Missionaries of the Sacred

While at an airport recently, I happened to be in line behind a father holding his son. The father was a big man who looked like he could have been  football lineman. The son was a new-born who could not have been more than a month old. The baby was sleeping on his father’s chest with his tiny head nestled in the father’s neck. It was a peaceful scene, one which helps us realize that sometimes things are right in the world.

This scene led me to think about a book I had just read, “The Christmas Box” by R. P. Evans. The main character is challenged by his elderly landlady to think about what was the first Christmas gift. Through the course of the book he discovers that it is “a parent’s love.” The gift originates  with the first Parent, the Father of all who loves the Son and sends him to share the light of love with a darkened world.

The first Christmas gift, the Father’s love for the Son, is intended to be passed on to every child who is born. Because every human being has a  father and mother, God’s gift of love is mediated through our human parents. That’s why the family is such an important unit of society; it’s the primary means through which God works to bring about salvation. When one of the parents isn’t present to do this, other family or friends have to fill  in. This is also one of the responsibilities of godparents.

This Christmas, above and beyond all the material things, let us remember to give the first Christmas gift: a parent’s love. It’s the gift that God gives us and the same gift that we are invited to give others. Parents, like the  father at the airport, hug your children no matter how old they are. And  children, hug them back.

Christmas Blessings from all the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart,