Joseph, First to Hold God in His Hands

In the cold drafty stable where Mary labored on that first Holy Night , the starlight was unusually bright as it shown through the cracks. Joseph was trying not to panic as his betrothed cried and travailed in labor. Under his breath he quietly prayed to the God of his Fathers for mercy and gently wiped Mary's sweaty brow. There was no midwife or nurse or family to be found. When the appointed time came for the God of the universe to make his physical entry into the world, Joseph was the first one of us to hold the Christ Child. With his trembling, calloused and splinter-filled hands he lifted the Savior of the World to Mary's breast. Thirty years later, with His own calloused hands, Jesus gave himself to his disciples to hold his flesh in their hands as he said "Take and Eat, This Is My Body." A short time later, Mary would again cradle her child, now grown, in her arms for the last time as his broken body was taken off the Cross.

As Catholic Christians, we have the opportunity in daily Mass to hold the resurrected flesh of the Christ Child in our hands through the Sacrament of the Eucharist. St. Cyril of Jerusalem in the fourth century (313-386) counseled the faithful to "make a throne of your hands in which to receive the King [in Holy Communion]." He then told the believers to take "great care for any fragments which might remain in one's hands, since just as one wouldn't let gold dust fall to the ground so one should take even greater care when it is a question of the Body of the Lord." Sometimes, I think I should receive Him on the tongue and not in the hand when the sheer reality of the moment strikes me in the Communion line. In a brief moment, I will be holding God in my hands!
Yes, it takes faith to accept that God can humble himself and take the form of Bread and Wine. However, if we have the faith to accept that God can humble himself and come in the form of a human baby, why can't we believe He can do this also? With God, nothing shall be impossible, even the miracle of the Eucharist.