Opinion
Featured Image
 shutterstock

LifeSiteNews is facing increasing censorship. Click HERE to sign up to receive emails when we add to our video library. 

December 24, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – It was New Year’s Eve and like every year, my family hosted a party with our relatives and friends from all over town. We sat around the dinner table sharing our hopes and dreams for 2020. For most of us, we liked how things are going and wouldn’t want to change a thing. Each of us had our health, our home, our jobs, loved ones all around and our churches open for us to go to whenever we wanted. Personally, I was comfortable, content, and in control of my life, or so I thought. 

The Peace in Surrender 

Little did I know that the Lord had something different in mind for me in this year of 2020. As St. Therese of Lisieux once stated, “The world is thy ship, and not thy home”. The Lord knew that there was much pruning needed to be done in my life and how much I needed to be led into the desert for me to detach myself from the things of this world.

After a job loss, constant rejection from positions that I applied for, a hastened death in my family, churches on lockdown due to a global pandemic, I felt my senseof security and certainty crumble. I was frustrated with government decisions and the lack of integrity, justice, and honesty in the world. I felt down-trodden and disappointed with myself as I couldn’t come up with a solution for me to get out of this mess and felt completely lost as I couldn’t see past this long season of Good Friday. This was what Satan wanted. The father of lies will do anything to convince us that we are alone, that hope is useless and that God’s love is non-existent. I was impatient and attached to the tangible and absolute certainties of life, and much like Eve in the garden I doubted God’s love and His plan for my life and His plan for the world. I kept grasping for the fruit of my own pride in assuming that I knew what was best for me, rather than what the Lord had in store for me. 

What can I say; I’m a flawed human being! But through God’s redeeming love in the Sacrament of Reconciliation I have witnessed God’s overflowing peace in His reassurance that He is in control. As St. Paul states to the Philippians 1:6, “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion on the day of Jesus Christ”.  Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ desires to make us whole and complete, but it is only possible if we humble ourselves and let Him in. I am constantly reminded that I cannot rely on my own strength and sheer will to make things better and sometimes it takes a difficult season of loss for me to open my eyes. Praise God for this humbling realization through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  To think, this sacrament would not be in existence without Our Mother Mary’s fiat. Our Lady in her humility and love for God surrendered her hopes and dreams for an even greater purpose, the salvation of humanity! Our Mother Mary did not cower in fear or succumb to despair when all seemed lost on Calvary, but rather she accepted God’s plan and the excruciating suffering that came with it without losing hope. In all things she trusted and did not lose sight of God’s everlasting love and plan for her familyeven when there was no room for them in the inn at Bethlehem but rather trusted in God’s providence. 

Her family includes you and I. 

Although it may seem like there is no room for us to receive Our Lord in the Eucharist when these lockdowns seem to prevent us from celebrating Christmas in our churches and with our loved ones, Our Lady and St. Joseph are persistent as they journey towards each and every one of us this Christmas season to find a home for their beloved Son in the living tabernacle of our hearts. Our Lady and St. Joseph are challenging us to surrender our plans, our pride and desire for control in our messy world and imitate their virtues of having a holy indifference, uncompromising faith, and profound humility and urge us to keep our head’s up and eyes fixed on that bright star in Bethlehem this blessed Christmas season and into the New Year.