Have you ever received something nice that you thought you didn’t deserve? Perhaps it was a gift, or kind words of acknowledgement from someone? The mix of emotions and thoughts – happiness and gratefulness for what we’ve received, while feeling unworthy to receive it – can leave us feeling quite awkward.
While still grappling with her courageous acceptance of the call to be the Mother of God, Mary responds to the news that her cousin Elizabeth is pregnant. She makes an over-one-hundred-kilometre journey to visit and stay with her until John the Baptist is born. Elizabeth, recognising the divine presence within Mary, asks: “Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord?”
It could be said that Elizabeth didn’t deserve to be a witness to the incarnation. After all, we are all flawed, including Elizabeth. Yet the profound mystery which we believe in and celebrate is that God chooses to work through all of humanity, with all its flaws and failings. Christmas celebrates that God not only works through us, but became one like us. A God who is so completely love is not concerned with what we think we deserve.
Many people carry the burdens of painful experiences that have left them feeling unworthy, undeserving and unloved. Christmas can be a time that heightens that pain. Throughout Christmas and beyond, we have a duty to look for those who carry this pain and honour them by sharing the promise of God’s love and life. For God’s love and life is not earned or deserved, but given freely. This is the true Christmas gift.
Are there times when I feel undeserving of God’s love?
Published in our parish bulletin, Carmel, 22 December 2024
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