25 December 2012 CHRISTMAS DAY Today as in Bethlehem, many people still do not want to receive Christ Our Lady knew that Jesus was about to be born. She set out on that journey with her thoughts centered on the Child. In her condition, she must have been very tired when they arrived in Bethlehem. They could not find anywhere to stay. “There was no place for them in the inn” (cf Lk 2:7), says St Luke briefly. Perhaps Joseph judged that the crowded inn was not suitable for Our Lady in those circumstances. St Joseph must have knocked on many doors. We can imagine the scene: Joseph explaining repeatedly with growing anxiety “... that they had come from ...”, Mary a few feet away seeing Joseph and hearing the refusals. They did not let Christ in. They shut the doors on him. Mary feels sorry for Joseph and for those people. How cold the world is towards its God! Perhaps, it was Our Lady who suggested to Joseph that they could stay provisionally in one of those caves outside town which served as stables. She probably encouraged Joseph, telling him not to worry, that they would manage. He would feel comforted by Mary’s words and her smile. So they made their lodging there with their meager belongings: the swaddling clothes, some items that she prepared with that joy only mothers can experience when they prepare for their first child. The greatest event of humanity’s history occured in utmost simplicity. “While they were there, the time came for her to be delivered. Mary lovingly wrapped Jesus in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger.” (cf Lk 2:6) The Virgin had a more perfect faith than any other before her or since. All her gestures were an expression of her faith and tenderness. She would have kissed his feet because he was her Lord, his cheek because he was her Son. She would have remained quietly contemplating him for a very long time. Later Mary placed the Child in Joseph’s arms. Joseph well knows that this is the Son of the Most-High, whom he must care for, protect and teach a trade. His whole life centers around this defenceless Child. Jesus, newly born, does not speak; but he is the eternal Word of the Father. It has been said, the manger is a Chair of learning. Today we should “learn the lessons which Jesus teaches us, even when he is just a newly born child, from the very moment he opens his eyes on this blessed land of men.” (St Leo the Great, “Sermon on the Birth of Our Lord”, 1:3) We make a resolution to live the virtues of detachment and humility. We look at Mary and we see her filled with joy. She knows a new era has begun for humanity -- that of the Messiah, her Son. We ask her never to let us lose the joy of being beside Jesus. “Today our Saviour is born. There can be no room for sadness when Life has just been born; that Life which overcomes all fear of death and fills us with the joy of the pledge of eternity ... For the Son, in the fulness of time assumed our human nature in order to reconcile the human race with its Creator.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “Christ is passing by”, 14) Hence, springs the joy of these feast-days, like a river overflowing its banks. Ref: Cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 1:221-7 The Infant Jesus lying in the manger of Bethlehem ‘Jesus is born for us; come let us adore Him!’ Such is the Church’s invitation this night to all the faithful. What a sight of undefinable love meets our eyes! God, Creator of the world, became a little infant, stripped of all the splendor of His divinity, that He might remove all fear from us and draw all hearts to him. Jesus ‘being rich’ with all the treasures of the world, ‘became poor for our sakes’ -- unto extreme indigence. Thus, by coming into the world He fulfilled the prophecy of Isaias: “a man of sorrows”. Jesus endured extreme poverty without complaining. He embraced it by choice, and from love. Why? To teach us to despise the delightful possessions of life, the greatest obstacles to salvation. “Learn of me” -- of voluntary abasement and loneliness to which I am reduced without any sign of impatience “for I am meek and humble of heart” (Mt 11:29). What a mystery! What a depth of debasement! The Omnipotent, the Infinite Wisdom is a little infant in the eyes and appraisal of men, despised by the world, laid on a little hay in a cave between two animals, as if unworthy to be among the children of men. To what an excess of humiliation a God-man has reduced Himself! To teach us humility; to patiently bear wounding remarks and contempt, whatever the cause. What gratitude we ought to show Him! Ref: Cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp812-4 ‘Mother of our Saviour. Pray for us.’ Mary and the Second Vatican Council “The Council presents Our Lady to us not as an isolated figure, but as a most marvellous, beautiful and holy creature, precisely because of the divine mysteries which surround her, giving meaning to her existence, bathing her in light ... Mary is distinguished by her high office and her great dignity of Mother of God made man, and is, therefore, the dearly beloved daughter of the Father and the temple of the Holy Spirit. Through this gift of grace she far excels in dignity all other creatures, those terrestrial and those celestial.” -- Pope Paul VI, 1967 Rev Valentino Del Mazza, SDB, in his book “Our Lady Among Us” said: “Vatican Council II (1962-’65) gave the most authentic and dynamic presentation of Catholic devotion to Mary. Never before did the Christian people have such a rich and fruitful treatise on Mary as we enjoy today in the entire chapter 8 of “Lumen Gentium”. “This most Holy Synod ... admonished all the sons of the Church that the cult, especially the liturgical cult, of the Blessed Virgin be generously fostered, and the practices and exercises of piety ... be religiously observed.” (“The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, in the Mystery of Christ and the Church”, chapter 8, “Lumen Gentium”) Ref: In Rev Joseph A Viano, SSP, “Two Months with Mary”, 1984, p13 • On this day, at the hour of midnight, the Blessed Virgin brought forth the Saviour of the world, in the stable of Bethlehem, where a fountain sprang up miraculously on the same day. — (Baronius, “Apparat. ad Anna”. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm) • Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. (www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/calendar/index.html); (www/divinewill.org/feastsofourlady.html); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html); (http://mariedenazareth.com)