The Christmas story - Biblical realities, modern challenges
The Rev. Darren M. Henson - Sacred Heart Catholic Church
Friday, December 21, 2007
In these days and weeks leading up to Christmas, our homes and streets are filled with lights and efforts are made to bring warmth and cheer into our lives. Nostalgia surrounds the Christmas story. Hearts and souls deeply anticipate the hopeful message the Gospel writers Matthew and Luke present in an infant who is named Emmanuel — God with us — and bestowed the title of the Prince of Peace. Everyone smiles at a newborn. Tenderness wells up inside of us and reaches out in fingers that stretch to caress the infant cheek or gently nuzzle the fatty fist.
“God with us,” however, is a rather challenging reality. God being with us, means that whatever if not of God will have to go.
Catholics do not just celebrate one day of Christmas. For us, it is an entire season that stretches nearly four weeks. This affords us several Sundays to explore the richness and detail of the infancy life of Christ Jesus. It also provides several weeks to meditate upon the new ways humans are to relate to one another because of the fact that God chose to relate to us through one like us. After the awe and wonder of the birth of the Messiah, the story takes a sharp turn. St. Matthew tells us of the very harsh reality the holy family encountered immediately after Jesus’ birth (Matthew 2). Magi come from the East. They approach King Herod asking about a child who had been born king of the Jews (2:2). The Magi make their way to Bethlehem and then peacefully resist Herod’s orders to become spies by ignoring him and returning to their homeland by another route (2:8-12). Herod learns that he was duped. The infuriated leader takes extreme measures and orders that all children around Bethlehem be killed. Joseph had been warned in a dream to flee the country where his family would stay until the messenger of the Lord, an angel, gave him the all clear (2:13-15).
What we have in the midst of the Christmas story and melodious carols is a tale of ancient genocide and a family’s attempt to escape it. Joseph, Mary, and their son Jesus sought refuge from the torturous hands of a corrupt political leader. This makes them refugees. God incarnate knows and understands the extreme plight and desperation of a people who flee a dangerous place for safe shelter and for the defense of their very lives.
Our community of Emporia recently spent over three hours attending to a public meeting focusing on refugees who have been sent by the United Nations to find safe shelter within the boarders of the United States. In their efforts to be free from the hands of brutal militia groups in East Africa, some Somalis have found meaningful employment and shelter in Emporia. Many in our community are striving to reach out and assure the Somalis have a safe place to live and flourish. Many saints in our Catholic Christian tradition, from St. Benedict to St. Ignatius, have exhorted their monks, brothers and members to treat the stranger as Christ himself. At Christmas we ritualize God’s intimacy with us in taking on our own human flesh. The Incarnation is the foundation for the Catholic teaching that all people are made in the very image and likeness of God. Because of this, all persons of all nations, cultures and tongues, are afforded a profound respect for their human dignity and worth.
Catholics and many others throughout our community are coming together to make the Gospel vision a reality here in Emporia. Our local office of Catholic charities is expanding their outreach that is already present in the community, to provide helpful and meaningful assistance to the refugee community. The holy family with their Christ child were lost in a foreign land and relied upon the kindness of others. Perhaps this is why St. Matthew later portrays the adult Jesus as saying, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me (Matthew 25:35).” Welcoming Christ into our churches and homes on Dec. 25 is merely the pattern for the ways we are called to live each day of or lives, and the way we are currently being called to welcome today’s refugees among us.
F “Sunday Sermon” is a forum for Emporia area ministers to share their sermons, thoughts and observations. This week’s sermon is from the Rev. Darren Henson, priest of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Emporia.