Christmas is the perfect time to celebrate the Love of God and family to create memories that will last forever. Jesus is God’s perfect and indescribable gift. The amazing thing is that not only are we able to receive this gift, but we are able to share it with others on Christmas and every other day of the year.
Martin
Luther once said, “Good news from heaven the angels bring, Glad tidings to the
earth they sing: To us this day a child is given, to crown us with the joy of
heaven.”
While I was thinking on what I have to share with you on Christmas, some reflections came to my mind and I would call it as the Philosophy of the Crib.
Every year, we celebrate the great mystery of Christmas preparing the Crib, cooking delicious cake, sending Christmas cards and singing carols to invite Jesus to be born in our hearts. When we look closely into the Crib, we can see another Paradise or another Garden of Eden. In the Crib, we see every category of people, including the Almighty Son of the Living God, Jesus Christ. There are the angels, there are three kings from the East with gifts, there is Joseph who is a carpenter, there is Mary who is dedicated to the Church, there are poor shepherds and even the animals like cattle and sheep. The same image of togetherness can be seen only in the Garden of Eden.
The mystery of Christmas reminds us the verse of the Gospel that “where two or three are gathered in my name, I’ll be there.” In short, where there is love and togetherness, there will be God or that is the Divine community or Divine Home, where God lives.
In the first crib and the Garden of Eden, there was no disharmony, fight, mischievous thoughts and sinfulness. All were concentrated on God. All were in the Divine presence, because of the love and togetherness they had.
Today, we live in a community where love, togetherness and harmony lack. People are so busy, and with the technology, it's easy to not interact one on one. Where we used to go see someone in person, or we used to at least pick up the phone, now we may go months and months by email, by Facebook, and there's nothing wrong with that, but we have to make sure we are not cheating people out of the best of us. To look someone in the eyes is very powerful. To give them our undivided attention speaks volumes. To let them hear our voice is extremely important. To let them hear our voice is extremely important. We will never regret spending time with the people that we love. The love, togetherness and unity we had with others cannot be purchased by money. Why is that? The greatest gift we can give is ourselves. We can't do it for everyone, but we can. God has put people in our life that need our gift as the Heavenly Father sent His only Son as a Gift for Many.....
Are we giving the gift some people come into our lives to get us to a certain level? They make sacrifices, they pay the price, and then we take off and pass them by. Now they are in the shadows, it's easy to forget about them. It's easy to not have any time, too busy, too important, too successful, no, if it had not been for them, we wouldn't be where we are. Take time for the people that took time for you.
Don't forget about the people that help you get to where we are. Don't be too busy, too important. Take time to reach back and invest in those that have helped you.
Now a story comes to my mind, written by Leo Tolstoy, about an old man called Martin, who was a cobbler. The old man labors away at repairing shoes in a basement shop. Through its window he can see the legs of every one passing by. He can tell who it is by their shoes, most of which he has repaired at some time or other. The death of his wife and child as left him a bitter man, but when his best friend gives him a New Testament, the old man undergoes a change of heart.
One night Martin has a dream in which the Lord tells him that the next day he will come by and through a series of incidents, Martin discovers the meaning of the words in Jesus’ parable, “as you did it to the least of these my brethren, you did it to me…” So all day he keeps looking expectantly out the window when he hears someone approaching. All he sees however are the usual passers-by plus, a sidewalk sweeper suffering from the cold weather; an old woman berating a boy for trying to steal her apple; and a thinly clad young mother with a hungry baby. Martin helps each of them; but that night he is disappointed that the Lord did not show up. Then, of course, comes the revelation from Matthew 25 that Christ was in each of “the least of these…”
My dear friends, every Christmas approaches us with the message that “where there is love, togetherness and unity, there is God”. It will be like paradise. It will be like the ancient Garden of Eden.
Let me wind up my message with the words of St. Mother Theresa of Calcutta: “It is Christmas every time you let God love others through you… yes, it is Christmas every time you smile at your brother and offer him your hand.
Friends, we are at odds and we are just letting it ride. Maybe one day we will make things better. God is saying, today is our one day. Reach out to the people that have sacrificed for us, we have a gift that they need, and it's not necessarily just our money, our clothes, our food, the gift we have is ourselves, our friendship, our time, our love, our hug, our smile, our gratitude. Don't keep putting it off, do what we know we need to do.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Prosperous New Year, I conclude…
Thank you, Thank you very much!
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