Joy-filled Christmas
Yesterday we celebrated the first day of Christmas and I hope your heart was filled with Joy and Peace as we got to welcome the Little Baby Jesus into our hearts. I know this time of year is filled with many memories, traditions and family! There is a great striving for happiness during this season especially. Amongst all of this, I started to think about the very first Christmas that the Holy Family spent together in Bethlehem, and I started to wonder; Did the Holy Family have a very Merry Christmas?
The birth of Jesus is the Third Joyful Mystery of the rosary- and so Mary and Joseph must have been very Joyful to receive the savior of the world this Holy Night- but it was not without a ting of sadness. If you think about it, Mary would be having her child, far away from all of her family that she loved and drew comfort from, in a lowly stable very different from her expectations for the birth of her son. St. Joseph would have also been very disappointed- perhaps by the very people he would have called relatives. For they were in Bethlehem, where he was from, and not one of his family members or friends could make room for his wife and child.
I think that God, in His infinite wisdom, allowed this to happen on purpose. He allowed the people closest to His son to suffer some sadness mixed with the joy of the birth of our Savior. We could even go as far as saying that Jesus's gift to His parents on this first Christmas, besides the gift of Himself, was the precious gift of suffering. It says that after all the wonders of the angels singing and the shepherds coming- "Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." (Luke 2:19) I wonder if Mary not only pondered the great works of God and the Angels, but also the sufferings that they were allowed to endure in their hearts, and treasured these as well.
Was there sorrows mixed into your Christmas this year? Were you away from any family members that you wished you could have shared the day with? Were there people in your family that may have disappointed you, in their own weakness, by their words or actions, or the ones they didn't say or do? Take heart, you are in good company. If Jesus allowed His parents to suffer these same sorrows in the midst of this great joy, how special you must be too, in the eyes of God.
Let us not strive for happiness this Christmas season- in which it is a feeling that comes and goes- but let us allow our hearts to be filled with the peace and joy that remains- that which only Jesus can give. Let us give thanks for Our Savior's coming, and all of our family and blessings, but let us also ponder and treasure all of the sorrows that we have been allowed to experience this Christmas, just like Our Lady and St. Joseph. You too are part of Jesus' family!
The birth of Jesus is the Third Joyful Mystery of the rosary- and so Mary and Joseph must have been very Joyful to receive the savior of the world this Holy Night- but it was not without a ting of sadness. If you think about it, Mary would be having her child, far away from all of her family that she loved and drew comfort from, in a lowly stable very different from her expectations for the birth of her son. St. Joseph would have also been very disappointed- perhaps by the very people he would have called relatives. For they were in Bethlehem, where he was from, and not one of his family members or friends could make room for his wife and child.
I think that God, in His infinite wisdom, allowed this to happen on purpose. He allowed the people closest to His son to suffer some sadness mixed with the joy of the birth of our Savior. We could even go as far as saying that Jesus's gift to His parents on this first Christmas, besides the gift of Himself, was the precious gift of suffering. It says that after all the wonders of the angels singing and the shepherds coming- "Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." (Luke 2:19) I wonder if Mary not only pondered the great works of God and the Angels, but also the sufferings that they were allowed to endure in their hearts, and treasured these as well.
Was there sorrows mixed into your Christmas this year? Were you away from any family members that you wished you could have shared the day with? Were there people in your family that may have disappointed you, in their own weakness, by their words or actions, or the ones they didn't say or do? Take heart, you are in good company. If Jesus allowed His parents to suffer these same sorrows in the midst of this great joy, how special you must be too, in the eyes of God.
Let us not strive for happiness this Christmas season- in which it is a feeling that comes and goes- but let us allow our hearts to be filled with the peace and joy that remains- that which only Jesus can give. Let us give thanks for Our Savior's coming, and all of our family and blessings, but let us also ponder and treasure all of the sorrows that we have been allowed to experience this Christmas, just like Our Lady and St. Joseph. You too are part of Jesus' family!
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