The Nativity of the Lord
Today's Mass Readings
Do you remember the very popular Bette Midler song From and Distance? This is how it goes.
From a Distance the world looks blue and green
And the snow capped mountains white
From a distance the ocean meets the stream
And the eagle takes to flight.
From a distance there is harmony
And it echoes through the land
It’s the voice of hope, it’s the voice of peace
It’s the voice of every man.
God is watching us, God is watching us
God is watching us from a distance
God is watching us, God is watching us
God is watching us from a distance. Distance is a very safe word. Distance is safe because it defies commitment. Distance is safe because it protects us from confronting the ugly. Distance is convenient because it provides escape routes. People choose distance because it makes fewer demands on them. It is easy to love from a distance because as the Bette Midler song suggests, from a distance everything is beautiful. Distance is for cowards.
But distance is also cold, bland, and barren. Distance is bland because it never produces true love. True love involves risk but distance avoids risk taking. Distance is barren because it rarely is life-giving. Distance is the antidote for passion.
Today, we have gathered in this Church not to celebrate God watching us from a distance. If the best God could do was watch us from a distance, then, there would be nothing to celebrate. If the best God could do was love us from a distance then, humankind would not know the meaning of love. Today, we have gathered in this Church because as the Christmas gospels proclaim, “Emmanuel, God is with us!” (Mt 1:23); and again, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us!” (Jn 1:14). God loves us from up close. God enters the womb… God enters human world to live with us up close. God embraces human life. God dwells in the human heart…. Today we celebrate because God loves us from up close- ugliness, sin, betrayal… and all.
Three practical implications:
a) Bette Midler’s song, although written to give the opposite effect, is representative of our society. Our culture encourages distance. Take, for example, the fact that there are two parallel Christmases each year. There is the one that revolves around hollies, reindeers, shopping, snow sledges and decorations. Some of these have become godless celebrations. And then there is the Christmas where Christ and his love, his humility, his tenderness, his vulnerability, his forgiveness, his self-giving, his acceptance are the key. There is a big distance between these two Christmases. The former kind is based on distance. It is representative of our cities that distance East side from the West side; our world distances the North from the South. It stands for distance between the rich and the poor, state and religion, economics and ethics, personal faith and public witness, white and black. To the extent we help in creating, maintaining, or widening the distance in these areas to that extent we undo the Christmas story. To the extent that we love from a distance we once again deny room for Christ.
b) The irony of Christmas is that when God came to be with us up close, human beings preferred to love God from a distance. After all there was no room for him in the inn. As John would say in his gospel, “He came to his own and his own received him not. But to those who did receive him, he gave power to become the children of God.” There were clearly, then, two kinds of people on Christmas day. There were those who came to the manger close up… the shepherds, the wise men. Mary was the closet of them all and Joseph too. But there were those who preferred the distance – Herod, the Roman authorities, those in the inn. This celebration expresses our desire to be close-up with God. Like the shepherds, like the wise men, we too have come. God invites us to take this closeness and make it real during the rest of the year. Let us make a resolution that the rest of the year we will be up close with the God who comes up close with us.
c) Continuing with the theme of Christmas from a distance and Christmas close up I would like to present an option to each of us present here for Christ. What if I suggested that this year instead of celebrating Christmas that we “become” Christmas? Celebrating Christmas is for those who love from a distance. Rather, I am suggesting that we become what Christ himself did for us – love up close. I am suggesting that we too give up distance by making real the love, the humility, the tenderness, the vulnerability, the forgiveness, the self-giving, and the acceptance of Christ. Let us “become” closeness where there is distance; let us “become” acceptance where there is rejection; let us “become” compassion where there is selfishness; let us “become” humility where there is arrogance and pride; let us “become” forgiveness where there is enmity; let us “become” life where there is the culture of death; let us “become” God where there is Godlessness; let us “become” Christ where there is emptiness.
In conclusion let me say this: On this Christmas day, once again, Christ comes close up in this Eucharist. Today, this altar is our manger. As vulnerable and humble as Christ was in the manger on that first Christmas day, so humble and vulnerable will he be on this altar. Like the shepherds and the wise men, as we draw close to God, let us allow God to come close to us. This Christmas and for the rest of the year, let us “become” God With Us. Amen.
- Fr. Satish Joseph