Christmas 2C (Ephesians 1:3-6,15-19a)

Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic Worker movement, eloquently captures the meaning of God coming and dwelling in our midst in the life of Jesus as she says, “I’m so glad that Jesus was born in a stable. Because my soul is so much like a stable. It is poor and in unsatisfactory condition because of guilt, falsehoods, inadequacies, and sin. Yet I believe that if Jesus can be born in a stable, maybe he can also be born in me.” 

I find this saying of Dorothy Day hopeful and encouraging, especially as we start a new year. A stable where Jesus is born no longer functions as a stable for animals but a home or shelter for Jesus. What makes this particular stable so special is its unusual and strange guest, not its typical resident animals. This image best describes the reality of adoption that St. Paul talks about in the lesson this morning. We are God’s children because we who are the stables have this Christ in our midst. What makes us so special is again our unusual and strange guest, not our typical ego. We become God’s children because of and through Christ in us. Christ being born and dwelling in us reshapes how we make sense of self or ego just as the stable in which Jesus is born is transformed to a sanctuary and its resident animals to God’s companions who provide warmth and protection to the baby Jesus. 

Baptism is our public ritual to signify this transformative reality of Christ in us. This sacrament is the church’s bidding for all of us that Christ is awakened and enlightened in us. The way to experience Christ being born and dwelling in us is through contemplation. In deep silence, we become much more attuned to the presence of God that has been with us before the foundation of the world. Only in this union, we’re holy and blameless before God in love as St. Paul describes in the lesson. We see ourselves, others, and the world from this contemplative reality with the eyes of our hearts enlightened. 

Now, let’s be honest with ourselves. Do we have a genuine desire for this kind of contemplative life? Is there any convincing reason for us to believe that this life is better than how we live now? Why bother to go on this journey if we’re already satisfied with our current lifestyle? But are we truly satisfied with ourselves, how we think and live as well as others, how they think and live? What about the world we live in and struggle to survive during this pandemic crisis? Is it satisfying? Dissatisfaction can be painful to accept but can be the greatest motivation to make a change. There must be something better. 

To do so and to go even beyond a matter of satisfaction or dissatisfaction, we don’t have to look elsewhere but within. We don’t have to start from scratch. Our Christian tradition already has a wealth of spiritual resources to help us live a fulfilling life. Baptism, as it is for us to gain the eyes of our hearts enlightened, is the key. The seed is already sown in our hearts, and baptism highlights that universal, catholic reality of every human being that Christ is in us. In our encounter with Christ, we can experience a sense of completion, peace, and fullness of God’s presence in us. We don’t need anyone to get to Christ within our very being but fellow travelers who can walk together with us and join God’s work of love and compassion. 

The way is only through and from within, which is another expression of the contemplative life. Talking about it, like I do now, doesn’t do anything to you but its sole purpose is to motivate all of us to embark on this life together as contemplative companions. St. John of the Cross says, “In the inner stillness where meditation leads, the Spirit secretly anoints the soul and heals our deepest wounds.” Don’t we wonder what it’s like to experience the Spirit secretly anointing us and healing our deepest wounds? Aren’t we curious about what we would be like after this experience? I invite all of us to include in your new year’s resolution deepening your spiritual practice of contemplation. As we see unexpected and unprecedented changes in our world, more so with the pandemic crisis, cultivating a life of contemplation has become crucial to living better and fuller.