How
wonderful it is for all of us to celebrate the Eucharist together around the
Lord's table on Christmas eve. There are several options for us to choose from
for the readings for the Christmas masses, but I always like to hear the
traditional Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke about the birth of Jesus. I
don’t think we will ever tire of hearing about how Jesus was born in that
humble manger. It is easy to romanticize
the circumstance of Jesus’ birth. Yet,
we know that Jesus was born into the historical reality of the world of Ancient
Israel, that he was born in the midst of the struggles of the Jewish people as
part of the Roman Empire. What's so
extraordinary to us even to this day is that Jesus wasn't born into royalty or
a wealthy family, but to a humble family from Galilee.
The
Mexican people have a custom that they celebrate throughout the last couple of
weeks leading up to Christmas called the Posadas. A group of people go from house to house
looking for lodging for Mary and Joseph – they are usually a couple of youth dressed
as Mary and Joseph to symbolize their plight.
As they knock on the doors of the homes, they ask: “In the name of
Heaven, we ask you for lodging, because Mary cannot walk any longer, as she is
about to bear a child.” They are given
the answer by those who are inside: “This is no inn, keep on going. We won't
open the door – we don’t know who you are.”
Finally, they reach a house where they receive this answer: “Enter, Holy
Pilgrims, accept this dwelling place; you will dwell not in this humble house, but
in our humble hearts.”
It's not
the wealthy or influential who first recognize Jesus’ birth and who believe in
its glory, but rather the poor and the outcasts of society. Shepherds were forsaken in their community
not only because of their poverty, but because their contact with blood of
their sheep made them unclean under Jewish law.
The birth of Jesus within human history is so very important, but it's
equally important that Jesus be born in our hearts & in our faith as
well. There must take place in us
something corresponding to what happened in Bethlehem; a birth must take place
in us in our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
How can
we, in a culture and time so very different than first century Israel, have
Jesus be born in our hearts today? The actual birth of Jesus took place more
than 2000 years ago, but we help usher in Christ’s birth in the here and
now. God's kingdom was ushered in by
Jesus’ coming into our world and by his earthly ministry, but the kingdom of
God has not yet come to its fulfillment.
Jesus’ birth brings the good news of grace and justice to our world, but
it is up to us, the faithful here on earth, to work for these ideals in our
communities and in our daily lives.
God
chose to come to us as a poor child in the manger in Bethlehem in order to
share in our human weakness and poverty.
Jesus is our brother, the protector of the poor, the weak, and the
abandoned. We can share in his love, in the comfort he brings in the midst of
pain and illness, in the companionship he brings in times of sadness and
loneliness. But, in order to experience
Jesus in all these different ways and to have a relationship with him, we need
to prepare a place for the baby Jesus in our hearts, a place where he can be
born again and again.
All of us,
rich and poor, children and adults, male and female, no matter who we are, can
prepare a place for Jesus in our lives.
We are called to try as much as we can to make the place in our hearts for
Jesus clean, orderly, & welcoming. If our ego or selfish interests take up
all the space in our hearts, we won’t have room for Jesus to at all. We see people every day who need our witness,
our love, and our help. As we prepare a
place for Jesus in our hearts, we open ourselves to love and help our brothers
and sisters in need. Without a change or
conversion in our hearts from our experience of Christmas, we truly have not
made a place for Jesus.
We are
able to imitate the love that Jesus had for all humanity. We are called to live the message of
Christmas today & every day in the joy and charity in our hearts. Pope Benedict remarked that the child Jesus
who was adored by shepherds in Bethlehem many centuries ago never stops
visiting us in our daily lives. We are
all pilgrims on a journey as we continue to walk in our daily lives toward the
kingdom of God. As we wait for Jesus to
come again, we speak for the hopes of all people. We wait for the salvation that only God can
give us. Thus, it is important for us to
reaffirm with our lives the mystery of salvation that comes with the
celebration of Christ’s birth this Christmas.
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