What We Were Supposed To Do On This Sunday After Christmas

It's the Sunday after Christmas, the third day of the Christmas Octave, the oh-so-many days since our current C-Virus Mess began. How has your Christmas Season been so far?

A good guess: If we focus on what it's all about - the Birth of Christ - it may be going quite well. If all it's ever meant was lots of lights, decorations, food and drink with family and friends, maybe not so great. (Unless, maybe, you've flouted the advice of our government overlords to avoid everyone during Christmas!)

For us, it's been a mix. We've not been able to connect in person with any family or friends outside our household - for various reasons, some of which is related to the C-Virus World we continue to inhabit. But that's been OK so far. Our household's been pretty cheerful, thank you. And those whom we cannot actually touch have been available through various media. (Technology's been bashed lately, for good reason, but let's not forget its good side.)

Then again, we haven't been able to do what we were supposed to do: Our annual jaunt to my brother's place, where a solid core of extended family has gathered since our parents left this world a number of years ago, was cancelled because of the great Mess. The only other time this happened was when a huge snow storm hit right on the day we were supposed to drive up - typically the day after Christmas Day. So we're missing being together. 

We'll skip over Christmas Mass. The spirit was certainly willing, but the flesh was a bit dragged down by masks, distancing and - well, let's call it "light" attendance. But it was Mass. And we got there.

Of course, given the prohibition against receiving Communion on the tongue (the only way we'll receive, and, frankly, the only proper way to receive), this marks the first Christmas where we have not been able to fully welcome the Christ Child into our hearts. Even two years ago, while our son lay in ICU in a coma due to a massive stroke, we were able to attend Mass at the hospital and receive Our Lord Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. But not this year.

Who could have even imagined such a thing? But there it is.

Well, we managed - with God's grace - to carry on with our lives after our son died shortly after Christmas a couple of years ago. We'll manage to carry on this year as well. 

Two Christmases of the last three have now come and gone in a manner we never could have anticipated. We've learned from both the year our son had his stroke and this past year.

From the first, we learned that God's plan for each of us can be a mighty mystery, one we still don't understand. From the second we learned that God's plan for all of us together, united in our Holy Faith, can also be a mighty mystery, one we still don't understand.

Through it all, though, Christmas, however it comes to us, brings us one step closer to Jesus Christ, beginning with His Birth in a Manger.

Ultimately, that's all that matters.

Merry Christmas!