The point is that
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 celebration.
The prescribed Christmas feelings of love, joy and peace cannot flow from the
solid month of stress which is December in the United States. So, what are we
to do? Well, that is precisely what Advent season is all about. We are to
prepare for the celebration of God’s presence as one of us[1].
What I have found
and I know that I have mentioned this to people many times, is that God cannot
be outdone in generosity, not just in generosity with our money, but in
generosity with our time. Here’s a wonderful Divine paradox: The busier we are, the more time we need to
set aside for the Lord. The more time we set aside for the Lord, then the
better our priorities are accomplished. What are we to do? 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[2].
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. 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 new born treasure?
Among the
numerous Christmas stories and poems is the wonderful folktale of Bilfina:
Bilfina,
the Housewife, scrubbing her pane
Saw
three old sages ride down the lane,
Saw
three gray travelers pass her door—
Gaspar,
Balthazar and Melchior.
“Where journey you, sirs?” she asked of them.
Balthazar
answered, “To Bethlehem,
For
we have news of a marvelous thing,
Born
in a stable is Christ the King.”
“Give Him my welcome!”
Then
Gaspar smiled,
“Come
with us, mistress, to greet the child.”
“Oh, happily, happily would I fare,
Were
my dusting through and I’d polished the stair.”
Old
Melchior leaned on his saddle horn,
“Then send but a gift to the small Newborn.’
“Oh,
gladly, gladly, I’d send him one,
Were
the hearthstone swept
and
my weaving done.
As
soon as I’ve baked my bread,
I’ll
fetch him a pillow for his head,
And
a coverlet too,” Bilfina said.
“When
the rooms are aired and the linen dry,
I’ll
look at the Babe,”
But
the three rode by.
She
worked for a day, and a night and a day,
Then
gifts in her hands, took up her way.
But
she never found where the Christ child lay.
And
she still wanders at Christmastide,
Houseless
whose house was all her pride.
Whose
heart was tardy, whose gifts were late;
Wanders
and knocks at every gate.
Crying,
“Good people, the bells begin!
Put
off your toiling and let love in.”
Put off your
toiling and let love in. The preparation for Christmas should not be the time
of stress that we have allowed society to change it into. Our preparations for
Christmas should be a time of prayer. The gift buying and giving and receiving
should not be a matter of amassing possessions or of flattery, but a sign of
the life giving sacrificial love that came to the world when the one who would
be crucified was born.
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, busied
herself about[3].
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 ■
