Lord, let us see your face. We have come so close to the coming of Christ; it is as though we can stand the waiting no longer. We want to see God’s face.

And what is that face like when it comes? It is the face of God become poor, the all-powerful God taking flesh in the womb of a virgin, that most disparaged of creatures in Jewish culture.

It is the face of God become poor, the all-powerful God being born in an obscure village, Bethlehem, “too small to be among the clans of Judah.”

It is the face of God become poor, the all-powerful God present in the meeting of two insignificant women, far from the worldly centers of power.

Christmas happens. Christ comes, but in strange ways and surprising circumstances. Many of us miss the coming of Christ because we expect him where and when he is not.

God has to “make us turn in a different direction” so that we can find Christ in poverty (Bethlehem) and in the poor and outcast (Mary and Elizabeth).

Christ, our Savior, not only loved the poor, but rather ‘being rich he became poor,’ he lived in poverty. His mission centered on advising the poor of their liberation and he founded his Church as the sign of that poverty among men.

Latin American Bishops, Poverty of the Church,
Medellin Documents, 1968: 7