freebibleimages.org / LumoProject

Pope Francis famously encouraged a gathering of some 30,000 youth to “make a mess,” shaking up the comfort, self-satisfaction and clericalism of a Church closed in on itself.

As I reflect on the wonder of the Incarnation that image keeps surfacing. Is that not what we celebrate in the cycle from Christmas to Easter. The infant who made a mess and turned things upside down… by being born on the other side of the tracks in a hovel, shaking up the comfort of those closed in on themselves, identifying with the each of us, especially those on the margins…. and paid the price!

His birth caused a cosmic upheaval.

As we campaign to keep Christ in Christmas do we realize that the “imitation of Christ” calls on each of us to “make a mess”