Some Reasons for the Nativity
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Think about a newborn baby for a moment… That first infant cry… Their need to be wrapped right away… Their fragility as you hold them…
Now surround that baby with the Nativity and we have the first moments of Christmas… What is ironic is that this baby is the word incarnate, and so He’s speaking volumes in a form that cannot speak much at all!
For instance, think of the humility that God choose to come in. Not with the glimpse of divine power which at the Transfiguration threw the three Apostles to the ground. Instead, He came helpless, thrusting Himself into our arms, asking us to care for Him.
Babies make us want to protect them, care for them, make sure they're okay - they inspire within us a deep sense of caring for the innocent. Even baby Yoda had this effect on a Mandalorian ; )
In His desire to reconcile us to Him (CCC 457), Jesus wanted to disarm any fear we have of Him, any notion that He’s mad or wants to punish us. He is revealing to us the character of God, and one of the first things He wants to show us is His mercy - it's upon that foundation that He wants to build a relationship.
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When we imagine Jesus as an infant it is so easy to picture a baby who knows so little about the world, because they do! They are just experiencing it, and the infant Jesus was just experiencing it as well. While God knows everything, it was the first time he experienced the cold air on his skin for instance.
But part of the miracle of being fully human, and still fully divine, is that Jesus still knew everything. Jesus' divine intellect was still divine, was still in communion with His Father and looked upon Him, and it had access to His normal omniscience.
One of the four reasons God came was to show us how much we are loved by Him (CCC 458). Everything He did He would have done just for you, and so in a mystical sense, He did do it just for you and had you in mind as He did it.
Whatever you went through today. Whatever you have gone through this year. Know that you are known, loved, cared for, understood, and are accompanied by God in ways you can hardly imagine. So are those you love and care about. When you reflect on a Nativity Scene, know that the infant in that manger knows your face and your name, and knows your struggle. He entered the struggle because He wants to be with you in yours.
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People love Christmas. They decorate like no other time and flock to churches. This year many started earlier than ever, and I know people who literally doubled their Christmas decorations because, they say, they “needed it.” What might we be looking for in Christmas? I sense we’re generally looking for newness and hope. We’re certainly all done with 2020! Thankfully one of the graces of Christmas is that of newness.
In the Book of Revelation, Jesus says, “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev. 21:5). At Christmas He does something new and fantastic: He bursts into our reality to live it with us, and in doing so He shows us just how busy He is on our behalf.
Whatever we are going through, we can trust that God is already busy in it, working it for our good. Jesus becomes a child so that we can become like children. Jesus enters seemingly impossible situations as a helpless infant to show us how to have a child-like trust in our Heavenly Father’s care and providence for us. We have been baptized into the life and love of the Blessed Trinity. The Heavenly Father protects and loves us with a fierceness and fatherliness we scarcely understand.
What lack of trust has been attacking our peace this Advent?
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Christmas is a season of newness and hope. Most special of Jesus’ promises to make all things new is His promise to do something new within us, if we will allow Him. Hope in worldly things will eventually disappoint, but the promise that God has our ultimate good in mind and is making us new is the one promise that won’t - in fact it’s the one thing we will find ultimately fulfilling.
Part of the miracle of the Incarnation is that God flooded a fully human form with the infiniteness of His Divinity, even within the smallest of packages at the Nativity! He shows us that He can fill us with His life and divinity, and reassures us that He wants to make us new creations (2 Cor. 5; CCC 460). That doesn’t mean making us something different; it means perfecting and elevating who we are and all that is good within us with His own life and love, which we call grace. While at times we might feel helplessly stuck, unable to grow or change, and alone in our struggle, don’t buy into the lie that God doesn’t want to be busy doing something new and astounding within you! Only your lack of receptivity is stopping that.
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At the Nativity, as throughout Jesus’ earthly life, God demonstrates the reasons for the Incarnation: He deeply desires to reconcile us to Himself, to show us the fierceness of His love for us, to model for us the best way to respond, and to fill us with His Life, making us new.
He stops at no cost, making every effort and giving us everything. The Nativity is a sign of this radical generosity. St. Bonaventure says, the Father gave us "not pennies, but a Person, not a servant but the Son."