2nd Sunday of Advent -
We begin our "Preparations for the Holidays!"
"Happy holidays...happy holidays," the song is played every year on loud speaker systems throughout malls, stores and on city sidewalks. For most people it is a wonderful, joy-filled, happy time of year that fills one's soul with warmth.
For most people, but not for all. There are many people whose souls are filled with grief, sadness beyond description, and a melancholy that almost suffocates. I am told, by young teenage girls 'in trouble,' that this is how they feel.
How do you distinguish between the physical and emotional feelings associated with anxiety and grief, confusion and sadness, fear and melancholy? I wonder if a very young teenage girl, under a cloud of impugned character, miserable after a trip of perhaps 75 miles on the back of a bony donkey, miserable being nine months pregnant, miserable being away from the comfort and security of her family and friends, married to an older man (many Catholic theologians have for centuries considered Joseph an older widower with older children)...I wonder if her feelings were a mixture of anxiety and grief, confusion and sadness, fear and melancholy?
And now that they have come to Bethlehem, there's no place for them to stay. No welcome, no privacy, no warmth, no comfort, no joy, and then the labor pains begin.
It certainly is easy for us, two thousand years out, to get all excited and joyfully sing, "O little Town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie.." and "Come O Come Emmanuel." How painfully miserable and lonely that young teenage girl, Mary, must have been that night.
Perhaps we ought to compassionately align our hearts with those who are anxious and grieving, confused and sad, feeling fear and melancholy - in order to bring to them, and the majority of the world, the comfort and hope that God brought to Mary, and to us.
I wish for you - Jesus, I wish for you - Joy, I wish for you Peace and Hope! Emmanuel, God is with us.
To return to the Devotionals and Readings on Advent click here!