Alone For Christmas?
The sad reality of 2020 continues on. After nine months of cancellations, closures, and tragedies, COVID is after Christmas now too. Time will soon tell how dangerous everyone’s Thanksgivings were, what with college students coming home, people still traveling in large number to gather in large groups. I pray that it will not turn out to be a devastating disaster… but I fear it will.
My hope is that we can learn our lesson before Christmas comes: please stay home.
But before you all attack me for being against family and tradition, that telling people to stay home for Christmas is the last thing a priest should do, let me off you this: this might be the most meaningful Christmas of your life. Stripped of all the commercialism and chaos, removed from the traveling and large parties, what we might just find ourselves with a silent night to behold, a simple evening of prayer to touch our hearts. We might just have ourselves a Christmas that captures the true meaning of the season.
In this video, I’d like to suggest that Christmas (and by extension, Advent) is more than just gift-giving and merry-making, it is an opportunity to realize that our world is fundamentally broken and in need of a savior. It is an opportunity to get in touch with our deep longing for new life, and to realize that that new life is already before us, and yet on the horizon.
We behold but a taste of the gift that is to come. Jesus came once 2000 years ago to begin the mission, but we still await the fullness of his glory in the new Jerusalem.