We were headed to Seville in our 9 passenger Volkswagen Transporter, a narrow tin can on wheels, inducer of leg and back cramps; to spend a week of Christmas vacation at “Los Provinciales”. The drive was a privileged opportunity to contemplate with all of my senses the journey of the Holy Couple from Nazareth to Bethlehem. I watched Mary as she picked up a few things that could fit on a donkey making our suitcases, baking goods and piano in the trunk seem almost ostentatious. While looking at Mary and Joseph make their way to the little town of Bethlehem and thinking of the O Antiphons, a question popped into my mind: “Wait…What do you do with a Baby Savior?” Maybe for the first time in my life the warm sentimentality of Christmas’ past was gone, leaving room the ludicrousness of the Nativity to set in. Maybe it was the lack of cold, snow and Hallmark cards, or the fact that not once did I hear “Christmas shoes” or “Happy Christmas (War is Over)”. God bless Spain.
Going back to those O Antiphons, we ask for the Wisdom of God, the Leader of the House of Israel, Key of David, Radiant Dawn, King of Nations, Emmanuel to come and teach us, rescue us, to come and shine, to save us, same man whom He has created… And we get a baby. Ok, great! Babies are wonderful and He came as a little baby, humble and poor so that we could see that God is close to us. Amen. But… then what? This was where I think I began to see Christmas and the Baby Jesus beyond Christmas day.
So what do you do with a Baby Savior? First answer: you don’t. You don’t do anything because you’re not in control. You just hold Him. You hold Him and respond when He needs something. When He is hungry, you feed Him. When He cries, you rock Him back and forth. When He is cold, you wrap Him up. When He is sleeping you be very quiet and tell the shepherds to go away. When He needs a diaper change, you pass Him off to Mary. Just kidding. When He smiles at you, you smile back. (How beautiful to think of the fact that Jesus learned how to smile by gazing at the face of Mary). A baby is the most wonderful, simple and possibly boring creature on earth; which is exactly what we need. “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve” and with His need He is saving us. O Wisdom of our God, come teach us the path to knowledge; King of all nations, save man whom You formed from the dust. (For the record, I don’t really think babies are boring).
What do you do with a Baby Savior? You wait. Advent is the time of waiting, waiting for His birth. Now the Savior is born and….you still wait (and hope He is not killed by neurotic kings or lost in a big city in the meantime). He will take a while to grow up. You wait. He will remain in the silent obscurity of normal, daily life and will later choose a few fishermen and a public sinner or two to be His close friends and ambassadors. He will be publicly murdered, and you wait. He will rise from the dead and ascend to the right hand of the Father and come back to take you to Himself, and you wait. O Leader of the House of Israel, come and rescue us with your mighty power; O Key of David, come and free the prisoners of darkness; O Root of Jesse’s stem, come and save us without delay!
So….What do you do with a Baby Savior? You let Him confuse you, you let Him change your expectations of yourself and of a Savior. You let His littleness bring out the best of the capacities He has given you to be tender, nurturing, delicate, attuned- or protective, providing, and strong if you’re a man. You let yourself be enlightened by the Eternal Image of the Father made flesh, Who came to show us firsthand how to live our dignity in being created “imago Dei”. O Wisdom of God, guiding creation with power and love, teach us the path to knowledge. O Emmanuel, from beginning to end, you have come to save us.
