We have all heard that God is love – that’s probably the most powerful statement about God that we have. Even people who don’t go to Church or think of themselves as very religious like the idea that God is love. But what does it mean when we say that God is love? What is love? Have you ever thought about it? There’s an old joke that went around when I was a kid. Someone would ask you if you love something: “Do you love pizza? Do you love ice cream?” If you answered, “Yes!” then they would say, “Well if you love chocolate why don’t you marry it?” A really silly thing to say, and of course no one is going to get married to a piece of candy. The reason is because there are different kinds of love. There is the love you have for pizza, the love you have for your cousins, the love you have for your parents, the love you have for your grandma and grandpa – lots of different kinds of love. God is not all the different kinds of love – God is one kind of love: the love that He had for us by sending His Son Jesus to die on a Cross and save us when we are lost.
Holy Family
The celebration of Christmas contains within it the celebration of the Holy Family. This special feast day was promoted by Pope Benedict the XV to be celebrated by the universal Church in 1921, then in 1969 it was attached to the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas. Christmas is an important celebration in the Christian calendar because it is one of the central mysteries of our faith. Because of its centrality and perhaps because of the intimacy of what is being celebrated – the birth of a baby who is also the Savior of the world – it draws families together. Even though our society isn’t particularly Christian, Christmas continues to draw families together, inviting them to express love and affection, to share joy and to be generous with each other. In a world that is increasingly fractured, where the family is threatened from within and without by destabilizing societal forces like divorce, gender confusion, redefining marriage, abortion, social media and individualism, Christmas is still a reminder of what human beings can be for each other, and how we yearn to belong. Christmas, as societal pressure, directs us to look for the place where we belong, and the Church tells us that the family shapes our core sense of belonging.
Saint Stephen, First Martyr
On this first day in the Octave of Christmas we celebrate the heavenly birth of the Church’s first martyr, St. Stephen. It is a reminder to us that as powerfully hopeful and joyful as Christmas is, there is division and hatred that come with it. We could ask St. Stephen for the grace to always react well when we find ourselves on one side of a division. It can be tempting to want to be right, or the one who is in the right, but it isn’t what Christ needs most from us. In these divisive moments, even when extreme violence is employed, we can open our hearts to see Jesus and allow Him to be the judge. Resisting the temptation to judgement, even of those who are “clearly” in the wrong, can make space in our hearts for what our Christian calling is about: loving and forgiving our enemies. May St. Stephen grant us simplicity and grace when we are persecuted so our prayer for our enemies might be filled with the Holy Spirit and love.