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 (Matthew 1:18-24)

Among the most assuring words a person can hear is “Don’t be afraid.”

These words we frequently find throughout the Scripture.

For example, in the Old Testament the Lord said to Abraham before cutting the covenant with him: “Don’t be afraid.”(Gen. 15:1) In the New Testament, an angel said these words to Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist: “Don’t be afraid.”(Luke 1:13) Gabriel said to Mary, who was disturbed at being greeted as “favored” by God and “The Lord is with you”: “Don’t be afraid.” (Luke 1:30) An angel said it to the shepherds, who were startled by the Christmas glory that shone round them: “Don’t be afraid.”(Luke 2:10) Jesus said to Peter fearful at the miraculous catch of fish, “Don’t be afraid.”(Luke 5:10) Jesus said it when the disciples thought he was a ghost walking on the water:“Don’t be afraid.” (John 6:20) Jesus said it to Peter, James, and John prostrate on the ground when they heard the voice from heaven at the transfiguration: “Don’t be afraid.” (Matt. 17:7) A frightening angel who had rolled back the stone from Jesus’ tomb said it to Mary Magdalene and the other women, “Don’t be afraid”(Matthew28:10). And here you have an angel assuring Joseph:“Don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”(Matthew 1:20)

As we draw closer to Christmas, that exhortation could be a significant facet of God’s message to us: “Don’t be afraid.” But the question is what do we make of this message? What does it not mean?

First, “Don’t be afraid” here is not a total negation of fear. People have good reasons to feel afraid. Mary was afraid. She was being asked to give birth to a child when she had no husband. By Jewish Law, she could be stoned to death. The shepherds in the fields had reason to be frightened. How else would you feel when the glory of God shines all around you?

And what of us? Don’t be afraid when you lose your job and your children are hungry? Don’t be afraid when guns and knives, and shabu are kings in our streets? Don’t be afraid when women are often raped? Don’t be afraid when children and adults are terrorized by kidnappings? Don’t be afraid if you’re young and vulnerable, elderly and unloved, middle-aged and unhappy with your life? Don’t be afraid if you’re dying? Are we fooling ourselves?

If you need a powerful proof that fear is human and Christian, look at Jesus himself. Was he himself not afraid in the Garden of Gethsemane, in his agony, when he begged his Father, if it be possible, not to let him die?

“Perfect love casts out fear… Whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.”(1 John 4:18) But how do we reach perfect love? Here’s where the Christmas story comes in. It is the promise foreshadowed long ago by the prophet Isaiah: “The Lord will give you a sign. Look, the young maiden is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14) What does that Hebrew word Emmanuel mean? “God is with us.”

Such is the essence, the heart, of the Christmas story: God is with us, but with us in a unique way as never before. God born as we are born, of a woman, after nine hidden months. God fed from a mother’s breast. God walking as we walk, hungry as we hunger, tires as we tire; God healing human illness with a touch, lifting the sinner from the earth, instilling courage into hopeless hearts. God betrayed with a kiss, mocked for a fool, lashed with whips, crowned with thorns, nailed to a cross like a common criminal, God rising from the tomb, God remaining with us in the Sacrament of his flesh and blood.

What does this say to fear? God came among us. God is with us to save us. This is what the name Jesus means. Remember today’s Gospel: “You [Joseph] are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people…” And what is salvation? - A liberation, a process of freeing - from sin indeed; but not only from sin - Beyond and apart from sin, freedom from fear. Not from instinctive reactions – but from the fears that keep us from loving God with all our mind and heart, all our soul and strength. So that we can cry, to ourselves and to others, “Have no fear, God is here.”

This leads to a third question: What might all this be saying to you and me this Christmas? At the heart of Christianity is love: to love as Jesus loved. On the road to such perfect love I need a gift of God called… trust.

Where do I begin? With God’s own Christmas gift: God’s Son trusting himself to us. He trusted himself to a teenage girl’s body for nine hidden months. He trusted himself to a human mother and foster father, who never quite understood who he was and what he was about. He trusted himself to twelve intimate friends, one of whom sold him for twelve pieces of silver, another denied with an oath that he had ever known him. He trusted himself to a people of his own creation whose leaders persuaded the Romans to crucify him. He trusts himself to us – in our hands and on our tongues; if we love him, he lives in us.

What does this Christmas gift expect of us in return? - Our own trust. Let the Lord gradually remove the fears that prevent perfect love. There are indeed fears about which God says to you and me, “Don’t be afraid.” So many of us are afraid: afraid of God, afraid of hell, afraid of ourselves, afraid to risk.

Many Christians are afraid of God. In their experience, God seems so distant…or so majestic… or so tyrannical… or so uncaring. God is the God of typhoons and earthquakes, of wars and laws of vengeance and punishments.

No. If such is your image of God, look down into the crib, look up at a cross. There is your God – in swaddling clothes, and bloody naked. “God so loved the world …”, so loved you and me.

Many Christians are afraid of themselves. I mean, they do not trust their own joy, are afraid to be happy, think that if they’re too happy something bad is about to happen. No. Remember Jesus’ promise: “I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.”

Too many Christians are afraid to risk. They are like the fearful servant in Jesus’ parable, the servant who was afraid to invest his master’s capital, played it safe, safely buried the capital, only to hear his master shout, “Out of my sight, you lazy lout!”

Jesus made it quite clear: If I’m constantly set on saving my life, I will lose it; only if I risk losing my life will I save it. Only if I’m willing to sacrifice whatever God asks of me for love of God and my brothers and sisters, only then am I so free of fear that I can say I love as Jesus loved.

This Christmas, this “Silent Night, Holy Night,” try to see in the Christmas crib a challenge and an assurance. A challenge: to love somewhat as this child loved – terribly vulnerable, but always arms outstretched to a world.