“The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem.” Of course they went in haste. They were on lunch break and had to go see the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and then get back to work watching the sheep. How fitting for us as we are winding up our days off for Christmas. As nice as the break was, we have to get back to work, back to paying bills, visiting the doctor, shoveling snow. But the liturgy does not want us to think about the Christmas holidays as a “time out” from everyday existence. Rather, Christmas colors all that we do. From now on we realize that the divine has suffused creation, that all we do must be viewed through the eyes of the Word-made-flesh.
