The perfect joy of Christmas.
“It was always said of him he knew how to keep Christmas well…” - Dickens
For me, Christmas is always rather nostalgic, the sensible joy of the season ebbs and flows, sometimes from moment to moment. Yet when the joy is absent, a deeper, spiritual joy seems to emerge when I’m able to change the focus from myself onto the Infant Jesus, who in turn redirects my attention upon the needs of others. Especially those who suffer during this season - and a lot of people do.
For many, Christmas is a time when depression sets in, somehow grabs hold, taking one mercilessly through memories of Christmases past, as well as fears of Christmases future, only to return to the challenges of living through Christmas present. The holidays can be a time of great suffering for some. I wouldn’t presume to tell another how to live through these experiences, I can only unite myself in prayer, with and for those who suffer through Christmas. However, I think it is safe to affirm, there is no right way to “keep Christmas well,” especially since literature, family traditions, along with the marketing of materialism, have unrealistically raised the expectations of what the Christmas experience should be. For many, it is not the one long celebration popular culture makes it out to be.
On a dark and silent night.
Unlike some people, I happen to like many of the aspects of a commercial Christmas. People light up their homes and businesses, advertisers often present feel-good Christmas ads, department stores decorate windows, the streets have Christmas lights. It is nice. However, this is where people can get themselves into trouble - especially when our anticipation can be exaggerated by the secularized misrepresentation of Christmas - or directed by the expectations others seemingly place upon us. Whatever the case may be, our focus upon the Little Jesus can easily be obscured.
Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.
It is good to try to keep Jesus as our companion in the days approaching Christmas, especially if the holidays tend to depress us. Privately, we do not have to “pretend” he is going to be re-born on Christmas eve, engaging our imaginations in an artificial waiting game, pretending he will suddenly appear like Santa Claus, and take all of our troubles away. Not at all, Emmanuel means Christ is with us now.
Christ is present with us now - the Eternal Now. We can sit silently with him now; in the Blessed Sacrament, or simply while gazing upon an image of him. If one can not find solace in and through the liturgy of Advent and Christmas, these personal intimate encounters help a great deal. Silence is a teacher, Jesus is the text book. His poverty and helplessness reflect our own poverty - even our inability to manage our emotions, our health, our finances, sometimes our very lives. His poverty and humiliation not only mirrors, but embraces our misery. He is Emmanuel - God with us - both in our sorrows and our joys - right now.
Seeking perfect joy.
Holy father St. Francis knew what it was like to be miserable. We read how he praised holy poverty - even wedded himself to Lady Poverty, hence we imagine his extreme poverty - so conformed to the poverty of Jesus - was a jolly good time. Not so much. I often think, that in our obsession with always wanting to be happy, especially at Christmas, we forget the poverty and suffering of the Infant Jesus… which, by the way, did nothing to obscure the great joy of that holy night. Often, by realistically recalling his suffering, our own suffering is often assuaged, and our unrealistic expectations tempered.
Blessed Angela of Foligno, speaking of the sufferings of Christ, writes: “Christ’s third companion was that of the which he had the most experience, and which did endure continually. This was supreme suffering, the which did instantly afflict his soul when it was joined unto his body. For in that moment wherein his soul was united with his human body it was instantly filled with supreme knowledge. Wherefore was Christ possessed of understanding even in the womb of the Virgim mother. He did instantly begin to feel the utmost suffering…” - Divine Consolation, chapter XIV
The perfect joy of Christmas.
Amongst the stories in The Little Flowers of St. Francis, is the blessed Francis’ description of perfect joy. I like to think of it in relation to Christmas mainly because it takes place in winter, and the story reminds me of Our Lady and St. Joseph seeking lodging in Bethlehem on that first Christmas.
“Now when this manner of discourse had lasted for the space of two miles, Brother Leo wondered much within himself; and, questioning the saint, he said: “Father, I pray thee teach me wherein is perfect joy.” St Francis answered: “If, when we shall arrive at St Mary of the Angels, all drenched with rain and trembling with cold, all covered with mud and exhausted from hunger; if, when we knock at the convent-gate, the porter should come angrily and ask us who we are; if, after we have told him, `We are two of the brethren’, he should answer angrily, `What ye say is not the truth; ye are but two impostors going about to deceive the world, and take away the alms of the poor; begone I say’; if then he refuse to open to us, and leave us outside, exposed to the snow and rain, suffering from cold and hunger till nightfall - then, if we accept such injustice, such cruelty and such contempt with patience, without being ruffled and without murmuring, believing with humility and charity that the porter really knows us, and that it is God who maketh him to speak thus against us, write down, O Brother Leo, that this is perfect joy.” - Fioretti
For me, the story of perfect joy mirrors the humility and poverty of Christ; the rejection, scorn, and contempt he received from the world. It seems to me, St. Francis imitates the Savior perfectly in his non-judgemental forgiveness and acceptance of injury by the doorkeeper who refused him hospitality. Somehow, when we behold the Infant Jesus in his abject poverty, that same poverty he shares with us - especially those of us who suffer - we can experience that perfect joy St. Francis revealed in this story. And of course, St. Francis went on to exhibit this perfect joy in the living Nativity he staged at Greccio.
Perhaps - even in sorrow or depression and sadness, one may experience something of the perfect joy of Christmas. At least, this is my prayer for anyone (and everyone) who may not know how to “keep Christmas well.”
As for me, I do my best.
