Not long before Christmas I was wandering around a “big box” store. I saw an obviously exasperated man approach a clerk in the electronics department and ask him if he had a certain computer game. (I have to confess that until I spent a few days with my nieces and nephews, I would not even have known what he was asking for). In any event, the clerk said they had it, and the customer said, “Great! I have been looking for this for weeks.” The clerk seemed pleased to have played at least a small part in bringing the man’s search to a conclusion.
Not long before Christmas I was wandering around a “big box” store. I saw an obviously exasperated man approach a clerk in the electronics department and ask him if he had a certain computer game. (I have to confess that until I spent a few days with my nieces and nephews, I would not even have known what he was asking for). In any event, the clerk said they had it, and the customer said, “Great! I have been looking for this for weeks.” The clerk seemed pleased to have played at least a small part in bringing the man’s search to a conclusion.
This scenario must have played out a million times during the last few weeks as shoppers searched for just the right thing. But on Christmas Day, these types of searches come to an end. Whoever hadn’t found that one precise thing by then will have to wait till next year.
We’ve all been searching during the weeks of Advent, too. The readings from the liturgy are filled with longing, waiting, hoping. The candles we lit helped us mark time as we waited.
But what we were searching for is quite different from any commercial product. What we have been searching for is not found in a store. It doesn’t have a price. In fact, by definition, it can’t be bought or earned.
The gift of the Incarnation is what we have been waiting for. In some ways, this is inaccurate because the Incarnation already occurred, once and for all in the person of Jesus. But in another way, it is ongoing. The Incarnation continues to unfold in our lives, sometimes in many unexpected ways. This is why there is no explosion or fireworks on Christmas Day. It is a quiet celebration in which we try to discover anew the spark of divinity that God planted in us through the Incarnation.
As you continue to celebrate during this Christmas season, take a few moments of silence and think of one really good and holy thing that you have. Then ask God to help you experience it as His gift, His real presence in your life.
Amen.
Charles Bouchard, OP
Provincial
Dominican Friars, Province of St. Albert the Great
