When we celebrate birthdays, when we send cards and give gifts, we are saying the person whose birthday we celebrate is important to us.
Jesus Christ came into this world as a tiny baby, not as a grown person, not as an alien from outer space. Though he was God, he took on the human nature, grew up as we all have to do, learning and helping at home.
He prayed, he made friends, he suffered misunderstanding, rejection, humiliation, and death. He spoke to us in our own language and our of our own experience.
Jesus brings to us gifts; gifts we call grace, gifts of God’s love and life. So, on his birthday we offer him our thanks and praise, we gather together with family and friends to celebrate his birth. We send cards and gifts to one another following his inspiration of having given so much to us.
The birth of Jesus is the most powerful sign and message of hope in a world darkened by the shadows of fear and uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Pope Francis urged Christians to consider in what ways God is inviting us to say “yes”, especially in the difficulties surrounding Christmas in 2020.
“Instead of complaining in these difficult times about what the pandemic prevents us from doing, let us do something for someone who has less: not the umpteenth gift for ourselves and our friends, but for a person in need whom no-one thinks of!”
Without Jesus there will be no Christmas. May we find the grace to place Jesus at the center of our Christmas celebrations.
Merry Christmas!
Fr. Abraham