Christmas Joy
December 22-29, 2024
“And in that region, there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, ‘Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!’” (Luke 2:8-14).
God was born unto us. Can you imagine anything more stupendous than that?
If you have been a practicing Catholic these past thirty years or so, you’ve heard the word joy used a lot. Deacon Scott gave a homily on it as recently as the weekend of December 15th. I remember the first few years of Archbishop Alexander Brunet’s reign as our archbishop (1998-2010), bringing the word up all the time; priests and seminarians would laugh to imitations of him saying “joy, joy.” I think it was the name of a papal encyclical in the past twenty years, “Joy of the Gospel.” To many Christians, the word has become synonymous with the Greek word Gospel, which means good news (close, but not joy). Joy is a big deal for Christians but then everyone else wants it too, so it’s a big deal for everyone. That’s probably why our Catholic Christian leaders have been using it more in the past thirty years than it was used in the previous nearly 2000. We’re always looking for an angle that people can relate too, and since many people feel no need for salvation, or confuse love for lust, or a contractual state where two or more stay together until you don’t enjoy the other anymore, then joy becomes the word that we can all agree to wanting.
Even for non-believers, the time from Thanksgiving to Christmas is the most joyful time of the year. Then December 26 comes, and for most people the joy of the season is over. Why is that? Why don’t people the world over hold onto that joy? The answer is in the paragraph above – love.
Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, not an end in itself but a consequence of something else, its source being God (Gal. 5:22). While joy is not one of the 64 virtues, its source comes from one of the virtues – love. Since the end of all the virtues is God, then the place where we find our joy comes from love of God. While pleasure or happiness is the obtaining of something that we want, it passes as soon as we lose it or something more painful comes along. If joy is found in the virtue of love, then lasting joy comes from our complete love of God, who is infinite love. This love abides regardless of whether or not we are obtaining the things of this world that we want, and this love abides regardless of the pain we may be feeling. In this love of God, we at last can find a lasting joy that the world can neither give nor take away. This is the only way a person can live with joy all the time, even during suffering, and it means that people who do not love God cannot experience joy all the time and certainly not in the midst of suffering.
For devout Christians, we understand the cause of our joy during Christmas as being the birth of Jesus Christ 2024 years ago, in Bethlehem to a family. The reason Christmas is so joyful for Christians (in addition to jingles, family and presents) is because we understand God’s love for us, and we love Him in return. This love is made so much more accessible to us because God comes to us through a family as a baby. A profoundly relatable and tender dynamic. So, for all those catchy Christmas jingles that contribute to making this time of the year special or the family that may gather or the presents under the tree, the one lasting joy we can take away from Christmas is God’s love for us and our love for God. If God’s love for us or our love for God, isn’t part of our Christmas experience, then our joy is just happiness and fleeting.
Regardless of what is going on in the world or in our personal lives, we can have supernatural peace and joy when our lives are centered on Jesus Christ. We can have that joy, because God has come down from heaven in the divine person of Jesus Christ to give us His Catholic Church, His Word, His Truth, His laws, the Sacraments, communion with Him, and consolation from Him. So let us give thanks and praise to God for the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, the sole Redeemer of the human race, and enjoy His love for us.
Let us also resolve to serve Jesus Christ in the coming year, a year that may come with great challenges for the world—challenges that would be scary or depressing for people without a relationship with Jesus Christ, challenges that we can help others manage better because of our love of Jesus Christ.
To that end, please keep working on daily prayer and spiritual reading until it becomes a habit (good habits are hard to break too). And please strive to live the seven precepts of the Church listed here:
1. Attend Mass on holy days of obligation (Sundays are always holy days of obligation)
2. Confession at least once a year (ideally monthly)
3. Receive Holy Communion at least once a year (must be in a state of grace – hence the sacrament of
Confession)
4. Observe the Church’s laws on fasting and abstinence
5. Observe the Church’s laws (God’s laws) on marriage
6. Be a steward of the Church through the commitment of your time, talent and treasure
7. Evangelize according to ability and opportunity.
Continuing from the last precept, please try in the coming year to share your relationship with Jesus with others, others who may not have the clarity and joy we take for granted: joy in knowing that God loves us and accompanies us, why we’re here and where we’re going.
If one is trying to live all these things, especially in our secular age, then God will grant that person (you and others because of you) great graces and joy. Merry Christ–Mass!
May Almighty God Bless You,
I Love You,
Fr. Thomas Nathe
