For Catholics, Christmas has only begun. Though many decorations have had to come down for the weather, the church remains decorated for the season, not just a single day. The scriptures the past few days at Mass have also reminded us that life is short and that our continual goal is to have Jesus born in our hearts. We’ve talked about the martyrs and the Saints, the holy family, and Friday, we will celebrate the perfect example of discipleship, Mother Mary.
Today’s readings remind us that in order for Jesus to born fully in our hearts we need to be detached from the world. Saint John says in the first reading: “Do not love the world or the things of the world.” John is reminding us that there is a spirit that does things contrary to God’s way. That spirit doesn’t do something out of love and affection but out of hate and greed. It doesn’t think in thoughts of holiness, but thoughts of sensuality and carnal desire.
I want to give an example of that, an example that may seem out of place but bear with me. Do you remember those kids’ toys with the little shapes on them? You have a block-shaped like a star, one like a heart, one like a circle, and so forth. Each of the shapes only fits in the proper hole. One of my kids tried to put the square through the circle slot. She almost did it too. It got jammed though. My dad always said, “get a bigger hammer, it’ll fit.” I guess she takes after him because I believe if she had a hammer it would have gone through that hole. It took some effort on my part to even get it back out and show her how to put it in the right hole. That’s kind of like how we tend to do things when left to our own devices. We jam things into that hole in our hearts trying to make it fit, trying to fill up the emptiness inside. The only thing that fits properly though, is God. It’s as if we have a God-shaped hole in there. You might jam other things in there, but eventually, they become uncomfortable and unfulfilling. In the end, we might have to work harder to even get it back out, so that the love of God can come back to where it is supposed to be. The only thing that will fit permanently and comfortably is God himself. The only thing that fills our heart the way it was created to be filled is Jesus.
St Maximos the Confessor said it this way: “Whatever a man loves he inevitably clings to, and in order not to lose it he rejects everything that keeps him from it. So he who loves God cultivates pure prayer, driving out every passion that keeps him from it.”
That’s detachment in a nutshell. We don’t try to fill our lives with the world, but with God. Instead of putting in all the things we have to do in a day, jamming in all the different parts until they fit, then trying to find a way to squeeze God in last… we start with putting God in His God-shaped hole, our hearts, then all the other things seem to fall into their proper place.
A homily for the Sixth Day in the Octave of Christmas: December 30th, 2020