Celebrating Jesus

As Jesus came to save us and show us the way to Everlasting Life, so we have committed ourselves to follow Him above all, as His faithful followers.  He is the Divine Word of Truth made flesh that we may not only ponder on Him like Mary His and our Mother, but more wondrously live in Him, our Bread of Life.  Since the start of His mission, He showed that He needed us—men and women disciples—to fulfill the Father’s will for all created beings.  So he formed the first community of apostles, to continue for ages to come in various parts of the world where His Good News is being proclaimed.  Hence we journey to our Eternal Home with the Father as brothers and sisters in Christ our guide.  “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.  No one goes to the Father except by me” (Jn. 14:6).

Recalling the birth of Jesus as we have been preparing for His coming indeed fills our hearts with joy as we also join Mary in her “yes” to the will of the Father, telling the angel: “let it be done to me.” Even Elizabeth responded with joy to the nearness of the Lord, acknowledging she was in the presence of “the Mother of my Lord.”  We ourselves are wont to echo what Christ said to the Father, “I have come to do your will.”  The lives of these holy women and the saints remind us that there is real joy in fulfilling the will of God as we go about our manifold tasks in life.

Jesus’ birth means a promise of peace to all those faithful to the Lord and His love, and become active instruments of transformation in a war-torn, sin-wounded world.  With Mary, let us become ‘lowly servants’ of God, celebrating the richness of His love in our poverty and readiness to share all He has gifted us with so that the shepherd-king born in a lowly manger will be truly alive in the hearts of the poor and humble of heart.  “Cry out with joy in the Lord, you holy ones; sing a new song to him (Ps. 33).