December 25: Christmas Day / Día de Navidad

Over 2,000 years ago, God wrapped Himself in Mary’s womb for nine months, a gift waiting to be delivered, to be opened. We now celebrate the "unwrapping" of Divinity for all the world to see, hold, and cradle in its arms.

In Jesus, born in Bethlehem, there is the perfect union of all that is human and all that is Divine. In the Sacrament of the Altar, the Eucharist, we meet the same Jesus. There He "wraps" Himself in the Bread and Cup of the Eucharist that we might receive the gift of His Body and Blood, the soul and Divinity of God’s Word made flesh for us. Also, the wood of the manger becomes the wood of the Altar where Christ "unwraps" Himself for us again.

With every gift we unwrap this Christmas let’s pray for the Lord to unwrap us, too. There’s no greater birthday gift we might offer the Lord than ourselves, unwrapped of our pretense and pride, of our selfishness and sin, of anything that keeps us from the love of God and the love of those around us. Clearly, Christmas is a time for unwrapping gifts. May the Lord unwrap us – we need His help, for we cannot unwrap ourselves.

***

A Poem for Christmas

A little girl is singing for the faithful to come ye

Joyful and triumphant, a song she loves,

And also the partridge in a pear tree

And the golden rings and the turtle doves.

In the dark streets, red lights and green and blue

Where the faithful live, some joyful, some troubled,

Enduring the cold and also the flu,

Taking the garbage out and keeping the sidewalk shoveled.

Not much triumph going on here—and yet

There is much we do not understand.

And my hopes and fears are met

In this small singer holding onto my hand.

Onward we go, faithfully, into the dark

And are there angels singing overhead? Hark.

- Gary Johnson

***

Dios se ha manifestado. Lo ha hecho como niño. Precisamente así se contrapone a toda violencia y trae un mensaje que es paz, y nuestra espera ha llegado a su fin: nuestro Salvador ha nacido y la fiesta de la Navidad nos llena de alegría.

La Navidad es la manifestación de Dios y de su gran Luz en un niño que ha nacido para nosotros – nacido en un establo en Belén, no en los palacios de los reyes. 

Que hoy Jesús, en los brazos de María y bajo la mirada serena de José, nos haga renacer en nuestra fe. Nos haga conmover ante este Misterio y nos transforme en portadores de verdad, de bondad, de solidaridad, y de perdón. ¡Feliz Navidad!