From the Sunday Note, with additional thoughts–
When the angels went away from them to heaven,
the shepherds said to one another,
“Let us go, then, to Bethlehem
to see this thing that has taken place,
which the Lord has made known to us.”
So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph,
and the infant lying in the manger.
When they saw this,
they made known the message
that had been told them about this child.
All who heard it were amazed
by what had been told them by the shepherds.
And Mary kept all these things,
reflecting on them in her heart.
Then the shepherds returned,
glorifying and praising God
for all they had heard and seen,
just as it had been told to them.
Luke 2:15-20, Gospel for the Christmas Mass at Dawn
Not the pastor’s note:
The Savior of humankind has been born, and the first to hear the good news are rough-hewn fellows watching other men’s flocks all night out in the fields. Luke makes a point of this: God is so concerned about the poor of our world that he sent messengers to give 30 years’ advance notice to these representative “nobodies.” The Lord’s accounting of worth and value flips our day-to-day assumptions on their heads. He particularly loves nobodies. How we treat the nobodies moves us closer to the Lord or farther away.
For further reflection:
We do not need to look very far for nobodies. Who is forgotten, overlooked, ineffective, ignored in our own families? On our block? At our work? …