“And Mary kept all these things,
reflecting on them in her heart.”
I remember it was Christmas 1976, I was just 11 years old.
I remember that Christmas very well for this reason.
Every December 17th it was a tradition in our house
that we decorated the Christmas tree.
I know it sounds late but that is when we always did it.
All 12 children would help decorate the tree
so it didn’t take long to do the tree
because all of us had to do just a couple of decorations
and the whole thing was done.
In the middle of that gathering, we would play Christmas music
and get into the Christmas spirit.
It was usually when school was out and it was always fun.
The doorbell rang and of course being the youngest
I was sent out to get the door.
That was the way the rule always worked.
The youngest goes out to get the door.
Out I went to the door and it was the regular beggar.
The regular beggar would come every Saturday
on schedule 10:00 a.m. just like clockwork.
But this was a Tuesday. This was Christmas.
She was coming for her Christmas bonus.
She knocks on the door and says,
“How are ya?
Will you tell your mother that Mrs. O’Brien is here?”
I said, “My mother is not here.”
And she says,
“Ah yah, I know. Will ya tell her anyway, will ya?”
If by divine fiat, I turned around and
I go back to my mother and I say to my mother, rather frustrated,
“Mum, the regular beggar is here.”
My mother didn’t say a word.
Just went to her purse and took out 3 pounds.
In 1976, 3 pounds was quite a bit of money.
Especially from a mother of 12 children.
It would have been the equivalent of $30 today.
Enough to think a couple of things about it.
My mom goes to the door and she chats with Mrs. O’Brien.
They laugh and then they hug and she comes back.
I was defiant still, saying,
“Why do you give her money?
Don’t you know that you are the only house
that she stops off at every Saturday morning?
She doesn’t go to anybody else’s house
because they, they have her figured out she’s a fraud.
She is not a beggar at all.
She is one of the tinkers coming for money.
Why do you give it to her?
Why did you give her so much money this Christmas?”
Now bear in mind, I’m thinking with the mind of a child.
The biggest gift I would get for Christmas
was a box of my own cornflakes.
That was the big gift for me.
So the idea of giving 3 pounds,
my eyes were like bugged out.
And I continued, “Why do you give it? I don’t understand.”
My mother responded
“Because she has a need and I can afford it.”
I will always remember that line
because really it was the best Christmas gift
I could have ever gotten from, my mother.
I realized what my mother was teaching me.
And then for a little bit of extra,
she turned around and said,
“Oh and by the way, that ‘old beggar’ has a name.
And her name is Mrs. O’Brien.
And if you want another morsel of food in this house,
you will call her Mrs. O’Brien.”
A young, hungry little boy learned his lesson.
I called her Mrs. O’Brien from then on.
My point is that was the greatest lesson
because my mother taught me
that Christmas was what the real Christmas message was;
it was about the hidden face of Christ in others
and that when Christ became one of us,
he did not come in the grandeur of a palace as some first-born king.
He came in a manger, in humility and in poverty.
He did not appear in great fanfare
but was known to shepherds first and foremost.
Now lest we misunderstand,
the shepherds were the lowest of the lowest in that society.
They would have been nomadic.
They would not have had a home.
They would have smelled like the sheep.
They would not have been welcome at the inn or at people’s homes.
They would have slept with the sheep.
The message from the angels came to the shepherds
to point the way to Christ.
Now we have a very romantic vision of that today
but the fact is that Jesus comes in the littleness of a baby,
one who is completely vulnerable and dependent upon their parents.
There are many different ways God could have chosen to take flesh
but he chose humility, obscurity, and poverty.
And in doing so, he showed us that
the way to discover him is in humility.
The way to discover him is recognizing
that he is in the obscure and the little ones;
the ones who are least recognized to others;
and fundamentally the way to discover him is through poverty.
This Christmas, we are called to recognize the Christ who is with us today.
The Christ who is hidden;
and as Pope Francis says today in his homily,
“…in the littlest of humanity,
in the little ones, the immigrants, the poor,
the broken, the wounded, the sorrowful.”
The question then for us as we want to get into the joy,
which is important, we celebrate the gift of our family,
which I hope you will be with today;
and we recognize the joy of Christ among us
but we need to also ask ourselves who is the Mrs. O’Brien in our life.
Who are the little ones?
Who are the ones maybe even inside our family
who we really do not want to be a part of our family
or they are part of it but that is a phone call we need to make?
Or, who is the Mrs. O’Brien in our neighborhood
or in our work situation or school?
The one who is always off to the side.
Who is rejected by most?
We are called to see the Christ in them.
Today, we celebrate the joy of the Word Made Flesh;
that God chose to become one of us
in humility, obscurity and in poverty;
and we recognize that Christ is hidden always among us here and now;
and we can see him in each other and most especially the little ones.
Who is the Mrs. O’Brien for us?
