December Newsletter - 2003

December 22, 2003

ADVENT/CHRISTMAS 2003

Dear Friends in Christ’s Divine Mercy,

As we prepare to celebrate the great feast of the Incarnation of our Lord and Savior we find ourselves frantically busy buying last minute presents, baking, decorating, visiting and otherwise trying to jam about one million things into a single hour or day.

Is not that the story of our lives? We race from one thing to another. We wake up and from those first few moments of our day we feel like we are “behind.” I personally know people that wake up at 4:30 am to get a “head start” on an over two hour commute to work-one way! Even in the car we are trying to catch up on our phone calls, plan for a meeting or just trying to monitor our blood pressure as we sit in traffic losing more time in an already packed day.

My experience is that most people are too busy and trying to do too much. I know that I am frequently guilty of that fault as well. It leads us to a great deal of stress and it can upset our inner equilibrium. Even our children (or maybe especially our children) are so overscheduled that they barely have time to breathe. Christmas then becomes another “burden”, i.e. another set of things that have to be done in an already overscheduled life. How often do we hear someone say (or maybe even catch ourselves thinking), “I can’t wait until Christmas is over!” This sentiment is especially present among women who have to work at least twice as hard as others to make “Christmas happen” in their houses.

It also seems that every year Christmas is less about Christ’s birth and more about doing, running and buying. One of my theories is that the less the true meaning of Christmas is at the center, the more that the other, far lesser meanings of Christmas emerge. Am I the only one that wonders why it is not okay to have a crèche in the town common, but it is perfectly acceptable to pipe Christmas music everywhere starting in October to get people into the “spirit”(to SPEND!!!)? People put up more lights, buy bigger presents and eat even more than last year hoping to make the holiday “special.”

I recently celebrated a Mass for first to sixth graders in a Catholic school. I asked them to imagine that they were having a birthday party and they invited everyone that they knew to come to it. How would they feel, I asked, if everyone came, exchanged gifts with one another and never acknowledged them? Is not that what we do to Jesus? We gather, we celebrate and never acknowledge HIM! How many will gather with family, exchange gifts, light up their homes, have festive meals and never go to church, never say a prayer, never acknowledge that we are celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior? Even though no offense is intended, it must hurt our Lord to be so ignored. It should hurt us as well to see our Lord neglected and used merely as a prop for selfish materialism.

“Let every heart, prepare Him room.” Those words from Joy to the World resonate with my heart this year. I am reminded of a young boy who had a part in the Christmas pageant at his school. We all know what that is like to have a family member in a play or pageant! We learn their songs and speaking parts better than they do! This young boy had a very important role. He was to be the last innkeeper; his one line was to say: “There is no room in the inn!” He practiced his line over and over and over again. He practiced with his arms folded and a mean frown on his face. He was prepared. When the big day arrived he was all excited. His parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles gathered at the school to show their pride and support. As the big 8th graders playing Joseph and Mary approached the innkeepers all of them had said there was no room. Now it was our star second grader’s big moment as he was the last innkeeper. When Joseph and Mary approached, the young boy could barely swallow. He knew what he was supposed to do. He looked out at his family, he looked at Joseph and Mary and his face turned white. Then he turned red. Then he looked like he was going to cry. He took a deep breath and bellowed, “Of course there is room…we will make room for you!”

You can imagine the reaction! People laughed, cried, applauded and generally were impossible to contain. Yet, as is so often the case, the young boy demonstrated great wisdom. Only people with hardened hearts could ever turn away a poor man and his expectant wife at their hour of need. Knowing that they were getting ready to bring the Lord into the world it was impossible for that young boy to turn them away even though the story depended on it. He understood that it was important to prepare room for our Lord.

Is not that the greatest gift we can give to our Lord? He does not need our things. He wants our hearts, our lives, our “room”, our space and our time. He gets our leftovers so often. Isn’t it time to give Him our first and our best? It sounds easy, but it is very difficult. “Nature abhors a vacuum.” How many have ever found their pocketbook too small? What do you do? Usually, people get a bigger one. Then what happens? It, too, becomes full. Put a table down in your house or office. Come back in a few hours. What will happen? It will be so covered with newspapers, mail, food, jackets, keys etc that we will not be able to see the bottom of it.

Our open space in our day becomes like that table. It fills in and fills up and the space that is so needed for contemplation, prayer, reflection, rest and healthy recreation is gone. The space for God is the most critical part of our day and life. It cannot and must not be filled in with “stuff.” We need discipline to make this space reserved for God alone.

We fast, for example, to become empty. We become empty of food so that we can become full of our Lord. We deprive our senses so that we can become aware of what is eternal. In the spiritual life our ability to be humble, docile, obedient, poor and chaste enable us to be more open and available to God. It is easy, even for religious, to lightly excuse themselves from the obligations of their vows. There is always a justification to not fully live obedience or poverty. Yet, to the extent that we can embrace these virtues appropriate to our state in life we know the fullness and richness of God.

My heart turns to Elizabeth and Mary at this time. Elizabeth was considered barren. To be barren in her time and in her culture was seen as a disgrace. Empty of pride, Elizabeth trusted in God’s promise and became full. She became the mother to John the Baptist. Mary, empty of sin, pride, willfulness, arrogance became “full of grace.” Her emptiness enabled her to be the Tabernacle of the Living God. We are all the beneficiaries of the emptiness of Mary. In and through her emptiness we become full beyond our ability to comprehend.

If we can become empty of ourselves, we can make room for God. If we can give God permission to strip us of our false selves, of our running, of our pride, arrogance, self-will, we can become instruments of God’s love in a world so desperately in need of it.

All God’s promises to us will be fulfilled. They are fulfilled in God’s time and in God’s way. They are fulfilled in the “fullness of time.” So many who read this letter might be having doubts, may be in crisis, may be hurting. Trust is easy when the wind is at our back and all is well. Trust is difficult when we are out of work, sick, facing the illness of a family member, grieving the loss of a loved one or dying. We hear the wisdom of the saying that “when one door closes another one opens.” That statement is true, but we often find ourselves on a long, dark corridor between the two doors. Christmas reminds us that God has a plan, that His will is unfolding in time and that every promise will be fulfilled beyond anything that we can imagine.

As we celebrate Jesus’ Birthday I pray that every heart will indeed prepare Him room. He is so worthy of all of our love, worship, adoration, praise and thanksgiving.

Is there room for him in the inn of your heart?

Wishing you a Holy Christmas, I am sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Richard F. Clancy