A Christmas Present… in the Manger!

Silent night…? No, it was not a silent night. The sobs of the newborn Baby were like peals of thunder announcing a storm, a flood, the opening of the gates of Heaven and a shower of blessings. God was with us. Through the eyes of a baby, the Son of God looked humanity in the face . . . and saw a woman, His mother. Human being and God looking at each other, face to face. Silent night? No words? What words could have contained that moment?

It was cold, and the storm began in the cave, in the eyes of the Baby, with tears from Paradise. The Mother, omnipotent as every mother, stopped the storm immediately with her own tears, with her embrace, with the milk of her comfort. Silent night? No, the angels could not stop singing Alleluia, and cows and sheep made a choir of praise as well. Only humanity was silent, because no words could express what happened there. Humanity with God, God in man, God and humanity face to face under the same roof. God is with us.

The joy of Christmas is that God did not forget human beings, but became one of us to be with us forever. He did not become an angel--immortal and powerful. He did not become a star--lofty and immutable. He looked at your face, at your hair, at your arms and legs, and was so pleased by your beauty that He said: “I want to be like you.” He listened to your speech, to your singing, and He chose to have a voice like yours. He chose to walk with you instead of choosing to fly. He saw your sins, the burden of your life, and He said: “I’ll come and help you.” He saw you on the roadside, half dead, and He lifted you up. He needed for Himself a body in order to carry for you the burden: He took on a body, He carried the burden, and He even died under the burden of our sins. But His death was the death of death, and by His own power He rose from the dead. When the mission was accomplished, He went to Heaven to prepare a place for us, and first of all for His Mother. He came to us so that we may come to Him. He came to earth that we may come to Heaven. He made Heaven, the House of God, a dwelling place for humanity. Because Mary made her womb a dwelling place for God.

This last point is important. God gave Mary a place in His House because Mary gave God a place in her womb, in her heart, in her life. The Christmas Story is an unfinished story, a story that is meant to finish in every human heart. The Baby Jesus comes to our door, like His parents did on the first Christmas Eve, to see if there is a room for Him in our hearts. He does not mind that our hearts are like a stable or a barn, a humble place where animals (our sins) have left an unpleasant smell. He takes what we can give-- He is used to it. But He does like the centre of the stable--the manger--so that whenever we are hungry for happiness we come to Him. Christmas is an unfinished story because the Baby will return our hospitality: if we have given Him the central place in our humble barn, He will give us His place in Heaven.

This Christmas Day should not pass by without transforming our hearts. The mystery of Christmas is astonishing. God became so low in order to raise humanity so high. God became so low for us: we cannot ignore His kindness. When someone is humble, it is natural for us to raise him or her up: “I am not good enough,” he or she says, and we would respond, “O, please, don’t say that, you do such a good job!” How can we leave our Almighty God--made Baby--crying outside, or in the backyard of our lives? How much lower does He have to become before we will raise Him up in our hearts, before we will pay more attention to Him? He became even lower, I tell you, when He went to the cross, so that seeing how much He humbled Himself for us, we might embrace Him—cross and all. There is no greater love than God’s love. God became so low for us: we cannot ignore Him. And He did that to raise us as high as God Himself. “He gave those who welcome Him the power to become children of God” (cf. John 1:12) Not only does God want us to be happy, but to be like Him, and happy like He is. What God offers is so great, and what He asks in return is so little, so easy, so dutiful: to love Him, to give Him the centre of our humble stable, to place Him in the manger, like Mary did, and to enjoy Him and embrace Him as our own son. That is what we do at every Mass, every time we receive Communion. We come to the manger like Joseph, or like Mary, or like a poor sheep, to receive happiness . . .

May God give you the joy of Christmas at every Communion you receive. Merry Christmas!