I once thought I was going to have to move away from family and friends and everyone I knew just weeks before Christmas. It was a startling thought and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. But I believed that God would be with me and that Christmas would still happen that year, that what mattered wasn’t all the customs and decorations and family gatherings, but the intimate presence of a God who became one of us. We’ve become a very mobile culture, often moving several times in the course of a career. It can be daunting to leave one place for another, to make new friends and build new routines and traditions. But it offers tremendous opportunities to share our gifts in ever-widening circles. As the Christmas season draws to a close, we reflect not so much on the birth of Jesus as on the impact that birth had on all those who heard of it—the shepherds, the magi, the villagers, and us. We get so busy at this time of year with all the activity that sometimes we forget that this baby whose birth we celebrate was in fact the divine in our midst. The Feast of Epiphany makes clear that by taking on our human reality, God shows us how to move beyond our ordinary routines into lives that can make a difference in our world. The coming of the Magi to visit the holy family was a sign that Christ had come not only for the people of Bethlehem and Jerusalem but for all people in all times and places. It is a reminder that we’re called to be ever more inclusive, to be open to questions from all those who seek the love and the mercy and the peace of God.
—from the book The Peace of Christmas: Quiet Reflections from Pope Francis
by Diane M. Houdek
