Father Joel's Christmas Message

Christmas remains a season of wonder and compassion.  Even now, it’s a season of extraordinary kindness and graciousness….of miracles.   It’s a season where we tell stories of reindeer who fly and snowmen that can dance.  We tell stories of Scrooges and Grinches that get brand new hearts due to the spirit and wonder of the season.

The season is this way all because 2000 yrs ago the greatest miracle of all took place in Bethlehem:    God became man and dwelt among us.
    
From a commercial standpoint, this is a wonderful season, maybe too wonderful.  The images are too perfect, whether Norman Rockwell, Good Housekeeping, or Martha Stewart.  The TV commercials show beautiful people in beautiful homes receiving expensive gifts.  If you don’t get a Lexus or a pendant with at least five diamonds on it this Christmas you might feel let down.

The expectations for this season are high and many may feel somewhat left out and left behind.   Some people aren’t sure if they can sing “Joy to the World.”  They have problems at home in their family, or in their marriages, jobs and finances.  They look in the mirror and do not love what is looking back at them.  Maybe you have loved one who is sick or maybe God has taken a loved one from you at this time of year which is supposed to be joyful and you wonder “how can I make myself sing, Joy to the World?”

Let me remind you that that first Christmas too, looked nothing like the pretty pictures we see on the Christmas cards.   That first Christmas a haggard Joseph was probably in a panic looking for someplace to stay in Bethlehem, and Mary was probably worried, asking herself, “will my child be born in a barn?”  The shepherds were the lowest of low, despised and outcast.  They weren’t all clean and shiny when they visited the manger.  

But God still came in the midst of all that.

Yes, right there in the midst of that fear and darkness, sin and ignorance, injustice and despair, boredom and doubt:   God still came! --That first Christmas was far from perfect but it was close to God.

Maybe Advent went by too fast this year for us and we don’t feel spiritually prepared for Christmas.  The good news is that for us, Christmas is not a day, but a season of twelve days.    Why not use all twelve days to celebrate the mystery of Christmas?  Why not get a copy of the Nativity Story on DVD and also get a copy of “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens (the George C Scott version)?  For music, listen to Handel’s Messiah and to other good traditional music of the season.   And if you haven’t done it, read Saint Matthew’s and Saint Luke’s accounts of the Christmas story.
 

God came to earth in Bethlehem 2000 years ago.  Let’s make our hearts God’s “Bethlehem” this year.