Homily for Gaudete Sunday

It is a pre-Christmas tradition in the media to ask people, especially celebrities, What's the best Christmas present you ever got?

 

We all have unforgettable memories of finding under the Tree one Christmas a gift that made us especially happy, something that brought a lasting joy to our hearts, maybe even something that changed our lives.

 

For me, the best present I ever got under the Tree was not a material gift. It was twenty years ago, just a few weeks after my grandmother died at 96. When we were putting up the Tree in our family home, we decided to put it in a different place. We put it where my grandmother's chair was in the living room, the place where she spent a fair amount of time in her final years. We moved her chair and put up the Tree, and decorated it. It looked different there, but, in a meaningful way, it filled a void in our hearts.

 

On Christmas Day, as we were picking up the gifts in front of the Tree, we noticed, worn into the pile of the carpeting, my grandmother's footprints. It was an emotional reminder of the gift that my grandmother was to our family and a reminder that she was still with us. It was the best gift I ever got.

 

It was also a reminder that my grandmother always liked to give but wanted little, if anything, in return. It was a reminder of how she focused more on what she could give rather than on what she could get.

 

As you think about an answer to the question, What's the best Christmas present you ever got? also think about the best present you ever gave. It was probably something about which you put in a great deal of thought and effort. The receiver was someone you loved very much and wanted to make happy. And the gift, in all probability, demanded more time, more effort, and, probably more money, than you had planned.

 

But when you gave it, you could sense that you had touched the receiver deeply, that the person realized the effort and love you put into the gift. Your gift may have even changed or transformed the person's life. And you felt more joy over the gift than had you received the gift yourself.

 

Such gift-giving is not only the true spirit of Christmas, but it is the essence of Christ's invitation to us to be His followers. Christ calls us to find joy not in seeking our own joy, but in seeking joy for others. 

 

As the God of love gives Himself completely and totally in the birth of His own Son, may we find joyful fulfillment in giving totally and completely of ourselves to God and to one another.+