The Nativity of the Lord

Why is tonight different from all other nights? When our Jewish sisters and brothers celebrate their most important religious feast, which is Passover in the spring, the youngest person at table gets to play a very important role. They get to ask that very important question. Why is tonight different from all other nights? And the grown-ups get to tell everyone what they know and believe, which is usually the story of their grandparents and great-grandparents, what happened to them a very long time ago, how they experienced great suffering, how they were reduced to slavery, and how God in his great mercy and kindness and using great and wonderful signs came to set them free. He helped them to overcome their enemies. He built them up into a nation and strengthened them to prosper despite their challenges and hardships. God gave them freedom, a new way of life, and a land of their own to call home.

For us Christians, tonight is a night different from all other nights. And we celebrate this night by telling a very old and wonderful story, a story I am sure you know very well, but which we get to ask about anyway, because each time we hear it, we can hear it new again. The main characters of this story include a pregnant young woman from a small town called Nazareth in the Galilean countryside, the man she is engaged to marry, both on a long journey with the assistance of a donkey, a few farm animals sheltered for the night, a couple of shepherds and their flocks of sheep in the fields, three wise men from the east bearing expensive gifts, and a massive host of angels singing “Glory to God in the highest!”

There is yet one more character whose entrance into the story is really the event we remember and celebrate—a child born this night. He is the fulfillment of God’s promise a long time ago, the long-awaited hope of all the nations, by whose hands the sick will be healed, the hungry will be fed, the broken will be made whole, the poor will inherit a kingdom, the lost will be found, the deaf will hear, the blind will see, the grieving will be consoled, the children will be welcomed, and the sinful will be reconciled to God. This child is the reason tonight is different from all other nights.

But that is only the first part of the story. Our remembering and retelling of the story will do us little good if that is all there is to it. It’s like watching those Christmas specials on TV these last few weeks if all they accomplish is take away an hour of your life you will never get back, and help you put on a couple of pounds you didn’t need for all the popcorn and cheese doodles you gobbled on the couch. Because once it’s over and done, you can just walk away and keep doing what you’ve been doing before. So is there more to it? Is there more to tonight and the story of a child born in a stable?

15 years ago, there was a story in the news about a campaign of bus signs that ran in Washington DC weeks before Christmas. The signs read “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake.” This caused an uproar from Christian groups who felt highly insulted, resulting ironically in harsh words, and a counter-campaign of more signs reading “Why believe? Because I created you and I love you, for goodness’ sake.”

On this night/day of all nights/days we may wish to express every gracious and loving Christian virtue and attitude we can imagine. It’s really not all that difficult. We will have little trouble smiling at complete strangers, shaking hands, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, even dropping a generous donation in the church collection. We will have little trouble getting along for a fleeting moment with siblings, relatives, acquaintances, and co-workers who are otherwise a thorn in our side. No sweat. We can be kind and patient, forgiving and willing to seek forgiveness. We can be pleasant and restrained, polite and respectful. We can be prayerful and attentive, exemplary and reverent. The true miracle of Christmas is what happens after today and every day after that. How long do we have to be nice to one another? Until all the presents are opened? Until Christmas dinner? Until the New Year?

Christmas is not an annual collective exercise intended merely to produce warm fuzzies and fleeting outbursts of goodwill toward the less fortunate. It is not a show we put on every December to fool children into staying out of trouble. It is not a capitalist marketing initiative to keep people gainfully employed and the economy running. It is not a brainwashing technique invented by religious fanatics to stifle reason and enslave the masses. Christmas is a simple reality with some not so simple implications. It is first about the God who made us ever calling us to himself, becoming a child, becoming one of us to live among us, giving his own life so we might live, and that we in turn might genuinely reach out to each other, live in peace with one another, and be willing to give of our lives so that others might live. There is something so wonderfully absurd about God almighty who created the physical universe and everything in it becoming a child, a helpless, drooling, babbling child, so we can finally wrap our arms around absolute mystery, so we can see with our own eyes, hear with our own ears, touch with our own hands that which the universe cannot contain, and with that same power we can also choose to ignore him, despise him, and condemn him to a shameful death.

If the mystery of God becoming one of us affects us no differently from those who have no faith, then that campaign of bus signs in Washington DC makes absolute sense. If there is no difference between our Christian lives and the lives of those who deny God exists, then we are completely without a clue. And if not for the twinkling lights and the seasonal pleasantries, tonight/today is really just another night/day.

A few days ago, the Vatican issued a declaration that unnerved many Catholics. Pope Francis has given priests permission at their discretion to give a blessing to gay and remarried couples. Being a priest 30 years, if anyone asks for a blessing, I don’t dare ask if they are married in the church. I don’t dare ask if they beat their spouse or abuse their children. On the feast of St. Blaise, I don’t dare tell people who get their throats blessed to also stop smoking. Anyone asking for a blessing is simply asking God to look upon them with kindness. I don’t believe God would refuse. There is no endorsement of sin. It is simply a kindness to welcome and affirm. Jesus welcomed tax collectors and prostitutes and ate with them. Any decision to change their ways was always up to them. All he did was be kind to them. We seem perfectly fine with a God who is kind, a God who welcomes, until God is kind and welcomes people we won’t. Christmas is about God becoming one of us so we can be more like him. “Today in the city of David, a savior has been born for you who is Christ the Lord.” Come, let us adore him.

Rolo B Castillo © 2023