Christmas/ “A Normal Christmas”
Christmas/ “A Normal Christmas”
It’s seems strange to say Merry Christmas. Today we didn’t have to bundle up. Snow isn’t on the ground. Many of us are thankful. Others might lament the fact we don’t have a white Christmas. We realize this isn’t the normal Christmas, but how many are?
On Christmas morning 1928 a young couple awoke. The man and women went to take their infant daughter out of her crib. Sadly, the baby had died. She had Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. The parents were devastated. The mother was Catholic. The father was a Russian Jew whose father was a Jewish Cantor. His name was Irving Berlin.
Irving Berlin was a song writer. He picked up his pen and he wrote a song as he processed his grief. The song was called, “I’m dreaming of a White Christmas.” The song seemed like a strange tune to write at that moment, but somehow it helped Berlin in his sadness. He didn’t release the song. He felt the time was not right.
It wasn’t until August of 1942 that the song was sung by a crooner named Bing Crosby in a movie called Holiday Inn. The silence was deafening. In the reviews of the movie the song wasn’t mentioned. Irving Berlin himself didn’t promote the song. But by October the piece was number one on the billboard charts. Today, it is said that “White Christmas is one of the most phenomenal hits of all times.”
Why did the song take off? “White Christmas” touched a deep cord within people. The United States had gone to war a year before. Thousands of young men were fighting and dying around the globe. People listened to the words, “I’m dreaming of a White Christmas just like the ones I used to know.” And they fantasized about a day when they would celebrate Christmas the way it supposed to be. A Christmas when the world would be at peace. A Christmas when there would be harmony in everyone’s home. Christmas would take place as planned.
We know that Christmas is hardly ever perfect. The thought of it is reassuring. But we that isn’t the day to day reality of our lives. What Christmases do we remember? Perhaps they are the ones that were most difficult. The first Christmas that pops into my memory today was the Christmas about 50 years ago that my Aunt, the mother of 13 children was preparing her favorite pie at her kitchen table. She fell over backward struck dead by a massive heart attack.
I remember how our family pulled together. We had our Christmas dinner the next day so things would be as normal as possible. The community poured out expressions of support. Mass was more meaningful as we prayed for guidance and healing. Our family put trust in the providence of God. We made it through those tough times. No, it wasn’t smooth and easy. But we continued to celebrate many more Christmases together. And we understood the Christmas story better.
Jesus didn’t wait for the perfect Christmas to come to the earth. He came to the earth to live with us as a poor peasant in Palestine 20 centuries ago. He was born in a stable. His people were living in an occupied country. Tyrants had control of the government. Disease was rampant. Hunger was all around. Jesus’ family had to flee for their lives, becoming refugees in another country. Why would God want to become human to live in this way?
Yet we remember what the Book of Wisdom says in 18:14-15.
“For when peaceful stillness compassed everything and the night in its swift course was half spent,
Your powerful word from heaven’s royal throne bounded, a warrior into the doomed land.”
We remember today how Jesus leapt at the chance to be human, to share our human condition, to dwell with us. He is God with us. The Christmas message is that God is here, now. God will never desert us. We may walk away from God, but God won’t leave us.
On this Christmas, like all Christmases we face sadness. Our country is in a 20-year war. Our society is divided not united. The language of our political discourse is nastier than ever. We still suffer from the sins of greed and corruption. On a personal level our families, more than likely, have estranged members, economic concerns, sickness and a host of other problems. We can feel overwhelmed or we can be reassured once again in the story of Emmanuel, God with us. We pray, today, that all may be consoled finding joy, once again, by the promise Christmas offers us. The promise of forgiveness of our sins, the strength that comes from a community of faith and the hope that one day we all will take our place with all the saints where things will be merry and white for all eternity.