The below quotes come from Bishop Fulton Sheen’s booklet entitled “The True Meaning of Christmas.” I have been using this little booklet as part of my Advent reflection and prayer time for the past few weeks.

“Nine months passed by. One night there rang out over the stillness of the evening breeze, out over the white chalked hills of Bethlehem—a gentle cry. The sea did not hear the voice. The great ones of the earth did not hear the cry, for they could not understand how a Child could be greater than a man.”
We can often find ourselves waiting and then be surprised by the rapid and sudden change that happens when the waiting is over. May be 49er fans are feeling this with the new quarterback seemingly changing the fortunes of a team that couldn’t seem to win to save their lives into one that finds a way to win in all circumstances. Bishop Sheen reminds us that in our waiting we need to be attentive to the little things. The whole of the Jewish people had been waiting and dreaming and hoping for this moment and most of them missed it completely. They didn’t hear God’s call to come and see, to visit and spend time in prayer. Our Advent season, coming to a quick and abrupt conclusion, can feel this way. The joy and noise of the celebrations, presents and feasts can drown out the “gentle cry” inviting us to pay attention to God and one another. As we enter into these holy days a challenge we may place within our family is to stop and give thanks in prayer quietly and grateful to God for all the blessings of the day, to see how the child born in a manger is the true gift received this coming Christmas day

“There were only two classes of people who heard the cry that night: shepherds and wise men. Shepherds: those who know they know nothing. Wise men: those who know they do not know everything. Only the very simple and the very learned discovered God—never the man with one book.”
Believing comes from understanding the greater, not in solving the greater, but seeing and embracing the mystery of the greater in God’s love. Why the shepherds? Why these wise men? The mystery of their response to come and see, to come and bless, the come and worship is unending. Are we willing to enter into the mystery like them? This is one of the great challenges facing our lives: how will we respond? A person with one book knows only one answer and begins to exclude all others. If we act in this way we miss the deep beauty of God’s call to all people as we narrow our vision in how to act and see. To use the football analogy again; we try to fit the players into a system that is rigid and forces them to act against their gifts rather than seek the talents and beauty of each individual and meld them into a greater gift, the team of the Child Jesus. Jesus cries out and we are invited into sacrificial service of one another, because the Christ Child lives in us. Our challenge may be to invite our family to serve one another in the coming days, to joyfully go about our tasks as we pray for the gift of peace, in our family and in the world.

“When we say that God became man, we do not mean that the Godhead was cut down to human dimensions; it means, on the contrary, that a human nature was taken up into the Person of God and made One with Him. This union called the Incarnation, which literally means an “enfleshment,” or “made flesh.”
Bishop Sheen is expanding, in my humble opinion, on this most love filled sentence in the Bible.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
Our Christmas joy celebrates this gift of love. We cannot earn it. We do not deserve it. We are given, without asking, the greatest gift of all. Is this how we receive our Christmas gifts; in joy and love? We can in the moment forget the giver and simply look at the what in front of us. We then miss the “gentle cry” of blessing and hope that surrounds us in family and friends. If we begin to focus more and more on the quarterback and miss the hard work of the right guard toiling away to give his teammate the time to throw the pass. Do we take time to teach our children to look beyond the what and see and thank the giver of the gift with attentive joy and love? Do we do this with God?
May God bless you during the coming holy days and may you and your family have a blessed and joyful Christmas season.
Merry Christmas
Fr. Mark