Christ’s Birth

At Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Christ as a baby in Bethlehem. More significantly, we celebrate that Christ is born in us. How do we understand this mystery?

Christ is pure love, poured out abundantly to the whole world. When we love, we want to be like a vessel spilling over, never running empty. We can only love like this when Christ is born in us and we become his hands and feet and body. As Teresa of Avila once said:

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which He looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are His body. . .

The holy ones have let Christ take over their lives so that he is loving through them. It is an awesome responsibility to carry out this mission, but Jesus is there to be our strength and courage. He guides and carries us as we go about our daily lives, giving us direction and purpose. As we celebrate Christmas, let us pray for this gift – that Jesus be born in us.

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