SOLEMN FEAST OF CHRISTMAS

-
-->
DIVINE EMBRACE





After a long time away from the province, a group of cousins came to visit their grandparents living in the farm. Seeing them at the backyard working on their plot of vegetables, the children rushed to lovingly embrace the old folks. The grandparents were surprised and overjoyed to see the kids, but on receiving their embraces, they felt undeserving. “Stop that, children. We are sweaty and smelly. We don’t want you to have dirt on your clothes.”



An embrace is one of the warmest, most assuring, and most encouraging gestures of love and support. You do not embrace just anybody you meet on the streets. It is rare that you embrace a stranger except for some outburst of excited emotions. We intentionally embrace the people we love, care for, and respect.



There are people who do not get an embrace. There are many people who long for an embrace. Beggars at the roadside, homeless street people, children in orphanages, abandoned old folks, prisoners, homebound sick people - don’t you think that these following people hope that one day, somebody will stop and notice them, speak to them, and wrap their arms around them in love?



At Christmas time, we remember the greatest embrace the world has ever experienced. God, in his Son Jesus the Lord, embraced all humanity with perfect love and compassion. The Incarnation, God becoming flesh, is a lofty mystery, but its meaning can be comprehended simply by the analogy of an embrace.



We are sinners, flawed and imperfect people. We are conscious of the dirt and garbage in our lives. Our transgressions are always before us. Like the farming grandparents, we can say we are unworthy of an embrace. But in his goodness, in his unequalled love, God opened his arms and enveloped us in fatherly acceptance and forgiveness.



Christmas is a constant reminder that though we do not deserve divine attention because we have strayed away from the Lord, the Lord has decided to express his love for us by embracing the whole of our earthly life (our birth, our growth, our death), our human poverty, so that one day he can share with us his glory.



Let us take some time to pray and reflect these days, imagining that God is embracing us and whatever situation we find ourselves in. May we allow him to do so and return the gesture, in our imperfect and limited way.  Just feel his love… and give out a Christmas hug to a needy one!



 A BLESSED CHRISTMAS TO ALL!




Popular posts from this blog

HOLY MASS IN FILIPINO (TAGALOG)

-
Image
ANG BANAL NA MISA PAMBUNGAD NA AWIT Pari:    Sa ngalan ng Ama, at ng anak, at ng Espiritu Santo. Bayan: Amen P.         Sumainyo ang Panginoon. B.        At sumainyo rin. P.         Mga kapatid, aminin nating ang ating mga kasalanan upang tayo’y maging marapat sa pagdiriwang ng banal na paghahaing ito.             Sinugong Tagapagpagaling sa mga nagsisisi,             Panginoon, kaawaan mo kami. B.        Panginoon, kaawaan mo kami. P.        Dumating na Tagapag-anyayang mga makasalana’y magsisi,             Kristo, kaawaan mo kami. B.         Kristo, kaawaan mo kami. P.         Nakaluklok ka sa kanan ng Diyos Ama para ipamagitan kami             Panginoon, kaawaan mo kami. B.         Panginoon, kaawaan mo kami. P.         Kaawaan tayo ng makapangyarihang Diyos,             Patawarin tayo sa ating mga kasalanan,             At patnubayan tayo sa buhay na walang hanggan. B.        Amen. GLORIA/ LUWALHATI
Read more

SIMBANG GABI DAY 1: READINGS AND REFLECTIONS

-
Image
FIRST DAY: DECEMBER 16   (from the book: Where is the Child?by Fr. R. Marcos (Makati: StPauls);  pls responsibly acknowledge source when using publicly)   fr tam nguyen's photo First Reading: Isaiah 56:1-3, 6-8   Thus says the Lord: Observe what is right, do what is just, for my salvation is about to come, my justice, about to be revealed.   Hay is the one who does this, whoever holds fast to it: Keeping the sabbath without profaning it, keeping one’s hand from doing any evil. The foreigner joined to the Lord should not say, “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people”; Nor should the eunuch say, “See, I am a dry tree.” And foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, to become his servants—All who keep the sabbath without profaning it and hold fast to my covenant, them I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will
Read more

SIMBANG GABI DAY 2: READINGS AND REFLECTIONS

-
Image
SECOND DAY: December 17   (from the book: Where is the Child?by Fr. R. Marcos (Makati: StPauls);  pls responsibly acknowledge source when using publicly)   fr tam nguyen's photo   First Reading: Genesis 49:2, 8-10   Jacob called his sons and said [to them]: “Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob, listen to Israel, your father. “You, Judah, shall your brothers praise—your hand on the neck of your enemies;the sons of your father shall bow down to you. Judah is a lion’s cub, you have grown up on prey, my son. He crouches, lies down like a lion, Like a lioness—who would dare rouse him? The scepter shall never depart from Judah, or the mace from between his feet, until tribute comes to him, and he receives the people’s obedience.”     A.             Short Background on the First Reading   1. Who was Judah? Judah was one of the twelve sons of Jacob (or Israel). Jacob was considered the father of the nation of Israel and his twelve sons were cons
Read more