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Christmas is three days away! 

I’m sure everyone’s excited. 

Children, in particular, are counting their boxes beneath the Christmas tree – not only wondering what’s inside of them, but also making sure their siblings have an equal or lesser number of gifts than they do.

Trust me. I’ve been there. It’s only fair, right?

Fairness isn’t too much to ask for. It makes life neat, orderly, and balanced. I’m sure we all appreciate it, certainly when we’re the ones in need of it.

Why, then, is the Gospel today drenched in unfairness?

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Joseph is a righteous man. He’s god-fearing; holy; an honest carpenter who’s never caused scandal in his life.

He’s the good guy, the type of person we want to root for.

But his heart has been shattered. Mary, his bride-to-be is pregnant…and the child isn’t his. 

That’s more than unfair; it’s devastating.

***

Though the Gospel doesn’t describe it, we can imagine Joseph’s grief. Imagine him falling to the ground, bursting with tears. 

His life is ruined. The woman he loved has betrayed him… Still, he’s unwilling to expose her to shame.

That’s a man of character.

Joseph knows the only way out is to divorce Mary, but if he does so publicly, then she’ll be shunned by society, left to beg for her daily bread. 

She could even be stoned to death according to the Mosaic Law.

***

We don’t know how many days or weeks passed before the angel appears to Joseph, explaining to him what’s actually happened to Mary, that she’s conceived the Son of God by the Holy Spirit.

But that, too, is a tough pill to swallow. 

God invites Joseph to love a woman whose story he doesn’t understand, to protect a baby that he didn’t father, and to accept an heir who isn’t his son.

God’s plans seem unfair, overwhelming, even scandalous.

***

But maybe there’s a message in that for us.

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Joseph’s experience of faith reminds us of two things:

That God is constantly at work in our lives. 

But often we don’t understand what he’s doing – not at first. God’s plans take time to unfold; he needs our patience and trust.

When Joseph heard Mary was pregnant, for example, he thought his life was over. But in time he learned this was simply the first step in the salvation of the world. 

Thank God Joseph was patient. Thank God he trusted.

***

Like Joseph, at times our lives seem unfair. 

We receive a poor diagnosis, a pink slip at work, a relationship ends, we don’t get into the high school or college of our choice.

When these things happen, it’s easy to despair. 

But Joseph reminds us to never give up hope. God is always at work in our lives, often in unexpected ways. 

What seems like the end is merely a bend in the road. 

***

Christmas is three days away.  

I’m sure many of us are wondering what’s hidden within those boxes covered in gift wrapping and bows – at least the ones with our names on them.

Regardless of what’s inside, we trust it’s something good, something given in love. 

We should see our lives the same way, trusting that every moment is a gift from God, even when it doesn’t seem like it at first.

***

Saint Joseph, pray for us, that when life doesn’t make sense – when we’re at a bend in the road – we, too, may hang on, trusting the Lord is paving a way forward.

***

I finished a novel recently called, The Diary of a Country Priest, which is about a young priest living in a small village in the French countryside.

Most of the book is composed of his diary entries, documenting – among other things – the slow erosion of faith that happens in the lives of some of his parishioners.

“Faith,” he writes, “is not something you lose like a set of keys.”

It happens over time. God simply becomes less involved in our decision-making.

Some of the characters struggled with unanswered prayers. Others turned away from God in their grief. Others were distracted by materialism, image, or the busyness of daily life.

In each case, the erosion of faith took place over time, not all at once.

***

In the Gospel, Jesus encounters the religious authorities of his day. 

Like the characters in Diary of a Country Priest, these were probably good men, law abiding men, but men who’d slowly lost their faith to the point that God was standing right in front of them and they didn’t even know it!

Their hearts weren’t inquisitive; they were hardened.

***

Have I ever felt distanced from God? If so, what caused it?

Maybe it was an unanswered prayer, sudden loss, temptation, or the busyness of daily life.

***

Faith is not something we lose like a set of keys. It takes time to put God in the backseat.

Conversely, it takes an equal amount of effort to strengthen our faith, letting Jesus take the wheel.

Wherever we are on our faith journeys, may we lean a little more on God and a little less on ourselves, trusting it’s okay to fall.

So long as we fall forward.

***

I was leaving the airport recently and upon exiting the parking garage I noticed graffiti spray painted on a wall with the words:

“The Lord is coming SOON!” 

That really put me in an Advent mood. “The Lord is coming SOON!”

***

But beneath that someone else added, “Not if he’s flying American Airlines!”

***

When is the Lord coming? Is he delayed? Is he not coming at all?

It’s confusing, much like today’s Gospel passage.

***

We’ve all come here with Christmas cheer – joy is in the air! But it feels like John the Baptist is trying to take the wind out of our sails.

“Repent!” he says. “Repent!” 

Why is John so grouchy? 

I wonder, did he wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning like the Grinch? Nobody wants to see John’s face on a Christmas card – that scraggly beard and a camel hair shirt.

Maybe the Church made a mistake in giving us today’s Gospel passage.

Or maybe there’s wisdom to be found in it.  

***

Commercials and advertisements won’t lead us to repent. 

They’re doing the opposite, trying to convince us that our Christmas won’t be complete without the Amazon Echo smart speaker, Apple’s AirPods, and a Fitbit. 

Everything we never knew we needed! 

In fact, Black Friday shoppers spent a whopping $7.4 billion online – all in a single day.

***

But if we push pause on the holiday craze, then we may find a reason to repent. 

While it’s great to be generous – as we all should be! – sometimes we forget to be generous to those who need it most.

There are an estimated 800 million people without enough food or access to clean water.

Perhaps more surprisingly, 35% of the world – some 2.5 billion people – do not live in sanitary conditions.

A friend of mine is travelling to Mexico in a few weeks, for example, to serve a community that lives entirely inside a landfill. They’ve even built their church out of garbage.

I wonder, do I need those AirPods as badly as someone else needs clean water? Or a sanitary place to worship?

***

Of course not.

But how much of my Christmas budget have I earmarked for the poor?

***

Perhaps a more subtle point is this. How many of us would feel cheated if we woke up on Christmas day with little to nothing underneath our Christmas tree?

From our youth, we’ve been trained to expect gifts – and lots of them – on December 25^th. Though it’s not always the case, the holidays do have a strange way of making us selfish.

I’ll be the first to admit it.

That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t give gifts to those whom we love. In fact, giving gifts is one of the five love languages; it’s how some people show their affection for others.

But if we only spend our time and money on those we love – and neglect those truly in need – then we’ve missed a significant part of the Christmas message.

***

A final point.

The one thing we all need – I’d say just as much as food and clothing – is love. Without it we become cold, empty inside, like the Grinch who stole Christmas.

Perhaps this is the other half of the story. 

While many of us are filled with holiday cheer, we must remember that there are others who feel alone. 

Think of that person who lost his or her spouse this year; that homebound neighbor; that aging relative who’s stuck in a nearby nursing home.

A simple phone call or a handwritten Christmas card can go a long way. 

Who’s one person I’ve not thought of, whom I can reach out to this Christmas?

***

We’ve all come here with Christmas cheer – joy is in the air!

But John the Baptist reminds us to see the bigger picture.

Christmas is about love – the love that God has for us and the love that we should have for one another – not only our family and friends, but also the poorest and most vulnerable among us.

After all, that’s how God entered our world – as a poor child without a place to lay his head.

***

(Note: The picture was borrowed from “Hope of the Poor,” an organization dedicated to serving the poorest among us in Mexico. For more information, please go to: www.hopeofthepoor.org)