The time between Christmas and the Epiphany is my favorite
time of the year to pray adoration. Why? Because I am a visual person, and
before me in the chapel are the three most important events in the life of
Christ…and thus our life as Christians.
First, in front of
the altar, there is the baby Jesus peacefully laying in his manger. Then,
lifting my gaze I find before me, on
the altar, Jesus truly present in the Eucharist. And finally, lifting my eyes
all the more, this time above the altar,
they come to rest upon Jesus on the cross as a remembrance of His passion,
death, and resurrection.
This year my reflection before these three most important
historical events has been centering on God’s gift of self to us…
The baby Jesus in our chapel here in Rome is a particular
little guy: that’s right, little, even though normally the baby Jesus we find
in churches looks like a miniature man. Ours, instead, fits comfortably in the crook
of your arm (yes we hold Him sometimes), is basically bald, is smiling so big
as to have really squinty eyes, and has its arms lifted out to everyone that
enters asking constantly to be held. These little arms and that smile got me
thinking. Our God is a God who gives. He gives Himself to us as a helpless
child. He wants to be held by us, and in a particular way He entered history abandoning
Himself to the care of a young girl named Mary and her new husband Joseph. What
humility and trust. He could have entered the world as an already grown,
self-sufficient man – He is God after all – but He instead chose the way of
patient growth, entrusting Himself to, yes, an extraordinarily virtuous, but
all the same human couple. In a similar way He entrusts to our care His name
and faith in Him. It is up to us to nourish this faith and allow it to grow
into maturity in the people in our life, just as Mary and Joseph had the task
of raising the child Jesus into full maturity knowing when to then allow Him to
go out and continue this growth on His own.
Gazing at the Eucharist, I see another aspect of the self-gift
of God. While, coming into the world as a baby He entrusts Himself into the
hands of Mary and Joseph, in the Eucharist He abandons Himself in the consecrated
hands of the priest – a mere man with a supernatural calling. Again, Jesus is
the model of humility and trust in this self-giving. For the glorious Son of
God to come into the world over and over again in Masses celebrated in each
moment under the appearance of a fragile piece of bread and a few drops of
simple wine…just to be close to us, to become one with us, to transform us into
Him through the grace of receiving His sacramental presence. He comes to us in the
Eucharist just as vulnerable, if not more so, as when He was born to Mary and Joseph
as a little baby boy. He gives Himself to us risking rejection, risking to be
underappreciated and quickly forgotten, risking to not even be noticed at all.
Our God is a God who gives without counting the costs…or better, counting the costs
only for us but never for Himself. He does everything to facilitate our
encountering Him, so strong is His desire for communion with us.
And this brings me to the cross. Is there a stronger example
of abandonment? My God, my God why have
you forsaken me?...Into your hands Father I commend my spirit. When in
excruciating physical pain and under the weight of betrayal by His dearest
friends, everything about His human nature was screaming injustice and
demanding a “why” in the presence of the death that was becoming ever more imminent.
But the Son of Man is also the Son of God, and the Son of God knows the Father.
He knows the Father’s love and He, in return, loves the Father. He trusts the Father
and knows that if it is the Father’s will, it is the best will. It is in this
relationship of love and trust that Jesus – the King of Kings – accepts to die
naked on a cross between two thieves before the eyes of His suffering mother
who welcomed Him into the world 33 years earlier. In ultimate poverty He was to
enter the world and in the same way He was to leave it…and all for love of us.
For love of you, for love of me…the glorious King of all Eternity came into the
world to give Himself to us, to suffer and to die, so that we might have life:
His divine life; the abundant life that never ends.
If you get a chance this week, most churches should still
have the nativity scene up in the church. Take a moment to enter in and gaze on
the child Jesus abandoned in the care of Mary and Joseph. Take a look then
towards the tabernacle where Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist. And
finally, let your eyes fall upon the cross, the sign of the greatest act of
love: the laying down of one’s life for a friend. What do these moments in the life
of Christ provoke in your heart? What moves within you at the thought of the
babe in swaddling clothes coming into the world with the purpose of ending up
on that cross? How does this change your attitude towards His Real Presence in the
Eucharist? At the least would you not be filled with gratitude? Thank Him. (Eucharist comes from the Greek word for “thanksgiving”.)
And then obey the common message of the beautiful Christmas hymns we’ve been singing
in these days and simply adore Him.
Oh humble Jesus. You never stop giving Yourself to us, and
yet when is it that we give ourselves to You? You who are not too proud to
become one of us, teach us to become like you.
