Christ’s Nativity—“Whisper Me Why”
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Little Baby in a manger, whisper me why. Why did You Who knew in Your omniscience that they would drive nails into Your hands—why, did You become man? I knew the gates of Heaven could not have been opened again; but why did You become man? Whisper me, why! Because You loved us, that I know, but why do you love us so? Why do You Who from all eternity have seen the mushroom-cloud of man’s destruction of man, love us so? Little Baby in a manger, whisper me why.
Whisper me why little Baby in a manger, why do You love us so? Why, knowing how little we love You, how little we love one another, why do You love us so? Why, when You have always known how we turn from one another because of pigmentation, of geography, of philosophy, why have You loved us so? Little Baby in a manger, whisper me why? Why do You love us when You have always known the inconstancy of our love?
You have known our sins, my sins, from all eternity; you have heard not only Peter’s thrice denial, but ours trillion times thrice, and yet You love us so. Whisper me, why? Little Baby in a manger, I kneel by Your side and wonder why, why we so unworthy are so blessed; why it is that God should love us as to give His only-begotten Son to us that we might have eternal life? This is the wonder—and the mystery of Christmas for me, that You should have loved us so!
That God should come in the thunder and the rain, I can understand; that He should cover the face of the earth with waters, purging the lands of all that is unworthy, I can understand; but that God knowing man, should become man, that is the wonder; and that God should come a helpless baby, I cannot understand; whisper me why, little Baby in a manger, whisper me, why?
Why should You come without armor into a world so cruel, come in complete helplessness, dependent, possessed of no more strength than a baby’s clasp upon a mother’s finger? Why, whisper me, why?
I leaned close to the manger and felt a baby’s breath whisper: “Because there was Mary who is goodness and truth; who surrendered herself to God; offered herself as a reed to God, that through her God might become man, that through the channel of her purity there might come to mankind the graces for everlasting life; because there was Mary, that is the reason why.”
I looked into the Infant’s eyes and saw things I had not seen—things He saw from all eternity: a boy coming home from a baseball game, stopped in church for a visit to the Babe; the old lonely woman—holding a well-worn rosary in her hands, her line to heaven and earth, channeling her prayers; a priest drawing back the curtain of time showing the eternal Gift-victim in the victory of the Cross; a weary, muscle-aching father laboring for love of wife and children; a mother, loving noisy children, kissing a bruised knee, patting a tousled head; thoughtless children giving a quick kiss, saving a little prayer for the woman who gave them life; a consecrated virgin burning out her life, candlewise for thoughtless humanity, seeing in them other Babes in a manger. I saw and understood. We are a contradiction, but not with God; He knows us for what we are, and what we may become; not for our failures, but for our possibilities and triumphs; not for denials but for affirmations—for there is in all of us, through the Babe in the manger, the hope of a glorious destiny. He sees not the suffering but those who bear it, praying and loving Him, united with Him; sees us not driving the nails, but carrying the Cross with Him.
He sees the spark of divinity in us; that which makes Him love us; we, seeking within ourselves what God so loved, what led Him to become man; so we might kindle that spark into a burning flame of love to conquer darkness; destroy the cold; make ourselves worthy of His great love, which brought Him, a helpless Babe, to the manger in Bethlehem. Knowing the possibilities in us, we should never kneel baffled, asking, “Babe in a manger, whisper me, why”, for we know the answer – MARY – LOVE – DIVINITY!
