As we contemplate the beauty of Christ lying as a Babe in the manger, humbled by His humility, it is in the Church's wisdom that there are a couple "unusual" feast days which follow immediately after Christmas. These would be St. Stephen (the first martyr stoned to death from Acts 7:54-60) and the Holy Innocents (all the boys aged two and under who Herod had killed because he feared the rise of this "King of the Jews" who the Wise Men told him about on their journey to Bethlehem....see Matthew 2:16-18).
Why? How could such a joyous mystery as Christmas be complemented with such a stark contrast as martyrdom? One reason could be that the Church wants us to understand the seriousness of our commitment to this Christ Child. The Nativity is not a mere cute scene. These feast days immediately following Christmas remind us that those who call themselves Christian and live for Christ must also be willing to die for Him.
Even though Christ, Love Himself, became visible as an irresistible baby - in complete humility and littleness - we need not forget that Love makes demands...
If you love Me, you will keep my commandments....Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words [John 14:15, 23-24]
...we should not be surprised that all true love requires sacrifice. Do not be afraid, then, when love makes demands. Do not be afraid when love requires sacrifice. Do not be afraid of the Cross of Christ. The Cross is the Tree of Life.
[St. John Paul II in his address to young people in New Zealand, 1986]
Of course, as many saints have observed, the Christ Child was laid in a manger made from wood and this wood was a foreshadowing of the wood of the Cross which Christ would be laid upon as He was nailed to it.
The gifts of the Wise Men pointed toward this sacrifice as well. Gold was a gift fit only for a king (Jesus Christ is King); frankincence because he is God. In the Old Testament, it was a gift poured upon sacrifices offered to God (Jesus Christ would be the sacrifice on the Cross). Finally, there was myrrh. This is an strange gift to the Infant Jesus. Myrrh is not mentioned in Scripture and its nature is an unusual one because it's an embalming spice placed upon the dead to stop their rotting flesh from stinking. We learn of it first in John 19:39-40, when Nicodemus uses it upon the dead Body of our Lord to be wrapped and placed in the tomb. Again, we see the foreshadowing of Christ's sacrifice and death right from the manger.
Yes, at His birth our Lord's sacrifice began to unfold from the wood of the manger all the way up to the wood of the Cross. Jesus was destined to be a sacrifice of love and a sign of contradiction to the world, even from His Infancy...
...and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted (and you yourself a sword will pierce) so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. [Luke 2:34-35]
The "demands" of love laid out by our Lord, the ways of God, are very contradictory to the ways of the world; they are counter-cultural, contrasting the trends of this world and its so-called wisdom. The Catholic should live their live in a way which presents a stark contrast to the world. It's a way of life that is foreign, yet intriguing because virtue and holiness attract. It's strange yet fascinating because while the world and the media present one way of life, the Catholic lives another which seems (to the world) to be a "deprivation" and "rigid"...yet it is lived with true freedom and joy. I love the words of Pope Benedict XVI:
...the one who has hope, lives differently. [Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi]
Christ is our hope and we celebrate His incarnation - His becoming man - on Christmas. We find Him, our Hope, in every "mini-Christmas" at Mass, where "the word becomes flesh" on our altars, and He becomes literally one with us as we consume His flesh and Blood in the Holy Eucharist.
Yet rather than changing the world, unfortunately, many Christians let the world change them.
Thankfully the Church in her wisdom gives us these sobering feast days to remind us that being Christian is not a mere cultural thing we are born into or become a part of; nor are the Sacraments to be treated as mere milestones in a Catholic's life. In fact, in a book I've been reading about the early Church, I was stunned to learn just how serious those being initiated into the faith treated their Christian identity given in the Sacrament of Baptism:
We see how serious a commitment baptism was in the minds of the people of the Church of his (St. Justin Martyr, 133AD) day. Justin compared it to the sacred military oath taken by a new Roman solider called a sacramentum by which the legionary swore lifelong loyalty unto death to his commander who in turn promised food, wages, protection, and, if the legionary survived, a parcel of land after twenty years' service. Justin points out how much more fitting and necessary it is the Christians be ready to die rather than break their baptismal vows since their promised prize, unlike the soldier's reward, is an eternal one. [When the Church was Young by Marcellino D'Ambrosio from The First Apology, St. Justin Martyr]
Being a Christian was no small things to those being Baptized but yet today we take our Baptism almost entirely for granted. When was the last time you seriously thought about all you promised to give Christ? Holy Communion, the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Confirmation have become but mere milestones today, cultural achievements that "run in the family." But yet if we look at the Faith of our ancestors and the saints who have gone before us, they give us witness that living for Christ involves a complete change of life, oriented not towards the pagan world, but towards Christ. Isn't that what St. Paul tells us?
Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect. [Romans 12:2]
It is a blessing to have these writings from the early Christians, who learned from Jesus' Apostles themselves, and handed these teaching down to us through oral tradition, before the Bible was compiled and canonized a few centuries later. As I've been reading through the things the early Church Fathers have written, I've been convicted of my own mediocrity and lukewarmness.
(Picture: The martyrdom of St. Stephen)
Being Catholic is very counter-cultural and a couple of the past feast days immediately
right after Christmas remind us of this truth. The Church in her wisdom gives us these feast days of St. Stephen who was stoned to death, and the Holy Innocents who were killed at the hands of Herod in an attempt and hope to kill the Christ Child. We are pointed toward these feast days - not a distraction from the beauty of the birth of the Christ Child and the beginning of the work of our redemption - but as a complementary reminder: That those who claim to live for Christ must also be willing to die for Him.
Let the Christian not forget the gravity of their Baptismal vows and the weight they hold.
Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.
[Luke 12:48]
And my brothers and sisters, we have been entrusted with very much!