Deacon Rick Lapierre
I've often told anyone who would listen that nothing will change your life like the birth of a child. My niece Danielle just gave birth on Monday to little Noelle Pirain, 6 pounds and 8 ounces according to my sister. Mary Lou and I had been married almost a year when Jacqui was born and suddenly we were not free to just pick up and go where and when we felt like it. We had a little baby who was totally dependent upon us for everything. I have an old 8mm movie of us going to visit Mary Lou's parents in Narragansett on that Christmas Day in 1974, loading up the car with the diaper bag, formula bag, bassinet and then carrying out a little bundle all wrapped up as the snow came down.
As you are experiencing early married life and pregnancy, you really don't have time to study it because you're too busy living it.
A few months ago my daughter Aimee came in for supper on a Wednesday evening with blue and pink balloons and she had a really funny look on her face that took me a few minutes to decipher, and then I realized that I was going to be a grandfather again. Aimee always has been a free spirit and always seemed to do whatever she pleased. But now, after four years of marriage she has taken on the role of expectant mother and the change in her, from my vantage point, has been dramatic. Even though she is now in her mid twenties, she has always been my little girl and this transformation from carefree youth to mature parent-to-be has been striking, for her as well as for me. The upcoming birth of my second grandchild and the birth of my great niece will cause many changes for all of us as we welcome and nurture these latest additions to our family.
Nothing will change your life like the birth of a child.
This explains why we make such a big fuss over Christmas. There is no other holiday on the calendar, which causes so much anxiety and preparation. It is the only holiday we celebrate with a Midnight Mass, with decorations and special music and family get togethers. My brother Paul flew home from Texas and we've been celebrating all evening and will continue to do so into tomorrow.
I was watching Walker, Texas Ranger on television yesterday and in his usual folksy style Walker was explaining that Christmas was the time for families to come together. This is true but doesn't quite explain it all. We come together on July 4th too.
We are coming together this morning to celebrate an occurrence that has ramifications for every one of us here. A child is born who changes everything. An event has occurred in human history, which never before happened and will never happen again. Angels sang in the skies over Israel. Kings came and brought him gifts. Shepherds knelt in adoration because a baby had been born as the prophets foretold, a child who would forgive the people of their sins. This special birth is miraculous not because Jesus was born to a virgin, but because God had chosen to become one like us, a human being, with flesh and emotion and spirit.
The people had been told to expect a Messiah, a holy one who would lead them back to God. No one expected that God Himself would take on flesh and become human.
Humanity had rejected God and was incapable of saving itself, so God took on humanity to bring us all back to divinity. And if this that we celebrate is true, then we are changed by the birth of this child. The excuse, "I'm only human" rings hollow, because Jesus has made humanity much more than the flesh that we see.
The birth of Jesus, His life among us, His dying on a cross and His rising from the dead - all of these have changed me from a human being condemned to eternity without God to a child of God. No longer do I have to lie in sackcloth and ashes, crying out to a God with no name and begging for mercy. Instead, I can stand in front of God and say "Father, forgive me as I have tried to forgive others." Can you see the difference? Can you see what has happened to you because 2003 years ago a child was born to an impoverished couple in a stable halfway around the world?
Sometime today or tomorrow or maybe the day after you will suddenly feel something that eludes us the other 364 days of the year. It may come upon you as you hear the familiar songs of Christmas, or it may come upon you as you break bread with your family members, or even as you walk home in the quiet and look at the stars. It may come upon you here in the familiar confines of our little parish church, or at home or somewhere else. At some time and some place this week, you will experience something that has been called "the Christmas Spirit". Maybe you will feel it as you watch your children open their gifts, or learn of wonderful blessings for those you love. But you will experience it. And when you do, recognize it for what it is. It is not just the spirit of a holiday, but it is the coming of the Spirit of God into your life. It is Jesus becoming as present to you as He was in Bethlehem so long ago. It is your own spirit recognizing what a gift you have received from God, becoming one with the Creator of all.
Yes, nothing will change your life like the birth of a child. How you allow it to change your life, however, is up to you.
Joni Eareckson was a young woman of 17 when a diving accident left her paralyzed from the neck down. She did not accept her disability gracefully, but was filled with an anger and a depression, which would have leveled almost anyone. It was her recognition of Jesus that started to bring about a change in Joni, and slowly she began to accept her condition, and the change was described as miraculous. She recently wrote the following:
"I have discovered many good things that have come from my disability. I used to think happiness was a Friday night date, a size 12 dress, a future with Ethan Allen furniture and 2.5 children. Today I know better. What matters is love: warm, deep, real, personal love with a neighbor, a husband, a sister, an aunt, a nurse or an attendant. It's people who count. And I live with the heightened awareness that even better things are coming. The good things in this life are only a foreshadowing of more glorious, grand things ready to burst on the scene when we walk into the other side of eternity."
Yes, it's true. Nothing will change your life like the birth of a child.
