“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, is of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” — C. S. Lewis.
You don’t have to be a Catholic to appreciate the season of Advent.
For the next four weeks, Christians everywhere will prepare for the holy day that commemorates the birth of the Son of God in mortal flesh. Perhaps you don’t even need to be a Christian — that is, to believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God, and therefore divine in his own right — to grasp the momentous character of this occasion. For that man, who never moved more than two hundred miles from the place of his birth, has had more influence on the beliefs and deeds of men than any other individual who has ever lived.
Tomorrow is the first Sunday of Advent. Reflect, Gentle Reader. Reflect on the teachings of the one we call the Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of Mankind. Compare them to any other propositions that have been pressed upon you, and decide for yourself: Which would you prefer to become a Kantian “categorical imperative” to be followed by all who live?
There is nothing — there can never be anything — to compare with the promise of eternal life in the nearness of God. That is the promise that Jesus made to us. The condition of entry is that we follow a few simple rules:
- Don’t murder.
- Don’t commit adultery.
- Don’t steal.
- Don’t bear false witness.
- Don’t covet what is not yours.
- Honor your parents.
- Love your neighbor as you love yourself.
…and that, when we violate those rules, we repent sincerely, with true contrition, and resolve not to repeat our sins. If you can find a bigger payoff for a smaller investment, I want to hear about it.
To me, this is the best bargain that’s ever been offered to anyone. And four weeks from tomorrow, he who proclaimed it will be born a man: the child of an impoverished couple who had to shelter in a stable, for the inn was full.
Hearken to the late, great Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen:
When God came to Earth, there was no room in the inn, but there was room in the stable. What lesson is hidden behind the inn and the stable?
What is an inn, but the gathering-place of public opinion, the focal point of the world’s moods, the residence of the worldly, the rallying place of the fashionable and those who count in the management of the world’s affairs? What is a stable, but the place of outcasts, the refuge of beasts, and the shelter of the valueless, and therefore the symbol of those who in the eyes of public opinion do not count and hence may be ignored as of no great value or moment? Anyone in the world would have expected to find Divinity in an inn, but no one would have expected to have found it in a stable….
If, in those days, the stars of the heavens by some magic touch had folded themselves together as silver words and announced the birth of the Expected of the Nations, where would the world have gone in search of Him?
The world would have searched for the Babe in some palace by the Tiber, or in some gilded house of Athens, or in some inn of a great city where gathered the rich, the mighty, and the powerful ones of Earth. They would not have been the least surprised to have found the newborn King of Kings stretched out on a cradle of gold and surrounded by kings and philosophers paying Him their tribute and obeisance.
But they would have been surprised to have discovered Him in a manger, laid on coarse straw and warmed by the breath of oxen, as if in atonement for the coldness of the hearts of men. No one would have expected that the One whose fingers could stop the turning of Arcturus would be smaller than the head of an ox; that He who could hurl the ball of fire into the heavens would one day be warmed by the breath of beats; that He who could make a canopy of stars would be shielded from a stormy sky by the roof of a stable; or that He who made the Earth as His future home would be homeless at home. No one would have expected to find Divinity in such a condition; but that is because Divinity is always where you least expect to find it….
The world has always sought Divinity in the power of a Babel, but never in the weakness of a Bethlehem. It has searched for it in the inns of popular opinion, but never in the stable of the ignored. It has looked for it in the cradles of gold, but never in the cribs of straw – always in power, but never in weakness.
Pray: for peace, for the peace of your family and friends, and for the peace of the world. For only he who was born in a stable and laid in a manger can bring us peace.
May God bless and keep you all.
1 comment
Beautifully quoted, and beautifully concluded, sir!