By Ricardo Márquez
I can still remember the Christmas carols that we sang in my home around the manger during my childhood in Venezuela: “Niño lindo ante ti me rindo, Niño lindo eres tú mi Dios …” (Beautiful Child, before You I surrender, Beautiful Child, You are my God …).
When we are children, we don’t question what we are offered; we are like sponges that soak up what’s said, what’s sung, and what’s celebrated in the family. That was my experience; I began to repeat and sing what I heard: “Cantemos, cantemos, Gloria al Salvador …” (Let’s sing, sing, Glory to the Savior).
Those were the first seeds of faith that my parents planted, reinforced by the environment and culture I was born into.
Today, I think that Christmas is the singular, special opportunity for children to begin the path to faith. Sing to Baby Jesus, tell His story, build a manger and teach the first prayers: “Jesusito de mi vida, eres niño como yo, por eso te quiero tanto y te doy mi corazón …” (My precious Baby Jesus, You’re a child like me, that’s why I love You so much and give You my heart …)
Later, as the years passed, I discovered that my early experiences had begun to pave the way for me to have an intimate relationship with the Lord, with Jesus.
When I heard, as an adolescent, that Jesus was calling me to be His disciple, I felt invited to have a personal relationship with Him since the ground had already been prepared by those Christmas traditions I had experienced.
Today, as an adult, I empathize with the words Pope Benedict XVI expressed in his beautiful encyclical (“Deus Caritas”): “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”
The experience with faith comes from an encounter with Jesus as a living reality, not just as a historical figure or an abstract concept.
Let’s not leave for later what can be done from the start. You can’t harvest what you don’t sow. Christmas is a privileged time to share the story of God, who became one of us and began His life as a defenseless baby, depending for His care on Joseph and, especially, Mary. Christmas is a unique time to strengthen the pillars of the domestic Church: the rituals, stories, message of the Gospel, prayers, sacraments and service.
The critical stage of faith begins in adolescence and adulthood, the questions and doubts. Crises that come up are an invitation to experience the mystery, not as a barrier to reason, rather as an invitation to submerge yourself in Him, to experience the immensity of the unknown and to humbly submit oneself to the love of a God who became one of us to have an intimate relationship with each one of us. What is constructed in this stage is built from previous stages.
When I see a manger today, I give thanks to my parents and family members who prepared my heart for a personal, very special relationship with Jesus, the Son of God, who entered humanity’s history, mine in particular.
Ricardo Márquez can be reached at marquez_muskus@yahoo.com.
