This is an excerpt from a homily given Dec. 25, 2016, at Holy Rosary Cathedral.

When we look at the manger scene, whether here at the Cathedral, at home, or perhaps just on a Christmas card, our eyes are drawn to particular figures, usually the Child Jesus and Mary his Mother, sometimes Joseph and the Magi, and other times, perhaps, even the angels. But among my favourites are the figures, usually on the edges but there nonetheless, of the shepherds.

The shepherds are the first people to experience the coming of the Saviour, those lowly, uneducated men who lived in the fields with their sheep. In the world of their time, shepherds were looked down upon and were on the fringes of social life. Pope Benedict XVI wrote, “They represent the poor of Israel, the poor in general: God’s first love.”

It is to the lowly, to those on the periphery, that Jesus first came as Lord and Redeemer. No one is marginalized in God’s sight and it was precisely they who were invited to the stable. Those who felt sure of themselves, self-sufficient, were at home with their possessions. The wise men from the East, representing those with social standing and fame, arrived much later to adore the child in Mary’s arms. Simple souls were the first to come to Jesus in the manger and to encounter the Saviour of the world.

The story of the shepherds is included in the Gospel to show us the way to respond to the message of Jesus’ birth that we too have received. What is it, then, that these first witnesses have to tell us?

St. Luke sheds light on one feature of their lives that is of particular importance: they were watchful men. They could hear the angel’s message precisely because they were awake, not just keeping watch over their flocks by night, but also watching in another, deeper way. Their hearts were open. Deep down, like the Jewish people at the time, the shepherds were waiting for a Messiah to repair their broken world.

Their watchfulness was a kind of readiness – a readiness to listen to God’s word and then to act on it. They were waiting for a light which would show them the way.

The angel offered nothing miraculous or extraordinary to the shepherds as a sign of the Saviour’s birth. All they would see is an infant, one who, like all children, needed his mother’s care, a child born in a stable. Only a watchful heart could believe this sign of God was “good news of great joy,” (Lk 2:10).

Such watchfulness is what God wants of us. He loves everyone, because everyone is his son or daughter. Unfortunately, some of us have closed our hearts to watching and waiting for him. We have closed the door through which his love can enter.

I wonder: perhaps we think we do not need God and that’s why we seem to be “religiously tone deaf.” And yet in every soul, the deep-down desire for God is present, just waiting to surface, waiting like a thirsty plant to be watered.

Wanting the shepherds to be the first to adore the newborn King, the angel said to them: “This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger,” (Lk 2:12). God’s sign, the sign given to the shepherds and to us, then as now, is his humility, a humility like that of the shepherds. His sign is his smallness, his vulnerability.

He became a Child who lets us touch him and who in return reaches out for our love.

This is what God is like, even if we might prefer a different sign, an imposing sign of power and majesty. And he invites us to become like him. Indeed, we can, but only if we allow ourselves to learn humility and hence true greatness.

Pope Francis said, “In order to discover him, we need to go there, where he is: we need to bow down, humble ourselves, make ourselves small.”

The Gospel tells us, after listening to the Angel’s message, the shepherds said to one another: “‘Let us go now to Bethlehem’ … so they went with haste,” (Lk 2:15-16). What they heard was so important they had to go immediately to see for themselves what had happened in the City of David. No doubt they were partly driven by curiosity, but first and foremost it was their excitement at the wonderful news they had been told.

On this Christmas day God issues us an invitation and says: “Come with the shepherds to Bethlehem and see how much I love you. There I am wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger, reaching out for you.”