December 9, 2015 – Excerpted from Put Out Into the Deep, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

One of the most annoying, and I might say dangerous, obstacles in driving on the streets of the City of New York are the potholes. It seems that no one can keep up with repairing them, as they pop up unexpectedly here and there all the time.

As Deacon Jaime Varela is driving me to and from Masses or other events, we find that we are able to call some “craters!” Truly, potholes are dangerous in that one can break an axle, seriously damage a tire or two or even have an accident trying to avoid one. One of my most famous lines to Deacon Jaime is that the farm roads in the rural areas of the Diocese of Camden, where I served before I came to Brooklyn, were better than the roads of New York City. Well, what can one do about potholes? Complain to the city administration? Avoid them? Or, as most of us do, put up with them?

In last Sunday’s Gospel, John the Baptist is speaking out about human potholes, the potholes of our lives. Prepare the way of the Lord, making the winding roads straight and the rough roads smooth. In order to arrive at a true celebration of Christmas, we need to deal with the potholes in our lives, the impediments that keep us from recognizing our Savior who has come to save us, mostly from ourselves and our faults, as well as the dangerous potholes of our lives.

Read the full text of the Bishop’s column on The Tablet website.