From the Director - The work of Christmas

Columban Fr Gary WalkerHoward Thurman (1899 – 1981) was an American writer who has left us with powerful thoughts and insights about Christmas. In his book, “The Mood of Christmas and Other Celebrations”, he wrote these stirring words which we have chosen this year for our Christmas prayer card:

When the song of the angels is stilled/When the star in the sky is gone/When the kings and princes are home/When the shepherds are back with their flock/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 others
To make music in the heart.

Those of us who believe that Christmas is a holy event understand that the imperative to do these ‘works’ comes from our belief in Jesus Christ who set this example of living by the way he lived his life. Our relationship with him dictates that we live the same way.

There is a tricky part in all this for us. It is this: if this service of people ceases to be an activity which is ‘a search for God’ for us and becomes an activity only to help people to bring about a change for the better in their life, we are in big trouble. What happens if they do not respond? What happens if their lives do not improve?

Without the God connection to sustain us we can get down-hearted and frustrated when the best of our efforts do not meet with success. When we see sad, miserable, poor people who remain sad and miserable despite our best efforts, the questions arise: why am I doing this? Why am I wasting my time helping people who will not help themselves? These are questions from good people who have tried and believe they have failed in trying to help those described by Howard Thurman.

But the failure or success of our efforts is not the point. We need go no further than the lives of the saints through the history of the Church to get the point. St Francis of Assisi, who gave us the idea of the Christmas crib, was a poor man with no resources but inspired his followers to love God and have that life-giving relationship flow on to their relationship with other people. We may not be a St Francis of Assisi but the principle is valid.

St Mother Teresa of Calcutta’s phrase of doing ‘something beautiful for God’ goes to the heart of the matter - we must have a good heart in what we do for Jesus Christ. People know if we don’t have a good heart if ‘the music in the heart’ is gone.

Christmas is a holy feast when we contemplate the amazing fact that Jesus Christ was sent by God to come and live with us and change the way we look at the world. Our Christmas gift to others, but especially the people that Howard Thurman refers to, is to be the compassionate presence of Christ in our world.

Fr Gary Walker SSC
director@columban.org.au

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