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Christmas Reflections
But Christianity is
all about image. Image – not idol. Idols are defective and false
because they have no connection to historical realities. They depict
things that don’t exist. Images are bridges to historical realities
– which are also spiritual realities.
Man is made in the
image and likeness of God. The saints are images
of Christ. The liturgy is an
image of the heavenly worship. The priest is an
image of Christ interceding for his people. Mary is an image of
the disciple welcoming Jesus. Everything we
experience in Christianity is not an end in and of it, but serves as a
passage or crossing. Everything leads to and passes to the original. Jesus said, “The
one who has seen me has seen the Father.” “Image” is alive
for us then. “Image” means action and movement – to a vision and
truth.
In the infant Christ,
God opens His arms to us in the gesture of spontaneous joy. We’re
naturally drawn to babies. Already God is calling us friends – and
drawing us to His heart. Jesus’ Mother
prays. Perhaps she prays for her newborn as mothers do. But we can
imagine that mystically on this night she prayed for us too – as she
realizes that she is Mother to us all. Joseph is guardian
and protector to Mother and Child. He holds a pilgrims staff – the
disciple who journeys with Christ. And he holds a lantern –
reminding us that the newborn will later call himself the “Light of
the World.” |
They’re the ones
who don’t do what they were supposed to do. Notice they don’t get
a finger wag. The angel doesn’t tell them they’re going to hell.
The baby’s Mother doesn’t call, “Shame, shame, shame.”
Rather, they hear: “Today is born a Savior, Christ the
Lord.” “Go to Bethlehem
and see!” Each of us is invited to come and see Jesus – be with
Jesus - wherever my nature, struggles, sins, failures, weakness,
inability, have led me.
The angel delivers
happy news. Doesn’t the world need good news? The angel speaks to
the shepherds and then is joined by a “Multitude of the heavenly
host.” They’re
invited to join heaven in giving “Glory to God.”
This is the movement of religion: to glorify God – to let God
be God. And St. Augustine
tells us that it is a “human person fully alive that is the Glory of
God.” The magi will be
remembered more at Epiphany in January, but they are searchers. How
many were there? Where did they come from? What were their names?
These are not essential questions. Rather, they are led to Jesus
wondrously. And we all can tell wondrous stories of God’s
self-disclosure – stories of how we have found and continue to find
Christ. And the magi were
non-Jews. // Jesus is for all! And what Jesus does, he does for all.
The Church becomes stingy when she forgets this.
There’s even a star
– which tells us that even the heavens celebrate with joy the
movement of God to come to our rescue. “Oh Holy Night, the
stars are brightly shining, It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth. Long lay the world in
sin and error pining, Till He appeared and
the soul felt it’s worth.” Do I feel that new
worth?
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The donkey and the
cow are there. Their breath warms the child. But more importantly,
they remind us of Isaiah’s prophecy that the “Ox and the ass will
know their master, but my people do not understand.”