Come, let us adore Him

This Thursday … a Most Blessed Christmas of Hope! The calendar points to winter’s arrival with the shortest day of the year on December 21. The longer time of darkness certainly mirrors the concerns of many hearts in difficult and fearful times in our world.

How much more, then, do we understand the great joy of the shepherds, the Magi, Joseph, and Mary at the Good News that the Light of the World has come: “Today a Savior has been born for you, who is Messiah and Lord.”

As we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, near the conclusion of the Jubilee Year of Hope, I join Fr. Ron in thanking you for the generous and inspiring ways you reflect that hope to one another and to the world. Your goodness and faith in challenging times as well as joyful moments continues to inspire and encourage.

As I encourage each year, amid all the good and lifegiving gatherings and events, be sure to take some time in silence and stillness, perhaps in front of the manger scene. Mary was counting down the last days of her pregnancy – what will this Child, God’s own Son in her womb, look like? What will this birth be like? Will her love, and that of Joseph, be able to rise to the occasion to house the Savior of the World in their small home?

Along with the joy we celebrate, there were many questions

that only time – lived in patient faith – could reveal. It is so for us as well.

I share some words from Pope Benedict’s Midnight Mass homily in 2009. Perhaps they can inspire you with the hope this day brings, especially to those who feel small in this world of noise, haste, and anxiety

The Angel had said to the shepherds: “This will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger” (Lk 2:12; cf. 2:16). God’s sign, the sign given to the shepherds and to us, is not an astonishing miracle. God’s sign is his humility. God’s sign is that he makes himself small; he becomes a child; he lets us touch him and he asks for our love. How we would prefer a different sign, an imposing, irresistible sign of God’s power and greatness! But his sign summons us to faith and love, and thus it gives us hope: this is what God is like. He has power, he is Goodness itself. He invites us to become like him. Yes indeed, we become like God if we allow ourselves to be shaped by this sign; if we ourselves learn humility and hence true greatness; if we renounce violence and use only the weapons of truth and love. … When we see him, the God who became a child, our hearts are opened. … Lord Jesus Christ, born in Bethlehem, come to us! Enter within me, within my soul. Transform me. Renew me. Change me, change us all from stone and wood into living people, in whom your love is made present and the world is transformed. Amen.

May God bless you, your families, and all those you love. Jesus, our Hope, is here among us. Come, let us adore Him:

Christ, the Lord.