Where one alone may be overcome, two together can resist. A three-ply cord is not easily broken. Ecclesiastes 4:12
The loneliest day of a priest’s life must be the Monday after ordination. After climbing the mountain of seminary training, after being “made over” by bishop, vocation director, parishioners and family like a newborn panda cub, you are dropped like a hot potato after your “first Mass.”
After being the focus of hope for the future of the church for years, you are suddenly just another priest at the bottom of the totem pole.
The second loneliest day of the year must be his first Christmas without a parish. For the first time in 46 years, I will not be attached to a parish for Christmas Mass. I am going to miss it terribly, but I am not going to let it ruin my Christmas.
To paraphrase George Bernard Shaw, I am going to “be a force of nature, not a feverish, selfish little clod of grievances and ailments complaining that world will not get together and make me happy.” I am going to pull a few tricks out of my “self-rescue” bag.
Even though I am retired from Bellarmine University and I will not be offering a “Blue Mass” at Christmas this year, I am not going to forget the people for whom Christmas is a very painful time. This year, I would like to send an encouraging word especially to those who will be alone, or merely feel alone, this Christmas.
First, I suggest that you get yourself invited somewhere. If people are not aware of your predicament, how can they help? Realizing that I will not have a parish home this year for Christmas, I picked up the phone and called the pastor of my home parish in Rhodelia, Ky., and offered to help him with the Christmas Masses. I didn’t wait to be asked and he didn’t ask because he couldn’t have known.
If you will be alone for Christmas dinner, fix dinner and invite others who will be alone to come join you. Call the parish and ask for names and phone numbers. If all else fails, go to the trouble of fixing yourself a nice dinner. Yes, go to the trouble. Crank up the music, pour the wine and remember what Christmas is all about — God’s incredible love for you!
If old Christmas traditions no longer work for you, start your own. Plan ahead! Bake or make a few small Christmas packages and head out to a nursing home. Fix dinner for an old couple. Take it and eat with them. Get a suggestion from the parish.
If you are homebound, make phone calls to old friends, family members far away or parish shut-ins and wish them Merry Christmas. Get your list ready. Pour yourself a drink, put on some nice music and start dialing.
Don’t wait to be rescued. Have yourself a merry little Christmas! No pity parties allowed!
