This painful year of 2020 has dramatically revealed our vulnerabilities, weaknesses, and mortality. It has also shown the resilience and generosity of the human spirit. So many things that may have seemed so important a year ago matter very little now. Other realities, like faith, prayer, family and friends, health, and ultimately God stand in sharper focus as the bedrock of our existence. This year will be a different sort of Christmas, as we pray for those who died this year, those who are ill and those who heroically serve them.
We will forego many of our Christmas traditions this year, but the central truth remains. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, entered into our broken and sinful world as a vulnerable baby to rescue us from sin and death. In our poverty and frailty, we can most profoundly relate to the Christ Child, who is born among animals and adored by shepherds. How easy it is to romanticize Christmas; the reality was far different. The advent of God is marked by poverty, obscurity, and danger. God quietly slips in through the back door, unbidden and unnoticed, but here with us. This overwhelming divine love is the cause, meaning and destiny of our human existence.
I appreciate this quote from William of Saint-Thierry, as he speaks to God, “You first loved us so that we might love you, not because you needed our love, but because we could not be what you created us to be, except by loving you.” No matter the suffering, trials, difficulties we find ourselves in this year, we know that Love always wins and when we give ourselves to that Love, Christmas is born in our hearts all over again. Know of my love and prayers for all of you! Have a blessed Christmas, as we pray for better days in 2021.