“Worst Christmas, ever!,” my daughter declared to me this past Fourth Sunday of Advent. We were standing in the hallway of our home, tears streaming down our faces, because our favorite pet ferret had just died.
Earlier that morning, while our ferret was in the process of dying, my husband collapsed on the floor with the worst migraine he has had in years.
My daughter held onto the ferret while I raced around the house trying to find his migraine medication, which was not where it was supposed to be for occasions such as this one. I finally found it and jammed two pills into his mouth while he was lying on the floor unable to move. I stood over him as we waited for him to regain enough strength in his legs so that I could help get him into our bed.
After tucking him into bed, kissing my daughter, and petting our ferret Henry for what I didn’t realize would be the last time, I ran out the door to Mass. I could have stayed home with them, but this is what our lives look like on a pretty regular basis and I knew what we needed most was Holy Communion. I had asked my parish priest for permission to bring Holy Eucharist to my husband and daughter given what was transpiring that morning and he told me I could.
On my way to Mass, I prayed for peace during that hour, so that through Christ, I could garner the strength I was going to need to confront what was waiting for me at home. God answered two of my prayers that morning. First, our ferret passed quickly while I was at Mass. I knew as he declined over the course of two days, that he was going to die, and I turned to praying that his death would come quickly so that he could stop suffering. The closeness to Christmas weighed on all of us and this was the first loss of a pet for our daughter.
Second, I was able to encounter the peace of Christ in the Mass and then take Our Lord home to my family so that we could receive Him in our time of need. My husband’s medication had taken care of the weakness, but it would take a few hours for him to feel completely normal again. I was able to hold up Our Lord’s body, blood, soul, and divinity to him during a time of physical suffering so that Christ could strengthen him in his recovery. Our Lord’s Real Presence was palpable as I stood in our living room holding up the host to them both.
It definitely wasn’t an easy day and it came on the heels of weeks of dealing with issues related to my husband’s health. I was tempted to start calling Advent “the new Lent” after these last few weeks. When my daughter cried out in frustration, I could have joined in with her and lamented that it does indeed seem that this Christmas is one of the more difficult we have had, but I didn’t.
I reminded my daughter that we were still in Advent and that there will in fact be more difficult Advent and Christmas seasons in our future. The joy and reality of Christ’s birth at Christmas does not change because of our suffering. It is because of His coming that we can rejoice even during periods of sorrow and affliction. The gift we have been given, if we are willing to accept it, is that we can enter into greater depths of the mystery of the Incarnation this Christmas through the Cross. Our suffering unites us to Christ at a deeper level. The Babe in the manger came into this world to die for us and He is with us in our affliction.
Yes, Advent seemed more like a slow arduous crawl to the manger, but the radiance of the Son of God made flesh, makes all of the suffering worth the journey. The December 23rd daily Mass Reading from the Book of the Prophet Malachi reminds us that following God requires a process of refinement and purification. Malachi says of Our Lord’s coming, “And who can stand when he appears? For he is like the refiner’s fire, or like the fuller’s lye. He will sit refining and purifying silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, refining them like gold or like silver that they may offer due sacrifice to the Lord.” In order to prepare for Christ’s coming, we too must be purified. It is through suffering that this purification takes place.
This Christmas is a blessing because God has sought to purify us a little more throughout the Advent season. The suffering has paved the way to deeper love and hope. We can truly rejoice now that Our Savior has come and hope for the day He will come again in glory. We can sing the Gloria with greater understanding because Christ has led us to surrender more of our lives to Him this Christmas season. We come to Him emptied through our sufferings so that He can fill us up with the joy that only He can give. He is the one to console and redeem us.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI preached at Midnight Mass in 2009:
“A child is born for us, a son is given to us” (Is 9:5). What Isaiah prophesied as he gazed into the future from afar, consoling Israel amid its trials and its darkness, is now proclaimed to the shepherds as a present reality by the Angel, from whom a cloud of light streams forth: “To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Lk 2:11). The Lord is here. From this moment, God is truly “God with us”. No longer is he the distant God who can in some way be perceived from afar, in creation and in our own consciousness. He has entered the world. He is close to us. The words of the risen Christ to his followers are addressed also to us: “Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20). For you the Saviour is born: through the Gospel and those who proclaim it, God now reminds us of the message that the Angel announced to the shepherds. It is a message that cannot leave us indifferent. If it is true, it changes everything. If it is true, it also affects me. Like the shepherds, then, I too must say: Come on, I want to go to Bethlehem to see the Word that has occurred there.
Unlike the people of Israel, who were waiting for the fulfillment of God’s promises, we live as a redeemed people through the Incarnation and the Paschal Mystery. We are not awaiting the coming of the Messiah for our redemption. Rather, we await His triumphant return, but we live in the age of grace and in communion with Christ. We are able to go to Him.
It is because Christ has already come that we can rejoice in our afflictions. It is why my husband and I found ourselves laughing this past Sunday after such a terrible day. We could laugh at all we had endured because in the end our hope is in Christ and Christmas is finally here.
Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.
Luke 2:14
