In this season of Christmas preparation, it is hard to stop and be in the moment. One way to do this is to deliberately look for small joys. My favorite Jesuit author, Fr. James Martin, says that happiness fades but joy does not.
It is easier to notice the small—and big!—annoyances during this busy time. But if we dwell on the annoyances and the disruptions, they can truly ruin the rest of the day. The key is to notice the small joys and then to savor that joyful moment.
Fr. Martin says that the “savoring” of the moment is important. In his book The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Anything, he says:
“Savoring is an antidote to our increasingly rushed lives. We live in a busy world, with an emphasis on speed, efficiency, and productivity, and we often find ourselves hurriedly moving on to the next task at hand. Life becomes an endless series of tasks, and our day becomes a compendium of to-do lists. We become ‘human doings’ instead of ‘human beings.'”
If you have a regular gratitude practice, you can easily recall that small moment that you have savored earlier and be grateful for it. We get the most benefit from a gratitude practice by being grateful for something specific, and we can gratefully recall and then “re-savor” that small joy.
Last Sunday at church I experienced a small joy when a young family sat down in front of me: mom, dad, a preschool-age son and a toddler daughter. Because of Fr. Martin’s book Jesus: A Pilgrimage, I am especially sensitive this time of year to reminders that Jesus became MAN.
The little boy sitting in front of me was a tangible reminder of Jesus as a young boy. He had wild red hair that looked like his mother hadn’t caught him in days to brush it. He was reading a book about Christmas snowmen, and occasionally he spoke out loud and had to be shushed by his parents. He put his arms up for his dad to pick him up.
Jesus the little boy could have done all of these, I thought. He may have exasperated Mary, disrupted the reverence of the synagogue, and demanded Joseph hold him close. Jesus was at one time a little boy deeply loved by his parents.
The best part of the little joy of this darling red-headed handful of a boy came at the end of the gospel when the priest invited us all to say YES just like Joseph did to the angel. “Yes,” the little boy said. We all laughed, and the priest teased the parents about bringing the boy back for the 11:00 Mass. How fitting. How joyful.
Jesus said: Yes. I will become man. Yes, I will take on human flesh. In all its messiness. In all its imperfections. In all the body’s fleshly realities.
Really, when you think about it, would you have chosen to become a lowly human?
Yet God loved us so much that He wanted to be with us always.
And that, my friends, is a big fat reason to be joyful not only this Christmas and every day of the year.