Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

CHRISTMAS GIFTS

Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

Sirach 3: 2-6, 12-14; Colossians 3: 12-21; Luke 2: 41-52

“What do you want for Christmas?”

If you had asked that question to a child this past month, you probably got an earful, an extensive wish list of the latest toys, technology and fashion that’s been marketed to them on television. Everything from Nintendo Switch to Hot Wheels Supercharged Shark Vehicle to Lego Marvel Avengers. And so, Santa’s job (or the job for “Santa’s Helpers”) was an easy one because they let us know in exact detail what they wanted . . . the things that, along with sugar plums, danced in their heads.

But it’s harder to buy for others on our Christmas shopping list. As we get older, our wish list gets shorter and when asked, “What do you want for Christmas?” the response is: “Nothing.” “There’s nothing I need or want.” “What could I want? I have everything.” And so for those people, usually older folk - grandparents, parents, husbands and wives - choosing the perfect gift is a challenge. It takes thought and creativity. Because, despite their answer, something in us still wants to not only give them something but give them the perfect something . . . the something that will express our love for them and make them happy.

Did you ever leave someone off your Christmas shopping list? Someone that you forgot to buy for? When that happens, often times we resort to re-gifting. We give them something that we were given. Sometimes it’s something that we’re all too happy to get rid of: the thing we already have twelve of, the ugly Christmas sweater, the thing we didn’t want, didn’t ask for, never will use, wouldn’t be caught dead wearing. Sometimes it’s something we reluctantly give away, something cherished, something we give joyfully and unselfishly, knowing it’s something that someone else needs or wants, something that will look better on them, something that will bring them happiness.

If you think about it, there IS probably someone who didn’t make it onto your list this year. And there’s a good chance that he never has. Yesterday we celebrated a midnight clear, a child's cry, a blazing star hanging over a stable, and wise men coming from afar with birthday gifts. We haven't forgotten that night down the centuries. We celebrate it with stars on Christmas trees, with the sound of bells, with song and with gifts. But especially with gifts. Gifts for young. Gifts for old. Gifts for family. Gifts for friends. Gift for bosses. Gifts for school teacher, mailman, and hair dresser. Gifts given out of love. Gifts given out of appreciation. Gifts given out of obligation. Gifts for all . . . except the one whose birth we celebrate.

Maybe he’s never made it onto our shopping list, because he’s difficult to buy for. He’s like the family member who tells us he doesn’t need anything . . . he has everything. After all, what can you give the SON OF GOD??? What can you give the one who needs nothing and if he did, could create it for himself? I’ve thought about that question a lot, and I’ve come up with one thing that God cannot give himself. And that’s LOVE. Because the very nature of love is that it’s dynamic, creative and never focused inward but always extended outward - towards someone or something else. Love, when it’s true love, is the total gift of self, and you can’t give yourself to yourself but only to someone else. The very last lyric that Oscar Hammerstein wrote says it beautifully: “A bell is no bell till you ring it. A song is no song till you sing it. And love in your heart wasn’t put there to stay. Love isn’t love till you give it away.”

If you think about it, love was the first Christmas gift, the gift of Mary and Joseph. Unconditional love. The type of love that causes a fourteen-year-old girl to say yes to God, despite confusion, unanswered questions, feelings of inadequacy, and the possibility of the loss of her reputation and maybe even her life. The kind of love that transforms a faith-filled virgin into a faithful mother: unconditional love.

It’s the type of love that causes a carpenter to give up his own dreams and plans in favor of God’s will . . . to accept a pregnant girl as his bride . . . to raise someone else’s child as his own. It’s the kind of love that transforms a righteous dreamer into a father of the heart. Unconditional love.

Before angels gave their gift of song, before kings presented their gold, frankincense and myrrh, before shepherds knelt and offered their praise; there in the solitude of the stable, the Virgin and the Carpenter offered the first gift, the greatest gift: the gift of their love. Unconditional love.

It’s the type of love that Jesus had, a lesson he learned well as a member of that Holy Family - the type of love that led him from the manger to the cross. The type of love he said we should have when he said, “Love one another as I have loved you.”

Our gift of love to Jesus is one that’s re-gifted, because it’s the very gift that he has given us. He doesn’t care what the wrapping and ribbon look like, because much like a father whose son or daughter gives him the handmade art class project, despite its imperfections, when it’s given, it’s worth more to him than all the diamonds at Tiffany’s.

So, if you made your list, checked it twice, but left off he whose birth we celebrate, don’t worry. Belated gifts are accepted and cherished. And just as Christmas gifts come in different varieties, sizes and colors, so too does the gift of unconditional love to babe of Bethlehem, the man of Golgatha. It might be wrapped in the honesty and integrity with which you conduct business in a competitive, cutthroat, backstabbing workplace; the faithfulness to your marriage vows amidst the temptations and allures of our sexually promiscuous society; the total dedication to your children in our materialistic culture that places greater value on productivity than on parenting, quantity of work time over quality of family time; The ribbons and bows of your gift of unconditional love might be the gentleness and fairness with which you treat both neighbor and stranger, or embracing Gospel values over Hollywood values, or time set aside for prayer and worship amidst a life of schedules and obligations.

Our gift for the one born on a starlit night so long ago can’t be found in Santa’s workshop, in a department store, or online. It needs to be found in the same place Mary and Joseph found it – in the heart. And make no mistake about it: unconditional love doesn’t come cheap. It costs. As a matter of fact, it costs everything. But it is the only gift worthy of the Son of God.

Happy Birthday, Jesus! . . . Sorry if I’m late.

The Promise

 

THE PROMISE

A Promise was given. 

A pledge was made.

Good news was spoken.
Sinful humanity would be saved.

It wasn’t a Promise made in anger,

with harsh words of guilt and condemnation,

but one in which hope, love and mercy

revealed the heart of the Promise Maker.

He didn’t reveal the where or the how or the when.

For God is more concerned with truth than with details.

And so, the Promise became the longing of the heart

for countless generations.

They recalled it, spoke of it, dreamed of it,

yearned for it, prayed for it.

Prophets clarified it.

Rabbis taught about it.

The Chosen Ones prepared for it.

God did not wait till the world was ready and nations were at peace.

He didn’t wait for the perfect time

when hearts were pure and untarnished by sin.

It didn’t happen when people thought it would . . .

thought it should.

God’s Promise came 

in God’s time,

in God’s way.

And that hoped for, longed for, prayed for moment

would be better than ever could be imagined!

God Himself would visit and ransom His People.

And he would rule over His People . . .

more than just the nation of Israel

but the whole world,

not with wealth, nor military might,

but with the power of love, compassion, gentleness and mercy.

And so, God sent His messenger to announce

that the time of fulfilment had arrived.

Not to Rome and to its mighty emperors;

Not to Jerusalem and to their power-hungry, paranoid king

did the message come.

But to an obscure Galilean village called Nazareth.

To a young, simple virgin named Mary.

The time was right.

The time was now.

The Word would become flesh and dwell among us!

He is Emmanuel – God-with-us.

Savior, Prince of Peace.

Not just a Promise Maker,

But a Promise Keeper.

THE CHRISTMAS VISITOR

The Fourth Sunday of Advent (Year C)

Micah 5: 1-4a; Hebrews 10: 5-10; Luke 1: 39-45

Have you packed the car yet to go over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house? If that’s where you’ll find yourself over the next two weeks, you’re in good company. According to AAA, more than 109 million people will travel this holiday season – from December 21st to January 1st. That’s more than three times more Americans, or 27.7 million more people who’ll be packing the sleigh this Christmas to visit relatives or friends than did last year.

Visiting . . .

Children may be expecting a “visit” that results in toys under the tree next Saturday morning. And adults, well, we anticipate a visit from a letter carrier bringing credit card bills over the next couple of weeks. But we make Christmas visits (whether it’s across the country or down the street) because we want to be near one another, close to one another at this special time of the year.

The gospel today begins with a visit: “Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste . . .” Despite her own pregnancy and despite the angelic proclamation that she was the one who had been chosen from the beginning of time to be the mother of the Son of God, Mary left her home in Nazareth and went to Ein Karem to visit her older and also pregnant, relative, Elizabeth. The distance between the two villages is roughly 100 miles. Ein Karem is on the outskirts of Jerusalem and is about 2,474 feet above sea level, while Nazareth is at 1,138 feet. This means Mary had to trek uphill nearly 1,336 feet in elevation! Besides the physical toll it must have taken on the newly pregnant Virgin Mary, the path she took had many hidden dangers. The dirt path that wound through the mountainous region is believed to have been a popular place for bandits, who would surprise unsuspecting travelers.

This encounter between these two pregnant women is called the Visitation and is recalled, not only on this Fourth Sunday of Advent, but also on May 31st, the Feast of the Visitation, and each time we pray the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary. Mary, literally, brings Jesus to another, as she carries him in her womb and goes to her cousin. This is a great story for us to hear just before Christmas, the feast that celebrates the greatest visit in human history: God visiting his people, in Christ, some 2000 years ago. Not through a vision, not through a prophet, not by email: this wasn’t a “virtual visit” this was a visit in the flesh, in real time. God’s visiting the world began in just the same way our coming into the world began: through the door of a mother’s womb.

We’ve all heard a pregnant woman tell us, “I just felt the baby kick!” That’s what Elizabeth told Mary when she said, “As soon as I heard your voice, the child within me leaped for joy!” Elizabeth was carrying the child who would become John the Baptist, Christ's cousin, and in her heart she already understood who the Child who’d come to visit her in Mary’s womb was.

At Christmas we celebrate Christ who came to visit us. And Christ is a visitor who stayed not for just a day or two; in fact, not even a lifetime was long enough for him. Jesus didn’t just “stop by.” Christ moved in . . . He moved into humankind, into our history, into our hearts and our hopes, our problems and our pain; our worries and our wounds; our dreams and our desires; into our past, our present and our future. Jesus came to visit - and has never, not even for moment, left us.

Christmas is a time for renewing family relationships and friendships, a time when we try to be especially warm and welcoming of one another - even of the stranger. It’s a time to be especially warm in welcoming Jesus, too, and to welcome him to visit in those places in our hearts and lives where perhaps in the past we've told him in one way or another, “Sorry, there’s no room in the inn for you here.”

Jesus is a good and gentle guest: He comes with love and mercy and with peace. He doesn't leave those under a tree or stuffed in a stocking. He leaves them in our hearts. He knows our hearts’ desires and wants to fulfill the deepest needs we have.

For the past four weeks, as we’ve lit our Advent candle, we sang “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” And He has. Jesus is Emmanuel, God-with-us. He is no overnight guest. He is the God who stays. Stays . . . to share our joys. Stays . . . to share our sorrows. Stays . . . when we need Him most. Stays . . . when we don’t even know He’s around. Stays . . . at the times we beg Him to be there. Stays . . . even at the times when, through our sinful acts, we’ve asked him to leave. He stays . . . never distant . . . sometimes quiet. He stays . . . sometimes making His presence known in the loud, the dramatic, the miraculous. He stays . . . sometimes His presence is so subtle and unnoticed that we chalk up the things He does for us as mere coincidence. He stays . . . He visits . . . He ransoms . . . He redeems. He is the guest of our soul . . . The guest who refuses to leave.

And so, in this week that will culminate in the celebration of His nativity, let us pray: Maranatha, come Lord Jesus! Come into our hearts! Come into our souls! Come into our lives!

Maranatha, come Lord Jesus! Come to the world as King of the nations where we wage war against the empires and kingdoms of this world.

Maranatha, come Lord Jesus! Come into our suffering as Savior and Comforter where we languish in sickness and sorrow. 

Maranatha, come Lord Jesus! Come into our conflict as Prince of Peace where we sorrow with quarrel and strife. 

Maranatha, come Lord Jesus! Come to our families as Heavenly Father and Holy Brother where we wrestle with relationships broken and ragged. 

Maranatha, come Lord Jesus!

Come, O Wisdom from our Most High God!

Come, O Leader of the House of Israel!

Come, O Root of Jesse’s Stem!

Come, O Key of David!

Come, O Radiant Dawn!

Come, O King of all nations!

Come, O Emmanuel!

Come, O God-with-us and give us Christmas peace and Christmas hope and Christmas love and Christmas joy. Come, O Sacred Visitor . . . Come, O Divine Gift wrapped in an infant’s body. Come, O Christmas Guest. Come, O Christ the Lord. Come . . . visit . . . stay in the unworthy manger of our hearts.