Christmas

Sitting here thinking too much; about this day and what it means. To be honest, Christmas can be kind of depressing, too, sometimes. I spent part of the morning looking at old photos, old photos of Christmas when I was a young person. Dad had this rule that the kids should spend Christmas in their own home, which, come to think of it, is not a bad rule. What kid wants to be drug around from house to house on Christmas morning when you have a whole living room full of new stuff? As a result, we had huge Christmases at the house....Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, dogs, cats, kids....the house was jammed with folks everywhere, and laughter and well wishes. So cool. But, when you get older, you realize that those folks are all gone now......there are only a couple of us left from those days. In my case, it is myself, a brother in Pittsburgh, and an aunt in Colorado, and none of us are spring chickens. It can be kind of painful and I cannot look at those pictures for very long.

I also realize that the day is coming, in the not real distant future, when I will be a faded memory too, and our kids and grandkids will be having the same thoughts. At some point in the future, someone will point at a picture taken this year and say "who was that guy?" It's a fact of life that every generation faces, the splash you were going to make in the world by yourself, and your deeds of daring, do not, in the overall scheme of things, amount to much more than a ripple. You also realize that you thought getting this old would actually have taken longer than it has. In this time, one has had a career, raised a family, and now retired, and realizes that, in golf parlance, I am on the ‘back nine’.

And, this current generation will have it tougher when it comes to this realization, I fear. Kids and folks spend so much time on social media, telling everyone what they had for breakfast, and they have created a feature film with themselves playing the starring role. There is nothing wrong with that, provided you keep these things in perspective. However, sadly, a lot of young people (and a significant number of those who should know better) do not seem to have the maturity level to realize that fact. That is, maybe, why so many millennials seem so naive’ than those of generations before.

However, when one thinks about the meaning of this night in depth, it's pretty awesome. On Christmas Eve, I actually physically received the Body of Christ in the Eucharist! Think about that! The literal Body of Christ!! When I pray my Rosary later today, I will literally be praying with the Mother of Christ! I mean, she will literally be listening to what I have to say!!! Let that sink in for a second.

Because of what happened in Bethlehem Christmas night many years ago, there was hope given, the hope and the promise that we won't just fade away. That's pretty doggone cool, to my mind, and pretty doggone awesome, so awesome that sometime I just can't wrap my head around it.

So, Merry Christmas to each and every one of us......it is something to celebrate, indeed. Contemplate the gift! God Bless you all.