Swaddled and Lying in a Manger

Merry Christmas from Catholic Manhood

Of all of the perplexing mysteries of the Catholic faith, there is none more perplexing than that of the Incarnation. God decided to become man, to take on the flesh of humans. That fact has been the source of much heresy, where man have chosen to doubt or even flat out deny such a mystery. That fact is essential to our creed and without the affirmation of such, the Christian world would crumble. There is no reality but this reality - that God emptied himself, was born of a virgin and became man.

God didn’t just take on human flesh, he came to the world as a helpless infant, born in poverty. He could have assumed any form and it could have easily been in the form of the mightiest of men. But that wasn’t the plan.

God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible, came down from heaven and became…..a baby in the womb. There are few things one can become than a frail, dependent, helpless infant. Our God embraced the frailty of the smallest of our humanity - an embryo.

There is centrality to that weakness of God made man in Christmas for God opposes the proud.

Because of this, I am pleased in my infirmity: in reproaches, in difficulties, in persecutions, in distresses, for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am powerful.

2 Corinthians 12 : 10

To some, their conception of God is that only of power. In these same minds, the human weakness of Christ is looked upon as only a metaphor. Not to say that God is not mighty and powerful, but insignificant man cannot live without His….LOVE.

The God of strict power is a perverted view. Christ in the manger is a God of love, the God that emptied himself for us. There is no interest in the showing of domination over His creation. God is above and beyond such categorizations.

God humiliates himself for He is a God of love - a love that lays down its life.

No one has a greater love than this: that he lay down his life for his friends.

John 15:13

Our world, our perceived reality, is one of celebration for success and strength - at all costs, and to the detriment of our neighbor. Humans seek power and prestige, control and we turn our backs from those in poverty, those that are weak and the lack of control this creates.

Christ, God made man, turned the world upside down. For the man that follows Christ - the Way the Truth and the Life, these values are flipped. There is a lesson in the infant being born in a stable. True love rids itself from what is rightfully its own. The spirituality of the saints, a spirituality that embraces dependence of God made man is what we must seek to become one. We must embrace humility, we must embrace servitude, we must embrace lack of control. Because that is what God did for us.

That baby in the manger became a man, but his childlike humility never faded. Jesus of Nazareth is truly the King of the Jews and the apostles were aware of this fact. Questions would come from the apostles about who would hold the highest place in the Kingdom of Heaven. They quickly learned that there would still be inequality in the Kingdom, that the last would be first and the first would be last.

From the cradle to the tomb, God is eternal and all powerful. But God is also the definition of Love and holiness. God put aside his glory for the love of us insignificant men. He was rejected by us, humiliated and tortured by us.

For us, he became a helpless child, swaddled and lying in a manger. He came to save us all.

Merry Christmas to you all from Catholic Manhood.