they’ll get this year is life
But Christmas isn’t really about us, is it? Christmas isn’t about you or me. Christmas is about Christ. In this day of “it’s all about me” it is far too easy to forget that Christmas means that my parents and all those who are no longer with us have a better place to spend the holidays with the greatest host of all.
We tend to ignore the fact that there are those less fortunate, those for whom a warm home, a good meal or two, and presents under the tree are mere fantasies to be dreamed of rather than lived. A line from the Christmas song, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” written in 1984 by Bob Geldorf and Midge Ure to help raise money for those starving in Ethiopia should make us pause. The line is “The greatest gift they’ll get this year is life” and it says it all. The greatest gift we have is life, but we generally take it for granted until it is gone.
Isaiah tells us “Strengthen the hands that are feeble, make firm the knees that are weak, say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you.” Our greatest gift is the life that God has given to us, and it is the one gift that we must share with others. We must celebrate life, all life, with one another all year long, but especially at Christmas.
Father John Kavanaugh, S. J. writes “We humans will always be in Advent….For the world and all its life is only Advent. It is a creation unfinished, a groaning for another wondrous coming, a second birth. Our final happiness and healing, rich or poor, will not be quarried here. We who believe that heaven once came down to earth also believe that every grace of the earth will be lifted to undying life by our God made flesh.”
Let us remind ourselves that we are in waiting, waiting for Christmas yet to come. Come, Lord Jesus, come.