Luke 2: 1-14
The Word (Mass at Night): https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122521-night.cfm
The popular English essayist C.S. Lewis once said about Christmas: “Jesus came quietly in this unobtrusive way because he was meant to slip clandestinely behind enemy lines.”
The image of the beloved Christmas scene at a
cave outside Bethlehem has become the iconic image of this beautiful time of
year in the Christian world. Yet, it
sounds as if Lewis took a more militaristic approach to the Lord’s coming. “Slipping behind enemy lines,” implies a
battle scene, one waiting to attack the enemy and proclaim victory in the
end. It implies one who feels their
undetected use of power will overcome the opposition without warning.
Even the prophet Isaiah, like a trumpet that
is blown, begins our first reading from the Christmas Mass at night with the
words: “The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light.” He goes on to speak a message of hope and healing
to a people who have been downtrodden, burdened, held in slavery. But it’s more than just a comforting
promise. He quickly gives a human
identity to the message and speaks of a child to be born, a “son is given us
who is named: “Wonder-Counselor,
God-Hero, Father-forever, and Prince of Peace.”
So we might imagine as the chosen people
hoped for centuries, that a mighty figure would be a man of great power and
influence over humanity. He would amass
a fearless army, live in palaces and spread his royal line well beyond himself
and make a mighty nation to rule over the world. In fact, we are faced this
time of year with an event that called for a clash of two powers: that of the
earth and that of God; the earthly and the divine. Darkness and Light face each other in the
most unlikely way.
Luke begins the familiar Christmas story with
the most powerful person in the ancient world, Caesar Augustus Emperor of
ancient Rome. This man who saw himself
as a great peacemaker, also bore the title of Savior and Lord. Whatever Caesar wants or wills, Caesar
gets. He speaks his “good news” and it
happens at his will. His power is absolute, unquestionable and he rules by fear
and force with a mighty army. Into this world, another power appears on the
scene – quietly and clandestinely – “behind enemy lines.”
The scene then shifts to a young, obscure and
poor Jewish couple who obediently travel to the village of Bethlehem to
register for the census the powerful Caesar has demanded and the mother is very
near child birth. Luke’s continued focus
on this scene powerfully tells us that the child which Mary bears will be the
prince of peace. In fact, Luke’s narration has more to do with this couple and
child than it does with mighty Caesar.
The power of this child far out shines that of earth.
If we can remove sentimentality around the
manger scene for a moment it brings us to see this as a great playing out of
God’s plan from the beginning. If we can
see this as the culmination of centuries of human experience planned in the
mind of God to send his Son among us then we cannot ignore what God is
saying. What drama do we participate in?
The Christmas message is a proposal to all humankind that humanity and all
creation is worth saving; that we are loved by a God who operates only out of
love for the other and that he comes to set us free and that no matter how far
to the dark we may have gone, no one is beyond conversion if we follow the path
he shows us.
Mary and Joseph, Elizabeth and Zachariah and
John the Baptist as central figures in this unfolding of God’s plan are not figures
of power and influence. They come as
simple and ordinary. Yet through their cooperation God changes the world. This
is God’s plan and the story he has written and directed in the birth of this
child to whom everyone looks as the central figure in the new order God has
arranged.
But, a child seems powerless. The contrast could not be more stark between
the fearful Caesar in a palace the most powerful man on earth and a young
couple in a tiny stable with animals and what seems an ordinary Jewish baby
whose coming challenges us to recognize who truly rules the world and by what
force – that of love and mercy.
So, the Christmas story assures us that the
power of God has come. The power, unlike
that of ancient Caesar or any present day leader, to bring about an interior
change in our hearts. Earthly power
affect the external world. Laws can be
changed or enforced and other economic fallout is measured but the power of
Christ replaces fear with faith, doubt with trust, and hopelessness with hope.
Through an interior change of heart and mind with the greater power of love,
forgiveness, healing and hope. That is a
power we are called to exercise ourselves and to reject fear, force, greed,
indifference, and selfishness from our hearts.
God chose to do this. The birth of this good
news was brought to the world not through a mighty army, the blast of a trumpet
or some unexpected proclamation. It came
through the cry of a new born child. The
cry of a baby is the sound of Christmas; it announces a new beginning, a new
hope, a promise beyond our expectation, and a love beyond all telling.
What can we learn? That we must look for God in the ordinary and
the margins around us. We see that real power is that of a love which gives
itself away as the infant was laid not in a comfortable crib but on straw, in a
manger, a feeding trough for the animals in the cave. Jesus, then offers himself as food for the
world, as the bread of life, as the Holy Eucharist at each Mass. The Lord comes
to us once again is that great sign of unity to go from the manger to the altar
to our lives as food for our journey back to him.
As we gather around Word and Sacrament at
Holy Mass this Christmastime, let’s reflect, rejoice, and embrace this new good
news of the Savior that is both ancient and new. God entered secretly in
Bethlehem so that we might find him and rejoice at his coming.
Be not afraid: “Today is born our Savior,
Christ the Lord”
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