The third joyful mystery is the Birth of Christ.

Christ came in a manger - a place for food, as if He were offering Himself as food.

He humbled Himself completely and came into the world impoverished and helpless.

I've heard a lot of people say that Christ humbled Himself as an example to us - that we should be poor in spirit.

There's nothing wrong with that interpretation, but I think that Christ came in that way mostly so that we could have a chance to love Him.

Think about it - loving someone means willing their ultimate good, working towards their good.

We're called to love God above all else, but how can we work for God's good? He has all He needs, He is perfect and we can offer Him nothing except our actions towards others and our kind words to Him.

Of course, we love Him by helping bring His will to fruition, but it will still be accomplished even if we turn against Him. There is nothing God needs from us, only things He wants.

We can love Him, but not in any tangible way.

That's not entirely true, though, because Christ entered the world.

Jesus became a helpless babe. For His plan of salvation to work, He relied on His mother Mary and on Joseph to feed Him, to bathe Him, to clothe Him.

He gave them a chance to actually LOVE Him directly, to work towards His good, rather than only loving Him indirectly.

Throughout His life, He gave people the opportunity to truly love Him, even to the moment of His death, when Veronica wiped His face, thus comforting to The Great Comforter.

Right now, you might be thinking what I was thinking when I first realized all this - that the people who lived in the time Jesus walked the Earth were given a greater opportunity to love Him, that they were blessed with a chance we'll never have.

But that's not true, because we have the Eucharist.

We get to cradle Jesus in our hands, just as Mary did. We can protect the Eucharist, and thus love Jesus.

He makes Himself poor and vulnerable, so that we can protect and love Him.

I'm praying for you!

:)