Friday, December 23, 2005 at 2:02am
He's here
The Christmas readings for Mass at Midnight:
Isaiah 9:1-6
Psalm 96:1-3, 11-13
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-14
For a ministry of such high expectations, it was an inauspicious beginning to say the least. Being forced to go to Bethlehem because of Caesar's decree, being born in a stable and laid in a manger, and being greeted by the likes of shepherds is not exactly what we would think of if we were God and wanted to make our presence known on earth.
But that, of course, is the point. Let's look carefully at Luke's account without all the Christmas sentiment and legend that has arisen over the last 2,000 years. Not that sentiment and legend are bad, mind you, because they aren't. In fact, they're necessary for us to maintain our humanity. However, they can sometimes build up to the point that they obscure the very thing they were meant to enhance.
That Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem because of a census is no mere coincidence. By choosing to take on our human flesh, God chose to submit Himself to our very human affairs, including a census. The fact that He is born during a census points directly to His humanity since He is, quite literally, counted among us.
Today, we look at the fact that Jesus was born in a stable as being cute or perhaps even romantic. That's hardly the case. Anyone who lives on a farm can tell you that it would have stunk from the animals, both their own natural body odors as well as their excrement; it would have been cold; and it would have been noisy, despite what the Christmas carols say. These are extremely poor surroundings, not unlike that of the vast majority of people on earth today. The manger, remember, is the place in the stable where the owner puts the animals' food. This may have been not only hay, but also slop — leftovers from the table. That's not exactly the most comfortable of cribs.
The swaddling clothes mentioned by Luke are indicative of the fact that it was cold. Swaddling is something familiar to other cultures and somewhat to ours. When a child is swaddled, it is wrapped rather tightly with cloth. That happens in delivery rooms around the U.S. after birth - the child is wrapped in a receiving blanket in order to keep it warm.
All of these factors point to Jesus' humanity. If, as some people have argued over the centuries, Jesus Christ was merely God pretending to be human, there would have been no need for the swaddling. And being born in a stable and laid in a manger are certainly not ways that one receives a god, particularly in that culture.
Remember the story of the three men who visited Abraham? He would not let them pass by with giving them a full meal and entertaining them rather lavishly. For all he knew, these were but ordinary men - of course, we now know that it was a vision of God and a prefigurement of the doctrine of the Trinity - but how he treated them was as if they were royalty.
So if Jesus was merely pretending to be human and was "born" in these dire circumstances with none of the hospitality this culture normally attended to even with perfect strangers, then His ability as God would have to be seriously questioned.
Finally, the Gospel brings in the shepherds. Again, there is a romantic notion that we have obtained over the years about these guys of which we must be disabused. Shepherds were not the ones Mary and Joseph would have had on the top of their invitation list after the birth of Jesus. These guys lived out in the fields and the caves - they were rough, unkempt, uncouth and not really the most law-observant Jews. Yet it was to them and no one else that the angels appeared to bring the Good News of Jesus' birth.
We have to ask ourselves, why all this poverty? Why would the Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity, co-equal with the Father from all eternity, having no need whatsoever and deserving of all praise and adoration by all His creation, would descend to such depths? Not out of condescension, that's for sure, but out of love. This is the thing that is most lacking in the lives of the poor.
It was purely out of love that Christ took on our human flesh and was born in the most abject of conditions. It was to identify Himself with the poor — which is all of us. Bill and Melinda Gates, no matter if they be the richest people on earth, are still counted among the poor, those in need of a savior. It is our sin which makes us poor; it is His perfection which makes Him rich and from which we must receive. Thus the best Christmas gift is the gift of God made man because, as the Fathers have always said, God became man so that we might become God.
— — —
Thomas A. Szyszkiewicz, is a veteran investigative writer on issues and events in the Catholic Church and the world. His e-mail address is {email epiphany01@gmail.com}epiphany01@gmail.com{/email}. Visit Epiphany, the blog, to see additional commentary. © copyright 2005 by Thomas A. Szyszkiewicz.
— — —
UPI Religion & Spirituality Forum is a big tent for all expressions of faith and spirituality, neither excluding nor favoring any.
All opinions expressed belong to the writer alone, and are not necessarily shared by UPI Religion & Spirituality Forum.
Isaiah 9:1-6
Psalm 96:1-3, 11-13
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-14
For a ministry of such high expectations, it was an inauspicious beginning to say the least. Being forced to go to Bethlehem because of Caesar's decree, being born in a stable and laid in a manger, and being greeted by the likes of shepherds is not exactly what we would think of if we were God and wanted to make our presence known on earth.
But that, of course, is the point. Let's look carefully at Luke's account without all the Christmas sentiment and legend that has arisen over the last 2,000 years. Not that sentiment and legend are bad, mind you, because they aren't. In fact, they're necessary for us to maintain our humanity. However, they can sometimes build up to the point that they obscure the very thing they were meant to enhance.
That Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem because of a census is no mere coincidence. By choosing to take on our human flesh, God chose to submit Himself to our very human affairs, including a census. The fact that He is born during a census points directly to His humanity since He is, quite literally, counted among us.
Today, we look at the fact that Jesus was born in a stable as being cute or perhaps even romantic. That's hardly the case. Anyone who lives on a farm can tell you that it would have stunk from the animals, both their own natural body odors as well as their excrement; it would have been cold; and it would have been noisy, despite what the Christmas carols say. These are extremely poor surroundings, not unlike that of the vast majority of people on earth today. The manger, remember, is the place in the stable where the owner puts the animals' food. This may have been not only hay, but also slop — leftovers from the table. That's not exactly the most comfortable of cribs.
The swaddling clothes mentioned by Luke are indicative of the fact that it was cold. Swaddling is something familiar to other cultures and somewhat to ours. When a child is swaddled, it is wrapped rather tightly with cloth. That happens in delivery rooms around the U.S. after birth - the child is wrapped in a receiving blanket in order to keep it warm.
All of these factors point to Jesus' humanity. If, as some people have argued over the centuries, Jesus Christ was merely God pretending to be human, there would have been no need for the swaddling. And being born in a stable and laid in a manger are certainly not ways that one receives a god, particularly in that culture.
Remember the story of the three men who visited Abraham? He would not let them pass by with giving them a full meal and entertaining them rather lavishly. For all he knew, these were but ordinary men - of course, we now know that it was a vision of God and a prefigurement of the doctrine of the Trinity - but how he treated them was as if they were royalty.
So if Jesus was merely pretending to be human and was "born" in these dire circumstances with none of the hospitality this culture normally attended to even with perfect strangers, then His ability as God would have to be seriously questioned.
Finally, the Gospel brings in the shepherds. Again, there is a romantic notion that we have obtained over the years about these guys of which we must be disabused. Shepherds were not the ones Mary and Joseph would have had on the top of their invitation list after the birth of Jesus. These guys lived out in the fields and the caves - they were rough, unkempt, uncouth and not really the most law-observant Jews. Yet it was to them and no one else that the angels appeared to bring the Good News of Jesus' birth.
We have to ask ourselves, why all this poverty? Why would the Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity, co-equal with the Father from all eternity, having no need whatsoever and deserving of all praise and adoration by all His creation, would descend to such depths? Not out of condescension, that's for sure, but out of love. This is the thing that is most lacking in the lives of the poor.
It was purely out of love that Christ took on our human flesh and was born in the most abject of conditions. It was to identify Himself with the poor — which is all of us. Bill and Melinda Gates, no matter if they be the richest people on earth, are still counted among the poor, those in need of a savior. It is our sin which makes us poor; it is His perfection which makes Him rich and from which we must receive. Thus the best Christmas gift is the gift of God made man because, as the Fathers have always said, God became man so that we might become God.
— — —
Thomas A. Szyszkiewicz, is a veteran investigative writer on issues and events in the Catholic Church and the world. His e-mail address is {email epiphany01@gmail.com}epiphany01@gmail.com{/email}. Visit Epiphany, the blog, to see additional commentary. © copyright 2005 by Thomas A. Szyszkiewicz.
UPI Religion & Spirituality Forum is a big tent for all expressions of faith and spirituality, neither excluding nor favoring any.
All opinions expressed belong to the writer alone, and are not necessarily shared by UPI Religion & Spirituality Forum.