One of the strong elements of the Christmas season is that we get to know God. That means we get to know something of his nearness, some particular attribute, or some particular depth of growth in that awareness.

It seems to me that one of the strongest elements that should come from the Christmas season is the awareness of God’s great mercy. The difference between Jesus and us is we didn’t ask to be born. We were brought into this world and it takes some time before we even become conscious.

Whereas Jesus, as a person, chooses to come into this world. That means he chose also to bear our burdens. He wanted to bear our burdens. He didn’t just want to do it eventually he actually did it. That presupposed that we have some sense of what does this mean? Have you ever met anybody that really bore your burdens? That really walked with you through difficulties right to the end and never abandoned you but was the occasion for you to be lifted up? Jesus wanted to do it and he did it.

Because Jesus chose to be human he also wanted to feel what we feel. Which means he’s very near us and understands our existence. It means also he wanted to have the human experiences which means he would weep, as we see in the gospel at least a couple of times, clearly Jesus weeps and experiences the sadness and the total overwhelmingness and vulnerability of the human being.

Jesus wanted to shutter at good events and pain. We saw for instance when Jesus was teaching the apostles to go out and do missionary work and they came back all excited, Jesus was also happy with them, exuberant. He was also insightful and gave them greater instructions but he was very joyful with that. He praises the Father in almost ecstacy. But also he wanted to have the shutter of pain and we know all of us are quite aware of the amount of pain Jesus embraced.

It’s this Jesus, that by his death and resurrection, is at the right hand of the Father as we say his sensitivity and his humaness is broad, and deep, and rich, and it’s still alive. Which means if we take seriously the mystery of the Mystical Body the head and members are one. When you hit my arm I don’t say my arm is not happy with you. I say, "Ouch! You hurt me!" So the same sensitive Jesus who wanted to enter fully as a human is also committed to each one of us in that same sensitivity to walk with us and to transform us.

So the season makes us aware that our notion of God’s mercy and God’s broad sensitivity toward us is very, very rich and deep. So we should walk with a lot more confidence and a lot more trust and willingness to turn to him for everything.