Christmas time is also a time for telling stories because a story has a way of getting inside us. We become like children who learn by stories. So I would like to tell you a special story:

A group of children in a village in PNG were re-enacting the Christmas story. The young boy chosen to be the inn-keeper was a little slow intellectually.
He was busy in his Inn when Joseph and Mary knocked on the door.

“Please”, said Joseph, “do you have room for my wife and myself? She is really in need right now.”

The boy stood there, looking at them, but didn’t say anything. “Say ’there is no room’” whispered a voice from behind scene. Slowly the boy said, “I’m sorry. There‘s no room.”

Mary and Joseph turned away – but came back later. “Please, could you find room for my wife and myself?” pleaded Joseph.

The boy stood there looking at them, but didn’t say anything. “Say, ’there is no room’” someone whispered strongly from behind. Even more slowly, the boy said, “I’m so sorry, there’s no room.”

Mary and Joseph went away again – but again returned later. “Please, please, can’t you find some space for my wife and myself?”

The boy looked at them again but didn’t wait for the whispers this time. “It’s true we have no room, but you can have MY room. Come in!”

It is said that the greatest and most solemn feast in the liturgical calendar of the church is Easter. But the most beautiful and most moving is certainly Christmas. There is something about Christmas that touches our heart and embraces our spirit. Perhaps it is because at the centre of our celebration of Christmas is the birth of a child.

In all cultures of the world, the birth of a child is always a cause of great joy. How much more joy there is when it is the birth of a child who is Emanuel, God with us!

Some years ago, a young person approached me and asked: “How can I love God? God is all powerful, the creator of all things. And I am but a simple and poor creature of God. How can I love God? God is great, and I am so small. God is divine, and I am only human, perhaps too human. God is all holy, and I am but a weak sinner. How can I love God?”

Christmas is an answer to this question. God has become human so that we human beings can love him. God has become a weak and vulnerable child in the manger in Bethlehem so that we –simple, weak and fragile human beings – can love him. God has become a little child in the arms of a woman so that we can embrace him and love him. Christmas means God has become human like us. There’s no need to get out of our humanity in order to love God. We can love him with our human hearts, with our human emotions. We can embrace him with our arms of flesh and blood.
We can love God because he has loved us first.

In the child in the manger he has given us the gift of himself because he loves us. The child Jesus is God’s “yes” to us, to our world, to all of humanity. But the child Jesus is also an invitation to love God and embrace him in our arms. God’s “yes” to us is renewed in every child, every person that is born in this world. Thus every newborn child is also a sign of God’s invitation to love him in return.

The image that is imprinted in our hearts at Christmas is the image of the child Jesus in the arms of Mary his mother. And this image is an icon of peace. Because this image is an antidote to the violence and abuse of power that claim to bring about peace in the world. It is not the use of weapons or violence that will bring peace. Only the fragility and vulnerability expressed in the image of the child in the arms of his mother can help us attain true peace. For this image invites us to embrace our sisters and brothers. And when we use our hands to embrace others, they can no longer carry the weapons of violence and destruction.

The first Christmas night reminds me of a young mother who gave birth to her second child. The following day, the elder child came to visit her mother and the newborn baby. Then the mother went on to try to place the newborn baby in the arms of the elder child. But the elder child hesitated, a little afraid to touch the baby. Then the mother reassuringly said: “Hold him, do not be afraid. He is your brother”.

At Christmas the angels invite us to go in haste to Bethlehem to find the child lying in a manger. And there in the stable in Bethlehem, Mary shows us the child Jesus. And we, like older sisters and brothers of the newborn child, look at him with awe and wonder. But Mary invites us: “Hold him, do not be afraid. He is God, your brother”.

May each of us this Christmas find space in our hearts for those who are little in our world. May God bless us to live His love.

PHOTO: The Nativity Scene in the St Arnold Janssen Chapel, Marsfield.