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Which Way To Bethlehem?
December always brings excitement around the wonderful celebration of Christmas. That excitement often causes us to forget that there is such a thing as “ADVENT” preceding Christmas. Advent isn’t a gloomy time it is a place and time where we can rejoice and spend time remembering the reality of what we are celebrating and preparing ourselves to birth Christ within our own hearts. Certainly, there is time for celebration, gift-giving and remembering with cards, letters and parties, but the essential part is remembering the reason for the celebration, an event that happened in the Middle East, a place that is in the news quite often these days as we mourn the inhuman behavior occurring there.
As our eyes fall upon the familiar manger scenes scattered throughout our churches and homes this Christmas season, it is hard not to think about the millions of people from that same manger land who are seeking refuge from terror and oppression now 2,000 years later. The Christmas story is about a family seeking refuge. Ordered by an occupying government to travel by foot for days on end so that Caesar Augustus could count the number of people under his reign. It was a fiercely political environment through which they wandered. The Christmas story should open our eyes and our hearts to those most vulnerable in our midst. To those whose only hope is to travel by foot on ground or inflatable rafts for days in search of a livable life—many of whom look very much like the Middle Eastern Mary, Jesus’ mother. The Christmas story is about an expectant mother at the peak of her pregnancy being forced to undergo the single most dangerous experience of a first-century woman’s life not at home, but away in a manger. And the place where she delivers makes her heart and that of Joseph sink as they had dreamed of a better and safer place to welcome their child.
As Franciscans we know that St Francis visited the Holy Land and unquestionably went to Bethlehem experiencing a powerful realization of what it might have been like for the Holy Family. Bethlehem touched Francis deeply and ingrained in him what “incarnation” really meant: the humility of a God who loved us so much that he wanted to be one of us and teach us how to accept God’s unconditional and extravagant love, a God born in poverty and disadvantage without the luxury of a King. Francis was moved to love this humble God with an intensity that was visible to all. Francis wanted others to experience this themselves. According to Thomas of Celano, Francis desired to “represent the birth of that Child in Bethlehem in such a way that with our bodily eyes we may see what he suffered for lack of the necessities of a newborn babe and how he lay in a manger between the ox and ass.” Exactly 800 years ago, in the town of Greccio, Francis recreated the nativity scene that he saw in Bethlehem so that the people in the town could come to know the humble God who became human for the sake of each one of us. That very God seeks to be born within each of our hearts
During this season, there is an invitation for us to remember and delve into its meaning for us today. More than 2000 years ago Christmas took place is a small Palestinian Village where the Jewish prophets had foretold that the Messiah would be born. When the birth took place, Ed Hayes suggests that no one remembered the ancient prophecies, and so people were looking for Emmanuel in other places. Perhaps they were too busy to remember the words of the holy visionaries. And we need to ask ourselves if today, in our lives, the story repeats itself. Are we too busy to understand? Jesus as prophet said, “where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in their midst”. Ed Hayes tells us “we should tattoo these words on the back of our hands so that they might be constantly before us. For taken in their fullness, without the dust of centuries or the cobwebs of spiritual slumber, they contain the most radical of truths. Where two or three are united in prayer, in love, in justice, hope, affection and work, that place can be called Bethlehem. It is a place where once again the Divine Presence becomes a reality, the birthplace of Emmanuel, God-among-us.” Which way to Bethlehem? Stay on the Journey.
Many Blessings as you celebrate Christmas this year!
Preview Sheet 2023-2024
PS: Since we cannot accommodate overnight retreatants at the motherhouse, you might consider spending the night before or after the retreat at the hermitage so you can be in a peaceful quiet environment to reflect.
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