What is my hope this Christmas, having seen what material poverty can be like up close in the Philippines, and living in Singapore where I am surrounded by countless people who are emotionally and spiritually bankrupt?
We are a people living in darkness (remembering the slain children in Pakistan), and yet, Isaiah prophesied: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.
My hope, and the hope of the world, is this light, Jesus, or Emmanuel, God is with us. He was born into our world to bring the light of new life, joy, hope and most of all, salvation. Do I welcome the Infant Jesus with open heart and arms? Do I hear the real message of Christmas?
I really like the homily of Pope Francis at this year's Christmas Eve mass:
The message that everyone was expecting, that everyone was searching for in the depths of their souls, was none other than the tenderness of God: God who looks upon us with eyes full of love, who accepts our poverty, God who is in love with our smallness.
The pope asks us to reflect: Do I allow myself to be taken up by God, to be embraced by him, or do I prevent him from drawing close? “But I am searching for the Lord” – we could respond. Nevertheless, what is most important is not seeking him, but rather allowing him to find me and caress me with tenderness. The question put to us simply by the Infant’s presence is: do I allow God to love me?
I found what Pope Francis said insightful. Often I cannot accept my own smallness, my own poverty, so I ignore it or shove it away, I project it onto others, I do everything I can except deal with it in a constructive manner. In so doing, I lose an opportunity to grow in love and joy. I fail to meet Jesus where I am, and where He stands, next to me, inviting me to experience my humanity.
As the pope pointed out: ...do we have the courage to welcome with tenderness the difficulties and problems of those who are near to us, or do we prefer impersonal solutions, perhaps effective but devoid of the warmth of the Gospel? How much the world needs tenderness today!
We are all in great need of tenderness. It is so easy to grow hard and grasping in a competitive, capitalistic environment where cash is king. It is seductive to buy into an individualistic and consumeristic lifestyle, thinking only of our own needs. The easier option is to medicate our discomfort, pain and hurt away, to numb ourselves so that we can forget about striving to be better people, and to make the world a brighter place. Too much work involved there.
Christmas is the answer to tapping into our inner tenderness. God who loved the world so much that He sent us His only son who was born a tiny baby in a manger.
The Christian response cannot be different from God’s response to our smallness. Life must be met with goodness, with meekness. When we realize that God is in love with our smallness, that he made himself small in order to better encounter us, we cannot help but open our hearts to him, and beseech him: “Lord, help me to be like you, give me the grace of tenderness in the most difficult circumstances of life, give me the grace of closeness in the face of every need, of meekness in every conflict”.
My hope this Christmas, and all the days of my life, is in God, who believes in me and loves me; God who understands my smallness and loves me even more because of it; God who became man and showed me how I can live as a woman of faith, tenderly. I can only stand in silent awe at the manger, and paraphrase the words of Matt Redman's song Endless Hallelujah:
And I will worship, worship
Forever in Your presence I will sing
I will worship, worship You
And endless hallelujah to the King.
We are a people living in darkness (remembering the slain children in Pakistan), and yet, Isaiah prophesied: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.
My hope, and the hope of the world, is this light, Jesus, or Emmanuel, God is with us. He was born into our world to bring the light of new life, joy, hope and most of all, salvation. Do I welcome the Infant Jesus with open heart and arms? Do I hear the real message of Christmas?
I really like the homily of Pope Francis at this year's Christmas Eve mass:
The message that everyone was expecting, that everyone was searching for in the depths of their souls, was none other than the tenderness of God: God who looks upon us with eyes full of love, who accepts our poverty, God who is in love with our smallness.
The pope asks us to reflect: Do I allow myself to be taken up by God, to be embraced by him, or do I prevent him from drawing close? “But I am searching for the Lord” – we could respond. Nevertheless, what is most important is not seeking him, but rather allowing him to find me and caress me with tenderness. The question put to us simply by the Infant’s presence is: do I allow God to love me?
I found what Pope Francis said insightful. Often I cannot accept my own smallness, my own poverty, so I ignore it or shove it away, I project it onto others, I do everything I can except deal with it in a constructive manner. In so doing, I lose an opportunity to grow in love and joy. I fail to meet Jesus where I am, and where He stands, next to me, inviting me to experience my humanity.
As the pope pointed out: ...do we have the courage to welcome with tenderness the difficulties and problems of those who are near to us, or do we prefer impersonal solutions, perhaps effective but devoid of the warmth of the Gospel? How much the world needs tenderness today!
We are all in great need of tenderness. It is so easy to grow hard and grasping in a competitive, capitalistic environment where cash is king. It is seductive to buy into an individualistic and consumeristic lifestyle, thinking only of our own needs. The easier option is to medicate our discomfort, pain and hurt away, to numb ourselves so that we can forget about striving to be better people, and to make the world a brighter place. Too much work involved there.
Christmas is the answer to tapping into our inner tenderness. God who loved the world so much that He sent us His only son who was born a tiny baby in a manger.
The Christian response cannot be different from God’s response to our smallness. Life must be met with goodness, with meekness. When we realize that God is in love with our smallness, that he made himself small in order to better encounter us, we cannot help but open our hearts to him, and beseech him: “Lord, help me to be like you, give me the grace of tenderness in the most difficult circumstances of life, give me the grace of closeness in the face of every need, of meekness in every conflict”.
My hope this Christmas, and all the days of my life, is in God, who believes in me and loves me; God who understands my smallness and loves me even more because of it; God who became man and showed me how I can live as a woman of faith, tenderly. I can only stand in silent awe at the manger, and paraphrase the words of Matt Redman's song Endless Hallelujah:
And I will worship, worship
Forever in Your presence I will sing
I will worship, worship You
And endless hallelujah to the King.
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