Christmas is for the Poor Ones

"A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.” ~O Holy Night  

   We tend to think that we have to be happy for Christmastime. We think that we have to enjoy the carols on the radio, have a great time decorating the tree, and overall just be happy.  

     In general, this year has beaten us down, no doubt. For some of us, including myself, this emotional and spiritual exhaustion has been around longer than that; and you find yourself today wondering how things are even going to get better. 

If you’re weary, lonely, grieving, hopeless, or especially come to an awareness of your inner poverty, Christmas is for you.  

Holy Condescension  

    Lately, I’ve been thinking about our homeless friends, who have encountered suffering after suffering. I am angry and frustrated that these things have happened, and individuals as well as unjust systems continue to hurt them. I continually ask, why? It costs absolutely nothing to not hurt someone who’s already been beaten down.  

    The vast majority of society doesn’t truly know and understand their pain. Perhaps people can be sympathetic and compassionate, but in the end, they can go back into their nice, warm homes and be comfortable, while those on the street continue to fight to survive another brutal night. Christmas night for our friends on the street won’t seem like a holy, silent night; it may just be like any other—cold, lonely, hopeless...perhaps these things might even be more magnified because of the inherent joyfulness of the day. 

   I am most definitely in the former group. And there’s a part of me that is frustrated and feels hypocritical that I am not out there living on the streets in solidarity with the homeless. To let them know that they are understood in the deepest way. To let them know that they are not abandoned and rejected, not just with mere words and actions in the limit of an hour. I have friends who care for me in my suffering, of whom I'm truly grateful, but they can never fully understand because they cannot take it on with me. Especially when they’ve experienced the exact opposite. There’s still a sort of barrier.  

Do you feel as though nobody, not even the most caring person, understands your pain? Look no further than the manger.  

See the little infant who is God in the flesh. Who stepped down from the eternal perfection of Heaven into the poverty of this broken world. Who was rejected even before He was born, in Nazareth when the villagers saw His mother pregnant, and in Bethlehem because there was no room anywhere. Who was hunted down by a power-hungry king.  

And unjustly and horrifically executed 33 years later.  

    I don’t know what sorrows or burdens you carry this Christmas. What I do know is that Christmas is especially the day for the downcast, the poor, the lonely, the mourning... It is the day that perfect Love proved itself by coming down from His eternal throne to redeem all of the brokenness of the human experience.  

     My spiritual director in our street ministry formation sessions has emphasized what he calls “holy condescension” when it comes to serving the poor. We often think of “condescending” as a bad thing, but it ultimately means a “stepping down to be with.” This is the Incarnation: the Word through Whom all things came into being became one of His creatures to suffer with them.  

And as a result, His presence sanctifies and redeems even the darkest depths of the human experience.  

    I pray that you all have a joyful, holy Christmas—knowing that you have a God who perfectly knows your pain and shares in it with you, purifying and redeeming you in it, step by step.  

Hazel Jordan is an Office & Communications Assistant at Our Lady of Lourdes. She is currently pursuing a Master's in Theology at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. A recent graduate of the University of St. Thomas, she continues to be active in the faith community there, leading and developing a street ministry program that forms students to encounter the homeless in the Twin Cities. Among other things, she is a self-taught artist and musician, proudly acquiring graphic design and guitar/songwriting skills!