The Work of Christmas

I have mixed feelings about the end of the Christmas season. The Myers-Briggs personality test shows that I am an “INFJ,” and as an introvert, I have had a surfeit of feasting and socializing. My intuition says it is high time to focus on the big picture again instead of the concrete details of holiday decorating and baking. My judgmental, organized self is ready to get back to the predictability of our regular prayer and meal schedule. On the other hand, the part of me that prefers feeling to thinking will miss the warmth of the Christmas lights and the good spirits generated by our daily reminders in prayer and song that God came to dwell among us and is here to stay.

Howard Thurman says that after Epiphany, “The work of Christmas begins: To find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among people, to make music in the heart.” I don’t think we are able to do that work capably unless we somehow find a way to instill in ourselves a perpetual awareness of and gratitude for the wonder of the incarnation. Then we can participate in the life of God among us by doing the work of God. As Richard Rohr suggests, “When you get up in the morning, ask yourself, ‘What aspect of God, what aspect of love, am I being called to incarnate in the world today?’”

Illuminating God’s presence in the world may seem like a presumptuous task, but as Sr. Mary Faith said in her poem During the Night, once God became flesh “All flesh sees / its own glory too. / Wherever we are on the journey / to Him, we all feel better / about our path and love it as it is.” Christ was born for us, and that’s just as true for us in the ordinary time of January as it was in December’s season of Christmas.