Christmas Day
Fr. Victor Feltes
The shepherds were in the countryside keeping night watch over their flocks when an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them. The angel proclaimed “good news of great joy”: a baby born that day in Bethlehem, a Savior who is Christ and Lord. And the angel gave the shepherds a confirming sign: “You will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” Seeing a newborn baby swaddled (that is, snugly wrapped up in cloth) would not have been an unusual sight back then. As the Old Testament author of the book called The Wisdom of Solomon writes: “In swaddling clothes and with constant care I was nurtured. For no king has any different origin or birth; one is the entry into life for all…” A much stranger sight for the shepherds on Christmas would be to see a baby in a manger.
Now when I was a kid, I thought the manger in any “manger scene” was the Holy Family’s barn or shelter, but that’s mistaken. A manger is not a building but a feedbox for dry feeds, like grain, for animals to eat. On Christmas, one such manger served as a makeshift cradle. Once the herald angels had departed, the shepherds excitedly said to each other: “Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place!” They went in haste into Bethlehem and found the Holy Family, with the newborn King lying in the manger.
The angel had told the shepherds “this will be a sign for you.” Seeing the child in the manger confirmed that they had found the Christ, but this Savior in the manger is a sign for us in another sense. The name of the city of Christ’s birth, Bethlehem, means “House of Bread” in Hebrew. Finding our Lord inside a box for eating grain within the House of Bread is a sign for us foreshadowing the Holy Eucharist. Jesus would go on to teach us, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
God’s Son became man for a closer unity with humanity; “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The shepherds in the countryside and the Magi in a distant land were called to draw nearer to Christ at his dwelling place in Bethlehem. But Jesus offers and calls us to an even closer union with him, within this church, his dwelling place. Jesus declares, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. … Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.” When Jesus teaches us to pray for daily bread he wants us to eat more than only once or twice a year. As normal food sustains our natural lives, so we need “the Bread from heaven” to sustain our spiritual lives, to remain in Christ and he in us.
Behold, as a messenger of the Lord, I proclaim to you good news of great joy: Jesus Christ, who is Savior and Lord, has come down from heaven. Born long ago in Bethlehem, he remains really present for us here today. Please allow the miracle of Christmas to produce enduring fruit in you. Return here to Christ’s dwelling place each Sunday and holy day, to adore him and receive him in his Holy Eucharist. Through his Incarnation, Jesus chose to become one of us; but through his Holy Eucharist, he wishes to remain one with you.
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