Christ’s love in the manger is overwhelming. In the minor seminary, we used to have special dinners in preparation for Christmas. We called them Posadas after the Spanish tradition of having a procession in memory of the inns (“posada” is Spanish for “inn”) that had no room for Mary and Joseph. We began with the rosary followed by a procession outside and concluded with dinner prepared by one of the classes. I always remember processing outside in the icy, dark New Hampshire evenings, trying to keep my candle lit, avoid slipping on the black ice and landing on my tailbone, keep my fingers and ears from freezing, and respond to the litanies of the procession all at the same time, all the while hoping to survive until we arrived to a nice hot dinner. The thought would always strike me: Jesus, Mary and Joseph had it all that night except the warm dinner after. I don’t know if I would have survived those processions without that savory “carrot” in front of me, but those cold nights helped me appreciate more just what Jesus gave up for me.
Christ gave up his “warm” home in Heaven, the perfect comfort of being at the Father’s side, for me. He came to sacrifice his life completely: 33 years of blood, sweat and tears culminating in the deepest spiritual and physical agony human nature could imagine. What love! Christ knew what he was getting himself into when he was lying in that manger. Contemplate that when you look into the newborn’s eyes.
In sacrificing himself, what consolation he gives us! God is with us: Emmanuel. Where does that joy of Christmas we always feel come from, those warm cozy feelings? Could it be the warm embrace of infinite love, an ironically all-embracing love through the tiny arms of a newborn baby that can’t even reach around our necks? God is not far off. He is at our side. What joy!
And yet, Christ came to give us so much more. He came to unite us totally to the Trinity. How? The Mass. In some sense, Christ was born to institute the Mass. This may sound simplistic, but do we realize what the Mass is? The Mass is the entire mystery of Christ in one event: Incarnation, birth, live, death, Resurrection, Ascension. It is the Eternal Wedding Feast of the Lamb. Heaven on earth. Through the Mass, Christ pulls us completely into his total union with the Father. It is just too much to take in. In the Mass, Christ makes us one with him, and that is the whole purpose of him being born in that cold manger on Christmas night.
So this Christmas, when you look at the Christ-child in the manger, try to remember that, in addition to the cold, the rejection, the loneliness, the poverty, the anonymity, Christ came to give us something so much more: total union with him. And when you go to Mass on Christmas, try to remember that you are receiving the fullness of what he came to give you on that Holy Night.
