The melancholy of Christmas

OPINION:

Christmastime is a time of parties and celebrations and lunches and dinners with family and friends. It is also, sometimes, a time of melancholy.

The melancholy is a direct counterpoint and result of the “great joy” heralded by the angels. The impending holy day compels each of us to carefully examine what progress we are making on our journey homeward, how far we may have wandered off the path, and what remains to be done.

This makes sense. Even from a purely temporal perspective, as each year comes to a close, it is only natural to think about what has been and what might be in the new year. Even corporations, the most soulless of all institutions invented by man, try to assess their performance and that of each of their employees at the end of each year.

In addition, Christmas is always going to be tangled up with memories and reminds us of things and people that used to be with us and now are not. Everyone above a certain age has lost people they loved. At Christmastime, we remember those people with special intensity as we look around the table and note their absence.

At the same time, if we are lucky, we happily note the presence of new faces.

Christmas is especially connected to rituals among family and friends, and almost every family does something very specific at a certain time of the season. With age (and hopefully wisdom and awareness), we come to understand that these rituals existed before us and, hopefully, will be performed long after we are gone.

One day, and sooner than most of us would like, we will be among the absent. Considering one’s mortality is always a moment for somber reflection, which is why people routinely avoid it.

So, it is normal to entertain sadness occasionally during the season. At the same time, it is important to remember that there are those who are suffering both more and more directly. To the extent you can, love and care for those who may be scuffling. The list is long: lonely people, single moms struggling to raise their children and work, married people going through difficulties, single people who wish they had someone, old people worried about sickness and their impending moment, young people unsure how their journey will turn out, the sick, the poor in body or in spirit, those who have not heard about Christmas, the millions around the world who suffer active persecution.

Be aware that the world (now as always) provides endless opportunities to do good things, to help people, and to focus on the needs of others rather than one’s own challenges.

During the Christmas season, there is always so much to do, and the weight and burden of chores and responsibilities can feel overwhelming. Try not to worry about being all things to all people. Most people really want only to know that you love them and think about them from time to time.

Ultimately, Christmas is about promise. The promise of a new life (a Child is born unto us) carries with it the promise of redemption. It is not accidental that Christmas is focused on children. The infant in the manger is like other children — a living expression of their parents’ hope for a better world. Children, more than most of us, still embody optimism for the future that the holy day promises and celebrates.

Unfortunately, as we travel through life, sometimes our capacity for hope, promise and optimism diminishes, and we become compromised by our own deficiencies and by our accommodations (small and large) to the world. Sometimes we are submerged in regret. During this season, we sometimes reflect on those deficiencies and accommodations.

We shouldn’t. The good news from Bethlehem is that God loves us — with all our deficiencies — and wants us to have life and have it abundantly.

So be of good cheer, and have a good and merry Christmastime.

• Michael McKenna, a columnist for The Washington Times, co-hosts “The Unregulated Podcast.” He was most recently a deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the Office of Legislative Affairs at the White House.