Suffering
We remember today the suffering and death of St. Thomas, and immediately after Christmas, the suffering and death of another martyr, Stephen, and then the killing of the Holy Innocents. And, in between, the great Christmas celebration, full of the innocence, wonder, hope, and love of new birth. It is a mixed season. We have the ability and the need to be on good speaking terms with the best of life and the worst of life. It’s what St. Paul calls the capacity to “rejoice with those who rejoice, weep those who weep.” We can do both; we need to do both to be fully alive with the life God has entrusted to us.
-Br. Curtis Almquist, SSJE