The Feast of Christmas, 2014

The Feast of Christmas – RealCare Baby

A few years ago I was distributing communion at Sunday Mass when a young man came up to me carrying a baby.  My first instinct is to place my hand on the baby’s head and say a prayer but when I touched the head, I felt not skin, but plastic!  I realized I had blessed my first baby doll.   It was actually one of those Real Care Babies - you know, the kind the kids receive when they’re taking a Life Skills course at Kenston High School.

This baby looks like the real thing – it certainly fooled me!  It was swaddled and wrapped in a blanket and it acts like the real thing.  

I did a little research online and learned a lot about these interactive infants: it cries for care all hours – day and night, the caregiver has to determine what the baby needs – burping, feeding, rocking, diapering, there is a computer chip in the baby that records when the baby is changed, and which
article of clothing it’s wearing and the computer tracks its care and safe handling.  The temperature of the room and how long the baby has been sitting unattended in the car is also noted.

Just think about how well I could have turned out had my parents had this technology!!!
Now I'm not exactly certain what the goal of the class is.  But I am certain of this - it gives young people first-hand experience of how a baby changes your life!  And that's so true.  As a new father friend of mine told me, "I can't remember the last time I watched an entire program on TV, or the last time I slept in or took a nap.  I rarely do what I want, when I want or how I want.  My life is not my own anymore."  And then he said, glowingly, "kids give us the power to change everything don't they?"

Is it any wonder that when God wanted to change the world he sent a child?  A child whom Kings knelt before and leaders feared.  A child who could sympathize with our weakness yet teach us the way of love.  A child who showed us the way that leads to God.  A child more precious than silver or gold.

If Christ had come as a human person in adult form, it would have been one option.  But the times his full glory is revealed in his adulthood; many didn't take note - they ignored his presence.  Jesus could have come as a caesar, as ruler, governor or earthly leader.  But had he done so some would have written him off; dismissed him.  Jesus could have come as a military general but some would have followed him for the wrong reasons; hoping to win a war rather than finding salvation.  Jesus could have come as an all knowing rabbi but some would have dismissed him as being too liberal or too conservative.  He could have come as a Pharisee, but some would have accused him of loving the law too much.   God could have come to us in many ways.  But most of those ways would have given many opportunities to ignore him.

Today/Tonight we celebrate the fact that Jesus came into the world in the only form that he would be most attractive, and heartwarming and life changing.  He comes to us as a child.  A child, vulnerable and in need of protection.  And he comes to us as a child for our sake.  What a gift, for a child gives us the power to change everything.

One of our parishioners, Mary Kay Domo, sent me a really inspiring card this year.  It has a quote on the front of the card which reads: "There has to be at least one day a year to remind us that we are here for something besides ourselves."  She said it reminded her of an episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond" when Debra tells Raymond why she goes to church.  "It reminds me that I am not the be all and the end all.  There is something out there greater than me."

Perhaps that's the real message of Christmas; and why the message comes to us in the form of a child; a child who gives us the power to change everything.  In a world too often cloaked in darkness, violence and sadness, that child means hope.  That child means joy.  That child means that there is, indeed, something greater than ourselves out there.  And the message of Christmas is that God's love was made flesh for us in the form of a child and, because of that child, we've been given the power to change everything.  

What child is this who lay to rest on Mary’s lap is sleeping
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, While shepherds watch are keeping.
This, this is Christ the King whom shepherds guard and angels sing
Haste, haste to bring him laud, the babe, the son of Mary