Crossing over to the living God

Once the angels departed, the shepherds said to one another:  Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened for us (cf Lk 2:15).  The shepherds went with haste to Bethlehem.  A holy curiosity impelled them to see this child in a manger, who the angel had said was the Savior, Christ the Lord.  The great joy of which the angel spoke had touched their hearts.

Let us go over to Bethlehem, says the Church’s liturgy to us today.  Trans-eamus is what the Latin Bible says: let us go “across”, daring to step beyond, to make the “transition”, step outside our habits of thought and habits of life, across the purely material world into the real one, across to the God who in his turn has come across to us.  Let us ask the Lord to grant that we may overcome our limits, our world, to help us to encounter him, especially at the moment when he places himself into our hands and into our heart in the Holy Eucharist.

Let us go over to Bethlehem: as we say these words, along with the shepherds, we should not only think of the great “crossing over” to the living God, but also of the actual town of Bethlehem and all those places where the Lord lived, ministered and suffered.  Let us pray at this time for the people who live and suffer there today.  Let us pray that Israelis and Palestinians may be able to live their lives in the peace of the one God and in freedom.  Let us also pray for the countries of the region, for Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and their neighbors: that there may be peace there, that Christians in those lands where our faith was born may be able to continue living there, that Christians and Muslims may build up their countries side by side in God’s peace.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year of Hope!