Happy and Holy Christmas to you all! I hope the Peace of Jesus has come to your home and remains!
For Christians, Christmas is not just one day, but 12 days, until the feast of the Epiphany. Now the commercial world is done with Christmas: they’ve made their money and now it’s time to push Valentine’s day or whatever. Now WE WANT TO LIVE CHRISTMAS as a time to enter into the joy and wonder that God has become one of us, to save us and to make us one with Him! Please be sure to keep celebrating Christmas, with time for close sharing with friends and family and, especially helping your CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN to understand what we celebrate!
So today is the SECOND day of Christmas. BUT WHAT’S THIS? We celebrate the 2nd day of Christmas CELEBRATING THE MARTYRDOM OF STEPHEN! In the Gospel text, the Lord tells us of coming persecution and divisions even among families for the sake of his name! Why such apparently BAD NEWS today!
We are not to think of birth of Jesus as some huge birthday party for all the world’s children or merely some excuse to get together with friends, eat and drink a lot, while we talk of love, joy and peace in some superficial way!
Christ was born to save us!
