Let Christ Make Christmas Happen

The preparations for what we have turned Christmas into bring so much stress that we forget what Christmas really is. Yes, we all know we want to keep Christ in Christmas, but the steps needed to summon up what we think are the necessary feelings and emotions have overshadowed the meaning of the feast. The prescribed Christmas feelings of love, joy and peace cannot flow from the solid month of stress, which is December. So, what are we to do? Well, that is precisely what Advent is all about. We are to prepare for the celebration of God’s presence as one of us. We have to set aside more time than we normally spend in prayer. John the Baptist came to help people get their priorities straight to prepare for the celebration of the Messiah among them. He told them to reform their lives, repent, not to presume that just because they were sons of Abraham that they will be saved, but instead to take action and produce the fruit of their conversions. There are more important things to do then make cookies and buy presents. Yes, these things need to be accomplished, but there are more important things to do. We have to read the Christmas sections of Isaiah, the beginning of chapters 9 & 11, the first chapters of the Gospels of Luke and Matthew. We have to meditate on the wonders of the events leading up to the first Christmas, the annunciation to a young girl that her union with God was so complete that God had chosen her to become a human being through her. Her immediate response was to bring the joy and charity of God’s coming presence to an elderly cousin who needed help as her child was coming. We have to meditate on the first Christmas, when a stinky barn became the first receiving hall for the King of Kings and townspeople passed by unnoticing while shepherds heard the announcement from angels. A good meditation is to put ourselves in the various roles of the Christmas miracle. In this task our beautiful nativity scenes can be very helpful! What if I were Mary or Joseph or Elizabeth or an innkeeper or a townsmen or a shepherd? Am I open enough to the spiritual to hear Angels announcing Gloria? Are my eyes open enough to the spiritual to see a star? Will I ever be that wise or will I continually walk by Bethlehem with its hidden newborn treasure? Instead of being stressed over what we have to do, we need to put ourselves before the Lord and let him make Christmas happen. Yes, proper celebrations take time and hard work. But Mary of Bethany had the better part. She stopped to enjoy the presence of the Lord while her sister, Martha, was running around busy. We can do both, enjoy the presence of the Lord and prepare well for the celebration if we unite both. Our preparations must flow from our prayers to God. Then the Lord will make Christmas happen. Fr. Janusz Roginski, S.A.C.