Fr. David Convertino, OFM
Executive Director of Development
I was thinking that maybe this is all a mistake—that it would be fitting to skip Christmas this year!
It’s too hard to celebrate Christmas this year. I heard Christmas bells the other day, Salvation Army bells, and it just didn’t feel right.
How can we celebrate, decorate, sing, eat, and exchange gifts—say “peace on Earth, goodwill to all?”
Hate seems far stronger than love right now.
Nothing seems to make sense anymore.
People around the world are starving, and diseases once conquered are rising again.
The Holy Land is now a place of explosions and death rather than prayer and worship.
There is no peace on Earth. Maybe we should skip Christmas this year.
Maybe we should let the Grinch have Christmas! Or maybe not! Maybe this year is the best year for Christmas!
Because maybe this year, Christmas—the real Christmas—makes more sense than ever!
Maybe this Christmas, we will put a little less emphasis on the unimportant, pause longer in prayer before we sing and eat, and quietly remember those who have died—and not just give the gifts we bought.
Maybe this Christmas, we will be more attuned to give thanks to and for those we love, for those who are still alive, and for those who have died for us!
Hopefully this year, we will look beyond Santa’s gifts to the real, forgotten reason we celebrate Christmas.
You see, by understanding the real reason for Christmas, we can make better sense of our lives.
Christmas is about God becoming one of us— sharing our flesh, our pain, and our confusion with life.
God feels and knows us but cannot stop us in our actions. God simply loves us and hopes we love back.
God is always present and wants us to recognize this presence in every second and person in our lives.
God gave up divinity so that we can better understand our humanity, how joy can come through suffering, strength through weakness, and how life continues even in death.
Christmas is about welcoming that small, naked child, knowing full well that he will be crucified so that we may continue to live.
His kind of love is the answer to our life’s questions.
Within our pain, we can find our strength.
Within our revenge, can come our mercy.
And within our hopelessness, we can feel God’s love which is
The ultimate answer that we are looking for.
Jesus was born of Mary once,
But He must be born into our world,
Each moment by us,
Again and again,
By you and me.
We must birth him into the chaos of these years,
So that life can begin to make sense,
And peace can come to Earth—and goodwill to all!
With every goodness we do,
Every time our eyes are opened wider,
Every time we are unselfish and generous,
Each time we reach out to another,
Christ becomes more visible, more human, more alive.
Born again into our world!
I heard the bells,
And they ring joyfully because of who we are,
And because of what God has done in our lives!
