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Inspired By The Joy Of Mary and Joseph At Christmas!
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December 17, 2020Are you ready to celebrate the JOY OF CHRISTMAS 2020? While we still have a few days to enter into that Joy, I would like to share some reflections about the JOY OF MARY AND JOSEPH at Christmas and how this most Holy Couple can inspire us.
Like both Mary and Joseph before Jesus's birth, we have many FEARS in our daily lives. We are afraid of the unknown. We are afraid of accepting God's will as it may go against our own will. Wouldn't you be afraid if a messenger of God, an angel, were to appear to you and begin to talk and tell you what to do?
The Angel Gabriel told Mary, "DO NOT BE AFRAID MARY, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him JESUS. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High." (Luke 1:31-32). Joseph, learning Mary was pregnant before living with him, had decided to divorce her quietly when suddenly the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "JOSEPH, son of David, DO NOT BE AFRAID to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the HOLY SPIRIT that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him JESUS, because he will save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:20-21). In both instances, Mary and Joseph through GRACE and FAITH overcame their fears and said, "YES” to God.
We too like Mary and Joseph can surrender to God and be OBEDIENT. God is fully in charge. We are nothing without Him. With Him, everything is possible. God will give us the GRACE to believe and to obey. God will make us strong and take away our fears, including the fear of dying. Without fears, we can find PEACE. With Peace in our hearts, we can find JOY, that everlasting sense of unity with God.
This has been a most difficult year for most of us. The pandemic has now been going on for ten long months. Most of our traditional plans for a Joyful Christmas celebration are being challenged: restricted traveling with quarantines, home gatherings reduced to minimum, safe distancing, limited use of church capacity, restrictions on congregational singing etc... The good news about approval of vaccines has come too late to alleviate those restrictions for the full celebration of Christmas.
We should be prepared for the unknown. We should expect the unexpected without any anxiety. Like Mary, we all have found favor with God, and we should trust in HIS LOVE. We may feel that we are walking in unknown territory, that all is dark around us. But WALKING with the FAITH of Mary and Joseph, their HOPE, their HUMILITY and SELFISH-LESS LOVE, we believe that soon we will SEE A GREAT LIGHT, the Light of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us enter into these last few days of Advent with a renewed confidence in God's Love for each of us. Let us continue to participate in the nine Masses before Christmas that began last Tuesday, December 15 and will end on Wednesday, December 23. Let us join in the Joy of the first few days of the New Year of St Joseph, especially let us imitate his humility, obedience, hope and self-less love. Let us also avail ourselves of the plenary indulgences granted by Pope Francis during the special Year of St Joseph (see Decree of Apostolic Penitentiary of the Vatican issued December 8,2020, click here to read). Though we can receive many plenary indulgences within the next 12 months (ending December 8, 2021), I suggest that as a parish we focus on those obtained on THREE MAJOR FEAST DAYS:
1. THE HOLY FAMILY OF JESUS, MARY, and JOSEPH (Sunday, December 27, 2020),
2. SAINT JOSEPH, SPOUSE of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Friday, March 19, 2021) and
3. SAINT JOSEPH THE WORKER (Saturday, May 1st, 2021).
Let us pray together through the intercession of St Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mary:
"O Lord, infant Jesus, take away all our fears, give us the gift of Faith, bring us the Hope that saves, move us to forgive others as you forgive us, inspire us to be repulsed by sin, inspire in us Your selfless Love, keep us from temptation, make us holy, give us Your Peace, may Your Holy Will be done in our lives, FILL US WITH JOY THIS CHRISTMAS!"
May you and your family have a most blessed and joyful Christmas!
COME LORD JESUS!
One in Christ,
Fr. Alain
