Rather than fade into the distinct and loud ringing Christmas carols (fa la la la la...), I find myself pondering, still wondering; the Nativity has intensified becoming more tangible to my senses. I smell the hay in the manger and feel the dampness of the stable air: the birthplace of the Lord of Heaven, the Universe and the Word that created all things. My mind hugs the barn houses and stables.
It really wasn't a pleasant place. It really really wasn't. But, somehow, God found it perfect for the beginning of the story that would change the course of history both of time and salvation. It is here, in this dark, cold, damp and harsh place that a small helpless child born to reign all Good things is born.
My heart has pondered the words which I believe belong to Pope Francis in the first couple weeks of this last year. I am paraphrasing here since I have searched high and low for this quote and could not find it.
What a strange thing for our Pope Frankie to say. I mean, poverty is a problem. It is a problem that so many individuals, scientists, humanitarians, social justice workers try to eradicate. It is a "fate" and circumstance that most of us try to avoid like the plague. In fact, our society is so obsessed with financial stability that we put off many of life's milestones to avoid "being poor" like buying a home or having a child. Celebrating such a state seems to imply a sense of desire for it.
What the bizzaro is this man (holy man) talking about? Is it merely a statement suggesting compassion for those less fortunate than ourselves? Is he just encouraging our engagement in the corporal works of mercy that any "good" catholic should be? Yes, as you guessed by the sizable amount of writing left in this post that I think there is much more to this statement.
The poverty seen in the manger scene is certainly a poverty of material lacking, yes. But it extends far beyond that: it is a poverty of many sorts. It is the poverty of being unrecognized, of not knowing, of not understanding. It is a celebration of surrender. It is a celebration of the poor and what they offer us.
My mind immediately moves to Christ's parents Mary and Joseph. In Scripture, we read that "she wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them." (Luke 2:7) I am drawn to the humility and fixed Godliness that they must have embraced in order to believe that it was okay for this special person growing in the womb of our Blessed Mother to be born in this place. I think of the gratitude with which they seemed to receive this stable: the total surrender that what they had to give and could receive in those moments were perfect and whole and enough.
As a man, Joseph had to trust that what he was able to do and accomplish by his own hand and power were of no real avail. He had to accept that what he could do was simply enough. This, I know is no small task for a man to admit to much less submit to. As a woman, and now mother, Mary had to say that God had given everything to her. She, who carried the universe in her womb did not fall into proud conceit but fell to depths of humility instead- accepting God's hand in all things.
Thus, the lack felt in poverty makes room in us. Instead of being filled we are made empty. Yet, this emptiness allows us to holistically see the world around us but especially the ways in which we are incomplete causing us to gaze upon the only wholly good and perfect thing in the universe. You guessed it: God.
It really wasn't a pleasant place. It really really wasn't. But, somehow, God found it perfect for the beginning of the story that would change the course of history both of time and salvation. It is here, in this dark, cold, damp and harsh place that a small helpless child born to reign all Good things is born.
My heart has pondered the words which I believe belong to Pope Francis in the first couple weeks of this last year. I am paraphrasing here since I have searched high and low for this quote and could not find it.
"The mystery of Christmas is wrapped up in this:
that we should celebrate the birth of the poor."
What a strange thing for our Pope Frankie to say. I mean, poverty is a problem. It is a problem that so many individuals, scientists, humanitarians, social justice workers try to eradicate. It is a "fate" and circumstance that most of us try to avoid like the plague. In fact, our society is so obsessed with financial stability that we put off many of life's milestones to avoid "being poor" like buying a home or having a child. Celebrating such a state seems to imply a sense of desire for it.
What the bizzaro is this man (holy man) talking about? Is it merely a statement suggesting compassion for those less fortunate than ourselves? Is he just encouraging our engagement in the corporal works of mercy that any "good" catholic should be? Yes, as you guessed by the sizable amount of writing left in this post that I think there is much more to this statement.
The poverty seen in the manger scene is certainly a poverty of material lacking, yes. But it extends far beyond that: it is a poverty of many sorts. It is the poverty of being unrecognized, of not knowing, of not understanding. It is a celebration of surrender. It is a celebration of the poor and what they offer us.
My mind immediately moves to Christ's parents Mary and Joseph. In Scripture, we read that "she wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them." (Luke 2:7) I am drawn to the humility and fixed Godliness that they must have embraced in order to believe that it was okay for this special person growing in the womb of our Blessed Mother to be born in this place. I think of the gratitude with which they seemed to receive this stable: the total surrender that what they had to give and could receive in those moments were perfect and whole and enough.
As a man, Joseph had to trust that what he was able to do and accomplish by his own hand and power were of no real avail. He had to accept that what he could do was simply enough. This, I know is no small task for a man to admit to much less submit to. As a woman, and now mother, Mary had to say that God had given everything to her. She, who carried the universe in her womb did not fall into proud conceit but fell to depths of humility instead- accepting God's hand in all things.
Thus, the lack felt in poverty makes room in us. Instead of being filled we are made empty. Yet, this emptiness allows us to holistically see the world around us but especially the ways in which we are incomplete causing us to gaze upon the only wholly good and perfect thing in the universe. You guessed it: God.
Poverty offers us a gift. In the pleasantly unpleasant stable into which Christ was born, we can see the perfect humility of God and the perfect love He displays to us through that humility. From his birth he highlights only one thing: the mission he has left to fulfill on earth and the motive by which this mission will be accomplished. Love.
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