We’ve spent four weeks anticipating this day, maybe a little longer if you are younger, or less if you’ve been busy at work or otherwise. Maybe you’ve got the sleigh before the reindeer, so to speak, by putting up all the celebratory symbols in advance of the actual event, but I’m sure you’ve held off handing out the gifts. Of course, if you really wanted to be liturgically purist, you should really hold off giving gifts until Epiphany, the feast of the Three Kings, as indeed they do in Spain – but no-one is going to judge you for that.
Whenever and however you choose to celebrate, on this feast day spend a few moments recognizing why we make all this fuss. For many it is simply an opportunity for festivities and any excuse for a party is good enough. Jesus was certainly a believer in parties and he’d have no problem with that. But he would want us the think about why we were partying. If he was to ask you, in one of those awkward moments, when you really can’t avoid the question, and you know he will take your answer seriously – how would you respond?
You have doubtless seen Michelangelo’s picture of the hand of God touching with the tip of his finger the first human, Adam. Maybe you’ve been fortunate to experience it in its setting in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. It’s a striking image of God in relation to man, but also a very macho one, as befits the time and culture of its creation. The relationship between God and man that we recognize on this day is not in the sky, but very much on the earth, probably with no more than some straw and a blanket over the soil floor – a relationship between a woman and her baby, born in poverty. This relationship is not some metaphysical link but an actual birth, with all the messiness and beauty of birthing, as two lives which have been bound together, literally, for 9 months are separated. The child that was a gift to the mother, and a gift from the mother, now starts to take on his or her own identity.
At the moment of birth we have little idea of the identity of this new human, although we are filled with hopes and expectations. Mary doubtless felt likewise, as does any mother. She however had faith that this child was special, not just as any and every child is special, but special in a special way. She would suffer greatly as she came to understand more fully what that special meant. We will join her on that journey of growth. But for now we can rest content in the arrival of this baby and everything his future holds.