Love infinite:
Once Dr Abdul Kalam, while interacting with school children, asked: Who is the first Scientist? One child replied: God. But Dr Kalam was looking for a better answer. Another one said: a child. He was happy but asked for the reason – The reply was: The child asks too many questions and wants to know more and more. He appreciated the child’s response and explanation.
Today we celebrate the birth of a combination, both God and a Child. God who created everything has come down to us to shower His infinite love and redemption. Christmas is a celebration of remembrance: God remembered us. The tendency and wish in us is that people should remember us is shown in many ways during the Christmas season: in sending greetings, in exchanging gifts, and through visiting our loved ones.
And what do we remember when we see the Child in a lonely cave amidst animals on a manger? Does this Child remind us of other children who similarly struggle in cold and hunger? Does this child bring to our memory the numerous children who do not have a house or a place to be born and to live in? – Does this Child bring to our mind millions of children who grow amidst malnutrition and lack of education? This Christmas Child reminds us of those children as well and in addition, the divine Baby implies that our love requires sacrifice. As Paul writes to the Philippines: This Child was in the form of God but did not count equality with God. Instead, the Child emptied Himself, took the form of a servant, and was born like us (Phil 2:6-7). Through His birth as a human Baby, Jesus tells us that when we love someone, we become strong within and when we are loved by someone we become courage to do great things. Archimedes said, “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I will move the world”. Today, we see and experience Jesus has come with the lever of His infinite love and the fulcrum he seeks is our heart in order to transform the world for the better.
God brought along with Him a human heart and compassion was his heart-beat. Compassion moved Jesus to live for us and die for us. As Paul writes to Philemon (Philemon 1:20), we need to refresh our hearts in Christ in order to be meaningful and beneficial to all around us. Thus, Christmas reveals that we depend on God and God depends on us to do His best in and through us – So, Christmas is the time to bring home our inter-responsibility to each other in this world. We imbibe the spirit of the Babe of Bethlehem and go forth as His messengers of love and compassion.
Me as Reflection of God’s Goodness:
Christmas is the time when we realize that we reflect the goodness and benevolence of God. God, in the form of this little Child, gets imprinted in us so that we carry out his work of goodness in our world. Creating in us the mood and spirit of Christmas, tonight’s readings tell us three things:
- Hearing and happening;
- Longing and loving;
- Expecting and Experiencing.
For over 4,000 years the people of Israel were hearing the words of the Prophets that someone mighty would come to liberate them from slavery; and to free them from bondage; and to make them a great nation. As Paul wrote to the Hebrews, “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways” (Heb 1:1). And today Isaiah tells us: ‘The people walking in the darkness have seen a great light; they rejoice as people rejoice at the harvest. A Child is born, a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace’ (Is 9: 2-3, 6).
People have been longing for the Lord and the Lord came to them so His love could be radiated through His people to the entire universe. A loving mother had her only son in the military and he was posted in a faraway place on a mountain. Occasionally he would call her over the phone – The mother was happy to hear his son’s voice. Now and then, the son would write a few lines to the mother – And she was filled with joy to see the handwriting of her son. And one day he informed her that he is coming home for a short holiday – The happiness of the mother rose high as she could hear the voice of her son and her expectation of seeing her son soon gave her energy and enthusiasm. And one fine morning, the son stood at the entrance of the house and the mother was filled with so much of love, affection, and joy to see him face to face and to hear him talking with her. This ascend of joy and happiness we realize on Christmas day as our expectation turning into our longing for Jesus. In the words of Paul to Titus, Jesus has come to tell us how to live: to say ‘no’ to ungodliness and worldly passion and to lead upright and godly lives. Our longing for Jesus has to be our loving Jesus ‘who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is right and good (Titus 2:11-14).
Whatever happens and whatever we hear about anything, what matters most is the impact of events on us. Today we recall the ordeal that Joseph and Mary had on the first Christmas Day. They are on their way from Nazareth in Galilee, through Samaria, to Bethlehem in Judea. The time for the birth of Jesus comes and they could not get any place to stay for the city was overflowing with people. Someone might have opened his cattle shed for them to stay for the night. Perhaps the sheep and cows in the cattle shed might have been accommodative to let them use their manger as a resting place for the Child. They might have been awestruck by the simplicity and resilience of the little family. The animals never expected to witness a human child’s birth in their manger. But they experienced the peace of this little family. The shepherds never expected angels coming and announcing them the birth of a child; but they experienced the joy of the family even amidst inclemency of weather and inconvenient cattle shed. The expectation of all is transformed as an experience when the angels sang, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom His favour rests” (Lk 2:14). Today the Creator of heaven and earth, the master of human beings, animals, and plants is born as a Child as an integrating power in a cattle shed where the shepherds and animals meet him and where He found himself lying on a straw bed.
Our Response:
What is our response in this event or occasion? We need to become the shepherds who show interest in the unknown person’s welfare and need. They did not know Joseph and Mary, nor the Child, but their spontaneous spirit to welcome any stranger amidst them and in their territory inspires us to welcome people in our lives. And we become the angels who sang Gloria: We not only sing in the Mass but our lives become a melody of joy and happiness to others. The hallmark of the disciples and admirers of Jesus is peace and joy – Peace is what Jesus brought to this world and joy is what the angels announced to the world. And we are invited to radiate both in our words and deeds and in our very lives.
Christmas event is not an annual celebration but a unique experience every year. We need to be formed better. In order to meditate alone, a monk takes a boat to the middle of a lake. And there he sits in deep meditations. In the middle of his meditation amidst undisturbed silence, he suddenly feels the bump of another boat colliding with his own. He becomes angry and he is aroused to shout at the imagined boatman for his irresponsibility. But when he opened his eyes he saw an empty boat that floated around and by chance touched his boat. The monk realizes that the anger was within him and the empty boat only provoked his anger. We could learn that whenever we come across someone who might irritate us or provoke us to anger, let us remind ourselves that the other person is the empty boat but the anger is within us.[1] Christmas tells us that we should be peace makers and joy bringers.
Finally, Christmas is a celebration of gratitude: our exchanging gifts and greetings and visiting each other in this season is the expression of our gratitude to each other. Shepherds came to express their solidarity and the Wise Men came to find the origin of wisdom. And Isaiah talks about the universal unison and harmony when he says, “The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them” (Is 11:6). And on the last day the measuring rod of God would be the celebration of gratitude and the condemnation of ingratitude, when he talks about feeding and clothing others as well as sharing others’ joys and sorrow (Mt 25:35-40). And the birth of Jesus as a Baby is the sign and confirmation of God’s promise: Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed (Is 54:10).
Let us be the bearers of this peace and joy of Christmas and radiate the same to all we meet today, tomorrow, and all the days to come. The Jesuit Community wishes you all a merry Christmas and a happy New Year of 2013. Kindly keep us and our ministries in your prayers.
Francis P Xavier SJ 25Dec2022
[1] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/readersblog/vatsasblog/the-story-of-a-monk-23668/