What were the shepherds expecting with the birth of Jesus, I wonder.

Did the multitude of the heavenly host have a better idea?

Joseph and Mary were bewildered by the whole experience. Elizabeth and Zechariah must have been at least equally short on specifics.

The maji came to honor a King who was born to be a king, although he had no more claim to being a “son of David” than any other boy born into that tribe.

Herod had a hunch, and a slaughter ensued. The boy Jesus was prophesied to be a King, and a King isn’t a shy, retiring type. A King doesn’t suffer rivals to his throne.

The shepherds were told that a Savior was born, not a king, but people get sloppy with their logic.

When the Pope said something to the effect that all creatures have a place in Paradise, some said he said that animals have souls. Reminds me of the “stumbling block” spoken of in the Bible.

Does every type of creature in Heaven have to have a soul? I accept that if by “soul” is meant some type of durable essence that can be unique to the creature as a creation of God, which is probably not always going to be what we think of as a “soul.”

Is Heaven somehow tarnished because there’s something there that doesn’t have a “soul?” At a concert last week, a song had lyrics about how when this guy gets to Heaven, the first thing he’ll do is call his dog, and of course his dog will have been there waiting for him all along.

“No!” the hairsplitters will object. “First you will have to perform various and sundry rituals of contrition and obeisance and worship and then you shall be fitted into garments and assigned a place.” The listener is distracted with amusement over wondering how these people know this stuff, why they get so worked up about it, and how hilarious it would be if they were proven wrong.

Sloppy with logic, sloppy with lives. For us non-professional theologians, is it possible not to get a little sloppy when one is wondering about the great eschatological realities?

The shepherds were told that a Savior was born, and we take that for granted. It’s a word with a definition, and we know all about how faith in Jesus leads to eternal life.

But whether we want to admit it to ourselves or not, some of us still struggle with the concept of Savior.

What do we pray for? What do people ask a King for?

We want justice, King! We want equality, compassion, mercy, a healthy environment. If you’re not predisposed to pursue these objectives, O King, kindly say so. Step aside for someone more to our liking

We want what we want, and we want it to be right for us to want those things.

We want a divine endorsement of our agendas.

We demand a Savior who will save us from ourselves.

We do not want a King who seems to leave us to our own devices, helpless, at the mercy of the wicked.

Christmas passes as a day of preoccupation with who gave what to who and who got what, as a day of loneliness and sadness, a day of memories, a day of joy, just another day.

What did God want for Christmas? Because, in Jesus, what He got for Himself was a mother, in Mary, a father, in Joseph, and sisters and brothers, in us.

If we have the truly human souls to want them, we have, for Christmas, a Father in God, a Mother in Mary, a Savior in Jesus, sisters and brothers in each other, and, in Heaven, a home.