Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
As we approach the great celebration of Christmas, many of us may be feeling the pressure of the holiday. There is, right, wrong, or indifferent, a lot of expectation to make sure everything goes ‘right’. Much of that is self-imposed, but there’s family and societal expectation as well. And while the desire to make Christmas perfect for ourselves and our loved ones, in some ways, it may be missing the deeper importance of the mystery we celebrate. In many ways, Christmas is the elevation of the imperfect to something more.
You may accuse me of what is known as a “Low Christology”. Blame it on my largely Franciscan spirituality, but I tend to look at our Blessed Lord through the lens of his humanity first, and reflect on his divinity thereafter. If you tend to think of Christ in terms of his divine nature first and his humanity thereafter, that’s perfectly acceptable, but depending on your view, certain elements of the person of Jesus may strike you differently because of it. The Incarnation is a good example of where these perspectives may approach things in a different light. A higher Christology might look and marvel at how God’s immense love for us is manifested with the birth of Jesus, kicking into motion His eternal plan of salvation. You may focus on the angelic choirs filling the sky, the approaching of the Magi with their gifts, the message of “Glory to God in the Highest and Peace to Men of Good Will.” And that’s all wonderful.
But for myself, I tend to think of the challenges the Holy Family faced in those early days. How Mary and Joseph encountered strain on their relationship with the sudden news of her being pregnant, how exhausting it must have been for them to schlep over to Bethlehem in order to be part of the census, how humiliating it was to take refuge in a manger and find themselves surrounding by animals and shepherds in what should have been a close and intimate moment. To say that it wasn’t picture perfect isn’t exactly a wild claim. And yet, for everything that we might point to as being ‘wrong’, there’s also a sense that there’s a meaning to each and every part of it. God the Father, knowing all, chose to send His Son into the true lowliness and messiness of the human condition, not to condemn it, but to redeem it. How many of those shepherds had their lives changed by the experience of Christmas? What strength did Mary and Joseph gain in overcoming the challenges of Jesus’s birth? How powerful is it, that our Blessed Lord was born in poverty and became the powerful miracle worker and preacher that He was?
Not everything may be perfect for your Christmas this year. But don’t be discouraged. Rather see it as a chance to welcome Christ into such things, and to welcome Him more closely into your heart as well.
Peace and Goodness,
Fr. Dan
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