Encountering the Child Jesus this Advent

As a child, I was obsessed with nativity sets. Especially the one at my great aunt and uncle’s house. My Zia and Zizi (that is what we call them in Italian) live next door to my grandparents, and I always remembered that right on the first Sunday of Advent, my Zia would pull out her massive nativity set and set it up. And this was no ordinary Nativity set, this was a Bethlehem city set. She would set it up on a huge table in the living room, and it truly was meant to be a visual of the whole city. There were the shepherds off in the field with sheep, there were narrow city streets with little merchant figurines selling their wares. There were children playing in the olive groves, and just over to the left, over a hill, there was a stable. On that first Sunday of Advent when I would run over to see the set up, I remember asking why the stable was empty, there wasn’t even Mary and Joseph! I would, of course, find their little figurine characters tucked away somewhere under the table because I was snooping around, but, I would always be so intrigued by my great aunt’s set up and meaning behind the Bethlehem scene.

As the weeks of Advent would go by, parts of the set up would subtly change. The children would play in different spots, the merchants switching locations, and even the sheep changing their grass for grazing. I know. My great aunt took this very seriously. But the whole thing was so exciting for me as a kid, as I waited in anticipation for Mary and Joseph to finally show up, and more importantly, baby Jesus. Finally, on Christmas eve, Mary and Joseph made their appearance in the stable, and then, on Christmas day, as I ran into the house decked out in my Christmas Day best, probably a couple cookies in each hand, I would finally sprint straight to the Bethlehem scene looking frantically for the missing piece. As I kneeled by the set , my Zia would walk over to me and ask this simple question, “Emma, who are you looking for?” And I would answer “Jesus of course!”. And there, finally, I would find Him, little baby Jesus, laying in the manger. But that wasn’t the only difference in the Bethlehem visual. Every single character was suddenly faced and turned in the direction of the stable scene, some with heads bowed, some on bended knees. It was clear that the whole point of all of this was for and about Jesus, that little baby in the manger.

This little tradition, and the effort my Zia would take each year in moving the little people around and the waiting for Mary, Joseph and Jesus is something I will never forget, and I bring you into this beautiful tradition today because one, I just think its so fun to share (I hope to have something like this in my home when I am older) and two, because it taught me so much about how the expectant waiting, preparation and anticipation of Advent leads us to this moment of Encounter with baby Jesus. It begins and ends with Him.

When thinking about what reflect on and focus on in a personal way this Advent season, I kept coming back to this simple question my Zia would ask me every year as I gazed in wonder and excitement at the Christmas Day Nativity set, “Emma, who are you looking for?”.

I think that question is posed to all of us through this season of Advent and as we prepare for Christmas. I want you to ask yourself that question right now, who is it you are looking for?

Who is it you are looking for when you come to mass on Sundays. Who is it you are looking for when you fall into the temptation of whatever thing you struggle with. Who is it you are looking for when you desire and enter into romantic relationships hoping to find the love that will fill the void in your heart. Who is it that you are looking for this Christmas?

I am asking this question today because this is the question I am asking myself too this Advent season. Let's even take this a step further. Who is it I am looking for when I look for this tiny, newborn baby in the manger? Am I looking for a God who will make everything easier for me, a Saviour who will just tell me the blueprint of how my life will play out - who I will marry, how many kids I will have and where I will live? Is it possible that this tiny, newborn baby, laying in a manger, totally dependent on his mother and father, is who I am looking for? Is the Baby Jesus enough for me?

I know. That is a loaded question. To know the answer, I think we need to take a step back and talk about this mind boggling reality. That the King of the Universe made Himself small, humble and meek for our salvation. Because we need a saviour, right? As a result of the Sin of Adam and Eve, original sin did not damage human nature, but it did impair the ability to know and to love, and so as a result of sin, God’s image in humanity was in need of restoration. We know, from the fourth article of the Creed, that “Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried”. Jesus’s crucifixion and death was a real historical event, but more importantly, because Jesus is one person with two natures, both human and divine, He restored this image by revealing Himself, the culmination of which was His death and resurrection. Through His death and resurrection Jesus’ humanity and divinity are manifested and the Truth that God is love is shown forth.

In this way, while Jesus’s death and resurrection are the culmination of God’s redemption of humanity, Christ’s whole life is thus, redemptive as He recapitulates, retells, the story of humanity, re-writing it with obedience instead of disobedience. Let’s repeat that. Jesus’ whole life is redemptive. There is so much to unpack here and I encourage you to read more from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, sections 516 to 527, but I want to bring our attention back to this reality that if His whole life is redemptive, that starts with His birth, the incarnation. That God’s act of making Himself human, born of a woman; being a tiny infant born into a poor family, is for our redemption.

Why? Why did He do this? And how is this redemptive?

He did this to give us a window into His heart, to show us that He is mercy and love, so that we don’t have to be afraid to draw near to Him. He does the same thing in the Eucharist every single mass right, so small, so helpless, completely dependent on the hands of the priest, why? This long awaited preparation we participate in during Advent, is thus more than just a symbolic act or season. It is an Encounter with the humility of God, we are meeting Mercy itself.

We are so often afraid to encounter God, aren’t we? We live out of this lie that if our hearts met the heart of Jesus, He would ask too much of us, or that because of our weaknesses and failings, He couldn’t love us. I know I have felt that way often, so I want you to know that you aren’t alone in that fear. That my brokenness, my past, my daily failings are enough to turn my Saviour away from me. But Jesus wants to heal our fear by showing us how meek and humble He truly is...a baby! Jesus makes Himself approachable because He loves to be approached..because HE LOVES. Because He is love.

Let that sink in.

Jesus makes Himself approachable because He loves to be approached..because HE LOVES. Because He IS love. He wants to heal our fear by meeting us where we are at; by meeting us in poverty, in humility - to meet our fear with Mercy.

What a gift. Each Advent, we have the opportunity to look inward and meet the Child Jesus in the way that he models for us, with a childlike heart. In His littleness, He desires to be enough for us. He desires for His mercy and love to be the thing which we long for and search for when we, like the shepherds, approach the manger on Christmas Day. He wants to be all we need.

This reality, this mystery of Encountering the Lord Jesus, who made Himself small, approachable, invites our response. Will we enter the stable, approach His manger and let Him, in His littleness, in His humility, be enough for us? Will we meet Him as a child with a childlike disposition in our own hearts; making a decision to choose hope over fear. A hope that trusts that God is here; even in darkness, even in pain, even in broken hearts and broken lives. That Christ is the Saviour of my past, my present, and my future which I cannot yet see.

Through meeting us as a little Child, Christ promises us that He is and forever will be all we need. We need not be afraid. We need not run away. Because here is the beautiful thing, the thing that leaves me in absolute awe and wonder. Remember that question I asked us at the beginning, the question my Zia would ask me every year as I searched for the final touch to her magnificent nativity set? Who am I looking for, who are you looking for. We can only answer Jesus, because, by meeting us here in our humanity with His humility, He came for us first. He desired a relationship with us, before we even knew we needed it. And because of this, we simply are invited to approach Him, and ask Him to be all we need. To be enough for us this season, and every day for the rest of our lives.

Pope Benedict the 16th sum’s all this up in an excerpt from his beautiful homily at Christmas in 2006.

“God’s sign is simplicity. God’s sign is the baby. God’s sign is that he makes himself small for us. This is how he reigns. He does not come with power and outward splendour. He comes as a baby – defenceless and in need of our help. He does not want to overwhelm us with his strength. He takes away our fear of his greatness. He asks for our love: so he makes himself a child. He wants nothing from us other than our love, through which we spontaneously learn to enter into his feelings, his thoughts and his will – we learn to live with him and to practise with him that humility of renunciation that belongs to the very essence of love. God made himself small so that we could understand him, welcome him, and love him.”

I pray that in this Advent season, as we prepare our hearts for Encounter with Jesus, who desires to be the first and greatest love of our lives, you may let yourselves be excited and hopeful for the miracle of Christmas day, like a little kid waiting for Jesus to be the missing piece in your Nativity set.