Christmastide and a New Year
Humility, Restraint, And Sacrifice
Members of VFW Post 6287,
Peace be with you and Merry Christmas! That’s right, the Christmas Season has only just begun! The
Christmas season (Christmastide) extends for 40 days, from December 25 to February 2nd, ending
with the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, also known as Candlemas. So keep those Christmas
Trees up!
On the first day of the new year, the liturgical calendar places before us a mystery both humble and
profound: the Circumcision of Our Lord. While the world celebrates new beginnings with noise and
resolution, the Church invites us to contemplate a quiet act of obedience performed by the Infant
King, an act that marks the first shedding of Christ’s Precious Blood for our salvation. Eight days
after His birth, Our Lord submits Himself to the Law of Moses. He does so not because He is bound
by it, but because He wills to be obedient. The Lawgiver places Himself beneath the Law. The King
of Heaven submits without protest, without resistance, and without necessity. In this single act, Christ
sanctifies obedience itself.
For veterans, this mystery speaks directly to lived experience. Those who have served understand
that obedience is not servility. It is discipline freely accepted for the sake of order, mission, and the
common good. True obedience requires humility, restraint, and sacrifice, virtues often misunderstood
by a culture that confuses freedom with the absence of authority. Christ’s obedience on this day is
costly. It involves pain. It involves blood. From the very beginning of His earthly life, Our Lord
teaches us that redemption is not abstract. It is concrete, embodied, and sacrificial. Long before the
Cross, He offers Himself. Long before Calvary, He sheds His Blood.
This is a truth veterans know well: sacrifice does not begin only at the moment of crisis. It begins
with daily submission to duty, lawful authority, and discipline often unseen, often unrecognized. The
Feast of the Circumcision reminds us that such obedience, when rightly ordered, participates in
something holy. The Child also receives His Name on this day: Jesus, meaning "God saves.” It is a
Name given in the context of obedience and sacrifice, teaching us that salvation does not come
through defiance, but through fidelity. Authority, when it is not the enemy of freedom, is its guardian.
As a new year begins, this feast calls us to pray especially for those who have served under authority
for men and women who followed lawful orders, bore responsibility, and carried burdens few
understand. It also calls us to pray for lawful order, justice, and peace in our nation and throughout
the world. Without order, there can be no peace; without justice, no lasting order. In a time when
authority is often questioned and obedience ridiculed, the Infant Christ silently instructs us otherwise.
He teaches that strength lies in submitting to what is right, and that true leadership begins with
obedience to God.
May the Precious Blood first shed on this day sanctify our service, heal our memories, and guide us
in the year ahead. And may Christ, who humbled Himself under the Law, grant our nation leaders
who govern with justice, and citizens who live in peace under God.
Merry Christmas! Happy New Year & God love you!!!
Yours in Christ,
Kyle F. Moore, Th.M
MSgt, USAF Ret.
Chaplain, VFW Post 6287 Deus Vult. Pro Deo et Patria
