patron saint of the monastery where the bishops used to live above the town of Mukachevo, and it was the site of annual pilgrimages for over 1,000 years until it was taken over by the communists and the Russian Orthodox patriarchate in 1949. Every European country has churches dedicated to him, and he is the patron saint of several nations as well as our own Metropolitan Province in America.

So, what’s his real history? We know for sure that he was born around 280, and as the bishop of Myra was arrested during the last big persecution of the Roman Empire under Diocletian; all of those bishops in prison were tortured, sometimes quite horribly. In 325 he was able to go to the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, which rejected the Arian heresy that Christ was a created being. An old legend claims that he punched the heretic Arius during a debate at the council, and for this was deprived of his role as a bishop. But that night all of the other bishops had a dream in which Jesus and the Virgin Mary restored the Gospel Book and his white omophorion to him, and that is usually shown in his icons. Oddly enough, a reconstruction of his face based on his skull shows that he had a broken nose, so maybe Arius punched him back.  The story’s point is that Nicholas was passionate about defending Jesus as the co-eternal word son of God before becoming the son of Mary. Jesus Christ must have a fully divine nature in order to save us and reopen paradise to the human race. Almost every bishop at the council had spent time in prison for defending the faith, and that meant terrible torture for many. Nicholas was not about to let a heresy about Jesus wreck the Church and authentic faith that he had fought to defend.

We know that in Myra he founded charitable institutions like an orphanage, old age home, and hospital, since the Christian Church did that everywhere then. Based on all the stories, he obviously interceded for children, the poor and the sailors at sea. His charity, his orthodox faith, his determination for justice, all contributed to incredible devotion to him after his death in 343. For the last few centuries, the Catholic Church requires two or three miracles to be proven by a person’s heavenly intercession before they can be declared to be a saint. With Nicholas the abundance of miracles is such that the Roman authorities would have had a hard time deciding which ones to use.

So, what does this mean today? For Byzantine Catholics, in particular Nicholas is someone to imitate, to ask him to intercede with God that our Church, our parish, should be strong, alive, flourishing, and healthy. For all Catholics, he should be a model for justice, for charity, and for a strong faith in God and His Church, no matter what. Am I a good Catholic in my actions, my words, my personal faith, my example to others? Do I encourage others to come to our church? Do I serve the poor, at least by giving to charities that do so? Do I pray for innocent prisoners, relief of those persecuted for their faith in Christ? Do I trust in God’s love and great mercy?

It is easy to say, oh he was so holy, I wish I could be like him. No, I am supposed to be like him. A person who is a model of faith and life in Jesus Christ is a model for a reason. My parents gave me a great devotion to Nicholas. When I was leaving a hospital after a medical procedure as a little boy, an old German Franciscan nun stopped my mother in her wheelchair, and told her that Saint Nicholas would be very important in my life. When they saw the big icon of him in the little Byzantine Catholic church I was going to, my mother said that this is where I belonged. He has helped me for over 60 years, and that’s why I gave out holy cards of him at my 40^th anniversary. He is a great patron saint to turn to, a wonderful bishop to look to, an example to hold onto. He points the way to the Infant Jesus, savior of the world, and shows us the path we need to walk on.

May he be our intercessor, may he pray for our Byzantine Catholic Church in both Europe and America, and may we follow his example as much as possible so as to grow in faith as Catholics and brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is among us.

According to legend, a cherry tree twig, which Saint Barbara placed in a vase on her way to prison, is said to have blossomed completely unexpectedly on the day of her death. Thus the custom and the blossoming of the buds should bring life. Suitable twigs are fruit tree twigs (cherry, apple, pear, Chaenomeles), forsythia or lavender. These twigs may only be cut after the frost so that the dormancy period is interrupted and the sprouting capacity is encouraged. If there has been no frost up to then, simply place the twigs in the freezer for two days.

Those now wishing to do things perfectly should place the twigs overnight in a cool room, then again for half a day in warm water. Before placing the St. Barbara twigs in the vase, you should mix the vase water with a special freshness retainer for woody twigs. Cut off one inch of the twig at an angle at the lower end. Then place the twigs in a spacious vase in which they stand in deep water. Put this vase in a light, warm place. Now you have a good chance that your Barbara twigs will blossom by Christmas.

Thus the custom and the blossoming of the buds should bring life, light and joy to the dark season – in memory of Saint Barbara. Those now wishing to do things perfectly should place the twigs overnight in a cool room, then again for half a day in warm water, e.g. in the bath. Before placing the St. Barbara twigs in the vase, you should mix the vase water with a special freshness retainer for woody twigs. Cut off two to three centimetres of the twig at an angle at the lower end. Then place the twigs in a spacious vase in which they stand in deep water. Put this vase in a light, warm place. Now you have a good chance that your Barbara twigs will blossom by Christmas. The vase or glass containing the St. Barbara Twigs may be placed on the family altar or icon corner until Christmas. Then it goes to the Nativity set.

Every year the Mission Society of the Mother of God of Boronyavo issues Easter and Christmas Cards that can be purchased to benefit the work of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo in the Transcarpathian Oblast of Ukraine.

This year Bishop Nil, the apostolic administrator for the Mukachevo eparchy, has asked for help in building a social center to assist the homeless.  Russia’s long war in eastern Ukraine has increased poverty and weakened health care and social services in a country that was already poor. This results in more people losing their homes or what little support they had. The Catholic Church has been working hard at helping all those in need, regardless of religious affiliation. Every dollar will go so very far over there.

If purchased at church a packet of 5 cards sells for $10 including envelopes. We can also mail them to you at $12 per packet. All orders by mail must be in by Wednesday, December 15th to insure that you receive them in time for Christmas giving. If you would like to order by mail you can e-mail us at admin@missionboronyavo.org
Each packet of cards includes a prayer list. Fill out the slip with the names of the recipients and return by mail or drop them by the parish office by January 1st. All names will be sent to ]Bishop Nil Lushchak in the Ukraine. On January 7th (Old Calendar Christmas), the Bishop places all of these names on the altar at Exaltation of the Holy Cross Cathedral in Uzhhorod and pray for your intentions. Thank you for your
generosity, and please encourage family, friends & other parishioners to purchase our cards!

Today we commemorate Saint Michael the archangel and all angels, on a feast day that is nearly 1700 years old, from the council of Laodicea in 364. The day was established in November, the ninth month after March (with which the year began in ancient times) since there are Nine Ranks of Angels. The eighth day of the month was chosen for the Synaxis of all the Bodiless Powers of Heaven since the Day of the Dread Last Judgment is called the Eighth Day by the holy Fathers. After the end of this age (characterized by its seven days of Creation) will come the Eighth Day, and then “the Son of Man shall come in His Glory and all the holy Angels with Him” (Mt. 25:31).

Traditionally there are said to be nine choirs of angels: The nine choirs of angels were listed by Pseudo-Dionysius, an important spiritual writer from the late 300s as Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels and Angels. The Seraphim attend God’s throne in the heavenly Liturgy (Isaiah 6:1-8). While western art has reduced the awesome Cherubim to chubby little babies, in Scripture they are far more impressive: six-winged, and four faces: that of a lion (representative of all wild animals), an ox (domestic animals), a human (humanity), and an eagle (birds), from where we get the symbols of the Four Evangelists of the Gospels. Thrones carry God’s Throne in heaven, and serve the wishes of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Dominions are shown as having two wings but carrying orbs or scepters. They organize the guardian angels. Virtues are the angels through whom God’s signs and miracles are made in creation. Powers fight demons and are shown with shields and swords. Principalities are shown wearing crowns and carrying scepters. They organize bands of angels, fulfill the orders of higher-ranking angels or God Himself. Archangels serve as messengers of God, guard countries, and often help with Christian armies fighting evil forces. Angels serve as messengers to individuals, and from their ranks come the personal guardian angels assigned to protect the billions of human beings.

The word angel is an abbreviation of the Greek “Angelos,” meaning one who is sent or a messenger.  An angel is a spiritual creature naturally superior to man and often commissioned by God for certain duties on earth.  “The name angel,” wrote St. Augustine, “belongs to his office not to his nature.  Your ask what is the name of his office?  He is an angel.” 

            All the angels were created good, so that they would love God and one another, and that they might have from this life of love, continual and great joy.  God did not will to make them love by force, and therefore, He left it up to the angels to decide for themselves – whether they wished to love Him to live in God, or not.

            One was Lucifer, the light-bearer, ended up as the Prince of Darkness.  He did not wish to love God and fulfill the will of God, but desired himself to become like God.  He began to oppose and disagree with Him in all things, and he became a dark, evil spirit – the devil, Satan.  The word devil means slanderer, archenemy of God, and the word Satan means the adversary of God and all that is good.  This evil spirit tempted and took with him many other angels who also became evil spirits and are called demons. In the Middle East one reason people built and lived inside of walled towns and villages was because they feared Satan who ruled over the wilderness.

            Lucifer either wanted to be like God, or was offended by God taking on a human nature – we really don’t know. But in the Book of Revelation, we read:  Then one of the highest archangels, Michael, came forth against Satan and said: “Who is equal to God?  There is none like God!” And there was a war in heaven: Michael and his angels made war against Satan; and Satan and his demons made ware against them (Rv 12:7 ff).

             Evil power could not stand against the angels of God. Good will always win. Satan, together with his demons, fell like lightning into the nether regions, hades. Hades, or the nether region, is the name for the place of separation far from God, where the evil spirits now dwell.  There they are tormented in their malice, beholding their powerlessness against God.  All of them, because of their refusal to repent, have become so confirmed in evil that they can no longer be good. They strive by deceit and cunning to tempt every person, whispering false ideas and evil desires in order to bring us to damnation and join them in hell.

God has assigned guardian angels to us to help us make the free choice to reject hell and to choose heaven. These angels know what hell is like – so they seek to save us, guide us, lead us. It is easy to choose evil – original sin has damaged humanity with the tendency to commit sin.

Today is the opportunity to renew our awareness of the holiness that surrounds us – the guardian angels who protect us, the archangels who watch over the world and fight evil, the choir of angels involved in the worship of God in paradise and who stand firmly against the forces of darkness, like Michael. The challenge is to listen to our own guardian angel’s prompting, to hear the voice of God, to resist all temptation. If we do that, then we fulfill our mission of being with God, just as the nine choirs do.

Although I was ordained on May 10, 1981, my family had opted back in 2019 for an October celebration as it is always pleasant here in early October after the Balloon Fiesta.

The Divine Liturgy was on October 12, the feast of Our Lady of the Pillar. That shrine is where Christopher Columbus and his crew prayed before setting sail in 1492.

October 13 was the dinner; that of course is the anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima in 1917.

You can read my biography and see some photos at this site created by the Eparchy of the Holy Protection of Phoenix. https://online.flippingbook.com/view/992023210/4/

I am extremely grateful to God for forty years of priesthood – pray that I will be able to be a better priest and a better man for the last third of my life!

An online booklet has been posted by the Eparchy of the Holy Protection of Mary, with a biography and some photos.

You can go here: https://online.flippingbook.com/view/992023210/ to read about my anniversary celebrations on October 12-13, 2021.

You can check out my two published books here:

The Forgotten: Catholics of the Soviet Empire from Lening Through Stalin (2001), available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble

Finding a Hidden Church (2009) https://ecpubs.com/product/finding-a-hidden-church/

I am currently finishing Looking Back to Tomorrow: the History and Mission of the Byzantine Catholic Church, and Catholics in the Gulag: Faith and Witness in Soviet Labor Camps. Hopefully both will be out in early 2022.

Mr. Louis DeJoy

Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer

United States Postal Service

475 L’Enfant Plaza, S.W.

Room 4012

Washington, D.C. 20260

October 20, 2021

Dear Mr. De Joy,

I am writing to ask why the Post Office has not issued a Christmas stamp featuring the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child. Every year beautiful stamps have been issued with that theme. What happened in 2021? The stamps are all secular, and emphasis was put on books of stamps featuring Santa Claus.

Christmas obviously celebrates Christ’s birth, even though that is often lost in the rush of commercialism and buying gifts. But once we get to December 25, most people’s thoughts still turn to Jesus.

I really want to know what happened this year. I think we all deserve an explanation as to why this was done. I find it to be a serious mistake, that we can buy only last year’s Madonna stamps but no others,  if we want to keep “Christ in Christmas.”

Thank you for your attention and I anticipate your response.

Sincerely yours,

Rev. Christopher L. Zugger

Last Year’s Stamp is still available at least:

19^th Sunday after Pentecost; 2 Corinthians 11:31 – 12:9; Luke 6:31-36

But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹ If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.

RADICAL WAY OF LIVING THEN AND TODAY Jesus is proposing a radical, really radical message. No one is taught to simply stand there and get hit. We certainly aren’t taught to give away our own clothing, nor to give to every single person. His point is that as Christians – as people of Christ – we must be patient, loving, accepting, kind, and to do so to everyone. Do I acknowledge the humanity of a homeless person by saying hello, by praying for their deliverance from addiction, mental illness, or poverty? Do I give to charities that help the homeless, the persecuted, or the sick? Do I curse those who have abused me, hurt me, even hated me? Or do I pray for them, show them kindness in return, hope that they get out of their anger and hatred? There’s always a choice, always.

In World War II, the Axis invasion of the USSR was accompanied by the horrendous massacres of Jews, persecution of the Slavs, terrible destruction of towns due to the heavy fighting, killing of communists and people – rightly or wrongly – denounced as communists. The return of the Red Army was especially violent across eastern Europe, punishing anyone remotely connected to the German nationality or accused – rightly or wrongly – of having helped the Axis forces. On July 17, 1944,  Stalin had 57,000 captured German soldiers marched through Moscow. The people watched not with curses or assaults but in silence. And then women broke through the lines of the secret policemen and Red Army soldiers to take cups of water to those soldiers, to the hated enemy, literally following Matthew 10:42 and Mark 9:41 – whoever gives a cup of water in my name, shall have their reward.

But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. ³⁶ Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

We live in an era of cancel culture – a clip on the internet can result in me losing my job, respect from others, being denounced as a racist or a hateful person. Even if the clip is a short one, people jump on it. The Border agents were accused of whipping Haitians on the basis of one photograph, and politicians said they would pay for what they did. But they never did whip anyone – their horses have long reins. But all three men are now wicked racists who do violence to helpless immigrants.

No one is forgiven, no one is given the chance for explanation, no one is handed the chance to reform or learn from their errors – instead people are fired, reviled, despised, threatened and can have protestors on their front lawn or apartment door. Where is the teaching of Our Lord? Are we even willing to do what the gospel says: to give to those who have hurt us tremendously, to be those women in Moscow that hot July day? What reward do we want? Self-righteous pride and anger or being a child of the Most High God? Our society has so lost its way with the decline of church attendance and Christian values and it is the duty of every Christian to bring it back.

Saint Paul: He was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. ⁵ I will boast about a man like that, This mystical experience of experiencing heaven itself, the very presence of God, comes after he has gone through so much. He gives a little verse at the start of his scary escape from Damascus, being lowered over  the city wall in a basket, at night, in darkness, because of his preaching. But then God gives him this enormous, awesome, stunning consolation. God consoles him enormously.

but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. ⁶ Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, ⁷ or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. ⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Thorn in the flesh in the Old Testament did not refer to physical pain or affliction, but to attacks by one’s enemies. Speculating on what he meant is useless – the Corinthians knew. Put into the context of his letter, it comes during all kinds of suffering during his mission: misunderstanding by other Jews, assaults by pagans, beatings to the point of being unconscious. Proclaiming the gospel was dangerous, as it is today. We may not be beaten to that level physically, but emotionally that can happen.

He boasts about his own limitations – he stuttered, he had obvious hardships, nowhere does he say that his family from Tarsus accompanies him – who boasts about their limitations? We live in a culture of promoting oneself, of pride, of striving for power, money, youth, beauty, perfection. We look up to athletes who throw a ball or use a bat and are paid millions upon millions of dollars. That’s yet another sign of our American, our Western culture losing its way. People complain about 90 minutes in a heated church but sit for 3 hours in a freezing cold stadium to watch a football game.

What am I proud of? I should be proud of whether or not I love, whether or not I forgive, whether or not I am charitable to others and to organizations that help those in need or who are suffering or persecuted for their faith. We are a little parish – not even 80 households. But Paul was one man traveling on foot. We have a YouTube channel that can influence others for years to come, but even more so, we have the love for Christ, and His love for us, from the God-Man Who hung on the cross for hours in terrible agony, to teach us how to truly love, forgive, repent, and live a new life. I can give a cup of water, and change the world. Christ is among us.