The Solemnity Of The Birth Of Jesus
Fr Dexter Brereton, CSSp
On the Solemnity of the birthday of the Lord, or Christmas, we read from the infancy narratives, the stories of Jesus in his infancy and early childhood. They are not interwoven with the rest of the Gospels but seem more like independent units, Gospels in miniature, whose purpose is exactly the same as the Gospels to which they have been attached. They serve to proclaim Jesus as God’s anointed, they proclaim that God has come near to us, so near in fact that the birth of the baby of Mary of Nazareth, is none other than the birth of God’s only Son.
In this season of Christmas, we reflect on the central mystery of the INCARNATION, expressed in Latin of that beautiful phrase from the prologue to John’s Gospel “Et VERBUM CARO FACTUM EST” “AND THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH”. The feast of Christmas isn’t simply the birthday of Jesus Christ, which is surely good news for Jesus. What is GOOD NEWS FOR US is that God is with u; God dwells among men and women. If God is present among us then HOPE is also present in our midst. But how? How is God present? Where is God? And where is our hope? The readings for Christmas from the infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke lead us into a reflection on the question of exactly how is God present among us. Some time ago, a senior parishioner remarked to me: “Father, we have worked so hard to build this parish, to build this community. Who will replace us? Who will replace us is the cry which goes up from a community wondering about its future. The community too, shares this same question WHERE IS OUR HOPE? The Word of God this evening provides us with an answer, the answer given in the words of the prophet Isaiah spoken by St Matthew: “The Virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will name him Emmanuel, a name which means ‘God-is-with-us.’” The word virgin refers to a womb that has never born children, places from which we do not (normally) expect new life. Tonight, I dare to proclaim that the “virgin” is the entire area, the whole people of Erin, the people in places we would never expect, with whom we must collaborate. It is only in linking hands with others, in working and inviting others outside of our little Catholic community to the work of the mission that we will discover hope for ourselves.
Also, Joseph is commanded by God ‘do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. Joseph is asked to take ‘responsibility’ for this child who is the very presence of God in the world, the ultimate sign of hope. In a similar way, we too are invited by the Gospel to understand that the “hope” that lives in our midst will not bear fruit by guess. God’s salvation does not work on auto-pilot. It demands the cooperation of human beings. Whether we live or we die as a community is certainly up to God, but in a real sense, it is also up to us. Our children, such as they are represent for us a sign of hope, and a sign of the community’s future, but this parish community must deliberately, consciously place a HIGH PRIORITY ON THE WELL-BEING OF OUR YOUNGER MEMBERS. Only in this way do we truly ‘take Mary home’ with us, only in this way do we manage to take care of Mary and her baby…when we are prepared to take the time, the patience, the hard work, the love and even the heartbreak it takes to work with the youth of our little community.
Lord, we pray that we discover the ‘virgin’ in our midst, the people and places from which new life has not yet sprung. We thank you for the call to become a ‘synodal’ people, people who walk with other people on the way to your house. Amen.
