If you came to Mass here last Christmas, you might remember that I asked for a Christmas present. I asked that, for the next year, no matter what happened in your life, no matter what difficulties or tragedies you might encounter, that you remain in joy all year. Joy, no matter what. Anyone remember that? Well, the year is up… how many of you where able to give me my Christmas gift?

         I know that many of you took it to heart. Throughout the year some of you mentioned that you were trying. A month ago, someone said excitedly said to me “father I remember what you asked for on Christmas, and I am making it.” Not everyone though. About halfway through the year someone underwent a very difficult struggle, and with tears in the eyes came to me and said, “father I don’t think I can give you your Christmas present, I’ve tried so hard, but I can’t find joy in my life right now, I am so sorry.”

         Joy, no matter what… what are the chances that someone can actually live in perpetual joy? Is it a matter of having the best of luck and not experiencing any difficulties? Like when you are running late for something important and happen to get all the green lights and make it just in time… it feels like the universe is on your side…

         Well no, the kind of joy we are talking about is not dependent on chance, it is not dependent on having been born with the best genetics possible with a very financially and emotionally stable family – very few happen to get that. The joy that is everlasting has to do with knowledge, with receiving the revelation of what life is all about. It is the joy that comes with the assurance that no matter what happens in my life, God is with me, and God, who has come to me personally, will lead me through whatever the circumstance of my life happens to give me. It is the trust and knowledge that all of creation has a direction, including my life, even when I might not see the point. I trust that my life too is being moved towards fulfilment. Joy comes when we trust that this is the reality of life.

         The gift of joy then, is what we have received through the incarnation of Christ, the nativity. Joy is not something that we find, it is not something that we make, it is not dependent on chance, it is not something that we can lose. Joy has been given.

To live in joy is to live trusting in the truth that God is with us, suffering with us, walking with us, laughing with us, crying with us, hoping with us, that is why the Word of God became flesh, to dwell among us and say “I am here.”

Through the birth of Jesus, God is here, as real and true as the air I am breathing, as real and truth as the gravity holding the world in place. The story of Christmas is as story of joy, not because Jesus came into a joy-filled world, he didn’t – it was anything but that.

         If anything, from the moment of his arrival, the world, full of hate, full of envy, full of pride, full of human power competing for control, tried to get rid of him, that is why the Holy Family had to be on the move from the very beginning, and that is why Jesus had to be born hidden, in secret.

         Scripture does not say this, but the earliest tradition says that Jesus was born in a cave. What scripture does say is that Jesus was laid in a manger, a troth, a feeding dish for livestock, that is literally what it means. It doesn’t say he was born in a stable, but that’s what most nativity scenes portray because that is where you would normally find a feeding troth. But in the first century, St. Justin Martyr refers to Jesus having to be born in a cave.

         Why would Jesus have to be born in a cave? Behold, the cave – the scene for our nativity this year. There lies our key for Christian joy.

         We begin to understand the significance of the cave by realizing what a cave looks like… a tomb. Right away it is pointing towards the crucifixion. You know that Lana del Rey song, “We were born to die”? Well, the nativity in the cave begins by telling us “this newborn baby was born to die.” Further, caves are underground. Remember that for most ancient religions, reality existed in three different levels, heaven, earth, and the underworld, the world of death. When we had the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the dead) altar it highlighted those three levels and the focus was that bottom level where we had the skulls. Well, it’s back in the form of this cave, Jesus is born in the underworld, in the world of death.

Sorry to ruin the nice and peaceful nativity scene for you, but we have domesticated the nativity and reduced it to a moment of feeling good and have forgotten the impact of what it all means. But, this is the story of joy, even if all the symbols point to the death of Christ, there is joy there no matter what, so hold on I am not going to ruin Christmas for you… but warning it does get worse before it gets better…

         Let’s talk about the manger itself. It symbolizes two things. First, it has the form of a coffin, from the moment of his birth, Jesus is placed in his coffin. The reason the manger is seen as a coffin is because that is where the animals eat out of, and the “animal” world was seen as the world of death. It’s true, survival of the fittest, all you have to do is watch a nature documentary to realize just how dark it can be.

In the story of Adam and Eve, which is the story of how we humans have the tendency to not like the limitation that comes with being created, not trusting that being made in God’s image is good enough, we reject God’s grace. That rejection of God’s grace leads to living not to our full God-given potential, but enslaved to those four emotions that come when we realize we messed up: fear, shame, anger and envy. As a result, we end up going against each other and living like animals. If you ever watch the news, it is like watching a nature documentary, we humans too can be very dark.

The “fall from grace” in the story of Adam and eve was a descend into animality, in fact the first thing they do when they realized they had sinned was to cover themselves with animal hides, they entered the animal world, and so Jesus being placed in a feeding troth is also a symbol of him entering into our fallen state. So right away when you see this nativity scene in a cave you are told the full story… Jesus is in the realm of a fallen humanity, in his coffin, in his tomb, born to die like an animal, which he does… a lam led to the slaughter. I told you it got worse! But now on to joy.

Jesus, the word made flesh, God, is born in this cave, in this harsh reality of human existence. In a world where we though God was absent, he is not, he is there, hidden behind all fallen human experiences, eager to manifest his power and control over all of this, and he does so by revealing that he works all things for the good of those who love him.

We experience the world through its unity. When I see this plant, I see the fullness of the plant itself, I am not seeing only dirt, only plastic, only color, only leaves… I am not seeing the individual molecules… I am made to see the unity. The nativity scene, you look at it and you see the big picture, you don’t see only a blade of hay, a bird, a rock, a bee, a butterfly, you see everything at once. In reality there are of a bunch of individual things but together reveal something more wholesome more complete.

That is how we are meant to see the world, yet, when I experience hardship, when I am not experiencing joy in my humanity, all I can see is the individual part, that which is making me miserable, that which is making me think life seems to have no meaning, no direction, that which makes me think that I myself do not matter because I don’t seem to have a place in the world, I am just like an animal… born to die, born to be stepped on like we stepped on ants when we where kids and the world moved on…

The joy we receive in the incarnation of Jesus is the knowledge that God is with us, grace is being given despite our rejection of it, giving us a full view of existence, allowing us to see more than a fallen world, the truth is that it is a world where God is fully present and moving it towards completion. That means that when I experience a moment in my life that is leading me to fear, shame, anger and or envy, everything that is void of joy, the grace of God moves me to see beyond this singular experience so that it might not lead me to think I was born to simply die… you where born to live, to share in the full picture of God, because that very tomb is the tomb of the resurrection, where darkness was overcome with the glory of God.

Family, Christmas is our acknowledgement that yes, in Jesus God is with us, now present in every aspect of our humanity. No matter how fallen of a world we might experience, the nativity signifies the beginning of the gospel, the good new that we are part of a whole, that nothing in our life exists on its own, that he can help us make sense even of the most difficult experience because he is there, moving the world, helping see the world as it truly is: a world of meaning, a world where no person is insignificant, a world where nothing can separate us from the love of God, a world where the words of Jesus are true no matter what: I came so that my joy might be in you, and your joy may be complete.

         If that is true, and it is, then Merry Christmas means, have a joy filled life.

Fr. Carlos