I think growing up with a sister
exposed me to movies I would never have watched on my own. The kinds of movies
my sister enjoyed watching were the romantic kinds. Honestly, I dreaded
watching them but I saw value in the stories. Especially the stories when the
lover has to leave everything, sometimes kingdoms, titles, and money to win the
heart of the beloved. Usually a king would renounce his crown, or the
businessman would quit his job. All this
done out of love.
However no matter how much my sister
and many others enjoyed these movies and thought how beautiful they were, I
think that the most important love story of all time outweighs them. Yes you
have the king that leaves his kingdom but what about the God who left His
heaven? What about the loving God who would rather be among His people on earth
than in His heavenly glory? I think God leaving heaven for His beloved is way
better and even more powerful of a story than any king. This is the story so
powerful that it is retold every year in very moving ways. Whether the story is
read out in front of crowds, or memorialized in our homes in the form of the
Belen (nativity scenes), the story is the same. And that story, the Christmas
story, is a love story. We need to remember the whole point of Christmas, the
whole reason for the season, is love.
God became man, dwelt among us, and
experienced all that it means to be human except sin. That truth is often forgotten
and sometimes pushed aside. That is a sad situation if we think the Christmas
story as only that..…just a story. When in reality, it is not that. IT HAPPENED! We can point to a period in
history where God became man. About two thousand years ago God took on human
flesh and embraced His creation in a way that was thought to be impossible, yet God did it. This “story” happened and is
not a legend or fairy tale. The more we think of it as a nice story the more we
begin to believe it is a myth. The more we think of it as a myth, the more we
live our lives as if it is a myth. In other words, if we really believe it
happened than would we be living the way we do now? If we believed in
Christmas, which is as real as you or me, what more would I be doing that I am
not already doing? Going to Holy Mass and Confession more? Praying every day?
Feeding the hungry and sheltering the homeless? All of this we should be doing
if we truly believe in Christ and His birth, and all this we should be doing
for one reason, the same reason why God came to earth, and that is love.
So we know that God became man, in Christ
Jesus, and that His reason for doing that is simply out of love. Like the lover
who gets down on one knee with a ring in hand so does God came down from heaven
to be with us and to extend to us the invitation. After all this we simply have
to ask ourselves the same question that God asks us - “Will you love me?”
Brother Cody Lizama
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