Reflection / Tom Yost

Like the Grinch, coronavirus can’t stop message of Christmas

Since childhood, I have enjoyed watching the animated version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I prefer this version for its simple storytelling and creative rhyming.

As you recall, the Grinch detested Christmas. He was determined to keep Christmas from coming. He went to great lengths to take away everything about Christmas from the people of Whoville. He stole their stockings, presents, ornaments, decorations, candy canes, food for the Who-feast, the Christmas trees, and even the logs for the fireplace.

The Grinch thought he had stopped Christmas from coming by the losses he incurred upon the townspeople. However, he discovered even after he had taken so much from them, they still maintained an inspirational joy and spirit about them.

Many of us, after months of a worldwide pandemic, could write our own version of How the Coronavirus Stole 2020. The losses are many. Some of us experienced more painful losses than others.

Some of what the coronavirus has “stolen” or taken away from us include the loss or death of a loved one, loss of physical or mental health, loss of income or a job, loss of important material things such as a home or apartment, loss or postponement of major life events such as graduations or weddings, loss of visiting loved ones in isolation. The list of losses goes on.

Hope has been lost to fear. Compassion has been lost to anger. How “merry” can we be as we approach Christmas with so much loss and anxiety?

The birth of Jesus, whose name means “God saves,” restores us. Emmanuel, which means “God is with us,” strengthens and renews us.

In a time where we wear masks, the Word made Flesh, the Son of God, comes into the world completely revealing (unmasking) who God is.

In a time when we are socially distant, God breaks through time and space and intimately becomes one with us in everything but sin. In a time when we are constantly washing our hands, God washes over sin and death as we begin a new life in the birth of his Son.

In the end, the Grinch did not steal Christmas. It was Christmas that stole his heart. In the end, the coronavirus cannot ultimately prevail in 2020—whatever our losses may be.

Christmas proclaims that “God saves” and restores all that seems lost. Emmanuel is here walking with us, strengthening and renewing us on the journey. Blessed are we who believe. Amen.
 

(Tom Yost is a pastoral associate at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in New Albany. His reflection will be shared at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish’s annual “Mass of the Longest Night” on Dec. 21.) †