Today, your December 24th will look like this…
You will be cooking for a good part of the day. It will smell good in the house. In the well decorated house. The wreath on the door, the tree in the living room, the big stockings hanging on the fireplace. Spotify’s Christmas list will accompany you during all the preparations. She will make you hoot! and ha! Ho! Ginette Reno! Ha! Frank Sinatra! You will wrap the last gift that was missing. You will drop it off with the others. You will go, on the run, to the SAQ, to buy the bottle of gin that you had forgotten. My aunt Pauline’s gin.
Around 5 p.m., you will put away your apron and hurry to get ready. The shower, the eyes to make up or the beard to trim, or both. A quick iron to the dress or pants, you’re ready. You will see if your children are ready, they are not. You tell them to put down their tablets and get busy. They’re doing it. Christmas miracle.
It’s ringing ! The early guests are already here. You welcome them. They’re sorry, they thought there would be traffic. It’s not serious.
You take their coats. They go to the islet. Pop! The first bottle of champagne flows freely. Let’s go ! It doesn’t stop ringing. Everyone has arrived. Except the latecomers. Who end up showing up. They’re sorry, they didn’t think there would be this much traffic. THE party is stuck! The canapes, the turkey, the good wine, the log, the lively discussions. Everything is perfect. The uncle dressed as Santa Claus, who everyone recognizes, except the little one who still believes in it. Everyone loves their gifts or pretends to. No fuss, nothing out of place, the perfect evening. Even as guests who stick help pick up. On the 25th, it starts again, except this time, you’re the guest. And it’s just as successful.
Nothing to envy of the Christmases of yesteryear, your Christmases of the present. Yet you feel like something is missing. But what ? Family, friends, the tree, the lights, the presents, the food, Santa Claus, even the coats on the bed, it’s all there.
What is missing is a very short moment, barely a few seconds, a few minutes at most. This often happened at midnight mass. It was not the procession, the choir, the sermon or the communion. It was a moment when you went into your head, where you went into your heart, staring at a stained glass window, the organ, the ceiling, the hat in front or the cross, and a feeling of peace came over you. As if your soul is opening. As if you had a star inside you. Which illuminates your conscience while hurting you a little, with its spikes.
It is difficult to explain. Like everything that is invisible. It’s an emotion that you never feel on other days of the year.
It’s Christmas time. It doesn’t necessarily happen in church. It can happen at night, when everyone is in bed and you are alone in the living room and you are staring at the lights on the tree. And everything becomes blurry. And you leave in your thoughts. It can happen when you walk outside and look at the lamps in the houses, or the big black sky above you, or the big white earth below you, and you feel like you’re alone. and not to be at the same time. You feel there is something else. But it’s vague. You are in the dark. And it’s like being in the waves. For a few fragments of time, you no longer own yourself. Or you own yourself completely. Who knows.
In this suspended moment, there is implicit this story of a child born to save the world. It’s as if you realize that this story is that of all children who are born. It’s yours too. It seems like the night is asking you: what have you done? It seems that the night is giving you the taste to do it. The strength to do it. Change the world. Or rather change your little part of the world.
This moment lasts just a few seconds. It’s like a taste of something. A taste of what’s next. Barely alive, he disappeared.
This is what I wish you for this evening. This is what I wish for myself for this evening. Feel the Christmas moment. The moment you only feel at Christmas. This moment that brings us closer to heaven.
This moment that gives meaning to all these expenses. This moment that cannot be bought.
Merry Christmas ! I also wish you to receive as much love as you give. And to give much more than you have ever given. Imagine how many you will receive!