WEEKLY HOMILY for December 25, 2010: The Challenge and Comfort of an Infant’s Open Arms

Christmas, Cycle A
St. Margaret Parish, Bel Air and Our Lady of Grace, Parkton
December 25, 2010

The Challenge and Comfort of an Infant’s Open Arms
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato


OPEN ARMS: CHALLENGE AND COMFORT

I would invite you to turn your attention for a moment to the crib or nativity scene here in church.

Notice especially the infant and the infant’s arms in the manger. Did you know the arms are always outstretched?

It’s as if the infant Jesus is reaching out or even embracing you. I checked nativity sets on the Internet and found open arms most frequently.

Are the arms of the Infant outstretched on your Nativity set?

This Christmas (evening) (morning) I have a number of reflections centered on the infant and how his open arms both challenge and comfort us this Christmas.


MESSAGES OF THE INFANT

First and most obvious, God comes to us and enters our world as a NEEDY INFANT. In this, Jesus in Bethlehem identifies with children and youth and all those growing to adulthood.

He challenges us to do all we can to protect and nurture the life of children and to foster growthful opportunities for our youth.

When we do this, we respond to the challenge of the crib and bring comfort to children. We are at our best as Christians and Catholics.

Then, Jesus’ open arms are extended to the POOR SHEPHERDS attending him. In this, Jesus is identifying with the poor in our midst and throughout the world.

Those open arms challenge us to help feed the hungry and provide shelter for the homeless right here in Harford/Baltimore County, to make sure that families have food and clothing and health care and even gifts at Christmas, in short to care for anyone in need.

When we do this, we accept the challenge of the crib and are providing comfort to those poor. We are at our best as Christians and Catholics.

Jesus’ arms are also open to the WEALTHY MAGI from the East who are drawn to him. In this gesture of love and openness, the Infant in the crib identifies with the affluent, the influential, and the successful of our world.

The challenge of the open arms is to use fully the gifts and talents God has given us and with them to care for the common good. In this way everyone can build on the potentials God has placed in each of us.

When we do this, we are accepting the challenge of Jesus’ open arms and are providing comfort to those in and outside our community. And again, we are at our best as Christians and Catholics.

Finally, when God sends his son Jesus into our world in HUMAN FORM, as one like us, we are comforted by the fact that God has become one with our humanity. In doing so he’s telling us we are good, loveable, worth the trouble.

Because this message is for all people, the challenge of the open arms is not to hold ourselves above others, not to judge or condemn, but rather to take each other where we are, to allow all people to join us in the manger scene that is our life.

When we do this, we’re responding to the challenge and the comfort of the crib and, yes, we are at our best as Christians and Catholics.


CONCLUSION

I end as I began: God comes to us and enters our world in the birth of a child.

What is more approachable, loveable, or responsive than an infant with outstretched arms?

It is in those arms that Jesus welcomes, embraces, accepts, and includes us all.

Let those open arms remind us not to shun or exclude anyone because of differences in faith or way of living, but to accept and include all – as are we – in God’s family.

What a difference a little child with open arms can make to the quality of our living. The challenge this Christmas is to make his is open arms ours.

Merry Christmas