One of the great traditions of Christmas is the Xmas Cards, no matter whether it is printed style, msn message or email formats. But have you noticed that every year Christmas Cards are less and less religious? Most of the cards are related to snow, Santa Clause or scenic winter pictures. I dare to say that the message portrayed in the cards has nothing to do with tonight’s, December 24 celebration. Even if you buy a card with the picture of the Holy Family, like the ones that our brother Sebastian bought for us, it looks far away from reality. Mary does not look like she just had a baby; Joseph looks like one of the Beatles and not like the typical father worrying for not been able to find a place for his family to stay. Even the baby Jesus does not look like he just came out of the womb. You know what I mean? Xmas Cards do not portray the reality of Christmas because what would be realistic could not be beautiful.
In fact the first Christmas was neither beautiful nor perfect. The story of the Christmas we celebrate today was filled with mess and confusion. I would like to invite you to read the first Christmas story and find out how many things went wrong. Let me just enumerate a few things: Mary was expecting and Joseph didn’t understand this at all, and had his doubts about what was going on; because of the Census Mary and Joseph had to travel; Bethlehem was very crowded and there was no room at the inn, as the story says; they were stuck in the middle of nowhere and Mary in labor had the baby in a stable; the shepherds all of a sudden saw an angels and got terrified; the three kings or wise men got lost. As you can see the First Christmas has nothing to do with what is portrayed in our Christmas Cards. The First Christmas was not perfect scenery, it was a complete mess.
Our world like the first Christmas is not a perfect picture either. We live every day in a messy world. There are wars; there are conflicts; people get sick; terrorists attack innocent people; we have earthquakes like the one in Japan or flooding like this month in the Philippines; there are car accidents; our loved ones die, and we get lost, we hurt each other, etc. etc. etc. Imagine if we had to portray this in a Christmas card! Nobody would buy it. Nobody wants to deal with messy things, except one person: Jesus. And this is the good news for us in this messy world we live in. He came to handle our mess. God has been handling mess ever since that night in a barn outside of Bethlehem. He took our mess upon Himself. You cannot put that on a Christmas card, because nobody would buy it. It is not pretty or beautiful or festive. But the fact is that He changed us and our world forever. And that is something beautiful, even when it is messy. That is something to celebrate today, and forever. That is something worth to be portrayed in a Christmas card. Would you buy that Christmas card or would you be afraid?
Across two thousand years, the words of the angels reach out to us in joy and hope and consolation. No matter who you are, no matter where you live, no matter what your circumstances are, this is what matters: Do not be afraid. Are you afraid?
While so many people are powerless by fear of what is coming on the world, you and I can share the conviction, which comes from beyond us, from beyond our powers. God did not come as a dictator demanding submission but as a vulnerable child. God did not come as a legislator with an ideology but in the life of a child to melt our divisions and with the promise of peace and goodwill for the entire world. Jesus is the hope for peace on earth, for peace of heart. “Do not be afraidâ€.
Another great tradition of Christmas is the exchange of gifts. I do not know about you but whenever I receive a gift there is always a kind of excitement for what the gift could be and whenever I give a gift there is a kind of anxiety to whether the person will accept and like the gift. Allow me to tell you a story I read long time ago: A young man who was about to graduate was asked by his parents what he would like to have as a graduation gift. He told his parents that he would like a sports car that he had seen in the showroom of one of the car dealers shops. So on the big day of the graduation his father gave his son a small but beautifully wrapped gift.
With great disappointed he unwrapped the small gift to find a lovely leather-bound Bible. Looking at the gift and at his father he said: “With all the money you have and you give me a Bible“. He put the Bible on top of a chair and left the house.
As the years passed by the young man became more and more successful in his business with a lovely family and a lovely home. He had everything that a man can aim to achieve, however the fact that since his graduation he had not spent any real time with his father, was something that was bothering him continuously, so he decided that he should go and make up with his father.
Before he could make the arrangements, he received a telephone call to say his father had passed away suddenly. When he arrived to his father’s house he was filled with sadness and regret. He also found the Bible still new as he had left it.
With tears he opened the Bible and as he turned the pages, a car key fell out from the back of the Bible. It had a tag attached with the dealer’s name of the sports car he had desired, the date of his graduation, and the words paid in full.
God sent his only Son into our messy world and messy lives because he wanted to do so, just because he loved us. Everything that we celebrate tonight is a gift. Tonight we celebrate the most durable, long-lasting enduring gift of all. However the gift comes wrapped not in beautiful and colorful wrapping papers but wrapped in swaddling clothes, placed not under the Christmas tree but lying in a manger.
The question we have to ask ourselves tonight is: Do we miss God’s blessings and answers to our prayers because they do not come as we had expected?
The value of the Christmas story is not to simply give us information about what happened 2000 years ago but rather to point out the way we are called to live. This story tells us that the way to happiness is the art of compromise. There are many things that none of us want to deal with at Christmas. We do not want to struggle with poor health, take care of a sick person, finances problems, losing a loved one which comes from divorce or death. But there are people here with those realities right in the center of their lives. Can we compromise? Can we choose to find the good that is still in our life, the people who love us, the opportunities that are still ours, or will we insist that there can be no joy until things change?
The first Christmas was neither white, silent, perfect nor the Christmas that Mary or Joseph have chosen. I am sure they would have preferred a Christmas that was more familiar, safer, and cleaner, however it was a compromised Christmas.
Jesus presents himself to us tonight and anxiously looks on, hoping that He will be accepted by each one of us. The Giver of the gift Himself becomes the Gift. As we ponder about the first Christmas and meditate upon our own Christmas, let us all say to the Lord: “This is not only the gift I wanted, it is truly the gift I needed. It is the perfect gift, it is the perfect Christmasâ€.
FR. ALEJANDRO SALCEDO, OP
St. Dominic’s Priory