Tell the Story
My mom was a great storyteller. She would entertain us six children with stories about her childhood growing up in Madison, Wisconsin. We heard about her siblings, her friends and the grade school years at Holy Redeemer grade school. There were stories of our dad courting her. We also heard our own stories—tales of our early years which usually included our birth stories.
The telling of birth stories has become a tradition in our family. Our children know what day of the week and what the weather was on their birthday. Birth stories include the fact that, their father was with me (and them) through it all. They know which one of them was due to arrive in early December but instead arrived one week before Christmas, coming home in a Christmas stocking. And I love that our children have continued this birth story custom with our grandchildren.
As this last week of Advent draws near, how am I preparing myself for Christ to be born again? How am I entering into his birth story? I find myself thinking of Mary and the stories she told and continued to tell the child Jesus as he was growing up. What a birth story that was! What it felt like for a very pregnant Mary to be traveling on a donkey to Bethlehem with her new husband. She must have described the humble stable where Jesus was born and how far this was from her hometown and her parents. Jesus must have enjoyed hearing about the amazing cast of characters present at his birth--shepherds and animals, angel choirs and stars and wise men bearing gifts.
I’m not sure that Mary would have told her son about the flight to Egypt and Herod’s killing of those innocent babies. But I am fairly certain that the story of finding Jesus in the temple when he was 12 was a family legend, repeated often and with embellishments at family gatherings.
Long before Jesus’ more formal education began, Mary was evangelizing her child with their faith history. If we think of evangelization as just another way to tell our story, that doesn’t seem like such a daunting task. It’s just sharing some of our personal faith history with another. It is our Catholic birth story. Think of the many times you have told the story surrounding Jesus’ birth to your children and grandchildren. Perhaps you shared the Christmas According to Kids video that Alison included at the end of last week’s Faith Friday? If so, good job of evangelizing!
Jesus’ birth story is also the birth story of each one of us. His beginning on earth led to our beginning as the Redeemed. Now we have the responsibility of saying so.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so (Psalm 107:2)
Praying abundant blessings upon you and yours this Christmas and in the New Year.
