Room for us

Fr Richard Healey discusses the significance of the nativity scene and the birth of Jesus. The speaker emphasizes the humility and vulnerability of Jesus, making him more relatable. They highlight that Jesus’ birth leads to his suffering and death, but his arms are always open to embrace humanity. The speaker underscores that Christmas is about recognizing our own vulnerabilities and the possibility of forgiveness and growth, rather than achieving perfection. The episode ends with the encouragement to embrace the invitation of Christmas to follow Jesus and experience his transformative presence.

RH (00:00:00) – It’s kind of nice that the sun is out and shining on the nativity scene for us here today, because it’s the focus of of Christmas is very much, of course, on that moment, that moment when Jesus was born, just as any other human being is born. That’s a dude. I have almost no clue about any of that stuff. And as a celibate, it’s even worse. But the whole sense of of what we celebrate when we gather around the nativity scene a place of humility, a place of dirt, of garbage, a place of frailty. I think one of the reasons that so many people do like Christmas is that Jesus seems a bit more manageable, a bit more approachable. As a child, he’s not quite as threatening as a dude dying naked on a cross. And yet, of course, that’s where the story goes. And the only reason that we gather as Christians a Christmas to celebrate the birth of Jesus is that eventually he would grow up and that he would suffer the terrible abuses of humanity, of people, of leaders, of people who really should have known better.

(00:01:31) – People just like us. People that we make mistakes along the way, people that we make judgments that turn out to be wrong or we make decisions that we later kind of hopefully realize what the best decisions to make. Somehow all of that comes back to this moment. The frailty and the humility of this child becomes for us this source of hope that wherever we are right now, whatever decisions have led us to this day, whatever times that we have chosen to love, and so we have chosen to become more human, become more the people that God has created us to be. But conversely, those times when we’ve failed to love, when we’ve given in to racism or hatred or bigotry or any form of of unjust condemnation, wherever we are, whatever decisions we’ve made, he’s there with his arms open, just as he will on the cross, with his arms open to embrace, to include, to invite more deeply into this encounter with his love. Because the frailty of the Christ child is for us an invitation into this place of acceptance.

(00:02:59) – This place we’re able to be ourselves, where we can remember what we have been called and created to be in the first place. His people chosen to be the presence of God within the world. The point of our lives, the point of this gift of being a follower of Jesus is all about this transformation, all about this encounter with the one who so longs for us to experience his life, that he gives everything for us, that he’s available for us, that he’s always inviting us more deeply into this celebration. So Christmas is not about getting it right, not about achieving, not about having all of these kind of ducks lined up on the wall. But it’s about recognizing that in the vulnerability of Jesus, there’s room for our vulnerability as well. In the muck and the the rubbish, the garbage that surrounded Jesus at his birth. We recognize that in our own lives where there’s so much of that as well, that there is room for us to experience and encounter the wonder and the gift of of his love and his life as well.

(00:04:15) – So today, as we celebrate the birth of this child, let’s acknowledge the gifts of him calling us more deeply into that authentic following of Jesus. No matter what we’ve done, no matter what, what decisions we’ve made that have sometimes turned away from him, there’s always room to be forgiven. There’s always room to receive mercy. There’s always room to grow in love once again. And the Christmas is that invitation of the God who draws near to us. The God who’s vulnerable, the God who longs to be part of our lives, calling us more deeply into that life and into that encounter today.