By Sr. Doreen, SSJD
Yes! God has broadcast to all the earth: ‘tell daughter Zion, look your Savour comes, ready to do what he said he’d do, prepared to complete what he promised…” (Isaiah 62:6-12) Message translation
“Sing to God a brand-new song. He’s made a world of wonders! … God made history with salvation, God showed the world what God could do …” (Psalm 98) Message translation
“Through the heartfelt mercies of our God, God’s Sunrise will break in upon us, shining on those in the darkness, those sitting in the shadow of death, then showing us the way, one foot at a time, down the path of peace.” (Luke 1: 68-79) Message translation
As we have travelled the highways of Advent, we arrive at the miracle and mystery of Christmas, the Incarnation – God putting on flesh in Jesus and moving into our neighbourhoods. This is important for you and for me, for now the Word, God, is wrapped in human skin and speaks peace on earth through us God’s children.
As I was pondering walking the highway into Christmas, I thought that there was plenty about the Incarnation – God coming to us in the birth of Jesus, coming to live amongst us, to make us cheerful, happy and contented. All the scripture passages call for rejoicing – and they call to us to make a merry response! We are to sing a new song because God has done wonderful things! We are to celebrate the joyful good news that is true no matter how up or down we feel personally – the merriment that God has come into the world, has become one of us. We have come on our highway to the deep-down merriment that comes from God, the awareness that we are part of something bigger than ourselves and the confidence that our lives are in the hands of a personal God who can be trusted to bring about the best for us. The Christmas season for me becomes the highway of merriment! Here we know and live in and under the banner promise of God … “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Merriment comes from joy, not happiness, and understanding this is crucial to our emotional well-being, for it comes from knowing that you are unconditionally loved and accepted by God, this is the strong rock upon which we stand, a rock that enables us to remain joyful, deep down underneath the circumstance of life. That’s because joy is internal, depends on inward character, on who (God) lives within us and is based on our choice, our trust, our love for the God who loves us.
I share a Christmas Message from Joan Chittister: “Every year of life waxes and wanes. Every stage of life comes and goes. Every facet of life is born and then dies. Every good moment is doomed to become only a memory. Every perfect period of living slips through our fingers and disappears. Every hope dims and every possibility turns eventually to dry clay. Until Christmas comes again. Then we are called at the deepest, most subconscious, least cognizant level to begin once more to live newly again.
I share a Christmas Message from Joan Chittister:
“Every year of life waxes and wanes. Every stage of life comes and goes. Every facet of life is born and then dies. Every good moment is doomed to become only a memory. Every perfect period of living slips through our fingers and disappears. Every hope dims and every possibility turns eventually to dry clay. Until Christmas comes again. Then we are called at the deepest, most subconscious, least cognizant level to begin once more to live newly again.
Christmas brings us all back to the crib of life to start over: aware of what has gone before, conscious that nothing can last, but full of hope that this time, finally, we can learn what it takes to live well, grow to full stature of soul and spirit, get it right.
There is a child in each of us waiting to be born again. It is to those looking for life that the figure of the Christ, a child, beckons. Christmas is not for children. It is for those who refuse to give up and grow old, for those to whom life comes newly and with purpose each and every day, for those who can let yesterday go so that life can be full of new possibility always, for those who are agitated with newness whatever their age. Life is for the living, for those in whom Christmas is a feast without finish, a celebration of change, a call to begin once more the journey to human joy and holy meaning.”
This highway of Merriment, Christmas is about a call to find a deeper meaning in the season beyond artificial joy. It is a call to embrace the messy, imperfect reality of the first Christmas, to find hope in the midst of struggle, and to live a life of love, compassion, and renewed purpose, making every day a “merry Christmas” one that is found in a focus on authentic joy found in our relationships and actions, a renewed sense of hope and a chance to start over, even when life has been difficult. Hope is not about optimism, but the certainty that life has meaning, regardless of the outcome. Christmas is a call to live out love and compassion in our daily lives, particularly in our relationships with others, on being the love that the world needs, not just on Christmas Day, but every day. Rather than seeing Christmas as an isolated event, the highway of merriment, Christmas’ goal is to carry the lessons of the season—love, hope, and purpose—into every day, making every day a “Merry Christmas” and a “Happy New Year”.
Then we can sing, from deep within, Joy to the world! (Common Praise #154)
Joy to the world! The Lord is come: let earth receive the King; let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing, and heaven and nature sing, and heaven and heaven and nature sing.
Joy to the world! The Saviour reigns: let us glad songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains repeat their sounding joy, repeat their sounding joy, repeat, repeat their sounding joy.
No more let wrongs and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground; he comes to make his blessings flow far as our sin is found, far as our sin is found, far as, far as, our sin is found.
He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and wonders of his love, and wonders of his love, and wonders, and wonders of his love.
Barbara Brown Taylor in her book “Gospel Medicine” wrote: “We do not have stained glass windows at Grace-Calvary but if we did, we would certainly have an annunciation window. It is one of the most beloved scenes in the whole Christian story, that intimate moment between Mary and the angel Gabriel in which everything began with a young girl’s “yes” to God’s proposal. Why do we love it so much? Is it the angel or Mary’s courage that is so appealing? Or is it the reassurance that God can and will invade our ordinary lives, giving us our own chances to say “yes” to God’s wild plans?”
Barbara Brown Taylor goes on to say to you and to me: “You can decide to say yes. You can decide to take part in a thrilling and dangerous scheme with no script and no guarantees. You can agree to smuggle God into the world inside your own body. You can become one more Theotokos (mother of God) who is willing to bear God into the world.
May we all have a merry, merry Christmas, each and every day, each and every person. Rather than seeing Christmas as an isolated event, the highway of merriment, Christmas’ goal is to carry the lessons of the season—love, hope, and purpose—into every day, making every day a “Merry Christmas” and a “Happy New Year”. May we agree to say “yes”, for now the Word, God, is wrapped in human skin and speaks peace on earth through us God’s children.