Child-Like Christmas Faith

It was a beautiful, crisp Christmas morning as the parishioners gathered to celebrate the birth of Jesus. After Mass, everyone was filled with the joy of the day as they wished each other a Merry Christmas at the front of the church. 

Then, as they headed toward the parking lot, someone noticed that the statue of the baby Jesus was missing from the manger scene which the youth group set up every year on the front lawn of the church. Their first thought was that someone must have stolen the statue as some sort of prank.  The joy they had been feeling was replaced with shock, disappointment and anger.

Just as the pastor began to head into the rectory to call the police, someone noticed a boy walking down the street pulling a little red wagon with the statue of the baby Jesus in it. As he made his way toward the church, the pastor and some of the parishioners gathered to see what he was up to. Pulling his wagon up to the manger scene, he tenderly picked the statue up and placed it back in its bed of straw.

The pastor asked the boy why he had taken the baby Jesus out of the manger scene. He replied that what he had wanted most for Christmas that year was a little red wagon. And so, he promised that if Santa brought it to him, he would give Jesus the first ride in it.

Jesus tells us that we must have faith like a child to enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt 18:3). It takes a child-like faith to grasp the mystery and wonder of this Christmas day when the eternal God became a baby. It takes a child-like faith to believe in a God who loved us so much that He came to live among us in the humblest way possible - not in a castle but in a stable. It takes a child-like faith to not only believe that such a God loves us but to love Him in return.

We can learn something from the child-like faith of the boy in today’s story. Though he was excited to get the red wagon as a gift, he never forgot his promise to Jesus. As caught up as he was in all the gifts he had received, he did not lose sight of the greatest gift of all - Jesus who was born for us this day. He remembered that all that he had was a blessing and so he did not forget the one who had blessed him.

It is a sad reality of our times that while our wealth is increasing our memory is decreasing. Though we have goods in abundance, we have forgotten the One who is good. In our arrogance, we begin to believe that we have earned all these blessings and deserve them. In so doing, our gratitude and our faith diminish.

This is a day for us to have our child-like faith in Jesus renewed. He was born this day to make visible for us the love of God. He came as light to dispel the darkness of hatred, despair and arrogance. As Saint John assures us in today’s gospel: “the light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness has not overcome it.” He came as a baby not to conquer and dominate us but so that we could love Him. He was born to a poor, homeless family so that shepherds as well as kings could approach Him. If we are to embrace such a God who manifests Himself not in displays of grandeur and power but in humility and simplicity, we must have faith like a child.

It also takes the faith of a child to keep ourselves focused on God in the blizzard of activity that surrounds the holiday season. It is so easy to lose sight of why we are celebrating in the first place when we are going from here to there, exchanging presents and stressing over how we will get everything done. And at the end of the day when we are relaxing in our warm, comfortable homes with our bellies full, it takes a child-like faith to raise up a prayer of gratitude to our Heavenly Father who blessed us with so many good things.

Finally, it takes the faith of a child to remember all those who do not have as much as we do. Not every family in this parish is celebrating today. Some have lost loved ones in the past year and their grief is even more profound today. And, despite all our wealth, there are still many poor and homeless people among us. Not every child has a red wagon to pull Jesus around the block in.

If we remember that Jesus is ultimately the source of all our blessings, we will not forget those who lack such blessings. If, with child-like faith, we bow down to worship our Lord who was poor and homeless, we will not fail to see His face in the poor and homeless among us. Pondering how the Holy Family had to flee to Egypt to escape King Herod, we will not fail to welcome the immigrants and refugees among us who themselves have had to flee poverty, crime and persecution.

The God who came to us as a baby in Bethlehem comes to us today in the form of bread and wine. As we receive Him today let us ask Him to give us a child-like faith. Let us commit ourselves to bringing the light of that faith into a dark world so that all people may see the source of their blessings, Jesus Christ who was born on this day.