Christmas in our heart

May the peace and joy of Christ fill your hearts this holy season

By Bishop Mark Beckman

This tabletop Nativity inside the Diocese of Knoxville Chancery is set against a framed print of the Nativity scene by Pietro Santi Bartoli titled Adoration of the Kings. Nativities are frequently seen throughout the diocese during Advent and the Christmas season.

Several years ago, I noticed a wonderful church sign. It said something along the lines of: “If you don’t have Christmas in your heart, you won’t find it under the tree either.” I found myself pondering “having Christmas in your heart.”

One of my favorite things to do in the evenings around Christmas is to enter the house quietly at night and approach the Nativity scene in the living room to take some quiet moments before the miniature Bethlehem. Only the tiny bulb in the crèche lights the scene, and I imagine I am standing there, sort of like a shepherd on that first night. What in the world was God thinking?

During the spiritual exercises, St. Ignatius invites the retreatant in one prayer period to imagine God: Father, Son, and Spirit, pondering the earth and engaging in discussion before the Son takes on our humanity. That the God who created the whole universe would become a tiny, vulnerable child, a helpless infant: astounding!

Why would God do such a thing?

One author notes that babies are irresistible. We are drawn to them. The very vulnerability of God helps to remove our fear and pride, to allow God into our hearts. Last year, in the days before Christmas, I was struck with an upper respiratory illness and by Christmas Eve it finally became apparent to me that I would not be able to celebrate midnight Mass. I was heartbroken—that is one of my favorite liturgies of the year.

As I quietly prayed vespers and began to meditate that night, I suddenly became aware of the presence of the Risen Christ with me. He invited me in my mind’s imagination to go with Him to that moment of the Nativity, and I found myself there before Mary and Joseph and the Child Jesus. As St. Ignatius invites us to do, the scene became so real that all of my senses were engaged. Mary invited me to hold the Christ Child, and I did!

Joy filled my heart as tears poured down my face. Christ gave me the unique opportunity to be present with Him in his Nativity when I could not celebrate it with the community of faith in the Liturgy of Christmas. The mystery of Christmas had entered my heart!

This year, my prayer for all of you, dearly beloved people in this Diocese of Knoxville, is that you, too, may personally be touched by the mystery of the God who became human in the person of Jesus, and that His personal love for you may fill your hearts with joy!

Perhaps it will happen as you notice the lights of Christmas in your neighborhoods at night. Perhaps you will feel it as you gaze upon a Christmas crèche or the face of a child delighting in the feast.

Perhaps it will come to you in the love and hospitality of family or friends who bring you Christmas greetings.

Perhaps it will happen in a moment of quiet prayer, when the Risen Lord fills your heart with His presence.

And most of all, perhaps it will fill you in the Liturgy of Christmas as you gather with all of God’s people to listen to His Word and to receive Him in the eucharistic Food of Life.

May the peace and joy of Christ, who became human for you, fill your hearts this Christmas season. May the beauty of His love for you free you from every sin and shadow of suffering and fill you with a light and peace that shines forth on everyone you meet in this holy season.

Christmas prayers and blessings to you and your families in the coming year.