The Star of Bethlehem awed us, but the Babe in the Manger humbled us. How can we resist the generosity and charisma of the baby God who did not mind shivering inside a damp cave, with only the heat of the animals’ bodies and a piece of his mother’s shawl to keep him warm?
If the Babe’s first visitors were the poor shepherd of the hills, how could we not do the same and pay our respects to the Son of God, Lord of Lords, and King of Kings?
The big idea in the manger is humility because God understands man’s darkest sides (arrogance, materialism, egoism, greed). Only humility has the power to shame and vanish man’s weakness in surrendering to evil.
The essence of Christmas is the Babe with a message to love and serve – acts that a humble person performs. No person ever claimed, "I want to be an egotist!" No child ever said, "I want to be greedy when I grow up."
The birth of Jesus, as announced by the angels is the biggest mystery ever to generate hope and peace in the hearts of mankind.
Christmas cuts across all races and religions. The exchange of gifts and wishes for peace and happiness happen even in countries where the people are Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims. Even agnostics pause to suspend their views. And there are really no genuine atheists at heart.
It is humility, too, that can soften and vanish hatred. In the battle zones of many wars, it is customary for soldiers on both sides to stop the shooting on Christmas Day. The message of Christmas is not debatable in the hearts of mankind.
Of all the virtues it is humility that packs power. It is humility that can create a miracle, do the impossible. Recall a humble Indian, Mahatma Gandhi, ascetic and skinny, fasting for days to protest British imperialism in India. Gandhi’s passive resistance and personal mortification shamed the conscience of England, resulting in the independence of India. Recall Mother Teresa of Calcutta caring for the abandoned poor and the sick of India. Gandhi and Mother Teresa were miracle workers, galvanizing people’s generosity, melting the hard of heart with the joys of charitable acts.
If we celebrate the happy moods of Christmas, it is mainly driven by one admonition: be charitable, forgive, give – all humble acts. The giver and recipient experience joy. This is Christmas in the simplest human terms.
It is, however, the deeper meaning of Christmas that generates hope for all mankind. The phenomenon of the Babe in the manger is the biggest miracle of all for the benefit of man, the authentic Christian prophecy of God’s plan regarding man’s immortality.
Catholicism is a religion that comes alive through the use and potential of human faculties: Sight, hearing, smell, feeling, thinking and believing. So easy to use.
The Babe in the Manger came so that man many learn all about God, worship Him and love Him through the use of human faculties.
Man needs another human being for a personal relationship with God. That’s why Jesus, the only begotten Son, was sent by the Father.
The beauty of Christianity is its harmony with our humanity. Only an all-knowing and all-loving God can bequeath us in earthly perpetuity a religion of love, peace and deliverance.
To exist on earth and keep His living relationship with God in continuity, Jesus Christ, through His Church, instituted the Holy Eucharist where He is present in all its sacred and miraculous nature, enabling us to continue that living connectivity with our faith.
It is true that the trappings of Christmas can go overboard with the colored lights, non-stop caroling, the profusion of merchandise as gifts including materialistic pursuits. But the encounter of happy hearts is not the result of marketing come-ons. A day for "peace on earth, goodwill to men" is a real need for all human beings.
In the midst of war and peace, calamities and fair weather, poverty and wealth, we can all kneel side by side with poor shepherd and tell the Babe that we, too, are humbled by His presence in the manger.