Each year as I made the final turn onto my parents’ street, I would look up and see their house in the distance with the front door and driveway lights on, welcoming me, and giving me joy and comfort in knowing I would be greeted by my family and offered a warm meal. Pulling into their driveway, I would see the Christmas tree decked and trimmed with ornaments and lights with a star on top. Before getting out of the car, I would sit for a moment and gaze at the tree through the window, reflecting on the tiny little baby born in Bethlehem to Mary.
It was Mary, in giving her “fiat,” her “yes” to the angel Gabriel by saying, “may it be done to me according to your word,” who became the physical carrier of mercy and grace in her womb. Mary, by trusting in God, became a living tabernacle, a sacred vessel, in transporting His divine love into the world. Mary lived her Eucharistic faith by the fact she gave her yes in allowing her womb to bear the Word Who became incarnate in body and blood within her.
One year as I gazed up into the Christmas tree while sitting in my parent’s driveway, it occurred to me every time we come to Mass and receive the Eucharist, we, too, become physical carriers of God’s mercy and grace. We are transformed little by little into what we eat. Eucharist for others! We bring God’s love to a world in desperate need of his mercy and forgiveness. We bring God’s light to those who struggle. We bring warmth and hospitality to spiritual travelers who are lost, looking, and seeking something more than our secular world can offer.
Those long Christmas Eve trips in a certain sense were my own personal journey to Bethlehem. Like Mary 2000 years ago, they were long and difficult. But the grace of the Eucharist received before beginning my ride to Connecticut was living in me and transforming me along the way. God’s light guided me through the last distance to my parents’ home, to where I found peace and comfort. But most importantly I found the living Eucharist in the warmth, love, and hospitality of my family and friends.
