Christmas
Cycle C
December 25, 2021 4, 8, and 10pm
Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton
Fear
When I was a child, I was taught not to touch the top of the stove.
If I did this, I might burn my fingers. So, I was afraid of doing that and was careful not to touch the hot burners on the stove.
When we are children, we can also have other fears, like darkness, bugs, going to the doctor’s, large, barking dogs, and on it goes. We adults can also be afraid of things.
Some of our biggest fears today are the fear of losing a loved, the fear of getting seriously sick, as with COVID, and the fear of not having enough money for retirement.
At least one study says that 45% of us experience more anxiety and fear than we did 1 year ago. So, fear is a reality for most, maybe all of us.
Fear As Good and Not Good
Now, sometimes fear is a good thing.
It’s okay to be afraid of things that are dangerous or a threat to us – like touching the hot burners on a stove. But fear can also cripple us if we let it overtake our lives.
It can keep us from being persons who are basically happy and who act out of love for others. So, we need to be aware of the fear in our lives and how it affects us.
Fear in Bethlehem
That brings me to today – our celebration of Christmas.
The gospel tells the familiar story of the birth of Jesus. We hear that an angel appears to shepherds and that “they were struck with fear” – “with fear.”
The shepherds were experiencing something very different, something beyond their understanding and control. And they were instantly afraid.
The angel tries to reassure them: “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy.” Those words – “Do not be afraid” – they occur many times in the gospels.
Here the angel is clearly saying: “Do not be afraid [of God – of God]! For today,…a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.”
And then, very significantly, the angel adds this. “And this will be a sign for you: an infant lying in a manger.”
And there it is – right in those words – “an infant lying in a manger.” That’s the key to it all and that’s why the shepherds and we are not to be afraid of God.
Fear of God
Up until that moment, God had been perceived as all-powerful figure, distant, judging, punishing, even vengeful.
That was the dominant image of God in the Old Testament. And the result of that image of God was fear.
People felt diminished, insecure, guilty, ashamed, and fearful of what God would do to them, especially in the hereafter. We were afraid of God.
So, what does God do? God comes to earth in a completely different way – the opposite of what we had thought.
God flips it all around and comes as a baby: powerless, fully with us and like us, even vulnerable. And this is why the angel says to the shepherds: “Do not be afraid.”
I mean, after all, who can be afraid of a baby? So, think about this: what a difference this should make.
Now we, we human beings, we can feel secure, imperfect but still okay, loved, and at peace. Now we are to live, not out of fear, but out of love.
First, we see God’s love for us and for all people in the infant of Bethlehem. And then, we respond to that by living out of that love for God and others.
The result will be the angel’s closing words to the shepherds. “On earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
In other words, we will have an inner, core peace within ourselves. Yes, we will still have fears of darkness and sickness and other things.
But being loved by God in Jesus born in Bethlehem, and then loving God in return instead of fearing God – that will help to control our other fears. This inner core of love and peace will keep our other fears in check.
Being Afraid of a Baby?
I want to conclude by quoting the author whose writing inspired me with these thoughts.
The author is a Dutch priest, Father Henri Nouwen. He writes this.
“Jesus is God-with-us, Emmanuel. By becoming a vulnerable child…God wants to take away all distance between the human and the divine.
“Who can be afraid of a little child who needs to be fed, to be cared for, to be taught, to be guided? How can we be afraid of a God who wants to be ‘God-with-us’ and wants us to become ‘Us-with-God’”?
That’s what I am seeing, this Christmas of 2021.
