BY FATHER JOHN SCHMOLL
St. Joseph’s Catholic Church
Merry Christmas! It is a time to celebrate the dignity of human nature and the humility of the Lord to share in our humanity. Christmas teaches us about the centrality of life and human dignity in God’s plan for humanity.
Today, we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. In one way, of course, we celebrate the Incarnation (God becoming man), but, in reality, we celebrated that day on March 25 when we celebrated the Annunciation of the Lord, according to Luke 1:26–38.
The Catholic Church celebrates the Incarnation on that day, exactly nine months before the Lord’s birth. The second person of the Most Blessed Trinity, the Son, comes to us as a man. We cannot even begin to imagine the humility involved in that.
Not only is God humbled in the coming of Jesus, but so are the people around him. Mary, the Blessed Mother, who was about 15 years old when the Holy Spirit came to her and God was conceived within her womb, accepted God’s will.
Her life was turned upside down. We only think of what a blessing it would be for Mary to be the Blessed Mother. We never think of the cross she had to carry after she accepted. I’m talking about the suffering she experienced before she watched her son suffer and die.
What were the reactions of her extended family and friends when she told them she was pregnant even though she was still a virgin? Mary knew the truth, as did Joseph, but what about the rest?
How many insults did she bear because of her yes? How many people thought she was an outright liar? How few would have believed her when she tried to tell the truth to people?
As Catholics, we believe Mary is “ever virgin”: she was a virgin from her birth to her death. Mary’s yes brought her much suffering and difficulty but also more grace and blessings. Christmas is the ultimate story about the gift of life, and all life comes from God.
Let us ask the blessing of the Holy Family—Jesus, Mary and Joseph—in saying yes to life. Life may not always come on our time schedule or by our plans, but it is always a gift from God. Life might have its sufferings and difficulties, but it will always have more grace and blessings.
In our polarized society today, it is very difficult to remember the dignity of human nature. Everyone is born into God’s plan. Everyone is a piece of this wonderful mosaic.
However, again, the Holy Family had to suffer the hardness of people’s hearts. We have just finished a nine-day journey in preparation for Christmas called Las Posadas.
In Spanish, posada means inn. It recounts in a musical story the journey of slammed doors and mean looks Joseph and Mary endured in their search for a place to welcome Jesus.
No one accepted them, as they were not from Bethlehem but from Nazareth (“Can anything good come from Nazareth?” John 1:46). They found themselves in Bethlehem to take part in the census. They knocked, and nobody answered. The ones who did said no.
All they could find was a manger. The king of kings and lord of lords had to share his birthplace with animals and little else. When Herod wanted to kill the baby Jesus, Joseph received a message in a dream to uproot and go to Egypt, according to Matt. 2:13–15.
The Holy Family became migrants the moment they had to leave Israel, their homeland, for Egypt, a foreign country that promised some sense of protection for Jesus’ life. They left because Egypt would give them something Israel could not.
The Holy Bible is full of teachings regarding migrants and immigrants. Ex. 22:20, 23:9; Lev. 19:33–34; Matt. 25:38, 40, 43a, 45; and Heb. 13:1–2 are just some of the more quoted passages. Some say most teachings are in the Hebrew Scriptures or the Old Testament.
That might be true, but Jesus was a Jew and those were the only scriptures he knew. Every nation has the right to regulate and control its borders.
However, the Bible also says that all people are children of God and that political and worldly tension should not dictate how Christians respond to immigrants and refugees.
The story of Christmas is not just a nice, fuzzy story for little children recounted each year. Like every other Bible story, it challenges us to the very core of our foundation in Christ Jesus. Merry Christmas!
