One of the great joys and one of the great distractions around Christmastime involves gifts. People worry about making sure they got something for everyone who makes their gift list. That takes driving around and facing the bustling crowds, unless of course they have gone to online shopping.

And who doesn’t worry at least a bit about getting a gift from someone for whom you didn’t have something in return?

We all admit there is a human dynamic that is part of the Christmas ritual. We often hear that we should not let the gifts of Christmas distract us from Jesus Christ, the reason for the season. But gifts can also help us to focus in on the deepest meaning of the Christmas story.

Our gifts, both given and received, should help us to remember why we love Christmas. That is because at that first Christmas, more than 2,000 years ago, the world received not a gift but The Gift.

Our first parents, Adam and Eve, misused their freedom. Because they chose to reject God’s friendship, the world made good by God became distorted. Our own personal sinfulness joins us to Adam and Eve as we ratify their costly decision in our lives.

As a result, “creation was made subject to futility … and we also groan within ourselves, as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.” (Rom 8:22-23). This is the basis of our faith that our world had fallen into the slavery of sin.

We feel the effects of that slavery in our own hearts as we are constantly tempted to sin and to put ourselves and our desires before God’s loving will. By our own human efforts, we could not escape that slavery.

For thousands of years, God promised the world, through the people of Israel, that he would not abandon us. He promised a savior who would free us from our sins, from the consequences of our own actions. This is why the readings from the Old Testament are so important in the Mass and in our prayer. We are a part of the process by which God called the world and the human race back to His love.

That first Christmas night, the night of Jesus’ birth, God fulfilled His promise. He did so by giving to the world the gift of His Son. Jesus, the Father’s gift, came to teach us how to live and to show us how to give our will over to his Father as he did, even to his death on the cross.

That Christmas night, the gift came wrapped in simplicity. Jesus was born into poverty. He was born away from home and in a manger that served adequately, but not lavishly, to receive the Son of God. His first companions were the animals and the shepherds, not exactly a well-dressed or elite set of folks.

The presence of Christ was not only simply wrapped by the circumstances of Bethlehem. Jesus was pure gift from our Heavenly Father.

As the human race, we were totally on the receiving end. We had and have nothing to give back in return, at least nothing that we have not first received as a gift.

The gift of Christ was given us in love. What is asked in return is only that — love. But love of Christ is not simple or easy. It is not a mere feeling but a total giving of self that matches Christ’s own poverty. It gives great joy but it makes its demands insistently on our lives, our faith, our morals and our outlook.

As we give and receive gifts this year, let’s use them for the great Christmas purpose. Let them remind us of Christ, of his simplicity, his poverty and his love for us. That is a helpful measuring rod that keeps us from a distracting extravagance, and recalls in every exchange Jesus, the baby in the manger who is the great gift of the Father.

And as Pope Francis has reminded us again and again, don’t forget the poor as part of your Christmas giving.

May each of you and your families be blessed by God with a Merry Christmas.