How Christmas Brings Joy and Peace Just When You Need It Most
Our last post tried to keep us from giving in to the world's attempts to put Christmas away for another year. We mentioned how keeping Christmas as it should be kept can serve as a powerful antidote to the C-Virus Mess that continues on and on.
Christmas stands tall
in the face of anything that threatens to steal our joy and peace. In that light, here's something we posted
during the Christmas Season in 2019. If the joy and peace of Christmas
could endure during the personal circumstances we faced that year, it
can and will endure now.
Merry Christmas!
Yes, it's still Christmas - today, the 2nd Day of Christmas. Most of the
world still "shows" Christmas, but already we see the diminishment of
the hoopla that began before Thanksgiving. First sign: no more 24/7
Christmas music. Radio stations that played only Christmas music stopped
doing so at midnight Christmas Day.
For those of us who tried to keep Advent in the appropriate penitential
spirit of the Season, Christmas has just begun. There's no diminishment.
If you're feeling some sort of "post-Christmas" letdown, gather
yourself together and remember: It's the 2nd day of Christmas.
Going to work today? Many of us aren't. Many businesses slow down this
time of year. I understand that in some European countries, even as so
many Europeans have abandoned Christianity, there's still a Christmas
observance of closing down the shop for a number of days after
Christmas. Here in the USA, business never stops, of course. The way
most of us deal with this is we save up vacation days and use them
around Christmas. I used to to do that every year: use my vacation time
to get an extended break for the Christmas Season at least until New
Year's.
Now that I run a small business, it's not so cut and dried. The "shop"
stays open. Our business doesn't just disappear between Christmas and
New Year's. But "the boss" (me) does take time off. Those items that
must be attended to are. If clients need me, they can get in touch. But
that's rare. Heck, most of them are trying to take time off too!
So on this 2nd Day of Christmas, the work flow has slowed to a dribble.
A Personal Note:
Those who've peeked at these posts over the past year or so may remember
that towards the end of 2018 our oldest child, a son, suffered a
massive stroke. He died on January 2nd, 2019. As you might imagine,
Advent and now the Christmas Season have taken us back to those days of
his lying in ICU in a medically induced coma, our days spent with him
there. It's been a difficult time.
For months I anticipated this first anniversary of our son's sickness
and death. A friend shared his experience of the first anniversary of
his younger brother's death, who died in his 30s, as did our son. It got
to the point where a kind of dread of Christmas almost undermined any
observance of Advent, never mind the joy that comes with Christmas. But
it didn't.
Despite the sorrow, the pain and suffering that has accompanied us
during Advent and now during Christmas, even as our thoughts and
memories recall those terrible days last year, Christmas has come and it
has brought it's joy. The experience of sorrow mixed with joy brings a
new understanding and appreciation of just what Christmas joy really
means. It's allowed me to rejoice even under the mantle of what I've
labeled the "Great Sadness" that has hovered over us since our son's
death.
My wife reminded our family of what "rejoice" means on Gaudete Sunday -
the 3rd Sunday of Advent. That Sunday we were called to "Rejoice" with
the first word of the Introit in the Mass for the 3rd Sunday of Advent.
Rejoice in what sense? Rejoice in the Lord. As she so pointedly
explained, it's got nothing to do with "Don't worry, be happy!".
And so I've learned to rejoice in the Lord. I've put my heavy heart in
His loving Hands. Has it taken away the sadness, the pain, the
suffering? No. But it has cleared out a space for the joy that
appropriately fills our hearts every year at Christmas.
I hope that joy has filled your heart as well.
Comments