Christmas: In those Eyes

When I was a young boy I would love going to the movies with my dad and we went often. Back in those days the prices for a movie, a matinee for a child was $1.00 and $1.50 for an adult, what happened? Anyway, my dad loved the Italian directors, Franco Zeffirelli, Sergeo Leone, and others, and about half of the movies we saw were in Italian. I loved the Spaghetti Westerns with Clint Eastwood, at this time they were re-showings as they had been released back in the sixties.

I remember the movie “Jesus of Nazareth” when it premiered on TV back in 1977 and my dad’s excitement to see it. He was excited because it was a religious movie which had an unbelievable cast, Michael York, Anne Bancroft, Ernest Borgnine, James Earl Jones, Donald Pleasance, Laurence Olivier, and most of all it was a Zeffirelli film.

Watching that move actually mesmerized me and froze me right in my tracks. I was only eight but I remember being pulled right into the story, I felt as if Jesus were speaking to me, amazing indeed.

Many, if not all of us have seen this film at one time or another. There are many moving scenes throughout. As I reflect on Christmas there is one scene in particular that stands out to me. It’s not when Jesus was born, which would be the fitting scene to incorporate in today’s reflection, rather it was a scene were some Jewish men were crying out to God for relief.

The scene takes place when Jesus was 12 years old and had just been through his bar mitzvah and celebrating it in the local synagogue. Some Roman soldiers had come into Nazareth to commandeer food supplies and resources from the people. In the scene you can see the anguish on the Jewish people as they lived in fear of the Romans who had oppressed them. As the soldiers leave one Jewish man falls to his knees and begins to cry out, “How long O’ Lord until you help us, how long O’ Lord?” Another man says, “The Lord has abandoned us.” Then in the corner the young Jesus looks at the man crying out and it is in that look that says everything to us. I will never forget it, the look was one of compassion and a deep longing to reach out and help. When you watch it - it stirs up tremendous emotion as every fiber of our own being desires to reach out to the oppressed and help them. In Jesus’ eyes you can see love and you can see that He knows it will be Him that saves the people, not from political oppression, but from the oppression of sin, for the Israelite first, who are the apple of his eye, and even for the Roman – the Gentile.

Jesus desired to help, to renew that which was flawed. God comes and breaks into human history, not as someone who comes in pomp and circumstance, but in the quiet, and in humility, and most importantly as one of us. He knows our joys, because he himself experienced them, in his own celebrations of his faith, his family, with his friends. He also knows our sorrows as he himself experienced death, that of Joseph, Lazarus, and his own suffering.

We can take great assurance in the fact that we are never alone, even when we do face difficulty; it is Jesus who looks at us with those eyes, the eyes of eternal love. When we celebrate life, at baptisms, weddings, ordinations, family reunions, parties, life’s accomplishments, it is Jesus who is there right next to us celebrating and joining in with the singing and even in the dancing, the dance of life.

Christ comes into the world to be in relationship with us, to know us face to face, to walk with us side by side. There is no greater gift than for God to not only desire that but to actually do it, and then to leave us with the greatest example of love, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. Just awesome!

We honor that gift of God’s life breaking into human history with sharing with one another, the exchange of gifts; we also decorate, put up lights, put up Christmas trees, and everything else that goes with Christmas. It is the biggest birthday party for anyone person in the history of the world. Every light, every tree, and every carol we sing, they are all candles on a birthday cake and the candles are for Jesus, not for his age, but in honor for his love. Therefore, there can never be enough trees, lights, and decorations. The more the better!

I ask that you remember tonight or tomorrow when you open your gifts with one another to not forget that there is another in your midst taking pleasure and joy in your sharing and he desires nothing more than your happiness, it’s hard to miss him, because when you look into those eyes, you see love, you see sacrifice, and most of all you know you see the Christ – the one who is to come, Immanuel!

Fr. John