Christmas Eve
Scripture:
2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16
Luke 1:67-79
Reflection:
"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’"
This night the Virgin Mary will bring God closer to us than ever before in Salvation History. Thanks to this great Lady we can approach a God with a human heart. With John we can lay our head on the chest of Christ! We can be touched by God in a thoroughly human way by hands formed by Mary. We can experience the fingertips of God with all their 3,000 touch receptors in a pair of human hands.
As God touches us so we can now touch Him. Thanks to Our Blessed Mother God invites us in a human way to experience Him. "See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have." LUKE 24:39 The Greek word for handle means to rub or touch the surface from psao. With faith we can now experience a human encounter with God.
It is fascinating that the God of the galaxies billions of light years away comes to us in an utterly physical way as a smiling little baby. Now we can look into the eyes of a human being and know we have our image on the retina of God. The prayer of the Psalmist over 2500 years ago is now realized: "Keep me as the apple of your eye". The Hebrew word for apple is eeshone or little man. I can see me as "little man" reflected in the eye of God.
Christmas is indeed a feast of our Emmanuel. God has never spoken so plainly to us as He does this Feast Day. A wonderful companion to be with us this eve is Mary. Who can appreciate this human side of God better than she. Truly, He is our Emmanuel.
Fr. Bob Weiss, C.P. preaches Parish Missions and is a member of the Passionist Community in Detroit, Michigan.