Christmas and the Poverty of Jesus

(A reflection given to all who participated in the annual Christmas Mercy Night.)

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled . . . So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town.  And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. . . . The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord.
~Luke 2:1-12

Joseph and Mary lived in Nazareth—that’s where their immediate families were, that’s where Joseph had his workshop that’s where they had their homes, their plans for the future.  And because of circumstances beyond their control, because of a situation of injustice, they had to leave their home when Mary was pregnant, able to take with them only what they could carry, and journey to Bethlehem, joining a lot of other people who were displaced because of the law of Caesar.  The streets of Bethlehem must have been crowded with other poor travelers from all parts of Israel.  Mary and Joseph probably weren’t the only one who had no room.  And just at the moment when Mary is going to give birth, they find a place: the cave of an inn where the animals were kept, and Joseph did the best he could to make a clean and comfortable space for Mary and the Baby about to be born.

This is how the Eternal Son of God chose to come into this world: to be born in a cave full of animals on a winter night, in a little country occupied and enslaved by foreign powers, homeless and poor.  I think part of why He did this, why He chose this poor, humble, humiliating beginning to His earthly life, was to show us that, from the very beginning, He has chosen to be with the poor, with the suffering, with those who are in some way rejected, and precisely in the place of our poverty, of our suffering, of our rejection. 

In our culture, Christmas has become a super-commercialized holiday, all about buying and giving and receiving the best, the latest, the most expensive, the most exciting gifts.  It’s hard to connect with the poverty of Jesus when we are filling ourselves and others up with so many riches.  And I think tonight, as we go out to the streets, Jesus wants us to take stock of the Christmas gifts He received that first Christmas and the ones He gives and wants to give tonight through us.

The first gift that Jesus received: the love of Mary and Joseph.  They had nothing else to give: just swaddling clothes and the borrowed straw of the innkeeper’s manger.  But they had all the love in their hearts, and they gave Him all of that love. 

The second gift that Jesus received: the visit and adoration of the shepherds.  Like Mary and Joseph, the shepherds had nothing to give.  They were staying out in the fields when the angels appeared, but ran in amazement and stupor to find the baby whom the angels had announced.  They gave the baby Jesus their awe, their wonder, their adoration—it was all they had in their hearts, so they gave it all to Him.

Jesus is the Son of God.  He could have chosen to be born in a palace, among riches and splendor.  He could have been wrapped in linen and satin with a jeweled crown on his head.  He could have been adored and fawned over by lords and ladies, by princes, by foreign dignitaries.  But He chose Bethlehem, and in Bethlehem, chose the stable cave, the lowliest place of all.  Because Jesus is attracted to the lowliest places.  Just like He was attracted to the manger filled with straw in Bethlehem, He is attracted to our poverty, to precisely those places in our hearts where we feel most ashamed to let Him in, to the places filled with animal offal, with straw, the places we feel most unworthy or most ashamed or most wounded.  That’s where He wants to be born.  That’s where He wants to enter.  That’s the space He wants to fill with the light that shines from His heart.

And He wants to fill that space in each one of us, so that, as we go out tonight, we can bring the light and warmth of His love to His friends on the streets.  Jesus is not repulsed by their filth, by their addiction, by their sores, by their homelessness, even by their criminal activities.  He is drawn to them.  He wants to be with them. 

The greatest poverty of our friends out on the streets is that they have not been given much love, and tonight Jesus wants to love them through us, wants, as we give them gifts and cookies and sing to them, to give His love through us, His love which is attracted to their suffering, to their addiction, to their homelessness.  They have not been shown their own worth, their own dignity, and tonight He wants to reveal that to them through us.  And many of them do not believe that they are worthy to adore Him, and so hide from Him, and tonight He wants us to be in some way like the angels, announcing to the homeless that this day is born a Savior for them, the One who can break the chains of addiction, overthrow the rule of Satan, and make them able of living a new life. 

The most important gift we bring tonight is not the cookies or the wrapped present or the hot cocoa.  It is not the carols.  It is all the love in our hearts.  So let’s go upstairs now and adore Him, and ask Him to fill us with love for each of the people we will meet tonight, and with courage to announce to them that Jesus, the Savior, is born for them, wants to save them.

~by Sister Teresa