Christmas these days is an ambivalent feast.  For many it evokes powerful memories of childhood innocence -that's no bad thing.  As Jesus himself said, 'the kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these'.

But behind this nostalgic (and for some, lucrative) appeal lies another, more subversive Christmas.  One in which an unwed mother and a doubtful father cope as best they can with an ill-timed birth.  Their child - as Mary knew from Simeon - was destined for the 'falling and rising of many in Israel'.  Eluding the peripheral vision of the authorities, that helpless child, by his arrival, implanted a different kind of power.  From that point oppressive normality began to unravel, 'scattering the proud in their conceit and lifting up the lowly'.

If we are ever tempted to feel helpless, as if the little we can do can never be enough, the Nativity is always there for us.  The manger is the 'ground zero' from which a new world arises - sometimes quietly, sometimes noisily; often messily, usually misunderstood.

Now is a good time to look back on 2022: what you've achieved, what remains to be done; how you've grown, where you feel you've failed; with whom you've found connection.  Let's do so at the Crib, because that is where everything we do, or try to do, in the Gospel is welcomed, redeemed, fulfilled, and finds its true scale.  We cannot know what we have unleashed.

Have yourself a subversive little Christmas.
-- Paul
Caritas Diocese of Nottingham

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