The Face of Mercy / Daniel Conway

Finding Jesus this Christmas while attending to others

“If we want to celebrate Christmas authentically, we need to contemplate this sign: the fragile simplicity of a small newborn, the meekness of where he lies, the tender affection of the swaddling clothes. God is there.”
(Pope Francis, Christmas Eve homily 2016)

Last year on Christmas Eve, Pope Francis challenged us to contemplate the “fragile simplicity” of the infant child that Christmas celebrates. This is the “enduring sign to find Jesus,” he said. “Not just then, but also today.”

It’s sad that Christmas has become so complicated, so commercial. The truth is that God enters our world quietly, with profound simplicity. The noise of everyday living distracts us and prevents us from noticing his divine presence and his humble humanity. The frenzy of the Christmas season distorts our perspective. We risk losing our perspective on “the meekness of where he lies,” and “the tender affection of the swaddling clothes.”

Jesus “does not appear in the grand hall of a royal palace, but in the poverty of a stable; not in pomp and show, but in the simplicity of life; not in power, but in a smallness which surprises,” the Holy Father said. So if we want to find him, “we need to go there, where he is: we need to bow down, humble ourselves, make ourselves small.”

This is the paradox of Christmas: God makes himself small. The infinite, almighty God who created all things visible and invisible becomes an infant lying in a manger, utterly dependent on others for his most basic human needs. As St. Paul says, he “empties himself” and takes on our fragile humanity, giving up the prerogatives of divinity in order to become like us in all things but our selfishness and sinfulness.

In his homily, the pope said the Child Jesus “challenges us” by inviting us “to leave behind fleeting illusions and go to the essence, to renounce our insatiable claims, to abandon our endless dissatisfaction and sadness for something we will never have,” and rediscover “peace, joy and the meaning of life.”

The infant in the manger is a challenge, but Francis also urged attendees to allow themselves to be challenged by the children of today, “who are not lying in a cot caressed with the affection of a mother and father, but rather suffer the squalid mangers that devour dignity.”

Many children today hide underground to escape bombs or are forced to sleep either on the streets of large cities or at the bottom of boats overflowing with immigrants, he said, noting that this reality should also challenge us.

“Let us allow ourselves to be challenged by the children who are not allowed to be born, by those who cry because no one satiates their hunger, by those who have not toys in their hands, but rather weapons.”

Christmas is a mystery of both hope and of sadness, the pope said, noting how the arrival of Mary and Joseph at Bethlehem points us to the indifference of many in the face of those who are discarded.

The same indifference is present in modern society “when Christmas becomes a feast where the protagonists are ourselves, rather than Jesus; when the lights of commerce cast the light of God into the shadows; when we are concerned for gifts, but cold toward those who are marginalized.”

But Pope Francis insists that Christmas is also a sign of hope. Despite the darkness in our lives, God’s light “shines out.” His gentle light doesn’t make us fearful, but rather, “God who is in love with us, draws us to himself with his tenderness, born poor and fragile among us, as one of us.”

If we want to encounter Jesus this Christmas, we need to step outside the neon lights of the commercial Christmas and enter into the shadows where homeless travelers like Mary and Joseph are found. To find the infant Jesus, we must refuse to make Christmas “a feast where the protagonists are ourselves.” We must truly make this a holy season, a time to attend to the needs of others, especially the poor and vulnerable.

“Let us enter into the real Nativity with the shepherds, taking to Jesus all that we are, our alienation, our unhealed wounds,” Pope Francis teaches. “Then, in Jesus we will enjoy the flavor of the true spirit of Christmas: the beauty of being loved by God.”
 

(Daniel Conway is a member of The Criterion’s editorial committee.) †