The Third Joyful Mystery: The Nativity of our Lord

The following is the eleventh of twenty monthly reflections about the Mysteries of the Rosary as they relate to family life.  The mysteries will not be necessarily chronological but presented as they interact with the liturgical year.

            This particular Advent is memorable to me as we wait for the Christ Child because my wife Stephanie and I also await the birth of our fourth child this spring.  It is something that our other children greatly anticipate as well and talk about frequently.  Recently, we braved a local restaurant for a public meal with our crew, and my five-year-old Benjamin said something that caught me by surprise.  As we sat at the table, he announced without discussion or prompting, “We have six people at our table now.”  We questioned him further about what he meant, and he explained, “There is Nicholas, Mark, Benjamin, Daddy, Mommy, and the new baby.”  I marveled at the beauty and simplicity of his statement and remarked to my wife that it is amazing what children could sometimes teach the world.  I certainly have learned a great deal from each of my children and have no doubt that our newest addition will do the same.  It gives me pause as I reflect on our mystery this month of Jesus’ birth.  As we celebrate his coming this year, what will this child teach us?

            First, many elements of his birth are instructive for our meditation.  The humility of the arrival of the King of Kings is remarkable in many ways.  He comes as a little baby, seemingly insignificant enough to be born in a stable and to have a manger as his first resting place.  Any baby seems to draw in other people, and a baby born in this manner would certainly have no barriers, social or otherwise, to a breadth of human visitors.  This is confirmed as both common shepherds and educated, wealthy astronomers approach him.  This baby comes to all people, of every heritage and way of life, offering us all what no other child could.

            A second important aspect of the Lord’s Nativity is that he comes to share in our hardships.  Think of the many challenging events of Jesus’ early life: a crisis pregnancy, temporarily homelessness, and forced emigration due to violence.  This is not the sort of peaceful arrival we would expect for a divine being coming to visit his people and to actually become one of them.  Again, God defies conventional wisdom and makes a clear point here.  Even in his birth, Christ begins to bear the weight of our humanity and the cost of our sinfulness.

            This leads us to our final lesson from Christ’s birth: Jesus comes with a purpose.  It is tempting to sit with the peace of Christmas and compartmentalize it from the rest of Jesus’ life.  However, we know that Bethlehem and Calvary are inextricably linked, and the cross and empty tomb are the culmination of this little baby’s story.  We celebrate his birth not only because of the events that immediately surround it but also because of what will follow.  This child will eventually grow to become the savior of all humanity, and his birth is an essential event as God’s salvific plan comes to fruition.
            As we gather with family and friends this season in our homes and churches, we do well to remember the true importance and meaning of our celebration. Our hearts must be open to the lessons Christ comes to teach us, and we will then be like those who celebrated and told a weary world of this sign of hope. With gratitude and acceptance we joyfully pray, “Come, Lord Jesus!”