St. Maria Goretti

You know what I realized this year? And I have no idea why this has never hit me before. We never talk about the shepherds. We talk about Mary, and Joseph, and Jesus every year. We’ve talked about the angels before. We’ve talked about there being no room at the inn and the manger. All of these things are considered essential elements of the Christmas narrative. But we never talk about the shepherds. It’s a lot like our nativity sets at home. You know, if you break Mary, or Joseph, or Baby Jesus, it’s a big deal. It most likely means that you’re going to be getting a new nativity set next year. And if you break the angel with your nativity set, that’s probably not a good omen. You don’t want to get the angels made at you. But if you break a shepherd… Bah…Who cares? The shepherds are the extras of the nativity drama. Remember back in grade school, and they’d put on the Christmas pageant? What’d they do with the guys that couldn’t sing? They’d make them shepherds. Trust me, I know all about being a shepherd. Not only don’t the shepherds have to sing, they don’t even have any lines. All they have to do is look afraid when the angels appear. That I could do.

The truth is that shepherds were much more common in Jesus’ day and location. It was a very common job for young people to be shepherd for the family’s sheep before they were old enough to get a real job. You know, this is what they used to do with Jr. High youth two-thousand years ago. They didn’t have Jr. High youth ministry. They sent them out all night to watch the sheep. When they grew up a little bit, they let them come back home. But almost everybody was a shepherd at some point in their life. Even the girls would go out to watch the sheep when their brothers were sick. So for a long time, everybody knew about shepherding. It’s not a real exciting job. You have to run around a lot with dogs, corralling the sheep. It’s virtually impossible to go to work as a shepherd and NOT at some point in the day end up stepping in sheep doo-doo. That would get old. And then there was the weather. If you were a shepherd, you had to be out there with the sheep no matter if it was hot or cold, wet or dry, night or day. It was not a real glorious job. Not then. Not now.

And that’s exactly why it is so important to talk about these guys today. The shepherds represent all of us. They weren’t movie stars. They weren’t politicians. They weren’t rednecks from Alabama who had had too many beers. They were just average people. Nobody was more average than the shepherds. Those shepherds went to work that night expecting that night to be exactly like every other night that they spent out there with the sheep. It would get cold. They’d run off some wolves. They chase down some loss sheep. And they’d get to go home in the morning and get some rest. But THIS night was SO different! First of all, there was that bright star that night. They didn’t even need their torches it was so bright out. It made their jobs easier. Then an angel appeared to them. First one showed up and then many came. And the angels were singing! And the angel is talking about a Savior, the Messiah being born, a baby in a manger. And there’s glory, and peace, and favor everywhere. No, this was a night very much unlike any other night these shepherds had ever experienced before. This night, they became the first witnesses to God’s greatest action. Oh sure there was the parting of the Red Sea, and David’s victory over Goliath, and even Jonah’s being spat out of the mouth of a big fish. But God had never done anything like this before! And being witnesses to all of this, changed these shepherds. They could never be the same again.

And yeah, they were afraid. The angel tells them not to be. But let’s face it, you see and hear angels singing and delivering messages to you in the dark in the middle of the night, I think we’d all be a little bit freaked out. And yet, we can’t be afraid. The angel was right. Fear destroys the message. Fear closes the door on the changes that God wants to make. We can’t be afraid. The shepherds couldn’t two-thousand years ago. And we can’t be today.

The Child born that night is still changing average, every day people, even ones that have never been shepherds. He changes people through the birth of their children, through RCIA, through retreats and missions, through Christ Renews His Parish, and through His Sacraments. This Christmas, the same Christ Child wants to continue to change you and me. The biggest question this year is not what were going to get for Christmas, but what are we going to become with Christmas?

You know, that first Christmas changed and affected the shepherds more than it did Mary and Joseph. Maybe the shepherds didn’t have such a minor role after all. Maybe all of us have more of a role in this drama than we think. The nativity is for us, all of us! What are you going to do with it?

May God bless us this Christmas, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit… AMEN !!!

St. Maria Goretti… Pray for us !!!