18/12/2024

I have never been able to be aware that something is going to happen with anything like serenity. I am in many ways a useless man but still a man who is known by God; not only known by God in the way that he knows every particle of his universe, but also known and loved as a person created, as are all humans, to bear witness to his Paternal Love by living righteously no matter when, where or to whom we are born.

Mary and Joseph were late-comers to the "inn", maybe "caravansary" would be closer to that public lodging place where Joseph could find "no room" for Mary and her soon-to-be born child, and had to make do with the place where animals were kept in overnight-safety.

And what a night it must have been for Joseph. He had accepted the responsibility that had been revealed to him and the upshot nine-months later was this cold night filled with the universe of stars, tingling of sheep and goat bells, munching of cattle's cud, smell of dung, scratching of straw and the immediacy that is the end of all mothers' nine-month wait to bring new life into the world.

We are not told how Mary managed to give birth with only Joseph present with her.

Yesterday Matthew's Gospel  made it clear that the boy-to-be-born has the right lineage for the Messiah and today he confirms that he is being born in the right-place, Bethlehem.  But he is born as was David, a shepherd among his sheep. His only Kingdom, however, is not as was David's of this world but of the eternal perfection that breathed his first human breath as "true man" that night so long ago in Bethlehem.

Dear Lord, You know that it is only by writing that I can have some control over what is going on in my being during each hour of the day. You know that I really do wonder about how Joseph was able to accept his role in our salvation and empathise with his initial quandary and give praise for his perfect acceptance of Your will. Help me to not dwell on my sinfulness except to know that I am truly penitent and know that the humility of your incarnation is totally impossible for anyone to understand but absolutely necessary for us to do your will on earth. May my prayers join those of Mary and all the Angels and Saints as they give Glory to IAMFATHRSONHOLYSPIRIT in the eternal perfection you brought to earth and left to be guarded by the Church of Peter and his successors together with the Church of Love you created in the New Holy Family of Mary and John.