The Joy of Christmas Present

by Katy Rapson on Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Advent

I recently performed in a production of A Christmas Carol the musical, the classic Christmas story of how the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future try to teach Mr. “Bah-Humbug” Ebenezer Scrooge the true meaning of Christmas. Each of these ghosts has a very distinct personality that almost perfectly reflects how I so often feel about the past, present, and future: The Ghost of Christmas Past is beautiful, but distant, and illustrates Scrooge’s life with the kind of clarity that comes only with reflection. The Ghost of Christmas Future is by far the most mysterious of the three—silently revealing Scrooge’s “yet to be.”

But my favorite of the three (and the one that’s made me reflect the most) is definitely the Ghost of Christmas Present. He is purely joyful—jolly even—and what I’ve learned from him is that joy lives in the present. Even though so often (especially in the advents of our lives) we feel like the joy has past or is yet to be, it is in the present that we choose joy, in the present that we experience joy, in the present that we live joy.

As Christmas envelopes us in the next few days, it will be easy to get wrapped in the busyness and stress of making the final preparations.  For some of us, it will be easy to compare this Christmas to past Christmases and think that the joy lives there. For others, it will be easy to think that a truer or bigger joy lives in Christmases yet to be. But my prayer for all of us is that we can be present and choose joy in these Christmas moments, even if life feels confusing or presents are unwrapped or houses are a mess. I pray that we can all choose joy, because as Sara Barielles so beautifully puts it: love is simply joy. When we are letting joy lead us, we are letting Love lead us, and we are welcoming a beautiful present.

Love, we look to you. Let Love lead us; Love is Christmas.

-Katy Rapson graduated from the University of Michigan in December 2013.  She served as St. Mary's Intern for Undergraduate Faith Formation for the 2012-2013 academic year.