During the holiday season, many of us are flooded with memories of other times and places.  In our minds, we sometimes travel back to simpler days.  The holidays were shorter in that they started after Thanksgiving and ended at New Year’s Day.  Instead of shopping malls, we remember stores clustered around major intersections.  Often the store owners pooled their resources to put up outside decorations and perhaps a few loudspeakers over which carols played.  We greeted neighbors as we walked form store to store, bundled up against freezing Michigan temperatures.  We didn’t mind the inconvenience because we felt welcome wherever we went.  Even strangers seemed friendly.

As a child, I especially remember walking to Midnight Mass.  Not only was it one night we were allowed to stay up so late; the dark stillness gave our whole neighborhood a mystical feeling.  We understood that something most special had come upon us.  As we walked to church a block away, our faces numbed in the northern breezes.  We hardly noticed.  Surrounded by people we loved, our spirits took control and our hearts overflowed with warmth.

Today, things are quite different because some of the people we love the most live far from us.  We are reminded in the Gospels that the first Christmas came to Mary and Joseph while they were far from their family and friends.  It must have been a difficult time for Mary, giving birth without the wisdom and experience of her older female relatives.  One can easily imagine this teen mother trying to nurse her infant for the first time, probably wondering if the baby had enough nourishment.  To top it all off, strangers came in with their story of hosts of angels and the marvelous words they heard.  After the shepherds arrived and recalled what they had seen, the Gospel of Luke tells us, “Mary treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.”

The holidays we have in the second half of life may be a far cry from our childhood memories.  Often we ache to see distant family and friends, forgetting that this is exactly the way the Holy Family spent their first Christmas.  In the presence of our Lord, this night became one of Mary’s heart treasures.  No matter where we are, if Christ is present, we are home.  Christmas is a time to relive treasured memories in our hearts.