Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Just after we gather around the turkey to give thanks and after the leftovers are resurrected into soup, hash or lunch sandwiches, we will conclude our liturgical year and begin the Advent season of waiting and preparation. 

 

Then Christmas begins. It is a beautiful time in our faith and the liturgical rhythm of our Church.

But the upcoming holidays and holy days will be difficult for many this year. 

 

Too many people are reeling from the tragic deaths of their loved ones at the hands of those with weapons — an occurrence that has filled too many headlines this year. The epidemic of hard hearts and violence has taken too many from us. The lives of the innocent have been replaced with sorrow and anger for which we have become all too familiar.

 

For so many others, the holidays will be overshadowed with their displacement from floods, storms and wildfires. Decorations, cards, presents and holiday baking are sure to seem trivial as so many folks work to rebuild their homes and a sense of normalcy.

 

And sadly, our preparation for the new liturgical year that begins with Advent and Christmas is greatly darkened this year with the continued cloud of clergy sex abuse. It seems no Catholic has been left unscathed by the terrible crimes of those who have ministered in the Catholic Church. However, it is precisely the Advent and Christmas season that we should look to for comfort and hope.

 

Advent we know, is about waiting and anticipation, which are very much part of our nature as human beings created by God. Each day in good times and bad, we wait for the next chapter God has carefully written for us. While all these things certainly make it difficult if not almost impossible to find the hope and joy that comes from celebrating the Christ Child once more, it is precisely on this event we need to fix our focus. Our personal epiphany of comfort should come as easy as the turn of the calendar page when we look to Christmas. 

 

The tragedies born of crime, violence, abuse and natural disasters can do two things: serve to destroy us or serve to redirect us. My prayer is that we focus on a faith that can help us redirect ourselves in the weeks to come. 

 

As I shared in a recent talk to our parish business managers, the scourge of clergy sexual abuse affects us, but it should never reflect us as Catholics. It is not who we are. There is more to us.  

 

The same goes for crime and hatred. We can not let ourselves, as Americans and people of God, be defined as a hateful, hurtful nation. Our resolve to find and share love is our best defense against that unwanted title. 

 

If we focus on giving thanks for our sufferings as well as our blessings, we can find our way to focus on the crib. Our faith is many times the only thing left for us to lean on and against. When all else has gone, Christ remains. The crib and the cross are the constants, the certainties. 

 

Even though so many external things can mar the holidays and holy days, if we let go and look to Christ, He will fine tune our focus so we find the redemption in any suffering we may experience. 

 

To focus on Christ means we can replenish all the stock the world has stripped from us. Even when we have no energy to make a meal or aren’t able to decorate, the holidays still come. They can still be happy, still be consoling. 

 

May you find the promise of a new year this Advent. And may the days of this new liturgical year be filled with plenty of what’s really important — friends, family, but most of all … a focus on faith.

 

“They will be assured that I, the Lord their God, am with them.” (Ezek:34:30)