St. Maria Goretti

Some of my favorite things about Christmas, every year, are Christmas cards. It’s just a lot of fun to hear from family and friends, especially those that you aren’t going to get to see over the holidays. But I’ve noticed a couple of things about Christmas cards over the past couple of years. First of all, there are less and less religious cards every year. You see more and more snow men, and Santa Clauses, and scenic winter paintings, then you do anything having to do with Jesus. I suppose that is all part of our becoming more politically correct and not wanting to offend anybody. The other big thing that I notice about Christmas cards is that whatever the picture is on the front of the card, everything in the picture looks so perfect, so beautiful. My Christmas card this year was a picture of the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. And it was beautiful, but it probably wasn’t very realistic. Mary looked just like Shania Twain. I kid you not! Joseph looked like one of the Bee Gee’s. And even Baby Jesus looked like the smiling baby on the Gerber Baby Food bottle. Mary didn’t look like she had just had a baby. Joseph didn’t look like a typical father after a long trip, and waiting in line for a census, and then having the burden of not being able to find a place for his family to stay. And even Baby Jesus sure looked happy for someone who just came out of the womb. You know what I mean? It was just not very realistic. The Christmas cards that I received this year with beautiful winter scenes look nice too, but they also are not very realistic. Where are the cars that slid off the road? Where’s the jack-knifed semi? How come the Christmas village scene doesn’t have a gas station selling $3 a-gallon gas? Again, not very realistic. And then there’s my favorite Christmas cards, the ones with pictures of families. But even then, we don’t take a picture of our family for our Christmas card at the breakfast table, on Saturday morning, when we just got up. We dress up. We look nice. And we take the “official” Christmas card picture each year, that one picture that makes our family look their best. Just once, I’d like to get a Christmas card from a family, taken on their vacation, where they’re strangling each other, or having a food fight in the back of the minivan, or a picture taken when they get home after spending ten days on the road together. Now that would be realistic. It just might not be very beautiful. And we like our Christmas cards, we like our Christmases, to be beautiful. Picture perfect!

In reality, we know that the First Christmas wasn’t necessarily beautiful. And it certainly wasn’t picture perfect. The story of the First Christmas, that we celebrate today, is filled with mess and turmoil. Did you count how many things had gone wrong in the Christmas story? Mary’s having a baby and what are they doing? Mary and Joseph are traveling. Any obstetrician will tell you that’s not a good idea. It’s not because they want to go, but because they have to go. The government demanded that everybody go for the census. Mary was expecting she and Joseph got married. Joseph didn’t understand this at all, and had his doubts about what was going on here. Then, because of the census, Bethlehem was very crowded. There was no room at the inn, as the story says. And it’s not like Mary and Joseph could have gone online and made reservations. They were stuck. Of all times, this is when Mary goes into labor, and has the Baby in a stable. She lays the Son of God in a manger! The shepherds are seeing angels and they are terrified. The Three Kings, the Three Wise Men, are lost. They don’t even make it to Bethlehem for the birth. They had traveled for years in all likelihood to find Baby Jesus, and tradition tells us that they arrived twelve days late. Who wrote this story? Who planned this thing out? The First Christmas was a mess. If it could go wrong, it DID go wrong

But you know what? Even the mess of this story is good news for us today on this Feast Day. Our God handles mess. And that’s a good thing for us because we live every day in a messy world. Our world does not look like a Christmas card. Not today and not ever! Our world is not perfect. There are wars. And there are conflicts. And people get sick. And terrorists drive airplanes into building on purpose. And hurricanes, and tornadoes, and earthquakes happen. And there are car accidents. And sometimes people aren’t their best. And sometimes bad things do happen to good people. And we sin. And we hurt each other. And sometimes there’s not enough. And sometimes we get afraid. And sometimes we get lost. And sometimes our kids get in trouble. And sometimes we lose our jobs. And sometimes loved ones die. And one day we are going to die. Could you imagine if they put all of that on a Christmas card? Nobody would buy it! Our world is a messy place. But our God has got it covered. God has been handling mess ever since that night in a barn outside of Bethlehem. He still handles messes today, when we let Him.

We rejoice over a very real God who entered a very real, very messy world, two thousand years ago.

Jesus came down into our mess. He took our mess upon Himself. You can’t put that on a Christmas card, because NOBODY would buy it. It’s not pretty or beautiful or festive. But He changed us and our world forever. And that’s something beautiful, even when it’s messy. That’s something to celebrate today, and forever.

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

St. Maria Goretti…Pray for us !!!