Who is the Child in the Manger?
by Fr Anthony Clifford Lobo SDB
Homily for Christmas Midnight mass – 24th December 2021
One of the great experiences of Christmas is to celebrate it as a family. It is a great joy to be all together around the dinner table sharing and partaking in the Christmas meal. It is this incarnation, God sharing a meal with us, in the offering of his beloved son, the ‘Emmanuel’ – God becoming one like us, that we celebrate at this holy night. Living this true Presence of Christ in our lives urges us to be that community that first welcomes the Son of God into one’s own life and then makes Him a gift for others.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta would say, “It’s Christmas every time you allow God to love others through you.”
Another powerful phrase is from Victor Hugo, Les Misérables “To love another person is to see the face of God.”
This holy night of Christmas, we experience pure love in the gift of a child. God loves us and sees in us love, and offers us the most beautiful gift, his only begotten son.
St. Francis of Assisi captures the narration of the Evangelist Luke and proposes to us the first living nativity scene in Greccio, a cave in Italy, from where we get the concept for our cribs, our nativity scenes.
In its humility, the nativity scene represents a child being born in a manger (basically a haystack) on straw. In front of this image of the nativity scene, we still stop to meditate and reflect after 2000 years of being pilgrims in history. Our journeys may be full of fatigue and loss of hope, wounded by our own pride and ego, but the Child in the manger, is the light that orients us to keep looking forward, to a tomorrow, as it was for the pilgrims of time… tonight we too stop again in front of the cave and look at the Child in the manger.
His silence, his helplessness, his littleness, is like a knock on the door of our lives and we ask ourselves questions. Who is this Child in the manger?
For some, this Child in the manger maybe is an occasion and a symbol of division between different races and religions, an image that must be eradicated from public places, as it creates a bias to the formation of the citizen, a threat to the secular state.
For others, it has historical value as a testimony of our roots, an intertwining element of our culture and our civilization. For still others, he is an ethical symbol, a source of values and behaviors that can give a norm and style to personal and social life.
The question therefore comes back powerfully and insistently that hits us on our face, as we meditate on the helpless silence of the crib: but who is this Child in the manger? What have we come here to do on this holy night? Why, or rather, for whom have we gathered here on this holy night?
The prophetic voice answers us with the text of Isaiah 9:5: “For a child is born to us, a son is given to us; upon his shoulder, dominion rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.”
The apostolic voice also answers us through the text of Paul to Titus: “Dearest, the grace of God has appeared, the bearer of salvation for all men.”
Finally, it is the Gospel itself that tells, through the voice of the angels: “The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a saviour has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.”
Here is the who of the Child in the manger is: he is brother, he is God; he is Emmanuel, the God-with-us. He is the glory of the Trinity made poor within history, wrapped in the ragged cloak of our humanity.
This is Bethlehem, this is Christmas: the Trinity is represented in the humility of being born in a manger: on the straw of humanity, on the straw of the Church, on the straw of my life. Therefore, tonight, thank you for coming to this service, where you have made time from your schedules and events, and collected yourselves in the Church, you have taken your life in hand and brought it here, in front of the Child in the manger.
Thus, we can joyfully acclaim, We have not come around a symbol of division, around a pale historical memory, around an ethical etiquette; we have come; we have taken our life to contemplate the Trinity being made humble in all lowliness. And here we measure, almost with dismay, the unfathomable love that consumed the distance between Creator and creature, that burns the repulsion between holiness and sin and leads God to embrace our humanity, to the point of making our world very much part of His. He communicates by a pure gesture of love within the fragility of our becoming, of our suffering, of our dying.
We have the opportunity to fix our life here tonight. Let us leave it for a moment without defense and without distraction before this Child placed in the manger. Let our bewildered, lost, wasted lives listen to this silence, look at the Child and the straw and feel wrapped in an embrace that will never leave us. Let us finally simply discover that he loves us, without measure.
We often lack the tenderness of this love of Christmas because so many other things cover and overshadow us.
Larry Wilde would say, “Don’t worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of a child, they are all 10 meters tall.
The Child in the manger invites us all to become children again, because only in this way will we be able to recognise the gift that God offers us.
In the eyes of a child, we experience that belonging, which is not limited to the mere memory of “once we did this at Christmas”.
Here is our Christmas. Love for what God offers us as a vocation.
God became flesh. God became Mother and Father, he became sister, brother, friend, he gave himself a face in the one you meet on your way.
The Child in the manger connects us all. Let us thank him for all the faces we meet. The Child in the manger remains the beauty and intact wonder of our new Christmas.
Merry Christmas
Bidding Prayers
Intercessions Christmas 2021
Celebrant
On this feast celebration of wonder and joy, let us remember all
those who are in need and lift up our prayers for them to the
loving God who became human so that all people could be
saved.
For our Holy Father, Pope Francis, and for all the shepherds of
the Church: may they lead God’s people in being a sign of the
Prince of Peace throughout the world, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord, in your mercy. . . hear our prayer
For our families, loved ones, and friends: may our bonds of love
be strengthened by our joy at the birth of Christ here and at
home, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, in your mercy. . . hear
our prayer
For those who this day have no home and no food, that through
the efforts of this Christian community of faith they will be
given help, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, in your mercy. . .
hear our prayer
For those who are far from home today: may they know the
presence of Christ and the power of prayer rising from the
heart of each one gathered here, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord, in your mercy. . . hear our prayer
For newborn children everywhere, that they may have love,
shelter, and food,. Let us pray to the Lord:
Lord, in your mercy. . . hear our prayer
For those who are searching for meaning and purpose in life: that they may )and in this holy place the fulfillment of their deepest longings. Lord, in your mercy. . . hear our prayer
For an end to this pandemic, for those unable to be with family
and friends because of the need to self isolate, for a fairer and
more just provision of the Vacccines in our world, and for the
gift of hope and faith as we live through these uncertain days.
Lord in your mercy, Hear our prayer
For our loved ones and those from this community who have
died in the past year, may they be held in love in our thoughts
and prayers as we celebrate the birth of our Saviour. Lord in
your mercy…hear our prayer.
That our prayers will be united in the Holy Spirit with those of
Mary the Mother of God,
Hail Mary…
For the prayers we hold in our hearts, that they will be heard
and answered by the Lord.
Celebrant: God of endless ages, your eternal Word leaped down from heaven in the silent watches of the night; may your Church now be filled with wonder at the nearness of our God, who hears all our prayers through Jesus Christ, our Emmanuel, now and forever.
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