Even before Christmas Day has arrived, we have already kind of celebrated Christmas.
For the past two weeks or so, it was one Christmas party after another.
So, we have already eaten the turkey and all the things that are stuffed in it.
The fridge still has some remnants of the log-cake, and maybe a few more uneaten ones.
Next to the log-cakes are also pieces of the honey-baked ham.
So, it is the usual festive foods that we are looking at.
The presents may also have been given out and exchanged.
So yes, the celebrations have begun even before Christmas Day has arrived.
So, now that Christmas Day is here, it is to eat up whatever that is left and to open those presents.
In a way, it can be a good thing, because having already done all that, it leaves us to focus on what Christmas is really about.
As we come for Mass, we also go back in time to Bethlehem.
Bethlehem means “the house of bread”, but we are not looking for bread.
We come to the animal shed, and we look at that manger, which is the feeding trough of the animals.
And lying there, wrapped in swaddling clothes, is a newborn child.
The setting is rather difficult to comprehend, or to understand.
How can a baby be born in such a place?
And also among those animals?
But we look, we ponder and we wonder.
We are told that this is the Son of God, the Prince of Peace, the Word made flesh.
He was not born in a palace, or in a clean and decent place.
And because there was no room at the inn, so He was born in a resting place for animals and laid in a manger.
Yes, that is God became man, the Saviour, and He went through all that just to be with us.
Jesus came into the world to show us how much God loves us.
But the world was not prepared to welcome Him.
But that did not stop Jesus from coming into the world.
And Jesus wants us to learn this lesson from Him.
In life we will face the closed door, or many closed doors.
It is like there is no room at the inn.
But Jesus tells us that when life shuts the door, then open it again.
That is how the door works. Doors can be shut; they can also be opened.
Jesus found an open door in the hearts of Mary and Joseph.
May Jesus also find an open door in our hearts.
And as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, may we open the doors of our hearts to peace and reconciliation, to kindness and forgiveness.
And may closed doors be opened to let hope enter, so that there will be room for God’s love to come into the world.