Ideas affect actions.  The idea that we have of another person affects how we relate to that person.  If someone gives me a million dollars, I am going to think he is a great guy, and I will treat him accordingly.  If I find out that a friend has been stealing from my bank account, I am going to think he is a liar and a backstabber, and my dealings with him will turn cold.  Our idea of someone affects how we interact with them.

What is our idea of God? What do we think God is like?  As the Catechism teaches us, God is the origin and end of all things, and "man was created to live in communion with God, in whom he finds happiness" (#45).  Communion with God, a relationship with God, this is what we were created for.  However, the quality of that relationship depends on what we think this God is like.   

Someone who doesn't believe in God at all will have no relationship with him.  Someone who thinks God is an angry, intolerant tyrant will have a fearful, unstable relationship with him.  Someone who thinks God is a distant and impersonal force will have a cold, distant relationship with God.

God became man on Christmas Night 2000 years ago because he wanted to correct our mistaken ideas about what he's like.  He wants us to have the right idea about him, so that we can live in a right relationship with him.  What is this right idea?  Look at the baby Jesus, wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger, smiling helplessly at his mother Mary - that is the true God, a God who comes to meet us right where we're at.

How many of you have already seen “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”?  I have not had a chance to see it yet, but I have been a Star Wars fan since the first movie came out 40 years ago.  While they are wonderful movies, they are also the source of one of the most popular wrong ideas about God.

There is a tendency from the Star Wars movies to see God as the invisible cosmic Force that holds the universe together.  It governs human history the way the law of gravity governs moving bodies: automatically, unchangingly, impersonally.  This is not a new idea.  It is at the core of the ancient Chinese religion of Taoism, which goes back at least to the fifth century BC.  The same idea is also behind the Hindu concept of Karma.

It has seeped into modern Christian consciousness, because there appears to be a certain comfort in the idea that God is a Force. But it's a deceptive comfort.  It seems to offer us total control - we become more and more powerful the more we tap into the Force.  All we have to do is learn to manipulate the Force, and then we will achieve god-like status ourselves.  This is why Luke Skywalker, and his new apprentice, Rey, do not pray to the Force; they just uses the Force.

However, if God is the impersonal Force that holds the universe together, then he cannot also be the Person who created the universe.  But in that case, there would be nothing outside the universe, so the universe itself would be god, which means that we are just little pieces of god, no different than a speck of cosmic dust or an amoeba.  We would have to say goodbye to human dignity, free will, and the possibility of being loved, loving, and making a meaningful difference in the world.

Jesus became a little baby in Bethlehem to save us from that lie - to climb into our arms and stir up our love, to teach us that God is not a Force, but a Father.

God meets us where we're at, but he doesn't want to leave us there.  He comes into our lives in order to invite us to come into his life, to follow him all the way to heaven.

God is so eager for us to let him into our lives, so that he can let us into his life, that he almost tricks us into doing so.  God is all-powerful and all-knowing.  He could have come to us in any way at all, and he chose to do so quietly.  He chose to give us a "sign" by becoming an "infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger."  Small, weak, and helpless - that is how our Lord comes to us.

Who can resist the charm of a helpless little baby gurgling and smiling and waving its tiny little hands?  By making himself weak, in need of constant care and attention, he draws us towards him, restoring the relationship that was broken in the Garden of Eden.  This is his trick - the trick of love. 

God knows we need him in order to live a truly meaningful life, but he also knows that we don't like to admit that - we prefer being our own boss instead of following the real boss.  And so, in order to sneak in the back door of our lives, he becomes a little baby - he chooses to need us.

This Christmas, will we take up God's gentle invitation and let Christ come further into our lives?  Will we agree to follow him more closely, even if it means leaving our comfort zones behind?  Or will we keep him at a distance, afraid to risk our self-sufficiency and comfort for the sake of a helpless, needy child? 

It's cold in that Bethlehem cave, and he's hoping to be warmed by our embrace.