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Fr. Leo Pabayo

A LARGE number of visitors had already poured into Bethlehem that day when Mary and husband Joseph entered the town with their slow footed donkey. Thus no lodging place was left for them. Joseph pleaded to innkeepers that a shelter fit for a pregnant woman was needed by his wife. Joseph came from this town and might still have had relatives there whom he might ask for lodging. It might be though that the houses of the people of Bethlehem were also already bursting with guests who came to meet the deadline set by Emperor Caesar Augustus who ordered that everyone belonging to the Roman Empire should be registered in their hometown.

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No consideration at all was shown to Mary in her pregnant condition. It would take men and women of deep faith to recognize that there was something very special about this couple whose great nobility of character was hidden behind their simple clothing, the kind of clothing worn by the farmers or the laborers at that time. Mary might have seemed to them to be like any comely young wife who was on the way. No one could have suspected that the Lord of heaven and earth dwelt in her womb.

Mary and Joseph were not accommodated perhaps also because some important guests from out of town might already have been given preference by the relatives of Joseph in Bethlehem if he still had relatives there. It is typical of Mary and Joseph not to insist. It could be that Joseph pleaded that even a stable for animals would do and he would clean it up, improve on it and make it fit for habitation for Mary and him. It would happen that this was granted and thus the stable became the place where Mary gave birth to Jesus. There could be no humbler place for anyone to be born in.

The all knowing God must have willed this to show later to the world how our blindness to what is really true and good and beautiful deprives us of the ability to recognize the bearer of the greatest manifestation of this in our world. This humble condition gives us already a hint on how mankind will be saved from the curse of sin.

This is a scene that is most important for us to meditate and contemplate for our salvation.  St. Francis of Assisi and the other saints who persevered on meditating and contemplating this were eventually enlightened on its meaning. It will inspire them to tell and retell the story of Christmas to also inspire others.

“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God; he was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him and without him nothing came. Whatever has come to be, found life in him, life which for man was also light. Light that shines in the dark: light that darkness could not overcome.” (John1:1-5)

When it reached the men and women of great learning and wisdom in the great centers of learning in the world who pondered it, they too came to realize the great meaning hidden behind this obscure event in the town of Bethlehem. They finally came to the insight that this humble maiden from Nazareth was much more than what she appeared to be. She was actually chosen by God from all eternity to become the human mother of His Only begotten son. She would accurately be given the title the Mother of God.

This title of Mary, the mother of Jesus as the Mother of God is celebrated by the Church on New Year’s Eve. This feast is probably the most significant feast of Mary. This title as applied to Mary dates back very early in the Church and was solemnly defined by the Council` of Ephesus closing a long and heated debate on the question. It came not long after the solemn definition of the teaching or dogma that that Jesus was indeed not only man but God. Since He took on a human nature from Mary his human mother, Mary, the title Mother of God was conferred on Mary.

Because Jesus is indeed Son of God, the second person of the Blessed Trinity (to be continued)

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