We’re familiar with many Christmas songs and sometimes know all the words, but do we reflect on the meaning?

I listen to Christmas songs the whole month of December. My kind of song is “Joy to the World,” snappy and uplifting. While I do appreciate the slower, more serious songs, I often skip over them to get to more rocking music. This year, however, I have been captivated by “The Little Drummer Boy.”

It’s almost as if I was hearing it for the first time. We’re introduced to the boy who is being invited to join a group who will visit a newborn king. This is what Advent is all about, joining in the preparation for Jesus as the newborn king. We are invited to join, but it is up to us to accept and take action.

Upon the drummer boy’s arrival, he explains he is poor and has no gift, but he can play a song on his drum for the baby. This struck me as every person at any moment in life. We are all poor in God’s eyes, since everything we have is a gift He gives us. The only thing we can offer Him is to use the gifts and talents to the best of our ability. The other discovery is that the boy knows he is poor and still goes to see the king. How often do we think we need to hide our spiritual poverty or work to overcome it, rather than going to God and acknowledging it?

The boy plays a song for the baby, with the approval of Mary. Mary is our mother too, do we seek her counsel on the actions we take? The animals around the manger seem to keep time with the boy playing his song. Have you noticed when others are assisting you in your spiritual activities, encouraging you to do God’s will?

The baby smiles at the drummer boy when he completes his song. Have you ever pictured Jesus smiling at you for some kindness or work of mercy?

No matter how far I travel on my faith journey, there is always a new perspective. Sometimes it comes from a new experience, but it can come from something so familiar, that I can’t recognize the gift in front of me. I hope you have been blessed with many unexpected gifts this year. Merry Christmas!

 

Our final Christmas preparations may be turning into a frenzied rush to get things completed. We realize now that what seemed like four weeks of Advent is just but a few days. Even the Sunday Gospel speaks of Mary making haste to visit Elizabeth (Luke 1:39).

With so many things as yet incomplete, I find myself making mental lists and planning out what I’m going to do when. While that does include things like attending Christmas parties and meeting up with friends, I have to be careful that in my rush to remember my lists and plans, that I don’t hasten too quickly through these events and miss them completely. For example, I had a checklist of what I was going to do after the Christmas Holiday party at work. All day I felt myself checking the clock to see when it was going to start and then reminding myself of what I wanted to accomplish afterwards. Eventually the party began, and as I made the rounds to chat with folks from other departments with whom I don’t usually interact, I kept checking the time thinking about getting my errands done. It wasn’t until I sat down with one friend who really needed someone to listen, that I recognized my checklist had to be pushed off for another day. I had to stop and be in that moment, giving the gift of my time. Once I made that decision to spend the time talking with her, I was able to enjoy her company and appreciate the gift of friendship.

In my lovely little kitchen everything is in easy reach, but when I try to rush to get things done, I find I have a case of the butterfingers and things fall or drop from my hands. I can quickly get frustrated, even while listening to cheery Christmas music. While my target each year is to make seven different kinds of cookies, Christmas will come whether or not I finish. A few types of cookies are staples, ones that my Mom made only at Christmas and I grew up associating with the season. I always push myself to make at least one new recipe a year, to keep trying new things. A few other kinds are ones that I haven’t made in a while or hit recipes from a previous Christmas. The point to making those cookies is to share them with family, friends and co-workers, renewing old memories and making new ones. So as I pick up the measuring cup and begin to wash it for the umpteenth time, or cleanup the snowfall effects of the powdered sugar all over the counter, I need to smile and remember that I’m not competing in a bake-off competition, but pouring my love into my baking to share with others.

Trees do not decorate themselves, cookies do not bake themselves and presents do not wrap themselves; this is all true. But these activities are ways we choose to demonstrate the love we have for others. Following Jesus’ example, we offer ourselves to each other: our time, our companionship and the work of our hands. Haste may be needed in some preparations, but if we keep moving too fast, we just might miss the truly blessed moments when they  arrive.  

The single rose-colored candle may look like a mistake to one unfamiliar with an advent wreath, but there is a reason for the bit of lightness against the purple. Amid the longest nights of the year (at least for the northern hemisphere), the three lit candles are powerfully strong with the rose candle reflecting the light from the other two and adding its own. This mirrors what has been happening within us. We reflected on the Word of God, sought out reconciliation with Him and tried to make level the uneven roads in our hearts. Our burdens have been lightened as we have helped to ease others of their burdens. We are radiating the light of Christ through our actions during this advent season.

This week we prepare to rejoice in Jesus’ coming. Since we know the outcome, it’s very easy to simplify the Christmas story but Mary and Joseph could only trust in God as Jesus’ birth approached. When doors were closed to them, they were humble enough to stay in a stable with the animals, just to keep warm and have a place for Mary to give birth. Those aren’t the conditions they would have chosen, but their humility was rewarded with the unexpected visits of the shepherds and the three wise men who came to pay homage to the baby.  It reminds us in this season of parties and gift-giving, that even if all does not go the way we plan, if we humbly allow God to work in and through us, He will bring us joy.

I read a post on Catholic365.com last year about it being harder to believe that God humbled Himself, not just to become human, but to be born a helpless, defenseless babe, than it was to accept the death and resurrection of Jesus. I had to stop and think about that one. Since most people will have encountered a baby or two during their lifetime, we can all relate to the complete dependence of infants. Words fail to express the wonderment and awe of the sacrifice involved when God humbled Himself to enter the world just like the rest of us, but in such poor conditions.

In the Prayer of St. Francis, “it is in giving that we receive” sums up the whole Christmas season. Humbling and giving of ourselves is how we can prepare to receive and appreciate the gift of joy.