Here and Now with Francis: 12/20/18 (Christmas, surprise, silence)

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From the Angelus

Christmas is to celebrate the unheard-of God, or better, it is to celebrate an unprecedented God, who overturns our logic and our expectations. . . .
Please, let us not make Christmas worldly! Let us not put the One celebrated aside.

In six days, it will be Christmas. The trees, the decorations and the lights everywhere recall that this year also there will be a celebration. Advertising invites to keep exchanging newer and newer gifts to have surprises. However, is this the celebration that pleases God? What Christmas would He want, what presents and surprises?
We look at the first Christmas of history to discover God’s tastes. That Christmas was full of surprises. It begins with Mary, who was Joseph’s promised bride: the Angel arrives and changes her life. From being a virgin, she will be a mother. It continues with Joseph, called to be the father of a son without generating Him . . . .
However, it’s on Christmas Eve that the greatest surprise arrives: the Most High is a little baby. The divine Word is an infant, which means literally, “incapable of speaking.” And the divine Word becomes “incapable of speaking.” . . .
To celebrate Christmas is to do as Jesus did, who came for us needy , and to come down to those in need of us. It is to do as Mary did: to entrust ourselves, docile to God, even without understanding what He will do. To celebrate Christmas is to do as Joseph did: to rise to do what God wants, even if it’s not according to our plans. Saint Joseph is surprising: he never speaks in the Gospel: there isn’t one word of Joseph in the Gospel; and the Lord speaks to him in silence, He speaks to him in fact in his sleep. Christmas is to prefer God’s silent voice to the noises of consumerism. If we are able to be silent before the Crib, Christmas will be a surprise for us also, not something already seen.  To be in silence before the Crib: this is the invitation for Christmas. Take a bit of time, go before the Crib and stay in silence. And you will feel, you will see the surprise. . . . [link]

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