Christmas in July!
Hi! This is John Nemmer again. I wanted to take a few minutes halfway through the year to keep our eye on the miracle of our Savior's birth. I would like to talk with you about Christmas here in July.
Jesus' birthday, which we celebrate as Christmas on December 25th around the time of the Winter Solstice. The church accepted December 25th as Jesus’ birthday due to early church fathers writing and widespread acceptance that Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem for a census around that time. While they were there, Mary who still was a Virgin, was expecting a child. The time came for the baby to be born. Mary gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no guest room available for them at the Inn.
When we think of the Nativity story, it might look really beautiful to us, and it was a beautiful experience. However, it started off in a pretty rough way. Think about it, Mary and Joseph came to Bethlehem just in time for Jesus to be born, and nobody was willing to give up their place for The Holy Family. Jesus was probably born in a cave, and laid in a feeding trough for animals. It was dark and quite possibly, smelly. It probably had some animals in it.
It wasn’t a place for a king at all. Yet, that is how God decided to start to heal the broken relationship between Himself and Mankind. The way Jesus was born shows us, God is humble and loving because our all-powerful God, creator of the universe, came to us as a newborn who couldn’t even hold up His own head.
Love follows right after because not only did Jesus give up all of His Heavenly glory to dwell with us but grew up as one of us, to suffer and die for our salvation. So when the Father gave up His Only Son for all people, He truly gave up a part of Himself, which became our salvation and the light for the whole world.
May the peace, and joy of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the help of the Holy Spirit, and, the glory of God the Father, be with you all! Amen! Merry Christmas (in July)!
John is a regular writer for SGYM3 and shares insights and prayer language from the heart. He is a parishioner at St. Greg's and you can find John faithfully at Mass every week with his loving family. Feel free to say "hi" when you see him!
