FATHER POTHIN’S TWO CHRISTMAS REFLECTIONS
Fully Booked, No Room!
“The time came for Mary to be delivered. And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” (Lk 2:6f.). These words touch our hearts every time we hear them. This was the moment that the angel had foretold at Nazareth: “You will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High” (Lk 1:31).
This was the moment that Israel had been awaiting for centuries, through many dark hours – the moment that all mankind was somehow awaiting, in terms as yet ill-defined: when God would take care of us, when he would step outside his concealment, when the world would be saved and God would renew all things. We can imagine the kind of interior preparation, the kind of love with which Mary approached that hour. The brief sentence, “She wrapped him in swaddling clothes,” allows us to glimpse something of the holy joy of that preparation. The swaddling clothes were ready, so that the child could be given a fitting welcome.
Yet there is no room at the inn. In some way, mankind is awaiting God, waiting for him to draw near. But when the moment comes, there is no room for Him. Man is so preoccupied with himself; he has such urgent need of all the space and all the time for his own things, that nothing remains for others – for his neighbor, for the poor, for God.
I am always struck by the Gospel writer’s almost casual remark that there was no room for them at the inn. Inevitably the question that arises for us in this Christmas is: What would happen if Mary and Joseph were to knock at my door? Would there be room for them?
Amid the darkness, hold fast to light of hope
Christian hope is not the same as being optimistic about the future, but it is knowing that whatever dark or frightening things are going on in one’s life, God is there offering protection and light.
Especially during Advent and in preparation for Christmas, we need to read the second half of the Book of Isaiah, “the great prophet of Advent, the great messenger of hope: “Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God.”
When the prophet was writing, the people of Israel were in exile, they had lost everything – their homeland, freedom, dignity and even their trust in God. They felt abandoned and without hope.
Isaiah not only proclaims God’s love and fidelity, but calls on those who still have faith to offer consolation to others and help them “reopen their hearts to faith.”
The desert — literally and figuratively – is a difficult place to live, but it is precisely the place where one can walk to return not only to one’s homeland, but to God, return to hoping and smiling. When we are in darkness and difficulty, it’s hard to smile.
Hope teaches us to smile. One of the first things that happens to people who withdraw from God is that they are people without smiles. They might be able to laugh out loud — tell one joke after another and laugh – but their smile is missing. When we are with a baby, a smile comes spontaneously because a baby is hope. We smile even if it’s a bad day because we see hope.
Hope does not come with power or wealth, but with trusting in God. It is knowing that God, with His love, walks with us. I hope because God is alongside me. And this is something all of us can say. I have hope because God walks with me, he walks alongside me and holds my hand.
The key players in the Christmas story prove that “history is not made by the powerful,” but by God together with his little ones, those small and simple people whom we find around Jesus, who is about to be born: Zachariah and Elizabeth, who are old and marked by sterility; Mary, the young virgin engaged to Joseph; the shepherds, who were despised and counted for nothing.
They had hope, and they turned the dark and twisted paths of life around them into “a highway toward the glory of the Lord.”
There’s no denying that there is a crisis of faith in the world today. People say, ‘I believe in God. I’m Christian.’ ‘I belong to this or that faith community.’ But their lives are far from being Christian, far from God! Religion, faith has turned into an expression.
Those who believe must convert, constantly turning their hearts to God and following that path toward him. He awaits us. He wants to be with Us, Emmanuel, God within us.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year of Hope!
