Bruno Lucchesi, "Saint Joseph and the Child Jesus," Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe, Orlando, Florida.
Bethlehem represents a new hope, a new start to our spiritual life. Nazareth represents the slow, steady journey of growth and change. In Bethlehem we learn faith and hope; in Nazareth we build the courage to love.
By Br. Stephen Camara, MIC
The Christmas season calls us to draw near to Bethlehem. And Bethlehem represents a single moment in Jesus‘s life: a precious, cherished, decisive moment, the moment in which “Christ our Savior is born,” as we sing in the carol “Silent Night.” This moment has been enshrined all over the world, in countless churches, shrines, and private homes—in plastic and porcelain, wood and marble, brass and gold.
Bethlehem was a humble town, but a town of kings: the royal stock of David, Solomon, Hezekiah, Josiah, and many other kings, both good and bad. From Bethlehem, it was prophesied, the future king of the Jews would come. Nevertheless, for Jesus, Bethlehem is only a moment. Jesus was not called to spend the years of his life in Bethlehem, but rather, in Nazareth.
What is Nazareth?
What is Nazareth? Can anything good come out of Nazareth? This was the contemptuous question of a doubting Nathanael, now known as the apostle Bartholomew.
Nazareth was not a town of kings; no royal line sprang from it. It was a rural backwater in the north of Israel, in the region of Galilee (though not very close to the Sea of Galilee). In order to travel to Jerusalem for the great Jewish feasts, you had to travel through Samaria — an unfriendly country settled by mixed races, who treated Jews with contempt and were held in contempt by them.
Nazareth was indeed a strange place for the future King of the Jews to live during the time when, as Luke 2:52 tells us, “Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.”
If you wish to know Jesus, to really know Jesus, you have to journey to Nazareth. You cannot stay in Bethlehem. I’m thinking here especially of those Catholics who only come to Mass one or two days a year, Christmas (usually) being one of them. That is one of the ways a person might “stay in Bethlehem.”
And it’s easy to stay with Jesus at Bethlehem. Bethlehem represents the place in our heart where Jesus comes to live again as a little child, gentle, humble, giving Himself to us, not placing any demands upon us, when all that he needs is supplied by His Mother. It’s comfortable dealing with Jesus when He’s small and cute and doesn’t say a word. What if you listened to Jesus when He is old enough to talk? What would He say to you? What would He ask of you? What might He say to your heart?
Love and Mercy
Don’t try to answer these questions too quickly. It would be easy to say, “God is merciful; he will overlook my faults.” But that’s an inaccurate idea of Mercy. Because Jesus is merciful, because He is Love and Mercy itself, he can and will judge some actions to be wrong. When we are unfaithful, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny that He is the son of the Eternal Father (see 2 Tim 2:13). To leave a wrong person in his wrong-doing is not merciful, but negligent.
On the other hand, a person might say, “I’m afraid of what God might say to me; He might judge me harshly for something wrong I’ve done, maybe something I didn’t even know was wrong.”
This is understandable; we’ve all had moments (in childhood and often adulthood) when a human judge punished us severely for something we did wrong, perhaps without our fully understanding why. Nevertheless, God’s judgment is not like human judgments, for “man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” (1 Sam 16:7)
Journey of the Heart
It is this interior journey, the journey of the heart, which we must take on our journey from Bethlehem to Nazareth. Bethlehem represents a new hope, a new start to our spiritual life. Nazareth represents the slow, steady journey of growth and change. In Bethlehem we learn faith and hope; in Nazareth we build the courage to love.
This inward journey is accompanied by outward signs; the sign of Baptism is followed by Penance, Confirmation, and the Holy Eucharist; by the Sacraments of Marriage and Holy Orders; by the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. These outward signs signify and even cause changes in our heart, by the grace that makes us holy and the graces that enable us to live out that holiness, that Christ-like witness, in the world.
Continued in Part 2.
{shopmercy-ad}
