Dear St. Rita Families,
Approaching Christmas is not always a joyful experience. When the expected joy of Christmas – the joy that you and everyone around you expect you to have – conflicts with the circumstances of your life, it can leave you confused or discouraged about the whole thing. Perhaps you are going through a difficult period in your life; perhaps you lost a loved one around this time last year; perhaps you are struggling to see the point of it all. In the meantime, the world is taking in the feel of Christmas lights, the hope of snow, vacation, family time, Christmas carols, Christmas trees, hot chocolate, and figgy pudding.
Notice I didn’t say the Birth of Christ. It is true that the trappings of Christmas can add something of a sparkle to the shortening days and cold weather, and they can, if used properly, help us look to Christ and even be signs of His presence. But none of them can replace what we are really preparing for. None of them are the meaning of the season. None of them are in themselves true Christmas joy. And someone for whom this time of year brings pain rather than comfort needs more than trappings.
Which means that you and I cannot get caught up in the trappings, lest we get carried away by the façade.
Perhaps you know (or are currently praying) the St. Andrew Novena. It consists of a short prayer that is prayed fifteen (15!) times daily from November 30, the feast of St. Andrew, all the way through Christmas. It goes like this: Hail, and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires through of Our Savior Jesus Christ and of His Blessed Mother. Amen.
Not only is this a beautiful prayer and wonderful novena, but it reminds us that Christmas wasn’t a cake walk for Mary and Joseph, either. A fourteen-year-old pregnant girl, riding on a donkey to Bethlehem, finding no room in the inn, giving birth in a stable at midnight in the piercing cold: perhaps not the ideal birthing situation. Except that, for God, it was perfect. For God, who wanted to enter into our sufferings, there was no other way His arrival could happen.
This is why we have the Season of Advent. The sparse nature of the 4 weeks or so before Christmas help to remind us that, without Christ, the world is dark and dreary. Sin and death are ever prevalent, and they seem overwhelming. At the same time, the liturgy is pregnant (pun intended) with expectation, which means that Advent is also characterized by hope. We are looking forward to His arrival, partly because we don’t want to suffer, but we know that that fulfillment is only in Heaven. We are really looking forward to His arrival because it means that my suffering isn’t meaningless: God is truly present among us, and His Victory has the last word, not sin or death or anything else. When Christ comes, we know this to be true!
The thing is, Christ’s presence doesn’t always take away the human suffering that we must endure in this life. Anyone who has been a Christian for more than 5 minutes knows this, but it can still be easy to get caught up in the desire. Christ’s presence does, however, make our sufferings bearable, because we are no longer alone. Christ’s presence helps us to look beyond the trappings of this world, so that we don’t get carried away by this much greater façade. Christ’s presence assures us that God is in control and guides all things, even and perhaps especially when it seems that darkness has won.
Therefore, we must use our Advent well. Whether Christ has provided the sparseness for you, by means of the circumstances of your life, or whether you need to provide a little for yourself, I encourage you to be reminded that this world is empty, but that there is hope in Christ, and only in Christ! This hope is the reason for our joy, even during Advent, and even when our circumstances are difficult. This Christian joy can exist alongside the human sadness that life sometimes inflicts upon us. But it is the joy that must determine our choices and our outlook. It is the joy that must shine light upon our darkness. It is the joy that must give meaning to our life. This joy not of trappings and ephemeral fancies but of the coming of Christ is also the joy of Heaven, and while here it is still tinged with sadness, there it will be pure and unadulterated, full and lasting, radiant and lively. And you will be sharing it with billions of your closest friends.
In Christ,
Fr. Christensen