Robert Barron - God Became a Baby
Peace be with you, and a very blessed and Merry Christmas to everybody. What is it about babies that’s just so irresistibly charming? Now, I realize some parents might be thinking, «What a typical celibate’s perspective on things»? , but you know what I mean. There’s something about a baby. When the baby comes into the room, everybody wants to see the baby. I imagine now, today, at your family gathering, someone probably will bring in a newborn at some point. Everybody will come over and make funny faces and make little funny noises and want to see the baby. The whole room will stop whatever they’re doing to see this child. I imagine even the most crusty, difficult, curmudgeonly person at the party will eventually make his or her way over and start cooing at the baby. There’s just something about a little child that brings out the best in us, calls forth love from us.
Now, imagine if a baby came into the room and you knew somehow that that baby was in serious danger. That baby was sick, or there was someone threatening that child. Well, even more so, your sense of love and protection would be awakened, right? That baby would get your attention. Well, at the center of our celebration of Christmas Day, is this strange, astonishing fact that God became a baby. Let me just say that again, lest this become too commonplace, or we take it so for granted. The strange and astonishing message at the heart of Christianity is that God became a baby. So the Creator of the universe, the sheer act of existence itself, the reason why there’s something rather than nothing, the omniscient, all-powerful God, became a baby too weak even to raise his own head. This divine child, so to speak, is placed on this Christmas Day in our laps.
Think of this divine child that’s being brought now into your family gathering, and someone says, «Oh, do you want to see the baby»? And they put this baby in your lap and you look down into that face. That’s what Christmas is about. Now, can I suggest to everybody this was a stroke of divine genius. Now why? Well, take a look at the second reading for the Mass for the day today, from the Letter to the Hebrews. Listen: «In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets. In these last days, he’s spoken to us through his Son». I’ve said this many times before. You can find this theme of the human quest for God in the Bible.
Think of the Psalm, «As the deer yearns for running streams, so my soul is yearning for you, my God». So of course, that’s part of our spiritual experience. And the shelves in bookstores groan under the weight of books about this idea, in the great religions and philosophies of the world, our quest for God. But biblical religion is not primarily about our quest for God. It’s about God’s relentless quest for us. God who needs nothing from the world. God who gains nothing from the world, who created the world out of sheer love and now wants to share his life with us. That’s the Bible. He comes running after us. Think of Psalm 139. Not so much our search for God, but this: «O God, you search me and you know me. You know my resting and my rising. You discern my purpose from afar. Before ever a word’s on my lips, Lord, you know it through and through. Behind and before you besiege me, your hand ever laid upon me».
That’s not my quest for God. That’s God’s passionate search for me. Well, how did God do it? Again, listen to Hebrews: «In times past, he spoke in partial and various ways». Yep. He called Abraham, he called Isaac, he called Jacob. He called Joseph and Moses and Aaron. He called Samuel, David, Solomon. He called Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. He called Miriam, Deborah, and Ruth. He called Elizabeth, Zechariah, Mary, and Joseph, all this time endeavoring to form a people after his own heart. He sought them out. He chose them, sent them on mission. More to it, he gave laws and commandments. Now, please don’t listen to the critics of religion who say, «This is God making arbitrary and oppressive demands upon us». No, no, no. That’s not it at all. Not to make our lives more complicated, but to lift us up, to give us the laws that would now shape us in the direction of happiness and joy.
Think of a good coach who’s trying to give his charges the powers and capacities to play the sport well. Well, that’s God now giving laws and commandments to his people. He gave us the prophets, as we hear, to excite our enthusiasm for the divine life. Were they pretty harsh sometimes, the prophets? Yeah, you bet. Read Ezekiel and Daniel and Isaiah and Hosea and Zechariah. Often they’re upbraiding the people and they’re calling the people back to obedience to the Torah. «Well, that’s because they’re difficult and God’s oppressive». No, no, no. It’s because God is passionate to set things right. Any good parent, listen to me. Do you ever raise your voice to your children? Hope you do. Because if you don’t, you’re a pretty lousy parent, right? If your child’s walking in the wrong direction, I mean that metaphorically or literally, well, you better raise your voice.
So God, through the prophets, raises his voice. That’s not God being difficult. That’s God coming after us like the Hound of Heaven. That’s God seeking us out. Despite all this, all this speaking to us in partial and fragmentary ways, despite all these efforts, we tended not to respond. I mean, it’s a story at the heart of the Bible. Tough, tough to take in, tough to hear, but it’s true, isn’t it? Despite all this, despite laws and commandments, despite all the prophets, despite choosing the patriarchs, despite coming after us like the Hound of Heaven, we tended to run the other way. We tended to disobey. We tended to break the commandments and the covenants. We tended to stone the prophets.
God tried again and again and again, and we ran away. But then in the fullness of time, listen, God spoke to us through his Son, and more to it, the Son who entered the world as a little baby child. As I say, the stroke of divine genius. Why? Because who can finally resist a baby? God tried all these different things. God tried again and again and again, and we ran away. But there’s just something magnetic about a baby. Think of all those scenes, how we put them up in our homes, the crèche scenes with Mary and Joseph and the Wise Men and the shepherds, and yes, even the animals, and everybody drawn in toward the baby. Impressive! This baby, we hear, from the beginning, is in danger. He was born in this little lean-to or stable or cave or whatever it was.
It wasn’t even good enough to be the traveler’s hostel in the lousy little town of Bethlehem. Herod is after him from the beginning. This baby’s in mortal danger. Here’s this threatened, vulnerable baby who is also God. Who can finally resist him? Who can finally say no? Who could finally say, «Oh, look, I got something else to do. I can’t be bothered with this baby»; «No, no, no. I’m too busy»; or, «No, no, no, you’re asking too much»? No, this baby who is God has been placed in our laps this Christmas. And as we look down into the face of that baby, we are looking into the very face of God. «Lord, lift up your countenance,» the Old Testament says.
Well, the countenance of God is now the little tiny face of a baby. Yeah, he tried prophets, he tried kings, tried patriarchs, gave laws, rituals, and commandments, and they’re all good in themselves. All these things are valuable, of course they are. But at the end of the day, he came as a baby because babies are irresistible. Let me just make a last point before I close, friends. This is why, up and down the centuries, the Church has had this great sensitivity toward those who suffer and those who are weak and poor and on the margins. As we look around our world, we see the faces of the vulnerable. What do we see by extension? We see the face of Christ. Mother Teresa could say that, as she saw the faces of those suffering and dying in the streets of Calcutta, she said, «Well, that’s Christ in his most distressing disguise».
The saints say it over and over again, as they serve the poor and the hungry and the homeless and the marginalized, they were serving Christ. This is this central Christian message: that we find God in the face of the poor and the vulnerable, those who are like this little child. So can I suggest today, as you gather with your families, as I’m sure you all will, and likely there’ll be a new son or daughter, grandson, granddaughter, new niece or nephew, someone, at some point, is going to bring a baby into that room. Maybe be attentive to that dynamic. Watch what it does to the room. Watch how it brings everybody together. Watch how everyone wants to see that baby and reach out and protect that child. And then think, «Okay, this is why we’re gathering today, because God became a baby». And then allow yourself to be drawn by that child’s magnetic power. And God bless you and Merry Christmas.