It's A Wonderful Life

It's A Wonderful Life - page 2

Written by Paul Donovan

We have done a nice job of romanticizing the manger scene.  We provide a nice cozy bed of straw and warm clean animals to gaze beautifully at the little child who lay sleeping so peacefully in the hay.  The romantic version is a tranformation of the dirty, smelly circumstances into which God became one of us, and in that sense it is quite appropriate.  Christmas is a celebration of light entering into our darkness and transforming it into something more beautiful than anything we can imagine.  At the darkest time of the year, we celebrate the coming of the light.  It was that intervention that made the story of “It’s a Wonderful Life” so powerful.  George’s circumstances hadn’t changed but, through the intervention of the angel, he saw his life in a new light.  My Christmas with my Dad did not match my nostalgic ideals of what Christmas should be, but it was transformed through the gift of my father’s weakness and eventual death.  These are our manger scenes.

This Christmas, if our circumstances are such that life is good and healthy, then let it be a time of great gratitude and a time where we can be instruments of Christ’s light to others.  If, on the other hand, we find ourselves in a place where the darkness looms heavy, then we pray that we can be open to the grace of Christmas, open to transforming light that dispels the darkness and gloom.  May we, with St. Paul, realize that “for those who love God, everything works out for good.” (Rom. 8) May you all have a merry and blessed Christmas.