Words on Christmas

"'Til he appears, and the soul felt its worth."

It has been so fascinating to both observe and experience how meanings and interpretations of the Advent and Christmas stories have developed, re-molded, and sifted through as I get older. It has been equally interesting to recall traditions of this holiday, particularly around family. Some have yet to be changed: attending Christmas Eve services and usually doing some form of music playing or singing; drinking Christmas punch (orange juice & club soda); listening to John Denver's Christmas album and Lauridsen's hauntingly beautiful "O Magnum Mysterium";  flying to New Jersey a day or two after Christmas to visit my father's side of the family. Some have been changed, removed, and added onto in recent years. 

As of 3 or 4 years ago, my family now watches on Christmas Eve a Christmas episode of the short-lived show about a Catholic parish in California called "Nothing Sacred," in which a Salvadorian man and woman are fleeing immigration authorities intending to deport them and seek sanctuary in this Catholic church on Christmas Eve. Its priests, however, are quite reluctant to allow such a "risky" set of people into their parish, especially in the midst of their arguing about who they think is best suited to preach at midnight mass and how to best organize the children and events surrounding the upcoming Christmas pageant. The premise of this episode is so brilliantly parallel to the nature of this Christmas story heard year after year, over and over again: as the people of first century Judea are grappling to find meaning around them living under the Roman Empire, the message of the Savior to be born, though expressed in different ways among the different gospels, almost seems to come out of nowhere.  So too does a word made flesh show itself--and quite inconveniently, the episode suggests-- on the doorsteps of this church getting ready to carry out its Christmas traditions as it has year after year. As the episode unfolds, their story becomes a very symbol for the fragile circumstances surrounding Christ's birth, and that such a birth occurred to be in solidarity and relationship with all who face such oppression. It is a show whose message has become close to my heart, for it reminds me of the central message of justice embedded in Jesus' incarnation which I think can be easily hidden beneath crumpled wrapping paper, twinkly lights and sleigh bells ringing. 

I sometimes find myself playing a bit of the devil's advocate when Christmas Eve and Christmas Day show themselves after what seems like a quickly passing Advent season, which in honesty appears more often than not to be filled with overbooked schedules and year-end rushes to complete projects than a season of thoughtful reflection and waiting. So all of a sudden this baby is born and life is supposed to be totally different? Does it REALLY work that way? 

And yet, I've been reminded again, in the simple and unchanging-yet-always-in-flux traditions of family, gathering with loved ones, in experiencing the simple pleasure (and sometimes struggle) of children and families traveling on airplanes, in reading the words of the babe born in swaddling clothes, and in watching Nothing Sacred, that peace, love, justice, and joy-- far wider, deeper, and paradoxically complicated and simple than a romantic season of consumerism-- do indeed dwell among us. Our souls are made worthy. 

Blessed Christmas to all.