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Christmas
in the Midst of Traffic
December 25, 2002
Fr. George Smiga
Luke
2:1-14
Christmas is here but life goes on much as it did before.
This is day that we have been waiting for, yet issues of real
concern in our world remain. Gifts have been bought and wrapped
and in some cases, unwrapped. Food has been purchased and
prepared and in some cases, already eaten. Despite all the
things that you have had to do, you somehow, managed to get
yourself and your family here tonight. (Looking pretty good,
I might add.) But as we gather here tonight to sing songs
of peace and joy, serious and disturbing issues continue in
our world: the threat of terrorism, a faltering economy, preparations
for war. In our personal life, we might be dealing with misunderstandings
between our self and the person we are dating, tensions in
our marriage, problems in our relationships. Christmas does
not dispel the pain of sickness, the loss of someone that
we have loved, or the fear for the future.
So once
you have celebrated 20 Christmases, or 40 Christmases, or
60 Christmases, the pattern becomes rather clear. Christmas
comes and goes and the world remains largely the way that
it is. That can make us cynical. That can make us wonder whether
we should believe that proclamation of the angel of "Good
News of Great Joy. " That can make us doubt whether we
should place too much credence in the announcement of "Peace
on Earth." These doubts must be taken seriously. Therefore,
the most valuable thing we can do tonight is to examine what
we believe happened that first Christmas, and where we expect
Christmas joy to be found.
A harried
executive was running late for an important business meeting.
The traffic was not helping either his schedule or his mood.
He pulled to a stop at a light at one of the busiest intersections
of the city and thought to himself, "I can beat the next
light, if I can just get ahead of this crowd." So he
took his foot off the brake and put it on the accelerator,
ready to floor it as soon as the light turned green. Then
he saw something that made him hold his breath: a young couple,
both of them blind, were making their way across the street.
The young woman was holding a child and the man was using
his white cane, tapping it on the pavement, as he directed
his family across the intersection. To the executive's horror,
he realized that this family was veering diagonally out of
the cross-walk and into the center of the intersection and
the traffic. Unaware of the danger that surrounded them, this
young family was moving directly into the on-coming cars.
Then it happened: in a moment, the executive's annoyance and
fear changed to wonder as he saw what unfolded before his
eyes. Each car, in every direction, came to a simultaneous
stop. There was no beeping or honking of horns, no screeching
of brakes, no scream or shout of "Get out of the way!
Are you crazy?" All the cars just stopped and waited
as this young family made their way safely across the intersection.
What happened
in that intersection was a miracle. Not a miracle that defies
the laws of nature, not a miracle that restored sight to that
blind couple, not a miracle that removed all the selfishness
and greed from the hearts of those who witnessed it. But a
miracle by which patience and understanding became real in
the hearts of many harried and distracted motorists. A miracle,
by which a sense of unity and common concern emerged from
so many vehicles, separated and isolated from one another.
A miracle by which compassion and a respect for human life
manifested itself in the midst of city traffic.
Now that
miracle points to the miracle of Christmas, because what happened
on that first Christmas was not that Christ came and changed
the world, but that Christ entered our broken and divided
world. Christ did not come and destroy all evil, but came
to became one of us. And Christ is now able to stand with
us as we face the evil that remains. This is why we should
not become discouraged when we see how much is wrong with
the world and troublesome in our own life. The troubles of
life are not a distraction from Christmas. They are the necessary
human context in which the meaning of Christmas becomes clear.
We are
the people who gather here tonight and believe that despite
all the turmoil in the world and issues in our own life, God
is with us, Emmanuel! And if God has become human and is with
us, then there is always reason for courage, always reason
for hope, even reason for joy. We are the people who believe
that compassion and peace and love can suddenly emerge even
in the presence of trouble, even in the presence of grief,
even in the midst of a busy intersection.
Yes, life
goes on much as it did before but what we celebrate tonight
is the truth that the world has indeed changed. It is changed
because God has become human. God has become part of the world,
the real world, the world in which we live. This explains
why even in a broken world, we can still honestly sing songs
of joy and peace. This justifies why even in a world where
there is so much that is wrong, we still can, without fear,
wish each other a Merry Christmas!
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