There was once a mother who complained to her own mother, that it was getting harder and harder to get her teen-aged children to write thank you notes for the gifts that they received at Christmas. The grandmother told her daughter, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it.” Well, Christmas arrived, and the teens did not just write a note—they stopped by grandmother’s house within a week of Christmas to thank her. Their mother was amazed and called her mother to find out how she was able to accomplish something at which she had been so unsuccessful. “It was easy,” said the grandmother, “I sent each of them a card with a check in it. But I did not bother signing the check.”
On this holy night/day we do not need a wise grandmother to prompt us to give thanks for the Christmas gift we have received—the greatest of all gifts! The gift we celebrate is that decisive moment of history when Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary in fulfillment of all the prophecies of old.
We have gathered to celebrate not so much a Christmas “spirit” as much as a Christmas “truth.” Strangely enough, the truth is found in the mystifying scene displayed in our churches and in our homes. While we see an infant lying in a manger, Cardinal Newman urges us to “leave the prison of our own reasoning” in order to fathom the true identity of this infant. Gazing into the manger with eyes of faith we discover the awesome truth that the infant is, as the Creed reminds us, “God from God, Light from light, True God from true God” who emptied himself of his majestic power and abandoned himself in complete dependance to the loving care of a human mother.
Archbishop Sheen wrote, “In the filthiest place in the world, purity was born. He who made the sun to warm the earth, would have need of animals to warm him with their breath. He, from whose hands came planets and worlds, would have arms not long enough to touch the heads of the cattle…Omnipotence was wrapped in swaddling clothes.”
This was the way God planned it—to redeem, to restore, to reconcile the world to himself, not by coming as a majestic king or mighty conqueror, but by seeking out the humility of the manger. This is how God would display his immense glory and enduring love. He would not reveal himself as a distant or unconcerned God who “stays up above” and does not interfere. He is not a God to be feared or avoided but one who is approachable, moved by our pains, and participates in our struggles.
Through the Incarnation, God opens his heart to us. He wants to enter our lives, to transform and enrich us. He wants to raise us up to heaven. This the truth of Christmas. This is the meaning behind the Solemnity we celebrate.
Be sure to go to our manger scene, our crèche, our presepio, not so much to admire a quaint Christmas scene but to thank God who emptied himself of his glory for our sake. Go to respond “yes” to the Lord as did Mary and Joseph…a “yes” to living our faith in an authentic way… by forgiving the one who has hurt us; being patient with the one who drives us crazy or the one who is never satisfied; being kind to the one who is neglected and giving counsel to the one who needs support and guidance. The arrival of the Infant of Bethlehem transformed history. May it transform us as well.
