Richard A. Sokerka
Christmas Day is squarely in our sight, just hours away. As we prepare our hearts for this most joyous day when the Word became Flesh, there is no question that Christmas will be different this year. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed everything in our lives. So many have had to deal with illness, economic hardships and the loss of loved ones.
Added to this is the fact that celebrating Christmas with family near and far will be challenging in the least this Christmas with Zoom greetings instead of in-person hugs. A time that traditionally brings us closer together, will be a time of social distancing. Our churches, normally filled to overflowing for midnight Mass and Mass on Christmas Day, are subject to limited numbers due to the pandemic and have had to find creative ways to allow as many parishioners as possible to attend Mass while following health and safety protocols in place to help to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Although Christmas is different in some ways this year for us as we have had to adjust to this difficult time and place in our lives, it is not cancelled! Far from it!
As the unknown author states, so we can see Christmas in the light of the star that lit up the sky over Bethlehem that night more than 2,000 years ago, we have to travel in the lonely desert like the Magi on their way to find the newborn King.
This year has felt like we have been wandering in the desert, lost with no way out. Nevertheless, come tomorrow, our hearts will find that Star that leads us to the true joy that no pandemic can take from us: God’s gift to us on Christmas of his only Son. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. (Jn 3:16).” Nothing that we can do — not even a pandemic that has been thrust upon us — can prevent the Son of God from coming into our lives, and into our world, if we allow him.
Let us rejoice in the light of the Star of Bethlehem and keep that light and true meaning of Christmas alive every day to light our way through our common desert that is this pandemic.
Merry Christmas one and all!