Reflection for Christmas Day
In the stable this Christmas
Christmas is the perfect season to begin and end the Jubilee Year of Hope (which started Dec. 24, 2024 and ends Jan. 6, 2025). Christmas itself is about the fulfillment of expectations. In the midst of a dark and fallen world, God repeatedly promised a Savior, and the Savior has come! And continues to come! And will come again! After a year of trying to increase in hope, I wondered, “Well, what’s next?” The biggest things I am hoping for, primarily heaven and growing in holiness, I still need to be growing in hope for! In one of my classes in preparation for vows, we looked at the relationships between the theological virtues (faith, hope, and charity) and the evangelical counsels (chastity, poverty, and obedience). Although all of them are intimately related, hope most naturally pairs with poverty. Since the theological virtue of hope helps us to await heaven and rely on God’s help to attain it, hope encourages a spirit of poverty, both material and spiritual. When we have our hearts set on the heavenly kingdom, our use of goods and our understanding of life circumstances fall into a more ordered perspective. Our Lord links the two in the Sermon on the Mount in the first beatitude: “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” in St. Luke’s gospel (Lk 6:20) and “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” in St. Matthew’s (Mt 5:3). Perhaps this connection inspired Pope Francis to write Dilexi Te, his apostolic exhortation on the poor that Pope Leo XIV finished, for this Year of Hope. Perhaps a year of hoping can help us to reflect on poverty of spirit, the traditional fruit of meditating on the Nativity.
It is not too difficult to see how material poverty fits into the story of Christ’s birth. After much searching for a place to stay in Bethlehem, the Holy Family ended up in a cave-stable because no inn would accommodate them. Even secular “Christmas stories” take up the theme: the Grinch steals presents and Ebenezer Scrooge’s miserliness unjustly keeps the Cratchit family in difficult straits. To understand Christ’s spiritual poverty in the mystery of the Nativity we must think of who it was that became poor. The infinite, almighty God gained only one thing by becoming man: the ability to suffer. Now, God could be cold. Now, God could be homeless. Now, God could soil himself in those swaddling clothes for the umpteenth time. Every I Vespers we sing, “Although he was in the form of God, Christ Jesus did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Instead, he emptied himself, taking the form of slave, being born in human likeness” (Phil 2:6). Not only did God take on a flesh, which is a mystery of mercy we could contemplate for our whole lives, but also He could choose any time, place, rank, and situation for being born in, and he chose one of hardship and poverty. The generosity of God who became poor so that we might become rich is the true basis for gift-giving. The Alpha and Omega has lowered Himself to become a baby, to become our bread—how can we not give all in return or give to those who are in need?
But what do I do about all the Christmas presents I opened today? Poverty takes on many forms, and it’s important to listen to the Holy Spirit to know how to live it out materially and spiritually. We know the most important part of the day is thanking God for the gift of the mysteries of the Incarnation and Nativity, but the gifts, parties, special foods, music, or decorations may more readily preoccupy our thoughts. Is my heart in the stable with the newborn Christ? The turkey only takes about fifteen minutes to eat; do I have the humility to recognize how much BIGGER the gift of grace is? Perhaps you are alone among people who only care about what’s under the tree and not who hung on one for love of them. The poverty in trusting God to help you live and share the real joy of Christmas can be the offering you present to the Holy Infant. In the face of materialism, let us see both the beauty of materiality, because God has so loved his creation that He entered into it, and the transience of materiality, because He has come to re-make us for heaven.
Today, Christmas, our poverty is in allowing Christ to fill us with His peace and love, in gratefully rejoicing that He has come to free us from our sins, and in corresponding to His love in the way He asks us to. For guidance we can look at Our Lady who probably felt the sting of material poverty then more than her Son did. Any mother feels some sorrow when she cannot provide a better situation for her child, and Mary knew that her child was God! Perhaps she’d had a crib prepared in Nazareth or could have expected the help of family and friends. Yet she accepted the circumstances of Christ’s birth in wonder, hope, and trust, knowing that God’s Most Lovable Will was at work. With great hope, let us ask the Mother of God, Our Mother, to obtain for us her humility that is true poverty of spirit.
Merry Christmas from the Dominican Nuns! Please know of our prayers for you during this blessed season!