CHRISTMAS TREATS

FR. TERRY RYAN, CSP
Matthew 1: 18-24
December 23, 2007

Recently, I tried to do a good deed. It snowed in the night. In the early morning, I decided to shovel our sidewalk, so the pastor and others would not slip and fall. Just as I lifted my last shovel full, I pulled my back. It hurt. For a week I could not run, nor sleep very well. I had done a good deed in Advent, and got a bad result, for me.

While I was feeling sorry for myself, I noticed that lots of treats were coming to our house and office for Father Bill, the Pastor. The cards said how wonderful he is. “What about me?” I thought. I am here too. I help. I am nice to animals and children. But they don't shop or bake! The devil tempted me to take a pen that matched the color ink of the cards, and write in after Father Bill's name, “and Father Terry too.” But my good angel said that would be a sin, so I just pouted. I did all these nice things for people here at the parish, and the pastor got the treats.

If I had looked at this Gospel today, I would see how God is present in my troubles. I am not ignored … by God. Joseph is a nice person, just like me. He goes to synagogue and tries to do the right thing. He is called a righteous man. He meets Mary, and decides to marry her. Her father agrees. Joseph, a carpenter, probably made some new furniture to welcome his bride. But before she even moves in, she leaves town. She does not say anything to him, or ask. She just goes off to her cousin Elizabeth. She stays several months. Joseph is married, but with no bride around. His friends probably felt sorry for him being left alone in Nazareth . Then Mary comes home and she is showing. She is pregnant. Joseph decides he has to get Mary out of his life, but being a nice guy, he is going to try and do things quietly and not subject her to public shame or stoning.

His dream reassures him that God is at work. So Joseph tries to cooperate with whatever God has in mind and takes Mary into his home. He probably built a nice crib for the baby, but before he gets to use it, he and Mary have to leave town to register for a census. They get to Bethlehem , and cannot get a room. Then the baby decides to come when in a stable. He has to use a manger for a crib. Life is stressful with this plan of God, but Joseph has a healthy baby and a wife who survived it all. Then the local king wants to kill the baby and so Joseph has to take the family to Egypt . He becomes a refugee. What a difficult and sometimes messy life for a fellow who is trying to do the right thing.

God is at work in Joseph's life, through all the difficulty. Joseph is being challenged to trust, and hope in God. Joseph is not getting quite what he might have wanted in terms of smooth sailing, but he is being transformed into the saint that God wills Joseph to become. Maybe this is part of God's plan for me too? In the midst of back pain, and feeling anonymous in the parish, God is at work. I am being asked to let go of my plans for reward and comfort. I am being asked to become small and less focused on me. Let my ego become a bit smaller. God is Emmanuel. God is with me. I may not feel the Presence, but God is always with me.

Sometimes I meet a young person who says that he or she gave up on Church because it was boring. Compared to Joseph, that is a pretty low bar level for which to leave a God/Church relationship. If boredom is the thing that makes you cut out of something, then don't work for corporate America, and don't get married! Both will have times of boredom. Boredom is part of life. God is with us when we are bored. Maybe we bore God with our same old bad behavior, but God is still with us. God is Emmanuel.

Sometimes I meet young people who say that they love being Catholic and love going to Church. Often it is because their lives are going so well in their relationship with Jesus. I celebrate their joy, but then I wonder to myself, will they stay in the Church when they have Joseph times, when things don't go their way?

Whatever our Christmas expectations, or however the Christmas season happens in your life this year, God is always with you. God is Emmanuel, with us when things go our way and when they do not.