The Twelfth Gift of Christmas - And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

 The Twelfth Gift of Christmas - And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:10 NKJV

The beautiful blue sky with picturesque white clouds on the fifth day of the new year of 2021, brought the song, O What A Beautiful Morning to mind. It was the Twelfth Day of Christmas 2020 and gratitude for the wonderful promise of Psalm 23 - that I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever - filled my heart.

But I cannot take this promise for granted for there is the ”Noonday Demon” - the sin of acedia or sloth - which is waiting to steal my joy of living in the Kingdom of Heaven. The sin of acedia has been described as the “willful joylessness in the face of God’s presence, purpose and intentions.” Acedia is the slavish and joyless obedience to God’s commandments in the futile attempt to please God. Acedia blinds us to God’s amazing grace which is good, true and beautiful.

It is only when our hearts are filled with gratitude for the grace of God that we are able to live the abundant life of the childlike and joyful obedience to God’s perfect commandments. The eighth beatitude teaches us to expect persecution when we seek righteousness. We are not promised wealth and health when we follow Christ - we will encounter tribulations, tests and temptations.

Our responses to the tribulations, tests and temptations in our lives reveals the condition of our hearts - is it a path of lust and greed seeking the praise of men, a stony ground filled with pride and envy, or a thorny ground of anger and gluttony? Henri Nouwen found that physical, mental, or emotional pain lived under God’s blessing is experienced in ways that are radically different from the physical, mental, or emotional pain lived under the curse of our sinful nature.

The season of Epiphany is the time between Christmas and Lent - it is a time of following Jesus to seek the presence of God in the mundane moments of our daily lives with the “be-attitudes of the Kingdom of Heaven.” It is a time to use the Twelve Gifts of Christmas to help us overcome guilt, fear and the sins of lust, greed, pride, envy, anger, gluttony and acedia so that we can bear the fruit of the Spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self control.