Christmas Day 2005

I have been very fortunate to be able to put on this Christmas Pageant in the many parishes in which I worked. We had it in Oshawa and Chepstow, in Thunder Bay and here in Toronto. I was fortunate to see it put on in many of the parishes in Guyana. I usually left the director, today it is Jessica Benedicto to choose the characters of the play since they knew the parishioners better than I do.

In one of the parishes, there were two boys who were exactly the same size and build. The teacher said to them: I like both of you boys very much, and both of you are good. But only one can be Joseph. So I will put the name Joseph into the hat and who ever chooses that name will be Joseph and the other will be the Innkeeper. The one who got the part of the Innkeeper was very disappointed. On the day of Christmas, Joseph and Mary knocked on the door of the Inn and said, "Could we have some room in the inn, my wife is expecting." The Innkeeper looked at the two, and said, "There is no room in the Inn, and even if there was, I would not let you in, because I wanted to be Joseph and not the Innkeeper." He slammed the door and walked away.

The heart of the Christmas Story and Mystery is the words of the Angels "Glory to God in the highest." And if we do that, then there will be Peace to all of good will. Our children can make the Historical Event of 2000 years ago, become very real today. And sometimes in a negative way. We as adults are invited by John in the first chapter of his Gospel to realise that the Word of God came into this world that we might have life. And all those who accepted the Word of God were made Children of God.

As we go to the Crib after Mass, the children will be in awe to see the same figures we have seen from the time St. Francis of Assisi built the first crib. But as adults we will pray for our families, for our church and for peace in this world. As the children look back in History, we contemplate the Mystery. The child Jesus is born once again in our mess and chaos of 2005.

If you go to Italy, the Cribs are not only filled with the traditional figures of Mary, Joseph, Shepherds, Angels and Wise men. They are filled with the ordinary figures of every day life: farmers, taxi drivers, wine makers and bakers, pasta and pizza makers, ice cream sellers. All are invited to come and drink at the fountain of life.

I wonder what figures we would put in our crib if we had a choice: a pineta for our Latin American brothers, a tsunami broken boat for our Tamil community, some figurines of children for our many Filipina nannies, a begging bowl for our homeless, a rainbow sash for our gay community, a miniature hospital bed for the Wellesley Health centre, library books for our library across the road - and although it might shock some - empty drug bottles for the drug lords in the neighbourhood. All are invited to come to the manger, to change, to be open to the Life that the Child Jesus has come to bring us. No one is excluded.

In our first Christmas we had the shepherds and Wise men. We have sanitized and cleaned up these two groups. The Shepherds look cute, the Wise men we have turned into Kings. But both were outsiders. The Shepherds lived in the fields, they rarely bathed or cleaned themselves. They were given to stealing sheep, to running away when the wolves came . In a word, they were unsavoury and untrustworthy fellows.

The Wise men came from the east. They were from Gentile country - in fact from the present day Iraq and Iran. They were not kosher. Here was the first Inter-faith dialogue. And yet the Shepherds and Wise men were the first to be invited. Salvation was open to all.

As we appropriate and invite the Child Jesus to come into our hearts and homes, we are challenged to open ourselves even wider, to accept and love all the others who have found a place in the Crib with the Jesus in the manger. We cannot afford to be like the little Innkeeper, to shut the door on Mary, Joseph because God did not give us what we WANT.

Christmas will be full of activity, eating, drinking and celebrating with family This is enjoyable. Some people will have a wonderful Christmas, filled with joy from beginning to end. Some will feel homesick and some will be grieving because a family member is sick, or has just died.

No one will be forgotten because the joy and the pain are there together in the stable. Mary had the joy of bringing Jesus into the world, but it was also a painful process. Jesus emerged from the warm darkness of Mary's womb to the cold of a winter's night and the prickly straw, which probably was not as comfortable a bed as Mary and Joseph would have liked to provide. So whether our Christmas is filled with joy, or a mixture of joy and sorrow - make sure that the centre is always Jesus Christ.

Appendix:

I found this in a book (can't remember where) but very useful for meditation on the Power of the Crib... use it if it helps you

Power can be exercised by taking or by giving.

Luke presented the birth of Jesus in the context of an empire-wide tax registration. The Roman Empire was based upon graft within a social structure of extended families. Anytime taxes were collected, everyone up and down the chain of command made money. But the family who made the most was the house of Caesar. A large percentage of every tax went into the coffers of the royal family. So, the decree throughout the known world (i.e., the Empire) was another way for the Emperor to flex his Imperial muscle and make more money.

Luke used this exercise of Imperial power to present a different kind of power, represented by the image of the loving, but lowly shepherd, like David before Samuel anointed him. The registration was a means to establish Joseph of Nazareth with the clan of King David. It was also the means to fulfill prophecy. The Messiah would be born in the city of David.

Luke wanted to take the comparison between the Emperor and the Messiah a step further. The birth and young home of the Messiah would scandalize proper society. His mother would be pregnant before her marriage to Joseph. His birthplace would be outside, among the farm animals and the elements. The birth scene lacked propriety. But, it also foreshadowed the mobile ministry of Jesus, whose message scandalized and who lived on the move and lodged under the stars.

The Emperor dwelt in his palace, fat on the monies took from his subjects. The Messiah was born in the cold from a mother pregnant out of wedlock. In this way, he revealed a God of giving, a God for those who had nothing left to give.