Christmas Day: Joy to the World

For many years growing up, our family tradition was to gather for Christmas Eve Mass — my parents and brother, my aunt, uncle and cousins, and my grandparents — before retiring together to one of our homes for a great Christmas feast. It was one of the few times each year I attended Mass with my grandparents, and I would often pace the narthex of our parish waiting for them to arrive from their home over an hour away.

Each year, Christmas Eve Mass ended with a rousing rendition of “Joy to the World.” The priest, the deacon, the altar servers and the Eucharistic ministers all processed out to this joyous, hope-filled song.

And we, dutiful churchgoers that we were, sang as loudly as we possibly could. After all, we were that much closer to Christmas morning — joy was in the air!

My grandmother loved to sing, and I loved my grandmother. I have so many memories  of standing next to her in that pew, belting out the words to every hymn. To my young mind, singing loudly and with gusto was how I proved just how committed I was to the whole churchgoing enterprise — and, most importantly, proved to my grandmother just how deep my faith ran.

And so, year after year, my uncle, my mom, my grandmother and I would sing out those joy-filled words and giggle and smile and usher in that spirit of Christmas.

That’s what this Advent series “Waiting and Wassailing” has been about. We’ve been journeying together, singing together, ushering in the spirit of Christmas together. We may be far apart, and yet we know that we go to God together — and that God, now, in this Christmas season, once more comes to us.

Christmas calls us out of ourselves, reminding us to look around at those with whom we walk, those who need our hand to hold; those who need our voice to offer a word of encouragement and comfort.

We go to God together. And God comes to us.

My own Christmas Eve traditions have changed. My grandmother has passed away — and I miss her, as so many of us miss loved ones during this time of year. And yet, I hold onto those memories of standing beside her, all smiles and giggles, singing about joy in a world so often broken and cruel and dark. I see her still, hear her voice, think about the joy she herself brought into this world, a joy sustained by her own encounter with Christ.

Those memories come upon me suddenly, with little warning, and fill me with both sorrow and deep consolation. I wonder if you, too, have such moments of memory. I wonder if you, too, see God’s Spirit at work in such moments.

As we celebrate this Christmas season, as we share light with a world so often cast into shadow, I wonder: Who are those people who have sung with us along our own pilgrimage? Whose are the voices that have sustained us? Whose legacy do we carry forward?

“The light shines in the darkness,” John tells us (1:5). “And the darkness has not overcome it.”

That light needs nurturing; it needs sustenance. It needs song and dance and delight. And it needs to be passed on, year after year. It needs to be remembered in and through the people who have carried it for us.

That’s why we have the audacity to sing about joy, to recall the names and faces of those who have left us, to look to a future that is — against all odds — still merry and bright. That is, after all, why Christmas necessarily gives way to the promise of Easter.

And so, we go to God together, greeting that same God who has already come to us, that same God who sings joyfully, embracing us in delight.

Click here to listen to the song.

Eric Clayton is the deputy director of communications at the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. In his role, he manages the award-winning weekly column “Now Discern This,” a series on Ignatian spirituality and everyday living, as well produces video, audio and other digital content to share the riches of Ignatian spirituality with a general audience. Eric is also the author of two books on Ignatian spirituality: “My Life with the Jedi: The Spirituality of Star Wars” and  “Cannonball Moments: Telling Your Story, Deepening Your Faith”, both from Loyola Press. A third book on Ignatian spirituality and peace is forthcoming from Brazos Press in 2025. Learn more: ericclaytonwrites.com.

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