Dec. 25, 2011: Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)
These days, Santa has to keep up
with the changing tastes of our children. Many children clamor for something
that runs on batteries and something with a nice color screen. A vivid memory I
have from when I arrived in United States back in 1984 is of a TV news report
that showed people making a mad dash in Toys R Us stores for the Cabbage Patch
Kids. (Do you remember?) When I was a kid, I preferred He-Man and Gi-Joe action
figures. They didn't speak or run
on batteries and so I had to use my own imagination to make my own voice-overs
and special sound effects. I remember one Christmas when we were still in
Korea, anxiously watching my sister open the gifts that Santa had presented her
at the kindergarten she attended. Most of the gifts didn't interest me such as
some clothes and a jacket, but one present caught my attention--a bunch of
bananas. Don't laugh. We Americans take for granted how cheap bananas are, but
back then in Korea, they were really expensive!
Like those ordinary bananas, some
gifts are overlooked and taken for granted because they are too ordinary for
us. Take for example, our mothers. Moms are truly a gift from our Heavenly Father;
yet sometimes overlook them because we always expect them to be there for us.
It's when we are deprived of their love, that we feel a great loss.
Last week, I had the privilege to
join with a couple of other priests to hear the confessions of about forty inmates
at the local jail. Each time after an inmate finished
listing his sins, I would ask him, "Have you considered how you are
important to your mother, how she always worries about you and how she prays
for you?" Without fail, the inmate would tear up because he missed his
mom's cooking, her fussing over him, and her love. One thing missing in the
jail cells is genuine and unconditional love, and the inmates feel the thirst
and hunger for that love. I would then ask the inmate, "Have you
considered how you are important to your Heavenly Mother, the Blessed Mother?
Do you know that she always worries about you, prays for you, and stays so
close to you because you are so dear to her?" Each one replied, "No,
I never considered that." I then added, "Then have you considered how
her Son, Jesus, worries about you, intercedes for you, because you are so dear
to Him?" And some replied, "Oh yes. I tell myself that I shouldn't be
alive because of what I got myself into so many times. Yet I knew God was
protecting me, saving me from myself."
Why did Heavenly Father send His
Son as a tiny, helpless baby to a young married couple who were unable to find
a suitable place to give birth? In many ways, what Blessed Mother and St.
Joseph went through that night in Bethlehem is what we sometimes go through in
life. Circumstances and events in our life are sometimes like that cold night
in the unfamiliar Bethlehem town, where we find no one welcoming and things not
going the way we expect. Yet the angel announces to us like he did to the
shepherds, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news
of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city
of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord. And
this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling
clothes and lying in a manger."
How many of us have had the fear of
the unknown grip us like the darkness shrouding the Magis and the shepherds?
Prophet Isaiah announces to us in the First Reading, "The people who
walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in
the land of gloom a light has shone. You have brought them abundant
joy and great rejoicing." This Christ Child in the manger invites us
with a disarming smile of an infant child. Are we the ones who have not been to
church much, who do not pray much, or rely on God much? The Christ Child says
to us that he cares about us, that he loves us, and that he hopes that we
invite him into our hearts. This little child says to us that his love and
salvation are available for everyone. This little child calls us to praise him
and to make our heart as pure as that of a newborn child so that we may enter
the Kingdom of God.
On this seemingly ordinary day,
when we can so easily overlook and take for granted the hidden gift from
Heavenly Father, the little Christ Child reminds us through St. Paul:
"Beloved: The grace of
God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject godless ways and
worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this
age, as we await the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of our
great God and savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to deliver
us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people as his
own, eager to do what is good."
