Will there be Christmas?

When restrictions for Level 5 were announced in Ireland at the end of October, headlines in the newspapers the next day carried phrases like: “6 weeks to save Christmas” or  “ Ireland has six weeks to save Christmas in order to have December joy”, or ‘Will Christmas be cancelled?” It sounded like a plotline from Dr. Seuss’ ‘The Grinch Stole Christmas.”

As I reflected, I thought, “We cannot save Christmas”, rather it is ‘Christmas that saves us”.
If we go back to the reason for the season, it is Jesus. Jesus, the Emmanuel, Jesus our Saviour, Jesus the Child of Bethlehem.

This year, we are being called to celebrate a simple Christmas, one which this year for many reasons, resembles the first one 2000 years ago. And that’s okay- our faith, our family, our friends, gratitude for life,  memories of those who are not around the Christmas table this year, for different reasons- in the sacred space of the Word made Flesh, we are grateful.

We are called to live simply this Christmas, so that, realistically yet poignantly, others may simply live.

A few weeks ago a Spanish priest called Fr. Javier Leoz from Pamplona, prepared a reflection on how this Christmas during the corona pandemic can actually be more like the first one.  Pope Francis himself even called the priest to commend him on recalling people to live a simpler and quieter Christmas this year and as a consequence focus on the honouring the birth of Jesus.

The text, entitled “Will there be Christmas?” and presented as a poem, reaffirms the true meaning of Christmas. Certainly, the end of this year is likely to be less hectic than we’re used to, Fr. Leoz points out. But that’s just the point; it’s an opportunity to finally experience the silence and peace of Bethlehem.

I’d like to share this text with you:

Will there be Christmas?

Of course!

More silent and with more depth.
More like unto the first one, when Jesus was born in solitude.

Without many lights on earth
but with the star of Bethlehem
shining on paths of life in its immensity.

Without colossal royal processions
but with the humility of feeling as if we are
shepherds, young and old, seeking the Truth.

Without big tables and with bitter absences
but with the presence of a God who will fill everything.

Will there be Christmas? Of course!

Without streets overflowing with people
with our hearts burning
for the One who is about to arrive.

Without noise or festivals,
complaints or shop stampedes …
but living the Mystery without fear
of the “COVID-Herod” that tries to
rob us even of the dream of waiting.

There will be Christmas because GOD is on our side
and He shares, as Christ did in a manger,
our poverty, trials, tears, anguish and orphanhood.

There will be Christmas because we need
a divine light in the midst of such darkness.
COVID-19 will never be able to reach the heart or soul
of those who put their hope and their high ideal in heaven.

THERE WILL BE CHRISTMAS! WE WILL SING CHRISTMAS CAROLS!

GOD WILL BE BORN AND WILL BRING US FREEDOM!

(J. Leoz)

The piece of music I would like to share with you is from an artist called Chris Tomlin with a song entitled simply; “Christmas Day”.

When you listen to the verses you hear the words: “ He was born to conquer the grave, light of the world- the reason for Christmas Day.  Stars we have seen, deserts and oceans, the darkness was deep, but never hopeless, redemption came and His name is Jesus.”  This is our reason to hope!

Yes, there will be Christmas. Christmas is not cancelled. May these extraordinary times, where we are distant but still present, virtual but still connected, apart but still united, help us recall the reason for the season: that every life is precious and that the birth of Jesus  in a stable in Bethlehem, like the birth of every child, is a sign that life will go on! Christ our Emmanuel is our joy, our hope, our life!