WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Kathleen A. Shaw Telegram & Gazette Staff
kshaw@telegram.com
As Christians through Central Massachusetts celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on this Christmas Day, area clergy are urging people to revisit the story of Jesus Christ’s birth, look into the manger where he was born in Bethlehem more than 2,000 years ago and find the real meaning of that event.
A number of area priests and ministers commented this week on Christmas from their perspective. ...
The Rev. Bruce Teague, graduate of College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, and Catholic chaplain at Amherst College, said the Christmas story is the story of Emmanuel, which means God with us.
“The divine story has become an only too human story. The Christmas narratives describes miraculous events: angels appearing to Mary, Magi from the East and those who are barren bearing fruit. But we also hear the joy of a woman giving birth. A child being born. A God being born as a human, vulnerable, fragile child. God is born into a living human history rooted in a family tree. We see a family forced to become refugees to protect their child.”
“God has become human so that God has embraced all of humanity, all of its weaknesses and vulnerabilities that nothing human is alien to God. Nothing can ever separate us from the love of God. It is our task as Christians to begin to see God in all, particularly those who are poor and outcasts. For those of us who have been victimized by clergy sexual abuse — God, too, has become a victim,” he said.