A Word of Hope and Joy

Readings for Advent and Christmas

The Advent and Christmas seasons seem to inspire some of my best writing. I thought it would be fun to bring together some of my favorite essays from Advent and Christmas, including some from many years ago. I also want to highlight a couple of recent Christmas-themed essays by other authors that I have found illuminating.

First, back in 2017, I wrote a reflection on a series of tweets by Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles linking the Advent call to “stay awake” for the coming of Christ with the popular exhortation to “stay woke,” to be aware of injustice in society and the reality of social sin.

Archbishop José Gomez: “Stay Woke” During Advent | Political Theology Network

Maria C. Morrow has a powerful reflection at her own Substack on what it means to celebrate Advent and Christmas as seasons of hope and miracles when life is difficult and answers are hard to find. She explores what it means to experience hope, peace, love, and joy in the midst of adversity.

When Christmas is Hard

All the way back in 2012, I wrote about the Mexican and Mexican-American Christmas custom of Las Posadas, a recreation of Mary and Joseph’s search for lodging in Bethlehem. Las Posadas brings to the fore the tension between welcoming Christ into the world and the world’s hostility to the Incarnation. It calls us to welcome God into our lives and to receive our neighbors, particularly the vulnerable, as welcome guests.

The Incarnational Wisdom of Las Posadas | Catholic Moral Theology

Writing for Pax Christi USA, Flora Tang offers a biblical commentary on the readings for Mass on Christmas. Pointing to the fact that the Gospel of Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth begins with His genealogy, Tang reminds us that just as these “imperfect, sinful, lowly, and forgotten ancestors” were necessary for the Incarnation, we must honor those who have come before us in living out the Gospel.

A reflection for Christmas, December 25, by Flora x. Tang – Pax Christi USA

Finally, last year I reflected on an Advent homily by the twelfth-century abbot, preacher, and theologian St. Bernard of Clairvaux. According to St. Bernard, Advent commemorates three arrivals of Christ: His coming into the world in the Incarnation, His coming into our hearts, and His final coming in glory at the end of the world. He explains that when we open our hearts to Christ, He becomes the “road on which we travel from the first coming to the last.” This notion of the life of faith as a pilgrimage resonates with the recent Synod on Synodality’s insistence that the Church is on a journey together toward the Kingdom.

Thank you for reading and subscribing to Window Light, and thanks especially to the many new subscribers who have joined in the past couple of months. My hope is to return to publishing new articles this weekend, although the publication schedule may be a bit spotty during the first days of January due to holiday travel and the upcoming annual meeting of the Society of Christian Ethics.

(Photo: Anne Nygård, Unsplash)