A stable becomes
home…
The city around me is quiet for a change under the cloak of
snow that buried everything with its ten inches of powder; so I am sitting in
the front room sipping a cup of tea and finishing the last pages of the Holy
Father’s exhortation, “The Joy of the Gospel.” I came upon this powerful line
from Pope Francis and my heart was honestly moved to tears: “Mary was able to
turn a stable into a home for Jesus, with poor swaddling clothes and an
abundance of love.” On the table next to me sits a beautiful little ceramic
crèche where the familiar scene of Joseph and Mary gazing on the Christ child
draws me into that mystery we continue to celebrate during this Christmas
season of the Incarnation (God made man), of Emmanuel (God-with-us), of divine
humility (God who chooses poverty),
of divine tenderness (God who is a smiling infant).
This line from Pope Francis
reawakened in me a sense of wonder and awe before this mystery of what Our Lady
was able to do through love, through God’s Love. She brought the “poor
swaddling clothes” of her humanity, but was “full of grace,” “an abundance of
love,” the Holy Spirit. A stable became a home for God. If she could do this,
if God’s love in her heart could transform the ugliness, the poverty, the
darkness of that stable into a home, then is it possible He would do the same
through me? Through us? Isn’t that the hope and Good News of this mystery we
celebrate? Where then are the places of ugliness, poverty, darkness and sin
around us? Where is our stable where we can go and bring an abundance of Love
with our own poverty and witness again, today,
the transforming power of the Incarnation, of Mary’s loving heart, which “turn
a stable into a home?” Mary, teach us to believe in the power of God’s love
working through our poverty and weakness, give us the hope that Christmas
promises.
+ Br. Malachy Joseph Napier
Harlem, NYC
----------------------------------
We need your help!
No comments:
Post a Comment