Today’s note and thoughts bridge the time between the Fourth Sunday of Advent and the actual celebration of the Nativity of Our Lord. Future thoughts give way to present realities, and the gift of Christmas Past gives way to the Time of Fulfillment to come.
In this wonderful, at times sad, and at times whacky world in which we live, preparing for, celebrating, and then remembering the Advent of Our Lord, come to be with us, is easy, difficult, or downright challenging. When I see and hear a TV seasonal ad proclaim the ability of a new model car to provide the owner with “true comfort and joy,” I wonder where we’ve gone wrong! And, yet, that very ad reassures me that the human spirit is still longing, still hungry, just a little shortsighted or misguided.
Every effort to ring meaning and value out of these days is a place to start. Even those wonderful memories of Christmases Past, with the faces and voices of those now long gone from us, are a beginning. These memories don’t transport to the past where we should stay. They propel us into the depths of this moment, and into the future to which God is calling us.
2020 has been a harrowing year for just about everyone, though more so for some than for others. It, too, will become part of the past that is a launching platform for our future. We wait, we experience, we plan for and move expectantly into that future. I pray with you and for you that our celebration of the Great Feast that is nearly upon us truly brings a measure of Comfort that we need, and wedges the doorway open to the full measure of Joy that God’s Love desires for us. May a song, a twinkling star or light, the aroma of a family Christmas recipe, or the smile of joy and gratitude of someone near you, young or old, tell you what God has chosen to say ?...
Blessed Christmas too you!
Fr. Tom