Sitting with the Christ Child

Merry Christmas!

Christ has been born for us. Heaven has come down to earth and God has become man for His people. This kind of humility is something so striking and it should truly make us realize how much He loves us and wants us home in heaven with Him. When we meditate on this humility and this mystery of God taking on flesh and becoming man, we are reminded of this love and the lengths that He will go to prove it and have Him with us forever, if only we open our hearts to Him and accept His love, depending on Him for everything. Coming to us as a newborn baby is a good example for us to teach us this humility and dependence, and during this season, we should spend some time meditating and praying with the Christ Child.

Our Lord once told St. Faustina “I keep company with you as a child to teach you humility and simplicity” (Diary of St. Faustina, 184). And that really is the simplest way to do it when we think about it. A child, especially a baby, is so dependent on its parents that it cannot do something as simple as sit up without help. It looks to its parents for food, water, and shelter, and it does not know how to do survive without assistance. This is how God wants us to depend on Him. If we spend time in prayer simply sitting with the Christ Child and observing Him, we will be struck with this reality and we can ask Him to help us put aside our pride and self-reliance in order to really become like a little child in His presence. It should also fill us with awe and wonder that this Child is God and King of all, yet He humbles Himself to become a little baby, dependent on others for His survival. If God Himself can do it, what is stopping us from humbling ourselves and being dependent on Him?

This Christmas season, let us be swept up by Jesus’s love for us, the love that made Him come down from heaven as a baby in order to teach us how to love and be dependent on Him. This humility and love should also fill us with tremendous gratitude, and if we wish to do something for Him, the greatest thing we can do is attend and assist at Mass. The Mass is the greatest of all prayers and when we unite ourselves to Him through this prayer, we are participating in the worship of the angels and saints in heaven.