So now Christmas is over. Phone calls have been made, the presents have been opened, dinners have been eaten, sometimes with family and friends, sometimes alone. Holiday music will still fill the airwaves, especially in stores, and our attention begins to turn to New Year’s with its attendant celebrations.
Some of us worry about what the New Year will bring as we hear bombastic threats of everything from taking over the Panama Canal to radical shifts at home. Families with immigrant relatives are bracing themselves for what might be coming in light of a story of deporting a Mexican mother married to a US citizen with her 3-month old US citizen twins, not even letting them get their winter clothing.
As we recoil from such brutality, we need to remember our Christmas faith which tells us God gives us strength to make change. The child Jesus was born in a time of brutal repression and became the One who brought us a new way of being with one another. Our Christmas faith tells us that God breaks into our lives often in the strangest ways, giving us the strength to create a world of justice and mercy.
Prayer for the Day
It’s the day after, O God, the day of magic and life,
And we are already beginning to forget its meaning;
It doesn’t seem the world has change much, O Lord,
But in our hearts we hope there are possibilities.
Shape us into a Christmas people, who believe in hope,
For we know you give us strength to make it a reality.
In the name of the One born to make hope a reality,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
The Christian challenge of Christmas is this: justice is what happens when all receive a fair share of God’s world and only such distributive justice can establish peace on earth.
John Dominic Crossan, New Testament scholar
True contemplatives, then, must do justice, must speak justice, must insist on justice … And so we must do whatever justice must be done in our time if we claim to be serious about sinking into the heart of God.
Joan Chittister, OSB, from Illuminated Life
Listen to me, my people, and give heed to me, my nation;
For a teaching will go out from me, and my justice for a light to all people.
Isaiah 51: 4