Christmas Day 2003 - A Child Is Born!

Introduction: Seventeen years ago, I came up from South America for my first Christmas in Canada. I had no car, so I travelling in a bus from one end of Toronto to the other to celebrate Mass. I was miserable and depressed. God ! How could people with any brains want to live in such a cold climate! As I looked around the others in the bus seemed to be in the same frame of mind: An old lady with her shopping, a young couple in jeans and thin coats (obviously in some financial problems), a drunk hoping to escape reality with the help of a bottle in a brown paper bag...and a tired mother with a little baby in her arms. We were a miserable lot and JOY TO THE WORLD seemed so hollow! And then suddenly the baby let out a peal of laughter. I do not know what it found funny, but it began to giggle and chatter and chuckle. And the tiredness in the mother just seemed to leave her. If only for a while she forgot her problems or whatever was bothering her. The warmth of the mother and child seem to spread through that bus.  Each of us sat up a little more straight in our seats.  The glow between that mother and child just gave us that feeling that life wasn't that hopeless after all.

Another child was born about 2000 years ago. The world was at war as it is just now. People were depressed and things looked bleak. But that Child brought Peace and Joy to the world. His life and his mission gave rise to the many beautiful carols we sang and will sing today. His death and resurrection brings hope to us as we journey along, because that CHILD is the Way and the Truth and the Life.  Thanks to that Child I feel I know all of you today - a few by name - but all of you because thanks to that child you are a part of me.

1. I know you by your DOUBTS and your sense of BEWILDERMENT.  You hear the story and you have your doubts. Is it a story about real people?  As Mary and Joseph traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem, they were met by many people too busy and doing their own thing. There were nameless Shepherds and an Inn Keeper who had no place for Mary and Joseph in his Hotel. None of these ever thought they would meet God, or see God or touch God. They were like you and me, we think reality is what we make and how we live each day. Meeting God ! what a laugh !

2. I know you by your HOPES. Some of our hopes are fantastic. If only I won the 649 ! a million bucks could solve all my problems. Would they really ? but we hope. Some with a desperate hope - like going to the Hospital and knowing that someone you love is dying - and we hope for that miracle. Many of us, perhaps most of us with considerate HOPES... hopes of the good old days when our families and friends were living so peacefully with us, and we seem to drift apart. We have hopes that these memories could be true all over again. And with these doubts and hopes we have come to hear and feel once again the Story of A CHILD THAT IS BORN TO US, A SON THAT IS GIVEN TO US!

3. I know you by your FEARS. Don't we all have those ! Mary and Joseph did when they left Nazareth. It was not HARK THE HERALDS ANGELS SING but rather where can we find a place quickly so that the BABE  could be born safely. So many of us, with so many fears... and you know when I am fearful, my imagination works over time. I think of all the possible things that could happen and fear the worse. Some of us fear about our marriage, our finances, our future, our health, our spiritual life. And here is the right place to bring our DOUBTS AND HOPES AND FEARS.

4. I know still others because of ANGER. Perhaps it has flared up in the last few days and pretty frequently. All I am trying to do is to get the presents and get things fixed and make this Christmas a happy time and everything seems to go wrong. Sometimes I have lashed out and it has left me tired and depressed.

5. And I know you because of your SENTIMENTALITY. A sentimentality that has sent us out shopping for gifts, because it is a season to be jolly. A sentimentality that has made us more generous than otherwise. A sentimentality that helps me to put out my hand and say sorry, I would like to make up and have a HAPPY CHRISTMAS. It is a sentimentality that allows me to singing SILENT NIGHT  even though I know I cannot sing at all and I hit every false note on the keyboard. It is a sentimentality that does not last long, it helps to coat the preoccupations long enough to put a smile on my face like the little child did on the bus - 17 years ago in Toronto.

All these thoughts and feelings bind us together and to Mary and Joseph as they seek a place where Jesus may be born. The reality has not changed, we still have to face it like we have to face the cold. But the fact that a little Child was born because God so loved the world, has made a difference and continues to give us HOPE THAT IS REAL. For some it will give courage to carry on and be faithful. For others it might be just like a flash in the pan that the gold miners saw. But it is real none the less !

This is what we call CHRISTMAS - part of me, part of you - and all of GOD ! One thing I do know and I would like to share this with you : when I feel low and useless and when I cannot seem to get my act together. When I see us adults at each others throats, all I have to do is to look at a little child and I know that although I may have lost faith in my God - each child is a sign to me that God has not lost faith in me ! May the Child Jesus bless you and me during this Christmas Season and through the New Year!