Some Reflections on the Nativity
In his book The Rosary of Our Lady, Romano Guardini reflects in turn upon each of the mysteries. Last night I was reading the reflections on the joyful mysteries and this section leapt off the page for me:
At the same hour something happend that concerned Mary alone: in her own personal being, in her spirit and heart, Christ moved into the open expanse of her perception and love; the attitude of expectation became a communion face-to-face. Unutterable truth--she saw Him who was the manifestation of the living God. . . . This takes place spiritually in every Christian as often as that inner life which is divined by faith steps into the clarity of knowledge, into the distinctness of action, and into the decisiveness of testimony. In every one of us Christ is born as often as He penetrates, as essence and standard, into any deed or happening. One day this happens with particular significance: namely, on that day when it dawns on us, clear and strong, who Christ is, so that He becomes the governing reality of our inner lives. (p. 89-90)
Jesus is born in us when we die to self to let Him live. When we look out of our old eyes and see a new world imbued with His love and vigor--a world that He, His Father, and the Holy Spirit loved into being without cause, without obligation. Jesus is born in us when we strip away enough of our selfishness to realize that we are not the pivot points of the universe. The sun does not rise and set on us, England does not set its clock by us, we are, in fact, insignificant and tremendously significant. We are at once nothing and everything because we share the life of God Himself. We are not gods, but our lives become Hidden in Jesus Christ. What could be more momentous than to be with the creator of all?
Jesus is also born in us when we behave as Mary. When we attend mass first with the eager expectation of His advent and then with the joy of face-to-face communion. We receive His life inside of us, infinitely precious, infinitely valuable, infinitely illuminating. Reflect on the magnificence of the gift and attempt to carry it beyond the church parking lot into the world at large. Look for that light within the people around you, and there is no question but that you will find it. Every saint from the beginning has done so.
