IN SWADDLING CLOTHES

IN SWADDLING CLOTHES

Luke gives us this detail of the birth of Jesus; that he was swathed in bands of cloth as, seemingly, was the custom. Luke is graphically making the point that this little child has now entered a limited existence where he cannot even move his arms. These limitations would be accentuated as he grows up and begins his mission. He can cure the lame and open the eyes of the blind but he cannot break down the hostility of the Jewish leaders. He is definitely one of us.

Yet it is precisely to break these fetters that he came; “to proclaim liberty to captives and to let the oppressed go free.” He has entered our world and become one of us in order to break what binds humanity. But he will do it from within. He will proclaim it as his programme but he will achieve it by walking the human journey with us. All the miracles were simply signs and when he raised Lazarus from the dead he told the bystanders, “Unbind him, let him go.” Those words too had a deeper meaning than simply untying the swathes.

But it cost him everything. We are told a little later that those sent to arrest him, “seized Jesus and bound him.” Once more his arms were restricted and he was led “where he would rather not go.” But he accepted the cup the Father had given him and he knew that this way, from within, was the only way to finally break the bonds that held humanity. He would break them and in so doing break them for us all. He broke them as man by submitting to them as, in the end, we have to do. And when they had done all they could to destroy him the time came for him as God to burst through them forever.

It all happened from within; within the swaddling clothes of humanity. Those bonds could not hold him. He accepted them for a while because he had a plan. But, when the time came, he broke through them and opened a way for all of us to follow.

We all have our swaddling clothes – those things than restrict us: our limits of education, finance, health and so on. We are all limited. Yet our destiny is to break out of these limits. That is what we mean by “the resurrection of the dead.” Mary helps us understand. At Bethlehem she, was limited. They couldn’t even find a place to stay. But now the whole world seeks her help and she is able to attend to everyone, everywhere – not just in some passing way, like Pope Francis can only do, bending to hold the hand of a sick child – but in an all attentive way, solicitous about “the least of my brothers and sisters.”   

Happy Christmas!

Christmas Day 2015

Isaiah 9:2-17                           Titus 2:11-14                          Luke 2:1-14