This morning began as any normally abnormal one around the Fenelon Clan abode – with me taking my handful of horse-pill vitamins, one agonizing swallow at a time. They say you can’t buy health in a bottle. Maybe so. But I figure it’s like taking out an insurance policy: You go for years wasting your money because you don’t want to find out what would’ve happened if you hadn’t paid the premiums.

As I stood at the kitchen counter trying to down the supplements as quickly as possible, I dropped one. I knew because I heard it drop, but didn’t know which one it was because I wasn’t keeping track of which ones I’d taken and which I’d not. I was pretty sure it was a big white calcium tablet, so I scoured the floor for it. It was nowhere in sight. I checked under the wine rack. Nope. I fished under the stove. Not there, either. Between the fridge and counter? No. Under the rug? Nada. At this point, I was fairly irritated, which made me all the more determined to hunt that derelict down. Surely I’m smarter than a horse-pill vitamin! (That’s a rhetorical exclamation, by the way.)

After a pout or two, I decided to try thinking out of the box. What if it wasn’t a calcium tablet that dropped, but rather one of the other supplement tablets that had fallen instead?

I decided to run my search and rescue from another perspective, so I moved to a different corner of the kitchen. And then I saw it. There, right under the spot I’d been standing before, was a neutral-colored (read puke-brown) multi-vitamin! It had blended in with the color of our hardwood floors, and so I overlooked it. Just for spite, I scooped it up, brushed it off, and downed it in one swoop.

I’d missed seeing the dropped vitamin on the first search because I’d stubbornly locked myself into thinking that it was a white, not brown, tablet for which I was looking. I missed the “right” vitamin because I was looking for the “wrong” one.

Isn’t that what so many of us do during the Christmas season? We lock ourselves into thinking that we only can discover Christ in a particular way – in a white tablet, if you will – when he might actually be revealing himself to us in a completely different way. Often, he appears right under the spot on which we stand, figuratively speaking. We miss him because we’re determined that he should meet our expectations.

We race through Advent, doing all those Christmas-y things that we think will lead the way to him, like shopping, decorating, baking, and partying. We might do some charitable works, which are noble and needed and give us a sense of worth.  The tree is lovely to look at, the music lifts our spirits (at least for a while), the lights are enticing, and the goodies make our tummies feel satisfied (temporarily). Family gatherings are a riot (sometimes literally), and giving and receiving gifts is a real high. The concerts warm our hearts and the liturgies elevate them to heaven. It’s all good and wonderful, and all of it is important.

However, if we look for Christ only in that – only in the white tablet of the Christmas glitz and activity – we risk missing him as he wishes to reveal himself to us, in the less conspicuous brown tablet. I’ve spoken with countless people who relate that, each year after all the Christmas hoopla subsides, they find themselves feeling somehow let-down or sad. That’s because they’ve missed the subtle coming of the Babe in the quiet moments and small, unexpected happenings around them. More importantly, they miss his subtle approach within their own hearts because they continue to search for him outside of themselves. When all the exterior goings-on are over, they’re left feeling empty and alone.

We can change that, beginning right now, by stepping to another corner and looking at the layout from a new perspective. It’s fine to participate in all the holiday traditions and excitement; we just can’t let that be our only way to search for the Newborn King. We need to find creative, meaningful ways to observe his coming. Perhaps it means a new prayer routine, some concentrated Scripture reading, or a pilgrimage to a holy place. Maybe it means a daily ten-minute break to meditate on the miracle of the Word Incarnate, opening our hearts to whatever he has in store for us.It matters less what we do as it does how we do it – with love, humility, faith, and genuine desire.

When we stop looking for the big, white tablet and allow our eyes to rest on the less obvious brown one, we’ll discover more than we’d ever hoped. We’ll discover our Lord in all his magnificence – a magnificence so grand it won’t disappear when the decorations do. And we’ll have found it right under the spot on which we stood.

As the NFL season moves quickly toward its climax, two quarterbacks find themselves in especially bright spotlights for different reasons.

Tim Tebow, who began the year on the Denver Broncos’ bench, has drawn intense media attention from his college championship days at Florida, when he became the first sophomore ever to win the Heisman Trophy and the next year led his team to a national championship. But his public professions of Christian faith and his off-field missionary work often overshadowed his incredible on-field performances.

The son of Baptist missionaries, Tebow never misses a chance to express his faith — and since he was promoted to the Broncos’ starting QB post, he’s had many chances. Despite putting up mediocre statistics, he’s now led his team to six straight comeback wins that make him a media darling. Give him ten seconds in front of a camera, and there’s no ignoring his Christian faith. Frankly, in what has become a very secular culture, we find Tebow’s consistent and very public profession of his faith refreshing. But some people, even Christians, are put off by it.

Meanwhile, as of Dec. 11, QB Aaron Rodgers had led the Green Bay Packers to 19 consecutive wins, climaxed by a Super Bowl championship last year and a 13-0 record this year. As a result, he’s getting almost as much media attention as Tebow. But he doesn’t mention his faith much, and so the topic has seldom come up.

One instance where he did talk about it was in an Athletes in Action article in October, 2010, drawing on the wisdom we often reference from a favorite saint. He revisited that perspective right after Thanksgiving when asked about it by Jason Wilde on his weekly ESPN Milwaukee radio segment. Here’s a portion of what Rodgers said:

“I feel like my stance and my desire has always been to follow a quote from St. Francis of Assisi, who said, ‘Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.’ So basically, I’m not an over-the-top, or an in-your-face kind of guy with my faith. I would rather people have questions about why I act the way I act, whether they view it as positive or not, and ask questions, and then given an opportunity at some point, then you can talk about your faith a little bit. I firmly believe, just personally, what works for me and what I enjoy doing is letting my actions speak about the kind of character that I want to have, and following that quote from St. Francis.”

According to the Athletes In Action article, Rodgers decided to dedicate his life to living for Christ when he was 16, but the roots of his convictions were planted much earlier. “I grew up knowing what a stable relationship was by my parents’ example and how it centered on Christ,” he said, “When our family had its ups and downs, I knew my parents relied on God for everything and He always got us through those rough spots.”

Rodgers is known in the Green Bay community and throughout Wisconsin as a tireless friend to many kids in need, but the news generally circulates word of mouth because he’d rather keep a low profile and involve teammates so the media spotlight is not on him.

Nevertheless, word gets around. When he had occasion to sign a ball for a 20-year-old man who had been battling cancer for eight years, instead of writing “best wishes” or something like that, he chose the words: “Brandon, thanks for being an inspiration to me.” No one who knows Rodgers doubts his sincerity. He really is a man for others.

Typical of the small but thoughtful things he does is keep track of the birthdays of everyone he knows, including all of his teammates. When someone else brings up the subject, he says he’s mindful of how it would feel for a teammate to spend the whole day with about 60 guys and have no one acknowledge his birthday. “I think that would be a little disappointing,” he observes. Convinced no one should have to be that guy, he makes a point of not letting a single birthday slip by.

In his ESPN radio interview, he talked about the importance of relationships in effective leadership. “I think there’s a few things you can do as a leader that really make people feel a connection. As a leader you need to have a relationship with the guys you’re leading, and it needs to be different for each player,” he says.

“There has to be some sort of one-on-one connection and there’s a number of ways you can do that. I think that by remembering somebody’s birthday, you can do it. By giving someone a nickname is a way to do it, by having an inside joke with someone is a way to do it. That changes the relationship from a teammate relationship to a friend relationship, and I think there has to be that friend connection in order to become better teammates.”

And it’s not just about winning. One interviewer asked him if he still has the cell numbers of the receivers on his Pleasant Valley High School football team. “Of course,” he replied. One of those receivers, Dane Baxter, recalls playing with Rodgers. “The last game I played he threw me a touchdown pass and it was the only touchdown I scored. He was happy for me. That’s the thing: He was happy for me.”

Here at the Yeshua Institute, we teach that “effective leadership is not self-serving leadership, and it’s not about structure, it’s about relationships.” Rodgers obviously discovered that a long time ago. With the focus today on building better teams in organizations of all kinds and sizes, leaders can learn a lot from the young but very successful quarterback of the Green Bay Packers.

We also appreciate Tebow too — because without his very public approach to living his faith, Rodgers’ devotion to following the advice of St. Francis might have slipped completely below our radar.

Two decades ago, A. N. Wilson wrote a critically acclaimed biography of C.S. Lewis. This and some other of his writings led some Christians to hope that Wilson might become what Alan Jacobs once called “that figure for whom so many have been waiting for so long, The Next C. S. Lewis.”

It therefore came as a surprise and a disappointment when Wilson publicly repudiated his Christian faith a few years later and became a mocker of Christianity.

Yet, this past Easter, in the U.K.’s Daily Mail, Wilson was urging British Christians not be cowed by “sneering” and “self-satisfied” critics like Richard Dawkins.

A. N. Wilson, you see, has returned to the faith. Why? In large measure because of the strongest evidence for the truth of the Gospel—that is, its impact on people’s lives.

Wilson wrote that in his “young manhood,” he “began to wonder how much of the Easter story [he] accepted.” By his thirties, he had lost all religious belief.

Why? He attributes it to growing up in a culture that was increasingly and “overwhelmingly secular and anti-religious.” To his “shame,” he says, he went along with the cultural tide. He felt that Christian faith was “uncool” and “unsexy.”

Wilson didn’t stop at what he calls this “playground attitude”: he “began to rail against Christianity” and wrote a book that described Jesus as a “messianic prophet who had . . . truly failed, and died.”

Yet on Palm Sunday just a few weeks ago, Wilson reported that he “heard the Gospel being chanted,” and could assent to it “with complete simplicity.” Sometime in the past five years, he went from writing a book about a failed messianic prophet to believing that Jesus had risen from the dead.

Again, the question is “why?” Part of the reason was that atheism and atheists in his words, “[miss] out on some very basic experiences of life.” He described listening to Bach or reading the works of Christian authors and realizing that their “perception of life was deeper, wiser, more rounded than [his] own.” seeing the world through the eyes of faith is “much more interesting” he said, than the alternatives.

Then there was the low esteem in which Darwinism holds man. The people who insist that we are “simply anthropoid apes” can’t account for something as basic as language. The “existence of language,” love and music, to name but a few, convinced Wilson that we are “spiritual beings.” For Wilson, they prove that “the religion of the incarnation, asserting that God made humanity in His image, and continually restores humanity in His image, is simply true.”

Then there’s what he regards the “an even stronger argument”: “the way that Christian faith transforms individual lives.” From “Bonhoeffer’s serenity before he was hanged” to the person next to you at church, Christians bear witness to the truth of Christianity and that as a “working blueprint for life” and “template against which to measure experience, it fits.”

I couldn’t put it any better. Welcome home, Mr. Wilson. It’s great to have you back.

You are already satisfied; you have already grown rich; you have become kings without us! (1 Corinthians 4:8)

When ridiculed, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we respond gently. (1 Corinthians 4:13)

May the eyes of (your) hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones. (Ephesians 1:18)

The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty. (Luke 1:53)

Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give. (Matthew 10:8)

To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27)

In light of the economic difficulties many in the U.S., and all over the world, are currently experiencing, it may be hard to think about giving our “riches” away. But yet, that is our call as Catholic men. But what could Paul have possibly meant when he told the Corinthians that they “have already grown rich” (1 Corinthians 4:8)?

Most members of the Corinthian church were among the poorer people in that city. Few of them possessed what the world of their day considered riches; probably none did, considered by our standards today. But what are the riches Paul is talking about. How about our ability to bless others even when ridiculed, to endure when persecuted, and to be gentle even when slandered (1 Corinthians 4:13)? What about the spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12:4-11) and the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) that we have received?  These are treasures that any of us can have, regardless of how much money or how many “things” we may or may not possess. And aren’t these the riches that really matter anyway!

As Catholic men, God has given us so much! We have the Scriptures and the sacraments, the Spirit and the Church. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we have received wisdom, knowledge, understanding, fortitude, and so many other gifts (Isaiah 11:2). And Paul prayed that we would know these riches with greater and greater clarity (Ephesians 1:18). Why? Not so that we could rejoice in our wealth but so that we would know that we-every single one of us-have so much to offer other people.

Peace, divine love, joy, freedom from sin, even physical healing-how could we earn any of these? We have received much, as men whose empty hands the Father has filled with good things (Luke 1:53). And what does Jesus tell us? “Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give” (Matthew 10:8). He is saying, “Use what you’ve received to build the kingdom of God and to bring glory to my Father.”

So the challenge is to give away what you’ve received. Don’t worry about what it is, or how much you have, or how it stacks up against what anyone else has received. Just give it away! Has God shown you his love and forgiveness in a particular way? Tell someone about it. Do you enjoy getting together with other men? Form a men’s group in your parish or, if you are already in one, invite a man to come to your next meeting. Have you experienced a physical healing? Pray with someone else for healing. Do you know a man that has stopped coming to Mass? Invite him to have a beer with you, and then at the right time, ask him to attend Mass with you. There’s no end to what Christ can accomplish through you because he dwells in you (Colossians 1:27).

“Father, in your infinite riches, you have given me everything I have. Show me today how and where to give it away. I believe that even as I do, you will fill me with more and more.”

Maurice Blumberg is on the Board of Directors of the National Fellowship of Catholic Men and Chairmen of the Board of The Word Among Us.

[Many thanks to The Word Among Us (http://www.wau.org/) for allowing us to adapt material from daily meditations in their monthly devotional magazine. Used with permission.]

Questions for Reflection/Discussion by Catholic Men 

• 1. What is your reaction to the title of this article, i.e., the call to give Christ’s riches away?
• 2. How would you describe the kinds of “riches” we are called to give away?
• 3. What are some of the riches you have received from the Lord?
• 4. How well do you think you are doing in giving these riches away? What are some steps you can take to improve?
• 5. If you are in a men’s group, what steps can you take together to give your riches in Christ to others? Using the prayer at the end of the article as the starting point, pray for one another for the wisdom, grace, and courage to take the necessary steps.