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As we come to the celebration of Christmas each year, I often find myself looking back at previous Christmases and remembering all those celebrations. For this past Advent, I’ve been sort of “rebooting” my ShawnTheBaptist.org website. This has meant going back in the past a lot for me as I’ve been tagging old homilies and and updating things. Today, I was looking at all the Christmas homilies I ever gave. It was almost like Scrooge being haunted by the Ghost of Christmas Past! I did notice that, by far, the theme I have most enjoyed talking about at Christmas is the story of “A Christmas Carol.” I look forward to watching “A Muppet Christmas Carol” with my mom tonight… as we always do on Christmas Eve.
Christmas is a time when we often “do what we’ve always done” to celebrate. That sense of ritual allows us to have a link with the past. We can look back and see where we’ve been. As we turn to the celebration of the religious significance of Christmas, perhaps at “Midnight Mass” or some other time, we are reminded of the past ways that God has worked to bring us to this day. We often call this “salvation history.”
Just as the memories of Christmases gone by help give meaning to a new Christmas celebration each year, so God’s action in history is what helps us understand and find meaning in our lives today. At Christmas, the readings at Mass remind us of how we were and are in great need of a savior and how God sent his son to become one of us to save us. There are actually four different sets of prayers and readings for Christmas Mass. I invite you to take a look at them when things quiet down a bit. Reflecting on where we’ve been and how we got here is a great way to appreciate the present and look with fresh eyes at what the future might hold. Merry Christmas everyone!