My friends, what an awesome mystery we celebrate tonight. Two thousand years ago Jesus was born in Bethlehem. So what does that mean to you and me? If Christmas is to have any meaning to us, we should ponder that question, as one man did in a manner he never expected.
He didn’t believe in God and he didn’t hesitate to let others know how he felt about religion and religious holidays like Christmas. If you said anything like “Merry Christmas,” to him, he likely would reply, “Bah, humbug!” (Maybe you know such a person or maybe you were once that way yourself.) His wife, however, very much believed in God and she raised their children to also have faith in God and Jesus despite his critical comments.
One snowy Christmas eve, his wife was taking their children to Mass. She invited him to come along, but he declined. “The story of Christmas is pure nonsense!” he said. “Why would God lower himself to come to earth as a man? That’s ridiculous!” So she and the children left and he stayed home.
Soon, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a blizzard. As the man looked out the window, all he could see was a blinding snowstorm. He sat down to relax before the fire to read. Then, he heard a loud thump. Something had hit the house. Then he heard another thump. He looked out the window but couldn’t see more than a few feet. When the snow let up, he ventured out to see what had hit his house.
In the field nearby, he saw a flock of wild geese. They must have been migrating south for the winter when they got caught in the storm and couldn’t go on. They were now lost and stranded on his farm with no food or shelter.
They flapped their wings and flew around the field in low circles, blindly and aimlessly. The man guessed that a couple of them had flown into his house and were injured.
He felt sorry for the geese and wanted to help them, but how? ‘The barn would be a great place for them to stay,’ he thought to himself. ‘It is warm and safe; they could wait out the storm there.’ So, he walked over to the barn and opened the doors wide. He watched and waited, hoping that they would notice the opening and venture inside but the geese continued to flutter around the yard aimlessly. They didn’t seem to notice the barn or understand what it could mean for them. The man tried to get their attention but anything he did just seemed to scare them instead. He went into the house and came out with bread. He broke the bread, making a trail of crumbs into the barn but they still didn’t get the idea.
Now he was getting frustrated and very cold. He got behind them and tried to shoo them toward the barn but they only got more scared, scattering in every direction except toward the barn doors. Nothing he did could get them to go toward the barn where they would be warm and safe. “Why won’t they follow me?” he muttered. “Can’t they see this is the only place where they can survive the storm?” He thought for a moment and realized that they just wouldn’t follow a human. “If I were a goose, then I could save them,” he said aloud.
Then he had an idea. He went back into the barn, picked up one of his geese and carried it in his arms as he circled around behind the flock of wild geese. He then released his goose, which then flew through the flock straight into the barn. One by one, the other geese followed it to safety.
The man stood there silently watching what happened as the words he had said replayed in his mind. “If I were a goose, then I could save them!” He then thought about what he had said to his wife earlier in the evening. “Why would God want to be like us? That’s ridiculous!”
Suddenly, it all made sense. That is what God had done. We were like the wild geese, the man realized. Blind, lost, and perishing, not in the darkness of a winter storm but in the darkness of sin. God sent his son to become like us so that he could show us the way and save us from harm. That he realized was the meaning behind Christmas. As the storm died down, he pondered this wonderful insight. Now he understood what Christmas was all about and why Christ had come into the world.
Years of doubt and disbelief vanished like the passing storm. He fell to his knees in the snow and prayed for the first time in ages. “Thank you God for coming in human form to get me out of this storm!”
Years ago, I recall the late Archbishop Oscar Romero saying that those who have no need of God will have no Christmas. Only those who need someone to come on their behalf will find the gift of Emmanuel, God with us. On a dark wintry night in a way he least expected, after madly chasing some geese, this man found the light of Christ. At last, he could see why God did what he did on that dark winter night in Bethlehem so long ago.
So what does Christmas mean to you? Do you see why God became one with us in this amazing way? He did this to set an example for you and me to follow, showing us the way to peace, by rejecting godless ways and worldly desires and living instead justly and devoutly. We no longer need to walk in darkness for we have seen a great light. Merry Christmas!