May you have a very good Christmas.
Each year I am seeking to have more depth and understanding what it means to celebrate the birth day of our Savior. What is the purpose of signaling out one day on the calendar to focus on the work of God, breaking in among an often indifferent human race?
Many people, when they actually take Christmas by the shoulders and come face to face with the event of the birth of God in such humble conditions, have serious difficulties with this one.
Christmas must always be on God’s terms. It is not meant to make us feel good but to stretch us into the redeeming work of God. God has become one of us (the divine becomes human in order to make the human divine. This is the breaking in of God to change the lives, the societies and cultures of our peoples. The birth of God among us is a dynamic event (i.e., the life and teaching of Jesus) to bring human beings to become truly human: that is, to grow to become the heart and the justice of God among humanity. We are destined to be transformed into the likeness, the love and mercy of God.
God does not want us to ‘ohh and ah’ over the birth of this baby. This is the breaking in (i.e., it is revelation in actin) of the very life and heart of God. The birth of Jesus in conditions of dire poverty announces something great is going to happen on the part of God. Life is going to change!
Unfortunately, over the centuries the story of Christmas has become too sentimental and folksy. Seeking depth in the Christmas story is to get in touch with the way God acts. Jesus is not born in power and privilege. Rather, he is born poor and dispossessed. Mary gives birth in a public place, a holding place for poor travellers who cannot afford to purchase a hotel room. The first recipients of the good news of God’s work are the shepherds. These are the day labourers, the poor working class of people. There is no hint of privilege here. The poor meet the poor!
Then in the Gospel of Matthew , it is the pagans (what we call the wise men from the East) who are directed to seek the Christ child. All Jewish people knew that pagans were the unwanted in the divine plan.
In each of the two above cases, it is the outsiders who are called to celebrate the birth of God among us.
Christmas is the revelation of the great heart of God including everyone, especially the people that us humans exclude or count as of less importance. And whatever God does is what human beings must actualize in their lives The message of Christmas is to seek to have our lives and hearts expanded to the poor, with their many faces, who live right around us.
The message of Christmas is: when humans exclude, God breaks all the human rules, and includes the forgotten, the poor and the grubby day labourers.
I pray that my heart is expanded and overflows with the love of God.
Have a wonderful Christmas with overflowing divine love and mercy.
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