We know what preceded today’s gospel story. There was no room in the inn and so the Christ child is lying in a manger. It is as if Luke is telling us that the world we know, the helter-skelter of daily life, the political and economic realm and, yes, even some in our religious institutions, have no room for the Savior — not in the way he comes to us. The inns of our world are too full to let him in. If we did, we would have to rearrange, even throw out, a lot of furniture in our inn.
There is no room for Jesus in any inn that favors the high-paying guests and the movers and shakers over the simple, powerless and voiceless. While the special are preoccupied with one another and the business at hand, the child in the manger cannot be seen behind their “members-only” doors. They carry on life and business as usual, unaware of what God is offering them.
Meanwhile, God is far from idle. God has a different kind of “business” to accomplish — the work of our salvation. God continues to do what God has always done: notice our need and address it. Indeed, many similar stories preceded today’s, not just in Luke’s gospel, but from the first pages of the Bible. God has always kept us in mind, especially when we were in most need or did not keep God in mind.
There are a lot of people whom we would have expected to be at the great event of Christ’s birth — but they weren’t there. The king and the priests aren’t there. The political powers are missing; as are the learned religious scholars. Those who would have wanted a photo oportunity were out of the picture. Why didn’t they get their invitation? Had they forgotten to check their mail? Did their secretaries misplace the gold embossed invitation? No, because the invitation to the birth of the Prince of Peace wasn’t sent to them. God had some special guests in mind for the royal occasion. These invitees were out in the fields. They had no mailboxes or social secretaries to contact so, our ever-inventive God sent special messengers to deliver the invitation.
Who could have been more surprised than the shepherds? To them was announced the good news the world needed and waited long to hear. It was a special delivery piece of good news to the least special people in society (along with tax collectors and prostitutes, but they’ll get their invitation later in the gospel). Shepherds were a suspect group. They were on the move a lot and when they packed up to go to another pasture the people they left behind checked their belongings to see what was missing.
Nevertheless, the shepherds were at the manger, the least likely worshipers, in from the hill country. What had they done to earn this favor, a special invitation, from our God? Nothing, that’s the point. Christmas is about gift giving. It starts with God’s noticing the least and giving them a gift. This gospel story may be unique in its details, but its bottom line reveals the key biblical message God has for each of us. It’s all about grace. We don’t deserve or earn it, but it’s there for us anyway.
Jesus was born among a subjugated people, into a hard world. Different in time, but not different in conditions, than our own. The light comes into our world where darkness seems to have the upper hand: poverty, war, exiles, slavery, loneliness, sickness, exploitation and death. Still, his birth gives us hope that whatever darkness or death we experience, Christ assures us that new life is possible. A Savior has been born to us.
We join Mary as we reflect on what “all these things” can mean for us and our world. We begin by looking for Christ in the least-likely places. He can be found, if our story is any guide, among the outsiders and in the most surprising places. The influential and powerful would consider Bethlehem a no-account village — to say nothing of what they would have thought about the stable and manger as the birth site for God’s Savior!
I have been getting Christmas cards from friends and family. Many contain special photos of the children taken just for Christmas. The kids look perfect (I’m sure their parents know otherwise). Those Christmas photos are on my mind as I try to picture today’s gospel scene. The birth happened in a stable, or some cave out back of the inn. Wherever it was, it was the most unlikely royal birthing room for a King. As unlikely a scene as the gospel pictures for us, it’s nevertheless a picture of a family gathering — Mary, the peasant girl with a loving husband and those shepherds at the newborn’s side. It’s just the kind of diverse family Jesus has come to be part of.
Through our baptism we are members of that family. Lord knows our lives aren’t picture-perfect. There are parts, or even a lot of our lives, that we can’t spruce up for a holiday picture. In some ways we’re like those shepherds, ragged and living on the edge of things, but invited nevertheless.
Our media is filled these days with politicians trying to show their perfect selves to us. They hardly seem human, not like one of us. They arrange their messages to speak to the majority. They are after our vote. I can’t imagine relaxing with them over a plate of pasta and the house wine. I’d rather share a meal with the shepherds.
Come to think of it, I frequently do at each Eucharist. We come in from the fields and hillsides of life, weary with work, preoccupied with worry for ourselves, our kids and the whole world. Some of us show up only on occasions like this, Christmas and Easter. Some carry wounds inflicted inside or outside our homes. Some are just plain lost.
All of us make ourselves at home around the table, with Mary, our model and loving mother. With her we “keep all these things, reflecting on them.” The “things” she saw and heard was God’s invitation to the least and those in need. That’s why we have gathered at Eucharist, we are in need too. When we receive the good things God has for us we will go out and find other shepherds in the fields to share the glad tidings with them.
“TODAY…a Saviour has been born to you”
Luke finishes his narrative of the birth of Jesus saying that “Mary treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.” She does not keep them as memory of the past, but as something she will remember for the rest of her life.
That is not a casual remark. Mary is a model of faith. According to the evangelist, believing in Jesus our Saviour does not simply consist in remembering past events, but in reliving today His saving power that can revitalize our human lives.
Hence Luke makes use of a very original literary form. Jesus does not simply belong to the past. The evangelist very deliberately keeps saying that the salvation of the risen Christ is being offered to us TODAY, just now, as long as we go out to meet Him. Let us consider some of these examples.
This is how the birth of Jesus is announced: “Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you.” Today Jesus could be born to us. He could enter our lives and change them for good. With Him we could experience a totally new life.
In a village of Judea, they brought a paralytic to Jesus. He felt pity because he saw he was blocked by the evil spirit and offered him pardon: “Your sins are forgiven.” The people around were astonished and said: “Today we have seen wonderful things.” We, too, can experience today the forgiveness, the peace and interior joy if we allow ourselves to be healed by Jesus.
In the city of Jericho, Jesus stayed at the home of Zacchaeus, a rich and influential tax collector. This encounter with Jesus transformed him: he decided to return all the money he had taken from many people and shared the rest with the poor. Jesus said: “Today, salvation has come to his house.” If we allow Jesus to enter into our lives, today we shall begin a new life of solidarity and compassion.
Jesus was dying on the cross between two thieves. One of them had started to believe in him and said: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus turned to him and said: “Today you will be with me in paradise.” Similarly, our own death may turn into a day of salvation for us. On that day, we shall hear the words of Jesus: come, trust in me, because today you will be with me forever.
Today, we begin a New Year. For us, however, what can really be good or new? Who can bring give us new life or joy? Is there any psychologist who can teach us to become more humane? Mere good wishes cannot change our lives. What really will change us must be found within our own selves. Salvation is offered to us each day. We cannot simply wait for it. Today could be for each one of us a day of salvation.
GRACEFUL MARY – Grateful Mother. Mary, Mother of God.
What does it mean that Mary was ‘full of grace’? What are the signs of grace in a person’s life? Knowing Mary from the scriptures and from the angel’s greetings,
we might begin to answer our question with a multiple-choice: Humility- Faithfulness- Devotion? What about mixing them all together?
Grace as Humility. One of the most obvious things about Mary is her humility. Hence, to be full of grace is to possess humility. Consider Mary’s response to being chosen by God to bear a son. Her response to Gabriel’s announcement is declaring herself as the “handmaiden” of the Lord. She does not respond with prideful self-glorification. She responds in submissive obedience. “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.” She understands fully her relation to God. Everything she said reflected a sincere and appropriate humility.
Humility is an unpopular word in our culture that prizes self-confidence and pride. Yet, humility is not a synonym for low-esteem. It does not mean thinking less of ourselves than we ought, which is as wrong as thinking more of ourselves than we ought. Humility is simply honesty about our selves in relation to God. When we acknowledge God as the sovereign and ultimate Lord of all, this puts everything else in perspective. We will not think too highly of ourselves because the status of sovereignty belongs only to God. We will not think too lowly of ourselves because we are created in God’s image.
In conclusion, humility involves two realizations. First, I am a sinner who falls short of the glory of God. Second, I am a child of God from whose love nothing can separate me. In other words, we accept our own strengths and weaknesses, whereby accepting also our dependence on God.
Grace as faithfulness. This might also be for “surrender”. When Mary heard that she was to be the mother of God, she could not have anticipated the full significance of what was happening to her. Let alone the ‘normal’ traumatic challenges and changes that motherhood brings along. Starting with pregnancy onward, a young mother’s life becomes permanently altered. Mary’s life was further complicated by the awesome implications of the angel’s message. Still, her response was consistently one of complete faithfulness – surrender: “May it be done to me according to your word.”
Graceful Mother of God!
Committing o any assignment is normally easier when we know in advance the nature of the circumstances and consequences we will be facing. Mary’s faithfulness to her calling was not based on an ability to anticipate all that lay ahead. There was so much about the future that she did not understand. Mary’s faithfulness was grounded in her simple ( awesome ) trust in God. Being “full of grace” meant being able to place her full reliance in the One who had chosen her. Faithful Mother of God!
Just so, our faith is not based on our knowledge of the future. We do not know what tomorrow holds. Life for everyone consists of a mysterious mixture of good and evil. Bad things eventually happen to the best of us. Faith is a relational word. We do not have faith in something that will or won’t happen, but in Someone. Our faith is in God who will be with us through whatever comes. We are called to be faithful to One who is ever-faithful to us.
Grace as Devotion. When we read today’s passage from Luke’s gospel, we learn something about the meaning of “full of grace”. The shepherds, on arriving at the crib,
fully understood and realized what they had been told by the angel: “I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” On angelic authority the shepherds identified the newborn baby as the long-promised Messiah. Luke says:
“All who head it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds.” And what did Mary say or do? She “kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.”
Humble, Graceful, Grateful Mary!
To be “full of grace” is to know deep feelings of devotion. Mary was gifted with a rare capacity of loving devotion.
MARY, MOTHER OF GOD – January 1
Of all those whom God has used to mediate His love, none is more honoured than Mary. We honour Mary precisely because, though she did not understand, she had faith enough to say, “Be it done unto me according to your will.”
The Hebrews have a proverb or saying that goes, “God realized that He couldn’t be everywhere at the same time – so He created mothers!” An apt story today comes from Winston Churchill. A work was being prepared on Churchill’s life. When he was asked to check a list of all those who had taught him, he responded, “You have failed to mention the greatest of my teachers – my mother.”
All through the Scriptures, we see that God always works through mediators, using prophets, Mary, shepherds, Peter and Paul to enter our lives. How do we receive God’s blessings? God used Moses, for instance, to call Aaron and his sons forward to make them mediators of His blessings. Incredible! In that culture, no one used another person’s name without permission. To use a person’s name implied intimacy. To use somebody else’s name implied that you were so close to that person that you had power over that person.
Of all those whom God had used to mediate His love, none is more honoured than Mary. First of all, she was a woman. By custom women did not speak for God; only men could do this. Yet God called a young woman to mediate Devine Love by bringing into the world Jesus Christ. While we tend to read backward into history and presume that Mary knew everything going on. She had to be told not to be afraid. She had to reflect on everything in her heart in order to reach some understanding of what was happening. Mary, because she did not understand, she had faith enough to say, “be it done unto me according to your word.”
How has God’s love been communicated to us during our Christmas season? Who became God’s mediator and did or said something to bring us closer to God? In all likelihood that person was not aware of acting on God’s behalf, but we felt God’s presence through that person.
Can we think of some of those mediators of God’s love throughout 2009? God chose a young girl, not a wise matriarch; shepherds, not kings, to mediate between Him and Mary.