Four Keys for Christmas

A German bishop friend of mind wrote a lovely Christmas greeting that I like to re-read at this time of the year. It goes as follows:

“I would love each of us to have four keys.

A key for the back door: the Lord comes, where and how we do not know. He comes in those who don’t have the courage to draw near the big front door.

A key for the inside door: the Lord is more deeply within us than the deepest depths of our soul. It’s from there he enters the house of our life.

A key for the connecting door that has been walled over, covered with plaster, that’s the door that opens on to those who are beside us, those who are nearest to us, and yet most distant from us. The Lord is knocking on our door.

A key for the front door. It was from that threshold that Jesus, with Mary and Joseph were rejected.  

Let us not hesitate to allow him resolutely to enter our lives, our world.

Will we know how, today, to be his Bethlehem?” (Bishop Klaus Hemmerle)

These beautiful words contain a simple Christmas message. What matters is not just to sing about the events of Bethlehem two thousand years ago. We need to “be” Bethlehem today, welcoming Jesus also in our relationships with one another.