24
Dec
Dec
Reflection: John 1:1-18
Wish you all joys and blessings of Christmas. Wish you good health, lots of happiness and God’s blessings in abundance in this Christmas! Christmas is actually a celebration that reminds us of the fact that Christ has been born, Christ lives, and Christ is present now in our lives. Through the lives of the people in the Nativity narrative, Christmas reminds us, of the importance of helping to bring the presence of Christ to the world around us. Christmas calls our attention to be attentive to the occasions when the Lord comes to us in the least expected people, and in unexpected places and situations. In this Christmas, the word of God invites us to welcome Christ by recognizing Him in the people around us. The Lord finds a space for himself in the manger – identifying himself with the homeless, the refugees and those abandoned by the society and those in power. Manger is the utensil used for feeding the cattle. What is kept in the manger is the fodder for the cattle. God became man and found a place in the manger to become food for the people. The Christmas crib invites us to focus on the manger. The Holy infant in the manger invites us to join him in the manger. Do we dare to join him? Or are we happier to leave him there and return to the cosiness of our luxuries? If you ever plan to join him in the manger, be mindful of the following: There isn’t room in the manger for all the baggage we carry around with us. There’s no room for our pride and self-righteousness. There’s no room for our human power and prestige. There’s no room for the baggage of past failure and unforgiven sin. There’s no room for our prejudice, bigotry and hostile national pride. There’s no room for bitterness and greed. There is no room in the manger for anything other than the reality of who and what we really are: very human, very real, very fragile, very vulnerable beings who desperately need the gift of love and grace which would be found in abundance in the presence of Jesus, in the company of Blessed Mother and St. Joseph.