Christmas always reminds me of family. When I was young, growing up in the Mexican city of Aldama, Chihuahua, I remember helping my mother put up the tree and making tamales with my grandmother.
Our relatives from near and far would come to us and we would participate in the traditional ceremony posadas, Attend midnight mass and then later that day, Christmas mass.
It was nice to do all these things with family.
After immigrating to the United States as a teenager, and settling in Northern California, I still enjoyed Christmas. Unfortunately, I was never able to spend another holiday surrounded by my grandparents and my entire family.
I missed it.
But I received such a beautiful gift in this country, which is rich in many cultures. In my new home, I not only learned more about my Mexican culture, but I also learned how American, Filipino, Italian, Portuguese, and other cultures celebrate Christmas.
After becoming a Catholic priest, I witnessed parish families invite actual strangers into their homes for Christmas, myself among them. I often heard: “Come spend Christmas with us.”
That was also a Christmas present.
The Christmas season is a time when we feel grateful and want to give something special to those we value. Sure, there’s a lot of emphasis on buying gifts, but I also see people being generous with their time and money, especially to help those most in need.
This is also a Christmas gift.
I do not deny that there is also great suffering at Christmas. In my own experience, there have been birthdays that have been very difficult for me.
There is a phrase that comes to my mind from Saint Francis of Assisi: “All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.”
At Christmas, Joseph and Mary faced a very difficult experience when they were searching for a hotel where she could give birth. God, who became incarnated as a human being, became in some way an immigrant among us. He left heaven to come to earth. Jesus himself said: “I am not of this world” (John 8:23) and “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).
Christmas is a time that awakens in each of us a sense of hope, knowing that God chose to come into this world in human form because he loved us and showed us how to live in peace, with love and mercy.
In fact, “Pilgrims of Hope” is the theme of the Jubilee Year 2025 which Pope Francis began celebrating in Rome starting on December 24. (Locally, we will mark the beginning of this important period in the Catholic Church on December 29.) With a procession and mass at St. Joseph’s Cathedral.)
It is good for us, as Christians, to acknowledge and celebrate that we are a people of hope.
Yes, there are moments when we feel like everything is falling apart, and we fear what might come. But there is always a light of hope that continues to shine, that continues to light up our lives.
Bejarano is the auxiliary bishop of the Catholic Diocese of San Diego and lives in Linda Vista.
