The mystery of Christmas continues during these days, and we need to continue our reflections so that it doesn’t pass without bearing much spiritual fruit. On the day after Christmas we celebrate the “synaxis” of the Mother of God, which means that we gather around her to honor her for her indispensable role in the Incarnation of the Son of God. Mary is the one whom the Bible says keeps all these mysteries and treasures them in her heart, and so she is presented as the contemplative par excellence, as well as God’s chosen one for bringing his Son into the world as man.
One of the mysteries I pondered in preparing for Christmas was that of the shepherds and their experience of seeing the angel and the glory of the Lord. This event shows how the Lord conceals his mysteries from the learned and the clever and reveals them to mere children. The angel was not sent to Pharisees or Sadducees, who were experts in the law and in worship. He wa
s sent instead to ignorant peasants who led a life of poverty and hardship, and who were probably not even particularly pious. It is so beautiful how the Gospel describes the apparition: “The angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them.” The angels live perpetually in the glory of the Lord; they see his face and worship Him day and night, singing, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” And so if God wills, they can bring the divine glory with them wherever they are sent.
We have no idea what this experience was like, but it filled the dumbfounded shepherds with fear and awe and wonder. They heard the angelic announcement that a Savior had just been born, the Christ, the Lord. And then they saw an even greater wonder than the first apparition, for now a whole multitude of angels appeared, singing, “Glory to God in the highest!” What does this tell us? The angels, unlike us, see God. And what does one who sees God do? Well, one who sees God bursts forth in irrepressible praise and worship, singing, “Glory to God in the highest!” This is a lesson for us. Even though we don’t see God, we need to learn from those who do. We who serve the Lord in faith and in hope for eternal life ought to start living that life as much as we can, even though we are still in the land of exile. So the angels teach us how we ought to relate to God.
The shepherds, all full of the holy confusion of joy and fear, with hearts burning and singing after what they had witnessed, ran to find Him whom the angels had announced, ran to seek the sign they were told would indicate the Christ, the Lord: a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. I don’t know how many mangers in the area they investigated before they found one with a baby in it, but they eventually did find Him, with Mary and Joseph present, as St Luke tells us. Then they related all that happened to them on that uniquely incredible night.
They couldn’t contain themselves. Probably, being rather rough and lacking in social graces, they didn’t even offer a proper introduction. I can imagine them falling down before the manger of the Christ and blurting out to Mary and Joseph: “We have seen the glory of the Lord! An angel came from Heaven and told us to come to you, and that we would find your child in a manger. Do you know that He is the Messiah, that He is the Lord? Really, we are not making this up!”
Mary smiled and looked and her Child, and she pondered all this lovingly in her heart. “So, it is beginning,” she may have thought. “An angel came to me nine months ago with a similar announcement. And already he is telling others, and they are coming to worship my Son and proclaim his Lordship! I must reflect more deeply on these mysteries. But look, He is crying, He is hungry. I gave Him human life from the flesh and blood of my womb, and now I will sustain his life with milk from my breast. I will contemplate these divine wonders as I hold Him close to me.”
We don’t know how much Mary knew of the destiny of her Son. The Angel told her that his Kingdom would have no end, but he didn’t tell her that when the ruler of the land would say, “Behold your King!” her Son would be wearing a crown of thorns and robe of mockery, which partially covered his lacerated body. She would learn more in a short time when she would meet Simeon in the Temple.
When I had read the Gospel of the Nativity recently, it happened to be a Friday, and so I wondered, as I was about to pray the Rosary, if I should still meditate on the sorrowful mysteries of Our Lord’s passion and death after having just read about the joyful mystery of his birth. But I did anyway, and I could see how the two really are inseparable. I thought of the beautiful Christmas hymn, “What Child is This?” which also reaches right into the Passion in almost the same breath as the Nativity:
What Child is this who, laid to rest
On Mary’s lap is sleeping?
Whom Angels greet with anthems sweet,
While shepherds watch are keeping?
This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and Angels sing;
Haste, haste, to bring Him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.
Why lies He in such mean estate,
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christians, fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.
Nails, spear shall pierce Him through,
The cross be borne for me, for you.
Hail, hail the Word made flesh,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.
So it is also in our liturgical celebrations that the sorrow follows rather quickly upon the joy. The very day after Christmas, as we contemplate the Mother of God who contemplated the mystery of her Son and the testimonies of the shepherds who received revelation concerning Him, we read the Gospel of the flight into Egypt. “Christ is born, glorify Him!” we sing at Christmas, and the next day in the Gospel an angel—perhaps the same angel who brought tidings of great joy to the shepherds—woke up St Joseph in the middle of the night and urgently said to him: “Rise, take the Child and his Mother, and flee to Egypt… Herod is about to search for the Child, to destroy him.”
To destroy Him! But this, this is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and angels sing! How could such a thing be permitted to happen? Couldn’t the Father have sent twelve legions of angels to protect his Son and prevent the soldiers from carrying out their brutal orders? Well, we would hear in the garden some decades later why the legions had to remain at their posts: it was for the fulfillment of Scripture, the carrying out of the Father’s plan for our salvation. Part of this plan was that Mary and Joseph would have to live in total dependence on divine Providence, would have to obey immediately and perfectly every divine command, would have to teach the divine Child how to live in poverty and hardship. Yet all this was not mere discipline, mere exercise to become strong. It was primarily meant to nurture love, fidelity, and the intimacy of those who know they are chosen by God but rejected by the world. It was also meant to teach Mary and Joseph that no sacrifice was too great for the fulfillment of their awesome responsibility to the Son of God who was entrusted to them.
But during these Christmas days, even though we know that life’s demands do not take a holiday, we are still invited to ponder these precious mysteries in our hearts. We live by faith, so we rarely see what certain chosen saints are granted to see, but because they 
have seen, we have reason to believe. And the more profoundly we believe, the more the light from Heaven quietly permeates our souls, and in a certain way we do begin to see. We may not see the blazing glory of the Lord shining all around us, but we do have guardian angels who see, and who invite us to sing with them, “Glory to God in the highest!” It doesn’t matter if at this moment we don’t see what they see. We can still sing what they sing! And they will guide us and show us more, if we invite them into our prayer and ask them to take us into theirs. We may not hear heavenly choirs singing, but if we pray with our hearts and come on our knees to Him who was born as an infant for our salvation, we just might hear the Mother saying: “Come, worship my Son. He is your Savior; He is Christ the Lord. This is the good news of great joy. Will you receive it? Will you rejoice? Come to me; let me take you into my arms, for you are my child, too. I was taught by the Father how to serve Jesus in my life, and now He wants me to teach you. Won’t you let me? Won’t you open your heart to the grace He so desires to give you?”
So let us go on with our Christmas celebration, pondering in our hearts the great mysteries that Mary pondered in hers. We will not be spared sorrows and pain, for even the most specially chosen ones must suffer—indeed, it is often a sign of God’s predilection that we are allowed to share in the Cross of his Son. But if we want to be a part of the holy family of God, if we accept the maternal invitation to worship “the Babe, the Son of Mary,” to allow ourselves to be formed as true disciples and friends of the Lord, then nothing will separate us from the communion of love with God, with the Blessed Mother, with the Angels who sing heavenly praises and with all that God has prepared for those who love Him. This love is our anchor, our foundation, our shelter in every storm, and it is made stronger through prayer and the sacraments, through our unfailing “yes” to the will of God. Through this love we will ponder deeply the divine mysteries; we will see the glory of the Lord.
