It is a good Christmas for me. I was lucky to be able to visit with my family. Not everyone is so fortunate. Not everyone is living in peace. My facebook page revealed the reality this morning when I saw the news feeds of stories from around the world. The reality of hardship in the world also hit home for people I’ve visited this week. I have seen the poor here and many have a difficult time with Christmas, particularly older, single men with substance abuse problems. Their families abandon them and they’re often homeless, or quasi-homeless. They are forced to lean on everybody they know for basic necessities and many of the people they know eventually turn their backs, either out of frustration or because of their own inability to help.

Then there are the single mothers who feel they have nowhere to turn to get out of the financial situation in which they find themselves, taking care of their children the best they can without a father in the picture. Some are saints. Some are not. But they’re doing all that they know they can do.

And the older people who celebrate alone, with nobody to share the holiday with, either because they have been isolated from their families, or because they simply don’t have any family left.

The Christians in the middle east are treated as a disease in some places. The violence against Christians in Islamic countries over the past week is heart wrenching to read about. It’s relatively peaceful here, besides having to put up with the selfishness of people who think they own the road, or the line at the shopping center. That and we have our own quirks to work out which affect our relationships with each other, but for the most part we’re not living in fear of suicide bombers walking into our churches.

All of these people suffer some sort of isolation and they all need our prayers, not just for Christmas, but until Jesus returns. Some people say prayer doesn’t solve anything, but I believe it does. Even if you don’t believe that something supernatural will happen as a result of your prayers you might just find yourself caring more about the less fortunate people who find themselves in a dark loneliness.

Jesus came to teach us and to bring salvation to us, to reconcile us to God … and I think the world is better for it, but we still have a ways to go.

The following song always seemed a little sad, but it has a lot of truth

Filed under: Catholic • Christian • God • Jesus

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