Christmas - Birthing of God in our Midst

Christmas 2022 - 25 December 2022 General Reflections on Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ

Readings: Isaiah 52:7–10; Psalms 98:1–6; Hebrews 1:1–6; John 1:1–18

Christmas Crib at St Joseph's CBSE, Bengaluru
To listen to my audio-video reflections via YouTube, please click here: https://youtu.be/BCF1G0ML9rg

With great excitement, we celebrate Christmas, Jesus Christ’s humble birth in Bethlehem on a manger two thousand years ago. We commemorate this event of God becoming like one of us, of flesh and blood in a unique way by attending liturgy in our Churches and parishes. We gather together as a worshipping community to recall that event which is a once and for all in the history of humanity but with an eye on the future. A future, which has to be viewed from our eyes of faith that God continues to be born in us and live in us and with us in an extraordinary way through his graces, and the strength that he gives to live our Christian lives. 

1. When God wills, nobody can put constraints

Firstly, the liturgical readings on this day significantly clarify that God continues to love the world and its people. God loves to bring forth His plans of salvation through concrete people and through concrete actions. If we contemplate the mystery of the birth of Jesus, we are more than startled than relieved of this gripping story. Mary is conceived through the Holy Spirit; she was just engaged to Joseph, and when the days arrived to deliver her baby she had no place, moreover, people around her were not generous, and were not ready to give a place to her. What does it mean? 

Joseph and Mary must have certainly felt social, religious, economic and physical alienation or exclusion from this complex reality in which they had to carry out a hidden mission that was manifested to this Israelite couple. Perhaps the mission of every Christian today is to be part of that vocation which God gives us because as prophet Ezekial writes in chapter 36:26-27 ‘I will give you a new heart and place, a new spirit within you, …I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my statutes, careful to observe my decrees.’ If God wants us to live our Christian vocation, then certainly, he will help us to carry forward as well. 

2. God-given names have power

Secondly, the special message that this Christmas gives us is through the Angel, who says to Joseph to name the new baby ‘Emmanuel’ which means God with us. Christmas is a feast to remind us that God is with us. That is why we often call Jesus in our prayers.  We repeat the name “Jesus.” In Eastern Christianity, there is a famous ‘Jesus prayer’ which is a continuous invocation or repetition of the name “Jesus” probably with a few more words added to it like, ‘Jesus son of God have mercy on me’. There is a power in the name ‘Jesus.’ Therefore, it is precious to us. 

The disciples of Jesus worked miracles by calling out the name of Jesus. The best example is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles 3:1-10. Peter while going up to the temple along with John says to the crippled beggar who asked from them alms: ‘I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.’ And the Bible says ‘He leaped up, stood, and walked around, and went into the temple with them, walking and jumping and praising God.’ 

3. Christ is the answer to our questions    

Thirdly, this Christmas gives us is a sense of the importance of having a strong family bond. In the alien land of Bethlehem with the uncertainties of the place for delivery and privacy, along with Mary even Joseph suffered. They had none at that moment to help them. The image of this family in that manger tells us so sadly that together they felt hopeless but that helplessness was soon turned into joy with the arrival of shepherds and the singing of angels. 

The strength of our faith the community that is visible and active. Fellowship and communion become very much part of our Christian existence. We celebrate Christmas not just with millions of people but also people from every corner of the earth. Christmas overthrows all boundaries, walls of division, and discord which is expressed in terms based on our colour, culture, creed, and nationalities. During Christmas, we need not argue for God but Christ argues for us. Christ is the answer to our questions. 

Christmas is the moment in which God expressed boldly that he became small for the world. In His lowliness, we see the greatness of God. It is a feast around a newborn baby. By celebrating Christmas and participating in the liturgy, we share in the faith of the world. We belong to a World Church. By celebrating this Christmas we belong to the World Faith, we meet the World’s Saviour. And we pray that this World’s Saviour and the Saviour of you and me, remain with us and grace us today and always. Amen.  

I wish you, dear reader of my blog, a very happy Christmas to you and your family/community. 

- Olvin Veigas, SJ

22 December 2022