A Special Thought About the Work of Christmas On This New Year's Eve
(Originally posted December 26, 2013)
I hope you can take a few days off from work during this Christmas Season. But remember there's a kind of work to be done as we move through these Twelve Days of Christmas. It's the "work" of Christmas.
Well, for me it's a kind of work. Just as I must set aside distractions and concentrate when I've got an important task to accomplish in my business, so too I find myself needing to work to concentrate on what's really going on at Christmas, what's really important. It takes some work But here that work brings no pressure or anxiety. I simply have to turn my eyes and my heart to the creche, the stable where Our Lord lies in His manger, surrounded by Mary and Joseph. Oh, and there's a shepherd, a sheep, an ox and an ass, maybe even an angel - at least that's what we have in one of our creches at home.
Yes, we have more than one. What a bounty compared to when I was growing up. Then we had one little creche, small even as the apartment where I grew up was small. But, as with the size of our apartment, just right. The creche fit under our Christmas tree. And that's where you'd find me so often during the Christmas Season, especially early in the morning before everyone else got up. I liked to put my face right up to that creche and, using my fertile child's imagination, place myself right there with the Holy Family.
What a blessing this simplicity of a child can be. It reminds me that Our Lord tells us we must come come to Him with that same spirit of simplicity. We must, in this sense, be like children. Not "childish" in the sense of immature, but simple like a child.
If you're not sure what that means, just look at the Baby Jesus lying in the manger. You see God, Almighty God, as a Child. If God can present Himself to us in this fashion, as a Child, then surely we can present ourselves to Him as a child as well. Just follow His example.
And that's the work of Christmas. To spend time with the creche. To remember the simplicity of the Child in the manger and pray for the grace to be, like Him, a child. To come to Him in all our labors throughout the year, in all our sorrows, sufferings, in our temptations. To always pray to Him for the graces we need; to trust in Him, that He will provide us with all we need. That little child, that Baby Jesus, that Little Child of Bethlehem will provide all we need.
And in those moments when you can be with Him - He as a Child, you as a child - you meet Him just as He wants us to meet Him during this Christmas Season.
Now that I'm no longer a child, now that I've got a life filled with all the joys and sorrows that life brings to all of us, surrounded by a world in which I lead an active family and work life, a whole history of memories stuffed into my brain, all of which serve as distractions from this one important work of Christmas - spending time with the Christ Child - I fervently pray that Our Blessed Mother and the great Saint Joseph will intercede for me, and that Our Lord grant me the grace which allows me to enter the stable in a spirit of peace, to spend time with them filled with the joy of Christmas.
I hope you can take a few days off from work during this Christmas Season. But remember there's a kind of work to be done as we move through these Twelve Days of Christmas. It's the "work" of Christmas.
Well, for me it's a kind of work. Just as I must set aside distractions and concentrate when I've got an important task to accomplish in my business, so too I find myself needing to work to concentrate on what's really going on at Christmas, what's really important. It takes some work But here that work brings no pressure or anxiety. I simply have to turn my eyes and my heart to the creche, the stable where Our Lord lies in His manger, surrounded by Mary and Joseph. Oh, and there's a shepherd, a sheep, an ox and an ass, maybe even an angel - at least that's what we have in one of our creches at home.
Yes, we have more than one. What a bounty compared to when I was growing up. Then we had one little creche, small even as the apartment where I grew up was small. But, as with the size of our apartment, just right. The creche fit under our Christmas tree. And that's where you'd find me so often during the Christmas Season, especially early in the morning before everyone else got up. I liked to put my face right up to that creche and, using my fertile child's imagination, place myself right there with the Holy Family.
What a blessing this simplicity of a child can be. It reminds me that Our Lord tells us we must come come to Him with that same spirit of simplicity. We must, in this sense, be like children. Not "childish" in the sense of immature, but simple like a child.
If you're not sure what that means, just look at the Baby Jesus lying in the manger. You see God, Almighty God, as a Child. If God can present Himself to us in this fashion, as a Child, then surely we can present ourselves to Him as a child as well. Just follow His example.
And that's the work of Christmas. To spend time with the creche. To remember the simplicity of the Child in the manger and pray for the grace to be, like Him, a child. To come to Him in all our labors throughout the year, in all our sorrows, sufferings, in our temptations. To always pray to Him for the graces we need; to trust in Him, that He will provide us with all we need. That little child, that Baby Jesus, that Little Child of Bethlehem will provide all we need.
And in those moments when you can be with Him - He as a Child, you as a child - you meet Him just as He wants us to meet Him during this Christmas Season.
Now that I'm no longer a child, now that I've got a life filled with all the joys and sorrows that life brings to all of us, surrounded by a world in which I lead an active family and work life, a whole history of memories stuffed into my brain, all of which serve as distractions from this one important work of Christmas - spending time with the Christ Child - I fervently pray that Our Blessed Mother and the great Saint Joseph will intercede for me, and that Our Lord grant me the grace which allows me to enter the stable in a spirit of peace, to spend time with them filled with the joy of Christmas.
Have a Merry Seventh Day of Christmas!
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