Christmas Reflection

"Nothing about the experience of complete darkness is comfortable.  You stumble, trip, don't know where you are, don't know where you are going, you can't see other, they can't see you - darkness speaks of danger and threat.  In our society we go to great lengths to avoid darkness - light bulbs, flashlights, nightlights, headlights, and every other kind of artificial light you can imagine.  Can you imagine the chaos that would happen if there was a blackout at any one of the malls right now?  We are dependent on light to function - so what happens when an entire people have chosen darkness over light?

Israel, God's chosen people, had become a people walking in darkness.  Time and time again they rejected the covenants with God, choosing instead to distance themselves from God and remain steeped in the darkness of selfishness and sin.  They had forgotten the God of their fathers and chosen darkness.  At the time of Christ's birth, we were in desperate need of God's light to redirect and restore us.  

And that light did come; over 2000 years ago the light of the world took on human flesh and dwelt among us.  Born in the middle of the night, God came to bring us His light and salvation.  In the form of a helpless baby, hope was restored and we no longer were chained to the darkness we had created.

Then why are we still held captive by the darkness of sin?  So much of our lives and our culture do not reflect the light that came into the world on Christmas.  Rather, it reflects the darkness of our selfishness, hatred, violence, despair and anger.  The story of Christ's birth becomes just that - a story - far removed from our everyday reality.

Just as our eyes slowly grow accustomed to the darkness, we have grown to tolerate and accept the darkness as normal.  We become comfortable and complacent about the darkness because it hides our flaws and our sins.  We wander aimlessly and wonder why we aren't getting anywhere.  We have forgotten that this is not how we are called to live - Christ was born so that we could become children of the light and no longer hide in the shadows.  

Right now [] we are in desperate need of Christ's light.  The story of Christ's birth is a story of God's brilliant light shattering our darkness.  []  As we reflect on the nativity, we ask that it be more than a story."  (from the meditation "Darkness" from a LifeTeen Youth Minister Retreat)  

Imagine with me for a moment, a young girl, a teenager, in this world of complete darkness, full of fear with no hope.  A world that tried to pull her into selfishness and sin, to fill her with fear of the unknown, to extinguish the light of her hope.  To take her purity and disfigure her soul with lies.  

But God had other plans.  He had a special plan for her life, so He protected her from the stain of Original Sin that was dragging everyone around her into darkness and misery.  He had a plan to dispel the darkness and free the whole world from their slavery to sin.  He was going to send His Son to earth as a tiny child, born of Mary, this young teenager, only about 14 years old.

Consider the young man, Joseph - probably in his 20's - chosen to take care of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God.  They were engaged, and he found out she was pregnant.  He knew it wasn't through him, but he still was going to separate quietly so that she wouldn't be stoned to death.  Then an Angel came to him in a dream and told him what really happened.  Think about the kind of courage and faith it must have taken to believe that!  But he did!  He already knew he had someone special in his fiancee - imagine how much more he would have loved her after learning of her complete trust in God's plan!  Together they helped each other through every step of they way.  They didn't know what would happen.  They had no idea what it meant to be the parents of their God, to have their baby be the Messiah, but they had each other, and they strengthened each other's faith.  

Think about when Jesus was born.  He was just like any other baby - tiny, cold, helpless, hungry.  The God who created the entire universe, and who holds everything and everyone in the palm of His hand, Who created Mary and Joseph, keeps them in existence and knew them before they were even born, is dependent on them for His own survival.  Try to wrap your mind around this thought, this paradox:  God keeps Mary alive, holds her in existence, provides her with everything she needs - food, shelter, a husband.... She is dependent on Him for absolutely everything.  One day she will even receive Him in the Eucharist to nourish her soul and sustain her until Heaven.  And yet here He is, relying completely on her for his nourishment. His physical needs are entirely dependent on her for survival because He chose to become human.  But not just as any human - as a vulnerable little baby.

When the shepherds heard about the birth of the Messiah, they immediately went to go see Him.  The first people to know weren't priests, kings and queens, or important people of any nature.  Shepherds were thought to be the lowest and the dirtiest.  Yet they were the first to know - and the first to respond.  You see, Jesus came for the meek and the lowly.  That's why He came as a tiny baby.  To show us what meekness and humility looked like.  So that we would have a God who truly knew what it meant to suffer, to live as we live on earth, not just because He's God and He made us, but because He became one of us.  He took on our flesh and was born of Mary.  He could have come already grown up, with an army and a palace, but He didn't.  

If we were living during this time, who would we be in this story?  The shepherds?  The Wise Men? Herod?  The innkeepers?...  The sheep?  We are all called to come to the stable - to the "table" where the Bread of Life is.  God knew we would be hungry for Life, for freedom from the captivity of our sins.  And Mary knew Jesus didn't just come for her.  The first thing she did after He was born was to put Jesus in the manger, the feeding trough.  And they were in Bethlehem, the "house of bread".  Even from the moment He was born, Jesus is calling each one of us to Himself in the manger, giving Himself to us completely so that we might be healed and live.  Every time we receive the Eucharist, we should think of the Incarnation.  Every time we think of Christmas, we should think of the Eucharist.  It is through the Eucharist that Jesus is still present with us.  The little baby that was born on Christmas is still with us in the tabernacle.  He never left.  When He came, He came to stay with us until we are all with Him forever in Heaven.  The shepherds were told first because they knew better than anyone that they were hungry.  Not just physically but spiritually.  They hungered for and longed for the Messiah.  They hungered to be filled with life and released from the living death of sin.  We should all be aware of this hunger within ourselves, because it's there.  We don't always recognize it for what it is, but it's there, reminding us of the need to return, again and again, to the stable, where it all began.  Where the flesh and blood that are true food and true drink were first given to us.  

So what do you say?  Are you hungry?

Written by Catherine