Four Holidays and a Funeral

December 21st marks the first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere.  For centuries people have celebrated this day because it is the shortest day of the year.  That means less time at the office, right?  It actually means that the year, which has been continually "dying" as the days get shorter and shorter, will now start to be "reborn" as the days get longer and longer.  In other words, the sun comes back and keeps us all from freezing and starving to death.  The celebration is called "Winter Solstice."  And I'm sure all of you know this already.  The idea I want to draw out is this- it is a celebration of the natural world.  Even without being pagan, I think most of us can see the value of honoring the natural world around us and learning from its lessons.

Coincidentally, this year Hanukkah started at on the Solstice.  Even though I'm not Jewish, I love Hanukkah.  I think it's a really neat holiday.  Hanukkah is a celebration of a miracle that happened in Israel around the year 175 BC.  While the temple was under siege by Syrian armies, they ran out of oil for the sacred lamps that must always be kept burning.  Miraculously, oil for one day lasted for eight days, which is exactly enough time for new oil to be pressed.  This explains why the celebration lasts for eight days and why candles and lights are such an important part of the festival.  Each family is encouraged to light candles in their own homes to remind them of how the Divine interceded in the world of the natural.  In other words, contrasted with the Solstice, a fully natural celebration, Hanukkah celebrates the intervention of the Divine in the natural.

This brings me to the funeral.  On December 23rd this year, I attended the funeral of our stake president.  For those of you who don't speak Mormon, a stake president presides over a group of congregations in much the same way that a Catholic bishop presides over all the parishes in a diocese.  He had struggled with cancer for a short time, but it was very difficult.  His strength and health left him very quickly and were replaced with a great deal of pain.  However, he didn't wish to be released from his duties.  He served for nearly a year with his disease, right up to the time of his death.  He continued to speak at meetings where it was his duty to do so and continued to work for the members of the church in his area.  At his funeral, the message of Christ and of Christmas was everywhere.  Not only did those who spoke remind us of Jesus' teachings of comfort and joy, but they also reminded us of the miracle of the resurrection and Christ's triumph over death.  This man who died was not scared.  He knew that his natural life would be joined to the Divine when he died.

At Christmas we talk a lot about Baby Jesus.  This year, I thought a lot about the triumphant Jesus who became "natural" at his birth, but who shattered the sorrows of the natural world by virtue of his Divinity.  And not only did He do it for Himself, but for each of us.  Christmas is more than a celebration of the natural, or of the Divine interceding in the natural.  It is a celebration of the natural becoming Divine.  Christ made his natural life Divine and offers us the same promise if we follow Him.

Today is New Year's Eve.  As we watch another year die, we can rejoice in the Divine gift of Jesus Christ and resolve to join ourselves to Him more resolutely in the next one.