Christmas 2013

This Christmas, as with past Christmases, we return to the scene in Bethlehem.  Again we see a young couple being turned away.  There’s no room for them.  Again we see the common, everyday scene: a stable, a feeding trough, animals, working shepherds.  We hear Mary’s cries as she gives birth and we hear a baby’s cries, now one of us.  The scene itself is unremarkable and unadorned.  It’s a simple scene.  But the gospels will tell us through the message of angels that here God’s wonderful presence is to be found: “Glory to God in the highest” – that here our peace and our good will for one another are to be found: “Peace on earth and good will.”


This Christmas I am struck in particular by the simplicity of the scene.  The star of Bethlehem shining on these events is highlighting for me their simplicity.  People – a young family – doing what needs doing – to meet the challenges life is giving them.  And we are told their unadorned, unremarkable lives are quite enough to be where God’s presence and our peace-filled presence to one another are to be found.

There’s another scene I have been reflecting on.  It takes place in Rome – at the Vatican.  The scene is Pope Francis accepting as a gift a twenty year old Renault as his pope-mobile of choice.  And I begin to hear the same heavenly music announcing that something very right and good is being done here.  There’s a sense he’s doing what should be done.  Somehow – moving from papal Mercedes to papal Renault – moving from papal palace to papal hostel – somehow it all echoes to me that God and our peace are to be found in the unremarkable and unadorned life – are to be found in the simply human.  Washing another person’s feet is not just a ceremony; it’s a way of finding God and bringing peace to one another.

Bethlehem and Rome – both point us toward choosing simplicity of life for ourselves.  They are saying simplicity of life is our vocation as Catholic Christians.  It is this simplicity that will allow us to ask basic questions.  Questions like: Where does our happiness lie?  Does it lie in friendships, family and people?  Or, does it lie in the cycle of making and spending more money?  What does our experience tell us?  Our simplicity of life will prompt us to ask: What’s an economy for?  Do economies exist just to perpetuate themselves? Or, do they exist for the purpose of human flourishing?  Are the first and last questions we ask of an economy whether it is improving people’s lives – or, what are its scorecard numbers in GDP and stock market?

For Christians simplicity of life is a real ethic for how to live – how to live in such a way that we find God present in life and we bring peace and good will to one another.  Our aspirational ideal is not to have more for ourselves but to be more for others.  After all, that’s what the simple scene in Bethlehem tells us about God, Jesus and ourselves.  The babe in the manger is Jesus – and is us.  Just as God breathes into Jesus his own love – just so does He breathe into us.  What God breathes into us is his mercy – his tender, loving mercy.

Our Christmas lesson – from Bethlehem and Rome – is that we are to live full of mercy.  Live mercy to the full!  For us all else in our lives – all else – is to become mere footnote to that life lived in tender, loving mercy for others.

Fr. Pat Earl, S.J.