Summary
The Nativity reveals the humility of God and the depth of His love. In this third talk, Mark Hartfiel reflects on the mystery of Christ’s birth. Through walking us through Scripture, he helps us encounter the wonder of the Incarnation and rediscover the joy that comes at Christmas.
Thank you for watching and participating in this retreat!
Not Registered, yet? Don’t miss the rest of the talks! Register for the Pray More Retreat!
Downloads
Audio MP3
Click here to download the audio file.
Printable Study Guide PDF
Click here to download the printable study guide.
Printable Transcript PDF
Click here to download the transcript of the video presentation.
Reflective Study Guide Questions
“Only when Christ is formed in us will the mystery of Christmas be fulfilled in us.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church 526
1. What word or phrase stood out to you during the reading of the Scripture verses? What do you think God wants you to learn through these words?
2 . What does this mystery reveal about God? How does this truth affect your relationship with Him?
3. What did you see when gazing at the infant Christ through the eyes of His Mother and father? With whom do you identify most in the story of the Nativity? What can you learn from looking at Christ from that perspective?
4. How does praying in this way help you enter into this season of Advent and prepare your heart for Christmas?
Text: The Third Joyful Mystery: The Nativity, the Birth of the Lord
Hi, I’m Mark Hartfiel, Vice President of Paradisus Dei. And we are making our way through the rosary, the joyful mysteries as a way to contemplate the key moments in the life of Christ. And as John Paul II urged us to try to rediscover the rosary in light of scripture, and so in this reflection, we’re going to spend our entire time on that third joyful mystery, the nativity, the birth of our Lord. And so let us begin in prayer.
Opening Prayer
In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Thinking of Yourself Less
And they say, humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less. And this is a wonderful definition. But humility is not just a mental state of mind or disposition. Humility is an action. To be more precise, humility is a downward action that God abased Himself, He came down, He descended. The famous papal preacher, Father Cantalamessa, he calls it a dizzying descent, an infinite step down from God to slave. That God transcends time and space itself when He comes down in the incarnation. But He doesn’t just stop there. He comes down to wash our feet. He comes down to the boat of the dead for three days. We also have the descent of the Holy Spirit.
You see, there is nothing above God. There is no one, there’s no thing on par with the Blessed Trinity. He can’t lift Himself up any Higher, so to speak. He’s already the most high. Therefore, any action that God performs outside of himself, it’s a downward action that God, by definition, he can only lower Himself. Therefore, every work of God is a downward action. His first outward action, right, the story of creation. And every single intervention from on high throughout salvation history is a story of one humble act after another. And this isn’t just theoretical or theological, it’s very personal that every time God hears our prayers, your prayer, every time He acts in your life, your prayers go up like incense. And our God comes down to hear them.
A Downward Act
The third joyful mystery, the nativity of our Lord, an act of humility. It’s a downward act. The all-powerful one becomes an infant. And so we’re going to enter into the biblical account. We read from Luke’s Gospel. “In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled.” Now, Caesar Augustus was a Roman emperor, and according to Greek inscriptions, he was regarded in the Roman Empire as a savior. And he was credited with establishing a time of peace. Luke uses this as a poetic contrast to identify for us the real savior, the prince of peace that is coming in Christ Jesus. And we know this story, right? Joseph takes Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem, and this journey would’ve been over 65 miles on a donkey with his pregnant wife. Our Lady delivers the baby, wraps him in swaddling clothing, lays him in the manger because there is no room for him in the end. And most of you probably know this already, but still, how often do we really think about this? A manger is a feeding trough. And if you’ve ever been to a barn or a stable with farm animals, you know it’s a mess, right? This is the opposite of the sanitation of a modern hospital situation where you can literally smell the disinfectant in the air these days. And so we need to hear this anew that 2000 years ago, Jesus came right into the middle of the mess of this world. And He desires to break through into the mess of our lives still today. He desires to be born again and again in our hearts.
And many of you also probably know that the word Bethlehem, the city Bethlehem, it translates to house of bread. And so our Lord, the bread of life was born in a feeding trough in the house of bread. You can’t make this stuff up. It’s obviously foreshadowing of what is to come, that Jesus is the bread of life. Jesus becomes the food for our salvation. And every Catholic altar becomes a new Bethlehem, the new house of bread. And so we have the privileged opportunity to receive Him, to feed on Him.
When we receive Christ in the Eucharist, the grace of Christmas morning, the coming of Christ, He comes into our lives. And this can take place each and every day in our hearts. Another thing I think is really important to mention about the birth of Christ is that the church teaches a miraculous birth. I love this. The second Marian dogma is Mary’s perpetual virginity. So very specifically, the church teaches that Our Lady remains a virgin before, during, and after the birth of Christ. And remember, we’re not here to solve this mystery, right? That’s not what we do with the faith. We’re not here to solve mysteries, but instead to enter into them, right, to live in intimacy with the mystery. And this is when the faith really comes alive in our hearts.
Very poetically, the church fathers taught that as light passes through glass without harming the glass, so to Jesus passes through the womb of Mary in a miraculous manner without any harm to Mary’s physical virginity, that Jesus is the light of the world. And here’s the key to understand that Christ’s birth doesn’t diminish Mary’s virginal integrity, but sanctifies it. It’s a beautiful miracle of the faith, the birth of Christ. And so the Christ child has just been miraculously born into the silence of the night. He’s born into the first Christian family who is also a Jewish family.
A Contemplative Gaze
And I want you to try to enter into this scene using your imagination that Jesus, the word of God made flesh and the two greatest saints in the history of the church, Mary and Joseph, a mom and a dad, gazing upon the savior of the world. Close your eyes and try to picture it. Try to gaze at the infant Christ through the eyes of Mary, and now through the eyes of St. Joseph. And stay here for a few moments. This is the rosary. The rosary is a contemplative gaze of Jesus Christ and the mystery at hand through the eyes of the blessed Virgin Mary. This is precisely why St. Louis de Montfort could say, “We learn more from praying the daily rosary than any spiritual book,” because the events and the life of Jesus Christ passed before the eyes of the soul. And so the next biblical scene I’d like us to consider within this birth story is the shepherds, that after the angels departed from the shepherds, the very next line is they went in haste and found Jesus lying in the manger just as the angels told them. And it’s very interesting to me that the shepherds did exactly what Mary did after her encounter with an angel. Namely, they went forth in haste with an urgency.
I mean, it’s amazing that God would reveal the birth of the Savior to the lowly shepherds. There are historical references that claim that the testimony of shepherds in ancient Israel was not even accepted in the court of law. That reveals to us how low they were considered in society. And recall from a previous reflection, right, 42 generations of longing and waiting for the Messiah. Remember David over and over in the Psalms, “Lord, we long to see your face.” That God would choose shepherds to be the first witnesses to the birth of Christ, and that they would go forth and give the first Christmas testimony to others. It’s amazing. And so if you’re feeling insignificant, if you’re feeling like you’re not qualified, God says, “Bingo. Perfect.” God wants to work His plans through you. And in fact, becoming smaller and smaller is what He’s looking for. Becoming poor in spirit is the prerequisite for the job of an evangelist, for a Christian.
These shepherds were privileged to behold and to adore the face of God and to see the face of God is the greatest desire of the human heart. Remember Moses, he asks to see God’s glory, and Moses got a name, but he never got a face. He was only able to see the back of God as he passed by. And now we have the all powerful, the transcendent, the awesome God, the one to be feared. He now has a name and a face. The baby Jesus lying in the manger, Jesus the Christ child, that in Jesus, in this incarnation, in this nativity story, that love has come, love incarnate is born, love becomes incarnate on this silent night in Bethlehem. And now I want to move from this scene with the shepherds to the magi, the wise men from the east. We read in the scriptures, “They fell down and worshiped Him. Then opening their treasures, they offered Him gifts, gold and frankincense, and myrrh.”
The Symbolism of The Three Gifts
There’s an explosion of symbolism contained in each of these three gifts. First, we have the gold, which represents wealth and power and kingship. Gold is a symbol of divinity. And then the frankincense, and the myrrh both come forth from trees. And when you cut into these particular trees, when they are bruised, so to speak, there’s an outflow of resins of frankincense and myrrh. And these resins were used for all sorts of various purposes. Frankincense was burned every Sabbath. And as it’s burned, it represents the prayers of Israel ascending to God. And still today in our mass, right, the smoke of the incense rises to heaven with this fragrant aroma and with it our prayers and our sacrifices. And then the myrrh has healing properties.
Remember at the cross, the wine mixed with myrrh was used to numb the pain. And of course, we know that Jesus refuses this numbing. And then at his anointing and burial we call Nicodemus. He brought forth a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes to wrap the body of Jesus. And so this myrrh was a type of perfume for purification, very practically to hide the stench of death. And so all three of these gifts are foreshadowing. Christ is the king. Christ is the tree of life. And just as frankincense and myrrh trees were, they were cut down, they were beaten, they were bruised in order to bleed out these precious resins for incense, for healing and for anointing how much more the body of Christ struck down, beaten and bruised, and then outflow, an outflow of blood and water pouring forth from His sacred heart to bring forth healing and anointing. But Jesus won’t numb the pain of suffering or merely mask the stench of death. Instead, He tramples over death by death and brings about new life. And so this new life in the manger, if we have the spiritual eyes to see it, it’s already a foreshadowing of the new life of the resurrection. And how did God, how did the Magi get there in the first place?
These wise men, they saw a sign, they followed a star in the heavens, which led them to Jesus. Now, if you’re anything like me, you’ve had moments in your life when you just needed to ask God for a sign. “God, show me you’re real. Show me you love me. Show me you care. Show me your power.” And every time I enter into the depths of Christmas, I always realize that God’s ways are not my ways. That the real God does the exact opposite of what I would do. He was born in a humble stable. He has no room to sleep. He’s born in a manger with the animals. That God operates in this stillness, this sacred, humble silence. Nonetheless, God does indeed rip through the heavens and come down to us just not like anyone expected.
A Desire To Be In Your Life
And I promise you, our God desires, He longs to come into your life in a similar fashion, in the stillness, in the silence, in the ordinary, in the humble ways, little humble ways, in the midst of your mess and your hardships, even in the midst of your sin, your worst sin, in the midst of your shame and sorrow, in the midst of your wounds, the wounds received from others, and even the wounds that are self-inflicted. That God desires to break through the walls of your heart, to show you His face, to show you that He is real, that He cares, and that He loves you. You see, the gift of Christmas is the gift of God’s presence, not under a tree, but God’s holy presence among us. There’s a quote from the “Catechism” that sums all of this up. I really love it. “Only when God is formed in us will the mystery of Christmas be fulfilled in us. Christmas is the mystery of this marvelous exchange. Man’s creator has become man born of a virgin.
We have been made sharers in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share our humanity.” The humble presence of God is the most powerful force in the world. We long for union with God. We long to see His face, and to our great surprise, He longs for union with us even more. The transcendent God desires to draw close to us by becoming small. This is the mystery of Christmas. There was no room for Him in the end. Is there room for Him in your heart? May we remove the clutter this advent season and open our hearts to God. May we make room for Jesus?
Closing Prayer
Let’s close in prayer. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
About Mark Hartfiel
Mark Hartfiel is the Vice President of Paradisus Dei and host of the Mysteries of the Rosary video series featured on EWTN, Formed, and Wild Goose TV. Mark is currently the developer of content for the That Man is You! men’s program which is hosted in 1,000 parishes throughout the world.