Christmastime is Love

Christmastime is that beautiful time of the year where many of our strongest memories reside.  As children, December is remembered as an almost magical time when our deepest desires have the potential to become reality.  As children everything seems larger than life...the world seems to stand still.  There is excitement in the air, there is peace, there is love.  As families and communities we re-create this experience for one another at Christmastime - Trees, Lights, Presents, Food, Family, A Baby - Hope!

Many of us prepare all month (if not sooner) for this Holiday.  As Christians we also prepare all month for this Holyday.  During Advent we prepare our hearts, minds and bodies for the coming of the Lord - We look for that day when God will be with us - Emmanuel!  The goal is that the Holiday and Holyday become entwined somewhere along the way.  It's easy for us to get so caught up in the preparations that we lose the real miracle of this Holy Day Season.

The decorations are there to distract us from our day to day existence - our routines, our jobs, our labels and the day to day stresses that seem to endlessly bombard us at times.  These are the things we believe our lives are about.  The decorations are there to snap us out of the hypnotic quality of the world.  The presents we share reminds us that it's not about us, but about giving and sharing what we have with others.  We focus on others by giving of our time, our resources and our selves - our love, God's love, poured out into the world.  The family feast shared becomes a sacred and communal act of love that is shared.  During this time we share our love with those we love and those who love us, and perhaps even with those outside our own families.

These elements combine to bring families and people together at a much deeper level than we see in our day-to-day way of life.   They also bring us in communion with God...through Christ being with us in Spirit.  When Christmas is experienced this way, it becomes magical and otherworldly - sacred and holy.  Being in communion with God and each other we receive a glimpse of heaven, the kingdom of God here and now!   Our children, without the filters of our daily burdens and routines, immediately grasp the "spirit" of this season and at once feel connected to their loved ones and to the unseen parent who is reflected in the joy of those around them.  Our children inherently connect to the Christmas Spirit (the Spirit of Christ) made manifest in the world at this time.

We come to realize that the overwhelming love of God is experienced when we see our lives as the real illusion.  When we give to others in selfless acts and when we share communal love with one another we come to see that the kingdom of God is within reach...within us.  This is where God is - Emmanuel - God with us...always!

Each Sunday when we enter the church - the decorations distract us from our daily routines.  We leave our earthly ties outside.  Here we give of ourselves - to each other and to God.  We offer presents upon the altar.  We share in the sacrificial feast given in love to a community of love.  When experienced this way, each Sunday too becomes holy and sacred.  This is when we see God in the mass, in our neighbors and in ourselves.

Here we come to realize that God is, was, and will be with us always - Emmanuel!  We remember each Sunday and we remember each Christmastime.  This is why people who spend Christmas alone sometimes feel disconnected and deeply troubled.  They see themselves as apart from this communal love that's all around them.  They fail to realize that God is with them too.  At Christmas we must reach out and reconnect with those who seem alone at this time. 

This peace...this stillness...this feeling of being at One in love with all of creation...this feeling of unconditional love and giving to one another - this shalom is the real gift we give to our children and to one another.  Just as this is the real gift God gives to each of his children.  This is Christmastime!  Right here is Emmanuel - Right here is God with us - his children.   Shalom!

your faithful servant,

carmen