The Heart Of Christmas
By DONALD DeMARCO
The heart of Christmas is the birth of a child. Puer natus in Bethlehem, Alleluia! We all know this and it has been reiterated millions of times. Yet, like a beautiful melody, it bears being repeated again and again. The Nativity was no ordinary event. Indeed, it is the single most important event in human history. It is a birth that calls for the rebirth of “all men of goodwill.” And yet, it is the most unlikely event that history has ever known.
“Divinity,” as Bishop Fulton Sheen once said, “is always where one least expects to finds it.”
One might have expected Jesus, if He were God, to be born in comfortable and hygienic surroundings, assisted by skilled attendants. But He was born in a stable, a refuge for outcasts and a feeding place for animals. Moreover, His family was penniless, an unlikely condition to bring into the world a child whose mission was to reform the world. Those who speculated that the Messiah would arrive in clouds of heavenly glory did not expect Him to arrive wrapped in swaddling clothes.
Yet divinity does not escape the attention of a saint. As St. Luke reports: “This day, in the city of David, a Savior has been born to you, the Lord Christ Himself” (2:11).
G.K. Chesterton encapsulated the paradoxes associated with Christ’s birth when he pointed out: “Anyone thinking of the Holy Child born in December would mean by it exactly what we mean by it, that Christ is not merely a summer sun of the prosperous but a winter fire for the unfortunate.”
We may forgive G.K. for ignoring the fact that December is not uniformly cold throughout the world. Nonetheless, his point is well taken. Christ did not come into the world to complement the wealthy or utilize power to accomplish His mission. His message was from another world, and yet one that this world was in such great need. He came to convert sinners and to comfort the afflicted. He came to tell us that love is more important than anything else.
Aristotle’s God, which had considerable influence on the world, is essentially self-centered, a thought in contemplation of itself. The Babe born in Bethlehem is born into a family. He is not to be regarded as a self-contained being. He represents an entirely new category of divinity — relationship. He is the son of Mary, the mother, and Joseph, the father. He is the focus of relational reciprocities. Furthermore, His family reaches beyond itself to touch and transform other families. Here is a new and revolutionary notion of the highest being, one that is related to all people through love.
Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI), in his splendid 1968 book, Introduction to Christianity, makes the following comment in reference to Christ: “It is hardly necessary to say what a revolution it must mean for the direction of man’s existence when the Supreme Being no longer appears as absolute, enclosed autarchy but turns out to be at the same time involvement, creative power, which creates and bears and loves other things.”
Indeed, we can all enjoy the relationship of friendship with God.
Divinity would not be divine if it were merely an “I’ and not a “We.” The greatness of God is not to be self-contained but to embrace even the littlest. Therefore, if we are to share in the greatness of God, we must also embrace the littlest. “Verily I say to you, except you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:1-11).
The Christmas Child is telling us that greatness and littleness do not exclude each other. In fact, they coincide. The greatness of the Child Jesus is that He comes into the world as little. A child is a kind of love magnet. It is so easy and so natural to love a newborn babe. It tugs on our hearts and releases what is best in us.
It is only too common in our present secular world for people to think of greatness in terms of money, power, fame, and success. A Hollywood actress told an applauding audience recently how her abortion allowed her the opportunity to win a coveted movie award. When John P. Getty was asked to write an autobiography, he stated, simply: “John P. Getty became a billionaire.” Liberace’s favorite slogan was: “The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.” The Baby Jesus, born in poverty, helplessness, obscurity, and being decidedly unaccomplished, is telling us that it is through love that we achieve our beatitude. He is quietly informing us where divinity is to be found.
The heart of Christmas is the center of the Holy Family. This in itself represents a cultural revolution. Pater familias made the father the center of the family. Secular feminists of the modern era award centrality to the mother.
The Baby Jesus is the center of the family and gives the family not only its focus but its strength. His message to the world is of profound significance: Do not disdain the child. Despite its littleness, it is the unexpected key to both greatness as well as happiness. In serving the child one is serving the Lord.
Christmas will be merry when it honors the Christ Child. The salutation, Merry Christmas, then, is a joyous affirmation of both God’s greatness and His beloved littleness.
May all the readers of The Wanderer have a Merry Christmas while praying for a world that has ignored the babe that made Christmas a reality!
- + + (Dr. Donald DeMarco is a professor emeritus of St. Jerome’s University, and an adjunct professor of Holy Apostles College & Seminary. He is a regular columnist for the St. Austin Review. His latest five books, How to Navigate through Life; Apostles of the Culture of Life; Reflections on the Covid-10 Pandemic: A Search for Understanding; The War against Civility [all posted on amazon.com], and A Moral Compass for a World in Confusion.)
