Homily for 9 Dec 2015

9 Dec 2015

For some people—even fellow Christians—this is not a very happy time of the year.  Maybe it’s the weather: the gray days, the long nights, the cold wind.  Maybe for them, it’s like what Ebenezer Scrooge says: “What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer.” 

Or maybe it’s all the “good cheer” that goes around and the happy songs of Christian hope and love that people sing.  Maybe all that just reminds them of how little cheer there is in their own hearts.  When they’re surrounded by the Spirit of Christ’s coming into the world, maybe it’s all just a teasing, mocking, wrenching reminder of their life’s troubles, and how love (they think) has never visited them.  Maybe all that good cheer just reminds them of how alone they are.

For some people, this is not a very happy time of the year.  Poor souls, indeed.  If only, perhaps, they could hear Christ speak to them: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”  Come to me, all you who feel rejected and hurt; you who only punish yourselves by letting envy and jealousy, hatred and judgment of others into your hearts.  Come to me, and see why you have no reason at all for being cold-hearted at this festive time of the year.

Poor souls—those who are unmoved by all the lights, the candles, the songs, the well-wishes of passersby, and the promise of Christ to come.  What can we do, but pray for them.  And if we should have an encounter with one of those Ebenezer Scrooges, and we feel brought down because of it, we have only to remember our reason to hope and have good cheer: Christ himself, who says: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”  Come to me, you who are burdened for love of others and for the desire to see happiness and peace reign on earth.  Come to me.

For some people, this is not a very happy time of the year.  But for we who know Christ in our hearts, and are moved by him and the beauty of the season, it is indeed a wonderful time.  The horizon in our souls is not all black and starless.  Instead, within us is a purply sky, and just on the horizon are the first rays of the rising sun.  How happy are those who see the coming of the Light and are of good cheer.