Donald X. Burt, O.S.A.
1929 – 2014
Readings
Is 9:1-6
Ps 96: 1-2, 2-3, 11-12, 13
Ti 2:11-14
Lk 2:1-14
When Jesus was born, the only things he had going for him were his family and his Divinity. Oddly enough, his being God was little help in his human adventure. He had decided not to make much of his “being God” and thus throughout his earthly life he was treated like any other poor human. We are told that he “emptied himself” so that he could have the full experience of being human, the bad parts as well as the good parts. One of the good parts was in having a family. Jesus chose to be a member of a human family.
He knew it was not an unmixed blessing. He knew from the beginning what we learn only after a period of time: living in a family is not all sweetness and light. There are special fears, frustrations, and tears in family living. We are loved more deeply and also hurt more deeply by family than by strangers. We worry about losing family more than losing acquaintances. The guilt of failing one’s family is the worst guilt of all. But even with these negatives, Jesus still wanted to be part of a human family so that he might enjoy the gifts that only a family can give.
Jesus got his family. It was one of the good elements in his human life, just as it is for most of us. There were sorrows of course, but with the strength that comes from family the sorrows were endured.
When he died, he must have been glad that he had a family. His last dim vision in death was of that same woman who first held him at birth. Being in a family helped him live and helped him to die. Even that part of his family that killed him at least gave him human roots. He could point to them and say: “These people are mine.”
On the cross he said that about all of us. He thought of us and said to his mother: “Here are your children! From now on they are family.”
And thus it is that Christmas is a family celebration for all of us. Every human being can celebrate the birth of that Jesus who is our brother. Every human being can look forward to the day when we shall join him and his mother and all the saints in heaven … where finally and forever we shall be at home with our flesh and blood.
