Christmas Good News
The Calling of the Apostles by Ghirlandaio. Public domain
Opening our hearts to Christmas
For some reason, I was especially struck by the question the crowds, the tax collectors, and the soldiers asked John the Baptist in last Sunday’s Gospel: “What should we do?” And like everyone, I suppose, I was also processing the incomprehensible and senseless shootings at Sandy Hook School in Newtown, Connecticut, and wondered the same thing: What ought we to do; what can we do in the face of such a tragedy?
Sometimes the bad news is so overwhelming we might be tempted to think that bad news is more powerful than any good news. Perhaps we really need Christmas this year. We need to be reminded that the people who walk in darkness will see a great light. We celebrate these days the almost incredible Good News that the Word has been made flesh, that God has visited his people and pitched his tent among us, not to take away all suffering and pain, but to be a way and truth, to help us navigate our way in a world so marked by sin.
Fr. Jeff Scheeler, OFM, with residents of St. Vincent Ain Karem, Jerusalem
So what ought we to do? As I pondered this, the following path came to mind. I think we need to first let Christmas in. We need to be open, to be receptive to the Gift. We need to first accept and actually enjoy the Good News of God’s light and love among us. But once inside, we then need to let the Christmas Good News work on us. We need to let the Good News of Christmas knead our fears and anxiety; we need to let it soften our hearts and heal and renew us. We need to let it change and convert us. And when that work is done we need to let Christmas out. Accepting the advice of the Baptist, we let the light out enfleshed in works of justice, mercy and compassion. We work, with God, to change and heal this broken world.
Fr. Jeff Scheeler, OFM
This Christmas I know what I have to do, and I have a new mantra to pray and live with: let it in, let it work, let it out. I suspect it will take more than 12 days of Christmas to do this. Will you join me in working with God in the process of dispelling the darkness?
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Fr. Jeff Scheeler, OFM
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