For Christians, Christmas is a time when we sing a lot of songs and tell a lot of stories about Joy and Rejoicing in the dawning of the Light, as we remember and receive the sacred gift we find through Jesus, who is for us our way of receiving the light of God’s Love Supreme through all that life in this world can bring.

Yet especially for those of us who may be grieving this holiday season, it’s not exactly the most helpful thing to hear from every overhead speaker: “’Tis the season to be jolly!!! Fa La La La La La La La!!!”

If we actually take seriously the life and teachings of Jesus, none of this should lead us to demand false cheer. When we look to what Jesus actually represented, we find that the light of the Divine Love which he embodied does not at all lead to deny or turn away from heartbreak and sadness but rather to turn towards it and embrace it, with compassion.

So, what does it mean to rejoice in this light?

One of my favorite lines from a Christmas song is, “Let this weary world rejoice.”

This kind of joy is not the opposite of sadness. True joy honors sadness, and turns towards tragedy with a loving heart, knowing how ultimately each and all of us, and all of each of us is embraced in the larger reality of the tremendous beauty and great goodness and ever deepening love we can experience when we let God into our hearts. And that’s something to rejoice in.

There’s a wonderful book called “The Book of Joy,” which came out of conversations about joy between Archbishop Desmond Tutu and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

One of the wise things that was recorded from those conversations was this, from Archbishop Tutu:

 “Discovering more joy, does not, I’m sorry to say, save us from the inevitability of hardships and heartbreaks. In fact, we may cry more easily, but we will laugh more easily, too. Perhaps we are just more alive. Yet as we discover more joy, we can face suffering in a way that ennobles rather than embitters. We have hardship without becoming hard. We have heartbreak without being broken.”

This, I believe, is why the deepest kind of joy leads us to weep tears of joy.

So, my friends, may you, may we all be blessed this season with tears of joy as we rejoice in the light.

Delivered at an interfaith winter solstice celebration, on December 21, 2024, by Rev. Nathaniel Mahlberg. This is companion to a piece on Honoring the Darkness.

Image: Mark Rothko, “Untitled,” 1951, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc. © 1998 by Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko