All the preparations have been completed. There are no more gifts to buy, cookies to bake, cards to send, presents to wrap, or decorations to put up. Seemingly, since September, when we first noticed the stores’ Christmas displays, we’ve been busily preparing for our celebration of Christmas. Very soon our floors will be strewn with torn wrapping paper, and no evidence of baked cookies will be found, save a few crumbs. Once everything Christmas is said and done, we may find ourselves asking, “Is this it?”

Interestingly enough, the gospels narratives of Jesus’ birth end in a similar inglorious fashion. Once the angels cease their heavenly tunes, and the shepherds return with their sheep to their grazing pastures, there isn’t anything more we hear about Jesus until he is a full grown adult. The stories of the nativity tug on our heart strings, and we want the story to continue, but it doesn’t. We can be left wondering, “Is this it?”

The good new is that this is not it! There is so much more to what we celebrate at Christmas. At the very center of the nativity scene is a little defenseless and powerless child who will eventually grow into adulthood to defend humanity from the hold of sin and death, by paradoxically giving up all his power on the cross. This will become imminently clear to us during Lent, and most especially during Holy Week, but for now, our attention is focused on an infant.

Whenever we contemplate an infant, whether it be our own child or someone else’s, we often wonder about the child’s future. What will become of their life? How might they change the world? While our minds are focused on the Christ child during the Christmas season, we can ask similar questions. What will become of our lives because of this child? How will our world be changed with Christ in our lives? Just as the possibilities are endless when gazing upon any child, so too are the possibilities limitless when considering how Christ can change our lives.

As cute and comforting as babies are, no one really wants them to remain as infants forever. What we really want is the full human potential yet to come. So it is with the Christ child. We eagerly await the full human potential yet to come in us from our relationship with the Christ who saves us.

Perhaps the abrupt ending to the story of Jesus’ birth is to our benefit. As the Christ child grows in our hearts to the adult who calls us to follow him, we can answer our own question. In faith, we can confidently answer, “No, this is not it. There is so much more! yet to come!”

My dear friends, I pray that you and your loved ones will have a Merry Christmas and a Blessed Christmas Season! May your contemplation of the nativity story afford you with countless possibilities in your faith journey with Christ.

Fr. Sergio Romo

Pastor