Inside
NCR If
you must give gifts, let them be NCR
Now appears again on the horizon
that greatest celebration of all. Just six weeks away. The coming of Jesus to
earth. With the Wise Men. And angels. And Santa Claus not far away. And the
Christmas tree, with all the stuff under it. And parties. And a few days off
from work, because everyone knows we will be tuckered out from celebrating.
Its unfair to be cynical about Christmas, which, despite all
the crass commercialism, is still the most innocent, upbeat, altruistic time of
any year. For a short period we are nice even to people we cant stand the
rest of the year. Bells do ring, and if angels dont truly sing I
dont want to know about it. If the word joy didnt exist, Santa
Claus or the pope would have to invent it for Christmas.
I might as well tell you right now that, even as we speak, you are
being asked to give NCR as a Christmas gift. At least once.
Dont expect me to apologize about this. Im convinced
that you and we would be doing a favor to anyone you gave a subscription to.
Easy for me to say, of course.
Without getting lugubrious about it, were all floundering in
search of meaning or something. Were aspiring for all were worth,
hoping for this and that, here and hereafter, willing with all our might that
life fall into line. But in the meantime there is all the stress and craziness
and despair, kids committing suicide and adults committing ethnic cleansing.
Its hard to go on living unless one can get the mixed-up world in a
livable perspective.
While NCR by no means has the last word on that
perspective, we have been and promise to be seekers, looking for answers or at
least the right questions. And we plan to be lively about it, honest about it,
on good days playful about it, making some kind of music while flirting with
the big questions and with any luck finding solid reasons to carry on and maybe
raise existence a notch or two toward some higher clarity, peace, justice,
friendship, contentment.
So back to the point. Every NCR reader has at least one
relative or friend with that NCR tattoo on her or his soul who are not
now getting the paper and to whom you plan to give some kind of Christmas gift
anyway.
You could of course give them something else, a striped shirt for
him, or smelly stuff in a small bottle, a scarf for her, or smelly stuff in a
small bottle. Every time they use the smelly stuff theyll think of you --
if they use it.
You could, on the other hand, give NCR. Every week it
arrives it will be a reminder of you. Recently Ive run into many parents
who have begun giving a gift of NCR to their adult children, many of
whom are not going to church; in several cases the kids after a
couple of years started getting their own subscriptions.
Without beating the old millennium drum yet again, this is a
significant moment for the world. And many to whom we talk seem to be saying
were on the brink of an exciting time for the church, the best story on
earth just now. All the pulsating themes are there, reform and resistance;
holiness and corruption; colorful personalities both literally and
metaphorically.
Everywhere we go readers say how much NCR means to them. In
that case you can do something helpful for us as well as for someone dear to
you. We see each new subscription as a vote of confidence from our readers,
never mind that we also need the money.
And this would be easier to do than finding that striped shirt.
Phone 1-800-333-7373, a tollfree call. Or, to e-mail
(ncrsub@natcath.com) your gift order to us. And this way well all
have a very merry Christmas.
The reference to Northern Irelands long sorrow
on the cover is taken from a poem by Patrick Pearse (see story, Northern
Ireland memoir) called The Mother in which Pearses mother
predicts the executions of her two sons, which is what happened:
Lord, thou art hard on mothers; We suffer in their
coming and their going. And though I grudge them not, I weary, Weary of
the long sorrow. And yet I have my joy: My sons were faithful And they
fought.
-- Michael Farrell
National Catholic Reporter, November 13,
1998
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