December 11, 2003

Decking the Soul

By Father Brian Mullady, O.P.

Professor, Systematic Theology

Campion College, San Francisco, California

It is getting close to Christmas and most people are already decking the halls with boughs of holly. We spend a lot of time preparing homes with evergreen trees, colored lights, decorations which are meant to invite people into our homes and bring joy to our hearts. Secular Christmas blares carols over loudspeakers in malls to ensure that people will be happy when they shop and perhaps add to the economy by purchasing more expensive and numerous gifts.

Yet when the holiday is over, the evergreens will be thrown out, the decorations put away, and the colored lights taken down. The malls will use new tactics to increase business and the wrappings will be thrown out to be burned. This joy is very fleeting because in many cases it has nothing to do with Christ.

The entrance antiphon for the Latin Mass for this Sunday begins "Gaudete!" Rejoice! In the middle of the penance of Advent the purple vestments blush rose and we, too, prepare for the joy of Christmas. Whatever decorations we put up in our houses to prepare, must be completed by interior decorations we put within our souls. This is in answer to the primary sorrow of the human race that is an interior sorrow. Man without grace is sad.

Zephaniah announces the reason for this interior joy by promising the restoration of Israel of the whole human race. "Shout for joy, daughter of Zion […] the Lord, the King of Israel is in your midst" (Zeph. 3:14, 17). This is a reference to the angel's message to Mary who tells her to rejoice because "The Lord is with thee" (Luke 1:28). This joy must be caused by a true interior change from sin to grace. Christian joy reflects the rest of a person's soul in a truth and love that only the presence of God can bring. Christ will bring back the joy of our hearts by giving grace. He gives us the foundation for true interior joy again by atoning for the Original Sin.

Our trouble is that our lives are still sad because we cannot easily surrender to his grace and direction. St. Paul tells us in the Church that we should not worry anymore. "Rejoice in the Lord always, I say it again rejoice" (Phil. 4:4). But this cannot take place unless we are at peace within. Confidence in him is what allays our fears and allows us to rest in his good and the good of his creation. "The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:7). Peace within comes at a great cost for us now. Because we suffer from concupiscence, finding peace demands that we surrender all that the self holds dear in the place of God in order for God to find a place. Being right with God is the source of our order within. Since we are limited beings, we have only so much spiritual energy. If we have wasted our energy on lust, nursing past hurts, anger, pride, being right, being popular or any of the countless replacements for God the human spirit can come up with, there is no room left for God. We must put all these things in their proper place and abandon all those things in which we find ultimate meaning to find a place for him. This is dying daily to putting self in the place of God. Only then can he truly heal the disorder in our souls to experience the tranquility of order and true joy.

John the Baptist explains that a cardinal basis for death to self is humility. Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less. The people ask John, "What shall we do?" Decking our souls with gladness involves true giving to others. He recommends justice and charity to the soldier and the publican. Notice that he also recommends very small, ordinary everyday actions as the means to justice and charity. "Rob no one by violence or by false accusation" (Luke 3:14). The "sacrament of the present moment" where we do ordinary things with charity is the source of true joy. The life of the ordinary virtues of humility, kindness and generosity coupled with the renunciation of manipulation of others, subtle or open, truly produces an order in our inward desires.

Decking the halls with boughs of holly is a joyful activity indeed. Let us not surrender that. But let us add the more important decking of our souls with the good works of justice and charity. Then when all the Christmas decorations are thrown out in the refuse bin, the permanent joy of a truthful conscience and ordered love will remain. What greater gift could we bring to the child in the manger?

Suggest Readings: Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2725-2745.