On Recognizing and Receiving the Gift of God

He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him. (John 1:10-11)

The Gospel account of Luke tells us that Mary had to give birth to Jesus, the Son of the Most High, in, of all places, a shelter intended for animals, "because there was no room for them in the inn" (Luke 2:7). Bethlehem was apparently filled to capacity with people who, by decree of the Roman government, had returned to their hometown, in order to be registered as taxpayers. But yet, among all those people, there was not a single incidental witness to His miraculous birth there in their midst. Everyone was too busy responding to the voice of the world, to the "decree that went out from Caesar Augustus." Meanwhile, the Messiah had been humbly and silently "brought forth" by Mary, with the very people that had been longing for their King and His kingdom passing the night oblivious and unaffected.

No Room in the Inn

It was only to some shepherds tending their sheep in the area that the angel of the Lord appeared and announced that their promised Messiah had finally come. Like Mary (Luke 1:45), these simple people believed and rejoiced in what the Lord had told them through His heavenly messenger. The shepherds also made haste, "to see this thing" that had taken place, which the Lord had made known to them (Luke 2:15), as did Mary nine months prior, upon hearing the joyful news that her older childless relative Elizabeth had conceived a son (Luke 1:36-39), "for with God nothing will be impossible" (Luke 1:37).

It was clearly because of their faith in the Lord, in their openness and readiness of heart to the accepting of His Word, that the shepherds were blessed with the gifts of both receiving the news of the long-expected Messiah's birth, and of beholding Him with their own eyes. In their great joy, the shepherds then told everyone what they had heard and seen, and "all who heard it were amazed" (Luke 2:18). Like all the men and women in the entire Gospel of Luke who would approach and encounter Jesus with faith in their hearts, the shepherds were forever changed that night in a very dramatic way. They were still poor shepherds, returning to their flocks and their way of life, but now the joy-filled act of "glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them" (Luke 2:20) had also become a part of their day-to-day living.

But what about us? What is the focus of our attention at Christmas? Is it the tree and the gifts, or is it the Manger and the Eucharist? Are we indifferent to and unaffected by the birth of the Lord, or do we continue to be amazed by the mysteries of the Incarnation and God's infinite love for us?

A.R. Mengs, The Adoration of the Shepherds, 1770

Like the people in the Gospel who spent the night in the Inn, have we also perhaps returned to our own hometown to celebrate Christmas, finding ourselves resting comfortably in the company of family and friends, only to forget that there is One we have excluded from our company; that there is One we have left outside in the cold? Or are we like the humble shepherds, open to the voice and the grace of God, and eager to welcome our Savior Christ the Lord into our hearts, and at Mass, into our bodies as well? If it is His birth, His coming, that we are truly celebrating, then we, too, can be forever changed by our encounter anew with Jesus at the coming of Christmas, and after the celebration of this day and season has passed, can then return to our everyday lives, glorifying and praising God for all we have heard and seen, just as it had been told to us!

But to those who did accept him 
he gave power to become children of God,  
to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice 
nor by a man's decision but of God.  
And the Word became flesh 
and made his dwelling among us, 

and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, 

full of grace and truth (John 1:12-14).

A Great Joy Which Will Come to All People

In just one week, the Catholic Church and all Christians everywhere will celebrate the great feast of Christmas.  While the world has been telling us for a month to "get out there and go shopping" in preparation for Christmas Day, in our month of preparation called Advent, the Church has been calling us to "look inside and do inventory." As Christians, we don't need to go out and buy what we hope will bring happiness. We already have the One who brings not only true happiness, but everlasting joy, which no one else can give us!  So while the world puts its focus on the giving and receiving of store-bought gifts, the Church, in its proclaiming the Nativity once again, calls us to first rediscover afresh in the Gospel the One who is God's greatest gift to us, and then to go out into the world and share Christ Our Joy with others, so that He may be theirs as well!

This is what is at the heart of the New Evangelization, a joy made new, not only each year with our preparation for and in the welcoming of Christmas, but each day, as we wake knowing that He is ours and we are His.  This is the great joy which we are called to bring, to carry in our hearts wherever we go, so that it may indeed, by the grace of God, come to all people.

But the world will not come to know Him just in what we say.

“To be true disciples of the Lord, believers must
bear witness to their faith, and ‘witnesses testify not only with words,
but also with their lives.’”
—– Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia in America (26)—
 
Jesus is a person, not an idea. We are not only called to be His messengers, but to be nothing less than the living face and the presence of Christ.  For the sake of the Gospel and for the salvation of souls, in thanksgiving for the saving gift of Jesus, we are called to be Saints! Through our striving to live a holy life in and through His sacraments, at every moment relying upon and cooperating with His infinite mercy and sanctifying grace, the world which is so desperately searching for the Lord will have finally found Him-- in us! This is what it means to become His living witnesses, outwardly radiating His joy, because it is the Lord Himself who truly lives and breathes within us.

Adoration of the Child, Gerrit van Honthorst, c. 1620

We only need to look at Jesus Himself and at His Saints to know what holiness of life is, and how powerfully attractive and convincing a force it is.  How many times we have heard or read the Gospels' accounts of the obvious power of John the Baptist's preaching "of a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (Mark 1:4; Luke 3:3); that "all the country of Judea, and all the people of Jerusalem" went to him to be baptized and to confess their sins (Mark 1:5). Did the people go out to the Jordan in droves because John was a charismatic leader or a great speechwriter? He certainly wasn't preaching a message the people wanted to hear.  He was telling them unreservedly that they were sinners who needed to change!  But by God's grace, and because John lived what he preached, the truth in his words was irresistible. God used that unmistakable single-mindedness and single-heartedness of John to draw His people once again to Himself, inviting their hearts to become truly ready for the coming of the Messiah.

If we are then to work for the conversion of others, to help convince them that we speak the truth in proclaiming Christ, we must first of all live that message. We must be converted, continually and daily, with the measure of our conversion being the degree to which we can say to God, in joyful obedience, "Yes, Lord, have your way with me and with my life.  I am completely yours." Only then will Christ be truly born into our hearts, and then through us, into our world.

This Christmas, and for the rest of our lives, let "Joy to the World" be not only a hymn we sing in our hearts and in our churches-- and yes, also in the streets as carolers-- but let it also be our prayer for the world in the midst of its darkness and hopelessness, as it continues its search for true joy and lasting peace. Especially at this time of the year, we recall that salt not only adds flavor to our meals, it also melts ice. Let us be the salt that the Lord calls us to be; salt that will add the taste of hope and joy to the world's blandness, and in doing so, melt those hearts that still remain so cold to His.

...the Church needs genuine witnesses for the new evangelization: men and women whose lives have been transformed by meeting with Jesus, men and women who are capable of communicating this experience to others. The Church needs saints. All are called to holiness, and holy people alone can renew humanity." — Pope John Paul II, WYD Message to Youth, August 2004