By Bishop William K. Weigand

Life is full of mysteries and miracles. The bounds of the universe elude in time and space even our most sophisticated technologies, and yet God’s fingerprints are on it. His face is etched there and, yet, when that mysterious God wanted to touch our lives...“Mary gave birth to her firstborn Son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for him at the inn” (Luke 2, 6-7). By becoming man, the Son of God touches us in the simple things: a family, a little baby, a stable, shepherds, animals.

We touch the mystery and awe of God’s presence in the many mini-miracles of daily life: the birth of a baby; a kind word; a warm and loving hand in time of need and pain; a child’s tears dried up and its fears scattered with a warm hug; in the awe that wells up in one present to a beautiful sunset; in the sacramental elements of bread and wine, fire and water. God’s message is mostly of the heart. Perhaps the little children have the most direct route to that heart...“Unless you become as little children, you shall not enter the Kingdom of God” (Mark 10).

The simple, beckoning light of Bethlehem can shine on the ironies and contradictions of this season. Isn’t it a little strange that we have massive spending at the stores to celebrate the feast of One born in abject poverty, on the margins of society? As we sing Christmas carols about peace on earth, we easily forget the areas of our world where peace is not a reality. Deep below all the defenses, fears and noises of our lives, there is a Presence that can bring meaning, calmness, love and courage into our rushed and fractured world.

Perhaps we need to make a crib for Jesus in our hearts and ponder, with Mary, the wondrous mysteries of God’s coming among us. The infant Savior in the manger at Bethlehem reminds us that God’s very breath is in every human being. The delightful Presence of God as a baby calls us to rejoice in every sign of life in God’s good world. It calls us to reverence and respect God’s presence in others. It calls us to surrender to what God wants us to be and to enable others to do the same.

In that way “the mountains can be brought low and the valleys filled in”(Is. 40) and our very world transformed. The tiny baby in the manger is God becoming one of us so that we might reclaim our true identity as children of God, allowing the spark of the Divinity within us to flame up into fullness. May Christ be with you, bringing you deep peace and joy at Christmas. Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year to all!