What gift are you giving to Jesus this Christmas?
As gifts are exchanged with loved ones duringthis Christmas season, take a moment or two to reflect on what gift you are giving to Jesus this year. After all, it is HIS birthday. We know that it has something to do with giving. Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington reflected, “When we think of Christmas, we think of gifts” because gift-giving is “one of the ways in which we show our love for the people around us. We are always looking for the right gift, the perfect gift,” he observed. “Christmas is all about that great and perfect gift that is Jesus Christ.”
Venerable Bishop Fulton Sheen once said that the Christian faith can be summed up in three words:“Kindness, kindness, and kindness”. We hear in John 14:35 “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” As he opened the Holy Doors to begin the Holy Year of Mercy last year, Pope Francis urged us to open the doors of our hearts, allowing God to give us the perfect gift of Christ this year. “For,” as we hear in the Prayer to St. Francis, “it is in giving that we receive;it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;and it is in dying [to self] that we are born to eternal life.”
Jesus gave us the gift of opening the doors to heaven. Because He loves us, He gave us the greatest gift ever – forgiveness for our sins. He became like us, as a baby, as a human and God, so that he could open the way back to God – a relationship that had been impeded by the Original Sin of the first humans. Because He came to earth, we have the opportunity to live with Him forever. He only asks that we follow His example by showing kindness to one another, by showing mercy to one another, by forgiving one another. “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you should also love one another” (John 13:34).
So let us celebrate the birth of Jesus. “Joy to the world, the Lord is come… Let every heart prepare Him room.” And what birthday gift are we giving to Jesus this year? Let our answer sound something like the Christmas carols we sing,“Wild and sweet; The words repeat; Of peace on earth, good-will to men!” In other words, “Kindness, kindness, and kindness.