December 16, 2020
A Chaplain’s Thoughts: We need Christmas
By Rev. James F. Quigley, O.P. ’60, National Alumni Associate Chaplain
Night can be a time of silence, darkness, aloneness. It can be a place of fear and danger. “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone.” (Isaiah 9:1)
Christmas proclaims that Christ, the light of the world, is born. That fact of faith, that belief is celebrated on this holy day. God, the creator, squeezes into a tiny baby. That baby in a manger, totally vulnerable, has come to rescue humanity, has come to save us, to set us free from everything associated with darkness.
Not only was a child born that night so long ago, two millennia ago, a whole new world was born — a new value system, a new way of being a human person, a new human community. And it seems that, initially, only some poor shepherds had ears to hear the good news: “A savior has been born for you.” (Luke 2:11)
On that first Christmas night there was no room in the inn for Jesus. Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley of Boston tells a story: A group of young children, first- and second-graders, offered their parents a Christmas play. Each child had a role. One youngster with disabilities played the part of the innkeeper. He practiced over and over his line: “There is no room in the inn.” On the night of the event Mary and Joseph asked for rooms and the answer came: “There is no room in the inn.”
The couple slowly walked away. The boy playing the innkeeper was so moved as he turned them away that he yelled after them: “But you can stay in my house!”
At this darkened, pandemic Christmas time we make room for the saving Lord Jesus Christ. We make room for God in our lives, in our hearts, in our families, in our parishes, in our communities. It might be hard to believe, but we have to believe it. God really likes us. God looks for us even if we are hiding. The more we run from Him because of doubt, anger, an old resentment, or ignorance, the more he refuses to let go.
That’s what happened at Christmas so long ago; that’s what happens again this Christmas. Brothers and sisters, we really need Christmas.
