Editorial

Nov-Dec '23
The Night that Dispelled All Sorrows

The other day, a Nigerian family recounted their heartrending experience of persecution to me. The five-member family was robbed of everything, imprisoned, and tortured physically and mentally. Brutal terrorists set their house on fire and even molested their daughter. 

Two days before Christmas, they were finally released from captivity. The family was wearied by the pain and despair of having lost everything. They returned to their village in deep sorrow.  In a tent erected in the place where their house had once stood, they awaited Christmas—no home to welcome Baby Jesus, no star to recall the divine memories, and no nativity scene to conjure the night’s spirit…That night, they went to bed with heavy hearts. 

In the middle of the night, a noise outside woke them up. Coming out of that one-room shack, they found a paper star and a pack of candy awaiting them. Baby Jesus had been born in the cradle of their pain! As they hugged each other and cried, the tears that flowed had no sorrow but pure joy! They tearfully recounted that they will never again cry for the losses in life. That Christmas night dispelled all their sorrows. 

One can find no end to the reasons for man’s sorrow. Guilt, painful memories, meaninglessness of life, poverty, death of loved ones, desolation, losses…the list is endless. The Savior took human form and came down to dispel man’s sorrow. Shepherds were the first to be informed of the Savior’s birth. The angel said: “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).

The shepherds weren’t the likely candidates to be informed of this news, ever. They lived on the fringes of society; glad tidings were conventionally announced and publicized in towns. But the great news of the birth of the Savior came first to these lowly shepherds who were tending their flocks in the valleys of Judea because they were the ones who were ‘awaiting’ the Savior. The Heavenly Father wanted this news to not escape anyone—the word of the arrival of a Savior for a world living in fear of punishment and torment was too important to be missed.

The world had been awaiting this gospel for centuries. To the shepherds who had exhausted themselves with taking care of the sheep, the joy that these tidings brought was incomprehensible. Into the lives of every soul that waits in hope, Christmas definitely arrives.

The greatest gift that the baby in the manger brings is, of course, joy. Didn’t Mary, bearing Jesus in her womb, sing: “My spirit rejoices in God, my Savior?” In that Judean town in the hill country, when Mary visited Elizabeth, this old woman and the baby in her womb jumped for joy. The shepherds visiting the baby in the manger praised the Lord in joy. On seeing the glorious star they had awaited, the magi rejoiced. The family in Nigeria joyfully forgot their pain with the visit of Baby Jesus.

This Christmas night, Baby Jesus will arrive by your side, to bestow you with your lost smile. Await His arrival.

Father Roy Palatty CMI

Spiritual Director

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