Finding the joyful Christmas spirit

We are spiritually immersed in the hopeful waiting of Advent and soon will celebrate the coming of our savior on the feast of Christmas.  

Normally I am in the Christmas spirit days before Thanksgiving but this year it has been hard to find that joyful spirit.

This has been a tough year for everyone, and it seems at times our world is falling apart.  The pandemic is causing a cloud of oppression over our lives, and I feel it too.  This has been going on so long I was unaware that I had fallen into a kind of melancholy that was keeping me from even getting excited about the coming of Advent and the Christmas season.  As always, the grace of God came to my aid. 

On the First Sunday of Advent, the singing of “O Come O Come Emmanuel” and the memories of my excitement I felt as a child on every first Sunday of Advent that Christmas was only four weeks away, was like a splash of cold water waking me out of a kind of spiritual slumber and filled my heart with the forgotten joy and a hope of Christmas.  In that moment, instead of seeing all the ways my life had changed and all that I was missing, I remembered that our GOD is EMMANUEL, GOD WITH US, and I had only to look to find his loving presence.

Some years ago, now Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, in his Christmas homily, remarked, “In some way mankind is awaiting God, waiting for him to draw near.  But when the moment comes there is no room for him.  Man is so preoccupied with himself, he has such urgent need of all the space and time for his own things, that nothing remains for others, for his neighbor, for the poor, for God.”  

I was not feeling the joy of Christmas, even the joy of life because I was only thinking about what I lost, about myself and was not giving a place for God to reach me.  Yet Pope Benedict reminds us “God does not allow himself to be shut out.  He finds a space, even if it means entering through a stable.”  

Advent reminds us to HOPE IN THE LORD, to not give up but rather to live in the knowledge that God has not abandoned us but is just looking for a way to reenter our lives.  We need to have the Lord wake us up so we can pray, “Come Lord Jesus and be born again in my heart this Christmas and fill me with the light that dispels the darkness of my life and fills me with joy.”

If we are not feeling this Christmas spirit of hope then know it is not because of the difficulties of this year, even if they are profound and life changing. It is because we have allowed ourselves to stop believing in the power of Christ to share and heal the pain of our loss, to renew our hope with new possibilities and to be the light that dispels the darkness of our hearts. We may say, “Why pray, God will not bring back my love one lost in death?” or “get my job back.”  

But if we ask God to walk with us in our pain and fear, just that simple prayer, COME LORD JESUS into my loss, my fear, gives a space, a manger in our heart, for the birth of the savior.  This simple prayer allows the Lord a way back in to our lives not just to share our burdens but also to give us the blessings, healings and answers we desperately need but do not even know how to ask for UNTIL we trust in the Lord.  We learn again that we don’t have to know how God will help us, we just need the trust that God will! 

More than ever we need to celebrate Christmas this year with all the enthusiasm as in the past remembering that our savior is with us.  I suggest you take some quiet time in prayer alone or better, if possible, with your family, and read the story of Jesus’ birth in the Gospel of St. Luke and rediscover the meaning of Christmas.  Invite the Lord to be reborn in you this Christmas to awaken hope and joy in these challenging times.

If you capture this true spirit and meaning of Christmas in prayer, you will have no problem celebrating this year.  Even if everything is different it will be as joyful and memorable as any Christmas before because Christ will be present in the midst of your celebration because he will be present in your heart.