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A Merry Covid Christmas?

 



Celebrating Christmas this year is certain to be challenging. With Covid still spiking, and countries like Germany locking down again, it can be hard to find the “holly” and “jolly” this year. The truth is the First Christmas was not so jolly. It was a census, a Roman decree that Mary and Jospeh had  to return to their ancestral homeland of Bethlehem. Once there they were shunned and unable to procure a room for pregnant Mary. There was no room at the Hampton Inn for Mary and Joseph, “And Mary gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:7). If you think your Xmas is rough, try being Mary and giving birth in stable! And think of God, who came as a babe and was not able to spend a night in the local hotel but among farm animals! Then to make matters worse, King Herod Aggripa orders all children younger than two years old to be slain, and an angel tells Jospeh to take Mary and the newborn Jesus to Egypt, a non-Jewish land with strange customs.   Our Covid Christmas is beginning to look pretty good huh? No being stuck in a stable and then chased by soldiers for us! 


The First Christmas was rough. This Covid Christmas cannot touch the suffering the Holy Family underwent.   But it can give us a glimpse into how to respond. At this time of year we erect evergreen trees in our homes, whither of pine or plastic. The truth is as Christians we are meant to bear a tree, a cross in this life, “Then he said to them all: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23). We arn’t promised ease or comfort, we are promised a cross, suffering. Now our Lord isn’t asking us to do anything He Himself didn’t do, He bore the cross and as aforementioned suffered a hard first Christmas. In the same way let us face this Covid Christmas with courage! Knowing that our Savior and his family didn’t have the easiest Dec 25th, they spent it in a stable and then had to flee the swords of soldiers! Yes there was joy and jubilation, angels singing on high and shepherds coming to spy a sight of Christ, but there were troubles and threats the Holy Family faced. They bore it without complaint, so let us likewise take courage this Christmas and bear the cross we must bear, whatever that maybe in this Covid Year. Amen. 




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