The Joy of Christmas
By Fr. Joseph A. Scordo, O.P.
I love Christmas! Always have, as far back as I can remember in my 83 years. Then some 63 years ago, I was in Novitiate (Spiritual Boot Camp), my first year of training as a Dominican. We were in the Advent Season, and our Novice Master, a wise and holy old man, was speaking to us about Advent and Christmas. He said that people get upset and very concerned about the Christmas decorations, especially since they seem to start earlier every year. He said that we wouldn’t have any problem as long as we remember that every light, every decoration says, “Christ is born”. There it was! He gave me permission, and henceforth I could legitimately revel in Christmas all I wanted. Life was good, and God was in His heaven!
Many years later, as a Navy Chaplain, I found myself at the end of a six-month deployment with the U.S. Marines. We were at sea heading home. It was Advent, and we prayed the prayers and sang the songs of Advent during our Sunday Masses. There was a young Marine officer, a Protestant, who liked to attend Catholic Mass on Sundays. On the Second Sunday of Advent, he asked me if we could sing Christmas carols at Mass. I told him “NO”! We Catholics sing Advent songs for the four weeks leading up to Christmas, and then we sing Christmas songs for a couple of weeks afterwards right into January. He went away crestfallen. Later on that week I relented—kind of. On the Third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete – Rejoice Sunday) I asked the congregation to take out their Armed Forces Hymnal and turn to “Good King Wenceslaus”. We sang all five verses of the song, and that young Marine was pleased as punch that we got to sing a Christmas song in Advent. However, that particular song has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas. It deals with a miracle performed by the Saint “on the feast of Stephen” which is December 26th. To this day on Gaudete Sunday, I drag out Wenceslaus, and we sing the entire song—all five verses. Afterwards I remind the people that in 10 days or so we will start to sing songs that we have sung all our lives. I urge the people to pay close attention to the words they will sing this year. True story—isn’t it wonderful how God can lead us on to further truths?!
In December of 2003 my father, aged 99 years, became ill. It was grave, and he died on Christmas Day. I was crushed. Somehow, I managed to make it through that Christmas season and its festivities, but my heart was not in it. And the following two or so Christmas seasons were dreadful. I had to “deck the halls” and “Fa-la-la” with everyone else, but it wasn’t in my mind, heart, or soul. I felt so empty. I suppose I was processing through my grief of losing my father, and Christmas became a very painful time for me. I just didn’t know how long it would last or even if it would ever come back. Then one November evening while grocery shopping, I came across a little display covered with Christmas decorations holding holiday cookies. I startled, and in an instant it all came back. God was being so generous with me. I vowed then that henceforth I would never let anything get in the way of my celebration of Christmas—and nothing ever has.
Now for the final story of this little opus. Each year, with the patient permission of generous pastors, I celebrate the Christmas Eve Children’s Mass. After I proclaim the Christmas Gospel, I take a chair and I sit down at the head of the main aisle. I call all the little children forward to sit on the floor all around me. I tell them that since I’m old, I forget a lot of things, and so I ask them to help me out. I then proceed to get everything wrong about Santa, the reindeer, and eventually over to Bethlehem and the story of the Nativity. In a minute or two they are screaming: “Noooo” to everything I tell them. At the end of it all I promise them that I will have a candy cane for them at the end of Mass, and I send them back to their families. I then tell the parents that I have just emotionally spun up their children, and they will have a sugar high from the candy canes. It’s my revenge for a year of screaming kids in church. The parents laugh—they understand! I also get a chance to tell the adults to try to look at Christmas through a child’s eyes—-the joy and wonder of it all. I also urge them to go over to the Nativity scene and spend a little time with their children explaining Mary and Joseph, and the sheep and shepherds. It can be a special time of sharing.
I hope these four Christmas stories have brought a little joy to your holiday. And may God’s blessings and joy be yours throughout this wonderful time of the year.
Photo: Nativity, Fra Angelico, 1440–1441, fresco, Basilica di San Marco, Florence, Italy.
