Friday, December 18, 2015

My heart: a cradle for the Infant Jesus

Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur had finally succeeded in getting their homemade airplane airborne on December 17, 1903. Ecstatic over their success, they sent a telegram from Kitty Hawk, NC to their sister in Dayton, Ohio saying, "First sustained flight today. Fifty-nine seconds. Hope to be home for Christmas."
Well, it seems sister was so thrilled by their success that she immediately took the telegram to the editor of the local Dayton, OH newspaper. The following morning edition found the Wright brothers' name splashed across the front page. The headline that day read, "Popular Local Bicycle Merchants Home for the Holidays." Quite obviously, the newspaper editor had missed the important point of the historic telegram.
Christmas is here yet again. As the name suggests its Christmas, it is about Christ and not about anything else. “God becoming man, or Maranatha” is the event that we celebrate with joy and jubilation. We have been preparing for Christmas both externally namely, cleaning the house, preparing Christmas culinary designs and internally namely, novena, confession, reading scripture, prayer and so on, which is a good thing to do and duly rewarding. But most important question one must ask is, why did I prepare? Or more specifically, for whom did I do all this?
It is crucial during this time we focus on God becoming Man, the mystery of the incarnation. God took initiative in the history of human salvation by sending His Only Begotten Son to be our redeemer. Let us make this as the key of all our preparations during Christmas because Christ must be our focus and not ourselves. In other words, it is to welcome Christ in our midst as Prophet Zephaniah says the King is in your midst and as John the Baptist says, He is mightier than I am. The king and mightier is in our midst, namely, in our lives, in our families and in our Church community. Let us keep Christ in the center of all our celebrations because it is Christmas, birth of our Lord. Let us sing happy birthday, sing lullaby, sing carols and most importantly let us make our hearts a cradle for the infant Jesus to laydown and rest.

I would like to wish everyone peace and joy of Christmas to you and your families both in Guyana and overseas. May this Christmas be a time of grace and blessings. I am grateful to God for each of you in this parish. May you always be surrounded by Christ’s joy and peace.

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