The Christmas season, brings with it, eager anticipation and feelings of Joy and hope, May be it’s the melody of carols sung and heard, combined with aroma of culculls and neoris (local sweets), or just that Christmassy feeling in the chill, crisp, cold air!
Those were beautiful moments, when the family, came together to prepare the Christmas sweets. Then the Christmas midnight mass, which the entire family attended seated together in Church, followed by a little social gathering. I remember also those moments during my childhood years, when our family got together, for a special spring cleaning.
Spring cleaning meant, getting rid of old, unwanted stuff, and disposing these into the trash can. This implied moments of indecision. Many impromptu decisions seemed hard to make because of special attachments to these things. Yet it had to be done. If not these unwanted materials continued to occupy that precious extra space in our home.
What begins in Advent as the Christian New Year, culminates at Christmas; the new beginning with God coming to us in Christ Jesus. What a wonderful way to celebrate a New Year! God with us: Emmanuel. God with us we are able to accomplish much more than the world can dream of! Yet we as Christians look forward to the subsequent New Year few days later.
According to Jewish oral tradition (Mishna) the creation of the world was completed on the day they celebrate New Year. It is also referred to as the Day of Judgment both in the oral tradition and the Jewish Liturgy.
The above belief from Jewish thought and tradition also holds good for us, Christians too, in our New Year (Christmas). It is on this day of His incarnation, that God in Christ Jesus comes to take back what is His, viz. the completed created world lost on account of man’s sin (Jn. 3:16).
His coming also means a moment of judgment. For man, it’s a decision he has to make on the basis of the choice he has before him, viz. either to receive the Saviour or to reject him. Or else judgment will befall the human race (Jn. 3:17-19).
So we have the good news to proclaim:
16“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. 18 He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil”. John 3:16-19
The Jewish New Year is also an occasion of spring cleaning when the old is discarded and the new is ushered in. Hence it is a beautiful moment for us to prepare to welcome the New Year (Christmas) by the spring cleaning of our hearts by discarding that which is evil and ushering in that which is good. This giving up may not always be easy because it involves being detached from our many sinful attachments and from sin itself.
The Sacrament of Confession is a great help in this direction. It is an opportunity to spring clean our hearts. The habits of sin must be discarded, and replaced by new habits, to achieve soundness of mind, and behavior. What is more, we have God himself who comes to us to help us in our weakness. The humble and weak heart can find special joy at Christmas for he even chooses to come into the stable of our heart. When he comes to your stable to stay, rejoice! For you will have the presence and praises of the humble shepherds and the riches of the wise visiting you.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, the judge of the living and the dead you were born to redeem the world for God. Come into our hearts this season and dispel all darkness. Bless all people of good will, that they may recognize you this Christmas and find peace under your wings.
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