FOODFORTHOUGHT

CHRISTMAS...

CHRISTMAS is when we celebrate the unexpected; it is the festival of
surprise.

This is the night when shepherds wake to the song of angels; when
the earth has a star for a satellite; when wise men go on a fool's
errand, bringing gifts to a Prince they have not seen, in a country
they do not know.

This is the night when one small donkey, bears on its back, the
weight of the world's desire, and an ox plays host to the Lord of
heaven. This is the night when we are told to seek our king, not in
a palace, but in a stable.

Although we have stood here, year after year, as our fathers before
us, the wonder! has not faded; nor will it ever fade; the wonder of
that moment when we push open that little door, and enter, and
entering find, a mother who is virgin, and a baby who is God.

Chesterton has said it for us all: the only way to view Christmas
properly is to stand on one's head. Was there ever a home more topsy-
turvy than Christmas, the cave where Christ was born? For here,
suddenly, in the very heart of earth, is heaven; down is up, and up
is down; the angels look down on the God who made them, and God
looks up to the things he made.

There is no room in an Inn for Him who made room and to spare, for
the Milky Way, and where God is homeless, all men are at home.

We were promised a savior, but we never dreamed God Himself would
come and save us. We know that He loved us, but we never dared to
think that he loved us so much as to become one of us.

But that is the way God gives! . His gifts are never quite what we
expect, but always something better than we hoped for. We can only
dream of things too good to be true; God has a habit of giving
things too true to be false. That is why our faith is a faith of the
unexpected, a religion of surprise.

Now, more than ever, living in times so troubled, facing a future so
uncertain, we need such faith. We need it for ourselves, and we need
to give it to others.

We must remind the world that if Christmas comes in the depths of
winter, it is that there may be an Easter in the springtime.

Fr. Dela Costa
First Filipino provincial superior of the Jesuits, homily delivered at midnight Mass at the AteneoLaw School.