Nativity Catholic Church
|
|
One Little Door and Window at a Time
A "FIRESTARTER" Spiritual Essay by Rev.
Dr. Benjamin
Berinti, C.Pp.S. I might be one of the few people in the United States who doesn’t get all sappy about watching It’s A Wonderful Life! Up until a few years ago, there wasn’t a moment during the days preceding Christmas that a person couldn’t turn to at least one channel on the tube and find oneself in the midst of another rerun of the movie. In fact, there were times when this “classic” was running simultaneously on several stations! Alas, this is no longer the case (I’ll withhold my spontaneous desire to applaud; after all, it messes up my typing cadence!). The fans of It’s A Wonderful Life, much to their chagrin, have been suffering ever since someone bought the corporate rights to the movie and only makes it available at their whims during the pre-Christmas season. For the true-blue fans of the film, I’m sure this occurrence illustrates yet another giant tug on the already unraveling moral fiber of our nation (surely, yet another diatribe for Bill O’Reilly)! Of course, in this beautiful world of ours, there’s always the DVD version to snuggle up with. Before anyone starts pelting me with snowflakes from the streets of Bedford Falls, and before you mistake me for a “Bah humbug” kind of guy, I am not against “sappy” Christmas programs altogether. In fact, I have a few of my own favorites. Unfortunately, no reruns are aired nor are there any DVDs of one of my favorites—Dean Martin and the Golddiggers’ Family Christmas Special! (Just kidding….) Actually, I’m still partial to the umpteenth airings of A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph, Frosty, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the non-Jim Carey one), and The Christmas Story (with little Ralphie chasing the dream of his “Red Rider BB Gun”). Now, these are the classics from my youth, and I could watch them into nirvana. A week or so ago, a modern “classic” (in our day, anything that airs more than two years in a row is called a “classic”) of the pre-Christmas television indulgence was showing, and with nothing better to do, or should I say, with nothing better I wanted to do, I snuggled down to watch Chevy Chase’s Christmas Vacation. I will be the first to admit that Chevy Chase is no Jimmy Stewart, but the film has its merits—it’s just as sappy as the others! One of the touching little images running through the show, as the Griswold family struggles to enjoy an “old-fashioned family Christmas” (replete with all the normal disasters that befall families attempting to have an “old-fashioned” anything), was the opening of the little doors and windows of the Christmas house that marked off each of the calendar days approaching the great holiday. Seeing that “Christmas Calendar” counting down the days, I was reminded of the many and varied Advent-Christmas calendars I encountered as a child, each with their small doors and windows to be opened as those pregnant days passed leading up to Christmas. The whole enterprise helped heighten the sense of anticipation, wonder, and curiosity already present in my preparations for Christmas. One never knew what would be behind the door or window—some pertinent words or a touching biblical scene from Holy Scripture, a smiling angel, admonitions to do specific good deeds before Christmas (always a key concern prior to Santa’s arrival); there were even calendars with cold, hard cash residing behind some doors or windows (although, I quickly learned that these coins were meant only for show, and not for taking, as they had been GLUED to the page)! In my reminisces about this tradition, which had its genesis in Germany (where we also get our traditions of the Christmas pine and lighted wreaths), I marveled at the simple, yet profound symbolism contained in these decorated pieces of cardboard. Isn’t the process of gradually opening a piece of ourselves the whole purpose of Advent? Isn’t the desire to make some small opening in our lives, so as to receive more fully the presence of Emmanuel, God-With-Us, the thrust of why we celebrate Christmas? Are not joy, excitement, anticipation, and curiosity some of the hallmark emotions one experiences in coming to know the Lord? The ability to embrace with a deeper appreciation and understanding exactly what it means to believe that God came to earth and made God’s home with us is not something we can acquire all at once; it is not a once-for-all achievement. The power of this belief, this faith, is too overwhelming a reality to swallow in one giant gulp, and so it comes to us in small doses—one little door and window at a time. At times, we are hard on ourselves because we do not embrace the love of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ with unparalleled devotion and commitment. How often I hear people say: “I don’t pray enough; I don’t go to Mass every day or every Sunday; I’m not always compassionate with my family; I can’t seem to totally accept the will of God in my life; I just don’t understand everything the Church teaches.” While we are certainly called to on-going conversion and growth in our faith, we simply cannot do it all, embrace it all, understand it all, and be secure in it all. “Perfection,” while clearly an attribute that many of us strive for, or even pretend that we can create in our lives (and the lives of others), is a trait reserved only to God. With us, however, it is the imperfection of one little door and window at a time—one day at a time. During these remaining Advent days, in this season of “openings,” as we open our homes to family and friends (and maybe even strangers), as we open the gifts that we exchange, as we open the cards that bring warmth and friendship across the miles, as we open our eyes to the wonder and awe of the beauty of our still-aching world, as we open our ears to the sounds of the season, as we open our hands to giving beyond what we’re usually accustomed to give…may we open our lives to the God-of-Surprises, God-With-Us, who is waiting for us—one little door and window at a time.
|
